The wheels of his Happiness Machine spun whirling golden light spokes along the ceiling of his head. A machine, now, to help boys change from peach fuzz to briar bramble, girls from toadstool to nectarine. And in the years when your shadow leaned clear across the land as you lay abed nights with your heartbeat mounting to the billions, his invention must let a man drowse easy in the falling leaves like the boys in autumn who, comfortably strewn in the dry stacks, are content to be a part of the death of the world…
—Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury

These are the days of summer that stick with you your whole life—the afternoons spent at the county fair. The acres of land unused the rest of the year are overtaken by the childish hedonism of the carnival. The scent of trampled clover gives way to the confectionary smell of cotton candy. Spun like fake cobwebs in a cheap black and white horror movie, this candy is the perfect compliment for a lazy day. Requiring no cutting or forking, no licking or chewing, it dissolves with a faint fizz on your tongue then explodes pure sugar sweetness.

Prize-winning cows, pigs, goats, and barnyards of animals fill the 4H pavillions. Old ladies gaggle around homemade quilts. Rodeos, monster trucks, smash-up derbys and forgotten rock bands are advertised for each successive night's entertainment. Hastily assembled metal contraptions lurch with their human cargo in tow—spinning, tipping, hurling, swirling us into the infinite sky. Wooden horses gallop up and down in time with the recording of the steam calliope. Their festive painted colors emote their optimism as they carry us blissfully in circles. There is no destination, and nowadays the tradition of the brass ring is forgotten. Tents carry banners bearing the legend: HUGE JUNGLE SNAKES!, and strange paintings of cold, dark-haired women with arching eyebrows and thin leotards beseiged by squeezing serpents, taming them all with a mesmerizing eye. Don't forget the other tents that your mother always forbade you from entering, lest you see the forbidden—the lost, the freaks, the doomed, the mistakes of God. Better to stay in the light, and avoid the basilisk stares of the carnies who will wisk you away like the old gypsies, and put you on display.

It is a strange blend of childhood innocence, and heart-pumping thrills, with an unsettling quality akin to a wink from a suspicious adult whose message is unclear. But the decay may be inherent in the structure of summer, and sorrow a necessary component of joy. Rusting beams, and discarded bolts are a tell-tale sign of the end to come. They are the yellow flaws in Green Lantern's ring. Mordred at shining Camelot. The asp in Cleopatra's chemise. Transition from living summer to dead of winter.

The night comes earlier. False promises of long summer days become evident. Rides studded with light bulbs resemble huge skeletons from a mexican festival. The king of the attractions—the double ferris wheel—rises above the midway like a burning wicker man. It is the center of gravity that your attention cannot escape. A crowd has gathered. The ride has stopped. Flashing lights are not from the ferris wheel itself, but from the ambulance.

We read the next day in the paper, that an older boy was trying to climb from one seat down to another (for cigarettes? for a girl?), lost his footing and fell to his death. Decay may be inherent in the structure of summer.

I went outside last night searching the sky for the planet Mars. When I found it, it appeared as a fuzzy dot. Then I got out my Tasco telescope. It still looked like a fuzzy dot. Ah well.

And it’s opposition of Mars—not opposition to Mars, but a case certainly could be made for that. Opposition in this case has to do with the Earth’s relative position to the red planet (and with relatives like those…). It turns out that Mars is currently as close as it’s going to be for about 60,000 years. That’s right, it’s a mere 35 million miles away.

Go to NASA for more great photos of Mars from the Hubble Space Telescope, like the one seen above.

Even though some flowers are starting to fade, it still was a lovely walk. My mother has something akin to an english garden—tangles of flowers in big patches everywhere. I happened to be visiting for my niece’s birthday party. Are there gardens anywhere near you? Take a stroll by yourself or with a loved one. See what you can see. On my walk:
a frog
a dog
a niece
a hummingbird
a great blue heron
a hare
japanese beetles
canada geese
swallows
mourning doves
lightning bugs
butterflies
not to mention countless flowering plants

Last Saturday a friend of mine from the pubs, Windy, held a party at her house. She made Puerto Rican food, which one might think would be hot, like Mexican food. If one thought that, however, one would be wrong. The meal was quite flavorful.

Widdershins, from top: Plantain, pork chop, chicken-stuffed pasteles steamed in a banana leaf, rice and beans with green olives. She also served Malta, which tastes like malted milk balls, and is much better than malted ice cream, somehow. When we were done with dinner, Windy taught us many latino dances.

As a side note, before we went to the play, I brought my four-year-old niece to the Elephant & Castle. She discovered while there that she likes turkey clubs better than hamburgers.

And here is the story of why it is named Elephant & Castle. I found it amusing.

They live in you
They live in me
They’re watching over
Everything we see
In every creature
In every star
In your reflection
They live in you

—They Live In You music and lyrics by Elton John and Tim Rice

Blown away is the best way I could describe my reaction.

I went into the city. It was my niece’s birthday recently, and for her birthday we took her to see the stage production of Walt Disney’s The Lion King. If you’re thinking of not seeing it because you’ve already seen the movie, think again. The stage version didn’t win six Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Director of a Musical, because they replicated the cartoon.

The sounds of Africa—rhythms, instruments, voices—overwhelm the senses from the very start. Thandazile A. Soni, a Gospel star from South Africa, plays the baboon Rafiki. Her opening song, “The Circle of Life”, accompanied by layered African voices, transports us into the story like a shaman’s vision. As the music builds, she is joined by swirling stage sets, elaborate costumes, and inventive puppets representing the animals of the savannahs. At the top of the rock staircase stands the king of beasts, Mufasa, and his mate, Sarabi. Rafiki emerges between them to present to the animals Mufasa’s son, Simba.

Julie Taymor’s masks, costumes, and puppets are so inventive, it is not clear at times what is considered a puppet and which is a costume. If you’ve heard Taymor’s name before, it may be that you remember me mentioning it when I was talking about her feature film Frida.

Best line: When Zazu—Musafa’s bird advisor—turns and sees the brightly-colored African patterned stage curtain that has closed behind him, he drolly says, “It looks like a shower curtain from Pier 1!”

Best scene: When Simba, who has been wandering in the jungle for years in a self-imposed exile, encounters Rafiki, she brings him to a pool of water. She bids him to stare into his reflection and call on his father. The colors begin to heighten, and the entire jungle is electrified in a flow of light and energy. Shapes in the background move and slowly assemble themselves. Then, in a flash, the jungle transforms into a giant mask of Mufasa, who arrives to guide his lost son.

Best audience interaction: As act II starts, puppeteers run into the aisles and swoop flocks of bird kites above the heads of the audience from the tops of long poles.

If you’d like to know more about this on stage production of The Lion King, the book The Lion King:Pride Rock on Broadway is filled with behind-the-scenes details, illustrations, lots of photographs, and concept sketches from Taymor.

And on a technical note: If anyone is curious, the main image at the top of the post was scanned directly from the bag that is available with a merchandise purchase in the theater lobby.

I just found out that today is Fair and Balanced Friday. Lots of Fair and Balanced people are playing. Why is this going on? Fox News has declared war on anyone using the words “fair and balanced”. Of course calling Fox News news is like calling pro wrestling a sport or Jim Bakker a Christian.

This all comes about due to political satirist and American patriot Al Franken's book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right, which is currently #3 on Amazon's best seller's list. Fox News (which is owned by the non-American yellow journalist baron Rupert Murdoch) frequently has trouble grasping the American idea of free speech. The giant, soulless mega-corporation responds to most criticisms or differences of opinion by attacking freedom-loving honest Americans with their own hordes of expensive corporate lawyers.

Another way it responds to criticisms is to endlessly promote anti-American manifestoes like Ann Coulter's Treason (note to readers: Ann's cover design is supposed to suggest that liberty-loving progressive Americans are guilty of Treason, instead of Ann herself who is pictured alone with the word “TREASON” directly below her in red. Note to Ann: Perhaps you should have hired one of those homo-faggitty arteests that has experience working with the arts to design the cover of your book. Your current cover layout may be confusing to your dull-witted readers, after all, they probably all sent money to Bakker, and certainly consider pro-wrestling a sport.).

But as I am fair and balanced, I will also direct you to the other side of the argument (which is written in hilarious Orwellian doublespeak, might I add) and may be found here.

In 1947, one of the first attractions in the state of Florida opened to the public. It was Weeki Wachee Springs, and it was the only place in the world to see live mermaids! It seems that after 55 years Weeki Wachee may finally close down. Unfortunately the aging park has become too costly to maintain, prompting the previous owner to donate it to the city of Weeki Wachee. But due to budgetary reasons the state of Florida may close it down as early as this coming Saturday, evicting the mermaids, and turning the space into a public park.

I’ll keep you posted as I learn more about the fate of the mermaids of Weeki Wachee.

Yes, that’s right— The Bounty. Remember Fletcher Christian, and how he led the mutiny against the sadistic Captain Bligh? Well, okay, it’s not that Bounty, but it is the one from the movies. This Bounty was built in 1960 for MGM studios’ Mutiny on the Bounty with Marlon Brando. Since then, the new Bounty has starred in several feature-length films such as Treasure Island, and Yellowbeard, along with dozens of TV shows and historical documentaries.

And if you’d like to learn the real story of the Mutiny on the Bounty, sail on over to this fun and informative site.

This enchanting ship is the schooner Larinda. It is just as lovely below decks as above. The aftcastle is decorated with orcas, and another feature is the loveseat which sits underneath a shell being held by two mermaids. And, as one can see in the photo, the figurehead at the prow of the ship is a frog wearing a tricorn hat. Along with the history of figureheads in general, the story of the frog can be read here.

In the serene weather of the tropics it is exceedingly pleasant at the mast-head; nay, to a dreamy meditative man it is delightful. There you stand, a hundred feet above the silent decks, striding along the deep, as if the masts were gigantic stilts, while beneath you and between your legs, as it were, swim the hugest monsters of the sea, even as ships once sailed between the boots of the famous Colossus at old Rhodes.
—Moby-Dick by Herman Melville

Over the weekend we all had a treat here, nearby the Mercuriosity Shop. We were fortunate enough to have been visited by some Tall Ships®. A “tall ship” is not a strictly defined type of sailing craft. For most people, the term brings to mind the largest and most majestic of the old style, square-rigged sailing vessels. Almost always we will think of a ship with three or more masts and many sails. A Tall Ship can actually be one of any number of differently rigged sailing vessels. It could be a schooner, brigatine, barquentine, brig, ketch, sloop or a full-rigged sailing ship. The actual rig of a specific sailing vessel known as a Tall Ship is dependent on the number and cut of the sails as well as their alignment.

Pictured is the Europa. The barque Europa was built for the City of Hamburg in 1911 at the Stulcken Shipyard. Between 1987 and 1994, she was restored into a fine square-rigger. The ships represents the end of the famous clipper era and is one of the few ships in the world that carries a full set of studding sails.

Lazybones, sleepin’ in the sun
How you ’spect to get your day’s work done?
You’ll never get your day’s work done
Sleepin’ in the noon day sun.
—Lazybones by Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. This is your captain speaking. If you look out the windows to your right you will see that IT’S SUMMER OUTSIDE! If you look out the windows to your left, you may be able to see IT’S STILL SUMMER OUTSIDE!

But it may not be for long. You have a month, perhaps two months tops to do the summer activities you are planning to do before the air cools considerably. So get in the pool! Ride your segway! Go to the zoo! Visit the Arboretum! Go to the harbor! Stroll through the gardens! For Pete’s sake GET OFF THE COUCH AND GO OUTSIDE!

Tin foil
Salmon fillet
Paula’s Dill & Garlic Herb Garden Dressing
and a grill.

Now if you’ll excuse me…