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Celebration Rally at Hinkle Fieldhouse - More The Indianapolis Star Galleries

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Tom Wright, a builder near San Diego has come up with a fun use for bumper cars. This former Long Beach Pike amusement park Bumper car (one of 7 ) were in a trash heap. He rescued them and created these little fantasy vehicles. They were originally powered by Harley motors but they rattled like heck and Tom replaced them with Honda or Kawasaki 750's and a couple have been measured as capable of 160 MPH, which is terrifyingly fast in machines with such a short wheelbase.

Funny!

Continuing with subject of the Monk book I am reading this video was recorded in 1957. Monk was part of a ten part TV series on CBS called The seven lively arts. This episode, The Sound of Jazz presented all of the top jazz artists at the time. As you can see ,Count Basie is sitting directly in front of the piano enthralled with Monks playing . Monk appears to be cool about the situation but in the book the author states that later he was furious, even saying the next time he saw Count Basie playing he would do the same to him! Funny how things are not always as they seem!

Connection

I have made a few posts about being really connected with something from the past . Most of the time it has occurred while reading a book . This time it is this posted sign. It is located in an area called Wa'a Wa'a. The first time I saw it (there are actually 2 signs) I was intrigued. The coast road ,a rough two lane road, comes to a point where it becomes unpaved . For various reasons it was never improved . It runs through an area that is off the grid and really not developed much. It is not difficult to imagine this junglish cool place is Hawaii as it was a few centuries ago . Then ,there were divisions of land called ahupua'a, usually extending from the uplands to the sea . These two signs then ,facing opposite directions about a quater mile apart,
have written on them an Hawaiian chant for safe passage through the ahupua'a .
Another solid connection to History

Beautiful

I lived in San Francisco for 26 years before moving to Hawaii. I have never seen this video before and the way it combines the two places now seems spooky to me !

tear jerker

Pineapples

Pineapple central (ours at least) Almost every plant in this photo has a young fruit growing on it.
They are all weeded and fertilized(thanks in part to our recent guest Eileen) With any luck we will have another good crop this summer.

Genius

Getting back to Thelonious Monk and the current book I am reading, The subject of humor in his music was introduced.
Monks music has always made me chuckle. I never understood why , but with just a couple of sentences the author brought me closer.

"His chords often elicited chuckles from the audience,but Monk didn't mind.He later remarked
" Anything that's very good will make
you laugh in admiration ,so it must be humor to make you laugh---or maybe it makes you laugh in surprise because it knocks you out." Humorous, but no less serious" .

This humor is evident in the video above. The tune is the standard Tea for Two. It certainly"knocks me out"
It is crazy when compared to a standard version and although I can barely figure out what he is doing, the harmonics and rhythmic aspects
of it make me laugh! Maybe I should not try to understand it but Just enjoy his Genius

Good Stuff

Sharon and I went to our semi annual community pot luck picnic today.
A turnout of about 90 produced some excellent dishes.
In addition, a small group of volunteers cooked turkey and pork in an Emu. This is a traditional Hawaiian method of cooking in a pit in the ground( the emu) . A wood fire is built which heats rocks . The firewood is removed leaving the rocks to cook food
that is usually wrapped in plant leaves .
This makes everything really moist. It must cook for hours and usually takes all night. Good food and time spent with neighbors. Good Stuff!

The excerpt is the beginning of Chapter 6. Mintons is the club where Monk began his accent to greatness. I am starting to see how some of the quirky aspects of Monk developed! More later.

My dad the PIano player!

Just started this and its going to be very enjoyable. Back with more information later.

the way it feels sometimes

Circus Cat

While I was reading this afternoon I looked over and noticed the contorted position of our cat Nani. Maybe she is practicing to run off and join the Circus.

Tradition

On Christmas morning a couple of years ago when all of the presents were unwrapped I put all of the paper in an empty box. Little did I know that was the beginning of a small tradition. My cat Harlich decided he liked to lie in it so I left it there. Every time I thought about discarding it he was in it. So each time I left it again. This went on long after the tree and decorations were gone and before I knew it Christmas had rolled around again. At that point I simply removed the old paper and replaced it with that years wrappings. This year I replaced the paper and gave him a new box . As you can see he is pleased!

An all time favorite of mine!

Christmas theme

Continuing my Christmas theme here is a photo of a little village I got from my grandmother years ago. As a kid I used to help her set it up every year. I made such a fuss over it that she eventually gave it to me. I have been married for 38years and we have set it up every Christmas. It has to be 60 years old now but I still get a kick out of seeing it each year. I suppose that is one of the little things Christmas is all about.

Ornaments

Now that our Christmas tree is up again I though it might be interesting to compare it to last years . Although the trees vary in size and shape they basically are the same every year. It is the ornaments that do this. Take a look ! This years tree is on the right.

Recovery

We put up our Christmas tree up today and for me it was a real kick. I spent an hour or so putting the lights on. When I was finally finished and was fine tuning , trying to make all of them well spaced and visible, I accidentally cut one of the strands in two with my pruners. Of course the lights were plugged in at the time and with a dramatic pop and flash all 75 of them went off. I was not hurt (except my pride) but sat down stunned. In all of my years doing this I have never done anything like that .Thank goodness it wasn't a total disaster . After I recovered (emotionally) ,I removed the damaged set, replaced the fuses in the other two and put another set in. As always the tree turned out great ! I have always said it is all in the recovery!