The divine plan
God must be a boogie man!

On November 7^th there was cause to celebrate when Roberta Joan Anderson, a painter derailed by circumstance, turned 69. I celebrated the day by lecturing work colleagues about her brilliance and soundscaping day job routine with a body of work unmatched by any other female artist. I speak of none other than Joni Mitchell. Goddess...

I had been ambivalent to Joni at first, dismissing her as a shrill, warbling folkie but 1976 was the year. In January Bowie raised the bar with the Motorik funk of Station to Station; in May Steely Dan blasted away rock convention with The Royal Scam and in November Joni Mitchell delivered paradise with Hejira.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNhqmbsN4CISD

Here are we one magical moment
Such is the stuff from
where dreams are woven
Bending sound
Dredging the ocean lost in my circle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEDkNAuNCsQ
 

Their southern sky was clouded by
A savage winter
Every patron saint
Hung on the wall, shared the room
With twenty sinners

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V0VfZu00O0

We're only particles of change I know, I know
Orbiting around the sun
But how can I have that point of view
When I'm always bound and tied to someone

When I am bereft and adrift Joni is the artist I turn to for solace and comfort. A melodic sage, she never fails to deliver an articulation of the messy helplessness of love. No one quite expresses the battlefield of pain and joy that affairs of the heart can trace like Joni Mitchell.

I wrote the album while traveling cross-country by myself and there is this restless feeling throughout it; the sweet loneliness of solitary travel.

We all travel in the vehicle we inherit from our parents and that’s something I’m coming to terms with late in life. I have no control over the soup that the combined genes of two clans gave me and it feels good that I’m not unhappy with that. We’re here for a heartbeat and my divine plan is simply to burn as brightly as I can and be loved.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZeyIbcsuPE

He is three

One's in the middle unmoved
Waiting
To show what he sees
To the other two
To the one attacking--so afraid
And the one that keeps trying to love and trust
And getting himself betrayed
In the plan--oh
The divine plan
God must be a boogie man!

Happy Birthday Joni J