UPDATED 7/3/23 8:30 pm ET
Was just outside in the field - nothing yet.While there, I met guy who saw last night's big orange Moon and said he saw it about 9-9:30.
EXTRA...EXTRA: TONIGHT'S the night to view the first of several 2023 SUPERMOONS
WHEN TO VIEW: TODAY JULY 3 - look towards the southeast after sunset to watch it rise up into the evening sky.
[from article] July’s full moon, a.k.a, "SUPER MOON," BUCK MOON," and "BLUE MOON," will be biggest on the nights of Sunday July 2 and Monday July 3. According to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, the moon will hit its peak illumination at 7:39 a.m. on Monday July 3.
It will be below the horizon at that precise moment, the Almanac said, so plan to look towards the southeast after sunset to watch it rise up into the evening sky.
Now on with today's MUSIC-FILLED show...Soooo many orbits...paths to take...mellow...raucous...
First up is a country tune I heard after I'd written the post. It contains such simple and profound wisdom, great finger pickin' and cool animation...that I'm leading off with it...
How 'bout startin' with a "SINthesis"? Moons, Wolves, Blues, Grateful Dead...
This first song was part of an email exchange with my friend Steve who lives out at the end of this island. I've mentioned him before...A fellow surfer...was part of our expedition to Callie in 1969...the one where we and other friends watched the first landin' on the Moon in a Sir George's Smorgasbord restaurant near the Pacific Coast Highway...A fellow V-Duber (he had a Beetle, I a Bus), Steve introduced me to the art of what he liked to call "playing with cars"...This became my career path...I still have my first automotive Bible (C below). THANKS, FRIEND!!!
In this musical exchange between two "Friends of Jerry," Steve introduced me to two new songs that our band covered and performed: "Werewolves of London" and "Smokestack Lightning." As part of my "job," I love learning about the history and backstories of both the music and the artists who created the tunes.
Where a Wolf??? EVERYWHERE from the UK to the USA
Bit of a werewolf fest with the Grateful Dead....This YouTuber ALWAYS delivers!!!
See how many TV shows and films you can find among his CREATUREtivity...
(Here are some hints...)
...AND laffs GORE lore...
The SHE Wolf's got you under her thumb...
Dylan
Tom Thumb Blues
Sweet Melinda
The peasants call her the goddess of gloom
She speaks good English
And she invites you up into her room
And you're so kind
And careful not to go to her too soon
And she takes your voice
And leaves you howling at the moon.
--Ramblin' Jack, Judy Collins, Neil Young, Grateful Dead, Nina Simone, Linda Ronstadt, Bryan Ferry and Jim Byrnes are just a few of the artists who have covered this Bob Dylan song.
"Hears" this ode sung with a woman's voice...
As I listened again to these words,
"I'm going back to New York City...I do believe I've had enough..."
I was reminded of my 1975 decision to leave a good-paying state job in California and move back to New York. See, I went there as part of my attempts to "find myself"...Seems, what I was looking for, wasn't there. Although, I was able to complete my undergraduate education...3 colleges and 10 years later...
What I didn't know...was that this decision would lead to a most important one - to join my hands and heart to Eileen. Later, she would say that she KNEW I'd be back for her. Though we had dated prior to leaving for the Coast, I didn't know...
The "I do believe" was transformed into a mutual exchange of rings and "I DO's"
Children's Bedtime Stories
Eileen and I always enjoyed reading this with John. Part of the fun was trying the find the mouse on each page...
As I watched again, I can see what as a "friend of Jerry" I saw connections to the animal lore in our tribe...For starters, there are the three little bears...Next, there's artist Stanley Mouse...AND, there's even a white rabbit...
I chose this clip from his tale because of my surfin' safari years. It also reminded me of the Moondoggie character from the 1959 film Gidget.
Let's Change our Vantage Point...Astronauts...Earthrise...
--includes 6:46 video taken from that historic flight
Be sure to EXPAND the video for maximum impace
On December 24, 1968, Apollo 8 astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders became the first humans to witness the Earth rising above the moon's barren surface. Now we can relive the astronauts' experience, thanks to data from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
In the audio track from this voyage, the words "far side of the Moon" were mentioned.
Here's a fitting song...You're on your own for Pink Floyd's space adventures...
Let's Change our Vantage Point...CosmicNauts...
...the Dark Side of the Grateful Dead Moon...
"Standing on the Moon"
The best, most affecting song from what proved to be the Dead’s final studio album, this gentle ballad features perhaps Garcia’s finest latter-day vocal. In his memoir, Lesh noted, “Jerry … had started using again” during the Built to Last sessions, which he called “a brier patch of egotistical contention.” But Garcia, working from a sensitive Hunter lyric about a homesick space traveler, transcended — or utilized — those troubles to sing with heartbreaking poignancy. In concert, he’d repeat the line “be with you” with sacred fervor, summoning a strength that was in sadly short supply elsewhere in his life.
SOURCE: RollingStone (Aug. 6, 2020 - part of the annual Jerry Garcia Week celebrations)
Standing On The Moon was first performed by the Grateful Dead on February 5, 1989. It was then played regularly through to the last performance of the song in June 1995. In total the song was played just over 50 times.
Robert Hunter commented on the creation of Standing On The Moon in an interview with Steve Silberman;
Standing On The Moon was one of those neat, sweet, quick things, like It Must Have Been The Roses, where the whole picture just came to me, and I grabbed a piece of paper and got it down. No changes, no nothin'. Out of the head of Zeus, full-born and clad in armor.
Jerry Garcia spoke about Standing On The Moon in an interview with Blair Jackson in 1989;
.... it's one of those thing where I don't know what it is I like about it, but there's something I like about it very much. It's an emotional reality; it isn't linguistics. It's something about that moment of the soul. To have those words coming out of my mouth puts me in a very specific place, and there's a certain authenticity there that I didn't want to disturb. By keeping it simple it allows what actually produced the song to be visible as possible to the listener, so just the song is there.
- go to 1:54:00 (ending at 2:04:12) to hear his last performance of
Standing on the Moon...a moon-ful...mournful tune...
- I chose it because it's a live performance...Jerry would leave Earth in just a few short weeks..."Who knows where the time goes?"
IF we can do amazing feats like stand on the Moon, WHY can't we live IN PEACE with one another here on Earth???
Jerry, a few years earlier...
Now, let's switch the singer's gender...
There are so many other covers...BUT, I fell under the spell of the graphics in this one...Ahh...Ooooo!!!
"It's the same story the CROW told me..."
From my license plate collection...
DIRE WOLF
(Can't-make-this-stuff-up department and NO it's not in the inside after-show gift shop...or the outside one (parking lot)...
The dire wolf (Aenocyon dirus[10]/iːˈnɒsaɪ.ɒnˈdaɪrəs/) is an extinct canine. It is one of the most famous prehistoric carnivores in North America, along with its extinct competitor Smilodon. The dire wolf lived in the Americas and eastern Asia during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene epochs (125,000–9,500 years ago). The species was named in 1858, four years after the first specimen had been found. Two subspecies are recognized: Aenocyon dirus guildayi and Aenocyon dirus dirus. The largest collection of its fossils has been obtained from the Rancho La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles. SOURCE: Wikipedia
His descendants have been seen lurking around LA's club scene...
Next, also from my license plate collection
Let's Climb a Little Higher to the Mountains of the Moon
--While their acoustic musicianship is "Grate," I couldn't help be disturbed by the predatory nature of the business that hosted them...Yet another example of night club wolves...these dressed in tuxedos...
"It's a buck dancer's choice my friend..."
Just 'cause the word "buck" appears in the lyrics...
Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band plays a Grateful Dead cover "Uncle John's Band" live at Susquehanna Bank Center, Camden, NJ on 6/20/2009.
Stay til the end for his comments...That party was JUST gettin' started...
Mellow...Yellow...BLUE...
Just because...
LIFTOFF...
Gonna send us off...with a favorite artist playing a favorite instrument of transformation - the HANDPAN. I'm drafting a post now that's dedicated to this amazing tool. I've been using it during my kundalini yoga practices...I do these at hOMMMMe...
I imagine our indigenous ancestors playing similarly as they marveled at the heavenly light displays...
FYI - If reversed, the didgeridoo can be used as a telescope...
The didgeridoo is a wind instrument, played with vibrating lips to produce a continuous drone while using a special breathing technique called circular breathing. The didgeridoo was developed by Aboriginal peoples of northern Australia at least 1,000 years ago, and is now in use around the world, though still most strongly associated with Indigenous Australian music.Wikipedia
Malte Marten on the pan & Alexander Mercks on the "tube"...Collectively, they're know as "Yatao."
Grateful Dead...After Hours
"I see all of Southeast Asia
I can see El Salvador
I hear the cries of children
And the other songs of war
It's like a mighty melody
That rings down from the sky
Standing here upon the moon
I watch it all roll by - all roll by"
--"Standing on the Moon"
"Children" - Sadly, they are also to be counted among the casualties of war...whether directly, as in their deaths...or, indirectly, in the deaths of their parents and other caregivers...
As Dylan laments in "Blowin' in the Wind",
"How many deaths will it take til we know that too many people have died...?"