Neil Peart of Rush live in concert at the Xcel Energy Center on May 22, 2008. PHOTO BY MATT BECKER www.melodicrockconcerts.com matt@melodicrockconcerts.com via Wikipedia and the Creative Commons 3.0 license ROCK IN PEACE: Today, the world learned that percussion virtuoso Neil Peart has left his Earthly the drum kit for parts unknown. I was standing in (a long, long) line at the grocery store when I checked my phone and saw the news. "Oh no. This is a big one," was what I said out loud, to no one in particular. And then I had to explain to the kids (and everyone else within earshot) that Neil Peart had died. We here at MPA love all kids of music, and so they were familiar with Mr. Peart and his place in rock legendary.
Little did any of us know, he'd spent the past three-plus years stricken by brain cancer, poor soul. I'm glad he had his privacy during that time. Clearly that was his wish. I heard Peart described today as "your favorite drummer's favorite drummer." I'll bet that's true in most cases. It certainly sounds like that's certainly the case with former Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters' founder Dave Grohl, and Foo Fighters' drummer Taylor Hawkins.
Peart was in a league of his own. Of course, he's best known for his work with the Canadian rock band Rush. The story goes that Peart arrived for his Rush tryout driving his mother's Ford Pinto, with his drums packed into garbage cans. The year was 1974. Not only was Peart Rush's percussionist, but a lot of people don't realize he wrote many of the bands' lyrics, including some of their biggest hits. One that comes immediately to mind is "Tom Sawyer." The video below isolates on Peart as he plays during that song. It's remarkable.
My favorite Peart/Rush related story? Back in 2015, when we were still living in Magnolia, we were only about 7 minutes from Key Arena, where many concerts were held. (The venue is now closed and under renovation.) Christian and I were sitting at our computers on the evening of July 19, and a bit after dinner I said to him, "You know, Rush is playing Key Arena tonight." Turns out he didn't know that. It was totally sold out, but I told him I thought he should try to go to the show. I would drive him right to the doorstep of the arena, circle the blocks a few times, and he could hold up a $20 bill, and see what happened. We arrived about 5 minutes after the show was supposed to start, and what happened was that he got s $20 seat to see Rush on their last tour. I picked him up afterward and he was thrilled at having been able to go. What a wonderful night!
While Peart died on January 7, his passing wasn't announced until Jan. 10, which happens to mark the anniversary of David Bowie's death. A double whammy for today. And every day, really. Rock in peace, Peart and Bowie.
BIG ONE: NASA's plans to take humans beyond the Earth's orbit are (oh-so-slowly) progressing. Yesterday, the first Artemis rocket stage was guided toward NASA’s Pegasus barge. Next stop for it, NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, about a 40-mile journey. The completed core stage for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket was rolled out of NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. Soon, the core will undergo Green Run test series. The Artemis program is being built to deliver American astronauts and payloads to the Moon and, perhaps, beyond. The core stage in the photo is designed to provide more than 2 million pounds of thrust to help power the first Artemis mission to the Moon, with an Orion spacecraft atop it. Currently, Orion is undergoing final testing at NASA’s Plum Brook Station in Ohio. Right now, the goal is to land the first woman and the next man on the Moon by 2024. More information about NASA's Space Launch System can be found here: https://www.nasa.gov/sls MOVE IT: Though we have been regulars at the gym since joining, today Annabelle wanted to stay home. So, I had the kids dust off their Just Dance game for the Nintendo Switch and we got some exercise in that way.
I have to say, I love the way the dog is just laying there and looking at the kids like they're crazy. What was fun about Just Dance today (besides the workout) was that there are a number of Japanese songs on the playlist, and now the kids know what the songs are about (mostly). We danced to "Oishii Oishii," which translates to "Delicious Delicious."
And then we moved to "Po Pi Po," which was about vegetable juice. (Yes, really.)
SCIENCE: Today's science moment came from none other than Pee Wee Herman. He posted the following video on social media.
Popcorn from Crictor on Vimeo. There's something about it that is so perfect ... so pleasing. Actually, I think this could be considered an "art" moment as well.
MUTANT "MIGHTY MICE" ARRIVE IN SPACESHIP: A.I. knows what I like to read, so I'm forever getting space-related stories 'pushed' my way by browsers and social media. Yesterday evening one story certainly got my attention. It was about "genetically enhanced "mighty mice" arriving (back) on Earth. My mind immediately skewed toward the sci-fi/horror realm, picturing super-strong mutant mice attempting to take over the world. In reality, these space-traveling mice in the story had been scientifically altered to have beefed-up muscles, as part of a study aboard the International Space Station. The experiment they participated in was called Rodent Research-19. It studied myostation and activin, the molecular signaling pathways that can influence muscle degradation, according to NASA. Astronauts always experience muscle and bone loss on extended space missions, so researchers have been studying ways to prevent this, as well as help physical recovery efforts once astronauts return to Earth. The experimental mice splashed down in the Pacific Ocean in a SpaceX capsule on Tuesday, Jan. 7.
Image: SpaceX HOP TO IT: This week, pretty steady background noise at MPA is the annual Games Done Quick marathon broadcast. Annabelle can tell you more about it.
Games Done Quick is an organization dedicated to raising funds for charity through ‘speedrunning’, the art of exploiting and perfecting the way one plays a certain video game in order to complete it in the shortest time possible. Games Done Quick has two major events during the year and other smaller ones between; Awesome Games Done Quick, which usually occurs in early January; and Summer Games Done Quick, which is held in July. These events regularly raise over 1 million dollars for cancer research and similar causes, all given by members of the public watching the weeklong non-stop livestream. Games Done Quick can be viewed for free on the Twitch website, and ends this Saturday.
TROUBLING: Living in Seattle, you have a front row seat to thousands of humans in misery, living outdoors. Sidewalks, underpasses, greenbelts, parks, you name it, there are tents and shacks and people living in them. There is unending talk about how to solve the "homeless" problem, and millions of dollars are thrown at the situation, with no perceptible improvement. One of the biggest problems regarding solving the issue is it really isn't primarily a housing issue, IMHO. Yes, the cost of housing is astronomical in Seattle and its surrounds, and yes, there are way too many people who simply can't afford shelter. That is, indeed, a homeless issue. However, regarding the city campers seen around Seattle, housing affordability doesn't really seem like it's the actual crux of the problem. The majority of the people living chronically on the streets seem to be there due to addiction and/or mental health issues. This is a problem years-in-the-making, with no simple or easy solutions. Study after study has shown the advent of opioids has had a tremendously negative affect on the size and health of the homeless population. That sad fact is in addition to a terribly inadequate system for dealing with people in mental health crisis, 'thanks' to cruel cutbacks reaching back to the Reagan administration. Yesterday, I came across an important article in Psychiatric Times, "Dungeons and Back Alleys: The Fate of the Mentally Ill in America." By Dr. Allen Frances, professor emeritus and former chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Duke University, it is a bleak and very real recount of how we got to a place county jails are now the biggest providers of psychiatric care for people suffering from severe mental illness. (Let that sad fact sink in for a moment.)
Falcon 9 lifts off Moday night with 60 satellites on the Starlink 2 mission - photo by Ben Cooper LIFT OFF: Monday evening, we tuned in just in time to watch SpaceX's third launch of Starlink satellites from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. Not only did we get to see the launch, but after stage separation, we watched Falcon 9’s first stage descend and land on "Of Course I Still Love You” SpaceX's droneship, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. Then, about 45 minutes after liftoff, SpaceX’s fairing recovery vessel, “Ms. Tree,” attempted to recover half of the rocket's nosecone, but apparently just missed. It's worth trying, as each piece of the faring is worth around $3 million. SpaceX would love to be able to save some money by reusing them on future flights. (Before Monday night's miss, Ms. Tree (the vessel formerly known as Mr. Steven), has made two successful recoveries. You can watch a replay of launch coverage here below. The actual launch happens just after the 18-minute mark. The payload deployment, all 60 satellites, is at the very end of the video.
THE NAVIGATORS: CJ's history course this quarter covers 1500-1800 C.E. As part of his homework for this week, he is learning about the Columbian Exchange, European exploration and colonization. This morning we watched a documentary about the navigation skills of Polynesian Islanders. (I'm not certain how that fits into the subjects listed above, but, oh well.) Anyway, the film, from 1983, focused on Grand Master Navigator Mau Piailug, of Satawal, a flat, one-square kilometer coral atoll just eight feet above sea level. When it was filmed, just 35 families lived there.
The film centered on Piailug's desire to teach the art of "wayfinding," navigation without tools or charts, to younger members of his community. Per Wikipedia Piailug "relied on navigational clues using the sun and stars, winds and clouds, seas and swells, and birds and fish, was acquired through rote learning passed down through teachings in the oral tradition."
Above, from Wikipedia, is a photograph of a recreation of the star compass of Mau Piailug depicted with shells on sand, The stars are labeled in Satawalese (one of the Trukic languages), as described by the Polynesian Voyaging Society. (The photo is shared via the the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.) The documentary was definitely dated, but it was an interesting glimpse into a way of life so different from ours. It rather boggled my mind to think that while I was a high school senior, people on a tiny island in the Pacific were living a life so foreign to my own. I can't help but wonder what life is like on Satawal, nearly 40 years later from when the documentary was filmed. Piailug talked of his older children who had already left the island with his blessing, but that he was going to compel his two youngest children to stay. I wonder if they did.
