Possibly the nicest weather weekend of the entire year…
and with today’s Chicago Marathon taking over the lakefront,
it was the perfect day to get away from the city
and go “into the woods” for some natural inspiration.
The colors & patterns. The highlights & shadows.
The rustling of the leaves. The crisp fall breeze.
All in all, an incredibly wonderful day of hiking around Rockford’s Lake Pierce… twice!

Remember… the small square pictures are just “thumbnails”…
click on them to see the full image!

October is here. Summer is over.

Fall is my favorite season – but I’m still suffering from “summer separation anxiety.” I really want summer to go on forever… and have a hard time accepting the fact that fall is here. And as the season changes, so do my morning bike rides. No longer can I get up, hop on my bike and be greeted by the sunrise. I now find that I am pedaling in darkness, anxiously awaiting the sun’s arrival before I finish the morning ride. Now it’s cold & damp and tough to roll out of bed. Plus, the long sleeves and long-fingered bike gloves have been pulled out! Yet as I am having some difficulty “letting go” of summer… I thought I would share some images from my summer of sunrises as seen during my morning bike rides.

Each of the above photos is a thumbnail.
Click on the images to enlarge them and see the entire photo.
Enjoy… I know I did.

Someone asked me last night what I was listening to on my iPod while I was glazing. It occurred to me that I’m frequently listening to the same music. My “default” music I like to call it. The music I listen to if nothing else strikes me at the time. And it seems that it’s always on – on my iPod, in the studio and at home!

Okay, so here goes my musical confession… I’m a huge Cirque du Soleil groupie – and my “default” music is always the soundtrack from the various Cirque shows. When I saw my first Cirque du Soleil show Alegria, I was instantly mesmerized by the music – and have been musically entranced ever since.

So I thought I would offer up a listing my Top Ten favorite Cirque du Soleil songs… but then it became twenty… and then thirty… and I had to end it at thirty-five?! I’m not so good with limits…

Here’s my list in alphabetical order… I wanted to prioritize them, but I started to drive myself crazy!

Alegria – Alegria
Alone – Delirium
Ballare – Dralion
Bello Amore – Zumanity
Bolero – Nouvelle Experience
Bridge of Sorrow – Delirium
Carrousel – Quidam
El Cielo Sabra – Corteo
El Pendulo – Varekai
If I Could Reach Your Heart – Ka
Journey Of Man – Journey Of Man
Kero Hireyo – Varekai
Koudamare – Ka
Kumbalawe – Saltimbanco
La Nova Alegria – Delirium
Let Me Fall – Quidam
Marelle – Quidam
Mio Bello Bello Amore – Zumanity
Miracula Aeternitatis – Dralion
Movimento – Varekai
Mutationis – Varekai
O Makunde – Ka
Ombra – Dralion
Querer – Alegria
Quidam – Quidam
Sans Toi – Delirium
Stella Errans – Dralion
Sun Drum Fun – Varekai
Vai Vedrai – Alegria
Valsapena – Alegria
Vocea – Varekai
Volo Volando – Corteo
We’ve Been Waiting So Long – Ka
Zydeko – Quidam

And because I like it so much… there’s another version that also makes my list…
Alegria – Alegria: The Film

Okay… so I admit it, I like the Renaissance Faire. The atmosphere. The costumes. The whimsy. The altered sense of reality. The fact that this wonderful fantasy world comes to life for just eight weekends a year. And if you know me… the endless parade of costumed revelers to watch & mock!

But my favorite thing at the Faire this weekend was this wonderful woman we spotted weaving her web. Yes, an incredible spider web – attached to posts & benches, clinging to twigs & trees and littered with found objects. It was a wonderful piece of installation art right there in the middle of the Faire. The web was large enough you could walk under, around, between and through. Yet, as always, it amazed me how many people walked right past it and never even saw it?!

She was mesmerizing, intriguing and an incredible artist. Complete with costume and animated in motion & gestures – while all the time silent. Yet she had this wonderful ability to communicate & engage with the children who were brave enough to approach her. One little girl asked a few questions, got a little frustrated when she didn’t talk, but then made amends with it and brought her an acorn. The woman then proceeded to wrap the acorn in string, and encouraged the girl to add it to the web. Which she did – and then tired to fix a section of the web that was broken. She even explained to other kids that she couldn’t speak, but could tell you what to do.

When we were leaving at the end of the day, we found her away from her web standing in a tree silentl spinning her yarn… err, web. As a child approached, she would pull off a wisp of wool, blow it away and let it drift towards the kid like a dandelion seed. Somehow the kids knew what to do as they giggled & grabbed the floating wisp. Which brought a great smile to our favorite Web Woman… and to me.

I love the Olympics. The human drama. The thrill of competition. The lifelong pursuit of perfection. But besides all of that… I really love the Opening Ceremony. Especially this time in Beijing. It was truly awe-inspiring. The grandeur. The pageantry. The overwhelming creativity it must have taken to put it all together. Incredible.

I’ve always thought that a few people doing the same thing in perfect unison was pretty incredible… but two-thousand and eight people doing the same thing? Impressive. From the 2008 drummers who opened the show with a driving beat & pulsating lights… to the 2008 Tai Chi masters who moved so gracefully yet kept their lines & circles in perfect alignment. And let’s not forget the “undulating” grid of 2008 boxes… that turned out to be human-powered?! C’mon now…

I was also impressed by the “textures” the performers made in their sheer quantity & perfect alignment. Maybe that’s why I was so impressed by this Opening Ceremony?