The motions of his spirit

The man that hath no music in himself
Nor is not moved by concord of sweet song
Is fit for treasons, strategems and spoils.
The motions of his spirit are dull as night
And his affections dark as Erebus.
Let no such man be trusted.
     --Wm. Shakespere, The Merchant of Venice
     -- used by Ralph Vaughan Williams in "Serenade to Music"

No matter what kind of music you prefer, I am totally unable to see how anyone could hear the final pages of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 and fail to be dragged up, however unwilling, out of the depths of despair and into the redemptive light of a glorious dawn.

It happens, I'm told.

Not to me, though.



Let it load, then go to about 5:20 and listen to the end. Turn it up, Tookie-gettin'-busted loud! :)

Freude, schöner Götterfunken, Tochter aus Elysium!
Wir betreten feuertrunken, Himmlische, dein Heiligtum.
Deine Zauber binden wieder, was die Mode streng geteilt,
alle Menschen werden Brüder, wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.
Seid umschlungen, Millionen! Diesen Kuß der ganzen Welt!
Brüder, überm Sternenzelt muß ein lieber Vater wohnen!
     --F Schiller

As a freshman in college I first had the opportunity to perform this as part of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra's Beethoven Festival 1979. The Hartt College of Music Master Choir (or which I was a member) and one of the choirs from UConn sang. When we finished and the orchestra went roaring to the double bar, it was like being at a football game where an incredible play has just taken place. A moment of stunned silence, followed by an immense wall of sound, cheers, applause, shouts, coming back at we musicians who had just provided a wall of sound going the other way.

Dear God, it was glorious.

Now for some soul-searing Russian Orthodox chant, spiritual rebirth, and off to bed.

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Whatever did our ancestors do?

Just heard a comment on a local TV newscast that had me shaking my head.

More or less, it was that without cell phones we're so terribly unsafe.

Say what?!

The world became less safe when cell phones were created? Is that it?

Don't get me wrong--I have one, I'm glad to have one, it's very helpful. But would I be less safe without one? Would my children?

I'm going to sound like a crotchety old fart, but when *I* was young we played all over town without any way for our parents to reach us until we got home. Granted, we knew to be home by that particular time (by golly!). Were we so horribly unsafe? Yes, the world is different but it really isn't THAT much more unsafe than it was 40 years ago--we just have a lot more loudmouthed media (self included) to tell us about every little incident, many of which wouldn't have even crossed our radar in earlier times.

You can rewrite this rant to cover most any modern high-tech device that people seem to think is essential to life and safety, even though humanity survived for thousands of years without whatever that item may be.

Ah well. Guess I'll go crawl into my "crotchety middle-aged fart" hole.

Making the big time

Not me. I'm definitely small-town small potatoes.

But a friend has gotten some great recognition.

My friend Nathaniel's wife Kerry is an artist of no mean stature. It turns out one of her paintings (titled "On the Shore") was used as a backdrop for an appearance in South Carolina by Michelle Obama.

I just find that infinitely cool.

See images from the event below, as well as information on Kerry's upcoming solo show:


http://www.robertlangestudios.com/

Congrats, Kerry. Now when are we going to buckle down and start learning how to paint ikons?

Times change

My brother is in town but I just got an email from him. Go figure.

During the summers of 1977, 1978, and 1980-1983 I worked for a summer camp in central Wisconsin. Started as kitchen staff, then counselor, and then Program Director. My sister also worked there, and my brother as well.

Now the owners, the Episcopal Diocese of Milwaukee, have closed Camp Webb after almost 50 years of giving kids from diverse backgrounds, including inner city and suburb kids from Chicago and Milwaukee areas, a chance to play and worship in a gorgeous woodland setting. The rumor is they will sell it for development, thereby garnering some obscene amount of money.

"Way back when" there were camps like this dotted all over Wisconsin. Camp Webb made numerous improvements over the years that allowed it to operate more or less year round, with camping for groups at various times, and of course the 6 to 8 weeks summer sessions we all know and remember when it was all kids, all the time.

Fortunately, a small group of former staff have come together to try and save the place.

That's where the email from my brother comes in. Turns out he is one of that small group of former staff.

I hope something can come of the effort, but I doubt we can raise the money needed to rescue the place. So it will get cut up into lots and many years of wonderful memories will be relegated to nothingness.

Hopeful, but sad.

Life rolls on...

Saturday morning

That damned alarm clock rings waaaay too early on Saturdays and Sundays.

Got a fairly full weekend planned. My brother and his family are down from Appleton, Wisconsin and we'll be hitting all the usual places and events. You know, the obligatory Maidrite stop, stuff like that.

My Quincy nephew also is racing in the Pinewood Derby at St. James School this afternoon so we'll all go cheer him on.

Did I blink and miss "Sweeny Todd" at either of the Quincy movie complexes? What's up with that? Don't EVEN try to tell me it's too bloody and violent for Quincy sensibilities.

There are days when I think I should be a grumpy old fart like the brief, shining blog that graced us for a few months last year. Then I think, naw, I'm too nice and I couldn't keep up the act. And Fr. T. would be all on my case for behaving badly (as he should).

Now I must go and face the music. The apartment must be vacuumed, and the kitchen cleaned. Horrors!

Enjoy the weekend.

Looking up in The District

No, no, I don't mean gazing up at the crumbling brickwork atop the Newcomb, or at the WCU Building, or anything like that.

I mean that I've been to two of the strategic planning sessions for the Historic Quincy Business District (missed one because I had to be at the school board meeting).

Todd Shackelford is doing a great job of getting 50 disparate people with different ideas about what will make downtown/uptown/historic/business/The District to focus in on things that can be done to actually accomplish positive things.

They've got it to four focus groups now: Marketing, Environment, Economic Development, and Parking. On top of that they have three or four major goals listed for each group, and (at least for now) they are boring in on what kind of actions need to be taken to get No. 1 done in each area.

Color me impressed.

The owner of Pop's Pizza, who was one of the frontline at the November meeting expressing his concern and dissatisfaction, says he too is impressed and pleased--and most of all, hopeful.

Good for all of you who have made all three, or two, or even one of those meetings. Keep it up. I know I will do everything I can to be at the rest of them.

For the rest of you:  Wednesday nights at 6 p.m. at the Senior Center for the next 3 weeks.  If you own a business, work, or live downtown--heck, if you just VISIT downtown--come be a part of this. It's important, and it will make the city of Quincy a better place.

Now, if we can just get to work on the OTHER issues facing Q-town. :)

Dead actor...gone Governor.

When things happen in the biz, they happen fast and furious.

You've probably already heard about actor Heath Ledger being found dead in his New York City home. At last report, there doesn't appear to be any foul play or criminal activity, though pills were found near his bed. To die at 28, and as a young man with a great deal of talent and for no apparent reason...if that does not give you pause, it probably should.

Then on the political scene another lightning bolt: Missouri Governor Matt Blunt announces he will not seek re-election. Holy cow! (as a certain deceased sportscaster would say.) NO ONE I know saw that coming. Blunt says he has accomplished almost everything he set out to do when he was elected in 2004, so he's hanging up the governor's hat. No word on what he will do next, though at least one confrere in the biz opines that he may seek the Senate seat of Kit Bond. Wonder how Kenny Hulshof will feel about that, since he appeared to be the anointed one.

Keep yer eye on the ball, folks. The changes are fast and furious (and in some cases, sad beyond belief).

Can't sleep...

I simply MUST stop watching movies late on Friday and Saturday nights when I have to be up early the next morning.

Sunday morning may be a fiasco.

(PS. The playlist was GONE WITH THE WIND, FERRIS BUELLER, and ELIZABETHTOWN :)

Whatever happened to freedom of expression?

We get a lot of media announcements at work (big surprise, I know).

Not sure why all the prez candidates feel the need to inform a five-station cluster in Quincy about their plans for the next few days of campaign stops, but there you are.

Anyway, every single one carries this little tidbit: "No signs allowed."

And thus my question.

Another: Why do they feel so threatened by signs that might (not necessarily) express opposition to their own ideas?

They're just signs, ladies and gents. Relax.

You MUST be s****ing me

This in from the AP:

GRAYSLAKE, ILL.-- Christopher Berger is an honor student at Grayslake Central High School. He's also a choir singer, as well as a former football player who spends half the day training to be a firefighter. That exemplary record now includes something new: A police ticket for reckless conduct given last week after school officials discovered a multi-tool flashlight in a jacket he left in the cafeteria. The tools include a 2-inch blade, screwdriver, pliers and other gadgets prohibited under school policy. Berger has prepared a petition asking that the charges be dismissed. He has knocked on the doors of neighbors to tell his story. So far he has obtained 16 signatures from the neighborhood and nearly 50 from school, four from teachers.

Hello?! Clueless adminstrator types?! Pointy-haired Dilbert-boss clones?!

IT'S A UTILITY FLASHLIGHT!

Honestly, sometimes I think these people see "zero tolerance" and immediately flush their cerebral material down the toilet because they think it means "no need for brains".

I hope the kid wins. He did nothing wrong, but the "powers that be" clearly need a reality check: the "rules" exist to help the people, the people don't exist to pay slavish devotion to "the rules".

Man, have I been crotchety lately, or what?

Tyranny

Don't know about anyone else, but this sounds exactly like "tyranny of the majority" to me.

From AP Report:

"They reminded the group that the new policy was formed, in part, after a campus survey found 30 percent favored forcing smokers to the parking lots while an equal percentage wanted smoking completely banned."

Mind you, I do not smoke and avoid it as much as possible but...

To quote from Bob Heinlein (in "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress"):

"Rules--laws--always for the OTHER fellow...there is no worse tyranny than to force a man to do what he does not want to do merely because YOU think it would be good for him."

Does that make me a libertarian? Well, an Orthodox Libertarian, perhaps. With a good leavening of the conservative.

No wonder I'm so loopy...

The Law of Unintended Consequences

It is regrettable when good ideas may contribute to bad results, but is it even a tiny bit possible that in the rush to "make driving safe for our teens",we have unintentionally contributed to the problem of unsafe teen drivers?

Two examples of the "law" in title, both drawn from the recent "crackdown" laws pased by the legislature with regard to teen driving.

1. A service provided by New Trier high school students to other students all over the Chicago area has had to shut down. The New Trier kids would give rides home to other studentswho for whatever reasons, could not or did not wish to drive after a night out. But with the curfew on teen drivers implemented on January 1st, those volunteer drivers can no longer be out in their cars after 11 weekdays or midnight on weekends. And since most of the calls the service received were for pickups after 11 or midnight... How many ofthose kids will now drive themselves home and be involved in accidents because they shouldn't be driving?

That's an unintended consequence. Destroy a good service and hope for the best, I guess.

Which leads us to:

2. "Gettin' close to the line, gotta get home, gotta beat the curfew. Hurry, hurry, hurry." 

Have we contributed to a death by creating an arbitrary curfew for driving? I know a lot of teens will wait til the last possible moment to hit the road and hope to get home before the parental axe falls. Remember these are kids that think "it won't happen to me!"

I don't know that's what was running through Alex Farkas' head. I hope not. But I do know there will be kids who DO think that, and will take unacceptable risks to squeeze the last bits of pleasure out of their "nights out with friends".

Unintended consequences. 

Thinking  to do good, have we done wrong for at least one person?

Damn, it hurts.

May Alex's memory be eternal.

Stupid Criminal Tricks

Is it my imagination, or are criminals getting stupider by the day?

First we have a wave of twits getting nailed and then getting nailed AGAIN when they try to hide drugs and other items on (or in) their bodies when they come to be processed at the county jail. Doh!

Then we have various bright lights a bit further afield who threaten to blow up a police station while standing by the officers arresting his buddy.

And now this one: in full view of a police officer in a western Illinois town, this guy busted out a doctor's office window with his hand. Then he fought the officers that understandably came over to stop him. Then he threatened them. AND he had drug items in his pockets.

As Bill Cosby would say...

"That's brain damaged!"

Collecting article

Nice article in the Whig today about collecting. It talks specifically about comics and scrapbooking, as well as gaming (that is, miniatures, boardgames, roleplaying, etc.).

My good friend Jim Brown owns Midwest Comics & Collectibles featured in the article.

My only complaint is directed at Jim--dude, you REALLY need to clean up behind the front counter! :)

So what kind of things do you collect, if you collect anything?

Taking a page from UMR

Talked to him at the 10 a.m. City Council meeting on New Year's Eve.

He said part of his philosophy in blogging was to post something everyday, no matter how brief it might be.

Wise words, and given my promise to Feyd Funion (sorry, been watching the DUNE miniseries ), something I believe I'll take to heart.

Nothing deeply moving or profound today.

First, for those who asked for a way to read more of my stories, head here: http://Writing.Com/authors/nikolaibard

And finally, this: Just a reminder that no matter how much the darkness gathers round (look at the newspaper or any net news site), there's always a light. There's always hope.

Snami Bog!

Just a lazy fool...

So here I am again, having been lazy for far too long. And once again, apologies to those who try to follow along. I know it's frustrating when any particular blogger takes so long between posts. I will really truly and honestly try to do better.

New furnace is in and works very well. It remains to be seen how big the bills will be.

The cleaning (yikes, so much dust!) was helped by the heating guys (Tom Hurley and crew--they do good work) doing the sweeping and mopping. Heck, one of the guys cleaned up my ex-roomate's room that I'd been putting off for months and even folded and neatly piled Josh's clothes! Now to get hold of Josh and tell him to get his behind over here to get the ret of his stuff.

The cleaning must be done because the discarding must begin. It's only a couple of months now until Paula's stuff moves in (though Paula herself will not officially take up residence here until the wedding in July). Dang I have a LOT of crap. And dang, this is a LOT of work.

If you are interested in boardgames, role playing games, or miniature soldiers, I'll be having a game sale on Sunday, January 27th beginning at 2 p.m. You might swing by the place and check the stuff out if you have any interest. Pretty much nothing more than $15. Gotta move some of those games out so there's room for the lady.

Lady....games....no brainer. :)

I got a nice invite to the web warriors party at the OLC tonight. Gonna go listen to the Funions rock and roll, meet some of my fellow bloggers, and just enjoy a few minutes doing something I don't do much.

Then it's into my new work shift. Yes, things are changing. Beginning tomorrow I'll be doing weekend morning news both Saturday and Sunday, and will take over the evening meetings beat from John Holm. John's still around, just lightening his load a bit. The change will mean I can't do a lot of evening activities without serious preplanning, but if I wanted a 9 to 5 job I'd have become a banker. :)

Enough for now. Next post February 20.

(Just kidding!)