At Work

So here's a look at where I spend many, many hours these days. The studio is not something you would expect to find at your average old folks' home. Neither is the daily show we produce there. But then, Shell Point Retirement Community is not your average old folks' home.

And here are my ironically very young co-workers in this land of retirees. Zach on the left was a student of mine at CIU. Rochelle schedules the shoots and when the stories run, writes the scripts for the anchors (of which she is one), and checks our work every day for errors. She's a sweetheart and loads of fun. Sorry guys, she's already married. Lee on the right shoots and edits as do Zach and I on three Macs running Final Cut Pro. We will soon all be hooked up with an Apple X-Serve and a 7 terrabyte X-Serve Raid for you Apple aficionados. Interestingly, Zach grew up in Thailand and Lee lived there for a while.

We shoot a lot in the studio and a lot on location all around the properties. There are regular segments that are on every day and various features that run every week or two and some less regular than that. An anchor hosts the show every day. Eventually you may be able to watch it on the web, but, unfortunately, not yet. It's closed circuit only to the 2,000 people living here in 1,200 or so living units in several neighborhoods. It runs on the half hour, 24/7, with new episodes starting at midnight. Yes, that does indeed take a lot of work.

So these are the three people I spend far more time with than anybody else these days. It's a good thing we all like each other. I've gotten to spend a bit of time with Rochelle's husband, Mike, as well and he's a great guy. And Zach's wife, Rachel, and Lee's Alyson - all so nice. I'm old enough to be their father but that doesn't seem to be something they or I think about much. They are just good friends and colleagues and I'm blessed to have them in my life.

Two Olds, One New

I've been playing the guitar for almost 40 years. I've been making my living with a movie or video camera for close to 30 years. But today those two old and familiar worlds bumped into each other in a new way for the first time. It's so odd when I think about it that I can't believe it took so long to happen. One of the other guys on my crew went around shooting some video coverage of the event the other night and shot some video of me playing. Today I saw myself playing on video for the first time ever. It was a bit surreal. I got to thinking about the cultures that believe a camera can steal one's soul. A singularly completely new experience out of two so very old ones.

Another Debut

Last night here at the retirement community where I work on a daily TV show they had a big dining event with a "New York at Night" theme. There was supposed to be a "Central Park" area set up outside the main dining room and I was scheduled to be the "musician in the park" playing my guitar. After weeks of glorious weather here the skies threatened rain late in the day so all the outside elements moved into a social hall adjacent to the main dining room. I was not at all sure how my folk-centric, guitar music would play among the geriatric crowd. Ten or fifteen years from now this place will be full of children of the '70s like me and it will be the perfect venue. With some fear and trembling I started playing last night and to my surprise some folks came up to tell me how much they enjoyed it. A few even turned their chairs around and sat there watching and listening for quite a few songs. My associates on the staff passed on a bunch more positive comments so I guess I did okay.

I wasn't sure I was going to be able to play at all. A week ago I sprained my hand really badly. Or it might be my wrist. In any case, my left hand had no grip at all for days and it hurt a lot. I tried to baby it all week and took a couple of Advil every 6 hours. Last night I was able to play everything without any real problem. Today it's been tingling a lot so I better lay off for another week or so.

I'm so glad I finally got the JamMan looper last year. It's proven to be a key part of my being able to make an evening of this kind of thing workable. It is all I hoped it would be and much more. Not to mention how inspiring it is to be able to noodle around with multiple parts at the same time when wood shedding. I heartily recommend a looper to any guitar player. It's by far the best, most rewarding piece of music gear I've ever gotten hold of aside from my actual instrument.

So Long, So Far

I've been pretty busy with work lately so the song writing and recording has slowed way down. But once in a while one just comes along anyway. I like the tune of this one about as much as any of mine. It stays in my head so I guess that's a good sign that it's got some stick. I have sometimes pondered the fact that there is so much that you can never go back to. Everything changes and sometimes to the point that it doesn't exist anymore. Eventually you can't go back home. Home becomes something else, or someone else. But sometimes you can't go back there either. I've really tried to come up with some happy songs. I suppose it's not yet time. Or maybe I'm a one trick pony and it's just not in me. At least this one ends with a glimmer of something. Maybe something remotely like hope?

So Long and So Far

So long and so far away from home
That now there is no road can lead me back there
The many years that I was bid to roam
And friends I loved were left behind way back where

The longing and the ache to belong
The what and why and where
And who I was is simply gone

Press ahead
For the way behind is blocked to all return
Take away the value
That is there for only those who stop and learn

Sunrise comes again and gives you one more day
Drink the beauty in
And smile and laugh and pray

On the Water

Today was beautiful in Southwest Florida. I was having a rough day. For a very long time every day was a rough day. Now some days are okay. But today wasn't one. I decided I needed to do something to take advantage of this amazing day and maybe it would help to get out.

So after doing the TV duty at the church this morning and cooking and eating another meal alone, I got the little jon boat ready to go and headed out to a little island not far from where I am living and working. My thought was to sit there by the channel in the river where all the boat traffic from the Fort Myers area to and from the Gulf passes by and just watch boats. A lot of the water around here is very shallow and boats must stay in the dredged channels. It ends up kinda like a boat freeway, absurdly crowded at times.

I saw a few million dollars worth of power boats, which did little for me, and some beautiful sailboats that I enjoyed seeing under way. But something quite magic happened. There was a “manatee zone, go slow” sign less than a hundred feet from where I was sitting with the usual osprey nest on top of it.

A couple of osprey showed up there soon after I did. One was acting a bit strange and at first I thought there was something wrong with it's wing. Then I realized these were young and today they were learning to fly. They would awkwardly flap their wings and climb on top of each other. One would get up on the back of the other, spread it's wings, and then raise it's feet and levitate up into the breeze. They did quite well once in the air but the takeoffs and landings were a little hairy. It seems the process has a bit in common with people learning to fly airplanes: It's mostly about the takeoff and landing. I had a front row seat to a great show. I tried to use my binoculars as a telephoto lens for my point and shoot camera. It didn't work very well but here's a photo anyway.

On the way home I saw a pair of eagles flying around and then landing in a tree. Sorry, no photo. The water got a bit rough at that point and my hands were busy driving the boat. Then I saw a few dolphins. They are very hard to photograph as they often appear for just a moment and then they're gone. Unless you're on a really big boat. Then you can sometimes get shots like this.

They like to play in the wakes of big boats.

So I got to see some beautiful stuff today. It helped pass the afternoon and took the edge off the ache in my chest.