St. Bartholomew's Anglican Church Choir - Ave Verum Corpus

This is the choir from my parish church, St. Bartholomew's Anglican Church of Swartz Creek, Michigan.  We are by no means perfect.  It is an amateur, all-volunteer choir, and some of us have little or no formal musical training.  But we get in there and try, and I pray that we may glorify God by our efforts.

This is from Mass this morning.

Ave, verum corpus natum de Maria Virgine,
Vere passum immolatum in Cruce pro homine,
Cujus latus perforatum unda fluxit et sanguine,
Esto nobis praegustatum in mortis examine.

Hail,true body born of the Virgin Mary,
Who truly suffered, sacrificed on the Cross for man,
Whose pierced side overflowed with water and blood,
Be for us a foretaste in the test of death.

Installation of a Fatman IFS into a 1963 Mercury Meteor

We did this installation in the Fall of 2008 and Spring of 2009, but I just now got the video done.  There is no excuse for having procrastinated so long, since it only took a few hours to put together.   Installation of this 1962-1965 Ford Fairlane strut front suspension from Fatman Fabrications was a lot of work, but well worth the effort.  Now the front suspension, brakes, and steering on Eliot's Meteor are just as capable as the Cobra IRS out back.

Note:  I had initially added a YouTube approved musical track (from my favourite surf band, the Volcanos!) over the first, silent 2:55 of the video.  But the YouTube audio replacement feature does not currently allow me to replace the audio on only part of the video while keeping the rest.  I thought it was more important to hear the suspension working during the under-car video segment than to have cool surf music during the first three minutes of the video.  So, be careful that your speakers are not turned up too high, or you will be in for a surprise at 2:55 into the video!

New Defroster for my Old Meteor.

I am kind of excited about this project.  When I switched jobs at work, I lost the use of a company lease car, and pressed this 1962 Mercury Meteor ("Merc-O-Saurus") into service.  My son and daughter drive to high school in it every day.  But we had to do some things to get it ready for the type of weather that Detroit experiences this time of year.

Specifically, we wanted to install a rear window defroster (de-fogger).  They didn't have those in 1962, in case you are too young to remember.  I bought a Clear View Defroster Kit from a website:  www.frostfighter.com ... and I am pleased with the results (see video).

It is a bit tricky to install ... you have to prep the glass just right, and make sure that you understand every part of the instructions before actually starting.  (If anyone is considering doing this, send me a message, and I can give you some hints.)



And here, just for kicks, are a few photos of this "work-in-progress" car:

Usurping Occupy Protesters

Here is a typical usurpation of someone else's rights (right to speak) by some typical Occupy reprobates.  What they don't get is this:  There is a reason that Congresswoman Michele Bachmann was given the microphone in this situation, and they were not.  She was given the mic, given the floor to speak, because based on her past accomplishments and her current status as someone who is running for election to the highest office in the land, it has been estimated that she may have something to say which is worth hearing.

Based on the non-accomplishments of those who disrupted her speech, it was (correctly) estimated that they have nothing to say that is worth hearing.  In situations like this, such people have a duty to shut up.

The Essential Desperation of the Occupy Movement

I have identified one of the central things that irritates me about the Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Oakland, and all the other Occupiers.

At first, I thought of this central point in terms of rudeness, of the cavalier attitude of unconcern with the property, well-being, and freedoms of others.  When you shut down all commerce in an area, as Occupy Oakland did, you are doing something selfish and illegal, and you deserve the punishment that comes your way.  I will not shed a single tear over the "ouchie" you get from the rubber bullet which the Oakland Police send your way.  Sorry.

When you forcibly camp out on someone else's private property, as OWS has been doing all along, you deserve whatever negative consequences come your way.  You are stealing private property, perverting it for your own demonic uses.  You deserve no sympathy.

But when I thought deeper about the Occupy movement, and why they do what they do, I realized that it was chiefly this:

Blocking the passage of innocent citizens, impeding traffic, shutting down commerce, and appropriating someone else's private property are chiefly acts of desperation.  They are done when it becomes obvious to the protesters that, based solely on the merits of their grievances, nobody at all will listen to them.  So, they find a way to be so obnoxious that people have to listen.

If the Occupy folks didn't block people's travel, stop their commerce, and steal their private property, no one would listen to them.  Because their arguments are ridiculous, and have no power to persuade.

More Like America than America ...

When I was in elementary school, I had a friend named Alan. He had an older brother named Robert. My dad had seen Alan over at our house. But when he saw Robert, he made the statement, "Robert looks more like Alan than Alan does!" It is absurd, but you get the idea of what he meant. Whatever corporeal or facial features Alan possessed, Robert had similar ones, but at a great level of intensity.

That is how I feel about Australia. I don't know a lot about Australia, but from a distance, Australia seems more like America than America does.  It seems like a manly, "Wild West" place.  I base this largely, I have to admit, on the very healthy auto racing culture that is obviously present there.  Here are two examples of their Vintage Touring Car series.  I love the green-and-white Falcon Sprint, and ... well ... all the rest of these cars, too!  (Hat Tip to my son Eliot, who finds these things for me.  I love when he pronounces "Bathurst" with an Aussie accent!)

Anyone Can Restore an Old Truck ... it Takes a Real Woman to Cut one Up!

I think I'm in love.  Just watch the video, and you'll know why.  Ingrid Morley gets it.

My son and I are all the time arguing with the distaff side of our family, because they don't believe that you can talk to (and hear back from) automobiles.  But listen to what Ingrid says happened between her and this International AR-160 truck (Lacie Lorrie) upon their first meeting:

"I looked at her and she looked at me and we sort of ... there was a twinkle." 

"I realized something else that this truck said to me, and that was about authenticity, about being thoroughly integrated into the land."

"Going out to this block of land which is filled with ... you could call it junk, but to me, it's an artist's dream.  It's just gorgeous.  It's just got everything imaginable, made out of steel.  And it's in all varying states of decay, and a I saw her, and I just fell in love."

Beautiful.  This woman understands.  She understands the honoured place of an old truck or car in the cosmos, as well, or for that matter, an old man or woman:

"There's something about ... an authority about ... old equipment or old vehicles, old things, that have done their time, have worked.  They are tarnished.  They're pocked.  They are riddled with stories."

Wow.  Look at the skin of your favourite old person, and you'll see just what Ingrid means.

And, anyhow, how can you not love a woman who wields a plasma cutter?  And her work at the relatively tiny Venn Diagram Intersection of the old car hobby and fine art?

 This lovingly cut-up truck, Lacie Lorrie, is currently being featured as a part of the "Love Lace" exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia.

More about Ingrid and her creation may be found here.

For reference, here is what others might have tried to do with this same truck: