Where is my left foot?

The Impediments w/Special Guest Kramer:

Susan’s sister’s Meade was set up before sundown this evening, and a careful sighting on the western horizon reveals yesterday’s bizarre lights to be Venus plus atmospheric anomalies.

The 6mb compressed version:

I returned home with our evening victuals from Señor Café when…

I returned from picking up dinner immediately after sunset this evening and noticed low in the western sky an illuminated object which I initially suspected was a planet or a satellite reflecting light from the sun. To the naked eye the object was approximately as bright as Venus would be. I noticed that no other stars were visible yet, and that the object was slightly to the south of where the sun had set (in other words WSW). I thought it was odd that it would reflect light toward me if it were between me and the sun. I went and got my camera, a Panasonic FZ5. I shot some shots with a normal exposure:

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I then shot 2:41 of 320×240 video on the camera with the same exposure setting:

http://205.244.202.158/P1090301.MOV

Pardon the size (72mb), I did not further compress the video from the original. I did notice the red and green flashing while shooting the video, but attributed it to the low pixel res of the viewfinder.

I then began stopping down to capture more detail in the object if possible and reduce glare. The first few were too dark, but at

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I hit the right exposure (F3.2, 1/40 sec. exposure) and shot some shots in burst mode. Some are clear, some are blurred:

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All shots are cropped to 1280×1024 from 2560×1920 with the object centered in the frame, but they are not resized.

(Throughout the white balance was set on the “sunlight” setting.)

I then went inside and ate dinner with the family. My wife watched the video after dinner and confirmed that it was “strange”.

At Mom’s house, with Granny…

The moody beach…

Today is the first sunny day in…well, a long time. The wind from the southeast has abated, it is cooler, and the chairs, tables and canopy from the 1st Annual Miniature Rock Festival will have a chance to dry out and be stowed or returned to their owners.

While Adele had her piano lesson, Henry and I visited the reopened Young Circle Park, now “The Arts Park”.

Watching the cloudy skies tonight, only one stellar body was visible. The atmosphere was doing strange things to the light, making it look as if things were emerging from the object.

I have been appointed to the City of Hollywood’s “Green Team”, an advisory committee designed to provide the city with information about environmentally preferable purchasing choices. Oh yes, I did apply, they didn’t pick me out of the blue!

Tomorrow is the big party, the First Annual Miniature Rock Festival. $150 worth of snacks were purchased today and paid for by the other members of the band, in appreciation of Susan and I providing the venue.

Adele’s school holiday performance was very enjoyable, her class doing a couple of ’40s numbers, including “Chattanooga Choo Choo”.

This is from here:

“A Crafty has sent an e-letter: life is hard, how they deal with it is not as they wish it to be, they are concerned what others think of them. Much like the rest of us, then. My reply…

we each do what we can, and do what we need to do to maintain ourselves. where this is not ideal, but not destructive, then let us acknowledge the situation as it is, without excuse but without destructive guilt. this is what it is: it is not ideal, but it is the best we can presently do.

my very best to you for the Christmas season, which has its own power & blessing.“

Happy Holidays from The Stocks of Hollywood, Florida, USA

I got this in my inbox this morning from Robert E. Lee Jr. High School graduate and refugee William Fricks “Billy” Taylor currently of Los Angeles, California, USA:

Great foto.

AP Press notes **Shortly after this foto was taken Miami immigration officials and Interpol politely escorted this family into a van for deportation back to Kosovo.** (the makeshift raft made of milkjugs,soviet made slacks and imported greek wig boxes is on the dock in the background) The husband escaped and was last seen running into a florida swamp off interstate 95 wearing only an American Flag. (2 tasers shots and an animal tranquilizing dart(on loan from Miami Serpenterium) failed to to take him down.) His name is Amir Miraj. a Yugoslavian Podiatrist.

Send Billy your holiday photo, maybe he’ll write a caption for you. (misterfonic at hotmail dot com).

This morning I am installing our childrens’ swing set, purchased from an acquaintance who moved away for $100, dug up and carted around by moi.

…just like everything else

Susan and I went up to Boca Raton last night to see Dweezil Zappa and his band of Zappa alumni and non-alumni play at the lovely Mizner Park Amphitheater. The gentleman next to us had flown in from Boston to see the set, having seen the group in July, and having been impressed enough to buy major plane fare to see the group again. Susan bought us the tickets, her desire being to see Peaches En Regalia played live, and it was. By the end of the show I was past astonished, and into disbelief, at how one could learn the amount and complexity of material that was presented, without any sheet music visible on the stage. Added to this was the discovery that Dweezil had learned guitar parts never intended for guitar, but mainly for keyboards or tuned percussion, and was playing them. A particular highlight of the show was “Montana”, not one of my favorites on record, but live, with Napolean Murphy Brock on vocals and shenanigans, it was remarkable. The band was as tight as Dick’s hatband, and included guest appearances by Steve Vai and Terry Bozzio. Dweezil was the hero of the performance, channeling his father’s guitar sounds, and perhaps bettering him in the chops department, playing things that even elicited a “well…that was impressive” from the often noodle-sensitive wife next to me.

Chick to Dude ration = 1-10. Reefer smell = often. Audience cell phone aloft = occasional. Standing ovation = frequent.

On the drive home a further examination of the idea: that even if I ever wanted to play like the musicians on that stage, I would not have been able to — not only the playing, but the attention required to navigate the parts. It is beyond me. A musician often holds out the last card of “well, I could do that if I wanted to”, and reaching the point of letting go of that, and saying, “no, I really couldn’t”, is tremendously liberating and also humbling, and allows an opening to the music not possible otherwise. The competition is over.