Sky Magic

DUKES FANS: “The sky is the daily bread of the eyes” Ralph Waldo Emerson DUKES FANS: “The sky is the daily bread of the eyes” Ralph Waldo Emerson This week has presented us with some incredible days. The temperature has been very comfortable, and the humidity has been low. The sun has been fully out, and there have simply been some beautiful days in the neighborhood. For me it has been a time for sitting outside, taking walks, and looking up. The clouds have been marvelously bright and varied. There have been big, fat, cumulous clouds, stringy stretched out cirrus clouds, and combinations of both coming together and moving across the sky. The sun has been out for much of the last few days as well, and the bright blueness of the sky has made looking up at the sky joyous. I have taken the train into town and back home several times this week, and being up above the streets and looking at the sky has had me smiling and laughing. It has been hard to be in a bad mood this week. As people who have read these newsletters for a while know, I love the sky. I did a summer course at the Franklin Institute in junior high school, and that amazed me and really introduced me to the wonders of the sky. Constellations, night skies, meteors, clouds, and eclipses all became favorite things of mine. I had seen the above painting at the Art Museum and fallen in love with it, so that and the course made me a sky lover for life. And the weather this week has reminded me of that love again. Another thing that I discovered about the sky is that wonderful skies bring people together. All this week I have seen neighbors I had not seen in a while, and we have all been in a great mood. Strangers I have seen walking down the street or waiting at the bus stops have been smiling and nodding and saying, “Hi”. People of all ages, genders, colors, and ethnic groups have been friendly in Mt Airy, Chestnut Hill Center City, and Germantown. It has made the city feel very peaceful and joyous. So mine eyes have had a feast of daily bread this week. I hope each of you have had moments of quiet wonder and truly enjoyed the weather and the sky. Both have been quietly marvelous this week.. And we are fortunate to notice and to experience them The Dukes of Destiny: Philly's longest lived and best loved blues band. http://www.dukesofdestiny.com/ 1)Wednesday, September 9 Kahn Park Concert Series (rain date Sept 10); 11th and Pine Streets; Philadelphia PA 7:30PM; 2)Sunday, September 27; Chestnut Hill Fall For The Arts Fest; Germantown Ave and Bethlehem Pike; Dukes-11:30 AM-1:45PM; Festival till 5PM We have two of our favorite gigs happening again this September. Kahn Park is one of the nicest little parks in Canter City with great plantings, comfortable seats and benches, and great plantings. Its summer series is one we have played for years, and it is in a neighborhood with some great restaurants and take-out spots nearby. There is always a great dancing crowd, and I get to see some old friends. What a wonderful way to experience summer twilight into evening. Fall for the Arts is in Chestnut Hill, and Germantown Ave from Willow Grove Ave on up to Bethlehem Pike is joyously alive from 11 AM until 5PM with tons of great craft vendors, outside dining provided by local restaurants, activities for children, wonderful shops for browsing and shopping, and of course, music. Come on out at these two great fests and say, “Bye” to summer, and “Hi” to Fall with The Dukes. Private Gigs: The Dukes have had a number of private gigs this year,, and I want to remind folks that we do a variety of private affairs. Birthday parties, retirement parties, retirement community concerts, graduations, and more. If you are interested in hosting a danceable blues event, please get in touch. Brother John; Johnny Never and John Colgan-Davis: acoustic blues duo https://johnnynever.com/home 1)Saturday, August 29; ANSON B NIXON ROOTS AND BLUES FESTIVAL Anson B. Nixon Park:405 N. Walnut St.; Kennett Square, PA; 12-5PM; Gates Open 11AM; Fest from noon-6PM, Brother John at 1:30PM Tickets; $40 starting Aug 22; $ 50 day of event: https://ansonbnixonpark.org/events/3rd-annual-roots-and-blues-festival 2) Sunday, September 6 118 Nort: 118 Wayne Ave, Wayne, PA; 7PM Opening for Billy Price; https://www.tixr.com/groups/118north/events/billy-price-band-191335 3)Friday, September 11: Triple Sun Distillery; 126 South State Street; Newtown, PA 18940:8-11PM: Phone: (215) 944-3057 Saturday Brother John is back at the 3rd annual Anson B. Nixon Roots and Blues Festival in Kennett Square. This is a fest in a lovely park setting with several stages, lots of craft and food vendors, some hiking trails, and wonderful blues and roots music. The headliner is the great Chris Jacobs band, and Borther John hits the stage at 1:30 PM. Next Friday finds us at our regular 2nd Friday of the month gig at Triple Sun Distillery in the beautiful town of Newtown in Bucks County. This is a place with good brews and sprits and tasty bar food, and it is in a wonderful setting. And we return to 118 North, a great intimate venue with great vibe, good eats, and great views. We open up for longtime roots and soul performer Billy Price and his strong band. Some very good gigs are coming up for Brother John. Come on out and catch us at these wonderful places. The Sunday Blues Jam at Jamey’s House of Music; 32 S. Lansdowne Ave; Lansdowne, PA; jamey@jameyshouseofmusic.com Blues lovers and players have made Jamey's Sunday Blues Jam the place for some great blues jamming, inexpensive and tasty eats, craft brews on tap, fresh brewed coffee, a great waitstaff, and friendly people who love the blues.  Each Sunday features an hour-long set led by a different house band, and then there is an open jam until 3PM. The second Sunday of most months features The Roger Girke-John Colgan-Davis Project as the house band, and we will be there on September 13th. Play an instrument? Sing? Just want to listen to some exciting blues and have some good food? Come on out and take part in this great blues jam with great food and liquid refreshments. $5 minimum to be spent Don’t Want to receive any more of these newsletters? Just reply with “Unsubscribe” in the Subject Line.

Philadelphia and Sycamores

DUKES FANS: The “new normal” with nature is that there is no “normal” anymore” Anonymous “It is always the bottom of the ninth with nature. Nature always has the last at bat” Kevin McC SOME THOUGHTS ON SYCAMORES I live in Mt. Airy between Germantown and Chestnut Hill, and I love all three of those neighborhoods. I spend time in all three, and I love walking them. There is wonderful architecture to see, great gardens, great local businesses, curious little alleyways, and trees, trees, trees. I have been especially aware of the trees these last several weeks in part due to the extreme weather we have had over the last month or two and the frequent changes in temperature, air quality, and humidity. The effect of all of this on the area’s trees can be seen on many of the streets in each of these neighborhoods. This some I became curious about three weeks ago when I noticed the amount of fallen bark from trees that were in the streets of Germantown, Mt Airy, and Chestnut Hill. I am used to seeing some fallen bark in the summer months, but this year it seemed excessive. I got curious and did some web searching about the situation, and that led me to explore some of the history of Sycamore trees in the Philadelphia area The vast majority of the peeled bark I was seeing came from Sycamore trees. Philadelphia, Penn’s “Greene Countrie Towne,” has a lot of trees, of course, and it turns out that Sycamores were favored trees from the colonial era on. Very important for urban living, they are large trees, and they have huge canopies that provide a lot of shade during the hot summer months. That was very important in the days before fans and air conditioning. They also tolerate a lot of pollution and resist some infections to which other trees are prone. They are hardy, and they live for a long time. On 6th Street outside Washington Square, for example, there is a Sycamore that dates back to the early 1800’s. And in Landsdowne, PA, there is a giant one that dates back some 300 years. Hardy and long-lived, indeed. Sycamores shed bark as they grow, similar to the way many animals outgrow their skin as they grow. Shedding peaks during hot summer months, after heavy storms, and during dry spells. This summer has seen plenty of each of these things, so my neighbors have been sweeping up and disposing of more Sycamore bark than I recall them doing before. The trees are not at risk, though. They are just going through “growth spurts.” They are hardy and they will be here long after we are all gone. For a long time I noticed these trees, but I barely gave them a thought. Since learning more about them, though, that has changed. I have wondered about what things some of these trees may have witnessed. The interactions between different cultures; conflicts between groups; the physical growth of the city, and much, much more. If only they could talk about what they have seen. I think that would be fascinating. I think I will go into Center City this weekend and visit the Washington Square Sycamore. It definitely deserves to be noticed and acknowledged for all it has provided. And I think I will soak up some of that Sycamore shade and say, “Thanks.”

The Declaration of Independence

DUKES FANS: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with Certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness….” These, of course, are words from the Declaration of Independence, the document first read to the public in Philadelphia 250 years ago today. We have seen these words plenty of times over the last week and have heard parts of them read in speeches, commercials, news clips and more over the last few weeks. They are marvelous words, and definitely worthy of being repeated and remembered. Of course, they are also words that were not in any way lived up to at the time they were written and publicly announced. On July 4, 1776 approximately 1/ 5 of the population of the 13 colonies-some 500,00 people--were legally held as slaves. They did not have control of their own lives, and they certainly did not have liberty. In fact, over half of the signers of the document were slave holders. There were also about 1.25 million women living in the colonies on that date, and the Declaration does not mention them at all. And the laws of the time limited their rights as well as their ability to pursue their own sense of happiness. Native Americans also were not specifically mentioned, and many of them had lost their lands and their lives during settlement of the colonies. The realities of much of life in the colonies in 1776 for many people was not pretty or easy. What these words are to me, though, are Ideals. Goals. Possibilities. They are how a government could possibly act and be when trying to live up to the meaning of those words. Much of the history of this country has been about actions, movements, people, and organizations trying to make those words a little truer and a little more real. It has not always been pretty, and it has not always been easy. But these things have been essential to our history as many of us have been trying to make these words come true. As we celebrate the writing of those words, then let us also celebrate the struggles, both past and present, to breathe life into those words. Abolitionist Wendell Phillips once said, “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” I would add that it also takes eternal involvement, commitment, and action. Happy Fourth.

The Main Branch of The Library

DUKES FANS: In October of 1918, The Fairmount Parkway was officially opened in Philadelphia. Based on Paris’ Champs- Elysees, the diagonal roadway was one of the crowning achievements of Philadelphia’s attempts in the early 20th century to beautify and clean up polluted and overcrowded sections of the city. Its purpose was to connect the center of the city with parts of Fairmount Park. In 1937 its name was changed to The Benjamin Franklin Parkway, and over time new buildings, statues, and garden designs were added to the road. Ninety-nine years ago this month my favorite addition to that boulevard was unveiled. The Central Branch of the Philadelphia Free Library was opened on June 2, 1927, and I consider that place one of the most wonderful and important buildings in the entire city. The Parkway is one of my favorite things in Philly design and architecture. It is a glorious diagonal that starts at City Hall and cuts its way down to the Art Museum. When I was a kid, I used to love when my parents would drive on it. Looking from side to side out the car window and seeing the hotels, the Free Library, The Franklin Institute, and the statues was exciting to me. And when I went to Masterman Jr High School at 17th and Spring Garden Streets, I came to regularly experience that road. I especially spent a lot of time inside the Central Branch of the Free Library just off the Parkway at 19th. That place became one of my all-time sacred places. I love the design of the building; it is grand with high ceilings, huge windows, stately stairways, and terrazzo floors. It was built to look like a mythic temple, and to me it is a temple, one dedicated to learning, information, questioning, and thinking. I spent hours in just about every section of that building; hours in the Music Room listening to all 7 of the Southern Folk Heritage field recordings, The Best of Muddy Waters, James Brown Live at the Apollo, and hundreds of other recordings. Hours doing historical research in the Social Science and History Department, The Map Room, the Literature Department, and of course, the Main Lending Room where I borrowed books by and read authors ranging from Raymond Chandler, Toni Morrison, and literally hundreds of others. In fact, I have two books now that I need to return by the end of next week. That place is still an important part of my life. Next year I am looking forward to a celebration of the Centennial of that building. I hope it is a grand and big one. But if is not, I won’t mind too much. June 2nd, 1927 is, to me, one of the most important dates in Philadelphia history, And even if no one else celebrates that date, I will honor it. For I am incredibly grateful that that branch of the library was opened and is still available to me. Wonderful! If you are interested in the City Beautiful Movement which led to the creation of The Parkway; here is a link to an article about it: https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/essays/city-beautiful-movement/#essay Here is a link to an article about the opening day of the Central Branch of the library: https://www.inquirer.com/history/philadelphia-free-library-parkway-opening 20260605.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=edit_social_share_email_traffic&utm_medium=email&utm_content=&utm_term=&int_promo= Dukes of Destiny: Philly's longest lived and best loved blues band http://www.dukesofdestiny.com Private Gigs: The Dukes have a number of private gigs coming up these next couple of months, and I want to remind folks that we can and do a variety private affairs. Birthday parties, retirement parties, graduations, and more. If you are interested in having a danceable blues event, please get in touch. Brother John; Johnny Never and John Colgan-Davis: acoustic blues duohttp://johnnynever.com/schedule 1) Friday, June 12, Triple Sun Distillery;126 South State St; Newtown, PA 18940; 8-11PM (215) 944 3057 2) Saturday, June 13 Letty’s Tavern; 201 State Street; Kennett Square PA 19348 7-10PM https://www.lettystavern.com Friday and Saturday find us at two of our regular monthly gigs that we love. Triple Sun is a great spot with some home distilled beverages, a variety of beers, good food, and friendly folk. Newtown is a lovely town, and nighttime there is gorgeous. It is a beautiful SMALL town with no high- rise buildings, so the sky is present; it is THERE. It is almost always very blue with a clearly visible moon. It is a lovely spot. Letty’s is in Chester County’s Kennett Square, and it is a funky restaurant with a great menu, wonderful waitstaff and bartenders, and a great vibe. Kennett Square is a wonderful, walkable place with great shops and buildings. We love playing this town. Come on out and experience it. Black Crow video: Brother John:: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0mawSh5BFY&list=RD-0mawSh5BFY&start_radio=1 The Sunday Blues Jam at Jamey’s House of Music; 32 S. Lansdowne Ave; Lansdowne, PA; jamey@jameyshouseofmusic.com Blues lovers and players have made Jamey's Sunday Blues Jam the place for some great blues jamming, inexpensive and tasty eats, craft brews on tap, fresh brewed coffee, a great waitstaff, and friendly people who love the blues.  Each Sunday features an hour long set led by a different house band, and then there is an open jam until 3PM.The second Sunday of most months features The Roger Girke-John Colgan-Davis Project as the house band, and we will be there on June 14th. Play an instrument? Sing? Just want to listen to some exciting blues and have some good food? Come on out and take part in this great blues jam with great food and liquid refreshments. $5 minimum to be spent Don’t Want to receive any more of these newsletters? Just reply with “Unsubscribe” in the Subject Line.

BLUE MOON

DUKES FANS: “Blue Moon; you saw me standing alone; without a love of my own..” Rogers and Hart Last weekend saw the appearance of the first and only Blue Moon for 2026, and it was big news. It was featured on the web, in blogs, on news broadcasts and in newspapers and magazines all around the world. There were also some great photographs taken and posted all over various media. I am always interested in sky things, and I was outside on Sunday evening viewing it. It was a quietly spectacular bit of astronomical occurrence. I first became interested in astronomy when I was in junior high school. I went to Masterman at 17th and Spring Garden Streets, and they took us fairly regularly to The Franklin Institute, a few blocks away on the Parkway. I loved all the displays, but I especially loved The Fels Planetarium. There I would be immersed in stunning totally surrounding views of the night sky, the constellations, the planets, the moon, the sun, the rings of Saturn, and more. It was truly awesome. And I have gone there a couple of times a year ever since. When I was older and could travel some, I also visited The Hayden Planetarium at New York City’s Museum of Natural History. I would go there a couple of times a year, and I was happy to be taken on journeys to all different parts of the universe in even more spectacular fashion than at the Fels. The Hayden is bigger, and they pioneered many of the innovations that are now standard in planetariums around the world. For several years I was a member of the New York Natural History Museum as well and The Franklin. And as many of you who have been reading these missives for a while know, I am still in love with and amazed by that thing overhead called, “the sky” in my old age. As to why the blue moon is called the “Blue Moon,” there are several stories about that. The most commonly accepted etymology says that saying was used in 1500’s Europe to describe something completely absurd or inconceivable. Saying, “the moon is blue” was a way of describing something that was virtually impossible to imagine. However, the term's meaning changed when later events atmospheric things happened that actually turned the moon blue. When the volcano Krakatoa happened in 1883, there were numerous accounts of people seeing a bluish moon overhead for several days. Scientists believe that the unusual combination of chemicals, gasses, and substances from the eruption gave the moon a “blue tint” when seen from earth. And history has recorded that some massive forest fires have had the same effect. Given those events, the phrase slowly came to mean not something impossible, but something that happens very rarely: ‘once in a blue moon.” The phrase also has gained a calendrical meaning. The second full moon in a month is considered a “Blue Moon,” and May this year fit that definition. In fact, any month that starts with a full moon, except February, will have a Blue Moon because it takes approximately 29.5 days for the moon to go through all its phases. So if there is a full moon on the first of a month, there will be another at the end of the month.This happens once every two to three years. I hope you got to see some of May’s Blue Moon. It was slightly cloudy, but the moon shone through boldly and proudly. Here are a couple of links to some interesting photos of the occurrence: (apologies for the ads) Enjoy. https://www.space.com/stargazing/astrophotography/mays-blue-moon-wows-stargazers-worldwide-see-these-stunning-photos-of-the-smallest-full-moon-of-2026 https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/news/blue-moon-may-2026-images https://nextdoor.com/p/xQBpNz7K8DjJ?post=482893068&utm_source=email§ion=post_0&mar=true&ct=4eOq-BxY5Ms5RMbDTA-oukNIxc9tLT5vrFGY-PPHdawKq0bCJ6lyF4VONFqcrHJ1&ec=OWKiQRDj9vEHAYwTV6YMARldwuFdgGkeefhwfGYAE0s%3D&mobile_deeplink_data=eyJhY3Rpb24iOiAidmlld19wb3N0IiwgInBvc3QiOiA0ODI4OTMwNjh9&link_source_user_id=37647443

Happy Mother's Day

DUKES FANS: Happy Mother’s Day (reprint from 2018) Next Sunday is Mother’s Day, one of the most widely observed and celebrated holidays in our culture. People of all ethnic groups, colors, and even religious denominations observe it. Among Christians, in fact, it is the day with the 3rd highest church attendance after only Christmas and Easter. As a major holiday it is all over our popular culture. TV shows have plots that revolve around it. There are songs about both the day and the person known as “Mother” in just about every genre, and radio stations play many of them in the week leading up to the holiday. Comedians tell endless “mom” jokes. And as it is a major holiday, it is very commercialized, and it has a huge economic impact. It is one of the biggest days in any given year for the sales of flowers, candy, and greeting cards. More long-distance calls are made on Mother’s Day than on any other day. Restaurants make a lot of money on the day, especially on breakfasts and brunches. It is truly a big deal in our culture. But where did this day come from? How did it come to be? Why does it exist? The idea of honoring “mothers” is not just an American idea, and it is not really recent. Ancient peoples in many parts of the world had a variety of observances that paid tribute to the idea of fertility, birth, and mothering. The ancient Greeks and Romans had festivals that celebrated Mother Goddesses such as Rhea and Cybele, who gave birth to various gods and represented the power of divine fertility. These were important, powerful ideas, and the celebrations of these holidays lasted for days in the ancient world. Roman, Greek and many other polytheistic religions were eventually eclipsed by monotheistic ones. But many of the most important ideas in “pagan” religions found ways of being expressed in monotheistic beliefs. While there is no “Mother’s Day” in Islam, children are regularly instructed to pay honor to their mothers. Some Jews honor Rachel, Jacob’s most beloved wife, on the eleventh day of Cheshvan as the symbolic “mother” of the Israeli household and nation. Some early Christians took to celebrating the Virgin Mary during Lent as a way of honoring a divine mother-the mother of Jesus. The idea of “divine birth” and “mother,” then, are important and universal human concerns. These need to be accounted for and recognized in every religion. In 16th century England that recognition turned into something called, “Mothering Sunday.” Initially a day to honor the Mother Church and the Virgin Mary, it eventually came to include children being told to pick wild flowers to give to and pay tribute to their own earthly mothers. This represented an expansion of focus; not only divine mothers were looked at with honor. Earthly mothers came to be seen as representatives of the divine order, and they could be acknowledged also. The American idea of Mother’s Day draws most directly from this. Two women, Julia Ward Howe and Anna Jarvis, are considered the "mothers" of our present celebration of Mother’s Day. Howe, an activist on many social issues and the composer of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, wanted a day for women to be listened to as a way to establish peace. Women gave birth to all the men who died in wars on either side, she argued, so they had a special need to both be active and be listened to as a way of ending war. In her famous “Mother’s Day Proclamation” (1870) she argued for and later established a “Mother’s Peace Day” to be celebrated each year. The idea caught on and was observed in several parts of the United States. But it did not grow to be a national holiday. Perhaps it was too political. Anna Jarvis, born in West Virginia, had a beloved mother who was deeply religious and involved in social issues via her church. Ann Reeves Jarvis had worked as a nurse during the Civil War, and like Howe, she believed in peace. And she once spoke about wishing for a day when the work and contributions of mothers to humanity would be recognized and celebrated. Anna remembered this, and it inspired her. In 1908, 3 years after her mother’s death, she sponsored a memorial service in the town of Grafton, West Virginia for her mom and all the moms who attended the service. She also provided white carnations, now the symbol of Mother’s Day, for all the mothers who attended the service. Her mother’s words had become a mission for Anna; mothers needed to be recognized. After the memorial service she began to organize nationally. She called on people to write legislators and influential people to encourage them to lobby for a day to honor all mothers. And somehow, state by state, it began to happen. By 1911 most states in the country had some type of yearly holiday recognizing mothers. She and her supporters then turned their attention to the national stage. Again, it worked. In 1914 President Woodrow Wilson signed the proclamation that established the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day throughout the nation. Anne Reeve Jarvis’ wish had become reality. Mother’s Day is a major part of US culture now, and it is firmly established. Ironically, Jarvis came to dislike Mother’s Day, or more specifically, the way it came to be celebrated. The outright commercialization of the day, first by the greeting card industry and then florists and candy manufacturers, angered her. She spoke out against this regularly and even considered trying to rescind the holiday. A further irony was that as she aged, Jarvis needed hospital care. It was the people connected to the greeting card and florist industries who paid for her hospital stays in West Chester, PA. Anna Jarvis died in 1948, and she is buried locally in West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd. Regardless of what one thinks about how the day is observed these days, Mother’s Day has become an important day in our culture and in the lives of many people. And it resonates with people now for the same reasons the ancients had to celebrate birth and mothering all those centuries ago. We all begin with a birth; that is how we all start. Yes, sperm and egg need to unite to bring that birth about. And there are many ways the uniting of those two can happen. But when you come down to it, we are all ultimately the result of a mother carrying and delivering us. It has been that way for centuries and centuries. While we may understand a lot about the mechanics of how it happens, it is nonetheless wondrous. It is both ordinary and worthy of being honored. I hope Mother’s Day, however you observe it, is good for you and important to you. And thanks to all of you who are mothers.

Ageing and Accepatance

DUKES FANS: As most of you know by now, last week was a crazy week for me. There were a lot of surprising happenings and developments that, in part, led to the cancellation of our gig at Jamey’s last Friday. You all know how I love that place, so things had to be pretty crazy for me to cancel that gig. It started with a bad case of food poisoning on Sunday morning. Vomiting, diarrhea, stomach cramps and pain eventually led me to the hospital emergency room. There a series of examinations and tests led to me being admitted as it turned out there were various other things that may have been going on inside my body. I ended up being in the hospital for several days as things were looked at, considered, and diagnosed. Things were figured out, but it was clear by Wednesday I would be in no shape to play a gig on Friday. Hence the cancellation. I am out of the hospital, back home, and recovering. Thanks to all of you who sent e-mails, texts, and otherwise reached out and checked in. I appreciate that. I have a friend who is a little bit older than I am, and he says that ageing is a constant process of acceptance and adjustment. I am adjusting, moving forward, and looking forward to what is next. Let‘s go!