‘Zoom In (All Seeing Eye)’
I had just been listening to jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter’s adventurous 1966 album “The All Seeing Eye”, when I saw ( and saw through to the building behind) the pictured glass sculpture in downtown Auckland.The sculpture zooms in to the world beyond – an all seeing eye.
Strange when two very different art forms conflate in one’s mind!
‘The Dead Don’t Dream’
This post is inspired by the title of the latest album by Finnish jazz trumpeter Verneri Pohjola,‘The Dead Don’t Dream’.
I have come across Pohjola’s amazing modern music quite recently and have been mightily impressed by what I have heard.
The musician was talking about the making of the album (dreaming it into existence as he termed it) and remarked that “it’s about embracing life in all of its complex emotions, while we still have it … after all, the dead don’t dream”.
He nailed it for me with that statement.
To live is to truly engage, and to dream. You may as well be dead otherwise.
You can listen to the tune behind the thoughts below (via YouTube):
“Cats have it all – admiration, endless sleep and company only when they want it”
– Rod McKuen
It’s August ,and being a Leo myself, it’s feline time.
Pictured is our, now sadly gone, family cat Mingus (named for the Afro-American jazz great Charles Mingus), who was an excellent sleeper but great company too when he actually woke (and wanted it).
I was even suckered into this admiring shot while he slept in the sun…damn!
A very idiosyncratic beast he was. Preferred human food over cat food and could sense when someone was sick, and stay close by. Liked music.He was a La Perm breed (aka the “Alpaca Cat”); had unusual wool-like fur that would freak people out a bit when touching it.
A story about the cat and his name: I watched the 1968 black and white documentary on Mingus (the jazz one) with a friend in London. In the doco, Charlie wanders around his New York loft muttering random stuff and at one point fires a loaded rifle into the ceiling, bringing down paint and dust. Just a little unhinged, really. Years later we had just got Mingus (the feline), and I told my friend his name over the phone. He asked whether he was black. I said, no, just slightly crazy..
Ok, done.This blog’s sole cat meme is officially out of the way…
Ebb Then Flood 