The Mandelbear's Musings

Around the end of 2018 I wrote a Songs for Saturday post about my song "The World Inside the Crystal", which is about my -- I'm not sure what to call it: contention? belief? fantasy? -- that inside of computers is a world where magic works. I wrote the song itself in 1985, about the time my first kid was born. (I don't remember which came first.) Anyway, about four years later I wrote another: "Daddy's World". I sang it for my music teacher last Monday and she had some questions that made me realize that there are a lot of people, some of them no doubt on my reading list, who have no idea what it's referring to. Unless you had a Mac in your house before 1990 or thereabouts, have the definition of the Mandelbrot set memorized, and know a little about complex numbers, four-dimensional geometry, and integrated circuits, that may include you.

( Here there be lyrics, and footnotes. )

The recording of "Daddy's World" on YouTube comes from my CD, Coffee, Computers, and Song, and has my kids joining in on the chorus. Neither of them could sing all that well, but I really wanted them there. I don't seem to have it on any concert recordings -- sorry about that.