Intriguing

The other night I watched The Freshman on TCM. It's an old Harold Lloyd picture, silent and in black and white. It was entertaining, but also intriguing, seeing how slang has evolved in the last 80 years. I also came to the conclusion that people who can read lips get more out of silent movies than the rest of us, being able to see the dialog that's not included in the captioning.

Also intriguing was a new show on ABC, Big Shots. My curiosity was piqued by the advertising, featuring Dylan McDermott and Christopher Titus playing two of the four titular roles. It's a show that has great potential, and I'm kind of hoping it does well.

Mood: Intrigued
Music: The Rolling Stones: "Sympathy for the Devil"

Rights

Score one for individual freedom.

Mood: Pleased
Music: The Beatles: "Let It Be"

The Arts

In a time when many of our schools are facing budget shortfalls and are cutting the fine arts in order to make ends meet, one should examine things like this and read about things like this.

Mood: Thoughtful
Music: Led Zeppelin: "Misty Mountain Hop"

Digital Antiques

I never would have thought that personal computers were collectible, but apparently they are. This slideshow is fairly interesting, even if they're not all exactly personal computers.

Mood: Intrigued
Music: The Cars: "Just What I Needed"

Autumn

Saturday morning we intended to go into some Madison to find a few things for the house. We finally left the house about an hour after I wanted to get moving, and Sarah's hunger coupled with Maryanne's headache prompted us to return home with some of our errands unfinished. After we fed Sarah and got her down for a nap I left to do the grocery shopping. That night we had Maryanne's dad, Jim, over for supper; I made spareribs and sauerkraut, and it turned out quite well. We watched the Badgers win against (nearly lose to) Iowa, with Jim leaving and Maryanne going to bed at half time.

Sunday was the first day of autumn, and after going to church I mowed the lawn and worked in the basement for a while before the Packer game came on. It was an exciting game, but I wished that Brett could have thrown one more TD pass to break the record at Lambeau and not on the road. Still, it's exciting to see the Packers, as young and inexperienced as they are, start the season 3-0, with all three wins coming against decent teams.

Mood: Thoughtful
Music: The Who: "Magic Bus"

Five Years

Maryanne and I both had off from work because it was our fifth wedding anniversary. While I wouldn't call it uneventful, it wasn't exactly romantic. Maryanne's parents were both out of town, and so we had no sitter for Sarah. We ran some errands in downtown Stoughton, including inquiring about estimates to redo the flooring in our kitchen, before going to the A&W in Stoughton for lunch. We then returned home so Sarah could get a nap.

After Sarah awoke we waited fruitlessly for a call back from one of the local flooring places about an estimate before Maryanne left for an appointment. When she returned we decided to try to go out for dinner at the Maple Tree in McFarland, but with a 30-minute wait we decided to go to Monona Garden instead. We were seated immediately there, and by the time we were done it was time to return home and put Sarah to bed.

Mood: Thoughtful
Music: The Band: "The Weight"

Paint

I'd love to be able to do something like this.

Mood: Impressed
Music: Cat Stevens: "The First Cut Is the Deepest"

Xylophony

One of the things that comes with having a toddler is children's television programming. Maryanne and I try to limit how much TV Sarah watches, and when we do allow her to watch we try to keep it to something educational and appropriate to her age.

This means mostly PBS Kids, for a bit in the morning and a bit in the afternoon. One of the shows in this programming block is "Curious George" based on the movie which of course was based on the books. I'm not sure I'd consider everything George does as curious in the sense it's intended, but it's innocent enough for a toddler.

One of the more recent episodes involved a xylophone and some mishaps with it. The first glaring inaccuracy was that the script referred to using "furry hammers" to play the xylophone. Playing the xylophone requires hard mallets, usually plastic, hard rubber, hard cord, or even rosewood. The second inaccuracy, which wasn't nearly as bad as the first, was that the xylophone only had 15 keys. It didn't even have separate keys for flats/sharps. It had at total of fifteen keys, arranged chromatically. This means that the xylophone only had just over a single octave of notes. Most xylophones are 3 1/2 octaves long; smaller ones are 2 1/2 octaves long.

I know it's a children's show, but would it be so bad to ask for some accuracy?

Mood: Disappointed
Music: Cheap Trick: "Surrender"

Heavy Metal

I know what I want to do for my birthday next year.

Mood: Excited
Music: Black Sabbath: "Iron Man"

Flying Again

In honor of Led Zeppelin's possible reunion, here is a list of 10 of their songs you should know.

Maryanne knows No. 1 as the Viking kitty song.

Mood: Thoughtful
Music: Led Zeppelin: "Carouselambra"

Wurst

So many delicious possibilities....

Mood: Thoughtful
Music: Matthew Sweet: "Girlfriend"

Fear

It's terribly sad and disturbing that our culture has not only taught children to fear men, but has thereby caused men to fear children.

Mood: Saddened
Music: Boston: "Smokin'"

Rumpled

It turns out there is a version of "Rumpelstiltskin" illustrated by Edward Gorey.

I hope I still have mine.

Mood: Thoughtful
Music: Styx: "Come Sail Away"

Gorey

What if Edward Gorey had retold the classic Star Trek episode "The Trouble with Tribbles"? It might have looked something like this.

I could have sworn I once had a version of Rumplestiltskin illustrated by Gorey.

Mood: Thoughtful
Music: The Alan Parsons Project: "Eye in the Sky"

Testing

If only there were some kind of test like this one that people had to take before using the Internet.

Then we wouldn't need anything like this.

Mood: Amused
Music: The Eagles: "Take It to the Limit"

"See you in September..."

Here it is September already. Where does the time go? The summer weather is lingering, but with students returning to school and the knowledge that it is September, it is beginning to feel like autumn.

I've come to like autumn well enough. I miss the long summer days, at first, but the cooler weather is a welcome relief from the heat and humidity of July and August. It's a season of change, and I welcome it with mixed feelings. I'm looking forward to the colors -- the fiery autumn leaves and the last gasp of mums -- before winter sets in and everything fades to brown and is covered in white snow.

I'm reminded of my own returns to school, especially to college, and think of how different things were then.

Mood: Pensive
Music: The BoDeans: "The Strangest Kind"

Many Talents

It's a bit overdue, but Maryanne and I watched the conclusion of America's Got Talent when it aired. We were both very pleased to see that Cas Haley and Terry Fator were the top two acts, and both even more pleased to see that Terry Fator won the whole thing.

That said, though, I was impressed enough by Cas Haley to find it hard to imagine that some record executive somewhere didn't see him and doesn't want to make a contract with him. He's a talented perforer with an "everyman" quality. I think that's what really struck me with many of the acts -- their humility and gratefulness at getting a chance to perform and show what they can do really impressed me.

Good luck to everyone!

Mood: Thoughtful
Music: Nazareth: "Love Hurts"

Zippo

This op/ed piece on the famous Zippo lighter may make you want to go out and buy one, even if you don't really need it.

Mood: Thoughtful
Music: Heart: "Barracuda"

Dirty Mac

No, it's not soiled pasta products, it's a supergroup John Lennon put together for the Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus. Never having seen the entire concert show before, this was a pleasant surprise to me. Dirty Mac featured Lennon on vocals and rhythm guitar, Eric Clapton on lead guitar, Mitch Mitchell on drums, and Keith Richards on bass guitar. Check out their performance of Yer Blues.

Mood: Intrigued
Music: Dirty Mac: "Yer Blues"

Dog Days

Maryanne, Sarah, and I spent the weekend up in Door County to visit family and friends. While our May and June visits were perhaps better, this one wasn't terrible. Maryanne got her Sonny's fix on Friday night, Sarah thoroughly enjoyed herself at Sunset Park Saturday morning, and we had dinner Saturday night at Weisgerber's in Bailey's Harbor (review). The only dark spots on the trip were the terrible experience at the Galley Café Saturday morning, and the cold, damp weather that permeated Sunday.

Mood: Thoughtful
Music: Pink Floyd: "Time"