This is weird too

Try this: http://www.blogthings.com/areyoumorecatordogquiz/ It says I'm 50% dog and 50% cat. I'm not sure if I should be offended or not.

Here we go!

The New England Patriots didn't have a stellar season last year, but I'm more hopeful this time around. Of course, that is the eternal cry of every diehard fan...there's always next season. They're preseason record is the same as last year, 2-2. But we all know that the only thing that matters is that game on September 10 at Gilette Stadium! I love Fall so much.

Johnny Cunningham

Talking about the annoying habit of falling in love with dead guys, I seem to have acquired it somehow. However frustrating, it can be helpful at times, and this is one of those cases. About three years ago my Dad came back from the Celtic Fiddle Festival and mentioned something about a guy who was supposed to have been there, but had suddenly died before the consort. Human curiosity being what it is, I was slightly interested at the unexpected event but well, I didn't know the guy, and I soon forgot all about it. Ironically enough, I still vividly remember that day - even though I forgot it at the time. And this is why. Growing up I was exposed to all sorts of music. Bach sat right next to Aaron Nevil, Hank Williams, and the Beatles on our shelves. Mixed in there was a CD by a band called the Silly Wizards. It was a favorite, though we didn't know anything about the musicians. It was one of those random CDs - you're never sure of where you got it or why it's not more popular. Anyways, about three years ago, a few months after the fiddler had unexpectedly died, I sat down to listen to the Silly Wizards and it suddenly occurred to me that they really were the best Celtic band I had ever heard. I wondered if they had more stuff. It was around that time that I started to seriously get into Celtic music. Now I play the bohran and the pennywhistle, but then, I just contented myself with listening to CDs. I looked the Silly Wizards up online and ordered all their music. The more I listened the more I loved. I soon started to look up the band members and see if I could see them perform. The band had been dead a long time, but as far as I knew, all the members where still alive. I discovered that the band was comprised of some of the most brilliant and most talented Scottish musicians of their time, and each one had a widely different personality which came alive in the music. The Cunningham brothers were the most spirited and most talked about of the group. Johnny and his younger brother Phil ran the gigs as much on their humor and flamboyant personalities as by the music. Johnny was a stellar fiddler, while his brother followed right behind on his accordion. At 16, Johnny had left home to wander the streets of Aberdeen and join a crazy bunch of guys who called themselves the Silly Wizards. The music was good, but the laughs and the fun were even better. They soon had a following and began to record and tour. The Silly Wizards managed to put out about ten CDs before they fell apart. Johnny Cunningham was the first to leave. He had fallen in love with the US. He was young and already hailed as one of the best Scottish fiddlers in the world. A new horizon opened to him in America and his life became a pattern of endless tours and midnight gigs. For some reason, the Northwest has attracted Celtic musicians more than other cities. This is possibly because Kevin Burke, Ireland's greatest fiddler lives here, though I'm sure it's not the only reason. Johnny met Kevin as a young man, and they became the best of friends. As years wore on they founded the Celtic Fiddle Festival, a touring group of musicians comprised of themselves and Christian Lemaitre, a fiddler from Breton. Every year they took off a week or two from their busy schedule to tour the US together and play. Three years ago, they arrived here with the devastating news that Johnny had died. Johnny was one of those guys who attracted everybody just by the laugh in his eyes. He lived and played hard, but with such wit and joy that he lightened the lives of many people. I never had a chance to meet him, and the closest I ever came was the day I heard that a lone fiddler had passed away. It didn't hit me until later who he was.

What the...

This is truly weird.http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0915/p01s04-woam.html You'd think with guys like Ortega it would be over and done with. He ought to be either in jail someplace or retired and bellyaching about capitalism in the South of France or something. I guess he figures as long as Ronald Reagan isn't around to foil his nefarious plans he's got a chance...but the fact he keeps losing these elections isn't turning on any lightbulbs.

Susanna Clarke

Susanna Clarke is a genius. Over the last 12 years or so, she's been working on a book called Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. It's set in Victorian England, written in Austenian prose, pretty slowly paced, and is over a thousand pages long. It's also BookSense's adult fiction book of the year, the winner of the Locus Award for a first novel, the 2005 World Fantasy Award, the 2005 Hugo Award for best novel and Time Magazine's #1 Book of 2004. The book isn't for everyone; the length and style can be offputting for those not used to it (or who don't think that it's just cool), but in my opinion, it's on a very short list of the best fantasy books ever written, right up there with The Lord of the Rings, The Once and Future King, and Lud-in-the-Mist. It's flat out awe inspiring. (Click on image for author interviews, including one on her plans for the sequel!) JS&MN is her first novel, but Clarke's also penned 12 or so short stories, many of which you can track down in Ellen Datlow and Terry Windling's award-winning fantasy anthologies. The best of these that I've read is Mr Simonelli, or The Fairy Widower, which appeared in Black Heart, Ivory Bones. Another excelent one is The Duke of Wellington Misplaces his Horse, which is especially neat because it ties into her friend Neil Gaiman's story Stardust, which is also a great read if you liked JS&MN.

The Carrotty Kid

Now THIS is what more kids' cartoons should be like! Hillarious, excelently voice-acted, with awesome flash animation. (Click picture for link.)

Who'd of thought

Two random facts for your delectation and delight. #1. T.S. Eliot's wife chased Virginia Woolfe out of a cab with a knife. The knife was rubber, but still.... #2. One octave of Easter, late at night and quite alone, a penniless student was walking the streets of Petersburg, Russia, when he looked up at a projecting balcony of the palace and saw the Tsar. They exchanged silent glances and went on their separate ways. The student was Alexander Kerensky, first and only leader of the Provisional Government set up by the February Revolution of 1917; the Tsar was Nicholas II, last Tsar of a dynasty that stretched back three centuries. Odd that Kerensky was the one who made "Nicky" resign. It's a small world.