This Sunday morning, we atually slept in (that’s 7 a.m. before the dogs woke us up 🙂 ), as we came home late from the concert we attended in Boston last night. The concert was by Government Mule and featured Blackberry Smoke as the opening act.
I had not heard anything by Blackberry Smoke prior to hearing them last night and I was truly impressed with them, as their blend of Southern Rock was executed with zeal, passion and skill!
Gov’t Mule sounded fantastic, as they put on a 2+ hour show filled with a blend of orginal material and covers that just blow one’s mind. Warren Haynes played like only he can, effortlessly switching from blues to rock and even some jazz. His guitar choices, all Gibson on this night, were rather modest with a significant part of the show played on this vintage Gibson Firebird.
Gov’t Mule’s Warren Haynes
Toward the end of the show, winds started picking up and blowing through the Blue Hills Pavillion, which is right on Boston Harbor; no matter, Warren and the band were not slowed even though their hair was blowing all over the place.
With Gov’t Mule, one can always expect some amazing covers in a show, and I was not disappointed, when Warren played the opening notes of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Since I’ve Been Loving You’. Their rendition was truly stunning, putting both Warren’s guitar and vocal skills on display. Here’s and older video to get a sense of it…
It’s two weeks to go to have everything printed and framed for the small exhibit that I will have hanging for the next couple of months at the great place where I work (Red Hat). So, I will be spending most of the morning perfecting the last couple of images and printing them and then will frame those that I have printed already.
When I print any image, I put it into the drying book for at least 24 hours to ensure that any moisture from the ink is pulled out of the print and not trapped behind glass and possibly cause warping or other issues longer term.
As most of you are aware, the exhibit will feature the Yoga Tree, in all her beauty and phases across the years. There is a specially requested image that will go on one of the walls…
Nubble Brooding
This image is from three years ago, and is the first that I captured of Nubble Light on Cape Neddick, Maine. It’s a light house that has been photographed so much that I have always been hesitant to shoot it, as I wanted to create something unique. What I noticed in the clouds and seas that day, helped formulate a vision of what I wanted. The final edit came about six weeks later, as I needed to be in a bit of a darker mood to get the results that we see here.
I will make sure that there will be time for some music. I’m working on some technique exercises to strengthen my playing ability and really get the basics under control. One of the songs that I’m also working on is this tune titled ‘Killing the Blues’, a Rowland Salley composition. Here’s a version that I found that is quite likable!
It’s amusing that the WordPress Discover Challenge focuses on the story behind a door, as that has been my story this weekend 🙂 One of our garage door openers decided to fail on opening with a horrible ratcheting noise that indicates that the trolley is skipping on the screwdrive system. Looking for a replacement part resulted in finding that it would have to be ordered directly from the manufacturer, so, as my wife parks her car in that bay, I decided to undertake the replace and upgrade strategy.
As this is not something that I do every day, it does take a little more time to disassemble the old garage door opener system and at this point, I’m pretty close to having the new one in place, which is the job for this morning. It’s a matter of creating the motor attachment to the ceiling and wiring the controls to get it up and running; 2 hours or so.
Treasure?
This brings me back to this door from a year ago on the side of a barn near the Herring Era Museum in Siglufjörður, Iceland. Behind this door lies a rich history of people working to achieve their dreams in the rough North Atlantic waters. Hard dangerous work with lots of interesting stories.
Once I am done with the door, I’ll spend a bit of time on the yard and then it’s on to pulling together the list of images for the exhibit that opens on August 1st. I will share the final decisions with you, as it will have your input as part of it.
Hopefully that will leave some time for music, because there’s a little blues song that I want to do some more work on… Blue Jeans Blues by ZZ Top:
After a Grace Potter concert experience on Saturday night that was well-executed, but left us missing some of the older material that we had hoped to hear. Grace was dynamic, filled with energy and led the audience on a Rock and Roll line up that felt like a space-ship, tent revivial with a twist of voodoo high priestess thrown in, as she kept the audience mesmerized.
A solid show, but without some of the classics, such as Stars, Tiny Light, Apologies, Oasis, Ragged Company, which would have fit in beautifully to break the blistering pace of the show. This lack of the traditional material from her extensive catalog keeps a number of us wanting an alternative version of the show… Maybe next time, but I’ll share some tradition with you!
Old Stone Church
Old Stone Church in West Boylston, MA
In the 19th century, the Quinapoxet River joined the Stillwater River to become the southern branch of the Nashua River in the town of West Boylston. Just to the east of the confluence of these rivers was constructed a magnificent stone church.
From 1896 through 1905 West Boylston endured the building of the Wachusett Reservoir and the destruction of its mills and farms. When the Wachusett Reservoir was completed, this impressive Old Stone Church remained standing as the last remnant of the town which was once in the valley, but was now flooded by the new reservoir.
The predecessor of the Old Stone Church was the second house of worship for the Baptist Society in West Boylston, dedicated on December 6, 1832.
The church and its neighboring church, Saint Anthony’s Roman Catholic Church, were destroyed by a fire on May 2, 1890.
The present Old Stone Church was built on the same site and was scheduled for dedication on March 17, 1892, but a fire again badly damaged the interior of the church and the dedication was postponed until May 19, 1892.
In June 1897, the Metropolitan Water Board awarded the Baptist Society $22,500 for the loss of the church for the construction of the reservoir. The last Baptist service was held in April 1902.
On April 13, 1973, the Old Stone Church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
On June 27, 1974, the State awarded $87,000 for reinforcing the roof and walls of the church building. The following month, the church roof and three walls collapsed requiring rebuilding which was completed in the Spring of 1977.
On September 25, 1983, on the occasion of the year of the 175th Anniversary of the Incorporation of the Town of West Boylston, the Rededication of the Old Stone Church was held.
As you can imagine, the Old Stone Church is a popular backdrop for wedding and engagement photography and looks magnificent when bracketed by New England’s special offering of magnificent autumnal colors!
Enjoy a little quieter bit of Grace Potter with Things I Never Needed!
The sudden onslaught of hot weather in New England caught me a bit unprepared, as my body prefers the gradual descent into Summer’s heat from the cooler days of Spring. As a result, much of yesterday was spent looking for some new window air conditioning units, and not just any A/C units; as I enjoy making my home smarter over time, I was looking for the Quirky Aros, which can be controlled through home automation.
Three units were found after going to a number of stores, and the installation started 🙂 It’s amazing how the omission of a single step in instructions can make a difference, but that undocumented step cost me at least 25 minutes to figure out what was missing and correct the installation! After installing the first one, the next step was to program it, which didn’t go flawlessly on the first attempt, but I did learn from my mistakes and get both the living room and bed room units up and running, so that we slept comfortably!
Winter Revisited
Cool thoughts prevail on this day, as we’re thinking back to those chilly days of Winter!
Plans for today are to not overdo anything outside in the forecasted 93F (34C) weather and do some indoor tasks followed by some music practice on the new song that we started working on in yesterday’s lesson: Ragged Company by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals.
I really love this song for the mood that it sets and builds up throughout the entire song; it also doesn’t hurt that there is a great version with Willie Nelson joining the band. Of course, we are our own Ragged Company, no matter where we go! The one question that remains, whether or not there is a Rolling Stones reference in the title of this song, from the first verse of Dead Flowers, which is another great song.
Of course, the most important thing to do today is to give my mother a call to wish her a happy Mother’s Day. As we live on different continents, the phone is our main method of contact and it’s great to have our chats.
As the Premier League season is well under control and the sun looks to be breaking through for a while, this may be a great day to reconnect with jogging, as my right knee feels up to the test and I’m ready!! Then a bit of yard work, if the weather holds up.
Light Streams
One of the rather cool things that happened over the past week, is that I was offered the opportunity to do a small exhibit of my photography at my place of employment; as we’re updating the art work and photography that hangs in the building, one of the ideas was to provide a space for employee art exhibits/contests in the cafeteria, where we have unused wallspace. So I was volunteered to kick things off, which is exciting. I’m thinking that abstract might be the way to go for this.
The other item that has me excited is a guitar workshop that I’m attended once a week for the next six weeks. As I’m looking to pick up some fresh skills and improve my still very rudimentary capabilities, I was pleasantly surprised by the approach in the first session. Adding new strumming skills right away and working on a song that is new to me: KIlling the Blues a song written by Rowland Salley.
Today is definitely starting with some Premier League football, as I’m currently watching my favorite team, Liverpool, and plan to watch the Leicester City game, as this Cinderella story has sofar exceeded all expectations. The next order of priority will be to take the final to the MITx on-line data science course that I’ve been taking and then practice some guitar.
Simple Beauty
Yesterday, I went with my wife to Connecticut to have our little Dora practice a bit of herding on ducks in anticipation of her herding trial next weekend (today, she’s doing agility, so it’s a busy weekend for Dora). I brought my camera along with a macro lens attached; I have been dabbling with a bit of macro photography over the past couple of weeks, and was in the mood for some more exploring.
Spring’s Here!
Tree blossoms were everywhere as well. There were also some other subjects that attracted my attention, which I will hold back until the Tuesday Photo Challenge post.
Guitar practice time will include two songs today. The Beatles’ Yesterday will be my main focus, as I need to work on the (for me) tricky bass-line integration with the melody of this song. Combining that with a couple of interesting barre chords has its challenges for me.
The attentive reader noticed that Sir Paul McCartney is playing at Liverpool’s home stadium. Oh yes, the other song: Purple Rain, for all the obious reasons.
Sunday’s are a great time to start the day off in a relaxed manner; set aside some time to watch a Premier League game, listen to some music, have breakfast, it’s all without any sense of rush.
Old Beauty
As you saw a bit of the landscape of Skye earlier this week, I thought another vista might be welcome. This island is just amazing and these landscape images are only a beginning of a much larger set that I have to capture some fine year. It’s amazing to see how the view changes, as clouds move to cast shadows in different locations. You can probably understand why I love these old (geological) formations.
As some of you may be aware, I’m also learning how to play guitar, which is a slow process that is highly rewarding in engaging the brain in a different manner and a great way to unwind from a day in the high technology world. As I very much enjoy the blues, its expressive capabilities seemingly boundless, Eric Clapton is certainly among my all-time favorites.
That’s why this morning, I’m spending a little extra time listening to Old Love, a song from the Journeyman album. This song was written by Eric and Robert Cray, inspired by Eric’s recent divorce from Pattie Boyd (the muse for Something, Layla and Wonderful Tonight); you can hear the pain in this song from the difficulty of letting go. I’m adding this to my study list to see how well I can learn to play this.
Here’s Eric Clapton’s Old Love from his 24 nights at the Royal Alber Hall in 1990:
