Scenes on Sunday ~ Where was Love?
love is not something you feel, it’s something you do
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
it seems that she wanted a lover
and a regular guy wouldn’t do
Tunes on Tuesday ~ Blues Brothers
it’s 106 miles to Chicago, we’ve got a full tank of gas, it’s dark out, and we’re wearing sunglasses
Not only do I like the movie, I also like Ray Charles, and this song, and the street dancers.
Please listen and dance responsibly.
The Men in Black? I’ve seen Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith do it better.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
if you hit Route 66 in Chicago
eventually you’ll end up here
seize the day
do every act of your life as though it was the very last act of your life ~ Marcus Aurelius
January in England and nature is at its lowest ebb of the year. The ground is hard, the sea is damn cold, everything and everyone seems to be moving in slow motion.
Even I’ve been feeling lethargic this afternoon, and considering doing nothing more productive than dozing while the TV plays in the background.
That just isn’t good enough for me.
You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land, there is no life but this. ~ Henry David Thoreau.
Feeling bored, listless, lethargic, and filled with ennui is just a state of mind, and if I’ve learned anything in recent months is that you can change your mind, even your state of mind.
Instead of dozing, bored in front of the TV, I’m going to go out into the cold and take another walk. At least that will damn well wake me up.
Some say that boredom the natural state of being for mature guys. And, that most men don’t have the energy, brains, or motivation to find anything better to do than watch sports on TV. All I know if that I’m not like most men; I’m a cool guy living a great life.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
a desert, a Mustang, who can be bored?
Scenes on Sunday ~ Seascapes
I must go down to the sea again ~ to the lonely sea and the sky
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Santa Monica
The end of the old Route 66
Scenes on Sunday ~ New Mexico Snow
On the road, snow is glistening ~ loving the winter traveling…..
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalknet
who would believe that it snows in the desert?
Songs on Saturday ~ December 1st
At Christmas, love the giver more than the gift.
The First of December is the beginning of my personal Christmas Season ~ others may begin their own Christmas earlier, or if they follow older traditions will not begin to celebrate Yule until December 21st. The end of Yuletide is January 1st, and here in England the traditional end of Christmas is 12th Night, which falls on January 5th.
Anyone with the spirit of Christmas / Yule in their heart will have their own seasonal traditions, one of mine is that my Christmas playlist comes into force today ~ my computerised music system really only plays festive songs between now and 12th night.
This is one of my favourite festive tunes ~ it reminds me that not everyone looks forward to Christmas.
Please listen with joy and compassion in your heart.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
snow in the high desert,
New Mexico
Cars, and Planes, and Trains
It’s very nice to go travelling, but it’s so much nicer to travel home.
Actually no it isn’t. In comparison to warm and sunny Orange County, the North of England in late November is bleak, boring, grey, and bloody cold, even down at my favourite boat on the marina it’s miserable today. And it’s a pretty long journey to get back here from where I was staying with my friend.
- Leave my friend at 04:00 Pacific Time on Monday 19th November.
- Uber to John Wayne Airport.
- Take off from John Wayne at 07:00.
- Flight to Dallas Fort Worth 2hrs 35
- Land DFW at 11:35 Central Time (2 hours time change).
- Take off DFW at 15:15 for London Heathrow, a flight of 9hrs 00, (benefiting from a 125mph tail wind over the Atlantic).
- Land London Heathrow at 06:15 GMT on November 20th (6 hours time change).
- Leave LHR for Newcastle upon Tyne at 09:45 GMT, a flight of 1hrs 15
- Arrive NCL at 11:00
- Leave Newcastle Airport by Metro Subway for Newcastle Central Rail Station at 12:40 GMT
- Arrive back at the garret at 14:30 GMT on Monday 20th of November.
Total journey time of 26hrs 30min. Time in the air 12hrs 50min.
It’s about 5,500 miles from SoCal to the North of England, all in all, and from 38,000 feet you damn well know the world is round when you look out of the aircraft windows.
Some say that it’s excitement and adventure that keeps a man alive. And, that when you can’t be bothered to go travelling, you may as well just curl up and die. All I know is that I loved every damn minute of my latest trip ~ maybe the best trip ever.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
much on New Mexico is Indian land
(is one allowed to say that?)
Santa Fe Trail
‘the trail to Santa Fe means eradicating the Kiowa and the Comanche’
shot from the car on the Road to Santa Fe
Went to Santa Fe in New Mexico ~ change scene to Classic Western movie starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, and Ronald Reagan as General George Armstrong Custer. And nope, it wasn’t anything like that at all.
For a start it was snowing, and that made it more like a Clint Eastwood nihilistic spaghetti western. Then we had lunch in the coolest New Mexico menu restaurant, which was full of sexy chi-chi women. And after that I took in the Georgia O’Keeffe art museum, which was all about weird multi-million dollar paintings.
O’Keeffe’s work is ostensibly of flowers, but trust me, most of her paintings spoke to me of abstract images of female genitalia. Weird.
The girl riding shotgun and I wandered around a few art galleries too. Either Santa Fe NM is a seriously wealthy town, or seriously wealthy people go there to buy art.
All in all I like Santa Fe, even if it is more Clint Eastwood and Georgia O’Keeffe than Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland. An almost accidental little road trip, with an accidentally great result.
Just another confirmation that I’m suddenly living the good life.
Some say that great art is not meant to be understood. And that what you see in a painting is merely a reflection of your own subconscious mind. All I know is that flowers really are sexual organs.
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Jack Collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
a rose by any other name would smell as sweet
Scenes on Sunday – California
I’m just a staid English guy being cool in Orange County
Today I am in sunny Orange County, where it’s still a balmy 80 degrees. I like California, it might just be the nicest crazy place I know.
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Jack Collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Wednesday I fly out to New Mexico
at least I’ll be staying at a cool hotel
Scenes on Sunday ~ Desert Beauty
The desert holds its harsh beauty close in secret silences.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
in the desert there is no sense of scale
this natural rock stack is about sixty-feet tall
and some see strange things in these rocks
