And The Winners Are...

The American Film Institute has released is list of the 25 greatest movie musicals of all time. I was shocked, perplexed, happy and oddly confused as I read the list. Many of the musicals on the list definitely belong there. I thought it odd that some of the honorees were considered movie musicals, namely Beauty and the Beast? Don't get me wrong, I liked it, but I don't know that I consider it a movie musical. If we are going to include this type of production in the genre, then what about including The Lion King or Aladdin?

There were also a few entries that I felt we conspicuously absent from the list. The Music Man, Hello Dolly, Victor/Victoria, The Blues Brothers, Fiddler on the Roof nor Oklahoma! made the cut.

The ballot included 180 entries for the voters to choose from. Phantom of the Opera and Rent were the only two musicals that I could think of that were not on the ballot but should have been. If you would like to see the ballot, here is a link.

And the winners are....

RANK		FILM TITLE	YEAR	MEMORABLE SONGS
1		SINGIN' IN THE RAIN	1952	"Singin' in the Rain" "Make 'Em Laugh" "Good Morning"
2		WEST SIDE STORY	1961	"America" "Tonight" "Somewhere"
3		THE WIZARD OF OZ	1939	"Over the Rainbow" "Ding Dong the Witch Is Dead" "If I Only Had a Brain/a Heart/the Nerve"
4		THE SOUND OF MUSIC	1965	"The Sound of Music" "My Favorite Things" "Do Re Mi"
5		CABARET	1972	"Cabaret" "Wilkommen" "Tomorrow Belongs to Me"
6		MARY POPPINS	1964	"A Spoonful of Sugar" "Chim Chim Cher-ee" "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"
7		A STAR IS BORN	1954	"The Man that Got Away" "Lose that Long Face" "My Melancholy Baby"
8		MY FAIR LADY	1964	"The Rain in Spain" "I Could Have Danced All Night" "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face"
9		AMERICAN IN PARIS, AN	1951	"I Got Rhythm" "I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise" "Our Love Is Here to Stay"
10		MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS	1944	"The Boy Next Door" "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" "The Trolley Song"
11		THE KING AND I	1956	"Getting to Know You" "Shall We Dance" "Whistle a Happy Tune"
12		CHICAGO	2002	"And All That Jazz" "Cell Block Tango" "Razzle Dazzle"
13		42ND STREET	1933	"42nd Street" "Shuffle Off to Buffalo" "It Must Be June"
14		ALL THAT JAZZ	1979	"On Broadway" "Everything Old Is New Again" "Take Off With Us"
15		TOP HAT	1935	"Top Hat, White Tie and Tails" "Cheek to Cheek" "No Strings"
16		FUNNY GIRL	1968	"People" "Don't Rain on My Parade" "My Man"
17		THE BAND WAGON	1953	"By Myself" "That's Entertainment" "Dancing In The Dark"
18		YANKEE DOODLE DANDY	1942	"The Yankee Doodle Boy" "Give My Regards to Broadway" "You're a Grand Ol' Flag"
19		ON THE TOWN	1949	"New York, New York" "Count on Me" "On the Town"
20		GREASE	1978	"Hopelessly Devoted to You" "Summer Nights" "You're the One that I Want"
21		SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS	1954	"June Bride" "Spring, Spring, Spring" "Wonderful, Wonderful Day"
22		BEAUTY AND THE BEAST	1991	"Beauty and the Beast" "Be Our Guest" "Something There"
23		GUYS AND DOLLS	1955	"Guys and Dolls" "Luck Be a Lady" "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat"
24		SHOW BOAT	1936	"Ol' Man River" "Make Believe" "Why Do I Love You?"
25		MOULIN ROUGE!	2001	"Come What May" "Your Song" "Roxanne"

Getting Mooned in OKC

Can't sleep? It must be the moonlight. Tonight's full Moon is the biggest and brightest of 2006. What makes it big? Answer: The Moon's lopsided orbit. One side of the Moon's orbit is 50,000 km closer to Earth than the other side. The two sides are called, respectively, perigee, from Greek, meaning "close to Earth," and apogee, meaning "far from Earth." Tonight's Moon is at perigee.

To illustrate the difference, apogee vs. perigee, Anthony Ayiomamitis of Athens, Greece, took these two pictures when the Moon was at opposite ends of its elliptical orbit. The perigee Moon is about 12% larger.

EXTRA! Tonight's wide Moon is going to glide through Earth's shadow, producing a 90-minute partial lunar eclipse visible from eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. Only 19% of the Moon will be in deep shadow, but that's enough for a pretty display. Maximum eclipse takes place at 1851 UT on Sept. 7th: animation.

Once again, content borrowed from www.SpaceWeather.com :)

More Look-alikes

Taylor


Cole


Kim


The Debil - REALLY IS THE DEVIL!!!



I tried 3 or 4 pictures I had of Jenny, but it says "No matches"

One Of These Things Looks Like The Others, One Of These Things Doesn't Belong...

Taylor and Shimmy posted their's on their blog, so I thought I would add mine, tomorrow I will add some others....

I can't believe I resemble Jeb and Laura Bush!

It's the End of the Summer as We Know it and I Feel Fine

OR NOT!

Over the last few days, I have had several people ask me “What are you doing for Labor Day weekend?” My general reply is “Not much.” I usually get an astonished look followed by “But why not, it’s the end of summer?” It makes me want to scream! Labor Day weekend is NOT the end of summer.

Summer ends on the autumnal equinox. The season changes when the center of the Sun crosses the celestial equator. This is near September 22. This year it is Sept. 23, 2006 at 4:02 UT which for us in Oklahoma is 10:02pm Sept. 22, 2006.

Here is a chart showing the time summer ends for 1980 to 2009. In Oklahoma, our time is UT -6, so subtract 6 hours from the time listed.

Date	UT	Date	UT	Date	UT
09-22-1980	21:01	09-23-1990	07:06	09-22-2000	17:11
09-23-1981	02:50	09-23-1991	12:54	09-22-2001	23:00
09-23-1982	08:38	09-22-1992	18:43	09-23-2002	04:48
09-23-1983	14:27	09-23-1993	00:32	09-23-2003	10:37
09-22-1984	20:15	09-23-1994	06:20	09-22-2004	16:25
09-23-1985	02:04	09-23-1995	12:09	09-22-2005	22:14
09-23-1986	07:52	09-22-1996	17:57	09-23-2006	04:02
09-23-1987	13:41	09-22-1997	23:46	09-23-2007	09:51
09-22-1988	19:29	09-23-1998	05:34	09-22-2008	15:39
09-23-1989	01:18	09-23-1999	11:23	09-22-2009	21:28

Here is a link that shows a QuickTime move illustrating the tilt of the Earth’s equatorial plane relative to the Sun which is responsible for the seasons. The dates of maximum tilt of the Earth’s equator correspond to the summer and winter solstices and the dates of zero tilt are the vernal and autumnal equinoxes.

No Wire Hangers!

I found these on the Internet. The first one is ABBA vs. Joan Crawford. The second is Mommie Dearest vs. Quartzlock.

Out Damned Spot?

Evidence continues to mount that the next solar cycle (Solar Cycle 24) is beginning. For the second time in a month, a backward sunspot has appeared. The first backward spot, sighted on July 31st, was tiny and fleeting. The latest, however, is big and sturdy, bipolar sunspot 905:

"Backward" means magnetically backward. Compared to how sunspots have been during the past 11-year solar cycle, the north and south magnetic poles of sunspot 905 are reversed. This is what happens when one solar cycle gives way to another--sunspots reverse polarity.

Sunspots are planet-sized magnets created by the sun's inner magnetic dynamo. Like all magnets in the Universe, sunspots have north (N) and south (S) magnetic poles. The sunspot of July 31st popped up at solar longitude 65 degrees W, latitude 13 degree S. Sunspots in that area are normally oriented N-S. The newcomer, however, was S-N, opposite the norm.

"We've been waiting for this," says David Hathaway, a solar physicist at the Marshall Space Flight in Huntsville, Alabama. "A backward sunspot is a sign that the next solar cycle is beginning."

Solar activity rises and falls in 11-year cycles, swinging back and forth between times of quiet and storminess. Right now the sun is quiet. "We're near the end of Solar Cycle 23, which peaked way back in 2001," explains Hathaway. The next cycle, Solar Cycle 24, should begin "any time now," returning the sun to a stormy state.

Satellite operators and NASA mission planners are bracing for this next solar cycle because it is expected to be exceptionally stormy, perhaps the stormiest in decades. Sunspots and solar flares will return in abundance, producing bright auroras on Earth and dangerous proton storms in space.

The onset of Solar Cycle 24 is big news, because the cycle is expected to be intense, but don't expect any big storms right away. Solar cycles take years to ramp up to full power. The next Solar Max is expected in 2010.

Most, if not all, of this information was lifted from SpaceWeather.com or links found there.

Pluto Everto

This morning CNN.com is reporting that Pluto is no longer a planet. This week the International Astronomical Union voted and stripped Pluto of is planetary status thus reducing the number of planets in our solar system to eight. Pluto was discovered in 1930 and has been considered a planet ever since. Pluto doesn’t make the cut under the new definition of a planet: “a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.” Pluto’s orbit overlaps Neptune’s orbit, so it is disqualified. Pluto will be reclassified in a new category of “dwarf planets.” Calls to Pluto for comment were not immediately returned.

1988 - My Bones are Creaking!

I don't want to make anyone feel old, but do you believe that most of the members of the incoming freshman college class of 2006 (the graduating class of 2010) were born in 1988? Each year since 1998 Beloit College hast released it Mindset List for the incoming class. According to Beloit’s Keefer Professor of Humanities Tom McBride and Public Affairs Director Ron Nief, this list looks at the cultural touchstones that have shaped the lives of today’s first-year students. This year’s student form a “generation that has always been ‘connected’ and is used to things happening in ‘real time’.

So, here it is in all its glory:

BELOIT COLLEGE'S MINDSET LIST®
FOR THE CLASS OF 2010

Members of the class of 2010, entering college this fall, were mostly born in 1988. For them: Billy Carter, Lucille Ball, Gilda Radner, Billy Martin, Andy Gibb, and Secretariat have always been dead.

1. The Soviet Union has never existed and therefore is about as scary as the student union.

2. They have known only two presidents.

3. For most of their lives, major U.S. airlines have been bankrupt.

4. Manuel Noriega has always been in jail in the U.S.

5. They have grown up getting lost in "big boxes."

6. There has always been only one Germany.

7. They have never heard anyone actually "ring it up" on a cash register.

8. They are wireless, yet always connected.

9. A stained blue dress is as famous to their generation as a third-rate burglary was to their parents'.

10. Thanks to pervasive headphones in the back seat, parents have always been able to speak freely in the front.

11. A coffee has always taken longer to make than a milkshake.

12. Smoking has never been permitted on U.S. airlines.

13. Faux fur has always been a necessary element of style.

14. The Moral Majority has never needed an organization.

15. They have never had to distinguish between the St. Louis Cardinals baseball and football team.

16. DNA fingerprinting has always been admissible evidence in court.

17. They grew up pushing their own miniature shopping carts in the supermarket.

18. They grew up with and have outgrown faxing as a means of communication.

19. "Google" has always been a verb.

20. Text messaging is their email.

21. Milli Vanilli has never had anything to say.

22. Mr. Rogers, not Walter Cronkite, has always been the most trusted man in America.

23. Bar codes have always been on everything, from library cards and snail mail to retail items.

24. Madden has always been a game, not a Superbowl-winning coach.

25. Phantom of the Opera has always been on Broadway.

26. "Boogers" candy has always been a favorite for grossing out parents.

27. There has never been a "skyhook" in the NBA.

28. Carbon copies are oddities found in their grandparents' attics.

29. Computerized player pianos have always been tinkling in the lobby.

30. Non-denominational mega-churches have always been the fastest growing religious organizations in the U.S.

31. They grew up in mini-vans.

32. Reality shows have always been on television.

33. They have no idea why we needed to ask "...can we all get along?"

34. They have always known that "In the criminal justice system the people have been represented by two separate yet equally important groups."

35. Young women's fashions have never been concerned with where the waist is.

36. They have rarely mailed anything using a stamp.

37. Brides have always worn white for a first, second, or third wedding.

38. Being techno-savvy has always been inversely proportional to age.

39. "So" as in "Sooooo New York," has always been a drawn-out adjective modifying a proper noun, which in turn modifies something else.

40. Affluent troubled teens in Southern California have always been the subjects of television series.

41. They have always been able to watch wars and revolutions live on television.

42. Ken Burns has always been producing very long documentaries on PBS.

43. They are not aware that "flock of seagulls hair" has nothing to do with birds flying into it.

44. Retin-A has always made America look less wrinkled.

45. Green tea has always been marketed for health purposes.

46. Public school officials have always had the right to censor school newspapers.

47. Small white holiday lights have always been in style.

48. Most of them never had the chance to eat bad airline food.

49. They have always been searching for "Waldo."

50. The really rich have regularly expressed exuberance with outlandish birthday parties.

51. Michael Moore has always been showing up uninvited.

52. They never played the game of state license plates in the car.

53. They have always preferred going out in groups as opposed to dating.

54. There have always been live organ donors.

55. They have always had access to their own credit cards.

56. They have never put their money in a "Savings & Loan."

57. Sara Lee has always made underwear.

58. Bad behavior has always been getting captured on amateur videos.

59. Disneyland has always been in Europe and Asia.

60. They never saw Bernard Shaw on CNN.

61. Beach volleyball has always been a recognized sport.

62. Acura, Lexus, and Infiniti have always been luxury cars of choice.

63. Television stations have never concluded the broadcast day with the national anthem.

64. LoJack transmitters have always been finding lost cars.

65. Diane Sawyer has always been live in Prime Time.

66. Dolphin-free canned tuna has always been on sale.

67. Disposable contact lenses have always been available.

68. "Outing" has always been a threat.

69. Oh, The Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss has always been the perfect graduation gift.

70. They have always "dissed" what they don't like.

71. The U.S. has always been studying global warming to confirm its existence.

72. Richard M. Daley has always been the Mayor of Chicago.

73. They grew up with virtual pets to feed, water, and play games with, lest they die.

74. Ringo Starr has always been clean and sober.

75. Professional athletes have always competed in the Olympics.

The Importance of a Name

I received these in an email today and thought they were funny, so I decided to pass them along. All of these are legitimate companies that didn’t spend enough time considering how their online names might appear…and be misread.

1. Who Represents is where you can find the name of the agent that represents any celebrity. Their Web site is www.whorepresents.com

2. Experts Exchange is a knowledge base where programmers can exchange advice and views at www.expertsexchange.com

3. Looking for a pen? Look no further than Pen Island at www.penisland.net

4. Need a therapist? Try Therapist Finder at www.therapistfinder.com

5. There's the Italian Power Generator company, www.powergenitalia.com

6. And don't forget the Mole Station Native Nursery in New South Wales www.molestationnursery.com

7. If you're looking for IP computer software, there's always www.ipanywhere.com

8. The First Cumming Methodist Church Web site is www.cummingfirst.com

9. And the designers at Speed of Art await you at their wacky Web site,
www.speedofart.com

Pics From The Past

I was looking through some pics today, so I thought I would put some online. So of them are from a phone camera so I apologize up front for the poor quality. I am not sure who took some of these or when/where they were snapped!

Kim and Taylor

Timmy and David

Jenny, me, Cole, Timmy and David

Sad Timmy

Sleepy Timmy

Happy Timmy

Geoff

Cowboy Taylor

Cowboy Cole

Charles????

Timmy??? (It's the hair)

Jenny, Kim and Taylor

Cole, Jenny and David

I think this guy was out last night!

David and Millie

A Bucket-A-Bones

Daivd, me and Jenny

Tay

David and Cole