Friday Fun – Rolling Bone Magazine

Rolling Bone Magazine was an underground publication that championed the musical underdog for many years. Readership was strong throughout the 70’s and 80’s but tailed off after a scandal in the early 90’s before finally being buried by the arrival of online content.

Rolling Bone was unusual in that the issues were not dated, allowing for a sporadic output and also ensuring that copies always appeared to be current. This is a cover believed to be from late ’75 to early ’76 featuring Eddie “Howlin’ Jack” Russell shortly before his surprise first retirement from the music business at the height of his career.

Rolling Bone Magazine - ReevePhotos.com

~Richard

6 sentence story – Playing to the crowd

As with every morning the old man picked his way along the freshly hosed down cobbled streets to the same spot and arranged his sign and his jar before sitting on the chilly doorstep.

The sun came up over the ruined castle and warmed his face and hands as he unbuckled the bellows of his accordion.He cocked his head and scanned up and down the street, hearing the increasing footfall echoing between the buildings from the old stairway.

The first cruise ship had arrived, so he started his playing.

“That’s beautiful,” said a young woman’s voice as she dropped some coins in his jar.

Looking up whilst playing he smiled graciously at her through sightless eyes.

Accordion Player - Richard Reeve

~ Richard

52 week Challenge: week 10

Week 10: Portrait: Environmental – Show a subject in their natural habitat. Their place of work or hobby is a great start. Tell their story with the environment.

I found this to be the toughest assignment so far. I wanted to push my comfort zone in getting out with camera; perhaps creating some street photography. The difficulty for me came with the concept of taking this as a true portrait. I sort of misread the brief a little but I still feel that this shot does meet it as it shows this young lady in the middle of her job writing down a food order for the cook in the food truck. Our only communication was through the little Plexiglas window, which seemed like an obvious frame for the shot.

160308_FastFood

~Richard

Office Poetry – Truly

For some reason I am finding Mondays the best day for this type of creativity. Here’s my second office poem of the season…


 

Truly

Searching the room for a face.

To catch the eye

of one who understands

the true purpose of the meeting.

 

1603017_Corporate

~Richard

 

Happy Mother’s Day (UK)

Today is Mothering Sunday in the UK. Although we Brits also refer to it as “Mother’s Day” it has a different origin to its namesake celebrated in the US.

Mothering Sunday has origins from a historical religious holiday associated with encouraging people (as in servants, largely) to go back to their “mother churches” on the 4th Sunday in Lent. The fact they also visited their mother’s was probably just taking advantage of having a rare day off from their toils and also because their parents were most likely to live near the original church since, years ago, people didn’t generally travel so far. Over the years, as Britain has become more secular, the original meaning seems to have been largely lost.

Mother’s Day in the US, on the other hand, was first celebrated in 1908 by a lady called Anne Jarvis who held a memorial to her mother Ann Reeves Jarvis, if Wikipedia is to believed, and occurs on the second Sunday of May. It appears to have no particular religious connotations.

Anyhow,  being of British origin, my children helped to celebrate today by accompanying my wife and I to a nice brunch and walk through the local horticultural gardens. I had my small camera with me and so was able to get a few nice uplifting floral shots to share.

160306_SpringFlowers

160306_Tulips

160306_WhiteOrchids

So, to all you mums out there, in the UK and elsewhere – Happy Mothering Sunday!

~Richard

Personal Relativity

Yesterday was “one of those days,” as we like to say. It’s not that anything went wrong, far from it in fact, but it was a work day which seemed to drag on for longer than it should. Why is it that the evenings and weekends seem to rush us by, like they are only half-days and yet sometimes workdays seem to have hours that contain ninety minutes instead of their allotted sixty, and you can almost hear the second hand of the clock drag itself from one digit to another?

I guess it’s a subtle form of relativity – although in this case it’s not time passing at different rates for two people in different places, but rather one person experiencing time in two different states of mind. Good times rush us by whilst the more mundane days drag.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, sometimes we even find things to support our self-inflicted mood and keep us in that state (or at least I do). Sometimes this can even be with objects that are meant to inspire us, which is perhaps yet another form of relativity. By way of example, I give you the recently decorated “inspiration wall” of our building. This is meant to reinforce our corporate ideals and keep us all aligned to the work we do.

160305_WallWords2
Strangely, the one word that jumped out at me from the wall yesterday was the following:

160305_WallWords1
I know it was meant to portray an unstoppable drive to a goal, or some such meaning, but yesterday it seemed an appropriate adjective to sum up a slow day.

~Richard

A Story – Winter Hike

The snowfall had been unexpected and fairly heavy. It was not unusual for a few inches to fall in a day but the blizzard had deposited nearly 2 feet of snow overnight, and it was even deeper where it had drifted or, to be more precise, had been blown by the wind.

He had been obliged to break his journey and find shelter in an abandoned barn during the storm. Now he was behind schedule and the deep snow that covered the track would make journeying onward much slower. However, he had no choice as he had a valuable cargo to deliver in his backpack. Many people were relying on him getting through to the outpost, and his return to his kinsfolk with the medicine would be eagerly watched for.

He kicked some snow into the morning fire to make sure it was extinguished, and placing a wad of tobacco into his cheek, he pulled on the heavy pack, tightened the straps and wearily headed West…

160304_WinterHike

~ Richard

6 sentence story – #1600

It had started off as a boast, born from a late-night party with his friends, and had somehow mutated into an unstoppable train. At some point he was bound to be derailed; at least that’s what the pundits had opined month after month. But now he had arrived; admittedly by the skin of his teeth, but a win was a win nonetheless. His offensive rhetoric and inconsistent fomenting had made no difference, or had it? He had played a dangerous game and was quite surprised by how far he had been able to rally people’s rage to achieve his aim.

He felt exhilarated as the director called one last time, “We’re ready for your address, Mr. President,” tears welling in her eyes.

160303_Donald

~ Richard

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