Up From The Skies

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“Up From The Skies”


I just want to talk to you,
I won't do you no harm.
I just want to know about your different lives
On this here people farm.
I heard some of you got your families
Living in cages tall and cold,
And some just stay there and dust away
Past the age of old.
Is this true?
Please let me talk to you.


I just wanna know about
The rooms behind your minds,
Do I see a vacuum there
Or am I going blind?
Or is it just the remains of vibrations,
And echoes of long ago?
Things like "Love the world" and
"Let your fancy flow"…
Is this true?
Please let me talk to you,
Let me talk to you.


I have lived here before
The days of ice,
And of course this is why
I'm so concerned.
And I come back to find
The stars misplaced,
And the smell of a world
That is burned.
The smell of a world
That is burned.


Yeah, well, maybe
It's just a... change of climate…
Well I can dig it,
I can dig it baby,
I just want to see.


So where do I purchase my ticket?
I'd just like to have a ringside seat.
I want to know about the new Mother Earth,
I want to hear and see everything,
I want to hear and see everything.


Aw, shucks,
If my daddy could see me now!


From the album “Axis: Bold As Love” – The Jimi Hendrix Experience (1967)

Experience: Jimi Hendrix (lead vocals, guitar), Noel Redding (vocals, bass), Mitch Mitchell (drums)


(Clouds photographed with Canon 30D + Leitz Telyt 6.8/400mm, 2011)


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The Minolta Years - Christmas in Venice, 1978 (Part One)

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Way back in 1978, my ex-wife and I took the chance of having some vacation time, and decided to drive down to Venice to spend Christmas season over there. Jorge, our oldest sun, was almost one year old, and we brought him along.

In those years, one could still sometimes enjoy Venice free of multilingual crowds flooding all the place.

In fact, I hardly remember someone not speaking Italian, but ourselves (we did speak by then a strange kind of mix of English, German dialect, Portuguese, and who knows what more... I guess that no one could really understand us...).

Venice was mostly a magical place full of charm and quietness on those winter days, and I believe that the (bad?) characteristics of the film material of those times actually helps to mirror and accentuate the feelings and sensations that one could experience crossing those thousands of bridges over those thousands of canals.

Time could stand still amidst the haze floating over the lagoon, you could levitate and melt with the mist, becoming part of the mistery surrounding you.

Like any other town, Venice is not only made of harmony and pretty colored postcards.

Struggle for survival and death happen like everywhere else, and I am glad that I felt enough attracted by everything I saw, so much that I felt the wish to document it.

I did try to shape my photographs with true colors...

The colors of life!

All photographs made with Minolta cameras and lenses

Light meters by Minolta

Kodak Ektachrome film

“Have You Ever Been (to Electric Ladyland)”

Have you ever been to Electric Ladyland?
The magic carpet waits for you so don't you be late
Oh, (I wanna show you) the different emotions
(I wanna run to) the sounds and motions
Electric woman waits for you and me
So it's time we take a ride, we can cast all of your hang-ups over
the seaside
While we fly right over the love filled sea
Look up ahead, I see the loveland, soon you'll understand.

Make love, make love, make love, make love.

The angels will spread their wings, spread their wings
Good and evil lay side by side while electric love penetrates the sky
Lord, Lord I wanna show you
Hmm, hmmm, hmmm
Show you.

(Words and music by Jimi Hendrix)

From the album “Electric Ladyland” by THE JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE, 1968

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