Month: September 2011

It might be modest, but anyone can find an audience. From Wikipedia:

The Catholic Evidence Guild is a loose international association of Roman Catholic lay volunteers which seeks to research and present clear and compelling explanations of the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church. The organisation was founded in the Diocese of Westminster, England towards the end of 1918. By 1925 there were 20 to 30 branches throughout England. The Westminster branch has spoken regularly at Speakers’ Corner since its inception.

There are currently branches in Guam (est. 2003) and New York.

In dental news, the person I swim with remembered the name of the bridge she has, it’s called a Maryland Bridge. Anyone else have one of these?

This is my brother Douglas at the Rachmaninoff benefit. It was his daughter Ellie who got the whole thing started.

I want that piano. It’s a Steinway concert grand, model d. I don’t know a lot about pianos actually, I’m told this is the top of the line, so hence I want one. It looks like they cost around $150,000 used so yeah. I’ll take the Baldwin upright.

I sat down at this piano, but I haven’t played for decades and you can’t just sit down and play after that much time. I simply admired.

I think I’m tired, tired, tired, because I’ve been stressing so much about the implant process which was supposed to start today. One of my dentists emailed some answers to my questions, but his answer was inexplicable. He started talking about how I’d be also wearing two temporary bridges in the meantime and this is the first I’ve heard of it.

I’m tentatively scheduled to get two teeth removed tomorrow, beginning the implant process, but I’m still waiting to hear how the essix device I’m supposed to wear for the next year and a half will affect my singing.

On top of that, today after swimming, one of the people who I regularly swim with showed me the special bridge she had done (she couldn’t remember the name of it) for the exact same front tooth I’m doing all this for and it looked absolutely beautiful. Why go through the implant ordeal if I can get that??

This is a house I lived in as a child. I love this house. I was so sad when we left it.

No home runs yet. The two that stand out for me, Person of Interest and A Gifted Man, have problems. Person of Interest really grabbed me, but it looks like an interesting premise is still ultimately going to be a procedural. A procedural with different terms, but nonetheless, every week they’ll stop a bad guy of some sort and that won’t feel exciting. The pilot did though, so I’m hoping I’m completely wrong. It felt great to be engaged again.

A Gifted Man came out of the blue for me. I’ve heard nothing about it, didn’t know what it was about. I loved the lead. His dead ex-wife is too earnest/saintly/savior-y, though. Very annoying. It’s not the actress, it’s the writing. Give her some real human emotions and lines, instead of the all-knowing, all-loving, all-perfect gazes and guidance stuff. I would have left that person too.

New Girl, it was good enough that I will wait and hope that it develops. Two Broke Girls had it’s moments, but I don’t know. Terra Nova was the biggest disappointment and Ringer comes in second, but I will give both more tries.

My highest hopes so far are for Person of Interest.

I tried to visit Whitman’s birthplace when I was out in Huntington, but it was closed. I felt bad for the cat left alone inside.

Someone on Facebook posted a link to an AP story from last year, about a 14 year old boy named George Stinney Jr who was executed in South Carolina in 1944.

From the piece: “In a South Carolina prison 65 years ago, guards walked a 14-year-old boy, Bible tucked under his arm, to the electric chair. At 95 pounds, the straps don’t fit, and an electrode was too big for his leg.”

“The switch was pulled and the death mask fell from George Stinney’s face. Tears streamed from his eyes. Witnesses recoiled in horror as they watched the youngest person executed in the United States in the past century die.”

Full story here.