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Participation Trophy

by mark bingham

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1.
just a dog being a dog 03:57
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sometimes you know and I dont sometimes you will and I wont I dont care who starts the fight or who is wrong or right sometimes it's a dog being a dog Nature will replace you in time there's no time to repair your mind its my duty and my destiny to be analogue sometimes it's just a dog being a dog dont need permission or a release dont need your approval or consent you are not immune, you are not exempt from the store front demagogues sometimes you're just a dog being a dog I'm just a killer ape in chains but I'm using every section of my brain the hungry ghosts are trying to speak In a headless monologue just a ghost dog being a dog sometimes the numbers are all wrong there are possibilities and then they're gone they cut every line of my dialogue they said I should act like a dog being a dog
2.
dear buddah 03:05
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Dear Buddha it’s easy to talk to you you accept whatever’s been done - Whatever advice you might have to give You never forget we’ve got a life to live Listen; listen, like you haven’t got a friend in the world Listen, listen, I had to tell someone you’re always the lucky one Dear Buddah how can all suffering, be caused by desire alone? with Greed and. anger just part of the score as the wicked oppressors come back for more i think this is How I’m supposed to feel right now a deal gone sour that i must accept in this mortal cocoon where jesus wept Dear Buddha I hear the rain There’s a lot of rain in New Orleans But my brain wont stay inside my head It seems to be connected to the rivers and the sea And the sky above and the gutters below and across the grey sunrises and buttermilk skies with tourists in shorts and sunburn lines eating the earth one bite at a time dear Buddha I never see you hurry Or take up space at all The rain is your tears and I wash my face in the salty water of your jolly holy grace
3.
piss off god 03:46
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Some glad morning when the deal is done and time has stopped and the wheel is broken Sorrow breathes it's final dying breath There is no one left there is no one here Every body's gone missing they all disappeared The bible is a virus and a parlor trick The bible is a virus and we all got sick She drove a subaru the back seat was her bedroom The brakes were gone she used the emergency Blew through a stop sign into a tree Woke up sober in a cold white room Her left eye was blue her right eye green left foot 7 and and right foot 8 Her mother said it was the mark of the beast Get out of my house or I'll call the police There is no one left there is no one here Every body's gone missing they all disappeared The bible is a virus and a parlor trick The bible is a virus and we all got sick sold red devils and window pane Had it in the freezer since 73 Speaking Spanish to a cluster of nuns Restoring the calm but the sisters weren't buying He couldnt even pee with a man in the room He was a man of cloth with Lucifer riising Bother nothing made of butcher wax eat until your stomach grows through walls Butter bread until the walls slide down Through the villages and through the towns Some glad morning hide behind the skirts Of all the elders who classified Every action you might make Condemned your bedsprings to bluefish and scrod
4.
it never goes away 04:23
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IT NEVER GOES AWAY Japan Dec 2000 God gave me the finger that’s how I used to think she was laughing at me as I teetered on the brink I did not need her help to fail I was perfect on my own God liked to say, boy it never goes away In the cold Kyoto moonlight, a steady rain fell sideways I saw centuries of cruelty shining through your eyes on me Me, the barbarian and you the zen elite But I’m smelling the earth’s sweet bouquet and it never goes away I’ve got a picture of my Father in uniform in navy blues Looking hungover before he shipped out The USS Houston sunk off the coast of java and he swam to shore Watching his buddies being eaten by sharks and he was captured and then… Now I see that teenage prisoner in a bamboo hut alone 7000 miles from the fields of Indiana eating rice or insects counting every day the image blurs but it never goes away Now the party’s almost over now the mushrooms are all gone Now the dog ate all the cookies now the purple light of dawn Now I see the devastation to the very core of earth Holy fire through the skies holy fire fire fire God gave me a purpose that I never found I heard that joke so many times but I can never live it down. Some of us are born to spin a gift we can’t return It’s here today and it never goes away I’m yours today and it never goes away
5.
even us 03:50
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Who ? who could blame you for feeling out of place we were out of place riot gear police and soldiers everyone was winning everyone was winning everyone was winning even us the dawn was rising over Destin I bought batteries and citronella candles Sea birds cleaning up after the tourists everyone was winning everyone was winning everyone was winning even us drink to me only drink to me only , with blood in your eyes you, you asked me 2 times - if I loved you i couldn’t say a word there was a ballgame on top shelf tragedy is what you called me everyone was winning everyone was winning everyone was winning even us my last memory you were looking down at your phone as you drove away. I have pictures/ at the beach in Provincetown bodies in the surf feeling the bliss everyone was winning everyone was winning everyone was winning even us too, too many choices the fever didn’t drop without you by my side but you, you liked your humans interchangeable everyone was winning everyone was winning everyone was winning even us
6.
nobody home in my heart 02:48
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It’s empty as air the shades are all drawn whoever was there has packed up and gone so run along pal and be smart there’s nobody home in my heart No telephone calls will do any good the knock on the door is just knocking on wood I’m back where I was at the start there’s nobody home in my heart once my heart meant a cozy apartment where love came to dine but love did not wear well and so we said farewell and tacked up a ‘go away’ sign bye bye love affairs so long little crowd we’re closed for repairs no peddlers allowed so pick up your dreams and depart there’s nobody home in my heart so pick up your dreams and depart there’s nobody home in my heart
7.
when I am called 03:19
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When I Am Called Wharf rats stroll by the water, the water that used to be blue It’s more than water now, it’s almost water It looks like water, too Seagulls fly over the river, the river that used to be blue It’s more than a river now; it’s more than water It looks like water, the water too I will see the leaves change I will learn to take the fall I will throw a snowball through the sky for you I will go when I am called ah ah ah ha somebody’s calling Ah ah ah ah somebody’s fallin’ Bluebirds fly over the mountain That’s what bluebirds do Blue birds will never be in the wrong century They look like bluebirds, too ah ah ah ah somebody’s callin’ I will go when I am called I will go when I am called I will see the leaves change I will learn to take the fall I will go when I am called Every thought you ever thought just might come true Even if you’ve never shared a secret That’s why we open bottles and drink the afternoon I feel like I’m being watched every moment Hedgehogs dig in garden A garden of science and void It’s more than science now, it’s almost Coltrane Impressions of eternity
8.
I Know Nothing 03:44
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I Know Nothing MB 81708 new orleans I know what I've asked for in ignorance and pain and what I ‘ve received cant be measured Witness San Pedro rain forest of green the sky of time regressing to the mean Yes I know Yes I know Yes I know Nothing life by the numbers, the forever wars imagination you cant bargain for I see mescalito bottled in time offering clues to disguise me yes , i'm slow slow to go on the journey to nothing The occupying soldiers smoke drink beer and lament Post K duty They miss their providential non essential beings The juke box plays tangled up in blue 5 times in a row played by a guy from Delacroix laying money on video poker homeless drifting , his town washed away the song brought him home even if Bob Dylan mispronounced Delacroix san pedro keeps watch protects us tonight watch the migration patterns of vermin and birds and I would lose my humanity given the slightest chance Yes I know Yes I know Yes I know Nothing
9.
man sleeping in Marseille 04:32
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10.
prisoners of the sky 02:48
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Prisoners Of The Sky MB dec 15, 2012 New Orleans there's language in your eyes in your cheeks and lips but your words are poison to my heart my calamity set in stone progress barely noticed contention pays no debts I dont need more disappointment I will never find another human who understands yes I live I live as I dream - I know, you will never forgive me I cant see love with your eyes I'm not scared of empty spaces I dont need drugs to cheat my loneliness i dont tell secrets strangers and i dont trust you and nothing's more lonely than being in love with a liar so i'll take solitude, you take lonely and drain your self of all that drama a thorn in the flesh that disappears when the phone rings a million stars in the sky a million planets plunge and die your beauty is indescribable a wheel in the middle of a wheel but loneliness is your company , too with the world, the flesh and the vending machines in the lobby your heart's a green apple all hard and sour I remember that happiness made you afraid i sleep and life is beauty your company is duty i serve my innocence into white hair I serve my innocence Jonah prays and sings his canticles 2x prisoners of the sky you and I
11.
days of the lamb 03:49
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Days of the Lamb. march 11 2024. 12;13 am I keep watch on the traffic jams from the grapevine pass to the ocean's way The lights make halos over the hills Fortune is generous today with the gathering birds in the sky Maybe someday Maybe someday Maybe someday I’ll take your hand In the days of the lamb I can hope for wonder I can keep acting up Nature fools us , even the rain has rules Fortune conspires with anyone who will listen we carry on no matter what we’re missing With the gathering birds in the sky Maybe someday I’ll know who I am Maybe someday In the days of the lamb Bridge I wake up with everything new to me no east or west or strategy Stars light the way but I cant see - in front of me remembering life in a Shepard’s flock 17th century fields of green Nature can laugh at me, a disciple of delusion Fortune bows to the last warm days of fall With the gathering birds in the sky
12.
in my own second line 04:29
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In my own 2nd line 2004 Tonight the streets are quiet. Battleships are docked Angels working on the chariot wheel Ghosts wait for daylight, cast no shadow Your Orishas took my beer my memory moved on A drop of spirits on the tongue. as we burn the photographs Might as well be looking up from the bottom of the sea Extinction of that beam to heaven Rainbows at the serpents tail Remember the hills and the valleys below Where Polly Ann drove steel like a man Starvin to death on a government claim And I see you in every live oak tree- in every sugar pine I'm standing still in time in my own second line ' -On interstates where truckers roll carrying gold from town to town Wanna hide away like Jean LaFitte Get drunk on the money til judgement day. Sooth the sorrow, heal the wounds Beautiful fields lie just beyond A starry crown upon my head I know this time aint looooo-ng On interstates where truckers roll Or sleeping in a wetlands fishing camp Wanna hide away like Jean Lafitte Let yellow fever change my genes Now the power fails and we turn to drink The skies turn purple and demons wait The patience that I’ve come to find Is finding its own way around Is it over or just over my head Isnt there one more man you can bring back from the dead The years have not been kind to the soldiers on our side We keep marching our souls have been consigned A child's first heartache, walks each step in take And I see you in each willow tree In every face in every cloud I'm standing still in time in my own second line

credits

released October 10, 2025

This record is 12 songs deep, culled from 174 songs performed over 12 nights. Thanks to Jim Manion for listening and choosing the songs.

Recorded March 3-26, 2025, live at the Orbit Room by Mike Klinge and Jared Coyle in Bloomington IN.

Thanks to: TV Mike, the Ebbinghouse clan and David Ebbinghouse for the poster and his stage art, Mark Hood and Chris Haack, Steve Philbeck and everyone who came to multiple shows and was instrumental in getting this to happen.
Kudos to the Orbit staff; Sarah, Amanda, Brian, Dakota, Ben, Laura, Elise and Jeremy. Thanks to Mike MacAfee from Visit Bloomington.

Props to all the musicians who played with me on the residency. TJ Jones who plays guitar on “Just a Dog”, Kyle Quass, Dave Miller , Chuck Roldan, Kevin McDowell, John Raymond and Global Abacus Supply.

My rig; 1992 Clapton Strat with lace sensor pick-ups, 1963 Ampeg Jet with Weber speaker, pedals by eventide, EH and Caroline. Telefunken M80 vocal mic

Good luck out there!

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