Letters in sunshine... letters in shadow.
Max and Erma's Restaurant, Virginia Beach 
“My alphabet starts with this letter called yuzz.
It's the letter I use to spell yuzz-a-ma-tuzz.
You'll be sort of surprised what there is to be found
once you go beyond 'Z' and start poking around!”
~ Dr. Seuss (1904-1991)
Painted letters on a window... bright sunshine in winter with an angle low in the sky.... wooden window blind slats..... add them together and you get letter shadows. Now, I know you hope I know what they say... you want me to read them backwards..... but I can't. The restaurant is Max & Erma's... we went there once; not because the food was bad, but it is across town near the new Virginia Beach town center and a mall and frankly, we just don't get over that way very often any more. These days we try to group our outings together to get the most done for the gas we have to use. So, doctor's appointments near the beach become trips for necessities... gas at the cheepest station in town, stocking up on canned goods and paper goods from Costco and the very rare trip to a restaurant in this part of town....or rather, to use the Christmas gift card Mom got from Nyssa at Cheesecake Factory. By the way, Nyssa... she picked up one, a red velvet cheesecake.... red velvet cake layers between layers of cheesecake with a cheesecake icing and shreds of white chocolate on top. Just thinking about it puts on five pounds. We are rationing it for her.... it was already cut into slices and these have been individually wrapped and frozen. She gets ¼ slice every couple of weeks... so her HgbA1c doesn't go through the roof. It really IS an unbelievable treat and I don't even love cheesecake.
Oh, look... off subject again. Anyway, I have no idea what these letters say... I know they don't say "Max & Erma's", but haven't been able to decipher the words.. just the letters. The top row seems to be "i,d,e" and the bottom.. well, all I can make out is "ailable"... it could be "available" but why would that be on a window? I will try to remember to look and see, the next time we are over that direction.. the next time we have to make a run to the doctor down by the beach, to Costco and to Cheesecake Factory.
“Most people think that shadows follow, precede or surround beings or objects. The truth is that they also surround words, ideas, desires, deeds, impulses and memories.” ~ Elie Wiesel (Romanian born American Writer. Nobel Prize for Peace in 1986. b.1928)
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Carmi's Theme ~ Letters
Shadow Shot Sunday
There is more than one way to be "haunted"...... "Sing once again with me our strange duet ...
My power over you grows stronger yet ...
And though you turn from me, to glance behind,
The Phantom of the Opera is there inside your mind ..."
~ Batt, Michael; Hart, C; Stilgoe, R; Lloyd-Webber, Andrew (lyrics)
In 1989 a casting call went out to singers, including classically trained opera singers particularly in Chicago. Andrew Lloyd Webber was casting for the second traveling company of The Phantom of the Opera... the show was to originate and play in Chicago for its first nine months. My brother, Stephen, was doing an apprenticeship at the Lyric Opera in Chicago after completing his Master's at New England Conservatory. He auditioned, was signed and that is how his "haunting" began.
Of course, we thought this was great and over the eight years he traveled with this company, we were able to see the production in many different venues.. The Auditorium Theatre in Chicago, The Fox Theatre in Atlanta, The Kennedy Center in Washington DC and The Forrest Theatre in Philadelphia to name a few. Eight shows a week, 52 weeks a year, for eight years.... you do the math. What happens when you sing and act the same thing over and over and over? Stephen said that some nights he could do the entire show and not really remember the details at all.
What do they do to break up the repetitiveness? Well, for one thing, birthdays. When Stephen turned 30... I planned a surprise. I can't remember if they were in Denver or Chicago, but I got in touch with another cast member and sent a box to them. Inside was a small black coffin shaped box filled with black and white shredded paper and all sorts of "Over the Hill" gifts, coffee mugs and such. In addition, they delivered thirty white carnations that had been tip dyed in black with greenery in a large arrangement and a special ballon... the Grim Reaper holding a cup cake.. it read "I'm just here for the cake." Others had put together some finger foods and a cake and they set all the things up on a large table backstage. I sent a package of stickers as well, that read... "Look Who's Turning 30". The cast passed them out amongst themselves and attached them in various strategic places on their costumes.
The woman who played Carlotta was quite buxom and the neckline of the costume for the Masquerade scene was very, very low... but she had a decorative scarf of some sort as well. So, she attached the sticker, strategically .. well, on her partially exposed bosom and covered it with the scarf. Carlotta had to dance with Stephen when he played the part of Piangi and apparently he had to do so that evening. As they were in the middle of the scene and whirling round and round across stage.. Carlotta (with her back to the audience) would fling up the scarf and show Stephen the sticker.... what a way to break things up! It was a memorable birthday after all.
I was able to see the show ten times and always found it moving. Nyssa was four when it began and seven when we went to Chicago for her first viewing. She was mesmerized... and afterward, when we went backstage, all the cast stopped to talk to her and she saw all the heavy, heavy costumes and the stage props and wigs and even the Phantom's makeup. We thought it amazing and wonderful and never tired of the performances. But, after years of hearing the music night after night... Stephen DID tire of it. He was "haunted" by the Phantom of the Opera sounds wherever he went. Do you know how many fine restaurants have live background piano music playing during lunch or dinner? More than you know. The songs were in their cycles and it never failed that a strain from some part of Phantom would begin as he ate.... he has several times paid a tip to the piano player NOT to play pieces from Phantom until he left the restaurant.
The final touring companies closed last year in November 2010 in Los Angeles. In all there were three different touring companies and at closing, they had played 205 engagements in 98 cities for an unprecedented combined total of 36 years and 14,605 performances. Of those, my brother performed for eight years.
Oh, as for the picture. I was in our local Walmart parking lot and I saw this car with this bumper sticker and just could not resist. I had to use my handy dandy small point and shoot so as not to cause too big of a scene, so it isn't my best picture, a little spooky really ... but, I thought I would post it for Stephen... who will in some ways, forever be "haunted" by the Phantom of the Opera.
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Carmi's Weekly Theme ~ "Letters"
Saturday Photo Hunt ~ "Mostly Black"
Working on the webpage....... "If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization." ~ One of Murphy's Laws of Technology
I am taking the plunge, heading into unknown territory, on a mission (hopefully not a five year one) to explore the inner workings of this layout and attempt to change over from the worst commenting system in the universe JS-Kit Echo..... to something manageable without losing all the comments. Cross your fingers, say a prayer and hope.... In the mean time I have to disable commenting for a while... I really don't know how long. I will try and keep it as short as possible... but as you know with computers.....
"The problem with troubleshooting is that trouble shoots back." ~ Author Unknown
(Gulp!) OK... Here we go!
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Update: Well, I did it and with less than stellar results. Yes, Disqus imported the Blogger comments that were synched up with Echo... But, while Disqus imported the raw files that I had exported from Echo.. Echo and JSKIT (which is the ABSOLUTE WORST!!!!!! commenting system in the universe and who wants you to PAY $120 a year for using the ABSOLUTE WORST!!!! system) for all their self-serving praise, managed to download their comments without identifiers to show which post they belong to. I figure this is because they thought of those of us who used Haloscan and whom they had to bring into the system when they bought and ravaged Haloscan were simply second rate. They did nothing to help us salvage the Haloscan comments if we wanted to move. Their pricing went from "free" if you came over from Haloscan, to $11 a year, to $120 a year within four months. Their service is lousy... two to three weeks to even get an email back when initiating a service problem. They have dismounted their forum where a lot of quick help could be had .... probably because they were getting so much NEGATIVE feedback that it tied up too many employees to delete it from the site.
I found out that there is one redeeming thing about all the old, old spam that showed up in comments. You know.. when you occasionally go to the 2005 posts and find a comment from "Cleaning houses in _________.(insert VA, NV, GA, or whatever).. It seems that the presence of those comments, somehow getting posted by bypassing some form or other... well, they grounded the post... gave it identity and made the other imported Haloscan comments that were legitimate, show up. So, I've lost all the comments on many favorite posts.... sigh. I still have the exported original Haloscan files from the day I was forced to switch to Echo. Perhaps some geeky angel will figure something out.
Until then, I am back and I think this comment system is more user friendly.... at least it has a spot to put in the commenter's website so I can return the visits.
Yes, this is a quiz...... get your pencils ready!
(Click picture to enlarge) “Educational television should be absolutely forbidden. It can only lead to unreasonable disappointment when your child discovers that the letters of the alphabet do not leap up out of books and dance around with royal-blue chickens.” ~ Fran Lebowitz (American Writer and Humorist, b.1950)
ABC Wednesday is here again and the letter this week is "F". I figured that a pop quiz is in order, having never posted one before. So, I collected a few of my favorite pictures for you to match with descriptions and the answers will be below. Just fit the descriptions with the letters in the picture mosaic. So, have fun and don't fake it. Enjoy. Ready? Begin!
- Foreboding Forest ________
- Fragrant Flowers _________
- Fuzzy Flyer _____________
- Friendly Face ___________
- Filigreed Fern___________
- Fanciful Fuchsia _________
- Fabulous Flutterby _______
- Frilly Foliage____________
- Fluffy Feline ____________
- Feisty Finch _____________
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ABC Wednesday Cycle 8 ~ Letter "F"
Answers: 1. f; 2. i; 3. b; 4. j; 5. c; 6. g; 7. a; 8. d; 9. h; 10. e.
Male cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) and common finch (Carpodacus mexicanus)... winter bright spots. "You have to believe in happiness,
Or happiness never comes ...
Ah, that's the reason a bird can sing -
On his darkest day he believes in Spring."
~ Douglas Malloch, You Have To Believe
The weather has evolved into what I call our "YO-YO" season. Finally, the temperatures reached 50℉ for a few days and then it was back into the low 40's for a while with a four inch snow just two weeks ago. Then there was this past Friday... a balmy, sun-drenched but slightly breezy day more reminiscent of late May or early June; temperatures soared to 78℉. I started pruning back the roses and cutting back the remaining winter debris and (drum roll please).. I planted 100 tulips. I know. Late again. But at least this time the bulbs weren't completely mushy and all had started their sprouting process in the garage. We'll see.
Yes, I have once again strayed off subject.. weather. So, Friday was warm enough to get a sunburn... Saturday was still in the 60's but the wind was no longer a breeze but a stiff gale with gusts and blowing in from the north and west. I opened a window to about six inches in Nyssa's room and one in Stephen's room and my room to get a nice cross breeze. With this six inch opening the wind was strong enough to blow papers off a dresser in the room's interior.... I finally put a paper weight on them. So, Saturday felt brrrrrr cold.. simply from the wind chill. Sunday... highs back in the low 40's. Today? The mercury topped out at our house around 76℉. Wind was predicted with this but for most of the day.. it was really calm, cloudy and most pleasant. I worked outside pruning all the potted plants and finishing up the roses.
Around 4PM I was sitting out on the deck and taking photos of the titmouse, nuthatch, chickadee and the downy woodpeckers that decided to visit the feeders and just enjoying nature. The change was dramatic and sudden. From complete calm to a sharp wind from the northwest. From 76℉ and feeling comfortable in a short sleeved summer shirt to feeling a deep and slightly damp chill in the air. The temperature fell almost 20 degrees in just under an hour.. you could sit and watch the temperature sensors number fall like a rock. By 9PM it was 40℉ outside and windy. This wasn't a normal cooling on a clear day when the evening creeps in.. it has been cloudy all day. It was definitely a cold front and a strong one... so far, no rain; but I see on the map that once again places north and east of us, in Delaware and Maryland, there is ice and snow. I have seen fronts come through before, but have never personally experienced such a sudden change in the air temperature and wind speed in such a short time. Fronts come and go.. this one was physically noticeable.
You see the "YO-YO" don't you...78...62...40....75....45....etc. Such is late winter in coastal Virginia. I think these birds, however, will like it just fine... as long as no more snow comes our way.... yo-yos they can handle.
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Ruby Tuesday
