–John Keats
The very thing people are missing or have forgotten about in the current climate of death, racism, and political change/agendas.
Beauty is most obvious in Nature, first and foremost.
Another nature lesson.
Beauty in man-made things (e.g., art, music, poetry) can be as satisfying and inspiring.
And there is also, more subjectively, the beauty of people (as in that found, innocently in children).
Beauty is a great pleasure I have never been able to get enough of in my life.
now more than ever it is important for adults and kids to get outside on bikes in their quiet neighborhoods during the nicest period of the year. For fresh air, exercise, and health maintenance to counteract too-long indoor sedentary lifestyle.
Fresh corn on the cob with beans and Cob’s sourdough bread.
Ray Bradbury.
Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, Something Wicked This Way Comes, the screenplay for Huston’s Moby Dick.
And all his wonderful imaginative stories.
100 of his best in the above volume.
Her unexpected 2013 labor of love (4 CDs and 1 DVD), the Close-Up Series, by her own record company is an eyeopener and reveals her as a significant songwriter, performer, and recording artist from the 1980s beyond her best-known hits.
This uniquely packaged plain-wrapper set with colored photos and messages inside is a distinctive presentation of her work. Each CD is on a different theme and she has included the lyrics as well.
What I enjoyed most were the different arrangements of her work up to 2013. She explores the possibilities of intimate voice and instrument recording in simple, yet effective ways.
With these sets, Vega has left her distinctive approach and stylings on record for listeners seeking something different in the folksy vein. Recommended.
Thomas Edison is not only the most famous inventor of all-time, but the guy who spearheaded the technological changes that ushered in the twentieth century. Our debt to him is huge if you look up his long list of inventions. But he deserves to be on the list of Great Men of All-Time because of his pioneering work with the electric light, sound recording, and motion pictures. He was Huge, to put it mildly.
This American Experience documentary by Michelle Ferrari is an outstanding 2 hr. feature about this giant and follows his career from his telegraphing youth through his competitions with other inventors and setting up his own lab to his forgotten inventions of later years.
Edison sacrificed his marital and family life until his later years when he also found time to go on luxurious auto tours with friends Henry Ford and naturalist John Burroughs. His rivals included Alexander Graham Bell, his best childhood friend, and his business partner–all who fell out of favor with him as he asserted his obsessions to be the greatest inventor who ever lived.
The PBS documentary includes several biographers who provide the missing details of his personal life and driven character. The visuals include many rare film clips and you get many insights into the man himself and the enormous work and assistance that went into each major invention (including the electric chair).
Highly recommended, entertaining, educational viewing.
The legendary Lawrence Ferlinghetti hangin’ in at 101 years-young.
The successor to E.E. Cummings (as reflected in his classic A Coney Island of the Mind. 1955) and the famous bookstore owner (City Lights in San Francisco) who dared to publish Allen Ginsberg’s controversial book Howl.
He would also be the most famous living American poet left over from the twentieth century. Quite the career. A very witty, satirical, original poet.
Passing by his place this morning. He already has a big bin on his driveway full of beds and junk. I congratulated him on the near-completion of his project.
Too many people not using the covid times not cleaning up and downsizing. What a great opportunity we’ve had to move ahead.
a song by Lee and Sandy Paley, Calgary.
Lots of them this morning on the sidewalks and roads after 2 days of steady rain. Irrationally, they come out to die in the open which is why you hear so many birds singing full-throatedly this morning here.
But are they any different from the humans coming out before the pandemic has fully run its course?
