On this day in movie history - The Road to Memphis (2003)

The Road to Memphis

documentary directed by Richard Pearce,

written by Robert Gordon,

part 3 of the documentary series The Blues,

produced by Martin Scorsese,

was released in the United States on September 30, 2003.

Additional music by Davis Coen.

Cast:

Dr. Louis Cannonball Cantor, The Coasters, Jim Dickinson, Fats Domino, Rosco Gordon, Don Kern, B.B. King, Little Richard, Little Milton, Joe Mulherin, Calvin Newborn, Sam Phillips, Bobby Rush, Chris Spindel, Christine Spindel, Hubert Sumlin, Rufus Thomas, Ike Turner, Cato Walker III, Nat D. Williams, Howlin' Wolf.

On this day in movie history - Serenity (2005)

Serenity

directed and written by Joss Whedon,

based on the 2002 series Firefly by Joss Whedon,

was released in the United States on September 30, 2005.

Music by David Newman.

Cast:

Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Alan Tudyk, Morena Baccarin, Adam Baldwin, Jewel Staite, Sean Maher, Summer Glau, Ron Glass, Chiwetel Ejiofor, David Krumholtz, Michael Hitchcock, Sarah Paulson, Yan Feldman, Rafael Feldman, Nectar Rose, Tamara Taylor, Glenn Howerton, Hunter Ansley Wryn, Logan O'Brien, Erik Erotas, Demetra Raven, Jessica Huang, Marley McClean, Scott Kinworthy, Erik Weiner, Conor O'Brien, Peter James Smith, Weston Nathanson, Carrie 'CeCe' Cline, Chuck O'Neil, Amy Wieczorek, Tristan Jarred, Elaine Mani Lee, Terrence Hardy, Brian O'Hare, Ryan Tasz, Colin Patrick Lynch, Terrell Tilford, Joshua Michael Kwiat, Mischa Pfister, Antonio Rufino, Bobby Silva, David Sobolov, Linda Wang, Joss Whedon, Rick Williamson, Mark Winn.

On this day in movie history - The True Adventures of Raoul Walsh (2014)

The True Adventures of Raoul Walsh

documentary directed by Marilyn Ann Moss,

written by Joel Bender and Marilyn Ann Moss,

was released at the Zurich Film Festival in Switzerland on September 30, 2014.

Music by Imre Czomba.

Cast:

Peter Bogdanovich, Johnny Crear, Doris Day, Illeana Douglas, Richard Erdman, Sidney J. Furie, John Gallagher, John A. Gallagher, Tab Hunter, C. Courtney Joyner, Norman Klein, Jack Larson, Paul Lynch, Leonard Maltin, Lee Marvin, Alan K. Rode, Jane Russell, Anthony Slide.

On this day in music history - 24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault, by Stevie Nicks (2014)

24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault

by Stevie Nicks

was released on September 30, 2014.

Track list:

Starshine; The Dealer; Mabel Normand; Blue Water; Cathouse Blues; 24 Karat Gold; Hard Advice; Lady; I Don’t Care; All the Beautiful Worlds; Belle Fleur; If You Were My Love; Carousel; She Loves Him Still.

Dogwood Blossoms Poem by George Marion McClellan.

Dogwood Blossoms

Poem by George Marion McClellan.
 
To dreamy languors and the violet mist
Of early Spring, the deep sequestered vale
Gives first her paling-blue Miamimist,
Where blithely pours the cuckoo’s annual tale
Of Summer promises and tender green,
Of a new life and beauty yet unseen.
The forest trees have yet a sighing mouth,
Where dying winds of March their branches swing,
While upward from the dreamy, sunny South,
A hand invisible leads on the Spring.
His rounds from bloom to bloom the bee begins
With flying song, and cowslip wine he sups,
Where to the warm and passing southern winds,
Azaleas gently swing their yellow cups.
Soon everywhere, with glory through and through,
The fields will spread with every brilliant hue.
But high o’er all the early floral train,
Where softness all the arching sky resumes,
The dogwood dancing to the winds’ refrain,
In stainless glory spreads its snowy blooms.
 

Recommended Reading:

Poems by George Marion McClellan

Video by Jack Kost.
2025.
 
Dogwood Blossom photographs by Jack Kost.
Sound effect credit:
Forest wind and birds
by freesound_community
from Pixabay.

National Coffee Day – September 29:

I can't stop drinking the coffee.

If I stop drinking the coffee, I stop doing the standing and the walking and the words-putting-into-sentence doing.

NOOOOOO not the coffee!  I need that to live!

OK, two words - need coffee.

I think, therefore I've had my coffee.

Coffee has a unique aroma that makes you forget how painful it is to be awake.

The coffee I ordered just came in. That should last me for about a week.

Procaffeinating (n.) the tendency to not start anything until you've had a cup of coffee.

When you order a coffee and they ask, "decaf or regular?"

Coffee? Only one cup please ...

/

Give me a minute. I'm waiting for my coffee to kick in.

Lord, give me the coffee to change the things I can .... and music to accept the things I can't.

First I drink the coffee, then I do the stuff.

Iris Murdoch, on reading and writing:

Reading and writing and the preservation of language and its forms and the kind of eloquence and the kind of beauty which the language is capable of is terribly important to the human beings because this is connected to thought.

 – Iris Murdoch.