Non-football related stuff that really makes your day

[LionsFanInJapan]

TAO might be the best I've ever seen of the taiko drums. Kimiko made me go last summer. I was dubious like Marko but walked away equally impressed. If you ever get the chance to see them, make sure you do. I actually have a student who does taiko too, but I've never been able to go see her play.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lE6N_QD99C8"]A Performance From DRUM TAO - YouTube[/ame]

[Marko69]

Yes, Sacha was actually looking for the Tao tickets first as she saw them back in 2008, (I was working away, couldn't go) ...., so she got the IKKI samurai drum tickets instead. But I must see the Tao in the future.

Nice video, Bimmer. I'll try and get Sacha to post her 5 minute video of the show to YouTube and then onto here.

[LionsFanInJapan]

Well, if she really wants to see them, they do a summer festival at their home base every August. That's what we went to last year. I thought they were some hippie commune sort of group. No idea how famous they really were.

[DeanUK]

Been doing a lot to our house over the summer, knocked down our conservatory and had an extension built in it's place (I'll try and post some pics later). There was a lot of moving about of cupboards and clearing out of junk, but I did find an old tape that was about 30 years old that I had made. I called it "Captain Scarlet meets Rock" as in between songs I added bits from Captain Scarlet (by dropping the needle on the record and pressing record on the tape, took a few times to get some right!) Anyway it brought back great memories of weekends driving to to beach in Bournemouth with my mates, sleeping in the car in a multi story car park if we didn't find, ahem, "alternative accomodation". Mind you I think it's a mixed bag now, but got me really nostalgic, anywayhere's the track listing:-

It opens with "Colonel White" saying very quietly "Close the Sound Doors" then the next track is pretty loud

Paranoid - Black Sabbath
Gimme All your Lovin - ZZ Top
All right Now - Free
Hot Legs- Rod Stewart
Addicted to Love - Robert Palmer
My Generation - The Who
Rat Trap - Boomtown Rats

Side 2!

Sharp Dressed Man - ZZ top
Infatuation - Rod Stewart
Undercover of the Night - Rolling Stones
Peanuts - The Police (Reminded me how good the Police were)
Rifle Range - Blondie
Call Me - Go West
Don't Cry - Asia

[Marko69]

Well, if she really wants to see them, they do a summer festival at their home base every August. That's what we went to last year. I thought they were some hippie commune sort of group. No idea how famous they really were.

I'll need to get the flights booked!

[Marko69]

Been doing a lot to our house over the summer, knocked down our conservatory and had an extension built in it's place (I'll try and post some pics later). There was a lot of moving about of cupboards and clearing out of junk, but I did find an old tape that was about 30 years old that I had made. I called it "Captain Scarlet meets Rock" as in between songs I added bits from Captain Scarlet (by dropping the needle on the record and pressing record on the tape, took a few times to get some right!) Anyway it brought back great memories of weekends driving to to beach in Bournemouth with my mates, sleeping in the car in a multi story car park if we didn't find, ahem, "alternative accomodation". Mind you I think it's a mixed bag now, but got me really nostalgic, anywayhere's the track listing:-

It opens with "Colonel White" saying very quietly "Close the Sound Doors" then the next track is pretty loud

Paranoid - Black Sabbath
Gimme All your Lovin - ZZ Top
All right Now - Free
Hot Legs- Rod Stewart
Addicted to Love - Robert Palmer
My Generation - The Who
Rat Trap - Boomtown Rats

Side 2!

Sharp Dressed Man - ZZ top
Infatuation - Rod Stewart
Undercover of the Night - Rolling Stones
Peanuts - The Police (Reminded me how good the Police were)
Rifle Range - Blondie
Call Me - Go West
Don't Cry - Asia

AHHH! Side one and side two??? The good old days.

Last van I had had a tape player, but current has a CD player......, if that tape could be converted to CD, that'd be getting played in my van, Dean. Superb selection there. Although I'm now going to YouTube Rifle Range by Blondie......, never heard that one.

[Malto Marko]

TAO might be the best I've ever seen of the taiko drums. Kimiko made me go last summer. I was dubious like Marko but walked away equally impressed. If you ever get the chance to see them, make sure you do. I actually have a student who does taiko too, but I've never been able to go see her play.

A Performance From DRUM TAO - YouTube

I got the beat, I got the beat........

[Marko69]

Just watched rifle range......, decent. Didn't realise Blondie also covered "Goldfinger".

[ame]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=g3ARioGCJww[/ame]

[Malto Marko]

So,it finally happened!

I have been a fan of the Space program since I was a teenager.

On a warm day in July of 1969, I agreed to take my brother and his friend up to a miniature golfing center with the condition that we would be home in time to see Neil Armstrong step onto the surface of the moon.

Well, my brother and his friend decided that the time we agreed to leave should change because they were not ready to leave yet. I told them that if they were not in the car within the agreed time, I was leaving and they could find their own way home.

They dragged their feet and tried to see if I was bluffing and as I backed out of the parking spot getting ready to leave while they watched me from 20 feet away, they decided they I was serious and ran like hell to get into the car before I started moving forward. Pissed, I gunned the accellerator on my Dad's three in the tree Ford and backed into a telephone pole doing $105.00 worth of damage. It was a hefty price to pay on my $15.00 per week paper route but it taught me a valuable lesson on being a nice guy.

Since then I have watched the space program with great intrigue.

The transparency of NASA makes it very easy to follow the program and there was a day last winter that I was glued to my TV while I watched a space walk live from the ISS (International Space Station).

About 2 1/2 years ago I signed up for notifications from the ISS to be able to spot the craft when it flew over my home State.

For a number of reasons, time of day, cloud coverage, and timeliness of notification being the most frequent, I have not been able to witness a flyover.

Well, that changed last night when I checked on a whim to find out that a flyby was due about an hour and a half from the time I checked. Better yet, the trajectory and amount of time visible were seemed to perfectly fit viewing from my back yard which has a number of obstacles preventing a full view of the heavens.

Well, at 9:43 PM EDT the ship became visible exactly where they told me to look and streaked across the sky on the path they told me to watch.

It was awesome and seeing it for the first time will help for future sightings as high flying planes can often be mistaken for the space craft.

It was brighter than the brightest star in the sky, had no blinking lights that aircraft often have and moved much quicker than a plane.

All I can say is wow! Something to scratch off my bucket list.

[dpatnod]

I saw it too. Had no idea what it was. Thought to myself.... Wow, I have never seen the space station look that bright. It moved quickly before seeming to dim, turn a redish color and receed into oblibion.

Was definitely the brightest thing in the sky.

[Malto Marko]

Yup, exactly what I saw.

[bimmer84]

Congrat's guys. Good story Malto.

[LionsFanInJapan]

That's great! I'm right there with you about NASA, Mark.

[DanO]

TAO might be the best I've ever seen of the taiko drums. Kimiko made me go last summer. I was dubious like Marko but walked away equally impressed. If you ever get the chance to see them, make sure you do. I actually have a student who does taiko too, but I've never been able to go see her play.

A Performance From DRUM TAO - YouTube

Very cool LFIJ. Yours as well Bim.

[DanO]

"It was a hefty price to pay on my $15.00 per week paper route but it taught me a valuable lesson on being a nice guy."
----------------------------------------Being a nice person gets you shit on more than it should.

Last year we were camping up in Mackinac City and there was a space object circling the earth. It just appeared as a bright light. We watched a few times as it circled. My son told me about it and pointed it out. Don't remember what it actually was.