Spring

The Mummers' Dance
By Loreena McKennitt

YouTube Comments: "The video is a re-enactment of a vanishing custom held each St Stephens day in rural parts of Ireland where local musicians visited each family in the area and spent an hour or two playing music before moving to the next family.That's how country folk in Ireland entertained themselves in those bye gone days before the advent of television etc etc."



wiki
songfacts
Nature with Lyrics (Same song, different YouTube video.)

"When in the springtime of the year
When the trees are crowned with leaves
When the ash and oak, and the birch and yew
Are dressed in ribbons fair..."




Image Creation Notes:
Gradients with Buffet Script Font as Selection, Add Drop Shadow
Filter Factory Q Gravity Blossom

Muscle Cars Forever

I don't get US postal stamps very often, but was pleasantly surprised recently at the selection.
The Muscle Car stamps are fabulous.



Muscle Cars (Forever)

1969 Dodge Charger Daytona
1966 Pontiac GTO
1967 Shelby GT-500
1970 Chevelle SS
1970 Plymouth Hemi 'Cuda

Motortrend article

(Googling images will get you more large size pictures of these car stamps.)

I also liked the Bonsai stamps but they seem difficult to get locally now.



Bonsai (Forever)

Sierra juniper in semi-cascade style
Trident maple in informal upright style
Black pine in formal upright style
Azalea plant in multiple-trunk style
Banyan in cascade style

Flowers Become Human

I discovered an interesting public domain book, called Flowers Personified.
It's an illustrated story about flowers taking on human form.
It is easy to find information on it as a google search shows several results.
I think some have bought the old printed books and have the illustration plates and sell the prints.
I've been combining the French version images with the English version text and creating an ebook out of it. I find comparing and converting some of the language interesting. I love the flower illustrations.

1867 French version:
Volume 1
Volume 2
The images are good, if you download the zip file.






1849 English version
One volume that includes Botany and Horticulture sections.
The images pretty much suck in the pdf file.
It also has some missing sections.
Some sections are in a different order than the French version.
It takes quite a bit of work and editing to create a good ebook out of this.
I'm working on it in Microsoft Word now, but might eventually create an epub.
I use google translate to convert some of the French titles.
Import the French version 1st page of each section into English version for side-by-side comparison.
And then of course, import the beautiful illustrations.




Illustrated by J. J. Grandville
Introduction by Alphonse Karr
Text by Taxile Delord
Translated by Nehemiah Cleaveland

Jean Ignace Isidore Gérard
(b. 13 Sep 1803 -d. 17 Mar 1847)
Pseudonym J. J. Grandville
French caricaturist
(Grandville was his grandparents' professional stage name.)

Perks

Of recent movies I've watched lately, the one that stands out, is
Perks of Being a Wallflower.
DVD release was 12Feb2013.

Book By:
Stephen Chbosky

Music:
List

My Picks:
Heroes, Wallflowers version.
We're on Our Way, by Radical Face
Could It Be Another Change, by The Samples

Similar Font (Free):
NeoBulletin Trash



Trivia Note:
Empire in my Mind, theme song to The Guardian TV show, is by the Wallflowers.

Trailer:
Official Trailer #1



Quote:
Charlie's last letter
with Tunnel song (David Bowie - Heroes)

I don't know if I will have the time to write any more letters because I might be too busy trying to participate.

So, if this does end up being the last letter, I just want you to know that I was in a bad place before I started high school. And you helped me.

Even if you didn't know what I was talking about. Or know someone who's gone through it. It made me not feel alone.

Because I know there are people who say all of these things don't happen.

And there are people who forget what it's like to be 16 when they turn 17.

I know these will all be stories someday.
And our pictures will become old photographs.
And we'll all become somebody's mom or dad.

But right NOW,

these moments are not stories.

This is happening.
I am here.
And I am looking at her.
And she is so beautiful.

I can see it.
This one moment when you know you're not a sad story.

You are ALIVE.

And as you stand up and see the lights on buildings and everything that makes you wonder.
And you're listening to that song on that drive with the people you love most in this world.
And in this moment, I swear...

we are INFINITE.

Piece of Forever

A nod to Breaking Dawn 2 movie DVD release on 2Mar13.



Heart of Stone, by IKO

A Thousand Years, by Christina Perri
(Uploaded on Oct 26, 2011.)

Soundtrack

Stillness

Another iTunes Store song word search.
In The Stillness,
By Liquid Mind
VII Reflection Album 2004

Better Days

It's been like a barren desert for music lately.
OK.
Search the iTunes Store for songs with a certain word or phrase.
I tried "Better Days."
See if I can find something *new* that I've never heard before.
Too bad I can't refine it down to genre also.

(The *not* new big obvious popular one to me is:
Better Days, by Goo Goo Dolls.
Eddie Vedder previously.)



For NEW, I came up with:
Better Days To Come
By Lee Starr a 22 year old singer-songwriter from Texarkana, Arkansas.
Published on Jun 24, 2012
Hometown Blue Debut Album
(Country genre is usually not my choice.)
Even has the lyrics, thank you very much.

Lyrics:
Well I am stuck inside the walls of a lonesome town
But I dare not step out into the water, for fear that I might drown
Yeah I am stuck inside a place I have always been
But every time I leave, I end up right back here again

So I'll ride, yeah I'll ride all night
and I'll glide, on an airplane
Can't stop the race, I'm on a chase
for better days to come

So I'll run out into the world in my youthful haste
and do my best to weather the storm and find my place
Yeah, pedal to the floor and worries to the wind
Gonna leave this lonesome town and not look back again

So I'll ride, Yeah I'll ride all night
and I'll glide, on an airplane flight
Won't stop the race, I'm on a chase
for better days

Bridge:

There are better days to come because my life has just begun
My feet are swift, I'm early in the race
and when I look back on all my hard times come and gone
I'll be glad I never stopped the chase, yeah, never stop the chase

I am stuck inside the walls of a lonesome town
Yeah I am stuck inside the walls of a lonesome town...