May 2025_Flower Moon
**Hello Friends,**
Last month I messed up on the spelling of Julio Decillo’s name. I got it mixed up with his email address and wrote it wrong.
Last week I went to the park and hung out with frends who were staying at a group campsite in the basin. It’s a sweet place with Casa Grande in the back and the window in front. After dinner we sat out watching the night sky for shooting stars, constellations, and planets. I do this at home as well. Our night sky is great. What I saw in addition to these things were satellites. Lot’s of them in all directions. Then there was a line of them, and made me think that this is a new world and I don’t know it.
I got a taste of what retirement is going to look like for me. I hiked the South Rim with my friend Bert Whitaker. We spread the ashes of another friend of mine. Then I went to San Antonio for doctor stuff and to visit with some more friends and be there for his birthday. Then I attended Jimmie Dale Gilmore’s 80th birthday celebration at the Paramount Theater in Austin. Then I drove to Mason for what I thought was going to be an all girl midget band. The poster intrigued me enough to make the drive, but it turned out to be a lip synched rodeo show. I did get to visit my friend Spider Johnson, see his artwork and make his portrait. Then it was back to Austin to visit my 101 year old friend, and to visit a couple of other dear friends. Evan Voyles made me a beautiful neon sign that reads “LOVE IS THE KING” because I say that in my news letter. It is from Jeff Tweedy and Wilco who I was going to see in San Antonio. We got through the gate with my camera and the neon sign, but then got caught on the premises, and no matter how much I tried to convince them it was all harmless they made me take it back to the truck. It was a real disappointment because it was innocent and respectful, and I was hoping it would get a rise out of the band. Sad time we are living in when you can’t promote love.
So I hope you can see the common theme. Seeing friends!
**Finally**
I watched that Dylan movie again. In 1965 I was 11 so I missed the moment he came into the spotlight. I got it a few years later. I think it is a great movie, and I imagine they took some liberties, but the musicians and promoters, and agents all seemed to get that this guy is special, and I got that they wanted to claim him and direct him for their own causes and agendas, and he just wanted to be himself. I can’t imagine the pressure to be on the world stage, and to be able to touch so many lives with your work. But I do get what it's like to find your art and vocation and follow it through despite every one else’s opinion. When I found Big Bend, I knew that I belonged here. I knew I could make a body of work that would mean something. When I loaded up my truck and headed for Marathon, I taped a sign in the passenger door window that read “I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more.”