Birthday 2015

Had a fantastic 69th!  Our land lady hosted a wonderful dinner at the Millennium Hotel.  We ordered and everything was happy happy then all of sudden the fire alarms began barring.  (This a beautiful Hotel and it has many rooms and suites.)

Over the many years we have experienced these fire alarms at the Millennium!  We stand up and begin our exit along with the other dinners as well as chefs, table attendants and staff.  Gail, Karen Baughn's sister said:  "Im not believing this and she picked up her plate of food, her glass of wine and carried it outside of the Hotel!!!

The fire brigade arrived in all it's thrilling colors and fan fare...  hoses laid out everywhere, people rushing in and out.  We are laughing and enjoying the entire drama only to discover the end result was someone had left a coffee maker on in a room and it had began to give off smoke!  WTH!  I say then purchase coffee makers like we do at home that shut off automatically.  UGH!

We all strolled back to our table and enjoyed a delicious dinner.  Scrumptious steaks, gorgeous vegetable, delicious wines and for dessert:  our neighbor Claire is a wonderful cake maker.  Yep, she baked a decadent chocolate cake!  After the cake I did sit at the grand piano and played two melodies.   The Bach Prelude Number 1 from the WTC and of all things MISTY filtered through my mind.  It was a great night and a complete surprise!

Today has been cold but beautiful skies.  I have struggled getting my printer, computer stuff all working in sync...  the guy that usually fixes me never called back after I left numerous messages.  I went on line did a Google and found a great guy THE COMPUTER PROFESSOR.  He arrived before 2:00 PM and has me up and running except for the I CLOUD SITUATION...  because of Dave I am writing this blog!  Yep, he figured out the two different addresses I had used logging in to my blog.  OMG life is so difficult and confusing.

I am writing the book.  It is painful.  It is difficult.  It is not what I had thought it would be.  I have to write the first draft then my editor, angel will check things out and make some drastic changes.  This may take into next year to complete.  I could never ever had attempted this even three years ago.  I only want the truth because the truth is by far more intense than fiction.  Probably most fiction is based on true stories?

The years of writing this blog will help me to remember when and where.  How and WHY?  I simply wish I did not have arthritis, CPOD, and a few other diseases that aging ignites within one's DNA!
I thank my lucky stars for this blesses time to chill and breath at sea level.

The end of 6 months of "self-discovery"

OUR BIRTH IS BUT A SLEEP AND A FORGETTING:  THE SOUL THAT RISES WITH US, OUR LIFE'S STAR, HATH HAD ELSEWHERE ITS SETTING, AND COMETH FROM AFAR:

NOT IN ENTIRE FORGETFULNESS, AND NOT IN UTTER NAKEDNESS, BUT TRAILING CLOUDS OF GLORY DO WE COME FROM GOD, WHO IS OUR HOME!

Last  year I left New Zealand in March due to the serious situation with my parents health.  Normally I would have left these blessed shores end of April, but my mother crossed over mid April and my father died Oct 6.  Their birthdays were 6 months apart.  They were both the 5th child to be born in their family's.  My mother died on April 15... interesting number:  I was born on the 15th of November.  1+5=6  my father died on October the 6th...

This year we arrived in New Zealand first of November 2014 and are leaving end of April 2015.  With in days I will be back in America.  Greet my gorgeous piano, Wyoming stars and sunsets, My restaurant, friends and most of all I will spend precious time with my family in Utah.

The past half year has been interesting...  I have an entire different view of many things as well as the gift of living in this dimension for a few short years.  I have NO REGRETS about my past!  When I return to NZ in NOVEMBER I will be in the process of writing a book with the help of a very gifted writer who lives in NZ.

My journey from a shy little boy and the struggle to learn how to play piano... the years of angst and confusion.  The attempts at suicide that I botched up, religious and political trauma.  My wandering years as a half assed hippie living out of my car.  Finally discovering my "PLACE"  (I think?) and creating a business involving food and music.

The magic of synchronicity and following my own heart's leanings toward what was right for my future.  Many MISTAKES I MADE according to dogma BUT, they were stepping stones into a world I could never imagine possible.  Many people that touched my life have died.  They live inside my heart and mind.  I can close my eyes and hear their voices...

I have much to look forward to in the next 6 months and the coming 6 months!

 My oil painting of Sunset in the Catlins...  south island New Zealand.  I love this piece of the planet.

 My powerful crystals!  Plus a string of blood stones!  Yep, they can be quite powerful at times

The mighty SNAKE RIVER, WY.

Seymour: An Introduction I Official Trailer I HD I Sundance Selects

Vincent Van Gogh...

The name Vincent haunts me at times.  If I had children I would have named one of them Vincent.  I would NOT EVER HAVE ALLOWED THE NICK NAME VINNEY to be stamped on the child's head, body...  no, use his or her full name only:  VINCENT.

Edna St. Vincent Millay is one of my favorite poets.  Strange name for a girl.  Her mother was a nurse and I have been told that she named her first born after the name of the hospital in NYC, ST VINCENT'S HOSPITAL?  (BTW, St. Vincent Hospital no longer exists!)  It has been a land mark for many episodes in the history of NYC.  I knew it well because of the AIDS epidemic.

Will save the hospital stories for another day.

Two days ago I had lunch at my favorite restaurant in QT. Because, Salero Vino closed last year.  Still my heart aches for the place.  Such an intimate feeling of FRANCE and the food and wine to die for.

Now days I eat at the Botswana Butchery.  Sounds weird but, the chairs are comfortable beyond imagination, the food is good and the ambience suits my every mood.  A chef from South Africa created it.  He since has sold it for no doubt a fortune.

I love their Steak Diane.  Some days I crave the fish dish, FILET of SOLE on warm potato salad.   It is a gorgeous place over looking the lake and mighty alps!

After a delightful lunch I walked to a new a unique book store in town.  What jumps of the shelf:  this enormously thick and heavy book titled VINCENT VAN GOGH.  Written by James Flick and Michael Wright.  I know of these two men because of their donations to maintain opera, historic landmarks and most of all great art.

Had to have it!  I CANNOT LEAVE THE DAMN BOOK ALONE!  I know a lot about Van Gogh as well as other artists of impressionist to abstract art.  I "relate" to so many issues in his childhood!  OMG, the book is about 999 pages.  Well, I read S-L-O-W-L-Y.  I am not of the ancient fast reading school.  I savor the way a sentence vibrates, it's relation to the past sentence and the future sentence.  There is a beautiful inner connection between paragraphs and sentences that reminds me of great music.

There was a time years ago a friend in NYC told me if I wanted to make some extra cash I could be a "proof reader"...  I was a stupid, innocent man in the late 60's and had not a clue what he was talking about!  I thought I would have to PROVE every word or some stupid concept like PROVING the book was real.  (remember, I grew up a Mormon...)

Well, today I walked into the same new bookstore.  I told the young man with a knot of wild hair secured on his head, tattoos and a under fed body:  "Here is my back pack, inside is my wallet.  Keep it behind the counter and do not allow be to purchase anything until I finish the Van Gogh."  He let out a hysterical laugh!  We are friends.

Took some photos of the back yard.  It is autumn time.  8:00 PM is usually still sunlight.  Not anymore.  Night is setting in and I have dinner in the oven.

I thank my lucky stars that at my age I can spend hours indulging in far too many luscious things from books to music and food.  I do not eat like I used to.  Small amounts go a hell of a long way with me and my body's ability to digest and make it part of my well being.

Will finish Gone With The Wind and the brick of a book Van Gogh then write something amazing.

 

Bach's Birthday! ?

I was listening to the news this morning and the part regarding history:  Today J.S. Bach was born.

I said this is not right.  I began studying music when I was 6 years old.  Bach was born March 31, 1685.
OMG, I had to remember that date in order to pass certain musical exams.  SOME SAY HE WAS BORN ON THE 21st of March...  well.........

I, as well as a million music lovers owe this man a million candles on a cake of pure intelligence and gratitude for what he gave all of us.  Most of all living and long dead physicists LOVE BACH.  Mathematicians, musicians, philosophers, writers and the list is endless.  He touched all the aspects of creativity and art.  The music of the UNIVERSE.

Bach was not a quiet, gentle man!  He demanded his rights and the rights of others.  He married Maria Barbara Bach his second cousin.  They had 7 children.  Four of the 7 survived.  )Carl Phillip Emanual Bach.  Maria died.  He then married ANNA MAGDALENA WILCKE.  She was 17 years YOUNGER than JSB!  (this man had some kind of sexual energy.  They were married Dec. 3,1721.  THEY CREATED 13 CHILDREN!

As a very young boy I was told Bach had 21 children.  Most of them died early or at birth...  I was stunned to think a man could produce 21 children.  Of course years later I discovered that yes, he did make a world of children but times were different.  They survived on cabbage, carrots, potatoes, turnips, breads, cheeses, milk and most of all IF their DNA was STRONG enough to ward off disease a child could and would survive.

Bach's health declined in 1749.  He began suffering from blindness.  I'm sure it was cataracts, and all kinds of eye diseases we can generally heal today.  A Famous British Eye Surgeon operated on Bach's eyes while he was traveling in Leipzig in March of 1750.

On July 28th, 1750 Bach died at the age of 65.  Most experts say he did not die because of the eye operation.  It was a STROKE complicated by PNEUMONIA.

I remember a Doctor friend telling me:  when "they" came out with the shot that could prevent Pneumonia it was the worst curse to man kind!  He said:  Pneumonia is for old people' and the terminally ill people's "BEST FRIEND!"

Bach's estate included:  5 harpsichords, 2 lute harpsichords, 3 violins, 3 violas, 2 cellos, a viola da gamba, a lute and a spinet piano.

THE PART OF HIS ESTATE I LOVE:  He left 52 SACRED BOOKS!  One being Martin Luther, and of all things JOSEPUS!

When I was 21 I discovered a leather bound book in an attic in Lowell Mass.  The estate sales person sold it to me for $1.00.  It was worth much, much more.  I resold it for a small fortune!  It is the only HISTORY BOOK that has one sentence regarding the the man Jesus Christ.

Josepus was one of the great historians of B.C. and A.C.  I dream of seeing that very book Bach held in his hands and read with his eyes and KNEW the truth about so many things.  The REALITY and POSSIBILITY of so many facts we enjoy today.

Any way my dear mentor and guide, Mr. J.S. Bach!  Happy birthday and I thank my lucky stars you were born.

Every organist on planet earth loves you and most musicians love your bible of piano music:  THE PRELUDES AND FUGUES!  In every key and such magical works of emotional, mathematics, scientific's, and most of all LOVE and UNDERSTANDING OF THE UNIVERSE!

JS BACH was one of Greatest men that ever touched planet earth.  He gave us the beginnings of Mozart, Beethoven...

So whatever, happy birthday today instead of the 31st!  THIS IS WHAT THE SKY LOOKS LIKE TONIGHT!
IT IS NOT A FIRE AS WE KNOW IT.  IT IS HEAVEN SCREAMING AND SINGING A CERTAIN SONG ONLY SOME CAN GRASP!  ETERNITY!

Something new a delicious which makes my life new and delicious

A few days ago my cousin posted a recipe for pizza dough on her FB.  I love to make pizza dough and I will brag, I can make damn good pizza dough.

I use flour, yeast, salt, olive oil.  I allow it rise once then punch it down and roll it into a round or square sheet upon which I place my own Pizza Sauce, green peppers, red onion, chopped tomatoes, a mix of pepperoni/salami slices, topped with parmesan cheese and mozzarella cheese.

THE NEW GIFT
YOU use self-raising flour.  (If you don't have self-raising flour just add some baking powder to your flour).

PLAIN GREEK YOGURT.   Mix the two together until you have nice dough consistency.

I use Greek Yogurt because I like the flavor and I use it in salad dressings, a side when Carrot Cake is served because it cuts the sweetness.  It works well with mixed grain cereals.

Put the yogurt in  a mixing bowl.  I was being leeeeery about the recipe so I put about a cup full of the yogurt in the bowl.  Started adding the flour and stirring with a fork.  It was rather wet so I added more flour and began using my hands to blend it.  It was bit dry so added a dessert spoon  of yogurt.  A dessert spoon is a bit bigger than a table spoon.  Kept working the dough.  Finally it "FELT RIGHT"

I kept kneading it because of the "feeling in my hands".  The yogurt is COLD.  If you make homemade dough it feels warm to the touch because of the yeast rising in a cup of warm water the dough mixture is room temperature.  Thus, this dough has a different feeling... chilly!

I rolled the dough into a round placed it on a pizza pan with baking paper.  Indented the dough (marks of real facoccia bread.)  Use your finger nail to make the dents.

Then brushed it with virgin olive oil. sea salt crystals, Italian Herbs, fresh rosemary from my garden.
Put in the oven at 180o. F.  (I have a fan oven here so things roast and bake faster.)  12 min. later I cracked the oven door.  PERFECTO!

Let it rest for about 5 min. then sprinkled  crumbled shaved parmesan cheese on the top.

It is all gone!  DELICIOUS!  Next I will use it to make a pizza.  It could pass for simply "flat bread without the yeast.)  I have friends that would probably sprinkle brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and crushed almonds on the top of it.  It still would be great.

Like everything else in life I CAN become set in my ways of cooking, baking, playing piano, writing...  then something from out of no where hits me with a gentle slap on my head that says:  "try it!  you might like it!"

Thank God for younger people than me!  I am a child of the 60's and 70's.  I can become so set in my listening to certain music, books, politics, philosophy, as well as judgments of so many things.

Young people re-connect me!  They remind me I was once THEM.
I have a a friend in Slovenia who is a "rodeeee for bands"  he sets up their equipment and so many other things.  (I wrote a blog about this very thing a few years ago as I watched the stage and lighting and sound equipment being set up by many young men and women for the QT New Years Celebration!)

Uri is maybe 23-25?  he  e mails me all kinds of new music!  Most of it is beautiful and OKAY!  My dear Whitney always shared NEW MUSIC with me... (I love Country and she damn well knows her country music!)  the list is endless.  Otherwise I may drowned in all the stuff of the 60's and 70's.

(NO I HAVE A DEEP UNDERSTANDING OF CLASSICAL MUSIC... it never changes.  It only becomes more meaningful as one ages and listens to it as well as with age you discover new and glorious things in a classical composition you missed the first time around!)  Every artist performs the classics in their own way!

Because of the internet I am able to experience so many THINGS!  New music, old music, knowledge about certain drugs, including prescriptions!  Recipes, how to do most and all things!  MAGIC!  (Can't wait till I get the "implant in the inside of my arm!)  It will monitor my BP, how many steps I take a day... my Blood Sugar, the list is quite endless!)  We are ETERNITY!

The new recipe for dough is gorgeous!

If you dare give it a try!

My time in Dunedin...

I am 1/4 Scottish.  The city of Dunedin is SCOTTISH more than any place except Scotland.  This city as well as NZ has more Bag Pipe Bands than any place on earth!  YEP!  I am NOT a lover of the sound of bag pipes.  They do have a haunting sound.  Almost a droning wailing cry to my ears.

At my father's grave side service we had a "Scottish Bag Pipe Player" play Amazing Grace and then he turned away from the grave site and began playing Auld Lang Sien.... as he walked away.  The effect was amazing!  My father's name was Elwood (very British)  his mother was a Manning, one cannot get more British than that!  His middle name Stuart (very Scottish after the Stuart Clan)  Johnston is a Scottish name...  his grandfather and grandmother were born in Scotland.

In NZ one of the biggest bus lines is:  JOHNSTON.  I was in CHCH years ago and saw a bill board advertising an up and coming show starring DAVID A. JOHNSTON!  That was my grandfather's name!

This past weekend we made a road trip to Dunedin to visit our Land Lady and take in some good restaurants, movies, shopping plus the RUGBY and the BAG PIPER'S COMPETITION was going on.  I love this city.  Old paint on doors that open into all kinds of places, ancient wavy glass in windows, hard wood floors, the University.  I spent nearly two hours in the City Art Gallery.  Then walked to the ARTIST'S Gallery where Jon Thom works and creates unbelievable art!  Well, it was closed!   He created the portrait of me that hangs in my restaurant!  (since those days he has evolved into one NZ's finest artist's.

The old used and rare book store in the Octagon that I LOVED IS GONE!  I did find where another sacred place is thriving.  I was looking for a book about a great restauranteur I met years ago in NZ.
FLEUR SULLIVAN.  (if someone has time to burn do a google search on her as well as Jon Thom.)

Could not find the book.  Next day I was walking in a Bird Refuge full of Tui and Bell Birds...  in the gift shop THERE WAS THE BOOK!

Our Land Lady is a great woman!  She owns a very special piano.  It is Vintage Piano and has Ivory keys.  Some of the keys look like teeth that have been chipped. I love this piano.  I think of Beethoven, Debussy, Schubert, Brahms... they played pianos exactly like this!  I developed a mad love affair with this piano.  I play it every time we visit Karen however, this time!  the piano reached out to me.  It shared it's secret "VOICE" with my inner voice...  It wept when I played the Chopin Preludes!  It laughed when I played Rags, it sighed and dreamed when I played Clair de lune.  It sang Bach's Preludes with intensity and love...  the years this piano has been starving for touch and harmony.  I took photos of it!  I swear the piano POSED for me!  It was so pleased to be loved and used it's voice once again!

If MUSIC IS THE FOOD OF LOVE... well... I do love food.  Ate at some of my favorite places and then Karen took us to a new place!  I love Sirloin Steak.  It lost favor in many American restaurants a few years ago.  It has a great flavor and dense texture.  I alway grill it with the side of fat on the meat.
This Sirloin was DIVINE!!!  If I could have found the chef that cooked the meal I would have kissed him or her!

In another life I know I lived in Dunedin or I will in the next life.  I will have my Gypsy Moon place full of art, music, exotic teas, used books, herbs, a little bit of that and a little bit of that!  The city is a replica of San Fransisco when I a little boy.  Houses on steep hills, a bay going out into the mighty ocean, cool temperatures all year... humidity.  (when I play "I Left My Heart In San Fransisco"  I live every lyric to the song as well as the melody.

The most beautiful thing about Dunedin is:  when I wander through the streets I sense the energy pulsating of so many people I love that have long crossed into the eternal energy of the universe.
I am now a old man that will soon join all those spirits and radiate joy and excitement to so many I leave behind!

Complexity... so many feelings, insights...

I just finished reading a book composed by one of my favorite writers.  He uses "words" like notes of music and creates, melody, harmony, heart beats, visions and most of all TRUTH!

His book:  "MY READING LIFE" Is a precious tomb for anyone who loves the written word and loves reading.  I could write line after line about this man's writing.  His books The Prince of Tides and Beach Music, are must re-reads for me every so many years.  I thank my lucky stars for the gift this man has given my life!

Every human being has their favorite authors of stories, composers of music, artists of great paintings and poets that break or mend the heart.

The last month has been a wonderful yet strange time in my life!  I have drifted from making music into painting only to turn around a enjoy taking photos or writing poetry?  I walk for hours and it seems as IF I am the 'observer' seeing and sensing things I have never felt so deeply inside my mind, heart and spirit.  Some things are too deep to put into words.

I will post a photo of the tribute to Falcon Scott.  The words are set on a huge rock in the QT Gardens.  To think a small group of men could sail through ICE, STORMS and yes!  find Antarctica.
They all perished on their return.

Years ago I studied the "FRANKLIN EXPEDITION".   Every class room should do a study on this event.  1846... (think about all the things that were happening in America!)  Some of the graves that were set in ICE have preserved the soft tissue of young sailors.  Canada found one of the ships a few years ago!  This event sets my mind spinning... could Falcon Scott and his crew be buried in the ice of Antarctica?  and be mummified?

I began playing Brahms again.   He is the most complex composer.  His hidden messages within his compositions haunt me.  If I could lay down at this moment and listen to my heart beating and then hear it quietly stop I would want to hear his 1st Symphony?  his intermezzos. His complex and touching CONCERTO for Piano???

He was a beautiful young man...  he played piano in brothels as a young boy and suffered all kinds of degrading moments sexually and mentally.  He rose to great fame and mystery within the Musical Capital of the world in his day.   I finally gave myself a break from Brahms and reached out to Beethoven.  (HE IS A GOD!)  I learned the "Tempest" Sonata in D minor when I was at university.
I never played it well.  (yes with speed and passion as all veil young people do!)  Beethoven was as complex as Brahms but he used his own "foot print"  "finger print"....  (we all do.  We are each one of a kind!)

Again, this month I delved into new recipes.  I LOVE FRENCH FOOD...  I adore CROQUE-MONSIEUR sandwiches.  I went on line... blah blah more blah... I finally put my own touch on this wonderful meal.

I will tell you it uses butter, flour, milk, nutmeg, slices of Sandwich sliced bread and remove the crusts.  Ham, Gruyere Cheese, parmesan cheese and DISHON MUSTARD.  Finally, I have it perfected "my way".  Yes, let's play Frank Sinatra's MY WAY!

Now comes the BIG MOMENT!  My body...  I am listening to it.  My heart is not as kind to me as it used to be?  (I've broken the priceless thing in half so many times!)  It loves me and keep beating to that rhythm only the universe understands.  BUT  I am slower on the treadmill, I stretch and ache a hell of a lot...  the list is endless.  I over worked this space suit for far too many years in gyms!  It is paying me back.  A knee replacement in about 2007?  Then Cancer? a year later... joints that need to be scraped clean of calcium build up?  Face that has gone to horror house for ever!  Hands that have weird things going on inside the bones?  I should have been a better boy and NOT BE SO DETERMINED TO BECOME  the body of a AMAZON?

As I said:  it has been a most interesting month!  AND THAT IS WHAT THE WHOLE THING IS ABOUT!  ADVENTURE!

The joy of creativity...

Years ago I did a lot of hiking, as we call long walks into the wilderness, in America.

Down Under it is called TRAMPING!  When I first heard the term tramping I thought about TRAMPS!  BUMS!  Down and out people...

Well, not so.  Walking has been around forever.  Germany really got into it years ago.  If one studies the history of what American's call Hippies the life style actually began in Germany.  Communes and living in symphony with the planet one lives on.  The old sing-a-long tune:  "Here We Go a Rambling amid the leaves so green... etc... with a back pack on my knee!"  The joy of being out of doors, carrying all the things one would need for the day in a pack upon their backs!  The pack held wine, cheese, bread, fruit, and extra clothing in the case of in climate weather.

The British and French created PICNICS!  A basket full of "sandwiches" pickled onions to gherkins, olives, cheeses, wines, fried chicken, cold roast beef, a table cloth, napkins, (serviettes) real cutlery and a sweet dessert.  Fruit pies to cakes.  Chocolate and brandy!  Strawberries, oranges and plums.

I just heard on the new this morning that walking (NOT RUNNING) can add years on your life!  I use walking as a sacred mind cleansing sacrament.  When I am out of sorts, angry, confused, anxious and worried I WALK!  My father taught me this secret.  When I was a little boy he simply said:  when things become strange and rather scary WALK.  He gave me a precious gift.

Walking also sets off different neurons inside the universe of your brain.  It can also introduce you to all kinds of situations.

One will meet human beings, animals, tides, shifting rock, an empty water bottle, stars and galaxies you have never, ever imagined could possibly live over your head.  Sunrise and Sunset.  The most amazing for me is TWILIGHT.  The light between day and night.

I love to force myself into places I think I should not enter.  Imagination and vision help but, one day years ago I discovered the joy of painting.

NOT WALLS.  God, I hate painting walls, floor boards, ceilings, roofs and the list is endless.
I do love having a blank space in front of me and a box of oils, water colors, finger paints, crayons, pencils, glue and colored paper with sharp knives, lots of bits and pieces to assemble into "something"...  My father taught me

about shadow and light.  He could draw images extremely well.  He could spend hours outlining mountains, trees, houses, barns, and his clouds were breath taking to me.

Now I will knit this skien of WALKING and PAINTING into one DISH!

A few years ago myself and a dear friend did a tramp through the Catlins.  A place beside the sea in the southern most part of south island NZ.  It was quite the adventure.  I have no doubt written about it in my years of past blogs.

I have forever loved the art work of TURNER.  The other evening I viewed the movie about his life.  I came home lifted some blank canvas out of storage, dug out the oils and dreamed of NOT LOOKING LIKE TURNER BUT PAINTING LIKE HIM!

I wanted to create a sunset.  I have been humbled to the point of kneeling before a sunset from the time I was a little boy.  Living a mile from the Great Salt Lake I was given the most amazing SUNSETS on planet earth.  Blue water.  Antelope Island.  A sky so high and wide heaven could fit forever in it's span of space.

Rutha and I witnessed some gorgeous sunsets when we tamped the Catlins.  Lots of tall grasses and farm lands near the edge of the sea.

I have painted a simple silly piece of art of a memory of the Catlins and the Sunsets.

When I die I hope someone will spread my remains in the rivers, oceans and mountains I love at SUNSET.  

Humility...

Yesterday I did a very strange thing.  (I naturally do strange things...)

I was thinking about a very special friend of mine.  I met her many many years ago and something "clicked".  We have kept in close touch ever since that meeting.  A few months ago she passed away.
She had maintained a very active Face Book site and a website all about natural healing.  She had also appeared on many famous talk shows from television to radio and the internet.  She was a healer, psychic, extremely knowledgeable regarding herbal therapy and nutrition.  Her most outstanding gift was her unconditional love for life!

I looked up her FB.  For some silly reason I wrote her a note.  Hit publish and within minutes there was a note sent to me regarding my post!  (I know you can hear the theme song of the old TV show Twilight Zone....)  Knowing this person the way I do she may have asked someone to maintain her FB and Web Site.  I was thrilled having a response to my simple note!

The marvels of the internet and cyber space are a blessing I for one man am so grateful to be a part of.  I have access to knowledge within seconds where as years ago I would spend hours inside the sacred wall of books searching for answers.  Now I can listen to a concert live being performed in Iceland, talk with a friend in Turkey, apparently even some dead people?  I am so grateful and humble because of this gorgeous silver box:  my Jazzabella!

I can type in most anything I am thinking at the moment and find answers.  A few years ago when people would say:  too much information will destroy us.  WTF?  INFORMATION IS WHAT SAVES US!  Dogma and fear keep information hidden.

When DNA and RNA were discovered I took a class at the University.  I absorbed the information like a sponge.  It made great sense.  I flunked the course.  I did not take the exams and the finals.  I simply cannot endure group, classroom. masses of people sitting and being preached to... however, I can sit in a concert hall or movie theater with lots of people and love the performance.

The professor that taught the course was good to me.  He spent time with me explaining all sorts of theories and concepts regarding births, death, religion, disease, individual skin tones, hair and eye color, talents and mental as well as physical gifts in many cases disasters.

Today because of computers we can truly find a person's DNA.  Here is another amazing gift:  COMPUTERS.  Alan Turing has been one of my heroes as well a idols.  Finally England has come out with the movie:  The Inigma Machine.  Because of British law and politics Alan Turing committed suicide at the yearly age of 42.  Go see the movie.

I remember the IBM cards!  The days of Micro-Film.  The Mormon Church was recording all genealogy on microfilm to be stored in some mountain... well they had to transfer everything to computers!  I remember when electric and some pipe organs used digital IBM cards.  You inserted the card into a slot on the instrument and it would make all the present stops work!  No more reaching and grabbing for a stop and missing it or pulling the wrong one!

This SILVER GEM my Jazzabella  (No that is not a brand name... I give objects names it is an Apple power book lap top.) IT is a most intricate part of my existence.  I never give gender titles to objects or even living things.  It is stupid!

I do get slapped across my pride every so often, more often than not at this age.  EXAMPLE:

Recently I had my eyes examined.  I've been wearing these Wrap Around dark glasses one puts over their prescription glasses to commit the sun's glare.  Well seems no one like's my DG Silver rim eye glasses.   I also needed  a check up on the state of my vision due to a history of blindness and eye disease because of my DNA.  My grandparents went blind.  My father had one eye then half of one eye.  My brother has one eye... the list is endless.  TO DAY BECAUSE OF THE WONDER OF COMPUTERS EXAMES ARE WONDERFUL!

I have a lovely young gorgeous girl for my eye doctor.  I passed the exam perfectly.  She said I was most fortunate because I show no signs of eye disorders or disease.  I have a wee cataract on my left eye.   Nothing to even think about!

I was flattered and relieved to know such a diagnosis.  She said:  Your good to go.  I stood up, stepped out of the chair, started walking to the door and proceeded to trip over my own two feet, crashing into a heap of what ever!  OMG!  I love an audience and I had one!  The front of the office rush in... a fine young man helped me to my feet.  I was laughing so intensely I could not stop the tears running down my face!  I apologized and walked to the lobby.  There was a indoor outdoor runner on the floor.  One time is not good enough!  Within nano seconds I tripped on the edge of the damn runner and slammed into the counter!  I can never return to the clinic until all the staff have died including myself!'

I took a taxi home.  Hobbled up the drive way carrying my purchases of groceries, I have two B&N bags I carry with me where ever I go.  I used to only have back packs but for some mystery I like these grocery type bags.  I swear they are made out of good quality hemp!  I stepped into the bathroom, pulled up my pant legs and examined the damage.  I sprayed some antibiotic solution on the wounds and bravely walked up the rest of the stairs.  Reached into the fridge, poured myself a HUGE glass of chilled Chardonnay, popped a Xanax into my mouth and swallowed my PRIDE!

For a pianist I suffer one dreadful disease:  arthritis in my hands.  I do not perform for money anymore.  I cannot trust my hands.  But I can play for my own amazement.  Think, what if, you were a famous dancer!!! hips, knees, elbows, back OMG it would be dreadful!

I posted the photo I took this morning with my NEW CANNON CAMERA of my crystals.  These seven frozen points of light have been with me forever.  I travel with them.  Three Phantom crystals and three Quartz SiO2... plus a mystery.  I have the one with two terminators but cannot get an answer as to what and if?  I know it comes out of China.

Well chips of these ancient stones are inside your wrist watch, your computer the list is endless.  They can hold vibrations.  Vibrations are sounds, language...  the green beads behind the crystals are BLOOD STONES.  I spent a small fortune on this stand of blood stones.  Mormons do not always know this:  Joseph Smith and Brigham young wore a blood stone around their necks... to protect them.  Well, It may not have proved to have worked?

I am grateful for computers and the wonders of the universe.  I am forever humbled even if I have to trip over my feet and stumble into reality.  HUMILITY is HEALING.

Strawberries from my NZ garden!  Gorgeous rubies of sweetness and perfection.  Good for you!

There is not a man on planet earth more happy to see 2014 fade into the past then ME!

2014 was a very difficult year for me.  My work, my personal life, friendships, my health, most of all the loss of family and friends which crossed over into the invisible.

One more time for Karma and Synchronocity.  The word Synchronocity was my key word for last year... WELL, I LEARNED TO LIVE WITH THE MAGIC OF SYNCHRONICITY!

2014 was a hell of a year involving death, birth, forgiveness, acceptance, and the most difficult lesson of my life:  LET GO OF BEING IN CONTROL!  It was a year that tore my heart apart    The death of my father and mother within 6 months of each other was not easy for me.  I also lost many friends and I had not a clue they were sick or even near a death sentence.

I have forever dreamed of being a NOMAD.  A hermit.  Totally self sufficient  and above and beyond all else being in tune with the universe.  I have found such a space within myself.

In my early twenties I was introduced to a genius film maker:  INGMAR BERGMAN.  His movies stunned me.  My being a very innocent Mormon I had difficulty understanding some of the dramatic story lines.  In my 30's I learned to embrace his work.  His movies are about Scandinavian situations.

I am part Norwegian... thus I have genes that reach out to this genre.

Liv Ullmann is one of my favorite actress's.  She stars in many of Bergman's movies.  She is in a movie I adore:  MIND WALK.  It is based on Bernt Capra's movie:  BAGDAD CAFE.  

The movie MIND WALK stars, Liv Ullman, Sam Waterston, and John Heard, (John Heard is a fantastic actor...)  The movie is based on the truth of physics and how it is the truth of our very being...

Enough about MIND WALK...  Ingmar made and produced a movie years ago titled: WILD STRAWBERRIES.   

It is the tale of a Doctor and his death...  I saw this movie at the Terrace Theater in SLC Utah years ago.  The Terrace was a very artsy movie house that showed movies which were not shown in the MAIN STREAM movie houses.  One could see all kinds of celebrities in Utah at this venue seeing a film from Opera to Comedy.

The new strawberries in my garden keep telling me:  Life is good.  Forgive and Let LIVE!  My strawberries come in hues of reds and shades of sunsets!  I harvest them for my neighbors, friends and my self.  I am not a lover of strawberries anymore.  I prefer sliced meats, dates, olives, breads, olive oil and wines......... cheeses, and sliced avocados, pears and oranges!

MY WORDS FOR 2015 are:  ACCEPT...ALLOW...AGAPE!

Dear God, I do hope I make it through this year with these words.  May all those that read my words be blessed with hope, love and strawberries!  Slice one in half and you will see a heat!!!!