Self Care – Astronomy [Video] of the Week: Cassini’s Grand Finale

This, to be honest, is really sad for me.

Saturn has always been my favorite planet, so Cassini holds a very special place in my heart. I love Cassini. I follow it on Twitter, and follow updates very closely. Cassini has been in space for 20 years, and at Saturn 13 years. It’s been an amazing run, with so many incredible findings about Saturn and it’s wondrous and fascinating moons.

But time is running out. Cassini is running out of fuel. So NASA has planned a Grand Finale. An epic, bittersweet grand finale.

First, Cassini will dive between Saturn and it’s rings. It’s already done that once, on April 26. And it’s geared up to do it 21 more times.

Then, on September 15, Cassini will… um…

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House GOP Wants to Undo Dodd-Frank

From AP News…

House Republicans worked to undo former President Barack Obama’s law overhauling the nation’s financial rules, arguing that it is undermining economic growth. Democrats countered that the GOP effort risked a repeat of the 2008 meltdown that pushed the economy to the brink of collapse.

The Financial Services Committee’s effort got off to a slow start Tuesday as Democrats insisted that much of the 600-page replacement bill be read aloud before the committee even considered amendments. The marathon session had been expected to last through the night, but the committees leaders agreed instead to hold the first votes Wednesday morning in what will now be at least a two-day affair.

5th Doctor, Peter Davison, annoyed...

5th Doctor, Peter Davison, annoyed…

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Sir Tiny Hands *Wants* the Government to Shut Down

From the New York Times…

President Trump said Tuesday that the United States needed “a good ‘shutdown’” this fall to force a partisan confrontation over federal spending and suggested that he might move to reverse longstanding Senate rules that effectively require a supermajority to approve most major pieces of legislation.

The declarations, in two posts on Twitter, appeared aimed at defending a compromise spending package that Congress is likely to clear this week, but that fails to accomplish many of Mr. Trump’s stated goals — including allocating any money to build a wall on the southern border, a project that was his most talked-about campaign promise. Conservative activists have criticized the agreement as one that does not address their priorities and swells the deficit, but the White House has signaled that the president would accept it rather than set off a government shutdown.

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White House Actively Looking to Restrict Press Freedom

From ABC News…

White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said the Trump administration has “looked at” changes to libel laws that would curtail press freedoms, but said “whether that goes anywhere is a different story.”

President Trump frequently slams the press for its coverage of him and in March suggested changing libel laws.

Libel is when defamatory statements about someone are published. But the American press enjoys some protection from lawsuits claiming libel because of the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech rights.

At least, that’s how it should be…

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Self Care – Great Guitar Solos: Styx and James Young Play Renegade Live in 1996

Admittedly, I don’t like a lot of Styx (just personal preference in this case… nothing against ’em, and they are talented), but there are two Styx songs I love: Come Sail Away and…

Renegade

This one is live in 1996 at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois. For something that I’m guess is supposed to be an official release, this isn’t the greatest quality (some unofficially released Led Zeppelin pro-shot videos have better quality, and those were recorded in the 70s). However, it’s pretty darn good.

I was trying to find video of Styx playing it live in 1978 or 1979, but that’s okay. This works rather nicely…

The first guitar solo starts at 2:51 and ends at 3:47. The second solo starts at 4:21 and ends at 5:31. The third, and final, solo follows up a rather cheesy lyrical call-and-response section and a shout-out to “I Shot the Sheriff”. It starts at 6:56 and ends at 7:13.

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The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Considering how much I love guitar solos, it should be no surprise that I have thoughts, here. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is an interesting, and perhaps polarizing, institution in music.

On April 20, 1983, the late Ahmet Ertegun, co-founder and president of Atlantic Records, put together a team that included attorney Suzan Evans, Rolling Stone magazine editor and publisher Jann S. Wenner, attorney Allen Grubman, and record executives Seymour Stein, Bob Krasnow, and Noreen Woods, and founded the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation. They started inducting artists in 1986, but they still had no home for the museum. So they put together a search committee, and ultimately chose shores of Lake Erie in Cleveland, Ohio.

The very first performing artist inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1986 was, of course, Chuck Berry, considered by many who think they know to be the founder of Rock and Roll (I, personally, disagree, but I’ll get to that). Others inducted that same year included Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, the Everly Brothers, Fats Domino, James Brown, Little Richard, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, and Jerry Lee Lewis. They all fit the original criteria of the foundation:

Artists—a group encompassing performers, composers and/or musicians—become eligible for induction 25 years after the release of their first record. Besides demonstrating unquestionable musical excellence and talent, inductees will have had a significant impact on the development, evolution and preservation of rock & roll.

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Self Care – Dad and I Singing “Oseh Shalom”

My Dad’s a Hazan, I’ve mentioned this many times, so that’s out there.

He also writes music, and likes to take Jewish prayers and arrange them into these rather nice songs. Here’s a clip of Dad and I singing his arrangement of “Oseh Shalom” at his Cantorial concert last year.

(Obligatory self-criticism incoming…)

I really shouldn’t have had my hair pulled back like that, and I really… really… don’t like wearing suits. I also honestly feel awkward singing on a stage without also playing a guitar, which is why I mostly stare at the music stand… while the music is there, I’m not really reading it so much as wishing I had a guitar… heh…

But otherwise… this is pretty nice…

Sorry for the self-promotion, here…

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