Back in 1985 my brother Houston introduced me to Todd Rundgren’s innovative album, A Cappella [sic].  Rundgren used digital sampling to create an album made up only of the human voice.  He added distortion and manipulated the sounds to emulate drums and other instruments.  Back then this was really impressive, and I was amazed that one human voice could create such music.

Of course, now this is common place.  Beat-boxing came in with rap music about the time Rundgren’s album came out.  TV shows like Glee have renewed interest in a capella singing, specifically with Do Wop and other popular music that wasn’t originally arranged for voices only.  Combine that with technology that can turn just about any computer into a multi-track recording studio, and you have many people turning out their own a capella renditions. Read the rest of this entry »

It seems that we have had to let go of several things we cherish in the past year or so, things that no longer had a good quality of life, such as our very old cats. Such is the case with my faithful Toyota pickup truck. I got word that the engine is completely shot. I’ve made the decision to take it off of life support.

The truck had a very long life, but not much mileage. The miles it did have were hard, though. It had been wrecked twice – first in a head-on collision with one of my church members (lots of theological implications there that we won’t go into) and once on I-85 in a multi-car pile up. Each time we were able to piece it back together, but after the second time we decided something a bit safer was needed if I was going to be making daily trips on the Interstate. The truck was relegated to gardening, hauling kayaks and bicycles, and serving as secondary transportation when one of our other vehicles was in the shop. In fact, as I searched for a photo of the truck, I couldn’t find any that didn’t show it carrying kayaks.

I learned how to drive on a pickup truck. Dad would take me out on the back roads around Gray Court in a 1958 Chevy truck with three on the column transmission. Those early experiences made me comfortable driving just about anything on the road. However, I didn’t ever get my own truck until this one in 1994. Shortly after getting it we went on vacation for a week, and I actually missed my truck. I told Laura I felt like writing a Country and Western song.

In the end it died of multiple failures. Apparently the head gasket was flawed, then the radiator cracked. Coolant leaked into the engine and ruined it. The only used engine we could find had about twice as many miles as the truck itself. Replacing it with a re-manufactured engine would run nearly four grand. After that, it still needed new tires, a paint job, etc., etc. It made no economic sense to invest in the repairs when I could get a later model truck with modern safety features (air bags, power steering, ABS) for not much more money.

I considered not replacing the truck at all. I could haul kayaks on top of my Outback, or we could get a trailer for them. However, Laura’s gotten used to having a truck available, and she doesn’t feel comfortable driving with a trailer, should she want to run some gardening errands without me. So, we’ll be in the market for a used, low-mileage, low-cost pickup truck that gets decent gas mileage. Anyone have one of those available?

The 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, BC, are just a week away. The airwaves have already been pelted with Olympic-themed commercials. Watching all of this brought some questions to mind…

In 2000 the “Summer” Olympics were in Sydney, and in 1956 they were in Melbourne.  This being the case, were they really “Summer” Olympics?  According to Wikipedia the games were held later in September, so it was actually early spring there.  I guess one could argue that there are no real “Summer” Olympics, just the Olympic Games and the Winter Olympics.

While there have been two Summer Olympics in the Southern Hemisphere, there have never been any Winter Olympics south of the Equator.  That made me wonder if Alpine sports are even big enough down there for a venue to be established.  There’s certainly snow and hills, so the conditions would exist, but no one ever really hears about a Bolivian Bobsled Team, or Chilean Ice Dancing.

Obviously if the Winter Olympics were held in the Southern Hemisphere, they couldn’t be held within the normal time frame.  It would be interesting if that ever did happen, but I’m guessing it won’t.

For Laura’s birthday in October I had gotten her tickets to the traveling show of the musical “Wicked,”  which is supposed to be the untold story of the witches of OZ.  The show started at the Peace Center last week, and our tickets were for Sunday evening.  It turned out to be an absolute blast!

The weather was a concern.  With the season’s worst snow/ice storm just finished, we still had solid ice everywhere when we woke up.  In fact, I got in some great sledding earlier.  However, by afternoon things had started to clear and we were able to head out.

We started with dinner at Liberty Tap Room.  It was the first visit for both of us, and the meal was excellent.  I had she-crab soup and a steak-pasta dish that suited the weather perfectly, and Laura had roasted chicken.

As for the show itself, it’s hard to describe without sounding trite with superlatives.  Totally fun and totally fantastic will have to suffice.  Apart from the amazing performing talent and staging, one of the things that impressed me most was Stephen Schwartz’s very clever lyrical writing.  Glinda the Good Witch singing “I don’t know if I’ve been changed for the better, but I’ve been changed for good, ” is just one example.  The show-stopper is the signature song “Defying Gravity,” which closes the first act.

Now I want to go back and read Winnie Holzman’s original book.  I definitely want to see the show again, and may even consider buying the soundtrack.  What I WON’T do is ever watch “The Wizard of Oz” the same way again.

On the other side of our lake is a short segment of Selwyn Drive that drops steeply from a hill down to the lake level. The piece of road is difficult even in a car, and even more challenging on foot or bicycle. Add an inch or two of snow and ice and it becomes treacherous, and oh so much fun. During snow storms the locals refer to this as “Suicide Hill.”

Sunday morning the sun was starting to peek over the horizon, and it looked like it was going to be one of those blindingly bright white post-snowstorm days.  However, a cloud cover formed very quickly, and the ice and snow was given a brief reprieve.  I decided to go for a walk in our neighborhood.

We’ve got a right decent hill here on our own street.  Before our street was closed off it would have rivaled Suicide Hill, although not quite as long.  Now there is the cul-du-sac.  Some of our neighbors were sliding their toddler down the now-tame hill into the cul-du-sac.  The grassy area and bridge at the end of the street were covered with ice.

It was slippery and slow going. I could hear the screams of children from the hill, and as I crested Heritage Drive I could see them slipping and sliding. The speeds were amazing. I joined a knot of neighbors at the bottom of the hill and watched as the kids sped past.

One young lady, Valerie, rode past with her cellphone recording the trip down. She sent it to me to post to YouTube. It makes an interesting point-of-view video…

One of my neighbors offered me a sled, so I had to give it a try. I wanted to record video as I came down, but couldn’t get the camera started as I slid down at break-neck speeds. It was exhilarating.

As I was leaving, the sun started to come out, and I knew they probably had less than an hour left of good sledding. I hope we get another good snowstorm this year because I’m hooked. I want to try this out again, and maybe get a decent video on the way down. In the meantime, here’s some of the other video I took, along with the rest of the photos from the outing.