Old Tybee Ranger

Martin Luther King, Jr., Day 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Old Tybee Ranger) — Mon, 19 Jan 2026 21:51:00 +0000

Today is a national holiday observing the birth of the American civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, Jr. His story is well-known but as it slips further into the past we are less likely to recall the deeper and personal impact he had on American culture in his time. Much of that impact lives on in King's words written and spoken eloquently from the mind as well as the heart. In his Powerline post first published on this day in 2005, Scott Johnson captured King's essence so well with his comments inserted between the paragraphs of King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" and the speech he delivered in Memphis the day before his assassination.

MLK at a press conference in 1964

Here are more words and images of King at his national memorial on the west shore of the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C.

hotos and Illustrations:
News conference photo; Library of Congress
All others from National Park Service, Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial webpage

The Twelfth Day Of Christmas And The End Of Christmastide 2025-26

noreply@blogger.com (Old Tybee Ranger) — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 22:22:00 +0000

Today is the twelfth and final day of Christmastide or the Twelve Days of Christmas. This day is important among Christians who maintain liturgical traditions: first, it marks the end of a 1500 year-old festival celebrating the birth of Christ, and second, it is the eve of Epiphany. It is also the beginning of the carnival season ending with Mardi Gras and the beginning of Lent. Those who are reluctant to bid Christmas farewell can take heart knowing that some traditions of Christmastide extend through February 2 or Candlemas, the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple. Candlemas occurs on the 40th day of and the end of the liturgical Christmas-Epiphany season. In my home I'll be removing decorations day by day until February 2 when our simple manger scene stands alone in the library awaiting Christmas future.

For some the Twelve Days of Christmas will end with elaborate costumes, masks, feasting, music, dancing, and theater at Twelfth Night festivities where misrule is the only rule. They are indeed topsy-turvy events. Only the Surveyor of Ceremonies will appear without a mask. He will direct the company through a series of games and other activities beginning with the distribution of the Twelfth Cakes. When all the party goers have arrived, each will select a small festival cake or cake slice. Three of those cakes contain a hidden bean or token designating them as the king cake, queen cake and fool cake. The lucky holders of the royal cakes oversee the evening's activities before returning to their normal lives, most likely "below the salt."

Twelfth Night (The King Drinks) David Teniers, ca 1634

These Twelfth Night traditions have been part of western culture for over a thousand years. Some traditions carry over the night into Epiphany, January 6. This is the case in New Orleans where Twelfth Night parties have been popular for centuries due in part to their role as opening events of the Carnival season.

Twelfth Night festivities in New Orleans in 1884

We trust that you have experienced a wonder-filled Christmas. May you live throughout this new year in the spirit of Twelfth Night, finding joy and happiness in what often seems a disordered world. In the words of William Shakespeare, who had a bit to say about this evening in Twelfth Night, (Act II, Scene 5):

Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.
Great or common - What you will!

And speaking of greatness here is music for the season, Johann Sebastian Bach's Magnificat in D Major. The composition was originally written in Leipzig for Christmas 1723 and contained four seasonal hymns. In 1730 the composer revised the work by dropping the four seasonal hymns and changing the key to D Major. The second version is the one most often head today. An English translation in parallel format is available here. This 2000 performance is by the Arnold Shoenberg Choir and the pioneer period instrument ensemble, Concentus Musicus Vienna. Conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt and his wife founded the ensemble in 1953.

Hope you're enjoying a serving of Chatham Artillery Punch tonight.

New Year's Eve, The Seventh Day Of Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Old Tybee Ranger) — Thu, 01 Jan 2026 03:18:00 +0000

"Good Health" 1911 Heines Kalmsteiner

Welcome to the seventh day of Christmas 2024, the last day of the year. That means it's also New Year's Eve. We bookend our post tonight with two fine examples of the work of the superb illustrators and graphic artists who were part of the Wiener Werkstatte, a Vienna Succession movement in the early 20th century in Europe.

In much of Christian Europe this day is also known as Silvester or the Feast of Sylvester. Some of the more interesting iterations of celebrating the arrival of the new year occur in the Celtic nations of Wales and Scotland. In Wales "New Year's Eve" translates to "Nos Galan," a day to pay off all debts, visit from house to house (first-footing) to sing carols, exchange gifts, drink a refreshing beverage or two, and enjoy mincemeat pie and rice pudding. The great musical tradition of Wales has provided us with the melody for the most appropriate carol for the day, Deck the Halls. A wide variety of lyrics emerged over the last three centuries. The video below provides one example and a partial translation. The video concludes with the more familiar D eck the Halls lyrics written in 1862.

Cold is the man who can't love,

Fa la la la la, la la la la,

The old mountains of dear Wales,

Fa la la la la, la la la la,

To him and his warmest friend,

Fa la la, la la la, la la la,

A cheerful holiday next year,

Fa la la la la, la la la la.

Cold is the snow on Mount Snowdon,

Fa la la la la, la la la la,

Even though it has a flannel blanket on it,

Fa la la la la, la la la la,

Cold are the people who don't care,

Fa la la, la la la, la la la,

To meet together on New Year's Eve,

Fa la la la la, la la la la.

The day is known as Hogmanay in Scotland. It's a nice blend of old and new elements including fireworks, bonfires, torchlight processions, partying, and the driving out of trolls. The many features of Hogmanay will be repeated throughout this day as the new year sweeps across the face of the planet. Virtually all the these activities will involve the gathering of family and friends. Whether they celebrate among millions or simply with immediate family there will come a time to end the celebration and look forward to the sun rising on the first new day of the new year. In the western world, perhaps any place touched by British traditions, that gathering will end with the singing of Robert Burns's poem, Auld Lang Syne, set to an ancient Scottish folk melody. At least three centuries before Burns's lyric became popular, there was another song shared among departing English, Irish, and Scots friends on the eve of the new year. We offer The Parting Glass to you tonight as we ring out 2018 and ring in 2019 as a year of hope overflowing with blessing and goodwill for all.

Happy New Year 2025!

Happy New Year, Postcard 149 Karl Dellavilla, ca. 1908

Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
theviennasuccession.com

Text:
bbc.co.uk

Winter Arrives

noreply@blogger.com (Old Tybee Ranger) — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 01:28:00 +0000

Today is the first day of Winter and the shortest day - less than twelve hours of sunshine - of the year in the Northern hemispere That event as well as the coot evening temperatures will be more than enough to awaken thoughts of sub-freezing temperatures, howling winds and depths of drifting snow measured in feet.

In Henry Purcell's 1671 semi-opera, King Arthur, the spirit of Winter is depicted as Cold Genius, a frozen old man who much prefers dormancy under snowdrifts to an invitation to celebrate the coming of Spring.

What power art thou Who from below Hast made me rise Unwillingly and slow From beds of everlasting snow See'st thou not how stiff And wondrous old Far unfit to bear the bitter cold I can scarcely move Or draw my breath I can scarcely move Or draw my breath Let me, let me, Let me freeze again Let me, let me Freeze again to death Let me, let me, let me Freeze again to death...

Much of the nation won't have long to wait Cold Genius's favoite weather. Personally I don't look forward to cold temperatures, ice, assorted freezing slop, and black snow lining city streets for the next three months. On the other hand, the thought of lengthening days that arrived with today's solstice brings a big smile to my face. This rebirth of the sun has brought happiness to humans for quite a long time.

The Newgrange Tumulus in County Meath, Ireland, is a nice illustration of this long-standing respect for the rebirth of light and warmth to a culture. The burial mound has a passage that aligns perfectly with the winter solstice sunrise. People have observed the illumination of the keystone at Newgrange for over 4500 years. That's long before Stonehenge and the Giza pyramids existed.

The winter solstice is also know as Midwinter is some circles. Here is unquestionably the song of the day, In the Bleak Midwinter, a perfect blend of nature and the "coming of the light" in the celebration of the birth of Jesus.

In the bleak mid-winter

Frosty wind made moan,

Earth stood hard as iron,

Water like a stone;

Snow had fallen, snow on snow,

Snow on snow,

In the bleak mid-winter

Long ago.

Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him

Nor earth sustain;

Heaven and earth shall flee away

When He comes to reign:

In the bleak mid-winter

A stable-place sufficed

The Lord God Almighty,

Jesus Christ.

Enough for Him, whom cherubim

Worship night and day,

A breastful of milk,

And a mangerful of hay;

Enough for Him, whom angels

Fall down before,

The ox and ass and camel

Which adore.

Angels and archangels

May have gathered there,

Cherubim and seraphim

Thronged the air -

But only His mother

In her maiden bliss

Worshipped the Beloved

With a kiss.

What can I give Him,

Poor as I am?

If I were a shepherd

I would bring a lamb;

If I were a wise man

I would do my part;

Yet what I can, I give Him -

Give my heart.

For the next six months the sun will climb a bit higher every day in the Northern Hemisphere. We won't notice heat from the "rebirth" of the sun until a month or so into this cycle. While the lengthening days can give us hope that the "dead season" will soon come to an end, we can still enjoy the experience of a world at quiet rest.

Sources

Photos and Illustrations:

Newgrange aerial photo, gaia.com
Newgrange plan and section, public domain illustration, William Frederick Wakeman, Wakeman's Handbook of Irish Heritage (1903), archives.org

The Night Before Thanksgiving

noreply@blogger.com (Old Tybee Ranger) — Wed, 26 Nov 2025 23:39:00 +0000

Happy Thanksgiving 2025

Here is a prayer for thanksgiving by Martin Luther...

God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, You looked upon all that You created and declared it good. Grant that we, this day, might regard Your creation with the same esteem and appreciation, seeing You at work in every daily operation. Help us to give thanks as we recognize Your loving work in all abundant blessings. Most of all, let us see not only Your creation, but also its redemption, through Jesus Christ. Amen

...and a song of thanksgiving arranged by John Rutter...

Eternal God, we give you thanks for music, Blest gift from heaven to all your servants here on earth: In time of joy a crown, in sorrow consolation; Companion through our days of tears and mirth.

We give you thanks for every sound of beauty: For sweetest harmony that echoes in our hearts, For melodies that soar on high like birds at morning, For voice and instrument in all their parts.

As we are blest, so may our gift bless others: May hearts be touched and spirits lifted up anew. Let music draw together those who live as strangers, Bring joy to those we love, in thankfulness true.

And when at last we come into your kingdom, All discord over and all earthly labour done, Then sound and silence yield before one equal music, And with the Giver shall our souls be one.

Feast Of All Saints Day

noreply@blogger.com (Old Tybee Ranger) — Sun, 02 Nov 2025 21:57:00 +0000

All Saints Day in Krakow, Poland

The remembrance of the faithful, both depaarted and living, is an old Christian custom celebrated on November 1. Known as All Saints Day the theme continued in the words and music of Catholic, Episcopal, and Lutheran services today. Here is come commentary on the subject from the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod website:

The Commemoration of All Saints has been observed by Christians since at least the 4th century after Christ, although not always on November 1. Christians then as now desire to follow the encouragement of the writer to the Hebrews: "Remember your leaders who spoke the Word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith" (Heb 13:7).
The original purpose of remembering the saints and martyrs was blurred during the medieval ages, as saints became the objects of prayers and petitions for merit before God. Pointing to Christ as the only source of forgiveness, Luther cleansed the church of this abuse of the saints. Lutherans did not remove All Saints Day from the church calendar, however.Luther posted his 95 Theses on the Wittenberg church door on October 31, 1517 precisely because he wanted the document to be seen by the throngs that would services on November 1, All Saints Day. Lutherans eventually chose October 31 as the day on which to remember Luther's legacy to the church, and All Saints Day in the Lutheran Church has forever after been overshadowed by Reformation services.

There is no more suitable hymn for the day than Ralph Vaughan Williams's setting - Sine Nomine - for the processional hymn, For All the Saints, written by William Walsham How.

Most versions omit several verses that I believe are most relevant to our time. They are:

For the Apostles’ glorious company,

Who bearing forth the Cross o’er land and sea,

Shook all the mighty world, we sing to Thee:

Alleluia, Alleluia!

For the Evangelists, by whose blest word,

Like fourfold streams, the garden of the Lord,

Is fair and fruitful, be Thy Name adored.

Alleluia, Alleluia!

For Martyrs, who with rapture kindled eye,

Saw the bright crown descending from the sky,

And seeing, grasped it, Thee we glorify.

Alleluia, Alleluia!

O may Thy soldiers, faithful, true and bold,

Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old,

And win with them the victor’s crown of gold.

Alleluia, Alleluia!

And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long,

Steals on the ear the distant triumph song,

And hearts are brave, again, and arms are strong.

Alleluia, Alleluia!

Allerheilegen (All Saints) Johann Koenig, 1599

May you have a blessed Festival of All Saints Day as you remember both the faithful who have attained their everlasting glory in the light of Jesus and those who look forward to the light to come.

Sources

Text:wels.org
For All the Saints entry, en.wikipedia.org

October Gold

noreply@blogger.com (Old Tybee Ranger) — Sun, 26 Oct 2025 23:00:00 +0000

It's that time of year for another Burlington memory harvest. The sights, sounds, tastes, aromas, and feelings are as fresh as this year's apple hrvest.

When an early autumn walks the land and chills the breeze

and touches with her hand the summer trees,

perhaps you'll understand what memories I own.

There's a dance pavilion in the rain all shuttered down,

a winding country lane all russet brown,

a frosty window pane shows me a town grown lonely.

In October 2008 I wrote the first of many revised editions of the story of the annual October closing of my family's "summer place" in West Virginia. It was nestled in the Patterson Creek Valley about twenty miles south of Cumberland, Maryland, and just under a three hour drive from my home in the Washington suburbs. Those who follow this blog likely know more about the Burlington campground than most current residents of that village. Still, it's an important story in my formative years and it's worth repeating, especially with revisions. The most recent change has been the loss of the magnificent two-story cedar pavilion that stood for nearly a century as the focal point of the property. For over 90 years it served as a Burlington landmark and with its loss a place that created so many memories has itself become one. And speaking of memories:

Repairing flood damage at the pavilion - classic outfit

In late October my mind floods with wonderful memories. From birth through my 27th year, the date marked an important event in my life. The story descends from my dad's membership in the Uniform Rank of the Knights of Pythias. The URKP was a military-style company within a fraternal organization born out of the search for national reconciliation following the Civil War. Every good military organization needed a campground with lodging, mess hall, recreation pavilion, and parade. The URKP built theirs in the small village of Burlington, West Virginia. It also served as a regional park, complete with playground, ball fields, and swimming in the creek. It was often rented for the day for family reunions, company picnics, church functions, and other large gatherings.

It was legal...and tasty, about 1966

"Camp" at Burlington was paradise for a young boy. A creek bordering the camp offered hours of fun. You could explore the woods and fields forever. The frequent social events made the playground a great place to meet new friends. But "camping" at Burlington was by no means a wilderness experience. We were lucky to have a cottage that offered every comfort of home. There was a drive-in theater next door where I enjoyed the snack bar as much as the movies. Across the road was a small airfield with a few Aeroncas, Taylorcrafts and Piper Cubs, and a hangar that gave birth to many "homebuilts" over the years. I can say with confidence that Burlington was never boring. The drive-in and airport were owned and operated by Dave and Georgia Baker, an entertaining and endearing couple I came to love and respect as family.

Today, the sycamores along the river may be a bit taller, but they still explode in yellow this time of year along with my favorite walnut tree. And the young maple I climbed as a boy has matured into a massive Fall fire tree. In 1950, I watched when the men brought in their bulldozers to shape a new channel and level the bank of Patterson Creek. The stone beach they built was much safer for the generation of bathers who enjoyed it, but creeks have a way of remembering affronts. By the mid '70's, the creek's waters restored the original course and bank to a scene my grandfather enjoyed in the 1930s. Although time changed the place I called "Camp" it will never erase the memories of this childhood paradise.

1959

Hulling walnuts, 1967

Through the summer of 1974, I spent many annual family vacations at "camp" and in later years, several weekends of "cold camping" in the off-seasons where I wrote many college essays including a graduate thesis. Opening the cottage and grounds for the summer though exciting was not especially memorable. Freezing temperatures lingered into May, so the campground usually opened on Memorial Day weekend.

When it's 48 degrees at noon in a pouring August rain

On the other hand, winterizing the place was like saying "Goodbye" to an old friend. Thoughts of family, friends, the big - or small - fish, fireworks, that scary movie, the old biplane, all those memories accumulated over the past six months filled your mind. Amid the blazing gold sycamores, brilliant fire oaks and maples, the smell of wood smoke, and a harvest of black walnuts, we went through the years-old closing procedure until the last item - pouring anti-freeze into sink traps - was checked. At that point, it was time to load the car, proceed with all those repetitive tasks one does "just to be sure," then close and lock the big red door until Spring.

Radical days with Marti, 1970

As American society changed, the URKP fell out of fashion. Lodge members grew old and passed away. In 1974, the lodge itself and all its assets dissolved. I haven't locked that big red door for 48 years now, but I still have the key and a remarkably detailed mental picture of the cottage and landscape that I loved.

Closing weekend, 1972

In many ways, Burlington is with me every day for my experiences there helped shape my values, and define my career, hobbies, and general interests. The impact has been so profound that I have asked my children to do their best to provide the same opportunity for their own families.

1949

In weaving all of the memories about this weekend, I ask you, my readers, to do the same: Find a nearby paradise and escape to it often while your children are young. And when they are older and have children of their own, they can join you and make even more vivid memories. There will be no sorrow there.

Sources

Illustrations and Photos:
all photos from the family archive

Text:
song title, "When October Goes", and opening quote, "Early Autumn", lyrics, by Johnny Mercer, Johnny Mercer, The Complete Lyrics of Johnny Mercer, edited by Kimball, Day, Kreuger, and Davis; Knopf 2009

A Continuing Battle: Remembering 9/11

noreply@blogger.com (Old Tybee Ranger) — Thu, 11 Sep 2025 19:53:00 +0000

For almost two months Muslim forces laid siege to the city of Vienna. Their objective was far larger than a city. It was in fact the defeat of Europe and an end to the Christian world. Fortunately it was not to be. The army of the Holy Roman Empire and the commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania defeated the much larger Army of the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Vienna, September 11-12. The year was 1683. You can read more about this complex battle at the link. With their defeat the 300 year-long Muslim effort to conquer Europe ended. That effort

Battle of Vienna Franz Geffels (fl, 1635-1671)

inclued a first siege by Suleiman the Magnificent in 1529. Wikipedia's Siege of Vienna entry has more on this event as well as others involving the history of this pivotal city over the past thousand years.

By coincidence or intention the date of September 11 witnessed two significant events in the thousand year long history of religious conflict between Christians and Muslims. I doubt we have seen the last conflict as such history demands remenbrance and vigilance.

Louis Armstrong: America's Jazzman

noreply@blogger.com (Old Tybee Ranger) — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 23:59:00 +0000

If there was one personality to play music as a joyful and universal language in the last century it was Louis Armstrong. He once wrote that "what we play is jazz." He indeed helped make a wonderful world during his near six decades in jazz and popular music. He was a phenomenal jazz trumpeter, performer, writer, stage personality and all around good will ambassador who was born on this day in New Orleans in 1901. He was nicknamed, "Satchmo," short for "satchelmouth," as a child because of his prominent mouth. The moniker stayed with him as he blazed a trail of unforgettable music throughout his life. Although he passed away in 1971 his imprint remains large in popular music and jazz in particular.

Louis Armstrong Adi Holzer, 2002

Here is a short video by storyteller, Mick Carlon, relating Armstrong's impact on the 20th century in a TEDx program for students.

Readers can learn more about Armstrong life and impact at the Louis Armstrong House Museum site.

And here are two pieces of the master at his trade performing Now You Has Jazz at the 1960 Newport Jazz Festival, and his signature song, What A Wonderful World:

And here is Armstrong in 1956 with one of his most beloved collaborators, Ella Fitzgerald, and the Oscar Peterson Quartet in a masterful performance of April In Paris. To this day the album, Ella and Louis, consistently appears in lists of the top ten jazz albums of all time.

After just a few minutes of this talent on display, I'm sure readers will agree that Armstrong indeed helped make a wonderful world for his audience. May his smile, his sound, and his goodness stay with us for a long, long time.

A Giant Leap In Epic High Fantasy

noreply@blogger.com (Old Tybee Ranger) — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 18:32:00 +0000

For fantasy fiction fans this day in 1954 has great significance. It is the day that J.R.R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring first appeared on store shelves in the United Kingdom. The book was the first of three volumes in the high fantasy novel we know today as The Lord of the Rings. A used copy of that first edition with its original dust jacket would fetch an owner at least $6500. An autographed copy would easily be in six figures as Tolkien was a bit of an introvert and disliked autographing his books. I doubt that sum would matter much to true fans. To them the words within are priceless.

Who was the man behind this beloved three volume narrative we know as The Lord of the Rings? The 1968 BBC video below contains some footage of an interview and explores Tolkien's real and imaginary worlds. The audio is not the best so viewers may want to use earbuds or headphones.

Below is a probing, fast-paced, and well-known Tolkien interview from BBC Radio in 1964. It was first broadcast in 1971. All of Tolkien's brilliance and eccentricity is on full display in this wide-ranging look at one of the most beloved writers of the last century.

It would take a generation after his death (1973) before a cinematic version of his great work would, perhaps could, appear. The Lord of the Rings film series produced between 2001 and 2003 not only created a new generation of readers but also energized existing Tolkien fans to reexamine his work. All of this new energy and imagination has had a significant effect on the world of fiction and fiction writing. Tolkien's creative genius and the publication of Fellowship of the Ring - and The Hobbit - started the surge. We can't say with precision where that surge takes us but we can be certain that Tolkien's legacy will be enjoyed and expanded long into the years ahead.

Sources

Photo:
tolkienlibrary.com

Text:
wikipedia.com, J.R.R.Tolkien
tolkienestate.com
"Why Did Tolkien Write The Lord of the Rings," Michael Martinez, middle-earth.xenite.org

A Time When Dogs Seek Shade

noreply@blogger.com (Old Tybee Ranger) — Sun, 27 Jul 2025 19:46:00 +0000

Orion the Hunter

Back in the '70's and '80's I had the good fortune to live on the beach of a small barrier island at the mouth of the Savannah River. My house was a raised Caribbean-style cottage built in the 1920s. The porch overlooking the Atlantic faced southeast and was ideal for capturing the summer trade winds. At this time of year when I looked toward the horizon I saw a beautiful event unfold many times in the hour before dawn. Those hours and the imaginary music of the spheres evoke memories so vivid they seem to have occurred only yesterday.

First, Bellatrix, a blue giant star rose out of the Atlantic haze to be followed soon by the red giant, Betelgeuse. Soon the blue giants, Mintaka, and Rigel followed. At this point viewers saw a signature belt of three stars and a faint sword. Experienced sky watchers knew that Orion the Hunter was ascending. In minutes the belt stars pointed to shimmering Sirius, a binary star also known as the Dog Star. It was by far the brightest star in the sky but soon it and all the others would dissolve in the blinding light and heat of another summer sunrise.

Sirius the Dog Star

In the Nile and other valleys of the ancient Middle East, all eyes turned to the summer dawn anticipating the appearance of Orion and Sirius. They signaled the coming of the floods, of water for life and eventually for civilization. To the ancient Greeks the rising of these stars with the sun signaled the peak of summer heat when even dogs chose not to leave shade. They came to call this time of year hemerai kynades, a phrase that translates directly to "dog days." We have come a long way in time since scribes first recorded Sirius rising from the damp mud along the banks of the Nile. But we still experience the Hunter and the Dog, now both lost in daylight, one awaiting his turn to rule the autumn sky, the other to remind us that his days, the sultry dog days, are still with us.

While some people dread them I look forward to the coming of the "dog days." The heat makes me thrive and my arthritis becomes a memory. Atlanta's climate data tells us that on average the warmest days of 2023 will be behind us in a few weeks. The sun is already casting ever longer shadows as it arcs lower across the southern sky. Leaves hang limp on trees catching more and more of that light giving the woods a golden hue even at midday. The aging summer has also brought this year's acorn crop closer to maturity. I can tell because the squirrel community in our woods is starting to work overtime on an early and ripening harvest.

Calm days and high temperatures also lead to popcorn thundershowers that meander across the region waiting to die out as fast as they arise. So far they've brought powerful lightning, the positive strikes that start fires, several inches of rainfall, high winds, and pea sized hail. With that said it's time to envision sitting comfortably on the screened porch where a big ceiling fan quietly generates a steady breeze and your sweating sweet iced tea feels good even to the touch. The forest surrounding me is a still landscape interrupted by an occasional bird or squirrel. If you stay there long you witness the yellowing light of day giving way to the twilights, the lightning bugs, the cicadas, then the katydids and a chorus of north Georgia tree frogs.

I love all of those twilight sounds but I love the katydids most. They remind me of long summer vacations and drifting to sleep in my bed next to a cottage window that opened wide to both their chatter and a comforting breeze moving down the West Virginia mountainsides of my childhood. It was there I first developed a passion for forests, for flowing water, for a clear sky I felt I could almost touch. Over sixty year later that passion leads me to waken before the sun to witness a pattern of stars rise out of an unseen ocean and bring me summer. Bring it on!

Jean Shepherd: The Man Behind Ralphie And His Unforgettable Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Old Tybee Ranger) — Sat, 26 Jul 2025 17:09:00 +0000

Mention "Ralphie" and "Red Ryder BB gun" in the same breath and I'd say most people could make an immediate connection with the film, A Christmas Story. On the other hand, most people probably know very little about the remarkable personality behind that story. His name is Jean Shepherd.

He was born on July 26, 1921, on Chicago's south side and raised in nearby Hammond, Indiana. After serving in World War II, Shepherd began a career in broadcasting that expanded into writing, film, and live performance. He was heard on late night radio for over twenty years - all unscripted - on New York's WOR where he entertained listeners with his humorous stories, interviews, and practical jokes. Shepherd hosted a television show for WOR as well, but he is best remembered in video narrating a number of productions based on his stories of growing up in the Midwest. Many of the scripts were so popular they later appeared in print. Here is the storyteller at his best on his traditional Christmas Eve broadcast on WOR in 1974. A Christmas Story would emerge from these broadcasts in 1983.

Psychology tells us that humorists often do not have the happiest of life stories. Shepherd was no exception. Although he surely had the talent to become a well-known national treasure, radio did not provide him coast-to-coast exposure available with the new medium of television. He was fiercely independent, a maverick, and one not to take life too seriously. I can imagine he was a threat to the ego of more than one radio executive. Furthermore, he was a "night owl" on radio, broadcasting to a dedicated but smaller audience, and in direct competition with televised local news and the likes of Johnny Carson and The Tonight Show. In fact this warm story by a fan notes that Shepherd likely was in line to take over The Tonight Show with Steve Allen's departure in 1957 but Jack Paar had the right of first refusal with the NBC network. Paar unexpectedly accepted thus denying Shepherd his big break on one of television's most popular shows. Finally, from my research, it seems Shepherd maligned his radio work when he moved into writing film for television in the '70s. Indeed, it apparently was a clean break - maybe the execs were happier without him - and he did go on to success with films, including The Phantom of the Open Hearth, The Great American Fourth of July and Other Disasters, and Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss. Still, I think the fates denied him the opportunity to become a big television star in the 1950's and much better well-known in his lifetime.

Without question, his best known contribution to American humor is A Christmas Story, a compilation of stories and characters drawn from his earlier work. It was originally produced as a feature film in 1983 and made the transition into a television classic thanks to the persistence of Ted Turner. Almost any man born before 1950 has lived some or all of Ralphie's/Shep's childhood. Each man's path to adulthood is his own, but the markers are identical. Jean Shepherd was a genius at capturing them. And his skills as a narrator made him a natural at weaving life's common threads into humorous and entertaining listening.

". . . the soft glow of electric sex gleaming in the window."

Shepherd died 26 years ago on Sanibel Island, Florida, remembered for one film produced in 1983 when he was 62. There's much more to him than that and I hope more people come to enjoy his work. The settings now and in the future will be different but the collected experiences from childhood and adolescence remain similar and often age into fine wine. Thanks to Shepherd we can laugh at past times and enjoy the harvest.

If you want to explore more of Shepherd's work, the made-for-television film, The Phantom of the Open Hearth, is the place to start. It premiered at Christmas 1976 on public television as a humorous glimpse of Ralphie's teen angst during his high school years in the Midwest. You'll see many of the characters and storylines - yes, the leg lamp is there - that appear in A Christmas Story. These days Phantom is a cult classic among Shepherd fans. If you want to join the cult you can watch the film for free on You Tube.

It's "Wheels Up" At AirVenture Oshkosh 2025

noreply@blogger.com (Old Tybee Ranger) — Tue, 22 Jul 2025 21:30:00 +0000

The Experimental Aircraft Association's (EAA) annual week-long AirVenture gathering in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, is underway. It's better known as "Oshkosh" to aviation enthusiasts and you can be assured that every one of them has the event on their bucket list. There's good reason. Imagine a fly-in attracting around 7500 airplanes. Imagine 2500 aircraft exhibits, 800 commercial exhibitors, daily world-class airshows, and a total of around 700,000 guests.

AirVenture at Oshkosh is far from your average fly-in

Organizers call the event "the world's greatest aviation celebration" and this year marks its seventy-second edition. The map below gives readers an idea of the scope and scale of Oshkosh and indicates why the event turns a rather sleepy Wittman Regional Airport into the busiest airport in the world for one week each year.

AirVenture grounds - for scale, that's an 8000 foot runway at the top

AirVenture grounds looking east to Lake Winnebago

I had the privilege of attending the event several times in the last decade of my career. Energizing, informative, and significant, the show was a great vehicle for delivering an organizational message to a large, captured, and enthusiastic audience. You may ask why the National Park Service (NPS) would send a dozen or so employees and volunteers to work an air show. First, the agency has almost fifty out of its more than 400 units with a significant link to an aviation theme. In addition, the Service maintains a fleet of fixed and rotary wing aircraft contributing over 20,000 hours of flight time annually in support of park operations, maintenance, and resource and fire management. Add to that interagency cooperation across departments as well as airspace regulation over the parks and the justification become clearer. In recent years the NPS's presence at the event has been reduced significantly and folded into a more cooperative effort with other federal agencies. In summation, it's a grand and demanding opportunity to reach out face-to- face with thousands of guests who enjoy and impact resources and services in and ver the parks.

Nothing like fly-in camping with thousands of your best - in this case closest - friends

If you can't attend AirVenture, the EAA maintains a comprehensive up-to-the-second website where you can spend hours reading, watching and listening to events. I've been looking up at the sound of an aircraft engine ever since I could lift my head. If you are blessed with the same response make your plans to attend an Experimental Aircraft Association AirVenture. You will not be disappointed. Until then "wheels up" every chance you get!

Footsteps On The Moon

noreply@blogger.com (Old Tybee Ranger) — Sun, 20 Jul 2025 17:30:00 +0000

Lunar Module Eagle in landing configuration, July 20, 1969

July 20, 1969, fifty-six years ago today, the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle landed on the moon. Millions watched at 10:56 PM, EDT, as Neil Armstrong, the commander of the Apollo 11 mission, descended the Eagle's ladder and made what he called a "giant leap for mankind" with his final step onto the powdery lunar surface. Learn more about the Apollo 11 mission here on Wikipedia where you can find scores of links to more National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) reports and multimedia.

Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, the lunar module pilot, spent almost 22 hours on the moon including their 150 minute walk where they erected an American flag, collected soil and rock samples, and deployed experiments. On their return to Earth much of the material they collected was eventually archived and displayed at the Smithsonian Institution. Some rocks entered our culture in some fascinating ways, including this one at the Washington National Cathedral, where one was embedded at the center of a red planet in what has become known as the Space Window.

Time is catching up with those first attempts at exploring our nearest celestial neighbor. Neil Armstrong passed away in 2012 at the age of 82. Buzz Aldrin turned 94 earlier this year. Michael Collins, the command module pilot, passed away in 2021 at the ago of 90. With the creation of the Artemis program in 2017, the US and its partners hope to return to the lunar surface with a crewed polar landing scheduled for 2025. That's an ambitious target date , but no more so than the private sector timetable for similar missions to Mars. Regardless of what the future holds, those early years including the mission we commemorate today were an exciting and almost magical time for science, exploration, and discovery of the frontier "out there."

Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
atlasobscura.com, Space Window detail
nasa.gov, Space Window, full photo

Text:
Wikipedia.com

Andrew Wyeth: Master Of Fine Illustration

noreply@blogger.com (Old Tybee Ranger) — Sun, 13 Jul 2025 16:52:00 +0000

My career often involved planning and producing a broad variety of visual media including publications, audiovisuals, and museum exhibits. The work made me aware of any number of artists, illustrators and styles both historic and contemporary. It's led me to appreciate the work of two artists in particular. One is Walter Inglis Anderson. There'll be a post about him in September. On this day we note the birth of another favorite, Andrew Wyeth. He was born in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, in 1917 and died there in 2009 after a lifetime of painting individuals and landscapes near his home and at his summer residence in Maine. He represented the second of three generations of famous painters in the Wyeth family. His father, N. C. Wyeth, was a renowned illustrator and painter. His son, Jamie, who turned 75 last week, continues painting in his father's footsteps in Pennsylvania and Maine.

I can best characterize his work as compelling, thought-provoking dreamscapes on canvas, not quite real, not quite abstract. Here are three painting by Wyeth offering a comfortable contrast to the season of his birth. Readers can see the full range of his subjects at his authorized website.

Ice Pond 1969

My aim is to escape from the medium with which I work; to leave no residue of technical mannerisms to stand between my expression and the observer. To seek freedom through significant form and design rather than through the diversion of so-called free and accidental brush handling.

Branch in the Snow 1980

My aim is not to exhibit craft, but rather to submerge it, and make it rightfully the handmaiden of beauty, power and emotional content.

Shredded Wheat 1982

What you have to do is break all the rules.

Thanks to the BBC and Michael Palin we have a fine documentary of Andrew Wyeth, his craft and emotion, and especially his sense of place. Hope you take the time to enjoy it.

Sources

Text:
quotations, art-quotes.com

He Penned A Masterpiece At 21

noreply@blogger.com (Old Tybee Ranger) — Wed, 09 Jul 2025 19:01:00 +0000

Bob Dylan turned 84 earlier this year. That means he's been writing songs for over 60 years. He was only 21 on July 9, 1962 when he walked into the Columbia Recording Studios in New York to record a song to be included on his second album. The song, Blowin' in the Wind, brought him fame and recognition as one of the nation's leading folk poets of the twentieth century. The lyrics and Dylan's comments on the song were published in June 1962 in the folk journal, Sing Out. He said this:

Too many of these hip people are telling me where the answer is but oh I won’t believe that. I still say it’s in the wind and just like a restless piece of paper it’s got to come down some . . . But the only trouble is that no one picks up the answer when it comes down so not too many people get to see and know . . . and then it flies away.

Dylan and Joan Baez, March on Washington, August 8. 1963

The music critic, Andy Gill, said this about the song in his book, Classic Bob Dylan, 1962-1969: My Back Pages:

Blowin' in the Wind marked a huge jump in Dylan's songwriting. Prior to this, efforts like The Ballad of Donald White and The Death of Emmett Till had been fairly simplistic bouts of reportage songwriting. Blowin' in the Wind was different: for the first time, Dylan discovered the effectiveness of moving from the particular to the general. Whereas The Ballad of Donald White would become completely redundant as soon as the eponymous criminal was executed, a song as vague as Blowin' in the Wind could be applied to just about any freedom issue. It remains the song with which Dylan's name is most inextricably linked, and safeguarded his reputation as a civil libertarian through any number of changes in style and attitude.

Blowin' In the Wind is a poem for our time, perhaps all time.

Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
U.S. Archives and Records Service, Rowland Scherman Collection

Text:
wikipedia.com, Bob Dylan entry
history.com

The Battle Of Gettysburg, July 1-3, 1863: Of Endings and Beginnings

noreply@blogger.com (Old Tybee Ranger) — Fri, 04 Jul 2025 00:53:00 +0000

Today marks the conclusion of the Battle of Gettysburg, fought July 1-3, 1863, and the beginning of the end for the Confederate States of America. A year later, in August 1864, the Union unconditionally controlled the Mississippi River and relentlessly pressed Confederate forces in Virginia. In the Deep South, General Sherman's army devastated Atlanta. Six months later, he would be in Savannah and poised to destroy the remains of the Confederacy as he moved north through the Carolinas.

The American Civil War is a perennial topic in our history. Indeed, it did preserve the Union as President Abraham Lincoln intended and left us with any number of consequences in our national experience, both good and bad. Regarding those consequences, we should not expect otherwise as that is the way events unfold in the great wheel of history. And so it is with our great wheels of personal experience. Now in my seventh decade immersed in all of this I'm a bit surprised and certainly privileged to experience Gettysburg at 100 and 150 years after the pivotal battle. The place is a personal holy ground because three people cared.

The Old Ranger and his dad at Gettysburg in 1954

First of all. my parents always loved being in nature and its historical overlay. Living in the Potomac River watershed afforded our family many opportunities to enjoy any number of places of national significance. As is often the case, first impressions become lasting ones. I was seven years old when we spent a long weekend exploring almost every foot of Gettysburg National Military Park. It was a fascinating experience and I still have the souvenirs to prove it. About six years later I met George Landis, the third person in this story. Landis taught middle school history and social studies on the eve of the Civil War Centennial. A Pennsylvanian with a love of history and basketball, he devoted an entire school year to the study of the Civil War. He was a superb teacher, highly animated and far ahead of his time. He focused on learning that took his students beyond lectures into the world of role-playing, performance, critical thinking and more. I recall fondly seeing every chalkboard in his classroom filled with detailed maps of battles, each carefully drawn and labelled with colored chalk. A little more than a decade after my year with Landis, I began a long and rewarding career immersed in experiential learning in the sacred places and histories in our national parks.

The Old Ranger and his mom at Gettysburg in 1954

There will be tens of thousands of people visiting Gettysburg this holiday week as well as many thousands of volunteers recreating and commemorating the events that took place there. Lasting impressions will be made this week about the sacrifice, the consequences, and the wheels of history both national and personal. And somewhere in that crowd will be a seven year-old with a new enthusiasm for a defining moment in our national experience. The commemorative landscape at Gettysburg will wait with pride and serenity like an old veteran to welcome him on his return visit in 2063.

Lena Horne: An American Legend

noreply@blogger.com (Old Tybee Ranger) — Sun, 29 Jun 2025 16:46:00 +0000

In the years around the turn of the century I was a member of the planning and design team for the newly established Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site in Alabama. Fundraising was a big part of our mission and we asked a large core group of airmen who they would like to see as a national spokesman for the effort. To a man, the response was, "Lena Horne!" who made a number of visits to their two Tuskegee airfields during World War II. They adored her. She was beautiful, had a sultry voice, the perfect figure for a World War II pinup, and a highly successful musical career on stage and screen. She was also strong-willed and, at times, defiant, both characteristics that served her well in the American civil rights movement following the war. No wonder she appealed to them.

Horne publicity photo from 1964, NBC Bell Telephone Hour

Who was this international star and favorite pinup? Lena Horne was born on this day in Brooklyn in 1917. Those familiar with the singer will always remember her remarkable talent as a legendary performer with a sparkling personality and a beautiful smile, In her almost seventy years in entertainment she worked the big band and cabaret circuits, movies, Broadway, and television. She became politically active in the fight for civil rights following World War II, a decision that placed her on the federal entertainment blacklist for over a decade. Readers can learn more details about Horne's life and career in a New York Times obituary published following her death in May 2010.

Horne at Tuskegee Institute banquet, Tuskegee, Alabama, during World War II

Due to her age and disabilities, Horne was unable to take on the role the Tuskegee Airmen so enthusiastically desired but fundraising commenced in a different direction and eventually contributed to construction and interpretation at the park. Her image and the stories of her visits are embedded in those exhibits.

I remember Horne well from her frequent television performances and recordings beginning in the 1950's. She's always been a personal favorite among pop and jazz singers and the stories of her association with the Tuskegee Airmen tells me she was one very special lady.

Here she is performing her signature song, Stormy Weather, from the 1943 film of the same name.

And here is a fine synopsis of the life and times of Horne prepared for a segment of the PBS News Hour in 2010.

Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
public domain photograph, NBC Television, Wikipedia.org
banquet photo, Noel Parrish Collection, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington

Happy Birthday, Mel Brooks: He's 99 Years Young Today

noreply@blogger.com (Old Tybee Ranger) — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 17:44:00 +0000

When he was 14, Mel Brooks, began his career in show business as a comedian at several Catskill Mountain resorts north of New York City. After service in Germany in World War II - he dismantled booby traps and defused land mines among other duties - he returned home determined to establish a career in entertainment where he soon found himself enjoying writing more than performing. He honed that skill for several years on Sid Caesar's Show of Shows and Caesar's Hour. Around 1960 he teamed up with Carl Reiner, also a Caesar comedy writer, to develop a sketch that would make both of them famous.

Entitled "The 2000 Year-Old Man," the concept featured a comic Brooks as the old man being interviewed by Reiner as the straight man. Over fifty years the duo produced several recordings of the often ad lib sketches produced in studio as well as live on countless television programs. After this success and a move to Hollywood filmmaking wasn't far behind.

Today we wish the 2000 year-old man a very happy birthday. The performer, writer, director, producer, songwriter, and perpetually wacko comic personality is 99 years old. In his seventy year career he's brought us some of the finest comedy to grace the American stage, big screens in theaters, and the television screens in millions of our homes. And there's no end in sight either with his work in animated features and now rare television appearances. It's only a guess where his talents could emerge in the future.

Brooks in a still from Blazing Saddles, 1974

His film career began with The Producers in 1968. The rest is history, a laugh track of films including:

Blazing Saddles (1974) "Mongo only pawn...in game of life."

Young Frankenstein (1974) "Abby...Normal."

Silent Movie (1976) "Non!"

High Anxiety (1977) "Those who are tardy do not get fruit cup!"

History of the World Part I (1981) "It's good to be the king."

Spaceballs (1987) "May the schwartz be with you."

Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993) "Actually Scarlet is my middle name. My whole name is Will Scarlet O'Hara. We're from Georgia."

Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995) "I have been to many stakings - you have to know where to stand! You know, everything in life is location, location, location...."

The Producers (musical) 2001 "Will the dancing Hitlers please wait in the wings? We are only seeing singing Hitlers.

The Producers (film remake) 2005 "My blue blanket! Give me back my blue blanket!"

Young Frankenstein (musical) 2007 "He vas my boyfriend!"

The American Film Institute's 100 Greatest Comedies list has The Producers (1968), Blazing Saddles, and Young Frankenstein ranked at #11, #6, and #13. Here is the unforgettable three minutes and twenty seconds from the film he calls his personal favorite, the 1968 production of The Producers:

I think one reason why the 2000 year-old man is still laughing with us at 99 rests with the fact that the Mel Brooks on stage and film is most often the same man one finds in private life. How does he do it? I recall the many stories my National Park Service colleagues told of Brooks and his wife, Anne Bancroft. In the '70's and '80's they were frequent guests at Caneel Bay Resort inside Virgin Islands National Park on the island of St. John. Known for playing practical jokes on the younger park rangers and resort staff during the day, Brooks and Bancroft hosted them at after-hours gatherings where hilarity ruled. Given the public comedy we know, one can only imagine the memories to come out of the spontaneity of such an evening. The world would be a far happier place if all of us could have more evenings like that.

Today, instead of laughing at the comedy and satire Brooks gave us over the years the political correctness of the day would rather smother it and insure we never produce it again. So unfortunate. Regardless, with the passing of Carl Reiner at 98 in 2020, we're looking at Brooks as the last man standing from a remarkable era of comedy entertainment in the US. Here's wishing one of the funniest men on the planet a very happy birthday. It's my hope that we can laugh at his wacko genius for years to come.

For more information as well as a most entertaining read this summer I recommend Brooks's memoir published in 2021. Without a doubt it will leave you smiling.

But wait, there's more. Brooks has two new projects under developement. First, there is Very Young Frankenstein, a television series influenced by his earlier film, Young Frankenstein, in 1974. A pilot is expected soon. The second project is Spaceballs 2, a sequel to his 1987 film, Spaceballs. The film is expected to be released in 2027.

George Orwell: To Have A Mind For The Future

noreply@blogger.com (Old Tybee Ranger) — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 17:47:00 +0000

For a prescient and enigmatic 20th century personality it is hard to surpass that of the British social critic and writer, George Orwell. In 1949 he published his most significant work, the novel 1984. Can't speak about today but 60 years ago at the height of the Cold War with the Soviet Union virtually every high school graduate knew of the book and many of them read it or parts of it as required reading.

Orwell experienced the rise of collectivist thinking in Great Britain and other parts of the world including the United States. He was also well aware of the totalitarian collectivism in the Soviet Union. The totalitarianism he rejected outright but not all the elements of collectivist thought At the same time he raised issues with republican and democratic forms of government and the capitalism that sustained them. In other words Orwell was a critic at large whose observation and analysis would have broad appeal and give rise to thought-provoking quotes, including this one from 1949:

The new aristocracy was made up for the most part of bureaucrats, scientists, technicians, trade-union organizers, publicity experts, sociologists, teachers, journalists, and professional politicians.

Our volatile nation-wide experience over the last five years - our dance with the Covid-19 coronavirus, laptop coverups, the Russian disinformation hoax, and Soviet-style political trials - has brought us face to face with many members of this new aristocracy. The American democratic republic embraced many of these players in the 20th century first with Progressivism, then with Roosevelt's New Deal, but it was Lyndon Johnson who would embedded significant elements of the "new aristocracy" in his Great Society program. It was after all a national government initiative designed to end in a progressive utopia for the American people. I leave an evaluation of the program's success over the last two generations to my readers. Instead I choose to focus on Orwell who as time passes seems to be more and more a visitor from the future who spoke not in terms of political parties but in an exploration of the human condition, universal rights, classical liberalism, and the power of the individual.

George Orwell - Eric Arthur Blair - was born on this day in India in 1903 and educated at Eton College and through self-study and his experiences in Asia and Europe. Wikipedia defines him aptly as "an English novelist, essayist, journalist and critic. His work is marked by lucid prose, awareness of social injustice, opposition to totalitarianism, and commitment to democratic socialism."

George Orwell Press Photo, 1933

Most of us know him only as the author of 1984 but there is much more to read and appreciate from this man who is consistently described as one of the most influential writers of the last century. If you only know him as a novelist, I suggest you read some of his early essays, especially Down and Out in Paris and London (1933), The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), and Homage to Catalonia (1938). These works explore social justice themes in some of the finest, most vivid, objective, and descriptive writing to be found in modern English. More aspects of Orwell's insight appear in his literary criticisms which are available in several compilations.

For a man who passed away at 46, George Orwell left us an enormous and rich body of work that I am sure will influence social and political thought for a very long time.

Sources:

Photos and Illustrations:
public domain, old accreditation for National Branch of Union Journalists, www.netcharles.com

Text:
George Orwell, wikipedia.org

Two Pilots, One Single Engine Airplane, And A Flight Around The World

noreply@blogger.com (Old Tybee Ranger) — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 16:35:00 +0000

Wiley Post and Harold Gatty left New York on this day in 1931 on the first single-engine flight around the world.

The two successful ocean fliers during their stopover at the Central Airport in Berlin - Tempelhof about to start their flight to Moscow .

It's hard to believe this event occurred just fifteen years before my birth. We've come a long way in aviation and when you think about all the aircraft in flight around the world at this very minute the Post-Gatty flight seems insignificant. As readers of this blog know, I'm somewhat fond of aviation so I'm perfectly happy to give these pioneers the credit they deserve in a time when history seems little more than an afterthought. God willing, in fifteen years I may see history made by astronauts on the surface of Mars.

Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine

Music, Eric whitacre
Lyrics, Charles Anthony Silvestri

I.
Leonardo Dreams of his Flying Machine…
Tormented by visions of flight and falling,
More wondrous and terrible each than the last,
Master Leonardo imagines an engine
To carry a man up into the sun…

And as he’s dreaming the heavens call him,
softly whispering their siren-song:
“Leonardo. Leonardo, vieni á volare”. (“Leonardo. Leonardo, come fly”.)

L’uomo colle sua congiegniate e grandi ale,
facciendo forza contro alla resistente aria.
(A man with wings large enough and duly connected
might learn to overcome the resistance of the air.)

II.
Leonardo Dreams of his Flying Machine…

As the candles burn low he paces and writes,
Releasing purchased pigeons one by one
Into the golden Tuscan sunrise…

And as he dreams, again the calling,
The very air itself gives voice:
“Leonardo. Leonardo, vieni á volare”. (“Leonardo. Leonardo, come fly”.)

Vicina all’elemento del fuoco…
(Close to the sphere of elemental fire…)

Scratching quill on crumpled paper,

Rete, canna, filo, carta.
(Net, cane, thread, paper.)

Images of wing and frame and fabric fastened tightly.

…sulla suprema sottile aria.
(…in the highest and rarest atmosphere.)

III.
Master Leonardo Da Vinci Dreams of his Flying Machine…
As the midnight watchtower tolls,
Over rooftop, street and dome,
The triumph of a human being ascending
In the dreaming of a mortal man.

Leonardo steels himself,
takes one last breath,
and leaps…

“Leonardo, Vieni á Volare! Leonardo, Sognare!” (“Leonardo, come fly! Leonardo, Dream!”)

Sources:

kalw.org, almanac

Photo:

Deutsches Bundesarchiv, photo 102-11928

Lyrics:

ericwhitacre.com

The First Full Day Of Summer

noreply@blogger.com (Old Tybee Ranger) — Sun, 22 Jun 2025 01:04:00 +0000

About ninety minutes before midnight last night the s astronomical event we know as the summer solstice introduced the season on the East Coast of the US. Today, the first full day of summer, the sun reached its highest point in the sky in the northern hemisphere producing the longest day and shortest night of the year.

Summer solstice sunrise at Stonehenge, Wiltshire, England

Although the sun begins its daily descent from that highest point tomorrow, insolation from our star will continue to raise atmospheric temperatures until late July. As this day marks the end of the season of renewal and the beginning of the season of growth and flower, I am reminded of this quote by the renowned American novelist, essayist, and critic, D. H. Lawrence:

The greatest need of man is the renewal forever of the complete rhythm of life and death, the rhythm of the sun's year, the body's year

There's plenty of interesting and appropriate music for the day including this 13th century English round:

Middle English

Sumer is icumen in

Lhude sing cuccu!

Groweþ sed and bloweþ med

And springþ þe wde nu,

Sing cuccu!

Awe bleteþ after lomb,

Lhouþ after calue cu.

Bulluc sterteþ, bucke uerteþ,

Murie sing cuccu!

Cuccu, cuccu, wel singes þu cuccu;

Ne swik þu nauer nu.

Pes:

Sing cuccu nu. Sing cuccu.

Sing cuccu. Sing cuccu nu!

Modern English

Summer has arrived,

Loudly sing, Cuckoo!

The seed grows and the meadow

blooms

And the wood springs anew,

Sing, Cuckoo!

The ewe bleats after the lamb

The cow lows after the calf.

The bullock stirs, the stag farts,

Merrily sing, Cuckoo!

Cuckoo, cuckoo, well you sing,

cuckoo;

Don't ever you stop now,

Sing cuckoo now. Sing, Cuckoo.

Sing Cuckoo. Sing cuckoo now!

Here is a tone poem, A Song of Summer, written some 700 years later by Frederick Delius and transcribed and arranged by Eric Fenby:

And then there is summer as the season of youth, the school break, the summer job, of free time and good friends, and for many what the renowned mythologist Joseph Campbell called "friendship set to music."

May your summer living be easy and wonder-filled.

Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
photo, nasa.gov

Text:
thoughtcatalog.com

Juneteenth 2025

noreply@blogger.com (Old Tybee Ranger) — Thu, 19 Jun 2025 16:25:00 +0000

Juneteenth? So, what is the new holiday about? If you are an American with African ancestry dating to the Civil War era you have known about Juneteenth from very early childhood; otherwise, the term may be vaguely familiar or perhaps even new. I think of Juneteenth as an ingredient in our national experience that is just now blending in the melting pot concept we learned about in elementary school. We're going to hear much more about the day as we should. This description from the Library of Virginia is a good place to start:

[Juneteenth] has grown into a popular event across the country to commemorate emancipation from slavery and celebrate African American culture. Juneteenth refers to June 19, the date in 1865 when the Union Army arrived in Galveston and announced that the Civil War was over and that slaves were free under the Emancipation Proclamation. Although the proclamation had become official more than two years earlier on January 1, 1863, freedmen in Texas adopted June 19th, later known colloquially as Juneteenth, as the date they celebrated emancipation. Juneteenth celebrations continued into the 20th century, and survived a period of declining participation because of the Great Depression and World War II. In the 1950s and 1960s Juneteenth celebrations witnessed a revival as they became catalysts for publicizing civil rights issues of the day. In 1980 the Texas state legislature established June 19 as a state holiday.

Emancipation Thomas Nast, American, 1865

Several significant days have competed to honor the subject including:

September 22: the day Lincoln issued his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation Order in 1862;

January 1: the day it took effect in 1863;

January 31: the date the 13th Amendment passed Congress in 1865, officially abolishing the institution of slavery, and;

December 6: the day the 13th Amendment was ratified in 1865.

The persistence of the celebration in Texas on June 19 embedded the celebration in the social fiber of former slaves and their families who carried it with them in their migrations to all corners of the nation and to urban areas in particular. Growing wealth among black communities in the 20th century enabled them to hold lengthier and more elaborate celebrations.

Despite a near-century of prejudice and racism, both de jure and de facto, Juneteenth survived across the nation. It was revitalized nationally by the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. (April 4, 1968), in combination with his Poor People's March on Washington (planned for May 12 to June 24, and its early conclusion with the Solidarity March on June 19.

We extend our best wishes for a joyous day to all those celebrating Juneteenth. And it's the perfect time for all of us to "honor the countless contributions made by African Americans to our Nation and pledge to support America’s promise as the land of the free."

Visit Juneteenth to learn more about story and meaning of our newest national holiday.

Sources:

Photos and Illustrations:
Library of Congress at loc.gov

Text:
virginiamemory.com
loc.gov
wikipedia.com
pbs.org, The African-Americans: Many Rivers to Cross
"honor the countless" quote, whitehouse.gov

Let Us Therefore Brace Ourselves To Our Duties....

noreply@blogger.com (Old Tybee Ranger) — Thu, 19 Jun 2025 01:01:00 +0000

Eighty-five years ago today, Prime Minister Winston Churchill delivered his most memorable speech during Britain's war against Adolf Hitler. The threat of invasion by German ground forces was high. The British people descended almost nightly into their bomb shelters as waves of Luftwaffe bombers flew overheard dropping their terror on thousands of victims.

Churchill was a master of the English language but even he struggled for the right words to both describe the reality his countrymen faced and rally them to endure what he knew would be their darkest hour:

The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be freed and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new dark age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves, that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, This was their finest hour.

Churchill would go on to receive the Nobel Prize in literature in 1953 for his many volumes of history, biography and other works. He possessed a vivid, lively writing style well worth reading for information as well as enjoyment. For more on this remarkable leader, here is a link to his Wikipedia entry.

And here is a link to the "finest hour" speech in its entirety of thirty minutes. All of it is worth hearing but as one would expect the conclusion is remarkably powerful beginning at 26:13

Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
public domain photo, Imperial War Museums

Text
Winston Churchill, wikipedia.org

Igor Stravinsky: Bringing New Sounds To A New Century

noreply@blogger.com (Old Tybee Ranger) — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 00:22:00 +0000

Igor Stravinsky, popularly recognized as a leading founder of Modern music in the 20th century, was born in Russia on this day in 1882. He lived in Switzerland and France before immigrating to the United States after World War II. Over his lifetime he composed in a variety of styles but is best remembered for his dazzling, rhythmic music in the early years - 1910 to 1914 - of the Ballets Russes produced by Sergei Diaghilev in Paris.

Portrait of Stravinsky Robert Delaunay, 1917

His work during that brief period included The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911), and The Rite of Spring (1913). One could say they are all signature pieces - experimental and revolutionary - that dazzled and in some cases infuriated their audiences. Regardless, the three compositions as well as other sounds from Stravinsky's imagination had a huge impact on music and the arts. He was 27 when audiences first heard The Firebird. Keep in mind that Henry Ford sold 10,000 cars that year, the U.S. had 1000 miles of paved road, half the American population lived on farms or towns with fewer than 2500 people, and the flying machine was a very rare and thrilling sight.

In the century since the premiere of The Firebird, its innovative sounds have been re-patterned by the likes of Aaron Copeland, Leonard Bernstein, John Williams and others including Philip Glass who has perhaps carried rhythm as art to its farthest horizon to date. In the view of Tom Service writing in The Guardian in 2011,

Stravinsky is the only common influence that composers from Steve Reich to Thomas Adès, from Judith Weir to John Adams, from Elliott Carter to Louis Andriessen, can all agree on. Without Stravinsky, there would be no minimalism, not much neo-classicism, not enough rhythmic energy, and not nearly enough compositional freedom in the 20th and 21st centuries. Four decades on, the Stravinsky that's proved most popular with audiences, orchestras and concert halls is the colouristic brilliance of the three early ballets, Firebird, Petrushka, and the Rite.

Indeed, Stravinsky broke rules. In doing so he made new music. A century later it remains as fresh as the year it was composed. And although Stravinsky left this world almost a half century ago he indeed remains as the title of Service's article describes him, "Stravinsky Our Contemporary." Here's more proof with excerpts from a November 2019 concert by the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the baton of the brilliant conductor, Gustavo Dudamel. The Rite of Spring is one of the orchestra's signature pieces.

Some say the most productive experiments often make the biggest messes until they are better understood. The genius and madman in Stravinsky would very much agree.

For more on the place of dissonance in Stravinsky's music here is an entertaining seventeen minute journey on the subject by the British composer, Davis Bruce. This video can be as technical as you want to make it. By no means am I a musical technician so I enjoyed it by simply listening to how Stavinsky's used dissonance to create some of the most popular music of the last century.

Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
portrait, public domain, Robert Delaunay, New Art Gallery Walsall, West Midlands, England

Text:
Igor Stravinsky entry, Wikipedia.org
quotation, Tom Service, "Stravinsky Our Contemporary", theguardian.com, April 6, 2011