Posted on December 11, 2021
Some entity
Is trying to keep me happy
Maybe that entity
Is the Smoke Tree
A fascinating species
Cousin of the Sumac
Sumacs from my youth
This memory takes me back
Newton, New Jersey
Youthful days in the woods
Next to our house
In our neighborhood
We used sumac branches
As swords
With garbage can lids
As shields for Kings and Lords
3000 miles away
Also near Route 80
Funny how a highway
Defines me
But I digress
Isn't it funny
What a tree can do
When I reminisce
Posted on September 9, 2021
Crazy busy day, but I squeezed this little ditty in. I used the Theremini to start and it was set on the classic Theremin sound.
Posted on September 8, 2021
On our bike ride to Alamo this past weekend, I saw a lone Canadian Thistle along the bike path – dried out as they do during summer.
Summer officially ends in just two weeks. I used to mark time in my Ham Radio hobby with how the radio band propagation changed – I could usually make better (farther) contacts during the Autumnal and Vernal equinoxes and the Winter months. Alas, I squeezed that hobby dry, so I don’t mark the seasons that way anymore.
Getting back into music and photography is going back “Whence I came” – hobbies I was into during the 80’s very seriously – especially from 1984 – 1994, when I lived in San Francisco.
Its been warmer the last several days, but the nights have been nice. Best yet – no smoke – just beautiful blue skies pretty much all summer except just a few days.
Posted on April 29, 2021
On my daily bike ride, I stop for water at this tree
It’s quite beautiful, actually.
Posted on March 21, 2021
Today is another precious day, a day to rejoice in. A few posts ago, I showed my “Tiny Desk Studio”, and you might have noticed the Geochron 4K digital clock. That clock / map is the only thing left from my Ham Radio station – which turned into my music studio. On that map is a cool thing called an analemma – which shows the earth and sun position. Google it for details – its fascinating. The vernal equinox was yesterday, and I’ve been absolutely enthralled with seed pods this year. Freeman Patterson wrote a book challenging the photographer to just photograph your yard for a year. I highly second this recommendation. Its amazing what we miss that is right in front of our faces. And its quite funny, actually.
I had to use my old outdoor redwood work bench wood as floor joists in my basement “art dungeon”. My hope that the plywood under layment would just relax and lie flat never happened after almost a month of putting heavy weights on each corner.
Its Sunday, (Christian Holy Day) and while I’ve completely dropped all religion from my life (due to Americans worship of a Fake Prophet) I still do remember to rejoice in the day. I think I’m now a pagan, but if I were religious I’d lean toward Buddhism or Hinduism or other eastern religion. These religions seem to have much less hype than Christianity, and maybe? less hypocrisy. Not sure, and it really doesn’t matter.
Because I wake up each day I rejoice in every day, and I think I give thanks to God, wherever or whomever he/she/it is. This is because the beauty of nature and the ability to create, make and dream seem like an other worldly magic.
The Beatles and other 60’s denizens as well as the Beats dabbled in such things, and now I totally understand where they were coming from. Jack Kerouac channeled the best in my mind – especially in his great book “The Dharma Bums”.
Posted on March 19, 2021
Bathed in the art of light
Heard in the Key of A
My life of art is waxing
Life of science is waning
40 years in the Trenches
Just about to shift my gears
Making music, making art
How Ill spend my final years
You don’t get older, only better
Never waste your precious time
Paint your pictures, sing your songs
Smell the roses, drink the wine
Chorus
Like a kid in candy store
Every day’s earthly delight
Time proceding, moving faster
At the speed of sound and light
Posted on March 13, 2021
Now you see em’
Now you don’t
Yearly passing parade
You never see them
Time marches on
Spring Ahead
Turn time forward
Seed pods on parade
They steal forward
With seeds in their pods
Like tongue in cheek
They sneak past you
This year they were caught
Red handed
Glad handed
Lovingly so