It's 2 a.m. early Friday morning and I don't know when I'll ever calm down enough to sleep. Words are totally inadequate to describe what I experienced at the Edgefest tonight. That's why they make music...because words can't express what needs to be said. But say it they did! BassDrumBone. Mark Helias on bass, Gerry Hemingway on drums, and Ray Anderson on trombone. Sounds common enough, doesn't it? A bass, drums and trombone. Well, my friends, there is no trio like this anyplace on the planet. These guys may have been playing together for 30 years, but the performance we fortunate Edgefest fans experienced tonight had the high energy of youngsters coupled with the artistry of old souls. All three of these musicians are virtuosos on their chosen instruments in addition to being superb composers, but what will stay with me for life was what happened when they came together. Dammit, I have no words to describe it! All I can say is that with music like this in the world, I have hope for our planet. If three individuals can create what BassDrumBone created in Ann Arbor's Kerrytown Concert House tonight--It's still Thursday night for me!--then humankind can survive all the stupidities and cruelties we see around us. If we are capable of such unselfconscious greatness in music, think what would happen if each of us shared ALL of our gifts with one another! And now I've got to take this hyperventilating body to bed. Tomorrow is another (Edgefest) day!

This is the final image in this series of homey B&W images. At least for now. I've so appreciated the comments you've posted on the earlier images. They have helped me gain confidence in exploring my latest obsession with light and shadow. That's all I see anymore. Yes, I'll use color when the subject calls for it, as I did in "Karoline at Seven Months" and "After an October Rain," but my eyes have begun to see the world in black and white. I've done this before.

After having painted in vivid color for almost 15 years, during the first Gulf War in 1991 I started drawing with a rapidograph pen and black india ink. During the 1990s, that was the only medium I used. To see examples of my art during that time, see "Word Art", and "Meditation Mandalas". I even drew on stones (see "Sacred Stones"). Then in 2004 I moved back into color wth a series of abstract acrylic ink paintings (see a "Gallery of Paintings").

And now I feel like I'm doing a similar dance between color and B&W in my photography. Creativity is such an adventure!

This afternoon (Wednesday) I will be going off for four days and nights of music. My favorite kind: creative/experimental/new music created by individuals and groups from Europe, Asia, Canada and the United States, musicians who define the word "original." The Edgefest is in its eleventh year and we have the folks at the Kerrytown Concert House in Ann Arbor, Michigan to thank for organizing and hosting this world-class festival. I'll be staying four nights at a motel in Ann Arbor in order to get some sleep. Ann Arbor is an hour's drive from my home and the night concerts go into the early morning hours. Our days will be filled with concerts, a symposium, and even a parade. CLICK HERE to see the Edgefest schedule of events and concerts (October 17-20). I'll do my best to post photo entries while I'm in Ann Arbor, but can't promise anything. I'll be back here for sure on Sunday, October 21.

That's what my husband calls this part of the house, for it is here that I see places, people and things I could never have seen were it not for the talented photographers on PBase. It is in that chair that I sit to write messages to my friends in every time zone on the planet. This is where I've downloaded hundreds of thousands of photos, edited and uploaded them, most recently to PBase, before that to my blog, and as far back as December 2000, to my web site. This is where I look up and see squirrels napping in the crook of the old maple just outside my window. It's where I see the first dabs of autumn color paint the tops of trees in the distance. It's where I watch the police officers park their SUVs and report for work on the day, afternoon and night shifts at the police station next door. In winter it's where I watch snow transform the familiar into a fairyland. It's where I feel most at home.

I took this photo of a brazier outside a Middle Eastern restaurant in East Dearborn, Michigan after sunset on Thursday, October 11. Inside, families were celebrating the end of Ramadan and the beginning of Eid al-Fitr, a high holiday in the Islamic religion. When I'd had my dinner at a restaurant down the street at 6:30 p.m., I was practically the only customer there. But at 7:05 p.m., seven minutes before sunset, people started streaming in. After fasting from sun-up to sun-down for a month, can you imagine how delicious that meal would taste?

May the flames of love burn away all that divides us. From those ashes may a new world arise, a world where we recognize and celebrate our oneness as sisters and brothers who share one home, planet Earth. May war become obsolete and peace be all our children's children will ever know. May each of us help to make it so.

Like clearing my palate with a dish of sherbet between courses at a sumptuous dinner, I need the occasional black and white image to clear my head of color, especially since all my eyes see around me during autumn is a vibrantly painted world. There's something liberating about stark values and simple shapes, rather like meditation. The mind can cease its chattering and sit in the stillness. That's what I hope this image will do for you. It has done so for me.

This truck was in front of me today as I waited in line to go through Canadian customs. Don't you love it? One of the coolest things about living in Detroit is that we're just across the river from Canada. Today I was on my way to get my monthly haircut from Leesa in Windsor, Ontario.