Well…I had intended to post about the 1959/1960 Payola Scandal that involved Dick Clark but, apparently, The History Channel can’t make up its mind which day it happened on. *sigh*
So, instead, Photo of the Day. ~Vic Gassing up my truck, saw this and started to giggle.
11-03-2016
Heart of Glass was one of the first songs Blondie wrote but, it was years before we recorded it properly. We’d tried it as a ballad, as reggae but, it never quite worked. At that point, it had no title. We just called it “the disco song”. Back then, it was very unusual for a guitar band to be using computerised sound. People got nervous and angry about us bringing different influences into rock. Although we’d covered Lady Marmalade and I Feel Love at gigs, lots of people were mad at us for “going disco” with Heart of Glass. There was the Disco Sucks! movement, and there had even been a riot in Chicago, with people burning disco records. Clem Burke, our drummer, refused to play the song live at first. When it became a hit, he said: “I guess I’ll have to.” The lyrics weren’t about anyone. They were just a plaintive moan about lost love. At first, the song kept saying: “Once I had a love, it was a gas. Soon turned out, it was a pain in the ass.” We couldn’t keep saying that, so we came up with: “Soon turned out, had a heart of glass.” We kept one “pain in the ass” in – and the BBC bleeped it out for radio. ~Debbie Harry
*************
As far as I was concerned, disco was part of R&B, which I’d always liked. The Ramones went on about us “going disco” but, it was tongue-in-cheek. They were our friends. In the video, there’s a shot of the legendary Studio 54, so everyone thought we shot the video there but, it was actually in a short-lived club called the Copa or something. I came up with the phrase “heart of glass” without knowing anything about Werner Herzog or his movie of the same name, which is a great, weird film. It’s nice people now use the song to identify the period in films and documentaries. I never had an inkling it would be such a big hit, or become the song we’d be most remembered for. It’s very gratifying. ~Chris Stein
In season one, DJ Johnny Fever not only plays Blondie’s “Heart of Glass” on his broadcast but, home audiences actually hear him announce the band’s, and the song’s, names. It was fantastic promotion for the up-and-coming Blondie, whose huge breakthrough album, Parallel Lines (with other seminal singles like Hanging on the Telephone and One Way or Another), came out the same month WKRP in Cincinnati debuted. The band reportedly gave the show a Gold record plaque celebrating the album’s major sales numbers as a “Thank You” card. It can be seen in the background as set design on several episodes in later seasons.
Unlike many DJs from that era, Fever played punk as well as rock and soul. The range of music on the show gave this fictional radio station a better playlist than most of the era’s real ones. […] although the show helped break Blondie’s “Heart of Glass” big, the exception, in Fever’s case, was disco. “I asked him to play one disco record and he threatened to throw himself in front of Donna Summer‘s tour bus,” Travis complains in “Baby, If You’ve Ever Wondered,” from season two.
As of April 20, 2011, Heart of Glass is #259 of Rolling Stone Magazine’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
After discovering her boyfriend is married, Carly Whitten tries to get her ruined life back on track. But, when she accidentally meets the wife he’s been cheating on, she realizes they have much in common and her sworn enemy becomes her greatest friend. When yet another affair is discovered, all three women team up to plot mutual revenge on their cheating, lying, three-timing SOB.
[…] an ungainly, often flat-footed yet weirdly compelling romantic dramedy about two gals who become unlikely best friends when they realize they’re being screwed (literally) by the same man. Like a watered-down “Diabolique” or a younger-skewing “First Wives Club,” this latest mainstream rebound from director Nick Cassavetes taps into the pleasures of sisterly solidarity and righteous revenge. Beneath the wobbly pratfalls and the scatological set pieces, there’s no denying the film’s mean-spirited kick, or its more-than-passing interest in what makes its women tick.
Trouble is, Cassavetes, working from a script by Melissa K. Stack, veers wildly between cautionary tale, revenge comedy, scatological raunchfest and female empowerment drama. In theory, the joy of watching this kind of movie comes from seeing such a smooth operator squirm as his schemes are revealed and destroyed. […] plot contrivances abound […], along with not one but, two instances of characters, um, graphically relieving themselves at inopportune moments. The joke isn’t funny the first time and this kind of gross-out strain of comedy clangs uncomfortably with the feel-good message […]. Any semblance of intelligent humor or insight into female aging that may have existed gets tossed out the window of Carly’s high-rise office by the end […]
There are, literally, NO good trivia bits for this movie. ~Vic
In recent weeks, the Internet and some media has been inundated with claims made by an organisation that calls itself The One Peoples Public Trust or OPPT. The OPPT claim that they have established a Trust bonded to the original American Constitution of 1776. They further bonded every single person on the planet into this trust and claim to act in the interests of every single person on the planet. The OPPT claim to have filed legal documents with the UCC that make claims: “Understanding that corporations, governments and banks are one and the same, an “Order of Finding and Action” was filed against the “the debtor”, a legal entity created via the UCC process which encompasses all corporate entities. The filings claim that the Debtor “knowingly, willingly and intentionally committed treason” by “owning, operating, aiding and abetting private money systems” and “operating Slavery Systems used against…citizens without their knowing, willing and intentional consent”.
In other words, all of the Earth’s resources are owned by people and not corporations or governments. This is a right given to us because of our connections to the “Creator” and cannot be contested.
The OPPT further claim that as they filed these documents with the UCC under a “non-rebuttal” clause and as the “debtor” has not rebutted these claims, the documents filed by the OPPT now become law. The OPPT further claim that: “Lawfully, nobody can stand as a superior authority between you and your relationship with the Creator. Having removed the control-mechanisms of economy and government, the One People’s Public Trust leaves individuals in full liability, being personally responsible for themselves and for ensuring the free-will rights of others. There is no longer a structural chain of command. No rules. No corporations to hide behind. You are – as the Creator intended – a Being and a guardian of our planet and its inhabitants.”
Having read these documents and claims, my first question was: The American Constitution was not written in 1776 so what do they mean? First of all, the only event of note that happened in 1776 was the establishment of the Bavarian Illuminati. Then, in July 1782, the Illuminati incorporated the Order of Freemasons at the Congress of Wilhelmsbad. The American Constitution was not written until 1787 and was not ratified until the 21st of June 1788 – note: of the 55 signatories to the American Constitution, 50 were known Freemasons. So, what American Constitution has the OPPT bonded themselves to and, by extension, bonded every single person on the planet? Certainly it is not the American Constitution as everybody knows it as it was not written in 1776. Does this mean that the OPPT have bonded everyone to the Illuminati and the Freemasons? Given that every school child in America is well schooled in the history of the American Constitution, the OPPT stating that it was signed in 1776 is, obviously, a deliberate mistake. If it isn’t a deliberate mistake, the error would negate their claim to passing a law.
My second question was: Who are the UCC?
The UCC
In several OPPT documents and emails, they refer to the UCC as “Universal Commercial Code”. If you Google this name, you receive no hits – the Universal Commercial Code does not exist. But, Google does come up with a number of hits for UCC and the organisation that exactly matches the OPPT’s description of the organisation with which their documents are filed is an American organisation whose full name is “Uniform Commercial Code”.
To quote from the UCC’s website:
The Uniform Commercial Code (UCC or the Code), first published in 1952, is one of a number of uniform acts that have been promulgated in conjunction with efforts to harmonize the law of sales and other commercial transactions in all 50 states within the United States of America.
In other words, the UCC is, effectively, an NGO which does not have any legal powers or even the power to police the policy documents it writes. All it can do is to recommend policy to individual State Legislators and it is, then, up to the particular State to adopt these recommendations or not. If the individual States then decide to adopt the UCC’s recommendations, it passes laws to adopt them. The UCC does not pass laws. The UCC has no legal standing and no legal powers, even within the USA, let alone anywhere else in the world. The UCC does have a legal department who check and advise on State law but, their website does not make any reference to the OPPT filings (their website, when I visited it, was updated on the 28th of February 2013).
Other Problems
The OPPT claim that they filed papers with the UCC under what the OPPT claim is a system of “rebuttal”. What this means is that if the person or organisation the actions are filed against does not “rebut” the allegations within a certain time frame, the filed actions automatically become law. There is a process, in some legal situations, whereby, if an accusation or claim is made against a defendant, and the defendant does not present a defence, the court finds in favour of the claimant, automatically. This only applies if the claimant files their complaint in a recognised court of law. However, the UCC is not a court of law, it has no legal standing anywhere in the world and it cannot make judgements or rulings on any document that is filed with it.
Think of it this way:
You are a car salesman who believes that people throughout the world should only buy American-built automobiles. So, you join together with other car salesmen who have the same thoughts and form a trust. As a trust, you then write a document containing all sorts of impenetrable legal-sounding language stating that the citizens of the world can only buy American-built automobiles, lodge these papers with the UCC claiming that unless this new “law” is rebutted within 6 months, the trust’s idea becomes law throughout the world.
If the form of legal processes the OPPT claim to have worked in their favour was true, think how many other law suites [sic] would be brought about through the UCC and throughout the world for all sorts of bizarre rules that favour one group against another. It would be legal chaos. This is why the use of a rebuttal clause can only be decided in a court of law.
Additionally, the OPPT claim to have access to a “higher source of information” that they call the “Eternal Records”. I have encountered this phrase “Eternal Records” only once before and that was about 10 years ago. This was when someone set up a website claiming to be in “direct communication” with some Galactic Council or Galactic Federation or other, that they could, through the Velon, access these Eternal Records and, that, only the Velon had access to these records. Nobody else in the Universe did. By claiming they have access to the Eternal records, the OPPT are linking themselves in with the Velon and, the Velon controlled Illuminati (by the way, the “Eternal Records” do not exist except in Velon fantasy). Apart from the documents the OPPT have been putting out on their website, and the Internet in general, there have been a number of articles written about them in alternative magazines and newspapers. There has also been a series of four articles written about them and published in The Guardian newspaper on-line edition. The Guardian Express articles were written by Andy Whiteley, who is a publicist for the OPPT. Presumably, other articles have been published in other “mainstream” newspapers but, I have not had access to them.
To continue reading (it’s 5 pages), download the PDF version HERE.
[Note: The original post was published with his permission on the One-Vibration Forum Blog on March 5, 2013.]
This is a continuation of nature’s creatures. Part I was posted on April 6.
All photos are my personal collection. ~Vic
Just hanging out on the front porch.
10-08-2014Long legs and big feet.
10-08-2014Walking around town.
Poor focus but, still beautiful.
07-31-2016This was a huge web with an equally huge spider.
Also a poor focus. I was keeping some distance.
My phone didn’t want to coöperate.
The tan blur in the center is said spider.
09-06-2016Another huge spider, hanging from the eave over the front porch.
A light rain highlighted the web.
09-30-2016I believe this cute, deceased, furry thing is a mole but, I’m not totally sure.
The neighbor’s cat brought me a present.
10-21-2016I nearly missed seeing this after finding the mole.
She is almost the same color as the table.This is the first Preying Mantis I’ve seen that was brown.
Most of the ones I have encountered, before, were green.
At 17 Mike O’Donnell is on top of the world: he’s the star of his high school basketball team, is a shoo-in for a college scholarship, and is dating his soul-mate, Scarlet. But, at what’s supposed to be his big game where a college scout is checking him out, Scarlet reveals that she’s pregnant. Mike decides to leave the game and asks Scarlet to marry him, which she does. During their marriage, Mike can only whine about the life he lost because he married her so, she throws him out. When he also loses his job, he returns to the only place he’s happy at, his old high school. While looking at his high school photo, a janitor asks him if he wishes he could be 17 again and he says yes. One night while driving he sees the janitor on a bridge ready to jump and goes after him. When he returns to his friend Ned’s house, where he has been staying, he sees that he is 17 again. He decides to take this opportunity to get the life he lost.
Trivia Bits:
♦ Visual effects were not used when Zac Efron does the basketball tricks during the cafeteria scene. He really did accomplish them on his own.
♦ This is a remake of the 1986 Disney TV movie “Young Again” starring a very young Keanu Reeves in one of his earliest roles.
♦ In one scene, Mike wakes up and begins describing his “dream” of being in high school again only to find his daughter, Maggie, caring for him. This is an homage to the counterpart scene in Back to the Future (1985), in which Marty McFly wakes up and finds his teen-aged mother caring for him.
The concept of a series of “Suns” is Mayan in origin. Each “Sun” provides the energies for each stage of human development on Earth. The Mayan Calendar provides a framework of measurement that allowed the builders of the Calendar to track the progress of each Sun and predict when the old Sun would change to a new Sun, heralding a potential change of [the] state of being for Earth’s inhabitants. The Mayan Calendar is reputed to be 5,250 years old. […] it began with the start of a “5th Sun” and completed, at midnight, on the 21st of December 2012 where the Calendar returned to zero and marked the shift to the “6th Sun”. The Calendar is actually 7,000 years old…see later.
There was a huge amount of confusion surrounding the ending of the Mayan Calendar with many predicting the end of the world…the destruction of planet Earth. The end of the Earth clearly did not happen, so what did? The Mayan Calendar is based on the time cycles that relate to Guatemala, the Mayan homeland. The Calendar ended, and re-set itself, at midnight on the 21st of December 2012 Guatemalan time.
This relates to:
7 am GMT in London on the 22nd
6 pm in Sydney, Australia, on the 22nd
2 am in New York, America, on the 22nd
So what happened? To understand what actually happened, we have to look at the fundamental make-up of our Universe and how we on Earth fit into the Universe’s whole and the way in which we exist.
We, humans, have become so used to seeing ourselves in a physical way that we have, largely, forgotten that we are a created collection of energy frequencies, something we call a soul or a consciousness. In order to take on our physical bodies, the soul constructs a shell made up of the energy frequencies that are specific to the Earth. This energetic shell, we more usually call our bodies. It is easy to forget that we are, like everything else that exists within the whole of Creation, comprised of energy frequencies that collect together to form physical matter. Underlying the constructive energies of this Universe is the concept of freedom of choice. Each soul exists in a state and a location of its own choosing.
In order to come to Earth, we have made a soul choice to be here and to take on the energies of the Earth in order to become physical. We become physical because we have made a free choice to experience what being physical is all about. We are not a body that has a soul but, a soul that has built for itself a body. Our souls are comprised of a specific set of energy frequencies that add up to an average of 50 dimensions. Unfortunately, not all of the energies of the soul are contained within the physical body. These dimensional energies are divided into two parts:
The so-called “Higher Self” and the “Physical Self”.
The physical self is the amount of soul energy contained within the physical body, comprising of approximately 12 or 13 dimensions, personified by the seven primary “Chakras”…see later. The remainder of the soul, approximately 27 or 28 dimensions, makes up the higher self. Both the higher and lower aspects of the soul have total freedom of choice in accordance with the fundamental energy structure of this Universe.
Photo Credit: travelyucatan.com
When we first arrived on Earth, at the time of Atlantis, we had the whole of the soul contained within the physical body. But, owing to the Earth’s particular set of energy frequencies, we decided, 7,000 years ago, to divide the soul into its higher and physical components. The reason for dividing the soul in this way was in order to explore how we could live on Earth and bring the whole of the soul back into the body…soul re-integration. This choice, to divide the soul and explore how we could re-integrate it back into the body, is known, within the Akashic, as “The Human Plan”. The full story of why we were forced to divide the soul in this way is outside of the scope of this particular essay. See the author’s previous essays and books.
The Human Plan
Essentially, The Human Plan was a plan where all of the souls that had chosen to come to Earth would, collectively, work together to discover the frequency at which both the Earth, and humans, needed to resonate in order to re-merge the whole soul back into the body and maintain that whole soul state, permanently. The Earth considers a Human Being to be a whole soul contained within a physical bodyso, for the past 7,000 years, the Earth has considered us to be sub-human. The purpose of The Human Plan was to make us a true Human Being again.
When The Human Plan was formulated, it was known that the solar system, and galaxy, work on approximately 26,000 year cycles so, the Human Plan was timed to end at the point at which one cycle completed and another begun. This beginning of this new galactic cycle, a 6th Sun, would provide us with a massive influx of new energies that would allow us to complete The Human Plan and move forwards into a new era of soul reintegration, a new era of being Human Beings once again. This is the significance of the Mayan Calendar and what the 6th Sun is all about…new energies leading to a new state of being.
According to the Akashic, the 7,000 years of The Human Plan actually ran out at the end of 2011 and this coincided with the ending of the last “epoch” of the Mayan Calendar on the 28th of October. The ending of the last epoch and The Human Plan also coincided with the ending of a huge build up of energies that brought humanity, and the Earth, into frequency parity where the process of soul re-integration could begin. The additional year between the end of 2011 and the 21st of December 2012 was given to us to allow us to clear out any final emotional problems that we had not been able to clear before then.
However, humans being humans, we didn’t finalise our part of the bargain with the Earth and a huge number of people who had stated that they were ready to undergo soul reintegration, were not. But, the Earth being the mother-figure that She has always been, took pity on human failings and, instead of insisting that those who were not in a position to undergo soul re-integration left [sic] the planet, She modulated the huge new energies of the 6th Sun to give those who lagged behind a little more time. The Earth did not need to do this as almost 3 million people, world-wide, have already undergone full soul re-integration.
No matter what reasons people come up with to excuse their lack of completion, these 3 million had overcome all of their difficulties and completed their soul re-integration. Given this level of completions, the Earth could have called a halt to our sub-human presence on Earth and, insisted that we leave and return to our places of soul origin. But, the Earth is a caring mother and She has allowed Her children a little more time to achieve their chosen aims.
To continue reading (this is a 32-page mini-book), download the PDF version HERE.
We continue to have stormy, rainy weather and the temperature has dropped, considerably. We traded floods for tornadoes, yesterday. I learned, today, that two small farms south of town were damaged. I have a healthy respect for Mother Nature. ~Vic
Swollen drainage ditch to the river.
This helped flood my neighbor's backyard.
04-13-2019The tiny creek at Turnip Patch Park took out one of the benches.The Riverwalk is to the far right.
The town closed it for a couple of days.
I saw a juvenile garter snake making its way back across the walk when I was out on the third day.Train trestle in the background.The wooden fence is a barrier between Gold Park & the Eno.That is the bridge I was standing on to photograph the Riverwalk & the trestle.
Ok. So. No full moon pix for today. *sigh* We have been inundated with storms…again. We were bombarded with tornado warnings for five hours. An area just south of town close to I-40 was damaged. I am so glad it’s over.
That being said, I do have some shots of the waxing gibbous moon from April 28, 2018. I suspect I had the same problem during that full moon on April 29 (8:58pm EDT)…bad weather. I also have some waxing gibbous shots from April 16.
Howl for me! ~Vic
Pink Moon 2019 was at 100% illumination at 7:12am EDT.
April’s full moon is widely known as the Full Pink Moon, even though it doesn’t actually turn pastel pink as the name suggests. The Full Pink Moon’s name comes from the abundance of moss phlox, a common little pink flower that typically begins to spread across the ground in early spring. With that said, this creeping phlox is not the only thing that begins blooming during the Full Pink Moon.
In many Native American tribes, April’s full moon is associated with the bustling life and vibrant growth of spring. In Sioux culture, it’s named after the sprouting of red grass. The Comanche tribe called it the New Spring Moon and, both the Tlingit and Sioux tribes referred to it as the Budding Moon, after the new plants that begin to bud and sprout during spring. The Cherokee tribe even called it the Flower Moon (though that name is also sometimes used to refer to May’s full moon) and celebrated it for the growth of useful medicinal plants and magical herbs.
Walking back home.
At the same time, April is a time when rivers and streams begin to fully thaw. Accordingly, the Shoshone tribe named April’s full moon the Full Melting Moon and the Arapaho tribe called it the Moon Where Ice Breaks in the River. It was also known as the Fish Moon because of the fish that would begin to swim upstream during this time. The Cherokees believed that flowing water was under the control of a spirit called the Long Man and would perform rituals to honor him during the Full Pink Moon. An example of a ritual like this was the Knee Deep Dance, based off the movements of the Water Frog. The Assiniboine tribe also called April’s full moon the Frog Moon.
Water is not the only thing that starts to flow during the Full Pink Moon. This is also the time where maple sap begins to flow in earnest, marking the true beginning of the incredibly important sugar-making season. The Abenaki tribes called April’s full moon the Sugar Maker Moon, and the Ojibwe called it the Sugarbush Moon. The Ojibwe tribe would journey north to their spring camps to tap maple syrup and engage in spear fishing. Maple syrup was integral to Ojibwe culture. Not only was it a crucial method of seasoning all their foods (they did not have access to salt at that time) but, it also symbolized harmony within the community and with the forces of nature around them.
Gold Park
Waxing Gibbous
04-16-2019
The Full Pink Moon also holds religious significance in other cultures. For example, in Islāmic communities around the world, April’s full moon is celebrated as Bara’at Night, also known as the Night of Innocence. Muslims offer up prayers, asking God to absolve dead ancestors of their sins. They also prepare sweet desserts such as halwa or zarda and give it out to children, the needy and other members of their community. Meanwhile, Christians call it the Paschal Moon and celebrate the first Sunday after April’s full moon as Easter Sunday. It’s possible that the reason why the Easter Bunny brings eggs is because April’s full moon is also known as the Egg Moon, given that animals such as geese begin mating and laying eggs in spring.
While April is known for its showers and ever-warming temperatures, it is also known as a month when spring flowers begin to show up. The name came from the herb moss pink or wild ground phlox which is one of the earliest widespread flowers of the spring. As the name infers, the flowers are pink in color, thus the name for April’s full Moon. But no, the Moon itself won’t be turning pink.
Tribes kept track of the seasons by giving distinctive names to each recurring full Moon. Full Moon names were applied to the entire month in which each occurred. There was some variation in the full Moon names but, in general, the same ones were consistent among regional tribes. European settlers followed that custom and created some of their own names.
Other names for this month’s celestial body include the Full Sprouting Grass Moon, the Egg Moon and, among coastal tribes the Full Fish Moon, because this was the time that the shad swam upstream to spawn.
If the power is on where you are reading this article, you likely have a lineman to thank. From the power plant, the grid crisscrossing the country, both above and underground, and right up to the meters on our homes, these men, and women, build and maintain the system that keeps our nation running. Regardless of the source, the electricity has to be transported by employing transformers and other equipment. Due to the dangerous conditions power poses, safety is of utmost importance for both the lineman and the consumer.
When mother nature destroys what our linemen have built up, they are on call to build it back up again as quickly as possible. These men and women work tirelessly to get emergency systems back in working order and, urgently, return service to remaining areas. Even when there is no crisis, they work under dangerous conditions on a daily basis. Whether they are working in trenches, near water or on high towers, the risks are extreme.
This day was first recognized on April 10, 2013, by the U.S. Senate [via] Resolution S Res 95.
Out on one of my walks, several of these happy things were poking out through the wrought iron fence. I haven’t the first clue what this is but, it’s flower-ish, I suppose. It is quite striking. If anyone knows what this is, SPEAK. ~Vic
Update:
Thanks to another blogger, this strange flower is a Euphorbia, or Spurge, which is the same family that Poinsettias come from. This particular variety is either an amygdaloides variant called ‘Robbiae’ or, a Redwing Charam, which is a hybrid of amygdaloides and martinii. I can’t tell. Thank you!
Cosmic-Observation 