Month: September 2008

A nice thing about this new blog software is, it shows me what search terms led people to my blog.  I noticed that a lot of people are getting here because they are searching on one form or another of “the world is ending September 10.”

Last month I posted about CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) which is being activated on September 10.  There have been concerns that it will cause a black hole that will swallow us all up.

I’m quite the panic-er myself and at the time I read everything I could about that possibility and I’m satisfied that that probably won’t happen.  Really probably.  That didn’t stop me from trying to picture what it would look like, the universe and me disappearing into a black hole, if “disappear” or “in” even have any meaning in such a scenario.  If some Hollywood type doesn’t already have a movie about this in the works I’d be very surprised.  Lots of scary potential there.

In the end, I can’t wait to see what happens when they turn that thing on.  Obviously I’m hoping for discovery and not total annihilation.

Their website is here.  I wish we could get some photographs of the LHC from Joel Meyerowitz or someone along these lines.  This place is really gorgeous, very colorful.

I just started watching this movie my friend Howard copied for me, I’ll Never Forget You, a 1951 time travel love story, but the movie barely started when I immediately and instantly fell in love with the music. Within seconds.  I stopped the movie and have been googling the guy who wrote the music, William Alwyn, ever since.  There’s a lot of him on itunes, and now I want to see the movie Odd Man Out, which he also scored apparently, just to hear the whole soundtrack.

The funniest thing just happened while going through Alwyn on itunes. I picked out a few I liked to begin with, but my favorite far and away was something called Mirages.  I thought it was so beautiful I couldn’t believe Alwyn wasn’t more famous.

Then I read the first review of it on itunes and the reviewer said it wasn’t Alwyn’s Mirages but Brahms Piano Concerto 2!  I listened to another recording of the Brahms and sure enough that’s what it was.  Itunes mixed it up. (Kinda proud it stood out for me.)

So now I have to buy the Brahms Piano Concerto 2 too, what a lovely concerto. And I have to go back and re-decide where to begin with Alwyn.  

(The picture is the cover of a recent biography.)

I just got the plea below in my email and I plan to attend. (New York is one of the worst states for dog fighting, I read.)  Coincidentally, the National Geographic show Dogtown is airing the episode Saving the Michael Vick Dogs tonight, which is about the efforts of the organization that emailed me below.

Dear Best Friends Network Members,

Seven members of a New York City dog-fighting ring are scheduled to appear in court September 8 for a hearing on charges of animal fighting, promoting gambling, and possessing animals for fighting.

This is an opportunity on one of the biggest stages in the world to show our resolve to rid the world of dog fighting.

“It is important there is a large turnout,” says Regina Massaro of the Spay Neuter Intervention Project (SNIP), a member of the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC Animals.

She is urging citizens who oppose dog fighting to “join together and seek justice.”

Thanks for all you do to help animals, always.
The Best Friends Network

WHAT YOU CAN DO — WE NEED YOU TO SHOW UP!

Where: Bronx Supreme Court Criminal Division
265 East 161st Street
Bronx, New York
(718) 618-3100

When: September 8 at 9:00 am

If I’m understanding the email, it will be in the courtroom of Justice Steven Barrett.

Public Transportation Directions
Take the C, D or 4 train to the Yankee Stadium/161st Street Station.
Take the BX 6 or BX 13 to East 161st Street & Sheridan Avenue; the BX 1 to East 161st Street & Grand Concourse.

WHO TO CONTACT

If you can attend, contact SNIP at SNIPNYC@aol.com and try to bring signs, posters, banners or photographs.

If you can’t attend, please write a letter to the Bronx District Attorney and forward by email to SNIPNYC@aol.com. Regina Massaro will hand deliver it. Please thank the Bronx District Attorney, Assistant District Attorney Jacob Kaplan and Justice Steven Barrett. Request the defendants be held accountable for their actions and receive the maximum sentence allowed by law.

I posted about the tiles across the street from St. Vincent’s, so I made a little movie of them on my way to the gym this morning.  The name on the tile I walked up to at the end is David Reed Gamboa Brandhorst, who was only three years old. He died along with his fathers Daniel R. Brandhorst and Ronald Gamboa, who were all on United Airlines Flight 175.

The quality really does go down by the time it gets to YouTube.  I compress it, then they compress it further.  Oh well. At one point you can hear the subway go by underneath my feet.

I liked the outside of this place, except there were some people standing out front so I didn’t get the pictures I would have liked.  I would have preferred to move in closer.  Anyway, I stopped in to say it’s WAY too hot out there.  Stacy to the weather:  quit it.