Mercury, the Winged Messenger

What a wonderful day it was today! Temps never got above the mid-70s, but there wasn't a cloud in the sky, and the wind wasn't too bad. Forecast for next weekend is for temps in the mid-80s. If that's the case, it'll be 20 degrees cooler than the past 3 years, and that's going to make this concert quite bearable!

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I went back into the archives, and found this from almost exactly two years ago to the day (you have to read it to understand what's going on here)! I bring that up, because, yes, it's happened again... This time, not by my own hand though. I happened to look over the balcony yesterday, and found a freshly-dead, not-quite-ready-to-fly chick on the concrete. Looks like it bolted out like the one from two years ago, but must have hit the concrete too hard. All the neighborhood birds have come by to pay their respects. All morning, all afternoon, again before the sun came up. I anticipate a full weekend of mourning.

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I have made mention in the past that the second scariest movie of all time was "The Shining" (not that drivel that was a made-for-TV movie--I'm talkin' about the one with Jack!). The creepiest part of that movie was not all the blood, or Jack being a dull boy, or even the "REDRUM! REDRUM!" parts (that was for you Turnbaby!). No, it was the creepy twin sisters. Tie that into the current "no dead zone" campaign for Verizon Wireless, and you get this (genius, I tell ya!):

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The next movement of The Planets is "Mercury, the Winged Messenger". I always think of the FTD logo with this. Listening to the music, you can hear Mercury flitting around more like Tinkerbell (who'da thunk I could mention that name in two consecutive posts?). This movement is very difficult rhythmically. Again, Holst didn't write parts for the trombones or tubas. Either because he was saving them for the next movement, or he knew that flitting and difficult rhythms don't mix well with the low brass. Or because we're inherently sexist...