Icelandic Monochromes

Reykjavík in black and white:

Only 20 days until Iceland!

once i asked what love is like…

(Twenty Years Ago on FITK)

… and now I know.

The thing about love is that yes, I am certain I was in love before, but it was never like this. Before, I was always stressed, and panicking, and acting, and the reason for that was simple. There was no trust. I did not trust him, and I did not trust myself, and to be honest, I think he trusted me even less and himself not at all.

And I thought that was love, because that was what I was conditioned to believe, that when two people are attracted to each other that way, it must be love.

Except that it wasn't; it could not be love, any more than Romeo's crush on Rosaline was love. You may think it love when you will do anything to be with the person, and you may think it love when you will accept anything from that person just so that they will not leave you.

But that is not love.

If it is not love when you are only willing to take, it is also not love when all you want to do is give. There is no difference between putting your heart in someone's hands knowing that it will be broken and taking someone's trust and grinding it beneath your feet, merely flip sides of the same coin.

Nor is love about sex. Sex has become a commodity to some - a bribe, a laugh between friends, a fleeting pleasure in the night - and to tie love with sex is to head down the highway to disappointment, although there will probably be some love shacks on the way to heartbreak hotel.

Love is both all and none of the above; far more dramatic and far more prosaic. It is when you can place your trust in that person completely and receive trust in return; it is when you demand nothing and receive everything and the reverse is true.

Love is... symmetric. It has to be between equals who are content to be equal. By this I do not mean that both have to be equally intelligent or rich - only that none of that should matter. And like all symmetric effects, it has the potential to be everything.

And so I put my trust in you because when the sun comes out, the moon stands no chance at all.

~RS

Reposted

Reykjavík By Night: Street Scenes

Memory or Dream?

Reykjavík, October 31, 2025

24 Days to Iceland!

Trio in Iðno

In the coming weeks I’ll be setting the mood for next month’s Iceland Airwaves.

Three colorful faces I spotted last year:

Blue Lou

Freyja

Moina

27 days until I’m back in Iceland!

No Caption

Twenty Years Ago on FITK

Minneapolis, March, 1976

Harold’s Blues

This is for… this is for my girlfriend, Beverly…

I got the, I got the frozen food blues…
I would drive a truck for *Aslesen’s (get it)…
I got the hey dad! (get down, man)…
I’m down… Yeah!
I got the blues…

I just better make sure that I got something to sing here…
Make sure that you guys aren’t malingering…
Hey, what ya say that we hit Dakota and get out? Com’on…
It’s dead, it’s dead, let it, let it alone, it’s dead…

Leave it alone…

This timeless piece of musical arcanum was created in an upstairs duplex in North Minneapolis, home of Flippist Records. The band was The Explodo Boys and “Harold” was the alter-ego of Dan Rowles doing a vocal composite of various street people and barflies he had been exposed to, most notably “Hurricane Vern” who would regale the band with tales of his misadventures (spoken through ill-fitting dentures).

This ‘tune’ was completely ad-lib; Danny had been noodling on the piano when Jimmy joined in with some snaky slide guitar and the rest of the band joined in. It was done during the first (and only) recording session of this version of the band:

From left to right:

John V. Peterson, bass guitar
Austin Gillespie, congas
Mike Shannon, drums (and asides)
Jimmy Derbis, slide guitar
Dan Rowles, lead vocal and piano
Frankie Paradise (Paul Peterson), guitar

Recorded Live, August 19th, 1977

*Note: Aslesen’s was a restaurant supply company in Minnesota in the 1970s, it was later absorbed by Sysco Foods.

Julie at 100

September 26, 1926, is the birth date of Julie/Nancy/Gayle Peck (sources differ.)

She is more commonly known as Julie London.

Her musical persona provocative, her beauty commensurate.

Julie’s sophisticated delivery of angst-laden tunes was unsurpassed.

Here is this fine singer performing what could be her own epitaph:



Her appearance was worldly and seductive.

In reality she was a homebody and doting mother.

Seasonal Equipoise

Twenty Years Ago on FITK

I went down to the river last night, camera and tripod in tow, intent on securing some time exposures of the Giddings Gazebo on the lower Rum River. This structure is all that remains of a group of stoneworks which were constructed on the river's edge, a place where our city's first cultural pioneer would practice his clarinet on warm summer days nearly a century ago.

Last night was still warm, summer had not skimped on the temperature this year- altogether a delightful evening. It was quite still, as if the season was at a tipping point, indeed, in twenty-four hours it would be twenty-four degrees cooler. I shot the roll (120 TMX) and went home, it was after 10 P.M. yet still balmy.

Morning came in with the north wind and the temps dropped all day. Tonight I searched through my closet and brought out the warmer clothes, putting my shorts and Hawaiian shirts to the rear; that Lopi sweater, the leather shirt and the Merino wool, all marched out to the fore. Summer is over for the year, we'll have a few more warm days, but no more warm nights…

This Old House

Ain’t gonna need this house no longer
Ain't gonna need this house no more
Ain't got time to fix the shingles
Ain’t got time to fix the floor
Ain't got time to oil the hinges
Nor to mend the window-pane
Ain't gonna need this house no longer
I'm gettin' ready to meet the saints

~Stuart Hamblen

It’s Showtime!

My alter ego is part of a photo show being held in beautiful downtown Hopkins (above).

I belong to a photo group that meets more-or-less monthly throughout the year, displaying and commenting on photographs that we have created.

The show is at The Hopkins Center for the Arts, a swanky place with lots of gallery space.

The exhibition will run until October 24th, if you are in the area stop in!