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Mark Schweickart

Jim – Thanks for sharing the link to your recent photo collection. Truly spectacular images! Great job, although I must admit that, aside from "Take Me Home, Country Roads," I could not associate the songs you hinted at with the various pictures. From some odd reason, I never paid much attention to John Denver. I have to ask how you did that movement effect shot (no,13, I think it was)? 

Oh, and speaking of the one Denver song I do always recognize, "Take Me Home, Country Roads," it reminds me of a time I was in Munich, Germany on a business trip. It was the fall, so Octoberfest was in full swing. It was a fairgrounds-size spectacular, with amusement park rides and huge tents where one could listen to live music and, needless to say, drink beer voluminously. I was surprised to hear the music was not some sort of German beerhall oom-pa-pa, as I was expecting, but rather was almost exclusively live cover versions of Amierican music. I was standing next to a couple of people I didn't know, but who were conversing in English as "TakeMe Home, Country Roads" started up. After the opening line, "Almost heaven, West Virginia," was sung out, the girl standing next to me turned to her partner and asked, "Where is West Virginia?" Her partner replied, "I think it's next to Texas." I thought maybe I should butt in to offer that actually it is next to Ohio, but then figured that this info would not really clarify anything for them, so I just smiled and enjoyed the music... and my beer, of course.  So what is the point of this ramble, you may ask? Just that for some (well, me in this case) John Denver's music doesn't actually conjur up images of the beautiful Colorado mountains, as it does for you, Jim, but rather, it brings to mind, of all places – German Octoberfest and Ohio. Sorry about that. Nevertheless, I loved your photos. Keep up the great work.

Michael McLeod

Just want to make sure you know I'm just kidding you Dave.

I just get charged up about certain things and I figure there's no quiz so people who don't want to read it don't even have to turn the page, just skip it.

The gist of that essay was summed up in the one paragraph that I mentioned, and it had to do with something that intrigues me, which is how we get imprinted with certain basic points of view in the first place. 

John Maxwell

James Hamilton, M. D.

SPRINGTIME IN THE ROCKIES??

Thanks to Janie, Sheila, Mark and Jack for the comments.

Mark, I'll get back to you soon on your question about #13.

In the meantime I have some work to do. Last nite through now (and still happening) we had a VERY wet, heavy spring snowfall in our city and our area got hit hard - about 14+ inches. We lost these two pinon pine trees in our front yard due to the weight of the snow (see picture below). Fortunately they did not fall on the street lamp post! I've spent a lot of the morning digging out and will deal with dismantling the trees after some melting. These were mature, 50 y.o. pines. 

This is probably the latest spring snowstorm we have seen since moving here.  

Jim

David Mitchell

Jim,

Too bad about your trees, I recall back about 1984 when we got a nice 24 inches on Christmas Eve. And Mayor McNichls decided not to call out the snowplow crews on Christmas day - it always melted the next day in Denver anyway - and the city workers could have Chrismas at home. But it did not melt the next day, but instead took about 5 days with frozen streets and deep frozen ruts of snow. It was a disaster for his P.R. Come electon day that spring (about a week from now), we had an 18 incher on voting day and it reminded everybody of his Chritmas blunder. So we had a record turnout (even in the snow) to vote him out of office .Thus began the Freddie Pena era. Remeber Freddie? Kind of a do nothing guy who bacame Bill Clinton's transportation Secretary - and has never been heard of since.

For you non-Colorado natives, the "Mile-HIgh City always gets a whopper or two (12 to 24 inches - and a 3 footer once) - often quite early or quite late, and it makes the news. But most of the winters down in the city are so mild you can play golf or tennis much of the time. But climb a few thusand feet to the West on I-70 and you are in real winter weather.

------------------------

Mark,

Ain't Octoberfest a kick in the rear? Those beer tents are amazing. But we got genuine "Umpah" music in the two tents that my wife and I went into. What's not so much fun is trying to drive in Munich traffic at rush hour - in the early seventies, while the city was building it's new subway system for the '72 Olympics and streets were torn up and blockaded everywhere - what a nightmare! 

David Mitchell

Now das whut I'm talkin' 'bout!

 

 

James Hamilton, M. D.

Mark,

Getting back to you regarding the "movement" in image #13:

Over the years I have learned some tricks that, although rarely used or needed, can add a bit of interest and pizazz to photograph. I guess it falls into the category of "abstract photos". This one at first was to give the feeling of a Star Trek warp speed type of motion. However, it also seemed to fit that line in JD's song, Looking for Space".

It's a fairly easy effect to create. With a camera equipped with a zoom lens mounted on a stable tripod, use the shutter speed mode set it to about 2-3 seconds. Press the shutter release button and smoothly twist the zoom from shorest to longest focal length while the shutter is open. Try it at a few different shutter speeds and you will likely find a good shot in the group.

Janie,

I am also a big fan of wide angle shots for "grandscapes". Often I try to get down low to the ground (hard to get back up these days!) and use the CUWA technique. That means "Close Up, Wide Angle". Then, with a very narrow aperture (f18-22) just about everything from close up to infinity will be in sharp focus. It is good to have a strong "anchor" object in the foreground and something in the mid ground so that the main objects in the distance do not totally appear isolated.

Sheila,

I would love to photograph the Sierra Nevada's! 

The bucket list is long but age is creeping up on me.

Jim

Jim

Mary Ann Nolan (Thomas)

Thanks for sharing your beautiful photos and how you so clevery aligned them with John Denver's lyrics.

I knew the the Rocky Moutain High ones in #s 6,12,19,22, 25 and I think 26.

My husband and  I skiied Denver for many years until our knees gave out at about 55! (about the same time we retired from tennis after 30 years as well).

I have a funny story about meeting John Denver back in the 70"s when some girlfriends and I were visiting  Aspen in the summertime, We went into a store and while we were looking around in walked John Denver and of course we had to say hello etc. He was so nice and we were 4 giddy 20 something year olds falling all over ourselves.

You should do some more pictures with some of his other songs.

James Hamilton, M. D.

Mary Ann,

Thanks for your comments and the story about meeting John Denver. That must have been at the height of his success and been a very pleasant and memorable encounter!

You are correct in that images 6, 12 and 19 were from his trademark hit, Rocky Mountain High. Picture #22 was not from that song and there were no pictures #25 and #26 in that gallery. 

Most people probably are unaware that Colorado has two official state songs, Where the Columbines Grow (1915) and Rocky Mountain High (added in 2007).  Several states have more than one state song. West Virginia (attention Mark S.) has four and one of those is Take Me Home, Country Roads.

I also appreciate your suggestion that I do another volume of pictures correlated with so many other songs he wrote. I shall definitly consider doing that!

Have a great week,

Jim

David Mitchell

Marry Ann,

John Denver's mom and dad (Mr. and Mrs. Dutchendorf) lived next door to a couple of our friends when we lived in Denver. We had kids in the same Catholic grade school, and dined together a few times at each other's homes. They told us that they would introduce us to the neigbors sometime, but that never happened. The closest we got was one night when Mr. Dutchedorf came to their door while we were sitting at dinner. He didn't stay but a moment, and did not come inside.    Close - but no cigar.

Those days of John Denver's music were special. Even more special was seeing him live at Red Rocks. He always perforned with a large entourage of backup musicians and vocal group, plus threee big screens with multi media shots of mountain scenery. And he has such a fun way with the crowd. The audiences were all ages - whole families. He always had the audiience in the palm of his hand. It was one of my favorite memories of Denver.

--------------------

While on that subject - Red Rocks - my all-time favorite artist from those days was Gordon Lightfoot ("the Canadian Mumbler"). We saw him once at Red Rocks and he was the opposite of John Denver. He and his 3 backup guitarist walked out on stage carrying 4 folding chairs. No multi media screens - no orchestra - no backup singers. They sat down and he said "Don't wanna keep you out long in a cold stamp" (it was a cool evening). They began to play and hardly ever stopped but for a couple of song introductions.

About a year later, he had a bad experience. The crowds at Red Rocks used to be no resereved seating, just first come first served. So people would go out hours in advance and take their picknick and their drinks, and get seats close to the stage. Some would have been drinking for hours before the show started. On this particular night some people right down in front were quite drunk by showtime and threw some of their food at him. He got a tomato square in the face. If I recall correcly he got up and walked off and promised never to return to Red Rocks. 

David Mitchell

While I'm on a Lightfoot tangent; here is his most famous song, and one of my all-time favorites - recorded long ago. If you see him today he looks like a schrivled old man. He had a serious disease and almost died. But he's stil performng.

I first heard this song in a most unusaul way. I was in the cockpit of a Huey (on my second tour - not in a Loach), heading back to a refueling base in the far western corner of the Delta, which gave us a temporary break from the mission. We would often quickly swicth one of our two "Fox Mikes" (FM radios, used to transmit conversation in the air - but also able to tune in the military radio station in Saigon ("AFVN" = Armed Forces Viet Nam - you remember Robin Willimas and "Good Morning Vietnam"). We switched over and were hearing this song over the air. I had never heard of this guy, but I became an instant fan. 

John Jackson

Dave,  as an an old folkie (or is it fogey?) I was (and still am) a huge fan of Gordon Lightfoot.   Over his long career, bluegrass musician Tony Rice did a great job of dusting off many of Lightfoot’s songs and keeping them alive:      

Mary Ann Nolan (Thomas)

Dave and John,

I just saw a wonderful piece on Kenny Loggins on the CBS Sunday morning show. What an incredible artist he still is. I had forgotten about all his top hits and Grammies over the years and he is still going strong.

David Mitchell

Brings back memories of Loggins and Messina, who I always liked.  Kenny Logins is still out there - he was always the better half I thought. But haven't heard a word of Messsina since they broke up.

* (update: just looked them up on Wiki and I guess they are doing some stuff together again)

Come to think of it, we really did have a wide range of good music to grow up with; Rock, R&B, Folk, Pop, Country, Gospel, Classic, Easy Listening, and all sorts of mixes and  "crossovers".

(Even "disco"- - - well, maybe not)

One of my favorite types was what we called Rockabilly. That included Elvis, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Ricky Nelson, Buddy Holly, and my all-time favorites, Phil and Don - the Everly Brothers. (Oops, how could I forget Brenda Lee?)

But in my humble opinion, this was the best "single" ever recorded;

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

I could never pick a favorite song...there are way too many of all genres & from every decade, but this song from The Seekers & some from the 60's Classics always transport me to my teen years & all the many fun memories.

Michael McLeod

We've mentioned music before but it's good to see a full fledged nostagia hootenanny break out.

The immortal Roy Orbison deserves a mention. Sue me, but I consider "Cryin'" his masterpiece rather than "Pretty Woman" or  even "Only the Lonely" his masterpiece. But that may be in part because it's the one I remember enough to get through at a karaoke bar even if I've had a few.

Also hats off to all the really bad dancing we sat through via American Bandstand. I don't mean for the dancers. I mean for us for sitting through it. 

David Mitchell

Those are a couple of great tunes also.

I was planning on putting up something fun that I just experienced the other day, but now this itsn't a very fun day. I expect my Republican leaders in Washington to make a bunch of brave and conciliatory statements, and then proceed to do absolutley nothing about more sensible gun laws. Most of them are too busy preparing to vote down the assistence package to expidite more baby formula.

Brave men.

Michael McLeod

It's unimaginable what damaged people can do. 

Be kind to everyone you see today. 

There are roughly 300 million guns in the United States. That works out to roughly one gun for every human being in this country. 

Japan has less than one gun per 100 people.

Typically, there are fewer than ten gun deaths each year in that country.

Dave: On the baby formula issue, I've been suggesting that our supreme court simply creates legislation that forces women to breast feed.

Problem solved.

Deborah Alexander (Rogers)

What will it take to pass sensible gun laws in this country?  How many more children and innocent people have to die before the cowards in Washington do something?  If some of these politicians were really pro-life they would stop these killings by passing stronger gun laws.  As I heard this morning, thoughts and prayers do not stop bullets.  I am tired of the platitudes.  We need action.

Sheila McCarthy (Gardner)

Dave and Mike: Let's force men to breast feed while we're at it..... (Sarcasm noted)

John Jackson

Everybody knows that guns make us safer. These kids were sitting ducks - if only they had been armed.

As always, The Onion provides prospective:

‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens

Today 9:00AM

UVALDE, TX—In the hours following a violent rampage in Texas in which a lone attacker killed at least 18 children and injured several others, citizens living in the only country where this kind of mass killing routinely occurs reportedly concluded Tuesday that there was no way to prevent the massacre from taking place. “This was a terrible tragedy, but sometimes these things just happen and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop them,” said Idaho resident Kathy Miller, echoing sentiments expressed by tens of millions of individuals who reside in a nation where over half of the world’s deadliest mass shootings have occurred in the past 50 years and whose citizens are 20 times more likely to die of gun violence than those of other developed nations. “It’s a shame, but what can we do? There really wasn’t anything that was going to keep this individual from snapping and killing a lot of people if that’s what they really wanted.” At press time, residents of the only economically advanced nation in the world where roughly two mass shootings have occurred every month for the past eight years were referring to themselves and their situation as “helpless.”

David Mitchell

I often get the response that the Second Amendment is a "sacred rite" (yes, like the right to life itself) and cannot be changed. Yet we have "changed" the consitutution 27 times. (and we have definately fooled around with the "Right to Life" itself, which, I agreee is a different arguement than this one, but only by philosophical degrees)

So on what basis do I argue that we could alter the 2nd Amendment. I base this mostly on the history of the technology of guns themselves.

Congress passed the 2nd Amendment in 1791 - "The Right to Keep and Bear Arms."

What was their definition of the word, "arms"? At the time of it's passing, this term applied to the guns of those days, which were single-shot, muzzle-loading, ball and powder guns. No one dreamed of the changes to come. Not "clip loaded" repeater rifles, not six-gun revolvers, and certainly not semi-automatic, or even automatic weapons. These "advancements" are so dramatically different that I argue they offer grounds for "updated" laws. The AR-15 used in Texas yesterday and perhaps in Buffalo last week (a close relative to the CAR-15 with which I am quite familiar - our "Observers" carried and used them from the left seat in our Loach cockpits) are expressly designed for combat use - to kill as many humans and as quickly as possible. Some will argue they are for hunting or target shooting. That is a stretch - their designed intent is for killing in combat.

Doesn't it follow reason that these "advancements" alter the situation radically?

Yes, I have other objections - "large clips", waiting periods, mail order sales, mandatory instruction classes, and a much more efficient, nationwide background check system. And non of these seem to violate the "sacred" unchangeable status of the 2nnd Ammendment.  Please tell me whose 2nd Amendment rights ar violated by any of these ideas?

If these amendments are "sacred and unchangable", then how on earth did we grant women and African slaves the right oi vote?

James Hamilton, M. D.

Folks, 

I am certainly no expert on guns. It seems to me that some of you are quite knowledgeable about them and that you believe either more or changing laws is the answer to helping prevent these horrible events like what happened yesterday. Maybe you are right, maybe not. I am not smart enough to know.

What I do think is that there are more deaths, often in groups, from opioids (mostly illegal but some legally obtained) than from guns. There are many laws against smuggling, transporting them across borders, selling, cooking, stealing, possessing and using these substances but, for some reason, the deaths continue to rise. Perhaps you can explain to me how more laws will help this epidemic.

Jim

David Mitchell

I just heard a video fo Ted Cruz' comments yesterday about the shooting and I am moved to add one more comment to my post above;

In my opinion, TED CRUZ IS AN IDIOT !

This brings to mind a comment I shared several years ago and bears repeating here. I was driving a man from the Weston Hotel on Hilton Head to the Savannah airport. These are routine trips, lasting about an hour, and we often get into conversations withour "guests" - but we are not supposed to touch on Religion or Politics. I admit, sometimes I have broken that rule.

This gentlmen in a suit and tie got in at the front door of the hotel and off we went. I often ask where are you headed today (or where are you from). In this case he said, "Texas". Note, It was some years ago, prior to Trumps first primary season. We were just getting to know the long list of political candidates.

I aksed him what he did, and he explained that he ran a political research firm - sort of a "think tank", "under contract to the Texas Republican Party".  

So I bit. I couldn't resist. I asked what he thought of this Ted Cruz guy? 

"Oh, he scares the hell out of us." I was caught completely off guard by that, and pressed the issue. What do you mean?  I asked. 

"Well, we dont think he's fit to gather trash along the highway." 

(so much for a Harvard law degree)

-----------------

Also posted a few years ago,

It so happens we used to have a regular "guest" who commuted often from his home on Hilton Head to his office in NYC - an executive of Blackrock - worlds largest Hedge Fund. This young guy (a Notre Dame grad) managed the entire "energy" sector at Blackrock. He would be on the phone while riding in the back seat - conversing with poeple llike the female Vice President of Argentina, or the finance minister of Quebec. He knew Oil, Gas, Turbo power, Hydro-electric, Solar, Wind - you name it. He funded huge projects all over the world in any of these fields

He mentioned once that he had met Ted Cruz, and gotten about 90 minutes of face to face alone with him. He explained his shcok as he realized this Senator from Texas knew "aboslutely nothing whatsoever about the oil business."

David Mitchell

Jim,

just remember,

"Guns Don't Kill People" but those damn little bullets that they fire sure make a hell of a mess. 

Nasty detail - sorry to be so gross, but;  Someone correct me if I am wrong, but don't guns like those AR -15's have "non-rifled" barrells, causing the bullets to tumble in flight instead of spin, and therefore riping much more lethal holes as they puncture the body. The rounds from "rifled barrells" make a "cleaner" entry, and are often able to be surgially removed in a cleaner way.

Not that it makes a huge difference but I think that is the case.