(originally written 12.24)

the fractal fingers of Appalachia reach for me from the right.
i fall forward through the clouds.
snake-arms of Ma Atlantic on the left
meet the embrace.

hold me suspended between worlds, here
water and rock and
life, and breath, and magic,
and clouds.

“what is done between the worlds,
changes all the worlds.”

Dear Santa,

For Christmas this year (you have 3.5 hours left, come on!) I’d like the ability to stay awake for more than 4 hours at a stretch, to stand up without feeling like I’m about to pass out, and to breathe normally. And, since I’ve been a particularly good girl this year, could you throw in a normally-functioning, workable brain, too? (I think the batteries on my old one are starting to die.) Pleez? Pretty pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeez?

I promise I’ll be extra good.

Sincerely,
Bri

Well, after volunteering my seat tonight, I’m unexpectedly spending my evening in a Ramada inn in Philly, rather than at my parents’ house in Tennessee.

On the plus side, I scored $400 in travel credits, which will pretty much take care of the airfare for that trip to California I’ve been wanting to do next year. (And of course, they’re paying for the hotel and dinner, too.) It’s too bad these flights don’t have first class, or I would have pushed for a free upgrade… All in all though, I’m pretty impressed with how Southwest has handled it so far. (Not to mention the. cheapest. airfare. EVER. Their website leaves something to be desired, though.)

The only downside is that my flight leaves at 7:20 tomorrow, so I have to get up at like 4:30am. But in general, I’m a big fan of volunteering for free air travel… How many other ways could I make $400 in 5 minutes?

Happy solstice, everyone. What a crazy year 2006 has been for me.

Last year on this day, I went outside and washed my hands and face in the snow, trying to wipe away the remains of relationship wrecks, horrific living situations, and a slew of bad choices on my part and that of others.

Tonight, my life is in a completely different place — different city, different lifestyle, different relationships. I’ve been presented with new challenges (health issues, lack of direction), and new blessings (new friends, being able to pay the bills).

As I look back, this has probably been the most significant year in my life so far. Over the next week or so, I need to do a lot of introspective work, just to take in and digest everything that has happened.

Unfortunately, I’m so exhausted due to some health issues that I’ve been having, that I don’t think I’m going to be able to stay up and greet the dawn this year. But I’m more glad than I can say that the Sun will start lingering longer again.

So last night I was at a lovely concert at World Cafe Live. It was a showcase of local Philly bands — most good, some mediocre, a few great. But there was one performance in particular that I found fascinating.

The group was Angel Band, who had a blues/bluegrass/rootsy kind of style. But their very first song, opening the set, was an a capella invocation to none other than Elegba, the Yoruban trickster/gate-guardian deity worshipped across African Diasporic religions like Vodoun, Santería, and Candomble…

Hey Papa Legba
Open the gate
Help us to sing like the angels

(roughly remembered, but hopefully accurate, lyrics)

An all-white, bluegrass/roots band invoking a Yoruban deity at the start of their act. You can believe that my eyebrows were shooting through the roof…

I don’t know Elegba very well. I wonder what he thought.

So here’s a thought I had yesterday.

If more and more albums are being purchased online, downloaded, and played on an mp3 player, without ever being incarnate in a physical product — which I think we can all agree is pretty much the case — then it also is the case that more and more people are only ever seeing album art shrunk down into a 30×30 pixel icon, like on the iPod. (It’s true that you can view it full-size in iTunes, but I would bet that most people don’t use that as much because a) it’s not automatic, and b) it takes up screen space.)

So my idle speculation is that maybe designers should start taking this into consideration when designing album covers? Maybe they should start thinking first about what their cover art looks like at 30×30px on an iPod. (A meaningless blob of color, much of it.) Which would make the task of designing album covers a lot more like the task of designing say, icons — something small and distinctive, that gives a unique visual identity to your product in a very limited space.

I’ll bet many album designers would not be very happy with this paradigm shift. It definitely seems to remove a lot of creative possibility. Nonetheless, I would think that it might be something people would want to start considering, in the interest of creating a successful design that makes the album visually stand out, even on the iPod screen. Sounds like it could be an interesting challenge…

There are no stars here
in the sky. Instead they shine
below, crunching asphalt
beneath my feet.

As I walk, I spread fragments of shattered glass:
a minor Deity,
rearranging constellations.