My sister Laurie's memory is even more detailed than mine, and even though forty years ago tonight
was so long ago that it was the summer before we started kindergarten, she actually recalls something
from June 25, 1969. I guess we were watching TV and our dad was upstairs listening to the radio.
She remembers him coming into the living room looking very sad and telling our mom that
they wouldn't be able to see Judy Garland live in concert now, because she had died.


Today is not about MJ's scandals nor Farrah's illness.
It is the 40th anniversary of the death of Judy Garland,
and June 25 1969 used to be considered the origin
of the moden gay rights movment.

( Click here to find out more about what today is really about! )


And for those of you who are history buffs,
the "midget hanging himself in the enchanted forest"
is merely an urban legend, or something to look for after
the Dark Side of the Moon is done playing, 45 minutes into the film
when you turn the sound back up...



The most likely explanation I have heard is that it was a pelican or some other kind of
exotic creature the producers had placed around the set for some reason...


Thank you for visiting my Livejournal.
It's been too long since I was in here clacking away at ya.
Take care everyone, and have a fun & safe weekend :-)

By the time Laurie and I hatched, in 1964, on the very precipice between the baby boomers and Generation X, pop culture was mixing up the kitschy and the surreal like crazy, as if it was serious drama! Sci fi and horror are really fun. Movies that are called thrillers or suspense, not so much. In that way I am similar to my young friend Nicklaus who claims to "need a little more genre than that." Hence, to really enjoy the screen-viewing experience, I need colorful scenery, or intense black and white textures combined with maudlin, overplayed music, at least most of the time. I love the way the millenial kids (or Gen-Y or whatever Nick is) use words so diffeerntly, like the word "random," to refer to incongruity, or even merely a surprising or unfamiliar event. I like it though, it's cute. I am entranced by vincent price at any age, doing anything. On the few feature length sci fi selections at Hulu.com, you can see Vincent play THE LAST MAN ON EARTH, and we learn very early on in the film that the earth's last man is also the world's fussiest fussbudget. But all the furious fussbudgeting in the world, ultimately, cannot protect you from zombies, Vincent.




But I could have told you vincent, this whirled was never meant for one as beautiful as

(  BRAAAAAAAIIINNNNNNSSSS  )

Yeah man. Still fresh. But I'll take only what I need. It's gotta last.


Art is science made clear. -Jean Cocteau

Life here at the SRI has been busy and not without its good times,
however I am putting a lot of mental effort into lots of things.
Some Vocation some Avocation and all quite interesting,
but sometimes mentally exhausting.

This week a strange event occurred,
last night over in Research Park.
Not necessarily a loss of real close friendship
but it makes me at least, in the granda scheme of
things, momentarily sad, to lose my sense of trust.

But enough of that!



It's time to take your shoes off and relax with Ann and Nancy!


The following link I found out about from the very groovy verucas_chaos
If I could get my own island, I'd want to power it
as green as I could possibly do! Way to go, Johnny!

Susan Olsen is raising the bar on reality-show-quality
by focusing on kitten foster care in a humorous way,
but this is a cause she promotes all the time, seriously.

Part of staying on the show is about Susan getting
the most views on her entry in the show's YouTube video contest!
The more you click on the video the more of a victory it is
for Brady fans and animal lovers everywhere! And it's funny!

Click here to help her WIN

Additionally, please spread the word to your friends who are Brady Fans, Animal Lovers,
or just Spending A Lot of Time Online Anyhow

Glad to find out there are some communities for the grownups on LJ,
don't know why I didn't search for them until the fifty_something community was spotlighted.
I have joined it a few years early, yo :-)

I found another groovy community, the over_forty list! Hello.

My most recent very fun synaesthesia poll got a great response but the
cohort is skewing a little young over there. You can fix that by
participating in my synaesthesia survey!


In honor of another currently spotlighted LJ community, toon_memories
here's one of my favorite toon memories from when Saturday Morning meant something.



Also, today's clip celebrates that two people I care about will soon be rolling along to better places. My faraway sister into a better neighborhood in our hometown, and my local friend fiLAh into a more comfortable place in which to make new happy memories.


If you've just tooned in, Welcome to the Sunshine Rewind Institute

Friend me here, friend me there
if you like. I haven't been making time to post here a lot lately, but I do always read my flist ;-)

Edit: Good coincidence, I finally got around to writing a much longer
review of the writing class I took last February, and now you
can hear
Lynda talking about creativity on NPR June 2nd, 2008!!


( Lynda Barry's Writing Class )

You can enjoy some groovy current Lynda Barry content in:

her contribution to the book The Best of American Comics 2006, available through booksellers or your local library.
(watch for the 2008 Best of American Comics, as Lynda Barry is editing it)

To enroll for the Chicago August 23-24 email the class secretary,
Kelly Hogan, at fromthedeskofmarlys@yahoo.com

Check the Writing the Unthinkable Myspace to see a whole bunch of
neat stuff, including info about the
Chicago class in August! ,
and you can see the current Ernie Pook's Comeek episodes in the pics section.

If you want to read What It Is,
Get Lynda's new book locally!
If you don't have time to go comic book shopping, Hank will ship any order
for one flat rate! Worth it!




In other news, now that she has gotten not only burglarized,
but now a couple weeks ago, robbed in her parking lot,
Laurie is finally willing to move to a bettier place in a nicer neighborhood.
I'm very happy that she is doing that and so impressed by the
many hometown friends who have really stepped up to be supportive and helpful!
It has made this whole situation a lot easier.
And one very special non-hometown friend, in a faraway urban sprawl land,
sent wonderful words of encouragement. (I like-you-way-too-much too !-)
To everyone who responded, and those who might in the future,
I am amazed and grateful beyond words.
Thank you doesn't begin to cover it.

Since my previous post was long and newsy, today's will be short 'n' sweet.

Click here to take my synaesthesia survey.

Not sure if non-LJ users can take LJ polls, but I did make it open to everyone.
The online quiz my new friend rebelace found, to get your own results for the meme below is more challenging than my poll above, but you might find it interesting!

67%

Time was, i thought everyone visualized language in colors, but I have read in some science-like article that it's relatively rare. By the way, I think lots of synaesthetes are creative, but everyone I know who is not very synaesthetic is also very creative, so don't let the syn-challenge discourage ya. I was theorizing that a larger percentage of LJ writers would be synaesthetes than the general public (meaning the handful of people i've asked at the more normal of my workplaces). So far, I seem to have guessed correctly :-)

Too much good stuff happening to even take time to blog about it,
but since I have met some new local folks on LJ and in "real" life,
and finding people I used to know on the internets,
(mostly MySpace), here's a link back to the tags of glory.
The bar-graph of visitation is pretty lame now, because I haven't been doing polls or posting here for several days. Hello. Really I need to do a new & improved welcome page, but since I've been too busy to have a theme-of-the-month on my LJ for the last few months, that ol' November welcome page is still remarkably comprehensive. Lots of good entries between then and now, but they are sort of random, as the kids say. Actually they really are random, not the way kids use the word random, which seems to mean surprising or out-of-context or something. Lil' slackers.

( In other news, )


Even though I've been neglecting to post here, I've been finding springtime-relevant clips to share! In today's clip the Jolly Green Giant wasn't really a tv icon yet, and he was SCARY. You have to imagine the green. Imagine the greeeeennnn...



The youtube uploader claims it's from the year that Laurie and I hatched, which means lotsa shows were in black 'n' white and the ones that weren't still proudly advertised "In Living Color" or had "technicolor" as a subtitle or in the credits. Now, who all of my readers is also a synaesthete and can imagine gray images as green? Please indicate by a show of hams. Anyone, Anyone?

Time travel movies from the Netflix queue are finally here. Yes, they will be disappointing mostly, but that's okay because there's always that first few minutes where it seems like they're gonna do something interesting with the premise. More on that (and everything else) later, taters.

Please click to take my Springsong Voice poll!


Here at the Institute we always enjoy the following type of animation.
Entertaining, but also good education for people who would rather thump a bible than think;
not that they visit this LJ to get their Sunshine Rewound ...


Thanks to kensmind for alerting us to the documentary this cartoon is featured in,
The Bible Tells Me So. Lots of clips from that fine film on YouTube.


Well, the training class I was in this week was a lot more fun than I had anticipated.
Other than that not much that I have time to say right now. Maybe more to say on the weekend.

This morning I thought about posting U2's video In the Name of Love
which actually is about April 4, 1968, and a good, if corny, song...
but if I can get the myspace video code to work here, I'd rather show
the speculative alternative-outcome envisioned by the creator of Boondocks.
It's pithy, irreverent, and visually a very appealing show. Enjoy.

boondocks episode 9 the return of the king


My routine dental work last week turned into more of an ordeal than expected,
then after days of pain and yesterday's procedure, I'm feeling much bettier.
Spring has sprung, and I have tentatively taken the snow cleats off my sneaks!
Lots of ideas for LJ posts, and lots of offline stuff to do, but for now, just
taking it slow... keeping up with jobs and getting adequate rest :-)

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Now, since April is a month of new beginnings, outdoors-wise, and old endings,
endless-winter-wise, and romance is oft-associated with this season,
I thought I'd... Oh hell, I finally found one of my favorite movies available
in postable form just now, so I'm including it today, along with my usual tl;dr reminiscence that interests only me, what a surprise!


( Made In Heaven )

Not sure how much time I'll have to post this month, but I do have some springy ideas for posting in the theme of new growth for the future, and jettisoning the coldness of the past. Yeah man.

I am certainly curious whether or not this will show up on my friends page tonight, as I am backdating it to the first of the month. If any of you see it on your friends page and want to drop me a comment, I'd be uber-grateful :-)

For those you who just surfed over to the Sunshine Rewind Institute for the first time, this blog is somewhat more eclectic than the post below would indicate, so you can scroll through if intersted,
or click to read A stiff, but informative guide to this LiveJournal Either way, Welcome!


Attention all Lesbian, Gay, and Straight Folks:

If you are in the Topeka area this weekend, you might want to head on down to
Gage Park this Sunday, March 30th, around 11am, for the Million Fag March!

In case you have had the good fortune not to hear about Topeka's most
embarrassing resident, Fred Phelps, I have written ( a little background )

My applause and gratitude goes out to everyone who will gather at Topeka's Gage Park this Sunday!


Captain Faggot announces in his own imitiable way!

You can add these fine folks as your MySpace friends!

There is some much needed comic relief in ( this clip )

Sadly, as all my intelligent LiveJournal friends are aware, this is still all too serious of an issue, because believe it or not,there are still people that seriously think it's okay to be homophobic. Some people have asked, of the Million Fag March organizers, WHY protest when this church in Topeka just loves getting the media attention it may cause? Well thanks for asking, because I've composed a ( short list )

Behind the above link is not a complete list of reasons; feel free to add your own!

Anyway, if you are going, and have questions, or wish to donate to this group, or you wish to help with some last minute spreading of the word, click for Chris Love's press release!

My hope is that everyone has fun, and those who are feeling afraid, for any reason, will be inspired and emboldened by this event. I hope the event is peaceful, and no redneck freaks show up and bother anyone. Latest word is now the bands won't be allowed to perform (hmm.. wonder why?) Thanks for reading, thanks for thinking, and thank you for taking a stand.

Peace, Love, and Pride to you all.

Now, you all know that lots of religions celebrate the vernal equinox with tales of resurrection. Today's clip illustrates what this time of year is about, for me, really, especially when we have snowstorms now, still, again, and it seems like winter lasts a couple of YEARS, man...




Click here to participate in today's holiday poll!


Having been raised by a pack of wild agnostics, religous holidays don't mean much to me. My mom always made a lovely ham dinner this time of year,
and by the time I was vegetarian I didn't usually visit there for Easter dinner anyway (because of my dad being so chronically angry, not because of what they were eating)..

I have these groovy envelopes that I got years ago. I tend to send letters in the pink & yellow ones, only at this time of year, because it seems wrong to use pink and yellow together any other time! I'm sort of that way about red and green only being juxtaposed during December, too. Is that strange? Is it because I'm a synaesthete and think of every concept as having a color? Or is it because I'm a virgo born in the year-of-the-dragon, which makes one extra categorical. (Plus that particular year-of-the-dragon was on the end of the baby boomer generation and the beginning of the gen-x times, and I identify as a boomer, which makes me three times as exacting as an ordinary virgo:-)

Really should have used youtubex to record last year's easter find,
which was a cartoon of beegeezus, with the stayin' alive song
and a varry barrygibb rendidtion of Our Lowered. But I didn't,
and can't find it now. So here's the original Beegees video
of the song about not dying in spite of everything
(appropriate for resurrection day and any day!), featuring

The Brothers Gibb in their immortal and prophetic tribute to Bill Richardson.




( Rise, Dead Hippy, for you are FREE! )

Yeah, Man!

After several days of blissful thaw
(and sneezing from the moldy mud around here - but it's totally worth it)
we are back to blizzardy conditions here on the tundra.
But it's officially spring, at last.

In addition to spring, it's also kitten season. Today's clip
was posted on YouTube by someone my readers all know of and love.



( In other news, )

Have a safe weekend, & happy resurrection to all of you, and your environments:-)

Much to say about the writing class I just took, and other groovy thoughts, but I haven't gotten around to posting for a while. during the week I look at my LJ Friends Page & answer some of the awesome polls, and read Joey's surveys on myspace, but that's about all I take time for, until the weekend! Reading a cool novel, by a local author, could hardly put it down even as i was nodding off last night.. review to follow... plus I will have an interesting blog recommendation from someone you all know and love, soon. {watch this space}

Today I sort of found this clip by accident,
... I've (right now and ) always loved this song.


(  as always, I free-associate at length )

Anyway, up here on the tundra, we have all been blissfully enjoying the thaw this week, and will continue to do so, uh, in a few weeks when we get another one. I think it's freezing up out there again today, but so far this morning all I've done is enjoy some ancient vocal music on WORT, and notice how beautiful it is when i opened the curtain and let the sunshine into my cave. Hope you all are having a fabulous weekend!

Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine. - sir arthur eddington

Been thinkin for a while of having my favorite kinds of jazz for an LJ theme,
and then tonight found this clip i have been searching for
for years, since i first saw it on Showtime At The Apollo



Love the brassy straight-ahead sound, the choreography, everything.
Such a happy relief to have finally found the clip to share with everyone!

Betty is the Very Gay Bert and Ernie!

Two grown puppets living together, sleeping in the same room? They've even got coordinating striped shirts!

Today I must make a phone call to the homeland, Illinois, to say Happy 75th Birthday to ( My Dad  )

It seemed that I have a lot to blog about but now that I'm doing it the time doesn't seem right. Short head cold last week, bettier now. Must call Larry about loud exhaust system on car. Lots going on in my head that isn't ready for broadcast yet. Glad it's gonna get ten degrees warmer in the next few hours. Wish I could find my eyeglasses.


Also today would have been the 79th birthday of MLK
who speaks today on War

( Save the Drama  )

Well, I haven't even bought or made more than a couple of holiday cards,
so i guess it'll be new years cards. or easter cards. Or Summer Solstice letters.

Or maybe i won't have anything to say to anyone. APRIL FOOOLLS


I love the description on this YouTube video: "Young to old, all is run."

Happy New Year!

I keep wishing people Happy New Year now, and last week it was Happy Holidays,
Earlier this week, I even said Merry Christmas to many.
What's wrong with me, is some of the jadedness wearing off?!

Betty is an Asteroid. Betty is, mentally, a drifter. Her mind goes where life leads, which makes Betty usually a very calm and content sort of person. That, or thoroughly apathetic. Usually, Betty keeps on doing whatever she's doing, and it takes something special (or iridescent) to make Betty change her mind. What Video Game Character Are You ?

Click here for a musical example of what today's Poll is about.


Poll #1111027
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

DO YOU PRONOUNCE IT

WHEN PEOPLE PRONOUNCE IT AS SANTY CLAUS

( SRI )


And now here's a word from Ont Esther






( Anger, he smiled, towering in his shiny metallic purple armour  )

Mike & Marcia explain.

Betty is 100% Extroverdone, 0% Introdextert!

Betty is as outgoing as they come. The life of the party, Betty's friends with everyone. She's a people person, and she is quite the entertainer! Betty loves being around a crowd and acting spontaneously.

( 1964 )

Hence, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians


Sure, modern kitsch is fine, but this is the new millenium!
We won't settle for anything bettier than post-modern, as in today's greeting from Ukulady.
Wow................................ I didn't realize that Carole King and a giant squirrel had a kid together. I kid because I love, Ukulady -- you're a kick!


It's been a long week, and I'm so looking forward to later today, when we have
the 3rd Sunshine Rewind Christmas conference, with this year,
as always, with oodles of new material! Findings to follow.

Trying to get Laurie, who is on the phone to remember some stuff about Grandma Pipetti and the holidays.
She remembers for some unknown reason, when we were maybe five, putting two socks on the same foot, and then trying to get Grandma to help her take them off, and Grandma was like okay, OH! there's two of them here!
It may or may not have been during the holidays.
We went to a house she had, and her sock monkey, name of Jocko, was on the bed. When we were three or four, Laurie says, we went xmas shopping at Goldblatts and admired a toy drum. Later, when we were asleep, one of our parents went back there and bought it, because it was under the tree on Xmas morning. Laurie doesn't remember either of us banging on the drum ever, but I remember the top of it and the drumsticks being all beat up from me banging on it.



Fun Fact: This appears, according to our rewound sunshine analysis to be filmed long after Sonny and Cher were divorced, because look how old Chas is, and we believe the fussy baby that doesn't want to be on tv is Elijah Blue Allman. Nice of the Bonos to reunite for this awkward moment in holiday timelessness.


Pre-Holiday Stress ? Have a listen to a free guided meditation at the Comfort Queen site.

Not a lot of time to communicate, but I do check my friends page and email daily. Lovely season, not-so-lovely driving conditions. Took Union Cab to work the last couple times we got snow. This weekend, I'm happy to be home. Determined to get things organized at the institute, and nice to have some
days off I hadn't planned on this month. Gifts for Dad and Laurie have arrived, but are still unwrapped. I ate a donut this morning for no reason, when i went to starbucks for decaf to keep me sane during the short drive home, and eating a donut makes me a bad person. It's saturday and the storm hasnt started yet but i am not going to get any beer, which makes me a stupid person. Yaay. I'm now smart enough to write for tv. I mean strike for tv. Or write ad copy. The nice way to say fast food.






Union Cab phone answerers (which I recently learned are totally separate from dispatchers) were testy during the last storm, which means the roads were BAD. The driver was fishtailing on purpose during some turns because i kept laughing and going "Wooooo." He works witn former intwr Brad K who answers phones there now. Maybe I'll get Brad when I call sometime. He's fun. I parked the bettmobile in the underground this morning. I'm gonna get some cleaning and organizing done this weekend. Maybe not as much as i think I should (that thought will paralyze me in fronta the computer or glue me to the futon) but SOME.



This is just here to click on in case you're ( of Two Mikes ) about the politiks and all that..

Methinks I might be a tad depressed and more than a tad dehydrated. Looking forward to the next couple of weekends for sure. And hell, the next couple of weeks and the whole next friggin year. I think making coffee and drinking a ton of water and eating something, and prairie home companion on the air until i can't stand it any more.... might be the way to go now. Yeah, Man...

Hello, and Welcome to the Halloweaned Hull of the Sunshine Rewind Institute. We are taking our selves so seriously around the SRI lately, that we have dropped the second -e- from "Rewinde."

Since I keep crossing paths with such nice LJ people in the polloftheday community,
today I'm putting links, first from my most recent Table of Contedness :

SUNSHINE REWIND INSTITUTE'S LATEST WELCOME PAGE

Pre Holiday Poll # 1
is about decorations that people put up this time of year.

Please to click here and take My second PreHoliday Poll That Keeps On Giving!
which is mostly about gift shopping and gift giving.


Pre Holiday Poll The Third
is about general holiday questions not already asked in the previous polls,
like holidays in the media, family traditions this time of year, etc.


...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................Thank you.

We have to be thankful for everything, in order to keep things in perspective. Coming out of work feeling healthy and happy and energetic and contented is all gratitude inspiring, in obvious ways. But we also have to be grateful for what we learn or how we prioritize, and also how we do NOT always react to less-than-pleasant experiences.

Here's the latest from the Cute Overload website.



We love it, we love it! We want more of it!

Okay so I was going to go back and put this beautiful piece that Punky emailed me, in an October entry, for the haunted section. Now, rereading it I think it's appropriate that it be here in November, which is supposed to have the theme on my LJ of GRATITUDE, because of November being the month of Thanxmas. Even though I haven't posted much on it yet, I am VERY grateful for how my life is going right now. Grateful to the universe and fate and others in my life and all of that, but also I am mainly grateful to Betty Pipetti for working hard to make everything bettyer.

If you haven't alretty done so, won't you please stop by and fill out my very short
Pre-Holiday Holiday Poll of the Day Poll today!
There will be lots more, as I am thinking up many holiday-related questions and didn't want to post it as just one long-winded poll. Also if I try to post all the questions at once, I will inevitably think up better questions later and wish I had included them. So it's going to be a series of little pollettes. Betty Pollettis


( Click here to read about Punky's Week of Fear! )

Click here to quizify and find out What Season YOU are ! created with QuizFarm.com

Betty scored as Fall Betty is FALL. Betty appreciates all that she has, and is willing to share with others. Betty is a friend in the truest sense of the word, and can easily focus her attention on those who need her, placing herself on the back burner. She makes sure her responsibilites are met before she allows herself free time. Fall 80% Summer 55% Winter 50% Spring 45%

This is awesome -- my new friend lickintoadz found this tool. It makes your photos in to a motivational poster. Thanks to kensmind, it was on my friends page this morning, and I can tell it's going to be hours of fun...
CLICK ON THE POSTER TO SEE
HOW PROFESSIONAL CAPTIONISTS DO THESE



Last night at the relay plant, I listened to
a library item I have kept checking out over and over
and never really took the time to hear.

( Click here to find out how Alan Watts Teaches Meditation )