Saturday has left the building...

Saturday, 1996-2009

Saturday, born in Phoenix, AZ in 1996 and tossed into a gutter, found his way to food on my niece's porch in the barrio and into my heart soon thereafter. Weighing no more and 3 ounces and with ears as big as a fruit bat, he hissed down two adult cats to get to the food that was there. Before the adult cats could make a meal of him, my niece Leslie, called me to come pick up the foundling.

"Poppy and Nugget are going to KILL him if you don't come get him!" she shouted over the phone - only I couldn't hear for all the noise from a party that was going on at her place.

"What?" I said.

She shouted. "Saturday! A kitten showed up here on Saturday on my porch and the boys are going to kill him! Come get him!"

"What?" I repeated, struggling to make sense of what I could hear. "You have a cat named Saturday and you want me to come pick him up?" I asked.

I guess she was feeling that was as close to a complete communication that she was going to get from me because she shouted, exasperated, "YES! Come and get him! NOW!"

That is how Saturday came to be my companion for these last 13 years, through living in three states and often unbelievable living conditions. Always by my side; always somewhat subdued about just about everything yet passionate about me and a full food bowl. Saturday, a bit of a legend on-line and always number one in any reality for me.

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Rest in peace my dear feline companion. There is no more pain for you now. I will learn to live without you but it will be a lonely journey for lack of your sweet company and the great comfort that you never failed to bring me.Hold your pet close tonight and love them up. The acquaintance is always too short.

Esther Golton and News from the Northern Lights

I received my CD of Esther Golton's "Aurora Borealis: Conversations with Alaska's Northern Lights" just as I was arriving home from a music festival. I slapped it into the player as I was unpacking the truck. I didn't get very far with the unpacking before I found myself sitting in front of the speaker mesmerized by the music that she was producing. The first thing I thought of was "How in the name of God did she capture so much of that atmosphere so clearly?" How, indeed.

Esther is a fabulously gifted musician but even more, that she can actually translate a natural phenomena like the Aurora Borealis in such an accessible and fantastic way musically is awe-inspiring. She shares here what is essential of a natural occurrence that leaves many of us doomed to observe slack-jawed, wordless and in awe. She just keeps going deeper and deeper into the layers of music and brings us closer and closer to the radiance of that phenomenal experience.

I hear so many different influences in each cut that they rise above mere tunes. They truly are conversations with the Aurora itself, just as the title suggests. She has achieved her goal in this. This is subtly different from what you hear as a ambient music in the bookstore or yoga class. She has listened, observed, received the information and translated it in her very individual way for us to enjoy. I've listened to the CD several times (my favorite mode being intimately on my iPod) and I'm convinced I hear an invitation from the Aurora herself. Aurora, the goddess of dawn and new beginnings, speaks here and this CD clearly invites us to open our eyes and see the natural world with all the spectacular gifts this earth displays every moment, as if it is our first morning and our beginning, too.

Esther is having a special CD release party that anyone can attend on-line on Saturday, September 12th at Whole Wheat Radio. These live concerts can be attended on-line and are as easy to access as clicking a link to listen which can be done here. The party starts at 7 pm Alaska time [fashionably later Eastern - you can do the math here]. These concerts are a lot of fun and they are interactive, if you wish. It is Esther's birthday on that day, too. Judging by listening to this CD and her conversations, she has much to be proud of in the company she has kept this year.