Sinner Man (or sinnerman)

I've been enjoying playing this song when I practice, mostly because it only has two chords (Dm and C). But in the context of the financial debacles we're witnessing this month, I'm finding the old spiritual taking on some new and powerful resonances.

Nina Simone's epic ten minute live version is the classic musically.

But for lyrics, I like the Weavers' take the best:

Oh sinner man where you gonna run to?
Oh sinner man where you gonna run to?
Oh sinner man where you gonna run to?
All on that day.

Run to the moon, the moon's a bleeding . . .
etc.

Run to the sea, sea's a sinking . . .
etc.

Run to the sun, sun's a freezing . . .
etc.

Run to the Lord, 'Lord won't you hide me.'
etc.

'Sinner man, you should have been praying.'
etc.

Oh, sinner man, where you gonna run to?


Of course, many of our financial titans are finding someone else they can run to -- the Federal government -- that will give them succor, at least for a while.  In the end, though?  The song has me coming over all Christian Socialist.

Search 'sinner man' or 'sinnerman' on youtube for various (no doubt sinfully bootlegged) versions.

Quote

"An asshole who makes great art is an asshole who makes great art; but an asshole who makes lousy art is just an asshole."

Jim Lewis in Slate.

Felicity the Friday fairy

She's a fairy, you might be interested to know, with an interest in antique weapons. In her right hand you'll spot what she described to me as 'a sword handle from a soldier in the eighteenth century AD.'

Bean Hollow incident

A beautiful day at the beach. But then there's the back story.

The moment captured is the one immediately after the boy had lobbed a stone at the girl. He's running away, which is his current tactic immediately following the commission of any act he knows to be wrong.

I was poised to shoot as the stone was thrown and could have caught it, but in that split second found myself consciously deciding not to record it. I think I didn't want to deal with the dilemma of deciding between keeping it as a record of the intensity of sibling relationships, or erasing it out of a paternal duty to protect the child from that which might embarrass him in later years.

Luckily, the incident was isolated. They played together for another two hours before I finally dragged them home.

What I really wish I'd caught on camera was the grey whale that surfaced briefly only a hundred yards or so off the shore.

Reflections on an English Summer

Two photos from our recent trip to the UK.

Rogate as the summer fete opened:

And Avebury as we began to circumnavigate the Ring:

Remarkably, neither outing was spoiled by rain. I rather like the unpredictability of an English summer -- so long as it mixes fair with foul. It's when you get day after day after day of rain through June or July that I'm glad I spend most of my year in Northern California.

A glimpse into the future?

Michael (age 4) looks so grown up in this picture. He's all dressed up to go to a party in his Grandmom's honor (go Ginger Summit!).

The photo suggests, to me at least, what he might look like as a teenager. Hope he lets us take him to a barber shop by then.