no.241 | Loss and Found
I can’t remember the last time our rose bush bloomed. Along with its close companion the pomegranate, they flowered with simultaneous and exuberant purpose this Spring. My dad’s dad loved English roses and carefully nurtured them outside his trailer in Magnolia, Texas. Ours just came with the house. Yet, it surprises us every few years with a rush of life. Spring is not as stark a season in Texas as in the Pacific Northwest or places with real winters, but April comes with its small rewards and reminders of life’s cycles and caprices.
I don’t know how my father felt about roses. He was deeply interested in the inner workings of machines and how wood is cut and combined by hand into arched window shutters and fine mantle pieces. My father passed a few weeks ago after a long struggle with Parkinson’s and related dementia. His body and mind were gradually and then suddenly diminished. He was lovingly attended by his wife, Jenise, along with many friends in a lovely hospice nestled in the woods in Bellingham. I found great solace in the trail just steps from his room.
Our relationship, like most, was complicated. I am choosing to focus on moments of light that punctuated our time together, especially in these last few years. This piece for PSO combines an improvisation recorded on a recent rainy day on the porch in Austin, mixed with a kind of ephemeral flutter recorded on my dad’s porch with his somewhat broken guitar, which was originally released as PSO no. 61 published in July of 2019. The images are a mixture of our roses and an image I made from dad’s porch, which overlooks Birch Bay, this winter.
Email us at info(at)porchswingorchestra.org
I don’t know how my father felt about roses. He was deeply interested in the inner workings of machines and how wood is cut and combined by hand into arched window shutters and fine mantle pieces. My father passed a few weeks ago after a long struggle with Parkinson’s and related dementia. His body and mind were gradually and then suddenly diminished. He was lovingly attended by his wife, Jenise, along with many friends in a lovely hospice nestled in the woods in Bellingham. I found great solace in the trail just steps from his room.
Our relationship, like most, was complicated. I am choosing to focus on moments of light that punctuated our time together, especially in these last few years. This piece for PSO combines an improvisation recorded on a recent rainy day on the porch in Austin, mixed with a kind of ephemeral flutter recorded on my dad’s porch with his somewhat broken guitar, which was originally released as PSO no. 61 published in July of 2019. The images are a mixture of our roses and an image I made from dad’s porch, which overlooks Birch Bay, this winter.
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LETS'S MAKE SOMETHING TOGETHER
I love to collaborate, remotely or in person, but if you have a piece you would like to feature on PSO (without contributions by me), by all means, please reach out!Email us at info(at)porchswingorchestra.org
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ABOUT PSO
Porch Swing Orchestra is an art project begun by Barry Stone that explores the interplay between still images and sound.Since 2018, PSO has collaborated with dozens of musicians, artists, poets, writers, and activists to publish over 200 unique combinations of images and sounds.
Most PSO pieces are made on Stone’s front porch in Austin, Texas, but PSO has traveled to Spiral Jetty in Utah, the border town of Del Rio, Texas, Maine, the San Juan Islands, and performed live in the James Turrell Skyspace, The Color Inside as a part of The University of Texas Landmarks Songs in the Skyspace Program.
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