Gor-Lak's Corner: My Nobel Prize in Economics

guest post by Gor-Lak, alien guide

Yes, I won the Nobel Prize in Economics. Actually, it’s technically called the Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel but that’s a real mouthful. Whoever came up with that name at Sweden’s central bank clearly didn’t know much about the PR game.

The only reason I mention that I won that poorly named yet highly prestigious award is to establish my credibility when I tell you what a terrible system Capitalism is. Don’t get me wrong, it’s really, really great for the capitalists. But for the rest of us? Not so much.

The capitalists own everything. The means of production. The media. Politicians. They have to. How else could they get the rest of us to let them have it all?

“But wait!” a PR shill agent in the crowd says. “They deserve to have all the money because they are successful!”

Totally BS argument. Most of the big, rich wealth hoarding families got started with stealing and violence. Did you see There Will Be Blood? Good flick.

They use their wealth to make all the rules, all of which benefit them. Therefore they will get richer ... and we won’t.

Elvis Costello - She

She lyrics

May be the face I can't forget
A trace of pleasure or regret
May be my treasure or the price I have to pay
She may be the song that summer sings
May be the chill that autumn brings
May be a hundred different things
Within the measure of a day.

She
May be the beauty or the beast
May be the famine or the feast
May turn each day into a heaven or a hell
She may be the mirror of my dreams
A smile reflected in a stream
She may not be what she may seem
Inside her shell

She who always seems so happy in a crowd
Whose eyes can be so private and so proud
No one's allowed to see them when they cry
She may be the love that cannot hope to last
May come to me from shadows of the past
That I'll remember till the day I die

She
May be the reason I survive
The why and wherefore I'm alive
The one I'll care for through the rough and ready years
Me I'll take her laughter and her tears
And make them all my souvenirs
For where she goes I've got to be
The meaning of my life is

She, she, she

You want proof? Here he is totally fan boying -

For all the latest news, ticket information and merchandize purchasing opportunities, check out Elvis Costello’s homepage

The Bee Gees - More Than A Woman

More Than a Woman lyrics

Bee Gees

Oh, girl, I've known you very well
I've seen you growing every day
I never really looked before
But now you take my breath away
Suddenly you're in my life
Part of everything I do
You got me working day and night
Just tryin' to keep a hold on you

Here in your arms I found my paradise
My only chance for happiness
And if I lose you now, I think I would die
Oh, say you'll always be my baby, we can make it shine
We can take forever, just a minute at a time

More than a woman
More than a woman to me
More than a woman
More than a woman to me

There are stories old and true
Of people so in love like you and me
And I can see myself
Let history repeat itself
Reflecting how I feel for you
Thinking 'bout those people then
I know that in a thousand years
I'd fall in love with you again

This is the only way that we should fly
This is the only way to go
And if I lose your love, I know I would die
Oh, say you'll always be my baby, we can make it shine
We can take forever, just a minute at a time

More than a woman
More than a woman to me
More than a woman (ooh, my baby)
More than a woman to me

Hey
More than a woman
More than a woman to me (oh, so much more)
More than a woman (oh, baby)
More than a woman to me

More than a woman
More than a woman to me
More than a woman
More than a woman to me

More than a woman

Elvis Costello - The Other End Of The Telescope

The Other End Of The Telescope

Shall we agree that just this once I'm gonna change my life
Until it's just as tiny or important as you like
And in time we won't even recall that we spoke
Words that turned out to be as big as smoke
As smoke that disappears in the air
There's always something that's smoldering somewhere

I know it don't make a difference to you
But oh, it sure made a difference to me
You'll see me off in the distance, I hope
At the other end, at the other end of the telescope

The promise of indulgence in my confidential voice
Approached immortal danger but you'll never know how close
Then down the hall, I overheard such a heavenly choir
They interrupted my evil designs
One day you're up in the clouds
The next thing you're down with the Sweet Adelines

I know it don't make a difference to you
But oh, it sure made a difference to me
You'll see me off in the distance, I hope
At the other end, at the other end of the telescope

Lie down baby, now don't say a word
There, there baby, your vision is blurred
Your head is so sore from all of that thinking
I don't want to hurt you now, but I think you're shrinking

You're half-naked ambition and you're half out of your wits
Or several tiny fractions that this portrait still omits
And it's so hard to pick the receiver up when I call
I never noticed you could be so small
The answer was under your nose, but the question never arose

I know it don't make a difference to you
But oh, it sure made a difference to me
'Cos late in the evening, as I sit here moping
With a bamboo needle on a shellac of Chopin
And the cast-iron heart that you failed to tear open
At the other end, at the other end of the telescope

Alternate lyrics

As recorded by 'Til Tuesday on Everything's Different Now (1988)

Shall we agree that just this once I'm gonna change my life
Until it's just as tiny or important as you like
And in time, we won't even recall that we spoke
Words that turned out to be as big as smoke
Like smoke disappears in the air
There's always something smouldering somewhere

I know it don't make a difference to you
But oh, it sure made a difference to me
You'll see me off in the distance, I hope
At the other end, at the other end of the telescope

There was a time not long ago I dreamt the world was flat
And all the colors bled away and that was that
And in time, I could only believe in one thing
The sky was just phosphorous stars hung on strings
And you swore that they'd always be mine
When you can pull them down anytime

I know it don't make a difference to you
But oh, it sure made a difference to me
You'll see me off in the distance, I hope
At the other end, at the other end of the telescope

There, there baby now, don't say a word
Lie down baby, your vision is blurred
Your head is so sore from all of that thinking
I don't want to hurt you now, but I think you're shrinking

You're half-naked ambition and you're half out of your wits
And though your wristwatch always works, your necktie never fits
Now it's so hard to pick the receiver up and when I call
I never noticed you could be so small
The answer was under your nose, but the question never arose

I know it don't make a difference to you
But oh, it sure made a difference to me
When you find me here at the end of my rope
When the head and heart of it finally elope
You can see us off in the distance, I hope
At the other end, at the other end of the telescope

The Beatles - Blackbird

Blackbird Lyrics

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to be free

Blackbird fly, blackbird fly
Into the light of a dark black night

Blackbird fly, blackbird fly
Into the light of a dark black night

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
You were only waiting for this moment to arise

Another Miranda Mermaid Movie

Elvis Costello - Green Shirt

"Green Shirt" Lyrics

There's a smart young woman on a light blue screen
Who comes into my house every night.
And she takes all the red, yellow, orange and green
And she turns them into black and white.
But you tease, and you flirt
And you shine all the buttons on your green shirt
You can please yourself but somebody's gonna get it

Better cut off all identifying labels
Before they put you on the torture table

'Cause somewhere in the "Quizling Clinic"
There's a shorthand typist taking seconds over minutes
She's listening in to the Venus line
She's picking out names
I hope none of them are mine

But you tease, and you flirt...

Never said I was a stool pigeon
I never said I was a diplomat
Everybody is under suspicion
But you don't wanna hear about that

'Cause you tease, and you flirt...

Better send a begging letter to the big investigation
Who put these fingerprints on my imagination?

You tease, and you flirt...

You can please yourself but somebody's gonna get it
You can please yourself but somebody's gonna get it

Elvis Costello - The Difference

"The Difference" lyrics

I pulled a petal from the flower to tell just where my fortune fell
About a boy beyond my caution before I lay beneath his spell

And he said, "Do you know, do you know, do you by chance know wrong from right?
"Do you know, do you know, do you know what turns pleasure to plight?
If you trust me, I know it may seem strange
I'll show you the way down into the underworld"

I did just what he asked me to
Lifted my skirt to show him my shoe
Upon a reel of the finest fiddlehead
Light as the dance around Milady's bed
The steps came faster at his insistence
Till he showed me all about the difference

"It's not about the things I promised, it's not about the vow we broke
If I am faithless or dishonest it's just the gaze that you provoke"

And he said, "Do you know, do you know, do you by chance know wrong from right?
Do you know, do you know, do you know what turns pleasure to plight?
If you kiss me, at first it may seem strange
I'll show you the way into another world"

My father shamed me just like you
Buried my name in a glass or two
Till he came to me in his darkest house
He mistook me, took me for his spouse
And my cries for a woman in the distance
So I took this knife to show him the difference

Till he came to me in his darkest house
He mistook me, took me for his spouse
And my cries for the woman in the distance
So I used this knife to show him the difference

Elvis Costello - Hetty O’Hara Confidential

Hetty O'Hara Confidential lyrics

Hetty said if you ask me nicely
I'll write you up well
Don't tell me twice
Or quote you directly
Or you'll pay the price
I'll peel off your skin like a thin veneer
If someone tells me something that I didn't hear from you

Who's got the dope?
Who's got the potential?
Hetty O'Hara Confidential

Those were different days
Those were different drugs
From a gold-plated palace with the half-mast flags
To a chalk lined body that was full of slugs
She was trading favours for footnote plugs
Who's got the needle?
Who is fit to burst?
A morphine tattoo on an unquenchable thirst

Who's got your girlfriend?
And who had her first?
Reading her column was essential
Hetty O'Hara Confidential

She could kill a man with a single stroke
She is not the one you want to provoke
If you can't take the heat
Or you can't take a joke

Who's got the dope?
Who's got the potential?
Hetty O'Hara Confidential

If there was a gentleman caller
To a comely wench
And a snooping peeper
In a coat of trench
She'd place a line or two
At the foot of the page
A cue or a clue
To the latest rage
With your true dimensions
And your actual age
Trade a life of scandal
For a career on the stage

These little things seem inconsequential
Except to Hetty O'Hara Confidential

On the night he came home
From the debutante ball
Passed out drunk on the bathroom floor
Call-girl called after taking a peek
At the secret drawer of atomic secrets
Repeating something that I whispered about
They have to take it
But they can't dish it out

Who's cleaning up his act?
And breaking the bank?
But unfortunately didn't remember to thank me
But now the rumour is doing the rounds
That his only friends
Are villains and scoundrels
Her reputation curled like yellow smoke
She named the wrong man in the story she broke

She had an unfortunate character trait
The irresistible impulse to assassinate
But the damage she did was quite substantial
Hetty O'Hara Confidential

They've got witch trials now
With witches to spare
And a jukebox jury full of judgement and fury
With bright neon dresses and porn star hair
She was thrown to the wolves
Or the dogs or the foxes
Once they'd had their fill of shares and stocks
Their gaze is unforgiving
If your morals are lax
Pointing manicured fingers and making a mockery
With voices that sound like broken crockery
Hetty said "I'm powerless and I feel alone..."
Now everyone has a megaphone

Who's got the dope?
Who's got the potential?
Hetty O'Hara Confidential