Author: The Hinoeuma

Movie Monday: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey 2012

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The Hobbit Poster Amazon & IMDb Image One
Image Credit: IMDb & Amazon

Ten years ago, today, the movie The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey premiered in Wellington, New Zealand (its very first premiere before wide release). Directed by Peter Jackson, the screenplay was written by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Guillermo del Toro & Jackson. J.R.R. Tolkien, of course, is the original writing master. The cast list is extensive (lots of dwarves). Main characters are Young Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), Old Bilbo Baggins (Ian Holm), Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen), Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage), Saruman the White (Christopher Lee), Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood), Galadriel (Cate Blanchett), Elrond (Hugo Weaving), Radagast the Brown (Sylvester McCoy), Gollum (Andy Serkis) and Smaug the Dragon (Benedict Cumberbatch).

Bilbo Baggins is swept into a quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from the fearsome dragon Smaug. Approached out of the blue by the wizard Gandalf the Grey, Bilbo finds himself joining a company of thirteen dwarves led by the legendary warrior, Thorin Oakenshield. Their journey will take them into the wild, through treacherous lands, swarming with Goblins, Orcs, deadly Wargs, giant spiders, Shapeshifters and Sorcerers. Although their goal lies to the East and the wastelands of the Lonely Mountain, first they must escape the goblin tunnels, where Bilbo meets the creature that will change his life forever…Gollum. Here, alone with Gollum, on the shores of an underground lake, the unassuming Bilbo Baggins not only discovers depths of guile and courage that surprise even him, he also gains possession of Gollum’s “precious” ring that holds unexpected and useful qualities…a simple gold ring that is tied to the fate of all Middle-Earth in ways Bilbo cannot begin to know.

IMDb Storyline

Trivia Bits:
♦ Asked how many wizards there are, Gandalf says there are five, naming Saruman, Radagast and himself, then saying [that] he can’t remember the names of the other two, merely saying, “the two blues.” Their names, Alatar and Pallando, appear in the book Unfinished Tales, a collection of J.R.R. Tolkien ideas, and half-manuscripts, edited into book form by his son Christopher Tolkien. The filmmakers didn’t have rights to use material from that book, so the two blue wizards remain unnamed in this movie.
♦ The production team returned to the same shooting location for Hobbiton as they used in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The land is part of a farm, which the owners allowed to be transformed into the Hobbiton set by The Lord of the Rings production crew in the late 1990s. After filming wrapped on the first trilogy, the farm’s owners turned the land into a Tolkien tourism spot, offering guided tours of the Hobbiton set. With the crew from The Hobbit trilogy making improvements and additions to the aging Hobbiton set, the farm owners were happy to temporarily close down their tourism business, so filming could take place there again.
♦ Sir Ian Holm and Sir Christopher Lee filmed their scenes at London’s Pinewood Studios because health concerns left them uncomfortable with flying to New Zealand.

Four years ago, when I started blogging, again, I covered the second movie. ~Vic

Announcement Trailer

Official Trailer Two

VOTD: Purring Baby

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This was originally posted on June 5. I uploaded the video to WordPress, only to have it malfunction in the Reader…another victim of the “Pro Plan”. This is another video that is stuck as an echo in the Reader (browser) and I can’t get it out. ~Vic

Video of the Day

Thanksgiving 2022

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I won’t be cooking a traditional turkey this year. I am going for a pork loin, just to be different. I will have a small gathering. Peace, love and hugs to everyone. May we all gather in joy. ~Vic

Golden Mums Image One
11-05-2021
Sunset Image Two
11-24-2021

Tune Tuesday: Tell Me Pretty Maiden 1902

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Levy Sheet Music Image One
Image Credit: jhu.edu

One hundred & twenty years ago, the #1 song of 1902 was Tell Me Pretty Maiden by Byron G. Harlan, whistler Joe Belmont and the Florodora Girls. According to Tsort, there are almost NO charts from before 1920. I plugged in today’s date on Playback FM and this is what I got. You can peruse Tsort’s Site Generation Page, describing source charts and consolidation. They seem to have their own method for old stuff and, apparently, Playback FM agrees.

Wikimedia Image Two
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Florodora is an Edwardian musical comedy. After its long run in London, it became one of the first successful Broadway musicals of the 20th Century. The book was written by Jimmy Davis, under the pseudonym Owen Hall, the music was by Leslie Stuart with additional songs by Paul Rubens and, the lyrics were by Ernest Boyd-Jones, George Arthurs and Rubens.

The original London production opened in 1899, where it ran for a very successful 455 performances. The New York production, which opened the following year, was even more popular, running for 552 performances. After this, the piece was produced throughout the English-speaking world and beyond. The show was famous for its double sextet and its chorus line of “Florodora Girls“.

Wikipedia Summary

It appears that the Harlan & Belmont version, with the Florodora Girls was very, very popular. Second Hand Songs also lists a Frank Stanley as part of the team. UC Santa Barbara lists Frank Banta on piano and calls the group the Edison Sextette.

POTD: Yard Art

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I guess it is yard art. It’s not close to the road for pick-up. And, why a pumpkin is underneath a chair in February…I don’t know. ~Vic

Commode Yard Art
My Personal Collection
02-12-2022

Picture of the Day

Flashback Friday: St. Elizabeth’s Flood 1421

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St. Elizabeth Painting Wiki Image
Artist: Dutch Painter
Circa 1490 to 1495
Collection: Amsterdam Museum
Source: Museum Site

Six hundred & one year, ago, today…

The St. Elizabeth’s flood of 1421 was a flooding of the Grote Hollandse Waard, an area in what is now the Netherlands. It takes its name from the feast day of Saint Elisabeth of Hungary which was formerly [November 19th]. It ranks 20th on the list of worst floods in history. During the night of [November 18th-19th] 1421, a heavy storm near the North Sea coast caused the dikes to break in a number of places and the lower-lying polder land was flooded. A number of villages were swallowed by the flood and were lost, causing between 2,000 and 10,000 casualties. The dike breaks and floods caused widespread devastation in Zeeland and Holland.

This flood separated the cities of Geertruidenberg and Dordrecht, which had previously fought against each other during the Hook and Cod (civil) wars. Most of the land remains flooded even since that day.

Most of the area remained flooded for several decades. Reclaimed parts are the island of Dordrecht, the Hoeksche Waard island and north-western North Brabant. Most of the Biesbosch area has been flooded since.

The cause of the flood was a powerful extratropical cyclone. Water from the storm in the North Sea surged up the rivers causing the dikes to overflow and break through. The flood reached a large sea arm between south Holland and Zeeland, destroying the Grote Hollandse Waard.

Wikipedia

I tried to find a video about this but, all I got was a creepy AI voice reading what I posted, above. As an interesting addendum, there was a St. Elizabeth’s flood of 1404, on or about November 19, also, affecting Holland, Zeeland and Flanders. History Calendar on Twitter posted about it, too. ~Vic

Additional:
Zuiderzee Floods (Britannica/November 11, 2022)
Elizabeth and the Flood (Codart/May 8, 2022)
Katje the Windmill Cat (Atozmom’s BSF Blog/March 1, 2014)

VOTD: Sgt. Kitten Takes Point

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This was originally posted on June 9. I uploaded the video to WordPress, only to have it malfunction in the Reader. The “Pro Plan” was a complete disaster, which is why it isn’t available, anymore. The server migration that was being done for the stupid plan made crazy echoes of uploaded videos, as all the previously listed links in posts were broken. I have several posts with videos, stuck in my Reader, that won’t play and, even after I delete the post, the echo of the post remains in my Reader feed. Way to go, Happiness Engineers! ~Vic

Video of the Day

Music Monday: Händel Solo Sonatas 1732

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George Frideric Handel Wikipedia Image
Artist: Balthasar Denner
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Date: Between 1726 & 1728
Wikipedia

George Frideric Händel was a German-British Baroque composer well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi and organ concertos. Händel received his training in Halle and worked as a composer in Hamburg and Italy before settling in London in 1712, where he spent the bulk of his career and became a naturalised British subject in 1727. He was strongly influenced both by the middle-German polyphonic choral tradition and by composers of the Italian Baroque. In turn, Händel’s music forms one of the peaks of the “high baroque” style, bringing Italian opera to its highest development, creating the genres of English oratorio and organ concerto and introducing a new style into English church music. He is consistently recognized as one of the greatest composers of his age. Händel started three commercial opera companies to supply the English nobility with Italian opera. In 1737, he had a physical breakdown, changed direction creatively, addressed the middle class and made a transition to English choral works. After his success with Messiah (1742), he never composed an Italian opera again. Almost blind, he died in 1759, a respected and rich man, and was given a state funeral at Westminster Abbey.

Händel Summary

Walsh Handel Sonatas Wikipedia Image Two
Date: Published by Walsh in 1732
Source: IMSLP
Author: Händel

Two hundred, ninety years ago, Händel Solo Sonatas was published by John Walsh in 1732. It contains a set of twelve sonatas, for various instruments, composed by George Frideric Händel. The 63 page publication includes the sonatas that are generally known as Händel’s Opus 1. The 1732 edition was mostly reprinted from the plates of an earlier 1730 publication […]. Each sonata displays the melody and bass lines […]. By modern-day standards, the music in the publication has a primitive appearance, with squashed notes and irregular spacings, stems and bar widths […]. Despite the titles in both editions, four of the sonatas in each are for a fourth instrument: the Recorder.

John Walsh Summary

Table List of the 12 Händel Sonatas

List of Händel Solo Sonatas

George Frideric Händel Britannica Biography

George Frideric Händel ~ Biography Channel

I can’t seem to find one video with all of the twelve sonatas, combined, so I will post the first three. ~Vic

Flute Sonata E Minor (HWV 359b)

Recorder Sonata G Minor (HWV 360)

Violin Sonata A Major (HWV 361)

POTD: Staghorn Fern

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This is a crazy looking thing. A pilot’s wife has a plant & animal sanctuary behind her house, two blocks west. A platycerium bifurcatum, it is also called an Elkhorn Fern. ~Vic

Staghorn Fern
10-01-2020

Picture of the Day

Chris Thomas: Balls of Light or Orbs

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A PDF Essay From: The Chris Thomas Files

Breaking Paranormal Cemetery Orbs
Photo Credit: breakingparanormalblog.wordpress.com

We have all seen the many thousands of photographs which show the image of a Ball of Light in the finished photograph which were not necessarily visible to the naked eye. There have been numerous interpretations placed upon these BOLs but, what are they in reality?

Most people assume that these are a new phenomenon whereas, there is in fact a written history of sightings going back several hundred years. In the past, these were not called Balls of Light or Orbs but, “swamp lights”, “will o’ the wisp” and “Jack-O-Lanterns”, as well as many other names in local dialects. To understand what this phenomenon is, we need to look at the nature of the Universe, how it is constructed and how it functions.

The Nature of Our Universe

Ever since Sir Isaac Newton had an apple land on his head (figuratively speaking) 400 years ago, science has believed in gravity. It is only in very recent years that they have begun to question the role that gravity plays and even to question whether that gravity exists at all. Certainly, Double Dark Theory (Dark Matter and Dark Energy) presents considerably more questions than it answers with most cosmologists, now, believing that this theory has no validity at all.

As DDT is becoming increasingly rejected, more and more cosmologists are looking towards Black Holes as a way of explaining how the universe holds itself together. However, even with Black Hole Theory, it remains impossible to answer many of the questions. Fortunately, in recent years, some of the more aware scientists are beginning to realise that what holds the universe together is a form of electro-magnetic energy. If it is assumed that electro-magnetic energy holds the universe together, all of the unanswered questions that cosmologists fight over suddenly become answered.

In addition to the workings of the universe, electro-magnetic frequencies also seem to play a major role in life on Earth, especially when it is applied to humans and animals. But, there is another way of looking at electro-magnetic frequencies and that is, instead of electro-magnetic, substitute the word conscious-ness. There is a great deal of debate, in scientific circles, about how large an organism needs to be before it develops consciousness as well as where consciousness is located within the body. The current thinking is that consciousness is located in a region of the brain known as the amygdala. This is a region at the base of the brain and attached to the brain-stem. It would be fair to say that looking at the amygdala to see consciousness is akin to looking at Liverpool hoping to see Britain. The reality is that the scientific view is from the wrong direction.

If we look to more “traditional” sources of knowledge and, particularly the Akashic, what we find is a very different view of reality to that which scientists are currently exploring. Instead of the body becoming large enough for consciousness to develop, it is the consciousness that builds the body. In other words, life begins with consciousness and all else follows. It is the same with our Universe. Our Universe began with a consciousness, a “Universal Soul” and, everything that exists in our Universe is also a soul, or a consciousness. When scientists talk about measuring electro-magnetic frequencies, what they are actually talking about is measuring soul energy.

Many Orbs
Photo Credit: just-secret-theory.blogspot.com

Gravity does not exist. What holds the Universe together, what holds humans on the Earth and what makes apples fall to the ground, is soul energy, consciousness energy. Everything that exists anywhere is a soul, a consciousness and, it is the interactions between souls which holds everything together and makes everything happen. Without consciousness, soul, nothing would exist and no events would occur.

Our Universe exists because it was Created to exist. A soul, a consciousness, exists who decided to explore the potential It contains within Itself. This Creationery-source asked Itself a question…a question along the lines of “What would happen If…?” In order to answer It’s question, this Source brought our Universe into being and peopled it with other, lesser forms of consciousness that could explore the answer to the Question on the Creator’s behalf. In this way, the Universal “envelope” is a consciousness, each galaxy is a consciousness, each solar system is a consciousness and each star is a consciousness.

In addition, we have free-moving and free-acting souls who can explore the Answers on the Creator’s behalf. These free-moving and free-acting souls take on two forms. The first do not have any physical form or physical density and the Akashic calls them the non-physical races. These souls were Created about 100 million years ago. The second have a physical form and a physical density but, are comprised of energies that fall outside of human perceptions. The Akashic calls these the semi-physical races and they were Created about 30 million years ago.

Both of these groups of races, the non-physical and the semi-physical, started their existence on a home planet but, over the millennia, have spread out throughout our Universe. But, there was another stage of development that was universally decided upon about 60 million years ago and this new development lead directly to the creation of our solar system. For many reasons (see Synthesis), once a suitable body form had been developed on Earth, those souls who came to live here are primarily made up of the non-physical races. In other words, 99.9 percent of the souls who are in human form on Earth are souls who originated with the non-physical races. The other 0.001 percent of the human population is made up of souls who originate from the semi-physical races. There are very many reasons for this division of human souls, which are outside of the scope of this essay but, see the author’s books on the subject.

Solar System
Photo Credit: pritchard.global2.vic.edu.au

The Development of Our Solar System

As with all free-moving and free-acting life throughout our Universe, a “home planet” was needed in order for human life to exist, a place where this new “experiment” in a fully physical life-form could inhabit. Throughout our Universe, many billions of solar systems exist. Usually, the solar system is comprised of one soul. This solar system soul is, normally, the solar system sun, or suns, if it is a binary system. All of the planets within this type of solar system are created by the solar system consciousness as well as all of the forms of life that exist on those planets (except for situations where the solar system supports either the non-physical or semi-physical races; in these instances, the souls of the “higher life-forms” are brought into being by the Creator).

With our solar system, the arrangement is quite different. Our solar system is unique. That means what it says. No other solar system is comparable to the one we inhabit. The reason for this is that the sun and each of the planets, in our solar system, are individual consciousnesses in their own right. This collection of souls, who were capable of building planets, was decided upon in order to maximise the potential for bringing “physical” beings to life. Originally, all of the planets in our solar system were inhabited by a huge diversity of life-forms, the likes of which do not exist anywhere else within our Universe. However, about 3.8 million years ago, a solar system-wide disaster occurred and virtually all life was wiped out except for our planet, Earth. The reasons for this solar system-wide disaster fall outside of the scope of this essay but, see The Universal Soul.

To continue reading (it’s six pages), download the PDF version HERE.

[Note: This PDF was originally posted on The Spirit Guides UK website on August 19, 2011.]

VOTD: Electric Scooter

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I wouldn’t have one of these things, nor will I ever have an electric car. Just ask Florida about all the electric cars that are catching fire after Hurricane Ian. Those batteries are corroding and causing all manner of problems. Teslas like to run into things, blow up and burn for four days. No, thank you. I feel sorry for this guy. ~Vic

Addendum/Caveat: Screw Tube has determined that this video needs to be age restricted. I apologize if you have to sign in to see it.

Video of the Day

Silly Sunday: Mask Swing

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This is so cute. Best use for those damn masks. ~Vic

Weird S*** Wednesday: Sky Show

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Your guess is as good as mine. ~Vic

Halloween 2022

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For the first time in many years, I am not carving a pumpkin. I am decorating, though. Happy Halloween, everyone! ~Vic

Red Mums
Love the Mums
10-29-2022
Orange Mums
Side Yard Planter
10-29-2022
Click for a larger view.
Dogwood
Our Little Dogwood
10-29-2022
Click for a larger view.
Mum & Pumpkin
Porch Steps
10-31-2022
Click for a larger view.
Wheel Barrow & Mums
Yard Art
10-31-2022
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Beautiful Tree
Beautiful Tree
10-31-2022
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Chair Mum
Chair Mum
10-31-2022