Category: serious things

These things are serious.

Fantastic a capella music…

This performance blew me away. I am a fan of a capella singing, but this group makes all the ones I’ve seen before look like barbershop quartets. There are no instruments of any kind in this performance, all the “strings”, “brass”, “keyboards” and “percussion” are created by the voices of the performers. No “autotune” was done, no synthesizer trickery, this is just a group of people creating harmony and beauty.

Words don’t do it justice, just watch and listen.

Here’s to the Brits! (at least one of them, anyway!)

Boy, this Nigel Farage guy is one gutsy politician. I love his style! Continue reading “Here’s to the Brits! (at least one of them, anyway!)”

Help some kids out, if you can…

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This is a Kickstarter effort to finish up a documentary on a group of kids who lived in Fukushima, Japan. The kids lived in a town called Yamakiya that had to be evacuated due to radiation from the nuclear plant, but they managed to stay together, performing in their taiko drum club, despite being separated. The kids got to come here to Washington DC to perform in the Cherry Blossom Festival this past Spring, and they were incredible! Their energy, their skill, their love of drumming caught everyone up in their performance. I managed to catch a bit of their last performance that day, and I’d love to see these kids get an even wider audience, for their music and for their story.

If you can see your way clear to click on it and donate, that would be terrific! Even $5 would help! They only have one week to raise the rest of the money, so if you could pass it along, please do so.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1241316848/don-doko-don-the-yamakiya-taiko-drum-club-project?ref=card

Update:  They made their goal!  Their project is now a go, and I look forward to seeing the documentary they produce!

 

The Glorious 4th Of July

From PJTV, “Afterburner” with Bill Whittle tells us why this Fourth is nowhere near as bad as other Fourths through history, so let’s enjoy this one. There will always be more bad news later, but for one day we can celebrate our freedom the best way possible, by living free! Continue reading “The Glorious 4th Of July”

Mandate, tax, whatever…

Okay, I’m going to go political for a post, apologies in advance but this is too important.

So, Congress can demand all citizens be forced to buy insurance or pay the fine. Okay, great. The House Republicans should submit a bill, the “American Self-Protection Act”, and mandate that all citizens over the age of 18 be required to own and be qualified to use a handgun, be required to re-qualify once a year (April 15 sounds like a nice time), and be required to purchase a certain amount of ammunition for the handgun every year. Anyone who doesn’t do so would be required to pay three times the cost as a “fine”.

Hey, the Supreme Court says they can, it’s strictly Constitutional, and it would drive the Leftists up the wall in anger…

It won’t happen, of course, but a fellow can dream.

Update:  Thank you “M. Chillingworth” for linking to me and others on this!  (I really like your approach to blogging, as well!)

Living with disappointment

Well, I didn’t get to go to the Edwards family reunion this weekend. My flight was cancelled because of the storms between here and my destination in Knoxville. There were no combinations of alternate flights and driving that would get me to the reunion in a reasonable time, so I decided to cancel my plans. It all worked out okay, though. Even though the weather turned out less bad than forecast, it was still bad enough to cause a microburst in Bladensburg across the river. Never flown through one, and don’t really want to, if given the choice. High winds in downbursts make planes unhappy…

So, there’s always next year. Since I won’t be trying to save vacation for Japan next year, I’ll have a chance to go down to Tennessee early, and hang the weather.

Now, what to do for Labor Day…

Family reunions, family photos

Aunt Mary

This weekend I’m going to a reunion of my Aunt Mary’s family, her kids and grandkids and great-grandkids.  Aunt Mary passed away many years ago, and I wish I had paid more attention to her, but when you’re a snot-nosed punk kid, you think old folks will be around forever.  Then all of a sudden, you realize you’re not far from being “old folks” yourself, and you start to pay attention (often too late) to the ones around you that are left.

Continue reading “Family reunions, family photos”

Shameless merchandise promotion!

So, I updated one of my online stores, the one on Zazzle.com, with new cherry blossom-themed things, and made the anime-themed items easier to find.  Check out the new menu up top, “Things I’m selling”!  You might find something you’d like.  If not, let me know, and I’ll see if I can make or find something to sell that you’d like!