Among the gems of Alanis Morissette's 2005 release, Alanis Morissette, The Collection, is a great song called "Princes Familiar" from her 1999 MTV Unplugged gig. What I found fantastic are the chorus lines; it's like Alanis was telling me how I should be around my daughter and, come to think of it, those lines do make sense. Please take some time to read the lyrics and reflect on the chorus.
Princes Familiar
Please be philosophical
Please be tapped into your feminity
Please be able to take the wheel from me
Please be crazy and curious
Papa love your princess so that she will find loving princes familiar
Papa cry for your princess so that she will find gentle princes familiar
Please be a sexaholic
Please be unpredictably miserable
Please be self-absorbed much (not the good kind)
Please be addicted to some substance
Papa listen to your princess so that she will find attentive princes familiar
Papa hear your princess so that she will find curious princes familiar
Please be the jerk of my knee i've fit you always
You finish my sentences I think I love you
What is your name again no matter I'm guessing your
thoughts again correctly and I love the way
You press my buttons so much sometimes I could strangle you
Papa laugh with your princess so that she will find funny princes familiar
Papa respect your princess so that she will find respectful princes familiar
Please be strangely enigmatic
Please be just like my
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Saturday, December 23, 2006
South Texas Snow?
Yes Virginia, it snows in South Texas. The last time it happened was in 2004 and the Coastal Bend had it's first White Christmas since 1918. For it to snow in South Texas, many meteorological factors have to line up perfectly, and in my 30 plus years, it had never snowed in and around my hometown. I'll leave it to the experts to explain what exactly happened that December, so check out the website of the National Weather Forecast Office in Corpus Christi, TX, http://www.srh.noaa.gov/crp/stories/Christmas2004/christmas_2004.html. It is a fantastic site with amazing radar and satellite imagery, and photographs from the area recalling the storm's path through South Texas. Yes, I said storm. This was no mere dusting of snow that anyone in the northern parts of the state may experience anytime during the winter months, but with snowfall measurements ranging up 12 inches, what much of the Coastal Bend experienced that day, was indeed a winter storm.
This has to be my all-time best Christmas. It ranks up there with the time I got my first telescope, as mentioned in a previous entry. The days leading up to Christmas that year were fairly mundane. We were not planning a trip home that Christmas because of time constraints, so we were pretty down about staying in town for the holidays. But those sullen days turned exciting when my wife came home from work earlier that week, to say that she was able to get the 23rd off, which gave us an extra travel day. I, of course, was happy about going home, but I told her this: If we had just the slightest prospect of having a White Christmas here in town, we would stay here. The irony, right!
We left north Texas with snow on the ground and the temperatures hovering in the low 30s and as we trekked south, the temperature did not creep higher as it usually does anytime through the year. I know that before we left for home that there was an outside chance of some sort wintry mix over the holiday, so I kept that in mind as we drove home. Nothing frozen fell from the sky the 23rd, but Christmas Eve would be vastly different.
As the 23rd became the 24th, the weather folks said that we had a good chance of the frozen stuff, namely sleet and maybe a few flurries. They were right as we had a couple shots of sleets in the afternoon, with an occasional snowflake thrown in for good measure. As the afternoon progressed into evening, the sleet stopped and the white stuff turned from hard, icy pellets but to floating flakes of snow. Being a weather nut, I turned the TV onto the Weather Channel and by this time, we noticed that we were under a winter storm warning! What the...!!! Yep, this became the stuff you hear about happening somewhere "way up north," where they're used to this kind of precipitation. Even the Weather Channel's winter weather expert beamed with excitement to see this type of weather occurrence happen so far south! My brother and I ventured out after sundown and watched the flakes grow larger and with much more intensity and velocity. So here we are in South Texas, near Corpus Christi, on Christmas Eve, and we find ourselves right in the middle of a winter storm.
My aunt and uncle from Austin were driving into town, but were caught in the storm about 60 miles, or about a hour drive's away, but they didn't arrive until after 10pm. What is usually a 3 hour drive became about a 7 hour ordeal. My uncle said that he drove with his head almost out of the car's window, going about 20 miles an hour. No wonder they took so long to get home!
We all turned in early and didn't realize how much snow had fallen overnight. My dad, having worked overnight, woke us up and cheered us on to see what Mother Nature had left for us this Christmas morning. What greet us was simply awe inspiring: a winterland landscape with lawns and cars buried under several inches of snow, and all framed with crystal-blue skies (the snowstorm of the night had moved quickly away from the coast by daybreak). Needless to say I clicked away my camera's film, so much so that I had to borrow my mom's last roll of film. My aunt and uncle who drove through the storm just hours earlier, drove by while while I took pictures and asked if we had anymore film because all the stores in town had run out!
Now, whenever I hear Irving Berlin's White Christmas playing anytime during the holiday season, it takes on a whole new meaning after having endured my first White Christmas in my hometown. No longer was a White Christmas something out of a Christmas movie or something that happens in Michigan, year in and year out, but it was certainly something I will never forget. My first White Christmas was magical and holds an almost mystical place in my heart, especially because where it happened. Although two years have quickly passed by, I still cannot believe I was able to witness this event. I was lucky and blessed to be in in my hometown on that Christmas Day in 2004. Strike that... I was lucky and blessed to be in my hometown on that WHITE CHRISTMAS Day in 2004.
This has to be my all-time best Christmas. It ranks up there with the time I got my first telescope, as mentioned in a previous entry. The days leading up to Christmas that year were fairly mundane. We were not planning a trip home that Christmas because of time constraints, so we were pretty down about staying in town for the holidays. But those sullen days turned exciting when my wife came home from work earlier that week, to say that she was able to get the 23rd off, which gave us an extra travel day. I, of course, was happy about going home, but I told her this: If we had just the slightest prospect of having a White Christmas here in town, we would stay here. The irony, right!
We left north Texas with snow on the ground and the temperatures hovering in the low 30s and as we trekked south, the temperature did not creep higher as it usually does anytime through the year. I know that before we left for home that there was an outside chance of some sort wintry mix over the holiday, so I kept that in mind as we drove home. Nothing frozen fell from the sky the 23rd, but Christmas Eve would be vastly different.
As the 23rd became the 24th, the weather folks said that we had a good chance of the frozen stuff, namely sleet and maybe a few flurries. They were right as we had a couple shots of sleets in the afternoon, with an occasional snowflake thrown in for good measure. As the afternoon progressed into evening, the sleet stopped and the white stuff turned from hard, icy pellets but to floating flakes of snow. Being a weather nut, I turned the TV onto the Weather Channel and by this time, we noticed that we were under a winter storm warning! What the...!!! Yep, this became the stuff you hear about happening somewhere "way up north," where they're used to this kind of precipitation. Even the Weather Channel's winter weather expert beamed with excitement to see this type of weather occurrence happen so far south! My brother and I ventured out after sundown and watched the flakes grow larger and with much more intensity and velocity. So here we are in South Texas, near Corpus Christi, on Christmas Eve, and we find ourselves right in the middle of a winter storm.
My aunt and uncle from Austin were driving into town, but were caught in the storm about 60 miles, or about a hour drive's away, but they didn't arrive until after 10pm. What is usually a 3 hour drive became about a 7 hour ordeal. My uncle said that he drove with his head almost out of the car's window, going about 20 miles an hour. No wonder they took so long to get home!
We all turned in early and didn't realize how much snow had fallen overnight. My dad, having worked overnight, woke us up and cheered us on to see what Mother Nature had left for us this Christmas morning. What greet us was simply awe inspiring: a winterland landscape with lawns and cars buried under several inches of snow, and all framed with crystal-blue skies (the snowstorm of the night had moved quickly away from the coast by daybreak). Needless to say I clicked away my camera's film, so much so that I had to borrow my mom's last roll of film. My aunt and uncle who drove through the storm just hours earlier, drove by while while I took pictures and asked if we had anymore film because all the stores in town had run out!
Now, whenever I hear Irving Berlin's White Christmas playing anytime during the holiday season, it takes on a whole new meaning after having endured my first White Christmas in my hometown. No longer was a White Christmas something out of a Christmas movie or something that happens in Michigan, year in and year out, but it was certainly something I will never forget. My first White Christmas was magical and holds an almost mystical place in my heart, especially because where it happened. Although two years have quickly passed by, I still cannot believe I was able to witness this event. I was lucky and blessed to be in in my hometown on that Christmas Day in 2004. Strike that... I was lucky and blessed to be in my hometown on that WHITE CHRISTMAS Day in 2004.
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Sirius Redux
I initially posted most of this on a friend's blog a while back and I wanted to place it here on mine, albeit with a few updates.
Looking up into the heavens has been a part of my nightly routine for as long as I can remember. In the autumn night's sky, you'll be able to see the immense constellation, Orion the Hunter, rise up in the east and see it progress across the sky until morning. I have fond memories of seeing Orion's superstars from October through March, wherever I'd happen to be; either on the backroads of my hometown, or even seeing them out my bus window on my way to Sevilla, Spain. One of the legends surrounding this constellation has it that Orion the Hunter found himself in a battle with Scorpius the Scorpion in ancient times. During this battle, Scorpius fatally wounded Orion, and henceforth, one never sees both constellations at the same time in the night sky; Scorpius predominantly during the spring and summer, and conversely, Orion only during the fall and winter.
Orion is home to many wonderous stellar entities, including the Horsehead Nebula, and the Orion Nebula, which is a cosmic nursery of sorts. The Hubble Space Telescope has explored the region in and around nebula has found what could be future planetary systems. I go way-back with my astronomy knowledge. For instance, my first science fair project, in the second grade, was about stars and constellations. I remember Sirius, Procyon, Cetus, and Antares to name a few. But it was Orion's Rigel that has kept my attention through the years.
Rigel is a supergiant white, type B8 sequence star, that makes one of Orion's knees. It is one of the most luminous objects in the sky, ranking behind the Moon, Venus, Sirius and a few other notable stars, with a +0.12 visual magnitude; Sirius' magnitude is a -1.46. But what makes Rigel, perhaps more notable, is its tremendous luminosity. Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky is only a mere 8.6 lights away. While Rigel on the other hand is a whopping 750 light years away. (A light year is the distance light travels in a year, approximately 5.88 million million million miles. For those of you who can remember, the speed of light is 186,000 km per second.)
If Rigel was as close as Sirius, it's magnitude would be -10 or about the same as one-fifth the Moon's brilliance. Not only that, you would be able to see Rigel during the daytime (!), read by its light on a moonless night(!!), and the night sky would have a bluish-lavender hue to it instead of the pitch black we all know(!!!).
Who knew that shimmering, varied hued star in my new, yet very meager telescope, that frigid Christmas night 22 years ago would hold such importance throughout my life? I'm just glad that I was able to keep pace with Rigel through the years.
Looking up into the heavens has been a part of my nightly routine for as long as I can remember. In the autumn night's sky, you'll be able to see the immense constellation, Orion the Hunter, rise up in the east and see it progress across the sky until morning. I have fond memories of seeing Orion's superstars from October through March, wherever I'd happen to be; either on the backroads of my hometown, or even seeing them out my bus window on my way to Sevilla, Spain. One of the legends surrounding this constellation has it that Orion the Hunter found himself in a battle with Scorpius the Scorpion in ancient times. During this battle, Scorpius fatally wounded Orion, and henceforth, one never sees both constellations at the same time in the night sky; Scorpius predominantly during the spring and summer, and conversely, Orion only during the fall and winter.
Orion is home to many wonderous stellar entities, including the Horsehead Nebula, and the Orion Nebula, which is a cosmic nursery of sorts. The Hubble Space Telescope has explored the region in and around nebula has found what could be future planetary systems. I go way-back with my astronomy knowledge. For instance, my first science fair project, in the second grade, was about stars and constellations. I remember Sirius, Procyon, Cetus, and Antares to name a few. But it was Orion's Rigel that has kept my attention through the years.
Rigel is a supergiant white, type B8 sequence star, that makes one of Orion's knees. It is one of the most luminous objects in the sky, ranking behind the Moon, Venus, Sirius and a few other notable stars, with a +0.12 visual magnitude; Sirius' magnitude is a -1.46. But what makes Rigel, perhaps more notable, is its tremendous luminosity. Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky is only a mere 8.6 lights away. While Rigel on the other hand is a whopping 750 light years away. (A light year is the distance light travels in a year, approximately 5.88 million million million miles. For those of you who can remember, the speed of light is 186,000 km per second.)
If Rigel was as close as Sirius, it's magnitude would be -10 or about the same as one-fifth the Moon's brilliance. Not only that, you would be able to see Rigel during the daytime (!), read by its light on a moonless night(!!), and the night sky would have a bluish-lavender hue to it instead of the pitch black we all know(!!!).
Who knew that shimmering, varied hued star in my new, yet very meager telescope, that frigid Christmas night 22 years ago would hold such importance throughout my life? I'm just glad that I was able to keep pace with Rigel through the years.
Neruda & and the Art of Happenstance
I came across a book of Pablo Neruda's poetry the other day, called The Essential Pablo Neruda, and wondered onto a particular selection that reminded me of a song from Sixpence None the Richer's 1998 release. The specific song is called Puedo Escribir and the lead singer, Leigh Nash, sings some of the verses from the following Neruda poem in Spanish. As you can see, I only put the English verse here for everyone's poetic perusal.
I can write the saddest verses
I can write the saddest verses tonight.
Write, for example, "The night is full of stars,
twinkling blue in the distance."
The night wind whirls in the sky and sings.
I can write the saddest verses tonight.
I wanted her, and sometimes she wanted me too.
On nights like this, I held her in my arms.
I kissed her so many times under the infinite sky.
She wanted me, at times I wanted her too.
How not to have loved her great, still eyes.
I can write the saddest verses tonight.
To think I don't have her. To feel that I've lost her.
To hear the immense night, more immense without her.
And the verse falls onto my soul as dew onto grass.
What does it matter that my love couldn't keep her.
The night is full of stars and she is not with me.
That's all. In the distance, someone sings. In the distance.
My soul is not content with having lost her.
As if to bring her closer, my gaze searches for her,
My heart searches for her and she is not with me.
The same night that whitens the same trees.
We, of the then, now are no longer the same.
I no longer want her, true, but how much I wanted her.
My voice searched for the wind that would touch her ear.
Another's. She will be another's. As before my kisses.
Her voice, her bright body. Her infinite eyes.
I no longer want her, true, but perhaps I want her.
Love is so short and forgetting is so long.
Because on nights like this I held her in my arms,
my soul is not content with having lost her.
Though this may be the last pain she causes me,
these are the last verses I write for her.
I can write the saddest verses
I can write the saddest verses tonight.
Write, for example, "The night is full of stars,
twinkling blue in the distance."
The night wind whirls in the sky and sings.
I can write the saddest verses tonight.
I wanted her, and sometimes she wanted me too.
On nights like this, I held her in my arms.
I kissed her so many times under the infinite sky.
She wanted me, at times I wanted her too.
How not to have loved her great, still eyes.
I can write the saddest verses tonight.
To think I don't have her. To feel that I've lost her.
To hear the immense night, more immense without her.
And the verse falls onto my soul as dew onto grass.
What does it matter that my love couldn't keep her.
The night is full of stars and she is not with me.
That's all. In the distance, someone sings. In the distance.
My soul is not content with having lost her.
As if to bring her closer, my gaze searches for her,
My heart searches for her and she is not with me.
The same night that whitens the same trees.
We, of the then, now are no longer the same.
I no longer want her, true, but how much I wanted her.
My voice searched for the wind that would touch her ear.
Another's. She will be another's. As before my kisses.
Her voice, her bright body. Her infinite eyes.
I no longer want her, true, but perhaps I want her.
Love is so short and forgetting is so long.
Because on nights like this I held her in my arms,
my soul is not content with having lost her.
Though this may be the last pain she causes me,
these are the last verses I write for her.
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Goo goo g'joob
Picture yourself in a seat at a concert with John, Paul, George & Ringo playing all of their songs. Well, not all of their songs but a good number of them. The first time I heard the Beatles' newest release, LOVE, I felt as if I was hearing a Beatles reunion concert.
If the Fab Four were able to cheat death and defeat their embattled egos, this is what we'd hear at a reunion concert. Infusing yesterday's magnificent music with today's techonology, we get tunes that are as inspiring as their original recordings. We have to thank the Fifth Beatle, Sir George Martin and his son for this amazing production. And I've come to realize that behind every great musical artist there is an equally impressive producer; for every Alanis Morissette, there's a Glen Ballard, or System of a Down's Rick Rubin, or even Café Tacuba's Gustavo Santaolalla. What the Martins created, on one side, is essentially a live-like recording, without the incessant screams of raucous, female fans that usually marred their live shows early on, and on the other, a treat for our ears and musical palette.
The only shortcoming that I have noticed is the lack of cuts from their early albums. This could be due to the recording processes of the early 1960s, where they were unable to make or create multi-layered sound recordings as they did with their latter albums. Even with this said, I assume that nary a Beatles fan will find fault with this record.
I am a Beatles purist in some ways, but I never thought that I would be taken so much by an album that is in essence one, big Beatles remix record. I would consider each song a classic, that each should be able to stand on it's own; an immovable object of sorts. But in the context of this medium, the Beatles' music has become a kaleidoscope of aural delight.
It must be said that the Beatles are still very relevant in today's musical mainstream being that they released their first album more than 40 years ago! I had a conversation with a friend a few days ago about specific aspects of their music and how gutsy they were to release songs like Eleanor Rigby (what pop artist releases a song made entirely with classical arrangement and instrumentation?), Norwegian Wood (a song that's set in a typical 3/4 waltz style), and All You Need is Love (the opening bars alternate between 3/4 and 4/4 time). You'd be hard pressed to find such musicality in today's popular music.
If the Fab Four were able to cheat death and defeat their embattled egos, this is what we'd hear at a reunion concert. Infusing yesterday's magnificent music with today's techonology, we get tunes that are as inspiring as their original recordings. We have to thank the Fifth Beatle, Sir George Martin and his son for this amazing production. And I've come to realize that behind every great musical artist there is an equally impressive producer; for every Alanis Morissette, there's a Glen Ballard, or System of a Down's Rick Rubin, or even Café Tacuba's Gustavo Santaolalla. What the Martins created, on one side, is essentially a live-like recording, without the incessant screams of raucous, female fans that usually marred their live shows early on, and on the other, a treat for our ears and musical palette.
The only shortcoming that I have noticed is the lack of cuts from their early albums. This could be due to the recording processes of the early 1960s, where they were unable to make or create multi-layered sound recordings as they did with their latter albums. Even with this said, I assume that nary a Beatles fan will find fault with this record.
I am a Beatles purist in some ways, but I never thought that I would be taken so much by an album that is in essence one, big Beatles remix record. I would consider each song a classic, that each should be able to stand on it's own; an immovable object of sorts. But in the context of this medium, the Beatles' music has become a kaleidoscope of aural delight.
It must be said that the Beatles are still very relevant in today's musical mainstream being that they released their first album more than 40 years ago! I had a conversation with a friend a few days ago about specific aspects of their music and how gutsy they were to release songs like Eleanor Rigby (what pop artist releases a song made entirely with classical arrangement and instrumentation?), Norwegian Wood (a song that's set in a typical 3/4 waltz style), and All You Need is Love (the opening bars alternate between 3/4 and 4/4 time). You'd be hard pressed to find such musicality in today's popular music.
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