For the cousins...

Thanksgiving

Matt and Jon making lunch.
Ashley standing next to Nate.
William and I discussing the physics of intercontinental highways.
Michal making three dishes at once for Thanksgiving dinner.
David effortlessly carrying the love-seat by himself.
My Dad walking through the Fall colors in the forest.
Aravis' legs sticking out from under the desk, in search of Crumpet.
Zion wriggling in my arms.
My wife Jess, holding her own against the famous Crum sarcasm.
Chipper super-excited. ready for dinner.
Jesse and Jude walking around in Washington D.C.
My Mom, wearing a sweater, surrounded by her boys.
Daniel and Ben debating candy vs. cough drops.
Thomas' prayer for his brother.
Jill, bumping and setting better than the rest of us.
Playing basketball with my taller brother Stephen.
Emily gracefully playing Crazy Pictionary.
The smile on Katie's face.

New Music Monday - Ramona Falls

For all of you suffering from colds, flu and the like, Ramona Falls, "I Say Fever":

VW - CONTRA

From the forthcoming album, download the new track: here

William's Report

William Henry Crum III
November 10, 2009

Great Explorers

David Livingstone was a famous Scottish missionary in Africa and one of Africa’s greatest European explorers. Dr. Livingstone was born in Blantyre, Scotland, on March 19, 1813. In 1836, David diligently began studying medicine and the Bible so that later on he could go to Africa as a missionary doctor. Dr. Livingstone was married in 1845 to Mary Moffat, the daughter of a fellow missionary. Later, in Africa, Livingstone took a four-year expedition to find the route of the Zambezi River to the Atlantic coast. Miraculously, Dr. Livingstone found a magnificent waterfall along this river which he called Victoria Falls. Thinking even greater, he took an expedition to find the source of the Nile. After Livingstone discovered the Nile’s headwaters, he died on May 1, 1873. His body was buried in England, but since he had loved Africa so much, his heart was buried there in Africa.

Similar to David Livingstone, Henry Stanley was also a notable African explorer. Stanley was born John Rowlands on January 28, 1841. When Rowlands grew up, he moved to New Orleans where he met a great friend, Henry Morton Stanley. Ashamed of his own family background, Rowlands adopted Stanley’s name. Unlike Dr. Livingstone, in 1867 Stanley became a special correspondent for the New York Herald. The newspaper commissioned Stanley to go to Africa on a mission to find the missing famous Dr. Livingstone. After Henry had continuously searched and searched for him, he finally found him at Lake Tanganyika. When Stanley met Dr. Livingstone he said a phrase that is very famous today, “Dr. Livingstone, I presume.” Shortly after Livingstone’s death, Stanley continued his exploration of the region. Stanley had to travel the length of the Lualaba and Congo Rivers before he reached the Atlantic Ocean in August 1877. Retiring, and returning to Europe, Henry Stanley was knighted for his important explorations in 1899 and died May 10, 1904. Even though Stanley was born into a sad life, he is well known for his outstanding accomplishments.

Dr. David Livingstone and Henry Morton Stanley each had a great impact on Africa. Livingstone shared the Gospel with many of the Africans he met. Both men helped to bring light to the “Dark Continent”. Stanley, like Livingstone, explored much of the interior of Africa. Their discoveries helped cartographers map Africa’s previously unknown regions and features. After months of searching, David discovered Victoria Falls. Enthusiastically, Henry worked in the northern and southern regions of Africa and was the first to reach Zanzibar in 1871. Prepared for another adventure, Stanley went on to find the Nile’s source. Creating the Congo Freestate, Dr. Livingstone, who personally freed many African slaves, exposed the horrors of the slave trade to educate Europeans. Both men wrote about their adventures and discoveries and shared these around the world. Livingstone and Stanley were such an exceptional influence on Africa that we still remember them today.

William's Geography Paper: Africa

William would like to post a paper he wrote on Livingstone and Stanley, but we don't know how to import it (and I don't want to retype the paper here). Can anyone help?

Absolutely Unique

Have you ever sat in traffic listening to your favorite CD and wondered "is anyone else in the world sitting in their car listening to this exact song at this exact moment?" What are the chances?

Well there are nearly a billion cars on the roads of the world and, assuming that your favorite CD is at least a gold record, one million of those cars could contain that CD. Even if only one tenth of those CDs made it into cars, and only one one hundredth of the cars containing the CD are currently being driven, that's still 1,000 cars simultaneously being operated with the potential of listening to your same song. That's not terrible odds... of course you could add levels of complication like "...driving a Buick with a busted front end and heading North by Northwest while listening to..." and make the odds go way down.

There are also times when what you are doing is so strange that the question becomes "has anyone in history ever done this?" (which, by the way, if you can immediately, with confidence, say 'I am the first', you should probably stop right then... there's probably a good reason why no one else has done it). Some people get this feeling when walking on freshly fallen snow. I hate to burst your bubble but that snow has been walked on, peed on, sweated out of someones forehead, evaporated, shaken off a wet dog, boiled, drunk, and spit out millions of times over thousands of years. I, however, did something yesterday that has never been done before. I didn't realize I had done it till after the fact, but I am convinced that my actions were unique across time, space, and multiple duplicate dimensions; I watched the film The Remains of the Day while wearing a Bruce Lee t-shirt.

Let that soak in.

You might be tempted to think that it's not really that strange. I assure you, it is. You think, "well, I'm sure some random guy wearing a Bruce Lee t-shirt could have, spur-of-the-moment, decided to walk into the theater." But no, that never happened. I am the first, and may well be the last. I am a unique individual dang it.

PostPost: The image at the top has nothing to do with this blog entry.

Real Art

One of my favorite conversations to have with Nate is pondering the questions "What is Art?" Nate has what I would call a very closed view, basically if it is not paint (or ink or conté or the like) and if it does not possess some element of beauty, it is not art thus tossing out photography but not sculpture, that's art too. Okay, so it's an oversimplification of his position, but it's why we can have this conversation more than once.

So is the woman in the video above an 'artist'? She did scribble some stuff on paper and scan it in to her computer, but her 'art' is computer code with video driven user input. It's cool looking, it might even be beautiful, but is it art? What do you all think?

Tara and Bella

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Uprising

Check out this promo for the ABC show 'V.' If you like the Muse song you'll like the music video set to the film Equilibrium (over on my blog - contains scenes of violence).

David Byrne Interviews … David Byrne

This is a comical interview of David Byrne (Talking Heads) by David Byrne. I think the best interview answer ever is his "I'll tell you later."



Also, if anyone has this concert DVD and would let me borrow it, that would be awesome:

Don't Give Up On Your Dreams

We truly live in the land of opportunity. This is a country where anything is possible, where men and women overcome insurmountable odds to achieve their dreams.

Why then are so many of us asking the highest ranking member of this society to give up on his lifelong aspiration? We say; "everywhere that Socialism has been tried, it has utterly failed!" We list off the countries; China, The Soviet Union, Cuba, Canada, etc. and point out the poverty, the suffering and the corruption that has followed these Socialist experiments...

What are we, a bunch of quitters? This, I think, is false modesty. Do we really believe that we are not far better than any of those other countries? If anyone can do it, we can. We put a man on the moon, more than one actually, over 40 years ago! Isn't it about time for another milestone? What if Franklin, Edison or Einstein had thrown up their arms and said; "It just can't be done!"?

It is patently unfair to deny our President from fulfilling his destiny. Who are we to deprive him his place in history as the man who finally made Socialism work?

Thank You Hulu

TV Shows

I'm sure to Mom's surprise, one of the most influential shows of my childhood was a show that I never remember watching. We grew up watching --- sometimes against the rules --- shows like GI Joe, Square One, Murder She Wrote, Perry Mason, This Old House (Mom's 'show') and others. Going back and watching these shows is always bitter sweet (except for Perry Mason which is still as good today as it was when it was made). Shows like, forgive me Peter, MacGyver have simply not stood the test of time. I watched an episode of Night Rider a while back and almost cried it was so bad. I would suggest that these shows are often so bad it might be a good idea to never go back and re-watch them. It's better for me to know that the new GI Joe movie is pure crap and believe that the real GI Joe movie (the animate one) was pure cinematic excellence instead of putting on the old movie and realizing it wasn't quite the same as I remembered.

So what show could live up to my memory. For years I have made references to a show that Mom used to watch. I knew it was about Vietnam and I knew, more vividly than anything else, that the theme music was Paint it Black by the Rolling Stones. Still every time I hear that song I see helicopters flying over a jungle (the only clip I could remember ever seeing from the intro or the show). We weren't aloud to watch, but I couldn't help hearing. That song, the twangy guitar, the beating drums, that song, beyond it's words, beyond it's intended meaning is Vietnam to me. And beyond that, not knowing what branch of the military the show was about, to me that song is about Marines. I remember Pop being away from home a lot when we were kids, away on a ship, away in the field. Paint it Black, that haunting song from the lips of Mick Jagger, that song was a lullaby for me, maybe not as much as Africa by Toto was, but in the black of night I knew that the show was about Pop, and that when the show was over he was coming home.

Nam: Tour Of Duty:

Animal Noises

Most of you know that Daniel loves making animal noises, some of his best have been the horse, a pig, and the turtle ("doggle doggle"?). Anyhow, neither Michal nor I know where he learned this one:

Thanksgiving--not from scratch

Everyone is invited to come to Maryland for Thanksgiving dinner. Let me qualify that. I assume only family members are reading this blog. All the members of our family are welcome for Thanksgiving dinner. If you are reading this and would like to come, but are not a family member, let me know!

Anyway family--there are three things I want you to know (or to know from you).

First, this Thanksgiving dinner will not be entirely from scratch. I usually try to fix a home-made dinner (although I usually do use instant potatoes unless Peter is here), and I usually do the preparation all myself. But, this year I am certain that that much preparation would wear me out. So, I'm making it simple and making it easy. [However, be reassured, roasting a turkey is both simple and easy so there will be a real roasted turkey at the table.] I am accepting help of whatever sort is offered--from decorating the table, to doing the dishes, to bringing pie or cranberry sauce or appetizers. If you are coming and want to help, simply respond with a comment telling what you will do or bring.

Second, please Rsvp ASAP. If you are not coming for Thanksgiving but plan to come for Christmas, please let me know. If you are coming for Thanksgiving, but not for Christmas, please let me know. If you are unable to come for either holiday, please let me know. If you are coming for both--hurrah! This will aid me in completing my Christmas shopping.

Also, by way of reminder, I have declared that the gift exchange this year will include all individuals and families. Secrecy has been sacrificed for the sake of inclusivity. (I may have made up that word, but I thought its consonance sounded awesome in that sentence.) Let me remind you that Peter (and crew) have been assigned to buy/make a gift for Elisabeth, Matt and Emily have William, Ben (et al) have Jesse, Jon has Peter and family, Nate has Matt and Emily....just continue on down the line. Letting me know your holiday plans here will also allow all the others to know whether to send a gift or give it in person. If you need further information contact me directly.

Looking forward to a wonderful autumn and happy holidays.

A Milestone

The Dlog has reached its 50th episode. On behalf of Peter and Dumb Dumb, I would like to personally invite you to head over to see the newest installment (http://dumbdumbdog.blogspot.com/). Many thanks to all who have given of themselves to make this possible so far. Dumb Dumb is heading off to Barbados for a few months, so it's unlikely that we'll hear from him for a while. Peter plans on editing a certain wedding video he's in possession of. I for one never rest and I plan on keeping at it... if you know what I mean?