July 11, 2008

Shared Bond

Quite a few years back I was up one night looking for something to watch on TV when I came across an amazing music video. Four girls with stringed instruments were making a sound that I’d never heard before. Their hair was flying, sweat was flying from their faces and the music was electrifying. I bought Bond’s first album shortly after that and I’ve been hooked ever since. If you’ve never experienced Bond before, click on the video above, turn your speakers as high as they’ll go and hang on for an exciting ride.

In looking for a video for this post I’ve been a little disappointed. I couldn’t find that first sweaty video (I think I saw it on A&E or PBS) and the speakers on my computer are not good enough to project the volume I want when I listen to Bond. I keep their CDs in my car and ususally listen to them when driving. I suspect that’s probably a dangerous practice. I’ll tell you about it, but here’s your disclaimer: Don’t try this at home, folks!

I crank the bass and the volume of my car stereo to about half past obnoxious. Victory is always the first cut I listen to. About the time my speakers start vibrating, the adrenaline begins to course through my blood and exits through my right toe, which is firmly affixed to the accelerator pedal. I like to do this when I’m on one of the two stretches of interstate on the island where the posted speed limit is 60 MPH. That means everyone drives seventy, of course. If I’m really lucky there won’t be any cars near me and my speedometer zooms up to around seventy-five or eighty. I’m not a thrill-seeker and I don’t court danger, but when I ‘m listening to Victory, I must have speed! I can listen to it twice in the time it takes me to go from one end of H-3 to the other. I have to turn the volume back down and ease off of the gas pedal once I’m back in traffic and around other cars (pity!) but I’ve been known to play the same track over and over until I reach my destination. Yes, it’s that good. It’s that addictive.

I should mention that the Bond girls are all trained classical musicians, but any similarity to others of that sort will not be evident. These aren’t stodgy old maids. Sssssssssssizzling hot is what they are. There’s blatant sexuality oozing all over the place in each of their videos. No, not oozing! Splashing! Exploding! Erupting! Yeah, more like that. I’m as hetero as they come, but if any one of the Bond gals beckoned to me I’d pack my Rimowa and be one my way. Your libedo has got to be as dead as a doorknob if you don’t feel it, too!

Here’s a bonus video for you. Victory is my favorite, but Bond doesn’t have any bad music, so any choice is a good one. This one is Duel. Remember Dueling Banjos, back in the seventies or eighties or whenever it was? This one is a battle between violins and it packs a real punch. Enjoy!

[tags]Bond, music, music video[/tags]

November 10, 2007

PostieCon in Vegas!

I’ve been pretty bummed out that so many of my friends are at the BlogWorld Expo today and will be at PostiesCon tomorrow and I’m not there! Not that I don’t want them to be having a wonderful time, you know - just sad not to be there meeting so many folks that I’ve been sharing the blogging experience with for over a year now. Ahhhhhh - maybe next year. I know they’re having a really great gathering & will be blogging it so I can share the experience.

I wrote that last night but was too sleepy to continue. It’s Saturday now and I’ve spent the morning “attending” PostieCon via live hook-up:

Okay, not quite the same as being there. I didn’t get to taste the cake or give real life hugs to anyone. Don’t get a swag bag or have a ticket for prize drawings. But there’s live chat tied in, so we can “attend” the sessions and make copmments or ask question of the speakers, so it’s very cool. Come join us! Oh, you can see the live video with a chat board next to it on full screen over at Andy Beard’s blog. Mahalo Andy! Great set-up!

[tags]bloggers, blogging convention, PostieCon 07, PayPerPost, video feed[/tags]

October 17, 2007

Remembering the Loma Prieta Earthquake

There are landmark times in all of lives, moments that remain forever in our memories. Some are joyful and amazing - the birth of a child, a special time with loved ones, the discovery of a beautiful place you know you’ll always hold dear. Others are jarring and harsh, bringing shock and scars. October 17, 1989 brought the latter. Many across the US had just settled in front of their TVs to watch the Battle of the Bay, that historic World Series between the Giants and the A’s. I was still in my office. I worked long hours in those days. I’d finished an inspection in the hills above Oakland and spent an hour in traffic, commuting back to my office in Belmont. The Cypress Freeway, the Bay Bridge and finally the 101 brought me to my destination. I settled at my desk, my canine partner in the cubby beneath my desk. A co-worker and I set to work in compaionable silence, turning the day’s fieldwork into reports. I wanted to complete one rather complex report before picking up the next day’s assignments and heading home to finish my paperwork in front of the tv. It was 5:04 when the impossible happened. The building began to move, shimmying and shaking. Being new to such pheonomena, it took me a heartbeat or two to realize - earthquake! Not a little bump like the few I’d felt before, this one rolled and jarred and shook, on and on for what felt like an eternity. I watched ceiling tiles dance and office supplies and equipment slide off of desks and countertops. I had just grasped what was happening when my friend yelled, “Get under the desk! Get under the f-ing desk!” He was a native, soft-spoken and unflappable, not given to such language, so I knew then that this was not one of the little temblors that Californians, for the most part, laugh about and endure. Our dogs began barking wildly and security alarms started to blare from buildings and cars. And then ~it ~just ~stopped. I was frightened and shaking as we dashed outside, secured our dogs in the vans and moved them away from the building, waiting … waiting to see if more was to come. The aftershocks were mild, though, and we went back inside after a few moments to do a quick assessment. Some ceiling tiles down, contents of desks and cabinets strewn about, but no real damage. We secured the office, reset the alarm and headed out for home. Signal lights were inoperative and traffic crawled at a snail’s pace. As darkness fell people appeared at intersections, using flashlights to guide us smoothly on our way. I wanted to get home. I needed to see my son, to know that he was okay, though in some part of my mind I knew that this was just life as usual on a fault line for those more seasoned. An hour crawled by - or was it two? My anxiety mounted, though I kept chanting to myself - “It’s okay. It’s over.” When I finally found a working radio signal I new that it wasn’t. The first voice I heard shouted “The Bay Bridge has fallen!”

I was near breaking point with anxiety when I finally pulled into my aparment garage, in a building just above the San Andreas fault. The lights were out here, too, but I felt calmer, more grounded just to be home. I found a flashlight and candles and finally, a note from my son. “Mom - game cancelled. Walking down to Pacifica to see a movie.” He didn’t know either, until he found darkness at the end of his hike, that the entire Bay Area was on hold. It was morning before most of us knew the worst. My son and I had watched the red glow of San Francisco burning from our balcony, but had only bits of information until the next day when we turned on the tv. The Bay Bridge was not destroyed, but it was badly damaged. It was the Cypress Freeway, though, that shocked us and held our attention. Giants slabs and tumbled heaps of concrete, entombing the dead and the living alike. The smoke, the fires, the horrendous screech as buidlings and roadways were ripped apart in the search for survivors. We watched in shock and gradually grasped the magnitude of the disaster that had reshaped the landscape and imprinted itself on our minds forever. We watched the Marina District Burn. We watched as shocked and angry survirors tried to rescue friends under piles of rubble in Santa Cruz, holding out hope when they knew that hope was gone. And we watched as a freeway was deconstructed, bit by tiny bit. True heroes, professionals and civilians alike, burrowed into the twisted wreckage. We watched them disappear into the nightmare and we watched them emerge, somtimes with empty arms, sometimes burdened the living or the dead. Miracles of discovery kept us all going as survivors were pulled from that concrete and steel sandwich, days and even weeks after the earth stopped moving. Like all good citizens, we all did our part to reclaim “normal.” The World Series restarted. We returned to work and school and play, but with a new awareness of the fragility of life and the preciousness of friends and family.

It was nineteen years ago today, but is as fesh in memory as if it were yesterday to those of us who were there. The Bay Area survived, rebuilt, wiser and stronger for what was learned. We’ve moved on. Today at 5:04, though, a few million people will pause to remember, to mourn, to celebrate the resilience of the human spirit. Candles will be lit. Prayers will be said. Stories will be told. This is mine. I suffered no great injury or loss, had no personal tragedy associated with that day - only an emotional jolt, long since scarred over. The scar remains though, and on this day it opens a bit, reminding me that some events in life’s passage mark us forever.

[tags]earthquake, Loma Prieta Earthquake, remembrance, San Francisco eathquake, World Series Earthquake[/tags]

June 5, 2007

1408 - The movie

Do you believe in the supernatural? Do you think that belief is necessary in order to see the supernatural? In other words, if there were ghosts or demons all around you, would you see them if you didn’t believe they existed? I’m mostly ambivalent about such matters. Mostly skeptical, sometimes curious, sometimes almost convinced that there are things out there that defy logic and science. At the very least, I believe there are mysteries we can’t explain. Does anyone doubt that there is something in Loch Ness? Assuming that as a fact, how much of a stretch is it to believe that there are other things, just out of sight, just slightly outside the bounds of our understanding, but nonetheless real? And if those things are real, it’s no real stretch to believe that some people are more senetive to their existence than others, is it? I think most of us can be made to believe, even if only briefly and only in certain circumstances. Why else would horror stories like the 1408 Movie, coming this month from Stephen King, terrify us and make us sleep with the lights on? It’s because he makes us believe, if only for a while, that there are terrible things that are very real, very inexplicable and very intent on doing us harm. The clash where skepticism meets belief is the premise for the movie.

I’ve had anxiety attacks while reading Stephen King’s books and watching his movies. I’m not talking about being scared and nervous. I’m talking about full-blown, I-can’t-breath, my-heart-is-going-to-explode anxiety attacks. The tense atmosphere created by the trailer for the 1408 Movie is almost enough to set me off again. I’m not fond of that feeling, but I know that many people enjoy being scared nearly to death. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Watch the tralier and see what you think.

I like John Cusack. I’ve admired his acting in every role I’ve ever seen him play. Besides, he’s cute and doesn’t seem to have aged at all during his entire career. (How does he do that? Maybe that’s supernatural?) Likewise Samuel L. Jackson. I think he’s one of the finest actors alive today. Both are so good at their craft that they compel the suspension of belief as we watch them become the role they are portraying. Based just on that, I’d love to go see 1408. But then again, based on just that, I think that I dare not go. They’re capable of making me believe. Do I really want that?

[tags]1408 movie, entertainment, fear, horror movies[/tags]

June 4, 2007

The News Room

Just in case you need one more reason to come visit Hawaii, take a look a the video below. Kilauea has been putting on a spectatcular show for weeks now. You can come see me on Oahu, then take advantage of the interisland airfare wars to fly to the Big Island for $9.00 instead of the usual fare of around a hundred bucks. I’ve been to the Big Island a few times, but never when Madam Pele was showing herself so magnificently. Maybe I should spring for the nine bucks myself, ya think?

Note: Video was corrupted and has been removed.

How do you like my blog’s news service, The News Room? This is a resource I know I’m going to be using again, a clearinghouse for news from respected news sources like the Associated Press (AP), Reuters, and Agence France-Press (AFP.) I enjoy blogging about my life and my own little corner of the world, but it’s good to reach outside that bubble to share relevant and timely stories like this. The News Room is constantly updated with stories and news releases from around the globe, so there’s always a variety of topics to choose from. Whatever your blog focuses on - hard news, entertainment, health and science - whatever, you need to bookmark this site. Categories are clearly defined, so it’s easy to go right to your area of interest and find the kind of information you like to share. The process is user-friendly, even for a techno-phobe like me. After I located the story above I clicked one button and and it was ready to copy into my blog. There’s no fee for the service and you can actually make money when you use it. Each article comes with a bit of advertising that produces the revenue to fund the service and can be added to the revenue stream for your blog. All of us in the blogosphere need to keep our posts fresh and relevant. This a great tool to help us do that. The possibility of income (and opportunities for some great prizes, too!) is just icing on the cake.

[tags]blog advertising, blog resources, Hawaii, Kilauea, news services, volcano eruption[/tags]

May 25, 2007

Fresh food from Florida

Hee hee! My friend TW is going to love this. She works at UF and does webby things with their agricultural newsletters and technical papers. She always shares new stuff with me, because she knows that the pest control industry plays an integral role in protecting our agricultural development and food supply. (I’m a pest control operator, if any of you don’t know that yet.) She and I are both kind of geeky about things like that, so I know she’ll appreciate this video as much as I do!

I have another interest in what goes on with fresh foods from Florida, too. I like to buy fresh produce from our little local growers, but Hawaii is a very small state with a large and hungry population. Most of our food is shipped in because it’s just not possible to grow enough here in the islands. When you come visit me (you are coming for a visit, aren’t you?) you’ll find fresh food from Florida in my fridge and on my table. I’m glad they grow so much that they can share so generously, and glad to acknowledge their contribution through this sponsored post. Not so crazy about the noisy race cars (that’s the old, crotchety part of me emerging,) but fresh food from Florida is worth celebrating, so just this once let’s Rev It Up with Fresh from Florida Racing!

[tags]Florida agriculture, Florida food crops, Florida racing, YouTube[/tags]

April 28, 2007

Playful encounter

This is probably one of the most amazing videos I’ve ever seen. A couple of warnings before you click, though:

1. It’s a shark encounter. Not the usual - this one is like watching someone play with an oversized puppy.
2. The audio starts automatically and is set to LOUD.
3. You may find it a time suck. I’ve watched it three times.

I’ve done a little diving in the waters around Hawaii. I’ve been down there with sharks a few times. It’s always been on night dives and my buddies know where the sharks like to hang out after dark in the caverns off of Makaha Surf Beach. I’ve admired them and kept my distance. I’ve never been frightened of them, but I’ve never done what you’re about to watch either. It’s a pretty safe bet that I never will. Enjoy! An, um … don’t try this at home!

I found the video while visiting over at my friends Briggs and Carol’s place. They’re local realtors and client’s, so if you take a look at their web site (a click away from their blog) you’ll probably see a place or two that I inspected for them. Nice folks. You should go say hello!

[tags]sharks, diving with sharks, shark encounters,diving[/tags]