Bay Station - "Trickster Moon" (Super Blood Moon Lunar Eclipse)

ay Station Love the Bay Full Moon Sail -January 2019. Filmed on the Alameda-Oakland estuary during the Super Full Moon Lunar Eclipse 1/20/19

Today I mourn, tomorrow I march: "Another Test"

Sad day, this inauguration day. I woke up at 4am to a large thunderclap, a low cloud going over our house crackling lightning and thunder, and then a downpour. It felt ominous, and it's taken half a day for me to snap out of a dark mood. In the meantime, the music has gone on. Bay Station has played a couple of fun shows in the past week, and we just shared a song we wrote in response to Black Lives Matter more than a year ago. Today "Another Test" just feels that much more timely. Today I mourn, tomorrow I march.

Read.Eat.Listen: Instruction

There is another kind of tablet, one

already completed and preserved inside you.

A spring overflowing its springbox. A freshness

in the center of the chest. This other intelligence

does not turn yellow or stagnate. It's fluid,

and it doesn't move from outside to inside

through conduits of plumbing-learning.

This second knowing is a fountainhead

from within you, moving out.

—From Essential Rumi By Coleman Barks

READ: In addition to Rumi, I've been reading Six Word Memoirs. I love reading SMITH magazine's project/feature 'six word memoirs' when I'm at a loss on where to begin with writing something, and/or don't want to get too lost in a rabbit hole of reading too much Internet fodder. There's also an ongoing Twitter Feed of @SixWords.

As part of teaching appreciation week, SMITH is asking reader/writers to submit #sixwords on the topic of#TeachingIs. I submitted "#TeachingIs holding space for awareness and discovery #sixwords" as I've come to believe the best teachers are like sun and water on a plant, letting me be my best self without much other interference. Other favorites include: 

 ‏@TchrAnnie  #TeachingIs trusting your students, igniting their curiosity

and 

@mollysroy  Every day is a second chance @sixwords #sixwords #TeachingIs

Kind of fun, huh?

EAT:  I grew up across the street from an apple orchard and my dad has 5-6 different varieties of his own apple trees growing on our property. I've always liked them in pie but have always gone in and out with them myself, perhaps due to their ubiquity in California. Also when you eat a lot of apples you know how some apples can be not so good. And maybe because even after all those years having apples given to me, buying them still feels odd.  Nonetheless, in part because the CSA box delivers boxes curated by someone else and has included more apples than I'd buy, I've rediscovered the joyful crunch and simple goodness of an apple. Lately Fuji apples have been on order, sliced and served up with cinnamon and almond butter, yeah!

LISTEN: "The Hard Way" by Tom Kimmel/The Waymores. I saw a trio of great songwriters — Tom Kimmel, Sally Barris and Don Henry — performing as the Waymores, in Niles on Sunday.  All seasoned Nashville writers whose songs have been covered by a famous lot of singers including the likes Miranda Lambert, Linda Rondstadt and Johnny Cash (!), the trio leaves no topic out of the mix of subject matter explored. Fom singing about dead people in love to their work ethic, they put on a great show of skill, heart and humble dedication. Kimmel's song "The Hard Way" especially slayed me:

 

April's Full: Something Special & Fools

When I lived in Colorado, I learned that one of the most respected professors at CU, Patricia Limerick, a MacArthur fellow who heads up the Center for the American West in Boulder, was also the "University Fool." In her official capacity as fool — a title she proudly holds — she dresses up as a clown each April 1 to act the jester around town and campus, "bringing some levity" to an otherwise serious institution.
Limerick's combination of irreverence and excellence impressed me. While you won't find me in clown makeup today, April Fools' Day, I thought I'd nonetheless join in the spirit of foolishness (or foolhardiness) and share a demo of one of my newer (and quirkier) songs  'Something Special.' About my childhood fascination with the legend of Bigfoot, I wasn't sure this song was going to leave the house after I wrote it. Nonetheless, since I've added 'Something Special' to the set list, it's been finding its legs (err, feet). Plus I've found out a lot of folks are still very interested in Bigfoot! I hope you enjoy it. 

 "SOMETHING SPECIAL (Bigfoot Song)" 
(view email on your browser to see the player)

Next Up: Songwriter Serenade in Arcadia

I'm pleased to return to this sweet songwriter's showcase in Southern California run by J.C. Hyke. If you're in or around LA do come down for a night of accomplished songwriters in a friendly atmosphere.
"The Songwriter Serenade is a weekly show held every Tuesday night at Matt Denny's Ale House Restaurant & Bar.  It starts at 7PM and goes to 9:30.  Performers play their original songs for the audience on a lovely patio with a warm, inviting atmosphere.  There are all styles and genres of music, with 4 or 5 different songwriters each week.  The music is on a patio which is covered and has plenty of heaters for a warm, cozy evening.  It is located at 145 E. Huntington Dr. in Arcadia, CA 91006. There is parking around the back. "