Black & White, 5 of 5

For my last installment of the Black & White photo challenge, I reached back to last year when I went out on highway 177 just north of here, where I'd previously passed an abandoned gas station and trailer park. I liked the windswept look of it, the tall grasses, and the rock facade of the building. It had a sort of post-apocalyptic feel about it that moved me. How many pickups pulled in to fill up before going on to the MerCruiser or Armstrong plant? How many kids walked over to the food and supplies store on hot summer afternoons to get a Coke or a Slurpee? How many mothers pushed their baby strollers over to pick up milk? If you click "Read More" below, you'll see my favorite photo from the series, one that I titled "Gash".

Black & White, 4 of 5

Photo #4. This is pretty self-explanatory; guitars and dog toys. I call it, "Artist's Life".

Black & White, 3 of 5

This is the third of my five images as per Hilary's Facebook photo challenge. This is a collection of old books that sits atop a tall barrister bookcase in our living room. I used to spend my Saturdays in used bookshops in search of old editions. I've found some good books this way, but I can't seem to find any good sellers here.

My favorite in this pile? The Lady of the Lake, by Sir Walter Scott. This particular edition was published in 1923. It's the wee book on the very top of the stack. There's nothing like cracked leather and musty paper to make me want to read whatever's printed inside!

Black & White, 2 of 5

Last spring, a tiny sprig of Virginia Creeper began finding its way across the ceiling of our front porch. By the end of summer it had covered quite a bit of it only to be stopped in its tracks when the cold set in. This is it now as it lies dormant, waiting for spring to bring it back to life.

Black & White, 1 of 5

Hilary, the author of The Smitten Image blog, has challenged her Facebook friends to post one black and white photo a day for five days. I'm not going to tag anyone, but if you're at all interested in doing likewise, please feel free to join in. This is the first of my five images.

This is L'il Mozie peaking out from under the chair beside the piano. Click to embiggiate.

What's Your Blues Name?

Mine is "Blind Boy Bailey".

Close Enough

Swan Song: The last Day

Although I'm still a big fan of Donovan's music, I've kind of lost my fondness for him on a personal level. I've read his autobiography, I was a subscriber of his website, and I "friended" him on Facebook. I still have the book, of course, but I withdrew from the rest a few months ago because in each of these he comes off as self-aggrandizing and pretentious. I hope I'm wrong, but frankly, he seems to be a colossal boor. It makes me sad because I've loved him most of my life.

Yesterday I read an interview with him at Clash and, although his tone remains the same, the interview questions were worth the read and I thought that as a meme they might be thought-provoking. Feel free to use them if you want. The premise is simple: how would you like to spend your last day?

Where would you like to wake up?
On my last day I'd like to wake up in California, near the beach and with a great view of the mountains.

What’s left to achieve on your last day?
Seeing friends and family and making amends wherever necessary. I haven't accomplished most of what I set out to in this life, but I have done a lot that I didn't know was in my cards. More than accomplishing acts and meeting goals, I've learned much and in my opinion, that's a life of true accomplishment. So, if tomorrow was my last day, I'd say that, outside of finishing my trilogy, there's little left unfinished.

Who would be at your final dinner?
Everyone I've ever known and loved who's still around.

What’s on the menu?
People could have whatever they want; I wouldn't be interested in eating.

What would be the after-dinner entertainment?
A live performance of my choice, with no limitations? How about the Beatles? Realistically, good music on the stereo is fine. Maybe some of us would pull out our guitars and jam a while.

How would you like to die?
Painlessly and fully conscious.

What would your final words be?
"I love you."

What would you have written on your gravestone?
"There are only two emotions, fear and love. I chose love."

Who would you like to meet at the pearly gates of Heaven?
My friends and family who have gone before me. I'd simply leave one party to join another!

What is your vision of heaven?
A place of my own creation, with green, rolling hills, trees, gardens, an ocean, and mountains in the distance. I admit I'm very attracted to the vision of heaven as depicted in the movie, What Dreams May Come. The idea of a self-created 'afterlife' appeals to me.

If you could be resurrected the next day what would you come back as?
The next day? That's too soon. I need a good, long rest, say about 500 earth years. But when I come back I'll still be me, only the body will be different.

Bollocks

"My work explores the relationship between the body and midlife subcultures. With influences as diverse as Kierkegaard and John Lennon, new synergies are created from both traditional and modern meanings. Ever since I was a student I have been fascinated by the theoretical limits of meaning. What starts out as vision soon becomes corroded into a hegemony of power, leaving only a sense of nihilism and the possibility of a new reality. As spatial phenomena become frozen through boundaried and critical practice, the viewer is left with an impression of the limits of our condition."

Artsy Bollocks Generator. Get your instant artistic statement with a mouse click. If you don't like it you can generate a new one.

Hat tip to Violins and Starships.

It Spread Like a Raging Social Disease!

It started out as most things like this do: innocent, private, sweet. I posted this status in Facebook last Thursday (click to embigiate)...

Picture A Day - Day 18

Day 18: A picture of someone you miss.

My dad. He looks pretty serious in this picture (which was taken on board The Queen Mary when his band, The Aristocrats of Dixie, played there), but I seldom ever saw him without a smile on his face.

Picture A Day - Day 17

Day 17: A picture of somewhere you’d love to travel.

Madurai, India. Called the Temple City and the Athens of the East, Madurai has been a major trade and festival center for over 2,500 years.

Picture A Day - Day 16

Day 16: A picture of your biggest insecurity.

Watching myself age hasn’t been easy, partly because I’ve been ill for the past 15 years. But I’m starting to see that some of the premature ageing has reversed. In fact, I look younger than I did five or six years ago. No one ever guesses my age correctly, but then, no one ever could in the past, either. My insecurity about my looks (which I’ve always struggled with) is diminishing though, mostly due to the fact that I’m just not as hung up on outer things as I used to be, so I'm not sure this is an insecurity issue. I don't indulge in that sort of thing too much anymore. I hasten to add that getting older isn't a problem for me. In fact, I'm rather enjoying it since I said "screw it" to growing up.

Picture A Day - Day 15

Day 15: A picture of something that has made a huge impact on your life recently.

Researching, writing, publishing and promoting a book. I had no idea what all went into it and I find it fascinating. People sometimes write to me asking how to write a novel, and I always tell them there’s so much more than just getting an idea for a story. You have to not only put yourself on the operating table, but each and every one of your characters as well. You have to bleed, go in there. Writing a book isn’t just the physical act of writing, it’s keeping your scalpel razor sharp and cutting away at yourself without flinching. This has been an amazing thing for me.

Picture A Day - Day 14

Day 14: A Picture of Someone Who Inspires You.

Since the evening I met director Larry Weinstein (Rhombus Media, Toronto), I’ve been inspired by him. There are few people who have had that kind of impact on me—Maestro Salazar may very well be the only one, come to think of it. Working with Larry was pure joy for me and I’d leap at the chance to work with him again, even if it meant just sharpening his pencils and emptying his waste bin. If I were younger, I’d ask to intern for him. Just being in the same room with him is inspiring. And he's a darned good friend as well. I just love him.

Picture A Day - Day 13

Day 13: A picture of your favorite band or artist.

Was there ever really a question?

Picture A Day - Day 12

Day 12: A picture of something you love.

I have to confess that I’m a big sap when it comes to the love songs of the 1980s and 90s. You know the ones: Cant Fight This Feeling Anymore by REO, I Just Fall In Love Again by Anne Murray, When He Shines by Sheena Easton. I love ‘em, I love ‘em, and they always bring me to tears and fill me with a delicious, temporary melancholia.

I never bought any of the albums these songs are on, or anything by these artists, but I loved the "soft rock" stations we used to get back then. When I was a performer singer-songwriter, this genre of music was called MOR: Middle-of-the-Road. I even wrote a lot of songs in this style. I swear these love ballads release infatuation endorphins into the brain.

As much as I love real Rock (I could listen to Zeppelin's Dazed and Confused all damned day), I equally love MOR.

Picture A Day - Day 11

Day 11: A picture of someone you could never imagine your life without.

My talented, eccentric, mutually supportive, full of life and love family. Yes, we're blended, but like the perfect margarita, we're blended in all the right ways!

(Left to right: Pot Pie, Joel, Heather, Nathan, Micah, Nettl, and Lauren.)

Picture A Day - Day 10

Day 10: A picture of the person you do the most ****** up things with.

I don’t know about ****** up things, but Ville and I have certainly done a lot of weird and wonderful things in the 25 years that we’ve known each other. Some things we’re proud to pants ourselves (and each other) with, and some things we’ll take to the grave.

The one thing (although there were many) that drew us together when we first met was that we're both prop comics, camera hams, spotlight stealers, and improv artists. We'll upstage you in a heartbeat and won't even mean to. In earlier days a party didn't start until we walked into the room, and few people could keep up with us once we were there. Those that tried usually got left in the dust. We can't help it. We're just kinetic when we get together. Libra and Gemini, you know? We spark off each other and inspire each other to higher and higher levels of idiocy. Then we pay for it the next day. I've always compared us to Lennon/McCartney, Pats/Eds, and Groucho/Chico Marx.

I can't decide on just one picture for this one, so you get three, not counting one at the top, which was taken on New Year's Eve, 1988. And while drinking on New Year'e Eve isn't particularly ****** up, I think it's pretty clear that we were ****** up.

Picture A Day - Day 9

Day 9: A picture of something you want to do before you die.

I want to record again, preferably an album. It doesn’t have to be anything elaborate or complicated and it doesn't have to be released publicly, just something to give my family and friends. I have some really good songs that I’d like to get down before my voice starts to weaken because when I'm gone, the songs are gone.