Hello? Goodbye! by Lake Street Dive

I’m digging this band right now! Rachael Price has a fantastic voice. This video doesn’t have the best sound quality, but it’s fun and I love this song. Also, I find it amusing that the abbreviation for the band is LSD…

Girls Rock!

“Chippy Heads West” by Hope Arden, Plasticine

Hope & Chippy

Off the Map

Even though I lost interest in television years ago, I still enjoy watching movies. I usually borrow DVDs from the library. I often have little idea what I’m getting into and this is a hit-or-miss way of film watching. Still, I come across some very interesting films by this open-minded way of selecting DVDs. The film Off the Map captured my attention immediately with its cinematography—stunning cloudscapes of New Mexico's desert—and unusual characters that I can’t help admire.

I’m captivated by off-grid living and ways of being that are more in tune with nature. The way the couple in the film respectfully parent their daughter, Bo, in many ways, is what I aspire to accomplish with my own daughter. In fact, I don’t think they ever say “No” to their daughter—ever. Bo says and does as she pleases. She has a mind of her own that tends toward imaginative thinking and a thoughtful/loving nature. She does do a few alarming things though that her mother, Arlene, handles with grace and calm. In fact, I’m not sure anyone could be as non-reactive and relaxed as Arlene is portrayed, which leads to my favourite scene in the film…

William, the IRS agent that is sent to audit the family, has an allergic reaction to a bee sting and finds himself at the mercy of this unconventional family. As he’s recovering, he can’t help but fall in love with the beauty of the desert and the free-spirited Arlene. When he declares that he’s in love with Arlene and cannot hide it, she says, “That’s good.” There’s no ego in her response, it’s that she understands how love happens when your heart opens up to life. She tells William that New Mexico is a powerful place and that he should take as much time as he needs (and remain with the family) until he gets his bearings. When he asks if her husband will mind, she confidently says no. Later in the film, it’s apparent that the husband is as benevolent as Arlene is. He makes his own brotherly (fatherly?) connection with William that is most loving and healing for everyone involved. 

Off the Map trailers.

Ocean Lore

Image source: unknown

But more wonderful than the lore of old men and the lore of books is the secret lore of ocean. Blue, green, grey, white, or black; smooth, ruffled, or mountainous; that ocean is not silent. All my days have I watched it and listened to it, and I know it well. At first it told to me only the plain little tales of calm beaches and near ports, but with the years it grew more friendly and spoke of other things; of things more strange and more distant in space and in time. Sometimes at twilight the grey vapours of the horizon have parted to grant me glimpses of the ways beyond; and sometimes at night the deep waters of the sea have grown clear and phosphorescent, to grant me glimpses of the ways beneath. And these glimpses have been as often of the ways that were and the ways that might be, as of the ways that are; for ocean is more ancient than the mountains, and freighted with the memories and the dreams of Time.

—Excerpt from “The White Ship” by H. P. Lovecraft

Wisdom From the Trees

A Letter From George…

Rainy Day (Bleeding Hearts)

I Feel Eternal by Speck Mountain

“Invisible signs I have seen for days/ Close your eyes/ Let your dreams pass my way.” So… What have you been listening to? ॐ

Anticipation

Among the Trees

Photo: G. Smith

To a Poet

Wow, what a beautiful song. So lovely to play/sing, as well...