Say Cheese!

I did a post the other day on the changes in the last hundred years on the way music has changed in our lives.

At the same time I was thinking about the ways that photography has changed as well.

Photography was initially developed almost 200 years ago. The process of using light to cause a chemical reaction and create an image was a startling revelation. History could now be documented in real time. As long as history would stand still and had plenty of light thrown on it.

50 years later Matthew Brady would do just that, making hundreds of images of the carnage on Civil War battlefields.

The process has changed sometimes; the chemicals used or the base material. Tintypes are just that- an image created chemically on a metal plate, and glass plate negatives were just a chemical wash on a glass plate, subject to the hazards as any piece of glass is. The modern negative film was the development that put a camera in the hands of the common man. George Eastman was the Henry Ford of photography; Ford put the common man on the road with his Model-T, and Eastman allowed him to photograph the trip.

The images were still; very still. We are so used to micro-second exposure times, but images in the old days took minutes to expose, which is why most old pictures are stiffly posed portraits.

The Kodak Brownie had those same issues; slow film speeds, no adjustable aperture, no flash. Groups didn't gather on the front porch for their health; they needed the light to make sure the picture turned out.

And then once the roll was full, the whole camera was sent off to Kodak, returned a few weeks later with your pictures and a fresh roll of film inside, all set for 8 more shots. And that's when you found out that Aunt Martha had moved during the Easter family portrait.

Cameras became more complex, and those cameras eventually made their way into the hands of the amateurs. Although amateur in this case just meant took pictures for fun, not profit. Film speed had to be set, f-stop, depth of field and focus all had to be right, and heaven help you with color film!

And you had to wait a week to find out if that once-in-a-lifetime shot had turned out.

Unless you did your own developing; tubs of caustic chemicals and very specific timings. Old chemicals, to long or too short in one bath or the other and your negatives or your pictures were ruined.

And then came the Kodak Instamatic with it's Flash Cubes. Point and shoot, inside or out, a (fairly) perfect shot every time. But film and developing cost money; about 6 bucks all told for 24 shots. And you had to wait to see the picture.

Unless you had a Polaroid. Take the shot, catch the picture as it spit out the bottom of the camera, keep it warm in your armpit for a minute and voila! Pictures! Want two copies? Take two pictures. At about 50 cents each.

Kodak and Polaroid were getting quietly rich.

Then came the image sensor; developed by an employee at Kodak, of all places, in 1975. It took 20 years, but once the sensors became cheap everybody wanted one. No film; no developing; no wait pictures. Snap one? Hell no; snap 50. Things not worthy of documenting 10 years ago now became fodder for a battery of images.

And just when the digital cameras thought they had a monopoly on the market, BAM! The iPhone, and now every phone has become a pocket photo studio.

My grandfather took pictures of me and his other grandkids with an Argus 35mm; fully manual, it took some great pictures, once you knew how to operate it, a skill I had just about mastered when I got my first point and shoot digital 10 years ago.

Now my son sees his boys in a cute pose, pulls out his phone, snaps off a pic or two, and texts them to me on my phone.

I think his Great-grandpa would be proud. 

Music Makes The World Go Around

 Have you ever given much thought to music?

Today we don't have to; drag out the iPod; pull up a song. Don't like it? Dump it and pull up another. But that technology, through the iPod, is just over 10 years old. MP3? About 20.

Before that we had Tapes; Cassette; Reel to Reel and 8-Track. And of course before that albums and 45s. Or 78s. Or even further back, wax cylinders.

Before that? All music was live.

We have become accustomed to music being a constant soundtrack to our lives; our MP3 players; the radio or CD in the car; muzak piped in the stores and elevators; even coming through our TVs through the miracle of cable. Pandora coming through your flippin' cell phone!

Less than 100 years ago it wasn't so easy. You want a tune? Whistle it. Or Hum it. Or know somebody who who can play it on some instrument or the other. Sure; you could buy a Victrola in 1913; for $75.00. When the average year's salary was $1300. Two weeks pay; give or take a couple of hours. Plus records at a buck or so each. That one song would lose it's novelty real quick.

Dances in the rural areas were a godsend; a reason to get together and music to boot, provided all of the members of the band could get together.

You think a barbershop quartet sounds goofy? Compare it to no music at all. Sounds pretty good now, don't it? Ever wonder why you always see Uncle Ed with his guitar in old family photos? Because he brought the music.

Stop and think for a minute about how dependent we are on electrons for music today, and how few folks play an instrument. Every high school had at least one band back in the day. The official one that played at football games, and there were always 4 or 5 guys banging around in somebody's garage or basement, hoping to play the school dance some Saturday night.

There was also a community to be had when a band got together and a dance was in the offing.

Something that's hard to achieve with a pair of earbuds.

Placebo

Everybody knows what a placebo is right? A pill or procedure that does absolutely nothing, but we are supposed to be convinced it is working wonders.

Kind of like the Republican Party.

They keep talking a good game- and have since 1988- but accomplish nothing.

They held the House, the Senate and the White House for 6 years.

6 YEARS!!!!

And government got bigger, along with the debt. Abortion is still legal, along with a host of other things they supposedly are against. But it's not there fault. It's the Democrats.

Don't take my word for it; spend a few minutes with talk radio.

I have become convinced that talk radio is our circus, designed solely to keep possibly expatriating Republicans on the ranch. Keep us convinced that the Republicans are doing their best and are deserving of our complete support.

And they cave again.

Just like on the 'Fiscal Cliff', when it comes time for the debt ceiling they will fold with the best of intentions. The debt ceiling will go up, debt will increase, spending will increase and taxes will rise again.

All things we sent them to Washington to OPPOSE.

I have faith in some of the younger members; ones who are now holding their first elected office- like Rand Paul- but the old timers have learned the ropes. When to speak out and when to act. Or not to.

Just start making real noise about a new third party; one to represent the people of this country, not the people and the companies sucking at the government teat, and watch the words fly. The only time most of these idiots can quote Ronald Reagan is when they say one of two things: 'Never criticize a fellow Republican', and 'we don't need a third party; we need a revitalized Republican Party'.

Just about the only two things President Reagan ever said that I don't agree with.

Sometimes a Book is Just a Book

I recently read Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet. I am still trying to make my mind up about the novel in some respects.

Parts were a fascinating read; others parts I found less interesting, particularly the parts that seemed cribbed from a Penthouse Forum Magazine. Every chapter seemed to have a part that should have begun “I really never thought it would happen to me, but…”  The worst part was the end.  It literally felt like the author ran out of enthusiasm for the book and just wrapped it up somehow. Through a thousand pages a given character would act a certain way, with certain motivations. In the last 80 pages all of that went out the window.

Am I glad I read it? Yes. But I won’t bother with the sequel and I won’t bother to read it again. How’s that for a ringing endorsement?

As briefly as the plot of a 1,087 page novel can be described; a small, fictional medieval English Monastery and its village build a cathedral. The book chronicles the arrival of the master-builder to the site and the various political and financial maneuverings that both enable and stymie the construction. That also includes the personal lives of the various characters; the Prior of the Monastery, Prior Phillip; the builder, Tom; his family-children, step-child and wives; the local Bishop and the local Earl. 

This is where I found my first fault; only one or two of the characters were well rounded, even the essential ones. If they were evil; they were never nice to anyone. If they were good, they never had a bad moment. Until the last chapter.

The second fault was the lack of detail on the construction of the Cathedral. For a book about the building, you would think a few of the 1087 pages could be spared for a few details on the actual construction or maybe a description of the various trades involved. But then the author would have had to drop one of the forty or fifty sex scenes that seemed to plague the story. I was beginning to think someone had actually slipped me a copy of 50 Shades of Grey. Based on this book every Cathedral in Europe physically went up without a hitch.

Well, until they fell down. Which, of course, this one did. The primary crux of the story was the change between round and pointed arches; a discussion that took place with minimal interruption of the characters lives and even less explanation of why this was such a sea change in public building. They did discuss how the pointed arch allowed for taller churches with more windows, but more history of development between the round and pointed arch would have been apropos, especially given the pivotal place in the story given to the pointed arch.

Bear in mind, in most communities the Church was THE public building. There were no public halls or municipal buildings like town halls. The Church was the town hall; it was the center of the community and the gathering place for every purpose.

Pillars does reflect that, and in some ways is a fascinating look into Medieval England, in the years immediately following the Norman Invasion and during the period of Anarchy after Henry I death. The history seems to be correct, albeit with our fictional characters thrown into the mix. And one of the fictional characters being thrown into the mix suffers a non-historical fate. But, since he really wasn’t a part of the history, and his fate is almost required by the story, so, no harm, no foul. At least in this case.

But there were a lot of other fouls; illiterate builders use multi-syllabic words; the language itself is not even remotely like Norman English and the characters seem to be able to speak both native English- akin to German- as well as Norman English- very French-like- with equal ease and without fault. There also seemed to be an acceptance of quite a few cultural items without comment, almost as if we should be as familiar with the methods of Medieval Dress and Buildings as we are with modern ones.

These can be written off as poetic license; liberties taken to insure a smooth flow and readability of the story. And I would be willing to agree; if elements of the story itself didn’t constantly remind me of a Harlequin dime romance.

Let’s take the character of Waleran Bigod. When we first meet him he is an archdeacon to the Bishop of Kingsbridge, the fictional location of the Cathedral. His first act in the book is to scheme with the hero of our story, Prior Phillip, maneuvering Phillip into agreeing to support Bigod to replace the current Bishop. Later it becomes evident that the Bishop was already dead, a fact Bigod was hiding from the world. This is just the beginning. Bigod is constantly scheming, lying and dealing, not only as an arch-deacon, but as a Bishop as well. His scheming never lets up, and includes the ordering of the murder of members of his diocese, with absolution granted prior to the act itself.

And then in the last few pages he repents and becomes, almost literally, a kind, saintly old man. Which in itself is not a problem; entire books are based on the reasons behind a character’s motivations for changing himself. But here the motivation is lacking. Maybe it’s there, and I just missed it. But the change is similar to Saul’s conversion on the road to Damascus, without the intervention of the Lord’s lightning.

Set in an era when The Church ran everything, and being ex-communicated was almost a death sentence, only Prior Phillip seems to be truly devout. Monks in the Monastery do their best to avoid devotionals or anything relating to their religious duties and most of the main characters, most of them deeply involved with building a Cathedral, the highest concrete form of worship, seem agnostic at best, and atheist at worst.

As I said early on; it was a fascinating read in parts, and I am glad I read it.

I am also equally glad I didn’t buy it.

‘Nuff said.

Obama in a Nutshell

Do you want a shorthand view into Obama's character?

Take a look into the brouhaha that has surrounded the 'Fiscal Cliff'.

The country is facing a meltdown on December 31, so on December 20 he takes the family on a vacation to Hawaii. As far from Washington D.C. as he can go and not leave the country.

Then when things are heating up he flies back. 11 hours in the air at $182,000.00 an hour, or a total of $2,002,000.00.

Then he puts Biden in charge of the negotiations, when it become apparent he has the negotiation skills of a stalagmite, and then steps in front of the camera to announce the big deal.

AND THEN SPENDS ANOTHER $2,002,000.00 TO FLY BACK TO HAWAII.

And has the final bill signed by the auto-pen.

What was so important that he had to get to Hawaii? Senator Daniel Inouye's funeral; Obama gave the eulogy.

Where he used the word 'I' 30 times.

You people who still support him:

Why?

Did Anybody Else Lose Two Days?

I almost feel like I had a Lost Weekend. I can't believe I missed posting Monday and Tuesday. Well, a belated Happy New Year!

I did have a lost couple of days; I was lost in a book. Started it Sunday and finished last night, along with a few other things. I had to finish before I started back to work; I knew I wouldn't have time to read for the next few weeks.

I intend to do a review here in a few days, as soon as I collect my thoughts. I read the whole book- 1087 pages- and there is a lot to digest. It will be an interesting review; trust me.

The New Year so far has been good. The weather hasn't been too bad- 20's but sunny, and the family is all healthy.

And the 'Fiscal Cliff' has been avoided.

Well; postponed anyway. Maybe.

Interesting vote, wasn't it? According to the NBC News Article:

More Republican congressmen (151) voted against the Senate bill than for it (85), meaning that Democrats' support was needed to advance the final deal. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, took the rare step of casting a vote, and did so in favor of the legislation. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., the former Republican vice presidential nominee, also supported the package. But Boehner's top two lieutenants, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., each opposed the deal.

I won't have a Congressman until tomorrow, so nobody to berate in the House. Paul Ryan's Yea surprised me. Was all of the deficit hawk just a campaign posture? Hard to tell at this point.

The Senate is another matter. I had to get after Mitch McConnell the other day; apparently I need to do it again. He needs to start paying more attention to the Junior Senator from Kentucky when it comes to voting the people's interest.

And then we go through it again in February. Oh well; no sense having the Republicans cave all at once. Lets break it up into 2 separate cave-ins.

But the good news is it is only the leadership that is caving; the rank and file are holding true. we just needed to change 45 more minds.

I'll have to see how many of those 45 were 'Lame Ducks' this session....

Day of Rest

Today was a Day of Rest. Serious Rest.

I slept until 8:30, climbed back into bed at 9:00 and climbed back out at 12:30. It's 6:30 and I am ready to climb back in again.

Do you want to know why?

My last day of work was December 19th. Since then I have had parties that lasted 4 hours or more on December 21st; 23rd; 24th; 25th; 27th and 29th. And I have parties scheduled for the 31st and January 1st (technically the one on the First is still tentative). And I go back to work on the Second.

It has been a busy holiday season. I am almost looking forward to going back to work.

Almost.

A note to Mitch McConnell

Here is a copy of the note I just emailed to Senator McConnell:

Senator McConnell:

Can you explain the logic behind not granting all forms of communication the same constitutional and Supreme Court reviewed protections? If US Mail and wired phone lines require a warrant, why shouldn't email and wireless phone conversations?

I have a 4th Amendment right to privacy in my papers and in my communications. The government does not, at any level, have a right to review those communications absent a warrant. PERIOD.

I have voted for you that last four times you ran for the Senate, but it has become increasingly clear that you are no longer a resident of Kentucky, but a resident of Washington, D.C.. It is time Kentuckians found a fellow citizen, like Senator Rand Paul, to represent us.

2014 can not come soon enough. 

If he reads the message, will he get it?

I doubt it.

Funny Business in Washington

I have been holding this post until after Christmas, just because I promised only happy thoughts before Christmas.

I can't come down on one side or the other; they each bother me equally.

And then I found another strip that so much so quickly:

I'm not sure how the cartoonist was looking at the issue, but Doesn't Cooperate can cover a lot of ground. My first sense was that they don't cooperate with the people who elected them, but he could also mean, given the current 'fiscal cliff' fiasco, that they don't cooperate with each other. Also true.

But it seems to me the only time the Politicians do cooperate is when they are screwing over the people who elected them.

The one exception I can think of is Rand Paul, my Senator from Kentucky. Not being a politician or a lawyer, he understands the evil that government is.

He just put forth an amendment to the FISA bill to increase Fourth Amendment protections on electronic communications; basically to give email and cell phones conversations protection from warrant-less searches. Here is the transcript of his speech on the Senate Floor.

Its about time we had some one in Washington who understands what the people want and is ready to fight for it.

Apparently, based on the vote in the Senate, we are at least 79 people short of what we need, including my other Senator, the one I don't claim much, Mitch McConnell.

He will hear from me today.

Start of the Post-Holiday Let Down

Today starts the Winter Blues Period in earnest. Nothing else to look forward to except Spring.

And that is 3 months away.

Christmas is officially over. I was at the store today and all of the holiday displays were coming down, and they were back to light rock on the music.

All of the holiday specials are off the TV and tress will start appearing at the curb in the next few days, right after the last of the bags of wrapping paper are picked up.

And today it's snowing. Not much, but enough to be a nuisance, if it starts to stick. Right now it is just hundreds of large flakes, making a great aerial display, but melting into oblivion as soon as they hit the ground.

The Winter Blahs; short, dark days; long, cold nights. Everybody is partied out and the world seems more dreary compared to the last month of constant motion and whirlwind activities. Everybody runs flat out for the month of December and then just drops flat for the next two months; poking a nose out into the world every so often, like Puxsatawny Phil looking for a shadow.

And the incipient arrival of the holiday bills doesn't help either. Visa, Discover, Mastercard. And the one from the Electric Company. Unbelievable how much it costs to run a few small bulbs, ain't it?

Stepping on the scale is definitely not a day-brightener either. How can eating a couple of pounds of ham equate to 10 extra pounds on the scale?

Trying to keep a car clean in the next few months is always a pain in the whatsis. Mud; snow; salt and slush. Everything is either dirty, wet or both. A five minute trip to the store means a 20 minute cleanup when you get home.

All I've got to do is get through the next two months. Once the flowers start to poke their green little noses out of the earth I will brighten up.

But that is two long months away.

Christmas Day is Here!

I have spent the last couple of weeks crabbing about my lack of Christmas Spirit and the over commercialization of the Christmas Holiday.

Today is the Day; the reason for the Season.

Merry Christmas!

Christians all over the world look forward to today. A birth forecast by the prophets for a thousand years; the arrival on Earth of God and the beginning of a new period of revival. A gift promised to the Jewish people, the birth of Christ did little for them, and instead created an entirely new religion that has spread and splintered into dozens of sects around the globe and 2.1 billion followers; the largest religion in the modern world, with 33% of the world's inhabitants as followers.

Hard to believe it all began with the birth of a small child in a stable on this day 2,012 years ago.

Well; there are questions, both about the actual date and the year. Some even doubt the birth itself.

Considering how easily information gets confused in just a few short years, I would think it would be easy to lose track of an exact date that happened, in our case, over 2000 years ago.

The creation of a Liturgical Holy Day to coincide with an existing pagan holiday is logical as well. After all even today the Queen of England has both an actual birthday and an Official Birthday.

None of which should detract from the Celebration itself; we are celebrating the Birth of Christ; not Christ's Birthday.

That may seem like a semantic difference, but its not. We aren't concerned so much with when Christ was born as much as we are concerned that he was born at all.

Think about the concept; especially 2000 years ago. Gods demanded tribute and worship; gods were vindictive and destructive when they were not properly honored.

But here was a God that loved the people who worshiped Him to the point that he would send His Son- His only Son- to live on Earth with us; to suffer for our sins and to suffer the ultimate punishment for us; to die in our stead.

We aren't celebrating the day He came to Earth, but the concept that He did.

And that, my friends, is quite a concept.

Christmas Eve

Today is party number two, along with some other traditions we usually do on this special day; the Krohn Conservatory in Eden Park, along with the Western & Southern Insurance Creche, with life sized wax figures and live animals. Then a quick trip to the Overlook; the speed of which depends entirely on the weather. Cold wet and windy; 35 seconds. Cold dry and snowy; a couple of minutes.

The overlook has a beautiful view of Northern Kentucky and the cities of Dayton, Bellevue and Newport, as well as parts of Fort Thomas, Covington and Southgate. On Christmas Eve, when the air is clear and the Lights are lit, contrasting with the white backdrop of a recent snow, the cold seems to melt away. Old familiar landmarks are sorted out of the panorama, and pointed out to those with us, even though they are old, familiar landmarks to them as well.

Then a stop at UDF for egg nog; the Southern Comfort is already in stock. Home in time for a quick bite and a quick review of the presents, making sure we haven't missed anybody or missed a present. Then off to Walmart for just a few more things.

Then off to the homestead on the hill for another Christmas Celebration with the family. Ham again, and then a couple hours of unwrapping presents.

And the noise! 14 adults; half a dozen kids over ten and another half dozen between 6 and ten and 4 more under 6. Running, playing, squealing in anticipation. and each of them taking turns hitting the buttons on Each. And. Every. Animatron. Each plays a different Carol, usually Santa singing something, except for the that probably dates to the Clinton Administration that plays a jazz version of something or the other on a saxophone. none of them gets a break until the presents are distributed, and the younger crowd has something more important to occupy them, and one parent will usually sneak a battery out of each Santa during the melee, just to make sure silence remains golden. Especially the one with the damn saxophone.

Youngest child to oldest, each unwraps a present, and each is met with either squeals of delight or the 'its-worse-than-socks' toss onto the pile, while a previous present is pulled from the pile for further inspection. I have to admit that I run about 50/50 on the squeal/socks chart. On the upside I don't think I have ever given a take or leave present; it's either pure love or distinct hate.

And then the departures start. Young children to get home and into bed; old parents who want to get the older children to bed so they try to get a few minutes sleep between Santa's visit and zero-dark:30 when Christmas Day starts.

When our kids were smaller- like between 7 and 17 we had a few chickens and a rooster. The Christmas morning rule was nobody came downstairs until the rooster crowed; that meant at least the sun was up.

Until one enterprising youngster realized that turning on the back porch light would wake up the rooster. None of them would ever admit who it was who would turn the porch light on at 4:30 in the morning, but I suspect the eldest convinced the youngest to do it.

That's just the way things work.