The Death of a Disco Dancer.
(morrissey)

The death of a disco dancer
Well, it happens a lot round here
And if you think peace is a common goal
That goes to show how little you know

The death of a disco dancer
Well, I'd rather not get involved
I never talk to my neighbour
I'd rather not get involved

Love, peace and harmony
Love, peace and harmony
Oh, very nice
Very nice
Very nice
Very nice
...But maybe in the next world.

Sweetness follows.
(m. stipe)

Readying to bury your father and your mother,
What did you think when you lost another?
I used to wonder why did you bother,
Distanced from one, blind to the other?

Listen here, my sister and my brother
What would you care if you lost the other?
I always wonder why did we bother,
Distanced from one, deaf to the other

Oh, oh, but sweetness follows.

It's these little things, they can pull you under
Live your life filled with joy and wonder
I always knew this altogether sundered
Lost in our little lives

It's these little things, they can pull you under
Live your life filled with joy and thunder
Yeah, yeah, we were altogether
Lost in our little lives

Oh, oh, but sweetness follows.

L. Cohen
The Future

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_drEFOaPaK8

L. Cohen
The Stranger Song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLq7Aqd_H7g

Sorry, no animal battles today. I am not up to blogging. Hopefully tomorrow or very soon.

FINNISH FOTOGRAPHY
Wow, this person is a really good photographer. Also, galleries of IR photography and sketches.
Antti Kemppainen gallery

If you go to the root of that page you'll find his index page which also has 3D computer sculptures, news, contact info and more. But I thought I'd deposit you right in the photo gallery with that link, since it's more impressive.

I especially love IR photography!

Check ya.

I bust lyrical
My main aim being satirical
Laugh and spit denseness
That sounds like Alpha Bits cereal
Jumbled and senseless
And at first you can't grasp
Then it hits you like Jujitsu
And a part of you gasps
As the meaning unfolds
It nearly pulls you in half
That's the intro,
I ain't even launched my attack

See, you started clever
Using an internal rhyme, whatever;
My timing's so fine that all my metaphors shine
Forever
I never sought this throne, yo
It was handed to me
By unanimous vote of the greatest MCs
No joke
No theory, no fear, just empirical slams
And yes, controlling all mics was my master plan
While your moms gets hysterical
Maybe she needs to switch "brands"
I proceed to unleash powers only Tesla would understand
You just a yes-man, a kiss-ass
So my skills stay at half-mast
You don't rate nothin' better
Cause your shit's at best half-assed
I heard you whining, dude
You can't put two rhymes together
And your homies, your "dogs," and yes
Even your sister
Said you was weak and pathetic
Since the day you was delivered

I'm on point like slivers
Don't take kindly to threats
I'm like that nightmare that caused you
To pee in your sweats
Now you turn energy to entropy, crying
Trying to forget
But I ain't buying
I'm blowing your house down with the biggest of breaths
The big badass wolf of the microphone set
You see ghosts in your sleep and feel the sheets is all wet
Time for Depends, bro, I'm serious
You can't take it like a man
I knew you and your whole crew just didn't understand
What it is I do
And that's to flow like the Nile
You tried that shit once and got ate by crocodiles
I ain't playin. If you're down, my money's layin'
All on my side,
Cause people know your shit's lame and deflated
Once I blow you up, you goin' be like stars when they grow up
And throw up
Most of their matter before they go up
In flames, and whither into little tiny balls
Like your last girlfriend told me
Was all you had in them drawers
Forget the head
Head honcho is what I am here
You disappear like a deer that hides cowering in fear
I'm the greatest

Rickey Henderson said that in his prime
Ricki Lake, Oprah Winfrey - that's more on your line
Don't waste my time
Little man, see I'm just toying with you
Like a cat freaks a mouse out before the Kung Fu
You little sucker you
Think you can blow wind in my sails
I'll come broadside your dingy and then blow it to nails
I always prevail
Your best stuff is ugly and stale
You need a course in basic grammar and a few less tall tales
We could even battle in Hebrew,
Or Russian, I'd take those ones too
You busy writing down shit, cursing
Searching Google for clues
It's like a zoo, where you be the monkey inside
Making faces and screaming but still trapped all the while
While I peep the reptiles then go hop in my ride
You're picking fleas; I'm kicking back breezing in style
Cause first of all, you lack basic discipline
Maybe the Army or something would teach you to win
Nah, you'd just wash out
Cry to yo' moms and get tossed out
On the street without a beat or any means to get flossed out
I've crossed out
All the battles we'd talked about
My calendar's full with bigger fish to fry
And worthless wordsmiths like you got no need to apply
See you round bro, maybe I'll throw a penny your way
When I see you rock the sidewalk like some cat from VA
Check ya later.

Preliminary bets for "Animal Wars"

As I explained some time ago, I have been planning a tournament of sorts for animals all over the world, currently living though some are dangerous close to kicking the bucket. Before we get started with Round One and I show you the brackets, please weigh in on which animal you think will ultimately win. Choose runners up if you wish. This is a totally free-form forum for people to express their gut instincts about which animals are the toppermost of the poppermost, and such speculation is fun and will not be "held against you in any way." So which animals do you think will win their final four regional bracket, advance to the finals, and ultimately prevail?

Ground rules are coming soon so you can see exactly how fights between geographically and even elementally different organisms can be arbitrated. Basically, each animals is considered to do battle within in its own home territory and environment, where it is strongest, whether this makes strict sense or not. Also, and quite importantly, animals are not scaled to provide a good match for its opponent. A fish of some sort may have the largest bite strength to body weight ratio in the animal kingdom, but that won't matter much if it's swallowed whole by a white pointer. So this is not quite a Pokemon fantasy, this is forced reality, a slight difference that allows real animals on Planet Earth to fight one another for that elusive golden crown.

Make your remarks, ask your questions, and soon we will list, define, and possibly even show you every creature selected to fill out the 64 slots. Than following shortly shortly aferwards will be Round One, the biggest bloodbath of them all in absolute turns, as the field abruptly drops from 64 to 32. Don't miss it!!! If you do I will find you!

If someone happens to list the correct overall winner in THIS post before the first battle begins, I will send that person something special and personalized. So put on your thinking caps and get to work!

Endless creativity.

There is an essentially endless number of paintings, poems, stories, installations, sculptures, music, novels, photographs, lithographs, dances, and sketches that can be created. Themes may repeat but never entire works precisely, never in each chosen detail, never expounding the same point exactly. It may be a matter of nuances but art is built from nuances. When artists claim a 'block' it is not because the opportunities inherent in the Universe have run dry, but because his or her own connection to the act of creation has been severed or minimalized in the face of depression, boredom, sudden new interests or what have you. Maybe it seems you've expressed so much about your interests that little more seemingly need be said. But zoomed in like a microscope's view of pond water, details jump into focus that were not foreseen. Likewise a poem written even in doldrums, felt to be not much differentiated from previous efforts, will in time show an entirely different composition and pedigree, offering lines, rhymes, or imagery unique to itself.

Creating is always worthwhile. Nothing can ever be perfect, and much will not satisfy the artist, and the audience will not always value the same works as the artist but rather inexplicably latch onto something considered minor or inferior and ignore the presumed show-stoppers. This is why all art is important. There is always someone who will appreciate every decently-constructed piece, and a message transmitted and received completes, though changed through colorized and polarized filters from one brain to the next due to language, upbringing, phobias and phllias, experience, ideals.

But those of us who must create, we know that writer's block is a tiredness or grief on the part of the artist and not truly a block. I could write a whole screenful of jokes, but I don't feel particularly in a joking mood, so I won't. I will document my mood and thoughts, my reflections and speculations, and someone somewhere will connect. It's inevitable in such a large sample size as the connected earth. As long as someone is touched in some way I feel gratified and worthy of my efforts. I could not live as a hermit. As much as I like my privacy and solitude, I must have an outlet to connect to people, to exchange ideas and opinions. Else all I do proceeds in vain.

Might as well leave a carved rock to the Ancient Old Ones pleading to remain sane and uneaten. I don't want their attention, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't look forward to the impact and reaction my writings or pictures will have upon my few friends and relatives who are in the least bit susceptible to such things. An audience is seductive. I want one.

Quick questions.

To those who read Narn Î Hîn Húrin (The recently-released Children of Húrin), I want to know some of your opinions.

1. What was your previous record with Tolkien works? Had you read the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings only? Or even neither of these? Had you read the Silmarillion or other books tangentially related to it?

2. Did you enjoy this book and think it was a masterpiece, a bloody good yarn, a so-so tale derivative of other mythologies, or a completely unintelligible waste of time?

3. Did you sympathize with the character of Túrin? Or end up loathing him because of his stubbornness and headstrong heroism?

4. Did this novel spark your interest in further First-Age tales, such as Túrin's cousin Tuor's coming into the hidden city of Gondolin and its subsequent fall. Would you read these tales if they appeared in the same narrative style as Húrin?

5. Did this book enhance your opinion of JRR Tolkien or tarnish it?

6. What, in your opinion, was the "point" of the tale, insofar as Tolkien imbues his tales with morals, which he tried hard not to do, at least not overtly. But the themes are common and strong. Who won? Who lost? What lessons were learned and which were ignored? Was this a tragedy or a triumph of a story?

7. Did you feel the author fleshed out the characters of Beleg Strongbow, Mîm the petty-dwarf, Thingol and Melian, Mablung, Glaurung, Orodreth, Haleth, Húrin, Nessa, the bandits, the messengers of Ulmo, Morwen, Nienor, Finduilas and Gwindor enough for the purposes of the story; i.e. made them believable as real people or creatures, and not just as stereotypes?

8. What did you think of the ending? Be as general or specific as you want.

9. Could a successful movie be made from this book?

10. Lastly, if this was your first experience with First-Age Tolkien tales, and previously you had only read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, what effect did this have on you and how will it color/diminish/enhance subsequent readings of the former books? Will it cause you to try to take on the Silmarillion and other ancient (both in fictitious and real time) texts that Tolkien laid down in his youth that ultimately led to the Third-Age tales of The Hobbit and The Lord of Rings? Is it too Biblical/archaic/confusing/grandiose for you or does it pique your curiosity to read more of these ancient tales? Do you think you will read or listen to the Silmarillion (to completion) any time soon because of having read this book?

Thanks for your answers in advance! Can't wait to see how people answer this one.

Leonard Cohen
Famous Blue Raincoat - Live Germany 1979

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8lQJCCWxNk

Menelik, bearer.

I'm just two pills away from losing my hold
Just a refill away from my world starting to slide
I feel ok and good inside, if a little empty
A preemptive strike every morning keeps me moving
On the great treadmill highway
Where scenery before us only changes electronically
I want to make something better of myself eventually
But I can't escape the thought that these two pills
Brick red capsules of salvation or doom
Developed in my lifetime, no less
Are to be my lifeline I guess
It's do or die time, and yet
Who am I?

But we put up or shut up, and the same feelings and
Weather and social situation and work conditions and the
Same monetary ramifications hold, and spin round
And come back to you on the great wheel every
Month or year or day or minute.
You decide that your heart is or isn't in it.
If I forget my pills or my routine gets too sloppy
My world turns upside down, and it is
Dangerous for me and others in the few days it takes
To make things right again
And sometimes I can keep it together longer
And I almost forget what it is like to really suffer
Almost.

Darkness.

I look like a wraith,
feel like the water
the baby got dumped out with.

In my time here,
nothing changes

Some planets, say, haven't even
completed one orbit
the stars don't move noticeably in our
lifetimes,

I am all hair and broken bones
Left hands and sticks and stones
Poison glands on pretty toads.

I look like a demon,
risen from some pit of sleep
you shouldn't ask things.

Leave them for the courageous
the stupid
the rennaissance men
the Errol Flynns

Some people, now, haven't even
grown into their skin
and they never will
they never did.

I could say hope is one the horizon
the horizon, that Xanadu
which can never be reached

Don't speak to me about darkness.

The Amazing "F" Word

FUCK is a lot of things. It's extremely cold, hot, humid, dry, tall, short, hard, soft, and other other adjective you can think of. It's amazing one word can simultaneous be all these things. But fuck is a real chameleon. First it's "cold as fuck out here," then when you get inside the dark abandoned mansion.... "daaamn, this place is creepy as fuuuck." You can be scared as fuck, serious as fuck, fast as fuck, slow as fuck, and sexy as fuck (which starts to cast the already stretched and stressed "F" word into multiple layers of meaning). I know the whole George Carlin spiel about "fuck" being the only word in existence that can be any part of speech - noun, verb, adjective, adverb, exclamation, imperative, and so on. But I just wanted to point out it's additional versatility to those lazy enough or harried enough not to think of a more specific and telling way of implying a situation is extreme. For every "this evening is as cold as though all the warmth of light and living things had uprooted from its bitter soil and gone to the other side of the world," you're gonna hear about 1,000 "Jesus, it's cold as fuck tonight." Sorry, sophisticates, that's just the way it is. Good thing we have at least ONE all-purpose word! Although, like a drug, it tempts you to be lazy, take the easy way out, and avail yourself of its survices rather than put the brainpower into coming up with something more creative. Oh well, I still think it's funny when used right. Some things never really get old.

2:2:12

I'm running out of things to say
I'm fading away
This is my one and only chance to take up arms,
To fight for what is free and gay
To take the righteous way
But I'm running out of will and charm
And thence I am trapped, my good will my harm.

The nightingales sing whatever men do
They sing for you
Under the moonlight I spotted a face I cannot forget
On a computer screen we grew
Like twined vines, one from two
And those feelings you awoke in me I cannot regret
Though the heart that lies broken in me has not mended yet.

I'm running low on excuses
But oh to the horror we go!
You fear the day the lights go off forever
But oh to the lightless hollow we go!
Ramshackled beings never meant
To be anything other than second-born weaklings
Yet we shoulder beyond our limits the worst of it.

Recovering.

It just makes me feel normal, relived, confident, a bit inspired, knowing I have some safety net, everything is not so skeletal, there is softness and comfort in the world. We are all in this together, and there are almost 7 billion of us out there. Computers keep us chained and yet connect us to places elsewhere. I feel so different that without the little tiny molecules that bind to my receptor sites that reassure the neurons there that things are quite alright, I would be a different person as you have now seen. And I am not scared. I feel humbled, but I feel human again. I am no alien castoff from another shore that landed upon this blue world full of people with strange eyes and looked at myself in the mirror and felt my heart drop to the floor. It is not all bad out there. We carve out a niche and find confort there, as long as we allow the passage of air and people and keep ourself pushing and eager, and keep it a home and not a nest. For nests can become silk cacoons, and in a jungle of noises the pink baboon by the light of the moon is sharpening his auburn spear. I have had enough and I want to start somewhere. But one thing at a time. One task. I can't get overwhelmed and do nothing, till another jolt of panic, another jolt of hopelessness followed by volts that made me manic, till another external force over which I have no control comes along to dictate my life. I want control of my life and not to let anyone take hold of my life. I want financial security, though it is a long ways off. I want maturity, emotional, physical, logistical, nutritional. I want to finish growing up and if it involves pain, I accept. But I never want to face the cliffs of Taeglin again, wounded to my heart, on the brink of diving in, on the brink of dying, on the precipice of sin. For it would be a greater sin not to be there for the people who in turn need me. Whatever support I can give them, family or friends, I give it gladly and free. Maybe turning it around and helping will set other souls free, and in the end my own. Not because I want it so, but because it's what happens when you let all your wants go.

So you're in a panic?

The first thing to do is stop panicking. This sounds stupid but when you're in a panic, you're filled with notions that you're going to die, or that your life is unmanageable, a disaster; that the panic is how you should "truly" feel, away from all the medications and the pep talk and the wishing, this is reality. That's nonsense, reality is just what you make of it, how you perceive it. To you it is. So get out of your panic by any means you have to. If you have medication, take it. If you're out, get a refill. If you can't get an immediate refill, go to an emergency room. Yes, even though it's just panic. People do rash things when they're like this. Your heart hurts and you can't breathe. You feel shivery all over. You don't know if you're going to vomit or explode or seep out through your pores in a cold sweat, and everything seems too dark and too empty. There is no where to go where you will feel better, you think. Nowhere where someone will hold you, will tell you it's going to be alright. Who will love you unconditionally right then, who'll understand. Not give advice, just hold you. And before you lies the wasteland of the future - everything is going wrong and will continue to go wrong. Your life is a wreck. Even if it is, especially if it is, you need out of the spiral of panic before you can even take the first step toward turning things around. Maybe you can tell I'm in that that spiral now and I'm fighting. Just fighting, just telling myself what I already know and going over the same body scans and breathing that I learned even though it's not yet helping. I've take a couple pills and I'm waiting, but I'm also fighting back. I know parts of my life, maybe even the whole thing, is a disaster. But I'm only 34 and I have lots of years ahead of me if I don't throw them away. And I don't want to live the way I've lived my adult life. I have learned some coping skills and I am better at dealing with the worst of things on my own if I have to, although it sucks like hell. I'm working on putting one foot in front of the other. I'm trying to get up off the mat and get my feet under me, get some traction to move forward, all those cliches. Trying not to be physically sick right now, though waves of nausea wash over me. I will try to get more organized, try to simplify my life by not waiting to put out fires but putting something of myself into each day, against the grain of what feels easier. I will begin to build up some energy again, to get healthier. Put one foot in front of the other and see where it leads. What I will not do is give in to this feeling and scream, at the very top of my lungs, and burst into a million things. Shaking, crying. I am breathing now and my fingers flying. Now slowing down a little. Everything ends, even this. Panic attacks go away. They always have before. I'm not alone. It's late and I'm scared, but there are a couple people in the world who know me and love me. That is better off that some people have it. Sometimes you have to focus on the positive even when the negative wants to answer every thought with "yeah, but.." Just focus on the positive, or on a point, and breathe, relax each muscle. Find your way out of the panic and then you can deal with those other things. You've got lots of time, you don't need to start right this second. Deal with NOW now. The first thing you need to do is stop being afraid. It will be ok.

Until I come home.

I will start at every door-knock
Feel my stomach drop with each child
Who wanders by with her hand so tiny
In mother or father's grasp
Until I come home.
I will hold my breath when any phone rings
Any email releases that chord of sound
Stand with my hand in my pockets
Looking out at the dimming clouds
When families lay their blankets
On green public grounds
Until I come home.
I will trample the land with my footfalls
Searching for something that is not there
And keep expecting to find it
Under every snowfall
Until I come home.
I will know the world of Ulysses
And of Turin, Tristan, Beowulf and Sigurd
And will harden myself to the world
For survival,
Yet will also trap within all the life
I used to have, to save as much as
I possibly can
And yet lose it as my deeds grow longer
And my body perhaps stronger
But my mind descending near to madness;
I will walk amongst the dead and the tragic
Upon magical footstones
Never leaving the path for fear
That I will never find my way back
Unaware the stones themselves
Are vanishing in my tracks,
Until I come home.

If you're not overconfident, you have no business writing.

Even if in actuality you lack confidence and feel entirely too self-conscious, the act of writing things down as though what you felt was of any importance and anyone else would care is an act of extreme cockiness, of egotism. And yet you overcome this thought because the thing must be written. Sometime you have to shout out quiet things really loud so that people can hear how quiet they really are, above the din of senseless petty conversation and vacuous rockstar blithering. Sometimes you have to be a prick to get people to notice just how nice you really are.

This is why introverts who cannot find a means of expressing their constantly tumbling epiphanies in some alternative way - an alternative to talking to friends or writing a television show or whatever it is that extroverts do - die a slow, hard-to-watch death as they accumulate the cobwebs of years of living inside themselves, cluttering their attic with games never played, secrets never shared, loves that died without finding their targets. Express or die - so though I am far from hale of spirit, I write and share this as though it were the show-stopper of the day, sentences that everyone will read and nod their heads in recognition.

This isn't so, but if I didn't make myself believe it were, I would cease to write, and I would become a living skeleton chilled to inaction by the freezing winds of too-quickly passing time, looking at my clock and wondering when it will be over, hoping to have an accident, dreaming about worlds that don't exist.

Running
Driving, ducking, hiding
Climbing and descending
Into obscure pits
Can't escape the mall
Can't escape the city
Round and round you go in your
Running dream
I'm tired of the running dream
That keeps looping in my head
Like a bad movie
Until I sleep again
And I'm still moving
Through racks of clothes
Down streets
Huddle with a shotgun waiting
Looking down the sights
Point blank
But they never stay dead
Wanted for murder then
Of a lover and a best friend
Driving endlessly
Given blazing looks by police
Who are crawling antlike
Over the hills, spilling
Into the valleys
I'm trying to get to the beach
Find the horizon
But I'm caught in a roundabout
And people questioning
Suspicious eyes from everyone
But never the arrest
They want the chase to continue
They don't want me to wake
And know it's over
All of them want me to run forever
All of me secretly
Wants me to suffer
In the running dream.

Some things I'm interested in.

Geology. Biology. Paleontology. Astronomy. Astrobiology. Cosmology. Physics - Newtonian, Relativistic, Quantum. Chemistry. Zoology. Botany. Metallurgy. Smithing. Gems. Photography. Drawing. Painting. 3D modeling. Book collecting. Cryptozoology - for fun. Audio science. Music theory. Listening to music. Singing. Lyrics. Poetry. Plays. Prosems. Prose - essays, fiction, nonfiction. Neurology - biological and psychological. Psychology. Psychiatry. Psychiatric "disorders." Consciousness. Symmetry. Order. Emergence. Convergence. Chaos. Complexity. Entropy. Singularities. Neutron stars - pulsars, magnetars. White dwarfs. Extrasolar planets. Philosophy. Knives. Swords. Bows & arrows. Armor. Castles. Horseback riding. Military tactics and strategy. Mythology. Tennis. Baseball. Basketball. Ping pong. Bowling. Pool. Reflexes/response times. Hand-eye coordination. Juggling. Weight training. Coins. Caves. Diving. Hiking. Climbing. Walking. Camping. Nutrition. Meditation. Being at the beach. Oceanography. Volcanoes. Earthquakes. Tsunamis. Asteroid impacts. Comets. Swimming. Cycling. PCs - designing, building, and maintaining. Organization of resources. Systems. Venn diagrams, hierarchy trees and other schematic visual representations. Maps and globes. Travel. Foreign languages. Chicks. Graphic design. Watching movies and documentaries. Reading. Collecting photos. Tolkien's works and "legendarium." Origins of the Bible. Role-playing games. Video games. Cold beer. Cold Coca-cola. Opiates. Lasers. Trance states. Logic. Paradoxes. Artificial intelligence. Cats. History. Good food. Information theory. Quantum computing. Cryptography. Data storage and archiving. Freeware. Preservation - documents, data, wildlife, habitats, everything else. Cows and sheep. Evolution. Dynamic systems. Equilibrium - static or periodic or chaotic. Calligraphy and penmanship. Ink and pigments. Paper, parchment, papyrus. Book binding. Theories/forms of government. Balance. Eastern philosophies. Peace/tranquility/grace. Bliss/happiness. Ecstasy (the feeling not the drug). Infatuation, love, friendship, companionship. Zoos. Ethics. Cruelty prevention. Crime and punishment theory. Reality/truth. Sports cars. Anthropology - cultural and physical, especially paleophysical. Robotics. Human intelligence. Movement. Mathematics. Flashlights. Racquetball, pickleball, squash, handball. Sprinting. Bacteriology and virology. Imaging - MR, CT, X-ray, etc. Anatomy. Discourse. Flirting. Sex. Chivalry. Morality. Listening and observing. User interfaces. Senses. Addiction. Moderation. Abstention. Deprivation. Taxonomy. Schematics. Chess. Go. Cleanliness. Diversity. Beauty. Differences between the sexes. Natural selection. Rhythm/timing. Mass extinctions. Fluid dynamics. Peak performance. Proprioception, cognitive sciences. Skiing. Flying, floating. Dreams. Sleep. Renewal. Hope. Skepticism. Optimism.

The Spirit World.

Yes, I realize I like lists. So what. They're fun and easy, and people can participate. We'll get back to the poetry and opinion pieces that no ones reads or comments on soon enough - I'm feeling inspired to write things of substance again. Till then, lists, quizzes, and questionnaires will have to do!

At one point in my life I enjoyed the finer alcoholic beverages and did a lot of experimenting rather than settling on the same brand every time. I still remember (with the help of the Internet for a couple) some of my favorite labels and varieties. I won't give years or special low-volume batch names here, first of all because I forget, and second of all because I'm not such a snob or connoisseur that I get that deep into it. For some types of libations I realize this is very important, like wines. I used to be able to name my favorite years of Mondavi and Kenwood cabernets, and recognize that the 'off' years were no better than any other wine, sometimes downright bad. But those days are gone so I will merely list the brand and variety, and trust that you know that I mean the good years of such.

Also, my knowledge of some beverages (beer, wine, vodka, tequila) is much more extensive than others (gin, scotch, whisk(e)y, rum, liqueurs) so keep this in mind. I'm much more confident in my tastes of the former group than the latter. Thus I might appear hopelessly unsophisticated in some of these areas but that's just because I've not drank enough in my lifetime to know what is better than what, except in a broad-strokes sense. And that's probably a good thing.

It should go without saying that since this is a "favorites" list, I've actually imbibed all of the choices I've listed here. I haven't looked at any guides or reviews or ratings of what is best, these are my choices from memory, and memory is fallible which is why I've kept the descriptions pretty general. I realize there are kinds of special editions and sub-varieties of many of these labels, but I ignored that and just put down what brands and types I generally used to like best, on average.

This isn't a quiz or a call for your own lists necessarily, just a (hopefully) interesting post. Of course, if you feel like posting your reactions to my choices or your own choices, so much the merrier! In some cases where I haven't had much experience or tolerance for a certain spirit, I've said so and called for help. This is really a call for suggestions if you have any, though I probably am done experimenting with many of these things. But it may benefit others who read this blog and give you a chance to flex your knowledge in an area in which I am weak.

Without further ado, then:

Favorite Beers
1. Duvel
2. Guinness Draught
3. Chimay Doppel
4. Pilsner Urquell
5. Anchor Steam

Favorite Champagnes
1. Taittinger
2. Alain Thienot
3. Dom Perignon
4. Chandon White Star
5. Mumm's Cuvée Napa

Favorite Red Wines
1. Robert Mondavi Cabernet Oakville
2. Kenwood Cabernet
3. Penfolds Shiraz Kalimna
4. Chappellet Merlot
5. Beringer Cabernet

Favorite White Wines
None. Someone else help?

Favorite Vodkas
1. Chopin
2. Grey Goose
3. Ketel One
4. Charbay Dry
5. Hangar One Mandarin

Favorite Tequilas
1. Don Julio Anejo
2. Herradura Anejo
3. Cazadores Reposado
4. Patron Reposado
5. El Jimador Anejo

Favorite Gins
1. Bombay Sapphire
2. Broker's London Dry
3. Tanqueray No.10
4. Bombay
5. Gordon's

Favorite Scotches
1. Chivas Regal 18 year
2. Glenmorangie 18 year
3. Glenlivet 18 year
4. Macallan 12 year
5. Glenfiddich 18 year

Favorite Rums
Mt. Gay? Bacardi?
Someone help me out here

Favorite Whisky/Whiskeys
1. Bushmills 16 year
2. Tullamore Dew
3. Crown Royal
Help? Don't know many others

Bourbons, Brandies, Liqueurs
No idea. Any help here?

Feel free to chime in on my tastes, share your own, make recommendations, or whatever else you may feel like! This just for fun and everyone has their own preferences. Post!

Asher Brown Durand, "Kindred Spirits"

ANIMALS!

Which animals do you currently find most fascinating? Not necessarily the most beautiful, desirable to own as a pet, or anything else. Just interesting in some way, and give a brief reason.


I'll do mine right now so you can see what I mean. I'll choose five. How many you choose and how much you want to say about each is up to you.

Cats - big and small. The behaviors of all cats are so similar - you can watch a tiger preparing to ambush an animal and it looks almost exactly like a scaled up version of your housecat getting ready to pounce on a fake mouse. Also, they're the most "owned" pets in the world - and yet they have hardly been domesticated in the way dogs, cattle, sheep, and so on have. They have retained their wild behaviors and independence for the most part and seem more to be our buddies than our pets. Cats that are allowed in and out actually choose to be with us. And what's going on in their heads (if anything much) always beguiles me when I watch them staring at something. I also like their sleekness, reaction time, leaping ability, gracefulness, and speed. They are models of efficiency - as long as they are allowed to roam and play and are not overfed like their owners probably are.

Octopus, cuttlefish, and squid. These fascinate me because they seem to be the most intelligent invertebrates on the planet. In fact, the only intelligent invertebrates. And that gives us a whole other perspective on what complex or intelligent behavior really means. They're related to slugs and snails by way of an ancient limpet, and yet have independently evolved problem-solving behaviors much like many totally unrelated vertebrates did. Their alien looks and ability to change the color and texture of their skin, for camouflage or displays, is amazing and unparalleled in the animal kingdom. And we really know very little about them compared to most large animals, especially those on land. How smart are they really? How big do they get when you get WAY down there? No one really knows for sure. And squid taste good too with a little lemon and tartar sauce.

Orcas. We're really just learning how complex their societies are, how intelligent they are, and how fierce they can be while also being capable of extreme gentleness. They can kill a great white shark, but can be trained so humans can ride on their backs or be pushed through the water by their nose. They hunt in packs and display coordinated behavior, like rocking icebergs in sync to get sea lions to slide off, and riding the surf in to catch beachcombing seals at unawares. They've been worshiped by Pacific Northwest Native American peoples for millennia. Their coloration is striking. Like whales they have complex vocalizations which seem to vary regionally, like accents or dialects. There's just so much more to learn about these "wolves of the sea."

Great apes. Mountain gorillas, lowland gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, and orangutans are our closest living relatives on the planet. Most are dangerously close to extinction in the wild. I could spent hours talking about what it means to preserve them both for their own sake and for our enjoyment, fascination, and study. Comparing similar but different brains and anatomy, tool-use, and the like gives us better insight on ourselves, and our evolutionary past. Plus they fascinate me with their obvious (to me) sentience/self-awareness, their graceful braciation (excluding gorillas), extraordinary dominance displays, extreme gentleness at other times, curiosity, ferocity, familial and societal structure and rules, and on and on. I think anyone not fascinated by great apes most not be interested in animal or human behavior and origins much.

Ants. I hate ants but they are fascinating. In a sense they don't really act like individual organisms so much as the colony seems to act like a single superorganism. From tiny individual creatures without much more than a rudimentary nervous system and certainly no complex thought, genetically programmed for a few simple behavior rules, larger emergent behaviors arise that seem inexplicable from a reductionist point of view. One can view an ant like a neuron in this sense. No one would argue an individual neuron has intelligence, but a whole lot of them following fairly simples rules gives rise to sentient beings like ourselves. Colonies of ants can wage war, attack large birds, reptiles, and mammals and return the goods to the colony with the logistical precision of an army, they harvest aphids for their milk (in a sense herding them like cattle), and I could go on and on. Where does this emergent semi-intelligent behavior come from, when its constituent operative units are so utterly stupid? That's an interesting question with wide implications.

So that is one example how you might answer this question. Or however you wish - I'm just curious to see what people think are "interesting" animals rather than the usual "what're your favorite animals," to which boys always answer snakes, sharks, spiders, pit bulls, and dinosaurs, while females reply with koalas, pandas, kitty-cats, miniature dogs, and dolphins. Ok, that was obviously a joke and a massive generalization, but I'm sure you understand what I mean. People usually answer emotionally. I'm more interested in how you perceive the animal kingdom with your intellectual curiosity.

Tolkien Quiz #1: Trial By Fire
Difficulty level: Three rings for Elvenkings (hard).
Required Reading: LOTR, The Silmarillion, and Unfinished Tales or Children of Húrin.

1. Which of these characters NEVER possessed any of the three Elven rings (Narya, Nenya, or Vilya) at any point?

1. Gandalf
2. Galadriel
3. Glorfindel
4. Gil-Galad
5. Círdan
6. Elrond
7. Celebrimbor

2. Who of the following was a nephew of Prince Imrahil, Lord of Dol Amroth?

1. Faramir
2. Anáriel
3. Gildor
4. Aragorn
5. Éomer
6. Isildur
7. Denethor

3. All of the following names were reused for different characters at some point in the tales except one. Which of the following was NOT a "reused" name and actually refers to the same character in two different contexts, as far-fetched as that may seem?

1. Beleg
2. Glorfindel
3. Gothmog
4. Denethor
5. Grond
6. Finduilas
7. Mablung

4. Which of the following powers was NOT bestowed upon the possessor of the One Ring by that object, at least as far as the writings tell us?

1. Invisibility
2. Ability to understand unknown languages
3. Ability to see into the shadow world
4. Ability to see the Elven Rings being worn when others could not
5. Great slowing of the aging process
6. Remain visible whilst wearing the Ring if desired
7. Ability to see flashes of what is to come

5. Who is the only elf ever known to have sported a beard?

1. Beleg Strongbow
2. Turgon of Gondolin
3. Finarfin
4. Finrod Felagund
5. Orodreth of Nargothrond
6. Círdan the Shipwright
7. Thranduil of Mirkwood

6. Who is the oldest sentient being on Arda (the world) - i.e., not in Aman/Valinor - still living at the close of the Third Age?

1. Círdan
2. Galadriel
3. Ungoliant
4. Treebeard
5. Tom Bombadil
   
6. Old Man Willow
7. Elrond

7. Who did Túrin rescue who not only didn't appreciate it, but loathed him all the more afterward?

1. Nienor
2. Morwen
3. Beleg
4. Gwindor
5. Finduilas
6. Háladin
7. Brandir

8. Which name or title did Túrin NOT adopt for himself at some point?

1. Turambar
2. Neithan
3. Gorthol
4. Agarwaen
5. Tuorin
6. Mormegil
7. Adanedhel

9. What was the relationship between Sméagol and Déagol?

1. Just friends
2. Brothers
3. Semi-distant kin
4. Cousins
5. Unrelated
6. Twins
7. "Fishin' buddies"
   

10. All of the following are examples of biracial marriages EXCEPT...

1. Beren and Lúthien
2. Thingol and Melian
3. Túrin and Nienor
4. Tuor and Idril
5. Aragorn and Arwen

Done! Post your answers in the comments section. Remember, this was rated a "hard" quiz. Easier quizzes will follow, I promise! The next one, in fact, requires only knowledge of The Hobbit...

Tolkien Quiz preamble.

I will, hopefully weekly, present Tolkien quizzes. I will mention which books the questions draw from. I will also assess a difficulty rating as follows:

9 rings for mortal men ... easiest
7 for the dwarf lords .... medium
3 for elven kings ........ hard
1 for the dark lord ...... very hard

It's all for fun and you can take the quiz or not, play fairly (from memory and not the Net) or not, leave comments with your results or quibbling questions or not. The main thing is to enjoy yourself. There is no scorekeeping, no competition. No one is judging you on my blog!

With that said, the post following this shall be Quiz #1, and shall start at a rather difficult level, just because I have already written those questions. I promise easier quizzes are to come.

Hey 90% of people on the Internet:

It's LOSE not 'LOOSE' if you mean, "I'm going to lose a fortune."

'LOOSE' rhymes with GOOSE and PAPOOSE and means, "not attached securely."

Teams don't loose games, they lose them.

Thank you, that is all.

POP QUIZ
Which one of these songs ISN'T allegedly about abortion?

Black Uhuru - Abortion
The Beatles - She's Leaving Home
Eric Clapton - Tears In Heaven
The Smiths - This Night Has Opened My Eyes
The Sex Pistols - Bodies
Neil Young - Song X
ELO - Livin' Thing

Leave your answer in the comments!

LIKE STARS

elbows on knees
head in hands
can't even cry anymore, too sad.

drinks a fifth a day
throws his life away
because what is life anyway.

i have no reason to feel moral about his actions
i have only sympathy and compassion
there must be an easier way.

we all shine like stars
some of us flame up like supernovae and are lost
black holes in our spots.

some go on and on eating, excreting
getting fatter and redder
until they die with a sigh and a whimper and a shudder.

and some try to kindle but are never born
somebody makes a choice for them
and their own choice is gone.

and the great beyond may even be out there
it may have existed before me
there may yet be more to see.

i don't know.

but death is too alien to thinking about
to my human mind today
today i will do something fun.

and let the hawks in the trees
scan the ground for rodents in the leaves
and just try to receive.

Heh.

Looks like I wasn't the only kid who drew stuff like this. I would even think this WAS by me if I hadn't found it on the Internet. Kids are cool.

(Click to make it way bigger)

Your Ice Cream Flavour is... French Vanilla!

You're a smooth and silky suave type! You exude class and you believe in tradition. A classical taste who doesn't like things to be too flashy or showy. Climb the Eiffel tower of taste with a spoonfull of you! Oui Oui!

What is your Ice Cream Flavour?

Keys to fulfillment, part one.

A few obvious things we all know in our gut, at least after having lived awhile and observed cause and effect, made a lot of stupid mistakes, did a few things right.

You have to be physically healthy by eating right and getting some exercise. This is the base of the pyramid. It doesn't matter how strong you think your drive is, if you don't take care of your body you will wear down and get lazy, get sick, have not energy, not finish things, not even start things because they sound overwhelming. No one can subsist on caffeine and junk food and little sleep for long. So before you can make any other changes in your life, you have to do this one. Period. I'm still at this step by the way.

Next, you need to develop structure to your day if you haven't already. Chores like taking the garbage out, cooking, washing up afterwards, making your bed, and keeping the place neat in general (doesn't have to be perfect by any means) need to become ingrained habits so you don't get overwhelmed by having to put them on a list every day. Maybe you will at first, but eventually you should be doing these things automatically and efficiently, leaving you mental energy for more interesting activities.

Next, you need to socialize. Not everyone is an extrovert so this may be difficult for some (it is for me), but you need at least a few good friends to talk to. Human beings are social animals and if we isolate ourselves bad things happen. The internet is ok for complementing physical socializing but it doesn't replace it. You need to get out of the house, meet a friend for coffee or lunch, things like that. This if you've got the health part down and the time-management part down, this time you spend socializing will be energizing rather than enervating.

I'll stop here, but we could keep building on this pyramid to add long- and short-term goals, relationships, spiritual development, career development, ongoing education, and a whole lot of other things. But since I'm rooted in step one at the moment, I would become more and more of a hypocrite as I talked about these things. But these base levels are the most important anyway. They give you a fundamental capability to actually live a life, rather than sleeping it away in depression and apathy. You probably have had some dreams in your life like, "it would be really cool to be a ___." But that's all you do, dream. Maybe you even have a talent for it. But without a foundation of health, daily structure, and a network (however big or small) of friends for support, your dream will never become a reality. You can't cheat.

Good luck. A lot of you will probably think this is preschool stuff, and if it is for you, congratulations. But a lot of us have trouble just getting up in the morning, and we always feel tired and get sick easily. We don't have any goals or our goals are unrealistic. We live in a mess and can never relax or be proud of ourselves for anything. That's why I decided to write this. Right now, I am trying to avoid tackling all of my life's problems at once, because I'll wear out and get even more discouraged. So I'm going to focus on step one, getting healthy. I believe this is the most important single thing anyone of any age should do.

Michael's Bones.
(morrissey)

Michael's bones
Lay where he fell,
Face down on a sports ground.

He was just somebody's luckless son
Oh, but now look what he's done.
Oh, look what he's done.

Your gentle hands are frozen,
And your unkissed lips are blue;
Your thinning clothes are hopeless
And no one was mad about you.

Michael's bones
Were very young,
But they were never to know.......
Impetuous fun.

Mr. Policeman, I don't know
Where you get such notions from.

His gentle hands are frozen
And his unkissed lips are blue.
But his eyes still cry...

And now you've turned the last bend,
And see - are we all judged the same at the end?
Tell me, tell me.

Oh, lucky thing
You are too brave,
And I'm ashamed of myself
As usual.

Untitled.

I hear the sea crash, and
below that the murmur
in underwater caves
the trickling of water
I feel the salty air
make a mess of my hair
I don't care.
There's a sea lion over
there; she's tending
to her cubs, I'm afraid
for their vulnerability
I see only grey stretch
over me. I am
the only one on earth
right at this moment.

Black Arrow.

They say that whatever it is you want the most
Can be yours if you set to it your mind and will
Skipping the small thrills that act as distractions
Bending your purpose to achieve that one overall goal

Let me throw you off now with another timed action
I feel ideas tumbling out of my brain, raindrops
Shooting stars in some spectacular shower
But I can't remember who I am, why I should be here

It's my intention to escape detention's prevention
Of my goals when I settle on one worthy of pursuit
I know that whatever it is I want the most, I've lost
But in dissention I'm stumbling this course anyway; pain drops

Eventually. I'm electrocuted, I'm damaged way up in the head
But I'm dead to other fear and tears and bad habits
That once stood in my way, maybe the President is right
About nothing. Maybe somebody should believe me or something

All I have is my diary of will and mind, some hidden purpose
That dismembers me and puts me back together again
I am whole around the edges, but some interior bits are missing
My being longs to see meaning, I'm trying to believe. That I see.

Just stay with me. Whoever you are who has read this far I beg thee
Don't make me into some resident of surreal dismissing
Like an arrow so sharp no armor can resist me, to the sea
I fly but await the direction for projection, please assist me! I am lost.

And I long for a change.

Unravel
(björk)

While you are away
My heart comes undone
Slowly unravels
In a ball of yarn
The Devil collects it
With a grin
Our love
In a ball of yarn

He'll never return it

So when you come back
We'll have to make new love

While you are away
My heart comes undone
Slowly unravels
In a ball of yarn
The Devil collects it
With a grin
Our love
In a ball of yarn

He'll never return it

So when you come back
We'll have to make new love

He'll never return it

ANNOUNCEMENT!
Today I introduce not one but two, yes you read that right, two new regular features to my blog. These will complement the nonsense and occasional sense that is currently found here, so it's just an addition and another crutch for me to lean on when I can't think of something highly original.


For a long time I have loved two things above most other hobbies: Tolkien Lore and Science & Nature. The science part we will leave out for now; I've shared some of my feelings about that from time to time as it is. And "Nature" is an very generic term, so I'm going to focus on one part of nature: Animals. I love animals of all shapes and sizes (mostly) and they are such a rich part of the world that it's alarming and tragic to see so many dying and losing their habitats to the relentless growth of an out-of-control mankind. So what do I plan to do? We're going to kill a bunch of them.



Not literally of course, but in the style of American Idol or Survivor (actually more like the NCAA men's basketball tourney), we're going to take the most vicious, ruthless animals from across the animal kingdom and match them up in a bracket-style gladiator tournament, where in each round and each individual pairing, one animal eats the other one and after the round is completed, the number of survivors is half what it was before. In other words, we'll go from a field of 64 to 32 to 16 to 8 to 4 to 2 to 1. Like I said, just like the Tourney. The arbiter of which animals wins each fight is determined by me based on research, logic, and personal bias, but hopefully as little bias as possible. If there were enough readers I could have some kind of reality-TV voting system, but as it is, if I have two or three viewers, that just not enough to provide any kind of reliable result statistically. So I will allow speculation and then reveal the winners, and will maintain an open mind toward debates on the the outcome - people telling me I'm an idiot and my answer is bollocks because they once saw an X kill and eat a Y... I will evaluate any dissenting opinions and keep and open enough mind to reconsider my original decision, but there had better be some good evidence or reasoning to support the contrary view.

The other regular installment is interactive will remain regular as long as anyone at all participates in it. If no one plays, I'll stop of course, because it's a quiz! A Tolkien Quiz to be precise, though if the interest was there I could be persuaded to write quizzes on other topics, say ones submitted by my readers. But for now I will channel my love of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, and the Children of Húrin into a fun quiz (I shall think it fun at any rate) of something like ten questions a week, with some sort of theme. Answer types will be consistent within a single quiz but may vary from quiz to quiz - one week it could be multiple choice, another week fill in the blank or simply provide an answer to the question asked, and yet another week it might involve matching items from two columns (please don't physically write on your monitors, it doesn't work). This one is a little more open ended as I find out a) if I had an audience at all, b) who that audience consistents of and what their interests are, and c) from seems empiracally to work versus what doesn't. I already have a number of questions written and will probably struggle to keep up as the Quiz rolls along.

We'll get into the specific rules and regulations of both the Animal Tourney and the Tolkien Quiz when the first installment of each of those items is posted, which should be very soon - within days I would hope. I'll probably stagger the games so the don't fall on the same day of the week, and I may not always rigorously stick to schedule of posting each on a given weekday every time, though I'll try to not be far off. I'm trying to make this as easy for myself to actually stick to, while keeping my readers somewhat in the know about when certain game times will be. I haven't decided on cut-off dates for the Quiz yet, but it will probably be just before the next Quiz, to give everyone time to submit their answers, even transients who show up, take the Quiz, and then leave again without a trace. I haven't decided if I should install a point system to keep track of how everyone is doing from week to week, but I probably won't because I don't want this to be anything competitive, just fun. And I will rate my opinion of the difficulty of the quiz when it is first presented by an extremely ingenious system which I have devised but cannot tell tou about yet. THIS post, merely the announcement, the cry of heraldry, the rallying to arms of my brethren and sistren to support these worthy causes, is at its end. Feel free to leave any comments or suggestions in general on this post, and look for the first installments of both games within a few days!

~
The cat in the hat came back,
wrecked a lot of havoc on the way,
always had a smile and a reason to pretend.
But their world,
has flat backgrounds and little need to sleep,
but to dream.
~

Michael Stipe

Won't you lay me down in the tall grass and let me do my stuff...

Saw Lindsey Buckingham tonight. Great show! He looked young and fit as can be, very energetic. His voice hasn't lost a thing. Watching and listening to him, he reminds be of a blend of Michael Stipe (REM) and Gordon Gano (Violent Femmes), and I mean that in the best way. He's got Stipe's passion for singing and a similar voice of about the same range and strength, and can easily move between very soft, sweet whispery ballad vocals to a hard, bellowed rock-n-roll wail. His lyrics are very good and a touch off the beaten path too, but not like Stipe's. He's like Gano in that he's a bit short of stature, though not AS much, and he also has a bit of a whine to his voice, but not in a bad way. Just a sense of longing. And he can play guitar like nobody's business; much better than Gano. But of course he was playing before either of these two were, so I suppose the correct phrasing is THEY sound like parts of HIM!

The man is a guitar virtuoso. He reminds me a bit of Dave Gilmour in how relaxed he is with a guitar in his hands, like it's just a third arm or something. He rarely if ever looks down at it, even when playing complicated parts, and he doesn't relegate himself to chords while singing, letting a supporting guitarist plays the complicated lead line. He does it all. He's not as good as Gilmour, but he's definitely not far off. He had about 5 guitars in rotation including a couple acoustic-electric hybrids, a full electric model, and a couple big standard acoustic models. He changed guitars on every song - such a perfectionist. With the electric, he tore up 8- and 5-minute solos in two different songs as well as played some neat finger-picking, speed playing on the very highest notes, and a whole other bag of tricks. I know the times because I timed them on my cell phone clock. The solos were incredible and left my hairs standing on end. Like I said, Dave Gilmour is the only one who can top what I heard tonight as far as I'm concerned, and that's saying a lot. Their styles are different; Buckingham plays a lot harder and faster while Gilmour plays more flawlessly and makes his guitars almost literally "sing," reminiscent of Eric Clapton. There are a lot of great guitarists in the world though, and Lindsey is among the best.

I counted 5 Fleetwood Mac songs and 11 solo songs (2 of which I recognized), which was about what I'd hoped for. And he made the Fleetwood Mac cuts count: Never Going Back Again, Tusk, Go Your Own Way, Big Love, and Second Hand News. The only song I really missed hearing was Monday Morning. These versions were all superb, with great arrangements and impeccable singing and playing by The Man. His backing band was very tight through the whole show, and never stole the limelight nor sounded way outdone by him. Three or four numbers he performed completely by himself in a spotlight. Overall for his age and the amount of drugs he's put through his body, he was in top form. He talked to the audience a lot and was very soft-spoken and congenial, seemingly much-matured from the rebel he once was. For for those few guitar solos or when he'd cut loose vocally on a chorus, he could still send shivers down your spine and rival any 20- or 30-year old in sheer power.

The high point was after about 5 minutes of an outrageous guitar solo where I could have sworn I saw smoke issuing forth from the guitar, he quieted down and started the final, slowing, hard strumming, like he was about to finally shut it down, only to then sink to his knees at the very front of the stage and take it up an entire notch in volume AND pitch to the place where even dogs get uncomfortable and played 2-3 more minutes of blistering madness, like some angel gone insane coming down from the clouds. All this with his eyes shut and his face toward the ceiling. You could see his face covered in sweat when the lights hit him. The standing O was obligatory, the adrenaline and inspiration flowing in my blood was even better.

There are people who practice and strive to be musicians and have some natural gifts and learn all the rest in order to make themselves a star. Then there are people like Lindsey Buckingham, John and Paul, Fogelberg, Gilmour, and others who are just born to it and make the rest of us sick by making it look so easy. He is certainly a prodigy at guitar and vocally, and at times - but with frustrating inconsistency - lyrically. But if you get a chance to see him, do. Even though it I missed Christie McVie and to a lesser extent Stevie Nicks, and the harmonies of the three most of all, he alone is still worth it. He was certainly the musical force behind that group for the few albums he was a member, I've no doubt about that anymore.

I'd like to extend a special thanks to Radiogirl for my ticket. The seat was second row balcony near the center with no one in front of me. Perfecto! Thank you very much indeed, it was a great show.