A typical female vampire bat weighs 40 grams and can consume over 20 grams (1 fluid ounce) of blood in a 20-minute feed. This feeding behaviour is facilitated by its anatomy and physiology for rapid processing and digestion of the blood to enable the animal to take flight soon after the feeding.
The stomach lining rapidly absorbs the blood plasma, which is quickly transported to the kidneys from where it passes to the bladder for excretion. So within two minutes of feeding, a common vampire bat begins to expel urine.
The one healthy criticism I might glean from these reviews, even if I’m reading between the lines, is that perhaps my lyrics weren’t clear enough!?
It's a possible and fair assessment, Ben, but I'm afraid that might not be the case. Sometimes when an artist chooses to be literal, the audience will take the artist's er, literalness too literally. If that make a lick of sense! Haha.
Basically what I mean is that those reviewers lack the insight to analyze lyrics with a fine tooth comb. Or even the time to do it properly, depending on how their deadlines are. Plus, you know, people not meshing with your sense of humor or people under the impression that you're angry. Or angry for the sake of being angry.
That reviewer you mentioned said that you needed to see a shrink. I remember reading that review, too. I wouldn't take it too seriously, Ben. The guy was shallow enough to form an opinion of your well being based solely on your song lyrics.
Admittedly, I was one of those people who said that the lyrics left something to be desired. Maybe it's because I just had difficultly relating to them on a personal level as I have with your earlier work. Like "Jane" back on Messner for instance. Jane was essentially me a few years ago. This is all subjective of course and I do love the lyrics on some of the songs on WTN. You Don't Know Me, Effington, Kylie and Brainwashed all have wonderful lyrics. I especially love Effington! The tale you crafted of those two towns in that song is so engrossing.
Once, my then four year old son Louis was in tow for the long trek from Australia to America and was playing with some wooden blocks on the airport floor in LAX. They were Waldorf toys I think – something seemingly simply that requires imagination. He was engrossed. He and his twin sister had spent most of their early years in Australia where children aren’t bombarded quite as much with the culture of videos and action TV at such a young age. An American kid his age sat with down and tried to play with him for a moment but decided the blocks weren’t cool. "Dude that's totally boring!" Louis had been imagining all kinds of worlds of characters by himself and some video game kid who said "dude" informed him he was an idiot for enjoying his own creativity. Louis looked pretty deflated and put the toys down because he didn't want to be uncool. Damn shame.
When I was a kid, I used to get the same thing. All my favorite toys were lego blocks and paint easels. I liked to build an create my own little worlds. It hasn't changed. I've just replaced my lego blocks with cameras, screenplays, musical instruments and D&D.