Black Snake Moan

This has been a familiar scene this spring and, to date, for the beginning of summer as well. Just a few kilometers south of here this system spawned a tornado but here in the city was limited to a pretty good light show with lots of noise and a short downpour or two.

Black Snake Moan is the title song from the movie of the same name. It came to mind because Samuel L. Jackson performs it during a thunder storm. Watch the video on YouTube. This is the second time I 've used a song from this movie, the other being When The Lights Go Out.

Things Have Changed

This image was taken from the same spot as the one of two posts ago only this time looking northwest. The dormers and adjoining wall below are actually a facade on the John Labbat Centre which was built a few short years ago. They were preserved as a compromise when the heritage people protested that the loss of the historic Talbot Block buildings was unacceptable.

Things Have Changed is by Bob Dylan who I saw two and a half years ago in this same building. Watch the video on YouTube.

Oh, Pretty Woman

There was a Children's Festival at a nearby park on the weekend so I stopped by with my camera. The image of this lovely young lady was better than anything I captured of the kiddies however.

Inspired by Ted's recent work, I thought I'd try a painterly effect although this is more subtle than his. And I did mine the hard way, without the Alien Skin plugin which I did try but found way too slow on my G5 iMac. Yes, I know, there's my impatience showing again. Anyway, I'm not sure if this is, in fact, too subtle in this small version but I'll let you be the judge of that.

Oh, Pretty Woman is, of course, by the incomparable Roy Orbison. If there's one song that can immediately transport me back to the nostalgic sixties this is it. In fact those distinctive first four drum beats along with the following five notes are as recognizable as any song of the era. Released in 1964, when I was an angst filled 17 year old, Oh, Pretty Woman rocketed to number 1 in record time. And even now, despite the intervening 45 years, that opening still brings back a flood of memories.

Found this performance on YouTube taken from Orbison's 1998 Black & White Night concert. If you watch closely you may see on stage Bruce Springsteen, K.D. Lang, Jennifer Warnes, Bonnie Rait, Jackson Brown, Tom Waite and Elvis Costello among others. If you get a chance to view the whole concert it's well worth a watch.

Bright Side of the Road

This is the view looking north, and up, from one of my favourite hangouts in the summer, Covent Garden Market in downtown London.

This was taken on one of the rare sunny days that we've enjoyed recently. It's been a very wet spring but on the upside everything looks very lush and green. Too bad we can't send some of our weather westward where they are experiencing a severe drought.

Bright Side of the Road is by Van Morrison and I have it on Into The Music from 1979. Hear it on Deezer.

When Things Go Wrong

An image from the archives.  Just wanted to post something as I haven't been here for a while.  Had a little accident and been very busy with my concert.  I'd planned on getting some pictures at the concert on Sunday but I couldn't hold or work my camera  because last Thursday, just before midnight, I tripped and fell while carrying a large pot of very hot stew.   This resulted in burns to my face, head and right forearm and hand.  I also received numerous abrasions and a hairline fracture of the left shoulder.  So with an immobile left arm and my right hand completely covered in bandages, taking pictures was out of the question as was my plan to join in on the jam at the concert.  Guess my musical debut will have to wait until next year.  

It's now been a week and I am healing nicely.  The shoulder gets a little better each day and my hand is only half covered in bandages as of the nurse's visit this morning.   Have been cooped up in the apartment all week so look forward to heading out for a coffee this afternoon.

When Things Go Wrong is by Tampa Red and I have it on the four disc, 100 song set When The Sun Goes Down, sort of a historical perspective on the blues/jazz.  Hear it on YouTube.

Come Together

This is a composite made up of bits and pieces from my graffiti series of a couple of years ago. A few weeks ago a friend asked if he could have a copy printed up to give to his son. I agreed and although I didn't see the image he said everyone who saw it thought it was great. This gave me the idea to get another print, 24" x 24", made up as a raffle prize for the charity concert I'm organizing for next week. When I took it in to the framing store, the owner recognized it and when I told him it was my work he said he'd like a copy to sell in the store. And so I made my first real sale. Well it was barter actually because I said he could have a copy for the cost of the frame. I told him I had lots more where that came from and gave him the address of my web site and blog. So, who knows, this could be the start of something. See more graffiti pics here.

Come Together is a Beatles tune, but my favourite is a rendition is by Joe Cocker's. Watch the video as performed in the movie Across The Universe.

SoFoBoMo - HELP!

After considerable effort I managed to get my pdf file down to 15.2 Mb.  No problem I thought, only got to get rid of .2  Mb and I can upload and be done with it. So I went back, made the image files A LOT smaller, again, and ended up with 15.5 Mb.  What the hell is that all about?  And here I thought I was done.  Any ideas folks?   I am converting to pdf by using the print command in Word for Mac by the way.

Never mind.  I downloaded  Compress PDF Workflow 4.0 at the Apple site.  It was on the third page of my Google search for Mac pdf compression software but I finally found it.  It added a 'Compress PDF' option to the Print menu and after applying it the file was 1.1 Mb.  So, I waisted a lot of time but I'm done with it.   There are problems with the final product, like the cover for example, which was supposed to be full bleed but I don't care at this stage.  I just want to move on.  Yipee, NoMoSoFoBoMo, at least until next year if I'm crazy enough to give it another try.  After all, I've figured it all out now haven't I?  I mean, what could go wrong?

Safari crashed after 45 minutes so nothing is on SoFoBoMo yet.  I did manage to get it on Issuu however and now the last page is missing and the final image became the back cover and the image quality is poor and....  Oh well, like I said above I don't care.

2 hours later:

Okay maybe I do care.  My children discovered my book and pointed out even more errors.  Turns out that in my hurry to be done I uploaded the wrong file.  That's been corrected. There are still problems but they're fewer.