Matt Blake

Feeling my way, occasional revelations

[Guitar Gods Unleashed @gguworld]

A right-hand circular motion, thumb and index striking a rumba rhythm, fast. This is "Putugizi," a fingerstyle technique from Malawi, shown by master guitarist Daniel Kachamba.

He said the name means Portuguese, the style likely traveled to Malawi from neighboring Mozambique.

Filmed in 1972 by ethnomusicologist Gerhard Kubik, who spent his life documenting African guitar.

[Arthur 🐳 @ArthurSXAI]

In 2024 Daniel Guo, the aerospace engineering junior world champion launched his free-flight F-1D prototype model aircraft

.. It flew for 22 minutes

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

Wolves live, hunt, raise young and spend most of their lives in packs. They're highly social animals.

This is what happens when one of them leaves the pack for some time and then reunites with it.

[📹 jaddavenport / Nanuk Polar Bear Lodge]

[Marc Riley ⚽️🍺🐳 @marcrileydj]

I was stood on the stage that night. Incredible performance.

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

The Maned Wolf is the largest canid of South America.

Its markings resemble those of foxes, but it is neither a fox nor a wolf. Fun fact: they emit a smell that smells exactly like weed.

[Love Classical Music and Movies 🎺🎻💖🎥🎬 @AlexTran677026]

She looks like she's having so much fun you wouldn't notice this is a world-tier performance. What impresses me is not the "speed" but the excellent timing and dynamics, she really feels this piece.
Just practice will never bring you there, this comes from the heart.
❤️𝐌𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐡𝐧'𝐬 𝐆 𝐦𝐚𝐣𝐨𝐫 𝐩𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐨 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐨

[Matt Blake @heymattblake]

New York is always great. When I can’t find words, I see faces. On the subway, sidewalks, in Central Park, sipping drinks, on benches, in trances. I always wish I had more photos. Thank you Jamie Thomas and 11th St Bar for the good times.

[Susan Goss @ornery_owls]

This is wild. He says he lives in a ravine near a church bell, and everyday when it chimes, the coyotes howl. So this is of him and his doggo listening to that.

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

Beautiful moment when, 2-yr-old Nicolly, who was blind since birth, sees for the first time.

[OkieMaga_Patriot46 @Okie_Patriot46]

I need to make a very PUBLIC announcement on behalf of younger GenXers and older Millennials.

If you see someone in their 40s or 50s who seems a little boring now, I need you to understand something...

We already got it in.

Like...GOT. IT. IN.

We are not sitting home on a Friday night because we never knew how to have fun.
We are sitting home on a Friday night because we have seen enough.

We went to parties in houses that should have been condemned and were almost certainly owned by the local drug dealer.

We saw police lights and RAN and not across a nice, flat field.
INTO THE WOODS.

Do you understand the athleticism required to hurdle uprooted tree roots in platform shoes while simultaneously trying to keep your low-rise jeans from sliding completely off your ass?

And somehow...we never spilled the Zima. We never spilled the Boone’s Farm.

That was TALENT.

We slept on floors in strange houses because the designated driver either never showed up or, in a shocking turn of events, was drunker than everybody else.

There was no Uber, Life360 or Find My Friends.
There was just somebody named Mike saying, “I know a shortcut.”

And we FOLLOWED MIKE.

We closed down bars and then decided the night was still young, so we drove to Atlantic City, where we somehow managed to get drunk, sober up, get drunk again, sober up again and then get drunk a THIRD TIME before breakfast.

And according to our parents? We were at Michelle’s house.

Eating pizza and watching movies.

Michelle’s mother unknowingly covered for approximately 17 people every weekend. If there even was a Michelle.

We drank things called Purple Passion, Mad Dog 20/20 and whatever somebody mixed inside a giant plastic garbage can. Nobody asked what was in it. You grabbed a red Solo cup and trusted the process.

We went to clubs until the lights came on. Do you know the psychological damage of seeing a nightclub with the LIGHTS ON? Nothing good happens after those lights come on.

We danced for four straight hours in shoes that permanently altered the structure of our feet.

We made entire plans without cell phones...no texts, dropped pins or group chats...just an extremely questionable sense of direction.

We rode in cars with 11 people when the vehicle legally seated five. Someone was always sitting on someone. Someone was always in the hatchback.
And there was always one friend yelling, “DUCK!” when we passed a cop.

So yes...now we like being home.
We like sweatpants.
We like cancelling plans.
We like saying, “That sounds fun!” with absolutely no intention of attending.
We like restaurants at 5:30 because we can get a good table.
We like being home by 8:17.

And if someone texts at 9:30 PM and says, “What are you doing?”
Sleeping...we are sleeping.

Because this is not boring my friends...this is retirement.

We already played, partied and danced on the bar.
We already ran from the cops through a wooded area dressed like a Spice Girl.

We have stories that cannot be posted because there are still people with careers, marriages and reputations to protect. And thank GOD there were no camera phones.

So kids, when you look at your Gen X and older Millennial parents sitting peacefully on the couch watching Dateline at 8 PM and think:
“God, you guys are boring.”

Sweetheart...oh sweetheart.
You are looking at retired legends.

Put some respect on our names. We're probably the reason Life360 was invented.

xoxoxo (posted from someone else on FakeBook) 🤣 #genx #oldandtired

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

The effective way the clarinet player does a musical call and response to the singer is just mesmerizing.

"Tu vuo' fa' l'americano" by Renato Carosone: cover by Hetty and the Jazzato Band, an Anglo-Italian jazz quintet.

[Matt Blake @heymattblake]

When I was a stagehand at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, around 2002, I worked on a Dolly Parton Show. I had the honor of watching her perform from the wings of the stage. She was dynamite, like a sparkler in a shiny beaded dress. At the end of the night, as I was sweeping the stage, I gathered about seven or eight beads that had fallen from her dress during the show. Those beads lived in my guitar case for about fifteen years. Eventually, the beads vanished, lost like guitar picks or old strings. I’d hear her singing every time I noticed the sparkle from one of those beads. I never saw a bead roll away, they just seemed to disappear. Rest In Peace Dolly Parton

[Klara @klara_sjo]

Somewhere a therapist is trying to get people to "live in the moment" while this girl is already three levels deep into a made up game that only exists in her head and involves real trains.

The world needs more pointless whimsy.

[Matt Blake @heymattblake]

@andrewperloff I like it

[Matt Blake @heymattblake]

Me and the band are really looking forward to this one!

[Matt Blake @heymattblake]

@TheFlatEartherr The Nutella jar doubles as a camera

[Matt Blake @heymattblake]

@MMCrypto Sending prayers of safety and peace! 🙏🏼

[Matt Blake @heymattblake]

@Arden_2210 Two. Horses, pigs and ducks don’t have feet, do they?