Now this was awesome

 Seeing one of the most recognizable movie themes in the history of movies performed live:

You have to admit this is impressive

 

I stand humbled

A teen has built the world's largest Lego replica of the Titanic.   I can say no more.

When science is fun

This is cool, close up photos of the sun that are closer than we've ever seen.  It's fascinating, but also a reminder of just how much we don't know about the things we've discovered over the years.

The only thing more awesome than Sam Elliott

Is Sam Elliott recounting the harrowing tale of a veteran at Normandy on D-Day:

 

I missed that when we watched the event.  It gives me hope when I see people helping people despite race or religion; or showing up at church functions on a sunny Saturday (even if followed by a trip to the doctor's office); or join together to pray and lift our hearts to God; or gather together to celebrate, not damn, our nation or our cultural heritage.  I'm reminded that the vast majority of Americans don't want what the Left (or the extreme of any fringe movement) is selling.

Of course then I remember that the majority of Germans in 1932 likely wouldn't have wanted what was heading down their path either.  So there is that.  Nonetheless, I still prefer to hope and trust in God's ability to move the hearts of men and women of good will.

You have to admit this is cool

Amazing what you find on the Internet

I think my parents are the best parents you could ever have.  I'm sure that's a biased opinion, but it's mine.  I never believed they were perfect, nor believed they had to be.  It's enough that they tried to be good parents for our sake, rather than their own.  Still, they did have some quirks I wish they didn't.

One of the things they did, that if I could go back in time I'd slap them over, was a tendency to move.  I mean, move needlessly.  It wasn't because of jobs.  My Dad was a railroad engineer and seldom lived in the same town where he worked.   Nor was it for schools.  I grew up and stayed in the same school district for my whole life.

They just moved.  For reasons they never really articulated.  I think my Dad, who grew up dirt poor in the Depression, was just happy to have the money.  I think they tended to talk themselves into moving, and often sold their homes faster than they found ones they wanted.  That means they often settled for houses they didn't really want, which ended up leading them to - you guessed it - move.

When you're a kid, it's about the neighborhood.  Even if you go to the same school, it's the neighborhood that defines the friends, especially in such a small school and community.  Due to the constant moving, I was that kid who, already born to parents from out of town, never settled in with one set of friends.  Hence my tendency to be somewhat introspective and introverted (which has been interpreted by some as being a bit offish).

Nonetheless, one time my parents did it right.  We moved out of town to a small house that was really nothing.  My parents didn't like it, I couldn't stand it.  There were no kids around.  There was nothing to do.  It was just me finding ways to keep busy.  My sister, who was almost 9 years my senior, and who had little to do with me anyway, was in high school, driving, and going about her business.

So after barely a year, we moved again.  Because my Dad was such a handy man and inevitably fixed his houses up better than he found them, we usually sold them quickly.  This time, however, they decided to rent a house, allowing for more time to choose.  So we moved back into town in the summer of 1976.  A few months later, we found out we  were moving again.

This time it was to be the final move.  And when I saw it, I understood why.  What a house! An old "Queen Anne" style house, it sported a conical tower on one corner, more outside doors than you could use in a week, massive sliding doors separating the downstairs living areas, crystal chandeliers, a massive attic, a hidden storage room and - get this - an actual 'secret' passage linking a walk in pantry and one of the downstairs bedrooms.

I loved it.  For a while, it had been divided into a duplex and rented out.  That led to one of the rooms upstairs being converted into a full kitchen.  That became my bedroom, right next to the hidden storage room that was accessed by a concealed door in the closet.  An oak stairway with oak paneling circled upwards over two separate landings.

There were changes made.  First thing was the sealing up of the hidden passage.  My Mom didn't like the idea of some hidden place I could duck into.  The solid oak sliding doors were modified to work again (carpeting had made them unusable, so my Dad shimmied the bottom off so they would work again).  Of course we never used them, and I wasn't allowed to close them.  Finally, the hidden storage room was opened up and made more accessible and less 'mysterious.'  Again, my Mom's request.

The conical tower was cool.  On the bottom is was the extension to a small foyer next to the main front door leading to the outside sidewalk.  On the second floor, however, it was just part of the upstairs bathroom.  There was a large, built in, leaded glass china cabinet that my Mom liked, though under used.  All in all, it was a great house, and the most enjoyable home to grow up in - until 3 years later when my parents moved again.

Nonetheless, I have fond memories of this.  So it was with some pride that I saw, on a FB post, that this house had once been featured in a series on historic homes.  The series was done after we had left.  The house was built in 1903 (I remember the date was put in tiles on the winding sidewalk from the back kitchen door that cut through the yard and headed toward the main sidewalk).  It was built by a businessman named Campbell, and was actually known as "The Campbell House."  Somehow being in a house with an actual name makes it all the cooler.

I enjoyed my time there, and a growing number of neighborhood kids warmed up to me as they enjoyed the cavernous rooms (12' ceilings), round tower and rumor of hidden chambers.  Why my parents moved, I don't know.  They say once my sister moved out for the first time, it was too big for a family of three.  Personally I think it's because Dad wanted a large yard, something the house just didn't have.  He tried to get a couple old neighbor ladies to sell part of their yards, but to no avail.  I can't help but guess that had something to do with it.

Nonetheless, for a time we lived in 'The Campbell House', an early 20th century Queen Anne, and that's not bad.  Thanks be to the Internet.  It does serve some good purposes after all.

One bit of fun trivia.  A second furnace was at the top of the old stairs.  When it cranked on, it made a sound that sounded like footsteps.  I used to lay in bed and count, wondering if someone started at the basement and walked through the house, if they would reach me before the noise stopped and the furnace finally kicked on. 

This:

Reminded me of the awesomeness of this:



The man is a genius for the ages.

Guess who

I wonder what two of these kiddos will end up doing with their lives:

From Hennemusic, Daily Rock Music news

Click here for a hint.  And yes, one of them apparently set aside the saxophone for something more, shall we say, rhythmic.

Deep into that darkness peering

It was on this day, in 1845, that Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven was published.  Click here for Donald McClarey's pick for a reading, courtesy of the great Christopher Lee.  I'm more of a Vincent Price enthusiast myself:



As a side note, and for a shameless boast, my second son recited the poem from memory in two parts when he was in sixth grade.  It was for poetry/drama reading nights in school before classmates and parents.  The second night he stumbled and forgot a couple lines, but managed to improvise in such a way that it sounded like Poe.  The high school drama teacher was there, and told him that it was no small thing for a sixth grader to improvise in the manner of Poe before a large audience.  I agree.  [Shameful kid boast is now finished].

A coincidence?

My boys pointed this out.  I don't know if they came up with it on their own or found something like the link on the Internet.  You have to admit, that's pretty wild.  Of course in the olden days, it would not be seen as a coincidence. It would mean something.  Old timers in the ancient of days would have seen this as nothing less than being part of the divine fabric.  Perhaps that says more about us that we just shrug and say 'coincidence.'  In any event, it is strange.

Out of the mouths of babes

So after prayer time last night, our youngest was reflecting on God.  Out of the blue he said, "God is a number I don't know."  I liked that.  Taken from his perspective, what he was trying to say is something that would do us adults some good to remember: God is beyond us, no matter how much has been revealed.  There will always be that part of God that is outside our abilities to grasp.  A little piece of humble pie for this foggy, December morning.

Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!  Romans 11;33

I did not know this

The Christmas Carol Do You Hear What I Hear was written in the 1960s.  I always imagined it was written some time in a previous century, or was based on some old songs or poems from olden times.  Especially telling is the fact that it deals with sing-song stories about the Nativity event when most songs by then were about chestnuts, snowmen and reindeer. Anyway, interesting tidbit about one of my favorite Christmas Carols.  Bonus trivia: the ones who wrote it were the same who wrote Rain, Rain Go Away.  Another song I imagined to be hundreds of years old.

Why being a Buckeye is so awesome

There are a million reasons that make being an OSU fan great, and the OSU Marching Band is all but fourteen of them.  Woody Hayes once called them 'the Best Damn Band in the Land.'  When we were at the Iowa game, they became an internet sensation by reproducing Michael Jackson's legendary moonwalk.  The following week, they swept the Internet again and made news with this jaw-dropping performance.  Remember, these are college kids playing while doing this.  The sound isn't the best, but watch and be amazed:

If you haven't watched The Hollow Crown series

Then by goodness, you need to change that.  A BBC production - never anything less than stellar - takes the plays Richard II, Henry IV parts 1 and 2, and Henry V (known to scholars as The Henriad), and gives them more than a respectable telling.  It's not too awash in modern PC sensitivities, and the productions try to remain faithful to the telling.  Better for non-Shakespeare types, the text is delivered in a more conversational tone that is often associated with Shakespearian theater.  The guys are squatting in the mud, dirt on their faces, speaking in Shakespeare's English the way Americans Tweet and Text. 

The caliber of acting doesn't hurt either.  With the likes of Patrick Stewart, John Hurt, the always reliable Jeremy Irons, and David Morrisey among others (you've seen him as the Governor on The Walking Dead), you can't go wrong.  And it doesn't.  Again, the pacing, sets, costumes are all a mix of what recent Hollywood productions have made us expect, without going overboard into the Xena, Warrior Princess schlock.  And when there is  key line, or phrase, or speech, even though the intention is to keep the dialogue low-key, the series does a good job of adding just a touch of dramatic flair, as if to say 'we know you've been waiting for it.'  For instance:

Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he’ll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words-
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester-
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb’red.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.

Ah Richard Winters, we miss you.

If you have ever wondered what the Proto-Indo-European language sounded like

Wonder no more!  In one of those 'cooler than accurate' scholarly projects, we have a recording of what the best and brightest think might possibly have been the sounds of that eons old language.  Of course, like most things, I have a feeling if someone from that period heard the recording, their first response would be 'what the hell did he say?'  In PIE of course.  Still, fun stuff.  And the stuff that makes you ponder all that historical studies have to offer. 

Welcome back Great Eight

In a little blast of nostalgia, eager Cincinnati Reds fans got to see something they haven't seen in decades.  The Great Eight, the best starting lineup in baseball history, was finally reunited after a dazzling win tonight by those youngsters of 2013.  The glitch has been in getting Pete Rose back into the reunion.  Johnny Bench tried, but couldn't get around Rose's ban.  Rose, who foolishly bet on the game rather than rape, murder, sell drugs or take drugs, has been banished for decades from so much as using a bathroom near a little league baseball park.  But for Joe Morgan's weekend, they finally got the eight together.  When I was young, my Dad and a good friend of his went to see them several times during those two legendary seasons.  My Mom and Dad went once.  As a family we went once.  And I got to go with Dad, his friend, and his friend's son.  It was magic then.  And it brought a tear to the eye tonight.  Time is an odd thing. It makes you remember and yet reminds you that all times must pass.  Still, a nice chance to share with the family and tell our boys about all those years ago when we were their age.  My wife, who lived outside Cincinnati in those days, also went to see the Big Red Machine.  We've wondered if we were in the park together one of those nights.  I guess we'll never know.  Anyway, thanks for the memories boys, even if we were only children when you helped make them.

The Great Eight, the greatest starting lineup in baseball history, as we'll always remember them.
L-R Pete Rose, George Foster, Dave Concepcion, Johnny Bench, Cesar Geronimo, Joe Morgan, Ken Griffey, Tony Perez

Google celebrates Claude DeBussy

Click it here.  It will be gone tomorrow.  I do this since this was one of my Dad's favorite piano pieces.  Enjoy Dad!

I can never see enough sand sculptures

I look at things like this and realize how much I envy people with talents like these.  

Cool Tolkien Art

Here's the link.  It's based on Ralph Bakshi's ill fated attempt to bring LoTR to the big screen in the 1978.  Criticized then for the strange leaning on rotoscope technology, as well as the abrupt end with no sequel, it fell under a new round of jeers when Peter Jackson released his three part epic based at times loosely on that book by Tolkien.  Many of his problems it turns out, were the result of corporate interference rather than artistic decisions on Bakshi's part.

By now, most know that Jackson had more or less lied about his knowledge of Bakshi leading up to the release of Fellowship.  Initially he stated he hadn't ever watched the animated version.  Later he admitted he had, and then finally admitted what anyone who had seen both versions knew, that Jackson more or less lifted the framework of Fellowship straight from Bakshi.  A shame that this wasn't made known at the height of the frenzy, for it could have been a boon to Bakshi who has received less credit than he deserves, IMHO.  Maybe that's why lying is not a good thing, and that's the sort we should focus on, rather than splitting hairs on when to lie or not to save babies.

Anyway, I've always liked Bakshi's version, because it was the first version I saw that made sense; Rankin and Bass's made for TV follow-up being at times spot on, and at times excruciating.  Bakshi misses a lot (as do all versions), but somehow seems to catch a gist of Tolkien that in three multi-zillion dollar epics, Jackson never quite grasps.  And to this day, when I read LoTR, it's Bakshi's Indian-like Aragorn I imagine, not Mortenson's; Bakshi's Frodo, not Woods'.  And if it weren't for the Viking helmet, I might go so far as to say Bakshi's Boromir leans closer to the text than the otherwise great Sean Bean's sometimes too insecure and wavering portrayal.

Anyway, the link is to art for a Calendar done by Paul Rivoche, and inspired by the artwork for the animated film.  In some ways, it surpasses the artwork it is based on.  An especially interesting take on Orcs and the Balrog.