A Timeless and Universal Man

A man whose music is inspirational and life changing, his music sends beams of love to all his listeners, Bob Marley, the Natural Mystic, is still impacting the world today. He is a "Musical Prophet", his music is relatable to any person in any situation. He sang with emotion and feeling, he sang of truth, love, happiness, sadness, and with an understanding of what he was sending out to people. He went on a mission to send his message of love and peace across the globe.

Bob Marley made his first record with his song "Judge Not" in 1962 when he was still a teen. Eventually he formed a group with his friends, Junior Braithwaite, Beverly Kelso and Cherry Smith, called The Wailing Wailers. The group produced their first record "Simmer Down" in the final weeks of 1963. Although the group was growing quite popular, they broke up and went their separate ways. After the band split Bob decided to join his mother, Cedella, in America for 8 months to earn enough money to finance his goal to become a musician.In 1967 Marley's music reflected much of his religion, Rastafari; along with singing of his religion he sang of spirituality and social issues; this chapter of his musical career was just the cornerstone for his true legacy.

Bob reunited with the old band and they decided to re-form with an updated name, The Wailers. They constructed classic songs such as "Soul Rebel", "400 years", "Small Axe", and "Dubby Conquerer" which were defined to be the future generation of reggae music. The group was later described as a different kind of jamaican music "A whole new style of Jamaican music has come into being. It has a different character, a different sound. . . what I can only describe as International Reggae. It incorporates elements from popular music internationally: rock and soul, blues and funk. These elements facilitated a breakthrough on the international market."~ reggae dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson. In 1975 Bunny and Peter quit the band to create their own solo careers, thus the band name changed to Bob Marley and The Wailers.

In December, 1976 Bob Marley was going to put on a free concert to promote the need for peace in the slums of the city, (Kingston, Jamaica) which shockingly brought assassins to Bob Marley's house and shot him. He was only wounded, but was hastily taken to safety. He went on with his concert of peace, and played a brief set in defiance to the gunmen. Shortly after the concert he left Jamaica for 18 months, spending most of his time in London. There he recorded his most powerful records, "Exodus", "Waiting in Vain", "Jammin", and then the album that put him number 4 on European charts," Kaya".

After his European tour, he flew to American, after putting on 2 shows, he fell extremely ill. Bob Marley fought his cancer for 18 months, until May 1, 1981, he died at the age of 36, although his body died, his soul lived on. Bob Marley is a legend, he has forever left his mark on this world. You can find his face painted on the sides of buildings in big cities, his face is on billboards, his soul is inside all of us. Bob Marley is not dead, and I don't believe he will ever truely be gone.

A Cats Meow

"The cat (Felis catus), also known as the domestic cat or housecat to distinguish it from other felines and felids, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal." ~ Wikipedia. For 9.500 years cats have been associated with our kind, but we have only seen them for what they are on the outside and not for what they are on the inside. Ever question why most cats keep their distance? Secretly they are off dreaming of a life they will never have. When they are out exploring the wilderness they act as if they were a wild animal, in search of their midnight snack. A cat will stock its prey, waiting patiently for the right moment to strike, and then it leaps like a lion into the air, landing vigorously on its specimen, as the cat sinks its teeth into the animal its life ends. When I was a little girl I had this poster of a kitten pondering what it was going to be like as an adult, a tiger, it said one day its meow was going to turn into a ROAR. I believe this is true for most cats, I think they see them selves a lot bigger than they are, this is why they sit with pride, and don't fully seek the affections of us humans, they just use us so they can get a daily meal.

People.

All over the world there are people of all different shapes, sizes and each with a different perspective. Every person experiences something differently, each person lives their life as their own, and every person has their own state of mind. Some people cling on to others for security, others mold into their friends because they don't know how to find themselves. It's strange though, how every one is different, yet we are all the same. We are the same because we all have similar goals, we all want to be successful and we all want to find love. To me, to be successful, it's not about money, it's about reaching your goals, what ever they may be, and a lot of times people see success as being rich, but we all have our different opinions. To find love doesn't necessarily mean to find your soul mate, I believe the deeper meaning to it is to find happiness within yourself. There are also the people who just don't care, they give up on themselves, lose everything, and are miserable, I suppose I'm not one to say if they are truly unhappy, but that's the way they appear. To me living life that way is a waist, life was something given to us to enjoy and live to the the fullest, maybe that's not how everyone sees it but that's the way I see it .
The city is a great place to go, and not for shopping, not for the sites and definitely not for traffic. It's a great place to go and see how different people live their lives. I was in portland once and I saw a man walking down the road in a bright red suit with heart glasses, he ended up being kind of a jerk, but he was sure a site to my eyes. When you go to the city you never really know what to expect.... One things for sure, it will never be the same.

The Beauty of Alaska

For the past three weeks I have had the pleasure to visit the beautiful state of Alaska. I come here pretty often to visit my mother and brother. Every time I go I am overwhelmed with the beauty of the state, every direction you turn, there is something glorious to look at. I'm the type of person who looks at the small things, and I tend to look for beauty in everything. So when I am surrounded by it, it's hard for me to pay attention to much else. Some people have a hard time seeing the true beauty in things. Most people will just glimpse at something and say, "oh yeah, thats neat." and then they move on to something else. When looking at something wonderful, to truly accept it, you need to look at it, breath it in, bring your eyes across every detail, absorb it so the image is imprinted in your mind, and then feel the soul of the it, alive or not. All of what I just described, I try to capture in my pictures, I want the viewer to feel like they are there, apart of the image, I want them to see the way i see. This is my goal, and I realize I still have a long ways to accomplish this, but I believe I'm off to a good start.