Weekend Linkroll

So, the Ravens won last night, in stunning fashion, which kind of made my weekend. The Winter of the Novel has taken a short break so I can work on edits for “To The Edges”: another good thing. My fickle nature reared its head yesterday; the blog got another makeover. We’ll see how long this one sticks.

Plus, I’m reading Christine again, which always makes me happy. In that creepy-King-rocks-fall-everybody-dies way of happy.

And I have several links to share. Here’s hoping you find something interesting in them.

Food & Wine Thursdays: Because You Need The Reminder – Sulfites Revisited!
A PSA from The Satellite Show on sulfites in wine. Good stuff to know.

SCIENCE PROVES THE EXISTENCE OF ESP- Dateline 1950
Ellis Nelson talks about Chris Carter’s (no, not that Chris Carter) book Science and Psychic Phenomena. I’ve read similar stuff in the past and find the behind-the-scenes battles between real skeptics and debunkers to be almost as fascinating as the topics they’re fighting over. Oh, and I love the Max Planck quote.

Perception, Imagination, and Experience: “Stairway to Heaven” and Melodies Unheard
I wasn’t the only one thinking about Led Zeppelin this week. But Natania Barron took her thoughts in a really cool, meta direction.

Thorin Dreamboatshield: An Unexpected Hotness of Dwarves
Fun parody script of The Hobbit by Sarah Rees Brennan.

Your Friday Reading: Subterranean Magazine
Mr. Scalzi hips us to Subterranean‘s giveaway goodies. Pick up the fall and winter issues for free!

When truth is replaced by silence, the silence is a lie.
Lucy’s Football has a little something to say about the latest teenager who’s being censored by her school. Because stopping students from writing down their private thoughts will end school shootings. *sigh*

Ladies, Can We All Just Stop Being Bitches for TWO SECONDS?
Snobbery on body-shaming. Women do it, too, and it sucks.

Monday Morning Music

So, back when I was a kid, I pretty much listened to the Beatles and Led Zeppelin constantly. (I’m sure my parents were thrilled about this, but as long as I kept my bedroom door shut and didn’t wake up my dad [he worked night shift], they didn’t complain.) I was so much a Zeppelin fan that I transcribed their lyrics by hunching over my record player, picking up and dropping the needle a gazillion times as I scribbled them down in a notebook (that I might still have somewhere around here). This was long before the Internet, so this was my only option. No one had even published a book with their lyrics that I knew about. Yes, I lived in stone age.

Flash forward thirty-some years, and the surviving members of Zeppelin have been honored by the Kennedy Center. I have mixed feelings about this, as I still strongly believe in the rebellious roots of rock ‘n’ roll. Putting on tuxedos and performing for the President of the U.S. doesn’t really fit that image in my head. Kinda like the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame. So not the point. At least to my cynical idealistic self.

But, then again, Led Zeppelin was never a poster child for working class hero of the year. They were always about excess and consumption and all that, even when they were terrifying mainstream culture. So, anti-establishment and yet, so much a part of it. The fact that three of the four of them actually survived is a testament to something or other. So, why not get a medal out of it?

The trippiest part of all this, though, is today’s video. Ann and Nancy Wilson from another big ’70s band, Heart, were called upon to close out the show at the Kennedy Center, playing “Stairway to Heaven” to President and Mrs. Obama, as well as Page, Plant, and Jones. I think it’s an awesome performance (and watching Yo Yo Ma rock out in the audience makes it worth watching, if nothing else), and yet…full orchestra, a full choir? Nothing I ever expected to see. Still, I sniffled a bit. My boys did good. And Ann Wilson’s voice continues to be killer. Enjoy! (Oh, and that’s Jason Bonham, son of the late John Bonham, on drums. Cool.)