July 12, 2019 – Serendipity Seeking Intelligent Life on Earth

QUEST OR HIKE? – Marilyn Armstrong

RDP Friday: HIKE

So this is all about setting out on a quest. I’ll accept that life is a quest, but going for a hike — even as a group — is just exercise. Unless it happens you have Sauron’s One Ring To Rule Them All in your duffel and you’re on your way to Mordor and Mt. Doom where you and your duffel — and The Ring –are planning to leap into the cracks of Doom.

Otherwise, you’re out for a day of good, healthy exercise. It’s not a quest. It might even be a journey, but not a quest. I don’t know anyone who has quested. Long trips to foreign shores? Yes.

Quest? Not really.

Maybe my mother was on a quest. She was always looking for the best prices on some really fine Italian wool and while she was at it, tried to determine what was the best things to buy in which cities of which countries. Maybe, for her, it was a quest … but personally, I think it was a series of great vacations with a lot of shopping.

Call me crazy. Sue Vincent goes on quests. She has a purpose and she is an active seeker. But she’s the only one I can think of offhand who really quests.

What happens when you come to the end of your quest? Because … every trip, journey, high, whatever you choose to call it will come to an end. You come to the top of the mountain, the end of the path. Even if you complete the final leg of your journey to enlightenment, at some point, it ends.

I hope you’ve got plan B set up.

The ship comes into the harbor and ties up at the pier. The passengers depart, taking their gear with them. The hikers come home, put their feet up and start posting pictures on Instagram.

Even if you find ultimate enlightenment, life goes on.

AUSTRALIAN MOON, GUEST PHOTOGRAPHER BOB T – Marilyn Armstrong

Sometimes, wonderful pictures deserve another “go round”

I really admired these pictures on Bob’s site. Over the course of the past year, he has gone from “snapping a few pictures” to being a really good photographer. He does, I admit, have a real passion for shots of the moon … but many of us do. It is, after all, the only thing in space we can take pictures of using normal lenses!

My passion for moon-shots is somewhat dimmed by the number of trees in the way of my lens. I’ve only gotten really good moon pictures when I was somewhere lacking trees. Parking lots. Beaches.

Locally, we are very thoroughly treed in and not just at my place. All over Massachusetts. Last I read, we are 60% treed in this state, most likely because most of the big farms are gone to where the soil is better — flatter and less rocky — and the climate is more amenable for growing bigger crops. We do have apple orchards, but not much else beyond local corn, cucumbers, tomatoes, and other salad stuff.

So these pictures aren’t mine. Two Red Wattlebirds against a slipper of a moon … and a beautiful, clear shot of the moon itself.

Enjoy!

You can reach Bob directly at his Blog:

Lovewillbringustogether’s Weblog.

Australian Red Wattlebirds and a silver slipper moon

Also, if you are ‘into’ sky and star pictures, this one wonderful photograph with explanation, too:

This Is Not The Centre Of The Universe…

AND THEN THERE WERE MORE DAYLILIES – Marilyn Armstrong

And then there were Daylilies

It’s not fair to say it’s ALL daylilies. As it turns out, we also have some roses. Pink and red ones. Not as many as usual, but to no one’s surprise, they have come back enough to flower. Still, the soul of the garden is definitely daylilies and more daylilies. Front yard, back yard, side yard, along the road in the front, too. Probably in the woods, if there’s enough light.

I took pictures.

Maybe tomorrow, I’ll see what I can do with the roses. But I think I need a longer lens. Small roses way in the back of the garden.

MORE G-L-O-R-I-A – Rich Paschall

Who Sang It Best? by Rich Paschall

Last weekend we told you about A Popular Girl who has many songs written about her. This is not the Gloria you are singing in church. This is a someone that many songwriters have encountered over the years. Today we are picking just one of the songs and asking you to chose the best version.

In 1964 singer-songwriter Van Morrison’s group, Them, recorded a song about Gloria as the B side of the blues standard, “Baby, Please Don’t Go.” Failure of some rock radio stations to play the Van Morrison version of Gloria due to objection of one line (“She comes to my room”), meant the song did not climb very high on the Billboard Hot 100: 93 in 1965, 71 in 1966.

In December 1965 The Shadows of Knight, a Chicago area band, released their cover of Gloria and the song made it to number 10 in 1966. It was helped by rock radio giant Chicago’s WLS 890 AM. The band changed the offending lyric to “She calls out my name” and some stations found it a better alternative to the original. It is the version I remember best.

The Doors covered the song a number of times in concert and versions can be found on live albums. In the following lead singer Jim Morrison just seems to be making up a lot of it as they went along, which he probably was.

Scottish rock band Simple Minds put there own spin on the song, released in 2001.

There are a long list of artists who have performed and/or recorded this song, but I will just give you my vote for Chicago’s own, The Shadows of Knight.

Just because it is floating around the internet, we will also give you Bill Murray. No, he will not win any competition with this version. It is just for fun.