The Point

"Then, I must have one, too."

Every once in a while, childhood just reaches up and smacks you. I didn't have much of a childhood. By that, I mean, I remember very little. The reasons are various. Many of the things I do remember are intimately tied to music.

Rehearsing for a recital with the choir director.
Singing in a parade in Waikiki. Yes, Hawaii.
Us running the light board for a rehearsal of La Boheme.
Struggling to pick out the melody to "Time In A Bottle" on the piano in the basement.
Jerry on the bass guitar.
Mannheim Steamroller, Fresh Aire I-IV.
Susan and Scotty, flute and strings, respectively, in the same basement, years before.
Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. The quintessential music of my childhood.
Singing Neil Diamond's "African Trilogy". Elementary, junior and high school choirs, all the matching bands, and 3 different languages. Hot damn.

Not last, and definitely not least, Harry Nilsson's The Point. A cross between animated musical, fairy tale, and something else, I am amazed to find it again, in the La Jolla Tower Records, just lying in wait for me, 3000 miles and many years from that initial joy of singing about "a whale who grew so old, he decomposed..."

Age has not withered my affection. My love for "Think About Your Troubles", "Me and My Arrow", and all the wonderful tracks on this album, will never fade.

How often do you get to sing about whales decomposing?

"Chamber of Secrets" Viewings

4, as of Nov 30, 2002. That number will continue to rise as a cold front moves into the region, causing hail, frogstorms, and attacks by wombats dressed as Christmas elves.

Well. Maybe not the wombats.

Long Weekend

And it was. In a nice way. I have much to say, just not in a blog. Personal-epiphany type stuff (don't you hate those?). So, instead, let's just be endlessly amused over the flack Australia is getting for their PM sounding like Pres. Bush.

Tee-hee-hee! In all seriousness, however:

"The horror of terrorism such as the Bali bombing that killed 89 Australians and nearly 100 other people was understood [or, gosh, the WTC attack -- sidra], but countries must act within international law, Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Marti Natalegawa said."
"Fortunately, states cannot willy-nilly flout international law and norms," he told the Australian Associated Press. "We have to work within the system. In the fight against terror, no country can act above the law and norms."

Damn. Straight.