Oh He's Bowie

The other evening Julian picked up his Strat and started playing a medley that lasted about 45 minutes. It was impressive, and spanned a number of decades/styles. Today's selection from that impromptu session sees Julian playing a bit of Bowie. You can tell it was impromptu because Julian was still wearing his running shorts after his road race/rage with Crazy Dave. Normally Julian wears skin tight black leather pants and a single strap leopard tank top when he plays the electric guitar!

Road Rage 2: Cuthbertson vs. Varty

My friend Crazy Dave challenged Sane Julian to a one mile run re-match. Professional psychologists suggest that a sign of insanity is to perform the same task over and over, expecting a different result each time. Last time they ran, Julian won the race. This time? Click on the image if you care to watch.

Shadowy Characters

I was admiring my shadow the other morning (not the same as narcissism) while pondering my day's fate (note: it was garbage day so I had a lot on my mind). I resolved to invite Wendy to join me for a portrait, et voila!

The Mighty Chevrolet Impala

This past weekend was 'Life At The Lakes' in Cambridge-Narrows, a festival which showcased all that we had to offer (except windsurfing). One of the events was a vintage car show. I saw cars ranging in birth date from 1929 to the present. One that caught my eye was a 1968 Impala.

The Impala caught my eye because my parents had an Impala of similar vintage. Their's may have been a 1967 model. The roof line of my parent's car was different to the one in the picture as it was more of a fast-back style. Gawd, it was a huge car. On the downside I can hardly imagine my mother driving it to the grocery store...and parking it. On the upside the trunk was commodious enough to hold a month's worth of groceries and two naughty kids (you know who you are).

Our Impala died at the watering hole like so many of the African animals after which it was named. I've been watching a lot of African wildlife documentaries lately, and I've learned that the watering hole is a dangerous place for most animals. Our Impala was once roaming the American Serengeti (Maine, I believe) when it became apparent that the radiator was down a few pints. A garage crocodile added cold water to our radiator and it cracked the engine block. Our Impala died soon after that attack.

Amazingly our next car was a tiny 1972 or '73 Mazda RX-2....a Wankel powered piece of engineering. The rotary engine was extremely responsive and fun to drive. Being rear wheel drive it was a riot to drive in the snow because you could slide the back end around corners. It was as close to driving a rally car as we ever got (and lord knows I drove it like a rally car!).

It's amazing to look back at the cars that we used to drive and then look at the cars that we drive today. The cars of the past were unreliable, but fun. The cars of today are full of safety features and incredibly reliable, but there's little sense of adventure. I can see why people like to keep these antique cars alive. Ahhhh...memories.

August Flowers

Here's a collection of the August flowers in my garden. The flowers were photographed on the morning of August 9.

The Landscape Narcissist

Narcissism is the pursuit of gratification from vanity, or egotistic admiration of one's own physical attributes, that derive from arrogant pride. The term originated in Greek mythology with Narcissus, who fell in love with his own image reflected in a pool of water.

I borrowed the above information from Wikipedia, just to prove to my lovely self that I'm not a narcissist. I'm not in love with my own reflection or image, but I am in love with the landscape that surrounds me. I'm in love with the trees the skies, the water, the shadows, the light..

Oh, lucky me, to wake up every morning and run to the window to see what bounty awaits me. I'm never disappointed, even when it rains or snows. I am profoundly lucky to love where I live. Almost ironically, the highlight of my year is my visit to les Îles de la Madelaine, when I'm gone from this place. That aside, the real highlight of my life is living somewhere that inspires me visually. I would be remiss not to mention the other equally important highlight of my life...my family. If you love where you live and enjoy the company of your immediate family and/or friends, then you're doing quite well.

So, how does your life stack up in this department? It's time for you to put down the mirror (you narcissistic bastards), and take a look around you. Do you love the landscape of your life?

The Emasculation Of Icons

We humans have a propensity toward taking things that are giant, bold and/or dangerous, and making them cute or manageable. There are countless examples, so let's look at a few.

The polar bear, a blood thirsty carnivore that would rip you to shreds with impunity, now likes to wear sunglasses and drink Coke. Soon he'll have 'the o-be-dees' (diabetes) from all that unhealthy sugar water.

The brown bear, an impressive omnivore, is now morbidly obese from eating teen burgers at A&W. He likes to wear an orange sweater with matching tam. He calls himself 'the Root Bear'. Time to hibernate permanently, I say, or at the very least order the salad at the drive-thru.

The Dodge Ram truck has for a icon a big-horn sheep. You'll see little big-horn sheep statuettes mounted on the front of tough guys' truck hoods. Most of these guys have never seen a big horn sheep, and you know damn well if they butted bumpers with another 'Ram tough' truck their air bags would inflate into large fluffy pillows.and everyone would be just fine. Later they'd all meet at a country bar for a Bud Light. The place would be crawling with tractor driving, super-models, needless to say.

Today's image shows a lighthouse that may well have saved the lives of countless sailors. The one pictured at left stands on the shore of the big lake we call Gitche Gumee. It's been battered by storms for decades yet it stands tall and proud. The image to the right is also of a lighthouse, though it has been greatly reduced in stature and importance. It's now a cutesy bird feeder that I spotted in a Cambridge-Narrows backyard. I'm not sure if it's intended to attract puffins or gannets (given the nature of its design) or simply meant for pigeons.