In an effort to make the gallery or road photos not become a cumbersome "catch-all" I'm going to put up the most recent stuff, of all kinds, in a new gallery called "Most Recent Things" located in the Multimedia section's galleries. I'll send those things to their rightful archival rotting place sometime afterward.
Happy Burning Man to you all
If I were a homesteader or explorer dad I could have navigated us to the shoreline by starlight, smell and celestial navigation. Instead I am in full holiday thaw and we are using flashlights. Without them this would be possible but the age of my charges does not allow for the patience required to wait for the receptors in the eyes to sensitize to the blue light of the stars. Streetlights are city things and they seem worlds away tonight. Waves are crashing and they want to be in them …now. We should know the way so well. This has been our summer and Easter getaway for more than a dozen years and everybody is amazed tonight that we haven’t seen all this tiny island has to offer. When I say starlight I mean stronger than citified moonlight by a wide margin. Here you can see all of them. Satellites, planets, airplanes, constellations, spacejunk, comets, intercontinental flights and further galaxies all are there in a million layers. This is the sea life of an ocean where the water is replaced by transparent buoyant oxygen. You look up into it like you peer over a boat into a world you can’t live in. A vast alien space is unveiled and the farther up or down you go the harder it would be for you to survive and the more amazing it would be to visit. On top are the known yet naturally exotic fish and on the bottom, in the darkest depths, guarding all the treasure and pain ever to be lost on the surface, are glowing translucent alien creatures yet to be discovered.
Tonight we are going to swim with them. It’s a different kind of darkness here. It’s full of adventure rather than streetwise apprehension. Our big black dog bounds somewhere ahead of us. Her low woof and growl signals the flashlight beams to train themselves together in her direction. Through the yellowish circular flashes bounds a large deer. Left to right across our path. The kids track her with their dollar store beams. All anyone can see is the deer’s spotlight dance as she leaps four-foot chunks of tall dry grass and vanishes into the even darker woods. Like klieg lights scanning the skies for enemy bombers the doe has been deprived of her strategic veil of darkness by a random sweep across a probable sector. The ovals of light swirl in front of us once again as we move onto the steep trail down to the driftwood logs and the pebble and sandstone moonscape of a beach.
Familiar voices of summer friends are the only way any of us can tell who is there. Unless you shine a light straight into someone’s eyes there is no way to take instant inventory of who is down here on this dark beach with you. The first swimmers are into the waves and are coming up gasping and screaming in elation. I’ve forgotten to wear swimming gear of any kind so I quickly pare down to nature’s bathing suit and commit to a shallow dive. I open my eyes to the underwater stars. At this time of year and at some unique confluence of temperature conditions and salination the bioluminescent explosion occurs. Tiny microbial creatures store the sun’s light through the day and release it when agitated. Thousands of tiny rock concert "glo-sticks" flare up and around you in those wind tunnel curves. As you come up and break the surface they fly away from your laminar flow in small firework flowers. Straggler glitter runs down the strings of your wet hair in a disco wet dream. It seems staged by nature to distract you from some other more valuable prize. The delicious fruit sacrifices itself for the purposes of vital seed inside. Peacock feathers. A lizard drops its tail to a raptor then grows a new one. I get the feeling we are being bedazzled for a reason. I can’t stop enjoying this. It is completely distracting me from anything that might weigh me down. I am the sand irritating the oyster to conjure a pearl. I am sticking my tongue in the Venus fly trap. The punch has been spiked and it tastes fantastic. I stand shoulder deep and scull my arms in figure eights to watch the acid tracers. The waves that pass over me carry rolling rhinestones on their crests. As I look across to where the bigger waves are breaking on the sandstone spit it seems like they are lit silver blue from underneath as if in some LA hotel pool. This is unicorn blood. Tonight we are all wizards in a Led Zeppelin album cover world. Children are still chirping and laughing in amazement as some of us towel off and stutter out strings of impossible adjectives. Just as I don’t feel I want to hear the scientific explanation of the northern lights I want to use this moment to help maintain my innocent world of inexplicable beauty. I’ve lived by the ocean my entire life. Why have I never done this? I will do this every chance I get.
Dear Neighbours,
Just a note to let you know about our cat “Nigel”. He’s the happy, yet sometimes balding, matted and thin 15-year-old black and white cat (tuxedo markings) who lives at 555 Main Street.
Recently a well meaning and conscientious neighbour has twice picked him up near our house and taken him into the SPCA thinking he is being neglected, abused or abandoned. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. The SPCA doesn’t give out details on its good samaritans so we’re dropping this letter in all mailboxes.
With Nigel’s advanced age has come a condition that makes it tough for him to groom properly and regulate his weight. We take him for regular check-ups and he is on medication that helps him. He’s a noisy boy who moans and cries almost like a baby. This doesn’t help him appear any less pathetic. Truth be told we expect he has taken down the odd coyote in his day. Do not let his appearance fool you. He can still rule this roost. Some believe he was organizing the inmates for a jailbreak while in the clink.
We are trying to turn him into an indoor cat after a lifetime enjoying the great outdoors but he is not buying into our program at all. His willpower is massive. His stubbornness is immeasurable
It’s just a matter of time before he escapes. Please give us a call if you see him and are concerned but PLEASE don’t take him away again.
Yours truly
the Northeys
(604) 555-1212
Had a blast last night at the Deer Lake Blues & Roots Fest in Burnaby BC. Colin James was closing the show and Rosanne Cash & band were on right before. It was a mucky day of constant rain but it all let up just in time for Rosanne's set. Nice to see old friends backstage and even more fun to actually get to sit in with Rosanne and her band. Rose & I did "Beautiful Pain" as a duet with John (Leventhal) bringing in his deadly guitar and then I sat in on the rest of the set. Big thanks go to Zev Katz (bass) who called all the changes for me and saved me from clamming up the joint completely.
Colin's set was a blast as we delved a little more into the "roots" bag and played some stuff we don't always do. The people under the sea of umbrellas and gumboots in front on us seemed undaunted by the elements and sang along with the program. After being on the road last month it felt good to look out at our families and friends.
I will return to my regular, less "daily events", form of communication on the next outing. This bulletin brought to you by the afterglow of last night's musical fun and my lack of disposable time.
CN
Yes. I took a break with my family. I've been writing in my head instead. That's where all the writing is done. Its the typing and internetting that takes all the time. I was camping so even electricity was right out. I don't miss it when its gone. Subjects to emerge:
The Trials of Nigel the Cat
Phosphorescence
Campsite Politics
I will actually see a copy of the Northey Valenzuela CD today! I'll let you know how you can get it but I know it will be up on Maplemusic and in stores soon.
Today I play the Deer Lake Blues & Roots Festival in Burnaby BC with Colin J and may sit in with Rosanne Cash. Happy to be seeing her and her family.
CN
Well... we made the Northey Valenzuela CD but getting it out has turned into one of those dreams where you are being attacked by a street gang and just can't seem to punch back. Last week the master CD was rejected by the factory for flaws in the medium itself. Go figure. We've located another master and re-submitted it. Should have CD's by month's end. I think the title of the CD should be changed to "Shaggy Dog".
I'd like to send my congratulations out to Mary & Jarrod who will be hitched later this evening.