Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Cosmic Egg - By Carroll Bryant

COSMIC EGG - BY CARROLL BRYANT


Ever since the beginning of time
The universe been blowing my mind 
Strange the lights moving across the sky
Stars in motion watching with a cosmic eye 

In the night

Plain as day written on your face
It's breakfast time inside this place
Order up and grab your plate 
Stuff yourself with the cosmic egg 

I can feel the galaxy spinning 
The whole world around me is turning 
And it's getting me dizzy 
I can see beyond the setting
The sun is burning out
Now is the time to say 

Ever since the beginning of time
The universe been blowing my mind 
Strange the lights moving across the sky
Stars in motion watching with a cosmic eye

In the night

I can feel the galaxy spinning 
The whole world around me is turning 
And it's getting me dizzy 
I can see beyond the setting
The sun is burning out
Now is the time to say

Plain as day written on your face
It's breakfast time inside this place
Order up and grab your plate 
Stuff yourself with the cosmic egg

I can feel the galaxy spinning 
The whole world around me is turning 
And it's getting me dizzy 
I can see beyond the setting
The sun is burning out
Now is the time to say it



Thursday, August 25, 2016

Flag Of Ukraine

The state flag of Ukraine (Ukrainian: державний прапор України; translit.: derzhavnyy prapor Ukrayiny; literally 'state flag of Ukraine') is a banner of two equally sized horizontal bands of blue and yellow (Constitution of Ukraine, Article 20).

As a national flag, the blue and yellow bicolour was officially used since the 1848 Spring of Nations when it was hoisted over the Lviv Rathaus. It was officially adopted as a state flag for the first time in 1918 by the short-lived West Ukrainian People's Republic, and subsequently used by the Ukrainian People's Republic. When Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union, the flag was outlawed and before 1949 there was no official state flag until adoption of the red-blue flag of the Ukrainian SSR. People who hoisted the blue-yellow flags in the Soviet Ukraine were prosecuted as criminals. The blue and yellow flag was provisionally adopted for official ceremonies in September 1991 following Ukrainian independence, before finally officially being restored in 1992. Ukraine celebrates Flag Day each year on August 23 since 2004.







Article 20 of the Constitution of Ukraine states the following, citing: "the State Flag of Ukraine is a banner of two equally sized horizontal bands of blue and yellow colour." (Ukrainian: "Державний Прапор України — стяг із двох рівновеликих горизонтальних смуг синього і жовтого кольорів.")

The flag did not appear on Ukrainian official postal stamp issues until the 1992 was released, depicting the flag with state coat of arms. Since that time the flag has frequently appeared on stamps. Cinderella stamps of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists were printed outside Ukraine during the Soviet period and served propaganda purposes.

Traditionally, the flag may be decorated with golden fringe surrounding the perimeter of the flag as long as it does not deface the flag proper. Beginning of a tradition was the flag of the Ukrainian SSR. Great Soviet Encyclopedia shows a flag decorated with a gold star. Ceremonial displays of the flag, such as those in parades or on indoor posts, often use fringe to enhance the beauty of the flag. No specific law governs the legality of fringe. Traditionally, the Army, Guard, Navy and Air Force use a fringed National Color for parade, color guard and indoor display, while the Office of the President and local authorities use a fringed National Color for all uses.

23 August is celebrated as the Day of the National Flag in Ukraine; beginning with 2004. July 24 was previously marked as National Flag Day in Kiev. The first ceremonial raising of the yellow-and-blue Ukrainian flag in modern times took place on 24 July 1990 at the flagstaff of the Kiev City Council, two years before the flag was officially adopted as the National flag. Since 1992 Independence Day of Ukraine is celebrated on August 24. Following government decree, the flag must be flown from public buildings on this dates and some other holidays. Not all of these days are public holidays. Flags also must be flown on election days for the Verkhovna Rada in addition to other regional-specific flag days. The public display of flags to mark other events, such as the election of the president or the death of a prominent politician (whereupon flags would be at half-mast), can be declared at the discretion of the Cabinet of Ministers. When flags are required to be flown at half-mast, vertical flags are not lowered. A black mourning ribbon is instead attached, either atop the mast (if hung from a pole) or to each end of the flag's supporting cross-beams (if flown like a banner).

The roots of Ukrainian national symbols come from before Christian times when yellow and blue prevailed in traditional ceremonies, reflecting fire and water. The most solid proof of yellow and blue colours could be traced as far as the Battle of Grunwald at which participated militia formations from various lands of the Polish-Lithuanian Union.


Yellow - blue, red-black, crimson-olive and especially raspberry colour banners were widely used by Cossacks between the 16th and 18th centuries. These were not the only possible combinations, since normally Cossacks would fly their hetman's banners, which were similar to the coats of arms of the nobility. Also, yellow and blue were the colours common on coats of arms in Galicia. In fact, the coat of arms of Lviv to this day remains a golden lion on a blue field.

Some put the starting point of the current national flag of Ukraine in year 1848, when during the Spring of the Nations a yellow and blue banner was adopted by the Main Ruthenian Council in Lviv and flew over the city's magistrate for the first time. Although this move did not have significant consequences, the newly formed Ukrainian divisions in the Austrian army used yellow and blue banners in their insignia.



Sources: Wikipedia

This work released through CC 3.0 BY-SA: Creative Commons

Saturday, August 20, 2016

Eric Clapton: Influences

Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE (born 30 March 1945), is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist and separately as a member of the Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and influential guitarists of all time. Clapton ranked second in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and fourth in Gibson's "Top 50 Guitarists of All Time". He was also named number five in Time magazine's list of "The 10 Best Electric Guitar Players" in 2009.

In the mid-1960s Clapton left the Yardbirds to play blues with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers. Immediately after leaving Mayall, Clapton formed the power trio Cream with drummer Ginger Baker and bassist Jack Bruce, in which Clapton played sustained blues improvisations and "arty, blues-based psychedelic pop". Furthermore, he formed blues rock band Blind Faith with Baker, Steve Winwood, and Ric Grech. For most of the 1970s Clapton's output bore the influence of the mellow style of JJ Cale and the reggae of Bob Marley. His version of Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff" helped reggae reach a mass market. Two of his most popular recordings were "Layla", recorded with Derek and the Dominos; and Robert Johnson's "Crossroads", recorded with Cream. Following the death of his son Conor in 1991, Clapton's grief was expressed in the song "Tears in Heaven", which was featured on his Unplugged album.

Clapton has been the recipient of 18 Grammy Awards, and the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. In 2004 he was awarded a CBE at Buckingham Palace for services to music. In 1998, Clapton, a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, founded the Crossroads Centre on Antigua, a medical facility for recovering substance abusers.

Clapton was born in Ripley, Surrey, England, the son of 16-year-old Patricia Molly Clapton (7 January 1929 – March 1999) and Edward Walter Fryer (21 March 1920 – 15 May 1985), a 25-year-old soldier from Montreal, Quebec. Fryer shipped off to war prior to Clapton's birth and then returned to Canada. Clapton grew up with his grandmother, Rose, and her second husband, Jack Clapp, who was stepfather to Patricia Clapton and her brother Adrian, believing they were his parents and that his mother was actually his older sister. The similarity in surnames gave rise to the erroneous belief that Clapton's real surname is Clapp (Reginald Cecil Clapton was the name of Rose's first husband, Eric Clapton's maternal grandfather). Years later, his mother married another Canadian soldier and moved to Germany, leaving young Eric with his grandparents in Surrey.

Clapton received an acoustic Hoyer guitar, made in Germany, for his thirteenth birthday, but the inexpensive steel-stringed instrument was difficult to play and he briefly lost interest. Two years later Clapton picked it up again and started playing consistently. Clapton was influenced by the blues from an early age, and practised long hours to learn the chords of blues music by playing along to the records. He preserved his practice sessions using his portable Grundig reel-to-reel tape recorder, listening to them over and over until he felt he'd got it right.

In 1961, after leaving Hollyfield School in Surbiton, Clapton studied at the Kingston College of Art but was dismissed at the end of the academic year because his focus remained on music rather than art. His guitar playing was so advanced that, by the age of 16, he was getting noticed. Around this time, Clapton began busking around Kingston, Richmond, and the West End. In 1962, Clapton started performing as a duo with fellow blues enthusiast David Brock in pubs around Surrey. When he was seventeen years old, Clapton joined his first band, an early British R&B group, the Roosters, whose other guitarist was Tom McGuinness. He stayed with this band from January until August 1963. In October of that year, Clapton did a seven-gig stint with Casey Jones & the Engineers.

In October 1963, Clapton joined the Yardbirds, a blues-influenced rock and roll band, and stayed with them until March 1965. Synthesising influences from Chicago blues and leading blues guitarists such as Buddy Guy, Freddie King, and B. B. King, Clapton forged a distinctive style and rapidly became one of the most talked-about guitarists in the British music scene. The band initially played Chess/Checker/Vee-Jay blues numbers and began to attract a large cult following when they took over the Rolling Stones' residency at the Crawdaddy Club in Richmond. They toured England with American bluesman Sonny Boy Williamson II; a joint LP album, recorded in December 1963, was issued in 1965.

In March 1965, Clapton and the Yardbirds had their first major hit, "For Your Love", written by songwriter Graham Gouldman, who also wrote hit songs for Herman's Hermits and the Hollies (and would later achieve success of his own as a member of 10cc). In part because of its success, the Yardbirds elected to move toward a pop-oriented sound, much to the annoyance of Clapton, who was devoted to the blues and not commercial success. He left the Yardbirds on the day that "For Your Love" went public, a move that left the band without its lead guitarist and most accomplished member. Clapton suggested fellow guitarist Jimmy Page to be his replacement, but Page declined out of loyalty to Clapton, putting Jeff Beck forward. While Beck and Page played together in the Yardbirds, the trio of Beck, Page, and Clapton were never in the group together. However, the three did appear on the 12-date benefit tour for Action for Research into Multiple Sclerosis in 1983.

Clapton joined John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers in April 1965, only to quit a few months later. In the summer of 1965 he left for Greece with a band called the Glands, which included his old friend Ben Palmer on piano. In November 1965 he rejoined John Mayall. During his second Bluesbreakers stint, Clapton gained a reputation as the best blues guitarist on the club circuit. Although Clapton gained world fame for his playing on the influential album, Blues Breakers – John Mayall – With Eric Clapton, this album was not released until he had left the band for the last time. Having swapped his Fender Telecaster and Vox AC30 amplifier for a 1960 Gibson Les Paul Standard guitar and Marshall amplifier, Clapton's sound and playing inspired a well-publicised graffito that deified him with the famous slogan "Clapton is God". The phrase was spray-painted by an admirer on a wall in an Islington Underground station in the autumn of 1967. The graffiti was captured in a now-famous photograph, in which a dog is urinating on the wall. Clapton is reported to have been embarrassed by the slogan, saying in his The South Bank Show profile in 1987, "I never accepted that I was the greatest guitar player in the world. I always wanted to be the greatest guitar player in the world, but that's an ideal, and I accept it as an ideal".

Clapton left the Bluesbreakers in July 1966 (replaced by Peter Green) and was invited by drummer Ginger Baker to play in his newly formed band Cream, one of the earliest supergroups, with Jack Bruce on bass (previously of the Bluesbreakers, the Graham Bond Organisation and Manfred Mann). Before the formation of Cream, Clapton was not well known in the United States; he left the Yardbirds before "For Your Love" hit the US Top Ten, and had yet to perform there. During his time with Cream, Clapton began to develop as a singer, songwriter, and guitarist, though Bruce took most of the lead vocals and wrote the majority of the material with lyricist Pete Brown. Cream's first gig was an unofficial performance at the Twisted Wheel Club in Manchester on 29 July 1966 before their full debut two nights later at the National Jazz and Blues Festival in Windsor. Cream established its enduring legend with the high-volume blues jamming and extended solos of their live shows.

Clapton first visited the United States while touring with Cream. In March 1967, Cream performed a nine-show stand at the RKO Theater in New York. They recorded Disraeli Gears in New York from 11–15 May 1967. Cream's repertoire varied from hard rock ("I Feel Free") to lengthy blues-based instrumental jams ("Spoonful"). Disraeli Gears featured Clapton's searing guitar lines, Bruce's soaring vocals and prominent, fluid bass playing, and Baker's powerful, polyrhythmic jazz-influenced drumming. Together, Cream's talents secured them as an influential power trio.

In 28 months, Cream had become a commercial success, selling millions of records and playing throughout the US and Europe. They redefined the instrumentalist's role in rock and were one of the first blues-rock bands to emphasize musical virtuosity and lengthy jazz-style improvisation sessions. Their US hit singles include "Sunshine of Your Love" (#5, 1968), "White Room" (#6, 1968) and "Crossroads" (#28, 1969) – a live version of Robert Johnson's "Cross Road Blues". Though Cream was hailed as one of the greatest groups of its day, and the adulation of Clapton as a guitar legend reached new heights, the supergroup was short-lived. Drug and alcohol use escalated tension between the three members, and conflicts between Bruce and Baker eventually led to Cream's demise. A strongly critical Rolling Stone review of a concert of the group's second headlining US tour was another significant factor in the trio's demise, and it affected Clapton profoundly.

Cream's farewell album, Goodbye, featuring live performances recorded at The Forum, Los Angeles, 19 October 1968, was released shortly after Cream disbanded; it also featured the studio single "Badge", co-written by Clapton and George Harrison. Clapton met Harrison and became friends with him after the Beatles shared a bill with the Clapton-era Yardbirds at the London Palladium. The close friendship between Clapton and Harrison resulted in Clapton playing the lead guitar solo on Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" from the Beatles' White Album (1968).

Cream briefly reunited in 1993 to perform at the ceremony inducting them into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; a full reunion took place in May 2005, with Clapton, Bruce, and Baker playing four sold-out concerts at London's Royal Albert Hall, and three shows at New York's Madison Square Garden that October. Recordings from the London shows, Royal Albert Hall London May 2-3-5-6, 2005, were released on CD, LP, and DVD in September/December 2005.

Clapton's next group, Blind Faith (1969), was composed of Cream drummer Ginger Baker, Steve Winwood of Traffic, and Ric Grech of Family, and yielded one LP and one arena-circuit tour. The supergroup debuted before 100,000 fans in London's Hyde Park on 7 June 1969. They performed several dates in Scandinavia and began a sold-out American tour in July before their only album was released. The LP Blind Faith consisted of just six songs, one of them the hit "Can't Find My Way Home". The album's jacket image of a topless pubescent girl was deemed controversial in the United States and was replaced by a photograph of the band. Blind Faith dissolved after less than seven months.

With the intention of counteracting the "star" cult faction that had begun to form around him, Clapton assembled a new band composed of Delaney and Bonnie's former rhythm section, Bobby Whitlock as keyboardist and vocalist, Carl Radle as the bassist, and drummer Jim Gordon, with Clapton playing guitar. It was his intention to show that he need not fill a starring role, and functioned well as a member of an ensemble.

The band was originally called "Eric Clapton and Friends". The name "Derek and the Dominos" was a fluke that occurred when the band's provisional name of "Del and the Dynamos" was misread as Derek and the Dominos.[44] Clapton's biography states that Tony Ashton of Ashton, Gardner and Dyke told Clapton to call the band "Del and the Dominos", since "Del" was his nickname for Eric Clapton. Del and Eric were combined and the final name became "Derek and the Dominos".

Clapton's close friendship with George Harrison brought him into contact with Harrison's wife, Pattie Boyd, with whom he became deeply infatuated. When she spurned his advances, Clapton's unrequited affections prompted most of the material for the Dominos' album, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (1970). Heavily blues-influenced, the album features the twin lead guitars of Clapton and Duane Allman, with Allman's slide guitar as a key ingredient of the sound. Working at Criteria Studios in Miami with Atlantic Records producer Tom Dowd, who had worked with Clapton on Cream's Disraeli Gears, the band recorded a double album.

The album features the hit love song "Layla", inspired by the classical poet of Persian literature, Nizami Ganjavi's The Story of Layla and Majnun, a copy of which Ian Dallas had given to Clapton. The book moved Clapton profoundly, as it was the tale of a young man who fell hopelessly in love with a beautiful, unavailable woman and who went crazy because he could not marry her. The two parts of "Layla" were recorded in separate sessions: the opening guitar section was recorded first, and for the second section, laid down a few weeks later, drummer Jim Gordon played the piano part for the melody which he claimed to have written (though Bobby Whitlock stated that Rita Coolidge wrote it).

Clapton's career successes in the 1970s were in stark contrast with the struggles he coped with in his personal life, which was troubled by romantic longings and drug and alcohol addiction. He became infatuated with Pattie Boyd, who at the time was married to close friend George Harrison, and withdrew from recording and touring to isolation in his Surrey residence as the band broke up. There he nursed a heroin addiction, which resulted in a lengthy career hiatus interrupted only by the Concert for Bangladesh in August 1971 (where he passed out on stage, was revived, and managed to finish his performance).

In January 1973, the Who's Pete Townshend organised a comeback concert for Clapton at London's Rainbow Theatre, aptly titled the "Rainbow Concert", to help Clapton kick his addiction. Clapton would return the favour by playing 'The Preacher' in Ken Russell's film version of the Who's Tommy in 1975; his appearance in the film (performing "Eyesight to the Blind") is notable as he is clearly wearing a fake beard in some shots, the result of deciding to shave off his real beard after the initial takes in an attempt to force the director to remove his earlier scene from the movie and leave the set.

In 1974, Clapton started living with Pattie Boyd (they would not marry until 1979) and was no longer using heroin (although he gradually began to drink heavily). He assembled a low-key touring band that included Radle, Miami guitarist George Terry, keyboardist Dick Sims (who died in 2011), drummer Jamie Oldaker, and vocalists Yvonne Elliman and Marcy Levy (also known as Marcella Detroit). With this band Clapton recorded 461 Ocean Boulevard (1974), an album with an emphasis on more compact songs and fewer guitar solos; the cover version of "I Shot the Sheriff" was Clapton's first number one hit and was important in bringing reggae and the music of Bob Marley to a wider audience. The 1975 album There's One in Every Crowd continued this trend. The album's original title, The World's Greatest Guitar Player (There's One in Every Crowd), was changed before pressing, as it was felt its ironic intention would be misunderstood. The band toured the world and subsequently released the 1975 live LP, E.C. Was Here. Clapton continued to release albums and toured regularly. Highlights of the period include No Reason to Cry (a collaboration with Bob Dylan and the Band); Slowhand, which featured "Wonderful Tonight" and a second JJ Cale cover, "Cocaine". In 1976 he performed as one of a string of notable guests at the farewell performance of The Band, filmed in a Martin Scorsese documentary called The Last Waltz.

The 1990s brought a series of 32 concerts to the Royal Albert Hall, such as the 24 Nights series of concerts that took place around January through February 1990, and February to March 1991. On 27 August 1990, fellow blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan, who was touring with Clapton, and three members of their road crew were killed in a helicopter crash between concerts. Then, on 20 March 1991, Clapton's four-year-old son, Conor, died after falling from the 53rd-floor window of his mother's friend's New York City apartment at 117 East 57th Street. Conor's funeral took place on 28 March at St Mary Magdelene's Church in Clapton's home village in Ripley, Surrey.

Clapton's grief was expressed in the song "Tears in Heaven", which was co-written by Will Jennings. At the 35th Grammy Awards, Clapton received six Grammys for the single "Tears in Heaven" and his Unplugged album. Unplugged features Clapton performing live in front of a small audience on 16 January 1992 at Bray Film Studios in Windsor, Berkshire, England. The album reached number one on the Billboard 200, and has since been certified Diamond by the RIAA for selling over 10 million copies in the US. On 9 September 1992, Clapton performed "Tears in Heaven" at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards, and won the award for Best Male Video.

Clapton cites Muddy Waters, Freddie King, B.B. King, Albert King, Buddy Guy, and Hubert Sumlin as guitar playing influences. Clapton stated blues musician Robert Johnson to be his single most important influence. In 2004 Clapton released CDs and DVDs entitled Sessions for Robert Johnson, featuring covers of Robert Johnson songs using electric and acoustic guitars. Clapton also singled out Buddy Holly as an influence.

Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and influential guitarists of all time. He ranked second in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and fourth in Gibson's Top 50 Guitarists.

Guitarists influenced by Clapton include Slash, Allen Collins, Richie Sambora, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Gary Moore, Duane Allman, Derek Trucks, Eddie Van Halen, Terry Kath, Brian May, Tony Iommi, Lenny Kravitz, Ted Nugent, Orianthi, Vince Gill, Brad Paisley, Jonny Buckland, Joe Don Rooney, Alex Lifeson, Jonny Lang, Carroll Bryant (song writing), John Mayer, Joe Satriani, Joe Bonamassa, Davy Knowles, Lindsay Ell, Neal Schon, and Mark Knopfler.

Clapton and Pattie Boyd married in 1979 and had no children. In 1984 while recording Behind The Sun, Clapton began a relationship with Yvonne Kelly, the manager of AIR Studios Montserrat. Although both were married to other partners at the time, they had a daughter in January 1985. She was named Ruth Kelly Clapton, but her existence was kept from the public until the media realised she was his child in 1991.

Clapton and Boyd tried unsuccessfully to have children, even trying in vitro fertilisation in 1984, but were faced instead with miscarriages. They divorced in 1988 following his affair with Italian model Lory Del Santo, who gave birth to their son, Conor, on 21 August 1986. Conor died in 1991, at the age of four and a half, when he fell out of an open bedroom window on the 53rd floor of a Manhattan apartment building. The death of his son was the inspiration for Clapton's song, "Tears in Heaven".
Clapton married Melia McEnery in a low-key church ceremony in January 2002. They have three daughters: Julie Rose (born June 2001), Ella May (born 2003) and Sophie Belle (born 2005). His grandson Isaac Eric Owen Bartlett was born in June 2013 to his oldest daughter Ruth and her husband Dean Bartlett.



Sources: Wikipedia

This work released through CC 3.0 BY-SA: Creative Commons



Monday, August 15, 2016

Teen Star: Rowan Blanchard

I don't know if Rowan intends on continuing acting when she turns 18 and beyond, but it wouldn't surprise me a bit if she does and becomes the next big thing. She is a very talented young lady. However, I kind of see her as maybe getting into politics and or marrying a bad-boy jock. lol One thing is for certain, all of my nephews and nieces seem to love her and Sabrina Carpenter.

Rowan Blanchard (born October 14, 2001) is an American actress. She is known for her role as Riley Matthews on the Disney Channel series Girl Meets World.

 Blanchard was born in Los Angeles, California, to Elizabeth and Mark Blanchard-Boulbol, who are yoga instructors. Her paternal grandfather was an immigrant from the Middle East and her paternal grandmother's ancestors are from England, Denmark and Sweden. She also has Armenian ancestry. She was named after a character in Anne Rice's The Witching Hour. Rowan has two younger siblings, Carmen and Shane.

Blanchard began acting at the age of five. In 2010, Rowan was cast as Mona's daughter in The Back-up Plan and was in the main cast of the Disney Junior Original Series Dance-A-Lot Robot as Caitlin. In 2011, she was cast as Rebecca Wilson in Spy Kids: All the Time in the World, and as Raquel Pacheco in Little in Common. In late January 2013, Blanchard was cast as Riley Matthews in the Disney Channel series Girl Meets World. She also sings the title song, along with co-star Sabrina Carpenter. The titular character is the daughter of Cory and Topanga from Boy Meets World. She is an active member of Disney Channel Circle of Stars. In early January 2015, Blanchard was cast as Cleo in the Disney Channel Original Movie, Invisible Sister.

Rowan Blanchard is an outspoken activist in areas such as feminism, human rights, and gun violence. While most of her comments regarding these issues are posted via Twitter or Tumblr, she has spoken at the UN Women and US National Committee's annual conference as part of #TeamHeForShe, a feminist campaign.

In a series of tweets in January 2016, she stated that while she had "only ever liked boys" in the past, she was "open to liking any gender" and therefore she identifies as queer.




Sources: Wikipedia

This work released through CC 3.0 BY-SA: Creative Commons


Saturday, August 13, 2016

Falling In Love With Mars - By Carroll Bryant

FALLING IN LOVE WITH MARS - By Carroll Bryant


Mars is a lady that looks at me
Looks through me like I'm not even there at all

Mars has a secret she's keeping from me
It won't let me be
She's teasing me and you know that I'm loving it

Can't turn my eyes away from her stars 
Yeah, I'm falling in love with her
Falling in love with Mars
My heart explodes
Falling in love with Mars
She's all I know
There's so much hope 
And even if she runs away she won't get too far 
I'm falling in love with Mars

Mars is a magic that you believe
That you can see with your soul
And you can't let her go

Mars is the reason that I can breathe
I just can't leave her sitting there looking so lovely 
Looking so lonely

Can't turn my eyes away from her stars 
Yeah, I'm falling in love with her
Falling in love with Mars
My heart explodes
Falling in love with Mars
She's all I know
There's so much hope 
And even if she runs away she won't get too far 
I'm falling in love with Mars

She's turning red from the embarrassment 
A space cadet without the space regret 
I'm trying hard to get a grip 
The moment ends
I let everything slip away 

Mars is a lady that looks at me
Looks through me like I'm not even there at all

Can't turn my eyes away from her stars 
Yeah, I'm falling in love with her
Falling in love with Mars
My heart explodes
Falling in love with Mars
She's all I know
There's so much hope 
And even if she runs away she won't get too far 
I'm falling in love with Mars

Can't turn my eyes away from her stars 
Because I'm falling in love with Mars


Friday, August 5, 2016

Story Time: Christmas Eve UFO


We were singing Christmas songs as we headed out of the city. Not a big city, more like a small town. A small town called Chillicothe, Ohio. It was Christmas Eve, 1972 and we just left my grandparents house after exchanging presents with them. We came up on and soon passed the hospital on state route 159 and we were now heading out to a neighboring town called Kingston. The population there may have reached the three thousand mark if you included the people who lived out in the back roads. Rural was an understatement as this area was a farmer’s paradise back in those days. It was so country that at nine years of age, I could hardly wait to join the four-H club as that was the hippest thing to do.


It was a clear night and the stars were out in full force. It was so calm and peaceful, not a hint of snow anywhere on the ground, which is unusual in these parts this time of year. Rain would have been closer to normal but no clouds came a calling this particular evening. Even the air was dry. Not overly warm but a good fifty degrees, maybe slightly less. So, it wasn’t a white Christmas but I think my mother was glad of that because she was the one doing the driving. 

Her name is Janet Forsythe and I was but one of her three children at that time. I was the middle kid. My name is Andrew. My siblings were a pain to deal with at most times but not during the holidays. I remember how cool it was to have people around me to share in this joy. My older brother, Greg, had a year and a half on me and my younger sister, Tammy was about a year and a half behind me. I was nine years old that night and I was having the best time of my young life. But that all changed when we took that first curve in the road that was the beginning of about a five mile stretch to Kingston.

It was almost like a dream. We hit that wall of fog like we were plunging into some kind of vortex, some kind of hidden door to another dimension. It was so thick, it looked more like cotton than anything else but we ran right smack into it nonetheless. My mother applied the brakes immediately and we went from fifty MPH to five MPH almost instantly. Not only did these two things get my attention real quick but the panic in my mothers’ voice shook me up as well. “Okay kids, hush. I can’t see anything, not even the road. I need you to quiet down.”


We did as we were told. I looked over at my sister. We were in the back seat and my brother was sitting shotgun. I remember how eerie it was, chilling in fact. Looking out of the windows I could see nothing, absolutely nothing but the white mist. For a nine year old boy, it was the coolest thing ever but for my mother, it was the most frightening. I had never seen fog like that before or at least, I couldn’t recall and I know I haven’t since. Even as an adult now, I have never witnessed this kind of meteorological event. I now compare it to being in a plane and flying into a thick white cloud. It was like floating on air. 


My mother was vigorously trying to see the road. She even reached over and turned off the radio. The car was as quiet as a morgue. “Greg, can you see anything? Are we still on the road or what?”
“I don’t see nothing, mom.” He answered. He was doing his best to assist while my sister and I remained still in the back. “Keep looking.” She requested, when suddenly, something caught her ears. “What’s that noise?”


“What noise mommy? I don’t hear anything.” My sister told her. My mother now began to really become concerned. “That humming sound, it sounds like a car behind us or maybe in front. Can you see anything behind us Andrew?”


I turned around and sat on my knees and stared out the back window but, I couldn’t see anything except the white wall all around us. “No mommy, I don’t see anything.”
“Well, keep looking baby. Let me know if you see headlights. I’m worried that someone might be coming up behind and will hit us. Greg,” She again turned to, “keep a look up ahead while I try and keep us on the road. Let me know if you see headlights, okay?”


We all had a job to do except for Tammy. “Mommy,” She now began to whine, “I’m scared.” Okay, so maybe she did have a job, a job that my mother apparently shared with her as she did her best to comfort. “Mommy is scared too honey but we’ll be alright. See anything back there Andrew?”
“Not yet.” I answered, keeping my eyes peeled. But maybe I kept them too peeled because there was a reflection coming off the top of the trunk that caught my little eyes and as I turned around and pushed myself backwards to look up, it was like a sci-fi come true. It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. 


Picture a full moon as it gathers in the suns reflection, illuminating like a glow-in-the-dark yo-yo. Now, picture that full moon just a couple hundred feet above your head. As perfectly round as a pizza pie, I took in this sight and mustered up every ounce of awareness to finally acknowledge my discovery. “Mom, look up above the car.”
“Not now, Andrew, I am trying to watch the road and figure out what that noise is.”
“But mom,” I again tried to tell her, “there is something above the car.”
“That’s enough, Andrew; you’re scaring your sister … and me. Now, keep your eyes on the back and let me know if you see any headlights.”


I slid down and leaned across the seat and stuck my head in-between her and my brother. “Mom, I’m not lying. There is something right above the car. It’s huge and round and glowing, like the moon.”
She took one millisecond to look at me before she addressed my brother. “Roll down your window and take a look.” 

Then, she addressed me, “If he doesn’t see anything young man then you’re in some big trouble.”


“Oh, my God!” Greg wailed out, “He isn’t kidding mom, there is something up there and it’s right above us!” So much for that spanking. I smiled victoriously and scooted back to take another look. My mother rolled her window down as she too popped her head out just enough and took a look upwards. “Jesus H. Christ.” She whispered.