On or about this date in 1940, the first successful west-to-east navigation of the Northwest Passage began, starting in Vanouver, BC and ending in Halifax, Nova Scotia, two years later.

The Northwest Passage is a sea route above the North American continent. For many years and quite a few explorers it was an elusive prize. Searching for it brought pain, despair and death to too many adventurers, who wound up with their vessels trapped in sea ice very far indeed from any hope of rescue.

It seemed the Northwest Passage was a myth, like Bigfoot or the Easter Bunny. But With our relentlessly progressing climate change, the ice has gone out and stayed out longer, and what was once thought impossible is now increasingly common. So common, nations have started arguing about who controls the route, which, when open for commercial uses, will save shippers an enormous amount of time and money.

Is this a silver lining in the saga of global warming? Ask a polar bear who is swimming and searching in vain for something solid to stand on.

I can only guess how members of the doomed 1845 Franklin Expedition might have processed the news that their goal could be reached with no trouble if only they were willing to wait 160 years. The bravery of a handful of long distance travelers willing to sacrifice comfort and life itself could not accomplish what billions of less valiant people have done simply by choosing to ride down to the corner for a pack of cigarettes. The Northwest Passage is destined to be opened by those of us who don’t mind idling in front of the neighborhood convenience store.

Of course it reminds me of this favorite song.

Back in the 1970’s when Stan Rogers wrote about tracing the Northwest Passage over highways in a car, little did he know he was talking about the very activity that, multiplied many times over, would cause a Northwest Passage by sea to finally open up.

When have you found your pathway blocked?

Today is the 71st birthday of the incomparable American musician Taj Mahal.

Henry St. Claire Fredericks was born in Harlem and raised in Springfield Massachusetts, but his world turned out to be much larger than that. The wide-ranging career he has had as Taj Mahal is clear evidence that there is much to be gained by indulging a curious mind – he’s an accomplished artist and a world music scholar. The skill he exhibits today is a testament to the many influences he has absorbed along the way.

Taj Mahal drew inspiration from his father’s record collection, his stepfather’s guitar, and his neighbor’s style, just to name three things that went into the mix.

He’s also a man of the Earth, having studied agriculture in the ’60’s. Apparently he has milked many, many cows, and is one of those people who could sustain himself off the land given the right tools and enough time.

Searching for a Taj Mahal live performance on You Tube, I found this gem, which was uploaded in 2008 but it’s actually a recording made in Bonn, Germany in March of 1995.

He’s 53, but must have been spending some time out in the field, wrestling more cows. Look at those arms!

Here’s a quote from Taj Mahal’s website:

“I didn’t want to fall into the trap of complacency. I wanted to keep pushing the musical ideas I had about jazz, music from Africa and the Caribbean. I wanted to explore the connections between different kinds of music.”

How do you avoid complacency?

Yes, I get a kick out of Billy Joel’s music, even though it was mostly beyond the boundaries (there were boundaries?) of what we played on the Morning Show during my MPR days.

I even like Joel’s lyrics, though some passionately contend that his writing and everything else about him is terrible.

This might be true. My Billy Joel opinion is more of a feeling. He meets the man-with-two-first-names rule, which is a basic requirement for pop stars (Michael Jackson, Elton John, Tony Bennett, Dean Martin, etc.).

I’m not interested in writing a defense of his sound and his style, but Joel’s songs are catchy and he’s just about my age but he still looks good, which is not that easy. Plus, I admire anybody who can play the piano and sing at the same time.

But finding the courage to say I like Billy Joel in public may be as close as I’ll ever get to knowing how it feels to be a state legislator from a conservative part of rural Minnesota who is voting for same-sex marriage today. You know you’ll get slammed for it, but what the hell? Sometimes you just have to admit that fair is fair.

Plus, he’s been around so long. Here’s one of my favorite Billy Joel songs, recorded decades apart so you can have him with a full head of hair, or without.

http://youtu.be/gecSWeu3UhQ

http://youtu.be/4ioGfiTxx9s

Been to any good restaurants lately?

My favorite quote from the late Richie Havens appeared in his New York Times obituary – “I’m not in show business,” he said. “I’m in the communications business.”

Havens was a spectacular communicator, famous for improvising his way through a longer-than-expected set at the opening of Woodstock because he was already at the gig, waiting to go on fifth, and the musicians scheduled to appear ahead of him were stuck in traffic.

Maybe Richie Havens would have become famous anyway, but he got a boost from a simple matter of timing. I guess it proves you’ll never regret showing up early for an important appointment.

Here’s a song that didn’t make the cut of the video version of Woodstock, but it spoke (and speaks) eloquently to the point the anti-war protesters were trying to make in 1969.

When have you been on time when the others were not?