Sweet Muse

2012-01-23

The last few weeks have consisted of very little beyond music in our household. Although he will deny it in the strongest way, the youngest son is frantically scrambling to get ready for the upcoming OMEA Solo/Ensemble music competition. Unfortunately, he’s been gifted with my rare ability for procrastination that can sometimes override his very natural talent. Like his father, however, most times he does manage to pull the proverbial rabbit out of the hat and peak at just the right time. Of course, like his father if he keeps it up he will find occasion to fall flat on his face using this methodology.

FUBAR

2012-01-16

The youngest son and I watched Saving Private Ryan the other day. No matter how many times I see the movie, it still resonates with me due to it’s treatment of war. Far too often, movies and television shows whitewash over the nasty bits and try and make war into this glorious and glamorous adventure. I’ve read, listened to, and watched enough first-hand accounts to unequivocally state that it’s not, and this movie graphically shows why.

Wrecked

2012-01-09

I read this one to the youngest son the other day; sometimes, he will take a few minutes to humor me and let me read a poem to him. Since he was little, he’s always wanted to be a oceanographer. We’ve watched a seemingly unlimited number of documentaries on the sea, on oceanography, and on diving. So I thought that this was something he could, you know, get into.

Such Sweet Sorrow

2012-01-02

We’ve been watching old Babylon 5 episodes for the last few months. B5 is, in my somewhat biased opinion, one of the most well written science fiction television series of all time. Unlike many of the other shows where episodes were mostly stand-alone within each season, B5 had an actual story arc. Whereas other shows had characters that stayed static, there is character development in B5. The series creator, J. Michael Strazinsky, poured his heart and soul into this series and it shows. Suffice to say I really liked the series, and was happy that my son fells the same way.

Walnuts

2011-12-26

I’m not sure where Mary and her mother lived, but here in my part of Ohio nobody seems to want to buy trees out of residential neighborhood. I had a giant of a tree that started to split some thirty to forty feet in the air; being a good neighbor I decided to have it taken down so it wouldn’t crush the house next door. I figured it would be easy – surely someone would want my giant black walnut tree, right?