Code ‘Moo’ on a Double-Bell Euphonium?

Happy Saturday morning. Let me begin by asking you to do yourself a favor. Stop reading! Pour yourself a coffee, put your feet up, and sit back to listen to a sound from 90 years ago – which I recorded live two evenings ago. Enjoy!

“You’re the Cream in My Coffee”

My flight home went smoothly and without interruption. Thanks Adrianne for picking me up at the airport.

Returning from Austin it was off to Spring Grove Cemetery’s Norman Chapel for their October Holiday Concert – The New Liberty Dance Orchestra.

Two glorious hours of period music from between the years 1900 and 1935 – ragtime, hot jazz, and swing music.

Double Bell Euphonium – Between the years of 1880 and 1940 the double-bell euphonium was a ‘hot’ band instrument. After 1940 its use diminished and although made till 1960 the actual use of the smaller bell was done away with. At one point, euphonium soloist Arthur W. Lehman was quoted during a Marine Band concert talking about the second, small, bell, “We use it to hold our white gloves when we are not wearing them”.

Thursday evening, we were treated to the actual sound of much of the music as it was played during the ‘20s and ‘30s including that produced by a 1940 vintage double bell euphonium. And it sounded great!

Austin FC – Last week I mentioned that I’d secured tickets to see Austin’s Major League soccer team. It was a major hit. They loved the whole event – including an Armadillo closeup. Behind the whole game after scoring first, we tied near the end of regulation time. Then won shortly into the added stoppage time: 3 – 2. Here are a few pics. Let me know how, just by the walkers, you can tell the game was in Texas.

Circuit of the Americas – Minutes after my flight climbed out from Austin on my homeward journey I peeked out of the plane’s window. Luck had me look up from my book and right into the Circuit of the Americas – where a day before the U.S Grand Prix Formula One race had been held. Directly below me is where a few hours earlier F1 superstars such as Dutchman Verstappen, Norris and Leclerc raced. Where teams from Ferrari and McLaren powered around that track.

Of course, my camera was stuck in my pocket and held down by the seatbelt. I did get it organized and here is the result – stunning don’t you think?

Code ‘Moo’ – Chick-fil-A is getting into the entertainment business. Mid-month this November it’ll release a family friendly entertainment app. It’s also begun to explore the video world. Before you laugh too much, remember how Netflix started or even Walt Disney for that matter. With all the junk, DEI, and Woke foisted on our kids, I think it a great idea. It appears that each will have a ‘punch-line’ with positive purpose and outcome. Remember, I will stop talking to watch a Shaun the Sheep segment which also uses claymation; and for me that’s something – the ‘talking’ thing that is!

Moody Theater – Austin is a city on the move. Based on the number of construction cranes, the growth is impressive.

Kirstin had booked a tour of the Moody Theater where Austin City Limit’s PBS program is taped. This is what brought us to the city center. We were able to explore every nook and cranny in the place. Lyle Lovett was performing that evening and so we were able to see the complete taping set up including how the special camera effects work. It was a fine and fun time! Thanks Kirstin.

Swan Songs – Musical Last Wishes – is where Kirstin works and where I visited her ‘digs’. Their work is amazing. What I had no idea of was the amount of work each ‘event’ requires to make it happen – timing, approvals, finding the proper artist, and the overall coordination. It’s an amazing organization.

Best quote: from Feeding Curiosity this Fast Fact; “You can hear cauliflower growing.”

The List – of odd-jobs Kirstin had waiting were all addressed and completed. My best was the bathroom sink repair (you’d be hard pressed to find the fix).

The one item that was ‘parked’ (pun) was helping Derek get situated with parralel parking for his driver’s exam.

We placed two cones in an empty parking lot. I proceeded showing him how it was done (Kirstin and Kellen were part of the cheering gallery standing on the side). Anyway, what I assumed was cheering was them yelling. Seems that me demonstrating this fine art had me drive over the rear cone. By then Derek had seen enough and we went to dinner. Don’t think I should try and teach him “how to” park between these cones either. I did see self-driving cars operating in downtown Austin – I think that in a short while this parallel parking thing won’t be an issue.

Life is AMAZING!

May Peace prevail! Shalom.

Dirk

BONUS POINTS:

A huge television comedy hit late last century was The Golden Girls. Four mature ladies were the cast stars. So here is the question, which of the four was a U.S. Marine in her younger years?

1) Bernice Frankel (Bea Arthur) – playing: Dorothy Zbornak
2) Betty White – playing: Rose Nylund
3) Rue McClanahan –playing: Blanche Devereaux
4) Estelle Getty – playing: Sophia Petrillo”

Dinner with AL?

Happy Saturday morning, and I was wrong, Nespresso coffee is now my after-lunch go-to. Morning coffee is made by using a hardly used French Press — and with McCoffee beans it’s a most excellent way to start the day.

Hello from deep in the heart of Texas.

Wednesday – October 16 – we remembered the 7th anniversary of Vince’s passing. A visit to the cemetery gave pause remembering and reflection on the fragility of life. In place of some flowers, we followed the Jewish tradition by placing a pebble on Vince’s marker. We brought a pebble selected from Kirstin’s back yard and the home Vince insisted they purchase.

New since I visited last, Kirstin found a way to properly display the many medals Vince had earned as part of his Iron Man finishes. They now add color to the main hallway.

Zoom – the twice weekly exercise session I have with my brothers via Zoom did not stop while here. I brought my laptop, Kirstin supplied a remote camera, Yoga mat and weights. Voila, yesterday morning we were in the exercise business. And yes, I did manage a bit of a sweat.

Since the temperature eased up, I did manage to do about 4 miles through the neighborhood. About 2/3 of the way I became aware of a group of Turkey Vultures settling down. Thinking they were sizing me up, it quickly downed on me that I needed to increase my pace. Yes, I made it back in good shape.

ACL at 50 – Thursday evening we watched a live stream of the Austin City Limits (ACL) 50th anniversary. The 1st ACL featured a young Willie Nelson and for the 50th it was a slightly older Willie Nelson. With a glass of Bulleit Bourbon alongside, Kirstin and I had a lovely time watching the show.

I should point out that neither Derek nor Kellen were much into a ‘young’ or ‘old’ Willy and had vacated to their rooms within a minute or two after the program’s opening salvo.

Visiting with Kirstin has other benefits – music. She enjoys a solid variety as do I so these get togethers are lots of fun. We did have a bit of a discussion regarding seeing Lyle Lovett and his Big Band tomorrow (we’re not).

Closed & almost forgotten – The last full-scale Kmart in the continental US is set to close Sunday in Bridgehampton, New York, marking the end of an era for the once-iconic retailer. Remember the “Blue Light Special” — instant discount announcements. Kmart struggled to compete with Walmart, Target, and others including Amazon and Ebay.

Not that the loss of Kmart holds anything special for me, other than that my sailing buddy of years ago had a brother-in-law who held a managerial position with that company. As I’ve witnessed that company (along with Sears) die their slow death, primarily through an ongoing series of missteps, I keep wondering where and how he landed.

Best quote: from the Al Smith Dinner: “the good-natured Celebrity Roast shtick at some Papist Friars’ Club?”. This year President Trump was making his speech while back-slapping Senator Chuck Schumer next to him. Even better was this comment by Mark Steyn regarding Trumps speech: “it was an impressive performance given that Letitia James, New York Attorney-General, was sitting in the row behind. Even Jean Valjean didn’t play Open Mic Night with Javert sitting on the dais.”

The List – of the ‘small’ list of ‘to-dos’ has been whittled down. My favorite was Kirstin’s bathroom ceramic sink which had a small hole in it (known in her household as the ‘nail-polish bottle affair’). The fix now requires a magnifying glass to spot. Add gate straightening, a saggy door adjustment, and a few more minor items and all is now well.

Blink 2024 – is the one event that I hated to miss. Thirty city blocks of immersive light show and art. It started with an opening parade on Thursday, then Friday through Sunday.

Here’s a short news intro of what I’ll be missing:

And here is how it looked on night one:

Last week I mentioned that I dealt with an issue capturing my eTickets for tonight’s MLS soccer game – Austin FC and the Colorado Rapids. Monday morning all was resolved. My tickets are safely posted on my eWallet. Now I best sit down with the lads and explain the fine details of the ‘beautiful’ game.

Marcia advised me not to put them to sleep.

Life is AMAZING!

May Peace prevail! Shalom.

Dirk

BONUS POINTS:

We all instinctively understand just how difficult and infuriating it is to cancel something, anything. Gym membership, AARP, Syrius/XM Radio, magazine subscription, even diving out from underneath bundles of those never ending unwanted advertisements. Well, the government has come to the rescue. Which agency has sparked the ‘single click to cancel’ rule?

Or as President Reagan so famously said, “I’m from the government and here to help”?

1) “IRS”
2) “HRSP”
3) “FAA”
4) “FTC”
5) “JMD”
6) “OJP”
7) “SAUSA”

Halloween in AI?

Happy Saturday morning, a couple of more days and I’ll have to switch over to a morning Nespresso coffee – in Austin no less. Visiting with Kirstin and the lads. Yes, she has a full schedule of fix-em-do’s (a couple possibly offering a bit more of a challenge – a very small hole in a ceramic sink being one such item). Back to the Nespresso, Kirstin does no coffee, Vince bought this machine and now it sits patiently waiting for my visits. I’ll recommend both the machine and the quality of the coffee. Plus, I’m in love with its ‘whirring’ sound while in production mode.

I should also point out that I’ll try to log a post on The Ramblings next Saturday, but uncertain of my connectivity. We’ll see. First, try to finish up my travel packing – always doable but more difficult than I presumed.

Stoppage – without getting too graphic, earlier this week our toilet stopped up (no photos). A little trick I happened on did wonders. I poured a couple of buckets of very hot, soapy, water into the bowl and quickly only had some suds remaining. Resulting in a clear, and CLEAN passage. You’re welcome, and all this for no charge.

Halloween prep – Here the neighborhoods are already complete with a myriad of seasonal yard decorations; from cute to downright spooky.

I find that the audio more than the visual makes Halloween be Halloween. Then, there was a time – pre television – where radio would fit that bill. In fact, there was a time when families would gather after dinner to listen to a variety of horror episodes. Kids and parents, dimly lit room, often a fireplace already lit, when over a scratchy loudspeaker would come the sounds of a door squeak, a footstep on an empty street, or stillness with a manic laugh in the distance. Enough to make the hair on your neck stand on
end.

This following is a 1951 broadcast of the NBC Mystery Theater. It’s a radio presentation of Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher”. Feel free to grab someone’s hand as you surround yourself with Poe’s Halloween gift – pure Horror!

From the Quotation room – Per ABC news (January 2024) after 3 years, more than 460 people are still being held as political prisoners. In the meantime, not one (as in 0) is in prison because of what was revealed at the Epstein trial – equal justice at its finest. A couple of weeks ago I re-introduced Dana Carvey’s SNL character; the Church Lady. Here is how the Church Lady would have reflected on that bit of trivia: “Well, isn’t that special? How con-VEEN-ient!”

The Best and the Worst – We are truly a “tale of two cities”.  One of this towns most beloved (as in can do no wrong) characters was Pete Rose – as in he of Baseball fame.

There is also a sizeable group who are wholeheartedly in sync with him being banned for life from getting into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Earlier this month Pete Rose, “Charlie Hustle” with 4256 hits, died. Since then, more Rose ‘merch’ and number 14 Jerseys than any other Reds item sold this season.

I came across this delightful old-time editorial page cartoon by Jim Borgman (also draws the Zits cartoon) from the Cincinnati Enquirer and it pretty well sums it all up.

Screenshot

A.I. – Brother Pieter will be minimally active for a few weeks, i.e. no exercise including riding his beloved ‘recumbent’ bike. As is typical in our ‘circle’ of family and friends we must keep on plugging along. Pieter does have his radio show so I suspect that will keep on going. But it’s the next item that had me sit up and take note, it’s is his getting started with A.I. (Artificial Intelligence).

For a time, Pieter has written poetry and performed at “Poetry SLAMS”. He resurfaced one of these poems and began playing with “AI Music Generator”.

Here are the opening lines to his poem: Talk To Me Baby

Talk to me baby
I’m tired of my voice
Talk to me baby
My thoughts have no choice

Eventually he settled on a style produced and ‘sung’ by the the Artificial Intelligence Generator. Have a listen to the voice, the musical style, and the sound and tempo: As the original output text states; “A soulful male voice melody exploring themes of love, desire, and introspection through heartfelt lyrics”.

Created by AI Music Generator

Here you go. Personally, I was blown away with the result:

Now I’ll spend some more time trying to capture my tickets into my mobile wallet. I managed to get 4 seats for next Saturday’s Major Soccer League game in Austin (FC Austin against the Colorado Rapids). I’m taking my gang in Austin to their very first big-league soccer match. Should be loads of fun.

Anyway, I have the seats. These purchased through StubHub. Somewhere during the purchase/download process I ended up (without noticing) being on the Seat Geek app. So now I can see all the purchase detail. But neither site will display the necessary QR codes. Add to that, the venue will only accept entry using a mobile ticket, NO screen capture and NO paper tickets accepted. As you can see, the clock is ticking! Not sweating yet, but I’ll get there.

Life is AMAZING!

May Peace prevail! Shalom.

Dirk

BONUS POINTS:

Ohio is now well into the Presidential voting fray (voting here started October 8). America’s Voting Season is underway (whatever happened to Voting Day?). As an aside, Marcia and I voted at our Board of Elections on the 9th. Here is the Bonus Question: Which one item numbered below  cost Al Gore the Presidential election in 2000?

1) “Reproductive Rights”
2) “A ’Green’ hard line”
3) “The gun vote”
4) “Swift Boat controversy”
5) “A photo op that Tanked”
6) “A misprinted news photo”
7) “Watery ‘Monkey’ business”

Just Wait

Happy Saturday morning, and since I just opened a new bag of beans, this morning’s coffee is wonderfully fresh and tasty.

Last Saturday after posting I made my lunch using some great leftover Blue Oven Bakery salted-wheat -Sourdough bread – “Pain Perdu”. Now, a week later I can still taste it in my mind, almost better than when it was fresh.

Now that it’s formally autumn/fall I thought it wise to explore the correct term for the season. Hence, I went to my quick fount of wisdom – the Readers Digest (large text format). Turns out it’s all correct. Way back it was ‘Harvest Time’ in Britain. By 1300-something a new term, ‘autumn’, came into use. Eventually in the Americas it became the ‘fall-of-the-leaves’ season which quickly was shortened to ‘fall’. Whew, don’t you just feel much wiser now?

This paragraph I Posted a Year Ago (Oct. 6, 2023)

Fat Bear Week – As a precursor to next month’s elections, your vote is important for this event. Katmai National Park, Alaska’s Fat Bear Week is a celebration where anyone can vote. Vote? Yup, vote for the fattest brown Bear – the one who’ll emerge from its winter slumber as the ‘king of the hill” (or woods). Have fun! fatbearweek.org!”

Now a piece of shocking news from Katmai National Park in Alaska. It appears that two of this year’s competing ‘fat’ bears got into a bit of a kerfuffle. Well, it was more than a “kerfuffle”, it was a beat-down (i.e. biting and thrashing), and as CBS News reported; “a clash between a male bear, referred to as 469 and “Patches,” and an older female bear, referred to as 402, by the Brooks River in Katma. The fight led to one of the bears (#402) dying.”

Bottom line, all this had the 2024 Fat Bear Week brackets being delayed. So, via The Washington Post, the Fat Bear Week bracket has voting for Fat Bear Week 2024 running through Oct. 8. Click here to vote.

Zzzzzzz Tedious ‘Fire’ cliché in a burning room – is what this past week’s ‘debate?’ devolved into. You just know that desperation set in when a panicky contestant for the VP slot calls himself a “knucklehead”.

First, none of these ‘debates’ have anything in common with a debate other than the name. Rather than a formal discussion we’re ‘treated’ to a series of statements and stump refined bits. These then monitored and where desired cut short due to some unspecified need to move on. Boring!

From history  (National Park Services) comes the real thing; “Lincoln (Republican) and Douglas (Democrat) agreed to debate in seven of the nine Illinois Congressional Districts; the seven where Douglas had not already spoken. In each debate either Douglas or Lincoln would open with an hour address. The other would then speak for an hour and a half. The first then had 30 minutes of rebuttal. In the seven debates, Douglas, as the incumbent, was allowed to go first four times.”

In this week’s ‘debate’ there was a clear winner (hint; it wasn’t the self-declared ‘knucklehead”). What was interesting were some people whose career had been in interrogation and their insights.

Quotation – “I’m not upset at Trudeau. It’s the Canadian people who have trusted government, for some unknown reason, for far too long. Started with the carrot of universal (substandard for all) healthcare, and got worse from there ”, David McP on X (@uudavidx); answering an asked question; name a famous Canadian who openly came out against Trudeau.

In our own country, this week we saw how a dysfunctional government functions when a major disaster crops up. In fact, this week Secretary Mayorkas publicly stated that FEMA was out of money even as citizens with helicopters were shooed away under threat of arrest. What?

Considering all of this, take a close look at the picture inserted below as we see how our dependency on government has crept in over the years:

What, me worry? – So here we are, and not at all like the famous Mad Magazine’s Alfred E. Neuman character we can’t help but be impacted; bombarded, literally in the Middle East, but all over. Storms where we watch how a non-functional government behaves under pressure. Soaring prices on about everything. And we all could go on an on. Now we’re being told about billions trillion living things miles under the earth’s crust.

I guess we have two choices. One is to lose sleep over it all. The other is to look at it all with wonder, fascination, and awe. I choose the latter.

Now the long wait has begun. Last evening I renewed my passport online. Easy enough and it’ll ONLY take 4 to 6 weeks to process. Paid via credit card.

Instead of a plain, Thank You, I am now in some wait queue. Here is what I mean, I received a subsequent email; “we will send you a confirmation email when your payment has been successfully processed.” Wait a minute, all this processing is automated. Amazon advises me instantly whether things are good or whether there is a problem.

Update, there is no ‘subsequent’ email as of this writing. As I said, the wait has begun. Should I advise that at my age queue line waits do become a slight bit of a concern?

Life is AMAZING!

May Peace prevail! Shalom.

Dirk

BONUS POINTS:

This week’s B.P. is for the ladies (and some men). Often, the Romance Novel genre of softcover books displayed a suggestive cover and for years the male model for these covers was an Italian model who went by the name of ‘Fabio’. Which one of these corporations (by advertising tag lines i.e. “Just Do It” is Nike) did he represent?

1) “Just Do It”
2) “It’s finger-lickin’ good”
3) “Think Different”
4) “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!”
5) “The Best a Man Can Get”
6) “Betcha can’t eat just one”
7) “I’m Lovin’ It”
8) “Think Outside the Bun”
9) “What’s in your wallet?”
10) “The Quicker Picker Upper”
11) “All for Freedom. Freedom for All”