Snowman in Hilo

Yes, a snowman in Hilo. More tomorrow. We must run off and watch fireworks today. They are still making the snowman. Perhaps another picture tomorrow...Happy New Year

Still raining

Hilo is making up for the lack of rain earlier in the year. We are up to more than 20 inches since Christmas. So, what to do? A jigsaw puzzle, of course! Ken started it before he left and we (a visiting friend Valerie and I) finished it during a 4" in two hour downpour. It was one of those puzzles with only two different types of pieces so you have to match everything by color. Very hard on the eyes...

Leslie headed over to the dry side today so our friends could actually see sun. But, for me, more deck....if it doesn't rain all the time. So far, so good. I've put in three hours so far today without rain. Just taking a blog break.

Laura K's guest blog!

Hey, I am an absolute failure as a blogger in the technical sense. If there isn't a button, I can't do it. There is no button to add an mp3, so you don't get to hear Laura singing. Sorry! I am going to have to buy Blogging for Dummies, I can see.

Anyway, Laura's post about jazz singing is both interesting and moving. And, if you haven't gotten a chance to see her sing, I will let you know the next opportunity. She is fantastic!

By the way, for those of you who don't know who Laura is to me - she is both my wonderful sister-in-law and was my incredible French teacher last year. In her piece below, she describes, among other things, her inspiring and confidence-building jazz teacher. All I can say is, Laura is an equally amazing teacher and, if you happen to live near DeAnza, take her class! I drove over the hill for two quarters because she is worth it! Ok, here's Laura.....

Whatever is on MY mind is jazz singing. And, by the way, if you skip this very long post, I’ll never know.

It’s funny that vocal jazz is such a focal point of my life now, because I only stumbled onto the idea of even trying it, just for the hell of it. It’s always been one of my favorite genres to listen to, but studying and performing it never crossed my mind until just a few years ago. I only wish that I had found it sooner. Although, I do have memories of frequently scat singing with my best friend in the 5th grade. There were no chord progressions in our heads. We were just screwing around on “dood-lee-ooo-BOP!” and stuff like that, two kooky 10-year-olds trying to imitate Ella. Then there was the friend in high school with whom I often sang Gershwin tunes. We would fake tap-dance while singing “I Got Rhythm”, and milked “The Man I Love” for all it was worth. But those were my only early forays into jazz singing.

Fast-forward to about 5 years ago, when the delightful conductor of my chorale (at the college where I teach) left for a full-time teaching position at another school. Her replacement was a huge disappointment, so I decided to test the waters in the college’s jazz solo voice class. It might be a fun thing to try, so why not? At least I knew that my ear and sense of rhythm were good, so I probably wouldn’t make a complete fool of myself. Well, I didn’t, but it became immediately clear that I had a LOT to learn about singing jazz. Fortunately, I was in good hands.

I’ve been inspired, sometimes deeply, by many teachers throughout my life, but the person who has coached me in vocal jazz, ever since day one of that class, is the most gifted and inspiring teacher I've ever had. What follows is mostly a tribute to him, because nearly everything I’ve learned to love about jazz singing came through his example. I’m deeply indebted to him for helping me find the greatest joy in making music that I have ever experienced. He has led me through wonderful discoveries as a solo vocalist, and invited me to join a 6-member vocal jazz ensemble for one year, which was one of the very best years of my entire life. But that’s another story. Anyway, during all of that, something came alive inside of me. It is still there, and it’s the greatest feeling.

So what is it about singing jazz that’s such a high for me? The short answer is the creativity that jazz allows. Now, at first, the idea of improvising and being free in musical expression was scary to me. “What? You mean, DON’T sing the notes on the page?! In front of all these people, are you kidding?” My teacher has continually built my confidence in that regard, and has taught me to trust that I can take these risks and be successful. Without that confidence, it would never happen. And this does not mean that I don’t ever sing clunker notes, by the way! What has changed is that I now love taking that risk, being musically playful, and trying new musical ideas, even in front of a live audience.

Vocal improvisation can be scatted, or can be done by singing the composers’ lyrics and rhythms while altering the melodic line. Either way, you have to really know the chord changes well and what each of them sounds sound like. So, as oxymoronic as it sounds, successful improvisation takes a lot of time and practice. And when it works, the payoff is incredibly satisfying.

Vocalists have something unique that instrumentalists do not: words! So much of jazz singing is about telling stories that require you to play a wide variety of roles. You get to interpret the poetry that you are singing, and can convey its emotion by varying the texture of your voice, and by playing with rhythm and phrasing. It is exhilarating to connect with the audience as you take them on a ride with you through the world you are painting. And each time you invite an audience to step into a song with you, it’s a different experience, which is another really cool thing about jazz. While singing or playing, you are truly in the moment, reacting to the other musicians or to the audience. Its improvisational nature, emotional variances, and endless possibilities of interpretation make each moment ephemeral and magical.

Do you want to hit Bush with a shoe?

Here is a game to do it.

I was actually quite impressed with his shoe-ducking abilities. I thought it was among his best Presidential feats.

What rain! Quell pluie!!

After over three months living here, we actually got a real Hilo-style rain! In a 24 hour period yesterday, there was over 10 inches of rain (25 cm)! That is more rain than Hapuna - which is about 1 1/2 hours from here on the other side of the island - receives in a full year. Impressive!

And the more impressive fact, there are no puddles this morning. No mushy grass. I could drive the car on the grass without hurting it now. If there is no rain today, I could mow the grass later today! This is, of course, because all the rock is volcanic and pourous. It is so wonderful! I love Hilo!!!! At cocktail hour, we watched the rain. In this particular hour, it rained 1.67 inches (4.2 cm). As you will hear, I guessed on the video that it had rained 6-8 inches in two days. I got that quite wrong. It actually rained 13.72 inches (34.8 cm).

And, yes, here I am singing you-know-what just like Gene Kelly. (Pour mes français amies qui ne connaissent pas Gene Kelly, voyez ici.)

The storm started on Christmas Day with a mere 2.8 inches (7.3 cm). We were able to find a period with no rain to dedicate the deck.

In the night, it rained almost 5 inches (presque 12 cm). Perhaps, the gods were mad as Smiley and Ken were leaving the island to return to LA in the morning? The storm was fairly quiet, though, as they flew off. However, the rain, thunder and lightning returned in the afternoon. Smiley, sorry that you missed the finale! You would have loved it.

You might have noticed that more French is creeping into the blog. The reason is that my best French friend, Judith, is on break from school now. I know that she will have more opportunity to check my blog during this period, so I want her to see that I am considering her needs! Her English is good, but I didn't think she would understand the Gene Kelly reference and I am sure she hasn't bothered to learn by heart our stupid measurement system. Why should she? Go metric now!!

I had planned to take Christmas and yesterday off from doing the deck. The storm was nice enough to fit into my schedule. Back to the deck today! If you examine the deck closely, you will note that I still have a lot of screws to put in. I will admit that my Lanai Day 6 - Voila! was a teeny bit deceptive....

Le tour d'Hawaï en français

J'essaie d'apprendre à parler français, mais je ne suis pas encore bonne à ça. Mais, j'ai fait cette vidéo quand même. C'est un tour de la Grande Île d'Hawaï avec beaucoup des accessoires. Oui, elle est un peu absurde. Pour la version anglais, va ici.

Mele Kalikimaka (Merry Christmas)

I am wishing you a blog Christmas with these offerings.

First, our Hawaiian creche made of coral, a coconut and a seed pod. (Leslie and Smiley's creation.)

And, the Karst family singers (aka the Krapp family singers) bring you the Christmas Luau song, which Robert taught us.

And, our special gift is a two-part introduction to the Big Island brought to you by me, Smiley and Leslie. Whether you know the Big Island well or not at all, I think you will find it a very enjoyable summary. (Pour mes amies français, une version français viendra bientôt.)

Lanai Day 6 - Voila!

Our President

I put this picture on my blog as a service to my readership so you don't have to search the internet. Aren't I considerate? Also, bonus boogie-boarding (update: oops, I meant body-surfing...) from last August.

Lanai Day 5

I almost completed my lanai plan for the day. The boards to the kitchen door are in, but not completely screwed in. Also, I didn't have the time to create a step for Rosie. But, she successfully negotiated the front steps. As long as the rain stays away, I should be able to finish enough of the lanai so that we can actually use it on Christmas!

After the work of the day, we had a rendezvous with our friends, Bill and Casey, at Coconut Island. It was beautiful as always.

Part of the fun in going there is to watch the locals enjoying themselves. These girls were lots of fun.

Vote at "The Dish" for videos of the year

Andrew Sullivan's blog has a yearly contest of the best video. Check them out here. And vote if you wish. The hedgehog video is not the bathtub one. The only video I had seen before was Hey Jude. Whatever you do, you have got to check out that entirely crazy surfer. It's a fairly short video.

Lanai Day 3/4

I wanted to give a lanai update. For those who want the step by step building process, I offer these photos.

On Saturday, I graded the deck area so that the water would flow towards the driveway, then poured the footings.


Here is how it looked after creating the footings.


On Monday, we had a paint factory with Ken, Smiley and Leslie putting a prime coat on boards that will be part of the railing or stairs.

Meanwhile, I was installing the beams (with Leslie's help on occasion). This is what it looked like at the end of the day.


Tomorrow, I plan to install most or all of the joists and put the deck boards down in one area so we will still be able to access our kitchen door. The deck boards will lay right over the old porch you see pictured. I have also got to create some sort of temporary stairs for Rosie so she can make her way into the back yard. (The front steps are difficult for her to negotiate.)

Another lava day

I took yesterday off from working on the lanai so Leslie and I could go out to see hot lava. There is virtually nothing better in the world in our view. It is just so awesome to see the movement, feel the heat, hear the sounds. Pictures are great but they don't do it justice. If you have never seen hot lava up close, please put it on your to do list.

But, before the lava, I want to mention our Friday evening. It was a beautiful, warm, rain-free day in which I worked happily on the lanai. After the work of the day, we went out to our favorite cocktail spot - Coconut Island - and were treated to wonderful views of the two dominant mountains on the Big Island - Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea. They are both about 14,000 feet high (or about 4,250 meters). It is hard to really appreciate how massive they are from photos. In fact, Mauna Loa is the largest volcano on earth with Mauna Kea close behind. During the winter, there is sometimes snow on Mauna Kea, as there is in this photo. But, while snow falls on Mauna Loa, it rarely lasts long enough to see because....my brother Russ will have to explain that. Anyway, voici.


After this gorgeous, clear day - as we slept - we received about an inch of rain. By the morning, it was again clear and beautiful. I love Hilo. Ok...onto the lava.

So, to find the surface flows, it is best to go out before sunrise. The red glows show where there is an active flow. To aid our search, I climbed up this little outcropping. I am pointing out where the flows are to Leslie.

This is what I saw (sorry it is a bit blurry but you can get the idea).

Here is another shot taken from the other side of the outcropping showing the plume from the lava flowing into the sea (via a lava tube beneath the surface). FYI, it took us about an hour to get the ocean entry and about 1 1/2 hours to get to the surface flow.

When we arrived at the lava, I got to work. First, I laid out the kitchen utensils.

I taped on one of the utensils to a paint extension I brought for the job.
I dipped it into the lava.

We repeated these steps until all our utensils had a rock on them. Here are the utensils (and a few other rocks unconnected to metal...)

Here is a couple of videos of the process: one a failed attempt; one more successful.

For those not interested in our "work", here are just a few pictures from yesterday and a video of the lava.

After our trip to the lava, as usual, we went and watered our palms and grabbed a bunch of rocks for our garden.

Lanai Day 2 (bonus: Robin shirtless) update: kind of

So, on my first full day on the lanai, I was able to lay it out. Our lawn goes uphill, so the lanai will be basically at ground level on one side and about 3 feet high on the other side. I am going to slope it very slightly away from the house so the rain runs off it. Here is a picture showing the grading. The two joists coming from the wall are in their proper slope and square to each other. (Thank you Pythagoras! Without his theorem, I would have no idea how to square a structure. Math is so useful in life.) The board across is level. It all looks a little wonky, but really it is level.

I started to ready the footings in the areas that don't need grading. Basically, Leslie and I dug the holes to put tubes in. Then, I will put concrete with an anchor in the tube. Voici. (This is a very useful French word which, in this context, means "here it is - take a look". Ok, Laura R. you have just learned another French word - that was painless, n'est-ce pas? I will teach you how to pronounce it in January....)


Today, I must do some grading of the area that is near ground level and then I will, weather permitting, pour the footings. But, it is raining now so I am doing the blog right now.

Yesterday, after I worked, my hair looked a sight (and I was quite dirty, of course). Voici the hair.

So, I took a shower. To show you all my tan, I look a picture after my shower. For people who know me well, you can see that there is tan in places that almost never see the sun in Santa Cruz. I rarely wear anything sleeveless at home. It is the opposite here. I was going to crop it so you couldn't see my little stomach bulge and fat lines in my back. But, I talked to my friend Judith today and I told her that I had gained a little weight. She doubted the truth of my claim. So, Judith, voici! (update: Judith did laugh but was worried about me advertising my shirtlessness to the world. She thinks that there are bad people out there and the fact of the picture would lead to something bad. Now, this is coming from a French woman! There are beaucoup the shirtless women on TV ads and on billboards there. But, I promised that I would change it. Voilà.)

If you like construction...

...well, then, the next month of posts might be interesting to you. If not, oh well! It is just that I am going to be doing the deck (lanai in Hawaiian). When I do a project, I tend to be obsessed. Now, I do have plans for a couple of volcano-related posts. So, watch for those. And perhaps I will get the energy to put on a picture here and there of something else. But, beyond that, I think it will be a whole lot about the lanai.

So, let's get started!

Here is a computer sketch of the lanai. I will be adding another section of the lanai to the right next time I come. But, I will not be coming next year though Leslie and her folks will be. Leslie and Smiley both really, really want a lanai for the next visit. So, voilà, there will be one. I put a few of the decking boards in the sketch over the structure to show the layout of them. The kitchen door will open onto the lanai.
Yesterday, the deck materials were dropped off at 7:30 am. (One of the many great things about Hawaii is that you can drive over a wet lawn without harming the grass. )

The hardest job of the day was taking apart the pallet that the supplies came on . They attached six 16' 2x6 boards to six 2x4s with a ridiculous amounts of nails. Since I can use the 2x6's in the future, I didn't want to just hack them up. I don't own a crowbar here and it wasn't worth buying one just for this. But, between my hammer and my sawzall, I did get it done. But, it was about 80 degrees out and I was sweating buckets...

Lots of clickety-clack and hair

We are so happy that we brought Rosie with us because she really makes this place feel like home. However, she may not be as thrilled as we are. She is only doing so-so as her back legs are getting increasingly weak and she is often hot and usually tired. She is not crazy, particularly, about our hardwood floors. She slips and slides on them and sometimes falls. Basically, she moves from one of our four area carpets to the other. (Usually in the room where people are not! We bug her.)

We aren't crazy about the hardwood floors in terms of Rosie, as well. First, she is very loud when walking around. Please listen to this video if you would like to hear the sound:

Everybody always wakes up when she walks around at night. Luckily, she sleeps most of the time.

Also, she is shedding hair constantly. She always did that, of course, but it may be worse here because her undercoat is thinning due to the heat. In Santa Cruz, her hair is basically hidden on our carpet. But, it is impossible to miss it on the hardwood floor here. So, every morning I sweep up this amount of hair:


Now, I thought of collecting all her hair and turning it into an Abominable Snowman costume. I say this because years ago there was a Halloween costume contest in Santa Cruz in which a guy with that particular costume won. We went with Laura and Doug - who I thought should have won. Isn't their costume cool?

But, the guy had collected his dog's hair for over a year for the snowman. His costume looked ok and all - but I think he just won because it was just amusing that he did it. Laura and Doug did come in second. They were robbed, as far as I am concerned. Anyway, I haven't collected Rosie's hair but I always think of that contest.

Sorry, this is sort of a shaggy dog story.

The Dancing Bird and Science

So do you know the internet sensation Snowball? It is a dancing bird. You really need to watch for only 10 or 20 seconds, because the bird has very limited moves if great enthusiasm. But, it was interesting to read today in the New York Times Magazine's 8th Annual Year in Ideas issue (look under Avian dancing) how Snowball is adding to a scientific understanding of where the ability to dance comes from in humans (and now birds). We await dancing dolphins. If you aren't familiar with this annual issue of the magazine, I would like to recommend it to you. Just slide through it looking for things of interest. I always read every word....
(Update: I was having trouble navigating the issue. But, it you click on the arrow at the top right, you can slide through the issue. Clicking on the alphabet didn't work for me, but it could be a temporary problem.)

Reverse order

Read Time warp 2 before The rain that changed history? for a better order.

The rain that changed history?

The Hilo rain scared off Sarah Palin. As documented in the book Sarah, she – along with three of her friends – thought it would be a fabulous thing to go to college in Hawaii. They clearly did very little research about Hilo, expecting both warmth and sunshine. According to one member of the quartet, Tilly Ketchum, it rained for three weeks straight when they arrived (towards the end of August of 1982). "Once we got there, we hated it," she recalled. Sarah said of the experience: “"Rain was coming sideways, and I wondered what the heck I was doing out there.”

To get away from the rain, Palin and her friends quickly transferred to Hawaii Pacific University on Oahu. While it rained less there, they happened to go to college in the second rainiest year since records had been kept. (It is now the third rainiest year as 1994 took the lead.) So, ultimately, she decided she preferred cold to rain.

But, could it have been different if she happened to go a different year?

Here is a chart showing the amount of rain greeting our ignorant Sarah and her buddies. (School started on August 23rd. Therefore, I checked the records beginning on August 22 at this wonderful site. Click on the chart if the writing is too small for you to read. Remember, dear foreign readers, that 1 inch=2.5 cm)The first 10 days, the hapless foursome were pelted with 15" of rain. By contrast, we have been in Hilo for three months and have only received 14.74" of rain the entire time! What a contrast.

Hilo is exactly the “small town with good American values” kind of place Palin claims to treasure. (And, having spent time in both Wasilla and here - trust me, Hilo beats Wasilla for charm.) If she had the spectacularly good weather we have had, instead of the rotten weather she endured, don't you think that history might have been different?

Time warp 2

Of course, there is a reason that Hilo is in a time warp and it can be summed up with one word: rain.

Before I launch into this exploration of Hilo rain, I want to give my foreign readers (and, yes, I swear I have some!) this conversion: 1 inch of rain = 2.5 cm of rain.

Hilo (population 45,000, average rainfall 126 inches/year) is, arguably, the rainiest city in America. The people who will argue with you are Alaskans. They say that title belongs to Ketchikan (population 14,700; average rainfall 150"?). Or Cordova (population 2,500; average rainfall 160"?). Or Yakutat (population 550, average rainfall 132"). I put questions marks on Ketchikan's and Cordova’s rainfall totals because they aren’t official U.S. weather service statistics and are quite suspect. Yakutat’s gauge, on the other hand, is an official one and they edge out Hilo’s for the rainiest “city” if you can call a population of 550 a city. But, the Hilo gauge is at one of the driest spots in the city – at the airport, which is near sea-level. Upslope in Hilo, the rain gauges average to closer to 200 inches a year. This chart is helpful in understanding Big Island rain patterns. (Click on it if you want to see the map larger.)



But, the thing is – it really, really varies. Here is a link to a summary Hilo’s rainfall totals. (Actually, this link takes you to the main page. Scroll down the left side to the Precipitation section and hit monthly totals.) Check out 2008. Unless something big happens soon, the totals will be well under normal. But, take a look at February: 39" in that short month. But - get this - 31" of that total fell in a 30 hour period!

As all Hilo folks know, most of the heavy rain falls at night (unless there is a storm in which the rainfall is constant and unrelenting as it was in that February storm.) There can be, say, .5" of rain on a particular day and yet, during the day, it is really warm and sunny. This happens with great frequency here. While we have had about 14" of rain in the period that we have been here, the vast majority has fallen at night. It has just been fabulous, actually.

Anyway, the rain scares off lots of people, keeping the town quaint and sleepy. My next post features one such scared-off resident. Perhaps the Hilo rain changed American history! Stay tuned.

Quick meal

Today we are having a house-warming party, so no time for a post. But, thought I would share this. Such an efficient eater!

In a more serious mood - but still relating to dogs and food - Brian sent me to this Gail Collins column in the NY Times today. Gail is always worth reading. Just wanted to give you a taste.

Cats on slide (with appropriate music)

I loved the dog in the snow from the last post, but was sooooo annoyed with the music. Now this has appropriate music with the video. Thank you.

The Hilo time-warp

Lots of people, including myself and Leslie, think Hilo is in some sort of time warp. I googled "Hilo" and "time warp" and came up with a lot of articles discussing this phenomenon. Here is one guy trying to articulate why this is so. The city is aware of this factor and spends a lot of time trying to figure out a way to keep it that way while staying economically afloat.

Anyway, yesterday it hit me that Hilo feels like my childhood in Corona, California. Certainly this is true in comparison to my life in Santa Cruz where I have spent the vast majority of my life (the last 36 years). You know I like lists! Here are the top ten reasons why I feel like I have returned to my younger years:

1. I see the milky way at night.
2. My feet are toughened up by walking barefoot all the time.
3. I can swim in the ocean with comfort (i.e. it is not so damn cold).
4. I am really tan. (My forearms and face are normally tan but not shoulders, back, legs, etc. since I was a kid.)
5. I wear shorts and sandals most of the time.
6. When the sun sets, the temperature doesn't change much.
7. We eat outside at night comfortably.
8. We have occasional smog (called vog as it comes from the volcano instead of capitalism), but it is much worse an hour from here.
9. There is a lot of desolate desert nearby.
10. And, of course, Hilo town is just so darn quaint and old-fashioned like Corona once was.

Now as you might note, not all the things are great. But smog was part of my childhood and hasn't been part of my life as an adult. So, it is weirdly nostalgic. And, while Corona is in Riverside County and is part of a desert, this was obscured to the child-me by the extensive agriculture in the area. Thus, I thought of Corona - with rows and rows of beautiful orange groves - as quite lovely but the surrounding deserts as very stark. Hilo gets its green the honest way - lots of rain - but a very stark desert is a short drive away.

Anyway, I do love Santa Cruz but it has very few echoes of my childhood. The fact that Hilo does bring me back in time creates a powerful attraction to the place and sense of belonging.

Fun in the snow

This just in (thanks, Lynn!) Love the footage but don't you think they could have found a better song to play? Winter wonderland, perhaps? Other suggestions?

Leslie's guest blog!

Aloha to all you Robin's blog-followers (say that five times quickly),

Although I have not been nearly the busy bee that Robin has been whilst here in Hilo, I too have been working on the house--mostly gardening and landscaping. Here is a video showing what I (with the help of my mom) have done to the yard so far.

On another note, this next bit is especially for blog-follower Laura Rodriguez: Last Saturday I went with my folks and our friends Casey and Bill to an open house at the Keauhou Bird Conservation Center, up near the Volcano National Park. (Robin stayed home and worked on the fence.) This non-profit organization raises endangered native Hawai'ian birds, and releases them into the wild. It's not normally open to the public, but once a year they give the public a tour of the facility. We got to see some of the birds, too, including the Palila (first picture), and the 'Alala (second photo), the native Hawai'ian crow which is now nearly extinct--there are only about 60 left, all in captivity (though they're starting to get ready to release some into the wild). We were told the 'Alala is one of the rarest animals in the world.

If I were a carpenter

I decided I could do the lanai - at least part of it (a 16' x 20' section.) Now, I am really not much of a carpenter, though Leslie and I once built a structure in Watsonville for her band rehearsals. But, seriously, I know almost nothing about how to build something fast, efficiently and well. I found a book with the word "complete" in the title. I hope they didn't lie as I need complete information. So, good luck to me and everyone who sits on the thing. But, I swear, I will follow the building code! Really! I don't plan to start the thing until after Saturday night. We are having a housewarming party that day for our friends and neighbors, so I don't want it to be a construction site. But, I will have built it several times over in my brain by then.

Anyway, if I were a carpenter, this would be easier.

The fence is done...Now what?

Well, I finished the fence and finished painting the house. Now Leslie is going to go mad planting things by the house and fence. But what should I do? Should I build the lanai in the back yard? Or, just do a bunch of small jobs and relax a little more? I am only a semi-competent carpenter and I am not sure if I can finish the task in the 6 weeks left here. It does seem like a lot of time but I have never built a deck from scratch (though I rebuilt our deck in Santa Cruz last summer). But, Leslie and Smiley would really like the job done.... Oh, what to do?

Excellence

I keep obsessing about this video.

Various academic research has come up with the figure of about 10,000 hours of practice to become a master in a field. If that bricks-on-head guy in the video isn't one of the best ever at moving bricks on his head, I want to see the one who is better! And, I assume this means that the guy has done this for, at least, 10,000 hours of his life. Wow. I assume he isn't paid much for his labor. Yet, he is world class at the task! Where is the Ed Sullivan show when you need it?

President Morphing, Downfall and a cat

President Morphing

I had many reactions to this video that morphs our Presidents from Washington to Obama. I took two pages of notes. But, I have done some severe editing. Here are my main impressions:

• Buchanan really looks gay. I also thought Chester Arthur looked gay. I checked the internet and, indeed, there are rumors that Buchanan (the only life-long bachelor President) and Arthur were gay. I also thought the portrait of Pierce had a punk-gay quality. No such rumors about Pierce - but do check out that photo.
• Andrew Jackson looks like he should be in a rock band. I think the Rolling Stones pre-wrinkles.
• Check out James Polk! He looks like a cross between Mel Gibson and ..... Please tell me who! (Update: the people have spoken - a cross between Mel Gibson, David MaCallum (Man from U.N.C.L.E. fame) and Bill Macy.)
  
• For morphing reasons, some of the portraits are the official ones but many are not. (Warning: If you click that last link, you are taken to a picture of Bush!) In the video, they chose smiling portraits from Carter through Obama. But, in reality, only two Presidents show teeth: Reagan and W. (Update 12/6/08 - Bush unveiled his "official protrait". No teeth. So, Reagan is now the only one with teeth showing.)
  

By the way, if you go to the youtube President morphing video, I suggest you check out many of the other morphs videos that show up in the "related video" list.

Downfall

Have any of you checked out any of the Downfall videos (from the film about the downfall of Hitler and the Third Reich)? My favorite (and a very educational one, at that) is Real Estate Downfall. However, stop! Don't yet click on that link. Later, I will give you a good sequence for really enjoying these clips. Also, in general, I am not going to bother to give you links because there would be too many.

There are a lot of versions. Probably the most famous (before the now-viral Real Estate Downfall) is Hillary's Downfall. However, while it has some good writing - the writers are too lazy to write a really good script and, in the sequence when "Clinton" is yelling, they overuse obscenities. Too many go for the cheap joke or swearing instead of a writing a really sharp script. Nonetheless, I did like it and other political ones such as the GOP's Downfall or Obama's Downfall. But, a youtube search will find them.

There are lots of different Downfall genres out there. One type is to use the clip to critique something like Macs, PCs, Second Life, Burning Man or Mircrosoft. Another type is even more absurdist - Hitler's car being stolen, Hitler buys the wrong bike. Then, there are a lot of sports ones: Brett's Fauvre's Downfall, Hitler's upset about Tennessee loss, Hitler Superbowl.

And, then there are the ones with self-reference to the phenomenon. One pleads to stop it. But, a really funny one (linked below) critiques those who don't "get it" which includes, I gather, a lot of German speaking folks.

So, if you want to go down the Downfall path in such a way to actually laugh more instead of less, I would suggest this sequence. First, watch the real estate one. If you don't like it and find it offensive, then stop and don't continue watching any. However, if you liked it, then find one on youtube that intrigues you (or click the Hillary link above.) Follow up with more if you wish. But do check out this one. Then, the topper is to see the real film dialogue but speed-ed up. If you want to see a (slightly different) version of the real one, here it is.

A Cat here

Applying for grad school: boring and tedious

Lynn has responded to my plea for a guest blog. You will find it below. For those who have never applied to grad school, I can second the sentiments expressed by Lynn. I did once apply to law school about 20 years ago and - after doing this whole process and actually suceeding at getting into the school of my choice - I decided maintenance was a better profession. (It is. I was correct about that.) But, it did give my mom much needed bragging rights.

So, I feel for Lynn. And, while applying to grad school is indeed tedious and boring, I was not bored reading about it. And I, for one, positively love tedium.

I wanted to help Robin in her quest to make “Whatever is on my mind” into “Whatever is on OUR mind.” Unfortunately, whatever is on my mind is not as interesting as whatever is on Robin’s mind.

Case in point: my blog contribution about applying to graduate school. What’s that? You don’t remember a blog entry about grad school? That’s because it was too boring to post. I tried to make it funny and cute. I embraced the challenge of making a hideous process involving grade point averages, transcript orders and a history of all schools attended sound interesting. I thought, “YES! I can make people want to read this!” 145 words later, one sentence was actually worth reading.

Suffice it to say, I really hope this grad school thing works out. Forget about the advanced degree and having a rewarding career, I just never want to go through the application process again. One reason it has been so awful is that I am applying to several schools. The same autobiographical essay cannot be used for each application, 3 or 4 letters of reference are required for each school, and there is a $65 fee for every application. That doesn’t include all the minutiae of tracking what has to be sent where and when, the dismal GRE scores I need to order for the lame schools that require them and all the forms, pre-addressed envelopes and instructions for the people I burdened by asking for letters of recommendation. It just goes on and on…

At this point, I might as well tell you that I’m applying to Masters in Social Work programs so I can become a licensed clinical social worker. (When I told an aunt and uncle this they cried, “NOOOOooooooooo!” in unison.)

You can be sure that whatever is on my mind between now and the end of January will be this whole grad school thing. I do apologize for not having a more thrilling topic to write about. When this whole process is over, perhaps Robin can make a video of Leslie and me dancing to Talking Heads while throwing all of my application files into a sizzling lava flow. (Leslie is an amazing dancer, though most of you must already know this.)

I look forward to the day when my mind is available for other musings.

Our palm grove

Yesterday after we saw the lava, we tended our palm grove at Kalapana. You can learn a little more about the grove history and pictures here in an old post. We decided to give our 8 palms some help so we mixed our compost (which turns into dirt lickety-split here) with a little more dirt and a little fertilizer to help them along. To track their progress, I measured each one so I can compare next year. Below are the baseline figures. Won't it be exciting when I update the information next year?