Category Archives: Music
After an analysis of Santa’s physical parameters, we’re still curious about the Claus. Does Santa, in fact, have claws? They would certainly help with chimneys. A question of quite some interest is: Does Santa have sex (in the biology class sense)? If so, ♂ or ♀?
The Way-Back link is to Santa: Man or Woman? It’s my only small claim to fame on WordPress — it’s the only post I’ve had Freshly Pressed! (How ironic it wasn’t a piece I actually wrote. It’s another fax or email “share” from the neolithic era of technology.)
And now, more music…
Continue reading
11 Comments | tags: Blue Christmas, Christmas, Eric Clapton, funny, humor, Marry Christmas Baby, Mr Santa, Mrs Santa, Ms Santa, Robin Trower, Run Rudolph Run, Santa, Santa Claus, Santa female, Santa gender, Santa male, Sheryl Crow | posted in Music
Back in the days when fax machines were cool, “sharing” was a tiny trickle compared to the raging river of today. “Images” were black and white (not even grays) and 8.5″ x 11″ paper size. “Texts” were also that size, came in a variety of “fonts.” Both usually looked like something that had been photocopied 500 times.
Then as now there were gems. Here’s (a link to) one of them: Santa Claus: Fact or Fiction? It’s a trenchant treatise on the putative physical reality of Santa Claus. It considers some of the numbers involved, but I’ve never verified them, so be warned (38.5% of statistics are made up on the spot).
And now, today’s musical selections:
Continue reading
5 Comments | tags: 12 Days of Christmas, Bruce Springsteen, Christmas, Christmas music, funny, humor, I'm a Believer, Marry Christmas Baby, Santa Claus, Santa Clause is Coming, Santa physics, Shrek, Smash Mouth | posted in Music
At this point in the season, various versions have already aired more than a few times, but tonight marks the first time for me to sit down and popcorn out on A Christmas Carol (by any other name). And sometime this week I’ll read the online version at Gutenberg. It’s one of my all-time favorite stories!
Today also marks the beginning of the one-week Christmas Countdown. Each day brings a short controversy-free, technology-free, gluten-free, fat-free, sugar-free, chemical-free free range Christmas post with a link back to a post from the Christmas Cycle in 2012. Considering the viewing schedule tonight, the link can only be to A Christmas Carol. (You can watch the Mr. Magoo version there!)
And each day, below the fold: Christmas Music!
Continue reading
13 Comments | tags: A Christmas Carol, Ay Ay Ay It's Christmas, Bob Seger, Charles Dickens, Christmas, Christmas music, humor, Ricky Martin, Scrooge, The Little Drummer Boy | posted in Movies, Music
Sometimes, when discussing the possible existence of God (or Gods), there is the question: “Where is the evidence God exists?” One problem with that question is that different groups (believers and non-believers) are seeking different kinds of evidence. It’s a bit like how different groups — often the same two groups — get stuck on meanings of the word “theory.”
Evidence can be probative, circumstantial or even merely suggestive. When it comes to the question of God, some require probative evidence to prove God’s existence. Others, believing faith is central to belief, require only circumstantial or suggestive evidence.
Here are some thoughts about evidence I find suggestive.
Continue reading
28 Comments | tags: awe, beauty, belief, Cape Canaveral, circumstantial evidence, Death Valley, evolution, God, Mallory Square, Mt. Everest, North Pole, probative evidence, South Pole, starry sky, suggestive evidence | posted in Music, Religion
I was going to write about something completely different. Specifically: religion, spirituality, atheism, morality and ethics, faith and unbelief… that sort of thing. I like one day of the week to be different from the rest — a Sabbath, so to speak. For cultural and personal reasons (and pragmatic reasons — many businesses take today off) Sunday seems an appropriate day. I’ve got Sci-Fi Saturday; I suppose you could call it Sermon Sunday or something.
But when I sat down to write, something else came out. I thought I’d better grab it and stick it onto the blog wall before it ran away and, due to its youth and naiveté, ran afoul of Unpleasant Business. The thing about letting your mind drift is that you can never be sure where it’ll come ashore. In this case, mental notes about a possible future post morphed into… Well, you’ll just have to see for yourself.
And, yes, you have to look below the fold — no cheating!
Continue reading
11 Comments | tags: blank verse, candy, female, free verse, global, local, male, men, poetry, Sabbath, Sunday, women | posted in Music, Sunday Sermons, Writing
One of the cool things that happened in 2013 is that Voyager 1 has left our solar system. This time it was really, for sure, no kidding! There have been some previous occasions where it left, but this time we really mean it. (Truth is, it’s still way inside the Oort cloud, so in some sense it’s merely left the city for the ‘burbs.)
Say rather that Voyager 1 no longer flies in skies affected by the sun. The heliosphere, the giant fart bubble around our solar system, is filled with our sun’s gassy emissions. Outside that bubble is the galactic ass gas of a billion other suns. Voyager 1, for the first time in human history, samples farts not our own.
It got me thinking about our interstellar golden record: Earth’s Greatest Hits!
Continue reading
14 Comments | tags: analog, analog recording, digital, digital recording, electrical vibrations, sound vibrations, sound waves, vinyl record, Voyager 1, Voyager 2, Voyager golden record, Voyager spacecraft | posted in Music, Science
So I’m sitting here getting absolutely no work done on today’s post because I can’t stop getting totally into the music I’m listening to. The problem is that I really love seven of the eleven cuts. Four of the seven rank very high in my favorites list, and one of them is on my all-time favorites short list!
It’s ironic that a fairly vanilla song from a fairly vanilla singer-songwriter is such favorite, but the truth is, a good jam band can go off on anything. Maybe it’s the high degree of contrast between the original, which I think uses only five notes or so, and the mouth-watering jam.
Or maybe Grateful Dead can just play the hell out of Me & Bobby McGee!
Continue reading
7 Comments | tags: Baker Street, Bat Out of Hell, City To City, Deadhead, Gerry Rafferty, Graceland, Grateful Dead, jam band, Jim Steinman, Meatloaf, Paul Simon, Skull and Roses, Stealers Wheel | posted in Brain Bubble, Music
I mentioned Stanley Kubrick‘s 2001: A Space Odyssey recently. It’s actually one of my favorite films, although by “favorite” I mean it makes my Top 25 Best Films list (or it would if I ever made one). I consider it a major landmark in the cinema landscape.
I’m not sure it makes my Top 25 Favorite Films list, but that’s only because there are so many others I love for reasons beyond their mere quality. It would probably make the Top 50 list, and I’m sure it’s in my Top 100. Some find it opaque or pointless, but to me it’s a visual tone poem that’s as beautiful as it is technically accomplished.
When I say that last part, people sometimes ask me what a visual tone poem is.
Continue reading
3 Comments | tags: 2001: A Space Odyssey, 2001: A Space Trailer, Also sprach Zarathustra, Fantasia, Koyaanisqatsi, poetry, sound poem, Stanley Kubrick, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, tone poem, visual poetry | posted in Movies, Music, Sci-Fi Saturday
Earlier this week I finished re-reading what might be my favorite Terry Pratchett Discworld novel, Soul Music. When I introduced you to Pratchett and Discworld I mentioned that each novel has its own theme. Nearly all the novels use the same groups of characters, but each revolves around a unique theme (and usually one of the character groups, although cross-over is frequent).
Soul Music is about “music with rocks in it” (in other words: rock music). It’s technically one of the “Death” novels (which is to say that the Discworld avatar of Death is the main character), but it prominently features the Wizards in supporting roles.
And Death’s grand-daughter, Susan. And the spirit of Buddy Holly.
Continue reading
10 Comments | tags: Bat Out of Hell, Buddy Holly, Discworld, Douglas Adams, Funkadelic, Hex, rock and roll, rock music, Susan Death, Terry Pratchett, Wizards | posted in Music, Quotes
Just about all of 2012 is in my rear-view mirror now. It joins well over 50 others, most of them so far back they are lost in the mist and fog of life. My car moves forward at its full legal pace: 24 Hours Per Day, just like the markers say. (You do not want to be pulled over by the causality cops for violating the reality limit. The fines are truly Lovecraftian.)
Up ahead I see the border markers for 2013. Less than six hours away, so there’s no need for more stops. It’s an easy drive, and there’s something very poignant about watching the last mile markers roll past. This is country passed through once, never visited again.
It’s a time to look back in my mirror for some last glimpses of the path traveled.
Continue reading
12 Comments | tags: 2012, bridges, Eric Clapton, Fleetwood Mac, Little Big Town, looking back, paths, rear-view mirror, roads, Tornado | posted in Life, Music
Logos con carne 