I’ve been a Beatles fan since I first discovered the Fab Four in High School-about ten years after the band broke up. I bought reissues of all their albums and once in a while in a thrift store I would find an album I had never seen before. These unknown albums would often have the usual tracks of an LP I was familiar with, but with new cover art. Once in a while they had songs I had never heard of either. These, of course, were bootleg albums-records cranked out by companies that didn’t have the rights to release them…
Category: random thoughts
First Day of Fall 2008-Here at last
It’s been a long hot summer and now it is finially the first day of fall. The autumnal equinox marks the first day of the season of autumn. On the date of an equinox, the Sun is above the equator and night and day are of approximately equal length. For most of us the first day of fall is less about equinox and more about cooling off. There are also those Charlie Brown type memories of jumping in mounds of leaves and making a wonderful mess of a once clean area. Of course, you need good trees for the right…
Top Ten I Doser Doses
I Doser is a program that creates brainwave synchronization through the use of binaural beats with the goal of achieving altered states of consciousness without the use of drugs. I Doser is one of my favorite programs for easily achieving altered states of consciousness. I-Doser is a binaural brainwave stimulator that claims to give you a drug like high without the dangers of taking drugs. I have never been a big fan of drugs, so I can’t attest as to whether or not these doses-as I Doser calls is music tracks- make you feel like your on Ecstasy or Mescaline-but…
Books that make me want to write
I don’t have a list of these books, but I should. When I was in the seventh grade, I was given a stack of old sci fi mags that had a profound effect on me. They were poorly written, or so I thought-I could do better than that. I believe that it is this very thought that drives all writers to start writing. I can do better than that. But once you start doing so serious reading, you find a lot of stuff that you can’t do better than-Moby Dick springs to mind, and Pride and Prejudice. But even the…
Altered States of Consciousness Without Drugs
Altered State of Consciousness-any of various states of awareness (as dreaming sleep, a drug-induced hallucinogenic state, or a trance) that deviate from and are usually clearly demarcated from ordinary waking consciousness. A friend of mine uses Photoshop to make Mandala, he makes one or two a day. They have a fractal type quality to them, and if you stare at them they are supposed to clear your mind and help you achieve an altered state of consciousness. The ancient Greeks had the Temple of Delphi, where it is believed there was a large brass pot of water, which those wishing…
Top Ten Team Name Generators
Got a Team but don’t have a Name for it? Seems to be a pretty common problem. Or at least the people making programs to generate team names seem to think it’s a gap that needs to be filled. After all, who could think up something like the Wicked Funny Two-Tailed Swallowtails all on their own? Bowling team names, fantasy football team names, race car team names, sports team names, even if you don’t really need a team name, these are kind of fun to play around with. Nothing inspires a team like a good random team name. So here’s…
A Slight Trick of The Mind by Mitch Cullin
The Sherlock Holmes we met in A Slight Trick of The Mind is a 93 year man that walks with two canes and seems to be losing what is left of his once great mind. It is a sad tale that is soaked with nostalgia for the days gone by when Holmes could solve a crime just by looking at the mud on a shoe’s heel or listening to the twang of an accent. Holnes still cares for bees and still roams around the world. He visits the site of the Hiroshima Nuclear Attack and marvels at the steel skeleton…
A single rose can be my garden. . .
Leo Buscalia was a happy loud mouth that liked to state the bleeding obvious and make it sound like a blinding revelation. He was fun to listen to, his books can’t touch the power of his speaking. I only saw him on TV, but he was fun to watch. Leo Buscalia told a story about a young woman in one of his classes. She kills herself one night when her boyfriend neglects to call her. It’s a standard sad and poignant story. But Leo takes it to the next logical step, he asks: What could she have done, besides killing…
George Hurrell thoughts
George Hurrell is most famous for taking Hollywood Style Glamor shots in the 30s and 40s. He never met a light he didn’t like and his images are full of hair lights, kickers, background lights, and multiple key and fill lights. His stuff is just amazing. I read somewhere that he took the publicity photos for the pilot of Star Trek with William Shatner seen here. It has all the classic Hurrell touches of strong light and shadow control, as well as a pretty blurred background. Of course, Hurrell was not the only guy shooting this stuff and his style…
Lift that barge, tote that bail
My dear sainted mother was a big fan of musicals of all forms and sizes. As a result I grew up watching TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection: Broadway Musicals (Show Boat / Annie Get Your Gun / Kiss Me Kate / Seven Brides for Seven Brothers) and so and so forth. I also got to see such turkeys as The Little Prince and Paint Your Wagon. The last new musical I watched and really loved was Victor/Victoria and that was twenty-five years ago. I might have liked All That Jazz, if they had hired someone who could sing or act…