After a few days of intermittent rain, the sky has thickened into an impenetrable gloom. Just in time for the transit of Venus. 😦 Fortunately, NASA has scheduled a webcast.
And there’s no doubt the sun will return in time. It always does.
Random
Doubt
Today’s editing efforts deteriorated into a session of self-doubt. After a few sweaty hours of hammering at a lost cause, I forced myself to close the word processing software, turn off the light, and shut the office door tight behind me. Ever have one of those days?
From the Mockingbird Archives
These two images make up the entirety of my mockingbird archive. Mockingbirds are not scarce, nor are they particularly camera shy, so I don’t know why there aren’t more.
Speaking of mockingbirds, here’s a video/slideshow from my husband’s archives (with a poem I wrote after seeing the photos).
From the Sparrow Archives
My day is too short, my list too long. Books and projects tug at my attention, while bills and guilt lurk in every shadow. I wonder if this is how sparrows feel as they forage and flirt, keeping their constant predator alert…
Analog and Digital
I can’t deny that compact discs store easy and play pretty. Their studio-fresh tracks sound eternally new, scrubbed free of noise. Perhaps this is why I prefer vinyl records, because I’m not a tremendous fan of “new”. I like the hiss and pops of dusty wear. I like the way albums feel, the balanced weight of them. I like centering them on the turntable, pushing the start button, then listening for the click and whirr of motors as the tonearm levitates into place. The loud half-scratch of initial contact. A few seconds of fuzzy anticipation, then warm, full music.
It’s still magic, to me, how sound was trapped in those spiral grooves. How it stayed there, unchanged, during years of transport from home to college to apartment to duplex to home-of-our-own. How it reverberates–ringing off the vinyl, through the needle, and into a set of speakers that harmonize, that wail and thump. How it fills my house with acoustic contentment and electric excitement, with voices from my youthful years. I wouldn’t live those spent decades again, but it’s nice to hear such vibrant ghosts, singing their distant songs once more.
And it’s nice to preserve my ghosts on these modern discs and silicon chips, even if part of their warmth is lost in the process.
Rae Spencer 