To thine own self be true

We walk in the mist:
smudges of humanity
on cold blue sand.

Grey sky and water
squeeze distant ships
to thin black marks
along a vanishing point.

Ahead the monolith
breaks surface–
like a whale stitched
with angry gulls.

Whitecaps pound
the storm-battered rock
as tide-edges rise
threatening shore.

An improvised fire
flickers to no end
on the beach inside
this gathering dark.

(Well, no, I have never forgotten a family trip to Cannon Beach, Oregon in the early ’90s where we stayed at the Hallmark resort by Haystack Rock. A variation of Matthew Arnold’s “Dover Beach” wrote itself without much effort. The above pictures were taken by my daughter during her return to Cannon Beach as part of an Oregon eclipse wonder tour.)

pays 42.5% of income in taxes.

I have long had a unique, unconventional style and life-path.
I have spent much of my life immersed in various multitudinous dreams of my own and others. For me, dreams have helped me to transcend the herding, pig-piling, and limited conventions I’ve seen many people choose. Physical reality, making lots of money, and penny-pinching have never been where it’s at.

(Rick bought a Rick; completely unexpected, the black & white Beatles model; this is the special, unique 12 string electric guitar sound you hear on songs by The Beatles, The Searchers, The Byrds, The Hollies, The Turtles, and other 1964–1967 bands; I now own 2 electrics and 2 acoustics; 2 6’s and 2 12’s)

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Well, you just never know. My two blogs were hacked by a robot from Germany or France. Let that be a reminder of the absurd destructiveness of online technology. The robot ate about 3 1/2 weeks of writing on this, my main blog. So much for August 2017. (Fortunately, my CanLit blog which had been basically finished for over a year remains intact as a resource for those in search of info about our best writers up to the end of the millennium.) P.s./ I did enjoy and appreciate the writing break and it’s been a very busy, positive 6 weeks anyway.

So what about August and the beginning of Sept. in a nutshell? I bought a new Rickenbacker 330 electric 12 string which has revived my music (I played at an outdoor govt. staff barbecue luncheon for my daughter on Monday). Symphony under the Sky was great as usual and I got to go for 2 evenings this year with my 22nd-year-straight subscription. My birthday was on the same weekend and the family barbecue party for me was maybe the best one ever with the two grandkids providing much of the interest and fun.

My ever-reliable IT guy was on holidays, when the hack occurred, down in Oregon watching the total eclipse with my daughter. It took a long time to repair the blogs and even so, I lost some writing. But hardly the end of the world, things being as relative as they are always.

So, a busy month ahead with a trip to Radium next week and two evenings reading and hosting for the Stroll of Poets coming up. I am looking forward to the annual evening out with my oldest teacher-friend and our wives at the Macdonald. Always good to see the gardens and grounds behind the hotel as the sun goes down after a splendid Mac dinner. Then to his place in the ‘penthouse’ overlooking the High level bridge on the north side, for outstanding bumbleberry pie (and his ice cream) I’m bringing from Fifendekel. Yes, life continues to be glorious, happy, and quite rich and full. Have I said I’m a lucky man?

If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it.

“It is the childlike mind that finds the kingdom.”

It’s been a while since I first saw this film in theatres and I recall being impressed with the toughness and style of the last version of Bond. The opening chase segment (the black runner is specially credited upfront) is probably the most visceral of any in the series. Craig ‘proves’ his toughness and endurance from the beginning.

There are several other strong sequences including a memorable stairwell fight, the torture scene (not recommended for kids), and the climactic collapsing Venice palazzo scene. Director Martin Campbell does not disappoint on that score. Certainly the fantasy violence is way over-the-top, but formulaically keep up the viewer interest ever-so-often. The Bond girl in this one, Eva Green, though not conventionally beautiful like some of the former girls, is an interesting character who intrigues Bond beyond the surface from the get-go. For his own part, Mads Mikkelsen’s Le Schifre makes a good villain appearance-wise, but he is weak in the non-casino scenes, especially in his final moments.

There are definitely quite a few surprises, though, no doubt contributed by co-screenplay writer Paul Haggis of Crash fame. So although the pic runs for 144 mins., it is not noticeably long, given the number of plot twists and turns. The card games are reasonably engaging, even for someone not familiar with them. But much of the movie depends on the look and choices of Craig’s protagonist. he certainly is more physical than Fleming’s original creation, but, sensibility-wise and convincingly, he appeals more to audiences in our times than any previous version. In many ways, this Bond forgoes the pretty boy Remington Steele version or the humorous Sean Connery version for something in the same vein as Timothy Dalton, but much further beyond that take.

“Daniel Craig is the best Bond in the franchise’s history” opined a New York critic when this movies came out in 2006. I would have to second that. Of all the Bonds, this would be the one Bond to check out if you have not seen it. Two thumbs up.

Abraham Lincoln shows that Trump is suffering from delusions of grandeur.
Same as Justin Trudeau comparing himself to his father.

Sensibility is a key construct which people once were more interested in cultivating and developing. As Sven Birkerts describes it, it is, on one level, a range of fine feelings and ability to make distinctions (whether moral or aesthetic, etc.). On another, it is a refinement or cultivation of presence (what one essentially is and could be). On yet another, it is the part of inner life that is not given, but fashioned. On still another, sensibility means a coherent inwardness. For my own part, I believe that sensibility embodies the possibilities of/for resonance, integrity, and appreciation of such ‘old school’ things as gentleness, greatness, order, wisdom, romance, love, truth, beauty, soul, and the arts.

1. Freedom and Flow–very much connected, both inner and outer. The freedom leads to flow and, in turn, flow enhances the quality and experience of freedom.

2. Gentleness, Tenderness, and Touch–three relateds that constitute The Best of Love. In those, there is a special purity and unique depth of communication–touch being an even more direct and powerful medium than words themselves.

3. The necessity of what Thoreau termed “The Wild”–what is wild in Nature (and us) ranging from the beautiful sublimeness of mountains to the special wildness of animals including us–see also Hamlet and what Joseph Campbell termed The Call, and discussed as our repressed energies within, naturally intended to be realized in our life experience.

4. After the experience of our primary imagination and pre-school experience, an Inner Child still remains (something Wordsworth elaborates on this in “Ode: Intimations on Immortality”) into adulthood. It is often seen in our love of different kinds of play. It is that Child which needs to be freed and refufilled as much as the wildness discussed in #3 above. These are two ‘depths’ related to the transcendence of limited/limiting modes of perception–the sorts of straitjackets that make people afraid to truly live and love.

5. As said earlier, in other blog entries–each person, situation, and choice has limits and limitations. These can limit our perceptions of ourselves and others, as well as what we believe is possible (though there are actually infinite and neverending transitory possibilities at any given moment). The freedom we all desire and seek is, basically, limited by those limits and limitations. For that reason we need to reduce or overcome those limits and limitations through acts of will, imagination, and love. Freedom-enhancing personal choices or mind, heart, and spirit over matter. And no one else can do this for us.