Mickey D's best ad EVER!

Out of this world! Star Wars in Concert at the new Cowboys Stadium in Dallas

Inside the Stadium...

The opening...

About the concert from starwars.com Worldwide concert tour begins October 1 at Honda Center in Anaheim, California - Massive multi-media event features stunning visuals, a live orchestra, choir and narration, plus an exclusive exhibit of Star Wars costumes, props and production artwork. Star Wars: In Concert, a unique multi-media event featuring music from all six of John Williams' epic Star Wars scores, begins its worldwide arena tour on October 1, 2009 at Honda Center in Anaheim, California. Narrated live by Anthony Daniels (the actor who portrayed C-3PO in all six films), the production features a full symphony orchestra and choir, accompanied by specially edited footage from the films displayed on a three-story-tall, high-definition LED super-screen -- one of the largest ever put on tour. The live music and film elements are synchronized in order to create a full multi-media, one-of-kind Star Wars experience. "We've taken the key themes from the music and cut together all the images that fit with each theme, so you can really get a sense of how the music played into the images," said George Lucas, creator of the Star Wars Saga. "The whole soundtrack is a testament to John Williams' creativity and his extraordinary ability to enhance the emotional aspects of the films." "Creating the music for the Star Wars films has been an exciting and wonderful experience for me, and I therefore have derived particular pleasure in assembling a compendium of themes from all of the films to be presented in Star Wars: In Concert," said Williams. "The editors at Lucasfilm have created original film montages to accompany each of the musical selections, and in the process, I believe that a singular and unique Star Wars experience has been born." "This event has been crafted to present Star Wars from many points of view; for the first time, the full dramatic sweep of Williams' iconic scores can be heard performed live in one evening," said Another Planet Touring Producer Spencer Churchill. "The show is a new way of experiencing the epic scope of the saga." Accompanying the concert is an exclusive exhibit of Star Wars costumes, props, artifacts, production artwork and specially created behind-the-scenes videos from the Lucasfilm Archives. Many of these pieces are leaving Skywalker Ranch for the first time. The exhibit features many classic fan favorite artifacts, as well as several new and never-before-seen items

About the stadium from Wikipedia... Cowboys Stadium is a domed stadium with a retractable roof in Arlington, Texas, for the National Football League's Dallas Cowboys. It was completed on May 27, 2009 and seats 80,000, but is expandable to hold up to 111,000 through the use of standing areas. The stadium is the largest domed stadium in the world, has the world's largest column-free interior, and the largest video screen hung from 20 yard line to 20 yard line.

photos - Scott Shellhorse and myself

Playing For Change | Peace Through Music

The game of his life

Autistic basketball player Jason McElwain has the game of his life

Bull riding in Texas!

This weekend my Texas cultural education continued with a visit to a local Bullfest! Oh my… Bull riding is a rodeo sport that involves a rider getting on a very large bull and attempting to stay mounted for at least 8 seconds while the animal attempts to buck off the rider. The rider tightly fastens one hand to the bull with a long braided rope. It is a risky sport and has been called "the most dangerous eight seconds in sports. Only 4 lasted past the required 8 seconds, the rest went flying and cartwheeling off into the distance. Every single one of them had to hop when hitting the dirt as a half ton of livid bull was inches away trying to pulverize their butt into dust. So needless to say, that moment got more reaction from the few hundred strong crowd.

One humorous moment was provided when half a ton of bull refused to go back into the pen and stormed everything that moved sending rodeo clown jumping fences like crazy! I am sitting on the third row from the bottom halfway down the arena and watch the bull with interest, remembering when last in Spain I visited a bullfight and one very cheesed of bull broke through the outer fence and send picadors, photographers and other Spaniards climbing walls to get out of his way when suddenly I realized that the current bull was heading straight for me! There is only one gaggle of older ladies between me and the bull when it smacked into the fence two meters in front of me. The lady in front of me got covered in lovely mixture of bull snot and mucus. I am talking drenched. That bull’s sinuses were cleared which I am sure he would enjoy after his headache dissipated.

It made my day!

Drummer Hodge ~Thomas Hardy

They throw in Drummer Hodge, to rest
Uncoffined – just as found:
His landmark is a kopje-crest
That breaks the veldt around;
And foreign constellations west
Each night above his mound.

Young Hodge the Drummer never knew –
Fresh from his Wessex home –
The meaning of the broad Karoo,
The Bush, the dusty loam,
And why uprose to nightly view
Strange stars amid the gloam.

Yet portion of that unknown plain
Will Hodge forever be;
His homely Northern breast and brain
Grow to some Southern tree,
And strange-eyed constellation reign
His stars eternally.

Oh, the temptation!

2 Hidden Cameras - HVX 200 and Sony Z1U
A bunch of Kids
1 Marshmallow each

Not an original idea, but very fun to make.

worshiphousemedia.com/mini-movies/14675/The-Marshmallow-Test

Oh, The Temptation from Steve V on Vimeo.

No Bull

Another day serving the Lord. Isn't it amazing that God finds little ways to remind you that He is in control? Needless to say, I had a few ways shown to me this week of who is in control!

Finally it is weekend, I love my job, but it is nice to step away a bit :-)

This story was posted by a friend of mine - Olly Peet - About the ferries docking infront of the Africa Mercy in Benin.

Thought you might appreciate this photo taken from the Africa Mercy's bridge, showing the little ferries moored by our bow. The one on the left and the one of the right carry hundreds of passengers and tons of cargo between Benin and Gabon, on the west coast of central Africa. I doubt either of them are seaworthy by our standards (certainly their sewage systems aren't, for this is where most of the raw sewage in the port comes from!) The ship in the middle is mostly abandoned with only a handful of unpaid Nigerian seamen keeping watch. All the passengers must climb from one ship to the other to get ashore, and only last week a passenger fell between the ships and died.

The greatest story ever told!

Ron Corning tells a story about his childhood. This is one of the funniest things you will ever see.

A bird in the hand...

Continueing with my love affair with local news clips...