March 27, 2010
I was looking at the hummer and then I saw this guy
![[IMAGE] heron](/blog/blogpix/studioheronflight.jpg)
![[IMAGE] heron](/blog/blogpix/studioheron1.jpg)
…about the musicFrom above, looking below.
Ok, an electronic wink goes to the first person who “gets” the title of this post.
And it’s quite accurate. I was seeking ways to procrastinate from composing, and it was so warm and sunny that I had to step outside this afternoon. Having recently outgrown the space of my studio at my wooded home a very short walk from the sand, when looking for larger business quarters for Shapiro Note Alignment Industries, Ltd., a few months ago (aka, SNAIL, since that’s about the pace I feel like I’m writing sometimes), I opted for a waterfront location for my commute to work. And indeed I procured one, in the form of a fabulous rental that’s only yards from the edge of a dramatic inlet that morphs daily from lapping saltwater, to a sprawling mud flat, and back. More pix of this soon; I’ve been taking plenty. So “stepping outside” in this case means walking two feet from my workstation onto the seaside deck. Ahhhhhh.
But back to the birds. I grabbed my Larger, Better Camera and positioned it to focus on the hummingbird feeder I just put out yesterday after spotting spring’s first fluttering diabetic-in-training. I waited patiently for an especially cute newcomer to return (just look at those tiny feet in the photo below!), and glanced up just as a Great Blue Heron was coming in for a landing, alighting directly in front of me. What a lovely surprise visit.
Working next to the water means having a lot of company throughout the day. Apart from the occasional deer, fox, or neighbor’s goofy Labrador, it’s an endless parade of avian beauty: seafarers like herons, ducks, geese and gulls, seed-farers like chickadees, nuthatches, finches and flickers, and most strikingly, the see-everything bald eagles who circle gracefully above my head every day (possibly sizing me up to see if I’m a candidate for lunch). It’s so distracting, it’s amazing I can get any work done at all. Ahhhhhh.
![[IMAGE] Hummingbird](/blog/blogpix/studiohummer.jpg)
![[IMAGE] Hummingbird](/blog/blogpix/studiohummer1.jpg)
Charles Sanders said,
March 27, 2010 @ 12:42 pm
wonderful post and beautiful music, john adams would enjoy this… 😉
Alex Shapiro said,
March 27, 2010 @ 12:49 pm
And the first e-wink is awarded to Charles Sanders! Ha!
Glenn Buttkus said,
March 29, 2010 @ 9:08 am
At first I was looking for the Humvee and the handsome guy in it, but then you straightened us out with your wonderful explication. Getting a dose of BELOW Clip2 @ 1:58 was very refreshing this fine Monday morning. It came upon me as if I were submerged in the Opera of the Leviathans, with the contrabass flute finding some low notes unheard of previously. The “electronic soundscape” certainly did set up a pod of whales for me. The visuals were rich and kelpy. When I looked at the write up for the music, the first Shapiro poem for this week emerged:
Below
Erupting beneath the surface
is a stunning world
of liquid beauty and grace.
Hidden from our eyes
and even our imagination,
this private sanctuary
envelopes life and hope.
Follow your ears and your heart
to the depths of a place
we sometimes forget to look.
Alex Shapiro
Then reading on into the body of your explitative prose, I found another piece of poetics. Gosh, nice to see that you are so busy that you need more equipment and had to rent a bigger space. Is it, in some ways, easier to compose in a seperate space other than your own home, with the natural distractions it offers? Here is your other poem wrung from the pregnant prose:
New Studio
Working next to the water means
having a lot of company throughout the day.
Apart from the occasional deer, fox,
or neighbor’s goofy Labrador,
it’s an endless parade of avian beauty:
seafarers like herons, ducks, geese and gulls,
seed-farers like chickadees, nuthatches,
finches and flickers,
and most strikingly,
the see-everything bald eagles
who circle gracefully above my head every day
(possibly sizing me up to see
if I’m a candidate for lunch).
It’s so distracting,
it’s amazing I can get any work done at all.
Ahhhhhh.
Alex Shapiro
What a treasure trove of imagery, smells, sights, and sounds you have provided we kelphistos this windy wet morning.