Last week, when I re-entered the “default world” after spending 10 days in Black Rock Desert for Burning Man 2019, I was in a bliss bubble. 

The theme for this year’s burn was “Metamorphosis”, and I wondered how I had changed in the desert.  Since I felt so free there, rocking with the All-Star Blugrass Jam Band at Rootpile, working and creating a family with the only live bluegrass camp on the playa, sitting in with the Playa Jazz Camp band, exploring fascinating artistic displays and cutting-edge…

Saw Michael Franti at the Salvage Station in Asheville a couple nights ago, with my almost-16 year old son Ben. Ended the night in a sea of hearts joined by arms of sooo many different colors, patterns (nice tats ;), shapes, sizes, clothing (or lack thereof)...watching Ben experience a wee bit of unity in diversity, loving the lovefest. Thank you Michael and Spearhead for bringing us back to us, again and again ❤️

Enjoy this clip of “Good (stuff) happens”...I can’t find the real title anywhere, so if u know…

At the deepest darkest part of the winter season, when ghosts of holidays past and longing for the warmth and brilliance of the sun leaves many feeling lost and alone, what is one to do with the gloom?  One of my physician colleagues, a family practice doctor and mom, was telling me last week how much she hated the holidays...her patients were all in crisis, and she felt so many demands for her loving light, that this time every year she felt like the Grinch. 

Then I found out that the next full moon is…

Because there are no light-sensing cells in the middle of the retina where the optic nerve connects to the eye, we have a “blind spot”.  Anything in the field of vision that corresponds to the fragment of light hitting this part of the retina is literally not seen.  And what’s crazy is that we are totally unaware that there are gaping holes in our vision - we think we are accurately viewing the world around us, like a camera. 

Try it yourself:

To demonstrate how our brains construct what we perceive as…

What about the process of focus? of turning our eyes towards a point of concentration, to observe what falls in our center of vision?  We assume this gives us the clearest image, and often disregard the peripheral information that comes in, as if it is a distraction from our “point”. 

How does our journey into the dark affect the focus of our vision?  As light decreases, the sensing of light by the human eye passes from the cones to the rods.  Remember the cones are “concentrated” at the focal point on the…

Pilots who need to fly at night are taught the physiology of how human vision adapts to the dark.  Specifically, that the light-sensing rods in the periphery of the retina take over in very low light levels, and after about 40 continuous minutes in such conditions, provide a human with the ability to "see" in the dark.  Normal daylight  "bleaches out" the pigment (rhodopsin) in these rods, making them insensitive to subtle low light signals.  For that reason, pilots are taught that any interruption of the…

"Birds flyin' high, you know how I feel 
Sun in the sky, you know how I feel 
Breeze driftin' on by, you know how I feel 
It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life for me. 
Yeah, it's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life for me, ooooooooh... 
And I'm feelin' good." 

                       -NINA SIMONE 

Thanks to all who came out to Bohemia's Last Saturday...we were feeling' good, sharing some classic tunes and laughs.... 

This week I start ramping up recording the demos for Blanket of Melancholy…