I am the Audience

Same as it ever was

May 1, 2014

poetry and songs

I have loved this for decades.

And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
And you may find yourself in another part of the world
And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful
wife
And you may ask yourself-Well…How did I get here?

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the money’s gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.

And you may ask yourself
How do I work this?
And you may ask yourself
Where is that large automobile?
And you may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful house!
And you may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful wife!
Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the money’s gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.

Same as it ever was…Same as it ever was…Same as it ever was…
Same as it ever was…Same as it ever was…Same as it ever was…
Same as it ever was…Same as it ever was…

Water dissolving…and water removing
There is water at the bottom of the ocean
Carry the water at the bottom of the ocean
Remove the water at the bottom of the ocean!

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/in the silent water
Under the rocks and stones/there is water underground.

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the money’s gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.

And you may ask yourself
What is that beautiful house?
And you may ask yourself
Where does that highway go?
And you may ask yourself
Am I right?…Am I wrong?
And you may tell yourself
MY GOD!…WHAT HAVE I DONE?

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/in the silent water
Under the rocks and stones/there is water underground.

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the money’s gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.

Same as it ever was…Same as it ever was…Same as it ever was…
Same as it ever was…Same as it ever was…Same as it ever was…
Same as it ever was…Same as it ever was…

(http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/talkingheads/onceinalifetime.html)
Ma

April 5, 2014

dancing in the field of dreams

I told Miyazaki I love the “gratuitous motion” in his films; instead of every movement being dictated by the story, sometimes people will just sit for a moment, or they will sigh, or look in a running stream, or do something extra, not to advance the story but only to give the sense of time and place and who they are.

“We have a word for that in Japanese,” he said. “It’s called ma. Emptiness. It’s there intentionally.”

Is that like the “pillow words” that separate phrases in Japanese poetry?

“I don’t think it’s like the pillow word.” He clapped his hands three or four times. “The time in between my clapping is ma. If you just have non-stop action with no breathing space at all, it’s just busyness. But if you take a moment, then the tension building in the film can grow into a wider dimension. If you just have constant tension at 80 degrees all the time you just get numb.

— Rogert Ebert, on Hayao Miyazaki
Yard changes

March 11, 2014

a day in this life

This was the end of my driveway last summer. Those are two Bradford pear trees with a little fruiting pear tree that I planted in between them.

Bradford pear trees grow quickly and are often used here by developers to replace what they have removed while building. But, they’re brittle, so they lose limbs easily in bad weather, and the flowers stink in the Spring. Fruit trees that don’t bear fruit make no sense to me, either.

I have planted real fruit in between the Bradfords that run down the property line between my yard and my neighbors on the left. Now, the fruiting pear tree will get more sun.

An odd thing about my Bradfords, too, is that they must have all been planted at the same time, but they get progressively small as they get further from the road.

Last Friday, we had a massive ice storm that knocked out the power all over our part of the state. Pine trees and other evergreens, including our neighbors cedar tree, magnolias and Bradford pears were snapping branches left and right. The Bradford at the end of the row, by the street, broke three time and finally gave it up.

Tree and limb guys are all over the place, making money hand over fist.

Three trucks of workers were next door,yesterday, cleaning up the neighbors’ yard. Then, they went down the street to do another yard. Before they got out of the neighborhood, Chuck caught them and they dumped ALL the wood chips they already had in the truck in our back yard, where we needed it so desperately to renew the labyrinth.

Then, they went to work on our mess.

In less than an hour, they finished. and we have another load of wood chips.

The entrance to the house looks empty, now.

And the mulch pile is impressive.
Coming home in the evening

February 5, 2014

a day in this life, Beautiful

See that little bit of pink? That’s the end of a color extravaganza that happened Wednesday as the sun went down. The light moved so fast, I didn’t have time to get my camera out to capture it.

It started with a blaring crash of hot pink and dusky purples that felt like a cymbal symphony to my eyes. Then trees loomed up and muted the whole thing. When I came around the curve and the sky opened back up, I found the violins and flutes of pale pink barely whispering across the grey kettle drums of clouds. One more curve and this.

Photographs never show the sky as magnificently as my eyes see it.
Occupy!

January 29, 2014

dancing in the field of dreams

(I found it on FaceBook from http://www.upaya.org/dharmatalks/)