2020: the song "in the end" by ida maria.

 

i am pretty sure i burned frank a CD copy of the album ''fortress round my heart'' from 2008 by ida maria years ago and that he ended up telling me later how much he liked it, that it really stood out to him. i wish i remembered specifics, but it's more the feeling of it, what i remember best, and that's probably what really counts.

norgwegian musician ida maria børli sivertsen has a lot of upbeat, vibe-you-on-up songs, the kinds built to make you want to dance the hell around. and i love those from her plenty.

but ''in the end'' is a song by her which i love in its slower degrees of movement, one always reminding to slow down in myself, stilling enough to see what's beautiful around me and in what i've known, like the moments i had with frank in our friendship.

this photo below of red-petaled tulips off in the distance is from a springtime walk i took during my workday. it reminds me of catching up fast, to glimpse and capture the scene, and to slow down in appreciating what it can bring to a single heart or perhaps a few or more hearts than just this one in our world. and i feel like noticing art around me to photograph is frank nudging and tapping at me sometimes from the inside, a welcome reminder for me to document would-be missed art for myself and also so others can learn about its existence to experience.

and below here is the song ''in the end'' by ida maria. at least a few times a year, i remember that it's out there, and i play it on repeat. please enjoy it for your heart and for frank's.

— jennifer hetrick

 

2020: relections, songs, & a poem by emily neblock.

 

My spur-of-the-moment morning thoughts on mental health:

Things pass, somehow, in those difficult moments. What is it we are living for, keeping our eyes set on? What things are our hope, and if we are without it, where can we find it? What things in life are big enough to make the hard things seem like passing clouds? And if we don't have those things... Can we find them?"

—Emily Neblock
Tuesday, October 6, 2020

 

 

I am from
(inspired by the poem "Where I'm From" by George Ella Lyon)

I am from Skinny action figures and Barbie dolls.
In-between empowerment and whoring
Aphids on the conifers, slowly thinning the walls of my hiding places.
I am from the top right room of a yellow house.
It's not yellow anymore, and I'd like to think it remembers, but the siding was replaced instead of painted over.
The light’s on in the top right room,
Crib to twin to queen,
Performing well,
What else is there?
Living hell.
From poring over shel silverstein poems and goodnight moon
To hours eaten by reality tv.
What am I from?
More than one word.
A mockery.
A steep descent into puberty.
A million suns dancing all over the ground.
If they stayed still it would burn.

 

Emily Neblock is a singer-songwriter and artist from near Philadelphia, PA. She plays loving, inquisitive jazzy folk music, which can be found at EmilyNeblock.Bandcamp.com. She also plays in an electric blues-rock band called Hex Highway Blues Band. Updates on this can be found by searching for the "Hex Highway Blues Band" Facebook page.

2020: music & history tellings by chris larose & friends.

 

This nearly 17-minute video set in the natural world across in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, brings together music and local river, canal, industrial, and environmental history through the artistic efforts of Chris LaRose, Mike Merling, Emily Neblock, and Cody Young.

While Chris never had a chance to meet Frank, we like to imagine how rewarding and fulfilling their conversations would have been, as Chris is a great person to share brain-space with in talking about life, nostalgia-rich appliances and manufactured-anything from old days, farming, subcultures, and little and big moments of all kinds across days and experiences as people on this earth.

Chris LaRose hails from Lock Haven, PA, playing driving, foot-stomping acoustic blues and genuine historical folksongs. In addition, he plays in a PA Dutch folk/bluegrass duo, a folk & historical folk duo, and leads an electric blues-rock band called Chris LaRose & the Hex Highway Blues Band. Updates on this can be found by searching for the "Hex Highway Blues Band" Facebook page. His original music can be found at ChrisLaRoseMusic.com or by searching for "Chris LaRose Music" on Facebook.