I have recently discovered Jackie Greene and like his music. There is a link below to a live version of Uphill Mountain, the audio is amateur but still pretty good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqkZH7jivIE
Without music, I'd be lost.
I tried to read East of Eden by John Steinbeck years ago but never got very far into it. I picked it up again last week and I am making some progress. I liked the passage below from it.
"Our species is the only creative species, and it has only one creative instrument, the individual mind and spirit of a man. Nothing was ever created by two men. There are no good collaborations, whether in music, in art, in poetry, in mathematics, in philosophy. Once the miracle of creation has taken place, the group can build and extend it, but the group never invents anything. The preciousness lies in the lonely mind of a man."
In other words without Lennon's ideas there would be no Lennon/McCartney songs and likewise. Everyone focuses on the group result but without its individuals, there would be nothing.
The sun has emerged late this afternoon and it has turned into a relatively nice day. Though it is still April cool but tomorrow is supposed to be in the low 20's and the high 20's for the weekend. I am sure a few more smiles will find their way onto mouths.
I lose interest very quickly these days. I usually look forward to watching the hockey playoffs but this year, I watch a few minutes and then decide to do something else. It isn't because the games aren't exciting because most of them are, it is just that I am not all that interested. Baseball has been a little better but I guess my heart is more in it.
I wrote the following yesterday, a piece from the prespective of an old and not necessarily bitter man, just reflective and honest in his opinions.
You Will Be Beautiful
The spring precipitation will bring summer chrysanthemums
Yellow, white, purple and red but not as exotic as a marigold
There is a garden in my memories where they can still bloom
A passing afternoon of a childhood spent chasing butterflies
Monarchs searching for lilacs or milkweeds and their nectar
I would never catch them and never really wanted to anyway
There are certain creations better left in their natural habitats
You will be beautiful in my book when it is finally completed
A novel character carefully pieced back together by moments
I will get a few of them wrong but my mind is not clearheaded
Confusion is often a result of aging and too much reminiscing
The poetic lyrics remain much more than the songs themselves
All the books we should have shared are piled neatly in a corner
Dust bothers me as it always has and so they will not be moved
I read them years ago during the days of my endless boredoms
Segregating myself from society and those who once knew me
Some of them are dead having finished their lives and now rest
My peace will not come because there was too much left unsaid
Apologies are as common as diseases when you get to be elderly
I am too stubborn like a rock refusing to crumble under a weight
You will be beautiful in June when your childhood dream arrives
With summer flowers arranged and carried by porcelain fingers
Handed to you graciously by innocently wide open brown eyes
The wonderment of happiness is universal on such celebrations
Vows might vary from different scriptures but their sums do not
Everything added up in true love leaves no squabbled left overs
I feed the ducks crumbs from the uneaten crusts of brown bread
They are mildly amused by me until nothing is left to give them
Returning to the water and leaving me to my old man routines
The daily walks when the weather is good enough for fragility
Normally there is a book to read while sitting down on a bench
But this afternoon it is raining and I have not brought it outside
Home and it is random relics of personal taste will have to do
I have been old most of my life and most would agree asocial
There are no familiar faces left here and you will be beautiful
When the light finally fades before my always brooding eyes.
22/04/09
"Light fades, becomes shade, you're holding on but you're slipping away, till I can't feel you anymore..."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ij3eJL3ISA
Love at the End of the World by Sam Roberts Band
For those in Canada with Rogers digital cable, there is a free Sam Roberts Band concert on demand, channel 100 or 300. The concert is about half an hour and features mostly songs from their latest album Love at the End of the World.
And so it goes.
john.
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