I found this via Althouse.
Madison is to be the location of the first Sundance Cinemas theater. According to Robert Redford: "The independent culture of Madison makes it a great environment for the Sundance Cinema concept." So we can look forward to a greater selection of non-mainstream films next year.
And, last I heard, the additional screens, including an IMAX screen, is to open at Star next month.
06 November, 2005
05 November, 2005
A Night of Nostalgia
Last night I saw the Genesis tribute band, The Musical Box at the lovely Pabst Theater in Milwaukee. The Pabst is a gorgeous place that was built in 1895. With a seating capacity of around 1500, it provides a wonderfully intimate setting for a concert.
The Musical Box are a bunch of guys from Canada who go around recreating Genesis concerts from the early to mid-70s when Peter Gabriel was in the band. But these guys are no mere cover band. By "recreating" the concerts I mean that they use the same instruments, dress like the members of Genesis did back then (including Peter Gabriel's costumes), and use replicas of the stage props. (Think of a Dark Star Orchestra for Genesis.) TMB are currently going around and recreating the concerts Genesis did from November 1975 – May 1975 in support of their double concept album, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. If any of my readers associate Genesis with "Invisible Touch" and Peter Gabriel with "Sledgehammer", then realize that in the first half of the 1970s, the band with Peter created some music very different from what they did in the 1980s. Genesis played the dreaded progressive rock – lengthy songs, odd time signatures, et al. The lyrics told strange surreal tales and, to help illustrate them, Gabriel started wearing costumes with the first time being at the 28 September 1972 show in Dublin, Ireland. Two years later, the band released The Lamb and put on their most adventurous shows in support of it. The album was a double and told the tale of a New York City street kid, Rael. Upon opening the gatefold sleeve, the listener found the whole story written out. Although still very surreal, the lyrics concerned a contemporary character instead of a figure from English history. They were, in Gabriel's words, "less twee". The music reflected this. Though not radically changed, it was definitely dark and more muscular. While definitely a million miles away from punk, it had some attitude. (Well, as much as prog can have.) For the tour, the band played The Lamb in its entirety plus the old favorite, "The Musical Box". The encore was usually "Watcher of the Skies" though "The Knife" was thrown in a few times. As for the theatrics, there were a couple costumes, a couple props, and three screens at the back of the stage that featured slides projected onto them from behind which helped illustrate the storyline.
Part of the mystique of these concerts is that they were never professionally filmed. There exist a couple very brief clips from German television but, unlike the previous and succeeding tours, a whole concert was never committed to celluloid. The vast majority of video from this tour comes courtesy of eager fans who filmed parts with their silent Super-8 cameras. The Musical Box were given the seal of approval by Genesis and Peter Gabriel for their recreation. Gabriel and the rest of the band gave TMB the slides they used 30 years ago as well as the written stage directions used back then. The results I witnessed last night were just amazing.
When Genesis premiered The Lamb on 20 November 1974 in Chicago, the album was not yet in the shops. Last night, the vast majority of the audience knew every note and word of the lyrics. Most folks were middle-aged and looking to recapture a bit of their youth. But there were also people like myself who were too young to have seen a Lamb show. Some of the aging Baby Boomers brought their teenaged kids while there was a fair number of people like myself who were just fans coming to experience what our prog rock-loving forebears witnessed 30 years ago.
I got to the Pabst a bit before 7 and headed to the tavern attached to the theater. After grabbing a beer, I noticed that there were piles of questionnaires scattered on the tables so I took a look. Some guys were trying to gauge interest for a potential progressive rock festival to be held in Milwaukee next October. So I filled one out and then introduced myself to a group of fans. One guy was from Chicago while the other two were from St. Louis. We drank and chatted and I shamelessly plugged this podcast. As more fans filed in, I witnessed a common occurrence at prog shows. People from disparate parts of the country ran into one another. Prog shows aren't exactly common so fans often travel hundreds of miles to attend festivals that primarily happen on the coasts. In addition, most prog bands aren't able to cover the entire country when they tour so fans from certain areas, such as most of the South, travel to cities like Milwaukee to see prog shows. (For instance, when Yes played here in Madison in 2002, I ended up at the bar with a fan from Kansas.) There was a just a great camaraderie amongst the fans.
When the lights went down, I was really excited. After hearing from older fans for two decades about what I'd missed, I was finally going to get a taste. And when the lights went down and the piano to the first song trickled through the speakers, I just wanted to jump up and scream. (You can find a short clip of the first song, "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway", here as well as few others.) There were many highlights to the show. The first was during the second song, "Fly on a Windshield". It has a very quiet opening and then the drums and the rest of the band kick in and go on an instrumental rampage. It was the dynamics. The stage was dark during the hushed opening of the song and then the band crashed in and all the lights turn on and – WOW! (Plus I've been listening to that song a lot in my car lately.) I felt like crying when Denis Gagné, the Gabriel impersonator, came out in the fabled Slipperman costume.
Instead I just developed a huge grin on my face seeing him prancing around the stage in that outfit. The costume is legendary in Genesis fan circles. It was the one that caused the most consternation amongst the rest of the band and inspired the most "Did you see that’s?" from the fans. Another highlight was "Counting Out Time" in which Rael recalls having sex for the first time. He buys a book which is a guide to women's erogenous zones and the projections on the screen showed various representations of a woman's anatomy with arrows pointing to specific parts. Each arrow was numbered to go along with the song. "Touch and go with 1-6./Bit of trouble in zone No. 7./Gotta remember all of my tricks./There's heaven ahead in No. 11!" The slides made me laugh because they reminded me of that Monty Python skit about identifying people's naughty bits.
The whole thing gave me a new & different perspective on the album. I first heard it some 20 years ago but I found that the show really put a new spin on things. As I said above, Gabriel wanted to do something less twee, less quaint and the show really highlighted just how current, how of the moment The Lamb was at the time of its release. The name-checking during "Broadway Melody of 1974", how the people in the slides were dressed, the fact that one of the characters, Doktor Dyper, was black, et al. (For the record, Doktor Dyper was on a pogo stick.) Rather than being a sci-fi piece like "Watcher of the Skies" or reveling in Victorian England like "The Musical Box", The Lamb was really steeped in the year of its release, 1974. Granted, the album and concerts were very strange and surreal, but I can still imagine audiences back then looking at the slides and seeing their world in them rather than the fantasy realms that progressive rock was notorious for in the 1970s. Considering what most of the major progressive rock acts were doing at the time (and the next 3 albums Genesis did after Gabriel left the band), The Lamb really sticks out from the pack.
I also want to mention the musicians. The drummer, Martin Levac, did a great Phil Collins impersonation. I mean he looks like Collins and sounds like he did too. Seeing him last night really drove home just what an amazing performer Collins is or was, depending on your point of view, and just how integral he was to the band before he became lead singer. People tend to think of Collins as having been in the background while Gabriel was with the band but his backing vocals really added to the mix. And then there's the drumming/percussion. In addition to drums, Kevac played vibraphone, chimes, tubular bells, and a host of other percussion instruments. And he was just a demon on the kit. Unlike most of Collins' work since the early 1980s, the stuff he did in the 70s really pushed the music along. Instead of just providing a rhythm, his drumming would thrust the song forward and his fills were incredibly melodic. Rather than just providing a base for the rest of the band to build upon, his drum parts stood on equal footing with the rest of the instruments. In a certain sense, the rest of the band had to catch up with him.
The concert also highlighted just how great Mike Rutherford is or was. The baritone bass really added heft to the music and, on certain songs, was really the lead instrument. Prog fans tend to think of Yes' Chris Squire or Rush's Geddy Lee as being the prime bass players with their instruments often taking the lead in those bands' songs but Rutherford did the same thing but it was less obvious. His playing managed to take the lead yet not sound outside of what the rest of the band were doing. It wasn't as ostentatious, if you will – more integrated into the overall sound. Sadly, the concert also highlighted just how small then Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett's role was on The Lamb. While there were a few songs in which he soloed or his guitar was at the lead, he was generally resigned to adding color to most of the songs. I think the tunes are all the better for his contributions but his role was really diminished in light of the band's previous album, Selling England by the Pound, which had Hackett all over it. Luckily, he really got to tear it up on "The Musical Box". For "Ravine", it was just bass, drums, and keyboards and it really showed just how musically powerful the trio that went on to superstardom in the 1980s were beneath the pop hits of "That's All", "Invisible Touch", and the like. Everyone in The Musical Box played their part and played them very well indeed.
Aside from some drunken audience members shouting for "Supper's Ready", the show was fantastic. (But, if you think about it, these people were no doubt recreating what some audience members did 30 years ago.) I of course loved the music but it was just a hoot to see a bit of rock'n'roll history recreated before my eyes. I've been a fan of Genesis for well over 20 years but got on the boat midway through the voyage so it was great to get a glimpse of what I missed. Plus it's always great to gather with like-minded fans since it's not everyday that I get a chance to socialize with people who love old Genesis as I do.
As I walked out of the theater, a group of 3 or 4 people next to me spontaneously burst into the opening lines of "Supper's Ready". Ahhhh…gotta love us progheads.
The Musical Box are a bunch of guys from Canada who go around recreating Genesis concerts from the early to mid-70s when Peter Gabriel was in the band. But these guys are no mere cover band. By "recreating" the concerts I mean that they use the same instruments, dress like the members of Genesis did back then (including Peter Gabriel's costumes), and use replicas of the stage props. (Think of a Dark Star Orchestra for Genesis.) TMB are currently going around and recreating the concerts Genesis did from November 1975 – May 1975 in support of their double concept album, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. If any of my readers associate Genesis with "Invisible Touch" and Peter Gabriel with "Sledgehammer", then realize that in the first half of the 1970s, the band with Peter created some music very different from what they did in the 1980s. Genesis played the dreaded progressive rock – lengthy songs, odd time signatures, et al. The lyrics told strange surreal tales and, to help illustrate them, Gabriel started wearing costumes with the first time being at the 28 September 1972 show in Dublin, Ireland. Two years later, the band released The Lamb and put on their most adventurous shows in support of it. The album was a double and told the tale of a New York City street kid, Rael. Upon opening the gatefold sleeve, the listener found the whole story written out. Although still very surreal, the lyrics concerned a contemporary character instead of a figure from English history. They were, in Gabriel's words, "less twee". The music reflected this. Though not radically changed, it was definitely dark and more muscular. While definitely a million miles away from punk, it had some attitude. (Well, as much as prog can have.) For the tour, the band played The Lamb in its entirety plus the old favorite, "The Musical Box". The encore was usually "Watcher of the Skies" though "The Knife" was thrown in a few times. As for the theatrics, there were a couple costumes, a couple props, and three screens at the back of the stage that featured slides projected onto them from behind which helped illustrate the storyline.
Part of the mystique of these concerts is that they were never professionally filmed. There exist a couple very brief clips from German television but, unlike the previous and succeeding tours, a whole concert was never committed to celluloid. The vast majority of video from this tour comes courtesy of eager fans who filmed parts with their silent Super-8 cameras. The Musical Box were given the seal of approval by Genesis and Peter Gabriel for their recreation. Gabriel and the rest of the band gave TMB the slides they used 30 years ago as well as the written stage directions used back then. The results I witnessed last night were just amazing.
When Genesis premiered The Lamb on 20 November 1974 in Chicago, the album was not yet in the shops. Last night, the vast majority of the audience knew every note and word of the lyrics. Most folks were middle-aged and looking to recapture a bit of their youth. But there were also people like myself who were too young to have seen a Lamb show. Some of the aging Baby Boomers brought their teenaged kids while there was a fair number of people like myself who were just fans coming to experience what our prog rock-loving forebears witnessed 30 years ago.
I got to the Pabst a bit before 7 and headed to the tavern attached to the theater. After grabbing a beer, I noticed that there were piles of questionnaires scattered on the tables so I took a look. Some guys were trying to gauge interest for a potential progressive rock festival to be held in Milwaukee next October. So I filled one out and then introduced myself to a group of fans. One guy was from Chicago while the other two were from St. Louis. We drank and chatted and I shamelessly plugged this podcast. As more fans filed in, I witnessed a common occurrence at prog shows. People from disparate parts of the country ran into one another. Prog shows aren't exactly common so fans often travel hundreds of miles to attend festivals that primarily happen on the coasts. In addition, most prog bands aren't able to cover the entire country when they tour so fans from certain areas, such as most of the South, travel to cities like Milwaukee to see prog shows. (For instance, when Yes played here in Madison in 2002, I ended up at the bar with a fan from Kansas.) There was a just a great camaraderie amongst the fans.
When the lights went down, I was really excited. After hearing from older fans for two decades about what I'd missed, I was finally going to get a taste. And when the lights went down and the piano to the first song trickled through the speakers, I just wanted to jump up and scream. (You can find a short clip of the first song, "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway", here as well as few others.) There were many highlights to the show. The first was during the second song, "Fly on a Windshield". It has a very quiet opening and then the drums and the rest of the band kick in and go on an instrumental rampage. It was the dynamics. The stage was dark during the hushed opening of the song and then the band crashed in and all the lights turn on and – WOW! (Plus I've been listening to that song a lot in my car lately.) I felt like crying when Denis Gagné, the Gabriel impersonator, came out in the fabled Slipperman costume.
Instead I just developed a huge grin on my face seeing him prancing around the stage in that outfit. The costume is legendary in Genesis fan circles. It was the one that caused the most consternation amongst the rest of the band and inspired the most "Did you see that’s?" from the fans. Another highlight was "Counting Out Time" in which Rael recalls having sex for the first time. He buys a book which is a guide to women's erogenous zones and the projections on the screen showed various representations of a woman's anatomy with arrows pointing to specific parts. Each arrow was numbered to go along with the song. "Touch and go with 1-6./Bit of trouble in zone No. 7./Gotta remember all of my tricks./There's heaven ahead in No. 11!" The slides made me laugh because they reminded me of that Monty Python skit about identifying people's naughty bits.
The whole thing gave me a new & different perspective on the album. I first heard it some 20 years ago but I found that the show really put a new spin on things. As I said above, Gabriel wanted to do something less twee, less quaint and the show really highlighted just how current, how of the moment The Lamb was at the time of its release. The name-checking during "Broadway Melody of 1974", how the people in the slides were dressed, the fact that one of the characters, Doktor Dyper, was black, et al. (For the record, Doktor Dyper was on a pogo stick.) Rather than being a sci-fi piece like "Watcher of the Skies" or reveling in Victorian England like "The Musical Box", The Lamb was really steeped in the year of its release, 1974. Granted, the album and concerts were very strange and surreal, but I can still imagine audiences back then looking at the slides and seeing their world in them rather than the fantasy realms that progressive rock was notorious for in the 1970s. Considering what most of the major progressive rock acts were doing at the time (and the next 3 albums Genesis did after Gabriel left the band), The Lamb really sticks out from the pack.
I also want to mention the musicians. The drummer, Martin Levac, did a great Phil Collins impersonation. I mean he looks like Collins and sounds like he did too. Seeing him last night really drove home just what an amazing performer Collins is or was, depending on your point of view, and just how integral he was to the band before he became lead singer. People tend to think of Collins as having been in the background while Gabriel was with the band but his backing vocals really added to the mix. And then there's the drumming/percussion. In addition to drums, Kevac played vibraphone, chimes, tubular bells, and a host of other percussion instruments. And he was just a demon on the kit. Unlike most of Collins' work since the early 1980s, the stuff he did in the 70s really pushed the music along. Instead of just providing a rhythm, his drumming would thrust the song forward and his fills were incredibly melodic. Rather than just providing a base for the rest of the band to build upon, his drum parts stood on equal footing with the rest of the instruments. In a certain sense, the rest of the band had to catch up with him.
The concert also highlighted just how great Mike Rutherford is or was. The baritone bass really added heft to the music and, on certain songs, was really the lead instrument. Prog fans tend to think of Yes' Chris Squire or Rush's Geddy Lee as being the prime bass players with their instruments often taking the lead in those bands' songs but Rutherford did the same thing but it was less obvious. His playing managed to take the lead yet not sound outside of what the rest of the band were doing. It wasn't as ostentatious, if you will – more integrated into the overall sound. Sadly, the concert also highlighted just how small then Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett's role was on The Lamb. While there were a few songs in which he soloed or his guitar was at the lead, he was generally resigned to adding color to most of the songs. I think the tunes are all the better for his contributions but his role was really diminished in light of the band's previous album, Selling England by the Pound, which had Hackett all over it. Luckily, he really got to tear it up on "The Musical Box". For "Ravine", it was just bass, drums, and keyboards and it really showed just how musically powerful the trio that went on to superstardom in the 1980s were beneath the pop hits of "That's All", "Invisible Touch", and the like. Everyone in The Musical Box played their part and played them very well indeed.
Aside from some drunken audience members shouting for "Supper's Ready", the show was fantastic. (But, if you think about it, these people were no doubt recreating what some audience members did 30 years ago.) I of course loved the music but it was just a hoot to see a bit of rock'n'roll history recreated before my eyes. I've been a fan of Genesis for well over 20 years but got on the boat midway through the voyage so it was great to get a glimpse of what I missed. Plus it's always great to gather with like-minded fans since it's not everyday that I get a chance to socialize with people who love old Genesis as I do.
As I walked out of the theater, a group of 3 or 4 people next to me spontaneously burst into the opening lines of "Supper's Ready". Ahhhh…gotta love us progheads.
03 November, 2005
Rootkits and Analog Holes
From the world of technology comes the news that Sony has hidden a rootkit in the DRM protection scheme on some of its music CDs. For a technical look, go to the Sysinternals site for the straight dope. In layman's terms: When you play one of the content-protected CDs on your Windows computer, it installs some very sneaky software that runs in the background. Users won't notice its presence and, in fact, it is a rootkit which means that it hides its presence on your computer. The EULA (End User License Agreement) - that text that you automatically hit Yes or OK to without reading when you install software – apparently doesn't explicitly say that, by playing the CD, your computer will have software installed on it that you can't tell is there and have no way to uninstall. If you're paranoid and played one of these CDs on your PC and run a rootkit detector, the DRM hoolie will show up. Woe to anyone who tries to delete the offending files! Your computer's CD drive is thusly rendered useless. Now that some computer geeks have found the DRM hoolie, Sony now offers a tool to remove it.
The thing is, it's always been possible to circumvent copy-protection. It all depends on how much effort you wanna put into it. I hear that Plextor CD drives coupled with the company's PlexTools are really good at ripping copy-protected CDs. But anyone has had the ability all along – just plug the speaker or headphone output into the input of your soundcard and record. The Analog Hole. But who knows how long it will be before your hole is plugged. The MPAA is trying to plug the video version of it.
The thing is, it's always been possible to circumvent copy-protection. It all depends on how much effort you wanna put into it. I hear that Plextor CD drives coupled with the company's PlexTools are really good at ripping copy-protected CDs. But anyone has had the ability all along – just plug the speaker or headphone output into the input of your soundcard and record. The Analog Hole. But who knows how long it will be before your hole is plugged. The MPAA is trying to plug the video version of it.
Yahweh Gives the Thumbs Down
I found the CAP Movie Ministry via Sivacracy. It's a site that rates movies on how offensive they are to those wonderfully pure Christians. Here's the breakdown on the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
Wanton Violence/Crime (W)
destruction of the Earth
parasite penetration into a human head
beating, twice
warfare/aggression violence
slapping
attempted execution
gore
abduction by confinement
Impudence/Hate (I)
four uses of the three/four letter word vocabulary
Sexual Immorality (S)
dressing to maximize the human form and/or skin exposure - male
camera angle to force the viewer on private parts
inappropriate touch - a male slapping the posterior of a female
woman in shower
woman in towel only
Drugs/Alcohol (D):
booze, repeatedly
drinking, repeatedly
bar, repeatedly
guzzling
substance intoxication
smoking
Offense to God (O)
tale of man not being the most intelligent life on Earth
claiming man is an ape descendant, repeatedly
belittlement of God, Creation and faith
Darwinism
Murder/Suicide (M)
none noted
Oh, that's just rich. I love the Offense to God section – "claiming man in an ape descendant". That's just too funny. Douglas Adams would no doubt be proud of this review. I wonder if the author has ever bothered to give the Bible the same scrutiny. There's plenty of wanton violence. Brother killing brother, Moses committing genocide – great stuff. Under what category would you put Ezekiel 4:12-13 when the folks eat their own fecal matter in barley cakes?
Wanton Violence/Crime (W)
destruction of the Earth
parasite penetration into a human head
beating, twice
warfare/aggression violence
slapping
attempted execution
gore
abduction by confinement
Impudence/Hate (I)
four uses of the three/four letter word vocabulary
Sexual Immorality (S)
dressing to maximize the human form and/or skin exposure - male
camera angle to force the viewer on private parts
inappropriate touch - a male slapping the posterior of a female
woman in shower
woman in towel only
Drugs/Alcohol (D):
booze, repeatedly
drinking, repeatedly
bar, repeatedly
guzzling
substance intoxication
smoking
Offense to God (O)
tale of man not being the most intelligent life on Earth
claiming man is an ape descendant, repeatedly
belittlement of God, Creation and faith
Darwinism
Murder/Suicide (M)
none noted
Oh, that's just rich. I love the Offense to God section – "claiming man in an ape descendant". That's just too funny. Douglas Adams would no doubt be proud of this review. I wonder if the author has ever bothered to give the Bible the same scrutiny. There's plenty of wanton violence. Brother killing brother, Moses committing genocide – great stuff. Under what category would you put Ezekiel 4:12-13 when the folks eat their own fecal matter in barley cakes?
02 November, 2005
Should Writing Be So Difficult For An Editor?
Has anyone read the latest Madison Observer? I perused it last night and read "What does my title really mean?", a piece by the Opinion Editor, Armena Ketchum. (A link to it can be found here.) If you've read it, can you please tell me what the fuck she's saying? By the end of it, I was almost completely flummoxed. Firstly, there were typos scattered throughout. E.g. - "As African-Americans we have to live pass these structured entities that already predefine out lives." And this comes from an editor of the publication?! Then comes the atrocious style. The sentence, "This separation and representation of racial bondage is what that bothers me the most." is repeated in a manner that doesn't reference it's initial appearance leading me to believe that it was either inserted incorrectly or Ms. Ketchum is lacking in writing style. More than once, she uses the phrase "obscure from me". Should it not read "obscured from me"? Or how about this phrase: "The exclusion is accounted right in the title". What does this mean? Did she mean "The exclusion is accounted for right in the title"?
"Every type of group is excluded from American society, except privileged white men." I am hoping that Ms. Ketchum could explain this odd statement. There are unprivileged people of both genders and all colors around me. They go to work, they pay taxes, they shop, they go to their chosen houses of worship, they vote - how are they excluded from society, exactly? Lay a little Socratic method on my ass and define terms.
Oh, and I love how she blames racism around the world on America: "I am placed in a category complete with the prejudices attached to every other black person in the world - America does have its influence on the entire world." If you're going to make such a tendentious statement and blame white men for spreading racism around the globe, perhaps a little evidence would be in order. You know, explain the mechanism that accomplishes this.
Now how about this ditty: "In addition to not being an individual, I also have to be categorized into a title that is obscure from me." There's that dang "obscure from me" again. And doesn't being categorized into a title sound extremely awkward? And I think she uses the word "structure" about one hundred times as if she's oblivious to a book available at the library or online for free - the thesaurus.
Maybe it's because I'm a white male that reading the sentence "This separation and representation of racial bondage is what that bothers me the most." bothers me so much. I'm sure Ms. Ketchum has some worthwhile ideas and opinions to share with the community but, unless she or someone at the Madison Observer can get them into print via clear and understandable language, I'm afraid we'll never know what they are.
"Every type of group is excluded from American society, except privileged white men." I am hoping that Ms. Ketchum could explain this odd statement. There are unprivileged people of both genders and all colors around me. They go to work, they pay taxes, they shop, they go to their chosen houses of worship, they vote - how are they excluded from society, exactly? Lay a little Socratic method on my ass and define terms.
Oh, and I love how she blames racism around the world on America: "I am placed in a category complete with the prejudices attached to every other black person in the world - America does have its influence on the entire world." If you're going to make such a tendentious statement and blame white men for spreading racism around the globe, perhaps a little evidence would be in order. You know, explain the mechanism that accomplishes this.
Now how about this ditty: "In addition to not being an individual, I also have to be categorized into a title that is obscure from me." There's that dang "obscure from me" again. And doesn't being categorized into a title sound extremely awkward? And I think she uses the word "structure" about one hundred times as if she's oblivious to a book available at the library or online for free - the thesaurus.
Maybe it's because I'm a white male that reading the sentence "This separation and representation of racial bondage is what that bothers me the most." bothers me so much. I'm sure Ms. Ketchum has some worthwhile ideas and opinions to share with the community but, unless she or someone at the Madison Observer can get them into print via clear and understandable language, I'm afraid we'll never know what they are.
Dorky Things
Regarding the upcoming Doctor Who Christmas special, star Billie Piper says: "It's got scary Christmas trees, Santa attacks, there's an invasion, and the Doctor stays in bed for a long, long time. I am carrying most of the show." I am looking forward to it and the new season of Doctor Who starting in March.
All of this month's Big Finish Doctor Who releases are out. In addition, there are details and trailers for a few upcoming titles. The description of Night Thoughts (starring the 7th Doctor) sounds very intriguing:
'I warn you, things could get very nasty here before they get better.'
A remote Scottish mansion. Five bickering academics are haunted by ghosts from their past. Reluctantly they offer shelter to the Doctor and his companions Ace and Hex.
Hex, already troubled by a vivid nightmare, is further disturbed by the nighttime appearance of a whistling, hooded apparition.
Ace tries to befriend the young housemaid, Sue. Sue knows secrets. She knows why the academics have assembled here, and she knows why they are all so afraid. But Sue's lips are sealed, preferring to communicate through her
disturbing toy, Happy the Rabbit.
And then the killing begins. Gruesome deaths that lead the Doctor and his friends to discover the grisly truth behind the academics' plans, and as the ghosts of the past become ghosts of the present to recognise that sometimes death can be preferable to life.
I'm sorry, but any story involving bickering academics instantly attracts me like a fly to fecal matter. Then add in ghosts and, well, I'm hooked.
Firfox 1.5 RC 1 has been released. I've had only very intermittent and very minor troubles with the 1.5 betas so I've been happy. I take that back. I've had one problem and that is that I can't download videos from one site in particular. IE has no problem, however. It's like Firefox can't negotiate a connection with the site's FTP server or some such thing. Screwy.
All of this month's Big Finish Doctor Who releases are out. In addition, there are details and trailers for a few upcoming titles. The description of Night Thoughts (starring the 7th Doctor) sounds very intriguing:
'I warn you, things could get very nasty here before they get better.'
A remote Scottish mansion. Five bickering academics are haunted by ghosts from their past. Reluctantly they offer shelter to the Doctor and his companions Ace and Hex.
Hex, already troubled by a vivid nightmare, is further disturbed by the nighttime appearance of a whistling, hooded apparition.
Ace tries to befriend the young housemaid, Sue. Sue knows secrets. She knows why the academics have assembled here, and she knows why they are all so afraid. But Sue's lips are sealed, preferring to communicate through her
disturbing toy, Happy the Rabbit.
And then the killing begins. Gruesome deaths that lead the Doctor and his friends to discover the grisly truth behind the academics' plans, and as the ghosts of the past become ghosts of the present to recognise that sometimes death can be preferable to life.
I'm sorry, but any story involving bickering academics instantly attracts me like a fly to fecal matter. Then add in ghosts and, well, I'm hooked.
Firfox 1.5 RC 1 has been released. I've had only very intermittent and very minor troubles with the 1.5 betas so I've been happy. I take that back. I've had one problem and that is that I can't download videos from one site in particular. IE has no problem, however. It's like Firefox can't negotiate a connection with the site's FTP server or some such thing. Screwy.
"Stereotypes start someplace"
Here's the text of an e-mail I got from a friend:
The IT dept here consists of two guys in a back room. The room is filled with old boxes and bins full of parts. There is a desk with one of those light/mangnifying glass things. One guy is a fat dude with a bald head. I would peg him at in his early 50's, but it appears he doesn't see daylight much so it is hard to tell. His compatriot is a skinny dude, a bit younger, and all geeked up.
Each day at 2:00 they both watch Star Trek: TNG in the break room together.
Nice.
The IT dept here consists of two guys in a back room. The room is filled with old boxes and bins full of parts. There is a desk with one of those light/mangnifying glass things. One guy is a fat dude with a bald head. I would peg him at in his early 50's, but it appears he doesn't see daylight much so it is hard to tell. His compatriot is a skinny dude, a bit younger, and all geeked up.
Each day at 2:00 they both watch Star Trek: TNG in the break room together.
Nice.
Word of the Week
Since Halloween was this week, I give you:
vespertilian (vess-per-till'-ee-an) adj. of or relating to bats.
vespertilian (vess-per-till'-ee-an) adj. of or relating to bats.
Something Rotten in...
About a week ago, Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, made some disturbing comments at a conference entitled, "The World Without Zionism". Amongst them were:
"Anybody who recognises Israel will burn in the fire of the Islamic nation's fury, [while] any [Islamic leader] who recognises the Zionist regime means he is acknowledging the surrender and defeat of the Islamic world."
and
"There is no doubt that the new wave [of attacks] in Palestine will wipe off this stigma [Israel] from the face of the Islamic world."
Yet the Islamic world remained mostly silent, with only a lone Palestinian official denouncing the Iranian president's inflammatory tirade.
But now the Muslim silence has been broken. Broken over cartoons. Judith Apter Klinghoffer has written a piece about how Muslim governments have expressed their outrage at caricatures of Mohammed that were published in the Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten. And now there are riots.
Rosenhøj Mall has several nights in a row been the scene of the worst riots in Århus for years. "This area belongs to us", the youths proclaim. Sunday evening saw a new arson attack.
Their words sound like a clear declaration of war on the Danish society. Police must stay out. The area belongs to immigrants.
Klinghoffer:
Suddenly, the ever silent Muslims states found their tongues. 11 ambassadors including those from a number of Arab countries, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Bosnia-Hercegovina and Indonesia entered the fray not to calm the excesses of their coreligionists or condemn the threats of violence but to complain about the cartoons and Danish Islamophobia! The Turkish ambassador even seconded the Imam’s sentiments, berating the paper for “abusing Islam in the name of democracy, human rights and freedom of expression.” T he ambassadors wrote a letter to Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen notifying him that they were offended by the caricatures, demanding an official apology from the newspaper and asking for a special audience “to express their concern about what they perceive as anti-Muslim and anti-Islam campaigns in the press and certain far-right political circles.“ The Prime Minister turned down the request for a meeting pointing out that he (unlike Arab tyrants whose papers are full of anti-Semitic propaganda) has no control over the press.
...what do the ever-silent and passive-defensive Muslim countries, Organization of Islamic Conference and the Arab League vociferously condemn? They are condemning the publication of cartoons featuring Muhammad in a Danish paper.
Reading all of this gives me little hope that our government will be able to find a good excuse not to go to war with Iran. Fortunately I manage to find some hope.
"Anybody who recognises Israel will burn in the fire of the Islamic nation's fury, [while] any [Islamic leader] who recognises the Zionist regime means he is acknowledging the surrender and defeat of the Islamic world."
and
"There is no doubt that the new wave [of attacks] in Palestine will wipe off this stigma [Israel] from the face of the Islamic world."
Yet the Islamic world remained mostly silent, with only a lone Palestinian official denouncing the Iranian president's inflammatory tirade.
But now the Muslim silence has been broken. Broken over cartoons. Judith Apter Klinghoffer has written a piece about how Muslim governments have expressed their outrage at caricatures of Mohammed that were published in the Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten. And now there are riots.
Rosenhøj Mall has several nights in a row been the scene of the worst riots in Århus for years. "This area belongs to us", the youths proclaim. Sunday evening saw a new arson attack.
Their words sound like a clear declaration of war on the Danish society. Police must stay out. The area belongs to immigrants.
Klinghoffer:
Suddenly, the ever silent Muslims states found their tongues. 11 ambassadors including those from a number of Arab countries, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Bosnia-Hercegovina and Indonesia entered the fray not to calm the excesses of their coreligionists or condemn the threats of violence but to complain about the cartoons and Danish Islamophobia! The Turkish ambassador even seconded the Imam’s sentiments, berating the paper for “abusing Islam in the name of democracy, human rights and freedom of expression.” T he ambassadors wrote a letter to Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen notifying him that they were offended by the caricatures, demanding an official apology from the newspaper and asking for a special audience “to express their concern about what they perceive as anti-Muslim and anti-Islam campaigns in the press and certain far-right political circles.“ The Prime Minister turned down the request for a meeting pointing out that he (unlike Arab tyrants whose papers are full of anti-Semitic propaganda) has no control over the press.
...what do the ever-silent and passive-defensive Muslim countries, Organization of Islamic Conference and the Arab League vociferously condemn? They are condemning the publication of cartoons featuring Muhammad in a Danish paper.
Reading all of this gives me little hope that our government will be able to find a good excuse not to go to war with Iran. Fortunately I manage to find some hope.
01 November, 2005
From Thoreau's Blog (Er, I Mean Journal)
November 1, 1858
We are not wont to see our dooryard as a part of the earth’s surface. The gardener does not perceive that some ridge or mound in his garden or lawn is related to yonder hill or the still more distant mountain in the horizon, is, perchance, a humble spur of the last. We are wont to look on the earth still as a sort of chaos, formless and lumpish. I notice from this height that the curving moraine forming the west side of Sleepy Hollow is one of several arms or fingers which stretch away from the hill range that runs down the north side of the Boston road, turning northward at the Court-House; that this finger-like moraine is continued northward by itself almost to the river, and points plainly enough to Ponkawtasset Hill on the other side, even if the Poplar Hill range itself did not indicate this connection; and so the sloping cemetery lots on the west of Sleepy Hollow are related to the distant Ponkawtasset. The smooth-shaven knoll in the lawn, on which the children swing, is, perchance, only a spur of some mountains of the moon, which no traveller has ever reached, heaved up by the same impulse.
We are not wont to see our dooryard as a part of the earth’s surface. The gardener does not perceive that some ridge or mound in his garden or lawn is related to yonder hill or the still more distant mountain in the horizon, is, perchance, a humble spur of the last. We are wont to look on the earth still as a sort of chaos, formless and lumpish. I notice from this height that the curving moraine forming the west side of Sleepy Hollow is one of several arms or fingers which stretch away from the hill range that runs down the north side of the Boston road, turning northward at the Court-House; that this finger-like moraine is continued northward by itself almost to the river, and points plainly enough to Ponkawtasset Hill on the other side, even if the Poplar Hill range itself did not indicate this connection; and so the sloping cemetery lots on the west of Sleepy Hollow are related to the distant Ponkawtasset. The smooth-shaven knoll in the lawn, on which the children swing, is, perchance, only a spur of some mountains of the moon, which no traveller has ever reached, heaved up by the same impulse.
One Bad Motherf---
It is this kinda stuff that makes boring days like today more palatable. A dork has translated the lyrics to the "Theme From Shaft" into Middle English. Here's the first verse as a sample:
As written by Isaac Hayes:
Who's the black private dick
That's a sex machine to all the chicks?
SHAFT!
Ya damn right!
And now here are Hayes' lyrics translated into Middle English:
Wha be tha blake prevy lawe
That bene wantoun too alle tha feres?
SHAFT!
Ya damne righte!
As written by Isaac Hayes:
That's a sex machine to all the chicks?
SHAFT!
Ya damn right!
And now here are Hayes' lyrics translated into Middle English:
That bene wantoun too alle tha feres?
SHAFT!
Ya damne righte!
More Movie News
Clint Eastwood is making two films about the Battle of Iwo Jima. (That took place in World War 2, for all you non-history types.)
The two films — "Flags," telling the story of six men who raised an American flag on Mount Suribachi, and the tentatively named "Lambs Before the Wind" on the Japanese side of the battle — are scheduled for simultaneous release next fall.
Kaïro (Pulse) by Japanese horror director, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, will finally be released Stateside this month. The film was originally released in 2001 but hasn't been shown on these shores until now because of 9/11. An interview with Kurosawa can be found here. It's doubtful that the film will make it up here to Madison but it opens on December 2nd in Chicago at the Music Box Theatre.
The two films — "Flags," telling the story of six men who raised an American flag on Mount Suribachi, and the tentatively named "Lambs Before the Wind" on the Japanese side of the battle — are scheduled for simultaneous release next fall.
Kaïro (Pulse) by Japanese horror director, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, will finally be released Stateside this month. The film was originally released in 2001 but hasn't been shown on these shores until now because of 9/11. An interview with Kurosawa can be found here. It's doubtful that the film will make it up here to Madison but it opens on December 2nd in Chicago at the Music Box Theatre.
On the Gramophone
Since The New Pornographers show here in Madison last week was cancelled due to health reasons, I'm gonna post one of their tunes. This is the title track to their latest, "Twin Cinema".
31 October, 2005
Never Too Early
It's never too early to plan some beer drinking for next summer. The Great Taste of the Midwest will be on August 12th next year. Tickets go on sale on Beltane. (That's May 1st for all you non-pagans.)
Happy Halloween!
Happy Halloween, everyone! We had a spate of kids coming to our door for chocolatey goodness earlier but it seems to have abated. Check out this site to discover how Halloween is played out around the world. Perhaps most telling is how the French view the day:
Unlike most nations of the world, Halloween is not celebrated by the French in order to honor the dead and departed ancestors. It is regarded as an "American" holiday in France and was virtually unknown in the country until around 1996.
Also, check out the History Channel to learn about the history of the holiday.
And to any pagans/Wiccans out there, Happy Samhain!!
Film News
Darren Aronofsky, director of the cult classics, Pi and Requiem for a Dream, has a new film coming out called The Fountain. "Spanning over one thousand years, and three parallel stories, The Fountain is a story of love, death, spirituality, and the fragility of our existence in this world." The release date has been pushed back until sometime next year so, in the interim, he'll be directing an episode of Lost.
There is just no excuse for this kind of crap.
Peter Jackson's remake of King Kong will be weighing in at 3 hours. Speaking of Peter Jackson, he has signed on as executive producer for the film adaptation of the popular video game, Halo.
This site has 13 brief clips from the forthcoming Harry Potter flick.
No, this isn't Mel Gibson reprising his role from the Lethal Weapon films but rather him explaining his latest project, Apocalypto.
The film's stars will be unrecognizable to most moviegoers, and they will speak in the Mayan tongue of Yucateco, Gibson said. It will be light on dialogue and heavy on images and action. It's set 600 years ago, prior to the 16th-century Spanish conquest of Mexico and Central America.
He sure has a hardon for dead languages. Now, if we could only keep him on Latin...
There is just no excuse for this kind of crap.
Peter Jackson's remake of King Kong will be weighing in at 3 hours. Speaking of Peter Jackson, he has signed on as executive producer for the film adaptation of the popular video game, Halo.
This site has 13 brief clips from the forthcoming Harry Potter flick.
No, this isn't Mel Gibson reprising his role from the Lethal Weapon films but rather him explaining his latest project, Apocalypto.
The film's stars will be unrecognizable to most moviegoers, and they will speak in the Mayan tongue of Yucateco, Gibson said. It will be light on dialogue and heavy on images and action. It's set 600 years ago, prior to the 16th-century Spanish conquest of Mexico and Central America.
He sure has a hardon for dead languages. Now, if we could only keep him on Latin...
28 October, 2005
First the Chinese Took It Seriously
The White House is highly unamused with The Onion for its use of the Presidential seal. It's so unamused that it's wasting taxpayer money to stop them.
Back to Nature
Since I'm now working at the DNR (that's the Department of Natural Resources), I present a bit of nature.
Firstly is noted naturalist Aldo Leopold. Although born in Iowa, he came here to Madison in 1924 and went on to basically invent the practice of wildlife management. A Sand County Almanac is his best-known work and snippets from it and his other work can be found at this page.
Another naturalist with ties to Wisconsin is John Muir. He was born in Scotland in 1838 but emigrated with his family to American at the age of 11 in 1849. The family made their way here to Wisconsin and started a farm. Muir eventually went to college at the illustrious UW here in Madison before heading out into the wild. He is probably best-known for his push to make Yosemite Valley into a National Park. For this, he is enshrined on the new quarter for California. You can read some of his works at Project Gutenberg.
Firstly is noted naturalist Aldo Leopold. Although born in Iowa, he came here to Madison in 1924 and went on to basically invent the practice of wildlife management. A Sand County Almanac is his best-known work and snippets from it and his other work can be found at this page.
Another naturalist with ties to Wisconsin is John Muir. He was born in Scotland in 1838 but emigrated with his family to American at the age of 11 in 1849. The family made their way here to Wisconsin and started a farm. Muir eventually went to college at the illustrious UW here in Madison before heading out into the wild. He is probably best-known for his push to make Yosemite Valley into a National Park. For this, he is enshrined on the new quarter for California. You can read some of his works at Project Gutenberg.
An Encomium for Uncle Des
I got word this week that an old high school teacher of mine had died. Details are almost non-existent as all I was told was that he was found dead in Ireland. A small cadre of us called him Uncle Des. He taught history at a small school in west-central Wisconsin - a town called Strum. After the 9th grade, my family moved from the north side of Chicago to the boonies of Wisconsin, a bit south of Eau Claire. I ended up in the bounds of the Eleva-Strum school district. I was a city kid and my high school in Chicago had a freshman class of well over a thousand students. (Possibly near 1,200 but I cannot recall.) My new high school had a total student population of around 200. It was culture shock, to say the least. I was the only guy to have long hair and I proudly wore my Jethro Tull t-shirt which made me profoundly unpopular and caused my fellow students to hold me suspiciously. Uncle Des had heard that some kid from Chicago would be starting and he obviously looked over my student records and he knew all about my educational history - the gifted program, several years of Latin, etc. He was excited to have such a student in his class. He sort of took me under his wing. While my fellow students guardedly eyed me, he was immediately open and friendly. It was a good feeling to know that a teacher looked forward to having me in his class. As time wore on, he hired me to paint his house and so I got to know him a bit outside of school as well as being introduced to his wife. He sheltered me and a friend from those horrid u-rah-rah rallies before football games for which attendance was mandatory. I think Uncle Des was 35 when I started at the school so we weren't super-dramatically separated by our ages. We talked about music a lot since we both enjoyed it. He gave me and a couple other students independent studies in Constitutional law.
But history was his thing. Juniors took American history and this allowed Uncle Des to really go into his favorite historical period - the U.S. Civil War. We spent weeks and weeks on it reading texts, watching videos, and seeing slide shows. I recall very well how he grossed out some of the girls in the class with his gruesome descriptions of what passed for field medicine in those days. He showed a surgeons medical kit on a slide and it was wholly composed of saws & blades for amputation. Then he proceeded to describe how the "surgery" was performed with glee. Hacking off limbs sans anesthesia, blood and screaming everywhere - it was funny to watch the girls cringe. But he taught with great enthusiasm generally, not just the Civil War. He loved history and he loved to teach. I recall many times watching him come into the room just before class wringing his hands with a smile on his face and saying, "You are gonna LOVE today's lesson!"
I think his enthusiasm for teaching declined a little bit each year because there were so few students willing to learn. Students were from small towns or farms - they had no interest in history or academics generally, from what I recall. He suffered through constant cries of, "Why do we need to know this stuff?" Always was the relevancy of his discipline called into question and I think it got to him eventually. There were exceptions, to be sure, but most kids didn't give a rats ass about history and they let him know about it. But for those few of us who were interested in history, who were interested in academics, Uncle Des was a treat. He really went out of his way to teach and challenge us. Also in the process of getting to know him, I was given some insight into the politics of the school. Not so much which teachers didn't like each other, although there was a bit of that, but more grading and how students were treated behind the scenes. Uncle Des revealed how he couldn't fail anyone and, believe me, there were many kids who deserved to fail. Uncle Des and an couple other teachers had me grade some tests from other classes and, let me tell you, there were some remarkably ignorant kids there. I recall seeing many true-false and multiple choice questions left blank and some plain stupid answers. I recall grading tests for the remedial physical science class one time. People would answer the biggest gimmes wrong. I don't remember the questions exactly but they were like:
The force that keeps us on the earth instead of floating off into space is:
A) Gravity
B) Electricity
C) Water
D) All of the above
I shit thee not – kids would answer this kind of question wrong. And then there was the time in one of Des' American history classes when a blonde girl asked me with all seriousness why we celebrated the 4th of July. I suppose it wasn't so much the ignorance as we are all ignorant, but it was the total lack of interest in learning that so many students had. And they passed! A diploma from that school was (is?) worthless. The valedictorian got the same piece of paper saying the same thing as did the football player who could barely read and write. Don't get me started on jocks. To be sure, there were some really nice guys in sports, that's not the issue. But they got treated like royalty. Their shit didn't stink. There was one time when a bunch of the football team (which basically had the same kids on it as the basketball team) got busted drinking. Now, this should have meant suspension from athletics but of course they were pardoned. But this wasn't the fault of the students, it was of the community. Virtually no one in the community at-large gave a hoot about academics. It was all about sports and this attitude filtered down to the kids. And the teachers felt pressured to make sure Johnny Starquarterback got at least the minimal GPA to participate in sports even when he or she was completely undeserving of it. I recall talking to many a jock after they received their ACT scores of 8 or 10.(/rant)
Anyway, the real beginning of the end for Uncle Des, however, began several years ago. I don't know all the details but he and his wife got a divorce and he lost custody of his kid. I don't remember his kid's name but I do remember that is was Gaelic. (Uncle Des was Irish and proud of it.) Every so often I would hear tales of him from Dogger or Miss Pamela whose parents still lived up north and were part of the grapevine. He quit or lost his job and turned to alcohol and, apparently, drugs. He ended up on a wanted list for neglect of child support payments. And now he's dead.
It really saddened me to hear of his death despite not having spoken with him for many years. He was a teacher, mentor, and friend who had a great impact on my life. Regardless of his sad final years, I'll always remember him for his great enthusiasm for history and his love of teaching it. But most of all, I will remember him as someone who reached out to a very lonely kid who had found himself in unfamiliar surroundings with no friends and a splintering family.
I came across the following site today and it reminded me of him. I know that, if he were alive today and still teaching, he'd have a grin a mile wide on his face as he fumbled with a computer and projector to show it to his students.
Virtual Gettysburg
But history was his thing. Juniors took American history and this allowed Uncle Des to really go into his favorite historical period - the U.S. Civil War. We spent weeks and weeks on it reading texts, watching videos, and seeing slide shows. I recall very well how he grossed out some of the girls in the class with his gruesome descriptions of what passed for field medicine in those days. He showed a surgeons medical kit on a slide and it was wholly composed of saws & blades for amputation. Then he proceeded to describe how the "surgery" was performed with glee. Hacking off limbs sans anesthesia, blood and screaming everywhere - it was funny to watch the girls cringe. But he taught with great enthusiasm generally, not just the Civil War. He loved history and he loved to teach. I recall many times watching him come into the room just before class wringing his hands with a smile on his face and saying, "You are gonna LOVE today's lesson!"
I think his enthusiasm for teaching declined a little bit each year because there were so few students willing to learn. Students were from small towns or farms - they had no interest in history or academics generally, from what I recall. He suffered through constant cries of, "Why do we need to know this stuff?" Always was the relevancy of his discipline called into question and I think it got to him eventually. There were exceptions, to be sure, but most kids didn't give a rats ass about history and they let him know about it. But for those few of us who were interested in history, who were interested in academics, Uncle Des was a treat. He really went out of his way to teach and challenge us. Also in the process of getting to know him, I was given some insight into the politics of the school. Not so much which teachers didn't like each other, although there was a bit of that, but more grading and how students were treated behind the scenes. Uncle Des revealed how he couldn't fail anyone and, believe me, there were many kids who deserved to fail. Uncle Des and an couple other teachers had me grade some tests from other classes and, let me tell you, there were some remarkably ignorant kids there. I recall seeing many true-false and multiple choice questions left blank and some plain stupid answers. I recall grading tests for the remedial physical science class one time. People would answer the biggest gimmes wrong. I don't remember the questions exactly but they were like:
The force that keeps us on the earth instead of floating off into space is:
A) Gravity
B) Electricity
C) Water
D) All of the above
I shit thee not – kids would answer this kind of question wrong. And then there was the time in one of Des' American history classes when a blonde girl asked me with all seriousness why we celebrated the 4th of July. I suppose it wasn't so much the ignorance as we are all ignorant, but it was the total lack of interest in learning that so many students had. And they passed! A diploma from that school was (is?) worthless. The valedictorian got the same piece of paper saying the same thing as did the football player who could barely read and write. Don't get me started on jocks. To be sure, there were some really nice guys in sports, that's not the issue. But they got treated like royalty. Their shit didn't stink. There was one time when a bunch of the football team (which basically had the same kids on it as the basketball team) got busted drinking. Now, this should have meant suspension from athletics but of course they were pardoned. But this wasn't the fault of the students, it was of the community. Virtually no one in the community at-large gave a hoot about academics. It was all about sports and this attitude filtered down to the kids. And the teachers felt pressured to make sure Johnny Starquarterback got at least the minimal GPA to participate in sports even when he or she was completely undeserving of it. I recall talking to many a jock after they received their ACT scores of 8 or 10.(/rant)
Anyway, the real beginning of the end for Uncle Des, however, began several years ago. I don't know all the details but he and his wife got a divorce and he lost custody of his kid. I don't remember his kid's name but I do remember that is was Gaelic. (Uncle Des was Irish and proud of it.) Every so often I would hear tales of him from Dogger or Miss Pamela whose parents still lived up north and were part of the grapevine. He quit or lost his job and turned to alcohol and, apparently, drugs. He ended up on a wanted list for neglect of child support payments. And now he's dead.
It really saddened me to hear of his death despite not having spoken with him for many years. He was a teacher, mentor, and friend who had a great impact on my life. Regardless of his sad final years, I'll always remember him for his great enthusiasm for history and his love of teaching it. But most of all, I will remember him as someone who reached out to a very lonely kid who had found himself in unfamiliar surroundings with no friends and a splintering family.
I came across the following site today and it reminded me of him. I know that, if he were alive today and still teaching, he'd have a grin a mile wide on his face as he fumbled with a computer and projector to show it to his students.
Virtual Gettysburg
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