broadening-the-horizon

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“Mockingbirds are the true artists of the bird kingdom. Which is to say, although they're born with a song of their own, an innate riff that happens to be one of the most versatile of all ornithological expressions, mockingbirds aren't content to merely play the hand that is dealt them. Like all artists, they are out to rearrange reality. Innovative, willful, daring, not bound by the rules to which others may blindly adhere, the mockingbird collects snatches of birdsong from this tree and that field, appropriates them, places them in new and unexpected contexts, recreates the world from the world. For example, a mockingbird in South Carolina was heard to blend the songs of thirty-two different kinds of birds into a ten-minute performance, a virtuoso display that serve no practical purpose, falling, therefore, into the realm of pure art.”

#tom robbins #skinnylegsandall #mockingbirds #artist

[broadening-the-horizon]

May 24, 2021

Today is Bob Dylan's 80th birthday. At a very young age, Bob's music helped put into focus for me who I was meant to be. My understanding of the world was broadened so widely thanks to him. I've lost myself from time to time over my 37 years, and Bob's lyrics have often provided a guiding light back - it's a rusty antique lantern with dust on it that dims its glow, just a little, but when the night is dark and the weather is stormy, Bob's lantern can be seen in the distance and I find my way back. His music is an invitation to dig more deeply, to see more clearly, and to be more freely. Bob is, in my opinion, one of the greatest lyricists to have ever graced this Earth, and I am so grateful for the many times that he's lit up my world...

#bob dylan

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Cherry Sky (Beaux Rêves)

Your body glowed in the dim,

golden light of the new day

like palladium beneath a desert sun.

The weight of you on top of me felt deliberate,

as if in your dreams I was trying to leave you

and you wanted to anchor me down to stay.

I could hear you listening to my heartbeat

somewhere in that far off land

that exists only inside your head.

I could feel the comfort you found in its rhythm.

I’d not dare threaten the safety

we felt in this curio of our welded frames

and so I remained still,

moving only slightly to brush the tender canvas of skin

on the inside of your wrist with my lips,

as if to paint the words “mine”.

(You trembled and your arm frantically jetted out

wrapping itself around my naked waist.)

The heat of every inch of you seemed combustible

and I knew that wherever you were,

the clouds were fiery orange

and the air tasted like cherries.

#poetry #dreams #loveletter

[broadening-the-horizon]

November 17, 2020

Occasionally someone will point out that I’m “on a Jeff Buckley kick”. The truth is, I’m ALWAYS on a Jeff Buckley kick. My adoration for Jeff goes distances, floating across the waters of the sea and bending all the way up to the top of the sky. Few other artists come to mind who have touched my soul, my intellect, my body in a comparably profound way. There’s no doubt that my life would not be the same without Jeff Buckley’s music gracing it.

Jeff would’ve turned 54 today. Happy birthday to my dream lover, whose voice is as eternal as his soul is free.

#jeff buckley

[broadening-the-horizon]

September 1, 2020

Six years ago today, I drove down the highway as a landscape of downtown Denver and the Rocky Mountains filled my rearview mirror and I embarked on a 3 month long adventure across the USA. The people met, conversations had, everlasting connections made, lessons learned, independence gained, freedom felt - I would never be the same person again after all of those miles.

Today, after almost 6 months of mostly staying home, I feel grateful despite sometimes having to wrestle out of the clutches of misery and frustration. I feel angry. I am still yet I feel moved every. single. day. I have expanded my mind and my awareness with a profundity that can be likened to that which I found on the road, in those honky tonks and those jazz bars and those taverns once frequented by Kerouac and Dylan, below the balcony where Martin Luther King Jr drew one final breath from the atmosphere of a world that would never forget him, alongside those soulful rivers where Jeff Buckley's howl is still carried by the wind and Robert Johnson's guitar strings can be heard in the rustling of the trees, in those museums and galleries full of heroes and villains and my favorite real-life witchy woman, in those strange beds in those strange towns in those strange states.

Almost 6 years ago I sat in a bar in Nashville and was only half a whiskey away from initiating a fistfight with a racist white cowboy. Over 6,000 miles traveled I witnessed both the achingly exquisite beauty and the horrifying ugliness of this country I've called my home for my entire life. I never would've imagined in my wildest nightmares that 6 years down the road I'd arrive in today's America.

My impulse as I sat reflecting this morning was to believe that the thing I miss most today is that aforementioned sense of freedom, but I caught myself. I have always been free. Freedom is something that I, a (mostly) law-abiding white person in America, have never had to fight for. Every day, I see people obsessing over protecting their "freedom" by asserting their belief that they are free to refuse to care about preserving the health, safety, livelihood, and joy of others. But FREEDOM is what all of the noise that they can't turn down is about. Everyone in this country should be given the same freedom to feel safe, to succeed, to soar, to live. Freedom is something I have always expected but it is not something that is bestowed with equal measure upon all Americans. Acknowledgement of this reality is the first step in creating a more equitable, empathetic, just society.

#blacklivesmatter #america #freedom #whiteprivilege #roadtrip #martin luther king jr #jeff buckley #robert johnson #bob dylan #jack kerouac #stevie nicks #empathy

[broadening-the-horizon]

Eye to Eye

October 16, 2018

you give me a boost up onto the top of the world

and I pull you up with me to take in the view.

from this observatory our gaze is drawn heavenward

up into the dark sky and through the stars

at the ironically diabolical Powers

found light years higher in distance and echelon.

and now you and I sit eye to eye,

being to being, shivering with angst and longing.

weighted down by our mortal skin and bones,

our bodies tied together by the burdensome mastery

of what it is to see.

#poetry

[broadening-the-horizon]

October 12, 2018

It's been a particularly difficult week to be a woman in this world. And it's been a particularly difficult week to be a woman in my skin...

I'm ashamed that I was almost defeated by this week. My spirit was beaten down, my sense of safety was stolen. I'm tempted to hide myself away in my tiny urban apartment, away from the constant gawking and the "accidental" brush-ups and the words weighted with sexual innuendo or with explicit sexuality.

But instead, I choose to look the bullshit of our patriarchal society in the eyes and stare that motherfucker down.

#girlpower #i am woman #pussypower #fuck the patriarchy

[broadening-the-horizon]

August 24, 2018

When I realized what most men want, I realized I don't want most men.

[broadening-the-horizon]

Through dysfunction and hardship come beauty and strength.

#joshuatree #resilience #desert #sunset

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Random thoughts on the support of our sorry excuse for a president

October 18, 2017

How did this happen? A collective desperation? A desperate, blind grasp for easement during which arms are flailing frantically through the air and people are shoving each other out of the way, hoping that today will be the day that they feel some sweet relief from the miserable, empty, desolate days that they've dragged themselves through for so long. But, in a senseless, thoughtless, illogical attempt to fix things they've actually fucked things up exponentially more. Our sense of "country" these days is so distorted; so lacking any sort of cognizant understanding of what it means to be a good fellow citizen.

[broadening-the-horizon]

May 28, 2017

I rose with the sun this morning. One of her rays reached in through a crack in the blinds and peeled my eyelids apart. I felt a pull to the north akin to gravity. After an overly-caffeinated drive up the 405, I was on my knees at the final resting place of Chris Cornell. The air felt as heavy as death yet as light and inspired as life; a beautiful enigma, just like the man whose ashes are now buried 6 feet below me. "Voice of our generation and an artist for all time."

#chris cornell #soundgarden

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January 25, 2017

I have had enough of people telling me that respect is inherently owed and doesn't have to be earned; that it comes with a title. I will never respect trump just as he'll never respect me.

I'm so sick and tired of feeling unsafe. Of feeling the eyeballs of men I just passed as I walk down the street burning into my ass. And I'm sick and tired of the grotesque and dehumanizing words that come out of their mouths without a second thought just because I am a woman and according to them I'm here for their pleasure.

But hey, the piece of shit POTUS talks about women exactly like these men talk to me.

I'd love to go outside without having to endure another figurative ass-slapping.

[broadening-the-horizon]

July 29, 2013

We are as humans no more complex than wild animals. Primal. Simple. Savages dressed in heavy cloaks of societal norms that weigh us down, feigning civility, driven by sex and a shallow, one-dimensional desire to fulfill self interest.

[broadening-the-horizon]

 Rolling Stones- Moonlight Mile

[broadening-the-horizon]

April 8, 2010

Johnny Depp

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April 7, 2010

Anita Pallenberg on the set of Performance.

[broadening-the-horizon]

"cuz we may not be here tomorrow"

March 26, 2010

Waste no more days... ever.

Don't waste seconds thinking about the future to arrive. Live now.

Breathe in the beauty around you. Don’t worry about tangles, just let the wind move through your hair as you race down the freeway singing that song at the top of your lungs. Dance in short sequined dresses with your arms flailing in the air and flip those dirty old men off as they watch. Kiss your mother goodnight. Every single night that you're together. Make conversation with the lonely woman sitting next to you at the bar. And mean it. Drink those ridiculously uncool fruity drinks, and smoke that cigarette once in a while. Be grateful even on your worst days. Do not be afraid to love. NEVER be afraid to love...