one of those "BING" moments

So I'm talking to mom about Debussy and re-educating her on impressionist music, as I was listening to Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune at the time she IM'ed me, and my brain connected the dots so to speak to recognizing that that style of music was used quite a bit in Disney's Bambi in between the songs, particularly early on (this I realized after seeing bits of the movie again on the new DVD).

So today, my brain connected the last dot as to WHY Disney's people chose to compose music inspired by that piece and style for Bambi - it thought of the title: Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune is French for Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun. The music was written with a deer in mind from the start.

Go fig.

Update: It seems that the mythological faun was more the influence of the original piece, but then again, Disney's artists are known to play with words and meanings when letting known music influence their work. ;-)

Ban Fire Extinguishers - they promote BAD behaviour!

Memoirs of a Skepchick » Just say no to fire extinguishers (and premarital sex):

I know my position on this may be a little controversial, but I think it’s important to have an open and honest debate about the subject. Here we go.

I am anti-fire extinguisher.

Wait, don’t leave yet. Hear me out.

Before the invention of the fire extinguisher in 1816, people used sensible fire safety precautions. They did not leave oily rags piled in buckets next to the ashtray. They did not set their farts on fire. And they always kept their curtains far away from heating devices.

After the invention of the fire extinguisher, all hell broke loose. It didn’t take long for games such as “Tie a Lit Sparkler to the Cat” and “Flaming Monopoly” to explode — literally and metaphorically — in popularity all over the country. People were just looking for a license to burn, and they found it in the fire extinguisher.

Its sarcasm, of course. She explains later that this argument, that having the cure promotes suppposedly bad behaviour, is precisely the argument the right-wing religious nutballs are making in keeping HPV off the market.

I wonder if when they find a cure for AIDS/HIV (granted, some of them still refuse to acknowledge that HIV causes AIDS...but those same idiots probably still call it the "gay plague" anyways), the right-wing nutcases will try to ban that as well.

Stop HR 2679

Dispatches from the Culture Wars: Stop H.R.2679:

The House Judiciary Committee held hearings yesterday on HR 2679, the "Public Expression of Religion Act of 2005." This bill is being pushed heavily by the religious right because it would prohibit the awarding of legal fees to successful plaintiffs in establishment clause cases. Currently, if you sue the government for a constitutional violation and are successful - if the court agrees that the government has acted unconstitutionally - the judge, at his or her discretion, may order the agency that violated the constitution to pay reasonable legal fees for the other side. This is mandated in Federal law under 42 U.S.C. § 1988. HR 2679 would leave that in place, but exempt only one type of lawsuit from that rule - lawsuits based on establishment clause grounds.

behold the power of BEER

So I'm at the dominion beer fest with this "82%" chance of rain hanging over us and the day went without a hitch so we KNOW it's going to rain tonite and ruin everything and the clouds are already thickening in fairfax, tysons, manassas, and yada yada yada.

And it didn't rain.

Rule #3: Beer is good.

(btw, Rule #1: Don't take shit from inanimate objects, and Rule #2: Don't take shit from anything else. -- Marc Lamb, Foggy Bottom and Ablemarle Morris musician -- and with stoplights, I keep violating rule #1.  *sigh*)

Breweries represented: Dominion (ok, well, duh), Cap City, Clipper City, Troegs, Stone (only Bastard), Sierra Nevada, Victory, Sam Adams/Boston, Charleston (SC), at least 3 from Colorado, and too many others I can't recall, but go see the web site.

My Tuppers Hop Pocket was poured and served to me by Bob Tupper himself.  He's still a MDRF regular visitor and he actually knew who "Cat & The Fiddle" was!  (be afraid, thatliardesmond - we have fans in high places ;-) )

I made the other Stone Brewery fans jealous by saying I'd actually been to their new brewery in Escondito. :D

I also thanked the owner of Clipper City for his support of Team Wench's Privateer Feast.

If Beer retains the power to hold off the worst of the rains up here, I'll go back tomorrow.

on a sad note...

For those who hadn't heard, Harriet, a Galapogos tortoise living in a zoo in Australia, died at the age of 176.  Though records are incomplete, we're pretty sure it was captured by Mr. Darwin himself during his infamous travels on the Beagle all those years ago when he was formulating the, well, you know...

She was the oldest captured tortoise on record.  The oldest wild yet tagged tortoise died just a couple of months ago.

Fortunately, conservation efforts seemed to have managed to work on these ancient, if slow, beasts.  Before livestock was imported to the region, tortoises were the main meat supply, and they were nearly hunted to extinction by 1890 when protection laws were put into place (in the aftermath of the realization that they'd "processed" the Great Awk to extinction a few years earlier).