“Books are like seeds. They can lie dormant for centuries and then flower in the most unpromising soil.” (Carl Sagan); “Nothing ever dies on the Internet.” (anon.); “This is not your father’s Oldsmobile.” (Madison Ave. [m]adman). My posts amalgamate these three philosophical elements into one novel experience; they champion critical thinking, human dignity / equality, levelheaded / even-handed / liberty-based governance and solid environmental stewardship. C’mon in!
Welcome to our monthly musical get-together. Hey… I can dig it! In our get everything done yesterday world, who even has time for music, anymore? Right?
Problem? No Problem!
Even if U think my playlist sucks, it’ll all B over B4 ya know it. That above headline is NO lie! Hell… the only way this could possibly B a drag is if YouTube tacks on some of their 4 minute ads! YIKES! I mean… who doesn’t click the skip button when that happens? Right?
Crunching the PB Nos.
trk. 1 = 02:01
trk. 2 = 00:45
trk. 3 = 00:50 trk. 4 = +0:24
G Tot = 04:00
Blur ~ Song 2
Bush ~ X Girlfriend
White Stripes ~ Little Room
Beatles ~ Her Majesty
I thank you for your listenership and cordially invite you to click back here for my next monthly BlogCast, which typically features anywhere from 3 to 5 songs that, when segued, transform everything into a variety of appealing themes. My next program is slated to hit the www during the first week of September ’18.
FYI, my past musical presentations are archived within my BlogCast and music categories.
If you’ve enjoyed this post, don’t forget to like, follow, share and comment (click onto this blog’s headline to access the “LIKE” and “Reblog” buttons and “Comment Box”).
Over the course of this blog series’ first two installments, you and I’ve been teleporting back to my July 28th, telescopic “travels” to Mars. While, we’ve been exploring my astronomical, philosophical and theological observations / musings, we have yet to ferret and flesh out the underlying causes of my chronic, Mars Mania “affliction”… that is until now.
With Part 3 about to unfold, I pause to announce a slight course correction re my mission to the cosmos. Rather than revisiting this past Saturday’s viewing session, we’ll be reliving the return to my backyard open air observatory at 3:50 a.m. EDT (0750 GMT) on this very day… July 31st. I just had to “be there” at that precise moment… at the very pinnacle of 2018’s Mars and Earth rendezvous… to experience the almost palpable cosmic magic in the air.
Remaining ever mindful of Part 3’s content prerequisites, as I metaphorically wander about the heavens and the recesses of my mind, I start to zero in on the origins of my personal obsession with Mars.
As I wistfully gaze upward, I briefly consider the possibility that aliens might be doing the same. Only my not wanting to wake up my neighbors prevents me from yelling skyward at the top of my lungs, “Is there anybody out there?” Of course, my dismay regarding the present-day ideological disarray of my homeland… our home world… has certainly, detrimentally impacted my attitude (not unlike a meteor hit). How so? Well, were any ET’s to ever flyby my neighborhood, I’d instantly stick out my thumb and attempt to hitch a ride. Even if their motives were unclear… even if it’d be a certain, one-way trip for me… in a heartbeat… I’d still take my chances and opt to forever leave planet Earth.
Alas… long sigh… on this night… there are no such, extraordinary, extraterrestrial vehicular light patterns in the skies… soooooo… I must make the best of the ordinary.
And I do that, precisely, by granting free rein to my boyhood recollections. Naturally, Mars themed literary works come to mind. First up, my Middle Schooler era, figurative feasting upon my book club purchased, paperback copy of H. G. Wells’ page turner, Sci-Fi novel, The War of the Worlds. Next up, come my elementary school library visits… my checking out astronomy textbooks… their authors’ content, eventually, proving to be more fiction than fact. About the only thing they had ever gotten right? The Red Planet’s 24 hour and 37 minute diurnal rotation!
That’s about all anyone could ever expect from authors “infecting” themselves with the “contagion” of astronomer Percival Lowell’s over-imaginative “strain” of Mars Mania (and I do good-naturedly employ those enclosed in quotation marks, italicized words). Their perpetuation of his fantasyland… an irrigation canal networked, hospitable to humans, environment… coupled with my younger, overly impressionable mind… accounts for my own fantasies of becoming a spacefarer aboard NASA’s very first Mars-ward bound spacecraft.
My mind next crossfades to the plights of Sci-Fi stranded astronauts portrayed in films such as 1964’s Robinson Crusoe on Mars (which takes literary liberties with the Daniel Defoe classic) and in 2015’s The Martian based on Andy Weir’s sci-fi book of the same title.
As these big screen drama scenes dissolve to the realm of the Sixtes era, small screen, Sci-Fi TV sitcom, I catch myself smiling as I recall My Favorite Martian episodes featuring earthling Tim O’Hara comedically interacting with his spacecraft crashed and marooned, ET “Uncle Martin”.
The TV images soon shift from the ridiculous to the sublime. Philosopher / astrophysicist / author Carl Sagan… via both his book and PBS miniseries Cosmos… presents his Blues For A Red Planet chapter / episode #5. That late, great man… the consummate scientist and dramatist… so adeptly, fact checks / debunks Lowellesque Mars Mania yet, simultaneously rekindles it with seasoned-by-science sanity. In his chapter’s / episode’s epilogue he even speculates…
“The power of Lowell’s idea may, just possibly, make it a kind of premonition. His canal network was built by Martians. Even this may be an accurate prophecy: If the planet ever is terraformed, it will be done by human beings whose permanent residence and planetary affiliation is Mars… The Martians will be us.”
It’s at that moment where my thoughts begin to set, along with Mars’ orb rapidly nearing the hazy, southwestern horizon. As I naked eye glimpse that bright orange dot slipping behind the approaching, thick veil of clouds, I begin loosening the clamps, separating my scope from its tripod.
As I look up one last time, my thoughts of Dr. Sagan’s Cosmos crossfade to his fictional work, Contact. It is during one of that film’s final scenes where silver screen star Jodie Foster… in the lead role of astronomer Ellie Arroway… so fervently… so eloquently… so tearfully serves upward, her own cosmic perspective as…
“A vision of the universe, that tells us, undeniably, how tiny and insignificant… and how rare and precious we all are! A vision that tells us that we belong to something that is greater than ourselves. That we are not… that none of us are alone! I wish i could share that. I wish that everyone… if even for one moment… could feel that awe and humility and hope. That continues to be my wish.”
To continue conveying and living those same sentiments is my wish, too! Hopefully, you feel similarly!
While the gradual dimming of that bright orange dot… a.k.a. Mars 2018… is inevitable in the days and weeks to come, my oneness with our universe shall shine on brightly… eternally. My continually blogging about Mars… on similar cosmic topics… will be unavoidable. After all…
“Transcendental moments, such as these, are where one’s worldly concerns dissolve into the rarefied air. Minds tend to free associate / wander and welcome the timelessness of it all. A sense of DNA level déjà vu also enters the mix… after all… has not humankind been stargazing ever since first standing up on two feet? Ever since that (then) newly evolved posture first allowed us to look upward to the eternal heavens?”
Throughout Part 1, you and I began reliving my overnight, in the wee hours of July 28th telescopic “travels” to Mars… at a point where the red planet had been scant days shy of it’s closest encounter with Earth since August 27, 2003.
By that post’s conclusion, we’re arriving at the moment of first contact… my first, telescopically enhanced, visual contact with the red planet in nearly 15 years. I begin sharing my initial feelings of the moment… earth-shattering impressions one need not be an astronomer… either professional or amateur… to experience and appreciate. I wind up concluding…
“A transcendental moment, such as this, is where one’s worldly concerns dissolve into the rarefied air. Minds tend to free associate / wander and welcome the timelessness of it all. A sense of DNA level déjà vu also enters the mix… after all… has not humankind been stargazing ever since first standing up on two feet? Ever since that (then) newly evolved posture first allowed us to look upward to the eternal heavens?”
As Part 2 begins… we now return to my backyard open air observatory… my eyes and mind still effortlessly wandering the heavens. I cannot help but feel (right down to my infinitesimal DNA) that sturdy bond with the multiple hundreds of generations of human stargazers before my time.
At the very first glimpse of Mars in my scope’s eyepiece, my time traveling / traveling the heavens begins. Flashbacks first send me to my previous, August 2003, telescopic, close encounter with Mars and, next, back to April of that very year… when my own mother’s change of address had involved her new heavenly home. And that, too, reminds me of how I had chosen a heavenly / stellar theme for her memorial service… had written… had interwoven… the very stars into the eulogy I had delivered to honor her…. to chronicle her life and times… to remind all in attendance of her star power.
Long before this night, I’ve realized that it matters not if my observations are telescopically enhanced or naked eye… whenever I’m gazing up at the starry skies I cannot help but feel that unbreakable bond with my forbearers… my unshakable belief that both of my parents’ loving, protecting instincts are still intact and alive… that their eternal spirits are gazing right back at me. And I suspect I shall continue to harbor such perceptions until I join them, someday… when, upon my arrival, I wind up partying right alongside them at that ultimate family reunion in the sky!
My thoughts soon crossfade to my very first, fresh out of the packing carton, telescopic viewing session on April Fools Day ‘97… just in time to eyewitness The Great Comet of ’97, Hale-Bopp… observe its flyby into our inner solar system’s local neighborhood. More crossfades ensue. I’m now revisiting long ago, memorable viewing sessions involving my first time encounters with Saturn… my being wowed by its almost surreal system of rings… my also inviting my Mom to eyewitness this natural wonder on the grandest of scales… and her being wowed, too. I also recall my first sighting of Jupiter and its four Galilean satellites… as well as my earliest deep space visits with The Pleiades / The Seven Sisters and Orion’s Nebula and Trapezium Cluster.
Imagine that! All of these cherished memories occurring while standing beneath… in the midst of… this marvelous Mars July ’18 moment… while all the details of this close encounter are getting written into the annals of astronomical history… are concurrently being imprinted / indelibly burned into my own memories.
My thoughts now crossfade to my boyhood days… to a time when I first came down with my “bad case” of Mars Mania… all of which I’ll be fondly recalling when I post Part 3… later this week.
As I commit this black font to white screen, it’s been approximately 36 hours since my reluctantly “returning” to Earth. Much transpired leading up to, during and since my “journey” and… via the following account… I now begin to relive my “travels” thru space/time.
Once again, I find myself venturing forth into out-of-doors overnight… the wee hours of Saturday, July 28th… experiencing the sensation of being enshrouded by the unseasonably chilly air…12.8ºC / 55ºF [Note to self… next time don both jacket and dew resistant footwear].
My 2 orbs panning, upward, across the 2 a.m. heavens, I find 2 orbs instantly, intently, “staring” back at me… our dazzling, milk-white, Full Moon and, not far beneath it, its celestial BFF… the vividly reddish-orange, planet Mars… scant days away from its closest encounter with Earth since August 27, 2003. For a moment I chuckle… might Mars’ orb / eye be deemed bloodshot?
My thoughts now dismiss the frivolous / focus upon the factual. I mentally note, crunch and compare the specific orbital data of each new millennial, Mars/Earth rendezvous… 2003’s distance apart had been 55.8 million km / 34.6 million mi compared to the here and now’s projected 57.6 million km / 35.8 million mi.
My naked eye observations of these spherical apparitions have instantaneously prompted my I’ve-Gotta-Get-A-Closer-Look reaction. Rushing back inside, within mere minutes I’m lugging out and setting up my 90mm refractor telescope / tripod and transforming my home-turf into an open air, backyard observatory.
Regrettably, proximity, alone, is no guarantee of ideal seeing conditions… especially when peering at dinky Mars through such a small, low tech scope. The other factors in play will be [1] Earth’s rotation, which… @460 meters per second / 1,000 miles per hour… is constantly making a motion picture out of our nighttime skies… [2] the tilt of Earth’s axis positioning the red planet too low in the southwestern, hazy skies… [3] the sky awash with both lunar brightness and manmade light pollution… [4] the ongoing “game” of planetary peekaboo “curtesy” of two, nearby, towering, deciduous trees.
Even so, this amateur astronomer relishes any opportunity to experience the grandeur of our little corner of the universe… views any need to repeatedly relocate and realign his unwieldy scope to be a labor of love.
And now that I’ve accurately trained my smaller, finder scope’s crosshairs, it’s time to peer through the eyepiece… get my very first, optically enhanced, glance at Mars in nearly a decade and a half. I can feel my facial muscles forming a slight, contented smile.
The still of the night’s “soundtrack” is now “in/on the air”. The “musical genres” inclusive of my “easy listening” rhythmic breathing… the “one hit wonder” of brief, off in the far distance, spooked crow’s caws… the occasional “garage band” roar of 18-wheeler semis barreling down the faraway, highways and byways… the “classical flautist” inspired unexpected, mournful blasts of a miles away, freight-train engineer’s horn.
A transcendental moment, such as this, is where one’s worldly concerns dissolve into the rarefied air. Minds tend to free associate / wander and welcome the timelessness of it all. A sense of DNA level déjà vu also enters the mix… after all… has not humankind been stargazing ever since first standing up on two feet? Ever since that (then) newly evolved posture first allowed us to look upward to the eternal heavens?
Stay tuned for Part 2… to be posted later this week.
The tyrant has thin-skin, thickhead, heart of stone,
His hostile eyes glower, he lacks funny bone,
He has entrails between ears,
Gas passes “thoughts” thru lips’ sneers,
He sits on reptilian brain, overgrown!
For more limericks (as well as other verses and song parodies, etc.), head over to my “Categories Menu” and select “Poetry”.
The fake prez loathes and gags the real free press,
Sure signs of an autocrat, rude, rudderless,
If he had conscience free, clear,
He’d not feel need to flee, fear,
Scribes’ Qs would not cause him any distress!
For more limericks (as well as other verses and song parodies, etc.), head over to my “Categories Menu” and select “Poetry”.
Check out this earlier version of Limerick #055…
The fake prez loathes and gags the real free press,
Their valid questions cause him much distress,
If he had conscience free, clear,
He’d not feel need to flee, fear,
All he’s been hiding can’t be odorless!
Greetings and welcome to my blogging home. So, what type of blogger am I?
Well… ofttimes, my prose, poetry and musical BlogCasts address society’s urgent need to establish human dignity and equality, honest even handed governance and solid environmental stewardship. If we are to survive as a species, all of these components must become integrated into our hometowns, homelands and entire home world.
Of course I’m not locked into this serious MO, exclusively. There are times I can and do blog just for the fun of it.
Either way, my writing typically features strong lead sentences so… regardless of whether you’re surfing/searching, scrolling and/or selecting from my specific menus… you’ll be able to quickly determine whether you wish to continue reading… or not.
If you happen to find my content likable, click onto those “Like” and “Follow” buttons and, if so motivated, post your comments, too. Your interaction and honest, constructive evaluation are vital. How else will I ever become a better blogger?
From June 9 thru July 14, 1958, singer / songwriter Sheb Wooley’s novelty song, The Purple People Eater became an American, Billboard chart topper. Throughout that summer, as a four-year-young boy, I must’ve spun that 45rpm single multiple hundreds of times… practically melting it down on to my Zenith™ monaural turntable. Oh… how I yearn for the carefree, innocence of my younger days.
Well, it now being sixty summers later, I’ve “grown-up” and contemporized the lyrics to better fit our far from innocent times. Either read them as a poem or take it one step further. You see… I’ve also included a Karaoke video just in case any of you choose to sing along.
A few noteworthy advisories… as for my first two choruses, I do “crowbar in” far more syllables than Mr. Wooley had written into his lyrics. But, since I, a rank amateur singer, had no problem keeping up with the music, I know this is doable. Also… owing to the fast-paced song tempo… unless you have a companion to sing / speak the brief parenthetical passages, I’d advise that you omit them.
I must also do a bit of fact checking / explaining with regards to one lyrical reference. Since the USSR’s KGB morphed into the Russian Federation’s Federal Security Service, perhaps its high time to sub in “F – S – S” for “K – G – B”? Naw… considering how Vladimir Putin is still calling all the shots… look at it this way… F – S – S? K – G – B? W – T – F is the diff?
Additionally, since Wooley’s song ender was the word “Tequila”, I had originally subbed in “Sayonara”… a word ending in “a”. However, just prior to clicking the “publish button” this early a.m. I realized that instead of Japanese, I needed to say good-bye in Russian… hence my changing over to Proshchay / Прощай! BTW, follow the link to hear how to pronounce Proshchay.
Beyond that?
I hope you can have a bit of fun with this… I know I sure as hell did!
The Brown Shirted Putin Hugger
Well I saw the King in his scraper, sky-high.
Sporting two devil horns and glared evil eye,
I commenced to shakin’ and I said, “ooh-eee!”
“It looks like a duped Putin Hugger to me!”
CHORUS: It was a woman hater, child abuser, brown shirted, Putin Hugger,
Woman hater, child abuser, brown shirted, Putin Hugger,
Woman hater, child abuser, brown shirted, Putin Hugger,
Looks deranged to me! (evil eye!)
He came down from his tower and lit in D – C,
I begged, “Patsy Mr. Putin Hugger, don’t harm me!”
I heard him say in a voice so gruff,
“I’ll outsource that job to a K – G – B tough!” *
CHORUS: It was a woman hater, child abuser, brown shirted Putin Hugger,
Woman hater, child abuser, brown shirted, Putin Hugger,
Woman hater, child abuser, brown shirted, Putin Hugger,
Looks deranged to me! (Devil Horns!)
I said, “Nasty Mr. Putin Hugger, what’s your line?”
He said, “Bumping off America, to me, that’s fine!”
“But there’s more to come to conquer your homeland…”
“Vlad and I will overthrow the whole world / expand!
CHORUS: He’s sold his soul, tanks will roll, Brown Shirted, Putin Hugger,
Prison camps, genocide, Brown Shirted, Putin Hugger,
We wear long frowns! Ugly, evil Putin Hugger,
There’s no place to flee! (We’re Screwed!)
He next Tweeted from D – C, just to rally his throngs.
His incoherent screeds, masked his faults and his wrongs,
He “sang” a ditzy ditty ‘bout the clouds of mushroom!
(“Sing a boop boop aboopa loopa BOOM! BOOM!! BOOM!!!)
CHORUS: He’s sold his soul, tanks will roll, Brown Shirted Putin Hugger,
Mushroom clouds, we’ll all die, Brown Shirted Putin Hugger,
We wear long frowns! Ugly, evil Putin Hugger,
Pearly Gates we’ll see? (We’re Saved?)
Well, he went on his way, and then what do ya know?
I saw him last night on a FOX TV show,
He was blowing it out, really knockin’ Sean dead,
Brain farting Fake News through the hole in his head!
Where Lady Liberty sings, freedom rings,
She’s loathed by iron fist, autocrat kings,
They’ll wring out her last breath,
And chokehold her to death,
Till she sprouts angel wings, plucks on harp strings.
Needless to say… don’t ever let autocrats ascend to power in the first place!
Deny them power at the ballot box, wherever / whenever possible!
Don’t ever let them get away with murdering freedom!
Since I am a diehard Star Trek™ buff… not a
Star Wars™ aficionado check out
Videographer Anthony Parisi’s
apt commentary…
“One of the reasons George Lucas made the Star Wars prequels is so kids could, through myth, learn to spot future “Darth Sidious(es)” insidiously rising to power in a democracy. I haven’t seen anybody make a proper mashup yet so here’s my public service to the nation. This is how liberty dies. Listen to George. from Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005) and the rise of Donald Trump at the 2016 Republican National Convention (7/18/16)”
OK… I’m back now to offer up my mega thanks to Mr. Parisi for his video,
which greatly enhances my political statement AND to also
express my gratitude to you for reading my verses!
The Major-General’s Song from The Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert and Sullivan… already a catchy tune in itself… does truly lend itself to the parodies of most sharp-witted songsmiths.
SIDEBAR: Another G & S composition from H.M.S. Pinafore, even got incorporated into the plot of the big screen, Star Trek flick, Insurrection.
Well, it was during one of my recent, (nearly daily) YouTube talent searches, that I had the good fortune of stumbling onto the genuinely, stable genius of Randy Rainbow and his spot on, musical op-ed piece regarding the present-day, UN-stable, Odious Oval Office Occupant.
As for the NSFW aspect to his lyrics, it’s all quite mild… mere clinical, textbook terminology straight out of Gray’s Anatomy. In an era where broadcast journalists have been left little choice but to quote, on air, the unexpurgated, un-presidential vulgar language, one would expect that, by now, most of us would’ve become fully desensitized. But, to keep it totally real, RR’s parody is far from obscene when juxtaposed to the obscene admin headed by…
THAT brown shirted, white sheeted, robber-baron Putin hugger… THAT fear/warmongering, saber rattling, nuclear madman/gun nut… THAT slayer of Lady Liberty and Mother Nature, mocker of the disabled, aged and infirm, loather of LGBTQs and abuser of women and children!
Not much else to add… save to say… Step #1 in chasing away the blues is to marginalize / lampoon whatever is causing these blahs. True… I am not really a shrink… I just play one on the www. Nonetheless, I regard Mr. Rainbow’s wild rollercoaster ride upon the musical clefs as a surefire, overall mood elevator. My Rx to you is to listen to his performance as many times as is necessary.
Once we roar with laughter and soar miles above Donny Downer’s Downward Dive into the Dark Ages, Depression and Despotism, we can renew our faith in English theologian Thomas Fuller’s proverb… “It is always darkest just before the Day dawneth”… oft contemporized thusly… “The darkest hour is just before the dawn”.
At that point, we can restore our sky’s the limit belief that… somewhere out there… the dawn of a new day / a new era exists. There can be a rebirth of the America… as envisioned by our Founding Fathers… so long ago.
CommonSenseTom 