56 Linux trackers today and they still don't get the joke.

October 1 UPDATE: I continue to be able to yank 'em around, but they've changed pattern...and so have I.  They  track in pairs, but they limit themselves to 10machines when they realize they've been yanked around.  And so I have changed pattern, and while they're still tracking in pairs, they're upping the number of tracking machines.  You gullible idiots, ha.
.....and immediately after I posted the above, they've limited tracking machines to 42.  The answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything.  Hey guys--thanks for all the fishy. :P XD

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When I see you, I just yank you around.  Thanks for the amusement!  It's been fun.  All 56 of youse.  It's gonna take an army, which is a nice job if you can get it.  You pile on this blog as if you were getting paid for it or something. LOLz.
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Number just went up to 63 Linux machines. Cute.
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 Nope--113. Never had so many fans of mine show up with Linux machines all at once! I'm flattered!!
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Late in the day, the number whittled down to 1 Linux machine operator.  Somebody must have finally gotten the joke.  But we'll see just how long that lasts.  There's one, and one's not zero.  Bossman remains very very interested in tracking this blog at all, huh.  Here's a big wet one for ya, bossman. MMMMWWWWAAAAA!

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Yup, it didn't last long. I've got 6 of 'em on my tail as I write this Tuesday update.  Of course I proceeded to yank 'em around, and this brought the number up to 31.  Hi guys!

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Blog recheck: 2 Linux machines. After some yanking, rose to  15.  Hello again, ha!
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Wednesday body count: 8 Linux, one Unix. Looks like the Linux kids dragged Big Daddy into the mix. Successfully pulled the same ole trick on 'em today, too. Suckers. XD  Linux count just went up to 19, but still just one Unix. Hehehehehe.

Mini-updated Mini-update, separately, monarch milkweed edition

Saturday mini-Mini-UPDATE: Well, over at Oakwood Mall yesterday, I was read the riot act by somebody who said that I didn't belong in a dying mall but over at Scribner's downtown. The person who launched the screed was in from Oklahoma City to belong to an association in dying mall, so go figure.  Oakwood Mall is currently on City of Enid Death Row, and even Marilyn Fulton's awesome mural in it is condemned to die Death By Wrecking Ball, but Marilyn's still a member who probably would do a whole lot better by abandoning ship to go to Scribner's downtown.  But hey--this is the Internet, these are the Interwebz, and I might as well just start another blog page for my own online art gallery, just like I started a separate page for monarch butterfly monitoring. C'est la vie.

Clara's Online Art Gallery

 And yet again, nailed 'em, ha!  And by this li'l exercise I learned that they're not bots.  They're actually Linux people type people.  All two 14 24 of you.

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Nailed you two Linux guys again, didn't I. MUAHAHAHAHA!!!
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 I just now had a little fun yanking my Linux trackers around just a few ago.  You guys still don't get it, though, do you--even though I messed with your machines, much to my delight.  There's more fun where that came from, too. :P XD


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Yup--pretty much went on a quest to harvest milkweed seeds this past week, and I done hit the jackpot.  Blogging will resume shortly.

While you're waiting, you might as well peruse the page of THIS worthy cause
--¡Globalquerque!

...and I still see you two Linux guys following me around on my blog. :P
 

Enid's July First Friday, and a Fourth mini-update

This downtown First Friday was much better attended than the June First Friday, but by church people.  Somebody must have rallied the pulpits to turn out or something. Oh, I'm not complaining, considering that the Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons turned out--you might be surprised that I'm a fan of both of these sects.  Much of the same points I make in debates about Bibles are also made by Jehovah's Witnesses, and insofar as we agree on those debatable points, I think they're spot on.

But Mormons too?  Yes, Mormons too, and I'm a fan the same way I'm a fan of the Salvation Army: when it comes to helping out a community, by golly, they rank right up there better than any of the other denominations especially with how they run their thrift shops, and in the thrift shop department, when it comes to Deseret Industries vs Sally's, well, Deseret wins hands down.

But Enid doesn't have a Deseret.  Well, I'm familiar with how Deseret works because of Mesa AZ and vicinity.  Mesa AZ is Little Salt Lake City, and I'll bet not a whole lot of people in Enid even know that much about it--and I told Enid's Mormons so, telling 'em that I'd be the first in the door if they ever decide to open up a Deseret's in Enid.  Well, Deseret is run similar to Goodwill, only better.  And in Enid, there's a Marshalese ministry.  Same can be said for the Jehovah's Witnesses, too.  I really had a good time talking to both of those groups; didn't say much to the Baptists who showed up, though.  Good music was to be had at the Five80 Coffee house (another religious outfit) although I definitely missed the Star Tek hotdog/brats.  Goldspot ice cream parlor was closed both last time and this time; it was open only on that first First Friday of the year.  But somebody rather talented showed up with his wife and kid in front of the CDSA building.  Enjoy!

mini-UPDATE, Independence Day Edition:  Since the City of Enid decided to be draconian about traffic and parking this year, I decided to skip the Meadowlake fireworks altogether. I'm glad I was able to hear the Enid Symphony Orchestra rehearse for that event, though, and the music is better when you hear it close up anyway. There was a problem, though--soloists didn't have a microphone and got drowned out by the orchestra in the rehearsal...except once. And it's that once that was a priceless performance that nobody at Meadowlake would be able to see across the fields in the dark. BOY am I ever glad I went to the rehearsal! I believe I'll do that every year henceforth!

Blogger won't permit me to upload the higher quality mpeg2 file here (it's still being stupid about file size limit) so I'll post a sucky Windows Media file here instead.  But! You can View the mpg2 quality video on Facebook (you need a Facebook account to watch, of course, and yes, the above paragraph appears on Facebook, too).

You can find tenor Brett A. Payne on Facebook, too. And on YouTube.

Sort-of summer hiatus but not exactly; Tomorrowland UPDATE

There have been a number of events occurring in June that conflict with each other and this year, my choices got simpler.  One mission was accomplished, and I can chalk that up as no longer demanding my attention, so now I can spend quality time in Bartlesville OK for OKMozart.  I've got other newer irons in the fire and the old stale stuff is long overdue to get gone.  And nothing intrigues me more than adventures in new directions!  So yeah, I've been doing less blogging and more of cleaning out the cobwebs. Out with the stale old and in with the new--ALLONS-Y!!

Dink's BBQ, I'm on the way!! The Barn in Wichita, it's been too long.

Ahhhh, good ole Bruce.

When you're walking from the parking lot to the front door of Wichita's Center for the Arts, Bruce is the first thing you see long before you get to that door, on the other side of the pedestrian bridge that leads you there.  Bruce is on the parking lot side of the bridge.  When you walk right up to her, that's what the placard says: Bruce.

It's not until you go inside the center that you find out that Bruce is the first name of the sculptor.

You gotta squint to see her there, but she's the shadow straight up the middle of the entry way.

Dug up an old photo taken on a previous excursion to this facility. I was told it was part of a permanent collection, but that was back then.  It's an eyecatcher of a depiction of a "holy roller" event:

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Saturday UPDATE: Those who are familiar with my interest in time travel would also be familiar with the fact that I'm a critic, too.  It's with that background that I took in the movie "Tomorrowland" today. And although it managed a handful of noticeable technical SNAFUs, by and large even a critic such as myself would call it a particularly brilliant film at least in the terms of how time actually works in re the future, and in particular, how the future isn't predestined outside of its chains of events, which can be predicted/predictable, and the matter of parallel universes with time differences, suggesting a temporal loop-back in space, and how choices made can generate a terminal pocket universe.  And there's a young lady who, simply put, "knows how things work"--my kinda gal.

I continue to pack for a stay in Bartlesville, so speaking about choices that change the future, my work toward getting that Enid event back on cable is concluded--attending that any further is quite pointless and there are far more pressing matters making demands of my own time than that.  My work on that is done--c'est finis. Those who are familiar with my interests also know that I'm interested in new things to explore, not the same ole same ole rehash.  I'm off to new adventures, thank you very much.  Whether traveling to the past or traveling to the future, my path is always forward.  Theta sigma.

I didn't fall into an Enid pothole, in case you were wondering...

Nope.  I've just been trying to keep up with the Keystone Kommissioners down at Enid City Hall, and it's kept me hopping with all those Special Sessions over that big government budget where they've gotta cut something but the vanity expenditures are somehow sacred cows to be sacrificed for nobody or nothin', not even a better water source arrangement even though Enid's on water rationing on even/odd arrangement (please don't ask me to explain that).

But ONE segment got finished, and that's the lampoon of the retiring Jon Stewart's Moment of Zen.  On Punched Out Judy, it's the Instance of Oy.  Behold:

Another spoof segment will be added due to the "discussions" about who talks over who in the last series of Commission sessions, and you savvy people out there will think "Between Two Ferns" at first, without a doubt--but due to the nature of the "discussions", ah, that's the part that's different in Judy's new segment "Just Among Fronds"

Yes. folks, that's Cow Parsley, aka Poison Hemlock.  Hey--fronds is fronds.  With fronds like that, who needs enemas?

Busy weekend of diversions as school terms come to a close

There was the big Tri-State school band competitions, Million Dollar Parade and final evening concert, and then there's the Shewey recital this Sunday.  I've got a bunch of vids to produce for this blog on that account, so I'll kick things off with one of  the highlights of the recital.  It's the season for school recitals before summer vacation kicks in, so I'll be in the process of adding what I can work in.  And yeah--my apologies in advance for Blogger's dismal video shortcomings in its insistence on low-res-only videos.  It still sucks.

Highlight from the Tri-State evening concert and a tribute to videographers everywhere. Yup--everywhere.

Ever see a smart phone substitute for sheet music? No? Then watch this unusual encore after the well-deserved standing O...

Next is the beginning of the Tri-State music festival's Million Dollar Parade, which doesn't leave the impression that a million dollars has anything to do with it.  I'm posting it so that you can get a sense of directional orientation before I post more of the parade later.  This thing used to occur at about 11 am until recently, when Enid also instituted a First Friday downtown event and nobody had to peer at silhouettes in the setting sun to see the parade.

Now, it's a bitch to get a camera set up decently, and whether in the am or pm there has always been a band timing/co-ordination problem which now occurs at the corner I eventually walked over to, then had to shuttle between that and my first position where I was facing east.  To get a shot down that crossing street, I would have had to shoot directly into the sun, so bear with all those shortcomings, please.  Here we go...

The direction the camera is facing in that last shot is toward the south, where the reviewing stand and announcer are.  The next vid shows why it wasn't a good idea to be situated closer to the reviewing stand.  If I had been there, I would have missed the YWCA Walk A Mile In Her Shoes people, which exited the parade route right at that corner...

In short, that was a bunch of guys marching in blazing red high heels, some of 'em in drag, some of 'em dressed like The Village People (yeah, that's a different Y, huh). But it was an anti-sexual assault march and, in my view, a worthy cause.  And if you'd been standing near the review stand, you'd have missed the whole thing.  But if you had been standing on the street they marched on, you'd have been looking straight into the sun unless you were looking straight south--in which case the sun would still have been in your periphery.

Well, that's enough for tonight, folks. Tomorrow is another day, ha. :)

This one's just for you, Auntie Beeb

Late May UPDATE, Richard Prince Edition: Seriously countering the Beeb's complaint about my YouTube video explaining the actual science of bigger-on-the-inside, transdimensional engineering that has been on Earth for centuries long before the Beeb even existed, which uses a short clip from a Tom Baker episode of Doctor Who to make the point...(whew!)...is the recent "landmark decision" in the favor of Mr. Prince, who borrowed the works of others to make his own collages with, and who successfully claimed Fair Use protection to use others' images in his collages, entirely to my own astonishment.

I had long considered collages to be a legit art form, but more that didn't fall under Fair Use.  My video clearly falls under fair use the same way that book and movie reviews fall under that when they quote or show clips with the aim toward public discussion thereof, and any adverse decision by the court in my direction would put the BBC above the law covering all public discussion or criticism altogether...which put the odds of the BBC winning an actual lawsuit against me somewhere between slim to none. As of the Prince decision, the BBC's odds don't even reach slim anymore.

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May UPDATE: Second round of appeals initiated and it looks like we might actually be going to court. Anybody who is weary of copyright troll bullying may feel free to donate to the defense fund because a win for me in this case will change the copyright troll world forever as a precedent. Donate HERE <<< I removed the link because GoFundMe took it down, no doubt because of inactivity for so long.  The update on this end is that Auntie Beeb hasn't sued me yet, and no news is good news.  SO FAR.  With the Prince decision, the old girl is more certain now that she's going to lose than she was before, so I'll bet she doesn't think that a law suit would be a smart thing to spend tax money on doing, especially in the face of a budget cutting Parliament.  Just speculation on my part, anything can happen without a doubt, but Auntie Beeb's odds of prevailing went down further than the bottom it had already hit under ordinary Fair Use rulings.

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Me & Auntie Beeb's World Service go 'way 'way back, and it's how I was first introduced to Douglas Adams, and via Douglas Adams, became acquainted with Doctor Who in its heyday in the form of one Tom Baker.  Then the BBC yanked the plug on the World Service to North America and kept sliding downhill from there.

So Auntie Beeb revived the Doctor, and yeah, I watch on a regular basis, sort of, but that's after figuring out the time travel thing myself, being the Impossible Person I always was. Well, it's come to pass that this blog has been getting a lot of hits from the UK, and judging from the stats, it looks like the minders I have aren't all Chinese.  I'm thinking that perhaps Autnie Beeb is getting cross over all the similarities between myself and Clara Oswald--none of my doing, of course; it's how Auntie Beeb designed Oswald and via whom.  Isn't that right, Tom Baker?

Well, we can start this dance by my showing how TARDIS, short for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space, can't be either copyrighted or trademarked because it's generic science.  I might play with crayons and get artsy-fartsy on occasion, but I'm a woman of science first, and I can make the case.

I'm about to upload the video to YouTube first, though, so since this post automatically circulates on the Google Plus community (where there are several Doctor Who groups), and since an upload to YouTube *also* automatically gets posted to G+ as well as to Twitter, just consider this a preliminary heads up on what's coming, though not too much later.  When that's done, I will then imbed the video in this post.  Later.

Ah! Here we go!

Oh-ho, a quick question right outta da gate: where's the sound track from? This should interest my Chinese minders considerably, as they should find that sound track quite familiar--they use it to jam radio stations they don't like, on shortwave.  Here in the States and elsewhere, we call it a "firedrake".

Auntie Beeb very quickly filed a dispute with YouTube about this video, quite predictably claiming copyright infringement, and I very quickly filed a dispute with the Beeb's claims.  Check.

Proudly AMERICAN, not British. Get it? Got it? GOOD.

As I stated in my rebuttal, neither the BBC nor any other entity can claim copyright on physics, and the clip was used solely to illustrate science for public discussion and that falls withing the Fair Use copyright section.  You know--that pesky Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107.  Now then--until YouTube decides the matter, here's the Blogger-sized low res vid so that you can see for yourself that the Beeb's claims are false:

Contained within the video is the nature of the challenge to any claim the BBC might have on "transdimensional engineering" because dating all the way back to Gutenberg, it has been PUBLIC DOMAIN PHYSICS.  Science isn't copyrightable--it falls under patents, ON THE CONDITION that it is NOT already in the public domain, as this science is.

The video itself makes the case that the Beeb can NOT copyright generic science, and I'm sure the Beeb prefers to quash the argument's persuasion more than it wants to quash any (bogus) copyright infringement claim.  En garde, Beeb.

Mini-UPDATE 2: Just as soon as I put this post out on Twitter, I got Followed by @engproblem_s  and for that, I'm greatly honored. Fact remains that while the Beeb might whine about copyrights, its biggest problem is that it doesn't own any patent for time and relative dimensions in space physics.  And via G+, I just got Notified that +eLibrary - Open eBooks Directory added me to its Circles.

Hey--y'all KNOW I'm right--books have always been bigger on the inside than on the outside, and the Beeb doesn't own any exclusive patents on the design of the book. Dear Auntie Beeb--copyrights don't protect science. You need patents.  Show us your patents or STFU 

Mini-UPDATE 3: Answering a challenge--I never said that I never used books for time travel.  I just don't rely on them exclusively; I use them primarily for navigation, and the book I used in the video does indeed come from my core's navigation system.  Am I an historian?  Not only no, but hell no.  Am I an amateur historian?  Chautauqua scholars know in their bones I'm beyond amateur, and they know for a fact that I'm no "scholar" either.  Am I a history buff?  That would be true if we left out the future part of things; I'll take it, but it's a vast understatement.  What's left?  Time traveler.

Mini-UPDATE 4: Surprised at the claim of navigating the future? Most of us are doing that already, only we don't recognize that as such. Chess masters do it all the time, and people who think navigating the future is a matter of following a time line (when time isn't linear) to stuff that hasn't happened yet but it's carved in stone that it will happen.  I've said it before and I'll say it again: the future isn't pre-destined and there's no such thing as predestination.  If there were, we could all sit back and just let time happen without trying.  You people know better than that.

Seriously--the next generation, now being trained from kindergarten about coding, will acquire an intuitive feel for time travel both ways, for they will have intuitively mastered the IF THEN ELSE branching, map it out, and be able to see that the path from START  to any single possible END out of a flow chart full of ENDs, will understand how the illusion of time being linear came about, as well as the illusion of time flowing came about.  That's why it's called a FLOW CHART.  And the elite few who programmed Big Blue to play tournament quality chess know this for a fact already.  Figuring out how many bazillion possible moves exist from START obscures the FACT that not all of the possible moves are possible given certain conditions, which is how a chess master knows at his first move, how many moves he'll arrive at a check mate in.  IF the opponent moves to permit that ELSE Plan B which results in a check mate in a few more moves.  And so on.  Certain moves will result in certain END OF GAME in short order IF those conditions exist.

That's how it's done, people.  And, seriously, Auntie Beeb--you need to step aside and stop your impediment of real science with your imaginary bullpucky.  You're holding humanity back, and here's a reminder of why you and your government were apt models for Douglas Adams' Vogons. Auntie Beeb, if anybody can serve well as a model Vogon, it would be YOU.

First Good Friday in Enid

...when I get around to posting the videos.  Had a nice conversation with a supporter in the last election, too. With spray cans, one artist downtown brought back the 1980s fad of van painting, but it wasn't vans he was painting and he wasn't using auto laquer with an air brush--it was strictly spray can art.

In the meantime, think science with Easter Eggs.  I may dabble in the arts now and then, but, first and foremost, I am a woman of science.

12 Experiments with Eggs (BuzzFeed)

....and I'm sure by now you get the drift.  Enjoy.  For the record--in my humble opinion, EVERY Friday is a good one.

Mini-UPDATE: It's too late tonight to do much more than produce a teaser for Enid's first First Friday festivities for today. Watch this space.

Yup, that hot dog vendor is the one that provided the free dogs at Vanhooser's event. Bingo.

Now meet Enid's own Tom Boepple...

Mother Machree & Co.

Didn't get much of a chance to post about St. Patrick on the 17th proper, and I did promise to post some of my Scotch-Irish sounds from antiquity, so I'll launch this better-late-than-never post with, of course, Mother Machree, followed by Kathleen Mavourneen.  Will also try to find Scot representation by way of the Ames Brothers' version of My Bonnie Lassie, which is invariably played these days by both of Scots and Irish heritage here in the U.S.. And thus launched, advise that you check back periodically for additions.

You won't find "Danny Boy" here, though--I'm really really REALLY weary of hearing that around here and not just on Paddy's Day...which is why I prefer to call it "London Derrier" (Londonderry Air). Similar story with James Joyce--I would have been dancing for joy at Finnegan's Wake. I'll take Finian's Rainbow instead, thank you very much.

Next is a record minted in 1921 with an unusual plastic substrate, via Vocalion--"Bells of Shandon" and "In The Wee Little House I Love":

Famous whistler Margaret McKee recorded on this label as well as others, and multi-label recording was common practice in those early days of recording. Sure, Billy Murray recorded on Edison, but he's also to be found on Columbia and others as well, and the same could be said of Henry Burr, etc.

Now, "The Harp That Once Through Tara’s Halls"...

"When Irish Eyes Are Smiling"...

{........and I can personally attest to the truth of that......}

The power of the smiling eyes of Irish extraction weren't lost on Dolly Parton early in her career, and you'll notice it right away in the first stanza of the song she launched her career on.  Here she is with a reprise in Glastonbury (southern U.K.) just last year...

Sure, America may very well be a melting pot of different nationalities, but it's the Scot-Irish Americans who have had a major cultural impact, particularly in what our nation calls "country", and hillbillies all over the nation, not just confined to the South.  Sure, we have a lot of different nationalities, but it's the Irish element that has made an incursion on American folklore, in the form of the tales about Mike Fink from which originates the derogatory term "red-headed stepchild" (and Mike's esteemed cousin, rat fink).  And take a wild, wild guess as to where the country dance form, clogging, comes from...and from that, how urbanfolk acquired the derogatory term for countryfolk known as "shitkickers".  It just seems to me that hiphop adopted the shitkicker form of dance and we can consider cultural revenge has been had thereby.

Mini-UPDATE: when I checked the blog stats just now, I saw the usual automatic hits via G+ and then I saw something else: there's a smart, regular reader out there who knows that I've previously posted related recordings in my 2013 entry about the Great War, The Great War's Armistice Remembered (post now removed--sorry 'bout that), tying in the Prohibition aspect of that era to Irish immigration in the tune "Molly and the Baby, Don't You Know". When one confines one's self to material written by other scholars, the life of those times too frequently is the content that's missing, and in this case, it's the bearing that the Irish immigration had on the fact that the Prohibition amendment actually passed and got ratified.

It's often claimed that the alcoholic beverage industry only went underground instead of out of business, but that leaves another question unanswered: if there was that much demand for the products of that industry, wouldn't there have been a lack of votes to pass the amendment in the first place?  Ask a question like that of a scholar and you're all but guaranteed to get rudely blown off.  And yet the answer to that question is clear when one considers the essence of the life and societies of that era: voters were more anti-Irish than they were pro-liquor.

It's not like the Irish immigrants didn't give people a reason to be anti-Irish, especially in New York where they formed rather notorious gangs (and it's after one of those Irish gangs that the now-defunct Hypercrites West got its theme: The Dead Rabbits Society).  Backlash to that was the recruitment of Irish constabulary for the purpose of patroling areas like, say, the Bowry, and thus was born the stereotypical Irish cop image.

Dead Rabbits Riot

Organized crime didn't begin with Prohibition even though there are scholars who will leave that impression on an audience.  Organized crime is as old as trade business and capitalism.  There were always Ali Babas, pirates, skimmers, trade gatekeepers whose palms required greasing, speculators, market manipulators, racketeers, as long as there's been business. For you Enid locals, I'd think that the situation with Lodgewell is a perfect case in point, but not the only case in point.  The excuse is that they, a holder of a high-dollar hotel franchise as a high-dollar developer, are unable to raise the scratch to start building even after they bought the land for $10, stinks like a long dead rabbit..and the money demanded by the City is looking more and more like palm grease.

Here's Nelson Eddy with an Irish medley...

I did mention Lydia Pinkham in the aforementioned post about the Great War (the song about her that was popular then, that is), and there's an Irish connection here.  Although the following gents are better known for singing about green alligators and long necked geese (and unicorns), here they are bending an elbow to honor Ms. Pinkham.

The Irish Rovers have another connection to the Great War by song, and that is via one of their tunes on the topic of the shipyard where the Titanic was built.  The song about Lydia Pinkham is but one link between the Irish and the Great War--there was also an eerie Eire themed stage play in 1919 which was eventually produced into film thrice: 1922, 1932, and, with Jeannette Macdonald, in 1941: "Smilin' Through".

Besides the theme song, another related tune became popular, too: "Kerry Dance".

John McCormack was quite popular in his day and quite proud of his Irish bent in music, too.  Here's a film of him performing two other Irish classics...

...and here's a lovely choral version of "The Kerry Dance"...

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I am officially honorarily Irish every March 17 because I was properly baptized such by a Dublin priest who gets a case of Guinness direct from the Emerald Isle annually, by which I've proven that I can hold me stout.  With that, I salute erstwhile photographer who is likely to still be in Mexico, Padre Dave (It's-Not-A-Sin-If-Ye-Take-No-Pleasure-In-It) Rice!

...and a nod to Tommy Steele...

Just can't leave these two out...with a tip o' me tam to the dearly departed Jimmy Ferguson...

The above are the 1960s vintage.  Next is The Unicorn sung by the doddering old codgers that once recorded the previous version in their youth...

Just located this tribute to Jimmy Ferguson on YouTube, and can't be left out either...The Orange and the Green.

A joyous man who clearly died a sinner--looks like he had a life that he took pleasure in, and good on 'im for that.

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Sunday April 5 UPDATE: We interrupt this whimsical take on the Orange and Green to mention just how serious the difference remains, thanks to a CBS report on 60 Minutes about the Belfast Project of Boston College. It was no laughing matter to Sinead O'Connor and I'm sure none of the dead are laughing. With the possible exception of Jimmy here. He's earned the right to.

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Here's a CBC clip where it looks like more of Jimmy fit into a pound, in the 1970s. In the clip, they're later joined by Anne Murray....

None but an Irishman can properly tell the tale of how something came about, and, in particular, how Ireland came about.  As in, "A Little Bit of Heaven"...

(More old recordings can be found, in due time, in the bottom addenda to this post--just scroll down a wee bit and Bob's your uncle.)

Blarney--not just for the County of Limerick anymore. Quite the Corker, that one.
And speaking of Limerick...

                    As a beauty, I am no star;
                    There are others more fair by far.
                              But my face, I don't mind it
                              Because I'm behind it--
                    It's the people in front that I jar.

The latter day Irish Rovers...

(this was in Belfast)

They're finally settling into old age, saying "Farewell to Roving" this year and part of the next.             Difficult to imagine.

The online Irish Gaelic Translator

Friday UPDATE, sorta: Just got back from a poetry reading at the Enid Symphony Hall and it was presented by 4 poets who met in Ireland, only one of them was a local--a lady mailman, to boot.  You betcha I've got more vids to post, so by all means, stay tuned.

This is posted to prep you on the low-light conditions of the video, as well as to mention that Gene Barry here was the only poet of the lot who actually sounded Irish.

Heh. I just visited Gene's Facebook page and notice he, a skinny guy, is heavy into rugby. :)  He also posted one of the poems he read tonight, and in print it reads like a Catholic Litany; but to listen to him read it is something quite different when he arrives at a line which ends in the word "bastard".  I think he just acquired a new fan here.

Ah, here we go...the beginning of the readings.  And who knew that emerald came in such a dark shade...

Now we arrive at Stones in Their Shoes, prefaced by preamble and dedication:

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This just in via G+:

#wordstoliveby

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Addenda

I'll preface this section with the observation of generational differences in childhood doggerels learned at one's earliest age, and the noticed absence of a tune that used to be as popular among kids as were "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" aka The Alphabet Song and Baa Baa Black Sheep, among others.  That tune would be "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean", a tune quite pertinent to this post entry.  To review:

                    My Bonnie lies over the ocean;

                    My Bonnie lies over the sea

                    My Bonnie lies over the ocean,

                    Oh bring back my Bonnie to me.

                              Bring back, bring back, oh bring back my Bonnie to me, to me--

                              Bring back, bring back, oh bring back my Bonnie to me!

When a generation of young children first learn nursery rhymes and such doggerels, they are,of course, of nursery age, so the first thing they try to do, when they get older and prefer to exhibit the fact that they're old enough to be distinguished from the younger set of children, is lampoon those earlier-learned nursery rhymes and doggerels.  Case in point, how "On Top of Old Smoky" morphed into "On Top of Spaghetti", both versions of which were, in their day, published by commercial recording labels to great advantage. Same can be said of "Clementine", lampooned by no less a figure than Bing Crosby, again to great advantage.  The lampooning of "My Bonnie" was not so fortunate, alas, but still became more of a widely spread joke rather than a recorded tune lampoon, as follows:

ENGLISH TEACHER: Now that we've added the words "analyze" and "anatomy" to our vocabulary, can a student volunteer to use those two words in sentences?

CLASS CLOWN: (raises his hand first eagerly, is called on, and says the following)
My analyze over the ocean
My analyze over the sea
My analyze over the ocean
Oh bring back my anatomy!

With that, I now present the rest of the addenda.

Coleen Aroon

Killarney and You

Come Back to Erin

Molly (An Irish Love Song)

Only An Irishman's Dream

Everybody Loves an Irish Song

You should have recognized a number of what's been regarded as American standards in the last piece, and I'll wager that there's not been a lot of Americans who realize that the tune "Home Sweet Home" was of Irish extraction...except that it's actually of English extraction.  Or that a good number of what's now regarded as bluegrass standards are of Scot extraction, like the following--"Sally Johnson", which abruptly begins, and almost as abruptly ends:

There was no such music category called "bluegrass" back then. Or country/western, either. Only one term was used: hillbilly. AKA American highlanders. The next selection, "Irish Lament", is performed by a gent whose name strongly suggests Jewish extraction.

Sandy MacFarlane now takes us back to Scotland with "MacNab's A Jolly Sailor".  The one thing that the English, the Welsh, the Cornish, the Irish, and the Scottish all have in common: the sea.

Two more from Sandy, on the same record--When Heather Bells Are Blooming and The Wedding of Sandy MacKae...

My Wild Irish Rose

I did mention before that Henry Burr (not his real name) recorded for multiple labels (there was no such thing as an exclusivity contract back then) and I did present the Brunswick label version (different singer) of "When You and I Were Young, Maggie" in the post about the Great War.  But it's still a great Scot-extracted tune and here is Henry Burr's version on the Pathe label.

I say "Scot-extracted" because of the long list of Scot-extractions attempting to claim first credit for writing the thing on the North American continent, and there's no country that expresses stronger Scot extraction than Canada, eh?

There are Scottish standards that remain in American discography, such as Annie Laurie, but such are to be added at a much later date. Now, back to the Irish...

As a label, Grey Gull is most interesting to me because of its track record of recording activist tunes, all the way from train wreck commemoration to temperance and suffrage tunes.  And speaking of interesting labels, albeit later in time, would be the MacGregor label, and, dare I say, for obvious reasons.

...and here are the Irish Rovers celebrating 30 years in circulation...

So--How are things in Glocca Morra?

Oh, enough of the immigrants to America, hm?  How about immigrants to England?
Alright, stay in Rathcullen, then.
.
The following is copyrighted, folks, and I've granted myself permission to post it:

                    A lad of wee stature in town
                    Failed somewhat to be the class clown
                              But folks he'd astonish
                              With pranks leprechaunish
                    So the class made him wear a green gown.
                                                                        ---CL

 ...and a bit of a postscript about Miss Fogerty.  I first encountered her in the form of an old poem, but when I went looking for the verses, I found out it was also a song about her and her infamous cake.  So guess what--I found the Irish Rovers singing it.

What's scarier is that someone in the kitchen posted this same Irish Rovers ditty, and posted it there, too. The Kitchen Witch .  Figures.

Hectic July thusfar--more visits announced; international news

Got one visit already from AZ and two more maybes:

Ras is passing thru this area again and he's bringing his wife this time.  And there's a musician I've been arguing with since the days of Air America Radio who tells me that Tulsa might be on his tour schedule.  Nope, not Watermelon Slim this time--I've argued with him since well before Air America Radio was even founded--It's Billy Boom & Crazyhearse, of Vermont.

Slim didn't qualify as an out-of-stater until he moved to Mississippi, so he does now...but...gonna have to wait til Labor Day to take another shot at going to Rentiesville OK...IF he's going this year.

We'll see.

For the information of anyone else wanting to drop by for a visit, the rule is to meet at the Hastings bookstore on Owen K. Garriott Rd, Sunset Plaza.  No exceptions unless you're a performer and we can visit at your venue location.

=================================================

There's some other stuff in the works but am not at liberty to divulge those things at the moment, although if things work out properly, will post a later blog entry in that regard.

---

I've noticed a lot of blog traffic originating in China lately, and I have to add that yeah, the world's got multiple hot spots yet again, but everything I could say on those subjects has been said, and that includes the topic of Israel vs Gaza.  While I may point out the multiple cases where religion is at the root of legitimizing atrocity, China might gloat over that but has no reason to--without religion, China is still atrocious because people in power get corrupted, religion or not.  Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely, so the only thing one can say about religion in that regard is that religion is no guarantee of morality or immunity from corruption.  Either way, there's corruption because both government and religion are man's inventions, and man is corruptible.

Fixin' ta git me Irish up...and a few updates...

First, I'm going to do the serious thing and mention that I've noticed all the hits I've gotten on previous posts about Syria, Iran, an Iraqi family I was close to, and Egypt.  Things have gone from bad to worse in all of those areas, with the possible exception of Iran which just stayed bad.  I have chosen not to do daily updates on those and have chosen instead to blog about any sort of change in direction, when they occur, and so far, none has occurred to date.  For a blow-by-blow update, your best bet is to stick with Twitter and Follow those people that I had previously recommended, and keep in mind that with regard to Egypt, Mona Eltahawy doesn't keep as close an eye on Egyptian affairs as one might prefer.  Better: The Big Pharaoh and Ahram Online.  The latter is good with following Syria and other Middle East affairs as well. For Arabic-speakers, Follow Sandmonkey. He'll Tweet in English sometimes, but usually in Arabic.

Another Google Plus community added my blog because of their interest in recipes and although I've resolved to post more the last time this happened, I haven't.  I *will* get to that, and it's *definitely* on my To Do List.  It's just that I've filed that under Mañana Projects.  A "movable feast", as it were.  Just consider it to be inevitable.

Now, about my Irish...I've got one.  Deal with it.  My Celtic-extracted friends who tend to get offended by put-on Irish airs just for the occasion of St. Patrick's Day will just have to cringe again for the entire 24 hour period, because I have a legitimate license from a genuine Irish priest of Dublin to do what I do.  Look at it this way--living in Oklahoma means that I've had to put up with 'way too many renditions of "Danny Boy", aka "Londonderry Air" and this is the one annual chance I get, to get even...with my version of "London Derriere".

According to the counsel of Padre Dave (Father David Rice, if you must know, formerly a professional photographer who performed my baptism in Guinness Stout--not the light stuff, mind you) "it's not a sin if you don't take pleasure in it".  You can bet that St. Paddy's Day is when I sin like hell.

You might as well start bracing yourself now, cuz I'm on a tear the whole weekend. Let the blarney begin.

But first....Shortwave Shindig, aka Shortwave Winterfest in PA.  A lovely worldwide adventure it is, too.  Pointed my browser to one of the links they mentioned and found an archive of Radio Gallifrey Intergalactic. Wonderful!!
==============================================

Ah--good question.  If Padre Dave was properly a native of Ireland, why is he Padre?  Well, that's because his Irish was bigger than his priesthood.

Huh?

It's like this--he had a thing for a gal whom I'll just call Lucia, and he wasn't all that discreet about it.  Basically, didn't care who in the apartment complex (well, it was a converted off-campus dorm, actually) knew it.  That's why we all called him Padre Dave.  Fondly.  Lucia's Mexican.

Padre Dave, if you're still with us, I'd like to hear from you.  Same goes for everybody who was there at Saluki Arms at the time.

But on the 18th, Elvish will have left the building.

 

---

Sunday footnote-- #Egypt: 60 Minutes aired (re-aired) its segment about Bassem Youssef, "the Jon Stewart of Egypt" and it appears that he keeps going on and off the air there.  More's the pity.  But I also notice the absence of my pro-Muslim Brotherhood friends on Facebook, too. None of these developments are to be celebrated.

#Iraq recently passed a law permitting marriage to 9 year old girls.  Everybody else is shocked and I'm wondering what took 'em so long...because I know this to be The Ayisha Standard.  But Shiites don't recognize Ayisha as significant as Sunnis do. Saddam's Ba'athists  were too secular to permit it, apparently, and what amazes me, really, is that the Shia majority thinks that's a good idea.  That's a Sunni thing.  My guess is that it's an effort to placate the Sunni radicals that keep up the suicide bombing incidents going over there.

For those unfamiliar with Islam's two factions and the role Ayisha plays in the difference, I will post more, but not tonight; it's to late for that at the moment.  G'night everybody!

Setting sights on Carnival/Mardi Gras

Who says Roman Catholics aren't more fun than a barrel of monkeys? In all of the centuries that have celebrated Carnival, no Pope has ever condemned the practice.  Morality my ass.

My own Mardi Gras bead collection; I ain't sayin' how I got 'em, either. Yes, that is a rosary there in the middle, and it's French. From Lourdes, specifically.

I understand that the right Roman nation of Italy is actually getting a jump on Shrove Tuesday by starting Carnival as of this upcoming Saturday. Yup, Italians know how to party.  However, so do Brazilians.  Just sayin'.  It's a good time to quote the Irish priest who gave me my Guinness baptism to become an honorary Irishman (as it were): "It's not a sin if you take no pleasure in it".  A tip of the tam to Padre Dave. (Yes, I know that a tam is Scottish--now bugger off)

Oh yeah, that's right--we all get a break from Lent celebrating the Irish on March 17th. It's a good thing to be Irish, even if only honorarily.  Any excuse to celebrate is a good one.

I now raise a glass to toast all the ladies out there who defy domestication.  Louisiana sets them apart with a term of honor: Ya-yas.

88 quotes from "The Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood"

...and us radiofolk understand the significance of the number 88.  Just like 73 = Best Regards per the numeric radiogram messages dating back to when radio was nothing more than dots and dashes, the number 88 = Love and Kisses.

There's that Louisiana coffee---"Noir comme le diable, chaud comme l'enfer, pur comme un ange, doux comme l'amour".

---

Nah. Celebratory mood is dampened here without further word about George's situation in the hospital. Out of a bazillion reg'lar guys out there, there are a few awesome amazing ones and George is certainly one of those few.  All his friends are on pins and needles at this point, including the other gals who appreciate George for the amazing awesome impressive guy he is. I've totally lost track of how many languages he speaks, and I know that Morse Code is one of 'em.  What I find most amazing of all is that he's culturally and politically a conservative and we agree on absolutely nothing in that department, and yet he saw something in me (and I still don't know what) despite all of that.  Wow.

Don't SK on us, OM.   
CQ CQ CQ W2GSS DE KC7LJG K
73s & 88s DE KC7LJG.

TUESDAY UPDATE: Still no word as to George's current medical status, not even from one of his cousins who are also on Facebook, and this is worrysome indeed. Situations like this brings to mind one's own mortality even among those old enough to remember that experience when one's parents passed away years earlier.  It's things like this that lead me to believe that somethings are important to say while one is still among the living even though one's younger self would have simply gotten over stuff and moved on.  If someone matters to you, say so.  You might not get another chance to set the record straight

Jeff speaks for all of us. The procedure wasn't "routine".

Meanwhile back in Egypt...

...moving right along...

This is worth a post dedicated entirely to it: Egypt's version of The Onion!

http://www.elkoshary.com/features/egyptian-prosecutors-question-god-over-controversial-cloud-formation

Don't overlook This article either. ROTFLMAO!

Still, the situation remains serious with not just Morsi on trial but journalists, too (Ahram Online).  Still, journalists who work for state media aren't really independent and I don't care how many American journalists work for the state media (Al Jazeera).  It's still state media. More about Egypt from Ahram Online.

The Square (on YouTube)

Meanwhile in Iran, U.S defense contractor goes for the $$
Occupy Iran??

Shafaaq News -- Baghdad

Fellow Blogspot blogger writes about Syria

Syria, Lebanon wait breathlessly for Geneva II as Iran chimes in on that one, too.  Who's following Iranian lead? Turkey. Imagine that.

The good news in Asia is that there hasn't been any reports of Chinese incursions in the South China Sea for a good while now.  The big trouble spot remains Thailand.   Conclusion: the TPP talks are more good than bad, at least where Asia is concerned, but the west coast of South America is in the TPP coverage, too.  But from what I hear, what's good for Japan is good for Peru, given the large number of Japanese there. So, Argentina, are you going to follow suit toward peace and get less belligerent toward the Falklands and Antarctica now? Can't say I'm holding my breath for that one.  I note with interest, though, that Argentina wants to move its capital closer to the Pacific. To quote Arne Johnson: verrrrrrrry interrrrrrrrrresting.  And I'm wondering if Chile & Peru will feel easy about that. I'm thinking Chile might want to guard its eastern border a little more ardently even if that is a mountain range over there.

I'm happy to let souse Rodman handle N. Korea...sneak a little saki in the suitcase next time, will ya?

The only thing any country in Africa is doing right now is proving that religion doesn't guarantee morality.  End of story.  Well, mostly.  I still support the Ghana fair trade org that has a shop in OKC, but Africa's biggest problem is its natural resources because everybody and his kid despot brother is going to be fighting for control over it.  The last time the African continent was more peaceful was when the Ghana Empire stretched almost entirely from west to east as it traded with the Arabs in ancient times.  Since the rise of Europe during the Age of Discovery and after, Africa's nations went into a tailspin and hasn't recovered since.  That's because it's too rich.  But it's also where China comes in and suddenly we're back at the TPP with indirect impact on Africa.

Where China is concerned, it's not just petroleum, or any of the typical gold, silver and gems that have always come from that continent into Europe and beyond--what concerns China these days is rare earth minerals, and in bringing up those, we're cycling back to its belligerence with Japan, which isn't confined to just the South China Sea.  Just as DeBeers got a chokehold on the global diamond market, and Russia has a chokehold on natural gas going to Europe, China wants a chokehold on rare earth minerals too.  Rare earth minerals are necessary for your smartphones and all computing devices.  Besides "blood diamonds", nations of Africa also have blood tantalum, and the like.  But the globe likes its cheap tech gizmos so much that it'll turn a blind eye to atrocities committed to ensure they'll keep coming.

O Canada! Your CBC is still a wreck. Fix it. Edited to add Fred Waterer's comment about that...he says it's already been neutered.  Yeah, Fred, I know--that's the problem!

Meanwhile in the U.S. this Sunday, there was an excellent discussion about science & religion on Moyers & Company.  Trouble is, when you go looking for it on his website, the program is PAGE NOT FOUND .  Too soon right now, I guess.  Good to check back at a later date, and I suggest that you do.  I know I am going to check back because listening to that at the same time I'm listening to Fred Waterer's Radio Time Capsule as I try to do every Sunday, is a major challenge.  He's worth it, too.

Hey Fred--this one's for you, buddy.

And wouldn'tcha know it--just as soon as me & Fred were cracking wise about the CBC, in walks CBC's David Lennick. YIKES! lol. Tous mourir de rire...so to speak. Sounds better than Tous meurt de rire, so THERE. David dropping by wasn't the only treat of the evening, though. Bob Zanotti himself (Swiss Radio International) did a promo for the program.  Shortwave old timers know him as half of The Two Bobs, and he's now more regularly on PCJ Media in Taiwan.  That's Keith Perron's baby, besides the revival of the old Happy Station Show, which I personally know that Tom Meijer (former host of The Happy Station Show of Radio Nederland Wereldomroep in the good ole days) endorses heartily.

Edited to add that just as I went looking for the RNW URL to put into the link, I found an announcement that it's a *new* RNW in process of launching.  What? AGAIN??  When they did that while Tom Meijer was still employed there, disaster ensued.  I'm inclined to filing that under Same Ole While Expecting Different Results.  I'm not optimistic.

Bob Zanotti, originally of SRI's Music Merry Go Round, also hosted by Bob Thomann as "The Two Bobs". He used to run Switzerland In Sound, but not since he joined Keith Perron's PCJ Media.