5 a.m.

In the pre-dawn skies on a clear quiet morning Venus, Mars and Jupiter are the last and most brilliant objects to be seen. Beautiful! Venus and Mars rising in the east; Jupiter due south at 10 o’clock.

Sky and Telescope’s ‘Week at a Glance’ link: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/ataglance has a section for the planets at the bottom of the page.

8 Soul Songs

When I see something I like and am invited to play along; I’ll play. Kel at xfacta picked up on Magpie Girl’s ‘Songs For The Soul’ idea. I’ll try to keep so much as possible to their themes but the tunes I choose will be ones that make me feel connected to life and living or that make me feel like I’m in the presence of greatness; soulfulness. Some of them will have a distinctly Canadian vibe, too.

Seeing as how there has been a lot of talk about the blogs lately regarding people leaving mainstream churches I’ll lead off with this though. #1 – R.E.M.’s ‘Losing My Religion’.

#2  – Steve  Winwood and Eric Clapton performing ‘Presence Of The Lord’ at Crossroads Festival 2007. It’s a song from their days as members of Blind Faith back in 1969.

#3 – From the tribute concert – Concert For George – Billy Preston sings Harrrison’s ‘My Sweet Lord’ backed by a stellar ensemble band.

#4 – k.d. lang performing Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah‘. Must be heard to be believed…. amazing. ( 2 Canucks in one go)

#5 – Jesse Cook – ‘Dance Of Spring’  Amazing flamenco guitarist. It was Cook’s 1998 album ‘Vertigo’ which was the deciding factor in buying my Bose surround system. It kicks! (Another Canuck – that’s 3)

#6 – Neil Young – ‘When God Made Me’. Neil waxing lyrical about life, mortality and what it’s all about. (Hey, one more makes 4)

#7 – Rufus Wainwright with Moby & Sean Lennon performing the Beatles ‘Across The Universe’. (Rufus makes 5)

#8 – A beautiful George Harrison instrumental composition from his posthumous release ‘Brainwashed’ – ‘Marwa Blues’.

Keeping the list to just 8 is difficult but these are the first ones that came to mind. Feel free to jump on board and play along.

** Late breaking bonus: My late father’s favourite hymn to play on the church organ. He could rattle the rafters with this one. ‘Jerusalem‘.