Go by Jonsi: The Music of Spring

Is this real paint or Photoshop?

Even if you're not already a fan of Jonsi via Sigur Ros I highly recommend giving at least some of these breathtakingly beautiful songs a listen. Whether it be a fast paced, sometimes frenetic song like Go Do, the breakneck craziness of Animal Arithmetic or a mellow emotional song like Grow Till Tall or Tornado each song seems to almost fly by as the ethereal qualities begin to overwhelm the listener. It's so good and so enjoyable that it makes one want to rush outside and breathe in all the wild growth of spring before it melts into summer.

There have always been naysayers who claim that a solo album from a front man of an already successful band will inevitably be watered down, weaker or only a slightly tweaked version of the original bands' music. And that's a valid critique, but not in this case. Yes, he sings in his haunting falsetto a lot, just like he does with Sigur Ros. And yes, the music is very good. But the similarities really end there. Go features much faster rhythms, heavier synthesizers, a lot more orchestral work,  less guitar and one other glaring difference between Go and the music of Sigur Ros.

Jonsi sings more than a little of the lyrics in English. It's English sung with a heavy, but not overpowering, Icelandic accent, granted. But it's beautiful and can be understood once the listener has gotten over the newness of the album and has learned how to listen to his pronunciations. I don't find it unpleasant at all to not always know exactly what he's singing about. In fact, it adds to the over all aesthetic, to the air of mystery and otherworldly quality. That said, the lyrics are beautiful so it's not a bad idea to look them up.

From Go Do:

Tie strings to clouds
Make your own lake - Let it flow
Throw seeds to sprout
Make your own break - Let them grow

And from Animal Arithmetic:

Every time, everyone, everything's full of life
Everyday, everywhere, people are so alive

I see you in the trees
I see you're colourful
I see you in the breeze
You're spiritful

Personally, I've officially recognized Go as the soundtrack of my springtime. In fact, I've become rather obsessed by it! Never before in my life have I been so eager for the warmth and growth of spring and this album encapsulates all the glory, wonder, beauty and sometimes heady pace of springtime. It's as if the spring flowers and awakening animals and I are racing at a feverish pace and this album is the music we are making.

I wanted to imbed the video for Go Do but YouTubers don't seem to want to share it and the Jonsi site features a huge video player that uglies up my template. So, go here to see the first fascinating video from Go.

Spring: Flowers, Critters and Blog Templates, etc.

Grape Hyacinths

So you may have noticed I've been playing with my template, backgrounds and stuff around here. What can I say? I recently got a nice, fully functioning, big ass monitor (from some great friends!!) and can now enjoy all the colors of the rainbow. Also, Blogger just unrolled their new Template Designer in Blogger in Draft and it is very nice. And fun. And addictive. But, more to the point (and there is one coming, just hold on) it's Spring!

All the warm weather critters are returning with the birds coming first. In fact, birds are returning in droves these days. We've had the mourning doves for about a week and their song is only second to the whip-poor-whil. Our local mockingbird returned a couple of days ago and, when he's close enough to a bedroom window, makes for an efficient and enjoyable alarm clock.   Every time I step outside I see more birds and even saw one squirrel which we don't often have around here. Haven't had a snake yet but it won't be long. The pond frogs have been serenading us for a few weeks now and it's truly glorious.

Lilacs and Tulips

There are spring flowers popping up all over in old and new places. We've got all of our expected things putting on a show but we've got a stray lilac or tulip here and there. Looks like our daffodils are done, the lilacs are still going and the tulips are just beginning to show off their rainbow of colors. All kinds of things are popping up: wild violas amongst the grass, gorgeous bright yellow dandelions and the wild rose bushes are putting out lots of growth. I can't wait to float in the pool and smell the gorgeousness of their scent waft over me. Warm weather can't come soon enough for me this year it seems. And I know why.

Now that my family situation is so much more healthy and happy than it was up until last fall I'm just looking so forward to life and living. My family was locked in a deep, dark hole for a long time, myself included. So I'm loving having freedom to have a life and friendships and goals and hopes to actually look toward.  I've been locked up too long. I, more or less voluntarily, did the hermit thing for nearly 30 years and spent the last two or three too scared to hardly ever leave the house. And now I'm done with that.  I'm stepping out of my cage.

I'm making new friends, pagan and non-pagans, left and right and, for the first time in my life, I'm actually enjoying hanging out with people. It's still a rough ride as my social skillz are pretty rusty but I'm having fun. And it's great. I'm drinking up the sun because the better times have arrived! If you have the means I highly recommend enjoying some beautiful weather and time outdoors and just plain 'ol good times with those you love. Enjoy the springtime, my fellow northern hemisphere residents,  for it comes but once a year!

Thoughts For the Season

I took this image more than a week ago and I think it's got some brilliant red colors to enjoy and mark the important, but often forgotten, point of the whole season of holidays: the return of the sun after the longest night of the year. Unfortunately, my monitor crapped out on me and I've had to temporarily replace it with an ancient Compaq monitor that only has 32 bit color. So, I'm not quite sure if this photo is very red or not. Either way I seem to remember liking this image, so I hope you do too!

I read on The Wild Hunt how some 300 people came to Stonehenge to celebrate the Solstice on the wrong day and I just couldn't believe it. Or, rather, I was incredibly dismayed by it. I know I'm a hardass about celebrating the solstices, equinoxes and cross quarters at the right time (I don't celebrate Samhain on Halloween, for example, but on the actual cross quarter which usually occurs a full week after Halloween) but come on folks! You call yourselves pagans? And you didn't even realize that our holydays are based on astronomical events and thus don't always occur on the same calendar date? You know so little about what it means to be pagan that it never once occurred to you to check the date? I wish I could meet those folks and slap them silly! I guess I wouldn't have to slap them silly since they are already! Okay, stepping off soapbox now.

I stayed up all night on Yule and kept the fireplaces and candles burning all night. I like the idea of making it a tradition; it's a beautiful way to not only recognize the solstice but show respect for the sun. I've read before how keeping candles/lights burning all during the Yule night will help draw the sun back or otherwise help the sun find its way back. I don't think the sun needs our help but I like the idea showing my support. There's also that little fact of it being seriously cold to encourage one to keep fires going!

Here's hoping you and yours stay warm and happy during this season and all the years to come!

Coming in for a Landing

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I saw this sunset and immediately thought of a giant space ship coming in for a landing kinda like in the too-often played Independence Day. I don't know the cause for the dark streaks but it sure makes for some amazing imagery. They looks almost like smoke trails to me, like exhaust fumes.

Wild Sunflowers

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I don't know if these are technically sunflowers but they sure look like it. We didn't plant these; they're volunteers that have popped up all over the back of our garden. I like this shot; it expressed the wildness of nature coupled with the beauty. And the sky behind looks like a watercolor.

Easter Egg Colors in the Sky

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These pink clouds and powder blue sky made me think of Easter Eggs for some reason. Not the right time of year for such a thought but a nice image nonetheless. I like how the darkness of the trees help to frame the clouds; the darker clouds at the top and bottom serve to complete the effect. Looking back at my photos over the years I seem to have a love for framing clouds either with other clouds or trees or both. Not only does it look nice (usually!) but it's a good excuse not to print something out and frame it with matte paper-which I always found to be a huge pain in the butt back in the day. Anyway, enjoy the pretty.

Subtle Rays

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Once again I marvel at the fascinating and freaky formations clouds manage to get themselves into. Or rather, I marvel at the winds, humidity and heights that create the never ending variety of cloud formations. This is another sunset view from these hills; I can't seem to get enough of them lately. I've often said, and I really mean it, that the autumn is my favorite time of year for cloud photography. And that's mostly because the sky is such a vivid, brilliant, deep blue. But nothing beats the summertime for striking sunsets. I guess it's all the moisture in the air that makes for such beautiful and unique views. I also imagine that at least part of my love of summertime sunsets is due to the fact that once the sun goes down, the temperature does too.

Zig Zags in the Sky

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This photo is, like all zigzagging images, confusing as hell to me. I don't know how clouds can makes these kinds of formations and I guess it's not really all that important to my mind. What is important is what the image evokes. It makes me think of the paths we take in our lives. We think we've got things figured out so we take one path. Then we change our minds, or something blocks our way and we head off into another direction. And back and forth we sometimes go on our way through this life.

Neon Sunset

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This image has not been altered in any way, other than a little size reduction.

Jewel Toned Sky

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This is a recent view from the backyard. If you look closely you can just make out the electric lines of our neighbors. Up until now I've had a firm stance about this: I refused to post pictures of the electric lines that ruined my view. But, since I can't get rid of them I'm just gonna have to deal. I still hate them as this was a perfect, perfect view.

In other news, I know I promised a while back that I would be creating some more collage art. Well, health issues are the main reason I haven't gotten to that. My crafty room is also the only room in the house without air conditioning and it being July has made it very uncomfortable up there much of the time. If I ever get my fairly minor health problems straightened out I'm hoping to spend some night times cutting and pasting. I'm still kinda hung up on copyright issues but will probably just say 'to hell with it' and do what I want. It's not like I'm making any money off of this little blog, now am I?

Punching a Hole

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Another image from the storms of over a week ago.

Mismatched Horizon

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More clouds from one of the storm systems that provided some cool wind and great images.

Pink Rainbow

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It was 8:30 at night, just about a half hour before the sun goes to bed around here. And I looked out and the entire sky was pink. All around, from every window, pink. So, I grabbed the camera and hightailed it out the back door. And what did I find? This rainbow bathed in pink light. I'd never seen such a thing. Nor had I ever seen a rainbow so late in the evening. Gorgeous.

Dark Storm Clouds

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We had two days with storm systems moving through, or mostly past, us in as many days. We didn't get any significant rain or wind but some nice, cooler temperatures for a while. I did take nearly a hundred photos of some spectacular clouds. This is just the first of many nice shots to come. These clouds almost look like cloudy, contaminated water, don't they?

P.S. I'm going to be heading back into the craft room this weekend, so look for some new collage or creative journal projects.

Exclamation Point

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Big Ship Passing By

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A thunderhead that passed by, rumbled a bit, but didn't obscure our glorious spring sunshine.

A Green Study in Light

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Here's two different versions of the same view of the yard and trees, taken seconds apart. One, the darker image, was taken with the flash and the other, obviously, with no flash. It's just something I've been experimenting with. I don't have a great camera so I'm trying to learn what I can do with what I have. I like both images but I feel the darker image more clearly conveys how I feel when I'm in this area of the yard. Most of these trees are pretty old and have rarely, if ever, been trimmed. They are wild and woolly and create an almost forest-like atmosphere. They are somewhat dense and many have branches that almost touch the ground. This is only one view of this area of the yard but I think it's a pretty good indicator of why I love it so much: it's the nearest I can get to a forest, that's why I love it so much.

P.S. Sorry the sizes don't match, I got a little shrink-crazy after uploading.

Right in Two

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I've always liked this tree. It looks like it's weighed down by worry and care, split in two by it. Aside from the fact that it's good to climb in, for those young and limber enough, it's eye catching. Any tree that has stark divisions is, to me, a tree with character, worthy of capture on film.

Up There

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This is our tulip poplar. It's in bloom right now but you can't tell from this shot, sorry. There will be more to follow as I'm hearing a loud call to turn my obsessive attention away from clouds and to trees for a change. I've always loved the look and idea of sunlight through fresh green leaves. Not only does it produce beautiful shades of green but the very idea of the life giving light streaming through the branches of some of it's most majestic children makes me feel, all at once, insignificant and also an important part of the whole.

One Sided Rays

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