Star Wars: Uncut Trailer from Casey Pugh on Vimeo.

I loved the first, original, Star Wars. Now the fans are going to remake it… 15 seconds at a time. On this site, fans get to sign up for up to 3 fifteen second scenes. Then they film the scene, upload it to the site, and the scenes are stitched together to make the fan version of Star Wars. Visit the site, Star Wars Uncut, if you would like to participate, or if you are just curious about the outcome, like me.

Saturday, September 19, we got up early and drove over to White Sands National Monument for the White Sands Balloon Festival. Everyone knows about the Albuquerque International Balloon Festival. That  festival will take place starting October 13 in Albuquerque. It is the granddaddy of balloon festivals, and the largest in the world. But, any town in New Mexico that aspires to be a town (not a wide spot in the road) has a balloon festival. At last count, there are 13 in the state. Las Cruces has one (in January) that we have visited in the past.

White Sands NM is a 70 square mile sand dune field of pure white gypsum sand. The monument sits in the Tularosa Basin. The entrance is about 45 miles east of Las Cruces, and 15 miles west of Alamagordo. The monument is in the White Sands Missile Range. The range is a historic testing grounds for the military that stretches over 80 miles (north to south) in the center of New Mexico. At the north end of the range is Trinity Site where the first atomic bomb was detonated in July 1945. Just East of Las Cruces is the launch facility where Wherner Von Braun and other captured German rocket scientist were brought a the end of the war. It was there that the Army launched the captured V2 rockets, and developed some of the first American military rockets. It also has an emergency landing strip for the space shuttle that was used once in 1982.

Anyway, the monument is a beatutiful place and watching multi-colored hot-air balloons launching and flying there sounded interesting. Hot-air balloon launches, by necessity, happen in the early morning. They need that cool morning air to fly. So, we left the house around 5:00 AM to get to White Sands and get settled before the 7:00 AM scheduled launch time. We ran into a little light rain on the way over, and the morning dawned cloudy. But, by 9:00 AM the clouds had mostly burned away. Most hot-air balloon flights are only an hour or less. So, by 10:00 AM most of the balloons were down. While Albuquerque has a huge number of balloons participating, these smaller festivals are more fun for spectators. First, they are usually free (this one cost the Monument entrance fee, $3.) and you can really get close to the balloons, talk with pilots and crews, and in many cases volunteer to help with the launch and recovery. The reward for volunteering is the prospect of a free balloon flight.

 I took over 130 photos while we were there. I managed to pare it down to about 30 photos in my album. Click on this photo for a link to the photo album.

The visitor at the door

This fellow showed up at our front door Tuesday night. I should know better, but the dog wanted out before going to bed. So, I just opened the door and let her out. Then I turned on the light and, surprise, guess who was close to the door? I didn’t kill him, but used my new 3 foot grabber to grab him and move him to the arroyo. I’ve got to be more careful.

He has about 5 rattles. They add rattles every time they molt, or shed their skin. On average they molt twice a year, but in good years when food is plentiful they can molt three times. So, that makes this guy about 2 years old. He was about 2 feet long and was not happy being picked up. Hopefully, he’ll stay away from the house.

While putting together that last post about TV theme songs, I spent qite a bit of time on Youtube looking at clips and trying to find the best quality available to add to the post. It wasn’t always possible to add the best, though. For instance, the best version of Hawaii Five-0 had embedding disabled. Many of the older themes were very poor quality. Fortunately, some networks and rights owners recognize the value of Youtube posts, especially HBO.

Looking at all those clips was a trip down memory lane of course. And as I said, there were some TV shows whose themes I liked that I failed to mention. But, overall, I am happy with my top seven and don’t want to change it. But, if I were to pick one that was my top choice, it would have to be ‘Moonlighting’. I am a big Al Jarreau fan and like his vocal style. Also, the show was really good. Re-watching it reminds me of why Bruce Willis became the star that he is. It also reminds me that Cybil Sheperd is one of my favorite actresses. Most of Ms. Sheperd’s work has been on television. But her acting debut was in the classic 1971 Peter Bogdanovich film ‘The Last Picture Show‘. I watched this film again recently and it has aged really well and is still a great film.

While searching Youtube for clips, I came across the complete vocal version of Moonlighting, apparently played over the closing credits of the show. I don’t remember that they did that, but in any case I liked it. So here is Al Jarreau singing ‘Moonlighting’, the complete song with the closing credits from the show:

I’ve been thinking about doing this post for some time. Then, last week, Peter Hartlaub did a post in the San Francisco Chronicle on this subject. I liked some of Peter’s choices, and think he was off the mark on some others. To recap, Peter’s choices were: ‘Twilight Zone’ (good choice), ‘Six Feet Under’ (OK), ‘The Wild Wild West’ (interesting), ‘The Sopranos’ (excellent), ‘Miami Vice’ (wrong, and I’ll explain why), ‘the Simpsons’ (no comment), and ‘The Six Million Dollar Man’ (hmmm). To be fair, he was looking at it slightly differently than I would, although he was slightly inconsistent. His criteria was that the intro explained what the show is about, and I was looking strictly at the music in general.

Before I start, let me just say that in general, I hate ‘best of’ lists. First, they seem to assume that there are only 5 or 10 or even a hundred of … whatever that are worth remembering. Secondly, every time I make a list, the moment I complete it, I immediately think of at least one and usually several other good choices. So, here is my list, by decade.

The 50’s: TV was in its infancy, and most shows copied movies, using a theme with credits. They also copied the radio voice-over technique. There are a couple of theme’s that stand out. Fred Steiner’s theme for ‘Perry Mason‘ is very memorable. But maybe because that show ran for so long. I really liked the Count Basie written theme for the short-lived Lee Marvin series ‘M-Squad‘. That would be my pick for the 50’s, but you only got about 20 seconds of it during the opening. But the pinnacle of TV music in the 50’s was for ‘Victory at Sea’. This 1952 show was 26 episodes long. The theme was composed by Richard Rodgers and it’s symphonic quality conveys the seriousness of the show’s subject matter.

The 1960’s started off with the 1960 show ‘Route 66‘. Nelson Riddle’s cool jazzy theme was perfect for the show. A lot of good TV themes came out of the 60’s. ‘The Twilight Zone‘ (actually premiered in fall 1959), a lot of cop shows, doctor shows and some memorable themes too. Some of my favorites include Lalo Schifrin’s themes for the detective show ‘Mannix‘ and his theme for ‘Mission Impossible‘, Quincy Jones’ theme for ‘Ironside‘ and Jerry Goldsmith’s theme for ‘The Man from UNCLE’. But if I were to pick one theme that was the ‘gold standard’ of the 60’s it would be this one:

Hawaii Five 0 premiered on September 20, 1968. The introduction with the quick scene cuts and driving beat, drum heavy music became the standard for the next 15 years or so. In fact it is pretty obvious that Michael Mann and Jan Hammer did their best to copy the Five-0 theme for Miami vice.

I seem to remember the 70’s as a decade of (often cheesy) comedies. The decade started off with ‘The Brady Bunch‘, and ‘Love American Style‘. Neither had a theme song I liked but they sure stuck in my head. Some other iconic theme songs from the early 70’s included ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show‘ (click on hq if you watch this Youtube Video) and ‘M*A*S*H’. Of course the latter doesn’t count because they just ripped the theme from the movie, including the helicopters. On the drama/police shows, there was ‘Streets of San Francisco‘ (a personal favorite and one heavily influenced by the Hawaii Five-0 opening) and ‘Vega$‘ the Robert Urich PI show. Don’t forget ‘Taxi‘, a quirky, not cheesy comedy with a memorable theme. But there is one show I think really reflects the 70’s. Yes, I know it’s corny, it’s cheesy, it’s a copy of ‘Love American Style’, but I know you watched it…

Premiering as a made-for-tv movie in 1976, it became a series in 1977. I’ve never met anyone who had not watched at least a few episodes. Yes they may have admitted it reluctantly, but this show was a phenomenon. Anybody who ever worked in TV (until that time) and a plethora of aging movie stars were on that  show. Even some non acting types as the credits from this episode indicate, Bob Mackie and Gloria Vanderbilt(?). Besides, that Jack Jones theme just won’t go away.

The 80’s opened with ‘Magnum PI‘ and a cute opening sequence. It also brought us a slew of slick cop and lawyer shows, like Hill Street Blues and LA Law, both from Steven Bochco. We also had the previously mentioned Miami Vice. Unfortunately, I could not limit myself to just one clip from the 80’s. The first theme is from one of the best TV comedy series ever. Premiering in September of 1982, and running for 11 seasons, Cheers’ theme song is indelibly etched in my brain. The theme didn’t change much over the show’s long run, and this version, the best I could find on Youtube, is from the 7th season:

My other 80’s sample is a personal favorite. It premiered on March 3 1985, and ran for 4 seasons. The first 2 years were outstanding and some of the best television of the decade. The theme song is also fantastic. With music by Lee Holdridge, lyrics by Al Jarreau and performed by Al Jarreau, this is Moonlighting… (watch the clip in HQ)

I think that the 80’s were the final gasp of high quality theme music from network television. When the 90’s arrived, many TV shows opted to use songs from the pop music world like this Carole King song from ‘The Gilmore Girls‘. Those that developed original music were usually corny throw-aways like ‘Friends‘ or just a series of synthesizer sounds like ‘Seinfeld‘. It took until the end of the decade to find a show with a memorable theme. Thank you HBO. Premiering in 1999:

The 00’s began the trend of no themes at all. Shows just start, with the opening credits displayed over the first minute of dramatic action. This is pretty common these days. The other contributor to the lack of theme music is the type of show. Today we are overrun with so-called reality shows. Occasionally these have a theme, such as ‘The Amazing Race‘, but most are utterly forgettable. Once again, thanks HBO for being the one bright spot in the land of theme songs:

Well, there you have it, my picks for the best of the last 50+ years

When I was a kid in Peoria, IL, we used to call soda-pop ’soda’. Sometimes that became soder or sody. In the 5th grade, my dad got transferred from Peoria to Aurora, IL. Aurora was about 120 miles north of Peoria, not really that far. In those days (1957) Aurora was the far west end of the Chicago suburbs. The commuter trains ended in Aurora. Anyway, in Aurora, if I called soda-pop soda or sody, the kids all laughed at the way I spoke. Up there it was called pop. Always amazes me how dialects can change over such short distances.

Well, to get on with the post, we never had a lot of soda-pop when I was a kid. My mom didn’t keep it around, so when we did have it, it was a treat. It always seemed to me that the soda’s we had then tasted so much better than anything we have now. There also seemed to be a wider choice. Well, this video from Youtube helps explain my memories:

By the way, there are store down here that sell the Mexican made Coca-Cola. It comes in a glass bottle and is made with sugar. Of course, you pay a premium for it.

Firefox 3.5

Well, after that nasty entry I wrote about Firefox 3.5, I thought I should post an update. I am now using FF 3.5.2 and my problems are gone. It appears that the problem might have been with my Usenet provider, although that doesn’t explain the issues with Customize Google plugin. Anyway, I installed the second update to 3.5 and all is well. I am now using Firefox version 3.5.2 on all of my computers… even my Windows 7 machine. Oh, I should also explain that I am using the Portable version of FF. I know it was designed to be run from a USB flash drive, but I have it installed on my hard drive. FF portable doesn’t add any registry entries, and it doesn’t store temp files in the Documents and Settings folder.

Oh, you may have noticed that I mentioned Windows 7. Yes, I am running Windows 7 on my old computer. I bought a new desktop earlier this year, replacing my 5 year old Pentium P4 system. That wasn’t a bad machine, but iit had Windows XP home version on it. I had upgraded the memory to 1.5GB and had added a second hard drive ( 1-160GB and 1-320GB). My new system has a multi-core processor, 3GB of memory and 750 GB of hard drive, and an EVGA graphics card with dual DVI. It is an HP small-business system, so it came with both Windows XP-Pro, and Vista-Business. And, it came with the full DVD’s! I will never buy a home machine again. The HP small-Business store sells PC’s that are similar to the consumer versions, and are close in price, and they come with full operating system backup DVD’s, not those useless recovery discs that virtually all consumer PC’s have.

Windows 7

I was cleaning up my old computer, un-installing software and erasing disk space. Once I had it pretty clean, it sat around for a while as I tried to decide what to do with it. I was thinking of installing Linux on it. I had tried Ubuntu a while ago on a ancient Sony laptop. But that machine just didn’t have the hardware to support it. I was reading about the Windows test program. It was possible to download an evaluation copy of Windows 7 from Microsoft. I didn’t download the beta version, but I did download RC-1 (release candidate-1). Since my old system was really clean (no software but anti-virus installed), it was simple to install the new Windows. I’ve been running it for almost 3 months now and it has been great. The first thing I notices was that the old system was running noticeably faster. Of course there are a couple of factors contributing to that, minimal software, and I haven’t installed and removed stuff, leaving a cluttered registry yet. But the most obvious change is start-up. The machine stats faster than XP, and it shuts down much faster. So far, all the software I use regularly runs just fine on 7.

There is one big problem though. To upgrade from XP to 7 requires a clean install. Actually, that is the preferred method for any upgrade, but when you have a lot of software installed on a machine, it is time-consuming to have to re-install it. Of course it is one way to clean up your system, cuz you only re-install what you really need. I’m pretty sure I’m going to put Win 7 on Irene’s laptop. I’m sure it will run faster. I’ll have to think about my main system. The RC-1 evaluation copy expires next year, March I think. So, I will have to either buy a copy, or install something else. Maybe I will try Linux then.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I like food. I love to eat, and generally I like all kinds of food. Since our move to Las Cruces I have begun to worry about America’s food supply. It was easy to ignore the obvious problems while living in the Bay Area of California. Because of the relatively high standard of living there our food choices were virtually unlimited. Not so here in the relatively impoverished southwest. Certainly our trip to Paris last year was an eye opening lesson in how differently France views its food supply. While the movie “food Inc” hasn’t made it to Las Cruces (and probably never will), this article from Time Magazine delves into the issues of our worst practices.

Getting Real About the High Price of Cheap Food

Texting While Driving PSA Delivers Bloody, Bone-Crunching Message

Found on Gizmodo.

When I First saw that photo of the picture crashing squirrel, I thought it was cute. Turns out that squirrel has been doing this for some time and is pretty well traveled. Take a look at some of the places he’s been spotted on Mashable.

Ha-Ha… just kidding , but it is pretty funny.

This is a cute photo from the National Geographic web site. A couple were trying to take a timed photo of themselves when a curious squirrel stepped into the picture. The thumbnail links to the picture on National Geographic web site.

Squirrel in photo

Ever heard of Jessica Cox? I hadn’t until I came across this video on YouTube:

Apparently she qualified for her pilot’s license in October of last year. This TV News report was posted about 8 months ago:

I feel like such an under-achiever after watching this. Here is a link to another YouTube video about Jessica: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TSYhOQnYxk.