Adventures in the Mundane

BSG

Just in case you might have missed the four incredible seasons of Battlestar Galactica …

… might be missing a bit, though.

Centraal Station Antwerpen!

Here's another flash mob dance!

 (Be sure to hit HQ for better quality.)

Nice

You've probably already seen this, but I just saw it for the first time today. Love it!

U2 video for Window in the Skies.

Brings a smile to my face and it will to yours.

Let it snow…

It might snow tomorrow.

This makes me very, very, very happy.

This Year's Paul Potts

Alas, embedding has been disabled for this YouTube video. So click here to see Susan Boyle on this year's Britain's Got Talent. Already nearly 2 million views and it's only been up for 2 days. Watch it!

[Update just 12 hours later: Since last night, another 1 million views pushing it to nearly 3 million … so far!]

[Further update 1 day later: Pushing towards 5 million views!]

[Final update a week later: Well over 50 million views adding all YouTube clips!]

Advertising Can Make You Feel Good

If you don't feel good after watching that … well … I got nothin' to say to ya'

(for better quality, hit the HQ button)

A Star Wars Cantina Band Extravaganza!

Ireland Pics

Well, I'm back from Ireland (which is why I haven't posted in so long...both the prep and the going). 'Twas grand! But now I'm here. Sigh.

I took 565 pictures and here are the links to the best 145 of them.

Dublin Days: 40 pictures taken in Dublin, Ireland from Tuesday, January 27 through Friday, January 30 and then again from Friday, February 6 through Saturday, February 7, 2009.

Celtic Experience Tour: 16 pictures taken on the Celtic Experience Tour on Saturday, January 31, 2009.

Ireland Road Trip: 55 pictures from Clonmacnoise, Cashel and Kilkenny area taken on Sunday-Monday, February 1-2, 2009.

Glendalough Retreat: 20 pictures taken in Laragh and Glendalough, Ireland on my prayer retreat from Tuesday evening, February 3 through Thursday morning, February 5, 2009.

Howth, Ireland: 5 pictures of a side trip to Howth, Ireland taken on Saturday, February 7, 2009, when I was forced to cancel the London portion of my vacation.

Belfast: 9 pictures taken from the top of a Belfast CitySightseeing Tour Bus on Monday, February 9, 2009.

Huh?

So I need to make a couple phone calls to Ireland before I head over there in 3 weeks. Thought I'd check into the cost.

Yikes! Calling a land line would be $1.49 a minute and calling a cell phone $1.69. Ouch. And with the difficulties in understanding the accent over my not so great cell phone, any call is likely to have length.

But AT&T also has a program called World Connect. It costs $3.99 a month and lowers your per minute cost. To a land line is 9¢ a minute. To call a cell phone is 25¢ a minute.

SO whether calling a land line or a cell phone, the program pays for itself sometime during the 3rd minute of calling. And you can cancel at any time.

The customer service representative said a lot of people calling overseas prefer to not avail themselves of the program. Guess they like flushing all that green stuff away …

I Love New Old Music

A few days ago I created a playlist for iTunes and my iPod of all my African; Alternative and Indie; Celtic; Rock, Pop and R&B; Soundtrack; World tracks (my genre categories). It has 7,722 songs in it. 22.2 days of music.

Then I made a playlist of all tracks from that playlist that have never been played in iTunes. (Everything I have has been played at least once on a CD … but sometimes only once.) Way over 6,000.

So for the last 2 or 3 days, I've been randomly listening to all this great music that I forgot, or never really even knew, that I had. It's been great! A song will come on and my first thought will be, "Oh, no! I love this song! Who knows when I'll get to come back to this song! It's so good … "

Just 6,258 songs to go … it'll only take 17.7 days of straight listening …

Make that 6,257 songs … Harvest by Neil Young (on … Harvest) has just come on. I love this song!

Skara Brae

At the end of this month, I'm heading off to Ireland. I chose the dates that I did so that I could be in Dublin for the Temple Bar TradFest. There'll be plenty of free music in the pubs, but I still bought tickets to four of the offered concerts. On the last night it'll be "T with the Maggies", a gathering of 4 of the finest female voices in Irish traditional music: Maighread Ní Dhomhnaill, Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill, Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh and Moya Brennan. I was familiar with Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh as the voice of Altan and Moya Brennan as the voice of Clannad. But what about the Dhomhnaill sisters?

Did a little research (thank you Wikipedia) and found that they were in a short lived and legendary group called Skara Brae. Their eponymous and only album, from 1971, is difficult to find, even though it was rereleased on Gael-Linn in 1998, but find it I did. Stunning. Ground breaking. First group to put vocal harmonies to traditional Gaelic music and record it. If you can find a copy, get it. (I found it at Tower Records for $18.86 but currently it lists for $27.99...so watch the price!) I've got their only duo album, Idir an Dá Sholas, from 1999, on order from a seller on Amazon Marketplace. High hopes.

Another bonus. Turns out that Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill was the female singer for the legendary late '70's band, The Bothy Band. I already have two albums with her on it!

Illinois Politics

Living in Illinois brings an inevitable resignation to the pervasiveness of political corruption.

That's not the embarrassing thing, though, for methinks that there's corruption everywhere.

The problem is that we're so inept at it...

What Was I Thinking?

I signed up on Facebook today, primarily so that I could delete an e-mail from a friend asking me to join.

I've probably received at least 75 e-mails in the last 8 hours as the result of signing up. At least I know I've got at least 55 "friends".

I should have waited one day. I've still got papers for my Doctor of Ministry to finish and mail by noon tomorrow!

And then I can play...

Ah … Completion!

The movie Serenity, essentially the conclusion to Firefly, just became available on iTunes to own.

And now I do.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

Yeah, I watched all three episodes on the internet each day that they came out.

Yeah, I downloaded the episodes from iTunes.

Yeah, I downloaded the soundtrack, too.

 

And yeah, I just pre-ordered the DVD from Amazon.com. The original 35 minutes of episodes. The 10 best fan application videos for the Evil League of Evil. Commentary. Making of. Easter Eggs.

But what I'm most looking forward to is the other commentary: Commentary! The Musical. Twice as much music as the original episodes.

Brilliant.

Click here to read what Joss Whedon says about the DVD.

Now go pre-order your copy.

Ow!

Used to love the old Carol Burnett Show. Great memories of song and dance and goofy skits like Went with the Wind.

 

Variety shows can be great, right?

So, I thought I'd check out Rosie Live tonight, Rosie O'Donnell's new variety hour.

Ow!

Lame.

Smarmy.

Never again.

The Piano Player

Scary Love

I confess.

It's true.

I do love me my McRibs.

Whatever they're made of.

And they're back.

For a limited time.

Steppenwolf

It's good to be back subscribing to the productions at Steppenwolf Theatre. I skipped last year and the year before, I attended alone.

This year I'm heading in to Chicago for the five productions with a friend from church, Robert. And this is good, this is good.

Last night's play was … different. Oh, I quite liked it and can't stop thinking about it. Unfortunately, I can't really explain it. It's Frank Galati's adaptation of Haruki Murakami's book, Kafka on the Shore. Through a series of dis/connected scenes embedded in reality and/or dreams, we watch a young boy "wake up" to himself.

Well staged. Well produced. Well written. Generally well acted.

Truly thought provoking and worth going.

It closes in 3 days to make way for the next production.

Best part? Experienced it with a friend.

Last Shot

Here's the morning view from my motel room as I get ready to check out and head on back home.

 

It's been a good week.