In heaven, everything is fine — LiveJournal

01:06 pm - We have become 18th century England

Just in time for the 4th, a patriotic message from me.

From the Declaration of Independence:

"That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, -- That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government"

Listed below many of the reasons our founding fathers believed in abolishing the colonial government and instituting a new one.

"He [King George] has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only."

"giving assent to [laws] ... For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever."

Sounds like Governor Walker(R) of Wisconsin. Particularly with the usurpation of elected city officials with "Financial Managers" of his choosing. Also Rand Paul and others who want to meddle in DC affairs.


"He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither"

Sounds like the Republican platform, especially Governer Brewer(R) of Arizona

"He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance."

Sounds like DHS formed by George Bush(R).

"He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures."

OK, that's every president of late.

"He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power."

Remember what Eisenhower said about the Military-Industrial complex?

"For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences."

Gitmo, et.al.

"He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions."

OK, Jefferson was kind of a dick.

Anyone game for sedition?

Current Mood: disappointed

01:59 pm - Supernatural

Just finished the first five seasons. Great storyline and everything wrapped up. It looks very much like the first two were standalone, then the next three were the sequel. I read up on it and the original creator only intended to do five seasons. I suspect the next 3 seasons won't be able to top it, but I hope they can do better than just jumping the shark.

So, should I continue, or just leave it here?

09:40 am - My obsession yields closure

A few days ago I was watching a Poirot TV show, one of those from BBC. In the background I heard this waltz which I knew I'd heard before and was actually very familiar with. Over the course of the day the tune refused to get out of my head. I only heard a few seconds, but somehow I knew the entire tune, but not only the entire tune, I knew a string, a piano and even an accordion rendition. Obviously this was one of those songs you hear frequently but know little about.

It was driving me nuts, so I set out to find out more about it. Unfortunately I did not know it's name, composer, when it was written or even how I came to know it. The melody played in my head all day, so I tried to find it going through collections of all the waltz composers I knew. Nothing. Ok, this composer is obscure. I tried various sites like Midomi where you tap, whistle or hum the tune. Dozens of hits, but nothing. I pulled the show out of the Tivo trash and tried replaying that part of it using MusicID on my iphone. Nothing. OK, so maybe I'll never know.

A day later it's still in my head. So in desperation I opened up my copy of SmartScore and wrote the melody. I created a midi file and tried playing it again through MusicID. Nothing. Grr. So under that theory that if you can't beat 'em, join 'em, I wrote an arrangement of the entire song on my own, from memory, and played it on the piano.

A day later, still in my head and unsatisfied, I found Melody Catcher which allowed me to input actual notes. This wasn't difficult since I had already written the score. It came up with this a parody based on the melody. Down near the bottom reads "Song: Fascination." AHA, now we're finally getting somewhere. A quick trip to Wikipedia and a little research got me:

Valse Tzigane, Fermo Dante Marchetti (1904). A little known Italian composer contemporary with but overshadowed by Verdi. The song was nearly forgotten until it was discovered and published in 1932 using the English title Fascination.

OK, I now have a new composer to research. Next step, I downloaded some public domain sheet music. Turns out it matched remarkably well with what I had written from memory including the same key signature and rythmic/melodic elements, but I missed a subtle melodic diversion at the end. It was even simple enough for me to sight-read.

A normal person would now be satisfied, but I kept thinking, "So how did I know this piece, why is the melody so familiar?" Well as it happens it has been in a few movies. It was the main theme from the movie Love in the Afternoon (1954) Starring Audrey Hepburn who is by far one of the sexiest women who has ever lived. I streamed the movie, She is just as sexy now as she was in 1954, I rated it an 8 on IMDB.

So if you're still with me after the long story, here's the point. I half watch a mediocre TV show, hear nothing but a tune snippet in the background and as a result discover a composer who even wrote complete operas but which I knew nothing about and can now research, was able to play the entire score on the piano, I re-discovered a really good old film and was reminded that love stories can be sexier by implication than explicitness. And after all this, I am reminded that they say obsession is a psychiatric condition. C'est la Vie.

For your enjoyment, here's a orchestral version with an improvised bridge:

And here is one for string, accordion and vocal ensemble complete with the sappy lyrics: I don't know who the singer is, but it sounds like Dinah Shore.

11:36 am - Comedy Gold

First, the "Definitely Not Coordinating With Stephen Colbert Super PAC" posts a hilarious Romney attack ad which in essence says, if corporations are people, Romney is a mass murderer. Then, since Colbert missed the deadline to run in South Carolina, but Herman Cain dropped out too late to remove himself, he encourages everyone to vote for him in the open primary by voting Herman Cain as proxy.

IMO this is the definition of genius.

01:15 pm - What governments can do if they want to

I was in NYC during the fall of the south Bronx. It literally looked like a bombed city in WWII. 40 years later ...

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/04/a-walk-in-the-south-bronx-with-the-planning-commissioner-and-our-architecture-critic/

40 years seems like a long time, but considering the condition everyone thought it was hopeless.

10:42 am - Mind/brain duality is bunk

It has always been my belief that the mind is nothing more than an emergent property of brain chemistry, not a separate entity. How can this be considering the range of complexity and beliefs? Sorry, but it's chemistry, In this particular case, the rise of dopamine in response to an anticipated reward.



Many of your religious beliefs are really nothing more than a response to dopamine addiction.

09:56 am - This really has to be debunked on snopes?

Ghost of teen strikes down those who don't repost her story on facebook

http://www.snopes.com/horrors/ghosts/winstead.asp

This has to be debunked on Snopes? Really? I mean that as coming from a human alive in the 21st century.

04:30 pm - My wife is hot!

And by hot, I mean radioactive. Here's the readings several hours after having had a radio-pharmaceutical injection.



The scale reads 0.12 but that was at 100x which means she is emitting about 12 mr/hr (gamma).
I checked her urine and that was radioactive too. The reading didn't change when she breathed on the detector so likely she isn't respiring the chemical, just excreting it.

08:35 am - I really like christmas too.

06:11 am - Penn Gilette on Atheism

I don't always agree with Penn Gillette, but when I do ...