don't think twice, it's alright

the sunrise: the only sight of sun on xmas eve, originally uploaded by mjane.

i've been watching no direction home the past couple of days. although i don't listen to much folk music, i do listen to bob dylan often. and the documentary so far is just as i hoped - chill, gentle, stoic, and funny, just like dylan's voice, words, and guitar. anyway, there was a time in his career when he decided to hook up with a blues band and record some songs with them. the first time he performed with them was at a folk music concert, and his predecessors and some of the audience didn't take too well to the "distortion" and "electric guitar."

to them, all that electricity didn't fit their standards of folk. it was rock, it was selling out. but perhaps it was really just a matter of change for bob dylan. and wasn't that the message behind much of the folk music movement of the 60s?

i feel like that's the how the majority of France is - old. and the average reaction to change isn't altogether positive. one example, when i'm in the shop, there's always somebody who walks by, takes a look, then walks away saying something like, "oh, c'est tendance (it's trendy)," or "bon chance (good luck)," with a negative tone. maybe i'm spoiled because i come from los angeles, a place that i feel like thrives on change. but at the same time, it's in my nature not to limit myself to applying just those standards or rules or commandments to myself that have survived through the ages. i'm making my own standards, and i'm making them through my own experiences - not via some rule, let's say, written by a homie who was influenced by a life lived thousands of years ago. hey, i wore a uniform for twelve years.