Senses working overtime #157

1 Suckful news week - they happen to me too.

Long ago and far away - back - WNP, Best Man Clay, Margo, 
Chris. Front - LOML. New Plymouth, April 21st 1984

Apologies, this week contained the sudden death of a close friend and doing this weekly summary of stuff I looked at or read on the interweb paled into insignificance.

Instead I offer something else, dedicated to Margo Buchanan-Oliver's memory, and designed to lift my spirits.

2 Auckland University, 1981, English Department

The Masters students perform a play - Wozza left, Margo second right

3 Dornwell Road, Auckland, 1988

Married bliss with Margo and Clay visiting.

4 Auckland University, 2012

Keegan and Godmother

5

Margo, Jade and LOML listen to Keegan

Overtime

Bros forever - Best Man Clayto and me

Senses working overtime #156

1 Happy anniversary baby

The Light Of My Life and I got ourselves hitched at 4pm 21st April 1984. You can join us in the celebrations by enjoying this snap from 34 years ago (with my dad - Graham Purdy).

2 The Rock

He's a great guy is Dwayne Johnson. Hey, he's the rock! He's now saving the day in a new flick - Rampage. It could be terrible (San Andreas anyone?) or it could be great. Actually LOML and I saw it last weekend and it's great dumb fun!  

3 How to find new music you'll actually like

Lifehacker published this article and it's very comprehensive - exactly the guide you need to find new music of quality and distinction that you didn't know existed.

4 Poetry corner

Afterlife

There is no life after death. Why
              should there be. What on

earth would have us believe this.
              Heaven is not the American

highway, blackened chicken alfredo
              from Applebee’s nor the

clown sundae from Friendly’s. Our
              life, this is the afterdeath,

when we blink open, peeled and
              ready to ache. Years ago

my aunt banged on the steering, she
              insisted there had to be a

God, a heaven. We were on our
              way to a wedding. I would

have to sit at the same table as the
              man who saw no heaven

in me. Today I am thinking about
              Mozart, of all people, who

died at 35 mysteriously, perhaps of
              strep. What a strange cloth

it is to live. But that we came from
              death and return to it, made

different by form, shaped again back
              into anti–, anti–. On my run,

I think of Jack Gilbert, who said we
              must insist while there is still

time, but insist toward what. Why we
              must fill the void with light—

isn’t that our human insistence? But
              we drift into a distance of

distance until proximity fails, our
              name lifts away with any

future concerns, the past a flattened
              coin that cannot spin. I am

matter spun from death’s wool—and
              I bewilder the itch, I who am

I am just so happy to go.

Natalie Eilbert (2017)


5 Forests and books

Continuing the literary connection - Austin Kleon's newsletter alerted me to this excellent essay by Rebecca Solnit considering a childhood of reading and wandering.

Overtime: Disneyflix

Like almost everyone on the planet where Disney had a presence, I grew up with the movies and TV show (Uncle Walt). Excellent overview of the media giant's current standing. 

Senses working overtime #155

1 Happy birthday Jacky!

Here's to you kid - it's my best girl's birthday today!

2 Yosemite Sam

Reading this makes me want to visit Yosemite National Park and follow Ranger John's advice and travel tips. Great images here too.

3 Hurrah for Warren Ellis

This guy is the full whack. His omelette bit on his newsletter was killer, and then he ended with this:

Still weird out there, isn't it?  And getting weirder.  2018 is a dark ride, and, yes, it's going to get darker. But you're still here.  Even if you're hanging on by your fingernails -- you're still hanging on.  It still counts. Quit judging yourself. It might not feel like you're on top, but you are.  Hold on tight. Believe me, we're all right here holding on next to you. 

4 Poetry corner
This recurring item seems to have slotted nicely into the number 4 slot of the last few JFTTs. The poems arrive into my inbox daily from Matthew Ogle's Pome newsletter. They make for a great about shift to my day. Here's another I liked:
  
from Seven Poems

Poets of Facebook they follow you.
You don’t know them they
don’t know you. It would be a
mistake to publish this. You love mis-
takes.

Anaïs Duplan (2017)

5 Email advice from Steve Jobs
Hopefully this link takes you to Thrive Global's newsletter and a great article about an email from Steve Jobs. Well worth your time if you want to improve yourself.

Overtime Views from above. Way above!
Some stunners in this collection. More here if these two strike you as amazing.

Doha (Qatar)

Klyuchevskaya Volcano (Russia)

Senses working overtime #154

1 Views from cars

My wife loves taking photos as I drive. She's good at it too. This was her view riding the north Wales to south west England A roads on a holiday visit to blighty.

2 Rubik's Record
Pretty cool - world record Rubik's Cube solve is 5.25 seconds. Check out the world record holder!




3 Best retreaded education news story of the week
Finland, oh Finland! You lead the way and the rest of us eventually get there. I love this concept of no subjects and I may just go to Finland to join in the fun! I may have missed this when it was originally published a year ago but this 'news' is still encouraging.

4 Poetry corner

P.S.

I close my eyes and see
a seagull in the desert,
high, against unbearably blue sky.

There is hope in the past.

I am writing to you
all the time, I am writing

with both hands,
day and night.

Franz Wright (2001)

5 Blogging is hard man!
Enjoyed this piece from fellow blogger - Victoria Corriere

An excerpt:

[Blogging]’s not one job, it’s many jobs all masquerading as one.

I’m the idea person, the researcher, and the interviewer. I’m the writer and the editor.

I’m the art director, the designer, the web developer, the SEO person, and the social media manager.

I’m the analytics manager and the affiliate manager and the marketing manager.

Nice, and she's spot on!


Overtime

This week's change quote -

Senses working overtime #153

1 This week's 'I Love This Photo' section

Continuing the over-the-shoulder shot theme from the last JFTT: I love this shot, taken by my wife this time, of me and our daughter at Universal Studios - our destination after riding the 101 from SF to LA. This time I'm riding the escalator!

2 Poetry corner...

For years I dug in the earth trying to discover the blue sky deeper and deeper I tunneled until one night I made stones and tiles fly into the air with no effort I broke the bone of the void Musō Soseki trans. W.S. Merwin 3 Liverpool museum exhibition I'm hoping to visit this Lennon/Ono exhibition - hopefully  during the Christmas holidays. It's free! 4 Bikes for Afri...erm, make that China Confiscated shared bicycles in Shanghai This is amazing. When we lived in China, my wife and I were  often the only people on bikes, everyone else had electric  scooters. The place, China, is vast and so is the waste!  In this case - bikes! 5 Change I love this quote: Overtime Time waits for no one. Don't people have great ideas!  Love this real time clock!

Senses working overtime #152

1 Riding the 101 

I love this shot of my wife (on the right) and eldest daughter (driving on the left) as we travelled the 101 from San Francisco down to LA. 

The open road, donuts (the food in case you were wondering) along the way, the beautiful pacific coastline, great company. Magic.

I see it a lot as it's my banner picture on my Facebook page. 

Every time I see it when I open Facebook I think about that trip (start of 2017) and smile.

2 This little video gives a sense of that road trip.

3 To infinity and...how did that go again?
New Avengers movie - Infinity War is about to drop from the skies like Thor and his hammer of the gods coming from Asgard to save us pesky humans!! Yerrrrrrr boy!



4 I am like a bird, I'll only fly away.
Great poem:

from The Language of the Birds

A man saw a bird and found him beautiful. The bird had a song inside him, and feathers. Sometimes the man felt like the bird and sometimes the man felt like a stone—solid, inevitable—but mostly he felt like a bird, or that there was a bird inside him, or that something inside him was like a bird fluttering. This went on for a long time.

Richard Siken (2014)

5 Mad Men

Our viewing pleasure has centred around a return to Mad Men this week. And when I say 'our' I am including my wife under false pretenses. Allow me to explain...

I love Mad Men and have all the box sets from when box sets were the only way to view whole series.

Now we have Netflix. We'd temporarily run out of shows we both love. So I suggested we try Mad Men again (I made an attempt last year but we didn't get beyond season 1, episode 1).

I knew if we got into a routine that the rhythm of our nights would take over eventually and the characters would emerge from the smokey haze (neither of us have ever been smokers or drinkers so it takes some time to desensitise ourselves to the rampant smoking and drinking going on). 

So far so good. We've watched about 8 episodes of season 1 and the complaints are dwindling. I feel she'll get hooked soon if I'm persistent!

Stay on target!

Extra Texture - Blackberry Smoke
Speaking of smoking - these guys are hot! I played this over and over again this week when it came on the car ipod.

Senses working overtime #151

1 Autumn is coming

Photo by Curtis MacNewton on Unsplash

2 Robert Creeley seldom disappoints

Oh No

If you wander far enough
you will come to it
and when you get there
they will give you a place to sit

for yourself only, in a nice chair,
and all your friends will be there
with smiles on their faces
and they will likewise all have places.

Robert Creeley (1960)

3 Arrrrrrrtichoooooooo!

Every morning I wake up in a southern hemisphere countryside (north of Auckland, New Zealand) and start sneezing. My nose runs and get heady. Why? 

As we head into autumn, maybe this is the reason - pollens seem to increasing and making it tough for the world's allergy sufferers. 

4 RIP Stephen Hawking

Yes, another week and another high profile exit. This look at five of his media cameos is a good way to celebrate his amazing life.

5 Stay fed up kids!
This image from Austin Kleon's blog is pretty remarkable. This pop out effect is most probs easy to do, but who knows - regardless, it's genius! And, I agree with him -  I hope these kids stay fed up and change the world.

Overtime: Sorry To Bother You
Samantha Purdy's first film as Assistant Director. Congrats Fanfa!!