Archive for December, 2008
25 items.
Yesterday, I posted Mark Harper’s altar song to Sweet Marie.
Today I had planned to post “Love Is”. Great song. Then I thought I would post the “Welcome to the Land of Milk and Honey” song.
But then I decided I’d instead post “Say the Words First” because it’s a rare song that makes you change what you’re doing as you listen to it. And “Say the Words First” is that song.
The day after Christmas we were on our way down to my brother’s and became stranded in a 90 minute traffic jam on the interstate. As we sat there, going nowhere, and Marty inquired for the seventh time if I was going to be acting “like this” no matter what (I woke up on the wrong side of the bed) this song played.
Listen to Say the Words First.
Yes, that song there, the one above. Marty was playing the Mark Harper material as he knows how much I like it, and that song played and I may not have been a Scrooge but my heart still grew several times that moment and I took Marty’s hand and said, “I still like you”.
Everyone should have this song on their iPod so they can pop it in their iPod dock in their car and play it at the appropriate moment. Or, if you’re not in the car and you need this song and have it on your iPod, be sure to be carrying around an earphone splitter.
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Are you as profoundly embarrassed by your sister-in-law as Rob is by me?
The Silver Grill was not in top form the day before Christmas, except for friendly service. H.o.p. and I liked the booths but some of the accessorizing could go out the door–after all, the restaurant *is* an old diner so it’s not like it has to surround you with fake old diner crap in order to make you kinda feel like you’re in an old diner when you’re not.
A fan of Southern cooking, Marty eats there occasionally and says he’s experienced it on better days.
Despite the food being mediocre that day, tasting like it had been waiting and then waiting some more and then another day for us to show up (except the cucumber salad was good and the fried chicken breast was huge) I had a good time. And H.o.p. had a great time. He said he felt like he was in New York again and if there’s anything H.o.p. likes it’s feeling like he’s in New York. Oh, and he also likes his Uncle Rob, who was down from New York for several days over the holidays, so a great time wasn’t hard to be had.
I would like to go back to the Silver Grill some time soon and instead try the breakfast menu.
Marty’s been in the studio recording with singer/songwriter Mark Harper.
The dream world we’re coerced into inhabiting from the moment we draw breath is a seriously screwed up place. I’ve known this for years, since I was old enough to sit on a potty chair, and have a lot of experience with the fact that particular world is a seriously screwed up place and that despite this fact every moment is a window onto a heart-crushing view of wonderful.
Mark catches these windows well.
His songs are like little altars. Lots of people write songs because they want to tell you about their experience. I’ve the feeling that Mark writes songs because he wants to remind you of your experiences. The nano thoughts and experiences that you continually throw out because you think they’re not big enough to be a part of you, he instead takes and builds little altars to them. And you say, “Oh, my god, that is me. That really did happen to me. I threw it away because I thought it didn’t matter but Mark found it and brought it back and look what a wonderful thing it really is. I guess this has happened to many of us.”
Marty played for me the first batch of seven songs on the way to the Farmer’s Market the Tuesday before Christmas. I loved them all but woke up Thursday morning with “I Love Marie” going through my head. Every single note.
Listen to I Love Marie.
Happy Holidays to our Friends and Family and, well, Every Dang Body (the holiday card post)!
December 24th, 2008 |Posted In: General
In case you’re wondering, I found an old Russian card and modified it.
Let’s see.
- Tree sacrificed for our table top and gussied up with lights and stuff – check (H.o.p. declared the need for a tree this past weekend and went hunting and came up with a lovely Scotch Pine that he is mostly responsible for decorating because I told him that the glory of the tree belonged to him and he liked that idea, and of course he also made little movies of toys decorating the tree so it took five hours)
- Lights in the windows chasing away the winter dark – check
- Have driven around looking for, finding and ogling a few audacious, wonderfully overdecorated lawns – check
- Cookies (have some, need more) – check
- Have watched “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” – check
- Have watched Albert Finney’s “Scrooge” – check
- Holiday music of various sorts streaming a couple times a day on Pandora – check
H.o.p. waving “Hello!”
- Less cookies than we had when I began writing this post – check
- Miles to drive the next several days before we rest – check
- Happy kid running around remarking on how “JOLLY!” everything looks! – check
- Best wishes for all! – check
Marty, Aaron and I trust everyone we know has managed a healthy balance of nice and naughty this year.
We cherish all of you and wish you the Happiest Holidays Ever and a Grand New Year!
H.o.p. prefers this image of him waving a Happy Holiday Hello to everyone.
P.S. Speaking of naughty or nice, if you missed us performing a decidedly homegrown “Nuttin’ for Christmas” then click here.
P.P.S. Apologies for the multiple ugly tiny URL that went out in a number of emails. It didn’t show as having pasted in except for once in my email program.
Have you ever seen a UFO? Interview #13
December 23rd, 2008 |Posted In: Art, Have you ever seen a UFO?
The individual asked to remain anonymous so fake names are used.
Idyllopus Press: Have you ever seen a UFO?
Interviewee: Yes.
Idyllopus Press: Yes…
Interviewee: As in unidentified…
Idyllopus Press: Right.
Interviewee: I don’t claim it to be anything but…
Idyllopus Press: Just unidentified.
Interviewee: I wish I could claim it to be…
Idyllopus Press: Where was this?
Interviewee: Chattanooga. Tennessee. Ooltewah, to be exact.
Idyllopus Press: This was how many years ago? What year?
Interviewee: Uhm, Jennie was, I think she was sixteen.
Idyllopus Press: And what time of year?
Interviewee: I don’t know.
Idyllopus Press: You don’t remember the time of year.
Interviewee: No. It wasn’t the dead of winter.
Idyllopus Press: And what year was this?
Interviewee: Around ’92.
Idyllopus Press: So, what happened?
Interviewee: I realized it had been a long time since I had gone up and said good-night to her, because she was a big girl, y’know…
Idyllopus Press: What time of night was this?
Interviewee: It’s possible she was younger, fourteen, I don’t remember. And uhm it was around ten, ten-thirty, something like that, and I went and I sat on her bed, facing her, which is, so the window was behind me. What was I saying to her, I don’t know. I was trying to be sweet and nice, y’know, she was a good girl, that kind of thing, and then all of a sudden she JUMPS…
Idyllopus Press: So, she saw it first.
Interviewee: She saw it first. She jumped and shot over to the window. Well, it takes me a little bit to see, to turn around, what is going on, and she said, “Mom! It’s a UFO!” And I, I turn around and go over there and it’s starting to go away. Later on, this is many years later I’m talking to Jennie on the phone and I was sort of retelling the story and she said, “Mom, when I saw it, it was hovering.” In other words, it had come to a stand still. I don’t know whether she saw it moving first, then come to a stand still. But, anyway, so I went over there and it started to move away, and for it to be moving away, it had to be hovering, because it was so close. I mean, it was, and I can’t even tell you really whether it was moving away because I remember it as static outside the window.
Idyllopus Press: How large was it?
Interviewee: Large. But how large?
Idyllopus Press: Can you compare it to something?
Interviewee: Probably the size of two widths of a car. At least.
Idyllopus Press: Two widths, not two lengths.
Interviewee: Yeah, I’m trying to guess. I would say more than the length of a car, for sure.
Idyllopus Press: It was right outside the window.
Interviewee: Right outside the window. I mean, like, are we in fairyland and where are the neighbors? How come they’re not all out in the street, going, “There! There!”
Idyllopus Press: What did it look like?
Interviewee: OK, it was unusual in that the dome was on the bottom. And I saw holes, lights, OK.
Idyllopus Press: Were these around the top and the bottom or just around the bottom?
Interviewee: There was nothing on the top that I could see.
Idyllopus Press: There was just the dome on the bottom. Were they multi-colored lights?
Interviewee: Red and white, that I remember. There might have been one blue, but that’s foggy with me. There were definitely a couple of red lights and white lights.
Idyllopus Press: Were they placed pellmell or in a pattern?
Interviewee: No pattern.
Idyllopus Press: No circular pattern…
Interviewee: Oh, yeah, you could tell it was circular, the dome shape.
Idyllopus Press: No, I meant the lights.
Interviewee: Oh, the lights. You could reach out and tell whether they were GE or not. I’m serious. Those were light bulbs!
Idyllopus Press: They were light bulbs? They looked like…
Interviewee: Well, they looked like…they looked like a hole and must have been a light in there, almost like you could unscrew it.
Idyllopus Press: Wow, it was that close.
Interviewee: It was that close, yeah.
Idyllopus Press: Were they static? Were they blinking? A steady illumination?
Interviewee: No, a steady illumination. Like a light bulb.
Idyllopus Press: How bright were they?
Interviewee: Bright.
Idyllopus Press: Very bright?
Interviewee: Yes. Not to blind you or anything.
Idyllopus Press: So not as bright as a police light?
Interviewee: No, not to turn away, no. There were black holes there, too. Years later when I was telling some guy this, he said, “Well, that could have been where they had a camera, port holes.”
Idyllopus Press: Uh-hum.
Interviewee: Or where they were able to look at you.
Idyllopus Press: So you’re thinking more this was a government thing than…?
Interviewee: I had no clue.
Idyllopus Press: What was going through your mind when you saw it? Were you thinking government, alien, what?
Interviewee: I didn’t have time to think of anything like that. I was trying to observe it, and thinking this was the weirdest thing that ever happened to me, and so glad Jennie was there.
Idyllopus Press: So it was hovering outside your second story window.
Interviewee: Yes. And, OK, it was after it sort of moved away, and then went to the left, and I watched it. Jennie was dashing downstairs as fast as she could to get George and I stayed there because I wanted to know what it was doing.
Idyllopus Press: So, when you say it’s moving left do you mean it’s going out to the street, going down…
Interviewee: It’s higher now and moving in a straight line to the left. And it keeps going and it keeps going until it disappears.
Idyllopus Press: Did it disappear down the street or did it go off over the houses?
Interviewee: Well, it was out over the houses, but barely. It sort of went down the street, just like…
Idyllopus Press: How fast?
Interviewee: We had houses on both sides and trees on both sides so the safest path was going down the street.
Idyllopus Press: How fast did it go?
Interviewee: Not very fast. It didn’t zoom away, no.
Idyllopus Press: Relative to the speed of a car, how fast would you say it went?
Interviewee: Well, since it was gliding through the air it didn’t seem like it was zooming. I guess probably about maybe forty, maybe fifty miles an hour.
Idyllopus Press: Slowly moving through the neighborhood.
Interviewee: Right. That seems fast for a car but for something like that it would be slow.
Idyllopus Press: Was it a stable glide? Did it shimmmer at all?
Interviewee: No, a stable glide. Stable.
Idyllopus Press: Very stable.
Interviewee: Very stable. And then it seemed to go down a little bit as it moved out, where I couldn’t see any more, and I thought, hmmm, that’s funny, because the planes that I saw, the small planes, that would go over went that same path, and that’s when I thought, ah-hah…
Idyllopus Press: There was a landing field nearby?
Interviewee: It’s been so long, I don’t know. But I used to assume the airport was over that direction, somehow. Because the landing path was to sort of go that way and to go down. And this was going the same way. I told George, a week or so ago, that if it was now, I’m used to jumping in my car and chasing a helium balloon, I love to do that, or go see a sunset in a better place, but now, ten-thirty at night, I don’t care, if you don’t get in a car, I am and I’m going over there.
Idyllopus Press: Some people might say you’d seen a balloon of some sort and you just didn’t know it.
Interviewee: A balloon? Well, those people have never seen a balloon then. (Laughs.)
Idyllopus Press: Some people would say you saw Venus and didn’t know it.
Interviewee: Those people weren’t there and those people haven’t even seen a balloon.
Idyllopus Press: So, Jennie had gone downstairs and did George get back up in time to see it…
Interviewee: No.
Idyllopus Press: It was fast enough that by the time he got up there it was gone.
Interviewee: He didn’t care. He was downstairs still reading his paper, I think.
Idyllopus Press: Oh, OK.
Interviewee: Or watching TV. No big deal.
Idyllopus Press: So, how long would you say this transpired? How many minutes?
Interviewee: Oh, not long. Not long. Because it started moving away as soon as I came to the window. It was starting to go away. The funny feeling is when that guy said, “Well, that’s where they were able to look out or had a camera,” I was…but why our house? Why us? Why didn’t they move over across the street and look in the window?
Idyllopus Press: It was just your window.
Interviewee: What were they doing at Jennie’s window looking in? Who do you know, Jennie? (Laughs.)
Idyllopus Press: Peter Pan. (Laughs.)
Interviewee: Then three months later, I’m down the stairs, with George…
Idyllopus Press: Just a minute. Could you tell, was it metallic? What kind of material…?
Interviewee: I don’t know.
Idyllopus Press: OK.
Interviewee: No, I don’t think there would have been any way to tell that because there would have had to be light resting on it.
Idyllopus Press: Was the dome resting under a spherical or saucer like object or did you just notice the dome?
Interviewee: Just the dome, which was so weird to me because I always thought if I saw one, from pictures, if there was any dome at all it would be on top so that legs could come down. But then a dome, I suppose…also those little holes could be where…
Idyllopus Press: Spokes…
Interviewee: Where spokes could come out. That was really different I thought. What is this? This isn’t what a spaceship is supposed to be. But after I saw that pattern, where it went, and it didn’t streak off into nowhere, I bet anything this was a manmade thing, here. I would like to believe it was from outer space, that would be much more fun. Anyway, then about three months later, George and I are turning off the lights to go to bed, it’s about eleven o’clock. And we turn out the last light, OK, and I hear this hover…
Idyllopus Press: Did you hear anything before? The first time?
Interviewee: I don’t know. I can’t answer that clearly, but all I know is when I heard that noise I knew instantly what it was, so it’s possible my brain did hear this and there’s so much to take in…and the fact Jennie was flying, she was just so, she didn’t stay at the window more than a second and was running.
Idyllopus Press: Someone might say why didn’t you get a photo of it?
Interviewee: Are you kidding? It’s moving away and I’m going to go run for my camera? I’ve learned since then that when you’re trying to take one of a sunset and run to get the camera, it’s not there any more.
Idyllopus Press: The moment’s passed.
Interviewee: Not the way you saw it anyway. What you wanted to capture. The best part. No, I would have lost everything. And, as it is, Jennie is foggy on some of it because she ran away. Darn! (Laughs.) So, anyway, turn off the light and I instantly know what that has to be. I run to the front window…
Idyllopus Press: Was this the first story?
Interviewee: The first story, yes. And it would be approximately under where her window was. A little bit to the middle of the house, her room was, and this was just a little bit to the right of the house. I look up in the sky and this thing is going slowly this way, same thing.
Idyllopus Press: Same flight pattern?
Interviewee: No, it went across the way. This way.
Idyllopus Press: I’m just trying to establish…the tape recorder can’t see that…
Interviewee: Oh, I see.
Idyllopus Press: When you had seen it before, what direction had it gone? North, south, east, west?
Interviewee: I can only say it went to the left. This time it moved off to the front, straight ahead.
Idyllopus Press: Before, it had gone to the left, and this time it was going straight ahead…
Interviewee: Straight ahead from me. And if you say straight ahead is north then what’s to my left, I don’t know, I get messed up on directions.
Idyllopus Press: West.
Interviewee: Right. And it seemed a little bit higher this time. But then, I’m lower, too.
Idyllopus Press: That’s right, you’re now on the first floor.
Interviewee: So would you say it was next to or above the house?
Idyllopus Press: Above the house, and it would have had to have been hovering because for me to get to the front of the house from the back, where I was turning off that lamp, it had to have been sitting right over our house. And it wasn’t moving. You can hear an airplane moving. This was just sitting there, hovering, on our house. Then it was going off that way. And because of the trees, which are high, I lost view of it. But a difference was this time all the lights were white, nothing red.
Idyllopus Press: Before, it was red and white lights and this time all the lights were white. How many lights would you say, if you could take a guess?
Interviewee: Hmmm.
Idyllopus Press: That you could see, that were observable.
Interviewee: I’d have to draw a picture to guess, because of the black holes, too. I’d say probably under twenty lights. Maybe under fifteen even, because they were fairly good size, and they were evenly spaced. It was just that with the red and the white they weren’t in a pattern…
Idyllopus Press: If you could compare the lights to the size of a car headlight…
Interviewee: Smaller.
Idyllopus Press: They appeared smaller from where you were standing?
Interviewee: A car light would have appeared lighter and larger from where I was standing so they were smaller. More the shape of a regular light bulb.
Idyllopus Press: Wow. But that’s pretty far away though, isn’t it. You’re talking about above a house.
Interviewee: Yes, but the first time I saw it was in front of the hosue.
Idyllopus Press: Right. Right in front of you.
Interviewee: And for me to see the lights in that dome shape, it was the same craft. Or the same kind of craft, I mean. You see?
Idyllopus Press: So was it a remote-controlled craft?
Interviewee: Oh, no. I don’t think so. I think there was somebody inside it.
Idyllopus Press: You think there was somebody inside it?
Interviewee: Oh, yeah.
Idyllopus Press: It was that large?
Interviewee: Oh, yes. At least two people.
Idyllopus Press: OK, I wasn’t…
Interviewee: Oh, yes. Two even. Depending on what’s inside. What it needs to carry it. I have no idea. Whatever it was was different from what we know. You would think it would take a large machine to hold it up…
Idyllopus Press: The impression I was getting from it being the length of a car and two car widths, I was thinking of a dome that was smaller where it wouldn’t be large enough to have anyone inside of it. But, obviously, you’re talking about something that you saw was large enough to carry individuals…
Interviewee: It was possible for one person to be in there for sure. One. I’d never thought of it as being perhaps remote. But remote from where? That’s a lot of control for it to come that close to a house and not hit it, when you think about it, I didn’t even think about it until this minute. It would have been so easy for it to crash and that it would have to be manned from inside for it to have that much control. For it to be right in front of your window and not crash through it. And then how come it goes away the minute we see it? I mean, it’s just weird.
Idyllopus Press: And the second time you saw it you didn’t notice it stopping next to or over any other houses?
Interviewee: No, it just went away. It seems like it targeted our house. Is that ego or what? (Laughs.) That’s where I lose my whole audience. Just my house. (Laughs.)
Idyllopus Press: And you never saw it again.
Interviewee: No, and I feel so rejected. (Laughs.)
Idyllopus Press: (Laughs)
Interviewee: Like maybe I’m not measuring up, not doing the right thing anymore.
Idyllopus Press: Not interesting enough! (Laughs.)
Interview conducted November 2008
I was shocked, I tell you. Shocked.
Before you bother considering whether a glass is half empty or half full, you should first ask what's in it
December 18th, 2008 |Posted In: General
H.o.p. wanted to hear Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” so I went to Youtube where I knew I could find a few versions fast and quick.
Over in the side bar was a video titled, “Pachelbel Canon in D Major Perfect Version”.
I’ve heard plenty of versions I don’t like and a few that I do. I wondered what was the “perfect” version and clicked over to it.
Pachelbel started playing.
The Pachelbel “video” shows a picture of Mozart.
As I listen, I read the comments…
59phifty (5 hours ago)
Internet thugs are cool!Pharaun317 (8 hours ago)
Hey idiot, if you love Hitler so much. Why’d you forget to capitalize the first letter in his name?ElThomazzo (11 hours ago)
What?DeineMata (12 hours ago)
think you’re not from germany like me and i think you don’t know any thing about that shit you are talking about…
my god every german man seeing you talking this shit as an comment to a mozart video would laugh at you …
embrassed..
Inspiration struck upon hearing Nuttin’ for Christmas last night. We’d no idea it existed and if you aren’t familiar then I suggest you go take a listen at the above link before proceeding, because…
I promptly came up with my own all natural, organic, folk holiday version, got Marty to play guitar, and off-the-top of our heads we gathered around the computer, the miracle Amish fireless fireplace website blazing on the monitor, and recorded. We’re kind of like the Von Trapp family only we’ve got one child and he won’t sing, which left the burden full on me.
La, la, la.
Yes, click here for the streaming mp3.
And because H.o.p. won’t sing we came up with something else for him to do.
Update: What a wonderful idea! My friend Carole downloaded the song and added her harmony!
I’ve added an update to my blog on Death Falcon Zero vs. the Zombie Slug Lords.
USA Today has a story on the publication of the graphic novel.
