Endings and beginnings

Rick playing at Nordica Auditorium - University of Maine, Farmington, 2010

It’s extremely calm out tonight.  We’re expecting Hurricane Irene (my sweet, amazing mother’s middle name was Irene and her birthday would have been yesterday.  Much love to you, mother.)  The hurricane’s been reported up the east coast, yada yada. . .  but tonight you could see a few stars and after battening down the hatches I was drawn outside.

I was sitting out on our lakeside deck, listening to the loons and thinking about the summer we seem to be quickly leaving behind.  I was brought back to the night Rick and I spent at Cobscook Bay State Park in Downeast Maine back in July.  We had arrived mid afternoon and set up the camper fairly easily though it was our very first outing without the camper experts from The NitPickers Band.  We looked at the map of the park and decided to go for a hike.  Nice shady trail with interesting sites described in the park map.  Got to the top where there were vistas of what I’m guessing were Canadian seas.  Saw a couple of kayakers; the water looked pretty calm.  Note to self: I think Rick and I would have been fine in them without a guide had we brought the kayaks.   

We hiked back to camp and made a dinner of Thai noodles w/chicken and a bottle of Clos du Bois.  We dined outside at the picnic table and later Rick pulled out his guitar and played and sang sweetly . . . heartbreakingly . . .  Townes Van Zandt, Kevin Welch, his own originals.  It was one of those perfect summer nights.  There’s no other place I would have wanted to be.  I couldn’t stop smiling all night long, even in my sleep, I’m sure. 

Anyway, here I am sitting out on our deck reflecting how that had probably been my favorite night of the summer. I noticed I’d run out of wine so went inside to make a drink of some sort (when I refilled the liquor cabinet after having the new floor installed (see previous post) I put all the almost empty bottles of liquor on the top shelf with the intention of using those up before hitting the lower shelves.) 

When I got inside I heard Rick upstairs playing the guitar!  Baby!! I was just thinking about you doing exactly that!! . . . Come on outside on the deck and keep doing what you’re doing. . . and he did.  J    I found the makings of White Russians on the top shelf.  Made up a shaker; offered some to Rick who declined after having drank the other half of our bottle of wine.  This was one of those nights where a half a bottle of wine equaled just getting started for me  . . . with help from the caffeinated soda I’d had earlier. 

It struck me that this Rick, playing the guitar on this night, was the Rick who wrote those blogs.  The one who might quote Alexander Graham Bell saying “when one door closes, another door opens” or more likely a Kerouac quote that conveys the same message. 

Anyway, he came out.  I enjoyed the loons . . . crickets . . .  peepers . . .  and Rick’s lovely guitar and vocals, bestowed upon just himself and me, and the loons, which made it all the more special.  Especially on this particular day when he made the momentous decision to quit playing banjo after 33 years with various bands in Pennsylvania and Maine.  A very tough decision attributed to focal dystonia – a long story – but basically a loss of up to 90% of his former ability.  It was just frustrating and unfulfilling for him to play so he decided to walk away from the banjo . . . leave the band . . . .  The timing was right in that the band doesn’t have a gig for a few weeks and the rest of the band is at a bluegrass festival – the best place to recruit a new banjo player, with a second festival coming up next weekend. 

But on the guitar . . . an instrument that asks for finger movements different from the all too familiar forward reverse rolls on the banjo, he sounds competent, comfortable and happy, if not yet expert.  He played several Townes Van Zandt pieces.  My favorite – To Live is to Fly – brought tears to my eyes.  Some Kevin Welch . . . candles burning on a warm sultry August evening . . .  420 . . . impending storm.   

Simplicity and presence, a little melancholy, perhaps a slice of excitement and anticipation, helped it to be one of the premier nights of 2011. 

Later . . .  was just icing on the cake.  J     And here I sit, listening to Bonnie Raitt radio on Pandora . . . the rain is pounding . . .Irene has arrived . . .

my cup runneth over. . .

               this 27^th day of August, 2011 . . .

Dueling Banjos

I made up some posters of Rick's instruments for his birthday and Christmas gifts last month.  I went up to the studio early one morning while there was bright light still streaming in and carefully removed all his instruments from their cases, arranged them in various positions around the room and took photos.  I tried to create shadows and interesting combinations.  

This first poster is of both his old banjo that he's used for the past 20 +/- years and the new banjo he bought just a few months ago.  I called it dueling banjos - kind of a double entendre - the song of course, as well as  an implication of the banjos dueling for his attention and use.  I had it blown up to 24 x 30 and framed it with the title across the top.  I really liked the way it came out.  Here's the photo I used and below is a picture of the framed poster.  

Dueling Banjos

This is a photo of just the banjo head of his new Nechville banjo.  I liked the shadows.  It reminds me of a suspension bridge.  I framed it in a 17 x 17 square frame.  

This one and the one below were supposed to be printed as 24 x 36 but came out more like 18 x 36.  I still put them in a 24 x 36 poster frame and they look fine.  They are just posters, not fine art.

I think this is a photo I took of Rick at Blistered Fingers Bluegrass Festival.  I framed in a square 17 x 17 inch frame.

We arranged them all on the wall in the stairwell to the studio.  You can see there's a rather large empty spot still remaining where I'm planning to make up a poster of his Martin guitar and hang it.  I just haven't been able to decide on which photo to use.  I'll post some of the candidates below.  

Maybe this one with both the Nechville banjo and the guitar . . .

Or this one with just the guitar done in a sepia tone . . .

Or this version of the same photo done in a cyan tone.  I kind of like how stark it looks.

Any thoughts from my readers . . . all two of you?  :)

I do like the way the posters really warm up the once blank wall.  My next photo project will be to do the same thing with some of my pottery photos.  Only instead of framing them I'll just use tacks to put them up cause they'll be on a slanted wall.