The Shipyard

Most people with a working knowledge of American history are probably familiar, at least in passing, with the phrase the Arsenal of Democracy. But only those with an interest in local or naval history are probably aware of the contributions Quincy made to that arsenal. For close to a hundred years the Fore River Shipyard provided a living for generations of Quincy residents, who in turn launched some of the U.S. Navy's better known vessels, such as...

The U.S.S. Lexington - fondly kown as "Lady Lex" - sunk at the Battle of the Coral Sea in 1942. Her successor was also built in Quincy.

The U.S.S. Wasp - sunk off the coast of Guadalcanal in 1942. And her namesake.

The U.S.S. Massachusetts, which you can visit today at Battleship Cove in Fall River.

The U.S.S. Quincy - sunk during the Battle of Savo Island in 1942. Her replacement was also built in Quincy, and carried President Roosevel to the Yalta Conference.

The Old is New

One of the chief pleasures of my iPod is re-discovering music that has until recently been buried and half-forgotten in my CD collection. I used to listen to a lot of Cowboy Junkies, and then I didn't. No particular reason, I just moved on to other artists. Bot over the past few days I've made their acquaintance again. I'd forgotten how haunting the voice of Margo Timmins can be. It doesn't have a lot of range - there's no Mariah Carey style vocal hysterics - and sometimes it seems like she's just a step beyond speaking the lyrics. But I find her voice, and Michael Timmins' lyrics, to be incredibly evocative, and moving. Come Calling (His Song) is easily one of my all time favorites, and I'm wondering how I went so long without hearing it:

If I could fix me up a week of twilight hours,
we'd sit on the point and watch the sun continually flounder.
Bathed in gold we'd plug into some kind of power,
and connect with those days back before all of this went sour.

'Cause I'm drinking for the pleasure of falling,
and I'm falling for the pleasure of pretending,
that you're sitting by the window waiting,
for me to come calling,

Odd how the darkness always makes us whisper,
and with the last of the sun you can feel the approach of the winter.
Now is the time of each day that I desperately miss her.
I suppose I will learn how to live my life without her.

Photo Ops

The pictures from the previous post were culled from two nifty galleries of photos form the 50's and 60's - one in black and white, the other in color.

The Dreaded Picture Round

If ever you play trivia down at the local, there will come a point in the evening when you will face the Dreaded Picture Round, during which you'll have to identify ten celebrities based on the vintage or incomplete photos given to you. Just to give you an idea, try putting names to the three pictures to the left.

Dispatches

If you're not reading Michael Yon's posts from Mosul, Iraq, you should be. There's a reason he's on the blogroll.

Check out the latest, Gates of Fire.

Honk...

if you can see this post. Or leave a comment.

Just wondering.

Under Construction

I've switched to a new host. Please bear with me as I 're-build' everything here.

Next, Now & Last

The last five movies I watched from Netflix:
1. Thief
2. Doctor Zhivago
3. Get Carter
4. Lawrence of Arabia
5. Rifi

The three movies from Netflix I currently have at home:
1. Point Blank
2. The Italian Job
3. A Perfect World

The next five movies in my Netflix queue:
1. Never On Sunday
2. Bringing Up Baby
3. Rushmore
4. Coffee and Cigarettes
5. After the Thin Man

iPod update

Allright, I still love my iPod but I do have two complaints.

Number one: the earphones pain me. Literally. Maybe it's my mutant Irish ears, but the damn things don't fit right. Obviously I'm going to need to switch to something else - any suggestions?

Number two: I've noticed that five (so far) of the 884 songs I ripped from CDs and transferred to the iPod somehow didn't transfer correctly (either from the CD or to the iPod). Mostly they skip - it's quite odd - just little split second hiccups. In the case of one song it's listed on the iPod, but when I select it to play the iPod jumps over it to the next selection. I'm assuming I can fix this by re-loading the songs from scratch, but I'm curious - anyone else have this happen? Anyone have an explanation?

Happy Birthday Heather

Today Heather turns...um... turns... today Heather turns something years old.

Happy birthday Heather.

Also on this date in 1984 Prince's Purple Rain (the album, not the song)reached #1 on the charts for the first of 24 weeks.

August 4 is truly a special, indeed, magical, day.

A Fistful of Links

Here's some links I've accumulated that you can read. Or not.

An interview with Camille Paglia, formerly the only person worth reading on Salon.com.

An article on stress factors at play in violent encounters and personal combat, for those with an interest in that sort of thing. The emphasis is on edged weapons, not open hands.

A just plain creepy story.

Courtesy of Heather, a piece about building the perfect 90's box set.

Those of a historical bet are probably already aware that this month marks the 60th anniversary of the use of atomic weapons on Imperial Japan. And of course there's plenty of commentary to be had, from revisionist hand-wringing to uber-patriotic nonsense. The History News Network has a collection of links running the gamut of opinion. Richard Franks (author of Downfall, in my opinion the best account of the circumstances around Hiroshima and Nagasaki) has an article in the Weekly Standard on Truman's decision to use the bomb.

No Pressure Here

Tomorrow is Heather's birthday. And to be perfectly honest good people, I am in quite a bind. I have no idea how to mark the occasion this year and the pressure is enormous. I mean, when you've joined forces with international recording star Madonna to bring the romance one year, or created a drunken kefuffle of near legendary proportions at the local Bickfords another year, well, where do you go from there? How do you kick it up a notch for Heather's birthday this year?

I think the key is subtlety. Understatement. Shift gears - don't try and outdo your prior accomplishments, but instead chart a new course, for this year and for future birthdays.

So maybe I'll wear a beret, and introduce myself to one and all as Monsier SquigglyMan. Or perhaps I'll fashion a tinfoil helmet (a true lo-fidelity classic) and insist on being adressed as SubCommander Zeep.

We'll see. Depends on what kind of mood I'm tomorrow evening.

New World

So... a scant week later and the pre-iPod world is a barely remembered dream to me. How on earth did I ever go around without my own personal soundtrack?

I finished going through my CD collection, burning all the 'essential' songs to iTunes. There's now 884 songs on my iPod, using up 2.7 GB out of the 20 available. I have loads of room left, so now I can go back and load songs from 'good but not essential bands' - like Nirvana - that I left out on the first go-through.

And just for kicks - the last five songs I heard while on shuffle:
1. The Guns of Brixton - The Clash
2. Angel - Kirsty MacColl
3. The World Has Changed - The Fleshtones
4. You Brought A New Kind of Love - Frank Sinatra
5. Elevation - U2