Reminds me of a hybrid between Kraftwerk and Cirque du Soleil. Very interesting. And check out the real Mellotron.
After more than 30 years of distinguished service to the US Navy, the last two squadrons of F-14 Tomcats ended their final combat deployments about two weeks ago. A couple of nice articles about this milestone event can be found here and here.
Check out this nice tribute video, too:
Q: Why is this awesome war machine being retired without (according to many) an adequate replacement (the Super Hornet lacks the range and power of the F-14)?
A: Maintenance expenses and age (the two are related).
Check out this comment from a former jet mechanic, giving a hint of the issues he (and other mechs) would face. Note also his love for the plane:
Posted Thu 16 March 2006 16:17
Thu 16 March 2006 16:17
As a retired Jet Mech. (AD1), last serving with the Tophatters of VF-14 at NAS Oceana in 1995, I am left with a sentimental lump in my throat as an era of Naval Aviation comes to a close. As labor intensive as they were, it was a proud sight and feeling to witness the awesome vibration and thunder on the TF-30 turbofans as the throttles were advanced to zone five behind the JBD's. Call it a labor of love I supose but intense it was. It was a nightmare for the hazmat P.O. trying to keep up with the constant mess of leaking hydraulic fluid and JP-5 under the engines forward fixed cowlings. As physics would prove, anything that was that fast and could turn on a dime and endured massive G- forces would naturally leak fluid from somewhere. A chapter in Naval Aviation to be admired and cherished for many years to come. Good-bye my friend!!
Oh my. Nicely done.
Anyone else want to take the hint and Google-bomb "that fruity little club"?
Check out this very cool video making the rounds on the Internet in which comedian Chris Bliss closes his routine juggling to the strains of the Beatles' "The End" (one of my favorite Beatles songs):
Here's the story behind the routine.
Some excerpts to whet your appetite:
First I discover my art, and now I have found my soulmate. Could the signs be any clearer? Oh, sure, a more objective view might be that I'd dropped out of college to be a juggler, and been picked up by a crazy woman in a bar. On dimer night.
....
Within six months the band broke up. I should've seen it coming the night the flute player asked me to help tie him off. If the woodwinds are shooting smack, you can imagine the bass player's problems.
....
The only part of the whole ride not based in delusion was, of all things, my juggling. It turned out I'd stumbled onto a concert promoter's dream opening act. No set-up or sound check, and if they threw things at the stage, I'd catch them.I worked with Kenny Loggins, Duran Duran a couple times. I opened for Clapton once. I did an arena tour with the so-called supergroup Asia.
I was even on the Midnight Special on NBC - remember that show, with Wolfman Jack? I still remember the Wolfman's intro - "Whoever said a picture was worth a thousand words was talking about Chris y'know."
And then in 1984, unbelievably, I was asked to be the opening act for Michael Jackson and his brothers on the Victory Tour, the most hyped tour of the decade.
Between me and Michael, we sold over 3 million tickets. And when it was over, I'd actually become the world's most famous juggler.
Funny guy. And I like the musicality of his juggling.
To everyone who wrote (in comments or email) about the health of my daughter, I thank you.
She is perfectly healthy and bounced back from the exploratory surgery in an amazing way. Her first words upon coming back from general anesthesia were, "Can I see the pictures of the inside of my body?"
Maybe she has a future in medicine, or at least in science (she currently wants to be a paleontologist). My family has many more doctors than lawyers, so that would be appropriate.
Her surgeon basically said that we don't need to worry if she has another bleeding episode, unless it happens more frequently, in greater force, or with new symptoms. We would have liked a somewhat more definitive answer, but being told that your child is in perfect health is never a bad thing.
Thanks again.
You know how that rabbit feels
Going under your speeding wheels
Bright images flashing by
Like windshields towards a fly
Frozen in the fatal climb
But the wheels of time
Just pass you by
-- From "Between the Wheels" by RUSH on Grace Under Pressure
It's a recurrent theme around here: how quickly time passes us by.
I can't believe it has been almost two weeks since my last posting. My silence last week resulted from a much-needed vacation in the one other place as close to my heart as Texas: Colorado.
We traveled with some good family friends and went skiing at Wolf Creek, renting a nice house in Pagosa Springs. During the first two days, we enjoyed temperatures in the high 40s to low 50s, with well-groomed snow -- a bit slushy, but otherwise perfect for some fast skiing. Our second two days we received 40 inches of new snow, and had a cold but fun time plowing through the untouched powder.
We got back late Friday, but I didn't feel like touching the blog over the weekend. So here I am, rested and presumably ready to dive back in. But I remain strangely unmotivated. Where is my muse? In Colorado:
The Richard Cohen kerfuffle last month brought this one to mind:
Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear shoes, bathe and not make messes in the house.
- Lazarus Long in Time Enough for Love
I spent the better part of today at Children's Medical Center with my wife and our 6-year-old daughter. Our daughter was undergoing a colonoscopy to try and find out why she has infrequent, asymptomatic rectal bleeding.
Good news: she has a perfectly healthy colon.
"Bad" news: she has a perfectly healthy colon.
The best news would have been a benign and easily-fixed abnormality that would explain the occasional bleeding. Now, we are just as mystified as after the first episode four years ago and its prior recurrence two years ago.
We're of course extremely relieved that there is nothing really badly wrong with her. But we're still puzzled.
In addition to the stress of worrying about my daughter's condition and surgical procedure, work's been hard recently and our second son has been home with laryngitis and a high fever for several days. This blog has been the last thing on my mind.
I'm taking a one-week break (maybe posting a few more times beforehand) and hope to have some fresh inspiration after.
I appreciate everyone who drops in here. Don't worry, I will be back.
