The Full Worm Moon: March 27, 2013 at 2:30 A.M. Las Vegas time

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Full Moon
Full Moon

From The Old Farmer’s Almanac:
Full Moon Video
Each month, we will explain the traditional names of the full Moon along with some fascinating Moon facts. In this video, learn about the Full Worm Moon, Moon illusion, and when and why the Moon rides high or rides low. Click below to watch video.

Historically, the Native Americans who lived in the area that is now the northern and eastern United States kept track of the seasons by giving distinctive names to the recurring full Moons.

Each full Moon name was applied to the entire lunar month in which it occurred.

The Full Worm Moon was given its name by the Algonquin tribes from New England to Lake Superior. At the time of this spring Moon, the ground begins to soften and earthworm casts reappear, inviting the return of robins. This is also known as the Sap Moon, as it marks the time when maple sap begins to flow and the annual tapping of maple trees begins.

OUT WEST

From Western Washington University:
American Indians gave names to each of the full moons to keep track of the passing year. The names are associated with the entire month until the next full moon occurs. Since a lunar month averages 29 days, the dates of the moons change from year to year. Here [is the information from one tribe.]

Zuni – Southwest, New Mexico
According to WWU, in the Zuni language the name for March’s Moon is: “li’dekwakkya ts’ana” or “little sand storm.”

The Old Farmer’s Almanac

Western Washington University

Lawmakers question ‘risky’ $5.5B loan for high-speed Vegas train amid sequester cutbacks

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High-speed Vegas train
High-speed Vegas train

By Barnini Chakraborty Published March 13, 2013 FoxNews.com

While the Transportation Department warns that the sequester will lead to cutbacks causing snarled lines at airports across America, the agency is still considering a massive $5.5 billion government gamble on a high-speed train from suburban California to Vegas.

The total cost of the XpressWest project is $6.9 billion, with 80 percent potentially being fronted by the federal government. It would create a train that runs from Victorville, Calif., to Las Vegas and, if green-lighted, would be the largest loan of its type issued in America.

But there are severe roadblocks, which skeptical lawmakers are once again drawing attention to at a time when the government is supposed to be looking for savings.

“We are deeply troubled by the prospects of subsidizing another costly, wasteful and risky high-speed rail project, particularly when our nation is facing a debt crisis that threatens the well-being of the current and future generations of Americans,” Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., and House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., wrote in a letter to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood on March 6.

The so-called train-of-the-future’s success depends on sunny ridership projections, which would be four times the ridership of Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor Acela, says Heritage Foundation visiting fellow Wendell Cox. The chances of that ridership being achieved aren’t likely. Last year, Amtrak clocked its best year ever with more than 11.4 million passengers on that route. Read more…

FREAKSHOW: Way Interesting New Show On AMC

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The cast of Freakshow
The cast of Freakshow

When I was a kid, I reveled in the Circus Side-Shows, which by the way, were beginning to disappear by then, probably due to political correctness. There is just something about seeing people outside of the common norms, either in appearance or by something they do. I actually only saw one or two of these side-shows when the circus was in town. This was enough to whet my appetite so I did what I could to access stories and movies about the original side-shows which featured legitimate “oddities of nature” as well as fake side-show acts. There was usually a bearded-lady, maybe a very thin woman with a small head billed as the chicken lady, I believe it was. Others were sword-swallowers, strong men, the very tall or very short. There were little rooms with showcases of two-headed snakes or other animal anomalies; There were shrunken-heads, and small babies or animals in large liquid filled bottles. All of this displayed in a somewhat hush-hush, behind closed door manner. There was usually an underlying air of sexual titillation. And more overtly there was every young-boys fantasy, The Peepshow. The side-shows were usually situated in small tents just outside of the main circus tent.

In 1932 there was the underground classic FREAKS by Todd Browning.

Freaks is a 1932 American Pre-Code horror film about sideshow performers, directed and produced by Tod Browning and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, with a cast mostly composed of actual carnival (funfair) performers. The film was based on Tod Robbins’ 1923 short story “Spurs”. Director Browning took the exceptional step of casting real people with deformities as the eponymous sideshow “freaks,” rather than using costumes and makeup read more…

Now we have Todd Ray. Todd Ray (aka T-Ray) is an American music producer and stars in the AMC reality show “Freakshow.” He owns and operates the Venice Beach Freakshow in Venice Beach, CA.

Freakshow is the real-deal – with George Bell, the tallest American, and the Mistress of Mayhem, Brianna Belladonna “Hanging from hooks – that’s normal to us,” “Creature” creates a body that is original and strays away from the normal pattern; Meet Morgue, one of the performers who swallows stuff – looking every bit the rock star, and Find out what makes Murrugun The Mystic tick. Amazing Ali: Be amazed by LA’s Littlest Lady. Inside Freakshow you’ll see doubled headed animals, alive and in jars, the bearded lady. And you’ll see Ray’s gorgeous daughter, Asia Ray who’s learning to do stuff. Many stars will emerge from this show.

Freakshow is Calice Cooper, Dufus Osbourne and the rest of the Hollywood spook-rockers all rolled into to one group of real “special” folk.

Freakshow
VENICE BEACH FREAKSHOW
www.sideshowworld.com

CAROLYN LEONHART seems to be the only credited backup singer on the song

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Carolyn Leonhart
Carolyn Leonhart

CAROLYN LEONHART seems to be the only credited backup singer on this YouTube version of the song “Cousin Dupree.” That’s OK with me since I was writing this post about her specifically. I did several searches on the other B.U. singers on this song without results. I know they’re there, I see at least four ladies in the video.

This woman seems to be the embodiment of THE MUSIC. She seems to have captured the essence of what it is to be an essential part of that music. I can’t seem to be able articulate exactly what it is, so just watch. She usually stands in the middle. NO WAIT… there is nothing cooler than a Steely Dan back-up singer; that’s it, an ideal American girl

OOH AH – OOH EE

From the pages of WIKI:
Cousin Dupree.” is the first single from Steely Dan’s 2000 album Two Against Nature. The song describes the desire a young man (Dupree) has for his attractive cousin. In 2001 the song won a Grammy Award for best pop performance by a duo or group with vocal.”

By the way, a musician I was in a studio with in the early 1970s played on this album. That would be the Hit-Maker, First-Call Sideman (for over forty-years,) Dean Parks

The Dan has reached Audio Nirvana, if you will, several times over the years. One amazing moment happens, courtesy of Dean Parks, on the Royal Scam track \”Haitian Divorce\” which features a Talkbox to produce a chicken clucking sound. Dean Parks plays through that talk-box. NIRVANA! On this recording the magic happens around 03:51 with Fagen and “the girls” trading vocal licks with the way-tasty: OOH AH – OOH EE! HOW ABOUT A KISS FOR YOUR COUSIN DUPREE!

Carolyn Leonhart was born in New York City on 10 July 1971, daughter of bassist and composer Jay Leonhart and vocalist Donna Leonhart. She was exposed to music from a very early age, attending her father’s gigs where she saw him accompany famous singers such as Sarah Vaughan, Mel Tormé and Peggy Lee. Leonhart sang on television commercials as a young child. She attended The High School of Music & Art in New York City, and for four years sang in the school’s Gospel Choir. While at school, she performed in the TV show “It’s Showtime At The Apollo”. At home she would spend hours singing while her father and brother played jazz standards. She won the Lena Horne High School Jazz Vocalist competition while in her senior year.

Leonhart attended the University of Rochester, obtaining a degree in Comparative Religion. While at university she remained deeply involved in music, singing with bands at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester. She recorded two solos with the Toshiba EMI label, and in her senior year was named Best College Jazz Vocalist by Downbeat Magazine.

Leonhart returned to New York and in 1994 began singing in jazz clubs. That year she competed in the Thelonious Monk International Vocal Jazz Competition, coming third. A critic said her choice of the songs “Nobody Else but Me” and “Day Dream” was daring, but she needed greater control and more focused delivery. In the following years Leonhart performed with a variety of musicians including The Real Live Show, a hip-hop group, and Wax Poetic. The Wax Poetic project combines electronica, trip hop, funk, and jazz. In 1998 she recorded an album with the Swiss Percussion Ensemble, a group of four classical percussionists whose instruments were mainly made of glass. In 2000, Leonhart released the album Steal The Moon, a collaborative project with pianist and composer Rob Bargad. Since then she began performing regularly with her own group at the Smoke Jazz Club in New York City, at Steamers and The Vic in California, and at other clubs on the east coast read more…

www.carolynleonhart.com

George Soros and the Sundance Kid

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Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid jump into the Animas river in southern Colorado.

This is a reprint from FrontPageMagazine.com
By: David Yeagley
FrontPageMagazine.com | Monday, February 07, 2005

Robert Redford and George Soros surely make one of the oddest couples in American pop culture. For most of us, Redford’s all-American good looks evoke images of the dashing outlaw Harry Longabaugh, better known as the Sundance Kid. By contrast, Soros’ gaunt visage, thousand-yard stare, thick Central European accent, levitating gray hair and megalomaniacal pronouncements weirdly echo those of the “Dr. Strangelove” character in Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 Cold War classic.

The differences between these two men are only skin deep, however. Both owe allegiance to the far left. And both work quietly, in a sinister partnership, to flood U.S. media with anti-American agit-prop in the tradition of Michael Moore.

Most of Redford’s fans know nothing of his radical politics. Redford has successfully appropriated some of America’s most beloved archetypes on the silver screen. Just as an earlier generation identified John Wayne with the manly spirit of the Wild West, baby boomers confuse Robert Redford with the American folk heroes he impersonated on celluloid, from the rugged frontiersman Jeremiah Johnson to the tough but good-hearted pistolero Harry Longabaugh.

But Redford is no John Wayne. The Duke loved America. Redford threatened to leave America for good if George W. Bush won the 2004 election.

Redford has been a major funder of leftwing filmmakers for decades. He provided seed money to help Michael Moore get started. His Sundance Institute, Sundance Film Festival, Sundance Cable Channel and Sundance Documentary Fund all specialize in promoting far-left films and programming.

That’s where the Soros connection comes in. On September 16, 2002, Robert Redford proudly announced at a press conference that he was launching a Sundance International Documentary Fund with $4.6 million in seed money from George Soros’ Open Society Institute (OSI). The new fund would underwrite films aimed at “promoting social justice and social change.” read more…