Night song / Everyone and Everywhere / A request for "Here Comes The Sun" / Reruns March 21-31, 2007

"The Intelligence Singing All Around Us"

 “Every time we train our most sophisticated tools upon the central questions of our existence – Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going? – the answer comes back clearer: Everyone and Everywhere.”

-- James Bridle

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My friend who is so much more than her Parkinson's diagnosis is in her fourth day in an extended care facility where she will undergo physical therapy and occupational therapy designed to allow her to return to her small apartment and live independently with support from various agencies and friends.  It is sobering to see so many people our age who are living in nursing homes permanently or temporarily like my friend.  

I played the frog song video for her.  

From her bed she can look out at the sky and trees above the one-story extended care facility buildings.  She can hear wind chimes when the window is open.  A musician friend of hers brought his guitar and played and sang Beatles, Leonard Cohen, and Harry Nilsson at her request.  

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Reruns:

• Calendar Series: 68th Month / Flying Fish with B...
• Calendar Series: 67th Month / Flying Fish with R...
• Calendar Series: 66th Month / Talking About Hope ...

(65th and 64th Month weren't photographed)

• Calendar Series: 63th Month / Talking 43-Hour Day...
• Calendar Series: 62nd Month / Self-Portrait with ...
• Calendar Series: 61st Month / Talking About a Sea...
• Calendar Series: 60th Month / Imaginary Brothers ...
• Calendar Series: 59th Month / Imaginary Brothers ...
• Calendar Series: 58th Month / Talking About What ...
• Calendar Series: 57th Month / Traveling Through t...
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"I got saved by the beauty of the world" (Mary Oliver) with Update (-:

The Tower of Blue Horses, by Franz Marc

From Franz Marc's Blue Horses, by Mary Oliver

I step into the painting of the four blue horses. 

I am not even surprised that I can do this.

This is what I listened to today.

This is what I hear at night with my windows open:

Just for fun.  Bob Dylan singing "Froggie Went a Courtin":

At Scudder Pond, the frogs wake up first and then the birds.  Listen for the ducks.

"... just like you always smiled before ..."

(Cropped from a drawing by Allen Say from Emma's Rug)

Last night I dreamed that I standing in a small cozy kitchen at night. A young girl to the left of me at the kitchen table was drawing in pencil on a piece of drawing paper.  We were talking about the process of learning to draw.  Bob Dylan was sitting quietly and staring into space across the table to the right of me.  I was saying that learning to draw is like learning to play the guitar and takes practice.  Bob Dylan looked up sharply, made eye contact with me and said with a quizzical smile, "Uh, yeah."



Monologue by Bob Dylan from the early 1960s:

“First time I ever worked in East Orange, New Jersey.

Folks never go to East Orange, New Jersey; it’s a horrible town. I went there to play in a coffee house in East Orange, New Jersey. It was a chess playing coffee house out there. It was so bad…uh…so bad, people playing chess out there. Uh…that’s all they thought about out there was chess and chess and chess. People come up to me, you play your song, you play you a real quiet song. In the middle of the song you hear “Check”, [female laughter in background] And “Hey, that was a good move” and all kinds of stuff like that.

Hey folks it was so bad I had a little dream out there the first night I worked about this chess playing stuff. I dreamed I went to work out in East Orange, New Jersey, and, uh, about time I quit in two days I went there to ask the guy for my money. I says, “Can I have some money, I worked two days for ya?” He says, “Uh… Well OK, we don’t pay you money around here though” I says “Uh, yeah?” He says “Well” he says, uh, ”Yeah, we pay ya chess men”, I said “Uh, well give me my chess men then, I worked two days”. I sort of…didn’t really figure, I thought he was lying at first, but I took it anyway. He gave me a king and a queen for working two days. I said “Fine, that’s OK”.

So I took my king and queen and went down to a bar, nearest bar I could find. I walked in the bar and I ordered a pint. I… I got on the bar, “Bartender”, I says “Can I have a pint?” I’ll be damned if he didn’t give me a pint. He asked me for the money. I gave him my king and queen. I’ll be damned, you know he took that king and queen, threw it under the counter, and brought me out four pawns, two bishops, and a rook for change.

That’s a little story about East Orange, New Jersey.”

Now let's listen to the frogs singing in the night: