Happy Late Night, my Darling,
Tonight I was at the Valley Performing Arts Center, which you already know if you saw my FB post. And if you saw it, you also already know that I saw - with my friend Dennis, who gave me a free ticket - the Stewart Copeland version of the 1925 silent film "Ben Hur". Copeland created a score that corresponds exactly to what is happening on screen, and to hear it live in the VPAC, as played by the Pacific Symphony and Copeland himself, was mega. It is a whole new way to see films, at least silent ones. "Ben Hur" is an action movie, which helps, and the action is incredible: epic crowd scenes and battles (over 120, 000 people were used as extras), and there is a very famous chariot race scene that is even more realistic than the one in the more famous 1959 remake with Charlton Heston.
The whole thing kicked major-league you-know-what, but it was the music and the use of orchestra, and the sound inside the VPAC that just gave the film a whole new dimension. I am hoping that maybe Criterion or someone will put out a dvd of this version, because it's really something to see with Stewart Copeland's music. I am glad I got to see it live, and it will go down for me as one of my great cinematic experiences.
I really liked your photo this morning, and the E.B. White line that you added. That is a great angle, looking up from the rocks as they ascend up to your friend Kyle and his dog, who are positioned just right in the balance of the picture. And you also got the blue sky and white clouds to top it off. I love that factor, at least on my little camera, where it adjusts for sky when you point it upwards. That's the only way for me to get clouds and grey scale (or blue color) in my pics with sky in them, is to angle towards the sky.
I of course try to maintain my sense of wonder everywhere I go, and I really can't help but do it, it's my standard operating procedure, just so long as I'm not in traffic or watching the news, lol.
It especially is "on" when I am in a good pattern of hiking, and music listening, and reading interesting books by someone like Dr. Farrell.
For me, it is important to be "in my Zone". It's not always easy these days, but I somehow still do it.
I just wanna live a life that is interesting, and keeps me curious, and has mysteries to solve and incredible things to think about. So I have to dodge the 24/7-ness of it all, and the relentless media and stuff that people in the modern world think is important but actually isn't.
When I am up high in the Chatsworth mountains, and I look at the rock faces from Indian times, hundreds and thousands of years ago, I know that's what's important. And other stuff too.
Stuff that makes you wonder, and stuff that keeps you wondering.
Curiosity and interest is what it's all about.
Lately, because I have just read Dr. Tom Van Flandern's "Dark Matter", a truly genius book, I have had a fantasy of wanting to become an astronomer. It is something that has been a small part of me ever since Dad took me to see the Palomar telescope when I was about six. But now, since reading this book, which is mindblowing, I have a fantasy when I am on my walks and looking at the sky.
I think, "hmmm...I wonder how many courses you need to begin as an astronomy student".
And then, because I have never been a college student, I hate the idea that I would have to have all sorts of prior physics and math courses. "Why can't I just start taking astronomy, and go from there"?, I think.
I think about the years required for degrees, and I think, "Man...I'm almost 56 now...I could have a phD in Astronomy by the time I'm 70, and then I could be an astronomer until I'm 90 or so. For twenty years. I've always been a late bloomer anyway. Didn't learn to ride a bike till I was seven... :)
It's always the prerequisite courses that break my fantasy, because I never went to college and don't have all those requirements to get into astronomy classes.
But it's still fun to think about having a phD in astronomy, especially after reading Dr. Van Flandern's book, because I know, in my case (without sounding presumptuous, I hope) that I really could just jump in there, towards an astronomy degree, without all those prerequisite classes, because I already understand all that stuff. I could learn the technical language the same way I am learning to read music after having been put into the choir.
I can learn things by osmosis, as my Mom used to say, which means by absorption. And that is because I have never lost my wonder of life.
It is built in.
I am fascinated about things, and thus have endless questions, and the answers come to me because I seek them, because I want to know.....
I am curious, and that goes hand in hand with my sense of wonder. ///
I Love You, Sweet Baby, and I will see you in the morning. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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