Friday, August 27, 2010

Monday, August 2, 2010

Ocean in view! O! The joy!













It's been a long journey. Earlier this morning I found myself on a rough stretch of ground. I wasn't alone. None of us were. A few minutes ago, I went out to check for my mail before lying down to rest before work. There was a letter from a nonprofit organization, requesting donations. Glued to the letter was a 2005 U.S. nickel, face up. I detached it and idly looked at the tails side and saw what appeared to be an ocean scene. Suddenly wide awake, I looked more closely. What did it say? Ocean in view of the joy? Huh?

Back in my living room, I got out my magnifying glass.

Ocean in view! O! The joy!

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Talking Karmic Debt Blues / Like The Moon And The Stars And The Sun






















Listen.

This morning I was listening to Jakob Dylan's CD "Seeing Things" in my car just before 9 a.m. He was singing "Everybody Pays As They Go":

Look up and see the men returning
In their winter coats
Some of them in one piece
Some of them got rolled
Some less than others
Some right through the nose
But everybody pays as they go
Young old rich and poor
Your mother she too owes
Cuz everybody pays as they go.

I thought of John Lennon's song "Instant Karma":

Instant Karma's gonna get you,
Gonna look you right in the face,
Better get yourself together darlin',
Join the human race,
How in the world you gonna see,
Laughin' at fools like me,
Who on earth d'you think you are,
A super star,
Well, right you are.

When I woke up this morning and turned the calender next to my bed to August 1, I found a wonderful woodblock print by Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849). Above is a detail from "The Hanging-Cloud Bridge at Mount Gyodo, near Ashikaga," which can be seen at Museo Chiossone in Genoa, Italy.

Well we all shine on,
Like the moon and the stars and the sun.
Well we all shine on,
Like the moon and the stars and the sun.
Well we all shine on,
Like the moon and the stars and the sun.
Yeah we all shine on,
Like the moon and the stars and the sun.

(Recorded by John Lennon on 27 January 1970 and released on 6 February 1970, it ranks as one of the fastest-released songs in pop music history, recorded (at London's Abbey Road Studios) the same day it was written, and coming out only ten days later. Lennon remarked to the press, he "wrote it for breakfast, recorded it for lunch, and we're putting it out for dinner.")
















Thanks to the Turtleback Dome webcam for the sunlight of the spirit image from Yosemite Valley.