
Janet Yellen — Source: Getty Images
This is way too much!
This is way too good!
Biden: Yellen needs a “Hamilton” musical. Dessa: Here you go.
Janet Yellen — Source: Getty Images
Biden: Yellen needs a “Hamilton” musical. Dessa: Here you go.
Houston Blues Legend, Sherman Roberson — Image by kenne
Blue Skies Above Star Pass Trail — Panorama by kenne
John Lennon — Photo-Artistry by kenne
“Where were you when . . .?”
I first asked this question ten years ago on the thirty anniversary of John Lennon’s death.
Whether asked the question or thinking to yourself, we often recall years later what we were doing when we first heard of a sad happening. With today being the 40th anniversary of John Lennon’s death, thoughts on time and place are reviewed. I was in my small apartment on a rainy, cold night, just off the campus of Western Kentucky University, where I was teaching. If I had a TV, I don’t recall because I was usually listening to music on the radio. Then, as now, music is a part of my daily existence, and the beauty of Lennon’s music is its ability to make you think and help you answer questions.
In December of 1980, Lennon had only recently turned forty, and I was about to reach the same age. We shared little besides years of life and his music. Now, forty years out, I wonder what John Lennon would be like if he were still a part of our existence. We both would be fifty years into the age Lennon, as a young flower-child rebel, famously labeled, “Never trust anyone over thirty!”
Imagine
Imagine there’s no Heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one
May the spirit of John Lennon always be with us.
— kenne
“I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky.
I believe that what people call God is something in all of us.
I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right.
It’s just that the translations have gone wrong.”
David Hidalgo, Los Lobos Guitarist — Photo-Artistry by kenne
Chris Duarte at the Cactus Moon, Humble, Texas (January 2003) — Images by kenne
When it comes to Blues/Rock guitar players, Texas has produced some of the best.
I saw Chris live several times in the late ’90s and early ’00s, and each time his
performance drained me. He is very intense and emotional — literally mindblowing.
— kenne
Kae Tempest (formerly Kate Tempest) — Source: scenestr.com
Singer-songwriter Mac Davis Dead at 78 — Source: soundslikenashville.com
Helen Reddy (October 25, 1941/September 29, 2020)
Van Morrison — Source: Ryan H. Walsh
“Into the Mystic” in Van Morrison’s 1970 Moondance Album
We were borne before the wind
Also younger than the sun
Ere the bonnie boat was won
As we sailed into the mystic
Hark, now hear the sailors cry
Smell the sea and feel the sky
Let your soul and spirit fly into the mystic
And when that foghorn blows
I will be coming home
And when the foghorn blows
I want to hear it
I don’t have to fear it and I want to rock your gypsy soul
Just like way back in the days of old
And magnificently we will flow into the mystic
When that fog horn blows
You know I will be coming home
And when that fog horn whistle blows
I got to hear it
I don’t have to fear it and I want to rock your gypsy soul
Just like way back in the days of old
And together we will flow into the mystic
Come on, girl
Too late to stop now
“Into the Mystic” — the words and melody ethereally flowing together as one —
is about a spiritual quest. But over the years the song has become much more —
an affirmation of life for me, and I would like to think for my generation,
as well, should we choose to embrace its sentiments, an anthem of lives
lived as we float down that stream, merrily or otherwise, after leaving
this mortal coil. I am honored that my path intersected with friends departed,
and I am a better person because it did. The fog horn has blown for them
and they will be coming home.
It is indeed too late to stop now.
— kenne
Blue Door Texas Ice House On A Sunday Afternoon In East Texas (10/26/01) — Photo-Essay by kenne
Dancing to the Music of Gene Kelton and the Die Hards
(Gentrification Killed the Blue Door Years Ago.)
Texas Johnny Brown at The Shakespeare Pub In Houston (11/15/09) Photo-Artistry by kenne
— Texas Johnny Brown (Down in Houston: Bayou City Blues)