Not having come across a meme that struck me, I went with this art de computer, via some FOL (Friend of Lefty). Frankly, don’t think any of them REALLY look like me. Do you? (The fifth is Paul Tibbetts.)
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UAlbany plays Virginia in Columbus this week in men’s basketball’s March Madness. I’ll probably do some pool. Any insights on upsets, such as what #12 is going to beat the #5 seed they’re playing?
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Today would have been my parents’ 57th wedding anniversary. On their 50th, in 2000, my sisters and I were trying to plan a surprise party for them. However, my father was ALSO trying to plan a surprise party for his wife, and the people my sisters and I called were confused by the fact that TWO parties were planned for the same day at the same place – their church – so, we ended up joining forces in surprising mom. Dad died five months later, so that last party holds a special place in our hearts.
ROG
Flick Tunes
But first, a sports note: UAlbany 60, U Vermont 59 in Burlington yesterday, where the Great Danes had never won in seven previous tries since 1999, when they went to Division I. I watched on ESPN2 as VT had the ball, down one with 30 seconds to go, but thanks to great defense by Albany never even got off a shot. Albany, my grad school alma mater, wins the America East men’s basketball title and gets to get seeded something-teen in the NCAA bracket tonight.
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I made this mixed CD for Lefty and his comrades, and I was so happy that the process worked that I made an extra five copies for whoever wants one.
I started with the God/afterlife songs:
Morning Hymn and Alleluia-Nuns Chorus-The Sound of Music
I’m a Soldier in the Army of the Lord-Lyle Lovett-The Apostle
In Your Mind-Johnny Cash-Dead Man Walking
The Great Beyond-R.E.M.-Man in the Moon
I’m Going Home-Sacred Harp Singers at Liberty Church-Cold Mountain
Then the revolution songs:
Beware Verwoerd-Miriam Makeba-Amandla!
[Title]-Bono and Gavin Friday-In the Name of the Father
Revolution-Grandaddy-I Am Sam
Segue is from a revolutionary movie
Overture to the Sun-A Clockwork Orange
Transportation songs; the protagonists in the latter two movies have a none too positive fate:
Ridin’ the Rails-k.d. lang and Take 6-Dick Tracy
Lonely Avenue-Ian Gillian and Roger Glover-Rain Man
Tennessee Plates-Charlie Sexton-Thelma & Louise
Ballad of Easy Rider-Roger McGuinn-Easy Rider
Easy Rider hits New Orleans, so I’ll go there
Ma ‘Tit Fille-Buckwheat Zydeco-The Big Easy
Another celebration
The Funeral (September 25, 1987)- George Fenton and Jonas Gwangwa-Cry Freedom: the bulk of this track is the very noble Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika (God Bless Africa). So I need some leavening.
Gump-Weird Al Yankovic
Upbeat, positive ending
Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive-Clint Eastwood-Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
You’ve Got a Friend in Me-Robert Goulet-Toy Story 2
ROG
Time, TV and Train QUESTIONS
1. Our techie guy wrote: “The U.S. Energy Policy Act of 2005, passed by the U.S. Congress July, 2005, extended Daylight Saving Time (DST) in the U.S. by approximately four weeks. As a result, beginning in 2007, DST will start three weeks earlier on March 11, 2007, and end one week later on November 4, 2007, resulting in a new DST period that is four weeks longer than previously observed. These four weeks are referred to in this article as the “extended DST period”.
We have prepared a plan to correct the Time Zone entries on both your computer and our servers… We will be updating your Exchange Mailboxes on Saturday March 10th, beginning at Noon… As a result, any meeting invitation for the ‘extended DST period’ that was previously sent will be re-sent to each invitee because it will be read as a ‘new time.’ All meeting requests will need to be reaccepted or re-declined in order to update your calendars properly.”
So, the first set of questions: Has the change in Daylight Saving Time been more of a hassle for you at work? At home? I think the DVR will reset on its own, but that the VCR (purchased in 1997 and Y2K compliant!) will not. Other than kids going trick or treating when it’s lighter, do you see any net benefit to the change, which will cost companies an estimated $2 billion to deal with? I don’t, and places that are in the northwest segments of a time zone (Lansing, MI in the east, Bismarck, ND in the central, and Helena, MT in the mountains, it’ll be dark at 8 a.m. on March 12, when kids are going to school. Where’s the energy savings?
2. As you may have heard, there are plans afoot to move the Addison character on Grey’s Anatomy to a spinoff show. There are lots of Kate Walsh fans out there, as she’s the first person I’ve seen on both Tom the Dog’s Object of My Affection list AND Jaquandor’s Realizations Of Womanly Radiance list.
The Ad Age Water Cooler column of February 26 suggests other possibilities for spinoff potential:
Hurley (Jorge Garcia)-Lost
Justin (Mark Indelicato)-Ugly Betty
Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson)-The Office
Kevin Walker (Matthew Rhys)-Brothers & Sisters
Can’t speak for the former two, but I just don’t see it in the latter two, especially Dwight, who is a wonderful character relating to both Angela and Michael. Then again, I didn’t see the potential of seeing spinning off Rhoda from the Mary Tyler Moore Show, though spinning off Maude from All in the Family or even Frasier Crane from Cheers made more sense to me.
So, what do you think of spinning off any of these characters from their shows? Any other ideas?
3. This is actually a work-related request: I need a list of recorded songs about trains. I found a couple lists here and here, but I can’t help but to think they’re missing some obvious tunes that I’m just not thinking of.
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Are NY Giants QB Eli Manning and “24” President Wayne Palmer the Same Guy? [Thanks to MMcG.]
ROG
Perplexing Pixilation Problem
So what did I do on my birthday? I got up early to finish – finally!- burning some CDs that I promised to the folks involved with Lefty Brown’s Mixed Bag. It was NOT for lack of trying. It seemed as though iTunes is the culprit, for me and a co-worker at least. Even though it has this lovely way to put together collections, it appears that stuff I copy from iTunes, including things I didn’t even BUY on iTunes, has a tendency to allow the first nine songs or so to track, and then not so much after that. So, I took said disc with nine seemingly OK songs and rerecorded said tunes into another program, then made a disc of them from a third program. (I’m exhausted just thinking about this.) Problem was, those nine already recorded songs, when copied onto a disc, tended to fade in and out. Thus, I had to rip the nine songs individually AGAIN. The good news is that this actually seemed to work. Finally.
My baby sister and her daughter called at 6:15 to wish me HB (talked with my other sister later in the day), then Carol took Lydia to day care so I could have a few extra minutes playing racquetball. Came home, ate, made a list.
I hate making lists.
I hate making lists, because, inevitably, the list is longer than the time allotted for the things on the list. I will tell you that reading the newspapers, working on the blog, putting the CDs away that I’ve played recently (“recently” being since late January), or even emptying the dishwasher did not happen. Didn’t even put “going to the movies”, my traditional birthday item, on the list.
Looked at a few blogs, including the one of my good buddy Fred Hembeck, who has the Greens Goblin, Lantern, and Arrow, plus the Martian Manhunter wishing me an HB; the Hulk had another agenda. (Fred might be interested in reading the March 6 post on why “24” uses real phone numbers on the show.)
I did print out lists for the mixed CD, no small feat, since the printer had been spooling out gibberish for a couple weeks. After taking myself to lunch at an Indian restaurant, I stood in a very s-l-o-w line and finally MAIL these CDs to the participants (and also to the aforementioned Mr. Hembeck). Additionally, I sent one of them to the guy who sent me this link to the MidWinter’s event I missed this year because it was right after Lydia’s surgery:
(Not to be confused with this or this, though the process is similar.)
That guy, BTW, also, walked me through the incredibly convoluted process of burning these CDs in the first place, on Saturday. Thanks, effendi! He, Fred, and Lefty Brown also got a copy of this book. (If anyone else would like a copy, please let me know, and I’ll send you one.)
After the P.O., I went to the grocery store to get some food for the hearts card party I’m having on Sunday – call if you want to come. The card party is really what I put on my birthday wish list.
I have all this new music from these folks I’ve never met that I’m supposed to rank by Sunday, which is really difficult. I will say that Lefty’s disc is in second place, of the ones I’ve heard so far, which is all that I received before yesterday.
Watched a couple news programs. Had dinner with wife and daughter, with carrot cake for birthday dessert. Lydia sang happy birthday to me thrice on my birthday: in the morning, when she came home, and with the cake.
I did get presents: headphones (the only other thing I asked for – my old ones broke), a couple racquetball gloves, and a pass to the Spectrum movie theater. My wife was mock upset when I told her I might take my girlfriend to the movies until I noted that SHE was my girlfriend.
All in all, not the birthday I planned, but mostly pretty OK.
On the other hand, the celebration continued the next day, with a half dozen birthday messages on my voice mail and work e-mail, plus a couple cards in the mail. Most special, the drawing that Mr. Hembeck featured on his blog for March 7 was in a package at my desk when I got to work! Not only that, some, actually a LOT of, tunes were also included. Huzzah!
ROG
"Right is of no Sex – Truth is of no Color"
On February 24, 2007, Carol and I I attended a conference on the Underground Railroad: Uncovering the Voices of Women, organized for the sixth year in a row by our friends Paul and Mary Liz Stewart. It was excellent.
One of the sessions was “From the UGR to Women’s Rights: Historic Sites in Central NY” by Judy Wellman, Ph.D. From the program: “Nationally, abolitionism provided one of the most important roots of the early women’s rights movement. In central NY, a survey of sites relating to African Americans and European Americans involved with the UGR suggests powerful connections between the UGR and early women’s rights movement.” One finds a number of suffragists at the forefront of the anti-slavery movement, described well here. The quote in the title is by early feminist Frederick Douglass.
I can’t help but notice the parallels between the 19th and 20th Century women’s movements. The article cited above notes how a major anti-slavery convention in London in 1840 did not seat or hear from women delegates, two of whom were Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. I recall the discussions during the civil rights and antiwar movements of the 1960s, where women (rightly) complained that they were being relegated to the sidelines, expected to do the cleaning and cooking, while the menfolk did the “important” organizing.
The toughest part of the conference had to be in the opening plenary session, in which Delores M. Walters, Ph.D. described “The Narrative Life of Margaret Garner’s Life and Beyond”. Margaret Garner was a slave who, with her family, attempted to escape, but was recaptured. Rather than letting her two-year-old be brought back into slavery, she killed her. Margaret was put on trial, and returned to slavery, but died soon thereafter.
There is now an opera, written by Toni Morrison, author of the book “Beloved”, which has a narrative section that parallels Margaret Garner’s life. It has been performed a number of times already, and it will be performed again in New York City in September 2007.
The conference ended with a responsive reading of a litany, found here.
The conference is already planning for next year, so if you’re in the area, please consider attending.
ROG