I made what I think is one of my better videos to show you all. I'm getting fairly good at producing these now, so I thought I'd take the next step and add some of my music in the background. It worked pretty well, actually.
I wanted to do another light-hearted post before delving back into some deeper ideas that have been rearing up in my mind in this last, rainy week. It seems the one step up and two steps back of my Odyssey have returned. It is frustrating to me as a man who once had all the equipment and resources he needed to express himself the way he wanted to be languishing in a dead pocket that only a couple hundred bucks could bridge. Frustrating enough to talk about myself in the third person.
My laptop needs a new hard drive. And it isn't very much, but it is just enough to be out of reach. The hour I spend at the library computer each day could be turned into 8 hours of uninterrupted work with my laptop back in order each day. This means two months of writing a new business plan, finding an apartment, working at my other blogs, etc, could be condensed into about a week and a half.
And now I've found that my cat, Buddy, is not being a very good boy to his foster mom--peeing in the house, and so I will likely need to find a new place for him.
There are encouraging things on the horizon though. I have a new friend who has really brightened these soggy days. She is a energetic spirit and reminds me of what is was like to be a younger man. She is married and we are just friends, but we do seem to meet on a very deep level. I think it is because we believe in each other. And we are both as poor as dirt, but we refuse to cave to that mindset.
I noticed today when I washed my hair that it was significantly greyer than it had been when I left my apartment 21 days ago. And LORD, do I need a good trim of the beard. I'm really starting to look the part. I fantasize that it is my "Moses on the Mountain" phase, but I know in my heart it is just a "bum sleeping in the attic phase." I don't feel old, but something is pushing me in that direction...something besides just the passage of time and the constant walking through space.
But I will save all that self-pity and the temptation to become so frustrated that I lapse into depression. I will save them, because they certainly can't help me right now, and when I am able to finally relax and reflect I will want to take them off the shelf where they were saved and burn them at sunset, on a beach somewhere... Maybe at the end of this summer.
So, instead I give you the little video of today's walk.
Here is the location...
For some reason I called Spring Point Ledge Light (top right above, at the end of that long breakwater) "Bug Light" in the video. I did a time lapse of the very rough walk out on the breakwater and around the light itself. And as usual I didn't realize my error in naming the light until the video was completed. Residents of the area will likely cringe at the name I used, but oh well!
If you look at the image above, you can get a good idea of my wanderings. I took Broadway (middle left) then turned right on to Breakwater Drive (middle), then left on to Fort Road (middle), until I reached the end. After I had a little salad, nuts, some slices of summer sausage and a banana for lunch, I began the video. I basically followed the edge of the coast all the way from the top middle of the image above to the bottom middle, at the end of the white sandy beach.
I walked off the beach onto Willard Street (bottom) and connected with Cottage Road (see ODYSSEY - Days Two and Three, for a view of the other end of Cottage Road). I followed Cottage Road west until I reached the Mill Creek Park, where I did a time lapse around the duck pond there.
The video shows a really good example of a nice sunny day at this eastern part of town. There were tourists speaking some language I didn't recognize and teenagers skateboarding near the college. A wonderful sign about peace on earth written in English, Russian, Spanish, German and Chinese (with brail in between the signs--amazingly), was filmed on the grassy hill overlooking the entrance to the bay.
I saw a loon and a seagull hanging out together on a rock. And there was a small team of young girls learning self defense on the beach (which I thought was a great place to have a class!). Some fool had written the name of my blog in the sand, so I had to film that. Then there was a nice walk along some very sweet and colorful residential flower gardens. If found "420 Cottage Ave," which happened to be a drama theater. And by the time I got back into South Portland, the fog and drizzle was returning, but I still got a good shot of the strangest Catholic Church art in New England, at Holy Cross Church...I never really understood why there is a picture of a uterus and ovaries between Christ's human figure and His ascension, but, hey, art for God's sake I say! And turning around after filming that enigma I found a monument to Admiral Peary.
On my final walk around the Duck pond, I looked for Gimmee, the squirrel, but he was not around. A few days before, I saw him way up in a red maple chasing another fuzzball, who looked like she was REALLY playing hard to get. Ah! The rites of spring!
Below the video are the lyrics to the two background songs of mine, "Morning Star" from the album BSides (2004) and "Spring Has Come" from the album, Simple Songs (recorded 1993, released 2007). Hope you enjoy this video. I am really enjoying making them as I learn more about how to do it. PLEASE, also feel free to buy the songs by themselves as downloads or download the whole albums, by clicking on the album links above.
MORNING STAR
Words and Music by Alex Wall
Morning star sleeps inside my arms
She's so far away, she's so far away from the...
Frost eyes in the sunrise
She is curled up safe, she is curled up safe, from the night
I dreamt I drove around the lake again
Between the trees the ghost stood with my friends
Though I could see extraordinary things
I couldn't bare to stay, so I turned and drove away
And now I'm melting in the Light
And she's fading from my sight
She's fading from my sight...etc.
© 2004 Omega Art and Music
* * * * * * *
SPRING HAS COME
Words and Music by Alex Wall
Across the fields of early morning
Drifts the fragrance of the sunrise
Through the waters of his shallow eyes
It invades the skies of porpoise blue
The drifting, misting ocean view
Electric shiver, bristling bright
Mornings violet drains the night
And the soul...is reborn...anew
© 1994 Omega Art and Music
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