There is beauty all around...

I was glancing through the April issue of Smithsonian magazine when my eyes fell upon this picture. You like mountains? You like lakes? You like waterfalls? This one has them all.

Just wanted to share the beauty of it with you all. If you think you know where it was taken, make a comment. Or just click on the picture to save it to your files so you can enlarge it.

It looks even better on the "big screen".

C'mon a my house...

I know a blog without pictures can hardly be considered a blog. Just think of the earlier picture of Sir Ian during the following.

Okay, you probably missed it. Bet you didn't even record it. But you can't say you weren't invited.

We watched all three hours (with one brief PBS commercial break) and I thought it was outstanding. The fifteen minutes of comments by Ian McKellen following the show were also quite interesting, particularly his insight into Lear's relationship to God (or the gods).

If you feel in a repentant mood and would like to see it you can always come see us. We have it on "My Recordings" along with such gems as "My Fair Lady", "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers", "Hamlet" (Olivier version), "Some Like It Hot", "Tootsie", "2001 A Space Odyssey",
"Brigadoon", "Lawrence of Arabia", "Yankee Doodle Dandy", "The Lost Weekend" and some episodes of "Curious George". All with no commercials.

And by the way, or should that be BTW? ---There WERE explosions. I always watch with "Closed caption for the hearing impaired" on and in the midst of the big battle scene the closed caption said "EXPLOSIONS". Couldn't help laugh out loud in view of comments on my earlier blog. Now aren't you sorry you missed it?

If it's ever repeated "Don't miss it if you can."

A rare opporunity

Okay, all you lovers of Gandalf, here's a chance to broaden your horizons.
Ian McKlellen will be on the PBS program "Great Performances" on March 25. Check your local stations for channel and time.

If you're willing to invest the time (maybe even record it for a more convenient viewing)
I think you will be glad you did. It may be your only opportunity to see one of Great Britain's outstanding actors (after all, he is SIR Ian) in an extremely challenging role. He has been touring with it for several months but, at the age of 70, he feels limited to how often he is up to the challenge, so PBS has made a video of a performance
A bit of personal back story is needed right about now. Back in the 1960's when I was in search of a PhD at the University of Iowa, I had a combination of classes one summer that required me to read 80 plays. (And you don't use Cliff Notes at graduate level.) I can still remember sitting in the only room of our married student housing unit where I could read late at night without disturbing wife or daughters --the bathroom.

So one night I began reading a play I thought I already knew all about, having read it years before. But this night, I sat on the throne (no pun intended) and for something like three or four hours I read straight through it and when I came to the end there were tears in my eyes. Perhaps it was the late hours, perhaps it was PhD battle fatigue, but what I think really brought this play so forcefully to life for me was that I had three daughters. Even though my daughters were young at that time, I could still relate to a tired old king who wants to turn his kingdom over to his daughters, only to be betrayed by two of them, and, in his mind at least, even by the third.

Okay --It's Shakespear's "King Lear".

I'm willing to bet you may have never read it, and I'm even more sure that you have probably never seen a production of it. So now's your chance.

Remember: March 25, PBS - "Great Performances".
Come on, broaden your horizons.
(I'll be interested to see if any of you take me up on this ----and that includes you, too, DS)

The more things change . . .

I was reading Nibley last night and ran across something you all might be interested in.

"The great and wise of ancient days have failed in all their attempts to promote eternal power, peace, and happiness....They proclaim as with a voice of thunder...that man's strength is weakness, his wisdom is folly, his glory is his shame...Nation has succeeded nation... History records their puerile plans, their short-lived glory, their feeble intellect and their ignoble deeds. Have we increased in knowledge or intelligence? . . . Our nation, which possesses greater resources than any other, is rent from center to circumference, with party strife, political intrigues, and sectional interest . . . our tradesmen are disheartened, our mechanics out of employ, our farmeers distressed, and our poor crying for bread, our banks are broken, our credit ruined....What is the matter?"

This is not Hugh Nibley speaking. This is from Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith.

Comments, anyone?

Who, What, Where, When and Why

Who are these people? What are they doing? Where are they? When? Why?

The picture below was taken in 1947 when the official magazine of the LDS church was The Improvement Era. At that time recognition was given to stakes that had done outstanding work in increasing circulation to the magazine. Magazine reps from the top stakes were invited to a conference in Salt Lake City where they were presented with their awards. If you start at the center of the row, where the aisle divides the picture, count left ten people to the lady in the light print dress. (Note, too, that she is wearing a hat. Almost always did in public.) This was one of the highlights of her life. Ironically, I don't remember this at all, even though that lady was my mother.