I'll not love again

[Violet]

Hi Casey.. I'm sorry, I don't always read you very well.. but then, maybe you're not reading me very well either... anyway, communication is no automatic thing, it seems, here in these threadoms..

.. I'll have to check out that last link when I'm back in the city, as I only have dial-up up here in the country, and that's a bit too slow I'm afraid for youtube..

.. well, be well, my friend, and try to fathom that we're on the same side somehow.. I think it would help at this point.. or are you already thinking that, and I'm getting that wrong as well (?!)..

.. anyway, 'til later,
.. oh, and the Starlings are really pretty wonderful I think,
thank you so much for that,
v i o l e t

[Casey Butler]

Hi Casey.. I'm sorry, I don't always read you very well.. but then, maybe you're not reading me very well either... anyway, communication is no automatic thing, it seems, here in these threadoms..

.. I'll have to check out that last link when I'm back in the city, as I only have dial-up up here in the country, and that's a bit too slow I'm afraid for youtube..

.. well, be well, my friend, and try to fathom that we're on the same side somehow.. I think it would help at this point.. or are you already thinking that, and I'm getting that wrong as well (?!)..

.. anyway, 'til later,
.. oh, and the Starlings are really pretty wonderful I think,
thank you so much for that,
v i o l e t

The one thing I'm absolutely certain of when I post here is that we're on the same side. You're welcome for the Starling link... Hopefully you checked out some of the longer ones too. It's amazing to watch. :-)

Casey

[Casey Butler]

In a similar vein, we were dashing from Chino Valley AZ back home yesterday after visiting E's sister before she went back to Nova Scotia and chose the route around Lake Mead instead of going through Vegas and all the hassle involved in that. It was very hot, was the only thing and Dorothy (our red Honda Civic from Kansas I may have mentioned before) has only non-functional air conditioning. So we were using our Hillbilly AC that consists of Windex spray bottles filled with water instead to keep our clothes wet - that and open windows of course.

And I saw the most amazing thing: A gazillion (possibly less) pelicans flying right over us, and they separated into huge groups and started circling right over us apparently catching a thermal or something. They circled like that for about 10 minutes, just soaring like hawks and eagles do, maybe taking advantage of the thermal to rest, I don't know. Then they formed up again in broken "V"s and continued out over the lake. Being similar to the Starling phenomenon I thought I'd share them with you too. And we saw some sort of Ibis even when we got out of the construction. Waiting for pilot cars in construction zones in August in the dread Nevada Desert without air conditioning is a hot thing to do, let me tell you.

Anyhow, some pics:









Of course, as usual, I forgot that the camera takes video too, or I could have presented it much better. :-)

Casey

[Violet]

Hi again, Casey..

Yes.. I understand about the old classic car/no air conditioning thing.. I have either an '85 Toyota Camry to drive, really cool silver, with a hatch back, and still very perky.. or I could get out the old Mercedes, an '81 300D, as in diesel (runs on salad dressing or something, should it come to that).. but a bit shaky on air conditioning as well.. given I live mostly in the city, I can alter the Mercedes to filter and use use vegetable oil instead of diesel.. then I'll just hit every Chinese restaurant there is, and take their old deep frying oil off their hands.. haven't committed to that yet.. but gas prices are rising yet again, so.. but do I really want to make those rounds every week, just so I can make those rounds every week??.. (to be continued.. the Violet vegetable oil or diesel conundrum)..

.. I love your Pelican shots.. these birds are really beautiful soaring like that.. far more graceful seeming than how I usually think of them.. and you say they started to form V's.. hmm.. I had been looking for a sign at one point.. (on my Looking for a Sign thread, that is).. maybe this is finally it.. Imaginary Friend is right, Leonard certainly works in mysterious ways.. (okay, I'm kidding, lest you think me a bit more nutty than how you might already be thinking of me)..

.. oh, and I saw your last Sissel video.. so, she does opera too -- very impressive, this Sissel person.. (and that was very cute the way she and her singing partner staged that).. you are reminding me, Casey, that I do love opera, and should take advantage of that fact as I live in a city full of opera fans and venues.. but there is often so much to do here, one winds up doing very little, I'm afraid.. one takes it a bit for granted.. still, you have me remembering that there's a small-ish opera house I always wanted to check out.. as opposed to the Met.. (cheaper too)..

.. okay, well, it's good to hear from you.. I just had my first morning tea.. I thought I'd try Irish Breakfast, in honor of Georges, as it happens, my n'er do well Irish menace of a thread lover, whose own black liquid (Guinness Stout, I believe it is) is not quite my cup of tea now is it?..

.. on that philosophical note..

'til later,
v i o l e t (in the stultifying heat of late August).. (yes, the heat's here too.. in dear old dirty New York)..

[Casey Butler]

Actually I said "broken V's" because the only comparison that came to mind was flocks of geese which fly largely in V formations... But don't take it as any kind of sign because really it was just pelicans forming up in fluid lines that in themselves were quite beautiful as they undulated across the sky.

Here is a shot of my "broken V's" as the pelicans resumed flight across Lake Mead (what's left of it)...



They're a little hard to see but if you look close you can make them out.

Dorothy isn't a classic yet, being a '91... but she is indeed our Ruby Slippers since gas prices have gone up. She does even better with a tailwind pushing her taillights.

Leonard certainly does work in mysterious ways...

I can almost visualize Leonard singing and laughing mischieviously inwardly as he sings "...but you don't really care for music, do you..." in front of a crowd in Tel Aviv, maybe most of which people will not have a clue what he means as they go on thinking they've got all the data.

And grinning that wonderful boyish crooked grin of his as the Peacemakers get paid off with the proceeds by proxy... Perhaps one day after his knighthood Sir Leonard will win the Nobel Peace Prize or something for his ingenuous and creative efforts at looking like one himself.

I wonder if Hank Williams would have booked a date in Hiroshima and kept silent though he knew of her date with Enola Gay beforehand? Bad analogy of course, Hank Williams wouldn't have talked to Tojo, there was the race issue back then.

A Mercedes, cool. I had a Mercedes once. Sorry to hear it's hot in New York.

At least in Nevada it's a dry heat.

Casey

[Violet]

... broken V's!!.. oh dear.. but they do look rather graceful.. and flowing.. so.. I guess that's okay.. (said the broken lass, as she got into her broken diesel, and drove away)..

[imaginary friend]

Wow – those pelicans are astounding Casey! Beautiful shots.

Ms. V, don't take the broken V to heart. I'm sure there's a sign for you in there. After all Casey is in the middle of a virtual conversation with you, then this flock of pelicans appears. Birds soaring in a cloudless blue sky. A spread-your-wings, you-are-not-alone message.

XO

[Violet]

Wow – those pelicans are astounding Casey! Beautiful shots.

Ms. V, don't take the broken V to heart. I'm sure there's a sign for you in there. After all Casey is in the middle of a virtual conversation with you, then this flock of pelicans appears. Birds soaring in a cloudless blue sky. A spread-your-wings, you-are-not-alone message.

XO

.. that is so sweet, I.F... thank you for that.. I feel to be slightly mothered.. and sometimes I need that..

v i o l e t xxx ooo xxx

[Casey Butler]

I don't know what I said to Violet, Imaginary Friend. There are a lot of unbroken "V"s in the picture if unbroken "V"s are what's called for.

At least I feel better now, having gotten that Leonard-stuff off my chest... I don't care what Leonard does (don't get me wrong, I like him), I hope he has fun. I understand he needs the humor after nearly 75 years of singing the Truth before God. Sing, sing, sing, Leonard Cohen, et al... let's see how long we can draw this out, all together!

Forgive me Violet please, for whatever I said that caused you to diesel away. You are hard to read yourself...

My Mercedes wasn't a diesel?

For somebody wanting to make it big in the USA, sometimes things don't go so well... :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQNRiOZHEw4

Casey

[Violet]

Hi Casey.. I only meant that, well, sign wise, a broken V might.. well.. not bode very well.. which is no reflection on you.. but between I.F.'s comment, and yours about there being some non-broken V's up there.. well, that helped amend the situation.. (sign wise, that is).. (I hope).. (I'm really grasping at signs here, aren't I?)..

.. as for Sissel.. she finally lost me on this one.. she was marvelous with the operatic performance you posted a link for, but here she faltered.. it actually started to sound like Danish.. anyway, I always re-realize whenever I hear this little number that I never really learned these gosh darn lyrics very well.. so, I thought I'd post them.. thank god singers only do the first verse, though (which is usually torture enough).. I mean, can you imagine if they had to get through all of this??..


The Star Spangled Banner
By Francis Scott Key, 1814

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

[Casey Butler]

I'm really grasping at signs here, aren't I?

I'm the one who grasps for signs... It's another flaw in my character.

I think you just grasp, Violet, you grasp what you can't understand and try to smash it. It's a very cruel way to interact with somebody like me. But I suppose that's the point isn't it.

Well, you just keep at it... I don't understand.

There, I'm getting repititious already. Oy vey!

Casey

[Casey Butler]

Danish, huh? "Processing..."

Leonard didn't show up on BBC radio this morning, though I had no idea he was expected until they started playing "Democracy" as I drove off at midnight for a Dr. Pepper from Maverick here, after posting that message to you. Might have been a sign... <grin>

They played a clip from that recent interview though, that thing about all the sloganeering about what's "right" making it difficult for writers these days.

So I didn't get to hear his commentary on the Afghan elections, or the American health care debate, or Billy Bob Thornton's Canadian Gravy episode...

Would have been interesting too...

Casey

[Violet]

... wait a minute.. you're saying that I grasp at what I don't understand and try to smash it??.. that made me laugh.. I hope it was meant to be funny.. if not, you just reduced me to a two year old trying to get some candy out of a container with a very tight lid.. actually, either way you reduced me to that two year old, so I guess intentions don't always count for much..

.. well, I would suggest, Casey, should there ever be an objective assessment of this thread in particular (though by whom, I have no idea), that your line of thought would be found to be far more obscure -- obtuse even -- than mine, and that, although the image of a frustrated Violet as a two year old is sort of funny, it doesn't represent my own responses here with anything like veracity.. (where's that barrister when you need him?).. okay, what I will smash down is this here gavel I happen to have (a small token from Lord M.), to punctuate that last point..

.. need to get some work done.. I slept in today.. but at least that first headache I was trying to sleep off has now passed..

.. oh yes, I said Danish.. I mean about Sissel.. wasn't sure what her nationality is, but whatever it is, her accent started showing on that number.. it's a very difficult song to get right.. it seems to be set up that way.. and the audience knows this.. they seem always to be anticipating failure.. (I even heard a few boos I thought in the audience since she really didn't pull it off).. why a singer would subject herself to this, I'm not sure.. I guess it's sort of like the Olympic event of singing.. anyway, she's very brave, I can say that much..

'til later, C.,
v i o l e t.. in need of her first morning tea..

[Casey Butler]

You took my "smash" out of context, which context has nothing to do with here. It's a fire can't burn ashes, beating a dead horse sort of smashing. I know what it feels like. I'm on this side of the screen. That should straighten out the casual reader.

Sissel is from Texas, obviously, her accent suggests the El Paso area, or somewhere along the Mexican border - the Rio Grande. What I love about that video (besides her mistake singing that particular song and braving it through anyway), is the priceless expression on that player's face as he listens. No pose there...

See if you can spot the lyrical omission in the following... Ah, she is bold.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVZRpNWR6fM

Casey

[Violet]

.. okay, Bergen, the town shown at the end of the music video you posted.. (as Sissel's hometown).. is Norway, apparently.. so at least I was on the right portion of the right continent (!).. so I'll passo on El Paso, senor.. (how do you get the snake thingy over the Spanish 'n,' by the way?.. (another question for Manna, no doubt, who seems to have vamooshed from the premises).. you know, speaking of places of origin, I always thought you were Australian.. are you?.. if not, I wonder how I got that impression..

.. Sissel wise, I did not spot the lyrical omission.. maybe you can let me in on that.. she is quite a bit younger here, it looks like, and just so charming and open seeming.. it was the perfect song choice for her I think, especially at that young age..

.. okay.. back to what I should be doing..
v i o l e t...