hi everybody welcome we're going to start our little warm up then you think you think for decades the copyrighted status of happy birthday to you as a symbol of absurdity of the intellectual property law care certainty it was totally absurd people would have to kind of make up  specific arrangements of the tune but that strange saga has left the happy birthday has left a permanent legacy here and a prince and this and it helped the music education company music together get off the ground yes they were receiving money somehow somehow i can actually tell you how that happened is that early in the eighty's john johnson and david said own the company and he used some of the happy birthday royalty money to fund the work of his nephew cole martin as he traveled the country and learned the latest childhood musical education techniques that early funding allowed bill martin to launch his company music together in downtown princeton and today the company is headquartered in hope had written the editor on this and he said he said the history of this his happy birthday was complicated intricate trail of copyright law he said neither music together nor i mean himself directly was part of the songs my house i don't know what they're going to do a worn out joker record so mr miller has his site website which is joe miller music dot com and we are welcoming you here to cafe improv joe so welcome so much and tom's going to get you set up here in the make sure that all the sound is going to work for you to hear  and i'm going to be touring the country next year trying to get it out in people's ears and hands and and i know what the hell i'm doing most of the time but i guess i'm just going to figure it out but this song is about when i first moved down to new jersey and i had a bit of a drinking problem at the time and so i wrote a song about it it's called dude where's my whisk thank you dr tom for one more year i could keep going to school thank you thank you guys so much for listening and thank you for supporting this this great great thing that they have here because i love it you guys probably d too right wrote this song about where i wrote the song right before i moved to new jersey which is about six and a half years ago and is about a man named felipe who climbed to the top of the twin towers back in the seventy's and walked across on a tight rope and they just came up with a movie called i forget what the hell it's called but there's a movie about him all right so what's the name of you know the walk that's what it's called the walk i kept saying i was booked to reach the clouds and i kept thinking i was that but anyway it's a great film and you should go see it and anyway this is a song i wrote about that man he's one of my biggest inspirations he's a dreamer and so are we so this is about him it's called the ballad of a beauty maker and they said when you show me perform you start  thank you thank you so much for listening or when we're extremely sad and well i do have my happy songs i spend a lot of my life looking at very sad people so i wrote a lot about them and this is a song about a really good friend of mine who is  who was an alcoholic it is he's a recovering alcoholic and i i was there for him when he needed somebody the most and somebody that kind of knew what he was going through a little bit and  to harm him selfe one day in my house and that was kind of the end of it and my wife and i decided to take a loan out of our foreman case and ship him off to a buddhist monastery up in woodstock new york and  saw it there for about thirty days and he came back and he is now on a countrywide tor he's one of the best musicians i've ever met in my terror life and he said he inspired me more than anybody else has i it's great to call him my friend and i'm not going to name names but he's been here a couple of times and so anyway this song is about him it's for him and  it's called faded fighter and thank you for listening and please stick around for everybody else comes through because this is like the coolest thing i love it and i can't wait to come back again so thank you know but i found that mikes and he plays several at every month in long island in the philly area and this is his first appearance here at cafe improv so roger silverberg come on down you are already here and we'll get you all set up here at cafe improv thank you right and i will move this here and i have to alert you folks that we will actually get this microphone working properly  i tend to write mature themes this kind of a p g mature theme song most of my stuff is p g i like that hardcore but this is this is a song about the relationship and it seems to be going pretty well and then there's a left turn this is exactly what you don't want to hear when you're in a relationship and says you guys you guys put on what ten eleven twelve shows a year and you've been doing it for a long time i put on ten shows but i've done him over ten years i've done a series in huntington long island i know how much work this is i gotta tell you this is totally cool all right let's try this try a song that i don't know it's really a downed song i can't explain and i think songs tend to land on you and this one certainly did i call it bird tell me if it's a bird turd or this is what it goes like and she makes  you i just finished a new album down in philadelphia cambridge sound studios so salamone and company if you're going to be watching this i gave you a big shot it sounds terrific that last song bird just goes on abbey road and i'm thrilled to death about it and we had some happy accidents in the studio with layered over dog guitars and then the idea of a string point came in and suddenly it was got a song that day when i spoke to johnny asked me what i thought my biggest hit was going to be and i said well i really haven't had one yet even though i've been doing it a lot of years maybe this will be the one and i call it my number one because you just never know you this thing you can win it and if you're if you're old enough to remember a group called the monotones they had a song that went to number one it was the only one they ever had it was the only one the ever needed so here we go  and a and never finished me after the show to someone else goes and i'm going to move here maybe that will know i think it's an american roots music quartet formed in two thousand and thirteen album has become a favorite on the local acoustic music scene not only for their music but also because it's not every day that you get to hear a multigenerational band of women with influences raging ranging from old crowed medicine show elephant revival the grateful dead to johnny cash albo delivers a blend of acoustic country blues and bluegrass with three part harmonies and an instrument lineup with carolyn club on guitar and vocals gretchen jekyl on mandolin and vocals emily voight on fiddle and vocals and lolly barton on an upright bass so i know that that's a great he died in one nine hundred thirty seven but his stories kept him alive to encounter a twelve year old mr camping at kennedy airport at a book kiosk left crafts sent mr camp on a trajectory that lands him right here a cafe in prague presenting his own terror in do seem pros sixty's before hollowing a new mr camp has delved into the genre in many media alfred hitchcock the twilight zone stephen king and  thriller writer are among the purveyors of horror and mystery who encourage this information technologist from east rutherford new jersey i had to take his place in the pantheon of those who contribute to the  we have see i can't thank you so much welcome way good relax don't try to get up just conserve your strength stephen yes we know who you are you're stephen cushman thirty seven years old self employed software engineer husband to doris father stephen jr and baby michelle stephen i'm sorry to have to tell you this but you won't be going back to them that would put them in extreme danger i understand take it easy duty oh i know this is a blow for you here drink this now well i'll put it aside maybe i'll change your mind later i had to to have to tell you this stephen but you were the victim of a rather savage attack you were left for dead hate to tell you this but it was one of our people who did this to you don't worry we'll find out who it was and we'll deal with him or her fortunately was also one of our people who found you and brought you here no here isn't a hospital stephen but it's a safe place we're going to help you heal we're going to get you through this but i have to warn you it's not going to be a quick process it'll take not months possibly years you're wondering who i am aren't you just even my name isn't important what is important is that i represent the group an order if you will we've been around for a long long time through our history we've been stalked persecuted hated even slaughtered we've been among you for generations but over the years we've learned how to keep what's the word under the radar it's quite possible you've known some of us people you socialized with and you've done business with even when you've made love to how are you feeling steven how you hungry yes i understand the hunger they hey don't try to get up and don't try fighting the i'm way stronger than you are just relax you me out the one who attacked you was a victim of that hunger it's something we try to avoid normally a simple pin prick is enough to satisfy us our victim doesn't really remember anything just goes on their way little lethargy maybe a little dizziness don't even notice the two tiny puncture marks well it's about three am your i see you're still hungry i know you just about eat anything or anyone right well as i say it's three a m you're going to want to avoid the daylight hours for about the next hundred years or so you also develop a resistance to garlic and crosses well what do you say stephen this still plenty of night time left would you say should we go out and grab a bite sorry couldn't resist thank you thank you i'm i'm see i come from east rutherford as you've been told i write dark horror and the next one is a story called the storm which and it was written shortly after my own personal horrors with irene and i'm sure some of you can relate this is called a storm which goes like this they say another storms come and a bad one menfolk sit around listening to mr wilcox's radio about how mr roosevelt is going to help us down here in texas county and how the weather report plays out they say another storm is coming with a cloud a mile wide and two miles high but that can't be not after i've been to see the storm which mamma said seen it really no which but davy morrison said she is davies dad used to tell us about how the land was once full of wheat gold covering the plane far as the eye can see boys used to say now the only thing covering the plane for is the i can see is this year old lee brown dirt dry as dust folks say that's when she put a curse on the land made the rain stop fall on and made wins which blow away everything that it nailed down mama said when she man passed she got kind of touched in the head and i ain't to be making fun of or neither i told david morrison what mama said and he said that's just plain stupid hidden in the mouth made it bleed you don't talk that way about my mama but i got to thinking that time we went to m me and daddy went to pick up a part for the pump and his deacons and mr hodges are doing something fierce said he choked waiter on some flour he said it was and so on they got to yelling at each other i never seen a body so mad she was calling him a robber and a thief he was corner crazy a loon an order him or out of the store she was muttering and i couldn't understand the next day the storm hit with winds was going faster on a horse at full blow the roof right off missed it hodges store was dust and dirt and grit over everything that he said without the store he couldn't pay for his house week later mr hodge hanged himself davy marston said of course the storm which put the evil eye on him mamma said it was a shame but it weren't for no evil lie i ain't so sure sometimes kids know things grown ups don't much later another storm hit worse than the one that missed it mr hodges store so bad the engineer was playing in the yard mamma was hanging clothes baby was sleeping and that he was working out in the field all of a sudden mamma cried that this big gray wall coming at us she rushed assisted the house with some rags made of stuff into cracks that he cried out the roof the nell was still out there on the run out to get or jenny begged him not to go but he went anyhow i may have been knew about the clock but it was like on to midnight when that storm hit me and mama hardly see each other the wind was sound like a passel of hornets and the dust was blowing against the house allowed on a passel of drums ginny got to miss and daddy she  i started crying and mama grabbed me told me boy you deal just don't you be cryin now you got to be strong for your sister i told her i would and mama hugged me and called me her brave boy i was real scared though it was real dark and i could see that mom was holding the baby and holding the bible and her mouth was moving and i knew she was praying for daddy and ruthie nell to come home safe then i seen something scared me more and anything me and jenny had stuffed rags into the cracks but it didn't do no good the wind was coming and blow in the dust with it the dust was calling on the floor like big old mean snakes i was kicking at him but they just come back bigger meaner and faster the dust was rising up over our heads and she was screaming i was close and not be in mama's brave boy no more mama said it wasn't nothing just the way the wind was blowing but i knew different it was ghosts we was looking at ghost the people who was out there dion maybe even daddy and ruthie nell that's when i got to pray and not to the lord but to the storm which please ms deacons make it stop we've never done nothing to you we never treated you mean don't make my daddy die don't make my sister die make it stop please and you know wot it did not right away but the wind eased off gradual like me and daddy went out to inspect the damage lot of our cows was dead even a calf me and daddy help birth i as daddy how a storm could kill a cow when he said that sometimes the dirt got into their mouth and nose and close in to suff a lot of people died out there david morrison got caught and he suffered catered to i started crying but then i remembered what mama said so i try to hold back that he said it was ok though that night i lay in bed and thought about the storm which mama had to be wrong about her anyone who would conjure dust snakes and ghosts how to be a witch they learned us in sunday school about how in olden times people would make gifts unto the lord lord would favor them the brought in the best livestock and the best crops our crops weren't so good but i took the best of what we had and i brought him to miss deacons i told of these were for her and could you please make the storm stop and she smiled at me said i was a good boy and motives and things i didn't understand she didn't say she'd make the storm stop she didn't say she wouldn't neither but she took what i brought her so i figured she would mama what knew when i told her about it but i didn't care now that talking about another storm it ain't fair the last storm took davy morrison who's this i'm going to take mamma daddy my sister's me i know one thing if this storm does come i'm going back to see the storm which and i'm bringing no offerings this time this time i'm bringing daddy's weed sickle the real sharp one it's got to stop it's just gotta thank you this next one is the type of story writers like to write all the time it's the sort of the end of the world apocalyptic story which may or may not take place on earth it's called dead meat don't think about it fins hands work with mechanical precision performing actions they had done hundreds of times before don't think about where it comes from darren leaned over as fin used his hands to cut slabs of meat into smaller chunks don't think about what will happen if it if they find out down to new of course but she could be trusted he was clan master and she was his mate yet he knew that there were those who would not be happy with what he was doing he was violating an unspoken but sacred taboo among  people don't think about it deborah leaned over and kissed him unmindful of the each of the fumes rising from the charred meat the herbs were necessary the clan might think that purpose was to bad taste but finn and our new better it was to disguise taste dara whispered in his ear tasso knows fans hands falter to pray that he doesn't don't think about what will happen if he does yet and could not help but think about it what he was doing was almost sacrilegious was sacrilegious if a man like t knew one who covered the role of clan master don't think about it finn walked among the makeshift tables during the feeding as clan master it was for him to comfort his people make himself visible offer them hope his people go into men undernourished women scrawny children once upon a time their fields were rich and green and fertile now they were brown bleak barren and still reeking from the stench of the dead he walked over to a bench where an elderly woman sat a woman with sad roomy eyes i'm so sorry for your loss eva that's kind of your clan master you know feels tonight i've lived through famine and disease before but never anything like this never anything that swept through the entire world killing everyone killing fios finn grasped her hand shoot hers did not and that bothered him and it bothered him the wave test it was looking at her yet how could any man not look at dara in that way his yellow hair childhood companion had grown into a woman a golden trust woman whose curves could not be hidden by the harshness of their existence nor the creaminess of her skin it was getting dark and finn wanted to make his way to the cold room before night fell he made his way to a thick said trail hidden by brambles which led to a cleft that he and tara had discovered as children it was their spla not from the cold but from discussed and fear discussed because he knew where those carcasses came from fear because without them odious though they were they were the clans last food source without them the clan would die their death would be slow and agonizing so in this was he in his pondering that he failed to hear the footsteps behind him until something struck him from behind robbing him of consciousness awoke and tried to rise he found he could not the bonds holding him thus the coldness seeping into his limbs robbed him of motion as his eyes became accustomed to the darkness he saw a figure finn i'm going to show them what you've been feeding us they'll drive you out they'll strip you of your mastership if they let you live how how did i find this place very simple tasso stood aside to reveal the golden trust woman behind him fins mouth dropped in a grimace of hate and discussed you faithless now now that's no way to talk to the new clan master's lady  managed to spit in the dirt i had to do it in there as voice was cold and passive her face was expressionless i told you tessa knew he was going to denounce you to the clan they were going to drive us out maybe even kill us i had to do this on second thought i don't think i'll wait for the others then tessa raised his truncheon and stepped forward when i show the others what you've been doing i'm sure they'll agree i had the right to kill you finn did not flinch he did not waver click tied and bound though he was he was still clan master he would not give his enemies the satisfaction of begging or cringing he would die a clam masters death he ready himself for a killing blow what he got was a spray of something warm wet and sticky tessa lurched forward clutching his throat as guts of red ripped through his fingers he collapsed to the floor kneeling beside finn was darrah the diver he'd always known cutting his bonds with a blood stained knife no longer cold and impassive but tearful and breathless i'm so sorry finn but it was the only way he was going to denounce you expose you to the clan i had to get him away from them i knew he would you knew he wouldn't be able to resist catching me in the act yes and i knew he would be able to resist me fin wobble to his feet if there had not caught him he would have fall and what should we do with him she asked pointing to the body finn looked at the dead body of his and in the you and the carcasses on the wall leave him out in the morning to investigate finn nodded let's hope they are then our lives can begin to return to normal deborah kissed him yes you know it's been so long since i've tasted fresh kills human flesh i i'm not going to elaborate any further but i'm going to reach of the following excerpt and that looked out on the patio and saw the wolves as before none of them were lying down they were all walking to the double glass doors none of them stopped when they reached the flagstone patio but they kept walking their coats and their eyes glistened in the perimeter lights of debt of the to do in dealing daylight she watched mesmerized as the impossible happened and that had seen movies where people lose their way through solid objects usually these were the results of special effects which range from cheesy to masterful usually the person who was going through the solid object there outlines were what watery and wavery it was a need effect but it didn't look real this was real the wolves how many of them whether she couldn't tell the wolves were flowing through the glass there was no broken glass no wave no watery wavery outlines they were just coming into the room as if there was no barrier even though  after the performance i'll be outside with some books i'm going to trying to sell you want to stop and talk to me about horror movies and horror books and i'll be glad to hear what you have to say and i'll be glad to talk to you and if you want to buy a book i'm not going to stop you