{"id":2411,"date":"2015-09-19T19:23:35","date_gmt":"2015-09-19T10:23:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/?p=2411"},"modified":"2015-09-20T11:43:33","modified_gmt":"2015-09-20T02:43:33","slug":"singing-spiders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/2015\/09\/19\/singing-spiders\/","title":{"rendered":"Singing spiders"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/150919_spider_lily3_600.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-2414\" src=\"http:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/150919_spider_lily3_600.jpg\" alt=\"150919_spider_lily3_600\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>What a thrill it was when that &#8220;Shizuoka Duo&#8221; I&#8217;m sometimes writing about called me up and asked me if I&#8217;d like to wander around\u00a0with them a bit&#8212;and, in their words, &#8220;look at some things.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>While we were out and about, what I first noticed about them was that whenever we&#8217;d hop off our bicycles to take a look at grains of rice, or flowers, or Ryuso Mountain, or the sky, or whatever, well, that&#8217;s when they each seemed most able to tell\u00a0the other what was on his or her mind.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/150918_lantanish_600.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2419 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/150918_lantanish_600.jpg\" alt=\"150918_lantanish_600\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s the conversation they had&#8212;in front of these colorful guys&#8212;the one that\u00a0zapped them into songwriting mode.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You know, I think I&#8217;m always\u00a0\u00a0trying to tell you a lot of stuff you can&#8217;t possibly understand.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Oh?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>(It was almost as I weren&#8217;t\u00a0even there. Or maybe, as if, I was just a natural part of the setting&#8212;as threatening as an ear of rice, one leaning over in a comfortable arc.)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Yeah, and I appreciate it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;ve ever much helped.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But you have. You listen. You <em>always <\/em>listen. You listen so . .\u00a0. You listen so true.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s nice of you to say.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s nice of you to do.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/150918_pinkwhite_600.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2420 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/150918_pinkwhite_600.jpg\" alt=\"150918_pinkwhite_600\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Then, every time, we stopped and looked at something&#8212;usually flowers&#8212;they just started singing. I&#8217;d never experienced anything like it. I was amazed. I don&#8217;t know how they did it. The words just popped out from their mouths&#8212;in lines of song. And by the third or fourth clump of flowers, they had a melody. Myself, I&#8217;ve got no ear at all, and no understanding of music, but soon they were repeating, &#8220;A Gbm A Gbm A Gbm G A&#8221; over and over&#8211;and strumming their thighs as if they were guitars&#8212;and <em>they <\/em>seemed to hear it just fine.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/150919_rice_sky_600.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2418 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/150919_rice_sky_600.jpg\" alt=\"150919_rice_sky_600\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Some of their song lines only popped out once&#8212;at least as far as I remember&#8212;but some of them those guys sang over and over and over. I figured that was what would probably end up as the chorus of whatever it was they were creating.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/150919_spider_lily5_600.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2416 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/150919_spider_lily5_600.jpg\" alt=\"150919_spider_lily5_600\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>It <em>might<\/em> have been my imagination, but they seemed especially smitten with the spider lilies&#8212;they stopped at <em>every <\/em>clump we came across&#8212;and their singing would become so energetic, I felt that they could hear the spider lilies singing, and were just singing along.<\/p>\n<p>Well, it was an extraordinary day. Thank you, Shizuoka Duo! (That&#8217;s not their real name. They have no name, oddly enough. They just sing.)<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s the words I heard them sing repeatedly. The last\u00a0two lines they sang over and over and over and over and over again. (I admit that I too, albeit very quietly, began singing along.)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/1509159_spider_lily_2_600.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2417 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/1509159_spider_lily_2_600.jpg\" alt=\"1509159_spider_lily_2_600\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>You&#8217;ve got all those feelings \/ Trapped inside of you<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Now they&#8217;ve got you reeling \/ You don&#8217;t know what to do<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Me, I&#8217;m not so clever \/ I ain&#8217;t no magic man<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>But I will endeavor \/ To do the best I can.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>If you want to be with me&#8212;I&#8217;ll be there for you.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>If you&#8217;d like to share with me<\/em>&#8212;<em>I will listen true.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/150919_spider_lily4_600.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2415 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/150919_spider_lily4_600.jpg\" alt=\"150919_spider_lily4_600\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What a thrill it was when that &#8220;Shizuoka Duo&#8221; I&#8217;m sometimes writing about called me up and asked me if I&#8217;d like to wander around\u00a0with them a bit&#8212;and, in their words, &#8220;look at some things.&#8221; While we were out and about, what I first noticed about them was that whenever we&#8217;d hop off our bicycles &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/2015\/09\/19\/singing-spiders\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Singing spiders<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2411"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2427,"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2411\/revisions\/2427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}