Cool Song

I may have posted a video of this song before, but it was long enough ago (and with different visuals) that I think it's okay to put up again. This is one of my favorite reggae tunes, courtesy of the great John Holt:

Soup Diary 120213

I finally got a chance to check out the second place just a few blocks from my house that advertises homemade soup every day. In fact I've been there twice in the last week. The first time I tried the French Onion Soup (they offer a Chicken Dumpling and Chili every day along with a rotating de jour selection). It was pretty good-- lots and lots of onions in a just slightly too sweet broth. I got it to go, so the melted Swiss cheese (over croutons) lacked that crisped-on-the-crock quality, but it still added a little bit of chewy texture to the mix. Today I tried the Bacon Corn Chowder. It was good too-- the corn was still fairly crispy, and the bacon chunks, while not as plentiful, definitely added some flavor. The broth was maybe a tad too buttery for my taste, but not enough to wreck the overall effect (this had lots of onion too, almost always a positive thing). I have to go back to the other place to give them another chance, as my first experience wasn't stellar. What they have in common so far is a somewhat intermittent quality: one place has been closed a couple of times I stopped by, the other was out of soup a couple of times. I guess the overall demand isn't great enough to insure soup-on-demand for me, but I think I can adjust as long as I can get it at least some of the time I have a craving.

Monday's Uttering

How's this for a mind-blowing statement-- or maybe not so mind-blowing? It's from the French writer Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893):

"A human being — what is a human being? Everything and nothing. Through the power of thought it can mirror everything it experiences. Through memory and knowledge it becomes a microcosm, carrying the world within itself. A mirror of things, a mirror of facts. Each human being becomes a little universe within the universe!"

Funny Stuff

Stan Freberg is one of the great parodists in the world of American comedy. Here's a fine example-- a dual spoof on both Dragnet and Little Red Riding Hood. Enjoy:

Sunday Funnies

Here are a few examples of the classic slice-of-life panel Out Our Way by J. R. Williams. I get the impression that these had a nostalgic air to them even when they were first being published in the middle decades of the last century.

I f you like these, here's a link to a page with several more panels, focusing on Williams' western work.

A Quote for Sunday

Here's a great insight (it certainly never occurred to me, but makes a lot of sense) from the noted author (of the novel Dune, for one) Frank Herbert (1920-1986):

"All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted."

An Old Favorite

This is one of those great old AM Gold numbers from the early seventies, which rarely pops up on oldies radio for some reason. Luckily, you can find just about anything on YouTube:

Saturday Morning Cartoon

If I recall correctly, I learned my first few foreign words (wee-wee!) from Loopy De Loop. Anyone else remember this character from the Hanna Barbera stable?

Saturday's Quote

Here's something to remember from the Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881):

"A man who lies to himself, and believes his own
lies, becomes unable to recognize truth, either in
himself or in anyone else, and he ends up losing
respect for himself and for others."

An Epic Song

This is pretty cool: Colin Meloy of the Decemberists doing all three parts of the song-suite "The Crane Wife" (off the band's album of the same name), all by himself. Great stuff!

Yet More Friday Family Blogging

I don't know if Ben was trying to hide behind that leaf or not, but it sure didn't provide him much cover.

Worth a Read

In this article, Mark Naison explains why current education reforms tend to be based on faulty (not to say insulting) assumptions about teacher performance. As becomes clear from his analysis, things will not get better if we ignore the real issues while demonizing teachers and watching resources be redirected to where they are least needed.

More Friday Family Blogging

Isn't it nice to see two brothers getting along so well with one another?

Friday Family Blogging

It looks like Helen is not particularly enjoying her peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I wonder why?

Friday Philosophy

Today's words of wisdom come from the noted science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988):

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."

Great Song

I have a friend who considers Badfinger to be the great rock band of the 1970s. I don't know if I'd go that far, but they were pretty good. Here's one of their best songs:

Toonerville Thursday

I wonder if anyone told the Skipper-- before he took on the responsibility of running the car-- that he'd have to deal with these kinds of issues? Or was he just left to his own native resourcefulness to deal with them as they arose?

A Thought for Thursday

There's a pretty good lesson to be found in this line from the French novelist Alexandre Dumas, pere (1802-1870):

"A person who doubts himself is like a man
who would enlist in the ranks of his enemies
and bear arms against himself. He makes
his failure certain by himself being the
first person to be convinced of it."

A Beautiful Song

Speaking of silent movies (see previous post), here's a nice montage of Charlie Chaplin clips set to one of the all-time great movie songs: "Smile" which was composed by Chaplin for his 1936 silent film Modern Times (though the lyrics, so nicely handled here by Nat King Cole were written by others later on):

The Last Movie I Saw

I found The Artist, directed by Michel Hazanavicius and starring Jean Dujardin and Bereniece Bejo (seen above), to be totally engrossing and entertaining-- evidently a common response. The film has gotten great reviews, and a number of award nominations, which are well-deserved. It's a real crowd-pleaser, but I wonder if there's anything more that can be taken from its success. What I mean is that while it is in many ways unique to modern filmgoers-- both dialogue-free and in black and white-- it really doesn't offer anything original. Don't get me wrong, it was a kick to watch a story unfold entirely through the visuals, and I wouldn't mind if that became more of a staple of contemporary movies (even if they don't go to this extreme). But for anyone with even a little knowledge about the first half century of the cinema, there's really nothing new here. The story is a mash-up of Singing in the Rain and A Star is Born, while many of the visual elements remind me of classic King Vidor or Buster Keaton bits from movies that came out in the 1920s. I'm not trying to be overly critical here-- Hazanavicius has a real knack for homage, and it goes without saying that most people today have never seen a silent movie from the 1920s, so maybe he opens the door for some discovery of the classics by those charmed by his movie. But just as I doubt the success of this film will inspire his contemporaries to adopt some of its style, I'm also doubtful that too many folks will follow it up by going out to find a Douglas Fairbanks DVD. That's a shame, because as the Dujardin character recognizes, something special was lost when movies adopted sound. I mean, why couldn't silents and talkies have co-existed, allowing creators with different strengths to tell their stories in different ways? I know the short answer to that is money (and lowest common denominator expectations), but it's kind of a tragedy that an artform could so freely and knowingly be subverted (at least Chaplin tried to keep the silent aesthetic alive for awhile). So now The Artist comes along and it's treated as a gimmick; an effective gimmick, but ultimately just a gimmick. That's too bad, because its a worthy addition to a pretty substantial tradition, just one that's been largely forgotten for the past 80 years. One other thing that I wanted to be sure to mention about the film: the dog in it is great-- the best canine performance on film since Asta's heyday in the 1930s (and believe me, I can't offer a higher compliment to a human actor).

Wednesday's Words

Good advice from the successful businessman and noted presidential advisor Bernard Baruch (1870-1965):

"Approach each new problem not with a view of finding what you hope will be there, but to get the truth, the realities that must be grappled with. You may not like what you find. In that case you are entitled to try to change it. But do not deceive yourself as to what you do find to be the facts of the situation."

New Music

Here's another one of those bands that has somehow managed to fly mostly below the radar for going on twenty years, Imperial Teen. They have a new album out though, and I'm really looking forward to hearing it, as they've always done fine work in the past. Here's the first single, and it's a fun one:

This Week's Top Five

We celebrated our 11th Anniversary on Dr. John's Record Shelf last Sunday-- we went on the air for the very first time way back on Super Bowl Sunday 2001. So the Top Five List had a kind of "reminiscing" theme:

A Tuesday Thought

Something to consider from the pen of Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930):

"Come what may, I am bound to think that all things are ordered for the best; though when the good is a furlong off, and we with our beetle eyes can only see three inches, it takes some confidence in general principles to pull us through."

The Mekons!

At the very top of the list of bands I regret never seeing live are these guys (and gals): the Mekons. I came close once when they played in Rochester about twenty odd years ago, but I somehow got lost and missed it (it was a daytime show at a park). Luckily, they apparently still do perform occasionally (and have a new record out too), so maybe I'll get another chance. In the meantime, there are cool YouTube clips like this one:

Black & White Bannack

Having gotten my work down earlier than planned today, I had a few hours of free time on my hands. So I drove over to Bannack with my camera. Here are some of the shots I took, and later processed into black and white (along with a few other adjustments).

It was an intermittently sunny afternoon, and the temperature was mid-thirties (always a concern because the cold taps my batteries' power more quickly, which has an impact on some of what I can do with the camera). But there was enough interesting light (and hence shadows) to make for some potentially good images.

One of the challenges of visiting Bannack is that I've been there so many times before that I really have to work at finding new subjects, or at least new perspectives, to shoot. But that's a big part of what makes it fun-- the challenge.

Regular readers will no doubt recognize some of the elements of these pictures from earlier posts (like the old car in the foreground above). But I don't recall ever shooting it from that angle before.

As long as the weather cooperates, I'm hoping to get out to some other sites in the coming weeks. Most years, the temperatures drop so low, I'm more inclined to stay in this time of year, but it was almost Springlike out there today, and the forecast has 40 degree temps through the next ten days or so. Maybe we'll skip winter altogether (fingers crossed!).

A Monday Quote

An interesting observation from the Jesuit philosopher Baltasar Gracian (1601-1658):

"Fortune pays you sometimes for the intensity
of her favors by the shortness of their duration.
She soon tires of carrying any one long
on her shoulders."

Good Song

I wonder what happened to Mary Lou Lord? She had a nice sound, evident on this clip of what was probably her best known song.

Sunday Funnies

I always loved it when Calvin got philosophical.

A Sunday Quote

Hear, hear to this idea, as expressed by the one-time president of Yale University Kingman Brewster, Jr. (1919-1988):

"Perhaps the most fundamental value of a liberal education is that it makes life more interesting. It allows you to think things which do not occur to the less learned ... it makes it less likely that you will be bored with life."

Classic Dion

I've been listening to the new Dion album a lot over the past couple of days, but no one's posted any video of the new songs yet on YouTube. So, here's one of his great hits from the sixties, updated in a live bluesy rendition from 1995:

Saturday Morning Cartoon

Here's something cool-- the very first episode of Yogi Bear from around 1961. Enjoy:

Happy Birthday Nikolaus!

Holy Cow! Has it already been a year since Nik's last birthday? I guess the calendar doesn't lie. I hope you had a great day Nik, and as you get bigger and bigger still stay the same great guy you are right now!

Saturday's Quote

I like the way that logician Susanne Langer (1895-1985) thought, at least based on this particular insight:

"It is the historical mind, rather than the scientific (in the physicist's sense), that destroyed the mythical orientation of European culture; the historian, not the mathematician, introduced the 'higher criticism,' the standard of actual fact. It is he who is the real apostle of the realistic age."