The MetaQuizzical Cafe
A Musical Science and Philosophy Salon
Tasty Edutainment for the Heart and Mind
Are you curious about the world around you?
Do you marvel at human innovation and scientific discovery?
Do you wonder what makes the human heart, mind and soul tick?
Do you find yourself asking how we humans can be so smart and well . . . so not?
Do you like to explore the comedies and tragedies of human experience?
Do you like music that makes you feel and think?
Then You’ll Love The Metaquizzical Cafe
The MetaQuizzical Cafe is musical edutainment for those hungry for knowledge and meaning.
Each unique event centers on the scientific or philosophical concept behind one of singer-songwriter
Jim Ocean’s original songs and is a spicy blend of live music, science news, “meta-quiz”, speaker interview
and audience Q&A. A stimulating food-for-thought potluck concocted from the interplay
between the audience, musicians, speakers, and hosts Jim and Kathy Ocean.
Sample Programs
A Tribute to Sidewalk Astronomer John Lowry Dobson
Featuring the song “The Sidewalk Astronomer”
A biographical sketch of John Lowry Dobson and the founding of the Sidewalk Astronomy Organization.
Dark Matter: The Next Great Discovery
Featuring the song “Four Percent”
An exploration of dark matter, dark energy and other forces that live just outside our understanding.
Are we Part of an Interstellar Nursery?
Featuring the song “Sugar in Space”
An investigation of “interstellar seeds” and the origins of life.
Did life on earth evolve from interstellar chemistry?
Are we waking from our evolutionary adolescence?
Featuring the song “Coming of Age in the Milky Way”
An exploration of evolving human consciousness.
A look at where we’ve been and where we may be heading.
Newsflash: 96% of the Universe is Missing!
Featuring the song “Said the Dark to the Light”
Not only are we not at the center of the universe,
we’re not made of the same stuff as the majority of the universe.
Are Scientists Afraid of the Dark?
Featuring the song “Dark Matter”
An exploration of being human during a period of cataclysmic change
while on the edge of revolutionary understandings.
Call 707-869-9403 for more information or to book a MetaQuizzical Cafe for your organization
Dark Matter
by Jim Ocean
© 2009, Jim Ocean Music
Astronomers lay awake in their beds at night
The thought in their heads there’s more dark matter than light
They stare through their ceilings as they drift off to sleep
Dreaming of dark invisible things in the deep
Stretching out in the night
With the universe, there in sight
Grab a star, hold on tight
Physicist try, they try hard to be cool
About all those things that they learned back in school
Like no matter what you might think of this place
Love it or hate it, it’s just all empty space
Sinking down in your skin
There’s a universe there within
And where you end, you begin
Biologists act so detached, so blasé
Dissecting a heart is just so passé
But where did the love go that lived deep in the vein?
Did it leave in the air? Will it return through the rain?
Flowing out through your blood
Sinking down in the mud
Life is meant to be loved
Said the Dark to the Light
by Jim Ocean ©2011
I will hold, I will keep you
I have made you a home
Galaxies to enfold you
You won’t be alone
I will hold us together
I’ll keep you in sight
Shelter you from the weather
Said the dark to the light
I was there in the beginning
I was there at the birth
When the stars started singing
I heard your Sun and your Earth
You’re the snow on my mountain
And you shine so bright
Like a sail on a black sea
Said the dark to the light
Open your mind to me
And you’ll see I’ve always been there
I know that you can’t see me
But I’m everywhere
I’m everywhere…
I’ve been waiting to meet you
Like a long lost friend
I’ve been wanting to feel you
Coming close in the end
‘Cause we live in a story
With so much to write
Someday soon you will know me
Said the dark to the light
Said the dark to the light
Said the dark to the light
We are woven together
We are woven together….
Coming of Age in the Milky Way
By Jim Ocean
Playful as otters
Poisonous as snakes
We’re descended from things
That would make your heart ache
Fast as a falcon or
Slow as a snail
We’ve the instincts of insects
And the dreams of a whale
This is the age of recovery
From all that we’ve done
This is the age of discovery
As we stare at the sun
Embrace a bright heart
For the sake of our kind
And leave the mind of the reptile far behind
Leave the mind of the reptile far behind.
Coming of age in the Milky Way (2X)
(“I love you baby ‘cause you’re coming of age!”)
Graceful as spiders
Fragile as cells
We should be shedding our skins
And breaking free of our shells
Living our lives
Like a blue bottle fly
But we’ve learned how to love
And we’ve learned how to cry
We’re Earth’s adolescents
We’re about to be weaned
In a test of our species
In a test of our genes
Stay close to your love
Stay close to your dreams
Be more of a human
And less a machine
Be more of a human
And less a machine….
Coming of age in the Milky Way (2X)
Clever as virus we’re as
Strong as a horse
We’re descended from things
That go back to the source
Deep as the ocean and
High as a cloud
Keep asking the question
And say it out loud
Keep asking the question
What is life all about?
Coming of age in the Milky Way…
(Repeat fade…)
Sugar in Space
© 2011 Jim Ocean
Sugar in Space
Bread crumbs through the darkness
Water everywhere
A place for life anywhere…
There’s rain in a cloud
And fish in the sea
There’s worms in the ground
There’s love in you and me
In the vacuum of space
Sweetness abounds
Making a place
Where life can evolve
And something for love to keep surviving
Something for love
To keep finding a way
Nothing’s a word
For something unseen
You know that the void
Has tricks up it’s sleeves
In the vacuum of space
Sweetness dissolves
Making a place where
Life can evolve
Something for love
Something for feeling
Something for love
To keep believing like
Sugar in space
Breadcrumbs through the darkness
Water everywhere
A place for life anywhere
Sugar in space
Stones to walk the river
Water…
A place for love anywhere
Some folks think the stars
Are ancient points of light
And some folks think the stars
Are atoms that ignite
Some folks think the stars
Are proof that there is faith
And some folks say the stars are making
Sugar in space…
Four Percent
© Jim Ocean
Four percent
That’s all we know
Four percent is
That’s all we see
Four per cent
That’s all that shows
Four percent of reality
Every person
Every drop of water
Every apple
Every apple tree
All our worries
Every time you hurry
All the fury
Inside you and me is just…
Four percent
That’s all we know
Four percent is
That’s all we see
Four percent
That’s all that shows
Four per cent of reality
Every mountain
Every coin in every fountain
Not to mention you and me
Every mission
Every politician
Swallowed whole by a big black sea
How vast does the universe
Have to be
Before we embrace humility…
How deep do we have to go
Before we can ever feel at home
In the mystery…
Every poem
Anything that you could show ‘em
All your dreams and reveries
All our fables
All our lies and labels
Ayatollahs, Rabbis, Monks and Thieves….
With so much left to understand
You’d think we’d all extend a hand
To each other
If we all could see the Earth from space
We’d feel it in our gut this place
Is our Mother.
Four percent
That’s all we know
Four percent is
That’s all we see
Four percent
That’s all that shows
Four percent of reality.
The Sidewalk Astronomer
Copyright / Jim Ocean / 2010
On a clear San Francisco night
When the fog’s way out past the Farallons
And there’s a sliver of a moon shining on Berkeley
John Lowry Dobson calls to me
From the sidewalk he says:
“Come see the moon tonight.”
“Come see the Universe and all the light.”
“It’s traveled for so long.”
“Oh please don’t turn away.”
“Come see the turning of the Milky Way.”
“It’s playing like a song…
It’s playing like a song…
Just like a song.”
He shows me the mountains on the Moon… he says:
“They’re as high as the Andes…”
And though it’s cold tonight he’s alright
There’s a light inside him burning bright
I feel it, then I say goodnight
And to the next curious eyes he says:
“Come see the moon tonight.”
“Come see the Universe and all the light.”
“It’s traveled for so long.”
“Oh please don’t turn away.”
“Come see the turning of the Milky Way.”
It’s playing like a song…
It’s playing like a song…
It’s playing like a song…
It’s playing like a song…
Just like a song.”
On a clear San Franciscan night
I saw the shadows of the mountains
The mountains on the Moon.
The Sidewalk Astronomer
Copyright / Jim Ocean / 2010
On a clear San Francisco night
When the fog’s way out past the Farallons
And there’s a sliver of a moon shining on Berkeley
John Lowry Dobson calls to me
From the sidewalk he says:
“Come see the moon tonight.”
“Come see the Universe and all the light.”
“It’s traveled for so long.”
“Oh please don’t turn away.”
“Come see the turning of the Milky Way.”
“It’s playing like a song…
It’s playing like a song…
Just like a song.”
He shows me the mountains on the Moon… he says:
“They’re as high as the Andes…”
And though it’s cold tonight he’s alright
There’s a light inside him burning bright
I feel it, then I say goodnight
And to the next curious eyes he says:
“Come see the moon tonight.”
“Come see the Universe and all the light.”
“It’s traveled for so long.”
“Oh please don’t turn away.”
“Come see the turning of the Milky Way.”
It’s playing like a song…
It’s playing like a song…
It’s playing like a song…
It’s playing like a song…
Just like a song.”
On a clear San Franciscan night
I saw the shadows of the mountains
The mountains on the Moon.