Sing Praise!

A few photos of the (presumably) last peformance by our church praise band.  I'm the bass player, the nearly unseen guy in the back....

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As usual, I'm against the back wall, just to the right of the screen....

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Us shy ones always work to keep a mic styand in front of our face....

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That's my Essex 5-string, if you can't tell...

And the obligatory "every act silly" group shot:

Photos coutesy of Bree towner, I took the liberty of doing some crops / tweaking....

I Need TV, but I’ve Got T.Rex

When Mott The Hoople sang the above lines*, they weren’t talking about the band Television... But that’s still the association I make**… Which is kind of funny, because I haven’t had any albums by Television, and didn’t really know any of their stuff. But they were a known name, and well respected in critical circuits. As noted by Wikipedia: “Despite critical acclaim, the album never achieved more than a cult following in the United States at the time of its release”. The album Marquee Moon was rated #128 in Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of all time, and has been one of the highly rated albums (from that list) that I don’t have. And a recent Facebook post by my brother about Television had them closer to the forefront of my brain.

Anyway: Yesterday I was downloading a Lincoln Brewster song from iTunes, to learn for Praise Band. Well, you just can’t spend $0.99 right? That’s kind of like eating one lays potato chip. So I browsed my “wish list”, and Marquee Moon won out.

I’m diggin’ it. Should have picked this one up 30 years ago.

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*  Lyrics from “All The Young Dudes”, written by David Bowie

** Yes, I know that All The Young Dudes was released in 1972, and Television’s debut album wasn’t until 1977. Obviously I didn’t make the association till later, probably around 1980)

Ballooning

Another oldie, from September 2003.  From St. Louis' Great Balloon Race.  We happened to be driving through St.L., and saw some of the balloons.  We followed and managed to get to some random park as one of the balloons was landing.  Pretty cool, especially for my then-3-year-old son.

What’s in a Name?

So, I was dialing up some Tchaikovsky on the iPod the other day...... Or is it Tschaikovsky?

Seems that he shows up both ways… Now, this isn’t some typo by me, it’s straight from CCDB lookup.  And a glance at any place that sells music shows it both ways:

With an S  ...  Or without the S

Why would I care?? Well, it mucks up my ability to find stuff, or to program in to listen to all songs by that artist… So I need to change to something consistent. Next question: which is “right”? Well, my first thought was TS…. Which probably carries over from any number of old Deutsche Gammophon recordings.  But biography.com cops out by listing both. . It does seem the shorter “no-S” version does is much more common / popular. For example, looking at Google:

Tchaikovsky = 27,700,000 results
Tschaikovsky = 434,000 results, and the dreaded “Did you mean Tchaikovsky?”

Similar results are found on Youtube searches.

Now, while I don’t generally defer to Google as the arbiter of all knowledge, it’s good enough for this particular situation. So Tchaikovsky it will be.

Emergency Only

I've been transferring image files from my archive discs over to my current computer.  A rather massive task, but will allow me to (maybe) find things more often....  Here's one from September 2002, taken on a business trip to Jacksonville Florida:

We stopped by this beach on the way to the airport, wandered around for a few minutes.  Gotta grab every moment you can when you're on the road.....  I've always really liked this one, taken with my very humble Kodak DC210, with True "Megapixel" resolution!

A Simple Kind Of Man.....

Leonard Skinner, the man who provided the name for rock legends Lynyrd Skynyrd died yesterday.  As any rock'n'roll kid from the '70 knows, Skinner was the gym teacher who got the core members of Skynyrd suspended from school due to their long hair.  In a fit of something, the boys decided to name the band after him.  The rest is history.

Of course, Skinner had the last laugh, I suppose, as he outlived most of the band.

There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception

The quote is Aldus Huxley, and reportedly the inspiration for the name of the band:  The Doors

This is a door I pass on my daily commute.

No Dumping

Just a semi random image, taken one lunch last week.  Effects in PSE.  My eye is drawn to the oddest things sometimes.

Because one is the loneliest number that youll ever do

So.... I'm sitting at the computer, processing a few photos, while my son is outside cutting the grass. Then I hear him shouting... no, not shouting, singing!! Or more appropriately, "singing"... loud enough to hear over the lawn mower.


So I wander out and ask: "were you singing?" Answer (with big grin): "Yes, I need you to play 'One' for me!"... Sure thing bud, one you finish cutting the lawn. I'll get that ready to go.

Geek alert: 
The song "One" made it's chart debut in May 1969, and peaked at #5 on the Billboard charts.  It was Three Dog Night' 2nd Top 40 song, and the 1st of nine Top-5 hits.

Out Of Time, Out Of Place..... revisited

On my commute to work, I pass this interesting pair of buildings.....

On the left is a little grocery / convienience store type place...  I've even posted this place before.  I don't remember if it closed before or after the massive gas-station convienience store oppened across the street.  But it was doomed either way.

Next to (attached to) the grocery store is Cinderella's Treasure Chest:

I always thought this looked like some illicit business, somthing "Adult" oriented....The windowless, front, the hidden entrance...  Regardless, I believe this was some sort of trinkets / collectables place.  But since I never went in, I don't really know. 

Both have been closed for a rather long time....

Blue Angels

Taken today at the airshow at Scott Air Force Base.  I only took my point-n-shoot camera, and this is one of the few times it wasn't well suited for the task.  More bad pictures than good.  When It can't find something to focus on, it ought to se tto infinity, but doesn't.....  It had a hard time finding fast moving airplanse to focus on.....    Oh well....

But we had a lot of fun, despite the poor photos.  Beautiful day, not too hot.  Which is good, because the traffic getting off base was horrible.  But we just got in line, rolled down the windows, turned off the engine, and relaxed.

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I know, I know...  more pictures, less talk

Moer blue angels:

Garage

Last weekend, My son and I went with my wife to one of the local Quilt Shops.  Except we didn't go in!  We hung out in the car, listening to music and talking sports.  (It doesn't get much better than that!)...  I noticed this garage next door and took the photo.  Not a great one, but something for a Sunday post....

Rust Belt?

This is a Light Bulb factory near Niles, Ohio.  This is from 4-5 years ago.  I was inspired to post this after some recent articles about the demise of the incandescent light bulb.  Due to legislation on lightbulb efficiency.  I don't know if this plant is still open, but if it is, I expect it won't be....

An older image, shot from the old Rt66 bridge across the Mississippi River.  It's now a hiking / biking facility.  This building is part of the St.Louis metro water system, this is where they draw the river water to clean up for the good folks of STL to drink,,,, 

We Got Married...

27 years ago today, at Duke Chapel in Durham, NC, We got married.....

Yay!

Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel

I woke up a couple of times during the night last night. Not too uncommon, no big deal. But for some reason, each time, Don McLean’s song “Dreidel” was stuck in my head. And it was still there this morning. Now, I don’t dislike this song, but it’s not a favorite. It’s in that vast “3-star” middle of the iPod rank. And I don’t recall the last I heard it. So there’s no logical reason for it to pop up (over and over). What can it mean??


Don McLean, of course, is best known for the iconic “American Pie”, but he had a handful of Top 40 Hits between 1971 and 1981. Dreidel made its debut in late December 1972, and peaked at #21.

Random Trivia: Don McLean is the subject of Roberta Flack’s #1 hit “Killing Me Softly With His Song”

Sky of blue and sea of green In our yellow submarine.

So...  I decided recently that it is about time for my son to see The Beatles' movie Yellow Submarine.  He's 10 now, and loves the Beatles....   

I have it on video, from years ago.  But I'm not sure that our VCR even works any more.  Doesn't matter, cause I can't find the tape...    Check out Netflix....  Nothing.  Check out RedBox....  Nothing.  Check out the local Blockbuster....  Nothing.   What gives!!!  This is just unacceptable.  Forget my son, I need some Blue Meanies!

Lazy Dog's Back, Pt.2

So yesterday I posted a photo of puppy-Chuck soaking up some sun.  Today's post is his brother Stu, crashed out on the family room floor last night.   Lazy, lazy dogs.

Wanted: Quick Brown Fox

To jump over this lazy dog:

One of our puppies, enjoying the warm sun on a beautiful Saturday.  His brother was probably chasing squirrels.

Randomness

During a rainy lunchtime at the local park...  Last week.

South Gate

Another blast from the past, this one goes WAY back.  Shot on film, on my trust Canon TX, during my latter college years.  Like yesterday's post, this is one of those images that I've always liked more than anybody else.  Probably because of what it could've / should've been rather than what it is.   I'm sure an art teacher could point out many compositional flaws, and I wouldn't argue.  But It's still one of my creations, and I suppose I see it with a father's eyes.

When I took this photo, I was trying to contrast the lines of the brick / window frame with the reflected randomness of the trees.  The decline and decay of the building compared to the ever renewing of nature...  all that good stuff.

I didn't realize that the ladder in the room would show up.  But when this image first faded-in in the dim light of the darkroom, it's that ladder that captured my fancy, as some sort of metaphysical link between the real and the reflected.  Pretty heady for the 20 year old kid I was at the time...