Grand Canyon

One Mile below - the River

What struck me enormously was the accessibility along the South Rim of the path for people in wheelchairs, yes, they could not descend to the precarious 'viewing' spots, but using shuttle buses with ramps they were able to descend from the bus at special scenic overlooks and motor along the paved pah to - at the least - get a pretty good impression of the grandeur and stunning sights of the "Big Ditch"! Good !

That IS the mighty Colorado

Hopi Dancer -was it a rain dance?
Shortly after it rained and how!

clinging to life on the cliff

Aeros

Team Schedule

Date Time Opponent Score
10/01/2010 07:00 PM San Antonio Rampage
10/16/2010 07:35 PM Peoria Rivermen
10/17/2010 04:05 PM Oklahoma City Barons
10/22/2010 07:35 PM Peoria Rivermen
10/24/2010 04:05 PM Lake Erie Monsters
10/31/2010 04:05 PM Texas Stars
11/05/2010 07:35 PM Toronto Marlies
11/17/2010 07:05 PM Chicago Wolves
11/21/2010 04:05 PM Texas Stars
11/26/2010 07:35 PM San Antonio Rampage

11/27/2010 07:35 PM Milwaukee Admirals

12/02/2010 11:05 AM Rockford IceHogs

12/03/2010 07:35 PM Rockford IceHogs

12/10/2010 07:35 PM San Antonio Rampage

12/21/2010 07:05 PM Hamilton Bulldogs
12/26/2010 04:05 PM Texas Stars
01/01/2011 07:35 PM San Antonio Rampage
01/07/2011 07:35 PM Lake Erie Monsters

01/09/2011 04:05 PM San Antonio Rampage

01/15/2011 07:35 PM Grand Rapids Griffins

01/16/2011 04:05 PM Grand Rapids Griffins

01/21/2011 07:35 PM Texas Stars

01/28/2011 07:35 PM Abbotsford Heat

02/04/2011 07:35 PM Texas Stars

02/12/2011 02:30 PM Peoria Rivermen

will be played in Minneapolis - St.Paul counted as a "HOME" game

02/17/2011 11:05 AM Chicago Wolves

02/22/2011 07:05 PM Milwaukee Admirals

02/25/2011 07:35 PM Texas Stars

02/27/2011 04:05 PM Rockford IceHogs

03/04/2011 07:35 PM Syracuse Crunch

03/06/2011 05:05 PM Abbotsford Heat

03/11/2011 07:35 PM Manitoba Moose

03/13/2011 04:05 PM Manitoba Moose

03/15/2011 07:05 PM Milwaukee Admirals

03/19/2011 07:35 PM San Antonio Rampage

03/25/2011 07:35 PM Oklahoma City 

03/26/2011 07:35 PM Oklahoma City

03/27/2011 04:05 PM Oklahoma City

03/31/2011 07:05 PM Chicago

long hiatus of no games  

only 2 AWAY Game 4/1 Milwaukie, 4/2 Chicago

04/10/2011 04:05 PM Oklahoma City - last game of season!

And there you have it!

Let them just...

Finally..

Hockey schedules will be posted this afternoon and trip planning can start.

Meanwhile here are just a few pix from last trip, starting with the COLD NIGHT on Sante Fe Operahill,

Thunderclouds and rain curtain over Opera Hill

Fat Man and Little Boy Atomic Museum, Albuquerque

<>

Pink Jeep among Red Rocks

Chapel of the Holy Cross Sedona and

ruin and wine..

 Montezumas Castle

not exactly mutually exclusive, but in this case the ruins are remnants of an extinct people, the Sinaguas. Why they left verdant valleys WITH water, even the archaeologists cannot really explain.
How they built these swallow nests in the cliff or the houses on top of a mount, we do know, or guess at!
Cliffdwellings are built from the bottom up, all rooms are only accessible via ladders through the roofs/bottoms of the next layer, rooms built helterskelter as the families expanded.

Tuzigoot was erected on top of a steepish hill in the White Hills near the old mining town of Jerome (of course predating Jerome) for the same reason: Minerals.
The valley of the river Verde was fertile and provided food and wood,  the hills minerals and stones. Tuzigoot is built from lime- and sandstone cemented together with pebbles, the roofs are tree trunks with woven branches and mud. The rooms were used mainly for sleeping and shelter but 'village  life' was spent outdoors.

Tuzigoot

Due to the wish to preserve the Montezuma castle buildings, access has been limited to scholars, while Tuzigoot is accessible to tourists.

The drive from Sedona to Tuzigoot, Jerome and onward to Prescott is rather stunning.

Jerome clings to the steepest hillsides! Formerly a mining town, but mining for copper etc. proved to be too arduous plus the difficulty to transport the rather meager finds,  now it is a tourist town, still boasting a Grand Hotel. Wild West Saloons and Brothels have been gentrified, of course, into shops!

After leaving Jerome, a two lane road twists in hair pin turns up and into the Prescott National Forest,  naturally one better takes it at slow speed and very carefully :-), hoping no speed demon is on one's tail.

But the vista is beautiful...fir trees and wildflowers, interspersed with cacti and scrubby bushes, rocky sides and steep cliffs! The fire danger was  listed at moderate, it has been a rather moist (can't really say wet) summer. 

On the outskirts of Prescott sits a small museum dedicated to Western/Cowboy art, where we found a small special exhibit of works by the 'Jewish cowboy artist',  Kenneth Freeman, plus mock ups of three painters' studios. And small bronzes. Pics to follow..The town of Prescott sits in a bowl like high valley surrounded by 'hillocks' not really craggy mountains.

Returning to Sedona we noticed the variance of the rock formations, cone shaped hills of volcanic origin in gray and brown, limestone in white to light grey, as also sandstone and huge boulders, known as the 'Granite Dells' .Despite the sandy/ rocky soil green vegetation offered some restful views.

The landscape not as imposingly threatening as the Colorado Rockies, nor as mysteriously enchanting as the high New Mexico desert, or as beautifully shaped and colored as the Red Rocks (caused by iron oxide)...one might say these are "Rusty Rocks" ;-)!

Despite many fir trees, the feeling is NOT alpine as are the forests around Taos in NM, which reminded me much of the Italian/Austrian alps.

But it is interesting - a green desert, rather empty, a bit infinite! But it seems to produce some rather good wines in several wineries around Cottonwood, Jerome, etc.

Flying high..

not THAT kind of high.
up, up and away -
but first, up at the crack of dawn or before! Then being driven out to start site and watching a 'multistoried house ' sized balloon being inflated...80 meters plus of skin filled with air, attached to a tiny basket holding 4 tanks, and 7 people, who had to climb into it not unlike mounting a horse..:-).
Those of us with long limbs had it a lot easier - leg over the rail and there they were. The rest of us wished fervently for a mounting stool! but managed to board, finally, and before you could say here we go.. we were afloat, wafting gently over the ground, rising and sinking, brushing a bush or two and seeing a blinding sun rise behind Cathedral rock. And on and on , up and down,  we swayed in silent splendor except when the flames burned to make us rise.
No flight path, just where the soft breezes carried us, for about 1 hour and half, in company with 3 other balloons. and then there was "Charlie", in his featherlite swooping among the balloons and wiggling his wings, while jackrabbits scurried below and hawks perched looking for prey.
Finally landing God knows where, basket scraping and tilting, people being shoved against each other.At this minute, it would have been sooo easy to exit (roll out of) the basket while it was tilted, but the 'mounting' procedure had to be done in reverse.
At long last, the chase cars found us, the skin was rolled and stuffed into its bag..all 400 plus pounds of it;
And, as tradition demands, champagne corks popped, fruit and sweet rolls served, and a toast drunk to us, the intrepid ballooneers.
Lovely, one could get addicted! To the ballooning, I mean, even though Champagne is not to be sneezed at, LOL.

"Choo Choo" Train to Grand Canyon

There is much to be said about THAT trip' aside from the typical touristy stuff:
Wild West Show (?) before, Banjo entertainer during the ride North, passing through several biologic strata, from Cedars and Pinons, to scrub pines and mossy hillocks to majestic Ponderosa Pines (bringing to mind out friend C."HOSS" J. ;-0.
Finally, after several switchback curves arriving at the South rim of THE GRAND CANYON.
Loading onto the bus for a reasonably tasty lunch, then on to several look out points along the rim...some numbers for my dear readers here: 277 river miles long, 600 to 18 miles across..yes 18 MILES!and one mile deep. The South rim is about 1100 feet lower than the North rim (8100 ft).
The Colorado River has been carving the deep 'ditch' in the course of 6 million years with  a little help of wind and ice, while the bottom of it is, at last count, 2 BILLION years old. Oldest human artifacts found here reach back to 10,000 years.

The Grand Canyon Railroad was established in 1901,  transported famous and not so famous passengers from 1910 to 1968. Due to Americans' love affair with the auto, it was discontinued, but restarted by the Biegerts in 1989, who also reopened the famous Fray Marcos Hotel next to the Depot in Williams, AZ and offers continuous service (with wheelchair lifts) today with musical entertainers on the way - Banjo playing/singing "Cowboy", going up, mouth organ and accordeon playing "Cowboy" with a slap stick routine on the way down, plus a  "Railway Robbery" by masked men on horseback. For easy boarding by these 'outlaws' the train slows down, the outlaws board, rush through the cars with "the Marshal" ( from the Wild West show) in leisurely pursuit..all in good fun. Singalongs are encouraged!

The Grand Canyon truly defies all descriptions.. one HAS to have seen it.
Photos (to  follow) only offer a small glimpse into its fantastic and majestic, frightening, open mouth gaping vastness!
The National Park Service has done simply wonders to make some scenic overlooks accessible to wheelchaired and handicapped trippers...plus providing shuttle buses to special trailhead points.
Hiking and riding mule trains downs steep trails are for more agile adventurers. One can hike several miles back and forth and/or up and down well marked trails-on one's own, but needs to always be well equipped.. There is NO natural wellwater on the South Rim, the little and extermely precious wet stuff is piped over from the North... and only few 'reststations ;-) are provided along trails...but then there are a few scraggly bushes!! Not recommended...rattlers can hide there ;-).
Returning to the depot one is, tired or not, tempted to climb 47 steps to the famous (the first) Hotel El Tovar (a Harvey Hotel) to take a last look at the overpowering majesty of the "Deep Ditch" from the rim.
In the background , in front of HOPI house, Indian Music and Dancers provide color but also promotional information on the fate of THE FIRST Americans before and after the 'invasion'.

A brief 'monsoon' rain drenches the weary travelers as the board the train back down to Williams, chilling the air and laying the dust.  It has been a rather wet year so far and the wild flowers are in their third bloom according to knowledgeable guides.
To close with a tit bit of human interest:  huge numbers of seasonal workers from all over the world live up there in dormitories or family housing: waitstaff, bus drivers, road crews, landscapers (? - well we saw some guy loading a shovel and transferring dirt to the back of a cart) and more, plus rangers and volunteers.
And so back in the dark to Sedona, which experienced rain, thunder and lightening plus hail, at around the same time the big drops hit the Big Ditch!

Red Rocks in a Pink jeep

spectacular...more personal photos later.What words to use?
Rattling down rocks, steep enough that the jeep looked standing on his 'nose', but the views and the smell of nature (cedars, pine, pinon) made it all an unforgettable 2 hours.
Even though ,after, a visit to a chiropractor might have been beneficial... LOL.
Lucky it had rained buckets (again we got rained at) the night before, to lay the dust, and lucky we were the lead jeep..let them eat dust that drove behind us, eh!
But the bone rattling, teeth jarring trip was worth every blasted minute of it, all at 1 or less miles per hour!
The afternoon was spent investigating some places in Sedona,as in the very modern Chapel on or rather IN the rocks, built by a former Austrian, Marguerite Staude, looking out over the scenery in lofty splendor.
Regretfully outdone  by an ostentatious edifice (I'm told a forty million one) built by the man who discovered eye lasers or some such. Modeled indubitably after a Venetian Palazzo including formal gardens; at least those were xerisphere ones, not wasting the precious water of the desert. 
Locals tell me they still cannot fathom how in the world this person side stepped the rigid building codes in the village. Just shows big money does not equal big aesthetic sentiments, alas!

Ah, it IS coming...

hockey season, that is.
Blogosphere is heating up with roster discussions, sightings, weddings, complaints, critiques,  salary caps,  team movements, who owes whom what and how much, wishful thinkings, hailing the welcome new or old heroes, and 'thankful good byes' in some cases, comparions, and 'vote for your ...whatever'. The list IS endless.

It's really comforting to know that fans everywhere are eagerly sopping up news - any news, to pass the time till REAL hockey arrives.

A personal observation, most goalies seem to some of the least paid players!

Undervalued talents? Well, it is hard to value the finer moves - not being a goalie oneself?

Masked men appear too threatening?

Seems perhaps a hang over from the scary movies?
Or just not visibly cute enough?

Of course I am just kidding.

But do compare NHL contractual payments for the past 09/10 season:
of course what the actual annual pay out is depends on individual player ( and HOW good his agent),

team, age, and available cash.

So this is just a rough chart... but goalies DO make visibly less, don't you think?

Goalies:   $ 500.000 to   7.500.000

Centers:  $ 500.000 to 10.000.000

RW:       $ 500.000 to   7.900.000

LW:       $ 500.000 to   9.000.000

D:          $ 500.000 to   8.000.000

Operas at high altitude..icicles optional

Day One at Santa Fe and "Life is a Dream-

well actually more of a nightmare..;-)

Conducted by Leonard Slatkin, 
who did OK, but then  10 tones are hard to miss ;-)?

Director - Kevin Newbury

Scenic Designer - David Korins, influenced by skeletal building remains?

Costume Designer - Jessica Jahn, decorative stuff, quaintly done

Lighting Designer - Japhy Weideman , rather innovative things lit up, here

Cast:

King Basilio - John Cheek- rounded bass

Segismundo - Roger Honeywell - strong tenor

Clotaldo - James Maddalena - an old favorite, specialises in modern

Rosaura - Ellie Dehn - light and yet dramatic soprano

World Premiere of a new opera composed (some time ago)
by Lewis Spratlan with a libretto by James Maraniss, based on a major work by Spanish playwright Pedro Calderón de la Barca's "La Vida es Sueño".
(Calderón was born in 1600 to 1681. "Life is a Dream", among his many other works, feature the effects when  parents indiscriminately exercise their authority, as apparently did his father. Calderón studied for the priesthood but theater drew him to a successful career at the Spanish Royal court and player troupes who performed in corrales - open air theaters - surrounded by an audience which stood next to the platform or sat in galleries of seats around the perimeter.  Rather similar to Elizabethan theaters).

For dream we will, though we possess

No sense of where it is we thrive

And dreaming just means being alive.

The insight life’s experience gives

Is that, until man wakes, he lives

A life that only dreams contrive.

The king dreams he is king and reigns

Deluded in his full command,

Imposing order in his land.

The borrowed plaudits he obtains

Blow scattered through the wind’s domains

As death—man’s life is so unjust!—

Transmutes them into ash and dust.

Oh, who on earth could wish to wield

Such might when waking means to yield

It all to death’s dream, as we must?

Segismundo, Act II

Translated by Gregary Racz

The play philosophically "explores several dualities—the relationship between father and son, the importance of nature versus nurture in deciding behavior, the question of free will versus fate, and the difficulty of ultimately determining which, if any, of our experiences are real and which are dreamt" Or nightmares?.

10 tones is all that the composer used, combing them from 1-10 or back, or in any combo thereof.  You know, that kind of vocal sound (I hesitate to call it MUSIC, but that is strictly my opinion and may not be shared by others) reminded me of the Chinese language which also depends on inflections/shadings to express a  word, in this opera it's a feeling.
And such we heard on Thursday.
As can happen in Santa Fe..a huge thunderstorm blew in, literally dropping the temperature from the 80's to the 50's, combined with rain ..it was a bone chilling, teeth chattering night on the hill. People did le3ave in droves maybe because the were chased by those 10 tones (lol) or the COLD night, not being equipped with blankets, parkas, rain gear, earmuffs and gloves (yes, I did see several with earmuffs and gloves huddled under down comforters - that IS the chilling magic of Santa Fe..LOL).
An interesting experience, but ..let the composition languish again for years in a drawer IMO!
That actually happened after the commissioning opera company went kaput -due to NO  funds not because of the missing other notes :-) and so it took till this year for the resurrection of LIFE IS A DREAM by Santa Fe Opera.. 

Taking a break -

artandhockey will only be visible briefly, and resume in-depth posting on Augsut 23!

Kissing cousins?

According to an article we are all incestous. 
with Schiller & Beethoven: "Freude schoener Goetterfunken - Ode to Joy" .. 
Really, do we have that many cousins nth times removed?  Isn't science marvellous?
Go on, click on it!
 http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-scientific-theories-head-explode/
And you'll find out. 
Go on, be brave - have a peek!
And that does remind that the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History in Albuquerque will be waiting for us!

They did not really know, they just met the challenge and they did,
opening a Pandorra's box!

And belatedly: Never Again! In Memoriam the dead...of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

And John Adams composed an opera about it :"Dr. Atomic".

In Kuerze...

ab Morgen wird nur mehr hie und da was hier aufscheinen, da die Photos erst nach der Heimkehr in den Computer geladen und dann im Blog auftauchen.
Also Geduld und bis auf bald!
Jetzt ist es zwar schon Sommer, dennoch.. freut euch an der Musik!

In Memoriam..

Actress Patricia Neal,

born January 20, 1926

died August 8, 2010

A leading lady of American plays and film, Neal studied drama in college and worked as a model before debuting on Broadway in The Voice of the Turtle (1946). And what about her stunning performance in "The Fountainhead"? That still gives me the shivers!

Musician Jack Parnell,

Born Aug. 6, 1923

Died: Aug. 8, 2010

English Jazz Drummer, Conductor of  "The Muppet Show".

In the RAF he played in a jazz ensemble entertaining the troops. Later his own band was successful until Rock and Roll started, when Big Bands went out of favor.  Parnell accepted to work as music director for the ATV network in 1956 where he conducted  almost all of the "Sunday Night at the London Palladium" broadcasts. He was the first British musician to win an Emmy for his 1973 Barbra Streisand special.

Parnell was behind the music for "The Muppet Show" broadcasts (1976 to 1981).

Well known  drummer Buddy Rich was persuaded to play with the Muppets.

Retiring in 1980's Parnell resumed his performing career after relearning his drumming techniques.

Officially retired at age 80 Parnell kept on and played in a jazz trio at Pubs.  He died of cancer.

CRAB by another word Cancer.

HI, I'm a CRAB!
According to astrology I am supposed to be "intuitive and sentimental", and maybe I am, sometimes. Other times I'd need a "GET IT FOR DUMMIES 101" :)!

Am I "sympathetic and empathetic?  Traditional and maternal?" "Cancerians are said to make great parents!" Does that apply to virtual adoptions of 'soft spots'? 

Befriend a crab and you'll have a friend for life! 
Also on FB, just not on Twitter :).

• "Crabs generally likes being at home" - well not this one!  Opera, hockey, museum, here I come!
• "My so called, heart-not-head, but definitely crab(by) at times, personality makes me a little hard to interpret" -  a sense of the absurd by my friends would help them with getting along with this crab!
• "Cancerians can be as tenacious" (Do like I say/Repeat after me!) 
• "As they are sensitive" (poor baby, you hurt, let me kiss the booboo to make it better?),
• "They roll up their sleeves and get to it"- get to where - don't ask, don't tell!
• "It is said they make excellent nurses" - does lab work count? 
• "Housekeepers"  - oy weh...somehow THAT gene went missing!
• AND as "gardener" I am a hit-and-miss one!
• "Journalist", now that is a WHAT IF item, a big WHAT IF!
• "Cancerians' love of country gives them the base to be outstanding politicians", woohoo, did I miss my calling? NO fear, Obama et al,  I have no designs on your jobs ;-).

Venus

• "Venus is said to reign, love and sex are important, for Cancerians will show sensitivity with lovers without a second thought. Crabs wallow in love, unattainable love or not, and marry for life" ..wallowing may be a tad exaggerated!

• 
  
  "Being born under the Moon instincts, moods, tides, personal interests, desires, needs, magnetism, growth, the need to touch, consciousness are character traits for crabs" ah, yes, yes, I am a hugger..just because its lovely to hug someone, anyone!  
• 
  
  "The color for Cancer is silver"-REALLY! 
• 
  
  "Likes relaxing near or in water" (does ice as in hockey, count?),
• 
  
  "Art" -yep, that one is ON the nose! 
• "Travel destinations for the crab are: New York City, Amsterdam, Venice, historical sites" - yeah, that rings true-I love spending time where there are arts, opera, hockey, people and easy living :-)!
• "Strength: Compassion, emotional sensitivity, tenacity"- I take the fifth on that!
• "Weaknesses: Manipulative, clinging to the past"- weeellll that could be,  afterall I've HAD a long one already ;-)!
• "packrat"-that one I have overcome after moving out of a big house!

some are actually GOOD!

• "Charismatic Marks : medium (that's charitable, eh?) build, round face (but dominant nose)
• "breasts" (yes, thank you, I do, and no desire to change them),
• "Tendency to take charge"-well, really, one has to do it, right! So there!

And since it IS August, there is LEO a neighbor!
Hi,  neighbor of the Crab!
And herewith a bit of advice-
Crabs tend do that-give advice!
Leos are known to breathe fire, be full of pride, majestic in appearance, of broad shoulders, bilious of constitution, said to be good writer; also evil-minded, emotional, zealous, licentious; perhaps a bit childishly playful, at times selfishly overpowering of personality.

Hello, Neighbor let's play - I nip and you roar;-)!

Words are words aren't they?

Waiting for Hockey to start- meanwhile some thoughts on languages:


One theory " linguistic determinism" posits that our language determines how we see our world.
The other theory "linguistic relativism" proposes our language causes thoughts about it.
So we need to pose a question, can we think without use of language?
That depends on how we explain the meaning of thinking.

(This has a familiar ring to it?  Remember THAT famous expression: What is IS :-)!)

If we are claiming language connects culture with psychology, could that become the decisive way to clarify our feelings? Or identify our cultural up bringing?

An example of how people admonish, as in "Behave"

In English we say, be good.
Auf Deutsch sagt man, sei brav - but that could also mean be brave, be honest!
En Francais on dit, soyez sages - roughly translated it means, be wise!

And so it goes.
Be good, be honest, be wise,  above all be PATIENT :-)!
Hockey will be here sooner that you think!! 
Let's hope not THAT kind of hockey ;-)!

More clips to humor 'hockey deprived' impatient readers :-D

The best thing about -

• the coming hockey season IS waiting  for spectacular skating, scoring, few injuries, lots of old faces, and plenty new ones to raise our hopes for a CUP...be it Kelly, Calder or Stanley-the competition is THE thing and the edge of seat, nailbiter games are exhilarating - ALWAYS.

Hockey here! SOON.OCTOBER!

• 
  
  a vacation trip is the planning and the dreaming.

What to do, see, smell, feel, and best of all, to remember after.

The first stop the annual pilgrimage to Santa Fe and Opera !

A new opera and a rarely performed one.

And the enchantment that, to me, is New Mexico

The second stop:
really new territory-in Arizona.
The Red Rocks of Sedona-in a pink jeep?
Grand Canyon-via rail and bus ... the comfortable way there!
Feeling the ghostly presence of people past.

Petroglyphs, adobe houses, kivas...

Why did they abandon them?
Why did they move?
Die out?
Why? When?
Theories abound, none are 100% proven.
And their voices whisper in the wind-you still can hear them!
From an earlier trip: cliff dwellings at Manitou Springs Colorado: Anazasi?)

And dreams keep on dreaming!

WHAT IF...

OUT there are brilliant people who write sophisticated essays, exalting in flights of fancy, that surely are meant to cause readers to be awestruck.

Not being thus brilliant,  I am reduced to "Doing it my way ;-)"! Oh well....

Do I feel that they have spent hours polishing, searching for just the most unusual words to express thoughts of the most literate? Yep. Maybe Avatars wrote them, instead ;-), who, absorbing mankind's emotions, are unable to actually process them in meaningful ways.

My flights of fancy usually are the WHAT IF..kind and expressed simply. As in what if I had done this or that, then or later.

 As in the way a friend traveled the earth on ships, working for awhile and sending postcards-yes, Virginia, actual written postcards with arrows pointing out: my hotel, my window, my whatever! Next, another postcard from a place far away. He tended to 'jump' ship wherever he wanted to 'experience' life there.

And so the postcards piled up-tracing his travels and causing me more WHAT IF moments.

• What if I had been, really had been, such an intrepid adventurer, I could have climbed Mts. Kenya and Kilimanjaro, instead of just looking at them from a distance on lucky sunny days?
• What if I could have gone on a foot safari to hunt lions, instead of perching safely, or so they told me, in a jeep getting close enough to watch lions having some fun :-), later fending off inquisitive baboons?
• And smartly getting out of the way of rampaging elephants-quietly grazing but exploding in fury in a second.
• What if I could have dug into the hole at Kimberley scrambling for diamonds, maybe finding a one or two, instead of buying some in the comfort of trader's shop?
• What if I could have written the definite novel, poem? Painted the insightful masterpiece, carved the monumental sculpture, or - heaven forbid - installed a meaningful 'installation', instead of just sedately enjoying pages of well phrased words, the beauty of arts-all conceived by someone else?
• What if I could have braved live and breathing bulls, instead of just watching the spectacle with heightened feelings of aficion?
• What if I could have written, played and /or sung music for opera and concerts, instead of only listening to it, albeit with much pleasure?
• What if I could have kayaked alone down trivers, instead of floating along in the luxury of riverboats?
• What if I could have hitchhiked the world for a year or more, instead of just to Italy and within Austria and Spain?
• What if I learned to skate, and competed for a medal, instead of just sitting comfortable (well wrapped up, of course) watching the scramble for it unfold, at Olympics, at Hockey games?

And the WHAT IFs just pile up.

No mere words, however sophisticated and learned, can tell me what I have missed by not doing "WHAT IF" when I could have!

Of course there are somethings I could NOT have done even IF-because they were NOT there in my youth... chunnel, high speed trains, the 'internet access for everyman', DVD, CDs, cellphones, iPod, iPad, Kindle, Simulcasts, SST (and that one NO longer is, alas), to name just a few.

And so much more will not be there any longer for the next generations' WHAT IFs.
It will be too late!

Hockey withdrawal symptom?

If you suffer from that...   spend an hour or more cruising the hockey blog world!

And what a number blogs there are,
by man, woman, boys, girls, and anyone in between.
Funny blogs, fantasy blogs, serious blogs, whatever a hockey fan's heart could desire.

And many hockey books
for adults, for kids, and so on.

And some hockey movies, too..
year issued and rated: 
Boys, Les 1997 NR

D2: The Mighty Ducks 1994 PG
D3: The Mighty Ducks 1996 PG
Love Guru, The 2008 PG-13
Mighty Ducks, The 1992 PG
Miracle 2004 PG
MVP: Most Valuable Primate 2000 PG
Mystery, Alaska 1999 R
Net Worth 1995 NR
Rhino Brothers, The 1995 NR
Rocket, The 2005 NR
Slap Shot 1977 R
Slap Shot 2: Breaking the Ice 2002 R
Sudden Death 1995 R
Waking Up Wally: The Walter Gretzky Story 2005 PG
Youngblood 1986 R

And if that's not enough here is an amusing clip (sigh, alas only in Russian - where is Dimples, the translator?)
- and more just to ban the summer blahs - enjoy



Yes, I know all this cannot replace THE REAL thing.. but patience will be rewarded, right?

Why?

And still there are people out there making excuses, diplomatically sound so they say!
That:   http://gu.com/p/2tnbh  disturbs me. 
But then, increasingly there is neglect of the arts in the Western World, the continuous undervaluing of the importance of a rounded education, which MUST include the arts. Despite the fact that there are numerous studies that claim MUSIC heals and improves learning! Is no one listening?

And what about: http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20100729/wl_time/08599200726900.
How can this and other disfigurement of women (Somali and other African tribes, as far as is known) in the name of  "religion", in the name of  "culture" of a people, be accepted 'because it has always been done so '?
I shake my head in saddened disbelief!

But never fear we cannot escape homegrown "monsters".
Some, too, are alive and well and causing mayhem.
What makes a person 'snap' so terribly that he/she kills others when disappointed?

Are memories that short? Do we have to repeat history in all its gruesome details?
Have we been too complacent with success, comfortable living and the overwhelming presence of 'gadgets' to make life 'easier'? Hate to post one that's dealing with depressing and horrendous news.

So I will end with some pleasant news -at least for opera lovers: one of Houston Grand Opera Studio's alumnus, the Bass Eric Owens (here singing the High Druid Priest in NORMA)
 is making news with his more unexpected talents as conductor and oboeist in Aspen at the Sumnmer Festival..
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/03/he-sings-he-conducts-and-hes-not-bad-on-the-oboe/?partner=rss&emc=rss

Ravaged by a car?

Slanted eyed car

Little Cars that look like slitty-eyed monsters-  they give me the feeling of 'Watch out here comes a dragon" - Or am I overly 'sensitive'? And THAT kinda aggressive look is repeated in prescription glasses, and seemingly even in those narrow opaque wrap-around sunglasses..which never lets me see the eye and getting a'glimpse into the soul' of the person looking at me.. he/she could be asleep for all I can tell ;-)!

Who me?

What ever happened to the 'who me' surprised look in head lights? Probably they , too, died out after the John Lennon preferred Granny glasses fad did? And that's "a-bug-me" for August 3.

"Like/Dislike" -a bug me thing, Putting in Foot?

Facebook is adding links to  'like'.. that's good?

Of course that's good for companies trying to sell your 'friends' something.

But where does that leave those of us who actively DO NOT LIKE something? Guess we will never see a 'dislike' button...

Because, you see, then companies would have to acknowledge that someone does NOT LIKE what they do or sell or try to brainwash you with. Yes, brainwash! The death of non-conformist thinking?

Where goest excentricity (some may call it LOCO) in the pure old British sense?

Anyone that keeps pushing us to do something, may it be "FOR OUR OWN GOOD" or not, that to me smells of brainwashing in an Orwellian sense.

Why this leads me into the following is not quite clear in my mind, but it did! Take it with a grain of salt!

It seems to me a fact that depiction of sex in novels seems to have "lost'' its 'bite'- perhaps due to the ease with which anything can be accessed with the click of a button. Writings about heterosexual love, desire, lust and sex have faded, except in works by gay and lesbian novelists – perhaps because these writers have found new grounds to break, new gaps to bridge in their descriptions of what once was "in the closet".

The feeling in reading what once could stun and cause novels to be banned, and not only by the church, vide "Lady Chatterleys Lover"-which, BTW, seems very, very tame, even lame by today's often rather awkward writings and pictorials on sex, not letting the reader use his/her imagination to delve into hidden delights! What is hidden often is so much more exciting that the blatant display!  And this abundance of 'written sex' could easily result in a wink-wink ;-), a lol-speak to express 'forbidden fruit' thoughts and hidden meanings!

DH Lawrence is said to have offered this to aspiring writers:

"Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you have got to say and say it hot."

But "hot" has not really a "cool" feel to it any more, does it?  And here is a "LOL" to that!


You do know of the "BAD SEX AWARDS?  The award is a PLASTER FOOT-as in 'putting one's foot in?'

For 18 years, this award related to literary fiction only, tries "to draw attention to the crude, tasteless, often perfunctory use of redundant passages of sexual description in the modern novel, and to discourage it"

The 2010 list includes:

• Paul Theroux for A Dead Hand-a bit surprising that, I do like Theroux's other writings.
• Nick Cave, singer, for The Death of Bunny Munro;  can he 'sing' me a song about a sex craved door-to-door salesman?  Is The Weeping Song an indication?
• Philip Roth for The Humbling-too humbling, perhaps, dealing with getting worn out, burnt out? At least it is shorter than his previous novels.
• Jonathan Littell for The Kindly Ones-not read
• Amos Oz for Rhyming Life and Death-perhaps not the best of this prolific generational at times satiric writer from Israel.
• John Banville for The Infinities-not read
• Anthony Quinn for The Rescue Man-shows a great 'down and dirty' actor is not necessarily a good writer, especially in a histoirical context?
• Simon Van Booy for Love Begins in -not read
• Sanjida O'Connell for The Naked Name of Love-a rather artificially conceived tale about a priest seduced by female tribal priestess in - of all places - Mongolia!
• Richard Milward for Ten Storey Love Song - Comprising just one LOOOONG paragraph and replete with graphic sex scenes.  Not to everyone's taste, that way of writing.

After all that one does get to feel helpless in a yawn, yawn kind of way  in such onslaught of graphically explicit verbosity!
The winner will be announced on 30 November at London's In & Out club.
He/she will proudly (?) carry home THE PLASTER FOOT!