free music?! take one sessions. allen stone.

From backwoods barbecues and community gatherings; Allen Stone emerges to share personal melodies, telling his tales of life after just 22 years. Getting his start singing at his father’s church in small-town America; it wasn’t until later when introduced to the greats of soul music (Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin) and then to the confessional lyrical fashion of the 60′s -70′s singer/ songwriters, did music begin to ignite intense passion, eventually carrying this boy to a musical home.

(click on images for FREE downloads)

These are a series of one-take, acoustic studio sessions. Allen’s second full-length to be released this autumn.

PS***a song. we wrote one. “the world we live in”. click below for a listen.

and here’s the latest release… enjoy!

for freshguide 2

this place is good, reeeeaaal good. not sure how ive lived in sea for so long without it.

www.dinetteseattle.com

teddy bears

Sweet Spot (Seattle)

Yesterday I completed a freelance job for FreshGuide, another site in the recent buzz of online daily coupon communities.

Here are 2 of my faves….

And though product photography isn’t the most exciting , hopefully will be getting more work from them soon!

hiking season has finally begun!

we took to rattlesnake ledge…

the world we live in

this is the world that we live in
some will prosper while most are suffering
this is the world in which we’re from
we strive merely for riches but we will die with none

i know this all feels wrong
so much disparity in such a beautiful song
i know this don’t feel right
we always lose the battle and always gain a fight

this is the world that we live in
sorrows are many and peace is seldom
this is the world in which we’re from
we will die in the darkness but we will rise with the sun

i know this all feels wrong
so much disparity in such a beautiful song
i know this don’t feel right
we always lose the battle but always gain a fight

we will love
we will lose
we will fight
we will bruise

i know this all feels wrong
so much disparity in such a beautiful song
i know this don’t feel right
sorrow will come but we will dance tonight

sha la la la la we will dance tonight….

–a.stone & r.sumnie

a revival

…of this blog, im trying.

for now…from the road

When the virus of restlessness begins to take possession of a wayward man, and the road away from Here seems broad and straight and sweet, the victim must first find in himself a good and sufficient reason for going. This to the practical bum is not difficult. He has a built-in garden of reasons to choose from. Next he must plan his trip in time and space, choose a direction and a destination. And last he must implement the journey. How to go, what to take, how long to stay. This part of the process is invariable and immortal. I set it down only so that newcomers to bumdom, like teen-agers in a new-hatches sin, will not think they invented in.

Once a journey is designed, equipped, and put in process, a new factor enters and takes over. A trip, a safari, an exploration, is an entity, different from all other journeys. It has a personality, temperament, individuality, uniqueness. A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us. Tour masters, schedules, reservations, brass-bound and inevitable, dash themselves to wreckage on the personality of the trip. Only when this is recognized can the blown-in-the-glass bum relax and go along with it. Only then do the frustrations fall away. In this a journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it. I feel better now, having said this, although only those who have experienced it will understand it.

-Steinbeck, Travels with Charley

Sonnet of a ‘hood

When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has glean’d my teeming brain,
Before high piled books, in charact’ry,
Hold like rich garners the full-ripen’d grain;
When I behold, upon the night’s starr’d face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And think that I may never live to trace
Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour!
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love;—then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think,
Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink.

- J. Keats (1817)

a snake charmer and some couscous

my feet have finally found there way to african soil! arrived yesterday in marrakech safely. a shared taxi ride with 6 large men. a visit to a mosque and djemna al fin. snake charmers; tea a la menthe; music and dance. evening found me in a circle smoking real shisha and playing cards with ten moroccan brothers. the days have lost count: living is simple. tomorrow begins an 8 day journey through the sahara desert… it is difficult to type on an arabic keyboard. i am safe. a short message to wish you all a joyous new year and eve of celebration!

with great love, joy and sunshine

rae