Sadje has asked two kind of unrelated — in my opinion — questions today. As to her first question about being a talker or a thinker, I am both. However, I have learned via the school of hard knocks, to think carefully before I talk. Because once you say something, it can’t be unsaid. And that’s true if we’re talking verbally or in writing. If you’re at all a talker, it pays to think about what you’re going to say (or write) before you actually say (or write and publish) it.
As to her second question about life making me wonder about its secrets, my answer is yes, of course it does. However, the secrets that life has are most likely unanswerable questions and to those unanswerable questions, I don’t need answers to live my life. And that’s probably why I am an atheist. I don’t believe or accept manmade, manufactured answers to questions that are truly unanswerable just to satisfy my idle curiosity or to tell me how I should live my life.
John Steiner, the blogger behind Journeys With Johnbo, has this prompt he calls Cellpic Sunday in which he asks us to post a photo that was taken with a cellphone, tablet, or another mobile device. I thought this might be fun so I decided to join in.
One of the things I love about my iPhone is that, wherever I am and whatever I’m doing, it’s always with me and always on. So if I see something that interests me, all I have to do is whip out my iPhone and take a photograph (or snapshot, depending upon how much of a photography snob one is).
My iPhone is a 12 Pro Max. The current model is the iPhone 14 series, and in September, the iPhone 15 models will be introduced. Making my iPhone 12 close to being a relic.
I do think my near relic of an iPhone still takes very good pictures, but with every new, annual release of the latest iPhone, the camera features are improved. I can imagine how much better my photos might be were I to upgrade to the iPhone 15 Pro Max this fall. But I haven’t decided if I want to spend the money primarily to get slightly better photos, especially since I shrink them considerably before posting them on my blog so I don’t use up all of my media storage.
So why am I telling you this? Well, look at the photo below.
This is a photo I took at 9:15 pm on July 2nd of this year. It was as the sky was fading from twilight to darkness and the moon was full and bright. But no matter how hard I try, every time I attempt to take a photo of the moon with iPhone, the moon is just a whitish-yellowish blob in the sky.
When I used to use my Panosonic LUMIX digital camera with a 10X optical zoom, I could get great photos of the moon showing the features of the man in the moon.
I guess I’m wondering aloud whether not being able to get a sharp photo of the moon in the night sky is just the cost of using a cellphone camera instead of a “real” digital camera, or if maybe the latest iterations of the iPhone can capture the man in the moon’s Mona Lisa smile.
If you wish to participate in this fun cellphone photo prompt, please click on the link to John’s post at the top of my post to see his photo and to read his instructions.
In my long life I’ve appreciated a lot of popular music genres, from Top 40 to Soul, from New Age to Smooth Jazz, and from Pop to Classic Rock.
But my favorite genre, and what I listen to almost exclusively these days, is rock ‘n roll music. Specifically the genre known as “classic rock.” It covers around two and a half decades, from the 60s through the 70s and into the early-to-mid 80s.
When I’m at home, I have the SiriusXM Classic Vinyl channel on the television for background music when I’m not actually watching something on TV. In the car, I have the same SiriusXM Classic Vinyl station tuned in, although sometimes I will listen to my iTunes on my iPhone via our car’s Apple Play connection. And, of course, my iTunes collection is, for the most part, classic rock.
So for me, when it comes to my favorite genre of music, give me that…
I get some interesting spam comments on my blog, most of which are captured by Akismet, WordPress’ spam blocker. I generally do a mass delete of all of my spam comments after checking to see if any legitimate comments got caught up in Akismet’s spam-catching net.
I thought it might be fun to select a particularly interesting or unique or outrageous spam comment and highlight it each week.
For some reason, this past week I received an unusually high number of spam comments, but most of them were the same old, tired comments. There was only one that really stood out to me. It was short, strange, and had a lot of heart emojis.
The spam comment was from Govind Kimora, who also left me a spam comment last week. This week’s comment was in response to my WDP — Great Teachers post. Govind wrote…
Very interesting blog you wrong ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ If you have some time then pls visit or new blog which contains a lot of information
Oh, Govind, my blog, the one that you found “very interesting,” was wrong? I think, as I told you last week, I’m going to pass on visiting your new blog.
What about you? Have you read some catchy spam comments that you’d like to share with us? If so, put them ir #FSCW.
For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday theme, Jim Adams has asked us to find a song that made it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Jim even helped us out by pointing us to Dave’s Music Database, which lists all of the songs that have been inducted into the Hall of Fame.
The list is in alphabetical order by artist, so I scrolled down to one of my faves, Jackson Browne, and was surprised that he had only one song on the list, “Late for the Sky.”
“Late for the Sky” was the title song for American singer-songwriter Jackson Browne’s third studio album. It was released in September 1974. Interestingly, while “Late for the Sky” is the one Jackson Browne song that is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, it was never released as a single.
Browne says that this is one of his most personal songs. “It’s about a moment when you realize that something has changed, it’s over, and you’re late for wherever you’re going to be next,” he explained.
The song deals with the feelings of loneliness and regret felt when a relationship has ended. The lyrics focus on the singer looking back on the relationship and realizing the mistakes he made. He is filled with the feeling that he has been “sleeping” and “drifting” for too long. In the end, he hopes that if he closes his eyes and tries hard enough, he may still be able to make things right, but he knows that’s not actually possible.
Browne said, “I remember writing the lines, ‘Now, for me, some words come easy, but I know that they don’t mean that much, compared with the things that are said when lovers touch.’ That kind of broke me down right there, and it’s very emotional.”
Browne says the first glimmer of the song came to him after he made a casual remark to a woman he was seeing at the time. Racing out the door to catch a flight, he blurted out: “I’m late. Late for the sky.” That unexpected phrase inspired a title. That led to a song, which led to an album, which led to a signature moment in a career that saw Browne inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004 and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2007.
An interesting factoid about the song is that when Martin Scorcese first heard it , he thought it was so powerful and so moving about a relationship gone wrong that he used it in a pivotal scene in his 1976 movie, Taxi Driver. The title character, Travis Bickle, played by Robert De Niro in an Oscar-nominated performance, stares forlornly at a black-and-white television as teenagers slow-dance to “Late for the Sky” on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand. The look on Bickle’s face, coupled with the lyrics and the searing melody, suggest loneliness and alienation more gut-wrenchingly than anything else could.
Here are the lyrics to “Late for the Sky.”
All the words had all been spoken And somehow the feeling still wasn't right And still we continued on through the night Tracing our steps from the beginning Until they vanished into the air Trying to understand how our lives has led us there
Looking hard into your eyes There was nobody I'd ever known Such an empty surprise to feel so alone
Now for me some words come easy But I know that they don't mean that much Compared with the things that Are said when lovers touch You never knew what I loved in you I don't know what you loved in me Maybe the picture of somebody You were hoping I might be
Awake again I can't pretend and I know I'm alone And close to the end of the feeling we've known
How long have I been sleeping How long have I been drifting Alone through the night How long have I been dreaming I could make it right If I closed my eyes And tried with all my might To be the one you need
Awake again I can't pretend and I know I'm alone And close to the end of the feeling we've known
How long have I been sleeping How long have I been drifting Alone through the night How long have I been running For that morning flight Through the whispered promises And the changing light Of the bed where we both lie Late for the sky
This, That, and the Other 