Ummagumma

This year I spent a lot of time thinking and reading slowly. Part of this slowness was due to the demands and interruptions of life.  Part of it is a sort of lessening of energy I am experiencing either due to aging or my increased workload or both.  I find my career more fatiguing than rewarding, regardless of the necessary money it makes me. The health insurance alone saves me several thousand dollars a year.  All that is factored in and I accept it for now. I try, instead, to see my “job” as a meditation in action, or at least an obstacle course to strengthen my resilience. But working about 50 hours a week (and decompressing from work – I run and do yoga) slows my life in various ways. Since May I have been considering and reconsidering a post about various absurd perspectives on human consciousness. I find the linking of human consciousness with some sort of larger "force" or "agency" in the universe to be about as grounded and worthy of respect as The Force

When I was in college I read two short erotic novels by Anaïs Nin .  I did not know anything about Nin really other than she was a woman who wrote naughty books.   Delta of Venus and Little Birds struck me at the time as rather poetic but not animalistic enough, though the sensual passion in each work was striking at times, and I truly enjoyed Nin's style. She has a wonderful literary voice. But Nin was not someone who particularly interested me the way other writers did.  I did not purchase any of her novels ( or her infamous diaries ) and so I gradually became blind to her in my life.  In 2015 I decided to reacquaint myself with her through the purchase of The Portable Anaïs Nin and Nin's five short, loosely related novels published together under the overarching title Cities of the Interior . Reading Anaïs Nin gives me insight into articulation of the feminine experience of pleasure, desire, need, fear, chaos, sadness, love and artistic expression.  Nin churns these

Warning: there are a few spoilers below but none are related to the really good stuff from The Force Awakens . I remember seeing the original Star Wars: A New Hope as a late teen when it was released in late-May of 1977.  I had just graduated high school and was an avid science fiction fan.  It was my primary reading material at the time.  The movie featured exciting action set in a fantastic intergalactic universe and I recall seeing it multiple times over a few weeks with numerous friends.  It was an exciting movie to talk about over hamburgers afterwards.  I even took my younger brother to see it at our hometown theater.  We sat through it twice in one day, with only a popcorn break in between. He was only six and was as enraptured with it as I had been the summer of 1976 watching Jaws . The intial shot in Star Wars left most of us either hooping with delight or staring with our jaw open from sheer awe. The empire battle cruiser chasing Princess Leia in one of the opening sh

Long-time readers know that Coldplay is my favorite contemporary band.  It does not bother me that the more success they attain in terms of popularity, the more the critics put them down.  Coldplay may be the essence of kitsch for all I know.  But, I don't care.  Their music makes me feel good.  That is why I listen to them. But their most recent effort, A Head Full of Dreams , is a full-throttle disappointment to me.  I suppose it continues with a transition in style the band first began with 2014's Ghost Stories .  Unfortunately, with their latest record, the transition has gone so far that, for me, the band has become a stranger, invisible.  This is Coldplay being something that is not, for me, Coldplay at all. Normally with a Coldplay album, I listen to it a couple of times and end up with a tune or two resonating in my mind off and on over the next few weeks.  I will catch myself humming a new Coldplay song while driving or just sitting at my desk.  New Coldplay

A buzzard takes flight about 8AM this morning as the Moon sets in the west.  This view is taken from my front yard. This is known as the Frost Moon. Just the slightest hint of frost on my front yard in this wider view of a Thanksgiving Day Moonset.  It was wonderful to see it as I enjoyed morning coffee. There was no sound, it was totally quiet.  Jennifer was busy making dressing for the big family dinner later on today.

Counting studio material, live recordings, compilations, work with other bands,  Neil  Young has delivered over 60 albums to date.  That is an amazing number compared with most musicians. But really it is to be expected in this case.  Neil is still churning out vibrant new material as he turns 70 .  There have been numerous times when he has released more than one album in a single year. His latest effort is from his Archives project .  It features one of the many different flavors of Neil that came out in the 1980's. Bluenote Cafe is a two CD live concert set featuring the best performances while on tour with the Bluenotes in 1987-1988. The set contains seven previously unreleased songs which is true music to the ear of any long-time Rustie like myself.  I have heard a few of these new songs before on the numerous bootleg live performances of Neil in my collection.  But to hear them and the rest of these tunes performed for the first time with such passion, accomplishment, and

Jennifer and I met our 'Dillo friends for dinner last night at the Cafe Sunflower before we all attended an open art exhibit. It was very crowded and there were tons of art, several studio displays, little servers walked around with small trays with treats. There was an open bar.  It was fun and the art I saw was better than you can see in almost any contemporary art museum in America. Here are some quick shots I took in sometimes bad lighting and cramped conditions.

The Kansas City Royals defeated the New York Mets to become Major League Baseball's (MLB) World Champions in 2015.  In doing so, they won their first Series since 1985 , their second Series win in four appearances in baseball's Fall Classic.  So, as a franchise, the Royals have  2-2 World Series record.  The Mets dropped to 2-3 in their Series history. In most cases, I root for the National League team in the Series but this year I was pulling for the Royals because (1) I tend to dislike teams from New York City, and (2) I have a warm spot in my baseball heart for Ned Yost , the Royals manager, who served as the bullpen coach and third base coach during the 1990's with the Atlanta Braves under Bobby Cox , and (3) the Royals are just a fun team to watch.  I like their talent and their style of play . A special shout-out goes to Royals shortstop, Alcides Escobar , who made baseball history by hitting safely in 15 consecutive postseason games.  Admittedly, this is ea

All photos taken with our Nikon D300 between 6:45 and 7:15 from my driveway this morning.  This exposure was about 20-seconds.  It brings stars that were not visible to the naked eye into view.  The Nikon was set to automatic aperture, manual focus.   Same basic angle but with a 4-second exposure. Just for fun.  This is Orion on the right side of the photo, the bright star Sirius on the left quadrant.  The very bright Moon is just out of the frame the the top right. Sirius is very close to us in terms of space, a mere 8.6 light years away.  The reddish bright dot in the upper right quadrant is Betelgeuse .  It is 427.47 light years away.   The three-planet alignment at 20-seconds.  So many unseen stars pop out. Obviously, I am using a tripod in all these shots. A three-planet alignment at 4-seconds. There is another, fainter star here between Venus and Jupiter.  That is Sigma Leonis , 214.02 light-years away. Again, the beautiful alignment at 7:15 this morni