Their Legs Were Crossed

We were walking down Fleet Street in London searching for another church.  Sometimes I think I have an insatiable appetite for the architecture of the medieval churches. We had stopped in Twinings Tearoom for the traditional English tea, and with that good caffeine fix we were ready to do more exploring.  Our quest was to find the Templar Temple.  The name itself suggested a hint of mystery. After all, we had seen the film "The Da Vinci Code".

We found it on a narrow street between Fleet Street and the Thames River. Taller buildings and trees surround it. It has a small courtyard to the side.  In that courtyard is a column with a statue of a mounted knight atop it.  Images from films such as "The Kingdom of Heaven" cloud my mind.  It is quiet and the muffled sounds of Fleet Street sound like the thunder of the hooves of mounted knights from another age.  We enter the coolness of the stone walls. Our eyes adjust to the darkness and our noses to the consumate odor of the centuries.  After seeing many medieval churches this one is truly unique--it's round.  The main nave is indeed circular, but the chancel area is rectangular.  But then the chancel was added to the original structure 200 years later. Why round?  Because its design is based on the circular Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, the most holy place in Christendom. 

The church was consecrated in 1185. The king himself was in attendance. Recall that the Knights Templar were crusaders, protectors of the poor, and  sought to reclaim the Holy Land from the clutches of Islam. The Templars were also known to have developed a banking system and are thought to have had connections to the famous banking family of the Rothschilds. The Knights Templar fell out of favor, probably because they became too powerful, and were persecuted into presumed extinction.

They took their solemn oaths in this circular nave. We stood in the very places the knights had taken their monastic vows. The acoustics are extraordinary here, not unlike those in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir practice hall in Salt Lake City. As we talked in hushed tones our voices reverberated back on our ears. 

In the nave, which is some fifty-five feet in diameter, are effigies of knights long since dead.  As we looked at these likenesses of members of the Knights Templar we noticed that some of them had their legs crossed.  We were able to find out that crossed legs indicated that they did not die in battle.

We noted church service times on the placard out front in the event we would be around for a religious service.  It would have been neat to have attended a service in such a place. However, we decided that we could hear a pint calling us by name to the nearest pub.

One Hit Wonder?

In music, especially, we hear of "one hit wonders", those people who seem to come from nowhere, and suddenly every time you switch on the radio you hear their songs. Does anyone remember "The Pina Colada" song, and what ever happened to Rupert Holmes anyway? One hit wonders seem to be like shooting stars; they make a bright flash; then they're gone and forgotten.  One such performer could have been James William, "Jimmy", Buffett who in 1977 had a hit song, "Margaritaville".  Born on Christmas day, 1946 he grew up and was educated on the Gulf coast, Alabama and Mississippi. Buffett went to Nashville, Tennessee to make his mark as a country singer and recorded his first album in 1970.  He continued to play for tips on the street, busking, frequently in New Orleans. While in Nashville he took a trip to Key West with singer-songwriter Jerry Jeff Walker to do some busking in the southernmost city of the country, and as they say, "The rest is history." There Buffett developed his musical style and defined a lifestyle as well. His music became known as "Gulf and Western", or country with a Caribbean flavor. The drinking, carousing, and partying on the beach in the tropics was depicted in  many of his songs.  A song on his fifth album, "Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes," had the hit single, "Margaritaville".  This song pretty much summed up the Buffett lifestyle. He gathered fans in legions. His organized fans are called Parrotheads and have chapters all over the USA.

However, the life style depicted in Buffett's songs say nothing about the business skills of Jimmy Buffett. He has made a lot of money and continues to.  His income is estimated at over $50 million per year. Not bad for a one hit wonder.  Actual numbers are fairly difficult to find. His business ventures are under the umbrella company of Margaritaville Holdings, LLC, which is a privately held company.  His income comes from a number of sources.

• Musicand other creative endeavors: His concerts and record sales. Concerts sell out and ticket prices are  around  $85 for the cheap seats.  Last year's tour generated roughly $41 million.
  He has cut back to 25 concerts per year. His record sales generate considerable income as well.  Buffett owns his own record label, so instead of getting $1 per record he gets $5. He has made over 30 albums. Writing: He has produced three best sellers and co-authored two children's books. He has also written musical scores for movies and appeared in several movies in cameo roles.  
• Cheeseburger in Paradise restaurants, Margaritavilla Cafes, and Margaritaville stores generate another $16 million in income.  Some restaurants are company owned, and others are licensed.
• There are Margaritaville food products, clothing, and Landshark Lager produced by Anhauser Busch. On the label of Landshark Lager is a picture of "the Hemisphere Dancer", Buffett's seaplane.  Margaritaville Tequila and Rum  are produced by Seagrams along with other alcoholic beverages.
• He owns part of two minor league baseball teams.
• Hotels and Casinos:  Two casino projects are under construction, one in Biloxi, Mississippi, a $48 million project with Harrah's, and one in Atlantic City, New Jersey. He recently put his Margaritaville brand on a new 162-bed hotel in Pensacola, Florida.
• The NFL Dolphins Stadium, in Miami became Landshark Stadium in 2009. He never misses chance to promote his products.
• Always an opportunist, Buffet is attempting to copyright the name "Tiger's Milk" for a vodka offering. "Tiger's Milk" was a label Charlie Sheen used for a certain libation.
• His satellite radio station, Radio Margaritville, beams the music around the world.
• Margaritaville outdoor furniture is slated to appear in spring, 2011.

Will Jimmy Buffett retire? Not while he enjoys doing what he's doing, according to him.  Will his financial empire continue to grow? Probably. After all, Jimmy Buffet's empire doesn't depend on hits.

Not bad for a one hit wonder. 

Links:

Jimmy Buffett 1 

Jimmy Buffett 2

Jimmy Buffett 3 video

Jimmy Buffett 4

Jimmy Buffett Homepage

Cafe au lait

We had been driving since early morning and decided to stop at the next town for coffee. After following what seemed like a multitude of spandex clad cyclists for quite a few kilometers before passing them I needed a little break. It was a village like most others, built of stone with the highest structure being the church. And across the street from the church was a cafe.

I eased the Peugeot to the curb and parked near the cafe.  There are no marked parking spaces in French villages.  You simply park where you find space out of the way of traffic.  We found an empty table on the sidewalk of course.  Only about three of the half dozen or so tables are occupied.  There was a huge tree with a trunk about one meter in diameter in the center of the outdoor dining room.  I relaxed and stretched a bit.  It was good to get out from behind the wheel of the compact car.  We waited what seemed like forever before realizing there was no wait staff. No one had pointed this out. The French aren't very chatty like the folks across the English channel.  Perhaps because of some sort of language barrier?  And, of course, everyone there was a local and knew there was no wait staff.  In the small towns and villages we were ususally asked if we were English. Probably because of the language we spoke and because the people from the United Kingdom were the most common English speakers in France.

I went  inside to the bar counter through sliding glass doors to get our two cafe au laits. They cost me two euros each; in Paris they would have cost me five each.  It was good to relax in the morning shade with a nice coffee.  It was reasonably quite.  The old fellow reading the morning paper made little noise. But a group of men were having a very noisy card game.  I remember six players. They seemed to range in ages from thirty to fifty-five and appeared to be  delivery men, shopkeepers, carpenters and such.  The French are extremely animated card players as they would throw their cards on the table with great fanfare.  Usually with what seemed like an expletive.  I'm sure I heard some good old Anglo-Saxon curse words in there somewhere. I think they were gambling and using small squares of colored paper for gambling chips.  The game had a gallery of old men  in hats and sweaters  with walking canes looking on.

There was a table of French women too.  And a young woman came by to chat with them.  She had a small child in a stroller and she was impeccably dressed. From her high-heeled shoes to the perfect coiffure she looked fantastic.  Perfectly color co-ordinated and made up.   I'm not sure where she was going or just out with her offspring to be seen, but she was eye-candy.  I can only say "Ah, the French!"

The helmeted cyclists in rainbow-colored Spandex went by quietly, like some sort of apparition. Much to my chagrin  I would have to pass all of them again on a narrow French country road.

I had to use the restroom before we got back on the road.  The barman pointed me in the right direction.  Upon return to the table I voiced my opinion to my travel bud.  If the French could build such technological wonders as the world's largest airliner, why couldn't they have a decent sit-down toilet? A few days earlier we seen Roman toilets from the first century that you sat on unlike the twenty-firsts century French ones you had to squat to use. 

My travel bud decided she would wait until the next town and hope for a Roman style toilet.

A note about our mode of transport.  The Peugeot 206+ diesel we rented in Roeun from what seemed to be the French equivalent of a 7-eleven.  By renteng from an agent , Hertz, about ten blocks from the train station we saved about 50% on rental costs. Yes, you do pay for convience!  I enjoyed driving the small car with standard 5-speed transmission.  I had plenty of pep and easily kept up with traffic on the tollways at 130kph.  The compact size was great in the narrow medieval streets too.

• Peugeot
• More about Peugeots
• Lots of stuff about Peugeots
•  Photos of our travels in France.

Television Flashback

Hey, remember this, you were settling into your easy chair or maybe looking up from you Hot Wheels on the floor when on the television screen you saw it. THE helicopter coming up out of a extinct volcano crater with that awesome sound. Airwolf

The television series was on from 1984-1987 and starred Jan-Michael Vincent as Stringfellow Hawke and Oscar winner, Ernest Borgnine, as Dominic Santini. Hawke, a former test pilot, stole the high-tech helicopter from the FIRM, a CIA under-organization, and uses it on secret missions of national significance. The series was created by Donald P. Bellisario who also created Magnum, P.I., Quantum Leap, Tales of the Gold Monkey, Black Sheep Squadron, JAG, and NCIS. There are quite a few similarities in these examples of episodic television. The helicopter depicting Airwolf was a Bell 222 helicopter with added pods, gun mounts, etc. to create the high-tech look of the helicopter. Airwolf had the top speed of Mach 3 but, in reality, the top speed of helicopters is about .5 Mach. Mach 1 is the speed of sound. The last season of Airwolf was on the USA tlelvision network, filmed in Canada, and at one-third the CBS budget with only Jan-Michael Vincent of the original cast. I really enjoyed the first three seasons on the show. The ABC television network's Blue Thunder, a series about a high-tech helicopter,  was no match for Airwolf. Unfortunately, Airwolf left the small screen and the main human star drifted into alcoholism.

See:

• Airwolf
• Blue Thunder
• Bell-222 Helicopter

It is interesting to note that many of the features of the Airwolf  helicopter which were considered fiction in 1984 are considered the norm today.

The Adjustment Bureau

This science fiction thriller stars Matt Damon and Emily Blunt in a film based on a short-story by Philip K. Dick. The characters live in a time when lives are pre-planned.  When an individual deviates from their prescribed life plan, agents of the Adjustment Bureau are sent to make corrections.  It's a good story of  a programed life versus free-will in the life of a politician (Damon) whose life is going smooth until he meets a dancer (Blunt) who is not a part of his life plan.  This is an action movie but Matt Damon is no Jason Bourne in this film. The plot was very simple once you understand the basic primace.  I liked it.  In some ways it was like the other films based on Dick's novels or short stories which include Blade Runner, Minority Report, and A Scanner Darkley to name a few. Dick was a good friend of Timothy Leary, the college professor and LSD advocate.

More information at:

• Philip K. Dick
• The Adjustment Bureau
• Matt Damon

The Best of the Best

Should we be considered anglophiles because we like British television crime dramas? Perhaps not. Although my mate and I do seem to have in insatiable appetite for crime dramas with a British accent. We first became acquainted with them through that government subsidized entertainment source, the Public Broadcasting Service. MYSTERY from WGBH, the Boston PBS station would bring us these impeccable British mystery dramas. There were quite a few, Morse, Lynley, Dalgliesh and others. We loved them all but especially Morse.  Inspector Morse is author Colin Dexter's best character and John Thaw brings him to life.

.

An excerpt taken from the book, MYSTERY!: A Celebration, by Ron Miller (published by KQED Books) from the PBS website. 

For anyone raised on a steady diet of American prime-time detective shows, the arrival of Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse on Mystery! was certain to be a shock. "I'm a quite different kettle of fish," Morse (John Thaw) tells his new aide, Sergeant Lewis (Kevin Whately), in that first program.

It is a fair warning. Morse is often morose and cranky and, when he is, he'd rather stare at the bubbles in his beer than engage in casual conversation. His lack of normal social graces is so profound that Lewis looks positively dumbfounded when Morse asks him, in the Twilight of the Gods episode, how the wife and kids are doing. It is the first time in seven seasons that Morse has shown any interest whatever in Lewis' family.

Morse is definitely not a demographically correct sort of television detective. He's middle-aged with white hair, not the macho young stud favored by American advertisers. But then Barnaby Jones was an older guy with white hair, too, and he had a pretty long run. There's a big difference, though: you'd never catch Barnaby rushing off to choir practice right after cuffing a criminal, as Morse does in his very first television case, The Dead of Jericho.

Like Columbo and Spenser, Morse refuses to acknowledge his first name because it's so awful. If his nickname is any indication -- in the Deceived by Flight episode, we learn the boys at school used to call him "Pagan" -- one can hardly blame him.

The clip below is from the episode Deadly Slumber.



I don't think we are anglophiles, although there is nothing wrong with it.

Britcoms

We've become fond of British television comedies. We call them: "Britcoms". Our favorite is Doc Martin staring Martin Clunes. I think he may have been the forerunner ofHouse. Martin Clunes stars as Dr. Martin Ellingham, a London surgeon who develops a reaction to blood. He leaves the city to become the general practitioner in a tiny village in Cornwall. Not only does Doc Martin has to deal with culture shock, he is totally lacking in people skills. Whereas House is aware of his lack of people skills and doesn't care, Doc Martin is childishly unaware and surprised at others reaction.

Below is a brief clip. The compleat series is available from Netflix and some episodes are on YouTube.

Just another puzzle

Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?

Just the other day I was having lunch with a friend and he was lament about his grandsons. 

He said,'They don't even know what a cowboy is!" I thought about and said that i wasn't surprised. How many kids nowadays know what a cowboy is? 

When I was a boy every one of my buddies wanted to be a cowboy. Not just any cowboy either.  We wanted to be Hoppy, Gene, or Roy.  Or maybe the little more adventurous would want to be Lash LaRue or maybe the Cisco Kid, or Lone Ranger. We would catch robbers and fight Indians just like our heroes.

I can still recall my Mama calling me at 5:30 on a weekday, "Tony, it's time for the Lone Ranger" I'd get real close to that old radio and hear those words: "Out of the west comes the thundering hooves of the great horse Silver..." For the next half hour my ear was glued to that radio.  I was with the Lone Ranger and his faithful Indian companion, Tonto.  And, yes, the next time were at the grocery I'd beg Mama to buy Merita bread--it was the kind the Lone Ranger ate. Of course the next day we'd discuss the episode during recess at the schoolhouse. And then there were the movies I went to see with my grandmother.  In glorious black and white our heroes would right all the wrongs of the old west.

I'm not sure what happened to our western heroes. They never drank, smoked, cursed and never beat up a guy that didn't have it coming. And they treated all women folk with courtesy and respect.

I guess my look back on those heroes of yesterday can best be described in this song by Mason Williams.   Cowboy Buckaroo

I was raised on matinees on Saturday afternoons,

lookin' up at Hoppy, Gene and Roy... oh boy!

And I grew up a-thinkin', "the best a man could do

is be a rootin'-tootin' straight-shootin' cowboy buckaroo."

(chorus)

Spurs a-janglin', whoopi-ti-yi-yay.

Just a-wranglin' to every single day.

Yo-da-lida-ladi, yo-da-lida-ladi,

yo-da-lida-ladi, ooooooooooo....

A man should be a rootin'-tootin' straight-shootin'

cowboy buckaroo.

A buckaroo's a cowboy who believes in what is good.

A buckaroo wouldn't hurt you if he could... if he could.

I ain't afraid to say it 'cause I ain't afraid of you.

I'm a rootin'-tootin', straight-shootin' cowboy buckaroo.

(repeat chorus)

Should we be the way we are, or be how we could be?

Could illusion become reality?

I've got to ask the question, 'cause the answer is overdue...

why can't we all ride together and be cowboy buckaroos?

(repeat chorus)

(tag)

Why can't we all ride together and be cowboy buckaroos?

You reckon they'll make a song about the Power Rangers?

El secreto de sus ojos

The title is translated as: The Secret in Their Eyes.  In this Argentine film a retired federal judge writes a novel hoping to find closure for an unsolved horrible murder case in his past. His novel is also about his love for his once superior.  Both meet later in life to discuss the murder case and their feelings for each other. This film is very well done and it's no surprise that it won the Academy Award for the best foreign film in 2010.  I was particularly impressed with the cinematography.  It was as though each frame of the film could stand alone as a still photograph.  I think that European or rather non-American movies tend to be more visual. This film deserves it's 'R" rating with explicit nudity and language.
 I thought it was a great film well done with a number of stories and a surprise ending.

At the Zoo

Somewhere in the dark corners and overlooked crevices of my mind is part of the lyric of "At the Zoo".  But I can't recall any more of it that those three words. I did go to the zoo recently and a great zoo it was.  The Phoenix Zoo opened in 1962 and comprises 125 acres with 1300 animals.  It is also the largest non-profit zoo in the country.  I was fortunate enough to attend with my travel bud, Claudette, and her son Patrick. Patrick, having visited before, was our guide. As usual on our travels time is of a premium and having a guide insured no lost time.

The zoo is laid out according to trails.  There is the Arizona, Africa, Tropical, and Children's Trails. I found the Arizona trail quite interesting because it was the Sonoran desert like the land around the zoo.  The native animals were big horn sheep, pronghorn antelope, javelinas, Mexican gray wolves, Gila monsters, and other animals, reptiles, and birds. After several trips to the southwest I finally saw my first roadrunner without a coyote lurking nearby.

The African Trail had what you would imagine, African animals.  The part of this trail I liked the best was the African plain exhibit.  We sat on a park bench and watched the giraffes, elands, Maasi cattle, and other animals feed in front of us. Patrick kept us informed about the animals we were watching and pointed out those that were less obvious.  I could have sat there for hours watching each animal. Elsewhere in the exhibit were warthogs, elephants, and rhinos.  One thing of note: this zoo was once home to Ruby, the famous painting elephant. Ruby died as the result of childbirth and is no longer the artist-in-residence.

The Tropics Trail had the primates, and if memory serves, the Komodo dragon.  Wow! What a big lizard! There was also a large fenced area which you enter to watch the monkeys play in the trees overhead.  Part of the nationally recognized primate exhibit was closed for renovation.

We also saw the cats big and small, including lions and bobcats.

The Children's Trail includes a petting zoo.  We did not participate.

More information and photographs are at these links as well as directions to the zoo. A word of warning: avoid school field days!

As a closing thought, when in Phoenix visit the Phoenix Zoo. It's a great way to spend a day.

Bringing Home Future Memories

During our travels I take a lot of digital pictures.  I chose to take still photos as opposed to movies because of conveinence.  To capture good video you need a tripod and other equipment and it's time consuming.  Still photos can be taken quickly.  However, most still photocameras can be used to take video as well.  I like the large capacity of the digital cameras.  A 2 gigabit card can store over 600 photogrraphs.  My current digital camera is a Canon PowerShot SD960 IS.  It is a great "point and shoot" camera.  It doesnot have the sophisticated optics, lenses, of a 35mm style camera.  And indeed lacks some of the quality of the interchangable lense cameras, but it is good enough for my shots. Unless you are going to get in the commercial photography business or need the sduperior sharpness of expensive optics a "point and shoot" such as the Canon PowerShot is all you need.  The Canon PowerShot has almost all the adjustable features that expensive film cameras do including shutter speed and exposure control.  There are other features that only digital cameras can have such as a cropping feature right in the camera. It is also very compact measuring only 3.85 x 2.12 x .87 inches. This is very important to someone who travels with a carry-on bag only on airlines.  I'm sold on this camera.  It has served me well on my travels as well as around the house.

Video shot with Canon PowerShot

The harbor at Oban, Scotland, photographed with a Canon PowerShot

In closing I use a "point and shoot" camera to get the pictures I want with a minimum of fuss.