Happy Late Saturday Night, Sweet Baby,
Another routine workday for me, with nothing extraneous to report, but at least the wind has stopped. It's been a hike-less week due to the wind, and the plumbers coming over for three straight days, but next week I hope to get started again. I hope your day was good, and that all projects are coming along well as always. I urge you in the strongest possible terms (terms that are pumping iron, haha) to continue writing music at every opportunity you have. Your music has honest feeling from within, and you are doing something different. So, explore and contemplate what you are feeling when you compose, and listen to your muse. You have your own thing happening, so compose at every opportunity (when you are not working I mean).
Or, just consider composition as part of your work, with yourself as your own client.
End of Drill Sergeant routine for now. Remember when I first became your Drill Sergeant? Back in 2012? :) "Do this!....Do that"! ("aww, c'mon Ad.....stop already").
Now I am just an occasional Drill Sergeant, but tonight I am on duty. :)
Today I went to the produce market and got my first bunch of dandelion greens. Oh Boy! - what I used to pull out of the ground as a weed, I am now buying in a professionally grown bundle, and I can't wait to try 'em! They are supposed to be really good for you with all kinds of vitamins and enzimes and stuff. I have been getting into greens in recent years, and have tried collard greens (really good) and red & green chard (yum) and kale (yeah I know, everybody hates it. Not spectacular but.....I'll eat it), and my latest favorite : Mustard Greens! And because you asked, yes, they do taste just a bit like mustard.
Man, are Mustard Greens good, and I am not even kidding you.
I was gonna get some more today, but they didn't have any. But they did have huge bunches of Dandelion Greens, so I thought "well, chalk another one up" and bought some. Still gotta try Turnip Greens, too.
Tonight's movie was called "Escape" (1940), starring ultra-handsome Robert Taylor as a man who has traveled from America to Nazi Germany to try and find his mother, an actress and German citizen who has been arrested on a trivial charge of selling her house without permission. This story is jam packed with plot and intrigue, as Taylor hits roadblock after roadblock in trying to find his mother, until he meets an expatriate American "Countess", played by the legendary Norma Shearer, who lives in luxury though imprisoned by her relationship to a German Army General played by Conrad Veidt, of "Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari" fame.
There is so much going on in this film, and it doesn't let up for a minute. It has one of the best depictions of the constant Nazi suspicion and interrogation that was ever present at the time and had to be endured by anyone who was not part of the machinery. It is interesting that "Escape" was released in 1940, a year before America was in the war, and in the film Robert Taylor as the American is able to get away with walking around freely and even becoming involved with the General's girlfriend (Shearer). Perhaps the Germans were still wary of messing with the Americans at the time, or at least it was depicted that way.
Well anyhow, a great movie, and once again a movie I had not known about. Good thing I did a Mervyn Leroy search in the Library database. He was the director of "Escape" and a whole host of assorted films in all kinds of genres, including parts of "The Wizard Of Oz" which had several directors. He was what you would call a Hollywood craftsman, a director who could work in any style, within the studio system of the time.
Well that's all for tonight! Tomorrow's anthem is a fairly easy one (though with offsetting vocal parts) called "Thou Shalt Love", based on the Two Commandments Of Christ.
See you in the morning. I Love You. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Sunday, April 30, 2017
Saturday, April 29, 2017
Happy Friday + Still Windy + CIA 1989 + Ritchie's Thoughts
Happy Late Night, my Darling,
I hope you had a good day and a nice Friday night. We continued to experience the strong winds for the fifth straight day, and a beautiful bottlebrush tree in Pearl's backyard blew over. It has been there since the 1950s. It is sagging against the roof but not totally broken in the trunk, so maybe it can be propped up and saved. I sure hope so, and I hope this godawful wind condition will end soon. We've never had anything like this in April, not that I can remember, but then you never know what you are gonna get nowdays.
It was a routine day yet again because of the wind. No hike, no going to the park. But I'll be right back at it as soon as possible.
I have been reading my book called "A Terrible Mistake" about the CIA influenced death of an Army scientist named Frank Olson in the 1950s, and it is blowing my mind. The book is 750 pages, so I have to read every day to avoid not finishing by the library due date, and also to remain absorbed in the complex story line. The main thing is that people simply would be stunned to discover what their government was up to at that time (and no doubt still is) in the guise of National Security. The CIA conducted clandestine LSD experiments on unsuspecting people, and did all kinds of horrible things which are too detailed to describe here. We have talked about Trump being a monster; these people were even worse.
But what has me especially interested is a section in the book about something called Project Artichoke, which began around 1953. One of the goals of Project Artichoke was to discover or create an "amnesia drug" to be used on people who were subjected to the CIA's various experiments and psychological operations, so that any particular subject would not remember what had happened to him. The development of this amnesia-inducing drug was given a high priority, as was the use of hypnosis, for the same reason of inducing amnesia and also to implant ideas and instructions in certain persons' heads.
While I am 100% certain I am not a Manchurian Candidate or a victim of any type of severe conditioning experiment as detailed in this book, it is nevertheless a fact that I was both hypnotised and given a shot of some kind of drug in order to induce amnesia in me with regards to what happened in 1989.
That's just the straight up plain truth. And those tactics - to cause a person to have no memory of a very significant event in the person's life - are taken straight out of the Project Artichoke playbook from 1953.
So I have wondered if the CIA was involved in What Happened In Northridge. It happened in 1989, when George Bush the First was President. He was the director of the CIA in 1976 and has had lifelong intelligence connections. And it involved Bill Clinton, who has been rumored to have CIA connections since his days at Oxford, and who more importantly has close ties to the Bush family.
It's all very complex, SB, and just reading it here on a computer screen can make it seem nutty and Just One More Conspiracy Theory, though it is anything but. It is the Most Real Thing In The World, the biggest secret in America, what happened in 1989. And one day it will be known.
But for today, I was just interested and astounded to read about Project Artichoke. You'd think we were living in the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany for what these devils did to people. If you ever wonder why I do not worship at The God Of Science, this is one major reason. People split atoms, build nuclear weapons and do all kinds of horrible things in the name of science. And in the CIA, they also conduct experiments.
Sorry to subject you to such a tale, but at any rate, it is all part of my ongoing quest for the Truth.
For an interesting look into the way I think about things, you can listen to the words of Ritchie Blackmore in the video I posted this morning. In it, he talks about the importance of listening to the world around you versus always being verbose and voicing opinions on everything. Ritchie has his Mars in Pisces like me, which makes you naturally introverted, and the way he articulates his thoughts in that video are similar to what I might say when I talk about trying to "get a glimpse" of something that cannot be described. If you recall, I used to talk about that many years ago when I was reading the Oswald Spengler masterpiece "The Decline Of The West". Because we have a stream-of consciousness always moving rapidly through our minds, it is important to try and pay attention to it rather than always distracting ourselves. Of course, distraction (i.e. having fun) is a huge and important part of life too, but so is listening to that inner stream, and slowing it down so that we can make sense of the many "glimpses" it is offering us.
Well, that's all I know for tonight. And I agree with Sarah and Homer Simpson : "Yeah, man.....I've seen Ten Bands.......I must be beyond cool". Or just distracted by memes.
See you in the morn. I Love You. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
I hope you had a good day and a nice Friday night. We continued to experience the strong winds for the fifth straight day, and a beautiful bottlebrush tree in Pearl's backyard blew over. It has been there since the 1950s. It is sagging against the roof but not totally broken in the trunk, so maybe it can be propped up and saved. I sure hope so, and I hope this godawful wind condition will end soon. We've never had anything like this in April, not that I can remember, but then you never know what you are gonna get nowdays.
It was a routine day yet again because of the wind. No hike, no going to the park. But I'll be right back at it as soon as possible.
I have been reading my book called "A Terrible Mistake" about the CIA influenced death of an Army scientist named Frank Olson in the 1950s, and it is blowing my mind. The book is 750 pages, so I have to read every day to avoid not finishing by the library due date, and also to remain absorbed in the complex story line. The main thing is that people simply would be stunned to discover what their government was up to at that time (and no doubt still is) in the guise of National Security. The CIA conducted clandestine LSD experiments on unsuspecting people, and did all kinds of horrible things which are too detailed to describe here. We have talked about Trump being a monster; these people were even worse.
But what has me especially interested is a section in the book about something called Project Artichoke, which began around 1953. One of the goals of Project Artichoke was to discover or create an "amnesia drug" to be used on people who were subjected to the CIA's various experiments and psychological operations, so that any particular subject would not remember what had happened to him. The development of this amnesia-inducing drug was given a high priority, as was the use of hypnosis, for the same reason of inducing amnesia and also to implant ideas and instructions in certain persons' heads.
While I am 100% certain I am not a Manchurian Candidate or a victim of any type of severe conditioning experiment as detailed in this book, it is nevertheless a fact that I was both hypnotised and given a shot of some kind of drug in order to induce amnesia in me with regards to what happened in 1989.
That's just the straight up plain truth. And those tactics - to cause a person to have no memory of a very significant event in the person's life - are taken straight out of the Project Artichoke playbook from 1953.
So I have wondered if the CIA was involved in What Happened In Northridge. It happened in 1989, when George Bush the First was President. He was the director of the CIA in 1976 and has had lifelong intelligence connections. And it involved Bill Clinton, who has been rumored to have CIA connections since his days at Oxford, and who more importantly has close ties to the Bush family.
It's all very complex, SB, and just reading it here on a computer screen can make it seem nutty and Just One More Conspiracy Theory, though it is anything but. It is the Most Real Thing In The World, the biggest secret in America, what happened in 1989. And one day it will be known.
But for today, I was just interested and astounded to read about Project Artichoke. You'd think we were living in the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany for what these devils did to people. If you ever wonder why I do not worship at The God Of Science, this is one major reason. People split atoms, build nuclear weapons and do all kinds of horrible things in the name of science. And in the CIA, they also conduct experiments.
Sorry to subject you to such a tale, but at any rate, it is all part of my ongoing quest for the Truth.
For an interesting look into the way I think about things, you can listen to the words of Ritchie Blackmore in the video I posted this morning. In it, he talks about the importance of listening to the world around you versus always being verbose and voicing opinions on everything. Ritchie has his Mars in Pisces like me, which makes you naturally introverted, and the way he articulates his thoughts in that video are similar to what I might say when I talk about trying to "get a glimpse" of something that cannot be described. If you recall, I used to talk about that many years ago when I was reading the Oswald Spengler masterpiece "The Decline Of The West". Because we have a stream-of consciousness always moving rapidly through our minds, it is important to try and pay attention to it rather than always distracting ourselves. Of course, distraction (i.e. having fun) is a huge and important part of life too, but so is listening to that inner stream, and slowing it down so that we can make sense of the many "glimpses" it is offering us.
Well, that's all I know for tonight. And I agree with Sarah and Homer Simpson : "Yeah, man.....I've seen Ten Bands.......I must be beyond cool". Or just distracted by memes.
See you in the morn. I Love You. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Friday, April 28, 2017
Self-Portrait + "Opening Night" + FB Memes + Gale Force Bugs Me
Happy Late Thursday Night, Sweet Baby,
I hope your day was good as always. My main activity this afternoon was getting my hair cut during Pearl's usual appointment. She cut it a bit shorter than usual, but I like it, hence the selfie I posted. I liked your selfie this morning, although in your case it should always be referred to as a Self Portrait. :) You specified the location, i.e. Absolute Middle Of Nowhere, but you did not tell what that brick building is. It's really cool, and I think of it as an icehouse for some reason, though it's probably something else. And when you say "drive to the absolute middle of nowhere", do you mean like more than a hundred miles? I ask because I have always remarked on the perceptive driving differences between SoCal folks and Midwesterners. I first noticed this when guys at the KX board would talk about driving 200 miles to see King's X or some other band, like it was no big deal. And then I would chime in and say, "to us, even driving 50 miles is a big deal", to see a band or otherwise. I think it's because of the traffic, which makes driving no fun. But when we went to see the poppy reserve two weeks ago, we took old country roads instead of the freeway. That drive was about 50 miles, and it was awesome : no cars, no buildings, just the road and the sights. It makes the miles go by quicker. Well anyhow, I like the old brick structure in your photo. :)
One of these days I've gotta do a desert drive and look for similarly cool spots.
Tonight's movie at CSUN was "Opening Night" by John Cassavetes. It is the story of a theater actress who begins to suffer a nervous breakdown (typical Cassavetes) after witnessing the death of one of her fans in a traffic accident right after a show. She is already an alcoholic to begin with (typical Cassavetes) and has issues with playing an older woman in the play she is starring in, even though she is not young herself.
This movie has a lot of great things going for it, especially the Live Theater premise, in which the movie becomes a play-within-a-movie and goes back and forth in that manner. The staging of all of that feels like you are right there watching a play, and yet you are watching a movie, and because it's Cassavetes it all feels like you are watching real life to begin with, and not a movie or play on a screen. You also get Gena Rowlands (from Madison, WI) in yet another bravura performance, as she goes through the torment of guilt feelings of the fan's death, and also internalizes her as a memory of her younger self, which is a weapon against the aging character she plays on stage. She does not like getting older and does not like being in a play about such, and so the deceased young fan becomes an inner alter-ego to fight back against it all.
It's all Extremely John Cassavetes, meaning it is full of psychological/emotional examination of human motivations. It's not as chaotic as some of his earlier films, and the theater aspect looks great onscreen.
This film would have been a classic but for one thing : it's too doggone long. 2 hours 27 minutes.
It should have been about 45 minutes shorter, or at least a half hour shorter. Then he would have had a great film. But it was still very good, and I think Gena Rowlands should be recognized as a very great actress. She is phenomenal in all of these films by her husband.
Well, that's all I know for tonight. I also saw your post about the "Ten Bands I've Seen" meme on FB, with Batman smacking Robin. Haha, I felt the same way - and you know I generally never participate in Let's All Join In type stuff on Facebook, but I did last night just because I got an idea to do it backwards; to list one band I've seen, and nine lies. So I did mine to be contrary, because it was bugging me too, lol. And so I picked one band that I figured most of my friends would never guess I had seen, The Bay City Rollers, who were a huge Teenybopper band in the 1970s. Ono remembered, though, and Mike B. would have known anyway because I went with him. But yeah, I generally agree with your post about all FB memes.
We are still having this humid and gross Monsoon weather here, with the never-ceasing Gale Force winds. I hate wind so much that I'd rather have pouring rain and even freezing cold. Wind is my worst weather condition of all; for some reason it just makes me very uncomfortable. Hopefully it will stop soon.
See you in the morning. I Love You. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
I hope your day was good as always. My main activity this afternoon was getting my hair cut during Pearl's usual appointment. She cut it a bit shorter than usual, but I like it, hence the selfie I posted. I liked your selfie this morning, although in your case it should always be referred to as a Self Portrait. :) You specified the location, i.e. Absolute Middle Of Nowhere, but you did not tell what that brick building is. It's really cool, and I think of it as an icehouse for some reason, though it's probably something else. And when you say "drive to the absolute middle of nowhere", do you mean like more than a hundred miles? I ask because I have always remarked on the perceptive driving differences between SoCal folks and Midwesterners. I first noticed this when guys at the KX board would talk about driving 200 miles to see King's X or some other band, like it was no big deal. And then I would chime in and say, "to us, even driving 50 miles is a big deal", to see a band or otherwise. I think it's because of the traffic, which makes driving no fun. But when we went to see the poppy reserve two weeks ago, we took old country roads instead of the freeway. That drive was about 50 miles, and it was awesome : no cars, no buildings, just the road and the sights. It makes the miles go by quicker. Well anyhow, I like the old brick structure in your photo. :)
One of these days I've gotta do a desert drive and look for similarly cool spots.
Tonight's movie at CSUN was "Opening Night" by John Cassavetes. It is the story of a theater actress who begins to suffer a nervous breakdown (typical Cassavetes) after witnessing the death of one of her fans in a traffic accident right after a show. She is already an alcoholic to begin with (typical Cassavetes) and has issues with playing an older woman in the play she is starring in, even though she is not young herself.
This movie has a lot of great things going for it, especially the Live Theater premise, in which the movie becomes a play-within-a-movie and goes back and forth in that manner. The staging of all of that feels like you are right there watching a play, and yet you are watching a movie, and because it's Cassavetes it all feels like you are watching real life to begin with, and not a movie or play on a screen. You also get Gena Rowlands (from Madison, WI) in yet another bravura performance, as she goes through the torment of guilt feelings of the fan's death, and also internalizes her as a memory of her younger self, which is a weapon against the aging character she plays on stage. She does not like getting older and does not like being in a play about such, and so the deceased young fan becomes an inner alter-ego to fight back against it all.
It's all Extremely John Cassavetes, meaning it is full of psychological/emotional examination of human motivations. It's not as chaotic as some of his earlier films, and the theater aspect looks great onscreen.
This film would have been a classic but for one thing : it's too doggone long. 2 hours 27 minutes.
It should have been about 45 minutes shorter, or at least a half hour shorter. Then he would have had a great film. But it was still very good, and I think Gena Rowlands should be recognized as a very great actress. She is phenomenal in all of these films by her husband.
Well, that's all I know for tonight. I also saw your post about the "Ten Bands I've Seen" meme on FB, with Batman smacking Robin. Haha, I felt the same way - and you know I generally never participate in Let's All Join In type stuff on Facebook, but I did last night just because I got an idea to do it backwards; to list one band I've seen, and nine lies. So I did mine to be contrary, because it was bugging me too, lol. And so I picked one band that I figured most of my friends would never guess I had seen, The Bay City Rollers, who were a huge Teenybopper band in the 1970s. Ono remembered, though, and Mike B. would have known anyway because I went with him. But yeah, I generally agree with your post about all FB memes.
We are still having this humid and gross Monsoon weather here, with the never-ceasing Gale Force winds. I hate wind so much that I'd rather have pouring rain and even freezing cold. Wind is my worst weather condition of all; for some reason it just makes me very uncomfortable. Hopefully it will stop soon.
See you in the morning. I Love You. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Thursday, April 27, 2017
Not Much To Report + Recording Music? + Trump Is Pure Evil
Happy Late Night, Sweet Baby,
I hope you had a nice day, today and yesterday. I've been hanging around here at Pearl's for the past two afternoons, waiting for the plumber to finish fixing the pipes in the front yard, so I have nothing to report other than that. I have been able to squeeze in an hour or so at home each day, just enough time for some R&R (rest & reading), but not enough for hikes or photography. I will get back to it soon, hopefully Friday. Tomorrow I am going to the hair salon with Pearl, cause I am overdue for a haircut. :)
I've seen just a couple posts since Monday, both having to do with recording music. One was via James and Versus Me, and the other was from Drewsif Stalin. I had thought he was just a regular FB person but now I see he is a musician who is touring England. Not too shabby. :) At any rate, since you posted twice about recording music, from two different musicians, I figure you mean it for yourself - that you are recording new stuff. If so, that is fantastic, because it keeps the musical energy flowing, from the release of your album into new composition. But even if it was just regular FB "likes" for those musicians, that is great too. Versus Me, besides being your friends are a great client for you. Is Drewsif Stalin a client, too?
Well, that's basically all for today. One other thing - you know I don't like to get political in this divisive day and age, but this story with Trump today, about him wanting to decommission or declassify certain National Monuments, including several in California, makes me so mad I could spit. What kind of person could propose to tear up the incredibly beautiful and Godlike places that have been protected as National Monuments, just so the dirty rotten evil land developers can have their way?
This guy Trump is a Monster, plain and simple. He's not just a politician that sucks. He's Grade A Evil, and he has got to be stopped. God will stop him before he can tear that land up.
Well, that's all I will say. We will be rid of this jerk soon. I hate politics and I detest evil.
Keep recording music. I Love You and will see you in the morning. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
I hope you had a nice day, today and yesterday. I've been hanging around here at Pearl's for the past two afternoons, waiting for the plumber to finish fixing the pipes in the front yard, so I have nothing to report other than that. I have been able to squeeze in an hour or so at home each day, just enough time for some R&R (rest & reading), but not enough for hikes or photography. I will get back to it soon, hopefully Friday. Tomorrow I am going to the hair salon with Pearl, cause I am overdue for a haircut. :)
I've seen just a couple posts since Monday, both having to do with recording music. One was via James and Versus Me, and the other was from Drewsif Stalin. I had thought he was just a regular FB person but now I see he is a musician who is touring England. Not too shabby. :) At any rate, since you posted twice about recording music, from two different musicians, I figure you mean it for yourself - that you are recording new stuff. If so, that is fantastic, because it keeps the musical energy flowing, from the release of your album into new composition. But even if it was just regular FB "likes" for those musicians, that is great too. Versus Me, besides being your friends are a great client for you. Is Drewsif Stalin a client, too?
Well, that's basically all for today. One other thing - you know I don't like to get political in this divisive day and age, but this story with Trump today, about him wanting to decommission or declassify certain National Monuments, including several in California, makes me so mad I could spit. What kind of person could propose to tear up the incredibly beautiful and Godlike places that have been protected as National Monuments, just so the dirty rotten evil land developers can have their way?
This guy Trump is a Monster, plain and simple. He's not just a politician that sucks. He's Grade A Evil, and he has got to be stopped. God will stop him before he can tear that land up.
Well, that's all I will say. We will be rid of this jerk soon. I hate politics and I detest evil.
Keep recording music. I Love You and will see you in the morning. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Tuesday, April 25, 2017
Chiaroscuro + Unique Style + Gale Force
Happy Late Night, Sweet Baby,
I hope you had a good day. I liked the photo (or video still?) you posted this morning of Anna. The shadows on her face, neck and shoulder add a bit of chiaroscuro effect. That's a word I learned from Professor Tim at the CSUN Cinematheque. It is used to describe the "light & shadow" photography most often seen in Film Noir, where shadows are used to create patterns. Normally I don't like a lot of obscure film theory language because it is often very pretentious, but "chiaroscuro" I do like because it sounds like what it is, like a visual form of onomatopoeia, another totally pretentious word, lol. But with chiaroscuro, it sounds like "charcoal", and shadow patterns can have a "charcoally" effect.
"Man, that was a long way to go to make your point, Ad".
"Yeah, I know. But I had to do it because I wanted to say 'chiaroscuro' ". :)
You had a self-portrait from a couple of years ago in which there was a lace-pattern covering your face. That one was totally chiaroscuro! Okay, now I'll stop saying it.
I also notice a slight vortex, or circular, pattern in the background of the Anna photo, and I wonder if you used a filter for that, or an app, because it's not just shallow depth-of-field. However you did it, it looks cool!
Not much to report from my end today. Pearl had a doctor's appointment in the middle of the afternoon which precluded other activity. It was just a checkup and she is doing well, blood pressure probably lower than mine, haha.
I saw a post via James, about getting ready to record, or "doing some recording" and I wondered if perhaps you meant that you were doing some too. Are you still learning your new viola? You have got something unique here, because no one else (or at least very few in your age group) is making original music for a solo instrument, and especially piano, and also just as a singular instrument.
Few people are making non-rock/pop/techno oriented music and going their own way as you are, so again you have got something unique happening. Just so you know that, which I am sure you do. :)
Gale force winds are gathering force outside as I write, and are predicted to be blowing through The Northern Ridge for the next few days. That is of course Joyous News for me, as there is nothing I love as much as a constant windstorm (oy).
But I will hope for the best and try to get a hike in by Wednesday, and maybe some photos of my own, and some Chiaroscuro as well. There, I got it in one last time!
See you in the morning, SB. I Love You. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
I hope you had a good day. I liked the photo (or video still?) you posted this morning of Anna. The shadows on her face, neck and shoulder add a bit of chiaroscuro effect. That's a word I learned from Professor Tim at the CSUN Cinematheque. It is used to describe the "light & shadow" photography most often seen in Film Noir, where shadows are used to create patterns. Normally I don't like a lot of obscure film theory language because it is often very pretentious, but "chiaroscuro" I do like because it sounds like what it is, like a visual form of onomatopoeia, another totally pretentious word, lol. But with chiaroscuro, it sounds like "charcoal", and shadow patterns can have a "charcoally" effect.
"Man, that was a long way to go to make your point, Ad".
"Yeah, I know. But I had to do it because I wanted to say 'chiaroscuro' ". :)
You had a self-portrait from a couple of years ago in which there was a lace-pattern covering your face. That one was totally chiaroscuro! Okay, now I'll stop saying it.
I also notice a slight vortex, or circular, pattern in the background of the Anna photo, and I wonder if you used a filter for that, or an app, because it's not just shallow depth-of-field. However you did it, it looks cool!
Not much to report from my end today. Pearl had a doctor's appointment in the middle of the afternoon which precluded other activity. It was just a checkup and she is doing well, blood pressure probably lower than mine, haha.
I saw a post via James, about getting ready to record, or "doing some recording" and I wondered if perhaps you meant that you were doing some too. Are you still learning your new viola? You have got something unique here, because no one else (or at least very few in your age group) is making original music for a solo instrument, and especially piano, and also just as a singular instrument.
Few people are making non-rock/pop/techno oriented music and going their own way as you are, so again you have got something unique happening. Just so you know that, which I am sure you do. :)
Gale force winds are gathering force outside as I write, and are predicted to be blowing through The Northern Ridge for the next few days. That is of course Joyous News for me, as there is nothing I love as much as a constant windstorm (oy).
But I will hope for the best and try to get a hike in by Wednesday, and maybe some photos of my own, and some Chiaroscuro as well. There, I got it in one last time!
See you in the morning, SB. I Love You. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Monday, April 24, 2017
Happy Busy Sunday + Yardwork + Neatfreak + Era Of Gadgetry + El Indio
Happy Late Sunday Night, my Darling,
I hope you had a nice day and a good weekend. I am tired tonight cause I've been going since 8am this morning. We had a very simple anthem to sing today, called "Alleluia", in which there was only a single repeated lyric. I'm sure you can guess what it was. :) Still a beautiful song, though I prefer the more challenging material. In that regard, we had a good rehearsal of upcoming tunes, one of which - "My Song In The Night" - fits the description of "challenging" due to it's offset vocal lines and counterpoint melodies.
After church I drove out to Burbank to take my sister Sophie shopping, then after a short stop at home I was back here at Pearl's for my evening shift. Tonight I will sleep like a rock, lol.
I saw your post about your friend Jake's birthday bash concert, so I'm sure you will be going to that and shooting pix. I saw the post via Joel W., too, about getting physical exercise. Of course I couldn't agree more. I might disagree about the yardwork part though, haha. When we lived at the Rathburn Street house I was the only one who ever did any yardwork. It was all up to me, if it was gonna get done. And we had a big yard, front and back, so in the Fall I'd be raking about a dozen bags of leaves. No leaf blowers in those days,
In one respect I always hated yardwork, just because it wasn't something fun or something I wanted to do. But as I got into the routine of doing it, I would kind of get into a rhythm of putting leaves into bags, and making everything looks as neat as possible. That's the Neatfreak in me. But that's how I would get a measure of satisfaction out of a chore, by completing it to a standard of neatness that looked good to me, in a Feng Shui manner. Whenever I had any kind of chores to do, I would always do them methodically, step by step, to go through the process of doing them. My goal was always to make things look neat, a result of my Dad's "Military Style" training of me as a kid. :)
I agree with Joel's assessment of people sitting at computers for 12 hours a day, and the thing is this : Even though people think that is Normal Life nowdays, it isn't. And the reason it isn't is because it's only been happening for about 20 years. So for all of world history, before the age of computers and devices, people were not locked down to a screen. TV started moving people in that direction, and then computers and gadgets nailed them down. I was not immune myself, and when I first got onto the Internet I too was on there all day long. But my natural inclination to be physically active ultimately took over eventually. The thing is now, though, that many people don't have that inclination, because all they know is a life of gadgetry.
I tell people, however, that this era is an aberration, and it won't last. It's been going for 20 years, but in 50 more years, you will not see people staring at their phones as they walk down the street. Nor will you see drivers haphazardly and distractedly coasting down a sidestreet, proceeding verrrrry slowwwwly to the curb, then putting their emergency flashers on while they stop to read and answer a text. It's all aberrant to actual human nature, and it won't stand the test of time.
Well, that's all I know for tonight, except for Sarah's post about fixing up a frozen pizza. I was pretty good at that, too, except for me it was putting on loads of onion and garlic on top of an Oh Boy or Celeste frozen pizza, which I lived off of in my 20s, haha. I say "there's no such thing as a bad frozen pizza", because you can always fix it up, even with Pepperidge Farm Fish.
Man, I wish I could get away with eating frozen pizzas all the time, and cheeseburgers and tacos and humongous plates of spaghetti like I did in my 20s. In your 20s you can eat anything you want, haha.
I do need to go to El Indio one of these days, though. That is our local & legendary Mexican food place that looks like a roadside stand. They have the most incredible carnitas tacos there. I could eat about three of 'em right now, with a quart of salsa.
But I won't right now. But I will one of these days. :)
That's all for tonight. See you in the morning.
I Love You. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):) My favorite songs right now are "Stargazing", "Selva Obscura" and "The Thaw".........now you've gotta make a second album too. :)
I hope you had a nice day and a good weekend. I am tired tonight cause I've been going since 8am this morning. We had a very simple anthem to sing today, called "Alleluia", in which there was only a single repeated lyric. I'm sure you can guess what it was. :) Still a beautiful song, though I prefer the more challenging material. In that regard, we had a good rehearsal of upcoming tunes, one of which - "My Song In The Night" - fits the description of "challenging" due to it's offset vocal lines and counterpoint melodies.
After church I drove out to Burbank to take my sister Sophie shopping, then after a short stop at home I was back here at Pearl's for my evening shift. Tonight I will sleep like a rock, lol.
I saw your post about your friend Jake's birthday bash concert, so I'm sure you will be going to that and shooting pix. I saw the post via Joel W., too, about getting physical exercise. Of course I couldn't agree more. I might disagree about the yardwork part though, haha. When we lived at the Rathburn Street house I was the only one who ever did any yardwork. It was all up to me, if it was gonna get done. And we had a big yard, front and back, so in the Fall I'd be raking about a dozen bags of leaves. No leaf blowers in those days,
In one respect I always hated yardwork, just because it wasn't something fun or something I wanted to do. But as I got into the routine of doing it, I would kind of get into a rhythm of putting leaves into bags, and making everything looks as neat as possible. That's the Neatfreak in me. But that's how I would get a measure of satisfaction out of a chore, by completing it to a standard of neatness that looked good to me, in a Feng Shui manner. Whenever I had any kind of chores to do, I would always do them methodically, step by step, to go through the process of doing them. My goal was always to make things look neat, a result of my Dad's "Military Style" training of me as a kid. :)
I agree with Joel's assessment of people sitting at computers for 12 hours a day, and the thing is this : Even though people think that is Normal Life nowdays, it isn't. And the reason it isn't is because it's only been happening for about 20 years. So for all of world history, before the age of computers and devices, people were not locked down to a screen. TV started moving people in that direction, and then computers and gadgets nailed them down. I was not immune myself, and when I first got onto the Internet I too was on there all day long. But my natural inclination to be physically active ultimately took over eventually. The thing is now, though, that many people don't have that inclination, because all they know is a life of gadgetry.
I tell people, however, that this era is an aberration, and it won't last. It's been going for 20 years, but in 50 more years, you will not see people staring at their phones as they walk down the street. Nor will you see drivers haphazardly and distractedly coasting down a sidestreet, proceeding verrrrry slowwwwly to the curb, then putting their emergency flashers on while they stop to read and answer a text. It's all aberrant to actual human nature, and it won't stand the test of time.
Well, that's all I know for tonight, except for Sarah's post about fixing up a frozen pizza. I was pretty good at that, too, except for me it was putting on loads of onion and garlic on top of an Oh Boy or Celeste frozen pizza, which I lived off of in my 20s, haha. I say "there's no such thing as a bad frozen pizza", because you can always fix it up, even with Pepperidge Farm Fish.
Man, I wish I could get away with eating frozen pizzas all the time, and cheeseburgers and tacos and humongous plates of spaghetti like I did in my 20s. In your 20s you can eat anything you want, haha.
I do need to go to El Indio one of these days, though. That is our local & legendary Mexican food place that looks like a roadside stand. They have the most incredible carnitas tacos there. I could eat about three of 'em right now, with a quart of salsa.
But I won't right now. But I will one of these days. :)
That's all for tonight. See you in the morning.
I Love You. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):) My favorite songs right now are "Stargazing", "Selva Obscura" and "The Thaw".........now you've gotta make a second album too. :)
Saturday, April 22, 2017
Happy Friday + Your Video (Mineral Point Opera House) + "Silence"
Happy Late Friday Night, my Darling,
I hope you had a great day and a good start to your weekend. One thing I forgot to mention in talking about your album is the video for "Runaway II". That is an incredible setting, especially for a solo pianist! Just you and the Opera House. Is it the same place where you filmed Sarah's promo video for the pedalboard? Well, anyhow, however you reserved the place and however you managed the technical details of filming, it looks amazing. You must have had help, right? I mean, there is no way you went in there and filmed yourself, by yourself. ;)
The theater is just beautiful and looks just like the old theaters in our Downtown district. And the piano is a classic Steinway. The Mineral Point Opera House is the beneficiary of your video for certain. I'll bet they've never had anyone come in and do what you did, at least not in recent times.
You are working at a high level, so keep your sights high.
But also keep your Spirit first as you continue to work and create, because all you have done so far has originated in your Spirit. You already have the work ethic and the technical know-how built in. :)
You already know all of this of course. I am merely the Drill Sergeant. :)
Today I did go on a hike; nothing fancy, just a trip to Aliso Canyon, though it was a full length, 3.75 mile hike. Aliso is one of the longest canyons of all in the area, but as previously noted it's mostly flat and therefore more of a walk than a hike. But still........3.75 ain't too shabby. Gotta do my five miles per day one way or the other.
Tonight's film was "Silence" by Martin Scorcese. It just came out last Christmas. Grimsley saw it and has been badgering me to see it ever since.
After seeing it tonight, I guess it is one of the greatest films I have seen in recent years, and one of the greatest Christian films ever made. I had said to Grim last year that I was thinking that Scorcese was overrated. He made "Taxi Driver", which to me is one of the Very Great Films, Top Ten for sure. But then he also made "Raging Bull", which the critics loved but which I thought was terrible, and then he made "Goodfellas" and a bunch of over-violent crime films that were way too long. Then he branched out and made films like "The Aviator", which was okay, and some other stuff. But the point is that many critics have considered him to be The Greatest American Filmmaker Of All Time, and I was telling Grim, "he's not even close". Despite "Taxi Driver", which is only one film after all.
But with "Silence" I think he has redeemed himself. It is so strong in it's message that I think he is trying to make up for the ridiculous and blasphemous premise of "The Last Temptation Of Christ", which was so awful that it was almost amateurish. "Silence" is the epic story of two Jesuit priests from Portugal who travel to Japan in the early 1600s to search for their mentor, a priest who has disappeared and has been said to have apostatized, i.e. renounced Christ. Andrew Garfield stars as the priest who goes through trials at the hands of the Japanese Inquisitor while trying to remain faithful to both his God and to the villagers he meets who practice Christianity surrepticiously. Garfield should have gotten the Oscar for this role, and in the past year he has been the star of two of the greatest Christian movies ever made, the other being "Hacksaw Ridge", which was directed last year by Clint Eastwood.
Now, when I say something like "greatest Christian movies", you know I mean The Real Thing, and not some propaganda coming from a fundamentalist Church source. God Bless those folks, too, but these films I am talking about have come out of Hollywood, from the major directors Scorcese and Eastwood, and it is incredibly heartening to me that such men would make films like these in the cynical time in which we live, and not only that - but that their movies would have gotten major studio support.
So a humongous Hooray, all the way around. And to Andrew Garfield, who nailed both roles to a tee.
So my point was that Martin Scorcese has redeemed himself, and in my opinion he has made his greatest film since "Taxi Driver".
And that is all I know for tonight.
I will see you in the morning. I Love You. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
I hope you had a great day and a good start to your weekend. One thing I forgot to mention in talking about your album is the video for "Runaway II". That is an incredible setting, especially for a solo pianist! Just you and the Opera House. Is it the same place where you filmed Sarah's promo video for the pedalboard? Well, anyhow, however you reserved the place and however you managed the technical details of filming, it looks amazing. You must have had help, right? I mean, there is no way you went in there and filmed yourself, by yourself. ;)
The theater is just beautiful and looks just like the old theaters in our Downtown district. And the piano is a classic Steinway. The Mineral Point Opera House is the beneficiary of your video for certain. I'll bet they've never had anyone come in and do what you did, at least not in recent times.
You are working at a high level, so keep your sights high.
But also keep your Spirit first as you continue to work and create, because all you have done so far has originated in your Spirit. You already have the work ethic and the technical know-how built in. :)
You already know all of this of course. I am merely the Drill Sergeant. :)
Today I did go on a hike; nothing fancy, just a trip to Aliso Canyon, though it was a full length, 3.75 mile hike. Aliso is one of the longest canyons of all in the area, but as previously noted it's mostly flat and therefore more of a walk than a hike. But still........3.75 ain't too shabby. Gotta do my five miles per day one way or the other.
Tonight's film was "Silence" by Martin Scorcese. It just came out last Christmas. Grimsley saw it and has been badgering me to see it ever since.
After seeing it tonight, I guess it is one of the greatest films I have seen in recent years, and one of the greatest Christian films ever made. I had said to Grim last year that I was thinking that Scorcese was overrated. He made "Taxi Driver", which to me is one of the Very Great Films, Top Ten for sure. But then he also made "Raging Bull", which the critics loved but which I thought was terrible, and then he made "Goodfellas" and a bunch of over-violent crime films that were way too long. Then he branched out and made films like "The Aviator", which was okay, and some other stuff. But the point is that many critics have considered him to be The Greatest American Filmmaker Of All Time, and I was telling Grim, "he's not even close". Despite "Taxi Driver", which is only one film after all.
But with "Silence" I think he has redeemed himself. It is so strong in it's message that I think he is trying to make up for the ridiculous and blasphemous premise of "The Last Temptation Of Christ", which was so awful that it was almost amateurish. "Silence" is the epic story of two Jesuit priests from Portugal who travel to Japan in the early 1600s to search for their mentor, a priest who has disappeared and has been said to have apostatized, i.e. renounced Christ. Andrew Garfield stars as the priest who goes through trials at the hands of the Japanese Inquisitor while trying to remain faithful to both his God and to the villagers he meets who practice Christianity surrepticiously. Garfield should have gotten the Oscar for this role, and in the past year he has been the star of two of the greatest Christian movies ever made, the other being "Hacksaw Ridge", which was directed last year by Clint Eastwood.
Now, when I say something like "greatest Christian movies", you know I mean The Real Thing, and not some propaganda coming from a fundamentalist Church source. God Bless those folks, too, but these films I am talking about have come out of Hollywood, from the major directors Scorcese and Eastwood, and it is incredibly heartening to me that such men would make films like these in the cynical time in which we live, and not only that - but that their movies would have gotten major studio support.
So a humongous Hooray, all the way around. And to Andrew Garfield, who nailed both roles to a tee.
So my point was that Martin Scorcese has redeemed himself, and in my opinion he has made his greatest film since "Taxi Driver".
And that is all I know for tonight.
I will see you in the morning. I Love You. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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