THE SCENE: A small cadre of us gather or a music jam in the living room of the Pendle Hill Quaker retreat center in Philadelphia.
WHAT: Led by sweet-voiced Simon James, he teaches us the great and touching Celtic ballad, “Wild Mountain Thyme.” Some millennial water-quality activists pass by and plop down on sofas and chairs. I flip on my iPhone. Later, impressed by the sweet harmonies (did some seraphim and cherubim slip in while we weren’t looking?!), I pull the audio into Hindenburg and add a dollop of reverb for spaciousness. I gather a folder of some of my West Virginia photography, pull the lot into Final Cut X, double the final line and— there you have it.
PS: “100 Seconds” was a short-video series I used to do for the Charleston Gazette-Mail. With this video, I’m reviving the series.
