Healthy Changes Fueled by My Usual Delicious "Autumn Mania" here in Tampa

Last night I did most of my new expanded bike ride (up Bayshore Blvd., across the bridge, 6 miles around Davis Island and back, 17 miles according to Avena) in the rain....was kind of sensuous and fun, like something I'd have done on purpose in my teens and early 20s. Substituting bike rides for an "altering" night weekly, these 3 bike rides weekly, important diet changes (no seconds, cooking with smaller amounts of healthy oils, meals served on salad vs. dinner plates), BIG changes in my gym routine, substituting a high protein shake for one meal daily has the body fat coming off as I build visible muscle.....I have 16 days to lose 8 more pounds to reach an initial goal. I am glad I took the bull by the horns, and am loving it. Now also waking up 4-5 AM most days, crashing earlier, getting more done.....feels very healthy and energizing, a nice positive feedback loop. Today is day 3 of a short pre-sunrise jog to see if my knee has healed after 6 year break from jogging after TWO injuries to the same knee back then.

Slim body, more alert mind, and better use of my days all feel like very healthy positive changes to cultivate! John

First Landing of Our Recycling Based Remote Controlled Airplane

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SH7JmJqDcro

First Flight of Our Recycling Based Remote Controlled Airplane

After high winds thwarting last week's attempted first innaugural flight of the foam glider that Dino and I have turned into a radio-controlled plane (he has the know how and did the work, I was assistant and added the winglets) we yesterday had a spectacular first flight. The tall soft grass allowed Dino a few hand launches to test balance, etc. , plus allowed for a nice gentle landing. Future shoots though I need to remember to stand closer to him so that his comments can be readily heard. After the flight we went to a hobby shop in Brandon and I bought two differing foam gliders, plus two step spray adhesive for glueing foam, and will set the loose parts out on my work table as I am an "out of sight, out of mind" man. Just passing them in my office will give me ideas on possible configurations.....I am already heavily leaning to a design with the main wings set back, with canards by the nose, with the propellor in back like many of Dick Rutan's designs. When something promising evolves I will send pics to Dino for his evaluation and suggestions since he has 31 years of RC experience and I am a total newbie as an "RC geek". Enjoy! John

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7AhoqFr3IQ

For those who love George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord".....

....this gem I found. John

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3k5Hpa4NVKI

Artificial "leaves" that make electricity instead of sugar

Cool! John

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100924121218.htm

Car Body as the Battery?

http://www.greencarreports.com/blog/1049712_could-your-cars-body-be-its-battery-too-volvo-is-trying

'Appalachian Spring' performance

I hope you enjoy this stirring performance of my very favorite symphony that over the years has brought me to full blown sobbing with joy several times during those breathtaking, uplifting crescendos. I never thought that my passion for 'Serenade to Music' by Ralph Vaughn Williams could be surpassed, but Copland's 'Appalachian Spring' to me is sheer perfection. Enjoy, John

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y97WzwMCqnQ&feature=related

Waste not, want not.......dog fur for birds' nests.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bBKpQiYtTA

Live Museum Performance by Yoko Ono

Since I was 15 when I discovered her poetry, Yoko Ono has been a pivotal influence for me in terms of cultivating and heeding my own creative and other callings. This live performance in a museum show of hers this summer at the age of 77 captures her fiercest, most avant garde spirit. I of course admire and love this piercing, challenging, uncomfortable piece, despite my love of melodic music too.....I wanted to share it with folks though I totally understand if you find it unbearable 8 seconds into the three minute solo and hit "STOP!"

John


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GMHl7bmlzw&feature=related

Two New Radical Dinosaur Species Discovered

Wow! John

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100922121943.htm

Very cool futuristic car door! John

http://www.flixxy.com/high-tech-car-door.htm

such staggering wastes of money and human life

http://www.costofwar.com/

Radio Controlled Plane Project

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boTmDLHa76M

'Surface Tension' sculpture

'Surface Tension'

'Surface Tension'

I made this fifty inch tall mixed media sculpture in Denver in the early 1990s and enjoy having it here in my Tampa home. John

Pontiac Pursuit concept car (1989?)

If I had to pick my six favorite concept cars of all time, this sleek, super futuristic late 80s stunner would make the list! John

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_K0Pa9aMAc

Remarkable new mini-projector

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100913082525.htm

New mirror floor coming!

"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" ceiling

The first one to go down...my mirror door mat.

I'd wanted to try a mirror floor since I was an art major in the mid 70s, and so to finally have one these last eight years was a dream come true, using free scavenged mirror backed with contact paper to reduce breakage and hold it together when it DOES happen (a trick taught me then by a mirror installation company). But this first version was made of many smaller slabs of mirror, with a large tapestry in the middle of the room hiding the original hideous brown linoleum floor I did not have enough mirror to cover. But.....

The last few years I've been accumulating a LOT of BIG mirror pieces I've scavenged and that folks have donated.....plus I dumpster dived a brand new GIANT roll of contact paper. Some months ago I began the daunting task of lifting up and discarding the old mirror pieces by beginning at the front door. The trick is laying out the new pieces in a "jig saw" manner that allows them to fit together and reach the baseboards best. So I've begun setting up in my Victorian workout and reading room much of the mirror I've accumulated for cleaning, then backing with contact paper. Plus just seeing them grouped together in there is helping me to visualize various configurations of their placement. Thanks to one of my students, I have beside my van a VERY large sheet of mirror I can barely move she told about from her hair salon being remodelled.....I keep on imagining it either covering the south side of the livingroom floor, or maybe in front of the Space Couch.

Here are some photos of just SOME of the mirror I have.....I have so much that I think that dream from my art college days of a 100% mirror floor just might come true! Folks love to see the interactions between the mirror floor, and my 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' ceiling mandala of mirror and holographic and other reflective materials...if you look in the right spots you can get "infinity" feed back loops!

Once the new mirror floor is completed, I will set up the halogen shop light in there and shoot a cool video of my 'Gay Trailer Trash on Acid" livingroom, with my favorite song 'I Am The Walrus' playing and post it here and on YouTube.

koo koo ka CHOO!

John

'I Want To Know What Love Is' video

This lusciously symphonic, choral live performance of a stellar love ballad from my generation always uplifts and startles me with its raw human emotion. Remarkable execution that leaves me teary eyes and brimming with admiration for all who created this gem that night. Enjoy, John

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1LseoI2_bw

The Three Stooges pie fight scene

This class example of Larry, Moe and Curly at their best has been a favorite of mine since I was ten years old. Whatever sound was used for the impacts of the pies, it is perfect. Priceless, pure, simple comedy! Enjoy...I laugh hard every time I watch it. John

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4-spBDcJyk

Fruit Flies in a Bottle.......

A lengthy insightful treatise well worth several minutes to read. John

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26331.htm

I can barely nail two 2 X 4's together adequately, and this guy designs and builds a car with capabilities like this! John


http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/09/home-built-car-drives-1400-miles-without-refueling/

new aluminum 'nanometal' alloy

http://www.spacemart.com/reports/Aluminum_nanometal_is_strong_as_steel_999.html

Do You Have Dirty Balls?

I only play with clean balls....how about you? John

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzNBItWxHSw

Supermassive Black Holes

This is a concise and visually intense addressing of the concept that supermassive black holes are in essence the center of a vortex we call a galaxy. Nicely done, enjoy. John

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkospV4Gya8

Long article worth reading....

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26306.htm

Can you identify these Mystery Objects from the natural world?

'Open Your Box'

This song came out when I was just out of highschool and it blew me away BIG time.....I loved the raw ferocity of the song, and its very compelling beat and delicously raw guitar riffs. I still do. For me it is total "dance in your underwear in your livingroom while altered" music. ( TMI?) It was banned in the US then due to the sexual imagery, but I got it not long after "brown bagged" at a record store at Britton Plaza here in south Tampa.

I really admire whoever created this lovely, almost holographic video accompanied by a lightly cropped (beginning and end) cropped version of the original song, 'Hirake'. Nice to hear a Yoko song I've relished for decades widely available on line.

Enjoy ( I hope!)


John

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_G6VpxZthfE&feature=related

The stunning Mazda Shinari concept car

I REALLY like this foretaste of Mazda's new design language....sleek, elegant, futuristic yet a taut sense of restraint. This review offers a luscious photo gallery of this stunner from many angles. Enjoy! John

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/08/30/mazda-shinari-concept-debuts-new-face-of-the-brand-in-style/

very creative video

A cornerstone of much of Yoko Ono's work is that the piece is completed and dependent on being perceived by the viewer-listener, like her remarkable 1960's Zen-like poems she called "instruction paintings". One aspect of her approach since she and John created the VERY challenging (even for me) albums 'Two Virgins' and 'Life with the Lions' is her notion of "unfinished music" to be developed and expanded upon by others. Lately she has been given to distributing the separate instrumental and vocal tracks from her recent songs with the encouragement to folks that they use them as fodder for their own creativity. I like this soft, relaxing, somewhat enigmatic video and version of her toe tapping song 'The Sun Is Down' from her recent album 'Between My Head and the Sky'. Enjoy! John

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlADyoXXTJI

Video by Yoko Ono: "Yes, I'm a Witch"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI7bSY6LwJc&NR=1

"No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear."

Edmund Burke

Queen

Lately I have been re-appreciating the searing genius and stellar musical executions of 'Queen'. I love the operatic structure and tidal waves of raw exuberance interspersed with quiet gems. Enjoy this awesome live performance of 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. John

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ9rUzIMcZQ&NR=1&feature=fvwp

India's "red rains" contained alien life?

Wow.....no DNA or RNA! John

http://www.news.com.au/technology/panspermia-theorists-say-indias-red-rain-contains-life-not-seen-on-earth/story-e6frfro0-1225913620448