Author: oneletterup

Harmony

~ oneletterup ~ 16 Comments

This post inspired by Lens-Artists Challenge #44

The prompt: Harmony

Color harmony is achieved when a piece of art includes complimentary colors, typically two or three colors side-by-side on the wheel, two colors directly opposite each other on the wheel, or any color combination found in nature. It can also be used to incite different emotions in our art. Monochromatic or analogous colors (side-by-side on the wheel) create a more soothing feeling, while complementary colors (directly opposite each other on the wheel) can create drama. Allowing a single color to dominate, especially a primary color, can create a very powerful image….This is (also) your opportunity to share your favorite harmonies. Give us your best yoga pose, or your favorite musician at work, or perhaps a happy couple arm in arm – whatever floats your boat (especially if it’s on a warm yellow/orange sunset or a cool blue sunrise 😊)

 

~~~

harmony ties

 

When I married a musician – a guitar player – I knew I was also marrying his guitars. It wasn’t in the vows, but I knew it all the same. I was okay with that. Even though, now, after 40 years I still wonder at the need for 8. But never mind.

They are first loves…especially his very first guitar…from the Harmony Company. The guitar he wrote his first songs on. Teenage angst, love and heartbreak. The guitar he has kept to this very day.

What does a guitar player/guitar teacher often receive as a gift? In his case…ties. Bright colorful music themed ties. Guitar ties. Beatles ties. To name a few. Some piquing the curiosity of his teenage students.

Creative color collages from all around the color wheel. As harmonious as the music he has created and shared with us. All these years.

 

tie

 

 

 

 

Photo a Week Challenge – Three of a Kind

~ oneletterup ~ 14 Comments

Nancy Merrill is hosting a photo challenge. The theme this week – Three of a Kind

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE THREE DIFFERENT PHOTOS OF THE SAME SUBJECT.

 

Spring is finally here. So says the calendar.

However, Winter’s damp cold dome of a sky has been holding on. Clouds blocking the sunlight.  The budding…and trying-to-bloom…trees…that I look forward to every year waiting to shine.

Until today. The sun was so bright, I nearly blinded myself taking these photos. But totally worth it. It’s supposed to rain for most of the coming week, so it was now or…who knows when.

The row of Callery pear trees…in full bloom at long last.

row of trees

tree closer
Looking up…
tree close up
Looking closer still

Spring Is Here!

 

 

Song Lyric Sunday – Hurt/Pain/Agony/Suffer

~ oneletterup ~ 11 Comments

My contribution to this week’s Song Lyric Sunday (Prompt: Hurt/Pain/Agony/Suffer

 

Cidney Bullens (formerly known as Cindy Bullens) wrote “I Gotta Believe In Something” after the death of her 11 year old daughter Jessie, from cancer, in 1996.

“I Gotta Believe In Something” is part of the critically acclaimed album “Somewhere Between Heaven and Earth” released in 1999. Backing vocals: Bonnie Raitt and Beth Neilsen Chapman.

Grief is palpable, as is the unimaginable pain behind the lyrics in this haunting song.

Cidney Bullens, an American singer/songwriter/guitarist, grew up in Massachusetts. As Cindy, she began her singing career as a backup vocalist for Rod Stewart and Elton John. She released her first well received album “Desire Wire” in 1978 – the first of 8 albums – and was nominated for 2 Grammy awards. He is currently working on a new solo album.

 

 

I GOTTA BELIEVE IN SOMETHING

 

By Cindy Bullens

I can’t figure it out
As if I ever could
Everything I planned
Didn’t work out like I thought it would

I’ve had my share of tragedy
I’ve felt the darkness cover me
Till I can’t see

But I gotta believe in something
I gotta believe in something
That there’s just plain nothing
Don’t sit right with me

I gotta hold on to something
I gotta hold on to something
Even if it’s nothing
But a little dream

Some days just breathing
Is all that I can do
And I curse the disappearance
Of everything I knew

But there’s only so many tears I can cry
I need to point my soul to the light
So I can see

And I gotta believe in something
I gotta believe in something
That’s there’s just plain nothing
Don’t seem right to me

I gotta hold onto something
I gotta hold onto something
I can’t live with nothing
To believe

I can’t figure it out
As if I ever could
Everything I planned
Didn’t work out like I thought it would

So I gotta believe in something
I gotta believe in something
That’s there’s just plain nothing
Don’t seem right to me

I gotta hold on to something
I gotta hold on to something
Even if it’s nothing
But a little dream

I gotta believe in something
I gotta believe in something
I can’t live with nothing
To believe

© 1997 Mommy’s Geetar Music/BMI

Technology

~ oneletterup ~ 15 Comments

This post inspired by Frank at Dutch goes the Photo

The prompt: Technology

 

silent-movies.jpg
Bell & Howell movie projector
Purchased 1983
400 ft & 50 ft reels of film

 

One of my favorite memories as a child was home movie night.
When my grandparents would visit. And the 8mm movie projector was hauled out with great fanfare and set up in the living room on a card table. The screen slid out of its long narrow tattered cardboard box. Metal supports positioned on the carpeted floor. Screen unrolled and hooked tight.

My family would gather & find seats. Kids usually cross legged on the floor. Waited for my father or grandfather to get the film threaded properly. It seemed there was always an issue. Nothing was automatic. The damn film got stuck. Wait a minute. I’ll have to trim it. Okay here we go.

Finally, the window shades were pulled down. Lights out. The room illuminated only by the projector bulb.

Then magic happened. Flickering images of the “old days” appeared on the screen. My parents in their early twenties. My grandparents mugging for the camera – much too young to be my grandparents…but there they were!  My sisters, brother and I as babies. Toddlers. Christmas mornings. Easter baskets. Birthday parties.

My siblings and I…fascinated. Eyes glued to the screen.

The only sound…the humming projector. Interspersed with the whirring and clicking of rewinding and changing each 3 minute long reel.  With no audio….

The original silent home movie. 8mm and later – Super 8mm.

I was forever hooked. My mouth hung open in disbelief at the power of this machine to go back in time. Or so it seemed. Even without sound, it was better than television. When I reached high school age, I was honored to be the one who set up home movie night. Learning to thread the film into the projector. Trimming when necessary.

It was perfectly natural to continue this obsession when I became a mom.

First with a super 8mm movie camera. I had to control myself. Three minutes went by fast. Film sent to Kodak for processing wasn’t cheap. In 1983 we added the movie projector – and a screen – to watch the movies of our baby daughter. Six years later, our son. Christmas. Easter. Birthday parties. Watching a storm. Running in the backyard. At the beach….

We eventually graduated to a camcorder. Next a digital movie camera. Then a phone.

I preserved the home movies of my childhood by having them transferred to videotape in the 1990’s. I held my breath until I got them back in the mail from the video conversion company. Which had first spliced the movies onto over a dozen 400 foot reels. Safely returned along with the videotapes. Which we later added music to. And duplicated for my family members.

Decades later, when the tapes began to disintegrate, I digitized them on my computer.

Grateful for more technology to keep memories alive.

I still have the movie reels. The projector. Just in case. Trusting what I can hold in my hand. No offense to thumb drives, platter drives, solid state drives…phones…and clouds everywhere.

Below is a snippet of a (silent) 3 minute movie I took of my daughter, who is narrating what she sees out the open window.

Hurricane Gloria – September 1985.
Transferred from 8mm movie film to videotape to a M4v digital file.
Old technology saved by the new.

 

 

 

A Response

~ oneletterup ~ 8 Comments

This post inspired by V.J.’s Weekly Challenge #46: Response

For this week’s challenge, I thought it might be interesting to create a post in response to someone else’s work. This might be a poem in response to an image, or an image in response to a poem. It might be an imagined dialogue, or a response that demonstrates how the other has inspired you. As always, be creative, and remember to create a link to the original piece.

~~~

 

Pat at 2squarewriting posted “The Art of Letting Go – Moving On Without Losing Everyone You Know” on April 4, 2019.

My response…

 

sitting at beach

It’s okay to
wrap up the
indignation and despair
for what was real
but really wasn’t

grateful to know
the difference

from years grown up
tethered to an illusion
of close connections

grateful to gain
the strength

to halt
the searching
for the right and the wrong

finally understanding
there’s still
time

to carefully
wrap it
seal it
tie the bow

and
gently
leave it behind

 

Bread

~ oneletterup ~ 14 Comments

This post inspired by Ragtag Daily Prompt

Bread…the often maligned staff of life. A slice of evil carbs. The heaven-sent envelope for melted cheese.

I didn’t give it much thought on a personal level until 10 years ago. When I was diagnosed with celiac disease. And reluctantly began my adventures into the murky depths of the gluten-free diet.

Full disclosure: I worked my entire professional life as a registered dietitian, so I knew what celiac disease was. And what a gluten-free diet was.  My least favorite diet to teach someone about. Challenging to say the least.

It was not without great irony, that I embarked upon this new personal life chapter.

Returning to the subject of bread…

“Back in the day” as we baby boomers say, gluten-free (GF) bread was akin to extra thick cardboard…at best. Available only by mail order. Or at a lonely booth at the annual dietetics convention. Samples piled high as dietitians rushed past the company table. Towards the latest low fat potato chips on display further down the crowded aisle.

GF bread was oh so very dry. Like chewing on a rug pad. Sandy when crumbled. Taste? A junior high science experiment gone wrong.

When I was diagnosed in 2009, a hopeful light had started to appear at the end of the gluten-free diet tunnel. A few companies were starting to manufacture decent gluten-free mixes, cookies, cakes…and some breads. The marketing strategy was not so much aimed at those of us with celiac disease (we are only 1% of the US population), but for those with gluten intolerance as well.

However, the real economic driver for the cascade of GF foods on the grocery store shelves? The tidal wave of consumers who believe a gluten-free diet is a healthier diet overall (it isn’t, don’t get me started…).

All the attention is fine with me though. I benefit from more choices that actually taste…almost as good…as their “real” counterparts.

I tried making GF bread from a mix the old fashioned way. Letting it rise and all of that. There were a number of disasters until I found a mix that turned out okay…

gf bread 2011

…but the texture? meh… Taste? better than a GF loaf off the shelf. Still way too much work.

In 2011 my 2 adult children took pity on me and gifted me a bread machine at Christmas. Along with several bags of GF bread mix.

“It’s easy Mom. Just put it all in the machine and push the gluten free setting button!”
They were well acquainted with my aversion for recipes with more than 6 ingredients and a few steps.

They were right. It was easy. The bread tasted even better. And did I say it was easy?

The magic bread mix plus bread machine did equal a quality loaf of gluten-free bread. Not quite like the old days of hearty wheat and bran bread, but a definite improvement…

GF bread 2012

No more cardboard bread. The taste and texture acceptable. But still not…well…normal.

gf bread cutJPG

However…since I pride myself on reading directions – no matter what they are for – I also studied the recipe book that came with the bread machine.

I found a gluten-free bread recipe listing:

5  different flours plus
9 other ingredients
and 15 steps…

…I thought maybe I could make an even better GF bread. Worth the time to assemble. With so…many…ingredients. And the bread machine…

My curiosity got the better of me. As often happens.

I tweaked the recipe with:

1. What I had learned since my diagnosis (which includes: forget all you ever knew about baking bread)
2. Old Food Science class info nuggets pried from my memory bank circa 1976 (science is science after all).
3. Let’s try somehow to increase the fiber so eating white bread doesn’t feel so wrong.

It worked.
Excellent tasting gluten-free bread.

Which I know I have a photo of somewhere.
And when I find it, I will add it to this post!

One thing for sure: samples would go fast at the convention….

Song Lyric Sunday – Boogie/Rock/Rolling Stone

~ oneletterup ~ 10 Comments

My contribution to this week’s Song Lyric Sunday (Prompt: Boogie/Rock/Rolling Stone)

 

The late great Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin wrote “Rock Steady,” an “upbeat song that will get you up out of your seat moving and grooving…” (All Music Guide to Rock 2002 – 3rd ed.) for her album Young, Gifted and Black in 1971.

The song – classified as funk – was also released as a single in 1971 – reaching #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

To quote Dave Marsh from The Heart of Rock & Soul (1989), “She cries out like a woman backed to the wall, shouting for truth and nothing less: ‘Let’s call this song exactly what it is!'”

Enjoy!

 

 

Rock Steady

by Aretha Franklin

Rock steady, baby
That’s what I feel now
Just call the song exactly what it is
Just move your hips with a feeling from side to side
Sit yourself down in your car and take a ride
While you’re moving, rock steady
Rock steady, baby
Let’s call this song exactly what it is
(What it is, what it is, what it is)
It’s a funky and lowdown feeling (what it is)
In the hips from left to right (what it is)
(What it is) what it is I might be doin’
(What it is) this funky dance all night
(Put your hands up in the air)
(Got a feelin’ you ain’t got a care)
(What fun to take this ride) 
(Rock steady will only slide) 

Rock steady, rock steady baby
Rock steady, rock steady baby

Jump and move your hips with a feeling from side to side
Sit yourself down in your car and take a ride
While you’re moving, rock steady
Rock steady

Let’s call this song exactly what it is
(What it is, what it is, what it is)
It’s a funky and lowdown feeling (what it is)
In the hips from left to right (what it is)
What it is is I might be doin’ (what it is)
This funky dance all night, ah
(Put your hands up in the air)
(Got a feelin’ you ain’t got a care)
(What fun to take this ride) 
(Rock steady will only slide)

Rock steady baby, rock steady, woo
Rock steady

Rock steady, rock steady (what it is)
It’s a funky and lowdown feeling (what it is)
In the hips from left to right (what it is)
What it is is I might be doin’
This funky dance all night, ah
(Put your hands up in the air)
(Got a feelin’ you ain’t got a care)
(What fun to take this ride) 
(Rock steady will only slide) 

Rock steady, steady baby, rock, rock steady, baby

Baby (what it is), baby, baby (what it is) baby