Sally's greatest ride

I was saddened to hear of the death of astronaut Sally Ride. She certainly went far beyond the "glass ceiling," becoming the first U.S. woman in space. Here’s her Sesame Street appearance on YouTube, as posted on a friend’s site:

http://sesamestreetblockparty.blogspot.com/2012/07/will-will-miss-you-sally-ride.html

And now she’s on the greatest mission of all. We’ll miss you, Sally.

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NOT SO "MISERABLES": I fulfilled a "theater bucket list" item recently and finally got to see the complete musical "Les Miserables." I know there are a few punctuation marks missing in that title, but it seems that the Google typeface for blogger is quite limited. You know the musical I mean.

And it was fabulous. As with "Phantom," it was easy to understand why "Miserables" is such a popular show. It’s a very moving story filled with equally moving music. I got to watch it with some dear friends from the theater, who filled me in on a few backstage notes - notably, the difficulty in staging a certain death scene. Thanks to strobe lighting and good acting, the effect came off quite well. The scene ended with applause, and my friend whispering to me, "Now it’s like we’re clapping because he’s dead!"  But it was a great show, and I certainly felt less miserable after seeing it. Definitely worth seeing.


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AGING QUICKLY (or) THE SPIRIT OF 72: On Wednesday, I added the Mister Rogers “Garden of Your Mind” video to my favorites folder on my YouTube page. Later, I clicked on my YouTube page link on the blog, only to find that my YouTube page was not there. They had put up an empty page for me. There was a little space on my "blank" YouTube page that gave my age as 72 years old. Talk about adding insult to injury! I’m not quite 72 yet. That’s about 30 years away for me (I hope). I have no idea where they got 72 from. Now, 72 is a fine number. 72 is 12 multiplied by 6. I was actually alive in 1972. I’m not against 72. Lord willing, I’ll be 72 one day. It’s just not my age yet.

The bad link has been removed, and I’m debating whether or not to fix the link. It may just be easier to post the links to the videos here on the blog, rather than forcing you to scroll through my favorites folder to find the video you want. I can keep the YouTube account for my own sake (none of my personal videos are there yet, just links to other people’s videos) and as a way of keeping track of the videos I link to from the blog. That may be the way it rolls from now on. We’ll see.

Jeni Rizio on MuppetCast

It was nice to hear from a friend of mine recently, as well as hear her voice on a popular podcast. If I’m a "Sesame guy," then Jeni Rizio is definitely a "Sesame girl." Jeni is the webmaster of the Caroll Spinney fan page. Who is Caroll Spinney? WHO IS CAROLL SPINNEY?!!

I‘m going to try to forgive you for asking and answer the question. Spinney is the puppeteer who has performed Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street for over forty years. Jeni is friends with Caroll, and she is helping to promote an upcoming documentary about Caroll titled "I am Big Bird." You can learn more about it - and how you can help make it happen - by visiting the sites below.

http://muppetcast.com/WordPress/show-216/

http://carollspinney.net/

http://www.iambigbird.com/

Speaking of such documentaries, the long-awaited “Mr. Rogers And Me” has debuted and I understand has been quite successful. You can read about it here:

http://misterrogersandme.com/

Speaking of Mister Rogers, if you’re a fan of his shows, get thee to the Neighborhood Archive website and enjoy all-new episode summaries of some of his classic “Pre-1979” era episodes. The summaries also include pictures from the episodes themselves.

http://www.neighborhoodarchive.com/


ON YOUTUBE: MISTER ROGERS: GARDEN OF YOUR MIND. Speaking of Mister Rogers again, I hope you’ve had the chance to hear his latest song. Well, actually, it was written by a creative gentleman named John D. Boswell, who has created a video to go along with it, taken from various old Mr. Rogers episodes. I really enjoy it. It‘s a great example of what‘s possible today if you have the resources, time, and a healthy garden in your mind to grow fun things like this. You can find the video in the favorites folder on my you tube page.

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

Happy Fourth of July

Liberty lives. So does this blog. :) Wishing you all a great Independence Day tomorrow & all year long.