Dune Pondering

Note from somewhere on Highway 101…

So, with my year’s project done way ahead of schedule, I have to ask myself, what now? What new rabbit do I pull out of the hat? I know it includes blood and jello and fairy tales, but how do I turn this unholy mess of an idea that’s in my head into art?

I don’t do my best work at home; too quiet, too many chores, or just the ample ways and means to lose direction and focus. When I was a student with papers to write and pages to memorize, I would head for the coffeehouse to focus and write cogently. To be fair, I still head for the coffeehouse to write, but even better is to hit the road. I had planned a camping trip to the coast and the weather complied, so I was off with a bag full of gear and an iPod to contemplate the weighty issues of life, art, and everything else tumbling around the brain. Photographs are always going to be part of the equation and ostensibly, I went to write as well. But what I often spend more time on is just thinking, pondering and rolling problems around in my head and looking at all the planes and angles…

 

Somebody must’ve gotten hurt a lot, by somebody crueler than you thought, now you’ve got the evil eye, o that awful evil eye…

 

An SOS from an outpost there on a common air, I could read you an account of a last frontier…

 

Come find me now, we’ll hide out, we’ll speak in our secret tongues…

 

You can burn the midnight oil with me as long as you will stare out at the moon upon the windowsill and dream…

 

Cause when the loving starts and the sun goes down, there’s not another living soul around, you woo me until the sun comes up and you say that you love me…

 

And she smiles the secret smile because she knows exactly how to carry on, so run baby run baby run baby run…

 

 

Are you truly deeply cynical, cause boy you know I loved you so when no one knew your name and you were pompous…

 

After nine days, I let the horse run free because the desert had turned to sea, there were plants and birds and rocks and things, there was sand and hills and rings…

 

I’m in love for the first time, don’t you know it’s gonna last, it’s a love that has no future, it’s a love that has no past…

 

Whip crack went his schwumpy tail, and the beast was done, he asked us, “be you angels?” and we said, “nay, we are but men”. Rock!…

 

Take your time, hurry up, the choice is yours, don’t be late, take a rest, as a friend, as an old memory…

 

Pick up the phone, leave her alone, it’s time you made a stand, for a fee, I’m happy to be your backdoor man…

 

But that’s the way I like it baby, I don’t want to live forever…

 

 

One the these days and it won’t be long, call my name and I’ll be gone, fare thee well, o honey, fare thee well…

 

 

Did I get any writing done? Some; and a the new project has a bit more shape. But even if I did nothing but lay around under the trees and think deep thoughts (and I’m not admitting that I did), it was worth it to be out in nature. How rare seems a sunny season in the Pacific Northwest…

 

On the iPod: Josh Ritter, Evil Eye; Beck, Blackbird Chain; Frightened Rabbit, The Woodpile; Tom Waits, Midnight Lullaby; Fleetwood Mac, Say That You Love Me; Sheryl Crow, Run Baby Run; Cracker, Get Off This; Horse With No Name, America; Beatles, Don’t Let Me Down; Tenacious D, Tribute; Nirvana, Come As You Are; AC/DC, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap; Motorhead, Ace of Spades; Oscar Issac, Fare Thee Well