The Moon Garden Lounge

nikki wrote: I can't find the exact quote about why Rothko painted his images so darkly for his chapel, other than to remind people that they had to "bring their own light". Part of the beauty is the scale of the work. He preferred people to come close to the work so that we would be overwhelmed and feel immersed in the image, rather than react as an observer. Adam is like that to me, large in spirit and beauty, and in person I find it easy to lose that sense of watching him perform.

I really liked this along with what you said about intensity. I was thinking back over the year, starting to put together something for Thanksgiving, and any of the last butthurt and disappointment about radio/sales fell away. For this year saw the emergence, not of the pop star we and Adam expected and planned for, but of a multi-talented creative artist -- and a successful one at that.


(the artist Lucio Fontana, by Ugo Malas)
(Adam, 2013)

Adam's path to greatness is through his piercing vulnerability -- how different he is from the Brunos and Adam Levines of this world!

What a playground lies in front of Adam and his fans!

I read an article today called Letting Go of the Stress of Measuring:
zenhabits.net/untrack/

The author talks about the theories behind measuring and why tracking numbers is important in so many respects. Then he asks:

It creates a mindset that we must always improve, always measure, always manage things, always strive for better, better, better. What about learning to be happy with yourself? What about focusing on joy and compassion and people you love? When does the improving stop? Are we ever satisfied? And is that the point of living — to improve endlessly, to always make things better, and never be happy with where we are?

Sweet Mahailia! Thank you. I loved this - have to admit as much as I looved the original vid, it was edited and I was wondering if she could pull off the whole dance number (or an approximation) - and of course she can. So amazingly talented and creative. I think sometimes striving for something - new forms of expression, the next level of excellence, a better running time - need not always come from a place of dissatisfaction but sometimes is just joy bursting through - an aspiring heart pushing the boundaries. Running from something or to something looks much the same from a distance.

So many motivations and demotivations for the human spirit.

I offer you an hour-long you tube meditation vid in case of emergency - I hope you don't need it as much as I did today

This really OT, but is something I'd kind of like to share with the Moon Garden folks. If you're not interested, you can just scroll away.

Anyway, there is this wild hybrid duck that has been returning for several winters to the same small non-descript percolation pond in suburban San Jose. It is truly a wild migrant duck, not an escapee from a zoo or private collection, and not one of those mish-mash ducks that are so often seen in city parks. This duck is a male hybrid Barrow'sxCommon Goldeneye. Goldeneye ducks breed in northern coniferous regions of North America, Canada and Alaska. and are among the last duck species to migrate south to the Bay Area in the winter. In the winter we see numerous Common Goldeneyes, a few Barrow's Goldeneyes, and once in a very great while a hybrid of the two.

What's interesting is that he's shown up in exactly the same pond for at least seven years in a row. (He showed up here during the time of Adam's South Africa concerts but I wanted to wait a bit until that excitement had died down a little.) Because his plumage is so distinctive, he is easy to identify. It is thought among ornithologists that other migrant birds may do the same thing - travel to and from the same places year after year; however, except for bird banding, it's virtually impossible to document this - but with this bird I can. Also interesting is the longevity of this bird - he's at least 7-8 years old - and this points to the hardiness of these migrant birds who must undertake their hazardous migrations every year. I'm hoping that by documenting this particular duck that I'm able to add a little to the study of the lives of wild birds.

So, how does this relate to Adam? Well, I've named this bird "Adam". He is tough and brave and "marches" (or "swims", to a different drummer) and he is beautiful in his fine feathers.

So here is "Adam" the duck in his "gaudy plumage which is the birth right of his sex".