Saturday Night Soup for the Soul (26)

ild flowers, especially those that spring forth in an arid environment are such a joy. I shot quite a few pix of such flowers along the eastern banks of the Columbia Gorge in April. Can anyone ID this beauty for me? One of the hallmarks of the flood are the boulders strewn across the landscape. There are places in eastern Washington where the rolling landscape, made up of “ripples” that are ¼ mile between the peek and the trough of the ripples (caused by waves that were 100’s of feet high) is littered with boulders sitting in the middle of no where that are the size of a house. These are the “pebbles” carried by the flood. Here we see but a grain of sand. Waiting for the Son? At first flash of Eden, we race down to the sea. Standing there on freedoms shore. Waiting for the sun Waiting for the sun Waiting for the sun Can you feel it now that spring has come? And its time to live in the scattered sun. Waiting for the sun Waiting for the sun Waiting for the sun Waiting Waiting Waiting Waiting Waiting Waiting Waiting Waiting Waiting for you to come along Waiting for you to hear my song Waiting for you to - tell me what went wrong This is the strangest life Ive ever known Yeah! As you can tell, I was facinated with the the huge massive chunk of lava that juts out into the Columbia River that I wrote about last week. It withstood the cataclysmic ice age floods, with waves 350 feet high that tore through everything else in its path. I like that. The immovable object. I feel your heat and dusty whispers on the open road This apparently neverendimg Road Trip Diary damned well better end next week at Stonehenge. In the mean time, come in, sit anywhere you like, and have a bowl of audio soup for the soul. 1. Waiting for the Sun is from the Doors Morrison Hotel LP. I have a love/hate relationship with the Doors. Or more specifically, their iconic heart and soul, the late and great Jim Morrison. The problem is that he was an alcoholic. No, I am not one of those: prissy, preachy tea totaler. Hell’s bells, I was a bit toasted last night at Rickys on some fine Hungarian sweet red wine. But taken to excess, alcoholism seems to go with a sloppy and insensitive personality type that is repulsive to me. Like that clip of the Hoff slobbering on the greasy hamburger that made the media rounds last month. All addictions (substance or behavior driven) seem to match up to personality types. One could argue that I am being hypocritical since I am no stranger to addictions, or perhaps that this sounds like a personal problem. I plead Nolo contendere. Okay, now I can jump down from my soap box and tell you that at his best, Jim Morrison was knock-out swaggeringly stunning. This song brings back memories of a adolescent summer, and of a leather bar. This is very homo erotic music for me, and more than a little of the S&M leather scene. Big fricking time. ‘Nuff said about that. 2. Another Country is from Electric Flag's “A Long Time Comin’”. Damn. This is one of the all time lost masterpieces from the Psychedelic genre. It is all that, and blues, Memphis Soul. Holding it all together is the burning guitarist Mike Bloomfield. Bloomfield is all over Dylan’s legendary Highway 61 Revisited (Like a Rolling Stone). Another Country even has clips of LBJ’s Vietnam War speeches woven into the Psychedelic center of the song. If you are not familiar with this song, have a listen. It is absolutely a masterpiece. 3. Trans Lunar Rising comes from a CD titled Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest by The Fireman. I featured this CD once before on Saturday Night Soup back on February 17, 2007. It just seems to make emotional sense to use thsi sister track as a soup garnish today. All of this makes it's way into this week's soup. You can get your bowl of Saturday Night Soul for the Soul by clicking the jukebox.

Signs of Spring: 2010 Edition (4)

Rhododendron "Vibrant Violet" and Dillodaffs Rhododendron "Unique" (above and below)

"Baptism in the Swamp"

I sketched this painting out on canvas, before I started painting it, in the midst of a torrential downpour. I've never lived in a place that rained so much, even in Hawaii. Even when it's not raining, water seems to just bubble up from the ground everywhere. Properties advertised as "Water Front" usually mean "Swamp Front". The ground sort of oozes up water as you slosh through it. Being from Southern California it seems odd to me that I never see anyone watering their lawn or plants, and I have seen a single sprinkler since I've been here. Swamps, pools, rivers and lakes seem to surround Savannah (all of them with alligators living in them), but people value them knowing they're the main line of defense against hurricanes and flooding. So the word "swamp" has become part of my everyday vocabulary, life, and experience. "Baptism In The Swamp"24"x 30" Acrylic on Canvas Swampily, TONY

"The Patron Saint of Schizophrenics"

This is the latest in my "Made Up Saints" series. Others have included:- The Patron Saint of Chain Smokers- The Patron Saint of Ants The Patron Saint of Chihuahuas -The Patron Saint of Gardenias- The Patron Saint of Painters- The Patron Saint of AIDS Prevention -The Patron Saint of Parrots -The Patron Saint of Bamboo- The Patron Saint of Dogs  And this is: "The Patron Saint of Schizophrenics" 24" x 24" Copperleaf and Acrylic on Birch Wood Wishing you good mental health, TONY

San Corazon (Saint Heart)

This is the latest in my series of made-up and make-believe saints, which have included Saint Chihuahua, San Homo, and The Patron Saint of Ants, among others.   This is: "San Corazon" (Saint Heart) 20" x30" Silverleaf and Acrylic on Canvas   No Saint By Any Means, TONY

"Island Girl"

Last week, out of the blue, a 90 year old lady I knew when I lived in Hawaii, sent me an unexpected package filled with all sorts of gifts from Hawaii. An aloha shirt, short sleeve and long sleeve T-shirts, macademia nuts, a 2009 calendar of Hawaiian flowers, Kona coffee and guava jam. It made me a little homesick for Hawaii, and undoubtly inspired me to start work on this painting. I know I wouldn't have painted it had I not received that package. This is how I envision that little old lady as having looked, many years ago. "Island Girl" 24" x 24" Acrylic on Birch Wood Aloha, TONY

Saturday Night Soup for the Soul (29)

he summer is here, and this weekly column (but not the entire blog) goes on summer break. I started a long string of summer tasks today (a complete head to toe physical) and had good news: negative on one of two big "C" tests (the up-the-butt periscope). Good now for ten years (or so they say). Now I am waiting for the PSA test. Prostate cancer does run in the family so that is the more worrisome. Blood chemestry was off on a few key indicators (not bad, but not good). I will deal with that this summer. Open your heart, open your mind A train is leaving all day A wonderful trip through our time And laughter is all U pay Around the world in a day Around the world in a day Around the world in a day I will be in classes all summer (computer stuff) so that will be sucking a lot of my brain out. I have TONS of cleaning and tossing to do here and a whole series of landscaping chores to tend to. Putting on a new roof. Want to get new rugs but doubt I'll have the energy for that. Now dig Loneliness already knows U There ain't no reason 2 stay Come here and take my hand, I'll show U I think I know a better way, y'all Around the world in a day (listen 2 me, babe) Around the world in a day (all the babies sing it now) The little 1 will escort U 2 places within your mind The former is red, white, and blue The ladder is purple, come on and climb Around the world in a dayAround the world in a day come on, sing Around the world in a day Say papa, I think I wanna dance I will be building a monster PC this summer (4 gig, quad processor). I will be answering my backlog of 150 emails. If you want to contact me, email me (addr is on my profile) and I will answer. Until September, Tony will keep this blog alive by posting his paintings. Here is the last bowl of soup until September (or until a guest chef, or myself if time allows, cooks up another). Yes, this pot like most is loaded with a subcurrent of deep personal meaning. 1. Bookends Theme is the opening track of Simon and Garfunkle’s LP of the same name. My placing this bit here as an overture will make thematic sense about 20 bowls of soup from now. Benjamin Levi Rides again. Take it Tony. Calling all cryptographers. 2. Around the World in a Day is title track from this Prince LP of the same name. Think psychedelic meets James Brown. Very underrated. I love the lyrics, and what they speak of. A journey around the world as a metaphor for an inner journey of change, and of transition. This describes what I am also doing with my summer in the non-material realm. This piece brings back a lot of memories of living in San Francisco in the mid 1980's. Last night I had a pleasent dream about Kelly and his cat Butch, someone I knew back then. 3. Underture is from the Who's wonderful "rock opera" Tommy. This is a soaring instrumental which fits into the "astral journey" theme I am striking. When you try to breach the gravitational pull of earth, you must reach a sufficiently high velocity to enter space. This music closes in on that escape velocity. 4. Mumbo and 5. Higher Mumbo occupy special places in my heart. The first is from Paul McCartney's first Wings LP: Wildlife. Having recovered from his Beatles breakup breakdown, he decided to rebuild his career from the ground floor: from a band of relative unknowns (as opposed to a pack of bloated so called superstars resting on their laurels), and to gig at randomly picked pubs and student union buildings by funky bus and van with the kids and the dogs. They would arrive unannounced and with zero fanfare. Mumbo starts with Paul yelling "take it Tony" just as the engineer engages the record button on the tape. The song as such is little more than a live rehearsal jam, with Paul screaming nonsensical bits of syllables that occasionally sound like mumbled words. A funky beginning to his band that followed the Beatles. The “start from scratch” aspect appeals to my own artistic instincts. In 2005 he authorized The Freelance Hellraiser to remix some of his back catalog into a potent mash up. It was released as Twin Freaks. Mumbo is one of the standouts of this project for me. This is hyper high energy cardo workout material in free of earth’s gravitational chains and in orbit. Hell yes! All of this makes it's way into this week's soup. You can get your bowl of Saturday Night Soul for the Soul by clicking the jukebox.

"Virgin of Hollywood" (Santa Maria de la Hollywood)

This is a conglomeration of images from my past, from the Virgin to my friends and family, to part of the Hollywood sign to the Spanish Moss-draped oak trees I'm surrounded by today. "Virgin of Hollywood" 24" x 30" Acrylic on Canvas Peace to all, TONY

"Park Encounter"

This is based on the park I walk my dogs through every other day, with a simplified version of Savannah’s most famous landmark in the background, the fountain. I’m not really sure what I’ve portrayed these people doing, or why there’s a fish in a bowl on the ground….but there they are. Just like most of the people I see in that park, I’m not sure why they’re there or what they’re doing, but there they are. “Park Encounter” 24” x 30” Acrylic on Canvas Close Encounters of the Park Kind, TONY

Saturday Nite Soup for the Soul (02)

week of subtle consequence. We approach the fateful moment when the grand coronation of Sir All Omnipotent Darkness is to be held, and his first proclamation is the banishment of all that is light, as the destiny fanfare of his new reign heralds the age of darkness. But the best laid plans can, and do go awry. At this very heart of this black apex, lie the resurrection of light, and therefore the seeds of destruction of darkness. This week's countdown to the winter solstice brings the dawn of the age of mammals, modestly existing in the margins of the last days of the Terrible Lizards who spoil the earth. This I witnessed: In a self created artificial atmosphere of Sturm und Drang, Tyrannosaurus Rex Junior continued to stomp and skulk about the landscape, destined to never possess the one intangible that his heart most longs for in this world. But all this has already faded away to inconsequence. The age of dinosaurs vanishes in the rear view mirror of history, and the age of mammals is already begun. "I've got new eyes, everything looks far away" We had two terrible storms here on the northern pacific coast of the American continent. Trees upended, wires down, decks blow off, windows blown in, fences blown down, trees uprooted. My own home suffered minor to moderate roof damage. And in this storm, not one, but two voices from the past arrived, unexpectedly rentering the story line. Young Eric. A friend from the past. Friendship ruptured by me. Good reasons? Yes...and no. Worth the cost? In retrospect, I think not worth it, but I cannot really say. He appeared in a vivid dream last Sunday night. In this dream, Young Eric asked me why I had never called him. "The shadow in the mist could have been anyone."   I had tried to email him, last summer, but I used an old inactive address and my words went off into techno void. I had not realized that I had his phone number until the next night following the dream, when I searched and found that I did indeed posses an old number.   So I called and am glad that I did. But I said that there were two voices. There were. Charles sent a Christmas card. No return address, of course . Hum... All of this makes it's way into this weeks soup.   You can get your  bowl of Saturday Night  Soup for the Soul  by clicking the jukebox. 1. SHOSTAKOVICH SYMPHONY SIX, MOVEMENT ONE (LARGO) -- This piece is from 1940 during false calm on the Easter Front of the Nazi Soviet ‘Peace Pact”, when the two most treacherous dictators of the 20th century agreed to “be friends”, and to divide up and to devour the nations and peoples of eastern Europe. Shostakovich composed this deeply personal music about his own soul, in deep, deep, hiding for survival. The flute motif is his singular soul, his heart beating, deep in cover, deep in hiding. =======================================================2. HIGHLANDS -- Bob Dylan's 1997 masterpiece. Well, my heart's in the Highlands at the break of day. Over the hills and far away. There's a way to get there, and I'll figure it out somehow. But I'm already there in my mind, and that's good enough for now. =======================================================3. COMIN' BACK TO ME -- This piece by the Jefferson Airplane (1967 "Surrealistic Pillow") brings back ancient memories of childhood to me. This song is about people returning into one's life.