Liza Constable

Wouldn’t life be simple if I were only interested in music. Then I could present a unified front, and never doubt what and where I am. Like all those folks in the music business. They all seem so… focussed. I have been in love with photography ever since I bought a camera from a friend for $20 in 7th grade. It was the one thing besides music that kept me out of trouble in those confusing adolescent years. It was certainly a way of hiding behind something, and also giving reason for those long walks in the woods, or a secret bus ride into Manhattan during the school day (I walked 42 St and took pictures of busy people, sprawling drunks, halloween storefronts). I spent hours in the darkroom, and once skipped an entire week of HS to be in the darkroom (my father found me out – I left my open journal on the table). I attented a photo class at the local university where Joel Meyerowitz and Emmet Gowin were teaching . They let me in their class, I was passionate, I was 17. They saw that. I don’t remember being amazed that they let me in. I must have been. Wow. But I worked hard and joined all the discussions.

Anyway, I’ve been looking through the last 9 years of photographs (since I went digital), and wondering, WTF? I am still doing this. For 37 years I am doing this.

So, I just want to say, from here on in, there’s going to be photographs, and the usual music thoughts and updates.

Up at the top, one of my favorite photographers, the Bechers. See their portfolio, beautifully presented here:

http://photography-now.net/bernd_and_hilla_becher/portfolio1.html

I am struck by the thought that while the subjects are industrial, metal, manmade, riveted, hard, cold… they are organic and alive in shape. An underlying beauty in industrial shapes. Now I won’t start to think about the latest – not so latest trend in industrial shape, the metal corrugated box building. Will we find beauty in that in 100 years?

The Bechers were also influential in that they collected and eventually displayed their photographs in a grid form, inviting comparison of form and shape. Who is it among my friends that has a poster on her wall, a grid of colorful outhouses? Becher influenced.

The hottest week of a cool New England summer. I’m savoring the gulf stream mix, keeping my feet in the water, on an island for a few days.

Swing a Cat! has been doing a lot of evening town concerts this summer, all over NH and some in Maine. What a blast it’s been, and we’ve been getting some excellent response. It’s great fun to sing and play the old tunes, we’re working hard on those Boswell tunes, which are so hard, so fun to sing. Thanks to all our fans…!!
you can find a little more on that band here:

www.swingacatmusic.com

Being in love with all kinds of sound, I loved this next website: four members of the thrush family, their familiar songs, then – hear them slowed down. What incredible skill and fascinating patterns. Some are like whale song. Makes you think.

wildmusic.org/animals/thrush

Been reading great murder mysteries, my mother in law has an amazing collection of old paperbacks from the 50s:

Fish or Cut Bait by Gardner Erle Stanley (writing As AA Fair)
Poor Harriet by Elizabeth Fenwick

I’ve been listening to alot of podcasts lately, since I’ve been doing a lot of driving this summer. I always seem to enjoy the program “Speaking of Faith”. I am tired of Christianity and far more interested in Buddhism. Being raised a lax Unitarian, it’s not a far leap. Krista Tippett takes speaking of faith in intelligent directions, always.

Anyway, I stumbled upon Jon Kabat-Zinn in the last year or so, trying to deal with the death of both my brother and mother, searching for ways to live my life, be healthy, be awake, get through greiving, and make this life work…

I stopped the ipod at this moment in the conversation and “rewound”:

“The key to creativity is cultivating spaciousness of the mind”. Exactly, I thought, that is exactly what I am looking for. I know these are the times that I am producing the best work, the best thoughts, the best energy.

So he goes on, “Well, actually the spaciousness is already in the mind…we can’t cultivate it, what we can cultivate is intimacy with it so that we actually know how spacious, how luminous, how creative and reliable our own minds are. Now that would be good to start learning in kindergarten!”

http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/