I Ain't Afraid of No Daleks

I've a co-worker who's turned me on to this band. They're out of the Albany, NY area, fifty miles away, but play up here, from time to time. They've been slated to be one of the opening acts for the huge Lallapalooza concert in Illinois. They're not half bad, for a two-person band. Sirsy:

To this day, I can remember the smell of that old barn. It was a deep musty, slightly spicy-piney smell. Sort of a cross between a damp old cellar, and a can of pine-scented air freshener.

The big green and white barn complex was built in the Victorian era, part of the vast Sage family estate in my village--Russell Sage being a prominent American industrialist, way back then. He's got a women's college named after him, in Troy, NY.

Anyway, the old barn was not your typical American barn. this one had a long shed row, with stalls for the draft horses and polo ponies. (Carriage horses were kept at the carriage house, which was further away, adjacent to the "field next door" to our house.) There were also about a half-dozen cattle stanctions in there, as well. There was a garage, next to the stables, with an overhead apartment above, that had a wide outdoor porch on the roof of the garage. Attacted to this was the "water tower." The water tower was a two story "tower," that had a well with a trap door below, and a set of stairs which led to a mysterious small upstairs room--what that room was for, us kids had our speculations about, but I'm sure the true reason was much more mundane than our thoughts conjured up.

Attatched to the water tower was a big granary building--scary to go in, because it had an elevated wood floor, that was raised a few feet above the door--with a deep and dark cellar, below. One slip----.

I walked by this spot all the time, with the dogs. Us kids used to sneak into these places, from time to time--but quite honestly, we found them a bit scary, even the bravest of us (and I was scared--the first time I climbed the stairs to the tower's "mystery room," marked the very first time my knees actually shook. I think I was about 10 or 11, back then.

As a pre-teen, I used to daydream that this was my stables, and all the fields were where I kept my horses. Interestingly enough--this barn was painted in the same colors as the stables at famous Saratoga Race Course (the thoroughbred track, not the harness track), and I often wondered if that was deliberate, or just coincidence. But knowing how posh Saratoga was/is, I lean towards the deliberate.

As a teen, I used to daydream of winning the lottery, and buying the old barn and surrounding fields, and turning it in to a horse farm. Silly, huh?

The old barn's gone now. Torn down in the mid-1980's...but I swear, I can still smell that musty-pine scented odour.

THE OLD BARN, AND MY DOGS, HAPPY AND SHAMROCK. PROBABLY 1976 OR 77.

Here's what your music says about your personality! Your music preferences have been broken down into four categories.

Energetic & Upbeat

People high on this dimension tend to enjoy Hip-hop, Rap, Funk, Soul, and Electronic music. On the Energetic & Upbeat Dimension you fell in the 12 percentile. This score is very low.
12 % 12%

Based on your responses, you scored below average on the energetic and upbeat music-preference dimension. Research in our laboratory indicates that people low on this dimension, like you, often have the following characteristics:

People with low scores on the energetic and upbeat music-preference dimension tend to be introverted, less assertive than the average person, and detail oriented. As for politics and values, they tend to lean to the conservative side, and value intellect, ambition, and high art. When it comes to lifestyle, low scorers on the energetic and upbeat dimension often come from the middle and upper classes. When they're not reading, they're probably watching a romance movie, classic film, or western movie.

LINK TO THIS QUIZ: WHAT DO YOU MUSIC TASTES SAY ABOUT YOU?

http://www.outofservice.com/music-personality-test/

HAPPY MEMORIES DEPARTMENT: Me, making friends with one of the lovely Friesian horses, near Haag in Friesland, Netherlands, June 2001.

US Pres. George W. Bush says there's no troop shortage. He points to recent recruitment efforts in the land of Oz, as a sure sign of success.

Here's an on-set photo of David Tennant preparing for his latest role, in the TV cop movie: Son of Kojak. The original actor who played the role, Telly Savalas, was famous for sucking on his trademark lolliepop. The Scots-born actor Tenant, won't be using a lolly, but instead will be sucking on a mini-haggis.

Gah---computers make me feel old and stupid!

I never even noticed the "my blog" button on the right! It's virtually invisible! (my eyesight's going a tiny bit).

I'm going to give the new design a two-week trial run. If I still find it awkward, then I'll be off finding a new blog site...or maybe just stop this blogging stuff.

I really, really hate dealing with computers. I hate feeling like an idiot, and I hate having to deal with trivial changes when I've got so much more serious stuff on my plate to deal with.

The light blue is much harder for me to see than the old site, but the young guys who run this blog don't take vision impariments into account, I suppose.

PHOTO: Glens Falls Mountain Road, Lake Luzerne, NY October 2004 (Music by Billie Holiday)

While driving back up the mountain road, coming back from the city of Glens Falls, I just had to stop the car and snap this pic--I loved the contrast: the near-darkness of shadowy road in late afternoon, making the brilliance of the maple's blazing colours all that more spectacular.

I had to take some black and white photos for my one and only art class in college. I've only two left, of the dozen or so photos I shot. This was taken at a local antique car show.

This I called, "Slow Curves." It was part of a three-picture series that I did, of vintage gas (petrol) related objects.

For this, and many of the 2004/05 pics, I was using a Kodak 35mm EasyLoad camera, with auto-focus. It was a great camera for a total newbie like me--I know precious little about photography, I'm afraid. I believe I used 400 speed film, for this pic, as I recall.