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Back to School

Summer is winding down, it will soon be turning much colder, I’m back to driving the school van, and I still haven’t done a Milky Way photo shoot.

My plans to travel west in search of the perfect place will have to wait until next summer. Other things often spring up that take precedence over photoshoots and this year that “other thing” just happens to be our son’s wedding.

I probably could’ve planned a relatively cheap and quick weekend getaway somewhere close but the Milky Way photoshoot I have in mind probably isn’t going to be cheap and quick. There’re lots of great escapes that I know would fit the bill for what I have in mind so I’m probably going to have a hard time choosing.

These United States have many national parks and I’ll just have to buckle down and research as many as possible and choose the one I see that jumps out at me. It must have canyons, waterfalls, mountains, old-growth forests, meadows, creeks, rivers, streams, I could go on and on!

If any of you are into photography like I am, I’d like to suggest a really great alternative to Adobe’s Lightroom Classic photo editing software check out Skylum’s Luminar 3 and I’m certain you’ll see that it’s top-notch. I’ve been using Lightroom for years and I’m just about ready to make the switch!

That’s me below and isn’t that TV screen just lovely? Peace!

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The Heart of Music

It’s hard to describe what happens to me when I strap on my guitar and strum the first chord of the first song of the first set. Something or someone else takes control, directing every move, every chord change, every word. I’m just the vessel, the transportation; destination unknown.

I think the heart of music is each of us, all of our hearts combined to form many vessels, many forms of transportation, with many unknown destinations. The beauty of all that is we don’t need to understand the heart itself, we just need to feel the body that contains it. But how is that possible?

Make a playlist of 20 or 25 of your favorite songs, then share that with someone, anyone, and ask them to make one and share it with you. I’m convinced that if we do that it just might be possible to feel, to see each other again. And heal ourselves from the hatred and division that has infected us.

Here’s a playlist of 20 of my favorites in no particular order. I know it might be hard for some of you to list only 20, or maybe even two or three, but even if it’s just one song that touches you in a special way, share it here with us in a comment. And then go out and feel the bodies of music all around you.

  1. Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright (Bob Dylan)
  2. Slither (Mandolin Orange)
  3. Misty’s Nightmares 1 & 2 (Father John Misty)
  4. Love is All (The Tallest Man On Earth)
  5. She Lit a Fire (Lord Huron)
  6. Over The Rainbow (Eva Cassidy)
  7. Red Light (The Paper Kites)
  8. Cedar Lane (First Aid Kit)
  9. Blacktop (Julien Baker)
  10. Holocene (Bon Iver)
  11. Tennessee Whiskey (Chris Stapleton)
  12. Hey Hey What Can I Do (Led Zeppelin)
  13. Hotel California (Eagles)
  14. How To Forget (Jason Isbell)
  15. Wooden Ships (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
  16. Pink Rabbits (The National)
  17. The House That Built Me (Miranda Lambert)
  18. I Can Almost See You (Hammock)
  19. Am I Going Up (All Them Witches)
  20. Blue Moon of Kentucky (Bill Monroe)