Light/Breezes

Light/Breezes
SUNRISE AT DEATH VALLEY-Photo by Tom Cochrun

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

NO PLACE LIKE IT & A HARD MEMORY

OFF THE HIGHWAY
     Big Sur owned my heart from the first time I saw it
in 1969.  By the time Brian Wilson's California Suite was 
written in 1973, the area had become mythical as a place where nature, at its most beautiful, turned on hearts, spirits, creativity and imagination.
       On a recent trip I collected a few images that bespeak
the kind of ethos and attitude that remain.
     
It continues to be a place where originality
dwells in the majestic Redwoods.


     Sitting in this room, a gentle breeze on my face, smelling the freshness of the forest and being tranquilized by the blue of the pacific and the sweet sounds of the wind chimes is 
mesmerizing. It nourishes, deeply.

    Dabbles of warm sun rain through the pines and redwoods.




Mike Love and Brian Wilson immortalize the beauty in this video.


CALIFORNIA SAGA/BIG SUR
BRIAN WILSON
from CALIFORNIA SUITE
Do do do do do do do do do

Cashmere hills filled with evergreens
Flowin' from the clouds down to meet the sea
With the granite cliff
(big sur mount)
As a referee
Crimson sunsets and golden dawns
A mother deer with their newborn fawns
All under big sur skies
(big sur mount)
That's where I belong.

Big sur I've got plans for you
Me and mine are going to
Add ourselves to your lengthy list of lovers
(big sur mount)
And live in canyons covered in springtime green
Wild birds and flowers to be heard and seen
And with my old guitar
I'll make up songs to sing.
Where bubbling springs from the mountainside
Join the big sur river to the oceanside
Where the kids can look for sea shells at low tide
Big sur my astrology it says that I am made to be
Where the rugged mountain meets the water

And so while stars shine brightly from up above
The fog rolls in through a redwood grove
And to my dying fire I think I'll add a log.

From time to time I must go away
The thoughts of big sur won't let me stay
Away from big sur
Oh big sur


A TRAGIC CALIFORNIA MEMORY
    We are voting today but the California primary 
evokes that horrible night in June 1968 when Robert Kennedy was gunned down.  
      I spent time with Kennedy and his campaign in April when he campaigned in the Indiana primary.  As a young reporter, it was my first presidential election and Kennedy's star power and charisma was impressive and memorable. His death, like Martin Luther King Jr.'s fueled the maelstrom and upending of the social fabric in that searingly unique year.
      There is rancor and division today, but by comparison to 1968 we are living in a halcyon Penny Lane.

      See you down the trail.

2 comments:

  1. Great pictures. My dad took me to downtown San Jose for a night rally when Bobbie was campaigning for president. Kennedy made a joke about not being able to hand out campaign buttons because he'd entrusted the task to brother Teddy, and all the buttons had Teddy's picture on them. It seems so long ago....

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  2. ON this night, I had finished the WPTA 11pm Newscast and was watching the events from ABC in California ending. The Master Control operator and I were ready to say good night, his finger on the button. I noticed the credits ended but the Network did not quit or sign-off. That would be his cue to go home. I urged him to wait, "cause there is something wrong out there." YES!
    We never did sign-off that night. Robt.Kennedy was killed. I had met him in Fort Wayne a month earlier on the political trail. -w-

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