“Your choice between sunrise or sunset depends on your attitude “
– Ibn Jeem
You can decide which it is…
Month: June 2019
The Boat House
A shot of a boat house sitting serenely over water near my Auckland home.
I am not a boatie or sailor by any stretch of the imagination ,but I admire those who cast off from shore,voyaging ,for adventure on the sea.
So this place appeals to me.
It is by appearance a simple,linear design,with utilitarian function.Boats are stored inside and launched from it.
But it is also the departing place for courage and dreams and happiness, and that makes it magical.
Rekindled
” In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should be thankful for those people who rekindle our inner spirit”
-Albert Schweitzer
Big House
A friend of mine who lives in Atlanta(who incidentally inadvertantly became the model for the picture in the previous post Your Nemesis, sorry mate) was kind enough to take me to this place, Big House in Macon,Georgia a couple of years ago.
It was the home and musical base for Southern Rock royalty The Allman Brothers band and their hangers on in the early 1970s and a must see for a fan like me – a totally cool shrine to them, rendered more immediate by the lots of their mundane everyday stuff – couches, beds and stereo etc. being still there ,as well as the expected guitars and gold records. A weird time warp experience.
I’m putting this up because I have been on a bit of a southern music trip of late and ,very sadly, New Orleans music great Dr. John died overnight .He was a blues/r’n’b/funk and pianist/singer legend with an unmistakable sound. This photo is about as close as I can manage in homage to him right now,but as with the Allmans ,the music will live on.
RIP Mac Rebennack.
Your Nemesis
Do you have a nemesis?
The word nemesis has a couple of dictionary meanings: “the inescapable agent of someone’s or something’s downfall” or ” a longstanding rival;an arch enemy”.
I think we probably all have that inescapable person or thing that dogs us in life.
The thing that dogged Sir Winston Churchill he actually called his “black dog” – depression.
Churchill’s daughter Mary said of him: “He himself talks of his black dog, and he did have times of depression…..Of course, if you have a black dog it lurks somewhere in your nature and you never quite banish it, but I never saw him disarmed by depression”.
Which sort of sums up a nemesis – always there or thereabouts, never gotten rid of and returning from time to time to haunt us – but I like the optimism in the final words of the quote, “never disarmed.”
Just because your nemesis remains ,it does not mean you have to lead a defeated life because of it.
Portrait : The Cowboy
“Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys”
This is not a real cowboy .
Sorry to disappoint ( but I have a feeling you may have guessed it anyway).
He is however my genuinely 21 year old today son ,pictured recently before a fancy dress party.
Congratulations! Go lasso some stars kiddo…
Light At The End Of The Tunnel (Was A Train Coming The Other Way) – Song by Richard Hawley
In my last post Not An Oncoming Train ,I touched briefly on the themes of despair and hope.
Today’s post offers up the soundtrack to my musings.
Ex-Pulp member Richard Hawley has, since leaving that band, carved a sweet career niche in noir-ish vintage music styles that sound like they were recorded pre-1960 .
This track is no exception.
However, his theme is all despair and zero hope.
There’s even train sounds at the end to reinforce the sense of grim destiny (spoiler alert!)
But impending doom has never sounded so sweet…
Not An Oncoming Train
“The light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train”
You’ve probably heard this saying before; amusing yes, cynical definitely!
The problem though, is that if you are trapped in a never ending tunnel, figuratively speaking, you do not expect to see light again, and even faint hope can look like something that will betray and smash you to pieces.
But what if it is not a train?
What if it really is the end of darkness?
The belief that the light is real and is not in fact a threat is called HOPE .
Looking Over Achilles Point: A Simple Luxury
Achilles Point is one of Auckland’s many cool vantage points and one of the places I go just to look out over the rocks ,reefs ,waves ,islands,and the constantly changing horizon.
Beautiful.
Soulful.
A simple luxury ,if that is not a contradiction in terms.
Doom Foreshadowed
Sometimes you just know it won’t end well…
ebb then flood 