Ancient Music Recommendations + Greek Church + Bookworm

Happy Late Night, Sweet Baby,

I am back at Pearl's. I had a nice day, fairly quiet, though I did go to the Greek Festival to take my annual tour of the church, which I was anticipating even more, as described earlier, because of my recent reading about Orthodox Christianity. However, unlike previous years, there was no priest on hand to give a talk. There were a few docents, but mostly it was a self-guided tour. I was hoping for a presentation and oral history as they used to do in years past. It still is an awesome place, though, and I simply sat in the pew for about a half hour and soaked everything in, listening to the chant music that was playing over the sound system.

Which reminds me.....

You were asking for music recommendations? I know I didn't post any, but now I will recommend Orthodox Chant Music from the 11th Century! :) Similar to Gregorian Chants, but even weirder sounding, like you are in a secret chamber somewhere. I love that kind of stuff! (though I jest in calling it a recommendation, lol).

I know you were looking for more modern recommendations. Me, I'd be recommending Sofronitsky, Hana Blazikova, Orthodox Chants, James Newton Howard soundtracks......(I mention him because I needed something to listen to while reading a few days ago, and I pulled the soundtrack for "Signs" off the shelf. You know, the Shyamalan movie.  I had forgotten how good that music was.....

But for now I shall leave the recommendations to your friends, who are more current than I...  :)

You say you can't work while listening to dreamy music; for me, I can't read to anything that has vocals. I don't know what it is, but if there are vocals, then I get distracted and can't concentrate. So, when I read, it's almost always classical or soundtrack music playing.

I also did my drive past the local VA hospital, which is near the Greek Church. I drive past on Memorial Day to see the row of flags that are planted all the way up the long curving driveway. It's quite a sight. My family never lost anyone to war, thank goodness, but my Dad was a patient of a great doctor at that hospital, and I took him to appointments there for many years, and in doing so I became very impressed with the VA. So I always drive past on Memorial Day, In Memorium....

Books being read : "Road To Reality" (the crazy-hard math book, which I don't understand a word of basically, but am hoping to absorb it. Only 4 or 5 pages a day, so I won't be done until Christmas). "IT" by SK, his greatest work I think. I found a hardback copy in the "free" bin at the Libe, so I took it home. I am also only reading a few pages a day (because I am reading too many books right now), but King I understand, haha. And I'd been meaning to re-read this one anyhow, having first read it in 1986 when it came out. At 1000+ pages, I will finish by Halloween, or maybe Thanksgiving.

Those are my morning books, just a few pages each, but every day so I don't lose the "thread".

I am also reading the Lennon bio by Philip Norman. That one is an afternoon book, and about 10-15 pages a day. Biographies are like somebody telling you a story, no challenging mental concepts or fictional prose to concentrate on. So you can pound a biography, even an 800 page one like "John Lennon : The Life". I should be finished with it by 4th of July.

My evening books are my main focus. And those are both by Dr. Farrell. Right now I am beginning Book Two of his God, Dialectic and History series. This volume is only 100 pages, so I will dispatch it in two weeks max. And finally, my late night book is Dr. Joe's new 9/11 book, which I am 50 pages into. Just began it last week, and because I am strongly focused on the subject matter, I should finish - again - no later than 4th of July.

So there you have it. I am reading five books at the moment, something I don't attempt very often. I am reading each in varying increments, and I would guess the total pages to be about 40 to 50 a day. It's really not that much. I am a slow reader (I think), and I average about two minutes a page. So my daily reading takes about an hour and a half, spread out over the course of the day. In "normal" reading periods of two books at a time, I read maybe 45 minutes or an hour a day.

But it's not only worth it, it's something I can't live without, and I figure if I can do 40 pages a day, then I have completed a 400 page book every ten days, or three per month. It's not about quantity, of course, but pleasure (and knowledge). I only write about it because I don't usually try to do five books at a time, but right now I am.........I have always been a Bookworm.

Well, that's all I know for tonight, my Darling. I will see you in the morn.

I Love You.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Late Sunday Night Love + Good Singin' + Top Ten Beatles (not all ten) + Mr. Hulot

Happy Super Late Night, my Darling,

Tonight is my final night at home, hence the late hour once again, but tomorrow I will be writing at the normal time, which is still pretty late I realise, but not quite as late. Anyhow, I hope you had a nice Sunday, and that your weekend has been enjoyable. Are you still in Minneapolis? Perhaps you have criss-crossed the state again, lol, and are in yet another location entirely. :)

I think it's great that you are doing so much stuff, and the Summer's just getting started so it's gonna be fun.

I did see one post from you today, of the picture of the ultra-cute doggie, and so you know I loved it. A form of Sweet Babyism indeed.  :):)

We had good singing in church this morn, and our director mentioned that he has been getting compliments about us from various church members, so he said we are soon gonna start working on more challenging material, and will also probably be putting together a Christmas program starting in the Fall. I am excited about all of this, because I wanna get really good at it.

Today's Beatles songs learned : "Help" and "All My Loving". There's those vocal lines again. John Lennon was a master of the moving vocal line, ascending or descending over a chord progression. And he had no formal musical training, so he just came up with it by imitation, initially. He imitated guys like Buddy Holly and The Everly Brothers, but he had an ear for melody that even surpassed theirs. He was writing incredible vocal lines right off the bat, in the early Beatles material. Paul McCartney was too, of course, but John wrote all the really smooth, harmonic stuff early on.

I'm trying to think of my All Time Top Ten Beatles Songs. It's a tough choice, but so far I've got a few:

1) "Penny Lane", the most Beatley of all Beatles songs. It puts you right there on Penny Lane itself. That one's by Paul. "Penny Lane" has always been my favorite song by The Beatles. After that, the songs are in no particular order, and I don't have a full Top Ten yet, but for now I would add :

2) "Ticket To Ride". Another John song, with a great riff by George (without whom there would have been no Beatles Sound).

3). "Hard Day's Night". John again. He was The Man in the early days.

4) "Help". 100% John, with advanced chordings.

5) "Sgt. Pepper's Lonley Hearts Club Band". 100% Paul, as is a lot of the later, more psychedelic stuff. Paul eventually turned out to be the more prolific and varied writer of the two, and when he rocked, he was also the most "metal". This song was hard freakin' rock for 1966, and still sounds so today. Man did I love that album; I got it for my 7th birthday!  :)

6) "All My Loving". Another Paul song. You can always tell who wrote what by who sang it, even though both guys contributed to almost all songs. But there was always one main writer for every song. Paul nailed it on this one, which for me captured the early Beatle excitement with it's volatile melody (ascending and descending) and fast strummed chords. Man what a great song.

So that's six "for sure" songs. It's very hard to choose from over 200, but I will pick the other four soon, and most will probably come from the early period.........or maybe not.  :)

No hike today, but I did watch a movie this eve : "Trafic" by Jacques Tati. Tati was a French director/comedian who created a character named "Mr. Hulot". Hulot was kind of a forerunner for Monty Python in some ways, I think, and maybe for Mr. Bean, too, because Hulot is mostly a silent character. He is also a bumbler, and everything he does becomes a disaster. Tati is fascinated with technology, as it was emerging in the 60s (which is when the Modern World really began to take shape), and he places Hulot (played by himself) in all kinds of crazy, elegantly choreographed situations using physical comedy, where everything that can go wrong, does go wrong. "Trafic" is about automobile culture, focusing on a group of people trying to get a new, highly technological camping vehicle to an auto expo in Amsterdam. The film looks great - it has that Tati look, where everything moves kinetically and one object sets another off - and it has a few good gags, but overall it was not as successful as the first three Mr. Hulot films. The first two are absolute classics, "Mr. Hulot's Holiday" is a must-see, and so is "Mon Oncle". "Holiday" is a 10+, an all time classic. "Playtime", the third one, is also really good. "Trafic" was okay, and had a great look, but there wasn't enough Hulot himself, bumbling around and causing catastrophe.

Anyway, I'd better post, as it's now Super Duper Late Night.....

See you in the morning, Sweet Baby!  I Love You.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)

Road Queen + Art Is It's Own Reward + "The Browning Version" + Vocal Lines

Happy Late Night, Sweet Baby,

Once again writing from home. I hope you are having a great weekend on this Unofficial Start Of Summer as they call it. From what I can see by your friend's post, you are (or were) in Minneapolis for her birthday. Girl, you are The Queen Of The Road! You have been criss-crossing the state, it seems : a week or two ago you were on the Mississippi to the west, then Lake Superior to the east, and now you are back the other way again, in Minnesota. I'll bet you are having a blast, and if you are, then that makes me happy.  :)

I saw your post about the guy who ditched his dental career to focus on art and photography, and that is of course everything we have talked about over the years, the importance of doing what you love. And it's nothing against dentistry or any other profession, so long as a person is happy. But all too often, as we know, people with artistic talents and personalities give up on those things because they don't think they can "make a life" (i.e. enough money) out of it. It's a shame when that happens, but we know better, and we covered the whole "money and career" aspect of being an artist waaay back in 2012 or so, and we know that as long as you've got the bills paid and a little bit extra, that everything else is gravy. Because for the creative person, the creative impulse itself - and what results from it - is the reward.

That's why I always say, just keep doing what you do. Because it is Who You Are, and such is your life : doing what you do and being who you are. As long as you always believe in yourself and put 100% into your efforts, you cannot go wrong.

No hike today for me, but I still did about 6 1/2 miles with my regular CSUN walk plus another shorter one with my friend Mr. Freedy this evening.

Tonight's movie was "The Browning Version" from Criterion, a British film made in 1951 by director Anthony Asquith, starring the great Michael Redgrave as a cold, unfeeling headmaster at a boy's school. Or at least that's the way he seems to his students, most of whom revile him. The film reveals a different side of him, however, created by his unhappy marriage and other circumstances in his life, but he finds solace in teaching and in the Greek literature that inspires him.

I was talking the other day about what can be accomplished or not accomplished with 90 minutes allotted in a film, and "The Browning Version" is a classic example of the former. This is why the development of a story and a script is so important, and you can create a world within a world when you have a real script, as was common in films of yore. It doesn't hurt to have legendary actors either, and Michael Redgrave's portrayal here is, I think, one of the great leading roles in all of cinema. Excellent as well are all of the supporting players. "The Browning Version" is from the era of peak British filmmaking and acting, and along with "Billy Liar" which I saw a few days ago, I would say I have seen two absolute classics from a classic era, featuring two of the standout performances of that era, by Tom Cortenay ("Billy") and Michael Redgrave. Both films are 10+.

Songs learned today : "Sounds Of Silence" by Simon and Garfunkel, and "Eight Days A Week" by The Beatles. What you discover, upon finding the chord charts to these songs, is that the chords themselves couldn't be much simpler, the changes fairly recognisable. "Sounds Of Silence" is only four chords, the whole song.

So why is it one of the greatest songs ever written?

Well, the arrangement of those four chords is one thing. The final, finished product production of the song is another. It sounds incredible as recorded.

But the real reason those songs are so great, and this includes so many songs of the classic rock and pop era, is because of the vocal line.

You see this when you actually strum the chords to "Eight Days A Week". You strum D to E to G to D in the verse, and by itself this is a pleasant chord change. But it could be part of a hundred rock songs.

But then, sing or hum the vocal line while you are playing those chords.

Wow!

And that's the real genius of musical giants like The Beatles or Simon and Garfunkel, is that they can take very simple chord structures and lay a moving, descending/ascending highly melodic and harmonic vocal line over the top of that, to create a classic song. And so, I think that classic pop songs, at least, are made out of great vocal lines. Make 'em move, up and down, just like the story in a movie.

That's all I know for tonight, Sweet Baby. Tomorrow, church and choir practice afterward. See you in the early morn, then the afternoon.

I Love You!  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxox  :):)

"When The Sun Hits" + 8 MIle + "Man On Wire" + Love

Happy Super Late Night, my Darling,

I am writing from home, so you know that means I become an Instant Night Owl, which I pretty much am already but at home even more so. I hope your holiday weekend is off to a good start. I did see two of your posts :  the one for local bands to send music to WJJO. I don't know if you are planning on sending anything yourself, but I hope you are still working on your music in addition to your photography and cinematography. I mean, I'm sure you are, and I know there's only so much time for each endeavor, but keep playing and writing!

Also, I have to say that I watched "When The Sun Hits" the other day, your version of course, and I thought it was great when I first saw it last year, but now that it's had a chance to sink in, I think it's one of the best things you've ever done in all respects. As a pure music video (music, performance, sound quality and visuals, and overall "tone" or mood) I think you guys knocked it out of the park. The music goes exactly with the editing, and with your choice of each image and subject in each edit, you set a flow and a feel that goes so well with your version of that song. Really high level stuff, SB.  :)

This afternoon, I went to Santa Su for my Friday trip up The Slide. Because it is a night off, I tried to Do A Ton Of Stuff, which for me means Just Doing More Of The Stuff I Already Do, so later this eve I also did my full CSUN walk too. 8 miles for the day.

I watched a documentary called "Man On Wire", which is once again the story of Phillipe Petit, the Twin Tower Wire Walker. Because it is the actual story, and because the man himself is featured, I would say it is superior to "The Walk", which I mentioned a few days ago. "The Walk", once it gets going, it great because it plays with all the tension and excitement of a formal dramatic movie. "Man On Wire" is half composed of interview footage, and so much of the story is "told" rather than acted out, but because Petit and his cohorts tell it so well, you still feel the excitement and the same sense of amazement. I think what he did is one of the great feats of human conciousness that I've ever heard of. He completely overcame the physical world.

If I had to recommend one picture to see, I'd say "Man On Wire" just because it's the real guys. But "The Walk" is good as well, even though by seeing the documentary I discover that a few characters in "The Walk" are composits, and one lead character may not exist and may have been a dramatic creation. This guy Petit is my new hero, though, and in real life he is quite a character.

The other post I saw was via Steve, and not having to work for 30 days, which must mean TFC is going on tour. Are you gonna go with 'em? I hope you get to, if you wanna!  :)

That's all I know for tonight, Sweet Baby.

I Love You and will see you in the morning.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

The Lake + "The Witch" + Cinematic Tirade + Orthodox Greek Church

Happy Late Night, Sweet Baby,

I like your photo from this morning, and I see you are still on the road at Lake Superior, or actually in this case, you are not on the road but in the lake........  :)

That is really far out, and a little weird, the way you are standing on rock which is just under the surface of the water but which also drops off like a big plate. The rock resembles sandstone, and I don't know if it is or not, but it reminds me of what I wrote about walking the trail at Corriganville a week or two ago - that because the sandstone boulders at the park had once been at the bottom of the ocean, that I was walking on the bottom too!

Geology is fascinating, and what makes it so - for me anyway - is that you can see, to this day!, artifacts of the way the world was millions and millions of years ago.

I hope you are having a great time on your trip, and keep posting if you can.

Tonight's movie was "The Witch". This movie could have been soooo much better than it was. Oh man, it had such a great look, excellent earthy colored cinematography, good acting all around with strict adherence to 17th century English language and manner of speaking. They made a point to create an atmosphere in this film, and on all the technical and dramatic levels, it was great.

The problem.......a big sigh is appropriate here, because this seems to be the problem so often now.....the problem was a thin story, so thin that not much happens, and I don't mean that in a "minimalist art film" way. In a minimalist art film, not much can happen and you can still have a great film because of everything that is implied, and because of so many other factors that do not figure into a normal dramatic movie.

"The Witch" had 92 minutes to work with, plenty of time to build tension, build plot, build mystery around The Witch, and just to make the story move, with various details that could have been developed. But alas, none of that happens, and so you have a movie that could have been great, but instead is merely okay.

It's worth a buck from Redbox or Netflix, just because of the period look and dialogue which are first rate.

But people!.......oh, film people I beseech you to write and develop stories, and learn how to pace them properly in your films! My goodness, Hollywood was founded and became great all because of great stories. Stories were the basis of a good film, before there were special effects and tricky camera work.

It's just like with music. You've gotta have a song. In music, it doesn't matter how good you can play if you don't have the songs. And that is becoming a big problem with films, too. You have gotta have a story, and a plausible ending, if you are making a conventional dramatic structure movie.

So that's my Cinematic Tirade for tonight, even though "The Witch" was not a bad film at all. Just that it could have been really, really good, had it had a story.

Starting tomorrow afternoon, I will be off work for Memorial Day weekend, until Monday afternoon. So a couple sleep-ins are in order, though I will still be going to church on Sunday. And I will be going to the annual Greek Festival at St. Nicholas Orthodox Church (aka "The Greek Church") at some point over the weekend. I go every year, and you might have seen pics that I've posted in years past. But this year will be most interesting and instructive for me to take the guided tour of the church itself, because this time - though I've taken the tour before - this time I have just finished reading Dr. Farrell's book about the early church, and I have learned about Monophysitism and heresies such as Nestorianism, and many other subtopics of what is called Christology. The Eastern Orthodox (i.e. Greek & Russian) version of the original Catholic Church professes to adhere to the earliest undiluted principles of Christianity, and this time, having read the book, it will be interesting to go on the tour knowing some of the Orthodox Saints and the subject matter.

Mostly, from what I read, the schism in the Church is due to minor philosophical details about the nature of Christ (i.e. was He part human, etc.), and it's very detailed in the initial dialectical arguments from 1600 years ago. And it's also something I would not have imagined myself studying, had you asked me twenty years ago.

That's all for tonight, my Darling. I Love You & hope you are having fun.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)

"To The Wonder" + Hope All Is Well + The Annual Horror (can't anybody stop him?)

Happy Late Night, my Darling,

Well, I finally saw a couple posts by you, via Steve and James, both having to do with music : recording and touring specifically. So if those posts were meant as communication (instead of just being regular FB "likes"), then I guess you might be doing some recording of your own? Or maybe you are gonna go on tour with The Fine Constant? Both are guesses, but I'm tryin'.  :)

Mainly I just hope all is going well. If it isn't, don't hesitate to say so. Communication is everything, or at least it is if you want it to be. I am always here no matter what, but all I ever wanna know is if you are still with me or not. I hope you are.  :)

Tonight's movie was "To The Wonder" by Terrence Malick. It was released in 2012, to very little fanfare compared to "The Tree Of Life" from the previous year, and it's not hard to see why it didn't get as much publicity; it's not really that good. He uses a lot of the same techniques to get his story across - short "vignette" sequences (disconnected snippets) that give a vague idea of what is happening, without stringing together anything resembling a plot or linear storyline. He also uses the same constantly moving camera work that turns and swoops, which was tolerable in "Tree" because that was such a great film, but becomes annoying in this one.

The problem with "To The Wonder" is that it really has nothing but the thinnest story, and Malick pads it out with endless shots of his lead actress dancing around, and indulges in a pointless substory line about a priest who has no faith. The thin story is one of love, indifference, deceit and divorce, with Malick's Christian point of view poetically interspersed throughout, in words and pictures.

The reason "Tree Of Life" worked so well in this very abstract (and distracting) style of filmmaking was because it was jam-packed, with story, with implied details, with powerful characters powerfully acted, and with a ton of emotion and spirituality.

"To The Wonder" is not a terrible film, and the last 20 minutes hit hard, with a beautiful message, but overall it feels like he tried to use the same formula and filmic style as from "Tree", but he had nothing much to work with this time.

Still, I can chalk it up to my film watching education. Not every movie is gonna be a 10. 

Went for a full length walk at Aliso Canyon this afternoon. That place is becoming a semi-regular part of my daily miles, cause the trail is 3 miles round trip, and it's a nice change of pace from my usual CSUN walk, and also if I do 3 miles in the afternoon, then I have more than half my miles done which leaves time for an evening movie.

I'm just trying to fit more stuff into each day. Right now, that means books, movies, daily hikes/walks, photography when it presents itself, and learning more Beatles songs to play and sing, just for fun.

Finally, it's that time of year........which means that I am Sweating It Out and Very Worried.

Yeah, I'm talking about the NBA Playoffs, and now that OKC is about to eliminate the supposed favorite, Golden State, that means that there is nobody left to stop the dreaded LeBron from winning another championship.

Ohh, the horror.....the horror I tell you, Sweet Baby. Nothing can be done this time....

So I am cushioning myself to deal with it, even though it's just.........sports, I know. ///

And tonight, that's all I know.

I Love You and will see you in the morning!  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

"Billy Liar" + Love

Happy Late Night, my Darling,

I hope all is well, cause I haven't seen you on FB for several days now, excepting the one concert photo you posted to your professional page. I suppose it could just be FB itself, and it's lousy logarithm for deciding what to show on my news feed, so if you have been posting, I've unfortunately missed it.

But usually something does show up, at least a current post or two, so that's why I say I hope all is well.

Tonight I watched a movie from Criterion called "Billy Liar" that I got from the library. It was made in 1963 by director John Schlesinger, and it fits in to a minor category of British films from that era that deal with rebellious youth. I am also reading the John Lennon biography which comes out of the same postwar period, and the author quotes Lennon, who later said that "America had 'teenagers' . In England there were only people (of different ages)". And he was right, because there was no such thing as young person's culture before the 1950s, really. Kids have always been kids, obviously, but they mostly conformed to society as they grew to adulthood, and they were conditioned to do so all through their schooling and upbringing. This was especially true in England, which must have been a somewhat stodgy place until rock and roll and Elvis came along, and then The Beatles exploded the youth culture.

Suddenly, young people had the desire to be individuals, to think for themselves and to be themselves, and Teenage Culture was born.

"Billy Liar" isn't an "Angry Rebel" film like the movies of James Dean, but is more of a take on the aimlessness of a certain type of young person in that era in England, when it was okay not to conform. Billy is a total nonconformist, or he wants to be, but he doesn't quite have the nerve to break away and live life on his own terms.

It's a classic movie, with a major-league character creating performance by Tom Courtenay, and it really captures what England must have been like in the early 60s, just as rock music was taking over the country.

No hike today, but I will try and get out there tomorrow.

I am thinking of you and missing you. Post if you can.

I Love You.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

"The Walk" + New Books

Hi Elizabeth,

Happy Late Night. Just checking in to say hi. I went up to Aliso Canyon twice today, once for an afternoon walk and then again at 7pm when Grimsley wanted to meet me up there for another walk. I hope things are going well for you. I don't know if you are still travelling or not, and I haven't seen any FB posts for a few days, except your concert pic that you posted today, so I am guessing you are busy.

I have just started a John Lennon biography by Philip Norman that I am enjoying very much. It's fun to read about what he was like as a kid, and the writing is so good and so descriptive that you feel you are right there in his neighborhood of Liverpool with him. I am also reading the latest Dr. Farrell book, having finished "Thrice Great Hermetica". The new one's about 9/11, a subject I am very much interested in. Maybe one day I can get a writer and researcher of his caliber to help me find out what happened in 1989.

That would be a book to blow the lid off of everything.

Last night I watched a movie called "The Walk", about a French guy who set up a high wire between the World Trade Center towers in 1974, and then walked across it. I can actually remember the headlines when that happened. That Summer, I was completely engulfed in rock n' roll (in it's greatest year), so even though the news about this French wire walker was major news for a little while, it wasn't something I thought about for long, being 14 years old. But, watching the movie, I certainly remembered hearing and reading the news that day, and feeling the shared astonishment with everyone else at what this guy had done.

If you see the movie, he didn't just walk across the wire from one building to another, which by itself would have been an almost unbelievable act of courage. What he did was to practically become "at home" on the wire, for a short time, like that space belonged to him. And that part I'd forgotten about, but I remembered it while I was watching the movie. What he did goes beyond having great balance and tremendous courage. In that one feat, as depicted in the movie, he more or less lived in mid-air, his mind and body completely attuned to that environment, and I am not sure too many people have ever achieved that kind of metaphysical coupling before, between the physical and spiritual worlds. I think it's so amazing what the guy did, that that's the very reason it wasn't well remembered once the initial publicity wore off. What he did was like a dream.

The movie itself is very good once it gets going. Overall, I'd give it about a 7 out of 10, or maybe a 6.5 because the first hour is somewhat Hollywoodized. But the second hour makes up for that, and the movie as a whole makes you really think about what the guy did, because it wasn't just an acrobatic feat.

And the movie is also about the Twin Towers, and how - no matter what was ultimately done to them - that this one French acrobat and his accomplices did something far more powerful and far more lasting, because he loved those buildings, before they were even completed. Long live Philipe Petit.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxo :):)

Late Night Love

Happy Late Saturday Night, my Darling,

I hope you had a nice day. I saw your post via Aaron, and those kind of photos always signify something very nice in our form of communication - :):) - but the text of the photo said something about Chicago, so maybe you are there? Or maybe you just posted for the photo.  :):)

I told you yesterday about the new filter for the "posts You like" feature on FB. Well today I discovered you can narrow it down even further, from a specific year, to a specific month of the particular year. So now I can filter the current month, and just see "posts You like" that are current. And it posts things I may have missed before, too.

No hike today, cause I was shopping with my sister Vickie. Tomorrow's song is fairly easy, a gospel song called "Ride On, King Jesus". It was one of the first songs I learned when I joined the choir in November 2014, and you can sing it "all out", full volume and just go for it.

Look for my debut album of Soul Music, coming soon.......

See you early tomorrow morn before church, and then later after choir practice.

Post if you can.

I Love You.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Seeing More Posts + Whitney Canyon + Leave That Lizard Alone! (doggone Kitty) + Secret Agent Man

Happy Late Night, Sweet Baby,

I hope you had a nice Friday, and maybe tonight or this weekend some shows to attend and bands to photograph. I know you have a few things coming up but I don't remember the dates. One good thing to mention on FB : they added a cool filter to the "posts You like" feature. Starting a few days ago, as I mentioned, that feature now returns a ton of stuff, and you can now filter it by year, among other things. So if I click the 2016 box, I only get posts from this year, which makes it easier to find the newest ones. And it is showing way more posts than it used to, so I see that you are usually posting, when the old version of "posts You like" made it seem like very often you didn't post, because nothing would show up.

I know it all sounds convoluted, and I still wish I had my news ticker back, but at least I can see more of what's happening now. And I can see that you've had a lot of things going on with your bands.

Today I had a really nice hike in Whitney Canyon. I don't go there as often as some of the other trails, but every time I do go, I am reminded how awesome it is. There is a feeling inside there that is haunted, but in a happy way, like an enchantment. You can see it and hear it in the sounds and movement of the birds, they embody and carry the feeling like messengers. And you just feel it mostly from the landscape and the plants and trees, and the shadows they all cast. Every time I go there, the place is good for a picture or two, and the feeling of enchantment is very special, a great rejuvenator.

I had to relocate another lizard today. The Black Kitty had one trapped near Pearl's front door, and the poor guy was frozen in his tracks. Thank goodness he still had all his body parts. So I shooed her away - boy does she hate when I do that - and then I scooped the scared lizard onto my trusty trowel and relocated him to the side yard way over by the far corner of the property. There is a big hedge there that is too dense for the kitty to get into, so maybe Mr. Lizard will play it safe and stay in there.

Not much else to mention, no movie tonight but I did watch an episode of "Danger Man" starring Patrick McGoohan. I've probably mentioned that it was one of my very first favorite TV shows as a kid, and I have the whole series on dvd.

And I can play and sing the theme song, "Secret Agent Man" by Johnny Rivers.......   :)

The twangy guitar lick in that song is one of the great hooks in rock history. Once you hear the song, you'll know which lick I mean, it's played as a refrain........

I also like Googling Beatles songs, since I am singing now, and so I like finding the chords to their songs so I can sing and play, something I was never able to do simultaneously until recently.

That's all for tonight, my Darling. See you in the morning!

I Love You.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

"Shock Corridor" + Scary Things Like Insane Asylums And Movies About Brains + Love

Happy Late Night, my Darling,

I hope your day was good, and perhaps you are still on your road trip. My day was a Typical Thursday (hair salon, etc), so I didn't go on a hike, but I did watch a really weird movie tonight called "Shock Corridor", which was directed by a guy named Samuel Fuller, who was known for making what I will call Hard Boiled Movies. Movies with in-your-face themes, in the 50s and 60s mostly. I don't know that he was a great director, but he is somewhat famous, and this movie tonight was........hmmm.....I guess Off The Wall would be the correct term. It was made in 1963, and I remember - from being a little kid at that time, and through the mid-60s - that themes involving "Insane Asylums" were provocative subject matter, because what went on inside those places were Things Nobody Ever Talked About.

So that was a phrase you heard a lot in the early '60s : "Insane Asylum". To a little kid, it was a scary phrase.

This movie, on the other hand, would almost come off as campy if it wasn't so serious and if the acting wasn't as good as it is. The film is about a newspaper reporter who pretends to be nuts (in love with his sister), in order to get himself committed so that he can solve a murder that has taken place in the asylum. But the film was made at the height of what I will call Playhouse 90 melodrama, and method acting, and so it's all very over-the-top - ultra dramatic and hyperactive. But the director Fuller does explore themes that still resonate today, such as sexual abuse and racism. One character in the nuthouse is a communist sympathiser, still a salient topic as well. That role is played by a guy named James Best, a Southern actor who was really good at character parts.

Anyway, the movie is not great, I don't think, but it is definitely notable because you won't see too many movies like it. "Off The Wall" is the accurate description rather than "weird".......

Yeah, Insane Asylums were big deals back then. Shock Treatment was a big deal, too, and it was a horrible thing to do to people.

Lobotomies were still performed in the 60s, and maybe even later. There is no lobotomy in the movie, but now I'm on a roll, thinking about all this stuff, lol.

Here's a term for ya : "Trepanning". That's another word that used to scare the heck out of me when I was little. Trepanning, if you didn't already know, was a procedure done in ancient times in which a circular piece of the skull was cut out, either by drill or saw (depending on the size of the hole), and this was done to Let Evil Spirits Out Of A Person Who Was Nuts, so it was a form of lobotomy without actually cutting out the brain. But anyway, I mention it because we used to have National Geographics at home, when I was little, with pictures of trepanned skulls found at archaeological sites.

The stuff that scared me as a kid made big impressions on me, and so I never forgot those things, haha. And many of them had to do with Issues Of The Brain - mental issues or holes drilled or whatever.

And in those days, they made a lot of Sci-Fi films having to do with Brains, like "They Saved Hitler's Brain", "Donovan's Brain", "Fiend Without A Face", and - most terrifying of all : "The Brain That Wouldn't Die".

I saw 'em all, multiple times. For some reason, I like stuff that scares me, as long as it's in a movie, or a book. Cause then I can safely deal with it.

But one time, when I was in fourth grade, we had a Show-And-Tell. Did you guys still have those in the 90s? Show-And-Tell was when you brought to class something different or unusual from home, and then showed it to the class and talked about it. Well, on this occasion a kid named Andrew Rodney brought in a large white metal pot, shaped like an apothacary jar. This was in 1969, so I was nine years old. Andrew's Dad was a doctor - a Brain Surgeon! - and the teacher explained that Andrew had brought A Real Human Brain to Show-And-Tell. Yep, and it was in the white metal pot, and it was floating in formaldehyde. And after Andrew talked about it a bit, and what his Dad did as a doctor, the brain was passed around in the jar for all us kids to look at.

It was grey and rubbery looking. Wrinkly. But what I recall the most is the formaldehyde smell. It made me not want to eat my baloney sandwich that day.

I have never forgotten Andrew Rodney and his Show-And-Tell Brain. It grossed me out, but in a quiet, nervous way.

I think Brains should Remain In Skulls, without Holes Drilled In Them, or Shock Treatments performed.....

Except perhaps in movies.

That's all I know for tonight, Sweet Baby!

See you in the morn. I Love You.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

(Brain extrapolation inspired by tonight's film......)

Road Trip? + Sarah + Kobedog + Sofronitsky

Happy Late Night, Sweet Baby,

I liked your picture this morning. That is a spectacular waterfall and you got some really nice textures and blended tones in the motion of the rushing water. I Googled Gabbro Falls just to see where it is, and I see you are way up in Michigan, so you are road trippin'.  :) Maybe it is all part of the same trip that included your shot from Wyasuling State Park? I know that's a lot of distance between the two places, but I know you guys have done road trips involving parks before, and at this time of year. So if you are on a road trip, keep going!

And have a blast.  :)

The only other post I saw was for Sarah's inclusion in the Guitar World article of 15 Great 7 & 8 String Guitarists. That is super cool. Guitar World is a major publication, as you know, so good for her. The song they posted for The Fine Constant was very nice & had a lot of melody. I don't know if you guys were working on a video together recently, but that would be great if you were.  :)

Nothing major to report here, just a full length hike at Aliso this afternoon. I am probably doing more hikes than ever before, month in and month out, but I am not doing as many locations as I did in 2014, when I was discovering all these places, because now I've gotta do "quickie hikes", so I go to the closest locations. But I am going all the time, every week, and it's great to be on the trails.

Wait a minute.......Kobedoggie is barking from Pearl's room. He knows I'm awake and he wants out, probably in the hope of getting some chips, which he now expects every night. Tonight I thought he was asleep! But now I'd better go let him out of Pearl's room, or he'll keep barking and wake her up. Back in a sec......

Okay I'm back. Yeah, he wanted to hang out with me, and he may indeed get a chip or two, but he's gonna have to wait. Don't give him any chips on your end, and in fact don't even let him know you are reading this, or he'll hound you too.....

I ordered three more Vladamir Sofronitsky cds from a Russian label called Vista Vera. I have been listening to him on the two cds I already have, on the Denon label (Japan), and I listen when I read or draw, and I am thinking that he's gotta be the greatest pianist of all time, and by that I mean the most transcendent. There is something about his playing that just takes you away. For some reason, his cds are not easy to find, and you've gotta search for affordable copies, but I am glad I found the Vista Vera site. I also ordered the other three books in Dr. Farrell's "God, History & Dialectic" series, as they are all meant to be part of a whole, 1200 pages in all. It's some of the most fascinating stuff I've ever read.

Well, that's all for tonight. Post some more pics if you feel like it. Hope you are having a great road trip!

See you in the morning. I Love You.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

I'm Bringing The CSUN Geese With Me + Back to Mission Point (but not to the top)

Happy Late Night, my Darling,

I hope you had a nice day, both today and yesterday. Yesterday was Yer Basic Sunday for me, but we sang really well - our director said it was our best yet since he's been with us, so that was nice to hear. I really liked your post earlier today, of the family of Cranes in Middleton. Maybe you posted it in response to my post about the Geese at CSUN. It was a beautiful photo of the birds in your post, and I liked the name of the FB page too :  "Visit Middleton". When should I arrive? :)

Yeah, our Geese at CSUN are crazy, and apparently they've nested in the ivy next to the science building, and they've laid their eggs there. And now they are maniacally chasing people away from that end of the building, so much so that the campus groundskeepers have had to put up temporary fencing around that area as well as warning signs about Wild Geese. I think the "Wild" part refers more to their present behavior than their non-domestic status, haha.....

I saw another post advertising a Metal Festival that is coming up for you. Avenged Sevenfold and a bunch of other bands. Trivium, I think. Anyway, I don't know if any of your bands are on the bill, but I hope you get to go, and if you do, I hope you get to shoot it. The Summer concert season is on it's way, hooray! Go to as many shows as you can and just keep shooting.

Tonight, when I clicked on "posts You like", it returned a whole ton of stuff. Usually, it returns the same set of a few dozen posts, and if there has been a new one (or more) from that day, then those are included too. But the older ones are almost always the same. This time, though, it returned a lot of old posts, some fairly recent, many to do with Alcest (maybe because I "liked" an Alcest post myself this morn), but anyhow, my point is that maybe you are posting more often on FB then I am aware of. I don't mean profile updates, because I would always see those. I just mean "likes", as I used to see all the time when I had a news ticker. When I had a ticker, I saw your posts in the scroll all the time. So maybe I miss a lot of them now that I can only use the "posts You like" feature. So if you are posting stuff, in an effort to communicate, and I miss those posts, then I am sorry, but it's once again down to my dumb FB page, and the fact that Zuckerberg won't give me my News Ticker back.

But the pic of the Middleton Cranes made my day.  :)

When I Visit Middleton, I'll bring some CSUN Geese with me.........but I'll make 'em behave.  :)

Watched a classic British Noir last night, from Criterion : "Green For Danger" (1946), starring Alastair Sim, of "Scrooge" fame. It was a murder mystery set in a hospital during WW2, and it was the kind of drama with a sharp edge of black humour that the English pull off so well, especially from that period.

In my reading, I am still trying to understand exactly the meaning of Hypostasis. How can Christ be both Divine and Human in one body? They argued the heck out of this question in the early Church, and various factions came to different conclusions as to how this was possible. Nowdays, we merely accept the explanation the He was (and is) both God and man, combined in one Person. But the specifics of the arguments from the 5th century, during the time of the Council Of Chalcedon, are so precise that it seems like hairsplitting. But it was not, not to the Fathers Of The Early Church. They wanted to make sure they had the exact definition, and went to great pains - over decades and even centuries - to make sure they had it right.

It's amazing to study the Early Church. I am Googling all kinds of stuff I never knew, in order to understand it better, because Dr. Joe's book is academic, written for a college course (unlike his other books), which means it is written in the academic style which assumes the reader is already familiar with both the subject and the terminology. But it's awesome nonetheless.

Today, two good mini-hikes. I drove up to O'Melveney around 2:30pm and first went up the street to the Mario De Campos Trail, which is the one that takes you to the top of Mission Point, the second highest peak in the Valley. I climbed it in 2014 but hadn't been back since, so I wanted to reacquaint myself with it, and also test my legs since it is steep for a long ways. Turned out the legs are in good shape and I wasn't even breathing hard, though I only went about a half mile up. The full climb to the top is 2.25 miles, which I will do again later this Summer.

My other mini-hike was at O'Melveney Park itself, just a short distance from the De Campos trail.

All in all, a very nice day.

See you in the morning, Sweet Baby! I Love You.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

The Bottom Of The Ocean + "Old Joy" + Sofronitsky + You Got Me Again :)

Happy Late Night, my Darling,

I hope you had a nice Saturday. My day was good. Vickie did not come over, so I went shopping by myself, then at 2pm I went out to Corriganville for a 60 minute hike. That's my new specialty, the Hour Hike, and I did four of 'em this week, at Placerita, El Escorpion, Santa Su and Corriganville. I'm a hiking machine, haha. I can't be stopped!  :)

Tonight I watched a film called "Old Joy", once again directed by Kelly Reichardt. I think it was her first film, made in 2006, and it is very minimal, compared to her other films which are minimalist in style but have more story. In "Old Joy", almost nothing happens, and yet once again the film is really good, simply because of the elements involved, i.e. the pacing, acting, cinematography, choice of shots, and in the case of the story, what little does happen conveys a lot. I wouldn't put it quite up there with her other films, but it's still very good. I've seen all four that are available now, and I'll be interested to see what she does next.

The only post I saw was of one of your friends being a Rapper, so I think you were out to get me once again, lol.  ;)

Because you know that gets me every time.........   :)

I was listening to one of my Scriabin cds earlier this evening, as played by the great Vladamir Sofronitsky, and I have been wanting to post certain pieces because the playing is absolutely magisterial (love that word!). But the cd is from Japan, on the Denon label, and all the titles are in Japanese. So even though I've played the cd a hundred times, I never know what piece I am listening to, and because Sofronitsky - as great as he was - is still somewhat unknown - I can't find an English translation of the track listing no matter how much I Google, doggonnit. So I am searching Youtube and trying to find the particular pieces......

At Corriganville, they have a trail called The Interpretive Trail, and on it there are signs at various places describing the plants, animals, geology of the place, and other stuff too, like the movie location history. But anyway, one of the signs is placed before a huge and very high sandstone rock formation that is prevalent in the park, and in many of the areas I hike in. It's kinda weird how the sandstone is everywhere in Chatsworth and Simi Valley (next door to each other), but then ends abruptly in Granada Hills and Porter Ranch, the towns just to the East. That is where the Santa Susana mountains end, and the San Gabriels begin. From Googling once again, I see that the San Gabriels are made of something called Crystalline Basement Rocks, which are partly volcanic. It's really interesting how there is almost an exact demarcation line between the sandstone at a place like Santa Su, and the volcanic rock (which I used to think was granite) at Placerita.

But back to Corriganville, and the signs on the Interpretive Trail, on the sign facing the huge sandstone formation, like a giant rock wall, it described how the sandstone was formed - compressed in the ocean over millions of years into the gigantic boulders and walls that are everywhere in the region. 

I've mentioned it a bunch of times before, but it always fascinates me.

And this time, for the first time, I specifically thought, as I walked the trail......

"I'm walking on the bottom of the ocean".

It was an amazing thing to think.

Tomorrow, church and singing. See you in the morning, SB!

I Love You.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Happy Friday The 13th + Agalloch + Love

Happy Late Night, my Darling,

I hope you had a good Friday The 13th. :) I went out to Santa Susana in the early afternoon for my usual hike to the top of The Slide. Tonight I am tired because last night, Pearl was up on and off til 5am, so hopefully both she and Kobi will sleep through til morning this time. Fingers crossed....

I am glad you got to shoot with your friend and model, and you got a great response to the photo you posted this morning, many positive comments and likes on FB.

I was sorry to read about the breakup of Agalloch. From what John posted, it sounds like a lot of issues with other members rather than just band apathy, so who knows, maybe they will work things out. I'm glad I got to see them three times, and you got to see 'em too, and that was one of our very first points of communication when you went to that show in Chicago in Summer 2012. I remember you were messaging me that night, because I had kind of put you up to meet those guys and play 'em your recording of "Not Unlike The Waves". I remember you were a little stressed about it, but it was still a fun night - I was at a stage play of "The Exorcist" in Beverly Hills, and you were at the Agalloch show in Chicago, and we were exchanging last minute messages just before both our shows were to start.

It was a fun night, and a fun memory.  :):)

I only saw one post today, the pic of Tristan and his Mom, so maybe that is a reference to you and your Mom? Cause I had enquired about the road trip to the state park, and I know you guys had made such family trips before. If so, I am glad because your Mom supports you all the way, as far as I can tell anyhow, and that means your Mom is awesome. Family is everything.  :)

Well, that's all for tonight, Sweet Baby, just cause I'm really tired this evening. With proper sleep, I will be restored, and then I can expound (or try to) on the hair-splitting fine points of Early Christian Theology, and the Heresy Of Nestorius, who preached that Christ was really just a man who had God inside Him.

Hey, somebody's gotta expound on it.

I Love You. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Great Pics! + Last Film Of Semester + Rick F. Wakeman

Happy Late Night, Sweet Baby,

I hope your day was good. I really like the latest photos you posted on Flickr! Each of the three is different in style and color, great composition in all of them. I love the texture and rusty colors of the junk car parts, and the way they are piled up. Was that taken in Sedona? It seems like the type of thing you'd see in the desert. The sunset there is gorgeous and the hues and mountain lines remind me of our own landscape here in the west Valley. And your shot at the state park is beautiful, with great perspective on the water in the distance and the clouds above it, like a window. Really good stuff!

Was the state park trip a recent visit? I just Googled it, and it says that Wyalusing is on the Mississippi River, so maybe that's the river in your photo.  :)

Tonight we finished up the semester at the CSUN Cinematheque with our final movie in the Tarkovsky Plus series. We saw a Russian film called "Leviathan", which I saw on dvd last year and probably reviewed here at the blog. It is sort of a take on the Story Of Job, in which a man suffers successive troubles, stemming from the corruption of a local Mayor who covets his land. Incredible scenery and cinematography to go with the grim story. Russians generally don't do Cheery when it comes to film, but this one was excellent, and so was the entire series, which began with the seven Tarkovsky pictures and then concluded with works of many other directors who are similar in style to him. Next semester, in the Fall, we will be doing Robert Bresson, who is one of my very favorite directors, so that will be awesome.

Today they announced a tour of a new group of former Yes musicians, comprised of Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin and Rick Wakeman, who will apparently be playing Yes music and other stuff. I am beyond excited for this one, first of all because Yes is one of the Ten Greatest Bands in the History Of Rock Music, and secondly because I never got to see Yes. They are one of the few groups I love who I've never seen live. It's not possible to see the real group anymore because founding member Chris Squire died last year, and all the other original members are split up in different factions, but this new group is the best one I could see because it has two of my favorite members (and two of my favorite musicians of all time, really) - singer Jon Anderson and progressive rock keyboard legend Rick Freaking Wakeman.

I am beyond stoked because I never thought I'd have another chance to see Rick Wakeman.

Back in the 70s, RW was the Pepsi to Keith Emerson's Coca Cola. Or maybe it was the other way around. Whatever, they were thee Two Greatest Keyboardists in The History Of Rock Music, and with Rick Wakeman, he wrote and created a solo album called "The Six Wives Of Henry VIII" when he was only about 24 years old, and it is one of the 50 Greatest Records Ever Made.

I saw Rick Wakeman at the Hollywood Bowl in September 1974. It was my third concert ever. I have not seen him since. So, when I see him with Anderson and Rabin in November, that will be the longest interval between "seeings"  - 42 years! - of any musician I've ever seen. The prior record I believe was Black Sabbath at 36 years (1978 - 2014).

Bottom line - Stoked.

And I am also very excited to see Jon Anderson, the Voice Of Yes, whom I've never seen at all. And he will be 72 when the concert happens........

I hope all projects are coming along well.

I Love You and will see you in the morning.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Sleepless + Hydration + Today's Hike + Alchemy, Bach & Shakespeare

Happy Late Night, my Darling,

I saw your post about not getting enough sleep, so I will assume you are pretty tired tonight, unless you are like me, haha, and not getting enough sleep is a way of life that you are used to. I suppose I actually do get enough sleep most nights, but for me the problem is that I don't get the sleep all at once. Mine is broken up every couple hours, or if I'm lucky every four hours, but I am getting better at falling right back to sleep afterwards.

For you, it's gotta be non-stop editing, am I right?  :)

I am actually doing very well, energy-wise, and I am trying to stick to the No Fun Diet (which is almost impossible to do 100%, so let's say I'm at about 80-85%), and another thing I just re-started and am sticking to this time is to make sure to properly hydrate myself. A few years ago when I started hiking, I made sure to drink my 8 glasses of water per day. But slowly, I slipped away from that because it's so easy to not drink enough water. Most folks only drink when they're thirsty - me included - and if I do it that way (and I was for a while there), then I'm probably only getting about 4 or 5 glasses a day, and for a person who exercises like I do, it's not enough. In fact, now I read that the new recommendations are to drink half your body weight in ounces, so if you weigh 155 like me, that would be 77 1/2 ounces of water, or almost ten glasses. So I am trying to keep up, just by drinking more water before and after walks, and sipping a cup or two at regular intervals throughout the day. And you do notice a difference, in your skin, in your voice, your level of alertness, and how you feel overall.

Today I went out to El Escorpion Park in West Hills, which is the town just south of Chatsworth. Remember that the Valley has something like 30-odd towns, but almost all are part of the City Of Los Angeles. Anyhow, El Escorpion Park is home to the Cave Of Munitz, which I have mentioned before. It's always a nice hike, pretty level and easy, unless you are gonna go into The Cave, which I did not. I just went about a mile and a quarter back into the hills, lots of new growth because of the rains we've had. I did not take photos, though, just because of the reason lately that I've covered a lot of these trails. I always take my camera, though, just in case a good photo presents itself.

This afternoon at 4:30 I took Pearl & Kobe to Lake Balboa, and then this evening I read my books, as always. In my other Dr. Farrell book, "Thrice Great Hermetica", I am reading about the Hermetic influence on art and music during the Renaissance and Enlightenment, and how alchemy played a part in the writing of Shakespeare's plays, for instance, or later on in the counterpoint mathematics of the music of JS Bach. Alchemy was a process of transmutation, most famously of turning base metals into gold through a combination of chemistry and magic. But more than that, alchemy was really an overall process of transmutation, and in the case of art and music the goal was to transmute - or elevate - the human mind, heart and Spirit via the use of exact forms of composition, or words and dramatic situations in the case of Shakespeare.

The idea was that "as above, so below", that everything came down to geometry and harmony and balance on a large and small scale. The Universe, Stars and Planets, is the large scale, and Man is the microcosm, and everything that goes on geometrically and harmonically with the Universe, goes on within Man also. Hence, "as above, so below". So the ancient Hermeticists (followers of Hermes) from ancient Egypt supposedly had a higher knowledge of these things than we do today, and during the 17th and 18th centuries, great musicians, writers and artists were aware of this lost science and knowledge, and wanted to recapture it. So when you have the high art of Shakespeare or Bach, what they are really doing with their work is to try and transmute knowledge of a higher level, or more precisely, to bring down to Earth knowledge that was once known, but since lost, and to bring it down from a celestial level to a human level, through techniques like precise counterpoint or the precision of words employed by Shakespeare.

The point was to go beyond the writing of drama or the composition of music, which in both cases of those men was the highest level of each art form, and to take it further and actually transmute knowledge to people.

Knowledge of what?, you might ask. I think that part is intuited. But when you listen to Bach, or watch or read Shakespeare, you are aware that something of the highest level is taking place, and that it's effect is something even greater than the absorption and appreciation of the art and music itself.

It does something to you, that music and those words, and that's probably because an Alchemical transmutation is taking place in your brain.

That's all I know for tonight. See you in the morning, SB!

I Love You.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Babies + Gotta Sing + Cobain + Filioque

Happy Late Night, Sweet Baby,

I love the picture of the goose leading the officer to her trapped Baby! That is the exact kind of goose I saw at the Wildlife Reserve a couple weeks ago. I think I described it's coloring in my blog for that day. In my case, I discovered the goose babies on my own (the ones in my photo), and I was surprised that Mother Goose didn't chase me away. So maybe they are cool with humans being around their kids, haha, and in the case of trapped Baby in your FB post, I am glad it was rescued.

It is always good when a Baby is rescued.  :):)

I saw another post earlier about a friend of yours who was hiking up in Maine. He was playing air guitar and got caught in the act. I would give the guy some moral support because I am always humming to myself, or whistling, or singing at whatever level I think I can get away with according to my surroundings. In my car, I can actually practice and sing loud, haha. But on hikes, I do it too, though under my breath. We have a gospel song coming up in a couple weeks that is so catchy that I can't stop humming/singing/whistling it. It's called "In That Great, Great Morning", and I was singing it to myself up at Placerita Canyon this afternoon. The trail was mostly empty, but there were a few slower people ahead of me, and whenever I would start to catch up to them, I would adjust my volume accordingly.

It's probably easier with singing because there is no gesturing, as with air guitar.

Now, don't ever try this, but sometimes when you are in the car, you've gotta steer with your knees for a couple seconds, to play air drums, like when "Tom Sawyer" is ending and Neil is doing those famous fills.....

You're probably never gonna ride with me now, so forget I said that. I always have two hands on the wheel at all times.  :)

I had a nice hike at Placerita, and I actually started to go to the Golden Valley Ranch trail which is a couple miles farther down the road. I went there and started to hike, but when I got about a quarter mile in, the trail became overgrown with yellow wildflowers, and it was Bee City, so I went back to Placerita. I am actually pretty good with bees now, so long as they aren't right on top of me. In Placerita, you could hear the slightly unnerving hum of the thousands of bees at work in the canyon, and in places where the canyon narrows, with granite rock on either side, the hum is amplified, and with it, the unnerving feeling. But I am good with bees now, for the most part (no hornets, though, please), and I went for 2.75 miles total. Took no photos, because I have covered the place already, so it is on standby status unless a nice lighting condition is in place.

Finished watching "Montage Of Heck", the Cobain documentary. I wrote about it last week, when I only watched the first half. It's not that great a doc, because you don't get a fix on exactly who the guy was, but the second half of the film is better, and I must say that - even though I was never a big Nirvana fan - that Kurt Cobain was a very talented musician. I would call him a Natural Musician, not technical or trained, but just Born To Play and Sing and write music. It's a shame (of course) that he died so young, but the film shows how good a musician he was, very tight in his playing and singing, and a force of energy. And his music was catchy, which is not easy to do.

Tonight's word for study is "Filioque". Does the Holy Spirit (which used to be called the Holy Ghost) proceed from the Father alone, or does it proceed from both the Father and the Son?

This is a technical argument, too long to go into here, that caused the split in the church back in the 9th century.

I call it hair-splitting, and my own response is that nobody knows.

I believe in God, but I don't know what God is. Same with the Holy Spirit. One can feel things, and have only an innate understanding of them.......but all of that personal interior feeling and understanding is lost when one tries to explain it. But that is dialectics, and it is still fascinating to read about, and I am doing so, because the guys in the 4th century lived very close in time to the life of Christ, which really should be studied more and more from a historical view, if that is possible.

That's all for tonight! Sleep well, and I will see you in the morn.

I Love You.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxo  :):)

Kobi + Echo Chamber = Big Time Barkery + Summa Theologica by Thomas Aquinas + P.S.

Happy Late Night, my Darling,

I'm here with The Kobedog, my new nighttime sidekick. He's been hangin' out late in hope of treats, because I gave him some chips a few nights running, so his doggie brain is now programmed to expect it. But I've gotta wean him off the chips because he is getting fat. But meanwhile, I should start a late night Talk Show, with me as the host and The Kobester as my Ed McMahon. Our first guest will be The Black Kitty. We can ask her about her proclivity for tormenting lizards she finds in the back yard.......  :)

Kobi's new thing is to bark in the laundry room, and I'll explain. The laundry room here at Pearl's is a converted garage that was turned into a large room back in the 60s. My Dad did that at our house, too, which was just around the corner from Pearl's when we lived in Reseda (till 1968). Converting the garage into a room gave the small houses added interior space. At our house, my Dad made the newly converted room into his home office. At Pearl's, they made it a den. Anyway, last Summer, me and Pearl's daughter cleared the room of all furniture and everything else that was in it, so that the room could be remodeled and tiled. It has not been refurnished yet, and is empty except for the washer and dryer, and all the surfaces are hard - no carpet or drapes to absorb sound. Thus, the large empty room is something of an echo chamber.

And The Kobester has discovered this fact. We keep his doggie kibble in there, and he gets excited at mealtime, so lately, when I am in that room putting some kibble in his bowl, he starts barking. And because he's doing it in the Big Empty Hard Surface Room, it's like he's barking in an Echo Chamber through a P.A. System. It's loud and full of reverb, and he takes notice of this effect, and it makes him feel powerful. So he continues barking - one single bark at a time - to make the most of the room's acoustics. There is no doubt he is aware of the sound, and it's a riot I think, so I let him do it for a minute or two while I am preparing his dog food.

He's now 16 1/2 years old, and I figure that I want him to have as much fun as he can for as long as he can, and overall he is doing pretty well, though he can't see where he's going sometimes, which causes him to bump into things, and he walks with some hesitation and a limp. Today, though, I took Pearl to see her foot doctor, and Kobi went on his L.A. River walk like he always does when we go there.

I love the guy. He has a PhD in Goodboyism, as I believe I've mentioned before (and has taught classes in the subject to other dogs as a career sideline)......

I saw your post earlier, via Sarah, a "summary of current affairs", and so I assume you are working on tons of half-finished things or something along those lines, and that you are also still pounding bags of Gummi Worms like they are going out of style.......  :)

I am still reading about - and trying to figure out - the Ordo Theologia - "persons, operations, essence".

The hair-splitting of logic, belief and philosophy (i.e. pondering) was over the top back then, in the 15th and 16th centuries. But the agility of the mind was at a top level. 

One of my future projects is to read the entirety of the Summa Theologica by Thomas Aquinas. I've browsed it before, and the exactitude of thought is at a level that takes a lot of concentration to comprehend.

They had no electronic or other modern technology as we know it back then, though they did have mechanical technology and sophisticated science, but what they did have was a level of thinking and reasoning, that probably surpasses what we have today.

That's all for tonight. See you in the morn, Sweet Baby.

I Love You.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

P.S. I just now see your post of the Mastodon drawing, so if you are drawing too, then that is awesome. I will have to start a new one too (in my abstract way of drawing) because I am trying to do twelve for the year - one per month, and I am on schedule so far with four completed.......

Keep going with everything you are doing.  :):)

Late Sunday Night Love + Geometry

Happy Late Night, Sweet Baby,

I am back at Pearl's, getting settled in. The kitchen radio is tuned to KUSC and all is well. I hope you had a nice day, and also a nice Mother's Day with your Mom. I saw your post a little while ago via your friend Bri, and you know I love the message in that one!  :):)

We had a good morning in church, and good singing. Our director says we are sounding more "musical" each week, and I got a nice compliment from a lady who came up and said "I can hear you all the way in the back row, and I am glad you are in the choir". I hope that means she likes my voice, haha.

The tickets for the Desert Trip concert go on sale tomorrow morning, and it would be amazing to go all three days and have the mega-experience of seeing all six of those legendary acts, especially because all are in their 70s as previously mentioned. I mean, what a concert.

But I just can't do it, because I don't know if I could get all the way out to that location, which is 150 miles away, and considering my schedule if I was working that weekend it would be impossible. Also it's 200 bucks per day or 500 for all three days, i.e. not cheap. So I won't be buying a ticket, even though it'll be hard to watch it sell out as a bystander.

But I am so grateful for what I have already, and all the shows I am fortunate to see.

I trust that your current projects are coming along well, and especially your video for Sarah's band. There should be a lot of activity soon, as the Summer concert season rolls around, and I hope you get to shoot a ton of stuff.

It makes me really happy that you are doing what you love to do, and it comes from everything we talked about during the last few years, just following your dreams (and specifically your inner voice), and believing in yourself and in Your Life, As You See It.

As long as you live, you will live your life that way - As You Envision it. And it will be a good life, an awesome life, because you will also harmonise your desires and feelings with the world around you, and you will project that feeling of harmony outward into the world as you think about it, and thus incorporate it more and more into your everyday life.

That's the Geometry Of Life : Knowing and trusting your Inner Voice, projecting the harmony you receive from it outward into the Universe (and you do that by being on an even keel, emotionally and psychically), and then being alert to, and receiving the immense feeling that comes back to you, from all the various forces you have thought of. You can simply take a walk at night, and look up at the stars, and project at them and connect the dots, so to speak, in a pattern that connects you geometrically to the Universe.

And there is great power in doing so, and it is very real. And in these ways, you always stay connected to The Real You, as a Human Being. Remember that you are never arbitrary, but that you are Here.....

I won't add "for a reason", because we all know that, or at least suspect it, and it's a bit cliche to say, even if true.

What I say instead is that You Are Just Plain And Simply Here.

Contemplate that fact, and combine that contemplation with the certainty of your Inner Voice.

And lastly, have faith in God, and look at the Geometry above you at night, and you will never go wrong. Instead, you will always remain curious and maintain your enthusiasm in all things.

That's all I know for tonight, my Darling. I will see you in the morning.

I Love You.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

JVR in Tarzana + Coyote at Aliso

Happy Super Late Night, Sweet Baby,

I am just getting back from Tarzana, where I went to see your fellow Wisconsonite Jesika Von Rabbit at a place called the Maui Sugar Mill Saloon. Grimsley and I used to go to tons of Gram Rabbit shows from 2006 to 2013 and then JVR's solo shows starting that year, but I hadn't been to a show in a couple years because of my work schedule. Tarzana is just six miles down Reseda Boulevard from me, however, so I was able to make it this time, and I had fun. Grimsley did not wind up going because he has to get up at 6:30 to get ready to deliver flowers for Mother's Day.

At any rate, I had a good 36 hours off. Earlier this evening I went up to Aliso Canyon for a hike. It's nice to go there at twilight time, and you can hear all the frogs start to croak in rhythm as the Sun goes down. I saw my first coyote there, too. He wasn't real big, like a medium-sized dog, and skinny. I thought coyotes were bigger like German Shepherds, and so at first I thought this guy was maybe a fox or something. He was about 50 feet from me, standing warily half hidden in some bushes. But he had that distinctive look, and also I thought "we don't have any foxes around here". So definitely a coyote, maybe a youngster. He was nothing to be afraid of in any case, although I made sure to keep moving on the main trail so as not to agitate him.

Tomorrow morning I am right back at it, so I'd better get to sleep. Church and singing in the morn.

See you after choir practice. I Love You.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

"Night Moves" + Color vs.Grey

Happy Late Night, my Darling,

I'm a little later than usual because I'm at home tonight, which means (as you know) that I instantly revert to my standard hours of operation. Really it's just because when I'm off work, I do more stuff : read more, watch more movies, take more pictures, etc. Tonight I watched another film by director Kelly Reichardt called "Night Moves", about some young environmentalists planning a terrorist action. It was my third film by her in a little over a week, and each one has been excellent and entirely different from the other two. Talk about not repeating yourself....

I don't want to give anything away about "Night Moves", but it's just really, really good. The thing about Reichardt is that she has the sensibility of an Art House indie director, but the technical talent of a big time Hollywood director. I highly recommend all three of the films I've seen so far.

I hope your day was good. I only saw one post, via Steve with the drumsticks, so you are probably still working with those guys. It rained here all afternoon, so the usual Friday trip to Lake Balboa didn't happen, but we did manage to take The 'Ster for a quick walk at The Shady Park, which is just down the street, and is Very Shady indeed, especially on an overcast day.  :)

I forgot to mention that I got my hair cut yesterday, just the usual cut I always get, a little shorter and then it grows back, but the point is that I asked the stylist, "could we maybe do some color next time I come in"? I go in about every ten weeks or so. Five times a year. But she shrugged me off. "No, men don't need color. A little grey is good for men". But the thing is, I'm starting to get A Lot Grey. I mean, it's weird because in the mirror most of my hair still looks dark. But then in the sunlight or in photos, well Holy Smokes. It looks grey!

So what say you? Color or no color? My hair stylist pretty much flat turned me down on a color job. I mean, I don't exactly have a full head of white hair, and I'm absolutely not gonna let that happen, not til I'm 80 anyway. But I still kinda wanna add color soon......

The third time was the charm for Lush tickets. After getting shut out for last week's Roxy show, and also the first Fonda Theater show in September, both of which sold out in (i)1 second - which in complex number theory means they sold out before they even went on sale (which seems ridiculous, and probably is), this morning I was able to get a ticket for the second Fonda show, and so I will finally get to see them 20 years after being a fan.

Well, that's all for tonight. I Love You and will see you in the morning, after a sleep-in.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

"The Turin Horse" + See It + Potatoes + Cinco De Mayo

Happy Late Night, my Darling,

Well, I made it through "The Turin Horse" again. My second viewing in about a year, and this time was of course on a movie screen. As the Professor said to us when it ended, "pat yourselves on the back; you made it"! And that really is the case with this movie. While it is unique (I've seen no other film like it), and while it is beautiful to look at (in a grim way), and while it does draw you in with it's long takes and expressive performances by the two main actors, it is still - in the end - an ordeal to sit through. And I don't mean that in a bad way at all, because for what it is, "The Turin Horse" is a brilliant film. But very little happens in the course of 2 1/2 hours, and what does happen, happens verrrry slowwwly. And as the characters are undergoing an ordeal, you as the viewer are forced, through the style of the movie, to undergo it with them.

To sum up : A unique film, brilliant in it's own way, with exceptional b&w photography. After two viewings, I would call it a "must see", even though you may not like it. I heard some students commenting on the way out, things like "that was even worse than such-and-such".....

The truth is that it's an extremely well conceived film. There is nothing "worse" about it.

It's just an ordeal, is all.

And I still wanna know what's up with the potatoes at dinner. Why doesn't the guy just wait a minute or two for his potato to cool down? Moreover, don't these people possess even one eating utensil? Apparently not. Or his daughter (whom he refers to as "Hey, you"!) could allow the potatoes to cool a bit before serving them. Finally, why does the man only eat a few bites of his potato each time he is served, at different meals? You would think he isn't in a position to waste food. And how does he get through the day on what must amount to about a hundred calories?

An entire film critique could be written just on the Potato Aspect of "The Turin Horse".  :)

I say, "see it at least once". Just rent it, press play, and see how far you can make it. And if you make it all the way through, then "pat yourself on the back" as the Professor said.......  :)

I hope you had a nice Cinco De Mayo. That's what it looked like you might be doing, from the posts I saw. It is a lot of fun to go to a Mexican restaurant on this day and have some great food and a margarita or two.

We used to have a blast going to the Acapulco restaurant next to CSUN back in the 90s, except that I could never keep up with my Dad and the late, great Mr. D. They'd be finishing off their third marg while I was still working on my first, and they liked the traditional ones without all the ice and froth. And they could drink more than three. I paid the price a couple of times trying to emulate them, haha.

For Mexican food (no drinks), you cannot beat our local stand which is called "El Indio". It looks like a place you'd pull into off the roadside, somewhere in Mexico, and the food is incredible. Tacos especially. I ate there all the time in the 80s. Now I am a Big Wimp watching out for my health and on the No Fun Diet.

I think I've gotta eat at El Indio more often, or at least once in a while. I'll probably live longer if I do.

And my first job was at Taco Bell. Destiny, I think.  :)

That's all I know for tonight, Sweet Baby! I have a day and a half off starting tomorrow evening, time for a little relaxation. See you in the morn......

I Love You.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Good Photographic Match Up + Moebius & Roedelius + Sentra + Ordo Theologia

Good Evening, my Darling,

Happy Late Night. I am hangin' with The Kobedog, who decided to stay up late when he saw that I was having some leftover pot roast for a snack. :)

I hope you had a nice day. That was an interesting picture you posted this morning. At first glance I just thought it was one guy, and that you had spliced together two different chromatic images of both sides of his face. I think the main reason I assumed this was because the haircut and hairline matches up perfectly. And the beard almost matches, too (those guys must go to the same barber!). It took a couple of seconds, but then I noticed the eyes, and that's when I knew it was two guys. To paraphrase Johnny Carson, that is some weird, wild stuff, Sweet Baby! Moebius and Roedelius should have had such a promo photo.....

They were an early electronica duo, before there was a name for it. Back then, all German experimental bands, of any style, were lumped into one catagory : "Krautrock". For real! (it wasn't derogatory, though). Moebius and Roedelius had a band called Cluster, and I had one of their albums, "Zuckerzeit", which came out in 1974 and is now considered a classic. Wish I still had the vinyl...

Kraftwerk were the main pioneers for making electronic music popular. "Autobahn" is an all-time classic, and I actually got to see them live at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in 1975.

So yeah - your photo depicts a kind of "mind-meld" of the electronica duo ethos. Good work!  :)

As you may have seen, my car passed the smog test today, so you know I am both very happy and very relieved. Smog Test Stress is up there with the big stressors of life, lol, but somehow my little ol' Nissan Sentra keeps on passing, every two years since 2004, when I first got it. I have had only two cars since 1999, and both have been Nissan Sentras. My first was a 1989 model, which ran like a top until it was totaled by a senior citizen who ran head-on into Mom and I as we sat at a stop light in September 2004. Luckily for us he was only going about 15 or 20 miles an hour. He had become dizzy in the Summer heat and had drifted over the yellow line, and he ran smack into us, nose to nose. No one was hurt but my Sentra, which was smashed beyond repair. But I thought, "I want another one of those". I have never had the dough for a new car, and in L.A. it kind of doesn't matter because as long as you have "a car", you are stylin'. So my first Sentra was a 1989, and in November 2004 (two months after the accident), I found a 1990 Sentra for sale at a dealer. He told me "you are gonna get a lot of miles out of that car", and he was right. 12 years later, I'm still driving it, and I've had mechanics tell me that 1989 and 1990 were the two best years for that model.

You absolutely can't go wrong with Japanese cars, and in my experience - Nissan. As long as you maintain 'em, they will keep on driving.

I am reading my books and trying to understand the Ordo Theologia, "Person, Operations, Essence".

I am not sure how Operations - i.e. Works : as in creation of the Universe - can come before Essence ( the nature of God as "Person"). I would think one's nature or essense would produce the Operations/Works, but that's not how the early Christian philosophers figured it.

Those guys were some serious hair splitters, though I'm sure for good reason.

That's all for tonight, Sweet Baby. I Love You and will see you in the morning. Keep up the good work, as always. 

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Late Night Love + Cobain

Happy Late Night, Sweet Baby,

Tonight's song on FB is in honor of your post (via Sarah) about Gummi Worms, haha. I was born a tad too early to have developed a Gummi addiction, but I can just substitute Jujubees or Dots, or especially Red Hots! I used to pound boxes of those. It's a wonder I have any teeth left.....  :)

But in life, ya gotta have yer candy. That has actually been proven as a scientific fact. I don't know if you were aware of that or not. The only thing still in dispute is what the daily intake should be, but scientists have received major grants for further studies.

Yeah, I'm aware I'm a Knucklehead.  :) But the above is true nonetheless.

You had another post about upcoming shows in Madison, bands that are gonna play there. I say : Go To A Ton Of Shows! You are already the go-to photog for local bands, and now in your second professional year you can really establish yourself. You have an identifiable style, and all you need to do is just keep shooting as much as you can. I hope you are gonna go to the King's X show in June. I believe it's at High Noon Saloon, and I know one of your bands is opening. As I've said, you may or may not like the music, but those guys are legendary and it would be super cool if you got some shots.....  

Tonight's movie was the first half of "Montage Of Heck", last year's acclaimed documentary of the life of Kurt Cobain. I was not a huge fan of Nirvana, but neither did I dislike them. For me, I only knew the songs on the radio, and those songs all kicked ass, but in a raw way that did not draw me in far enough to purchase the albums. Cobain had musical talent, though, both as a songwriter and as a guitarist (however primitive, he sounded like himself), and beyond that, he had Star Quality, at least for the time he came into the music world. So, even though I was not a mega fan of the band, I always followed Kurt as a person, in the news and interviews he did.

He was a born artist, as the documentary makes clear. Much of the footage is of home movies made of him as a child, continuing up to footage shot at local shows before Nirvana became big. So far, the film is okay but not great, which is why I didn't watch it all the way through. I will finish it tomorrow.

I hope you had an awesome day and I will see you in the morning.

I Love You!  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

"Everest" + Love + Kobedogged Out

Happy Late Night, my Darling,

I am happy to see that you had fun this past weekend, working on The Fine Constant video and also at the fashion shoot. In that case, your post via UW a few days ago was meant to signify the University itself, rather than what was in the text, which was the word "flight", and was why I thought you'd gone to Arizona. So there can be several ways to interpret a post, either simply by the source/subject of the post, or by something in the text, or by the imagery in the post (photo or illustration). Usually I get 'em right, though!  :)

Tonight's movie was "Everest", which I think was one of the best adventure films I've ever seen. Part of the reason was that it was very realistic, but it was also due to the emotional component. The 1996 Everest Disaster was a big deal in the news at the time, and I can remember reading about it as it was happening. It was big news because back then, commercial expeditions to the top of Mt. Everest were a relatively new thing. Before that, only professional mountaineers ever climbed it, and you rarely heard about them because Sir Edmund Hillary had already done it.

But when these civilians died in a horrible storm, it was big news. I followed the story in the papers, and then read Jon Krakauer's book, and saw the TV movie that was based on the book, all a long time ago. But this new movie, with a big budget and many name actors in the roles, is really gripping. I have no idea what would prompt someone to want to climb Mt. Everest, because there is a good chance you will die doing it, and even more than that, it's just a forbidding place. I do not see the beauty in it, except from afar. But that's kind of what the movie is about - that there is no reason why they did what they did, other than that they felt compelled to, and there was a professional climbing service available to assist them.

I'll stick to The Slide and Mission Point and Rocky Peak, which are between 1/10 and 1/15 the height of Everest, lol. And at angles no greater than 45 degrees, and with no ice falls or crevasses........

Although it was in the news that some guy got lost or stuck up near Rocky Peak for two days over the weekend. He must have screwed up and gone off the trail, because it's pretty hard to get lost in the local hiking areas, simply because all of them are within a couple miles of civilisation, even if you go way back into Rice Canyon, for instance, you are still just two or three miles from the highway. Probably what this guy did at Rocky Peak was to go off the trail and then get himself into a jam he could not get out of, because you can get stuck on a precipice that way, with a long drop down. That's why I don't even do "skinny trails" or "double drop off trails" (skinny trails that crest a mountaintop with a drop on both sides), as I have noted before, and I never ever wander too far off a trail, because of what can happen.

But yeah, wow what a movie.

Gave the Kobedog a bath today, in the kitchen sink here at Pearl's. Man did he ever hate it! He struggles like crazy every time I give him a bath. But right now he is lying down next to me as I write, and he is All Kobedogged Out, very calm and collected. His fur is very white now, and because he is on the chubby side, he looks like a miniature Polar Bear.

That's all for tonight, Sweet Baby. I saw the No Face "Spirited Away" post too. Loved it!

I Love You, too. See you in the morning.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Happy Sunday Night + Love + Depp + Hermeticism & Shakespeare

Happy Late Night, Sweet Baby,

I am glad to see you back! Today I see that you were working on a video, presumably, as Sarah and Steve's posts seem to indicate. That would mean that you are not in Arizona as I guessed yesterday, but it's all good as they say, because you are Doing What You Do.  :) I like the "gauzy" look of the diffused white light in the stills S & S posted. Dunno if that look is part of the video, but it's a neat effect I think.

Good singing in church this morn & worked on new stuff at practice. During the past week I was Youtubing videos of "how to hit a High C". I can do it, but not yet as smoothly as I would like in a rising progression of the scale. The hard part is to transition from "chest voice" to "head voice", which you probably know the meaning of, having been in a choir yourself.

Tonight's movie was "Black Mass". Really good, like the old Mafia movies of Scorsese, and even better than "The Departed", which was also about Whitey Bulger but had that horrible song playing over the closing credits.......

You know which song I mean.......  ( *cough* - "Shipping Up To Boston" - *cough*)

But even if you took away the song, "Black Mass" is better because of the cast, and specifically Johnny Depp, who really conveys the iciness and unpredictable nature of a psychopath like Bulger. It's not quite a lead role in the sense of him being in every scene, because he isn't - it's an ensemble cast and Joel Edgerton (from "The Gift") is also a featured performer - but Depp still gives one of the greatest performances in the history of crime movies, and I'd really like to see him show more of his acting chops in realistic films. He has mostly played fantasy characters, but in this role he is very real and scary. "Black Mass" is a great movie, but not for the squeamish of course.

I am reading about the influence of Hermeticism in Shakespeare's plays (in the Joe Farrell book). Much has been speculated about the true authorship of those works, which according to many scholars, including Dr. Joe, exhibit clues of Hermetic influence and philosophy. Even the design of the Old Globe Theater was supposedly drawn and constructed according to geometric and astrological/astromonical principles that would reflect the mathematics of The Universe literally and in the physical sense (which is why it was called The Old Globe), and thus when the actors would play on stage, the result - as per the Hermetic influence - would be an acting out, dramatically and physically (due to the mathematics invloved in the theater's construction), of the magical directives of Hermeticism, which strove to ascend the Ladder of Creation, or Being........from Matter to Spirit to Essence (nothingness).

This is the influence of the Renaissance, which was centered on Magical Thought, and which also had a focus on High Mathematics and Astronomy and Astrology. Also there was a strong focus on God and how to attain that Height, in the spacial context of the physical Universe. The idea back then, was that The Ladder could be ascended, literally (that a person could become pure spirit while still In Body), through the art forms of theater as combined with mathematics-of-design, and of incidentals like voice resonance throughout the venue, and the acting out of the play itself, with all of it's Shakespearean dialogue and metaphor.

Shakespeare said "The Play's The Thing" and in those days the artists (or alchemists) wished to attain Heights of a Universal nature, and they did it through highly focused knowledge of the human mind.

I think it's similar to the smooth transition between "chest voice", which is very physical, and "head voice", which is higher and ethereal.

How do you transition from being human to a higher, or The Highest Plane? Or better yet, how do you live in both places simultaneously, while you are here on Earth, in your physical body?

That is what the Hermeticists wanted to know : how to bring Heaven down here to Earth and to live in the physical and Spiritual at once, and next to God, thus completing the Trinity.

It's mindblowing stuff, the height of Renaissance influence, the culture of Magical Science.

That's all I know for tonight.

I Love You!  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Happy Saturday + The Return Of Sweet Babyism? + Vin Scully + "Wendy And Lucy".

Happy Late Night, my Darling,

Today I did see two posts by you, one having to do with people getting ready for "a flight", so I thought maybe that meant you were going on one yourself, perhaps back to Arizona. Didn't you still have some work to finish there, on the film with your friend Katie? Well anyhow, just a guess about the "flight" post.  :)

But I also saw the pic of James getting ready to attend a wedding, and just now I see another pic in that vein, of a gal holding up a bridal bouquet, so..........maybe that means that Sweet Babyism is back? I hope so! I have been wandering around in the dark for a while, not sure what has been going on - I mean, I know you've been working on various projects, but then I wasn't sure if you were in a dry spell, clientwise, or just not wanting to post anymore. But maybe these posts today (and just now) signify something.  :):)

If true, then that is great news!

I had a nice day, just a regular Shopping Saturday with my sister Vickie, who has been coming over again on a regular basis. Then this afternoon at 4:30 I took The Crew to Lake Balboa. It was a warm day, the Sun shimmered on the water as described from previous trips, and the park was full of people, dogs and birds as always. A flock of about ten Canada Geese came strutting right in front of the car as we were getting ready to leave, like "yeah, we own the joint, thanks for visiting".

I am making a point of listening to Dodger games this year, at home, at Pearl's or in the car, because this is the final year that Vin Scully, our legendary Dodger broadcaster, will be calling games. He has been the announcer for the team for 67 years, since 1950, when they were still located in Brooklyn.

Who does anything for 67 years? I have never heard of anyone's career, in any profession, lasting that long. Vin is now 88 years old, and will be 89 on November 29, so he is a fellow Sag. I have been a Dodger fan since I was five, and so Vin Scully has been with me pretty much my whole life, and the amazing thing is that his voice sounds more or less the same as it did in the 1960s. But he is going to finally retire after this season, so I am listening to the games whenever I can. Grimsley has actually gotten to meet him twice, when he delivered flowers to Scully's house in Holmby Hills, a very wealthy area between The Valley and Malibu. He said Vin Scully answered the door himself, no butler or aide. He is really the King Of Los Angeles if there is such a thing.......

Tonight I watched another film by the director Kelly Reichardt ("Meek's Cutoff"), because I was impressed with her style despite that film's ending. This one was called "Wendy And Lucy", and I found it at The Libe, as usual. "Wendy And Lucy" got a fair amount of publicity when it came out in 2008, and it's the story of a young woman on the verge of homelessness, and her dog Lucy (who is all she's got in the world besides a broken down car and a few hundred bucks). The film is once again expertly shot and paced, and acted by Michelle Williams. It is a heartbreaking story but also one of courage. This director is one to watch, I have seen two of her films now and both were riveting.

Tomorrow morn, Church and singing.

I am super happy that you posted today, and tonight! Whatever the state of your projects may be, I trust that they are coming along well. One thing I am certain of is that if you've got work, that you are nailing it.....

That's all I know for tonight, Sweet Baby. I will see you in the morning......

I Love You.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)