Week 353 // Camera Obscura

by Mount Everest

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about

Today, if you live in the same country as me, you probably tried to watch what they're calling "The Great American Eclipse". Some of you with great forethought tracked down a pair of sci-fi goggles of some kind or another that allowed you to gaze directly into the sun without cooking your fragile retinas. Others, like me, cobbled together home-made camera obscuras to behold the majestic shadow of the moon on the inside of a simple cardboard box. I can't say what it was like peering through those darkened lenses at the heavens as they transformed, but I can report that the view was just fine from the cheap seats. It was difficult to angle my phone camera into the viewport of my contraption, but I will attest that the simple photograph I present with this song does not do my experience justice.

While the eclipse itself was certainly a marvel that this generation will cherish into its longest memory, I was particularly struck by the uniquely human behavior uniting those who sought to behold the spectacle. This song isn't about the celestial event itself, so much as the electric enthusiasm that took root in communities across the land. Life will stumble along after this brief reprieve, but I found it a great relief to take a collective breath, and to let the clockwork of of gravity and light dazzle us for a short time. Thank you for joining in.

lyrics

Today all my neighbors
Were gathered outside
And out on the fire escape
They looked to the sky
They looked to the sky
Behold the human race

Today my whole country
Beheld the same sight
They parked in the cornfields
They drove through the night
They drove through the night
Behold the human race
Behold the human race

Today in my city
My eyes in a box
I ponder the scale
And my context is lost
My context is lost
Behold the human race
Behold the human race
Behold the human race

credits

released August 21, 2017

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about

Mount Everest Maine

I’ve been making up a new song every week since 2010.
Follow me on Instagram [mounteverestmusic] and explore more than 600 songs here.

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