Wie geht's?
I'm enjoying this weighty tome, and I mean weighty - feels like it's about 7kg.
I love The Beach Boys' music and I love California (the actual place and the mythic place of eternal youth and endless summer). The two go hand in glove.
Jacky and I have loved our Californian adventures with Samantha; traveling the Pacific Coast Highway between Monterey and LA.
Heading up the coast last time was during a freak storm - lots of rain and rocks hitting Fanfa's car in dramatic fashion. That was very unlike the sunshine of our first trip down the 101 from San Francisco.
Have you ever been south of Monterey?
Barrancas carve the coastline
And the chaparral flows to the sea
'Neath waves of golden sunshine
And have you ever been north of Morro Bay?
The south coast plows the sea...
(From California Saga by The Beach Boys)
The Beach Boys book is made up of pictures and interviews with the key players and they are clear about the mythic California created by Brian Wilson and his lyrical collaborators in their songs. But it's not like mythic California didn't exist before the Beach Boys sang about surfing and cruising in cars. Like the Okies trying to escape the dust bowl, that mythic ideal has lured the people for a long time.
Travelling that coastline (and those falling rocks reminded me) is important for the soul. From time to time, it's great to reconnect with important stuff and realise how insignificant we are.
As The Beach Boys' California Saga reminds us - the eagles continue through their generations and the land endures (and puts up with us) but 'The world has changed in [the she-eagle's] time; humanity has multiplied, but not here'.
Getting a glimpse of that from time to time is good for me. That's partly why I'm drawn towards the Pacific Coastal Highway and those California myths.
As Rumi says: When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.
And after all, the best coffee and donuts on the planet are at Big Sur.
Fun, fun, fun. Love and peace - Wozza
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