A Trip Down The Hill

My first time sledding in what has to be 10 years. I'm glad I got to experience snow this winter. As I write this wearing shorts in the middle of January it is 63 degrees outside. The most winter we've had here is a frost on the car windows a day or two.

My Favorite Christmas Album

I finally got the old record player up and ready and so as we get closer to Christmas it is time to dust off my favorite holiday album, Stan Boreson and Doug Setterberg's "Yust Go Nuts At Christmas." Released in 1970, this album brings back so many memories of Christmas in Wisconsin and Minnesota and enjoying a piece pickled herring and some lefse covered in butter and sugar. 

Boreson's singing style also honors the great and strong Scandinavian accents that you hear less and less each year as people have more and more distance from their European ancestral roots. Living down in Georgia now I miss the opportunity to hear some interchange a "V" and a"W." 

Here's the title track:



And my favorite song overall from the album, "Christmas Goose (Snowbird)":

Fall Has Finally Arrived

In case you wondered, fall does eventually come to Atlanta if you wait long enough. Although there are so many evergreen trees around our neighborhood there are now patches of very brilliant color. These five trees are along the parking lot of a Jehovah's Witness church near us.

The Waterproof Camera Shots From Our Trip To South Padre Island

When Laura and I visited South Padre Island in September it gave us the opportunity to finally use a waterproof camera we were gifted at our wedding for our eventual honeymoon to Greece. Well, the camera was sitting in America during our wonderful weeks in Greece so we were happy to get the chance to finally use the camera.

The beaches of South Padre Island give you a sand bars that go on for miles. You can have water up to your chest and then a few feet further out it will be back down to your waist. This let me get some photos that look like I'm in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico but in reality I'm not that far out at all.

I'm sure a few people wondered what I was doing taking photographs of waves.

The sun came out for a few of my photos.

A pelican flying by. 

I did some snorkeling while we were there but the beach was entirely sand so there weren't too many interesting rocks to find. I'm not proud to say over the course of the weekend I ended up losing two snorkels and a set of goggles into the Gulf having the waves knocking them off my head. The water was very sandy and not too clear so once they were out of your grasp they were gone even though they could be floating just a few feet from you. 

This shot catches Laura in a shadow and is my favorite photo from the group.  

These last two demonstrate what happens when the lighting changes and you are shooting on film. These photos were taken about 15 seconds apart with the only difference being the sun came out for a few moments in the second shot.

Meeting Jason Carter

Last Friday Democratic candidate for Georgia Governor Jason Carter came and spoke at Laura's American Politics class. Carter is President Jimmy Carter's grandson and currently a Georgia State Senator for District 42 which is in East Atlanta. The event was open to the public so I tagged along and as I was the husband of "Dr. Dean" I got to have a pretty good seat. He reminds me of John Edwards [I say that in the most positive way possible] and has certainly earned my vote on Tuesday.

And here's a view of a photo taken by the campaign:

I was hoping to get a chance to score an autograph from him and so I brought along a card of his Grandfather to sign. When I asked him if he would sign it he told me he hadn't seen one of these cards before so maybe I'll track down another copy and mail one to him.

I like the card and maybe one day when I run into President Carter down at the Piggly Wiggly maybe he can sign it too. It reminds me of an episode of The Simpsons which shows on of the treasures at the comic shop The Android's Dungeon was a photo of Sean Connery signed by Roger Moore.

My Favorite Episode Of Mystery Science Theater 3000

Mystery Science Theater 3000 has so many perfect and classic episodes it must be hard for some people to pick their favorite. You have the Joel vs. Mike debate, the TV's Frank era, the Pearl Forrester era and each period seems to have its own perfect episode. And when tasked with picking your overall favorite there are many episodes to serious consider. You have the episode which nearly single handedly put Manos: The Hand Of Fate on every bad movie list, the Canadian equivalent of Plan 9, and the many, many railings of Space Mutiny.

My personal favorite is The Giant Spider Invasion which is Episode 10 of Season 8. Directed by Bill Rebane [who also directed the outstanding Monster A-Go Go], the film is set in northern Wisconsin and so this episode is chock full of Green Bay Packers references and Badger State jokes. I've edited it down to just the good Wisconsin related parts and it is helpful to remember that this particular episode came out in May of 1997 just five months after Brett Favre led the Packers to a victory in Super Bowl XXXI. Enjoy.

 

UPDATE: Replacing One Icon With Another

UPDATE 10-21-2014 : The mural of Taras is progressing nicely!

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A few days ago citizens of Kharkiv, Ukraine made the news by tearing down their famous Vladimir Lenin statue in the city's Freedom Square. The statue was located two blocks from where we lived in Kharkiv and I wrote about the statue a couple times, here and here. It was one of Kharkiv's main tourist attractions and served as an historical oddity that reminded you Russia was about 50 kilometers away and that the Soviet past wasn't that long ago.

But with one icon gone, Kharkiv may have a new and better one to replace it. It turns out that on the side of one of the high rises a portrait of poet Taras Shevchenko. I've written about Shevchenko many, many times..;too many to highlight individually. The building's portrait would be undoubtedly the largest Shevchenko painting and I can't wait to see what it looks like completed.