the expressway snarls over Sydney’s grand icon another train clatters below a grey heron stalks the shore silent and serious
Image: David Moore, Sydney Harbour after sunrise, looking east c. 1963 c/- David Moore Photography
Today’s musical offering is some deep listening by Stockholm sound artist Ellen Arkbro For Organ and Brass (it’s only three tracks but Mountain of Air is a good place to start).
squall is closing in and i’ve barely begun today's cardio peonies nod, spilling rain abundantly as i pass
Image: Yes, that’s an early bee in there – sheltering from La Niña
Today’s musical offering is the Australian jazz duo Ben Marston (trumpet) and Hugh Barrett (keyboards) with their 2018 album Unfound Places
i’m seeing lots of blue
blue bays, fantastic tans & white-
washed cliff top churches
come pilgrim, come traveller
— weekend magazine
Image: Morning over the Mediterranean, Turkey, years ago.
For music this morning, jazz from 1960 with pianist Bill Evans and guitarist Jim Hall in Undercurrent. And here’s the dream-like cover photo from American photographer Toni Frissell, “Weeki Wachee Spring, Florida”.
grasses in profusion
beautify the freeway
unmown, the median strip
hides oncoming traffic
— all I see is wildflowers
Image: Local traffic this morning.
And this morning’s musical offering from Canadian gamelan orchestra – Evergreen Club Contemporary Gamelan – with their album – Solo. Start anywhere – perhaps – Gamelan Solo 1 – Wood – perfect for writing a well balanced tanka or two.
a whale off hill 60 buoys and rope-tangled fins tail-slaps her distress a crew out from the shore first rescue of the season
Image: How cool is this? A collage of a humpback whale breaching c/- Michael Dawes on Flickr.
Hill 60 is on Dharawal land. Before settlement it was a place for Wodi Wodi folk to watch for fish before launching their boats from the beach below. Post-settlement it was named for the military during WW2.
The entangled whale has not been sighted since yesterday’s report. More on nets and cetaceans here.
Today’s musical offering is High and Lonesome steel guitar with the Howard Hughes Suite. In case you haven’t heard of…
“The Howard Hughes Suite is a modern-day cosmic cowboy. He stoically keeps a low profile and hunkers down in his home studio in the South West of England with his faithful instruments, away from the noise of crowded gig venues or the idle chatter between takes during session work, once his mainstay. From this isolated musical outpost he surveys Americana landscapes with a reassuringly classic, but distinctly widescreen, psychedelic pioneering spirit.”
plums i left too long they're over-ripe & gone my mother’s ghost tutts ‘waste not want not’ she insists — dutiful son now makes jam
Image: detail from Edouard Manet, Plum Brandy, c. 1877 c/- Wikimedia
And for music…in keeping with the global theme, here’s a Meeting by the River with Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and Ry Cooder – maybe start with Ganges Delta Blues
a royal spoonbill sashays down the floodline flings back his plumes like Elvis at Vegas man, he just owns this swamp
Image: The royal spoonbill, Platalea regia c/- Francesco Veronesi from Italy, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Spotted yesterday, three royal spoonbills among the raggedy ibis along the flooded suburban lagoon just down from my place.
And today’s musical offering, here’s South African jazz pianist Abdullah Ibrahim with Cape Town Flowers.
sunrise, how many i’ve seen already this year each says change your life — today began so well then rain on my roof 'til dusk
Image: Clouds, Sun and Sea’ 1952 – Max Ernst (1891 – 1976)
Today’s musical offering – (more hammering I’m afraid) – Australian composer Ross Edwards with marimba-iste and percussion black belt Michael Askill with Marimba Dances
In the room the air has sides cornered, delimited floor to ceiling a dragonfly (call it thought) clatters against the glass
Image: Waiting room, Wollongong Hospital.
And today’s musical offering, in keeping with the mallet theme of yesterday’s pick, here’s jazz vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson from 1968 (tho not released until 1980…what were they thinking?) with his album Patterns (pick any track you like – it’s all gold – a favourite: Nocturnal – just the ticket for writing tanka…)
the coleus
cuttings have flourished
seven clones now
jungle my bookshelves
mauve drape my dictionary
Image: Never let anyone give you one of these things, they’ll take over…
Today’s musical choice: Japanese ambient artist Masayoshi Fujita with his latest: Led by a Blue Bird into the Mountains (some lovely mallet work by that birdy)
Peter Frankis writes 