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Reboot ~

~ Cave_Guy ~ 19 Comments

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The Cave is Undergoing a Revamp for the Spring

I want to:

Stay SFW – edgy yes – funny yes – fired for visiting – no

 A Reblog once a month – I don’t think we, as bloggers, reward good content enough.

Post my own photos and art as much as possible – a free-range chicken, all organic with no copyright infractions is the goal.

More projects and challenges with other bloggers. This is the center of the blogging watermelon – it really is! Making connections and friends. Sweetness!

My own challenge of hitting every type of blog genre in 2016 with an attempted post.

I mean all the favs:

Fashion- Music- Art – Photo – Food – Healing – Religious – Political – Conspiracy – Poetry – Sports – Books – Fiction– Redneckism (is that one?)  – Travel – Fitness –  Love – Sex – Collectible Coins – Movies –  Cartoon, Antiquing, Geek, Ancient Greek … etc., etc., and etc. (yes – I will take suggestions)

I want to do as many as I can – with no limits on if something is too edgy or too sketchy — How far can I push myself? Don’t know? Are you scared? — yeah …me too…ain’t it grand!

techno-dude

If you want to know why I want to do a blog genre mash-up bust-up house party with strobe lights and underground techno music —

I think that we should all write about *everything – in the writing and discussion is where answers and clarity come from.

The web is better when we make it better – so yeah –I am going to write about it all!

I guess the short version of the above is:  I’m doing everything and some of it twice – so keep up please – and enjoy the ride!

* Not to worry – I will give fair warning if it’s going to be something that would shock you!

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tiffanybeingfree.com/…6/02/15/golden-jars

This is a drawing I did for a poem by Tiffany @ tiffanybeingfree

It was great to try a sketch from her idea. The poem deals with some intense subject matter and the process of healing. It is an honor to help in this small way.

Bloggers working together –  Always a rewarding experience. For me, it knocks me out of my comfort zone and makes me swim a little harder. I need that because it is too easy to get complacent and start doing boring stuff — Helping others makes my own work better! So if you have an idea for a little co-bloggery with the cave — Please send it my way and maybe we can do something!

 

Next, we head to a blogging challenge with my friend Mek from Australia @ https://10000hoursleft.wordpress.com/ who likes to write stories based on artwork.

And I got to pick one — So I took a trip to Maine for a little Wyeth theme.

Chambered Nautilus by  Andrew Wyeth

The challenge is to write a short fiction piece based on this painting – I will leave the length of it up to you (I’m thinking 500 words or so?)  – this is a no stress “walk about” kind of challenge. I am going to try fiction for the first time (yea- me!), but if you want to write a poem or something else, that is cool. I only ask that you do it sometime in March and let me know so I can link them all together. This could be fun.

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And finally:

This is my home and you are all welcome in for a virtual cup of tea, coffee or beer anytime. We are always open!. No need to remove your  shoes or make a fuss – you may want to pet the dog so she knows you are cool. Other than that — relax.

I want everybody to just enjoy the cave.

Mi casa su casa

Cheers and here we go!

 

 

Dodo

~ Cave_Guy ~ 11 Comments

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The Dodo

I followed this blog from Mauritius because it seemed such a cool and exotic place — in the middle of nowhere — out past Madagascar (which seems like the true edge of exotic).  — No — keep going, there is more.

I looked and looked and gave up trying to re-find this blog that I am pretty sure I still follow —- sadly— I can’t get back. So this country in the middle of nowhere has a blog on it that is lost to me right now.

If you see this, nice blog person – please click me a like or something and I will visit.

Anyway

I just finished “A Short History of Nearly Everything” by Bill Bryson (excellent book! — A cave 5 star rating!). And it has a bit about Mauritius because that was the home of the infamous extinct dodo bird.

So – I did a sketch.

I wanted to show the respect I have for this animal — not cool that it got screwed over.

Sailors just clubbed everything in the 1600’s — I know there were no resorts that served cold drinks with fancy straws in them at that time… but …. Seriously—– you just wipe this creature off the face of the earth?

And to add insult to injury – you gave it a name that makes it sound stupid.

This is not cool.

This bird was just chillin’ on a nice exotic location. It was not bothering anyone.

Why does history have to be so cruel?

This is my part to right that wrong.

I aim to make it more detailed and add color.

I also want to make it look respectable.

I feel some connection to this bird that is based on absolutely nothing – but is there nonetheless.

The Gruntled Blogger

~ Cave_Guy ~ 27 Comments

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The opposite of disgruntled has to be gruntled  (at least, as far as I can tell) – I was thinking of this and trying to make myself gruntled.

Can you just do that?

Sort of like “making yourself” a blogger.

There is no license needed to be gruntled, no test to take, no initiation fee or any period of time when you are on grundle probation. (to see if you have what it takes)

You just do it.

You accept where and what you are and choose to make the best of it.

Like making yourself a blogger – (what, that again?)

Yea! – That again … because in the next couple weeks or so– unless I do something to completely screw it up – I should hit the blogging milestone of 1000 followers.

So I made a chart to show what it feels like to be at this cusp of greatness!

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It means that this little minnow of a blog has grown up to be a medium size and completely legal sport fish in this bizarre world.

If you hook into this blog, you can expect a nice little tussle on the end of the line and a good picture to take before you release me back in the water.

So many little minnow blogs never grow up and make it – and that is sad.

Half the blogs that follow me probably don’t exist anymore – and that is sad.

Sad because all you have to do is keep posting until you find your voice.

“What if I don’t have a voice?”

You do, and you will find it if you keep posting.

So thanks for staying with me through all the rants, photos, drawings and not-quite-legal music captures.

It means a ton to hit this milestone even if half of you are already gone.

Come back and try again.

There are no rules saying you can’t – most of us fail miserably the first time – this blog is my second attempt after 6 months with a horrible one and 3 followers.

Thanks for making me a respectable sized fish in this web ocean.

I really do enjoy each like, follow, and comment.

Even if I may appear a tad snarky and disgruntled at times.

My name is Wayne and I am gruntled. [polite applause]

Cheers from the cave.

One to hang on the great WordPress fridge

~ Cave_Guy ~ 14 Comments

dragon-attack-color-5566 I may have to start a page for art-type stuff on my site or not. After I did my little sketch for the dragon loyalty award-I thought it might be a good idea to throw it in Photoshop and add some color. I am not kidding when I say that I never really tried to paint something in Photoshop before-but I liked it—–I liked it a lot! I have noticed a trend of people just putting the crappiest art they can make, adding a few un-thought out words and boom-bang-pow…We got a blog post!

I guess this is my attempt at that.

Below is the pencil sketch from last week- I might do a few more and start a page. I am at this point in my life where I am just going to do stuff and then post it—-worrying if it is “post-worthy” or if it will muck up my blog will come later. I write about music but I dabble my toes in many different ponds. And I don’t mind getting wet up to the ankles to try new stuff out.

dragon-attack

Nothing mystical here except me thinking about what it is like to really face a dragon….because my experience tells me that no matter what you think something is like—-it is always different once you really go through it-there is no substitute for the feet on the road and the eyes on the prize! Nothing is ever what it seems.

And Photoshop is really cool.

The Xx… my new favorite band

~ Cave_Guy ~ 1 Comment

The Xx… my new favorite band

They may not be brand new but they are new to me. I hear atmospheric indie pop that is ice cold. I hear The Cure on the way to another galaxy running through the endless void of outer space. I feel like I am walking over the immensity of solid sea ice in constant dark winter as the northern lights dance over my head….

But that might be just me.

That is the great thing about having a music blog and pushing yourself ever so slightly to jump into some strange waters. Once you get over that first shock –you often find that the water is kind of nice and before you know it, you are having a nice refreshing swim.

This blog post is all about not being that guy who thinks the best music has already been done.

That guy who says music today is all crap.

Just slow down –get over yourself—–and listen——-really listen.

The Clash.The Card Cheat

~ Cave_Guy ~ 4 Comments

My favorite Clash song

Brooding and direct

It works on you on many levels

This band at their best

Honest and rambles down the road of your soul like a rusty car of truth that cannot be stopped

It does not lose or gain power over the years- it revolves around and quietly orbits the music universe waiting a glance in the right direction

That is what all great music does

So enjoy —and I encourage you to buy this song and go search out more of the greatest band to walk this earth

And if legal representatives want me to remove this post or threaten to put me in jail or fine me because the 7 or 8 people that might click on this bother them- then I will remove it

But I don’t do this to steal music- I do this to share my love of great music

Thanks for dropping by the cave

Nostalgia is a Disease

~ Cave_Guy ~ 9 Comments
Nostalgia's not what it used to be
Nostalgia’s not what it used to be (Photo credit: marc e marc)

Warning! Nostalgia is coming up from the depths to sink your little ship of happiness. Nostalgia will rob you of great new experience happening all around you. Nostalgia will stop your brain from firing and creating new pathways as you learn and evolve…nostalgia is killing you! There is only one cure- new stuff for the brain.

I know this is rich coming from a guy that runs a blog about digging up good songs from everywhere. But the key here is: we dig them up and polish them off while trying to keep them in perspective; organizing these artifacts in line with their place in music history and go rescue some more. We don’t dwell on them and live with them…there is a reason that the past is gone and if you try to live there, you will diminish yourself to the point of an unfunny joke. Yes, nostalgia is that bad.

I can’t even listen to “classic rock” radio…Could you please play “Stairway” and “Freebird” again my brain is not numb; if I hear “Come Sail Away” or in fact anything else from Styx again…I am pretty sure with a good lawyer that I cannot be held responsible for the ensuing panic attack that will hit me. Why would you choose to live with this stuff and just stay there? The brain is not stretching and creating new things…it is stuck in dangerous limbo and suffocating on stale air. Get on that bus and head to the Church basement for a bingo game…it is over…you are done! (O.K, getting on a bus and attending a rousing bingo game is an upgrade for ‘Mr Classic Rock”)

So I strongly encourage you to step out of your comfort zone and find something different to tackle; I don’t care what it is. And when I say listen; I mean really get in to the depths of what they are saying and who they are saying it to, let the sound wash over you. Fall in love with a new band or genre…really listen.

And if you do this…magic might happen. The magic of understanding and really enjoying something that was unknown before. Now you are not just sampling something for the sake of exploration. You have added something new- you have forced the brain to change and grow. This does not mean that the old favorites will be replaced; the opposite happens as there is more variety to help frame them and place them in perspective. I did this a few years ago with Hip-Hop as I listened and listened ‘till I found something that would stick and gain traction in my rock n roll conscious. I discovered GZA from Wu-Tang and was blown away by the lyrical assassin. The beat is wrapped around the words and the words are something I did not expect- they are intelligent and insightful and relevant. The music is open to interpretation and can be enjoyed by people from all walks and ages and situations.

And this goes the other way as well. The 15 year old can learn a lot from ditching Mac Miller for a day and cranking up a little Led Zeppelin.

Exploration is not nostalgia-it is the opposite.