Current Photo Friday theme: Bicycle
Arriving to an April party
Her little sandal peeking out from her hemline may be my favorite part of this photo.
Tag: entertainment
Shark!
Back in early April, the creator of one of my favorite webcomics, Life of Sharks, invited readers to submit their illustrations of the ever popular Barry, the problematic shark. I couldn’t resist the opportunity to go to my tiny sketch book and create Barry’s Mondrian period…now with a little shimmer.
Mood: Monday
Photo previously posted here was Impasto Painting Songbird, oil on canvas, 2020, by artist David Padworny.
Today is Draw A Picture of a Bird Day!
I’ve done this a few times before: first in 2010; again in 2011; once more in 2014; and again in 2018.
In honor of the eclipse which has everyone so worked up, here’s today’s 20-minute drawing. Let me know if you draw a bird. =)
Tiny Tuesday!
Time to browse the book that inspired this weekly feature, and today I chose this prompt:
I’ve recently taken out my wee keyboard to see if I can still play any of the easy piano music I learned WAY BACK WHEN. Turns out I can (falteringly); it’d probably be a lot easier on an actual piano. The electronic keyboard really is wee, having only 26 white keys (natural music notes) and 18 black keys (sharps and flats). For comparison, a standard piano of 88 keys has 52 white keys and 36 black keys.
Still a lot of fun though, and coincidentally, this favorite old classic my parents liked to dance to is in the music book, so I took a (very slow) run through it.
Sounds better when Ella sings it.
Where would your sentimental journey take you?
Song Challenge: Day 30
Today’s challenge–the last one!–is “a song that reminds you of yourself.” I’ve said Dan Fogelberg’s song “Scarecrow’s Dream” is my theme song since the first time I lay in front of the stereo and listened to the words in the late 1970s. In comments under this video on YouTube, someone says, “Thank you, kind spirit, for all of your wise words.” I will forever now think of Dan Fogelberg as “kind spirit.” And I, too, thank him.
Thank you, too, for sticking with me for the month, especially when/if you commented or shared your own artists and songs for the challenges. If I helped you remember some favorites of your own, I’m glad.
Seldom seen
A scarecrow’s dream
I hang in the hopes of replacement
Castles tall
I built them all
But I dream that I’m trapped in
The basement.
And if you ever hear me calling out
And if you’ve been by paupers crowned
Between the worlds of men and make-believe
I can be found.
Plans I’ve made
A masquerade
Fading in fear of the coming day
Heroes’ tales
Like nightingales
Wrestle the wind as they run away.
And if you ever hear them calling out
And if you’ve been by paupers crowned
Between the worlds of men and make-believe
I can be found.
Garden gate
An empty plate
Waiting for someone to come and fill
Scarecrow’s dreams
Like frozen streams
Thirst for the fall
But they’re running still.
And if you ever hear me calling out
And if you’ve been by paupers crowned
Between the worlds of men and make-believe
I can be found.
Photo Friday, No. 902
Current Photo Friday theme: Wet
Marina del Rey, California
This was shot on film in 1998, and I uploaded it and another photo from the same place to Flickr in 2008, but I don’t think I ever published either photo on my LiveJournal or this blog.
If there’s a place that haunts me, it’s this one. Maybe, as Stevie Nicks sings,
Well, I’ve been afraid of changin’
‘Cause I’ve built my life around you
But time makes you bolder
Even children get older
And I’m getting older, too
Maybe.
Song Challenge: Day 29
Today’s song challenge is “a song someone sang to you once.” How about sang to me too many times to count? If I was in a bad mood or just feeling playful, and Riley was there with his guitar, I made the same request: “Play ‘Rocky Raccoon,’ please!” I’ve shared on here before how one time when I made that request, he gave me a reproachful look.
Riley and other musicians were doing a tribute in a local bar to John Lennon in December 1980, days after the former Beatle was murdered. As much as everyone there loved playing and hearing the music, there was such a pervasive feeling of sadness among us. I couldn’t take it anymore and mouthed my request: “Rocky Raccoon.”
“That’s a McCartney song,” he answered off mic, not wanting to embarrass me.
“I know,” I said. “Please play it anyway. For me.”
He couldn’t refuse me. I don’t know about anyone else in the bar, but hearing Riley play and sing a song that always made me laugh was what I needed to keep my equilibrium that night. Whether or not John Lennon liked the song, as he once told us in a different song, Whatever gets you thru the night/It’s all right, it’s all right.
I thank Riley, always, for all the days and nights he got me through with his music and poetry, all the other artists’ music he introduced me to, his friendship and love, for sometimes testing me almost to the ends of my patience and endurance, his emotional support during my hardest times, and his ability to make me laugh.
In 2022, on the 42nd anniversary of John Lennon’s death, a group of musicians and fans gathered at the Strawberry Fields/Imagine memorial in Central Park, and there’s a video of them doing the song. I guess I’m not the only one. =)
Here’s the album version by the Beatles.
Song Challenge: Day 28
Today’s song challenge is “a song by an artist whose voice you love.” I was watching some television show one night a long time ago–I mean like 1970s or 1980s long time–I feel like it could have been a cop show–and they played Sam Cooke’s “You Send Me.” Even though the song was already familiar to me, maybe because of the show’s plot or the scene they showed while it played, who knows, it grabbed my attention that night. Despite all those other details having vanished, I’ve never forgotten how the song felt new and became a favorite from that point on.
I can’t say anything better about Sam Cooke’s voice than this quote from Wikipedia: Cooke is widely considered one of the greatest singers and most accomplished vocalists of all time. His incredibly pure tenor voice was big, velvety and expansive, with an instantly recognizable tone. His pitch was remarkable, and his manner of singing was effortlessly soulful. He could go as high as high C without losing purity or volume, and his upper mid-range was coated in a unique rasp. His vocal style was very adaptable, adopting a rather classical sound on jazz and pop songs while maintaining his trademark stylistic soulful hold on R&B, gospel, and soul music.
Mood: Monday and Song Challenge: Day 25
Art posted here previously was George Michael Singer, acrylics and mixed media on canvas, 2018, by artist Melanie D.
When Jim was here, we talked about the WHAM documentary that’s airing on Netflix. I haven’t seen it, though it’s one of the things I intend to watch.
Today’s song challenge is “a song you like by an artist no longer living.” It was a shock when George Michael died on Christmas Day 2016–too young at 53. In my music television watching heyday, a video with George Michael would stop me in my tracks. I’ve done a lot of research about the evolution of music videos from the 1960s forward (why else? for the Neverending Saga) though of course, they weren’t called “videos” then and were usually shot on 35mm film even after video tape came into existence and “music videos” became part of the common vernacular. George Michael’s videos were art, and I remember them well.
I also haven’t watched The Super Models on Apple TV+, but the holdup on that one for me is that it features the female models who were in George Michael’s “Freedom” video: Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, and Christy Turlington. However, Tatjana Patitz, born on this date, March 25, 1966, in Hamburg Germany, was also in the “Freedom” video, died last year in January, and isn’t part of the documentary. Because of the video, she became my favorite of the group, so I haven’t had the heart to watch it yet.
Why doesn’t George Michael appear in the video? He told MTV, “I made decisions a couple years ago to change the way my career was going and my life was going by not appearing in the videos, by not being interviewed, by not doing press. Basically, letting my music kind of do what it’s going to do.”
We don’t see him, but his presence still dominates the video (also, probably a lot of people gasped when his leather jacket gets set on fire).
Button Sunday and Song Challenge: Day 24
Today’s song challenge is “a song by a band you wish were still together.” It became impossible that Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young could reunite after David Crosby died, but even before, it was an unrealistic idea. There were too many fractured relationships among them for it to happen. I chose the button for their album So Far deliberately because it includes what I think are two key songs from a certain time in the band’s evolution. Here’s the full cover from my drowned album.
Graham Nash’s “Teach Your Children,” an admonition for parents and children to love each other despite their differences, was on the March 1970 release of their album Déjà Vu. Nash said he wrote it because of his complicated relationship with his father, and is quoted as saying, “The idea is that you write something so personal that every single person on the planet can relate to it.” Young wasn’t present in the studio when Nash taught the song to the others and they recorded it.
After Déjà Vu’s release, as “Teach Your Children” was moving up the charts, the Kent State shooting took place on May 4, inspiring Neil Young to write “Ohio.” To Nash, this song may have seemed like the consequences when the wisdom of “Teach Your Children” went unheeded. The band rushed “Ohio’s” release as a single, and it, too, climbed the charts.
David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, and Neil Young created an impressive body of work as individuals, as members of CSN&Y, and as members of other bands, and for me, the four together created a voice for any turbulent time and every generation. A Stephen Stills quote from last year sometimes haunts me: “Part of me misses David Crosby dreadfully. Part of me thinks he got out of here just in time.”
ETA: For my own personal reference, I’m linking to an account of Déjà Vu’s cover photo because it shows how research persistence really pays off!