Now that my current degree is complete, it’s time to go back to this blog. I’ll be moving it shortly to a new home, but for now I’ll keep posting here.
This video crossed my feed yesterday, on the 72nd anniversary of D-Day. I think it’s right and proper to recall all the costs that we paid for “the “War to End All Wars” that wasn’t.
I’ll let the video speak for itself. It has plenty to say, and as they say, a picture’s worth a thousand words.
Comments closedOccasionally, the videos I post here are mine. I’ve been waiting to use my camera’s interval timer since I acquired the Nikon almost two years ago, but I didn’t have a reason, until Friday.
Feel free to share and enjoy!
Credit where credit is due, thanks.
Comments closedBlizzard2016 (aka Snowzilla, SnOMG and assorted others), taken in the DC metro area.
Credit: Betsy Marks Delaney / Hawkeswood Productions: www.hawkeswood.com. All rights reserved.
Music: “Don’t Turn Back” by Silent Partner, YouTube Audio Library https://www.youtube.com/audiolibrary/music
Time lapse video shot with my Nikon D5100 over the course of the storm.
Got a slightly late start, had a couple of instances where the battery ran out and I needed to replace it, and had to move the camera about 3/4 of the way through because of moisture outside the window.
The ghost at the left of the frame is me, working on my computer while the camera went off.
Total accumulation here: 19″ as measured by me off my back deck.
Camera settings for Time Lapse photography provided by Michael Schwarz from his Nikon camera page: http://michaeltraining.com/camera-settings/nikon-d5100-camera-settings/
So, normally this space is reserved for embedding YouTube video, but today I’m highlighting a show that you can watch on broadcast, cable, and streaming online.
When Carl Sagan’s original series, Cosmos: A Personal Voyage originally aired on PBS, I was hooked. I already thought of the Strasenburgh Planetarium as my favorite place in the city, growing up in Rochester, but here was a trip to places unseen and science made so clear and easy to understand, I didn’t miss an episode, rewatched the series every time it aired, and eventually bought the DVDs.
Neil deGrasse Tyson returns to Sagan’s exploration of our universe, but adds dimension and knowledge gained since the original aired almost 35 years ago. His series should serve as inspiration for learning more about our world.
Sadly, there are places where the concepts he talks about are considered sacrilegious, and not everyone sees the broadcast.
If you’re in a place where censorship has taken away the free broadcast, there are other options. I watch the show on both Fox and on Hulu. You can also find it on National Geographic Channel and Netflix Streaming.
I encourage you to watch if you haven’t.
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I had hoped to find this piece for today’s entry, but when I looked yesterday, it wasn’t where I expected to see it. Today, magically, I could find the film, but be warned – it’s likely to go away again, so see it while you can.
How does Mr. Hublot fit into Spiritual Sunday? I’ll leave that as an exercise for the viewer. All I know is it touched my heart. Would have been my choice, if I’d been allowed to vote. (Yes, Get a Horse! was awesome, but while it was funny and technically spectacular, it wasn’t moving.)
Unfortunately, the full version of the video is gone from YouTube. You can find more by going to this link to the official site.
Comments closedYesterday’s parodies of Bohemian Rhapsody have inspired me to post the reason why I think Frozen will take at least one Oscar come Sunday. Let’s face it – there are few songs from movies that achieve such lofty status in such a short period of time. The Disney movie hit screens on November 27, 2013. Since then, there have been (as of this writing) some 213,000 parodies of the song Let It Go, written by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, performed by Idina Menzel. If that’s not a guarantee of success for Original Song, I don’t know what is.
I already mentioned Let It Go once, but once clearly wasn’t enough. I guess I can’t let it go. And, as I said yesterday, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Here are three parodies for your Feel Good Friday pleasure:
First, there’s the tip of the hat to Batman’s Mr. Freeze. (Vocals not ideal, but then I don’t think of “Ahnold” as a particularly musical actor.)
Then there’s the literal version, which ought to get a lot more exposure than it has, because it is, in fact, awesome. High notes and all.
And finally, Cincinnati WKRC Traffic Man Bob Herzog’s exquisitely performed Traffic Man parody, which leads to the inevitable “I wish winter would end” feeling I’ve got, knowing there’s yet another winter storm on the way.
1 CommentThis week my Facebook feed included a reminder for a friend’s birthday. Normally, that wouldn’t be too terribly odd. I have over 650 “friends” on FB, and I get almost daily reminders that it’s someone’s birthday. But last year, Craig died suddenly, unexpectedly, just a few days after we saw him and his wife at the local planetarium. He was hosting a family science event on “Fibs” (the Fibonacci Sequence, to be specific) and was truly excited about leading the event. His enthusiasm for science and teaching was boundless.
When this video wandered past my feed a few months back, I added it to the list, but I wasn’t sure when I’d get to it. Between Craig Levin’s birthday and the local supernova, I think I found my answer. If you don’t know who Carl Sagan was, or why this video is important, now’s a great time to gain a little perspective about Earth in relation to the rest of the universe.
Whenever I look up these days, I think of Craig. He had a magic gift for seeing the importance in things, and it saddens me to know he was gone too soon. And then I think about the cool stuff he shared and I know he’d have loved this clip. So, on his behalf, a rare dedication to someone I knew and remember fondly.
Comments closedReleased on May 1, 1984, this wild performance art piece directed by Zbigniew Rybczyński sums up the surreal aspects of music video. From the Wikipedia entry for the song, there’s this:
“I thought it was a fun video,” Anne Dudley said, “but some people thought it was unnecessarily violent. It was banned in New Zealand as encouraging violence towards children. Nothing could have been further from our minds.” The video later won the MTV Video Music Awards for Most Experimental Video and the Best Editing in 1985.
I love the song and the artistry of the video, so it made the cut early on. It’s one of the videos I used to wait for on MTV, back when it was still about music and not reality junk.
I didn’t realize until I started creating my Music Video playlist that there was a second version of this video, but there was. And here it is. (Actually, there are three, but I like these two the best.)
No, it doesn’t make any more sense than the first version, but that’s okay, because ART.
Comments closedIn 1992, the film Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase won five awards for Best Animated Film, including the 1993 Oscar. The piece, animated using the blended clay technique, features highlights from the works of 35 artists, including Munch, Kahlo, Dali, Warhol, Picasso, Magritte and more.
I feel I should add a trigger warning – literal – as the Roy Lichtenstein includes a gun and I know several people on my flist are likely to need the heads up.
Art is on my mind tonight, as are the Academy Awards. It’s interesting how we define works as award-worthy, and how few of us actually receive the recognition we deserve, simply because of exposure. Sometimes it’s about luck. Sometimes it’s about quality. Occasionally, the two merge together and those who create the art get the recognition they deserve. It happens, all too infrequently.
The DAS Film Festival (which published the video) says this about its purpose:
Each month we’ll be webcasting a short film from 2-20 minutes long that relates in some way to Design, Architecture or Sustainability. And I have a feeling we’ll find common ground with art and science as well. In fact, I hope, over time, the films taken together will offer a kind of serendipity that is not always present in the on-line world. The design blog will have a similar spirit of curiosity.
Their goals aren’t that far away from mine. I just prefer a broader canvas on which to paint my portrait of the world.
Comments closedOriginally posted on December 5, 2012, this short video hasn’t gotten nearly enough air time, and I think it’s important enough that I’m gong to share it under History. Today’s history lesson comes from Fred Glass for the California Federation of Teachers, narrated by Ed Asner (of Lou Grant and Mary Tyler Moore Show fame, among others).
The perils of a tax-free society have made the rounds recently, as the Tea Party fights harder than ever for deregulation and tries to shelter ever increasing amounts of funding from social programs. The cost is already profound, but it’s going to get a lot worse if we don’t find way to loosen the grip of Corporate America.
Sorry – in a soapbox-y mood this week!
Comments closedYes, I could have picked any number of songs specifically from the WWI and WWII periods, but I didn’t.
This song comes from my childhood. A fan of Peanuts since the early ’60s, my kindergarten and first grade music teacher, Miss Slocumb, played this tune when we were good in class as a reward for our behavior. My classmates and I loved it, though we really didn’t understand what real war was like.
I hope never to find out firsthand.
To all those serving now or home and retired, I say thank you and I’m sorry. You should never have had to make the sacrifice.
I’ll quaff a rootbeer in your honor and never stop hoping that war will end one day, and that we will no longer have to remember the horror.
Comments closedTaking a brief additional break from geeky science-y stuff because…books.
Animated books.
In colors. In sizes. With a banana.
Just because.
Seems this video encompasses all sorts of things I love. Appropriate for a birthday, don’t you think?
From this Wednesday’s Child to you. Happy (Un)Birthday!
(For all my birthday twins — including Kelly Turner, gone far, far too soon.)
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