A collection of photography and exploration focusing on Upstate South Carolina and beyond.
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When I did my mini-review of “Skyfall” I speculated out that James Bond must be a Time Lord because he keeps changing his appearance. However, he’s not the only Gallifreyan in the mix. MI-6 is lousy with Time Lords, and here’s the proof…
Blofeld
Doctor Who’s arch nemesis (apart from the Daleks, Cybermen, Weeping Angels, Sontorans, etc.) was another Time Lord known as The Master. Like The Doctor, The Master could regenerate, and his appearance changed over the long life of the series.
…or “Sean who??” I believe that James Bond is a Time Lord. That’s the only way to describe his regenerative abilities and ability to change appearance over the past 50 years of movies. In this latest movie, under interrogation Bond himself states that his hobby is “resurrection.” Be that as it may, in this 23 … Read More “Skyfall” »
Today is the 50th anniversary of the premier of the first James Bond movie, Dr. No. All this week NPR’s Morning Edition has been doing a series of specials on James Bond at 50. This week they are exploring the physics of Bond gadgets, music from the Bond movies, Bond’s favorite martini and the differences between shaken and stirred, and, finally, a survey to determine which actor was the quintessential Bond.
Some people memorize the names of all of the presidents of the US in order. Some memorize all the books of the Bible. I can recite all 22 James Bond films in order, with information such as the Bond actor, major villain, and plot. I sometimes do this as a cognitive exercise to relax, somewhat akin to counting sheep. (And, for the record, I can list all of the books of the Bible, but don’t know all the presidents.)
So, when NPR started this series I was delighted. Unfortunately, it came off as a bit shallow. I guess time constraints wouldn’t let them delve into the issues as much as I might have liked, but I was hoping they would get into whether or not a shaken martini tastes better than a stirred one, rather than simply which is colder. Oh, well.
As my friend Duck Hunter pointed out on his blog, not only is it football season, but it’s also marching band season. The Furman Band has really been sounding good the last several years, and this year continues this trend.
Of course, we’ve taken more interest in the band the past several years since the son and daughter of our friends Alan and Mary have been in the band. Joshua graduated last year, but Caitlin still has a couple of years to go. So, we’ve been following the band’s repertoire closer than usual.
It started as an absolute geekfest. Earlier in the week Chip told me that our local theater was holding a Dark Knight marathon Thursday evening. Starting at 6:30 they would show Batman Begins, followed by The Dark Knight, and at midnight they would premier the new movie in the trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises. I had planned to see the movie anyway, and since I didn’t have to work Friday, I decided to go for it.
When I arrived at the theater at 5:15, it was already filling up. Borderland Comics had a table set up and was giving away free comics. The whole thing had a feeling of an episode of the Big Bang Theory. Chip arrived and we found our seats.
The first movie started with no previews. Likewise the second movie. There was just a brief intermission between the two – enough time for me to get, totally spill, then refill a large tub of popcorn. Seeing both of these back-to-back not only highlighted the continuity between the two, but the differences, such as have two different actresses play Rachel Dawes.
To Joy
Joy, thou beauteous godly lighting,
Daughter of Elysium,
Fire drunken we are ent’ring
Heavenly, thy holy home!Thy enchantments bind together,
What did custom stern divide;
Every man becomes a brother,
Where thy gentle wings abide.
Be embrac’d, ye millions yonder!
Take this kiss throughout the world!
Brothers—o’er the stars unfurl’d
Must reside a loving father.–Friedrich Schiller, 1786
Last night the Greenville Chorale joined forces with the Greenville Symphony Orchestra for a performance of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. The 9th is one of my favorite pieces, and I’ve had the privilege to perform it once before. Last night’s performance, though was one of the most stirring I’ve ever experienced.
For the Chorale, the piece came together fairly quickly. Many of us were familiar with the music, but also the chorus doesn’t sing that much in the concert. We’re only there for the last half of the last movement of the piece – about 20 minutes worth. Bing Vick often let us out of rehearsals early, which was a nice change of pace.
However, that is a VERY challenging 20 minutes. First there is the range. The piece is written at the extreme upper vocal range for all parts. I can’t think of another piece that has the basses singing a high F as many times and as long as this one does. Then there was the tempo set by Maestro Tchivzhel – fast, then blindingly fast. We had to squeeze a mouthful of German syllables into such a fast pace that I don’t think any of us got all of the words correct, even in the final performance. Oh, yeah, they had to be on the right pitches and at the right dynamic, too. It was a bear.
Last night Laura and I went to see Thomas Dolby at The Handlebar. It was the first band we had seen in a long, long time – a great show, and a throwback to our college days.
Dolby is currently touring the country in his “Time Capsule Tour.” The show features lots of steam-punk kitsch, and a mocked up “time capsule” in which visitors can leave a “30 second message for the future” (basically a webcam uploading to YouTube.) The time capsule is a mini camper tricked out with steam-punk accoutrements.
Our neighbors Kathleen and Herrick invited us over for dinner Saturday evening. However, this was just any dinner, but a celebration of the life and work of Edgar Allen Poe. We were given literary assignments, and awaited the appointed time.
Laura and I walked over to our neighbor’s house. We were poured glasses of champagne and met our fellow guests. Kathleen’s friend Tammy was there, and their friend Mike had been designated to portray Poe during the evening.
Kathleen had decorated with marvelous and appropriately macabre items. There were quite a few ravens and black netting. The decorations were outstanding.
Several months ago John Kaup asked if I would do a geocaching workshop for Paris Mountain State Park’s Fourth Saturday program. The appointed Saturday came around, so I headed up to the park with all of my GPSs, laptops, etc, in tow for the workshop.
I planned to do a repeat of the workshop I’d done for the park back in 2009. We had secured eight Garmin eTrex GPSs for the participants to use, and I had set up ten dummy geocaches within sight of the building where we were holding the workshop. The plan was to go over the basics and show them the website, then send the participants out to find the dummy caches. I had the coordinates for the caches in my netbook, and had several different types of cables for different models of GPSs, in case someone had brought their own and wanted to participate.
Last time I did this I only had two participants. This time I did more advertising. I posted on the Upstate Geocacher’s Facebook page, and I also got it added as an event cache on geocaching.com. That way, anyone who attended to add the workshop itself as one of their finds. Ranger Cathy Taylor also posted announcements in the Greenville News.
It worked. We had nearly 20 participants. Also attending were experienced geocachers Patrick Peden and his wife, who have over 6000 finds (compared to my measly 135). Patrick took the photos here, since for just about the first time ever I got so wrapped up in the program that I forgot to take ANY photographs. What I really like were that there were families with lots of kids there. It was almost like teaching fourth grade again.
NOTE: It’s been a crazy week, and I’m just now getting around to posting this from last Friday’ nights outing.
Last night [Friday, October 7] the Children’s Museum of the Upstate held an Adult’s Only night. I had been wanting to visit the museum, so Laura and I and some of her colleagues from Furman bought tickets and headed on over.
The museum is located in the former home of the Greenville County Library. It’s an interesting space, with sweeping circular ramps leading from one level to the next, and perfect for some sort of museum or exhibit. I was very pleased that TCMU was able to move into that space with the library moved into its new building. It’s been open since 2009, but we haven’t been able to visit. Apparently they have a strict rule that you can’t visit if you don’t have a child with you. Kind of makes it hard for educators without children to check out what’s going on there.
We arrived right at 7:30 to see a line forming outside of the museum. Most of those in line were young adults in their 20s and early 30s – those without kids. It was very much a younger demographic. As we were in line, several of Laura’ colleagues from Furman (also in their 20s and early 30s) joined us. The line moved quickly, and soon we were wrist-banded and handed two tickets – one for an adult beverage, and one for a wine tasting.
