To thine own self be true

The guy who from Fargo, N.D. (just over the border from Winnipeg) who picked up immediately where Buddy Holly left off. He was given his stage name by Bob Dylan who once played in Vee’s band. Bobby was the first pop singer I ever heard who memorably double-tracked his voice in harmony on such songs as “Take Good Care of My Baby”, “Rubber Ball”, and “The Night Has a Thousand Eyes”. Other hits included “Run to Him”, “Please Don’t Ask about Barbara”, “Devil or Angel”, and “Charms”. Loved the use of violins and tympani accents in his songs!

Margaret Atwood: [In reaction to Dylan’s win] “for what.” That is a(nother) truly jealous response if ever I heard one. She was ticked off last year that Alice Munro won and not herself. ( Al Purdy wrote a poem about her being the centre of the universe and I think he had it right.) Again, she’s ticked because she figures she’s a better poet than Dylan and is pissed at the committee for picking him over her. A sore loser. She’s snobby and ignorant also because she is unable to admit and recognize Dylan’s great catalogue of lyrics as poetry, which it is. The Nobel committee should be commended for not being snobby and seeing great language expression as great language expression regardless of genre. It is Atwood who’s the narrow-minded snob. How many quotable lines has she written in her poetry and novels?

Earthflight; Six-part series recently shown on PBS. A massive labour of love by hundreds of bird fans. Highly recommended.
Accompanied by a beautiful book by John Downer; BBC Earth/Firefly. Cover above.

“How Trump is still a thing” (National Post, October 22, 2016)

Opening two sentences:
 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump may finally have received the campaign miracle he needs: Madonna recently promised that, “If you vote for Hillary Clinton, I will give you a b—j—.” If spur were needed to drive millions still in the “undecided” camp to flee in dread to Trump, this is it.”

Inner Peace: Priceless.

(example of attitude and weather: hard to be sad on a warm sunny fall afternoon at the Banff Springs Hotel patio)

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…that deliver a slow stream over a longer period of time are annoying, of course. Fortunately, we just have just one sink like that. Glacial in filling any kind of container. But I take some solace in imagining people in Third World countries who don’t have any taps or any clean water and the inconvenience seems like a technological wonder and I feel very lucky instead.

Attitude is, recurringly, all. The usual difference between a good day and a bad day is attitude. Though, of late, I feel the difference between days with light and sun vs. days with clouds and darkness. I’d much rather work or attend to errands on brighter days. I notice (for the umpteenth time) that people’s spirits and moods are much better/higher on warmer or sunny days. Same-old.

3,800 movies. Virtually none before 2000. No great movies or classics. Nothing to speak of featuring film as significant art form.

I’m younger than that now.”
–Bob Dylan (Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature), “My Back Pages”

Clover does three-part harmony on Dylan song, Winter, 1970, YMHA, Winnipeg; with Calgary friend and oldest musical buddy Wayne Fraser on left; right singer: Chris Harman, another high-school buddy, now a dr. in Poe’s Baltimore; and the really young Sandy recruited on bass.

are 24/7 distracted and hardly conscious of physical reality, family, and Nature.”–RD

Everyone needs to express their feeling and thought at a basic level. Beyond that, their love, their insights, and learned life wisdom.