Sunday, December 2, 2007

Wild Thing on PBS?

I'm embarrassed.
Saturday night I flipped on the TV and KERA-Channel 13 was having one of their concert-fund-raising deals. That alone is enough to ruin my evening since it usually involves a Yanni-esque character performing in a purple-hued canyon, telling us how noble we all are. I don't know about you but I don't feel noble.
But this was a 60-something, wispy-gray-haired, overweight guy with a guitar, playing a song from the 60's . I was hooked to see who it was. Well, it was the lead singer for The Troggs and the song was Wild Thing.
Here's the embarrassing bit: this guy looked about as ready to take on a "wild thing" as I am to climb Mount Everest. Yet, on and on the song went, how this female, wild-child moved him. I loved the song in the 60's. I felt it's pain . . . but it's over. The audience, KERA, and the whole 60's generation, blue pills notwithstanding, needs to recognize one thing -- it's 2007, not 1967, deal with it.
After that, and to make matters worse, Jerry and the Pacemakers . . . a fitting name at this time of his life . . . gets up there and barely gets out the words to his song, Ferry Cross the Mersey, at which point I had to turn the TV off before I hurled -- but just as I was turning it off -- they panned to the audience and everyone is holding hands, swinging back and forth, singing along. This is the same group of people that slid down mud-slides naked and stoned at Woodstock. Now we're swinging back and forth like a bunch of traumatized hospital patients. It's sickening, I tell you.
The 60's generation is 60 and is embarrassing us all.
Get over yourself.

A Fort Worth Exclusive: Picturing the Bible

Anyone interested in history, art or religion should take the time to visit the Kimbell Art Museum in the next few months. We are privileged to have a collection of artistic treasures, including the Statuette of the Good Shepherd, a 3rd century marble piece, and a beautiful, jewel-encrusted gold cross presented by the emperor Justinian to Pope John III, circa 590 AD. I especially liked the Sarcophogus with the Traditio Legis, a 3rd century carved marble sarcophogus.

Two descriptions from the Kimbell website:
" A spectacular display of many of the greatest treasures of early Christianity from around the world, Picturing the Bible includes major loans from the Vatican, the Bargello and the Laurentian Library in Florence, the British Museum, the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and a number of other international institutions. A landmark event both for scholarship on the Early Christian era and for the broader appreciation of this crucial period in world history..."

"Picturing the Bible brings together a wide range of material in an attempt to help clarify the questions of how Christians in the Greco-Roman period illustrated their religious beliefs, including frescoes, marble sculpture and sarcophagi, silver vessels and reliquaries, carved ivories, engraved gold glass, bronze sculpture, seals in semiprecious stones, illustrated Bibles, and decorated crosses. "
Fort Worth is the only host of this collection, thanks to the folks at the Kimbell. Congratulations.

Place: Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas
Cost: Peak times $14 / off peak $7
Dates: November 18, 2007 -- March 30, 2008
Website: http://www.kimbellart.org

Friday, November 30, 2007

Need a Good General Contractor?

About once a month I repost the following as a favor to a friend:
-------------------------------------------------------

T
his
is a plug. I get nothing from it. Nothing, nada, zilch.
I just had my house painted and roofed and I am very happy with the work. Very happy.


As a matter of fact, the contractor (who just finished) did such a good job I told him I'd put his name on the weblog. If he gets a call from it, he deserves it. You will get a fair proposal and job done properly and economically.

The company name is: GlenCo International
Contact: Wayne Glennon
Phone: 817 244 9262 / 817 994 6088 mobile

Wayne's got some engineering in his background and has been doing new construction and renovation for a many years -- and is a longtime resident of the Fort Worth area.

This is not the leaky faucet guy (actually, he did fix a leaking a/c unit in my attic once). This is the guy when you have a major project that requires experience and general construction expertise.

Call him. The proposal bid is free of charge.