A Hard Hard Place to Be

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Again I gratefully acknowledge the use of Dave Beckerman’s romantic street images in this video of my new song.  Go to his site, www.beckermanphoto.com, and see the best black and white photos of NYC out there.

Heart Song

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Those Damn Yankee Girls – “Whatever Lola Wants”

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I am a life long Met fan, but I went to photograph the Yankee parade today anyway.  I realized that the Yankees are not only a great team (with at least four Hall of Famers on the staff right now), but the ladies are much more attracted to them than to the Mets.

Lilies

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“Divine” – Southwest Adventure

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My adventurous wife just returned from a tour of the Southwest, where she visited Sedona, the Grand Canyon, Lake Powell,  Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park.  This entry and the four below are photos she took.  They are accompanied by the music of Jessie Kalu, a native chamorru from the Mariana Islands.  The titles of each entry are the names of Kalu’s songs, which can be purchased at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/kalu4 .

“Freedom” – Southwest Adventure

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“Grace” – Southwest Adventure

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“Omnipresence” – Southwest Adventure

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“Spirit” – Southwest Adventure

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Senile Dementia

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Somebody sent me this beautiful short film.  About a year or two before my father passed away at the age of 87, he began suffering from senile dementia, or Alzheimers disease.   I would be driving him to his various doctor’s appointments and every five minutes in the car he would ask me where we were going.  I took him to a neurologist, who ordered brain scans and the drug Aricept, which is supposedly helpful to those suffering memory loss.  The problem, of course, was that my father could not remember to take the medication.  I bought him a big white board and a plastic pill organizer and created various check-off charts, but he ignored all these mnenomic devices.   He said he had his own system.  It turns out that his “system” was to forget to take any of his pills for days at a time.  

One thing I am grateful for is that my father’s dementia  never  got so bad that he couldn’t recognize his family.  The last time I saw him alive in the hospice unit, he was practically in a coma.  I bent over his bed and told him that I was here to see him.  Somehow he recognized my voice and mustered enough strength to open his eyes.  He looked directly at me, gave me a big smile and said my name.  Then he immediately lost consciousness again.  He died the next day.