Tommy Emmanuel Visits Pensacola and Makes Waves

Who is the greatest guitarist alive? Live (in concert)? I would argue that Tommy Emmanuel is the answer to both questions. If you watch just a few minutes of this rather lengthy video, you will understand what I mean.

To top off the celebration of our 33rd wedding anniversary this past weekend, SAM and I attended a concert sponsored by WSRE (local PBS station) at Pensacola State College (Jean and Paul Amos Performance Studio) on Sunday evening. The auditorium was rather small, but the experience was huge.

It's a wave that washes over your head and carries you away. You don't mind, though. You are not afraid. The music immerses you, but you're not submerged. You become part of the liquid, the music, the response. Do you respond by clapping, whistling, hooting? It doesn't matter if you just sit there like a lump. Well, maybe it does matter. Cameras all around the auditorium are capturing every movement, every expression of joy, sorrow, elation, adulation. The entire concert is being recorded.

Who knows? There might be a shot of SAM and me in a new video production someday. Now that's a scary thought!

Almost Springtime Holey-ness in Tallahassee

A paper wasp's nest lies still on the ground

Magnolia tree hole swallows the sound




 Of footsteps approaching Trillium treasure

Twisted tree roots, untwisted, what would they measure?

 A woodpecker's flute flung to the floor

Leaf veins laid bare for lacy decor

A stream carves a bit deeper its bedrock of limestone

One violet we see, for now all alone

"We share a walk, a life, a love, a moment,"

SAM and I say--

Thirty-one years together,

Forever,

Today

'Beggar to Beggar Cried': After Thirty Years of Give and Take? MOTS!

'Time to put off the world and go somewhere

And find my health again in the sea air,'

Beggar to beggar cried, being frenzy-struck,

'And make my soul before my pate is bare...'

Thirty years have come and gone, and Secret Aging Man said he's ready to try for another thirty, as long as I am. Okay, but promise me we will always take long walks together. This one happened earlier this week in Gulf Breeze at Shoreline Park South.

'And get a comfortable wife and house

To rid me of the devil in my shoes,'

Beggar to beggar cried, being frenzy-struck,

'And the worse devil that is between my thighs.'

Daughter went along for the walk and spotted this mushroom-and-child before I did. I guess I was too engrossed in the man by my side to notice.

'And though I'd marry with a comely lass,
She need not be too comely--let it pass,'
Beggar to beggar cried, being frenzy-struck,
'But there's a devil in a looking-glass.'

'Nor should she be too rich, because the rich

Are driven by wealth as beggars by the itch,'

Beggar to beggar cried, being frenzy-struck,

'And cannot have a humorous happy speech.'

Buildings by the score have sprung up along Pensacola Beach in the last several years and continue to do so, as you can see by the presence of that massive crane. More and more high-rise behemoths now obscure whatever view of the Gulf the residents of Gulf Breeze might have had in years past--and maybe even some of that famous Breeze. Their solid, dearly-paid-for presence replaces those shifting sand dunes that once formed a barrier between the Gulf and the Sound. Some people might argue that it's better to rely on the protection of these new barriers along the horizon that are fixed in place, anchored to the bedrock by beams of steel and pillars of concrete. What do you think?

'And there I'll grow respected at my ease,

And hear amid the garden's nightly peace,'

Beggar to beggar cried, being frenzy-struck,

'The wind-blown clamour of the barnacle-geese.'

A poem, this one by W. B. Yeats, shared with you by two beggars. (And I do mean beggars. I put myself at the mercy of the copyright holder by sharing it here on the blog. It's not in the public domain yet so I hope I'm not in trouble here. I do tend to invite it, though. Can we say the poem has been shared for scholarly purposes?) I don't pretend to understand it fully, anymore than I understand how a shifting-sand-dune, give-and-take marriage can last for thirty years in this day and age. All I know is that I want More of the Same.