Tag: Big Bend

_DSC4464 copy-JWP18-08-28
“When the deep purple falls over sleepy garden walls
And the stars begin to flicker in the sky
Through the mist of a memory you wander back to me
Breathing my name with a sigh

In the still of the night once again I hold you tight
Though you’re gone, your love lives on when moonlight beams
And as long as my heart will beat, lover we’ll always meet
Here in my deep purple dreams
Here in my deep purple dreams”

  • The song was written by the composer and radio performer Peter De Rose in the early 1930s, and it became a standard when the lyricist Mitchell Parish added words to it in 1938. Parish was known for sweeping, romantic lyrics – some of his other compositions include “Stardust” and “Sophisticated Lady” – and he turned the song into a touching ballad. The song was recorded by a number of orchestras, including those led by Artie Shaw, Paul Whiteman, Guy Lombardo and Larry Clinton. In 1939, it was a #1 hit for Larry McClinton and His orchestra.

    Many popular vocalists also recorded it, including Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, and Sammy Davis Jr. In the Rock Era, the song charted first when Billy Ward & His Dominoes took it to #20 US in 1957 (their last crossover Top 40 hit). Tempo and Stevens had by far the biggest hit with the song, but Donny & Marie Osmond returned it to the charts in 1976 when their version hit #14 in the US.

  • Nino was supposed to sing the second chorus by himself, but he “blanked out,” so April fed it to him line by line as the tape was rolling. A friend listening to the recording thought that April’s “narration” would make “Deep Purple” a #1 record… but not Nino, initially – April took two months to convince him that the narration was OK. Ertegun didn’t like “Deep Purple,” either – he mothballed it and released “Paradise” instead. “Paradise” sank without a trace.

    Nino demanded that Ertegun release “Deep Purple” as a single or release them from their contract from Atlantic Records. Ertegun agreed to the single release, stating that if “Deep Purple” didn’t become a hit, his and April’s contract would be terminated.

  • When this song was released as a single, Ahmet Ertegun had so little faith in it that he thought the B-side, “I’ve Been Carrying a Torch for You so Long That I Burned a Great Big Hole in My Heart,” had a better chance of becoming a hit.
  • Won the Grammy for Best Rock & Roll Recording of 1963.

 

I ask for prayers for myself (and my wife) tomorrow morning. I go in for another heart cath in hopes of finding the cause for my lingering angina (18 months post triple bypass). Been a rough road to recovery and am confident I have the right cardiologist for the job.

PEACE OUT ††† jw

“Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.”
– Dorothea Lange

 

 

IMAGES OF SMALL THINGS FROM THE BIGGEST COUNTY IN TEXAS #732 – TEXAS BLUE BONNETS

14-04-11blue bon_4343 copy

Yesterday, I pined of not having many flowers blooming yet in the high desert. I was just walking the same path waiting and watching for something to bloom. All I had to do was walk a different path, one block away from my house was a large patch of Texas bluebonnets.

Bluebonnet is a name given to any number of species of the genus Lupinus predominantly found in southwestern United States and is collectively the state flower of Texas. The shape of the petals on the flower resembles the bonnet worn by pioneer women to shield them from the sun.

“Which of my photographs are my favorite? The one I’m going to take tomorrow.”  Imogen Cunningham 1883-1976

If you done like the view, change it! en theos monos ††† jim

IMAGES OF SMALL THINGS FROM THE BIGGEST COUNTY IN TEXAS #696 – OKAY, I’M READY FOR SPRING.

121205BigBend4796 copy copy

We had a foggy drive to do a job yesterday. Then, while we didn’t have the West Texas wind for our two outside shoots, it was only 40 and brought a chill to my old Texas bones. I basked in the warm of the memory of this lovely Monarch taken in Big Bend last summer. Bring on the heat.

en theos ††† jim

IMAGES OF SMALL THINGS FROM THE BIGGEST COUNTY IN TEXAS #614 – SOMETIMES WE DON’T SEE THE FAR BECAUSE OF THE NEAR

13-10-29 road_9109 copy

I very seldom make images of far off vistas. Why is a good question. I think it is a bit like a lot of things in life. In my naivety and lack of focus, I always think it will be so much better when it or I get closer.

Don’t wait for the beauty to get close, it is much closer than you think. ††† en theos ††† jimwork

Untitled-1

john10:10

Images of small things from the biggest county in Texas- #511 – Bull Nettle: Cnidoscolus stimulosus, Cnidoscolus texanus, a plant you do not want to tangle with !

DSC_6329 copyA

Desolate Majesty

Straddling Texas and Mexico, the Big Bend region is high in biodiversity and low in footprints. It’s a place so untamed that if something doesn’t bite, stick, or sting, it’s probably a rock.

“Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you..; Genisus 3:18

Watch where you step or what you pickup. ††† en theos ††† jim work

Photo of Da day @ Da Pine #242

Rio Grande river in the Big Bend with view of Chisos in the background.

Edward Abbey said it so much better than I, so I will use a couple of his quotes that travel where my pen doesn’t go.

“Half the pleasure of a visit to Big Bend National Park, as in certain other affairs, lies in the advance upon the object of our desire. Coming toward the park from the village of Lajitas deep in west Texas, we see this rampart of volcanic cliffs rising a mile above the surrounding desert. Like a castled fortification of Wagnerian gods, the Chisos Mountains stand alone in the morning haze, isolated and formidable, unconnected with other mountains, remote from any major range. Crowned with a forest of juniper, piñon pine, oak, madrone, and other trees the Chisos rise like an island of greenery and life in the midst of the barren, sun-blasted, apparently lifeless, stone-bleak ocean of the Chihuahuan Desert. An emerald isle in a red sea.”

-Edward Abbey, “Big Bend”

“We wake at dawn to discover the desert hills shrouded in rolling clouds of vapor, seeming remote and mystical as the Mountains of the Moon. A rare and lovely sight and we are sorry to leave. We console ourselves, as we always do, with the thought that we’ll be back, someday soon. We will return, someday, and when we do the gritty splendor and the complicated grandeur of Big Bend will still be here. Waiting for us. Isn’t that what we always think as we hurry on, rushing toward the inane infinity of our unnameable desires? Isn’t that what we always say?”

-Edward Abbey, “Big Bend”

Travel where your heart calls you on your journey†††nada te turbe†††jim

Photo of Da day @ Da Pine #241

As I have mentioned, we got to see a large variety of creatures in Big Bend our last trip. Yesterday I posted baby Javelina and today you get a snake in the water, which is better than two in the grass. I believe this is a Western coach-whip that was swimming across the beaver pond near Rio Grande campground. He might have just been cooling off, it was over 90 degrees.

I was focused on watching a bird when I noticed the bird was eying  something in the water near me. I am not at all real fond of snakes, but felt pretty safe with me on dry land and him in the water.  I know it could have been better to have a good macho snake like a Rattlesnake, but I am more a tamer variety now and so should be my subjects.

Grow happy with who you really are on your journey††nada te turbe††jim

Photo of Da day @ Da Pine #239

So sorry for the delay in posting. We have been having a great little respite down in Big Bend and have few places to catch wi-fi. So here is the first of several bird posts that will be coming.

This is  Neotropical Cormorant ( Phalacrocorax brasilianus) that was putting me on a show at the beaver pond near Rio Grande village campground. He is a beautiful emerald eyed & graceful yet comical member of the Pelican family . A group of them are a “gulp” which I am sure they get from their very throaty way of swallowing fish whole.

Don’t get choked up on your journey†††nada te turbe†††jim

Photo of Da day @ Da Pine #193

Ode to a Mockingbird  Rita Hestand Author


I love to hear the Mockingbird that sits up in my tree
I wonder why he sings so much, or if he sings to me.
He sits up on a branch so high, so he can fly away,
But I know that he likes it there, and that he wants to stay!

I love to hear the Mockingbird that sits up in my tree
If I could reach the limb he’s on, I’d put him on my knee.
I’d tell him what a joy he is, to listen to each day
And that I’d like to understand, just what he has to say.

I love to hear the Mockingbird that sits up in my tree
I wish he had a friend sometime, so happy he would be.
I guess that I could be his friend, for he does comfort me,
On lonely nights and rainy days, because I cannot see.

Be a friend to those who help you on your journey††jim††