Last Sunday I was riding my bike along the beach when I came across “rock art.” No, I am not talking about some rock musician strumming her guitar belting out tunes to the incoming waves. I am referring to the secret artists in our community who take ordinary rocks and stack them up to make “rock art.”
Here are some pictures of some rock art that I saw last Sunday. What these photographs fail to capture, however, is the complex interaction between the different rocks on the “pile.” No camera lens, no matter how sharp it may be, can possibly capture the interplay between rocks - the sharp angles, the soft curves, the different hues, and the changing textures.
OK, this photograph has nothing to do with rocks. But the sight of this dog, joyfully following its surfing buddy into the water made me feel happy inside so I decided to include it here.
In this day of color, digital photography our senses are often assaulted with splashes of bright color photographs. I decided to “play around” with Photoshop to see what would happen if I removed the color from a couple of the photographs. The photos below are my weak attempt at emulating Ansel Adam’s brilliant black and white photographs of some of the West’s most beautiful scenery.
This last photograph reminds me of one of my favorite Simon and Garfunkel songs. I will post the lyrics to the song here, so you can savor the poetry of Paul Simon’s words.
I AM A ROCK
A winter's day In a deep and dark December; I am alone, Gazing from my window to the streets below On a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow. I am a rock, I am an island.
I've built walls, A fortress deep and mighty, That none may penetrate. I have no need of friendship; friendship causes pain. It's laughter and it's loving I disdain. I am a rock, I am an island.
Don't talk of love, Well I've heard the word before; It's sleeping in my memory. I won't disturb the slumber of feelings that have died. If I never loved I never would have cried. I am a rock, I am an island.
I have my books And my poetry to protect me; I am shielded in my armor, Hiding in my room, safe within my womb. I touch no one and no one touches me. I am a rock, I am an island.
And a rock feels no pain; And an island never cries. - lyrics by Paul Simon
One final note; my computer is acting kaput, so I am going to take it in for repairs. That means that I may not be around for a few days. Until then, have a wonderful weekend and a wonderful week.
Lately I seem to be in a Simon and Garfunkel “mood.” I have always loved the simple beauty of their lyrics but lately I have been going back, more often than usual, to their music to find comfort in these troubled times. Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel know how to weave words into a tapestry of sounds and melodies that surrounds me and soothes my soul.
Two of their songs, in particular, have been running through my head. One of the songs is Homeward Bound.
I wish I was, Homeward bound, Home where my thought's escaping, Home where my music's playing, Home where my love lies waiting Silently for me…
One of the interesting things about Second Life is how it has become “home” for so many of us. At least for me, SL has become more than a second life - it has become a second home where I come at the end of a busy day to spend time with dear friends.
Initially, it did not start out this way. I signed on to SL because I was eager to find out what all the talk was about. With no previous experience in an online role playing situation I had no idea, no clue really, what to expect. Very quickly I became "hooked" to Second Life. And just as quickly as I became attached to my so-called second life I also became quickly, and deeply, attached to people and things in SL.
That is the reason why the other day, while listening to Homeward Bound, I was not surprised to realize that for me the lyrics in Simon and Garfunkel song had come to refer not to an actual, physical place. Instead, as the song played on, the lyrics kept pulling me here, to SL.
Ev'ry day's an endless stream Of cigarettes and magazines. And each town looks the same to me, the movies and the factories And ev'ry stranger's face I see reminds me that I long to be, Homeward bound,
I don’t smoke cigarettes (never have, I am too cheap to burn my money away) and I don’t travel from town to town. But lately, whenever I look at strangers’ faces I am reminded of how much I long to return to SL, to be with my online friends and to visit the places that are now so familiar to me.
Have I really now gone too far down the rabbit’s hole? Have I forfeited my real life for life here, in SL? Time will only tell.
The other Simon and Garfunkel that I have been listening to quite a bit lately is I Am a Rock.
A winter’s day In a deep and dark December; I am alone, Gazing from my window to the streets below On a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow. I am a rock, I am an island. I’ve built walls, A fortress deep and mighty, That none may penetrate. I have no need of friendship; friendship causes pain. Its laughter and its loving I disdain. I am a rock, I am an island.
Second Life has now become one of most widely used Internet social networks. The reasons are easy to see. Unlike other Internet social networks, SL provides a rich graphical interface and, through the ability to shape our own unique on-line experience, we can transcend the limitations of text-only social networks.
The ability to create an avi that can be seen and touched by others has its own perils, however. Our in-world selves, our avis, are subject to the same range of human emotions, including heartbreak and loneliness, that our RL selves are subject to. As we live our in-world lives, our brains may tell us that we are mere pixels on a computer monitor. Our hearts, however, often disregard the signals coming from the brain and plunge headlong into the heights (and lows) of love.
What can we do to protect ourselves? Do we even want to protect ourselves? I don’t know - I don’t have the answers. Building walls around ourselves, or hiding behind a computer screen, may provide temporary protection. In the long run, however, we cannot hide forever behind the comfort provided by our SL avis. So what is the answer? Heck if I know!
I have my books And my poetry to protect me; I am shielded in my armor, Hiding in my room, safe within my womb. I touch no one and no one touches me. I am a rock, I am an island.
And a rock feels no pain; And an island never cries.
Here, for your visual and listening pleasure, are Simon and Garfunkel’s Homeward Bound and I Am a Rock – I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
Homeward Bound (from the historic 1967 Monterey, California concert)
I Am a Rock (I can't believe these guys were once so young and cute!)
One final note: Sunday was my best friend’s birthday. She has been my spiritual counselor, my sounding board, my advisor, my home’s designer and builder and my homeless shelter chief builder (the only builder really). She has listened to me when I was happy, flying as high as a kite and she has listened to me when I was so far down the dumps that bottom looked like “up.” We don’t always see eye to eye on everything; in fact on many issues we will NEVER see eye to eye. I call her a Dutch Bolshevik and she fires right back and calls me a spoiled America princess. I call her crazy and she calls me nuts. I call her my best friend in SL and she smiles, and tells me that I am her best friend too.
I call her love, I call her wise, and I call her kind and generous. I call her Yucca!
Here are some musical selections, for a lazy Sunday afternnon.
First, for all Australians in Second Life (and for all the Australians that now call California home). Happy Australia Day Mate!
Waltzing Matilda
Blue Oyster Cult - Don't Fear the Reaper (live version)
Simon and Garfunkel - A Hazy Shade of Winter
Compare the Simon and Garfunkel version to a later cover by The Bangles (try to figure out which line The Bangles omitted from their version)
Sugarloaf - Green Eyed Lady - the video clip is not the best :-(
Naked Eyes - Always Something There to Remind Me (one of my faves)
And, finally, something to dance to. Take off your shoes, put your hair up, kick up your heels and move to some classic Cuban music. It helps if you hold a shot glass of Havana Club rum in one hand and a fine Cuban cigar in the other.
Buena Vista Social Club - El Cuarto de Tula (This song is slighty naughty, Tula is one hot Cuban girl. She can set a room on fire by just walking in!)
(NOTE: I will soon finish the post LOOKING INTO A MIRROR. I need to speak to the young woman and get her permission to go on with her story. Please stay tuned.)
In the meantime...
Today is a work holiday in the USA. We celebrate the birth of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. If case you have lived in the planet Mars for the last 50 years and have just returned to Earth, Dr. King was the most important leader of the American civil rights movements - he was also a black man. Dr.King led a famous boycott in Selma, Alabama to fight against laws that forced black people to sit on the back of the autobus. Dr. King was also a devoted follower of Ghandi's peaceful civil disobedience methods. Finally, in 1963 Dr. King delivered the now famous speech "I Have A Dream" speech. Dr. King was assasinated on April 4, 1968. Here are portions of Dr. King's I Have a Dream speech:
Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.
And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."
...
And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!
Tomorrow, almost 40 years to the date when Dr. King was assassinated, we will celebrate the inauguration of our new President, Barack Obama, the nation's first African-American President.
I do not know whether Obama will be a great President.
I hope that he will.
I do not know whether Obama will help solve the many problems that now plague my country.
I think that he will.
I do not know whether Obama will lead this great nation that I call home back to its rightful place in the family of man.
I pray that he will.
Regardless of what happens during his administration, this is a good time to be an American - a great time to be proud to be an American. In Obama's election America has shown the world that:
America is a nation of laws and not of men. We have changed government, and not a single gunshot has been fired in the streets of America; not a single drop of blood has been spilled.
We have shown the people of the world that for all of our faults (and yes, we have many of them) we are still the land of opportunity. Just a little over one hundred years black American were slaves. By law, during the era of slavery, blacks were not even considered to be human; they were legally property, to be sold and bought at the will of their masters.
Today, we are less than 24 hous away from swearing-in the nation's first black President. A nation where blacks were once slaves, will soon have its first black President It was not easy getting to this point - but we are here now!
I am always proud to be an American - but today and tomorrow I will be even prouder. I am proud to live in a country where the birth of a black man is celebrated as a national holiday and I am proud to live in a country that looked past race and color and elected its first black President.
I ask all my friends from all corners of the world to join me in this moment of celebration - please share in my joy to be an American. Be happy for me, be happy for the world. Thank you.
Monday morning, January 19, 2009.
This morning the day woke up overcast and cold (well, cold for Southern California standards). I had a late breakfast this morning - I am feeling very, very lazy, I am surprised that I even have enough energy to write this post. As I walked upstairs back to my bedroom I saw these trees, right outside my upstairs windows.
The sight of the trees, framed against a grey sky, reminded me of one of my all-time favoritie Simon and Garfunkle songs:
A Hazy Shade of Winter
Time, time, time, see whats become of me While I looked around For my possibilities I was so hard to please But look around, leaves are brown And the sky is a hazy shade of winter
Hear the salvation army band Down by the riverside, its bound to be a better ride Than what youve got planned Carry your cup in your hand And look around, leaves are brown now And the sky is a hazy shade of winter
Hang on to your hopes, my friend Thats an easy thing to say, but if your hopes should pass away Simply pretend That you can build them again Look around, the grass is high The fields are ripe, its the springtime of my life
Ahhh, seasons change with the scenery Weaving time in a tapestry Wont you stop and remember me At any convenient time Funny how my memory slips while looking over manuscripts Of unpublished rhyme Drinking my vodka and lime
But look around, leaves are brown now And the sky is a hazy shade of winter
Look around, leaves are brown Theres a patch of snow on the ground...
Hang on to your hopes my friends - never let go of your hopes and dreams. It will soon be a better day for you, for me, for all of us.
