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Santana Supernatural Now Concert

6/30/2019

Last weekend my husband and I re-visited our youth and attended an outdoor concert by Santana, along with warm-up band Doobie Brothers.

The concert kicked off Santana’s 29-city Supernatural Now Tour, which commemorates two of the legendary guitarist’s most momentous occasions: the 20th anniversary of his multi-Grammy-award winning album, Supernatural, and the 50th anniversary of his historic performance at Woodstock.

In 1969, when Carlos Santana and his band walked onto the stage at the legendary Woodstock Music Festival, they were unknowns. They didn’t even have an album released.

The band’s set was one of the surprises of the festival, highlighted by an eleven-minute performance of a throbbing instrumental, "Soul Sacrifice". Its inclusion in the Woodstock film and soundtrack album vastly increased Santana’s popularity. Santana’s producer suggested the band record the Willie Bobo song "Evil Ways", as he felt it would get radio airplay. The band's first album, Santana, was released in August 1969 and became a huge hit, reaching #4 on the U.S. album charts.

Santana followed with their second album, Abraxas, in September 1970.

The mix of rock, blues, jazz, salsa and other influences was very well received, showing a musical maturation from their first album and refining the band's early sound.

Abraxas included two of Santana's most enduring and well-known hits, "Oye Como Va", and "Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen".
Abraxas spent six weeks at #1 on the Billboard chart at the end of 1970. The album remained on the charts for 88 weeks and was certified 4x platinum in 1986. In 2003 the album was ranked number 205 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Our Phoenix concert featured a four-song opener, starting with “Soul Sacrifice” and ending with “Evil Ways” that was perfection! High energy, flawlessly executed—so good that we had to dance instead of taking photos.

Those early 1970s songs were my favorite Santana classics for decades. But the best was yet to come, including one of the most amazing comebacks in rock history.

Clive Davis, who had worked with Santana a decade earlier at Columbia Records, signed Carlos Santana and his band, and encouraged him to record a star-studded album with mostly younger artists.

The result was 1999's Supernatural, which included collaborations with Everlast, Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty, Eric Clapton, Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean, Cee Lo Green, Dave Matthews and others.

However, the lead single was what grabbed the attention of both the music industry, and fans (including me). "Smooth”, a dynamic cha-cha stop-start number co-written and sung by Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty, was laced throughout with Santana's guitar fills and runs.

“Smooth” spent 12 consecutive weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1999. It was the first chart-topping song in Carlos Santana’s long-running career (even bigger than “Black Magic Woman”, which peaked at number 4 in 1971.

Santana’s resurgence culminated with a sweep of the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards on February 23, 2000. That night, Santana and Supernatural won Grammys in nine categories: Record of the Year and Song of the Year ("Smooth"); Album of the Year and Best Rock Album (Supernatural); Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals ("Smooth," with Rob Thomas); Best Pop Instrumental ("El Farol"); Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group ("Put Your Lights On,” with Everlast); Best Rock Instrumental ("The Calling,” with Eric Clapton); and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals ("Maria Maria").

Photo by Libby Fabro

When Rob Thomas came on stage in Phoenix to perform “Smooth,” Carlos thanked him for composing the hit for Santana, singing it with them, and for reviving his career.

But beyond all the awards and sales, Supernatural carries a higher meaning for Carlos Santana. As he told Rolling Stone, “It’s a personal invitation from me to people: remember your divinity.”

Even if you’ve seen Santana before, go and witness his current concert if you can. Carlos Santana is 71, but he’s still at the top of his game, and his bandmates are star-studded and amazing.

Santana has spoken freely about his spirituality, and how he strives to add love to a world that he says is “infected with fear.” The last set was like participating in energy raising at the climax of a ritual: Spiraling, chaotic energy that built to a crescendo, until it is released in a prayer for peace and love.
I’m tempted to go to his concert again when the tour hits Vegas this fall, and see if my theory is accurate, once the show is fully refined.
Plus, the Doobie Brothers to lead off…Three hours of musical heaven!
Carlos Santana has collaborated with so many diverse performers throughout his fifty-year career. Who would he like to work with next?
“Sting,” he says.
Oh yea, sign me up for that one too!

Santana / The Doobie Brothers — Remaining 2019 Tour Dates

July 2 – Salt Lake City, UT @ USANA Amphitheatre
July 3 – Denver, CO @ Pepsi Center
July 6 – Dallas, TX @ Dos Equis Pavilion
July 9 – Austin, TX @ Austin360 Amphitheater
July 11 – Kansas City, MO – Sprint Center
July 12 – St. Louis, MO @ Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre
August 3 – St. Paul, MN @ Xcel Energy Center
August 4 – Chicago, IL @ Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre
August 6 – Toronto, ON @ Budweiser Stage
August 7 – Cleveland, OH @ Blossom Music Center
August 9 – Indianapolis, IN @ Ruoff Home Mortgage Music Center
August 10 – Cincinnati, OH @ Riverbend Music Center
August 11 – Detroit, MI @ DTE Energy Music Theatre
August 13 – Charlotte, NC @ PNC Music Pavilion
August 14 – Washington, DC @ Jiffy Lube Live
August 16 – Darien Center, NY @ Darien Lake Amphitheater
August 18 – Holmdel, NJ @ PNC Bank Arts Center
August 20 – Boston, MA @ Xfinity Center
August 21 – Hartford, CT @ XFINITY Theatre
August 23 – Saratoga, NY @ Saratoga Performing Arts Center
August 24 – Camden, NJ @ BB&T Pavilion
August 25 – Wantagh, NY @ Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater

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Summer Solstice at V-Bar-V

6/16/2019

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The sun reaches its highest point and power at noon on June 21st – the Summer Solstice, also known as Litha, or Midsummer.

I’m not a morning person, but I plan to rise and meet the solstice sun, just as the Ancients have done for centuries. Many worshipers, like those at Stonehenge, built temples to catch those first rays of sun on the Summer Solstice.

Last weekend I visited an ancient Native sun marker closer to home, called the V-Bar-V.

This little-known site near Sedona, Arizona, consists of tall rock wall slabs with 1,032 petroglyphs carved into the rock surface by a people known as the Sinagua.

The petroglyphs are done in what’s called the Beaver Creek style, and include images of turtles, deer, birds, humans and snakes, as well as spirals, concentric circles, and zigzag lines.

The designs and their placement are far from random. They have archaeoastronomical significance.

There, on both the Vernal Equinox and the Summer Solstice, an annual miracle occurs. The sun rises over the top of the carved petroglyph walls, and bands of light pass between “guide” rocks to illuminate specific points in the figures permanently etched in the stone.

The figures illuminated indicate it’s time to plant: The first planting on the equinox, the corn on the Summer Solstice, so it will be up and established when the monsoon rain arrives in early July.

The Sinagua people had designated “sunwatchers” who closely observed the passage of the sun throughout the year. One large panel at V-Bar-V, referred to as the “solar panel,” exhibits unique shadow patterns created by three boulder wedged into the rock face.

Scientists have worked with regional modern-day tribes to decipher the petroglyphs, and they’ve discovered that the rock slabs act as a solar calendar. The play of light and shadow across the cliff face mark the precise dates of the Vernal Equinox and Summer Solstice, as well as monsoon season, important events for planting and harvesting.

In his book about the V-Bar-V site, Sinagua Sunwatchers, Kenneth Zoll also suggests the shadows cast duplicates the ridgeline of the San Francisco Peaks (as viewed from the Wupatki National Monument area southeast of the mountains). Located about 45 miles north of the V-Bar-V, the San Francisco Mountains are sacred to several native tribes in Arizona, including various Pueblo groups and the Navajo. These prominent mountains are the home of the katsinas, ancestral spirits who bring the rain clouds to the Hopi villages.

There is also a petroglyph that acts as an aerial map of Wet Beaver Creek. Despite 800-plus years of erosion and natural changes to the river, the map still holds up incredibly well.

Unlike most of arid Arizona, Wet Beaver Creek is one of the perennially flowing tributaries of the Verde River. Fed by an underground stream, it provides permanent water, a lush riparian habitat, and alluvial soils--a combination that have attracted people to its banks for several millennia. Montezuma Castle, Montezuma Well, Lake Montezuma Ruin, V-Bar-V and Sacred Mountain Ruin are all major Anasazi and Sinagua sites located in an approximate 20-mile stretch along the creek.

At all of these now-abandoned sites, people look across the dusty red earth and think, “why on earth would people pick this place to live?” Then the guide says, “Wait. Listen carefully,” and they quiet themselves and hear the water, completely out of place in the landscape. Most importantly, never ending, due to the underground springs.

It’s impossible to know exactly what the Sinagua intended to convey through their petroglyph imagery beyond the solar calendar.

When I visit, I always allow enough time enjoy the sense of peace, the sound of the wind in the cottonwoods and the gurgle of the nearby stream. I examine the figures and try to interpret the messages that come to me. Researchers have named the wall in the photos above the solar calendar wall.

I’ve named THIS panel the “Moon wall” and I think it depicts a shaman-like figure from an ancient Hopi story (the Hopi are suspected to be the descendants of both the Sinagua and Anasazi). The story tells of a race of ten-foot people who appeared from the sky.

Unfortunately, this moon panel is slowly eroding away, so we may never know.

“As above, so below” is the theme of the Summer Solstice, when day and night are equal and the world falls into a magical balance, an “in-between time. So take a moment to reflect on your time on this earth, and the timing of your life’s actions.

Timing is everything. When to plant, when to sow.

When to pause and listen.

When to speak and communicate. And to do so before those chances in your life erode away, like the Sinagua images on a moon wall.

The Summer Solstice is a crossroads. Next week, the world will literally begin filling with darkness, as the Wheel turns ever slowly toward winter and the end of another year. Until then, we stand at the world’s still center and survey which path to choose.

So look in the mirror. Meet the eyes you see there directly, because they belong to the only person in this world you can truly change. Be attentive to the thresholds and boundaries of your life—the places where metamorphosis occurs. Find the lines you want to allow and those to erase—or re-draw.

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Game of Thrones Unanswered Questions

6/3/2019

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After nine years and eight seasons, Game of Thrones: The HBO Series, is finished.

I’ve watched the series multiple times and read all of the books, those finished to date. So…if you’d like to share your thoughts, by all means speak up.

Were you satisfied with the final season and the ending? Reviews are mixed from both fans and critics.

Personally, I loved it. And hated it.

Game of Thrones was never going to have a “happy ever after” ending—we knew that from the time Ned Stark was beheaded. After following the series through the Red Wedding, King Joffrey’s short reign, Sansa’s rape, the Moon Door, execution by molten metal and dragon fire, and Arya creatively crossing people off her list, don’t tell me you thought we’d end with a royal wedding followed by Dany and Jon being co-rulers?

The biggest complaint I’ve heard this season was, “I hate what they did with Dany.” But I had no problems with Daenerys going full Mad Queen, I felt it was an appropriate character arc, and Jon Snow was the proper person to end her escalating destruction. It was the stuff of Greek tragedy—a man murdering his love for the greater good. And I loved the last dragon scenes, with Drogon melting the Iron Throne, although some fans think he was way too smart to decipher that throne as his mistress’s downfall.

George R.R. Martin used the English Wars of the Roses (1455-1487) as source material for A Song of Fire and Ice. But one commentator drew a parallel between Daenerys’ decision to burn King’s Landing, and Harry Truman’s decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Did either leader make the proper decision? I don’t know. But in both the actual and the fictional scenario, their action ended the war.

The Stark’s split up (by choice this time), one to become king, two to return to the North, and Arya riding to new frontiers beyond the Kingdom was a great idea (and a potential spin-off?).

Arya has always been one of my favorite characters. I’m glad she was the one to kill the Night King. She studied, trained and sacrificed to become a solo assassin, and when the situation called for a hero, she was ready.

I know, poor Jon, but he’s always loved the Wildlings, and he did kill the queen. It could have ended in complete tragedy, so count your blessings that he survived.

As for Bran the Broken as King, this raven-lover actually predicted this ending, but not exactly in the way it happened.

Do you remember the episode mid-season, when everyone is waiting for the battle with the Night King to begin? Toward the end of that episode, Tyrion and Bran are together, and Tyrion comments that Bran must have learned so many interesting things in his travels, physical and astral. I fully expected Tyrion to relate some of Bran’s Three-Eyed-Raven foresight to Jon Snow. Information of the future that would help Jon in his decision to prevent Dany from carrying out her plans for the rest of the Kingdom.

That discussion never materialized.

Again, at the final episode Council meeting, I expected Tyrion—or even better Bran Stark—to reveal Bran’s visions. The best way to move into the future is to look at the past, and he’s the one person who knows everything. It feels like he would be an incredibly fair ruler, if he would just talk a bit. But again, nothing. Dammit guys! You missed the perfect opportunity for closure here.

I think the final season moved too fast, leaving us agreeing with many of the character’s decisions, but feeling like those decisions were vaguely unjustified and unearned.

While the first six season had 10 episodes apiece, the show’s creators, D.B. Weiss and David Benioff, decided to shorten the final two seasons to seven and six episodes respectively. That decision left this viewer felling like they rushed toward the ending, including lavish (and expensive) battles, but without fully developing the character’s motivations. The outcomes could have been so much more powerful if the lead-ups had been stronger.

Please George R.R. Martin, give us closure!
Here are 12 things, big and small, I still want to know after the Game of Thrones HBO series ending:

How did the Unsullied know that Jon murdered Dany without a body? Did he confess?

Why did no one speak up about Jon’s family legacy? I know Jon didn’t want the throne. But it seemed downright weird that it wasn’t discussed at all by the High Council, after it was made such a BIG DEAL during this last season.

What has happened to Robin Arryn between his sniveling baby boyhood and his brief appearance at the dragon pit?

Is Ghost going to join Jon? Of course, everyone is rooting for this reunion. Throw us a crumb. And this time, have Jon hug the poor dog.
Why did Bran walk out of his very first Council meeting? What’s so important about finding that dragon?

Why did Sansa secede from the 7 Kingdoms? And more puzzling, why was she allowed to?

Yara Greyjoy of the Iron Islands has been as fiercely independent and Sansa for the entire series. I was surprised she didn’t also ask to secede—or at least object to letting Sansa do so.

Where is House Reed? We got to see Ned Stark’s friend Howland Reed when Bran Stark discussed them with the Three-Eyed Raven in a dream-scene. What happened to the family? Reed’s children, Jojen and Meera, risked their lives to help Bran on his mystical journey. We haven’t seen or heard from them since.

Varys mentioned briefly before he was killed, that there’s a new prince of Dorne. He was one of several unidentified men who sat on the High Council in the last episode. I thought the Sand Snakes killed all the Dorne royalty, so who is he?

And, while we're on the subject of Varys: he heard a voice in the flames a while back when a sorcerer used his body parts in ritual. We never got to hear what it said.

I want to know about Jaqen H’ghar, the Faceless Man who taught Arya much of her craft.
He had some bad a$$ skills, and was one of my favorite characters, but then he just disappeared.

What’s West of Westeros? Arya wondered this back in Season 6, and now that’s her destination.

The only known voyage there in the books was led by Elissa Farman. Dany had her to thank for her dragon eggs, which Elissa stole from Dreamfyre to finance her trip. Elissa sailed west and was never seen again, although her ship was spotted many years later.

f Samuel Tarly helped Archmaester Embrose write “A Song of Ice and Fire,” why wouldn’t Tyrion be mentioned?

Game of Thrones became a global phenomenon by upending expectations. The noble patriarch defined by his morals? Beheaded in the first season. His valiant son who led with his heart? Slaughtered along with his wife and dedicated mother. An inquisitive young boy who loved to climb? Thrown to the ground by an uncaring royal in the middle of a tryst with his sister.

We got brutally honest depictions of the worst in human nature, and occasionally also the best.

This was a Shakespearean saga about power, blood, loyalty and magic, eight brilliant seasons of mesmerizing entertainment. Even with its flaws, I can honestly say my life and my imagination are richer for watching.

See you next weekend. Blessed Be.

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Hollow Bones

Santana Supernatural Now Concert

Summer Solstice at V-Bar-V

Game of Thrones Unanswered Questions

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