NYC 2023

The Complexity of Civilization

Evening

• Always Look on the Bright Side by Monty Python ◦ A silly song about making the best of terrible things
• We Are Gathered by Daniel Speyer
• When I Die by Glen Raphael ◦ A light-hearted song about death
• Winter Is Icumen In by Ezra Pound ◦ A lament of the coming season, in anachronistic language

Dusk

• Sons Of Martha by Rudyard Kipling (lyrics) and Daniel Speyer (music) ◦ An ode to those who make civilization possible

Twilight

• Bitter Wind Blown by Raymond Arnold ◦ A lullaby for a child that is shivering in the cold
• Cycles of Scurvy by Philo, Anton Howes, Idlewords and SMTM, edited together by Daniel Speyer
• Chasing Patterns by Raymond Arnold ◦ Our struggle for understanding
• Time Wrote the Rocks by Cat Faber ◦ Truth is found in the world

Night

• Beneath Midwinter Midnight by Raymond Arnold ◦ A lament of winter, contrasting with repeated "we are not alone"s
• No Royal Road to Knowledge; No Mercy for Ignorance by Daniel Speyer
• The Voicing of Fear by Daniel Speyer ◦ How much we have to lose and how little chance we have to keep it
• A Little Echo by Raymond Arnold (with a few bits by Daniel Speyer) ◦ Love, life, death, and the desperate hope for life again
• Hymn to the Breaking Strain by Rudyard Kipling ◦ Abide the twin damnation, to fail and know we fail
• Bitter Wind March by Raymond Arnold ◦ A return to Bitter Wind Blown, but with determination to do something about it
• We Are Here by Daniel Speyer
• Call and Response: Defiance by Jai Dhyani (Abridged by Daniel Speyer)

Dawn

• Brighter Than Today by Raymond Arnold ◦ Our central anthem of hope, starting from the invention of fire
• Endless Lights by Raymond Arnold ◦ A song of hope, generations, stories and infinite possibilities

Morning

• The Sun Will Come Up Tomorrow by Charles Strouse and Martin Charnin (mostly) ◦ A naive orphan's simple optimism, slightly tweaked
• Here and Now by Raymond Arnold ◦ A celebration of now
• I, Pencil by Leonard E. Read
• Landsailor by Vienna Teng ◦ A salute to industrialization and its fruits
• Holding Up The Sky ◦ by Daniel Speyer ◦ The responsibility of key infrastructurists
• Somebody Will by Sassafrass ◦ I can't solve the entire problem, but I can contribute, and trust my tribe to go the rest of the way

Days to Come

• Uplift by Andrew Eigel ◦ Human progress, from stone tools to space colonies
• Five Thousand Years by Raymond Arnold ◦ Looking to the far future