Sailing, of a sort

This past Saturday, my family was invited by a dear friend to spend Saturday afternoon sailing on a local lake. He had rented a temporary slip at the lake's marina, allowing him to sail for multiple days on this holiday weekend without having to launch and trailer the boat multiple times. As our time to join him approached, I could tell that it would not be a great day for sailing, as the wind was much calmer than forecast. What should have been a day of sailing at or near the boat's hull speed was replaced with much floating and barely enough steerageway to control the boat.

However, I was struck by how enjoyable the day was, even though the wind let us down. For someone such as myself, who is head over heels in love with the ancient craft of sailing, I had anticipated that I would spend the afternoon being greatly frustrated. And I was pleasantly surprised to find that the other aspects of the day were sufficient in of themselves, resulting in a wonderful afternoon.

What aspects? I was out on a lake with my precious family, and a very good friend. I was not at work, nor at any of my other myriad responsibilities. The sun was shining, but it was not overbearingly hot. Even with the motor being used, the ride was enjoyable: pleasant and relaxing. I took advantage of the lack of need for trimming sails or any of the other work involved in sailing, and stretched my legs out and fell into a delightful stupor of relaxation. I reveled in watching the joy of my boys as they floated along in our 'wake' while hanging onto a floating fender.

All in all, I was extremely relaxed and pleasantly tired by the day's end. The kind of tired that one gets from a good day spent outdoors. The moral of this little story? I guess it's that a day, whether a normal day or a holiday, is what you make of it. It's an old fisherman's cliche that "the worst day fishing is better than the best day working".... and it applies to sailors as well!

(Full disclosure: I had the idea for this post *before* we decided to pay our friend for another night of the slip so that we could come back on Monday. But Monday was much better sailing- 9.5 knots and much heeling)

Lord of the Rings: Book IV, Chap V "The Window on the West"

Whenever I re-read this chapter, my dismay at the egregiousness of Jackson, Walsh, Boyens et al continues to grow, like mushrooms flourishing in Farmer Maggot's fields in a good year like 1420.  I love the LOTR movies very deeply, and consider the period around their genesis and revelation to be one of the most exciting times of my adult life; still I have never hidden my intense dislike of the screenwriters' treatment of the character of Faramir.  And this is only driven home by further perusal of the "primary source", Faramir as penned by The Professor himself, revealed in all his Numenorean dignity in the chapter "The Window on the West".

Stories are hung upon their characters, and not on the plot as most like to think.  Rather, the plot is similar to a roof that rests upon the load-bearing columns of characters;  if the characters are weak, the plot cannot be much more than a garden trellis, suitable for only holding a few pleasant vines, but devoid of great substance and weight.  Strong characters, however, are like the massive stone columns of Dwarrowdelf, the great hall of Khazad-dum, and the majesty of the columns and of the great arching roof they help support can take one's breath away, leaving one in awe of the grand sweeping story that is built upon its characters.

When the screenwriters of LOTR changed the fundamentals of the Faramir storyline, they did alter the plot, and this in of itself was enough to give me dismay.  The whole point of Gandalf's design was that the Ring would creep in secret toward Mordor, in the hands of a hobbit, unknown to the Dark Lord.  This concept was obliterated by the movie's script, which had Frodo in Osgiliath, where he had been dragged by Faramir, standing on a tall parapet a few feet in front of a winged Nazgul, holding the Ring aloft in the air.  Not exactly my definition of "secret".

But even with this shattering of one of the primary threads of Tolkien's tale, the plot alteration of the Faramir portion of the story is a lesser charge in the indictment, for it is the fundamental butchering of Faramir's character that truly grieves the prosecution.  When one reads "The Window on the West", we get a poignant picture, painted by Tolkien, of a noble man of a noble race, a man in whom the blood of Numenor runs strong;  a man unlike his brother Boromir, despite their similarities, and one not swayed by the siren temptations of power and glory.

Let us delve into the character of Faramir, using the following as our palantir to see into the man of Numenor:

• "...but I do not love the sword for its brightness, nor the arrow for its sharpness, nor the warrior for his glory.  I love only that which they defend; the city of the men of Numenor; and I would have her loved for her memory, her ancientry, her beauty, and her present wisdom.  Not feared, save as men may fear the dignity of a man, old and wise."


• "But fear no more!  I would not take this thing, if it lay by the highway.  Not were Minas Tirith falling in ruin and I alone could save her, so, using the weapon of the Dark Lord for her good and my glory.  No, I do not wish for such triumphs, Frodo son of Drogo."


• [after learning of the Ring by the wayward mouth of Sam]  "We are truth-speakers, we men of Gondor.  We boast seldom, and then perform, or die in the attempt.  Not if I found it on the highway would I take it I said.  Even if I were such a man as to desire this thing, and even though I knew not clearly what this thing was when I spoke, still I should take those words as a vow, and be held by them"


• "Ah well, sir, " said Sam, "you said my master had an elvish air; and that was good and true.  But I can say this:  you have an air too, sir, that reminds me of, of --well, Gandalf, of wizards."  "Maybe," said Faramir.  "Maybe you discern from far away the air of Numenor. "

These examples are but a sampling of the many ways in which Tolkien portrayed Faramir as the rare kind of man that can resist the lure of power, and thus the lure of the Ring.  We are left with the impression that, had Faramir been the one who cut the ring from Sauron's hand, he would have tossed it into the fire at Elrond's suggestion, without hesitation and without delay.

Peter Jackson was quoted at one point during the making of the movies, saying in essence that they had built up this idea that men were weak, and could not resist the power of the Ring, and that it would have confused moviegoers if this one man had been able to do so-- that it would have been inconsistent.  And that is exactly what Tolkien intended!  Faramir was meant to be inconsistent.  He was meant to be the kind of man who could and would resist the temptation to seize the Ring and use it for his own purposes.  He was meant to be a man in whom we could "detect the air of Numenor".

And when the screenwriters changed that, they reduced the dignified stone pillar of Faramir to a mere plank of wood, and one wing of the great house that Tolkien built, this magnificent saga, collapsed on them.

The need for intervention & random gym thoughts on Thanksgiving morning...

So, it's Thanksgiving morning, and where did I go?  The gym!  Normal people are sleeping in and still in their jammies, drinking something warm and getting ready to watch the Macy's parade.   Not me, I'm going to the gym... this workout stuff has become an ingrained part of my life.  Maybe borderline obsessive;  I might need an intervention!  No one will believe that though, because they all respond "nothing wrong with that", or "good for you!"  :)

I guess it's a healthy addiction, eh?  I can live with that.  Literally.  Much longer.  And in addition to just being so darned good for you, the gym is fascinating place to people watch and observe random stuff.  (Standard disclaimer:  I am not talking about simply about girl-ogling when I say "people watch")

Random stuff from the gym over the past few months:

• At one of my gyms that I frequent, there is a bevy of signs around the pool & hot tub area.  These things are ripe for funny observations:   A big sign that says "no animals in the pool area".   Um... the only animals allowed in the entire gym are guide dogs for the blind.  So, let's say a blind person does come to the gym, and makes their way back to the pool area.  How are they going to know that Rover can't come in?


• Another one of the signs says to not use the hot tub if it is over 104 degrees.  One of these days, I'm going to wait until a staff member happens to be in there, and go over and stick my finger in the water, shake my head, and mutter "Feels like 104.1 degrees, guess I can't sit in it today!"  I don't know about you, but a pool thermometer is not one of the things I normally carry in my gym bag....


• I was standing on the catwalk of my favorite gym the other day... there is a spot there that is hit by 2 large fans, so you can cool off a tad, and it has a great view through the huge pyramid of glass that decorates the front of the building.  So, I saw a guy pull up in spotless black BMW, get out and walk inside.  He looked the spitting image of the corporate executive type, down to the mustard-colored ball cap from a local country club.  Except for one thing- the faded tshirt he had on, a t-shirt adorned with the visage of Bob Marley.  Not what I expected!


• I'm going to quit talking to trainers.  Every time I do, they suggest a change, and then my workouts are a bear again.  Stupid trainers :\


• When you see the same folks over and over at a gym, and then someone disappears, you wonder what happened to them.  I have no clue who these people are, what their names might be, nor where they are in their lives.  But I wonder if something happened or is wrong when a regular stops showing....


• One final note... (and this does apply to girl ogling)... Ladies, you do realize it is OK to not be a blonde, right?  Some of the sexiest women in the world have dark hair.   I'm just a-sayin'...

Here's hoping that you and yours have a warm and wonderful Thanksgiving holiday (for my US friends)!

No No NaNoWriMo

Well, I've called No Joy on my first attempt at NaNoWriMo.    I wrote almost 20,000 words on my first try at this, but I learned a valuable lesson:  this is something that I need to plan for, and be mentally ready for...  I can't up and decide on October 29th that "Oh, I think I'll take a whack a it."   Next year, I'll make a better effort.

In the meantime, I'm going to concentrate on posting here in my blog more often, and over the Christmas break, I will be working on my poetry in a big way....

NaNoWriMo is NoMo, but my writing goes on!

I like "American Pie"!!!

The other day, I was listening my favorite local news radio station while driving to work.  The news guys mentioned that it was Don MClean's birthday, and they began to disparage his magnum opus American Pie. Their main complaint was not the content of the song per se, but rather just the length of it.  I believe the phrase was "that song is a beating", and it was just "too long, way too long".

I couldn't help but chuckle about this-- oh how far we have come from the days of minstrels and balladeers.  When one thinks that a work like The Rime of the Ancient Mariner could be performed by a bard or gleeman in High Chant, and just how long that would take... and people used to sit and listen to such, enraptured.

The closest thing we have left to such performances now is classical music, and that is definitely on the wane as well.  (But, to be intellectually honest, it wanes not just from the length of a given sonata or symphony, but from a general divergence of the public from that sort of music altogether...)  And so we live in a world of entertainment now, where the song cannot be too long... "I do not like a long, long song.  It's much too long"

I wonder what would have happened had the minstrel of the Fields of Cormallen stepped forward and begged leave to sing of "Frodo the Nine-Fingered and the Ring of Doom", only to be shouted down with requests for Beyonce.   Thom Merrillin, the brilliant gleeman character from the Wheel of Time series, complains that the folks in the common room only wanted to hear "The Hunt for the Horn" in Common, rather than even Plain Chant or High Chant:  were Thom to be transported via Portal Stone to our world, they would not want to hear it at all, for it would take too long.

As the great Billy Joel said:

Ah, it took me years to write it,
They were the best years of my life.
It was a beautiful song.
But it ran too long.
If you're gonna have a hit,
You gotta make it fit--
So they cut it down to 3:05
I hearby authorize all artists and musicians to write your songs as your muse guides you... regardless of the length.  Make the lays compelling, and hopefully we'll follow along.  Maybe, just maybe, we can put off the day "the <long> music died......."

Why I like "The Killdares"

I've taken a lot of good-natured ribbing from some of my Facebook friends about how I go on and on about my favorite band, The Killdares, so I've decided to take a second and share the reasons that I love this band so much, so that I can silence all my nay-sayers! :p  Given the length of the following, they probably won't read it anyway, but I had fun writing it!

1. Their style is unique, and particularly appealing to me: I have always loved Irish/Celtic music, but I also love rock and roll.  With this band, I can enjoy those two tastes merged together in a way that no other musicians are currently able to accomplish.  In fact, I often feel like a kindred spirit with the band's founder, Tim Smith, because I've read/heard him say several times that he is a child of the 80's and that the founding inspiration of The Killdares was his desire to meld the rock and roll he grew up with in that era with his love of Celtic music.   I've had people tell me that their music "is NOT Celtic", and my response to that is... 'you're correct'.  Their music is hard-edged rock and roll, with Celtic themes interwoven into the music.  It's a combination that the Killdares specialize in, and one that is singularly tasty to my ears!


2. They are very good musicians, and getting better all the time: I have read some reviews of The Killdares from their early period, and some of them remarked on the fact that the band had some room to grow as musicians-- that the rock and roll was a bit simplistic.  That has certainly changed in the last 7 years of the band's history, however... and can probably be marked from the time when Roberta Rast joined the band, and again when Matt Willis brought his pipes to play.  The Killdares are who they are because of the voice of the fiddle and the wail of the Highland bagpipes, and these two musicians infused the band with a steroid shot of musical capability, talent, and creativeness.  Roberta is an elite fiddle mistress, having claimed the 2005 National Grandmaster title, which places her in pretty exclusive company.  Matt brings a lifetime of love with the bagpipes, along with a great understanding of how to meld this finicky instrument, which is achromatic and pretty much limited to one key, into the band's music in an aesthetically appealing way.  There is a marked and distinct difference in the quality of the last two albums that the band has cut, which are the only two that feature most of its current members.  The recent addition of Troy Gallaher as bass guitarist has also been a rousing success-- Tim remarked in a recent post of the "Dare Diary" that he has been able to flex his creative muscles more as a drummer during the music, due to Troy's skill in driving the beat with his guitar.  Together, these three musicans provide an sublime complement to the excellent lead guitar of Brek Lancaster and the driving drums/vocals of Tim.


3. Their music is infectious, especially live: to introduce oneself to The Killdares via CD only is to do oneself a disservice!  These guys are the ultimate showmen, and that translates to a raucous time when they bid "Farewell to Decorum" and take the stage.  There are many great musicians in the world who play wonderful, elite music...but do not have great stage presence.  I have never been to a Killdares gig that did not fail to engage the audience--rather, they reach out and grab the audience by the throat and haul them into the experience.  I have seen octogenarians and toddlers alike being swept up by the force of a Killdares' performance-- dancing, clapping, toe-tapping, and--yes-- pumping a fist in the air to sing "Hey, Ho, let's go" during the band's signature song, a cover of "Blitzkrieg Bop" by The Ramones.  Matt "The Mad Piper" Willis stalks the stage like some crazed Macbeth musician while Roberta fiddles and charms every single male within the same ZIP code;  Brek thrills with his utter and highly visible joy of playing the guitar, often pairing up with Troy in some good old-fashioned rock-and-roll log banging.   And Tim?  Tim provides the quirky chic of a lead vocalist who's also a drummer, complete with the Celtic soccer kit or Star Wars t-shirts and Animal, the Muppet drummer, perched on the support of one of his new Pearl drums.  (He has eschewed the wearing of kilts due to the seated nature of his instrument..and we thank him!)   Together, they pour their heart out on the stage in honor of their fans and in service to the music.. and the fans know it- they know it in their ears, their feet, their hands, their voices, and their hearts.  I often find myself to be exhausted at the end of one of their concerts, and a quick glance around at the crowd proves instantly that I am not alone in that feeling.


4. They are incredibly family-friendly: There are not many rock-and-roll band shows (other than those of  Christian music bands) that I could allow my young boys to attend, and feel comfortable about the experience.  The Killdares pride themselves on being a band that appeals to all ages, and I have never (let me repeat that.. never) heard them utter an indecent word during one of their concerts.    The Killdares are living proof that modern, popular music does not have to be vulgar or indecent in order to be fantastic.  I wish more musicians would take note of this!


5. They are community-friendly: Tim Smith grew up in Dallas, and his love for his native city and state shows in everything the band does.  Many of their concerts are free to the public, often put on by a city or community as part of a festival or arts weekend or some such.  I do understand that many local bands do these kind of gigs, because that is what is available to them, but it does not take much to notice that The Killdares not only do them for subsistence, but they also relish them.  And nothing shows that more than their annual run at the State Fair of Texas.   5 shows a day for 24 days.... a grueling stretch of musical endurance once dubbed the "Dropped in the Grease Tour" by Roberta Rast.  I personally think the band has risen to the point where they would not need to do the State Fair--the gigs are coming throughout the year now, requests coming from all over the country.  But, in 2009, they returned again, and entries in the Dare Diary show that Tim and his companions are loving the experience once again.  I will be shocked if they ever voluntarily don't do the SF run, and the fact that they do is one of their most endearing qualities.  Back through time immemorial, musicians would come to "fairs" or "gatherings", and perform for the crowds, for the enjoyment of the common folk taking a break from the hard work of life.  The Killdares are carrying forward that tradition in grand style, every year, right across from the Tornado Twisters and the Dog shows!


6. They are part of the "sea change" spreading through the music industry: A couple of years ago, I read a news magazine article about how more and more musicians were eschewing the traditional (modern) path to music "success", but rather plying their art in a far more traditional (ancient) way, taking music back from the industries and returning it to folk roots.  Some of the characteristics of musicians doing this are:  not striving to sign with a major label, but using readily available modern technology to cut and distribute music on their own;  playing numerous gigs in smaller venues allowing them to build relationships with their fans; and using modern technology to enhance those relationships.  The Killdares do all of these things.  In one YouTube documentary that was made about the group, Tim mentions that it's been a real pleasure for the band to be able to do things their own way, and still be successful at it.  To him, that was 'living the dream'.  Speaking as one of their fans, I can attest to how these things make them accessible and human, and not like some remote star on the stage that rakes in the money and cares not a whit for the people in the audience.  I hope that they continue to "do their own thing", remain creatively free, and continue to love playing for the regular people, tweeting with them and sharing their thoughts on the website.

It's no secret to anyone that knows me that I love this band.  Getting to know and like the Killdares' music, as well as The Killdares themselves,  has been a unique experience for me..  I am not by nature a person prone to being a "groupie" of anything, but my wife loves to tease me with a twinkle in her eye as she calls me exactly that!   I just smile and point to the fact that she sings "Hey Ho, let's go!" in the car with the windows down just as loudly as I do, and the boys in the back as well.  Being a Killdares fan is contagious.. and fun.

The Curmudgeon around the corner

A coworker of mine has a phrase that I have adopted as one of my favorites... "Semper Gumby".  Latin (kind of) for "Always flexible".  I've always thought of myself as adaptive, not being set in my ways-- at least not set enough so that the disruption of those ways causes undue consternation.

I have always been good at adapting to any situation in order to get something done, and I've not noticed any change there.  I have, however, noticed a recent tendency to get flustered if one of my daily routines goes caddywonky on me.  This seems to be especially true about my morning routine, especially my morning workout.

This morning, I had already had a really bad day before 0600.  I woke up too early, even for me, and could not go back to sleep.  I found out that I had left a pen in the wash, ruining 2 good work shirts and 2 out of my three favorite soccer tshirts.  I fell behind in my schedule and had to rush to the gym.  And then, when I got to the gym I realized that I had forgotten to bring my mp3 player, my heart monitor watch/receiver's battery was dead, and I also forgotten the index card which has that day's workout info.  

For some reason, these last three things threw me for a loop.  I **did not** want to do my weight workout without my music, and it affected me so that I struggled with the workout much more than I should have.  I should not have been discombobulated so much by these relatively unimportant happenstances, but I was.

And so, I have to examine myself and wonder why-- am I getting more set in my ways as I age?  Have I become so schedule-oriented and organized that I cannot handle such minor glitches in my daily life?  Is the Curmudgeon in me just around the corner of life?

I am going to enroll in a Krav Maga course soon, and one of the things that one must do in combat or martial arts is to maintain a calm, capable demeanor, ready to scan, decide and adjust to whatever threat comes along. 

I guess I better start working on doing just exactly that in my personal life and its routines....