A merry Christmas to all of you out there, wherever you may be! Dad finally has the train up and running (even if there isn't currently a TV for it to go behind), Lizzie and Gracie are dreaming of bacon from Santa, and tonight is the candlelight service at church. It isn't due to the rituals or the trappings of the holiday, but joy, joy, joy abounds indeed.
Here's one of my all-time favorite seasonal tunes, from one of my all-time favorite bands. (Aqualung owns, boys and girls. Search your feelings, you know it to be true.) I've always thought this would be an awesome special music for church, even if it would probably irritate some of my fellow Baptists as they miss the point. It may be a little bit of a downer, but this is just "A Christmas Song."
Christmas spirit is not what you drink,
Regis
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Monday, December 15, 2008
The Most Wonderful* Time of the Year
Season's greetings, gang. It's certainly starting to feel a lot like Christmas up here - today's high is expected to be about five below.
I have a love-hate relationship with this time of year. The days are too damn short, it's cold, and I'm already sick of the chintzy commercial facade of the holidays before December even starts. But if I can get past the trappings and expectations to the chewy caramel center of it all, it's all good.
I'm getting there, but then something like this (abandon all hope, ye who click this link) pops up and almost ruins it all. But only almost, because my underlying foundation of joy can't be shaken. Here's hoping you can all share that joy.
Rejoice,
Regis
I have a love-hate relationship with this time of year. The days are too damn short, it's cold, and I'm already sick of the chintzy commercial facade of the holidays before December even starts. But if I can get past the trappings and expectations to the chewy caramel center of it all, it's all good.
I'm getting there, but then something like this (abandon all hope, ye who click this link) pops up and almost ruins it all. But only almost, because my underlying foundation of joy can't be shaken. Here's hoping you can all share that joy.
Rejoice,
Regis
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Jalan Crossland and the Hump Day Happy Hour That Almost Wasn't But Kinda Was a Day Late
I'm all sorts of on fire today. I ran out of coffee filters at the office, so I made a trip to the store yesterday to get some more. Which is great, but I left them at home so it's another tea kind of morning. As much as I like this green tea with pomegranate, it just isn't the same as some delicious Aspen Mountain-strength French roast.
So, yeah, here's a clip of Wyoming state flatpicking champion Jalan Crossland performing "Roughneck." To quote the man, "I ain't great at anything, but if you are half-assed at enough things, and roll them all together, you can amount to more than one whole ass." Amen, brother.
Mama said good night,
Regis
So, yeah, here's a clip of Wyoming state flatpicking champion Jalan Crossland performing "Roughneck." To quote the man, "I ain't great at anything, but if you are half-assed at enough things, and roll them all together, you can amount to more than one whole ass." Amen, brother.
Mama said good night,
Regis
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Going Ape
Ah, the joy of having a DVR: the Fox Movie Channel ran all five of the original Planet of the Apes movies over Thanksgiving weekend (sorry, Tim Burton remake from 2001) and I was smart enough to record them all. I hadn't yet seen the first sequel and it had been a long time since I'd seen the others (probably not since high school), so I figured it would be a good time to watch them all in a relatively short span.
Planet of the Apes is easily one of the best science fiction films of all time, taking us to another world (well, sort of, everyone knows the big reveal at the end) to tell us about ourselves here in the present. It also has the most badass opening I've seen in some time: Charlton Heston's Colonel Taylor smoking a cigar on a spaceship nearing the speed of light, saying good riddance to the 20th Century. Beyond the obvious point about mankind's greed and destructive tendencies, the film raises questions about just what makes us human, the balance of faith and science, what our place in the universe is, and how we construct our own realities. Top all this off with some sweet simian makeup effects, Linda Harrison in animal skins as Nova, and the revelation that Taylor is not on a planet in the constellation of Orion but on Earth all along, and you've got a Classic with a capital C.
The first sequel, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, is something else entirely. To call this one dark is an understatement. Another spaceship from 1972 on a mission to find Taylor (who disappears in the Forbidden Zone) crashes on Earth (even if it estimates the year differently than Taylor's ship did), and the only survivor is Brent. He finds the ape city and overhears the gorilla General Ursus delivering a speech on the need to expand ape territory, exterminate the human race ("The only good human is a dead human!"), and conquer the Forbidden Zone. Turns out the Forbidden Zone is home to a society of mutant telepathic humans that worship a Doomsday Bomb - I found it pretty disturbing, but it still made me think. In the end, Brent and Nova find Taylor, the apes shoot just about everybody, and Dr. Zaius' refusal to help a wounded Taylor drives the astronaut to detonate the bomb and destroy the world for once and all. Some of the commentary was kind of heavy-handed, but then this wasn't really a subtle setting. Turns out that Dr. Zaius was right when he delivered his final words to the wounded Taylor: "You ask me to help you? Man is evil, capabale of nothing but destruction!" but this could be more of a self-fulfilling prophesy than lucid insight. The final voiceover, so matter-of-fact and unsympathetic, hit me like a kick in the teeth.
Of course, this leaves the question of how there can be another sequel if the world is a cinder and everybody is dead. Don't worry, where there's a will, there's a way.
Beware the beast, Man, for he is the Devil's pawn,
Regis
Planet of the Apes is easily one of the best science fiction films of all time, taking us to another world (well, sort of, everyone knows the big reveal at the end) to tell us about ourselves here in the present. It also has the most badass opening I've seen in some time: Charlton Heston's Colonel Taylor smoking a cigar on a spaceship nearing the speed of light, saying good riddance to the 20th Century. Beyond the obvious point about mankind's greed and destructive tendencies, the film raises questions about just what makes us human, the balance of faith and science, what our place in the universe is, and how we construct our own realities. Top all this off with some sweet simian makeup effects, Linda Harrison in animal skins as Nova, and the revelation that Taylor is not on a planet in the constellation of Orion but on Earth all along, and you've got a Classic with a capital C.
The first sequel, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, is something else entirely. To call this one dark is an understatement. Another spaceship from 1972 on a mission to find Taylor (who disappears in the Forbidden Zone) crashes on Earth (even if it estimates the year differently than Taylor's ship did), and the only survivor is Brent. He finds the ape city and overhears the gorilla General Ursus delivering a speech on the need to expand ape territory, exterminate the human race ("The only good human is a dead human!"), and conquer the Forbidden Zone. Turns out the Forbidden Zone is home to a society of mutant telepathic humans that worship a Doomsday Bomb - I found it pretty disturbing, but it still made me think. In the end, Brent and Nova find Taylor, the apes shoot just about everybody, and Dr. Zaius' refusal to help a wounded Taylor drives the astronaut to detonate the bomb and destroy the world for once and all. Some of the commentary was kind of heavy-handed, but then this wasn't really a subtle setting. Turns out that Dr. Zaius was right when he delivered his final words to the wounded Taylor: "You ask me to help you? Man is evil, capabale of nothing but destruction!" but this could be more of a self-fulfilling prophesy than lucid insight. The final voiceover, so matter-of-fact and unsympathetic, hit me like a kick in the teeth.
In one of the countless billions of galaxies in the universe lies a medium-sized star, and one of its satellites, a green and insignificant planet, is now dead.Way to go, humanity. This was almost as brutal of an ending as the conclusion of Fail-Safe.
Of course, this leaves the question of how there can be another sequel if the world is a cinder and everybody is dead. Don't worry, where there's a will, there's a way.
Beware the beast, Man, for he is the Devil's pawn,
Regis
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Hump Day Happy Hour - Django Reinhardt
It's Badass Edition of HDHH this week, so here's a tune by Django Reinhardt. Short version: the gypsy guitarist burned most of his body in a fire, crippling two fingers on his fret hand. But he relearned to play guitar (serving as inspiration for metal god Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath and, briefly, Jethro Tull, following the accidental trimming of two of his fingers). This is "J'attendrai," performed by the Quintette du Hot Club de France; the violinist is Stephane Grappelli.
I can't even think of a word that rhymes,
Regis
I can't even think of a word that rhymes,
Regis
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Knock, Knock!
Looks like December finally showed up in Sheridan (I understand it made an early appearance south of here). Let's see if he sticks around any longer than November did.
I'm just glad I seized the opportunity to go for a run yesterday afternoon after getting back from testing - there was the better part of an hour of daylight left, it was in the high 50's, and I wasn't dog tired. Instead of listening to one of the C25K podcasts (knowing that I probably wouldn't make it a solid 20 minutes and thus subjecting myself to the disappointment that comes with walking before the "you're half way there!" interjection), I instead played one of the more uptempo playlists on my iPod. It didn't work quite as well as I'd hoped, as I have a tendency to become a human metronome (just ask the piano player in the praise team I play guitar for at church) and most of the songs were just a bit too fast for me to keep up with. That being said, "Okay" by Shitdisco is the little bear's porridge to my Goldilocks - just right.
I have a number these days,
Regis
I'm just glad I seized the opportunity to go for a run yesterday afternoon after getting back from testing - there was the better part of an hour of daylight left, it was in the high 50's, and I wasn't dog tired. Instead of listening to one of the C25K podcasts (knowing that I probably wouldn't make it a solid 20 minutes and thus subjecting myself to the disappointment that comes with walking before the "you're half way there!" interjection), I instead played one of the more uptempo playlists on my iPod. It didn't work quite as well as I'd hoped, as I have a tendency to become a human metronome (just ask the piano player in the praise team I play guitar for at church) and most of the songs were just a bit too fast for me to keep up with. That being said, "Okay" by Shitdisco is the little bear's porridge to my Goldilocks - just right.
I have a number these days,
Regis
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