I have been going through my old, unprinted negatives and scanning some of them into the computer. There is something almost indescribably sweet about contact proofs, the tiny images slightly blurry. You squint for details and are amply rewarded: everything is suffused with a holy light.

In this period of transition, I am apt to complain, if only to myself, about the things that have gone wrong here, that have not worked out as I wanted them to, the various aspects of my existence that have failed to change over the last five years. But the truth is that it has been a very, very good time. I have been unaccountably blessed by both grace and love, and in all my life I will never adequately express my thanks.

Jean-Paul and I made some coffee and cooked some toulouse and calabrese from the market this morning. We talked about what we thought were some of the greatest rock albums of all time: Revolver, OK Computer, Achtung Baby. I listened to the last of these while scanning away this afternoon. It’s been a while; it’s so good to revisit something that I listened to almost nonstop for an entire summer in high school. I had forgotten (and perhaps never noticed) how much the whole thing is about love, the bright wild pains of love. It is all so spot-on about the whole thing. There are so many lies about love in the world, so many people I know who have moved beyond its borders, it’s so good to hear the suffering we all know is at love’s heart transformed into such beauty.

Shots of Gillian Welch and the SF Bluegrass festival here.

(cdm | OldPhotos)