Talking Karmic Debt Blues / Like The Moon And The Stars And The Sun

Listen.

This morning I was listening to Jakob Dylan's CD "Seeing Things" in my car just before 9 a.m. He was singing "Everybody Pays As They Go":

Look up and see the men returning
In their winter coats
Some of them in one piece
Some of them got rolled
Some less than others
Some right through the nose
But everybody pays as they go
Young old rich and poor
Your mother she too owes
Cuz everybody pays as they go.

I thought of John Lennon's song "Instant Karma":

Instant Karma's gonna get you,
Gonna look you right in the face,
Better get yourself together darlin',
Join the human race,
How in the world you gonna see,
Laughin' at fools like me,
Who on earth d'you think you are,
A super star,
Well, right you are.

When I woke up this morning and turned the calender next to my bed to August 1, I found a wonderful woodblock print by Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849). Above is a detail from "The Hanging-Cloud Bridge at Mount Gyodo, near Ashikaga," which can be seen at Museo Chiossone in Genoa, Italy.

Well we all shine on,
Like the moon and the stars and the sun.
Well we all shine on,
Like the moon and the stars and the sun.
Well we all shine on,
Like the moon and the stars and the sun.
Yeah we all shine on,
Like the moon and the stars and the sun.

(Recorded by John Lennon on 27 January 1970 and released on 6 February 1970, it ranks as one of the fastest-released songs in pop music history, recorded (at London's Abbey Road Studios) the same day it was written, and coming out only ten days later. Lennon remarked to the press, he "wrote it for breakfast, recorded it for lunch, and we're putting it out for dinner.")
















Thanks to the Turtleback Dome webcam for the sunlight of the spirit image from Yosemite Valley.

Late July evening / Almost full moon

Listen

You'll get tired and you'll get weak
But you won't abandon your masterpiece.
(Jakob Dylan, lyrics from "On Up The Mountain")

A pause in the evening

Listen

To the hilltops, my daughter, my son
The rescue's too little to cover the slums
Cross this river deeper than it ever was
There's a pause in the evening
When prayers are supposed to be done
(Jakob Dylan)

Nothing But The Whole Wide World

"Mama she raised me to sing and just let them talk."
(Listen to Jakob Dylan, Neko Case and Kelly Hogan)

My mother died in 1994 when she was 78 years old. She would have liked Jakob Dylan. She liked Bob Dylan and thanked me for introducing his music to her. My father took the Polaroid photo of her when she was 71. That was on Mother's Day in 1987, with flowers I sent to her.

Read about The Mothers' Peace Library in Quang Tri Province in Vietnam.

"It is the peace between the Mothers that is the most important peace of all."
(Ambassador Le Van Bang -- Vietnam)

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

Pier meets voyage

"Mama she raised me to sing and just let them talk."
(Jakob Dylan, lyrics from Nothing but the Whole Wide World -- this is Sofi's version).

"The country where the rain follows plow ..."

Listen.

"SOMETHING GOOD THIS WAY COMES"

Grasshopper jump in the road
Grasshopper jump in the road
Kids they're all running home
The kids
They're all running home

'Cause they know
Something good this way comes
Yeah
Something good this way comes

(from "Something Good This Way Comes," by Jacob Dylan)

The interview is from 2008.