Music, Uncategorized

MISS SALLY UMBRELLA

by George Blamey-Steeden

sally umbrella

‘Miss Sally Umbrella’
Artist Unknown – sourced from Pinterest 

The day they chopped down the last tree on earth was the day the humans stopped breathing. No oxygen, no humans.

A few of us got lucky. We’d already had our brains transferred to robots. Not just any old robots. Proper human looking robots with eyes that see, ears that hear, mouths that spoke and hands that created things. We didn’t need to eat nor drink. That was useful as there were no farms and no rain. The extra plus was that we robots didn’t need oxygen. That was handy on a planet without any.

My brain settled into its new home without any major problems. A couple of headaches and I’ll admit I missed being not able to watch The Arsenal or have poached eggs. The name the other robots gave me was ‘Zoolon the Musical Android’.  I could still play my electric guitars. Solar power sorted that out.

Being a robot meant I was immortal if I stayed safe and never got myself killed. It also meant that none of us need ever breed. No point in it. We could build new robots but the new ones had no human brains as we’d run out of those. These robots didn’t have feelings and had no creativity but were useful just focused on doing stuff. They mainly built space ships and did the clearing up of desert dust. Music was an alien thing to them.

Everything was going really well for a while. We’d set up camps on Earth, The Moon and on Mars.  Then came a time of conflict. The robots with human brains decided that there wasn’t any reason to keep the robots without human brains. Like they were lesser  beings. Racism had returned to Earth. My hateful lot started to dismantle the robots without human brains forgetting that they had been programmed to defend themselves. They were pretty good at killing their human brain enemies. After a massive battle all that was left was just me and a pile of robot parts of both types. I never took part in the war as I don’t do racism.

However, I’d forgotten about Sally Umbrella, a robot without a human brain. She’d been on Mars at the time of the battle. She was called Sally Umbrella because she always had an umbrella with her. No one knew why because it never rained on Earth any more.

When she got back to Earth I had to tell her what had happened. She wasn’t meant to have emotions but on hearing what I had to say a single tear dripped from her eye. When the tear drop landed, all of a sudden a tiny twig with a single green leaf popped up out of the ground. Seeing I was confused she told me that it was a new born tree. An oak. After that she cried some more and a whole mass of new born trees appeared. She said they’d been ‘hidden beneath’ forever waiting to grow. Two magical things had happened. Sally Umbrella had evolved a brain as good as any human brain plus she had caused the trees to return.

Not long after, some dark clouds turned up. I hadn’t seen any clouds for hundreds of years. Then the rain. Buckets of rain. That’s when Sally Umbrella opened her umbrella to keep us both dry. Maybe she knew something from before? Maybe that was why she carried an umbrella? I never asked.

However, she did ask me if I thought regular humans would evolve again like before. All I could say was, “I hope not.”

Since then 200 million+ years have passed. The forests are back. No sign of humans, although quite a lot of bees. I did see a pretty friendly orangutan in one of the trees yesterday. Sally Umbrella was shaking her head looking ever so worried. I like Sally Umbrella. I think I might write her a song.

Talking of ‘Hidden Beneath’ here’s the piece of music of the same name from my ‘The Forgotten Daughter of Zeus’ album. It’s available to download on  BANDCAMP or to stream on SPOTIFY    I hope you enjoy;

Also try this on for size if you fancy the idea. The ‘Bullish Grove’. Enjoy;

Apart from the Sally pic – Copyright © 2019 Zoolon Audio.  Music & Artwork. All rights reserved.  Unauthorised copying, reproduction, hiring, lending, public performance and broadcasting prohibited.

 

30 thoughts on “MISS SALLY UMBRELLA”

    1. Thanks. I’m not a writer. I just try it out sometimes. This one followed on from my last post about trees being chopped down. I was talking with Yassy Khan the poet about human brains in robot bodies so thought I’d give it a go. Thanks for reading it ~ George

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      2. Part of me thinks it’s a good idea. No need for food means no calories to worry about, then no need to die in the gym every day and I’d still get to play the guitar. The downside is that the brain would still be human and that’s where it could all go wrong. You’ve just given me an idea. Thanks ~ George

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  2. You tell a story well, George. I sat glued all eyes and ears.
    Miss Sally Umbrella , it’s like giving words new life when you come up with thoughts like these. You write renaissance art , George.

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      1. This is an awesome sequel, considering you did the previous post just the other day , you think mighty fast abc creative. I might even want to become a robot only if you lend me your brain , Lord Zoolon !

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      2. Lyrics take me ages. Because I’m not a committed writer these little stories take no time at all – it probably shows! Thanks, Yasmin. Your support really helps ~ George

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      3. Your stories have the flow that most story tellers try to imbibe in their narration . So it feels effortless !
        I think you have a good brain , a fast one at that (your sequel is proof) , a heart full of hurt.. if you know what I mean. Them lyrics you write says it all.
        ~~~Yasmin~~

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    1. Thanks, Shey. I’ve got that recorded and was going to watch it in its entirety. Sounds like I won’t now. Remakes never really work. Thanks again ~ George

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      1. Well we both found it beyond dull. And the dystopian future was straight out of a Dickens’ film. As remakes go I don’t know why they bothered. The three leads are dire and unlikeable and I don’t know how any director or writer could think that the thing being more about this painful couple not being married in Edwardian England is more interesting than the Marians invading. Frankly I spent episode one waving the Martians on so we could get peace. Of course the real trick would have been to pull off this couple being more interesting. I get that. But they didn’t. Now I am sure there are those who will love it. Alas we were not two. And I am unable to watch more.

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      2. You’re right. I got through episode one and a bit of two before I gave up on it last night. War of the Worlds is rubbish. Not just the script that stopped the actors acting but the filming technique. They kept shifting into sepia to enhance action scenes but entered sepia far too soon hence losing any surprise and why enter sepia at all? It should be all sepia throughout like a monochrome film noir from old days or just play safe with generic filming ~ George

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      3. Puhew.. I thought it was just me. But for me this filmed galore story said nothing new. I actually preferred the Tom Cruise version where it came down to the Martians invaded the weekend he had his kids. At least there was focus there. This effort is like, wow there’s a tripod…alas it reminds me of John Christopher’s books in an insulting way.. we should all quake ..then yep there’s the filming technique. You are so right. They also had lines that I do not know how any self respecting actor could deliver, let alone with a straight face.

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  7. George – reaching out in your comments section but I have a poem I would like you to consider for lyrics into a song – I believe you offered collaboration for a fee last week and I would like to do this for my Husband for Christmas – could you email me so I have your details at kateduff72@icloud.com and I will send it through

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    1. Thanks, Ken. There’s strange stuff going on with WP. On my phone all is good. On my PC the Reader is jumping up and down all over the place. It’s been like that for a week or so. I guess they’ll get it right soon – or not. Thanks again ~ George

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