Just a small blaze of red in the crab apple tree – The first color of spring around the cave. The landscape is so bland here in late winter – I had planned on getting some cardinals against the white snow ~ but the winter was disappointing.
Spring – Promise – Hope – just a little glint that life will begin again.
The universe is winking at me.
I am glad to be alive and well.
I walked outside to a renaissance painting of a sky – I got this thing for looking up – clouds, stars, birds, rain, snow — all the stuff from the heavens— I don’t know if it is a thing or a sensitivity.
You could be accurate when you say – “I have my head in the clouds”.
This morning was wild – the clouds were painted – I almost expected Zeus to reach down and tap me on the shoulder… saying something godly like “Dude, really? What you looking for? Take your dog for a walk or something – It’s going to be a nice day!”
Something like that – but it was just me looking up and feeling a little juice in the atmosphere.
A little wake-up call to action.
I need that spark because my next post will be the grand “Mission Statement” about the future of the cave.
Changes coming to the way we operate around here.
I did this in 2014 after receiving the “Dragon Loyalty Award” – I did an illustration instead of the award- This took my music blog in a new direction. I am facing my dragon but not ready to kill him – I mean , what’s the point? Isn’t the facing the main part? And I don’t have the stomach for it. Nasty business -Dragon Slaying
Great work
I ask you my blogging friends to take a look at your best ever post.
Don’t tell me they are all great or all bad—– just not possible.
Some of them hit a higher mark – some of them strike a chord.
Sometimes we surprise ourselves and exceed our zone.
Then we have a new level to break.
It’s called getting better – and it happens all the time out here.
It’s the product that determines our worth – simple as that – there is no resting.
You are only as good as your last blog.
You can be a writer – you can be a poet or an artist — you can call yourself a photographer – you just need one post to prove it. Most of my blogging friends have already done it many times.
I have better images on my blog but this is my favorite. It is sunrise on Lake George “inverted” – A simple thing in Photoshop – The blacks become white and the oranges become blue. Fire turns into ice. There is an “abstract art” emotional feel that I can’t explain, but I like. — cool and….. more cool.
Blogging is Community
Is it because we will never meet? Is that what drives the confidence of thought and discussion?
And would we share if we all got together at a cook out, or would we sip our beers and think it such a long time for the cheese to melt on our burgers — so we could just eat and go?
Would we still connect in real life?
I’d like to think so.
And what is real life anyway? So much communication is done through devices. Is the old way of meeting for coffee considered the old way and quickly becoming obsolete?
Connections I have made here, while sometimes ethereal, have been and continue to be a source of real comfort and strength for me as a human being. I know I move through this world a little easier because I blog.
We all need to be somebody.
Before I stepped on this electronic stage – I wasn’t as much me – Now I am.
This cat is “out of the bag” – and not going back.
This was my me trying to make sense of this crazy blogging world – It did not get much attention when posted but seems to fit here. I love this world — this is my home.
This is a forgotten image I stumbled on while organizing all the graphic stuff on my computer. And I mean ALL…all pictures, all Photoshop, all Illustrator, even my pathetic little 2 month bender with Flash (what tragic and flawed “train wreck” animation I spewed to life!)
Anyway – this tree does pack some emotional punch but it is not an accurate representation of my well-being (At least not all the time).
Grief is a miserable selfish bastard that is often cyclical and pathetic. It wants to throw you down and reopen wounds to rub in doubt every chance it can.
But even knowing the useless and often self-wallowing walrus that you are becoming to everyone (including yourself).
You still have to keep dancing with this beast until??………..[I don’t know the answer]
I am out on the floor – but I am ok.
Muted Cheers from the cave.
I was 11 and I was a little boy in England — I was not a happy child – I was an intense and deep thinking young dude.
Music was not a thing to me.
I sorta liked the Beatles and T-rex and Slade (ok, I did like Slade)
But – I didn’t have anything to really connect me.
——– Until the day I would not forget
“Spiders from Mars” arrived at the house.
And it was the Album Cover that mesmerized me.
This was a weak-artsy–deep-thinking-cool-dude. And he had arrived.
The impact of this cover and that day stays with me.
And it had nothing to do with the music – it was this persona – this image —– This ballsy statement of — “I am here, deal with it”
We were waiting for you – This was my pied piper moment – I was hypnotized.
It was my streets with some amazing shift of culture.
If this was ok then I could be ok — We, the new generation had arrived.
This is my last good memory of England; we would soon move to the United States – Ironically – I now live within striking distance from where David Bowie had a home in Woodstock.
This is my upstate NY homage to my hero – yeah…I am not a young dude anymore – And I live in a redneck land.
We become ok with our surroundings and our place in this world or we do not.
David Bowie helped me understand that.
Cheers from the cave!
Just in case you missed what a sublime sense of humor he had.
https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/monochromatic/
I go to this photo all the time – it is special – not only is it my favorite but my wife was on the riverbank with me when I took this back in 2012 –
It was the first time I did any work in manual mode with my DSLR and of course later — some gratuitous and unrefined use of Photoshop
I made it black and white and then hit it with an orange filter to give it that “old time—found in the attic” vibe.
The contrast is stark and extreme because that is how the world looks to me—-everything hits my brain like this.
It will calm down (it’s starting to slowly subside at times) – and peace is back-filling into my absent conscious.
All things change and flow – and there comes a place when a life is not bound by the constraints of time —- all is a flood.
Yeah – it is like that today
November can be a cruel month, but then again ….can’t they all.
I was dreading the arrival of my least favorite month, and then I thought, why not go with it. Enjoy the season as best you can. It’s all about the orange – orange leaves, orange pumpkins and hunters all flamed up in orange.
So I did a little rework on my favorite orange photograph.
And found a great version of my favorite November song.
Here we go people.
Cheers from the cave!
My Happy Place
The top image is from today (drab autumn) – it affects the mood of the shot but not my feeling towards it. This place makes me happy in any season and any weather. Makes me feel like I should be tracking an elk or something.
The second is from last winter – quiet and serene.
The last is where I fell in love with this spot a couple years ago – spiritual?
Seeing the three together is interesting – I need to add a spring photo so I can have the whole set.
All from my own personal happy place on the Hudson River in N.Y.
Standing on my grave on a cool fall day while the sun warms my face.
A strange feeling – not sad or fatal – but weirdly calming – none of us gets away with tricking destiny.
We coerce and tempt – we punch and pull – we struggle and scream.
But it comes anyway.
Wait, … hang about ….. hold on a minute……
We are still here
This not over – the struggle part continues – the dark days – the drama – the conflict – yeah, … all in there.
But the ink is not dry.
We are skipping ahead and reading a few lines.
We get what we choose or we take what is left —- there is no third way.
This will be the end – but damn it – let’s make the remaining pages something special.
Let’s leave nothing undone.
Let’s live!
These are my thoughts after meeting the caretaker at the cemetery and picking out the resting place for my wife and I. As you may know if you follow me – my wife has been battling cancer and it has not been going our way. The diagnosis was dire two years ago – and nothing has stopped it from progressing.
Here we are– making final arrangements. Not because we want to put them into action, but more so we can clear them from our minds.
Anybody who faces this comes to this – this point of “giving in” to all the possibilities that are coming at you.
It’s not “giving up” —– giving up means waiting around for the bad to happen…….we are not waiting , we are doing.
We are looking this bastard right in the face and not turning away.
We are still here.
We had this awesome eclipse last night at the cave. I took a picture as it started with clouds and a picture nearing the peak without clouds…..Why not put them together? There are no rules to photoshop—there are no rules to blog posts—-Just two honest pics combining to make it look more like it felt.
The truth is out there.
https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/change-2015/
And then something happened:
Change
The moment you look at something and it is different
The thing itself is the same but as the Dude would say:
“new shit has come to light”
Cave of Fame 
