Yes, It's a Commercial, but it will still make you cry

Commercials don't have to be crass.

They don't have to be loud or flashy, 

or full of inappropriateness.

Sometimes, it takes an international commercial to remind you.

Have tissues.

If you can't see it above, click on this link, or cut and paste this:

http://youtu.be/cZGghmwUcbQ


To be honest, there was a bit there, when I thought it was going to be a Mormon tv spot like those of days of yore.

Make Good Art.

~Neil Gaiman

Photo of the Day: Sphinx with No Name

 Maker Faire, Saturday, September 21, 2013

Side of Cargo Container

Artist still working on additional panel to the right, out of view.

Substitute Sphinx, and it almost still works.

A Horse With No Name

On the first part of the journey,
I was looking at all the life.
There were plants and birds. and rocks and things,
There was sand and hills and rings.
The first thing I met, was a fly with a buzz,
And the sky, with no clouds.
The heat was hot, and the ground was dry,
But the air was full of sound.

I've been through the desert on a horse with no name,
It felt good to be out of the rain.
In the desert you can remember your name,
'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain.
La, la, la la la la, la la la, la, la
La, la, la la la la, la la la, la, la

After two days, in the desert sun,
My skin began to turn red.
After three days, in the desert fun,
I was looking at a river bed.
And the story it told, of a river that flowed,
Made me sad to think it was dead.

You see I've been through the desert on a horse with no name,
It felt good to be out of the rain.
In the desert you can remember your name,
'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain.
La la, la, la la la la, la la la, la, la
La la, la, la la la la, la la la, la, la

After nine days, I let the horse run free,
'Cause the desert had turned to sea.
There were plants and birds, and rocks and things,
There was sand and hills and rings.
The ocean is a desert, with it's life underground,
And a perfect disguise above.
Under the cities lies, a heart made of ground,
But the humans will give no love.

You see I've been through the desert on a horse with no name,
It felt good to be out of the rain.
In the desert you can remember your name,
'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain.

La la, la, la la la la, la la la, la, la
La la, la, la la la la, la la la, la, la
La la, la, la la la la, la la la, la, la
La la, la, la la la la, la la la, la, la
La, la, la la la la, la la la, la, la
La la, la, la la la la, la la la, la, la
La, la, la la la la, la la la, la, la
La la, la, la la la la, la la la, la, la

Songwriters: BUNNELL, DEWEY

Found at: http://youtu.be/zSAJ0l4OBHM

The Landfill Harmonic Orchestra

The Landfill Harmonic Orchestra

Per NPR, this is "the trailer for an upcoming documentary called Landfill Harmonic, which focuses on one remarkable group in Paraguay: an orchestra that plays instruments created out of literal trash, made lovingly for them by their community."

If you can't view it here, go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_popout&v=UJrSUHK9Luw#action=share

More from NPR: http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2012/12/19/167539764/the-landfill-harmonic-an-orchestra-built-from-trash

YouTube Tuesday: The Joy of Books

Just cause.

If you can't see the clip above, please visit YouTube here: http://youtu.be/SKVcQnyEIT8

Holiday Traditions: Christmas 2010

I'm so grateful that I actually recorded this family get-together. It was the first time in years all of us were together as a unit for Christmas. Usually, either someone was working the overnight, one portion of the family was on one coast, while others flew west, or other members were/are heaven knows where. Grandparents' homes make nice neutral territories to gather for presents and food.

We all thought that Christmas 2010 would be the first of many grand gathering of the clan around the chimney and tree. Who was to know that some of the family would move further north this past year? It won't be the same this year without 5-6 key people, but it will be equally as zany. Christmas "morning" will be held later in the week, so travelers can arrive, overnight nurses can get OT, and "so other people can get their heads screwed on straight."

Aside from all the rapidly flying inside jokes that we'll be the only ones to truly appreciate, this oddly edited (and slightly long) video shows a snapshot of time when little ones were still crawling, cuddling, singing, and playing with their cousins without complaint, grandparents and parents were bouncing wee ones on their knee, and illustrates Auntie Nettie endeavoring to play videographer -- odd, since there are two professionals in the group who usually do it. (This is how I'm NOT in the picture - part of my well-thought-out plan.)

Pie anyone? Is it Christmas yet?

(If you can't view it here, it can be found at: http://youtu.be/8XwVHZdtgIE)

The Butterfly Effect

When you have an hour to kill at night on a train platform, you end up amusing yourself anyway possible ... even at the expense of the carcass of a majestic monarch butterfly.

It was the bright orange and black against the gray that got my attention.
At first I thought it was poised for flight,
but then I realized that its time had past. It was so close to making it to the Botanical Garden. The updraft of the train must have sucked it down and crushed it against the barricade.
Alight for flight, or the reason why Hurricane Irene ended up going from a little storm to a monster?

It's just a matter of perspective.

As I sat there contemplating the mysteries of life, I couldn't get this tune and some of the lyrics out of my head.

Butterfly, Butterfly (The Last Hurrah)
by a-ha

Butterfly, butterfly
Flying into the wind
You can be sure of it
That’s no place to begin

Overthinking every little thing
Acknowledge the bell you can’t unring

Tomorrow, you don't have to say what you’re thinking
You don’t have to mean what you say
Butterfly, butterfly

Flutter in to the skies
Butterfly, butterfly,
Their molecular cries

Chrysalis dreams waiting on the fifth in-star
These stained glass wings could only take you so far
You don’t have to say that it matters
You don’t have to turn something in
Stay with it through thick and thin
Butterfly, begin

Butterfly, butterfly

Tomorrow, you don't have to mean what you say
Left without a reason to stay
Comes the last hurrah
Here’s our last hurrah

Butterfly, butterfly,

You can be sure of it

Butterfly

I would have embedded the video, but alas - so go here, or http://youtu.be/IZjXysUwmM4.

Photos of the Day: Horse with No Name

Sadly, we just lost the singer, Dan Peek, who co-founded the band America in 1970. As a child of the 1970s, the refrain to A Horse With No Name was well known and I often break out singing it for no reason.

I especially end up singing it when I am reviewing this series of photos I took of a site-specific sculpture installation entitled The Mustangs, outside Snow Canyon in Ivins, Utah done by the artist Ed Hlavka, at his studio at the Kayenta Art Village.

For more about Ed Hlavka, click here. An article about the installation can be found here.

If you can't view the YouTube clip, go here: http://youtu.be/woP1ITeIQcI

Bet you can't get the song out of your head either. I miss songs where there is a) a narrative with an actual point, b) you can actually understand the lyrics, c) the lyrics are clean, and can d) harmonize - and the harmonies are excellently tight as can be.

Once a child of the 1970s, always a tiny bit of a flower child.

YouTube Tuesday: Firebolts

Harry Potter, the books and the movies, inspire all kinds of reactions.

"Did you ever feel so disappointed when you closed the book and realized that the story had to end? But maybe you were wrong and you are chosen, too…so grab your wand and go." ~Melanie Call, BYU's* Divine Comedy Troupe

You are not alone. See the footage here:




[*Only occasionally we will suspend all BYU mocking ... this is one of those times.]

YouTube Tuesday: Windmills of my mind

I was totally stuck on what to post today, when a clipart picture of a windmill on my cellphone triggered the need to find this.

It almost perfectly captures my state of mind these last two weeks of the semester.

Can be found at: http://youtu.be/Xu_6hdGZ6gU

Why is that you can always find the perfect Muppets segment for anything?

In other timely notes, it has been 21 years since Jim Henson's untimely passing.

Here's a clip of one of the Muppets Tribute numbers:

Can be found at: http://youtu.be/olHV1o9TE-8

I will admit, I got misty. I bet you did too.
Rest in peace Jim. You are missed.

The Calla Lilies are in Bloom Again

The answer to yesterday's paraphrase is:

"The calla lilies are in bloom again.
Such a strange flower, suitable to an occasion.
I carried them on my wedding day, and now I place them here in memory of something that has died. "

These lines are from the play "within the play," Enchanted April, in the play Stage Door, which in turn became a 1937 RKO feature starring the late great Kate, Katharine Hepburn. This clip is from the end of the movie, when Katharine Hepburn's character has an amazingly heartfelt performance that shocks most who know her.

The film also featured Ginger Rogers, a very young Lucille Ball (not as Lucy as we came to know her), Eve Arden, Ann Miller and some of the other great character and featured actors working in Hollywood.

I love old black and white films. They just don't make 'em like they used to.

YouTube Tuesday: Explaining an Arts Non-Profit

One of these days I am going to write that semi-fictional expose/memoir of the first third of my life as a fund-raiser, under a thinly disguised nom de plume. ONE DAY! Until then, this may suffice.

If you haven't seen/heard of these series of animated monotone voice-over cartoons, the gist is that any ol' person can submit the text that will be narrated by these or other cartoon animals. Some are veryveryveryVERY not suitable for my parents, and the "humor/truth" is best appreciated by some one who has spent considerable time in the particular field on which the cartoon is based.

There are many to choose from, and many that are far to close to the truth but to be anything but painfully familiar, like this one:

YouTube Tuesday: Revenge of The Peeps

YouTube Tuesday: Secret Garden

A Clip from the 45th Annual Tony Awards with the original Broadway Cast of The Secret Garden with the incomparable Rebecca Luker, John Cameron Mitchell, Mandy Patinkin, and the much missed from the Great White Way, Robert Westenberg. I had the privilege in seeing him in Les Miz, Into the Woods, and The Secret Garden and still haven't see anyone to compare with him, even after all this time. He is much missed in New York.

One of the best parts of this clip is the excerpt of the duo, Lily's Eyes with Mandy and Robert, which makes me well-up every single time.

YouTube Tuesday: Auntie Mame 1958 Trailer

One of my most favorite movies of all time, and a character that influenced some of my character.

But darling, I'm your ... Auntie Nettie!

Also delightful, the books from which the stage play and then this film were adapted.

YouTube Tuesday: Eye of the Storm

YouTube Tuesday: Criminally Excellent Cello Duet

Via the Huffington Post on Jan. 25, 2011:

"Stjepan Hauser and Luka Sulic- two very talented musicians- have turned a pop classic into an epic and beautiful classical duet with a hard core twist. The harmonies between the cellos are passionate and lively; Hauser and Sulic have created a conversation with their instruments, doing more than justice to Michael Jackson's 'Smooth Criminal.'"

YouTube Tuesday: a-ha Butterfly, Butterfly

Sadly, the ability to embed this video has been disabled.

To view it, please click here.

If it doesn't work, please go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZjXysUwmM4

YouTube Tuesday: Uplifting

Found here:

YouTube Tuesday: Dam Flood 2010

Every time I prepare to visit my family over the winter break, there seems to see some kind of weather "event." Temperatures drop, and snow falls in Vegas. (Yeah. Snow. In Vegas.)

Or, in this case, it rains. I can hear you saying, so what? It rains. Let me remind you, this is the southwest. It is a desert. A day of rain is a big deal. A week or more of torrential downpours? That's a problem.

In 2005, the area in and around the Virgin River in Utah, Arizona, and Nevada experienced major flooding. They called it the 100-year flood. Who would have thought that just five years later there would be more flooding?

Before my parents bought their most recent house in Utah, they purchased a vacation home in the Beaver Dam/Littlefield, Arizona area, where the most exciting thing was a place called "The Dam Bar."

Finally, a place where I could swear with impunity. Everything was "dam."

My parent's home was affectionately called "The Dam House." It was part of a cute little retirement community nestled next to a golf course and near (note the words NEAR) the banks of the Virgin River.

Given that Grandmary and GrumpaMax have a new house, The Dam House was on the market.

Until late December, it didn't have a river/water view.

The video below shows the house at the end of their street, as it takes off for parts unknown -- or as one person says on the video, Lake Mead.


Sadly, this house had been built by hand, by the owner, who had yet to move into it. He lost the house. The garage made it, for a little bit. But he lost that too.

The floods were right before Christmas. Because this was a flood plane, many people may or may not have had flood insurance. Many people weren't there because it was a retirement community and people were off visiting family. There wasn't a flood surge, just a steady rise of water that undercut ground, and washed away ancient cottonwoods, banks, and houses. Fortunately, no one lost their lives, but it was a hard Christmas. Recovery will be hampered by FEMA, insurance, government entities, and inevitable lawsuits.

This is a photo from the next day or so, looking down the street. You can see the garage still standing. The house next to it was marked "uninhabitable" because the back end of is hanging out over the undercut bank. The houses next to that were fine. Another day of rains, and all of those houses would have been uninhabitable too, include our Dam House.
These are a few days later. The garage has been razed. The houses that used to be on the streets behind it are gone. Heck. The STREETS are gone.
Here's the reverse view from another angle in the park. You can see the bulldozer near where the garage was. The houses in the foreground imploded inward, for lack of better words, when the ground underneath them washed away. They didn't float downstream. They sank where they were.
Obviously the road is closed. THERE IS NO ROAD.
So, anyone looking for a nice retirement house in Arizona with partial water views? I know of something on the market.

YouTube Tuesday: British Blackberries

We're going to start a new segment on the blog, called YouTube Tuesdays, when I'm going to post all the weird YouTube clips that people have sent me, or that I've posted to YouTube.

This one came to me over the holiday break, from my pal Jane over at the Flax Hill Gardner. Jane and I enjoy silly bits of British humour.



If you can't view it here, try this:
My blackberry isn't working! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAG39jKi0lI