Oh Blog it!

Company is currently running at KAT and going rather well. More later, probably on my 2005 Year In Review. I'm sure I will reminisce from time to time about it as well.

I also listened to the Original Broadway Recording of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Song & Dance: The Songs (1985) Starring: Bernadette Peters. Although I like most of Bernadette's work, this one I'm not too thrilled about. I did notice that some of the riffs and themes were reused for Cats and I think Phantom of the Opera or maybe Beauty & The Beast. Ah what's the difference?

Lets see DVDs...Well a couple of nights ago I watched the classic musical Anchors Aweigh (1945) with Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson & Gene Kelly, and with a very young Dean Stockwell. The fantasy dance sequence where Gene dances with Jerry The Mouse (From Tom & Jerry) is not only a classic dance number but also a classic special effect. Did you know that it was originally supposed to be Mickey Mouse dancing with Gene? When the Producers and Gene went to talk to Walt Disney about the idea and make a deal Walt said that Mickey Mouse would never appear in an MGM film.

Anyway, I also recently watched that not-so classic Musical that is really a semi-musical Xanadu (1980) Starring: Olivia Newton-John & Gene Kelly. The reason I say it's a semi-musical is that most of the musical numbers are just background music, there are only about 3 songs where Olivia's and or Gene's characters sing, even though Olivia sings 2 other songs her character doesn't. In my book to call a film or play a musical the characters within the show need to do the singing. Just having music in the background that helps the scene flow is not a musical, if it were all dance you could call it a ballet, but it isn't because some of the scenes with the musical numbers has no dancing. Well anyway I still like the film, I wouldn't call it great, but I still like it.

I'm working on a true Updates page. This way I won't have to spend precious (yeah right) Blog time to mention what I am doing to the site. This is more like what I envisioned the update process to look like anyway. You can also find my old Construction page around here somewhere to see the initial construction of this site. Please see the Updates page for the latest site update/changes/fixes info, not this blog. 'K?

My Sports Teams:
Well lets see how my teams did this weekend. In the NFL The Washington Redskins Beat Da Bears 9-7. The St. Louis Rams Lost to the 49ers? 28-25 Ugh! And for the icing on the cake, The Washington Nationals Lost 2 of 3 games this weekend against the First Place Atlanta Braves. Argh! Those Atlanta Jones (Chipper & Andruw) boys. The Nationals won the first game, got shut out the second, and then for the third game on Sunday they came back from a 6-0 game, tied it up and pulled ahead a run in the 8th and then in the 9th with 2 outs Atlanta reversed things pulled ahead and won 9-7. ARGH! The Chief (Chad Cordero) was going for save number 45. That is at least the third game where the NATS have been way behind, caught up and tied the game, only to loose it. Well the good thing is they are doing way better than this time last year as the Expos. Their over all record is slightly better than even last years New York Mets, and currrently two games better than this years Mets. But there are still 15-16 games left for the regular season. Hmm Celebrity Poker anyone?

I have decided to discontinue my Construction page. It will still be accessible by a link on the main page and here in my SemiBlog. Any construction updates I make will be listed in here. This will save me having to repeat myself and having to update zillions upon zillions of pages here. I already have to update zillions of pages and don't need another zillion to update.

I've been distracted lately because the NFL is gearing up for the regular season and in the MLB The Washington Nationals are fighting and I mean fighting for the Wild Card Play-Off spot in the National League. In the first half of the season they did so well they were in first place in the NL East, then after the All-Star Game break they fell appart and sank to the basement of the division. There they remained but they are climbing their way back up slowly. They are just ahead of the New York Mets by about a game a game and a half with only 25some odd games left of the regular season.

I have also been doing some Ebaying. Putting a few things up for auction, most of which didn't sell, and I haven't put them back up yet. But I sold a couple of buttons. Yippy. I try to keep a few things up there and keep my Ebay Store CaptKirk42's Federation Trading Post full. Right now there are a couple of books and some buttons. Soon I will re-add some other buttons I had on there, and some trading cards I had up there.

Digital Camera
I picked up a digital camerea, YEAH! It's an HP brand camera and only 3.2 Megapixels (whaah!), but I got a special HP bundle that had the camera and a printer from RadioShack. Now I need to find a place for the printer to hook it up. So then about a week later got an SD Memory card for it so I can take more than just a dozen photos. I picked up (again from Radioshack since I haven't used that card in Oh So long, and it was, keyword being was zero balanced and paid off) a 1 Gig one so I'd have plenty of memory for pics for when I vacation and stuff and stuff.

More Lame Brainness
OK the most recent listened to CD of mine is Bernadette by Bernadette Peters. This seems to be the rare kind of Bernadette recording that is NOT a Broadway Show Tunes recording. It is still good though. On the second track the style and her voice reminds me of Linda Ronstadt a little. I am now listening to a CD my brother burned for me so I could sample this guys work, it is Paul Aldrich's CD Mock 'n' Roll. Paul Aldrich is a Christian Stand-UP Comedian/Parody Singer. There is some pretty funny stuff on this album, and you don't gotta be Christian to enjoy it.

The Mystery CD I was listening to was This Is The Moment (2001 Decca Records) by Donny Osmond Yes that's right, so what? This CD is a collection of Newer Broadway Show Tunes (and one from a movie) that on the whole is pretty good, its about a 3 or 4 on a scale of 1 to 5. The title song I was a little dissappointed by, I feel it is a song that should be sung with a lot of energy with a strong powerful voice. Donny sings it like he sings all the other songs with a joyful glee that makes the song sound like a sappy love song not a pasionate show-stopping love song. OH Well, maybe I need to see a production of Jekyll & Hyde (I always want to spell that Jeckel or Jeckyll) to get the real feeling of the song. His duet of Not While I'm Around from Sweeney Todd with Vanessa Williams is great, not so great is his duet with (of all people) Rosie O'Donnell of You've Got A Friend In Me from the movie Toy Story. He also sings a couple of songs from Seussical The Musical which is why I got the thing to begin with, that and the title song and the Vanessa Williams duet. Oh he does a really jazzy version of Luck Be A Lady from Guys & Dolls that is almost worth the cost of the entire CD alone.

Lets see the current CD in my car player I'm listening to is: Supernatural (1999) By Santana. Cool Soulful Latin Pop-Jazz. Great CD one of Carlos Santana's best works if not his best. It won a Grammy or two, maybe more. I believe the song Smooth won Song of the Year. Several guest artists appear on this album for duets and some just plain jamming, Eric Clapton is one of these guest musicians.

The NEXT CD up to play I will keep as a surprise for a little while, I was slightly dissappointed with a couple of the tracks, because of the style and tempo that the mystery artist performed some of the cover songs. It's not bad it just is a little of a dissapointment of what I had been expecting. That is why I'm giving it another shot, the last time I listened to it, I used it as background music so I didn't give it all the attention I should have. To appreciate music you don't have to like it, but it helps.

So Are we having Fun Yet? Let Me know one way or the other, OK?

1. A blog on or about a specific subject, for example there are many political and news blogs out there. Many too many to count or keep track of.
2. Personal blogs. These are the "Real" people blogs. They cover any subject and can be either the most awe inspiring piece of literature or the stupidest piece of junk you have ever read.

EarWorm Alert: Right now I have that country song in my head:

I don't mean to offend anybody, but I have noticed that many of the people who post messages on bulletin chat board websites don't appear to think for themselves much. I'm not saying everyone, but many many people who post on those sites treat the boards in the same way they treat instant messages or an old fashioned telephone conversation. They often use short sentences (Like is suggested for Blogging) and expect to get an instantaneous response from their message, about the stupidest things. As if. They have no patience, and get awfully offensive if you say something they don't want to hear, well read actually. 'Nuff said about that.

'Nuff said. When I was a kid I used to wonder who this Nuff character was who was always saying things in the comic books, especially the Marvel Comics Group comics. Then at some moment in time when I was an adult it made sense and I understood that it was short hand for "Enough has been said". I used to think it might have been one of the editors, since Nuff said a lot of things in almost every comic. How dumb was I as a kid? Don't Answer that one.

Thinking of days gone by reminds me of the changes of technology through the years. Common things that one decade was so in and hot, and then 20 years later is sitting in a museum of ancient technology. Things like, the 8-Track tape, reel-to-reel and cassette tapes, vinyl records of any speed (33, 78 and 45 rpms), large consol Televisions that were part of The Furniture NOT on top of it, Black and White Televisions, bulky home computers with the keyboard attached to the cpu, Red LED digital watches, leisure suits, bell-bottom jeans, canvas tennis shoes (Brands other than Converse Chuck Taylors), Video Game systems played on the TV not the computer. If you missed seeing a television show you had to wait for the re-runs or if you were rich and lucky enough you could tape it on your top-loading VHS recorder, or Beta machine. You know the days when there was only one Star Trek TV series and pornography was confined to paper bags behind the counter so that nobody saw it or knew about it. The days when "Adults Only" Meant ONLY ADULTS, and parents went with their kids to the movies not just droping them off. OH and the only thing that was special about your stereo was the size of your speakers and your volume dial went to eleven. The good old days when Washington DC had a baseball team. OH Wait now they Do have one, and they are kicking butt (occasionally) COOL.

Remember when writing a letter meant either using a pen and paper or a handy device they called a typewriter? Do you even know what a dial telephone is?

I could go on about this some more but I won't.

<- Check it out I added Date-Specific links to go directly the past entries on this page. Future pages will have a link to the previous page(s) in addition to the links for the current pages entries. Neat Huh? Of course you need to scroll up to see the links (They are after the regular Left-hand links near the top of the page.

Hey, you know what? If you are reading this why don't you send me an E-Mail telling me so. What a novel Idea.

Hey guess what? The 59th Annual Tony Awards were last night (Sunday 05 June, 2005) and the big Best Musical Award went to Monty Python's SPAMalot. Cool. I'd love to get a chance to see that with the original cast, but:

1. Tickets are sold out for like a year.
2. Some members of the original cast are moving on in a few months.
3. I never got a chance to see The Producers with the Original Cast so why should I get a chance to see this one?
4. I've NEVER seen a Broadway Musical on Broadway. (I've only been to NEW YORK once for about 1/2 an hour.)

Since around Friday? I have been listening to the Gwen Stefani solo CD Love, Angel, Music, Baby (2004 Interscope Records). I mostly like it, however, some of it is too Hip-Hoppy for my tastes. When I first heard the track Rich Girl in a commercial during the last Superbowl I thought what has Gwen done with If I Were A Rich Man from Fiddler On The Roof? Actually it was Dr. Dre who was behind the "What did they do with If I Were A Rich Man?" It takes the chorus of Rich Man and rewrites it, but that is about all that it takes from that song. I didn't like it then (In February), but it has been growing on me since hearing it a few more times. I like the songs Harajuku Girls, and Danger Zone, the rest I can take or leave. If I remember correctly the critics hated this album. I guess they were expecting the Ska Style of No Doubt.

Next up in my "Jukebox on wheels" (AKA: My car where I listen to CDs the most) is Knee Deep In The Hoopla - Starship (1985 RCA Records). That one I have heard before, but it has been a little while since I've listened to it. Yeah! It's the one with one of the most hated songs from the 1980s We Built This City, and also the Rock Love Ballad Sara. If I remember correctly the Jefferson Airplane then Jefferson Starship Original line-up re-united with this album, or maybe it was just that Grace Slick had returned to the band or something.

OH I have a KAT board meeting tonight at 7:30 PM (19:30) fun fun. The main topic I gather will be the upcoming fundraiser on the 24th of this month. That and the initial last accounts on The Fantasticks and Kiss of the Spider Woman. I'm not sure if I will make any additional comments to this BLOG after the meeting or not, maybe we will see...Back from the meeting and it's Tomorrow now. The fundraiser has been changed to September.

Oh I added that typewriter graphic at the top to give the old school writers feel to this Blog, I hope it works or at least looks cool. I also edited the Introduction a little.

I've been looking around the web, searching for and looking at several blogs lately to get ideas on what to put here and for formatting purposes. I think I will stick with my own style right now. Among the blogs I have found and read is one at www.wilwheaton.net Yes that blog is written by actor Wil Wheaton of Stand By Me, Toy Soldiers and Star Trek: The Next Generation fame. He maintains his site himself and uses some sort of blog service that he mentions there somewhere. He might very well be a total geeks geek, fascinating Captain. I added it to my MY Yahoo page to see if it gets any more interesting.

OK to satisfy your curiosity:

• LAST CD LISTENED TO:
  I am not currently listening to anything. I don't do the listening to a CD while surfing on the internet or typing up stuff on the 'puter, I use the TV as background noise and a distraction. Oh anyway the last CD listened to would have been when I was in the car a few weeks ago (I've been listening to the radio lately) and it was either Bad Hair Day by "Weird Al" Yankovic or actually it was Theodore: An Alternative Music Sampler (1989-90 Columbia/Epic Records) Various Artists Including: Kate Bush, Living Colour, Big Audio Dynamite, Toad The Wet Sproket and The Indigo Girls plus 11 other artists. Unfortunately I believe that Theodore is out of print.
  
  
• LAST DVD VIEWED:
  The last DVD I viewed was Almost Famous which I rented from Netflix.com starring Kate Hudson, Billy Crudup, Kate Hudson, and Patrick Fugit, Oh it also has Fairuza Balk from American History X, and did I mention Kate Hudson? I think it was the Almost Famous Untitled - The Bootleg Cut (Director's Edition) version. Remind me to get the UK version of that DVD sometime they use a hot picture of Kate Hudson in her unmentionables, OH Alright LINGERIE! She's in lingerie on the cover of the UK version All-right.
  
  
• LAST BOOK READ:
  My Decent Into Death: A Second Chance At Life by Howard Storm (160 pages Doubleday Books - 2005) - It's about the author's own Near-Death-Experience (NDE) which helped turn his life around from a self-serving Athiest, into a self-less Christian Pastor.

I am doing a massive update to my site here today. I'm adding this here Blog and I am adding all my Stories & Stuff from my old Geocities site. I had to add the Blog link to the bottom of all the previous pages, big pain. Yeah I know that is what style sheets are for but I don't quite get how you use them properly to do that. I don't quite get how to do anything with style sheets for that matter.

Today is not only memorial day, but it is also the 79th anniversary of my father's birth. This afternoon I went to my Brother's house (Neil and his wife Beverly) for a little Memorial Day get-together, my Mother and My Uncle Charlie were there as well.

I should end this here for today.

Well this afternoon was the final show of The Fantasticks over at the Gaithersburg Arts Barn. All in all it was a very good run. For most of the performances the audience was half full, or half empty depending on your point of view. But enough of that I am working on a special Episode of Kirk's Knook for the Daily Irish News email that my Buddy TJ puts out. Shoot that reminds me there are a few things that I want to scan for that, I need to do that sometime very very soon. ARG and ACK!

I have an idea of something I will add to the site eventually. I am toying with the idea of putting the recollection transcripts of dreams that I have had. There have been a few times when I have written down a dream shortly after waking. When I go back and read what I have written, sometimes I remember the dream sometimes not. A recent dream (I think the morning of 29 April) I had that I didn't write down. It had something to do with a woman who I think was dressed in a formal black evening dress (either strapless or with thin spaghetti straps) that had NO FACE she had a mouth, but no nose and no eyes everything from the upper lip up to the forehead was just blank skin. She looked sort of like those your face here picture contests where there is just a blank oval inplace of a persons face or when a cartoon character rubs their face away. I wish I could remember the rest of the dream or if she said anything. I didn't remember anything else about the dream. I posted a brief description of the dream (basically as described above) on a Christian chat board on the dreams and dream interpretation section. The reply was:

Not knowing the entire dream, its pretty hard to figure out how this picture fits the subject cause who knows what the subject is. :) BUT.....I'd say that about 99% of our spiritual dreams have to do with our own growth or stumbling blocks. The first thing that popped into my head was "blank canvas". Kind of like an image of no image at all, like the Lord saying to you "give me a blank canvas". We can't see ourselves, we compare with the world around us but the Lord doesn't compare us to anything. Does that make sense?

It sort of makes sense but, Gee big help there folks. I'm not even sure if the dream was a spiritual dream or a "secular" dream. How do you tell the difference? It also could have been a precognitive dream about my future wife or girlfriend, yeah right.