My Fantasy day....can this REALLY happen??

First, the day would start out at about 50 hours long…..and the day would start counting down just before sunrise (summertime is about 5:30 or so?)….

Sunrise & my own thoughts, alone with a good book and tunes.

Fresh fruit on a patio overlooking the ocean, smells of jasmine, lily of the valley, lilacs and waves watching the sunrise emerge from sleep.

Light DMB or piano/Norah Jones/Eva Cassidy music

I would get dressed in a long thin gauzey linen fitted low back sundress, flip flops, take a walk on the beach. I'd see my neighbor, this hot guy I've always had a connection with walking towards me. We meet up and talk and walk for about an hour or so along the shoreline, stopping along the way to pick up things lost in the sand, shells & treasures. We gently hold hands and stop also for little smooches and hugs then break into a run back to our places collapsing on the sand laughing endlessly about nothing.

We part, I go to my art studio, also overlooking the ocean. It is very light with ambient sunlight, large windows open making the room smell of summer and acrylic paint, and of course, Jasmine, lily of the valley, and lilacs…..

I paint a large canvas, the largest I've done a 4 x 5' white mystery. I have an endless supply of every color imaginable and brushes that are at my every fingertip. The layout of my tools of the trade is easy to access, perfect actually as I start slathering the paint. The colors fall as ideas pour out of me and make the most beautiful painting I've ever done – it's of another Chicago skyline.

I take the painting, freshen up and go downstairs to hop into my mustang convertible, top down of course, that is magically filled with gas and buffed to a beautiful shine I can see myself in. I jam to awesomely sounding tunes floating over me. I sing and know every chorus of every song I sing. And I'm in tune!!!! I drive down the imaginary coastline that never ends, flipping a coin for rights and lefts through the countryside. I drive for what seems like ever, then stop along the way to take pictures of beautiful things – a lonely tree, a beautiful small secluded river. I park the car and hike down to the river sitting on the side of the banks with my feet resting on a rock as the water rushes over them.

I get back in the car and drive to the city. Take more pictures in the city and then go shopping with an unlimited credit card. Buy some camera stuff, art stuff, a pretty dress, every color lip gloss imaginable, some fabulously comfortable shoes, a great couple bathing suits and a great hat that actually looks GOOD on my peanut head. I drop my painting off at my gallery on Michigan Avenue ….

I get to North Ave. beach where it is a beautiful 80 degrees, small fluffy clouds overhead. The beach is bustling with all types of people. I make my way through the crowd and find a bunch of people I know. We hang out together in a large area with our Egyptian cotton towels all touching in a large circle. We have a cooler of 'Mike's Hard Berry' and Miller Lite and it's full of ice. Pizza hut is delivered. We play the music as loud as we want and all get up and dance, make out and sing at the top of our lungs. Each of us heads to the water as we feel the need, splashing and playing like we're kids. Dancing and feeling silly meeting new people! We spend several hours at the beach.

4 of us head out (me and 3 guys of course) where we walk along Michigan Avenue and stop by my gallery (still 80 degrees but it doesn't feel hot) and they buy me quaint little bouquets of flowers (daisies, lily of the valley, tulips) along the way from street vendors just because. I go in and Brett Favre is there wants to buy my painting for a million dollars and invites me to every Packer game for life. He decides he can't disappoint me so he decides to play football forever and vows to wave at me at the beginning of every game! He knows I'm his biggest fan! I gladly sell him the painting…

My friends and I all walk in arm in arm in arm in arm harmony back to our cars, laughing and telling stories. We stop for ice cream cones at Baskin Robbins - Mint Chocolate Chip - double scoop (with no calories of course).

We drive to the airport. We fly to Vegas to gamble a bit and hit the strip, just for a couple hours. [remember, time is no matter here – flying doesn't count against the time], then off to Australia to watch the Indy race on Indy's Gold Coast.

We then get a phone call from Dave Matthews & Norah Jones inviting me and all my friends to a huge outdoor concert at Red Rocks in Colorado . I get everyone on the phone and take their private jet to the concert. The electricity of the crowd makes for a fun evening. They sing all my favorite songs: Crush, Say Goodbye, Steady As We Go, Two Step, #34, Best of What's Around…..Turn Me On, What Am I to You, Long Day Is Over, Nearness of You, etc….

Most of the friends go home and one guy stays, we get back to my place and head out on bikes down the road a bit to a corner market and buy fresh filet and the sweetest corn on the cob as if it was straight from Iowa . Come back to the back patio along the beach and he makes me the most tender wonderful filet I've ever tasted in my life, lightly tasting of garlic butter and charcoal. The corn (I eat 3 ears) is slathered with butter that has no calories and lightly dusted with salt. We quietly eat on a blanket on the beach while watching the sun make it's way down slowly over the water. The pepsi is cold and fizzy. The glances are electric and the hearts race. I'm getting a buzz without the alcohol from sheer happiness of the days events.

We fall asleep kissing, touching and making love on the softest blanket on the sand as the light breeze grazes over our naked bodies. I have the most wonderful orgasms imaginable.

I feel safe, happy, content and fulfilled. I am rich, have a great beautiful huge loft overlooking the ocean with hardwood floors, high ceilings, endless windows, a surround system of music, a huge multi-tiered deck, a great studio & gallery in the city, lots of friends to hang out with, people who think I'm beautiful and fun and never want to let me go…….


Wow, if only this could happen....I guess that's why they call it a FANTASY.....

Let's get re-acquainted....with Dave Matthews Band

Dave Matthews Band was formed in 1991 and totals 5 members with many guest musicians. Several were already accomplished jazz musicians from around the Charlottesville, VA circuit. Throughout the years, the band became instant sensations, but with always tight ties to the original grassroots style of music. Combined with killer instrumental riffs, an unusual lead singers falsetto croon, and haunting melodies, this band is around for the ages. At times, Daves voice resembles the horns he features in his music. Have a listen. If you want to know more about the band, what their names are, who plays what, etc….then hit up ‘Annie Luvs DMB’ and one of her many friends….as she is the true DIE hard fan. I only know that I love their music.

Most of you are familiar with the regular Dave songs….Crash Into Me (one of my faves), Ants Marching, Best of What’s Around, etc….but here are a few songs that are a little LESS well known that I’ve found to be utterly beautiful. I’m no expert, but know what I like, and I LOVE DMB.

My experience with DMB is like this….the best analogy I can come up with is grasping hands with someone you are so compatible with that your hands melt together. Whether it is from pure lust, longevity, or from habit….your hands tingle the second they meet and all the butterflies rise to the surface and nothing else matters except you and that person. The fact is…your hands were meant to be together. The feeling you get grasping hands for the first time, that’s what DMB music feels like to me.

Please give it a listen, and don’t give up in the first 30 seconds….the great thing about DMB, is that the variety throughout the song is unmatched. Sometimes the song takes off in a new direction that is even better than the first leg of the journey.

The first song, Say Goodbye is rich on instrumental vibes. In fact, the first 1:25 seconds is mostly all playful flutes. I love it. The song encompasses total one-night-stand passion.

Take Steady As We Go….I like the album version as listed here, but the live version from the ‘Weekend on the Rocks’ album is exceptional. The first line is this. “I would walk half way around the world just to set down by your side. I would do most anything girl to be the apple of your eye.” Yes…the rhyming is somewhat corny, but it’s the melody that melts me completely.

Crush is self-explanatory. With the flats and the drunk feeling you get just listening to it. The video is just as sexy. Sex personified with notes and melodic ooze mixed with great phrases like ‘Lovely lady, let me drink you, please, I won’t spill a drop, no, I promise you.’ Or ‘And I wonder this….could tomorrow be so woundrous as you there sleeping.’‘

Two step is an amazing journey of cymbals, fiddles and plucking. And a great bunch of verses to boot.

Finally, Dreamgirl is the epitome of a voyeuristic romp as proven by this fun lyric, ‘I was feeling like a creep as I watched you asleep face down in the grass in the park in the middle of a hot afternoon. Your top was untied and I thought how nice it would be to follow the sweat down your spine.’ OH…but only Dave can sing it without being smarmy or stalkish. And the opening is fantastic. See earlier picture blog – music for the word “Ethereal.”


The musicians which comprise DMB are phenomenal and are known to jam in a song for 20 or 30 minutes and still maintain the integrity of the song in between. The musicianship of these men amaze me. Horns, Mandolins, Violins, different types of percussion, intricate piano solos. What can be greater?

Hope you’ve enjoyed the newest music lesson.

Live well with music. That’s my new motto.

Music Appreciation - Eva Cassidy

For those who love music….decompress with me a moment. It’s time for music appreciation 101, kids.

I heard the song “People Get Ready” for the first time yesterday while perusing I-tunes…a nearly nightly ritual. Anyone who knows me, knows I love music. I try to be open to all types, from classical piano, bluesy jazz, certain hard metal rock and nearly everything in between. It is my therapy, and the music played depends on the mood I need to assuage. But we’ve been over that before. This is nor the time nor place to rehash old blogs.

Eva Cassidy is a wonderful musician whose angelic voice is both piercing and pure. She was taken by Cancer (melanoma) at age 33 in 1996. Most all of her albums have been released posthumously and has had 2 new albums recently released from friend’s recordings and lost sessions. It took dying for her to become famous. There is a piece of advice a good friend of mine once told me when I was anguishing the fact that my paintings would probably never fetch a sale or be appreciated only by a small few. He said to me, “Hey, Red, Van Gogh only sold one painting in his lifetime.”

Here is some of Eva’s music.

Anyway….this song had a powerful affect on me. I had a vision of hearing it for the first time and being in a place so beautiful that words couldn’t describe it. The slow beat, the tink of the cymbal, etc. I found myself doing the little toe tap and the tiny non-obnoxious version of the “Night at the Roxbury” head bob, all the while closing my eyes and imagining a long slow toke on a very sweet cigarette wishing for those happy gasses most grown-ups have experienced to which I, sadly at times, have not. The music alone gave me the buzz I was needing. Almost.

The connection I made with the words….

People get ready
There’s a train a-coming
You don’t need no baggage
You just get on board
All you need is faith
To hear diesels humming
You don’t need no ticket
You just thank the Lord
Yeah yeah yeah

People get ready
For the train to Jordan
Picking up passengers
From coast to coast
Faith is the key
Open the doors and board them
There’s room for all
Among the loved and lost

Now there ain’t no room
For the hopeless sinner
Who? Hard on mankind
Just to save his own
Have pity on those
Whose chances are thinner
Cause there’s no hiding place
From the Kingdom’s Throne

Ohhh people get ready
There’s a train a-coming
You don’t need no baggage
You just get on board
All you need is faith
To hear diesels a-humming
You don’t need no ticket
You just thank the Lord
Yeah yeah yeah

I’m getting ready
I – I’m getting ready yeah yeah yeah
Oh I’m getting ready oh – oh
I’m ready yeah



I’m not religious, so Faith doesn’t apply as the norm to me. She’s a tease. I let the melodies do their best healing. And maybe the roar of the el.

Along with a nice tall glass o’beer.