mick laBriola

“To see a world in a grain of sand And heaven in a wild flower, To hold Infinity in the palm of your hand, and Eternity in an hour.” William Blake

Jets of material blasting from newborn stars, are captured in this James Webb Space Telescope close-up of the Serpens Nebula. The powerful protostellar outflows are bipolar, twin jets spewing in opposite directions. Their directions are perpendicular to accretion disks formed around the spinning, collapsing stellar infants. In the NIRcam image, the reddish color represents emission from molecular hydrogen and carbon monoxide produced as the jets collide with the surrounding gas and dust. The sharp image shows for the first time that individual outflows detected in the Serpens Nebula are generally aligned along the same direction. That result was expected, but has only now come into clear view with Webb’s detailed exploration of the active young star-forming region. Brighter foreground stars exhibit Webb’s characteristic diffraction spikes. At the Serpens Nebula’s estimated distance of 1,300 light-years, this cosmic close-up frame is about 1 light-year across.

“The ego tends to equate having with Being: I have, therefore I am. And the more I have, the more I am. The ego lives throught comparison. How you are seen by others turns into how your see yourself.” Eckhart Tolle

“In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true either is true or becomes true”. John Lilly

Sh2-106, also known as the Celestial Snow Angel, is an emission nebula and a star formation region in the constellation Cygnus. It is a H II region estimated to be around 2,000 ly (600 pc) from Earth, in an isolated area of the Milky Way.

In the center of the nebula is a young and massive star that emits jets of hot gas from its poles, forming the bipolar structure. Dust surrounding the star is also ionized by the star. The nebula spans about 2 light-years across.

Reginald “Reggie” Workman (born June 26, 1937, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American avant-garde jazz and hard bop double bassist, recognized for his work with both John Coltrane and Art Blakey.

Early in his career, Workman worked in jazz groups led by Gigi Gryce, Donald Byrd, Duke Jordan and Booker Little. In 1961, Workman joined the John Coltrane Quartet,replacing Steve Davis. He was present for the saxophonist’s Live at the Village Vanguard sessions, and also recorded with a second bassist (Art Davis) on the 1961 album, Olé Coltrane. Workman left Coltrane’s group at the end of the year, following a European tour.

In 1962, Workman joined Art Blakey‘s Jazz Messengers (replacing long-time Blakey bassist Jymie Merritt), and worked alongside Freddie Hubbard, Wayne Shorter, and Cedar Walton for most of his time in the Jazz Messengers. Workman left Blakey’s group in 1964.

Workman also played with James Moody, Yusef Lateef, Pharoah Sanders, Herbie Mannand Thelonious Monk. He has recorded with Archie Shepp, Lee Morgan and David Murray. Workman, with pianist Tommy Flanagan and drummer Joe Chambers, formed The Super Jazz Trio in 1978.

As of 2016, he was a professor at The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Musicin New York City, and was a member of the group, Trio 3, with Oliver Lake and Andrew Cyrille. Workman has been a resident of Montclair, New Jersey.

When observing the star cluster NGC 4372, observers frequently take note of an unusual dark streak nearby running about three degrees in length. The streak, actually a long molecular cloud, has become known as the Dark Doodad Nebula. (Doodad is slang for a thingy or a whatchamacallit.) Pictured here, the Dark Doodad Nebula sweeps across the center of a rich and colorful starfield. Its dark color comes from a high concentration of interstellar dust that preferentially scatters visible light. The globular star cluster NGC 4372 is visible as the fuzzy white spot on the far left, while the bright blue star gamma Muscae is seen to the cluster’s upper right. The Dark Doodad Nebula can be found with strong binoculars toward the southern constellation of the Fly (Musca).

Carly Elisabeth Simon (born June 25, 1943) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, memoirist, and children’s author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records; her 13 Top 40 U.S. hits include “Anticipation” (No. 13), “The Right Thing to Do” (No. 17), “Haven’t Got Time for the Pain” (No. 14), “You Belong to Me” (No. 6), “Coming Around Again” (No. 18), and her four Gold-certified singles “You’re So Vain” (No. 1), “Mockingbird” (No. 5, a duet with James Taylor), “Nobody Does It Better” (No. 2) from the 1977 James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, and “Jesse” (No. 11). She has authored two memoirs and five children’s books.

In 1963, Simon began performing with her sister Lucy Simon in the Simon Sisters.The duo released three albums, beginning with Meet the Simon Sisters, which featured the song “Winkin’, Blinkin’ and Nod“. Based on the poem by Eugene Field and put to music by Lucy, the song became a minor hit and reached No. 73 on the Billboard Hot 100. After Lucy left the group, Carly found great success as a solo artist with her 1971 self-titled debut album, which won her the Grammy Award for Best New Artist and spawned her first Top 10 single “That’s the Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be” (No. 10), which earned her a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Simon’s second album, Anticipation, followed later that year and became an even greater success; it spawned the successful singles “Anticipation” and “Legend in Your Own Time“, earned her another Grammy nomination, and became her first album to be certified Gold by the RIAA. Simon achieved international fame with her third album, No Secrets (1972), which sat at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for five weeks and was certified Platinum. The album spawned the worldwide hit “You’re So Vain”, which sat at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks, and earned Simon three Grammy nominations, including Record of the Year and Song of the Year. The second single “The Right Thing to Do”, as well as its B-side “We Have No Secrets“, were also successful. Her fourth album, Hotcakes (1974), soon followed and became an instant success; it reached No. 3 on the Billboard 200, went Gold within two weeks of release, and spawned the hit singles “Mockingbird” and “Haven’t Got Time for the Pain”. In 1975, Simon’s fifth album, Playing Possum, and the compilation, The Best of Carly Simon, both appeared; the former hit the Top 10 on the Billboard 200 chart and spawned the hit single “Attitude Dancing” (No. 21), and the latter eventually went 3× Platinum, becoming Simon’s best-selling release.

In 1977, Simon recorded “Nobody Does It Better” as the theme song to the Bond filmThe Spy Who Loved Me, and it became a worldwide hit. The song garnered her another Grammy nomination, and was the No. 1 Adult Contemporary hit of 1977. Retrospectively, it has been ranked one of the greatest Bond themes. Simon began recording more songs for films in the 1980s, including “Coming Around Again” for the film Heartburn (1986). The song became a major Adult Contemporary hit, and the Coming Around Again album appeared the following year, to further critical acclaim and commercial success. The album earned Simon two Grammy nominations, went Platinum, and spawned three more Top 10 Adult Contemporary hit singles: “Give Me All Night“, “The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of“, and “All I Want Is You“. With her 1988 hit “Let the River Run“, from the film Working Girl, Simon became the first artist to win a Grammy Award, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for a song composed and written, as well as performed, entirely by a single artist.

One of the most popular of the confessional singer/songwriters who emerged in the early 1970s, Simon has 24 Billboard Hot 100-charting singles and 28 Billboard Adult Contemporary charting singles. Among her various accolades, she has won two Grammy Awards (from 14 nominations), and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for “You’re So Vain” in 2004. AllMusic called her “one of the quintessential singer-songwriters of the ’70s”. She has a contralto vocal range, and cited Odetta as a significant influence. Simon was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1994. She was honored with the Boston Music AwardsLifetime Achievement in 1995, and received a Berklee College of Music Honorary Doctor of Music Degree in 1998. In 2005, Simon was nominated for a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but she has yet to claim her star. In 2012, she was honored with the Founders Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. In 2022, Simon was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.