… it is the chorus of birds that wakes me up again…

…stayed up a bit later last night to talk with L and H… feeling a bit groggy this morning…

… the dogs are sleeping in it seems, second morning in a row… new habits?… i will have to go get them in a bit…

… my first reply to one of my posts on micro.blog yesterday… i have at least one follower… i like the way m.b works but it seems slow going to integrate into the community… it’s interesting though, one doesn’t know how many followers they have and you can’t simply like posts, you have to engage, make comments, etc… but one still feels the need to have attention paid to them and looks for signs of that… is anybody out there?… does anybody care?…

… my vacation reading material…

… have been reading most things i can get my hands on about women and photography… all aspects… women as subjects(objects), photographers, critics, historians… this book is an anthology of writings on photography by women… the last few essays have been interesting looks at the role of photography in conflict, politics and empire building… one in particular written by Gen Doy on the Paris Communeat the conclusion of the Franco-Prussian war seems to channel some aspects of current political and economic forces at play…

… scenes from a walk…

… been seeing this thistle plant on Block Island for a number of years now… it’s not common but seeing them in more places around the island… open fields amidst grasses seems the preferred habitat… they are stocky with large flowers, pale yellow, purple…

Many French artisans were forced to join thenranks of the proletariat which, in the early days of industrialization, meant a life of misery and complete political insignificance. The petite bourgeoisie, or lower middle classes, also became more numerous, but with the expansion of industry and commerce they prospered along with the rest of the bourgeoisie, whose members were fast becoming the pillars of the social order.¹_  … i am reading about the industrial revolution in France, the social shifts resulting from it, and wonder, are we experiencing something similar, now, the advance of information technology, robotics, the demise of many forms of work, the new ways of organizing the flow of goods and services… could it be that unfettered exchange on social media and the damage it easily leads to is a weakness of democracies?… is the new social order the rise of a techno elite and a large quantity of irrelevant (except to themselves) humans?…

_ The G7 leaders offered a visible show of solidarity, with leaders talking and laughing together. Its statement repeated U.S. President Joe Biden’s slogan that we will “build back better,” and it painted a world that addresses climate change, prevents the exploitation of labor, demands gender equality, and protects human rights._¹

… a world (in which humans) address climate change, prevent human exploitation, demand gender equality and protect human rights… these are good things, things every human should want, but power dynamics being what they are, autocracies are still a viable alternative… one could argue, an emerging dominant alternative… it is hard to imaging these things prevailing under autocratic leadership…

… sleepless nights, oil freezes; after winter crysanthemums, radishes; she cats, love and barley; a monkey’s face is a monkey face; fish guts smell; a woman fingers back her hair while wrapping rice cakes; life is a makeshift hut like Sogi’s; summer robes and lice; when there are clouds, moon watchers take a break; is there a god?; even children gaze at the moon while husking rice; heat shimmers above dead grass…

… i have this thought, what if we only spoke to one another in haiku?… would we make progress?…

… birds wake me up… the dogs do not follow me downstairs… an anomaly… a crow calls in the distance… signs?…

… L arrives today, what will they bring to the equations…

… first sip of coffee, should i be trying to think before i’ve had more?…

… a new week beginning, what does the rhythm of weeks and weekends mean when you do not have a regular job?… it’s interesting the way the habit of weekends continues even so…

… weight down this morning, i wasn’t expecting that…

… the cat meows from the living room, what is he up to?…

… the small things right now…

… discovered a new photo editing app… i continue to work to streamline my photo work flow and center it on the iPhone camera… Darkroom is promising…

… at the Beachead…

… H…

… it’s all good…

… scenes from the walk into town from Southeast Lighthouse…

Southeast Lighthouse

… been under renovation for a few years now… supposed to reopen in July…

… the stairs at Mohegan Bluffs…

… for another day… an overlook…

… Southeast lighthouse… we’ll get there in a minute…

… i have been trying to leave photographs in color, but i am not satisfied for long… black and white seems to appeal way more than color… i am trying to figure out what it is that makes it so appealing to me… there is an instant nostalgia, there was a time when B&W was almost all you could do for a photograph, but there is color nostalgia too, the way a certain film, now filter, impacts the perception of a photograph… perhaps to me, B&W is an acknowledgement that this isn’t the real thing, not even a facsimile of the present thing… the second an image is made its own moment and the moment of the subject begins receding into the past… i was once accused of being a romantic, maybe B&W fits with my so called romantic point of view… then i think, color could do that too…

… there are photographers i am aware of and admire that only make B&W photographs, Robert Adams, Gerry Johansson… they are an older generation of photographers… they don’t make pictures of people very much… landscapes, streetscapes, mostly… me too… largely i am too shy to photograph people, it makes me uncomfortable, i stick to the evidence of people…

… as a spiritual practice, i read haiku, twelve at a time… i learn broadly about moments right here, right now…

… i read about midnight frost and borrowing the shirt of a scarecrow; dusk dimming the eyes of hawks and quail chirping; spiders singing in the autumn wind; calm moons and gay boys fearing the howling of foxes (do foxes howl?); human sadness, the cry of a single cukoo; sadness, morning glories and bad paint jobs; that banana trees are superior to bush clover; the painting of field stubble black by winter rain; first snows on bridges only half finished (this in particular strikes me as a metaphor for the plans we make for our lives, ever the unfinished work, we leave this world still without ever finishing); cocks crowing, hard winter rain, cow sheds; bamboo groves hiding winter storms; that winter worlds have one color brushed by the wind…

birds praising the dawn

the dog paces

its a new day

… my attempt at a haiku sort of poem… one thing the Robert Hass translations have given me is freedom from the syllable structure…

… slept through the night as i have been most nights lately…

… Fiona got me up a little before the birds started giving praise to the dawn… she wanted water and to go out…

… kitchen ready to go, always a blessing, not always a fact…

… news that in addition to H’s sister, we will be seeing O and S while we are out here… we are glad about that…

… i seem to be devoid of any significant thoughts to start the day with…

… maybe this is significant, i am contemplating centering my social media efforts largely around micro.blog, assuming i can eventually get into community here… i have been working at it, but if success can be measured by replies to posts, then i have a long way to go as there have been no replies to my posts… there has been evidence of members looking at my post stream, just no replies… there is one individual i am following who is complaining it is hard to break in, and i may agree with them… still, i like the way my thoughts post to the new venue, maybe in time it will become apparent that there is some value to them for others…

… H’s chosen pandemic skill was sourdough bread… she spent all winter perfecting her loaf and buying equipment that allowed precision, new kitchen scale, proofing box, baking cloches, and more… we had to leave all that behind while we are on Block Island… this is her first effort without the supportive equipment…

… she’s definitely developed baking chops…

… in every location i find myself in i discover spots that channel primal things… on Block Island one of those spots is the tip of the island beyond the north light house… in this spot the land disappears under the water, diminishing to a narrow point before disappearing… the sound and the Atlantic meet each other here, waves coming from each direction, battling across the narrow spit of land…

… it is a wild place, albeit on a small scale… it has always been a preferred spot for seagulls… in recent years a colony of seals has made it their home…

… seals, i learned, are distantly related to dogs… they are curious and will hang out in the water watching you, looking like dogs waiting for something to fetch… they keep their distance mostly, but sometimes come in closer for a better view…

… the head of one bobs on the waves to the upper right…

… a walk to the North Lighthouse this morning… a slow going trek around a crescent beach of loose sand and rocks… small steps most of the way…

… on most days i scan the music reviews on Pitchfork… my rule is that most anything with an 8.0 or higher rating gets remembered for later listening with slightly lower bar for genres i like (Jazz, Rock, Folk, Folk Rock, Experimental, Etc) and slightly higher bars for generes that just aren’t my thing, most Rap or Hip-Hop for example, and really high for genres i really am not fond of, Heavy Metal for example…

… this morning there were three releases that warranted saving…

… Blue: Gene Tyranny: Degrees of Freedom Found…

_ The fearless work of the late avant-garde pianist is celebrated with a momentous new anthology, showcasing his immense talent and passion_¹

… Anthony Joseph: The Rich Are Only Defeated When Running for Their Lives…

the title alone on this one made it a no brainer…

_ Backed by veteran jazz musicians and newer players, the Trinidad-born, London-based poet summons spirits of the Caribbean diaspora to ask what it might take to build a better world._²

… Ski Mask: Pool…

… dance/electronica, not my thing, but rating high enough to give it a listen…

_ Compiling several years’ worth of material and spanning nearly two hours, the Munich producer’s first full-length since 2018 feels cohesive, virtuosic, and thrillingly physical._³

… i turn to the Haiku of Basho, Buson, & Issa for the centering spiritual start to my day… one by Basho catches my attention in particular…

the spring we don’t see—

on the back of a hand mirror

a plum tree in flower¹

… at first i read it as a comment on vanity, that we stare at our own reflections in the hand mirror, and fail to notice the flowering plum tree out the window… then i realize that the back of the mirror is likely to be decorated with an embossed or painted image of a plum tree in bloom… still, there is the issue of being more interested in our own reflections than the beauty on the other side of the mirror…

… i am developing the habit of waking with the birds, which happens between 4:00 and 4:30 AM on the island… could there be a nicer alarm clock?, except it’s not controllable, dawn is when it is…

… an interuption… some dog did there business in the living room, not sure which but Chas acting a bit guilty… mornings are a bit difficult as the dogs can’t just be let out the door, there is no yard containment and being hound dogs you might easily pick up a scent and run after it, therefore, they must be leashed and walked…

… notification that someone liked one of my posts on tumblr…

… continuing to work at connecting on Micro.Blog… it seems the platform has been around for a while… the recent hookup with Ulysses must have brought them a bunch of new users… at any rate, the process of developing connections is slow, the space seems mostly populated by computer nerds, most of them men…

… only one glass of wine last night and lots of hydration yesterday… seems to have made a difference in how i feel this morning…

First Thoughts

… Fiona being a pill, rambunctious, chasing the cat, wrestling with Chas, barking… it is too early for any of that, she will wake H up…

… there is definite wonkiness between my bluetooth keyboard and Ulysses… when writing on a sheet, there is no way to navigate back to the index and other sheets without closing up the keyboard… seems like something worth reporting to Ulysses…

… i am struggling to settle into a routine… i seem to be on the way to being that older person that depends on their routines and gets upset if they are altered the least bit… yup, that’s what i am become…

… still, the birds twitter, the dog chews her bone…

… i am starting to date these notes because i can’t rely on being able to post them as i make them which would allow Micro.Blog to date them… the internet is so freaking bad at the house… it’s not reliable that i can post from here…

Bob Marley and the Whalers

… we play an album of Whalers music during dinner which leads to a conversation about the connections we have not been able to make with black people… we have tried hard not to be racist, largely are not, accept that we have benefited from a racist system, but wish we could connect better with the black people we know…

… taking a break, sitting in the crook of a tree…

… turns out S and G are in Cannes, the film festival?… i may be jealous… i think of Haiku, which tell me everything you need is now, in this moment, what, then, is Cannes, relative to a Haiku?…