Mel Gibson, Hizbullah, Syria, Iran and Gaza
Now Playing: Johannes Linstead - Sol Luna Tierra
Topic: Politics

Once again the blogger thing doesn't quite work in firefox. What a shame.
I'm watching the war in Israel and all of the flack that Israel is getting from the world for fighting back and it's surreal. Terrorists spend years hiding rockets in homes and hospitals and fire those rockets into civilian areas from civilian areas and Kofi Annan doesn't say a damn thing. Suicide bomb vest wearing cowards go into civilian areas and blow up people and Annan doesn't say a damn thing, - for years. The Israelis bomb someplace where rockets are being fired from, amid civilians and hits some civilians and the reaction is like someone hit a wasp nest with a stick. It's a war, bad things happen during wars and in this war where the
 Hizbullah hides and fights behind babies and women the Israelis are fighting 
to protect babies and women. It's a crazy world. Everyone is jumping on Mel Gibson for saying crazy things when he was drunk and stopped for a DUI, Mel apologized. In Gaza, Lebannon,Syria and Iran you have people dressing their kids up as suicide bombers, who openly say they want to kill all the jews and actively do everything they can to see jews killed. Where's the outrage? None, again, it's certifiably crazy. Insane in an insane world where right and wrong are moral constructs that don't mean anything and where someone who says something when he is drunk is held to a higher standard than whole countries who not only say crazy, insane things but who actively go about fulfilling the hate filled promise of their words. 

Say It Isn't So - Tour de France and Doping
Mood:  irritated
Topic: Mysteries of Life
http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/5524189   A discussion about the news of a Tour de France rider who tested positive for elevated testosterone or some such thing. As with these new news items a lot of things are unclear. Is it Landis, is it Kloden, is it Perriro, they don't say. They are being cryptic and apparently awaiting the 'b' test to be done and someone with the Tour said it was 'the worst possible scenario'  which means it Landis or someone on the podium. Who knows, they are keeping it close to the vest and the various clues include the fact that Landis pulled out of a number of races in Europe suddenly and apparently he can't be contacted at the moment, Kloden pulled out of another race as well. Damn it. This is upsetting and it remains to be seen how bad this is going to get. It's definitely going to be a bad day for at least one rider and his team. We've already been denied a chance to see Ullrich and Basso and a number of others who were bounced from the Tour on suspicion. This will put the capper on the whole thing.

Gilmore Girls discussions
Topic: Art and Poetry

As we know, a great tragedy occurred when Season Six of Gilmore Girls  threw up all over the airwaves. A perversion of the characters and plot lines rolled through every week until the last week travesty of Lorelei sleeping with her ex - Christopher. A vast boiled discontent has erupted in Gilmore Girls land and of course I have an opinion about it all. Over at Ask Auseillo I find myself posting a word here and there. Just so I don't lose those I'll put them right here.

 

Lorelei and Luke have zero chemistry and, other than the fact that they live in Starrs Hollow, nothing in common. Luke is a humorless person, and he never gets any of Lorelei's (or Rory's) pop culture references.

I'm reminded of the scene in Ice Age II, the little rat like creature which sounded an awful lot like John Leguizamo when he is explaining to Manny, the Mastadon/Wolly Mammoth creature about how the female Mastadon and Manny are meant to be together. He said, "She's tons of fun, and you're no fun at all. She com-pletes you.!"

Well, opposites attract, some people who don't seem to be worthy matches are in fact perfect for each other. And that is the case with the two characters Luke and Lorelei.

As long as we're looking at 'character' the Christopher character has shown none whatsoever. He lets Lorelei raise Rory all by herself, not the tiniest bit of care and compassion or help all those years. (if the character development is to be believed - you know 'this year' he inherits or wins the lottery or something fanciful and only then suddenly becomes responsible enough to care about his daughter and helping to pay for some part of her raising - mostly after the fact. Where's the courts when you need them. Yah, that's good writing.)His 'wit and banter' holds nary a candle to the solid, there for Lorelei and Rory all those years Luke. It's the difference between the dandy and the responsible person who might not be as witty, but is there when needed. -Completely unlike the Christopher character. That the character of Luke and Lorelei for that matter, have been assassinated by their creators doesn't take away the first five seasons of character building, - the characters built and filled out and who were the characters we loved. The Luke that was inattentive to Lorelei and the the Lorelei that went to sleep with the loser Christopher were the results of that season long lack of care and attention by the writers. To say that 'well, Luke wasn't paying attention to Lorelei and you know, I can understand why she went to Christopher' simply ignors all those years of character development.

Maybe Lorelei was wrong to jump in bed with Chris, but she's still way too good for Luke. I, for one, will be very disappointed if Lorelei and Luke end up together.

Oh I disagree completely, with everything you said right there. Neither character, as written this season, is worthy of anything. But before that, Luke was too good for her. (I mean, if we're balancing those sorts of things out)

 ******

 
Elibu said, I knew my comments Lorelei having better chemistry with Christopher than Luke would be controversial.
Um, not 'controversial' - simply your own opinion, and everyone has one. Doesn't make it correct or the majority opinion or controversial. Stem Cell research is controversial, an opinion about a fictional couple is an opinion.

Elibu said, Lorelei was the one who wanted to go off on her own as a single mom without accepting help from anyone. That may have been the right decision for her, but I don't think it's fair to attack Chris for that.
Well, life isn't fair. Remember Bill Murray's speech in Stripes to John Candy. Fair? Fair! Life isn't fair, is it fair that you were born this way? NO! Our opinions on characters in a show has a lot to do with whether we take the time and effort to tune into a show or a movie. If we really really like certain characters in certain shows or if we really really like the stories and plots of those show we say 'hey, tonight let's tune into this show or that show.' Why? Because we enjoy it. I don't recall ever saying, "you know, that show with characters I don't like and plot lines I hate is on tonight, let's be sure to watch that!" We don't usually say it, we just make the determination whether we want to watch something or not.

It reminds me of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes. After writing Sherlock Holmes for a while Doyle got really sick on the character. He wanted to do other things and create other stories. So Sir Doyle kills off Sherlock Holmes. Great, good for him, free at last. Name another character and or story written by Doyle after that? (crickets chirping) Yup, that really worked for him. After a while Sir Doyle brought Sherlock Holmes back. The people had spoken. It seems to me that there is a balance between a creator/writer, the creation/show and the audience. If the creator finds himself lucky enough to create something that others enjoy then that creation/show lives and it's audience makes known what it likes about the show. It's not a science, it's an art and an inexact one at that. Witness the apparent roller coaster that the show Lost has been in. Those people who loved it the first season are saying that the show has lost them and the creators of that show have been busy trying to recreate the magic they had. Their audience is waiting and hoping for that magic to return. The ratings this year will tell if the magic is back or not. Just like with Gilmore Girls, if the magic is back some will return, others won't. (once burned, twice shy) And if it goes where it seems to be going, the show peters out and fades away back into the misty folds of time.

Lastly, Elibu said, Also, to all the people who have read Michael Ausiello's original post and the comments and posted yourself, saying how you're done with the show and won't watch, you're all full of it. You're going to watch. If you weren't, why are you wasting so much time reading and posting here about it?
It's always interesting when someone makes blanket statements about groups of people they don't even know. The reasons I've posted and expressed my opinion is because I really really loved Gilmore Girls. I really really hate what they did to it. I'm not happy, I'm venting and I'm writing about that frustration. I watched maybe half of last season out of a hope that it would get better, even at that it was painful and annoying to watch. Now I won't even watch that. There's not even anything left on that channel that I watch. Of course it does no good at all to vent here since they've already killed all the good parts of the show and they aren't going to change. Like Sir Conan Doyle, they know better than their audience.
Posted by: gadlaw 07/25/2006 3:15 PM

****

 I am also a big Lost fan and was disappointed with their second season. At least it's creators have paid attention to the audience and the ratings and hopefully, return it to the quality of the first season.
Even though DR didn't give us the same hope in his interview doesn't mean he won't do the same thing.

Well, if he didn't give any hope in his interview, a time when we presume that he'd be trying to woo the audience I don't know how you could have much hope for the future. He pretty much slapped the audience down, said that any thought about making the big mistake a dream sequence was retarded and he'd go along doing his soap opera remake of the GG. (that's how I interpreted it) I imagine it would have taken a better writer than him and his team to have taken that last episode which began with a close up of Lorelei in bed and listening to Suki and her husband to that same exact close up of her in bed with the evil one at the end and then extending it in the season opener to her blinking her eyes and being in bed with the actual Paul Anka then having her blink again and having her mother sit there in curlers and a goofy bathrobe and lecturing her about how she should put the smack down and become herself and quit moping around then have her actually wake up in a cold sweat. Then have her say 'Oh my god!' then having her frown and look around saying 'I thought my dream sequences were supposed to be a bit fuzzy around the edges' then have her shrug and then bouncing off to set things right. Nope, that would have been too difficult of a story to write for this crew. That would have been Gilmore, not this soap opera dribble that is now promised to continue with the super secret 'eyes only' draft that the good hearted Ausiello was slipped.

Yes indeed, I don't watch Lost but I have noticed how the audience is being listened to. Makes a marked contrast to what the new Gilmore crew is doing. The ones who don't get what the show was about would probably be happier writing for that Housewife show or perhaps Guiding Light. Failing to get those gigs they have decided to write those stories over at Gilmore Girls.

*****
Elibu said, So I made a blanket statement about people I don't know, but I wasn't trying to offend anyone.

As they say in the old west, Smile when you say that. Indeed. I agree with you that many of the folks who say they'll never watch will be glued at the season premiere. But I also think that many of the folks who penned heartfelt grievances with the direction of the show and who said they were done, are in fact done. Don't forget that there are million things to do, it takes an effort to find your way to the tv at a scheduled time to watch any particular show. And again, if you cared enough to write and pen a few thoughts at a TV Guide forum that doesn't necessarily mean you're mindlessly hooked to a show like a zombie is hooked on eating brains. Personally I'm glad to find people who are as mad as I've been about the show, that's why I read and write here. Not because I'm going to watch another episode. I've not watched it since the final of the last season on either WB or on ABC Family where it's on daily, or was. I don't know anymore since I don't watch it now. I'm not ever buying season 6 on DVD and who knows when I'll be able to ever watch the other seasons I do have. I'm sure I'll know what's going on the same way I know about a show I've never seen like 'Friends' - commercials for the episodes and other publicity that finds it's way across my tv screen and such. I won't need to watch it to satisfy my diminishing curiosity, my curiosity is already satisfied, the duff who runs the show said 'it happened, we have to deal with that' satisfied my curiosity. 'We' don't have to do anything. We don't have to watch it. Sure- some will watch it, others won't. There's a new season out there, perhaps there will be another good show worth paying attention to. That would be nice.
Posted by: gadlaw 07/25/2006 7:17 PM

And of course, the image insertion still doesn't work.

 

Tour de Me
Topic: Mysteries of Life

Well this is new, a new interface to mess up. As can be seen by the  picture, (actually that's the bit I'm messing up, I can't get the picture to show up.) I've been out riding up and down painful hills. Painful going up and terrifying going down. One false jerk of the handlebars and it's road kill for me. Hours in the sun wondering when the next hill would crest and you can hopefully catch your breath. And you get to play mind games with yourself in your efforts to not stop, to not put your foot to the curb and taking that breather. It's amazing to me, no matter what I feel like and how able I might feel I am going to be, as soon as I push my foot down on a pedal and the bike is turned slightly upward toward the top of the hill, I am most certain that I cannot do it. I cannot possibly get to the top while still staying in the saddle and pushing with my legs. You think, well, maybe I can turn the pedals for a few turns. It'll be just a few feet then I can surrender. Then I think about being complimented ( I think it was a compliment but in either case it has stayed with me forever) - on my thighs. Someone once said that they had known only girls to have to such hard thighs. In truth I had muscled up a few overpasses every day on a cheap bike I would ride to school. That gave me hard thighs and every hill I go up anymore and I think of that comment. It makes me stay in the seat and let my thighs muscle me up whatever hill I'm going up. If your breath holds out it's a matter of how much pain you can endure to keep pedalling. Then the pain stops getting greater and your legs are sore as you find your pedalling easier than ever and going flat is like going downhill. Then there is going downhill and braking and deciding how fast to allow yourself to go, too fast and you crash, too slow and you don't have that bit of momentum going back up those hills. Lots of fun and good for you.

Midnight TV
Now Playing: The Voices in my head
Topic: Mysteries of Life
Was flipping through the channels the other night, past the channel that sells you 150 spiffy looking knifes for $19.95. Past the mostly naked women with phones in their hands imploring you to call their number to talk to actual women in your neighborhood who are desperately anxious to hear from you. Past the ab lounge, the ab cruncher, the thigh blasterino, the pretentious female telling me that the 150 dollar a bottle snake oil they are selling is actually worth 150 dollars and that they sold millions of bottles of it at that price but are now feeling the upwelling of human kindness and willing to sell their bottles of denatured hamster urine for only $29.95 until the government finally takes notice, takes the company to court and fines them out of existence, the Time-Life songs of the sixties. Then there is the other half of the stations being various Bible thumping preachers with varying levels of disdain for the viewer, although it may just seem that way to me since I zap right through them before they get their spiel going. Just those accusing, knowing eyes of guys in Nehru jackets, mature stern female preachers and those ubiquitous waving Bibles given the brief time it takes to press the forward or backward button before they disappear into the next channel full of amazing offers or semi naked females. It's enough to send a person up out of bed and into the kitchen to bake an apple pie. :-)

This and that
Topic: Politics
Well let's all hope the casinos get opened up in Atlantic City now that the budget crisis is winding down. So quiet, you could almost hear the slot machines from outside, I mean, if the slots were being played that is.

The recent crisis with the North Koreans shows again how fundamentally inept the foreign policy of the US is. It's a crisis only on CNN where the 'Situation Room' busies itself with graphics of missiles and interviews with their bureau chiefs in China, Japan, Korean and Moscow. The US itself can do nothing and merely flails around talking about strongly worded motions at the UN which they can't even get passed. When morality, ethics and democracy were taken from foreign policy considerations and we allowed ourselves to slide into bed with the Communist Chinese for the sake of Wal-Mart we not only lost the moral highground, we also forgot to elect people who even knew what that high ground used to be. We can't 'allow' North Korea to get nukes or missiles and there they have them for all the world to see. We can't 'allow' Iran to have nukes or missiles and everyday we see them successfully stall us out on the pretend negotiations. We have no leverage with China or Russia over anything since we have decoupled foreign policy and trade policy so what exactly are we going to do if either or both decides to not support us in Korea or Iran? Here' what we're going to do. See it? It's a whole lot of nothing. A lot of nothing interspersed with flag burning amendments and other red meat things that get the base voters up and excited but do absolutely nothing with respect to any of the real problems that need to be addressed. Sad isn't it.

Fourth of July Movies
Topic: Art and Poetry

The two best patriotic films, two films I'll pull out the DVDs for tomorrow to watch (after the Tour de France) are Yankee Doodle Dandy starring James Cagney and 1776 starring Howard Da Silva, Ken Howard and William Daniels. Both represent what is good and idealistic about America.

Yankee Doodle Dandy is a biography of George M. Cohan. Starring James Cagney, the movie shows Mr. Cohan as a vaudeville performer born into show business as part of the Four Cohans. He rises up, in the true American way fights his way up and and brings his family up the ladder of success with him. He writes many successful plays and is remembered to this day for the songs Over There, Yankee Doodle, Me and My Gal and Give My Regards To Broadway. When you say 'John Q. Public' that's a phrase he coined. It's a great movie, an emotionally satisfying movie and after watching it you'll choke right up when Cagney says for the last time, "My mother thanks you, my father thanks you, my sister thanks you, and, I assure you, I thank you" A genuine flag waver for you.

The other movie. 1776, is a musical made near the time of the 200th birthday of the United States. It tells the story of the creation of the Declaration of Independence during the time of the Continental Congress. With humor, warmth and song it follows the struggles of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin as they manage and maneuver their way through stubborn southerners, loyalists and a New York delegations that abstains 'courteously' until the very end. The songs are smart, witty and honest with songs even dealing with the slave trade (Sugar to Rum to Slaves) and with the song of a dying soldier who hopes his mother finds his body in the field. This movie has everything you would want in a movie. And if at the end when the signers of the Declaration of Independence sign to the tolling of the bell, if you aren't having goose bumps well then you might want to check your pulse.

Those are the best movies for the Fourth of July and if you haven't seen these movies then you need to put them on your list.

Cool Hand Luke
Now Playing: Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
Topic: Mysteries of Life
Was watching Cool Hand Luke today, a movie about rebellion and I guess about how cool rebellion is. I watched carefully the act that got the character put on a Florida chain gang and you know, the dude deserved to go to jail for that. Social order is a high priority, it's what keeps the majority of us safe from those who have no problem going against that order and whose actions make us all less safe. I don't know that two years is the best sentence for that, I would think a bit more creative sentencing would serve the purpose of justice and help steer the rebel in a right direction. Of course, the character, played by Paul Newman, was self destructive to begin with, directionless and one to question authority and might not have been put off his slow ride to suicide by cop but who knows. I saw through the first part of the movie the character was sort of getting along pretty well and not causing a lot of trouble. When his mother died and he wasn't allowed to go to her funeral is when he went over the edge and escaped a number of times. Well, you know, the character had nobody to blame but himself for his situation and when the one guard character was putting Cool Hand Luke in the box and said he was only doing his job Luke said 'Well that still doesn't make it right' and that pretty much is the character removing blame from himself and putting it on 'society' Sorry, Cool dude, it might not have been right but it was the rules. I remember reading on occasion when someone is released from prison 'doing the right thing' so they could go to a funeral or see their dying mother and then lighting on out escaping. It's those folks who make the rules harden up not the evil prison wardens or guards. If someone who is released from prison to go to a funeral or other humanitarian reason and that person goes out, commits more crimes, hurts others, then it necessarily falls on whoever let him or her out before their time was up. So the character of Cool Hand Luke, who fights against impossible odds with a whole lot of nothing as the signature of his character's behavior, never does get his 'head right'

Other than that, the whole sweaty prison ambiance was a little hollow. No bugs crawling everywhere as they would be, the prisoners were a lot less vicious and evil than you'd find in reality. In all, a lot less real than when I remember seeing it lo these many years ago. But still a good movie which I won't be watching again for another 20 years.

Soccer - Effete European Nancy Boys in Short Pants
Topic: Mysteries of Life
And a hearty good riddance to men in short pants running around for ninety minutes, chasing a ball for usually no discernable reason. The game every other country is mad over, and the game which churns out more stories of people burning their houses down because they paid rapt attention to some goofy match between Chad and the Azores, more stories of husbands killing their wives for making too much noise when a general overkill in boring stories about english soccer fans this or german soccer fans that. Oh sure, the whole thing is still going on and craptastic stories of shocking soccer stupidity will continue but at least we won't have to listen about how the US can get to the next round if only they beat Botswana and Nigeria beats Alsace-Lorraine. So pick up the phone to tell it to the three people who give a crap and let the rest of us hear stories of genunine interest or import. Like when the heck is football season going to start?

Stupid List of Noninspirational Films
Topic: Art and Poetry

The American Film Institute came out with another insipid, uninformed and illogical list of films they say, in this case are the 100 most inspirational films. AFI's listA tricky catagory here. "Inspirational" means imparting a divine influence on the mind and soul. And even if the influence they seek to impart is actually divine or not, it's somebody's agenda and somebody's ideas of what is good for us. It's a lot of social commentary and a lot of movies nobody sees more than one time if they see them at all. I see a list here that has an agenda on it's mind. It should be called the "NPR List of Movies approved for their content and social message that you should believe in with a few 'inspirational' movies thrown in."

To Kill a Mockingbird is a movie they made us watch in school, Schindler's List is probably a movie they make you watch in school now as well. The Grapes of Wrath is social commentary, Saving Private Ryan, Bridge Over the River Kwai, The Best Years of Our Lives are antiwar movies. The business is bad, government is bad and people are noble movies include, Norma Rae, Silkwood, Erin Brockovich, Grapes of Wrath, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, Meet John Doe. Prisoners are noble and prisons are bad - Cool Hand Luke, Birdman of Alcatraz, Shawshank Redemption. Glory, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, In the Heat of the Night, Color Purple, To Kill a Mockingbird and Raisin in the Sun teach me that rascism is bad. Dead Poet's Society and Philadephia teach me that gay people are people and homophobia is bad. I don't find any of those movies particularly inspirational. Preachy maybe with their own agendas and some of them were effective when I was younger and didn't know that I was being fed a point of view. I particularly remember Meet John Doe, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and the other Capra movies where Jimmy Stewart or Gary Cooper would fall in love with women who are more 'worldly' then they are and sort of risked everything on a hoped for change of attitude and opinion by Jean Arthur or Barbara Stanwick to save them. Beautiful women, inspirational shows I'd eat up every time. I'd admire Gary Cooper just being able to sit there not defending himself because it was the woman he loved who put him in that situation. Of course, in the end of those movies the woman would stand up and start defending Gary Cooper and in the end a happy ending would emerge just in the nick of time the way it always used to happen in those old black and white movies. Reality of course is more like that horrifying show you flip over through on Discovery or A&E which tells about the woman/man who plots and kills their spouse/partner and the process of getting enough clues to arrest them for it. Definitely not inspirational, like most of the films on that list. Bah, I hate lists.

Sex with Robots
Topic: Mysteries of Life
I see this story going around, originally a story from Times Online and of course since it's robots and sex it's a big story at Digg and Slashdot. It's funny really, seeing some folks get all roused to wonder and work on the robot 'ethics' that they decide they need to develop and spit out for the rest of us to follow. I think anything that you might be worried about is going to be taken care of by product liability laws. Like the nonsense of the Asimov's 'Three Laws' there is no need and more importantly, there is no earthly way to take what a bunch of naive scientist types decides to throw up on the wall and make it universal law directing a potentially billion plus dollar industry. It's a laugh really. If Segway or Ford decides to build your sex robots in the future they are going to be ass deep in the same sort of regulations they deal with to bring any other product to market. Any scientists who want to anguish over the implications of the ethics and morality of the Johnny Ready Robot or the Susie Sensual Robot will be doing so from the novels, articles and protests they might be inclined to indulge in.

If somebody is worried about sex with inanimate objects then I'm afraid that train left the station a millennium ago. If somebody is worried that some folks might become obsessed with their robot sex buddy then they should know that it's already there with rubber girlfriends ( I remember seeing it on HBO) and besides, people get obsessed with any number of things so what's the problem. If you program Johnny Ready for rough sex and don't like what happens, well then operator error but even that will be decided in the courts. If you get a butt load of money from the jury cause you failed to operate your robot safely then the manufacturer will have to spend time and money making the thing idiot proof. Heck, I bet even some medical insurance will cover you getting your very own sex robot.

Spam avalanche
I don't know what happened or who I pissed off but man oh man, the cialis/nigerian/russiangirlsforyou/etc crap is really bashing against the spam filters. The good news about the spam senders is that they are getting sent to jail with some frequency now. And I can't think of a better place for them.

Hair Paintings and Chicken Marsala


An important lesson I've learned is that not all Chicken Marsala you get in various Italian restaurants is the same. I've had great Chicken Marsala off a hot grill, the mushromms simmered and in the tasty sauce with the alcohol burned off in the cooking and I've had it with soggy chicken, uncooked hunks of mushrooms and what tasted like wine simply poured in at the end, along with the uncooked mushrooms. Bleech. That was nasty and so I'm in search of a good recipe that tastes more like the first experience than the second. Humm, I don't even know if Olive Garden has a Chicken Marsala or not so I'll have to take a peek at their menu when I get around to it. And I wonder of course if the first one I liked was the not good one and the second version I didn't like was supposed to be the better version. My ignorance of what is proper has to take a backseat to my own sense of taste in this one.

Not a day goes by that I take a shower and don't remember hair painting. When those tangled strands find their way into my hands while rinsing I put them up on the shower tile and find another day that I haven't forgotten.

clouds
Topic: Mysteries of Life


Looking at clouds move and change we can see in the blink of the eye how things transform and are not permanent. Transitory in fact. You can see beauty and images of terror pass before your eyes and before your imagination in a blink of an eye. You'll naturally try to hold onto the image you just saw in the clouds but it's impossible. The image is gone, the flying demon or the vase of flowers lived there for you, only you, in your mind and then the visual evidence of it is gone. Soon even the memory of what you saw passes from your mind as you continue on your day. Kind of like life, you experience it in passing and every joy and every terror passes eventually from your thoughts and from your mind. Some things may last in your mind but when you go so goes those thoughts and memories. Transitory, ephemeral and gone. Like the clouds in the sky swirling and floating above your head.