There was a man in italy... Friedrich the II, holy roman emperor, to be exact. An empire that existed more in memory than in fact at that time. This fella ruled in the early 13th century in the sunset of the middle ages. Roughly a century before the renaissance, which would largely earase his world and culminate in the age of enlightenment. He was refered to as Stupor Mundi by his admirers, "the wonder of the world". Historians to this day are highly polarized in their opnion of the man. To his fans he's a golden light of the middle ages and to others, an odious despot, depraved psuedo intellectual, a man with no scruples or loyalty. In his twilight he was described as bald with a shock of red hair around his head. There are no artrworks depicting him without his crown. And therein I saw a parrelell to our current president. Not a perfect one of course, but adequate for a song and all songs are at least partly fiction. I really thought I was done with the moronic dilletante in the whitehouse but he's like one of my squamous cell carcinomas I'm obliged to burn off periodically. He just keeps coming back. So I wrote yet another song on the subject. Like the early 13th century I believe we are living through an interegenum, a period when an old world is dying and a new world has yet to be born. Such periods are always difficult and I don't think I'll see it's resolution. The other songs on this album are in the spirit of this age I think. It's a time of great despair and great hope. There is a Zietgist, a ghost in the machine, just arount the next corner waiting to reveal itself. Lets hope it's another renaissance