Cavatina

She was beautiful,
Beautiful to my eyes.
From the moment I saw her,
The sun filled the sky.

She was so so beautiful,
Beautiful just to hold.
In my dreams she was spring time
Winter was cold.

How could I tell her
What I so clearly could see
Though I longed for her
I never trusted her completely
So I never could be free.

Oh, but it was beautiful
Knowing now that she cared
I will always remember
Moments that we shared

Now it's all over
Still the feelings linger on
For my dream keeps returning
Now that she's gone.

For it was beautiful, beautiful,
Beautiful to be loved.

— Stanley Myers (music), 1970; Cleo Laine (lyrics), 1973.

Composed by Stanley Myers, Cavatina is more memorable as the instrumental theme from the Oscar award winning movie, The Deer Hunter (1978), where it was performed by guitarist John Williams.

The lyrics written by Dame Cleo Laine was originally sung as "He was Beautiful," accompanied by John Williams. The version above ("She was Beautiful") was record by Paul Potts for his debut album, One Chance in 2007.

A flawless acoustic guitar rendition of the music performed by Swedish classical guitarist Per-Olov Kindgren can be found on YouTube as is a live rendition by John Williams and a colorful piano rendition by Lana Gnus. The version above sung by Paul Potts is also available on YouTube.

A Suffusion of Green

 
A Suffusion of Green (Copyright (cc) B Kahuna 2007)

ELLA, Sri Lanka -- An unidentified species of ivy or creeper on a rock wall in the garden of Ambiente in Ella.

Captured on 19^th March 2008 with a Canon EOS 30D (EF 75-300mm 1:4-5.6 III) on aperture priority (f/5.0) resulting in an exposure of 1/80^th of a second. The enhanced contrast was achieved by setting the Picture Style to Clear.

See also, A Suffusion of Yellow.

Samanala Wewa from World's End

 
Samanala Wewa from World's End (Copyright (cc) B Kahuna 2006)

HORTON PLAINS, Sri Lanka -- A view of Samanala Wewa from World's End using a 300mm zoom lens. The reservoir dam is at the lower left-hand corner of the image, partially obscured.

Captured on 29^th July 2006 using a Canon EOS 30D (EF 75-300mm 1:4-5.6 III) in landscape mode (aperture of f/7.1 exposed for 1/500^th of second at ISO 100).

It was a very hazy day and Picasa did a pretty good job of cutting through the haze using the I'm Feeling Lucky one touch adjustment. A speck of dust that had lodged itself strategically on the sensor was also digitally removed and the color balance adjusted in Picasa. 

Unquotable Quotes - Part 39

This is like trying to find the cheapest airfare between Reno and Addis Ababa.

— Kahuna to Gordon, on comparing mobile phone service plans.

I didn't want to get off even after a fourteen hour flight.

— Vandoofus to Kahuna, on being kicked upstairs to the upper deck of an A380 from Dubai to New York, complete with bar, in-chair massage functionality and fully flat bed.

In other news, the cat has hogged the bed in a manner that makes occupation difficult.

— Kahuna to Gordon, reporting of a late-night feline infestation.

You're messing with pussy in the dead of night.

— Gordon to Kahuna, taking a dim view of the situation.

Kahuna my ass, you can't even relocate a cat.

— Gordon, taking Kahuna to task for bungling what should have been a routine feline extrication.

You'd think for a country that makes regular trips into outer space, they can get a voting system sorted out.

— Gordon's Electronic Voting Lament.

Nonsense, Diebold doesn't make the space shuttle.

— Kahuna's Rebuttal to Gordon's Electronic Voting Lament.

I suggest you move to Tibet and renounce your worldly possessions.

— Kahuna to Gordon, on learning that his autonomous wife was at Wal-Mart on Black Friday.

In other news, we successfully simulated a visit by Santa for my daughter's benefit.

— Gordon to Kahuna, reporting of an elaborate hoax perpetrated on Christmas Eve.

Did you use isolinear projection by Star Trek? Oh wait, you have Santa's radar profile, all you needed would have been the beard.

— Kahuna, experiencing an epiphany while discussing Gordon's Santa impersonation.

You think my wife would allow cake at this ungodly hour under any other circumstance?

— Gordon to Kahuna, defending a midnight feast on the occasion of his birthday.

If the missus reads this I'll be advised to go live with any of the three mentioned.

— Gordon, warning of dire consequences should his autonomous wife discover Kahuna's posting on Berry-Knowles Equivalence Theory.

Your activities with pungent fruit are getting me down.

— Gordon, objecting to Kahuna lobbing a Durian in his direction.

You will note that only heads of state who are current or former terrorists visit these parts.

— Kahuna to Gordon, reporting of a visit by the Abbas, hot in the footsteps of the Ahmedinejad.

Since I don't have a personal quarry, I had to pay for the stone.

— Gordon to Kahuna, on replacing counter-tops with granite at great expense.

She's at about 2.36 Rai.

— Gordon to Kahuna, on Halle Berry being named the Sexiest Woman Alive by Esquire magazine in 2008.

Earlier, there was myth that every company I worked for went bankrupt; then it expanded to every industry I worked in and now, every country.

— Vandoofus's Generalized Insolvency by Association Principle.

Indeed, I'm still reliant on Georgia Power.

— Gordon to Kahuna, reporting a delay in receiving his reactor from Kim.

Its modus operandi appears to be to slow down the client such that virii get fed up and leave.

— Kahuna to Gordon, commenting on the workings of McAfee's quasi-bogus anti-virus products.

They're promoting casual sends by the Pope.

— Gordon to Kahuna, taking a hardline view on Gmail's new undo send functionality.

You'll be taking refuge in Tehran?

— Kahuna to Gordon, on the need for a new hiding place given the thawing of relations between the US and North Korea and the warm and fuzzy relationship with *f* .

Er no, I will extend Interstate 10 to Pyongyang.

— Gordon to Kahuna, on his industrious plans to make the best out of an early spring.

There are no laws against this, especially in late October.

— Gordon to Kahuna, on being accused of harboring the Monster.

This now brings the total CPU count to 7, 15 if you're counting cores.

— Gordon to Kahuna, upping his processor count after an unscheduled second-hand hardware purchase from an apparel vendor of oriental persuasion.

Anything can happen in these tiny Chinese novelty shops; some are believed to appear and disappear mysteriously.

— Kahuna, cautioning Gordon of the dangers of dabbling in wandering shops.

Maybe you can pick up an old Freon plant the next time you visit your grocer.

— Kahuna, expressing great annoyance with Gordon's second-hand shopping expeditions.

I locked out my password today by accidentally pressing Alt+Shift after a screen saver lockout and switching the language to Sinhala.

— Kahuna to Gordon, confessing to bungling in a native language.

I'm more interested in King Solomon's porn stash.

— Gordon to Kahuna, on being told of the discovery of King Solomon's Mines.

I'm not your muse.

— Kahuna, declining to provide creative input to Vandoofus's latest blog.

You're right about that; you're my bitch.

— Vandoofus to Kahuna, under the influence of unknown hallucinogens.

There was never a rift; we never pledge allegiance to the Leader like the Apple folks do.

— Gordon to Kahuna, clarifying his relationship with Redmond.

If someone threw things at my embassy, I would retaliate by autocannon.

— Kahuna's Unequal and Opposite Reaction Policy.

These pussy-loving foreign ministers should have had theirs removed during the meeting.

— Kahuna to Gordon, advocating impromptu castration as part of His Foreign Policy.

If Dorothy wandered into your closet she would conclude fairly quickly that she was no longer in Kansas.

— Kahuna's Wizard of Oz Interpretation of Gordon's Closet.

The potential difference became zero; did you bring your closet online?

— Kahuna to Gordon, investigating a mysterious loss of power.

My daughter has found fascination in the metronome feature of the piano much to my annoyance.

— Gordon to Kahuna, on being forced to keep time by his increasingly autonomous daughter.

Well it has to be plugged in to be useful, and besides when it doesn't respond, she thumps it.

— Gordon to Kahuna, explaining his daughter's maintenance analysis procedure for an unresponsive piano.

Percussive maintenance at such an early age; she will outdo you, I tell you.

— Kahuna, cautioning Gordon to expect polarity-reversed capacitors plugged into his power outlets.

Where were you on or about 1903?

— Kahuna to Gordon, discovering the existence of the Gordon Brothers Group established in the early 20^th century and fearing the worst.

The Vatican should be thumped with a rubber truncheon.

— Kahuna to Gordon, expressing irritation with Benedict XVI's stance on prophylactics.

I'll steal your pics.

— Vandoofus's Fair Use Doctrine.

Watch your nuts.

— Kahuna's Subpeona^[1] Defense to Vandoofus's Fair Use Doctrine.

^[1] Subpoena: From the root "sub", below, and the Latin "poena" for male organ or penis. Therefore, "below the penis" or "by the balls." (Anon).

The Kahuna-Gordon Messages: Part 25 - The Great Lollipop Caper

ALPHARETTA, Georgia -- Today we bring you the much-anticipated pilot episode of Gordon, P.I., the new detective thriller starring arch-zoologist and percussive taxidermist, Professor Ebenezer Gordon.

It began like any other day in Alpharetta, but soon hit a rather sticky note when Gordon discovered mysterious lollipop smears on his piano, which were not deemed necessary for the normal functioning of the instrument. After pausing to break the silence with an explosive sound reminiscent of a diesel engine backfiring in the early hours, Gordon leaped into action and quickly surveyed the scene of the crime.

Satisfying himself that a hidden, albeit sticky, hand was responsible for the act of vandalism, Gordon meticulously listed the possible suspects and quickly eliminated the flying monkeys and the Easter Bunny using tried and tested methods handed down by Sherlock Holmes. Gordon concluded that, after eliminating the impossible, the evidence pointed to none other than his daughter being the mastermind behind the dastardly deed. Regular readers will recall that Gordon's daughter is quite a clown and her previous antics are documented elsewhere on the Circus.

Gordon recounted the incident to Kahuna after concluding his initial investigations and this is how the conversation went:

Gordon (G): My daughter has covered the holy piano keyboard in lollipop X-(
Kahuna (K): What flavor? X-(
G: @#$#@%@#%@$%@#$@#$@#$@#$ strawberry X-(
K: By the Tooth Fairy X-(
K: Have you taken her to task? X-(
G: Indeed, she has denied involvement X-(
K: Does she have an alibi? X-(
G: Nothing concrete: I threatened to return the device to the store if a repeat occurrence happens to which she responded, "Okay, okaaaaaay *sigh*."
K: So you're unable to make a case by the Boulder, Colorado Police Department? X-(
G: Indeed.
K: Have you removed the evidence?
G: Indeed, there's still a little left on the C# key X-(
K: And you propose to leave this?
G: Er no, this was cleaned too.
K: This fiasco may give the local ant colony a reason to invade X-(
G: Actually there are no ants in these parts.
K: A good enough reason to establish a local colony in which case.
G: X-(
K: Heh heh.
K: How many octaves did she cover? :-P
G: A complete octave from middle C X-(
K: She restricted herself to a single octave? X-(
G: Indeed X-(
K: By Wolfgang Amadeus X-(
K: And the device was operating when the incident occurred?
G: She turns it on every time she walks by, as she does with most household electronics X-(
K: This is most disturbing by Al Gore X-(
K: Perhaps you should install motion sensors to turn them on and off automatically. This will avoid touching with lollipop-stained hands :-P
G: X-(
K: Either that, or you'll have to shrink wrap everything :-P

Gordon's evidence in this case appears to have been mostly circumstantial and no "smoking lollipop" has been found. No charges have been filed to date and the Lollipop Bandit remains at large.

On that gummy note, we take your leave. Join us next time on Gordon, P.I., when our protagonist investigates the mysterious thermocline in his bathtub.