Keep the balls in the air. . .

Addicting little game. . .

Juggler Try to keep all the balls in the air.

Take the Test

Captain Jean-Luc Picard
Always in control, you are a great leader, deligator, and diplomat. These qualities attract people to you, and this sometimes annoys you.
Aloof, introspective, and philosophical; you enjoy quiet time in solitude.


Take the Star Trek Test. . .

Lightning damages Jesus statue. . .

from Jennifer Brown, Denver Post Staff
Writer. . .

Don't look for any religious symbolism here - it was only a freak act of Mother Nature, says Sister Ilaria.

The nuns at Mother Cabrini Shrine in Golden were thanking God on Sunday that no one was
hurt when a bolt of lightning shot out of the sky and struck their 33-foot statue of Jesus.

The lightning bolt broke off one of Jesus' arms and a hand and damaged one of his feet, sending marble plummeting to the ground during a Saturday afternoon storm.

"There were pilgrims up there on the hill," Sister Ilaria said. "The biggest miracle is no one got hit with the falling debris."

The statue of Jesus, which had one hand pointing to his "sacred heart" and the other outstretched, sits atop a mountain near the shrine in the foothills of Golden. Drivers on Interstate 70 can see the statue in the hills, and at night, light illuminates the white marble. Jesus, wearing a robe and glancing down, is 22 feet tall with an 11-foot base.

Sister Bernadette was doing paperwork in her office when she heard the crackle of lightning.
"We did hear a bang, but we didn't realize it was the statue," she said.

The sisters hoped to have a structural engineer inspect the broken statue this week to determine whether it is fixable. The historic piece is irreplaceable - it was sent from Italy in five
stackable sections in 1954.

"We run on donations here, so we really have to look at the cost and see what will happen," Sister Bernadette said. The sisters were thankful the falling marble did not break through a plexiglass shield that covers a heart made by Mother Cabrini.

Thousands of people visit the shrine each year to pray and pay homage to Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini, the first American citizen canonized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church. In
the 1930s, she established the shrine as a summer camp for orphaned children.

Visitors climb the 373 stairs to the sacred heart statue, "praying as they go," Sister Bernadette said.

I knew I liked scotch for a reason. . .

small. . .

Though born without the benefit of hands or legs, and standing only twenty-nine inches tall, Matthew Buchinger was a proficient bagpiper, trumpeter, and dulcimerist, as well as a talented magician and accomplished artist. Among his many impressive skills was micrographic illustration. In this four-by-six-inch self-portrait, Buchinger forms the individual curls of his wig out of seven psalms and the Lord’s Prayer.


The tricks he plays at cups and balls,
Tis wrong in any man, who calls,
Them slight of hand, as he gives out,
Their slight of stumps, and are no doubt .
..I'm sure that's the worst thing about his life,that he had to suffer these terrible poems.'

- from a handbill dating from 1726

Matthew Buchinger was born in Anspach, Germany in 1674 and was one of the most well known performers of his day. He played over a dozen musical instruments, danced the hornpipe, and was an expert calligrapher, magician, and bowler, built magnificent ships in bottles, and stunning marksman with a pistol. All of those accomplishments are even more impressive when you realize that he had no arms or legs and stood only 28 inches high.

His skills certainly seemed to impress ladies as he was married at least four times and fathered eleven children. There is a story that one of his wives was abusive and insulting - he put up with the behaviour until he simply snapped and he knocked her to the ground and thrashed her publicly. The event was immortalized in the form of a caricature published in the newspaper the following day.

During his lifetime, Buchinger performed for many kings – three successive kings of Germany – and several times before King George.

He died in Cork, Ireland in 1732

Kevin Spacey interviews Leonardo. . .

The event is the virtual performance of Kevin Spacey in The Interrogation of Leo and Lisa on May 16. The International Watch Company is launching a new Da Vinci line so the show is about Da Vinci and Mona Lisa.
Go here to view.

From the Composer's Forum. . .

On today's date, May 16th in 1848, an arrest warrant was issued for a 35 year-old composer named Richard Wagner. It read: "The Royal Kapellmeister Richard Wagner of Dresden is to be seized for interrogation concerning his participation in the revolutionary activities that took place in this city. All police authorities are requested to capture Wagner and report to us as quickly as possible."

In 1848, uprising against Europe's royal families led to failed revolutions in many states. In Dresden, Wagner had published an article that envisioned the end of the aristocracy. When the uprising was put down by Saxon troops, that same aristocracy came looking for him. Luckily, the warrant's description was pretty vague: "Wagner is of medium height, has brown hair and wears eyeglasses." The composer wasn't yet so famous that people would recognize him at sight, and with the financial assistance of his friend and future father-in-law Franz Liszt, Wagner escaped to Switzerland.

In exile, Wagner wrote pamphlets with titles like "Art and Revolution" and "The Artwork of the Future." He finished the orchestration of his new opera "Lohengrin" and sketched out an ambitious project called "The Ring of the Nibelung," a projected series of interconnected operas based on old German legends. Meanwhile, back in Germany, Liszt conducted the premiere of "Lohengrin" in Weimar in 1850, but Wagner didn't risk showing up to hear it. But time, and increasing international fame, heals all wounds, even political ones, and in 1862 Wagner was granted full amnesty.

Stratford Ontario Shakespeare Festival

Brian Bedford talks about his King Lear. . .

Sweet. . .

Georgia Brown played by Oscar Peterson.

Dogs in Beer Commercials (+ one cat)

Before MTV. . . .

Argument to Beethoven's 5th

No Biz Like Show Biz. . .

Born today, May 11, in 1988: Irving Berlin, composer, writer of over 1,500 songs.

This from Manhattan Madness, a rare song by Irving Berlin. . .


"Annie Get Your Gun" Movie Trailer. . .

Happy Birthday, Fred!

Today is Fred Astaire's B'day. Born in 1899. Puttin' on the Ritz. . .

Past Blast. . .

Dumb quotes . . .

"I think gay marriage is something that should be between a man and a woman" - Arnold Schwarzenegger
"I have opinions of my own - strong opinions - but I don't always agree with them." - George Bush

David vs. Goliath. . .

Click to get control. . .

I'll take a share of the $$$. . .

Boston Globe speculation:

Including the $124.2 billion bill, the total cost of the Iraq war may reach $456 billion in September, according to the National Priorities Project, an organization that tracks public spending.

The amount got us wondering: What would $456 billion buy?

Free gas for everybody for 1.2 years. US drivers consume approximately 384.7 million gallons of gasoline a day. Retail prices averaged $2.64 a gallon in 2006. Breaking it down, $456 billion could buy gasoline for everybody in the United States, for about 449 days.

Need more perspective?

According to World Bank estimates, $54 billion a year would eliminate starvation and malnutrition globally by 2015, while $30 billion would provide a year of primary education for every child on earth. At the upper range of those estimates, the $456 billion cost of the war could have fed and educated the world's poor for five and a half years.

Good Dog. Fetch. . .

Today in History

May 7, 1840 - Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky is born in Votinsk, Russia.

You can play a little bit of 1812 Overture by clicking play button on the musicplayer on the left.

Reader's Digest did it first. . .

From the London TIMES:

To howls of indignation from literary purists, a leading publishing house is slimming down some of the world’s greatest novels.

Tolstoy, Dickens and Thackeray would not have agreed with the view that 40 per cent of Anna Karenina, David Copperfield and Vanity Fair are mere “padding”, but Orion Books believes that modern readers will welcome the shorter versions.
The first six Compact Editions, billed as great reads “in half the time”, will go on sale next month, with plans for 50 to 100 more to follow.

Malcolm Edwards, publisher of Orion Group, said that the idea had developed from a game of “humiliation”, in which office staff confessed to the most embarrassing gaps in their reading. He admitted that he had never read Middlemarch and had tried but failed to get through Moby Dick several times, while a colleague owned up to skipping Vanity Fair. What was more, he said: “We realised that life is too short to read all the books you want to and we never were going to read these ones.”

Research confirmed that “many regular readers think of the classics as long, slow and, to be frank, boring. You’re not supposed to say this but I think that one of the reasons Jane Austen always does so well in reader polls is that her books aren’t that long”.

The first six titles in the Compact Editions series, all priced at £6.99, are Anna Karenina, Vanity Fair, David Copperfield, The Mill on the Floss, Moby Dick and Wives and Daughters. Bleak House, Middlemarch, Jane Eyre, The Count of Monte Cristo, North and South and The Portrait of a Lady will follow in September. Each has been whittled down to about 400 pages by cutting 30 to 40 per cent of the text. Words, sentences, paragraphs and, in a few cases, chapters have been removed.

When Queens Collide. . .

Who are the crazy ones?

Sean Pednn on Bill Maher's Real Time 5/5/07. . .

Alright, I give. . . .

T Shirt folding in English. . .

Dead in the Water?

Matthew Shepherd Hate Crimes Bill passed by House of Representatives. By 237 to 180, the House voted to include crimes spurred by a victim’s “gender, sexual orientation or gender identity” under the hate-crime designation, which now applies to crimes spurred by the victim’s race, religion, color or national origin. “The bill is passed,” Representative Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat who is gay, announced to applause, most of it from Democrats.
Next, the Sanate.
After that, Bush. . .

Just in time for laundry day. . .

I saw a guy in a bar (after seeing this clip) work at this for an hour before giving up. . .

Drinks to go along with those 5000 loaves and fishes. . .

Wheel of Lunch. . .

The ostensible purpose of the Wheel is to prevent wearisome discussions about where to eat lunch with your coworkers or family, but it’s also a good way to discover new places to eat.

Yahoo! Local is used to power the wheel. Enter your zip code and a query string, such as lunch, steak or vegetarian and the Wheel will discover many of the local establishments that fit the bill. Grab the wheel with your mouse and give it a strong yank. Then follow it’s advice or spin it again. If you want more information about the restaurant, click the description on the upper left to visit the corresponding page at Yahoo! Local.

You can also search for things that aren’t necessarily restaurants, such as bars, clubs.

Created by KrazyDad ( http://www.krazydad.com/blog/), a programmer/hobbyist with a passion for making cool graphics & music software, and software toys.

Click on the article header to go to Yahoo Wheel of Lunch.

This guy also created acouple of dandy time-killers. Or are they art?

kaleidescope at http://www.coverpop.com/curveart_kaleido.swf

whitney music box at http://www.coverpop.com/whitney/index.php?var=v0

Have some fun. . .

It took 6 years to catch on . . . ?

According to the new NEWSWEEK Poll, the public’s approval of Bush has sunk to 28 percent, an all-time low for this president in our poll, and a point lower than Gallup recorded for his father at Bush Sr.’s nadir. The last president to be this unpopular was Jimmy Carter who also scored a 28 percent approval in 1979.

Click on article title header to go to Newsweek article. . .

Animated Bayeux Tapestry

Hey, it's Sunday. Time for a little culture. . .

Rufus Wainwright: Going to Town

Fly the Friendly Skies

Zen for Dogs . . .

. . .and you thought I was kidding.

Go to It's My Dog's World: I Just Live In It at http://myfatcat.typepad.com/kindly_eccentric_middleag/

Zen Master Dex

I was thinking about how owning dogs has transformed and enlightened the way I think and live. Here are some of the things I realized.

Everyone needs a spiritual guide — a priest, therapist, or wise friend. My wise friends are my dogs. They have deep insights to impart.

Dogs enjoy simple pleasures and take each day as it comes.

Like a true Zen master, dogs eat when they are hungry and sleep when tired.

I used to look at Dexter and think, ‘If you were a little smarter you could tell me what you were thinking,’ and he'd look at me like he was saying, ‘If you were a little smarter, I wouldn't have to.’ Sometimes we’re just too dumb to see what’s what and hear what is really being said. How often in our lives does our superior attitude get in the way of getting the point? Corollary #1: Dogs don't feel threatened by our intelligence. Corollary #2: No dog ever brought a Kenny G or Michael Bolton album. Just how smart are we?

Dogs feel guilty when they've done something wrong. How often do we entrench rather than acknowledge that maybe we’re the ones who screwed up?

Dogs think you sing great. Dogs love long car trips.

When someone is having a bad day, dogs are silent and sit close by and nuzzle gently. Have you noticed that our pets have an uncanny way of knowing when we’re sad? I saw a PBS special about dogs that are trained to assist people with handicaps. There are some dogs that have a way of sensing when a seizure is coming minutes before it ever happens. They are trained to alert the person so they can lie down, and then the dog stays by their side until their master is safe and out of harm. My roommate Mitch, who has stage two leukemia and degenerative spinal disc disease, gets the benefit of my scottie Dexter’s awareness on a regularly basis. When he’s having a bad day, Dex senses it, even before Mitch realizes it, and is there on his bed offering his quiet but unyielding support.

Best of all, my dogs befriend me with an unconditional love that we would do well to imitate. Is it any coincidence that the species name of Dog is a mirror reflection of God?

Of course my dogs have their failings. Dex is afraid of firecrackers and lightning, and border collie Sadie hides in the closet whenever we run the vacuum cleaner. But unlike me, they are not afraid of what other people think of them, or anxious about their public image. They bark at motorcycles driving by on 27th Street, but, in contrast to people, they never growl at children or friends. (Well, Sadie does bark with enthusiasm, out of joy for the encounter, rather than in anger and threateningly.)

So my dogs are my teachers. When I become too serious and preoccupied, they remind me to play. When I get too wrapped up in abstractions and ideas, they remind me to take care of myself. On their own canine level, they show me that it might be possible to live without inner conflicts or neuroses — uncomplicated and glad to be alive.

We have a lot to learn from dogs. Just because they haven’t invented anything, or written anything doesn’t mean they aren’t spiritually evolved. Let other people have their mentors, masters, and enlightened teachers. I have four dogs named Sadie, Hank, Dexter, and Cassie.

Life's A Scream . . .

This Bud's for You!

SONGS TO WEAR PANTS TO

This guy, Andrew, writes free to order on his website SONGS TO WEAR PANTS TO http://www.songstowearpantsto.com/. Free songs are never longer than 1:11.

Give it a rip. . .

WARNING! Easter Fire Can Be Hazardous to Your Health!

A catholic church, located very close to my house, put up this fire pit for the Easter Vigil Liturgy of Light about a week before Easter. A perfect example of liturgical sign and symbol.

Stay Away! Don't Touch! Watch Out!

Not a clue. . .

When You Sing You Begin with Do Re Mi....

Everything I know (well almost everything) I learned from musicals (opera, too). Oh, and church (I've been a music director/organist/liturgy guy since 1960 or so). Then there's my dogs. Maybe I've learned the most from them. So I begin. . .