A Spacey Trip

First - 

Ok, So its not a 30 day blog any longer. I felt too forced and that I was writing only to be writing with nothing really of substance to say. That is a waste of both the readers and my time I feel. From here on these posts will have more authenticity and spontaniety having come from a point of expression more so than allegiance to some daily deadline...As Cole Porter once wrote: 

Oh, give me land, lots of land under starry skies above

Don't fence me in

Let me ride through the wide open country that I love

Don't fence me in

Let me be by myself in the evenin' breeze

And listen to the murmur of the cottonwood trees

Send me off forever but I ask you please

Don't fence me in

Now - 

In the mood for contemplative mood music tonight. a spacey trip with ambiance and depth that takes me totally away....come with me and listen in to the following selections:

Please let me know your thoughts and impressions as I am genuinely interested!

ref

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_Based_Lifeforms

http://www.carbonbasedlifeforms.net/

Entrance Music for a Film

Recently I decided to go and see a current "blockbuster" movie playing at the local corporate cineplex theater. Upon entering I was quickly visually assualted with action figures / superheros and larger than life celebrities looking perfectly polished in their photo-shopped images cut straight from whatever their latest end all feature was offering - coming soon! After circumventing the concession stand I found my way to the theater showing my chosen film - which one isn't important. The experience is all the same these days. 30 min prior to the previews actually starting there are the pre-previews; a video sequence of upcoming films / past films with trivia / extended commercials all blasting away at you in amplified sound meant to expose the hapless trapped viewer/consumer with more and more and more....

Gone are the days which I miss at the theater. You would find your way in and the lights were low and there would be some enjoyable entrance music playing, at a comfortable volume which does not preclude conversation if you like or, as in my case, provides for an enjoyable, relaxing listening experience. it was an escapist feeling, tuning out the busy rest of the world and offered for a moment a blissful interlude. No blaring ads / dumb witty loud comical cartoonish ploys to persuade you to buy some _____ or a _____. Just a comfortable plush chair and some great music chosen by a local well meaning projectionist meant to set you easily into the mood of watching a film and enjoying some time away from all the rush of the world. 

I've chosen a quick 5 song set here representing what I consider fine examples of Entrance Music For a Film - Imagine you're sitting in a theater with only the entrance lights on and the screen is actually blank....this is what you might hear!

Click the title to listen!

1/ Spyro Gyra - Morning Dance 1979

2/ Bob James & Earl Klugh - Kari 1979

3/ Chuck Mangione - Maui-Waui 1977

4/ George Winston - Colors/Dance 1980

5/ Herb Alpert - Rise 1979

Day 9 The Speed of Todays Relationships

Thinking tonight about how the pace of relationships in our age are so far beyond what they were when I was a teen and coming along. Every detail is practically shared via text / skype / instagram / twitter etc...Our phones/ PC / Tablets have become an extension of who we are; as unique to ourselves as the very clothes we wear and the bodies we inhabit. We are connected down to a factor of +/- 1 hour: meaning that if we don't hear an update in that time frame from our significant other(s) we immediately begin to worry if something has gone wrong. I can remember when that factor was closer to +/- 5-6 hours. Thinking things like "if there was a problem, surely they'll stop, find a payphone and call." Our expectations in a relationship seem almost these days to expect this level of detail and routine check in. Not necessarily saying here that this is a bad thing on most counts but its an interesting observation when compared to the structure and interaction level of relationships 30 years ago. 

I recall how when I wanted to get a message to someone important to me that I would have to plan the time to make a call / go by wherever they were or, by hand, write a letter. It intrigues me when I watch a period drama such as Downton Abbey (set in early 20th century aristocratic England) where they'll wait days and weeks to receive a response to a correspondence, Things were more formal then and they did not say things such as OMG and RU kidding.....It sometimes causes me a slight bit of anxiety to consider myself in their day and having to wait and stress over a letter that might not come for 2 more weeks, How absurd by today's standards and seemingly ancient. I daresay that many of us do not have the fortitude it takes to hold steady without hearing from our loved ones for 2 weeks at a time without feeling a bit at least of hardship and stress. Its not what we're accustomed to in our culture. 

In my reading I'm at times drawn to the dystopian futuristic novels that share a common element of a bleak, broken remnant of society which has been decimated via some cataclysmic event and further crippled by a too-long dependence on technology that now no longer exists.  Weary remaining humans struggling to communicate because there is no more texting / voice call / email / facebook. Where would we be? I often wonder if I were to transport my relationships from today to 30 years ago how would things be different based on the much slower pace and lesser methods of communication that would be available then. Would things be the same or fall apart? How much are we really dependent on technology? Its an interesting physio/psycho/technological study for which I don't know of any quantitative answers. 

Perhaps in the future the telepathy gap will finally be bridged and, thanks to an implant of some kind, we will all be able to know each others thoughts and desires simply because all our minds will be connected and acting as a single neural network. There would be no more secrets and the form of humanity would shift and change yet again. The differences in humanity would be more than we could really contemplate from this day and age. 

Interesting ideas but for now I'm out of time....

Skype is beeping at me and its been at least an hour since anyone has heard from me so I'd better go !

TTYL

Day 8 50 Years

50 years to today I've been here. 600 months; 18,262 days. The big birthday that seems to get so much attention and causes anxiety and dread to some. Its here and now for me, no avoiding it any more. 50 is my new reality and theres nothing you can do though but to embrace it and live as if not a thing has really changed; which by all accounts is just yesterday +1. Do I feel any older? Maybe a little easier to fatigue than I did when I was 40 and a slight more achy in some places. Who isn't as they age though? Some of us show the signs of wear and life's hard path more than others. Aging well one might say, or, an absence of aging; a preservation of the transience of youth seen by others as some testament to good living; good choices and good fortune. Am I old now? Not in my mind I am. No, I'm as old or young today as I ever was or was not. Its the present that concerns me more so than the accumulation of all the past or the promise of the yet to be. I'm alive in the here and now and the same is true of all of us. We're all here regardless of the number of times we've ridden round the sun and come back again for one more time. 50 - its a good round number and one that fits me just right - for today!

L

πενήντα

quinquaginta

חמישים

пятьдесят

五十

cincuenta

vyftig

fünfzig

خمسون

viisikymmentä

cinquanta

cinquante

limampu

vijftig

ห้าสิบ

ötven

femtio

পঞ্চাশ

Fifty - a nice new me 

Day 7 Cooking Tonight

A special someone sent me a recipe recently for a Berry Tart Cheese Cake - its the best I've had!

BERRY DELICIOUS TART

Crust: 

1 Cup Flour

1/3 Cup Sugar

1/2 Cup Butter, softened

Mix and press on bottom and up sides of a spring form pan.  Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes on a baking sheet.  Let cool.  (If you don't have a spring form pan, use an 8 or 9 inch round pan)

When crust is cool, spread 1/2 Cup of seedless strawberry jam over it.

1- 8 oz. package of cream cheese, softened

1/4 Cup Sugar

1 Egg beaten

1 Teaspoon Vanilla

Beat together and spread over the jam.

2 Cups of fresh or frozen mixed berries (blueberries, strawberries, raspberries)

If berries are frozen, thaw them and drain off the excess juice.

Mix together and sprinkle over cream cheese.

Topping:

3/4 Cup brown sugar

1/3 Cup Old Fashioned oatmeal

1/2 Cup Flour

1/4 Cup butter, softened

Mix and sprinkle over berries.  Bake 30-35 minutes at 375 degrees, in the spring form pan on a baking sheet.

Enjoy!

Day 6 A Quote / A Photograph / A Song

One of my favorite Carl Sagan (November 9, 1934 – December 20, 1996) passages entitled Pale Blue Dot :

From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it's different. Consider again that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known, so far, to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment, the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

The Flashbulb (Benn Jordan) Suspended in a Sunbeam (2008)

ref

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot

https://play.spotify.com/album/0zpiUfWUmJWdGA3V7n7cDn?play=true&utm_source=open.spotify.com&utm_medium=open

Day 5 T.K. Tripps On My Memory

I decided to go and have sushi tonight at my favorite little place here in Macon - ShoGun its aptly called. A sweet and sour roll and a salmon roll plus the little hot pot of green tea - can't go wrong there and the service is always spot on. Its right off Riverside Drive up the hill and behind the S&S. Conveniently in the old location of the former T.K. Tripps restaurant which opened here around 1980 who also built the building. It has certainly stood the test of time since the restaurant was gone from there by 1990. T.K. Tripps is still around but only in North Carolina and Virginia. There have been other restaurants to come and go since but the facility and my memories remain. 

It was here in this very location that I went on my first date when I was 16 and could drive; feeling all at once the new found independence that pointing a vehicle in any direction which suited you could bring. My girlfriend and I had been together already for a while and always managed, planned and connived various methods of being together every weekend. She was in a neighboring county and a different school system, so having a rendezvous required skillful planning from each of us. This almost always involved, up to this point, someones parent(s) ferrying one or the other to some designated meetup point followed by time well spent and the inevitable return trip (always too soon) that had to be arranged. Set free upon the middle Georgia roads in my mighty 1973 Volkswagen Squareback  I was emancipated from any parental dependence and time limits based on someone else's schedule and ready to join the world of adults making plans and dates and being in charge of when and where I went.  I was a man (I thought) with a mission - First stop: pick up my GF and lets go out on a real date like real people do and live the good life that had so long awaited us. T.K. Tripps it was to be; I set a course from Jones county to Macon and made like the crazy taxi as we rode the 8.5 miles as pioneers setting out for Oregon. I was prepared and more as we drove from our adolescence into our young adulthood that day, not knowing that there was no going back; time and maturity only move in one direction.

Preparedness has always been a mainstay of mine since early memory and this was to be no exception. Until this point going out to eat or to dinner at a nice place, such as T.K. Tripps, I had always been in the company of adults and when perusing the menu had never looked at or taken much notice of the prices of dinner selections. Therefore, when together for the first time whereupon I was paying the bill I wanted to be ready. Problem was, I had NO concept of what a nice dinner like this would cost. I decided that to be on the safe side I should err on the side of caution and bring extra. I decided to go by the bank where my meager savings account was and withdraw $100. Now bear in mind this was in 1980 dollars and comparatively speaking this was a HUGE amount! There was going to be NO way that I was going to run the risk of embarrassment and be caught over the proverbial barrel with not enough money for the dinner; no sent to the kitchen and wash dishes for this guy, no, I was the man with the plan and the roll of cash. Call me big money, fat wad, heavy tipper cause I was ready-freddy and going to pay for anything we wanted! My GF _____ was so impressed with my worldliness and savvy that we went for broke and ordered up something truly fantastic: Chicken Cordon Bleu! Each! Plus appetizers...

We were at the cultural pinnacle of Macon feasting on the food of the gods in the temple of freedom and delights. A great time was had and finally, the moment had arrived...the check was presented and the time was upon me to produce the cash and "handle it". Imagine my unexpected shock when the total for all we had ordered including our drinks (non alcoholic) , appetizers, entrees, deserts and all totaled only $14.56! That was all - no more.... what a let down as I was anticipating at least $75 somehow and was tense with my $100 wondering if there would be enough left over for a decent tip. 

Shamed as I was for being so overly prepared and having no grid of understanding for what a dinner out REALLY cost we still managed to have a good time of it, _____ held my hand as we walked out and I could tell that she was impressed with her man of the world who knew how to accomodate a night at T.K. Tripps.

Glad that old place is still up there on the hill - a warm reminder of earlier days and good times spent back when I was a high rolling big wheel...

Day 4 El Greco

I was reading some today about the Artist Master El Greco (The Greek). Real name Doménikos Theotokópoulos (1541 – 7 April 1614) - one of my all time favorite painters. In brief he was born on the island of Crete and eventually made his way to Toledo in Spain. He was an established master prior to his move and is considered the father of expressionism and cubism - styles that did not come into prominence until almost the 20th century. I can stare at this swirling sky for hours and get lost in it.

View of Toledo (c. 1596–1600, oil on canvas)

The Disrobing of Christ (El Espolio) (1577–1579, oil on canvas

2014 is the 400 year anniversary of his death. Here he is in Self Potrait

Portrait of a Man (presumed self-portrait of El Greco), circa 1595–1600, oil on canvas

In addition to his painting I also have always been a huge fan of Vangelis - the famed electronic musician (Chariots of Fire  & Blade Runner Themes). His work titled El Greco stands as a sonic tribute to the famous painter and is deeply rich with imagery. Listen in a dark room and just imagine the soundscapes that appear in movements I-X. It takes me away into those clouds....

Movement IX

ref

http://www.el-greco-foundation.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Greco

http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2014/11/04/357624788/400-years-after-death-el-greco-receives-celebration-he-sought

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Greco_(album)

Day 3 The Peoples Almanac

Earlier (much earlier) when I was young and there was no such thing as Google and an internet with its instant answers to anything imaginable, knowledge, understanding and even trivia  was sought and gained in the old fashioned way - one found a book and read about it. That was the easy part once you had found the actual book or reference material that you were looking for. The occasional interesting bit came along via a magazine or TV story which would prove to be interesting but these had to be happened upon and in those days there was no such thing as "on-demand" as we understand it today. Reference works and even encyclopedias were dated and sometimes limited in scope of what they could provide as far as real interesting type knowledge. The emphasis being that reading the encyclopedia was as about as exciting as reading the dictionary ( except for the great pictures - see A for airplanes ) and as a knowledge hungry, wanting to know-it-all 10 year old this resource just wasn't cutting it. Such was the way it was until in 1975 along came the Peoples Almanac written and compiled by David Wallechinsky and Irving Wallace. My parents had a copy of this treasure which I poured over and savored every list, top 10, who's who, sports greatest, academy award history, worst dictators, wonders of the world, highest mountains, hottest deserts and most gruesome deaths. It was a thinking persons refined depository of knowledge and the starting point of many, many streams of thought that a young mind could contemplate. I would read it for hours on end; just open it at random and start reading on any one of hundreds of subjects. It was a go-to reference for many questions that I may have had and the source for several papers written throughout school (pleading the 5th on plagiarism...). I was and still am so thankful for this diverse and authoritative book which filled in so many knowledge gaps for me back then.

I recently found the old tattered and worn copy of the Peoples Almanac on a dusty shelf in the basement and gladly brought it upstairs to peruse again its wonders and facts here some 40 years later. It always delivers and never fails to immediately grab my attention. It now has a prominent spot among my other books as my original go-to ready source of knowledge.

These days we are so accustomed to instant answers to just about anything our minds can wonder about. It has had a transformative effect upon our culture making us more and more demanding while not necessarily collectively smarter for the knowing. I still love the feel and smell of an old book such as this; taking my time to read what the page has to say sans pop up ads and browser lag. Its inherent and latent value open before you transcends time and rests in your hand as a talisman to take you off to other continents, people, cultures and achievements. All just enough for my mind to hold, then as now.

Ref

http://www.amazon.com/Peoples-Almanac-David-Wallechinsky/dp/0385040601/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1415050446&sr=1-1&keywords=the+peoples+almanac

Day 2 Sunday Meanings

As I'm practicing my laziness skills doing nothing remarkable this morning and enjoying the beautiful (and cooler) weather we're having here in Macon, I found myself thinking about how today seems and feels in some ways different from any other day, yet, also simultaneously feels identically the same as was yesterday. My black lab, Coal who is always eager to eat, play and scheme new ways of how to steal things from the kitchen, happily runs through his day as indifferent and incoherent to the names of the days of the week as do the trees in the yard. He has no concept of the distinction and associations we all attribute to the 7 different divisions of our week. This brought me to thinking about today's name Sunday. Where did it come from and what is its history? Why do we even have names of the days of the week? I can't say as I have a specific day of the week that would be called my favorite since to do so would be to ascribe some sort of superstitious meaning based on traditional long held beliefs and ancient legends as compared with seemingly random events in my own life. But, isn't that what their names are founded on in the first place? Astrological definitions based on the the particular Greek or Roman god associated with that days specific primary celestial body?

From Wikipedia:  "Sunday, being the day of the Sun, as the name of the first day of the week, is derived from Egyptian astrology, where the seven planets, known in English as Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury and the Moon, each had an hour of the day assigned to them, and the planet which was regent during the first hour of any day of the week gave its name to that day. During the 1st and 2nd century, the week of seven days was introduced into Rome from Egypt, and the Roman names of the planets were given to each successive day."

The historical and factual basis for our names of the days of the week transcend both language and semantics throughout history and are the subject of much long detailed research from which I won't be repetitious and go into here. Suffice to say that  some of our most commonly used names for things have roots that are as deep and ancient as they are little understood, We just accept them as they are and go through our life oblivious to their origins. 

The same can be said for the names of the months and in the case of the Chinese, the 12-year cycle of the names of the year which any Chinese restaurant happily displays on the paper placemats. Happy year of the horse by the way. 

Lots of history and tradition to consider in even the most ordinary of moments. As for me today its time to get further busy with the things to be done on a day off. To all of you I say until tomorrow and TGIS !

Ref

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunday
2. http://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/social_customs/zodiac/

Day 1 Holidays and The Space Fence

So here it is - Day 1. My thoughts and impressions for 30 days recorded here in an attempt at a writing exercise about anything that strikes me as interesting, notable or otherwise worth mentioning. A 30 day challenge that  I noticed my friend Ken had accepted earlier (read his here) which had intrigued me. So, I'm following suit and trying this. Maybe I'll be the only one reading this; who knows...I think it does me some good to capture thoughts in an organized manner, If you, the reader, enjoy this then I'm glad you're here - feel free to leave a comment as well.

Today is November 1st and I can say I 'm thankful its a new month. Especially glad that its November because while I have my personal reasons it also marks a welcome change in the weather around here. An ending slightly of the insufferable heat and humidity we endure here in equatorial Georgia. The wind is up and the temperatures are down. There's a pork roast smoking on the grill and not too much agenda today which is a smooth antidote to the kind of busy last few weeks I've had. The change in the season here has an effect of a joyous mood because it is the feel of the start of the holiday times; as if the weather of thanksgiving has arrived and we can now light fires / wear fall clothes and begin making plans for times spent with family and friends. 

In my many drives around Georgia I recently came across something unique in the Hawkinsville area. A multi acre field that was filled with a large array of flat antennas all arranged symmetrically in long rows . Turns out that this is a receiver station facility of the US Space Command "Space Fence". The transmitters were in Texas, Arizona and Alabama. Several more receiver stations are across the US - all very near the 33rd parallel. Very interesting history of what brought this system about and what its capabilities were. Read more here 

First Test Blog post

Hello - this is a test of the blogging platform I'm going to use for the upcoming 30 day blog in November

More to come....