RMS Titanic

Our family had a chance yesterday evening to see a very cool thing - the Titanic Artifact Exhibit at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. Julia's youth group had a block of tickets for evening entry times, and we were able to get enough tickets through the group that all four of us could go.

Everybody knows the basics of the RMS Titanic story, a White Star Line luxury liner that struck an iceberg in April of 1912 on its maiden voyage and sunk quickly with tremendous loss of life, so I won't repeat any of that here. The exhibit at the Franklin Institute was a collection of about 300 items retrieved from the debris field of the wreck, which lies in water over 2 miles deep approximately 375 miles south of Newfoundland.

I can't say enough about the quality of the exhibit; it was well laid out, tracing the history of the ship in chronological order, from its inception as an idea of the most luxurious ship afloat, to the fateful events that followed. The layout and lighting was well done, and the variety of artifacts was terrific. On display were everything from mechanical and structural bits through the personal effects and items of specific individual people. The personal items were the highlights of the exhibit. This truly was one of those times where you could feel the history of what you were seeing. The artifacts themselves were carefully watched over in climate controlled displays, but there was one exception to this. Near the end of the tour, there was a piece of iron girder that was in a case that had one small opening so that you could touch it with an outstretched finger. It may sound corny, but the opportunity to touch this piece of history was a moving experience for someone like me who has such a strong love of history.

The opportunity to see this really came upon us by chance, but I am very very glad that it did. I wish that photography had been allowed so that I could have taken a few pictures, but that is a minor quibble. The exhibit is only here in Philadelphia for another week, but anyone who has a chance to see this anywhere else around the world should do so.

Crusades Game 1

A few finished bases

I've decided that the best way to make some progress on the 15mm Crusades re-basing effort is to set a manageable and meaningful short term goal. There is no better goal in miniatures than to be getting ready to put on a game, so that's what I am going to do. I will do a small solo campaign using Day of Battle. Whatever figures I need as the games progress is what I will need to make sure I have done before I can continue. I won't play a game until everything for that game is 100% complete. That includes figures as well as terrain.

With that in mind, I will start with a Crusader faction using the Crusader States list ("K1" in the Crusades supplement), and a Saracen faction using the Ayyubid Egyptian list ("K5"). Since the army generation rules provide good variability in what troop types respond to a warlord's summons, this should be a perfect way to be forced to base up different types of troops from game to game.

Each side will start with a Social Rank 3 warlord, Esteem 2 (and therefore Household value of 5).

The Crusaders:
Card draws (face, face, joker) result in 21 Army Points (5 + 5 + [3x2] + 5). This is 7 units (21/3). This comes to 2 mounted, 1 missile, 3 foot, and 1 "random" unit (which turns out to be a mounted unit), plus the free retinue unit choice. Die rolls on the muster chart result in:

• 1 Holy order knights (the free retinue choice), 2 mounted knights, 1 mounted sergeants
• 1 crossbow unit
• 1 Holy order spear unit, 2 regular spear units

The Egyptians:
The card draws (face, 9, 2) result in 17 Army Points (5+5+2+5 - number cards are worth their value, but to a maximum of the warlord's household value). This is 6 units (17/3 = 5.67). This comes to 3 mounted, 2 missile and 1 foot, plus one free retinue unit choice. Die rolls on the muster chart result in:

• 1 Royal Mameluke cavalry (the free retinue choice), 2 Mameluke cavalry, 1 light cavalry with bows
• 1 skirmisher with javelins, 1 skirmisher with bows
• 1 spear unit with javelins

Each army will also need a few command bases. Details on exact upgrades for the units prior to the actual game will be dealt with later, but none of that happens until the units above are complete. I have some units completed, but not all of the above. What remains to be done should be a very manageable bit of work.

Update - A quick review of my figures shows that only 1 Crusader spear unit and the 2 Saracen skirmish units still need to have the figs glued to the bases (along with the sand). The remainder are close to completion, needing only for the bases to be painted and flocked. So this is primarily an exercise in cosmetic base finishing. However, since I do need to do some gluing, I will probably do a dozen or so other various foot units at the same time for future games. I am doing pretty well on cavalry; much less so on infantry.

1,000 Geocaches!

I finally hit a huge geocaching milestone this afternoon: 1,000 cache finds. I had gotten to 998 a couple weekends ago, and promised Grace that I would wait to get this with her. She then decided last weekend that she was having too much fun playing and doing other things to go with me, and the weather was not great, so one thing led to another and I didn't get out at all.

I figured I would give it one last chance to do this with the family today before going out by myself tomorrow. As it turns out, we had an Easter Egg hunt event for the girls with Julia's social group, and would be driving right past the community park that I had picked out for caches 999 and 1000.

I had looked at caches in the area wondering whether there was something special that I should do for this milestone; something difficult, or a puzzle, or something that I had looked for before and been unable to find. In the end, only one thing made sense for me to do...something that would represent what all those caches have meant to me. And so I dragged the family to Bonsall Park, not that far from home, and the three of us found two caches while my wife looked on in amusement (and took our picture). It seems fitting that this milestone should be a cache in a community park with the kids.

It has been a lot of fun, and I am grateful to the many people in this hobby who take the time to hide and maintain these caches. Geocaching has taken me to many new places, and shown me many things I would not have otherwise seen. Hopefully the next 1,000 will be as much fun as the first thousand were.

The Beat Goes On

Continuing yesterday's theme of buying concert tickets... I am now also going to see The Eagles in Philadelphia on July 16. Anthony and Cathy were over for dinner last night, and he mentioned that he had gotten an email about an Amex pre-sale on tickets for this concert to go on sale at 10am this morning, before going on sale to the general public later this week. It took less than a minute for us all to decide that this is one of those classic groups worth seeing once in a lifetime, and none of us have seen them before. After confirming that all of the important members of the band were going to be on this tour (Henley, Frey, Walsh and Schmitt), we agreed Anthony should get whatever he could. A few minutes after 10 this morning I got the call that we are all set.

So that is one in July and one in August now.

Justin Hayward Solo Tour, 2013

I saw a post on Facebook a few days ago where my sister-in-law had commented on Justin Hayward coming to Wilmington this summer on a solo tour in support of his recently released new album Spirits of the Western Sky. I'm glad she did, because this was news to me, and tickets were scheduled to go on sale at noon today.

He is playing at the World Cafe Live at the Queen, which seems to be a very small theater/club. Judging from the seating chart, it seats maybe 350 people, and has bars, waitress service, food, etc... According to their web site, the Balcony area is considered the premium seating, at least in terms of amenities.

This is a "must-go at any cost" event for me, so I logged on, stalked the website until noon, and got amazing tickets at an amazing price ($118 total including all fees and surcharges for the pair). Amp and I will be sitting in the center two seats of the first row of the Balcony. If the seating diagram is to scale, this would put us right above the front of the tables on the floor level, making it about 10 rows from the stage. The website allowed you to click on what was currently available on a seating chart and select exactly what you wanted, much like registering for airline seating these days, and these were my first choice. In retrospect, I wonder what if anything would have been available in the very first row, but I am not going to second guess myself - I got in, staked my claim where I wanted to be, and got my first choice. Hard to argue with that. Looking at tickets now at about 1:00pm, most seats are gone...

I am excited beyond belief at the thought of seeing my musical hero in such a small and intimate setting. One of my favorite concert DVDs ever is of Hayward in San Juan Capistrano perhaps 15 years ago, where he does a mix of Moodies and solo music, acoustic and electric, sometimes with a band of 3 or 4, and sometimes alone on stage. I would imagine this will be at least somewhat like that. I can't wait!

Miniatures - March/April Planning

I have been doing my usual "this and that" as far as hobby related things go, making a little progress on various projects but with no real goal in mind. Over the next 4 to 6 weeks, I plan to actually focus on a few specific tasks, and have some goals that I would like to see substantially completed by the end of April. Some of them are related to moving along a couple of projects that have lain mostly dormant for way too long, and a few are more spring cleaning oriented so I can get some things off the work bench and be able to move forward on new things. If I don't get past some of these tedious tasks, I may well stay bogged down forever...

Decision Making and purchasing:

• I have blogged previously about my ongoing indecision about what to do with Napoleonics, and the ongoing quest for a set of rules that I like and am comfortable settling on. I really like From Valmy to Waterloo, but they are intricate, time consuming, and not a set of rules that we can use with some of the more casual gamers in our little group. Games where I am the only one who knows the rules are problematic. LaSalle was fun enough when we played it, but it seemed exceedingly generic to me, and despite enjoying the game or two we had of it, I have no overwhelming interest in going back to it. Leo's suggestion, to be able to at least be playing Nappy's before we die, is to just bite the bullet and get Age of Eagles, the Fire and Fury derivation. At least we know this can be played by the group we have. Shako also looks promising. Ultimately, I need to settle on a basing scheme that works for what we are likely to be playing, stick to it, and consolidate the figures I have into that scheme. At this point, that seems to be leaning pretty strongly to four 15mm figs in a block on a 3/4 inch by 1 inch base. Artillery and cavalry as I have them based now will work for just about any system. Litko base order to follow.
• Figure out what my next painting order will be to ship off to Sri Lanka. That way I will know what figures I need to order, if any.
• Decide whether I want to do anything for skirmish basing. This would be re-using or potentially painting new figures for either Saga or Chris Parker's skirmish rules that he has under development. Order bases with the Napoleonics base order if I decide to do this.
• Order the Seven Years War flags that I will need for my completed Austrians and pending Prussians. Flag Dude flags of course....

Basing:

• The 15mm Crusades project has languished for well over a year because of the decision I made to rebase my armies on Impetus style bases as opposed to WRG style basing. I stripped enough figures off the existing bases to make the armies unusable, but bogged down in the magnitude (and boredom) of the effort. I need to strip all figures off the old bases and make at least some progress toward rebasing enough figures to be able to do a small game. Having usable armies should provide the needed boost to keep going, or at least make it so that the lack of progress isn't completely crippling.
• Flock bases. I have several trays of completed figures that are based and have had the bases painted, but have not gotten their final dullcote and then flocking. This is a tedious task, but it will allow me to put the darned figures away finally and check them off the "in progress" list.

Buildings and Terrain:

• I have a dozen or so new large Woodland Scenics trees that need to be based (they are too big to stand up on their own). Cut bases, glue, paint, flock.
• I began making a series of terrain pieces that could be used as either hedgerows for 15mm WW2 or hedges for 25mm figs. There are about 10 pieces substantially done and another fifteen of so that have just been started. These can be knocked out quickly. Priming, sand gluing, painting, foliage cluster gluing, final flocking of the edges.
• A dozen or so buildings for various 15mm periods have been either primed or started. These are easy to paint with layered wet-brushing/dry-brushing and should also be able to be knocked out quickly.

So that's the plan. Let's see how it goes... This list should be whittled down by the end of March, and complete or substantially complete by the end of April.

Cold Wars 2013, Day 2

AWI on "teddy bear fur" terrain. Very nice...

Day 2 at Cold Wars for me was fairly low key. After my big caching day on Thursday, I was close enough to 1,000 that I wanted to take advantage of the multitude of Lancaster caches, so I spent the first hour and a half of my day in Lancaster getting 13 caches in a commercial area NW of the Lancaster Host convention site. All easy caches, but good quantity in a short period of time. This left me with 998 caches, and at that point I had to stop because I had promised Grace that I would not get to 1,000 without her. By 9:45am, my caching was done and I was walking into the show. Not a bad use of a part of a morning...

As for the show itself, Saturday was certainly more crowded than Friday, but it still didn't seem tremendously busy to me. There were a bunch of attractive games to look at, and some bits of inspiration to be sure. Some really well executed teddy bear fur terrain was one of these, and I have already been googling advice on how to make nice terrain mats from this material (see the AWI picture attached for a great example).

Today's purchases were a building and an additional castle wall section from Miniature Building Authority, and a few more packs of Blue Moon 15mm Napoleonics (bicorne French artillery crew and guns).

Napoleonics in the Peninsula

The high point of the day though was getting a chance to have a glass of wine (or two) at the bar with Chris Parker and having the opportunity to discuss his new skirmish level adaptation of Day of Battle. That and getting a chance to see a bunch of friends, older and newer, was what really made the drive out to the show worthwhile. Just about anything I buy at these shows could just as easily be bought on the internet, but nothing can replace the bits of inspiration that come from seeing the really well put together games, nicely painted figures, and good terrain ideas that can be shamelessly stolen from.

The Cornfield at Antietam, ACW, 1862.

It's hard to believe that the next convention will be Fall In in November. I am still not happy that Historicon was moved from my backyard to 3.5 hours south, but what can you do. Maybe I need to investigate some smaller local shows...

Cold Wars 2013, Day 1

Poles vs Russians in 25mm in Carnage and Glory II

After my goof yesterday, today was actually the start of Cold Wars. I left for Lancaster after dropping elder daughter at school, and drove through a blowing snow squall most of the way out. I arrived at around 8:15, but had one work conference call that I needed to be on from 9:00 to 9:30, so rather than going into the show and registering, I took a few minutes to find one nearby geocache before getting back to my car for the call.

After my call I made my way in to the register, and then wandered around for a while. There wasn't much going on yet, and the dealer area didn't open until noon, so after exhausting the "mill about and look at the games" possibilities, I went back out to find another geocache across the street, but came up empty. But at least that killed enough extra time that I was able to go back to the show and wander the dealer area, as well as the increasing number of games being set up. I paid particular attention to an 1813 Napoleonic game using Age of Eagles, the Fire and Fury variant, and a handful of Fireball Forward WW2 games (a rules set that Leo heartily endorses and I have purchased and read, and like the look of).

19th cent. Prussians vs Bavarians in 6mm - Bruce Weigle

I left at around 3:30 to get home in plenty of time for some family things tonight, but it was an enjoyable day, and I got to see a lot of acquaintances from over the years. I'll be going back tomorrow for a full day, and hope to get into a game or two to play.

No convention write up, no matter how brief, would be complete without listing the spoils of war, which were modest. Or maybe moderate. I picked up Age of Eagles as well as Chris Parker's new Day of Battle supplement for The Crusades. I also picked up an order from Old Glory that I had called in a few weeks ago for pick up at the show. This contained odds and ends of medieval cavalry to expand some existing units (German knights and Teutonic sergeants - you can never have too much medieval cavalry) as well as some Seven Years War Austrian and Prussian artillery and Austrian Grenzers. Leo has shown a renewed interest in gaming Napoleonics, and I have been looking at early war Prussians and bicorne French, so I picked up a few packs of Blue Moon (Old Glory) 15mm/18mm 1806 Prussians to paint as samples. If I like the figures, which I am sure I will, I will get more and send an order off to Sri Lanka to get an army started. I'll be starting with a few packs of musketeers and fusiliers, as well as some guns and crew. I just hope my eyes can still see well enough to paint these little buggers...

A Very Smiley Day

I had a very nice day today, but not at all in the way I had foreseen. The annual Cold Wars miniatures and wargaming convention in Lancaster PA was due to begin today and run through Sunday. I planned to do my usual for a convention of this sort so close to home, which was to take a couple of days vacation from work and go out to Lancaster during the day, returning home by dinner much as if it were a normal work day. Lancaster is also a motherlode of unfound geocaches for me, so I planned to get a modest start in the morning, do a little geocaching in the later morning, and be able to be at the convention by the time it opened around noon.

This would have been a good plan if it weren't for the fact that I called Leo to check on his plans as I drove out, and was informed that I had misinterpreted the "begins on Thursday" part of the show, insofar as it beginning Thursday really meant that the registration desk and some preliminary games would be played Thursday evening. Nothing else were to happen until Friday morning. Oops.

So, having my GPS unit loaded with 1,000 Lancaster area geocaches, and a whole day of nice weather to burn, I came up with Plan B.

Many smileys along the trail

Plan B, in short, was to find the eastern end of the Enola Low-Grade Line hiking trail, which a Lancaster area caching group has made into a "power trail", and see if I could rack up a substantial number of geocaches. A Power Trail is a string of easy to find geocaches, generally along a hiking trail, that have been placed as close as possible to the minimum required separation of 1/10th of a mile, constructed for the purpose of allowing geocachers to find a large number of caches in as short period of time and space as possible.

I found the eastern end of the trail, near cache #158, and parked by the side of a country road. I walked about a half mile of the trail and found the first five caches, and would've hiked further from there, but was a little nervous about leaving my car parked for an extended period time on the road shoulder on some farmer's field. I got back in the car and drove further down the road, and was happy to find a trailhead parking lot where route 896 crosses the trail. From here I could hike as far as time and my legs would allow and not be in any danger of having my car disappear.

All in all, between 11:00am and 2:30pm, I hiked approximately 8 miles (4 out and 4 back) and found a total of 34 caches. It was a nice sunny cool and blustery day, and there wasn't another soul on the trail. The peace and solitude and crunch of gravel underfoot was a welcome change to too many days behind a desk. The caches were easy, the hiking was really more a walk than a hike, but it was extremely nice to stretch the legs and have a day outdoors.

By the time I got back to my car, I still had some time (but not a lot of leg energy), so I decided to drive around and get some additional easy caches. A drive up 896 through Strasburg, across route 30, and then east for a ways along the old Philadelphia Pike netted another 11 caches, for a day's total of 45. This easily eclipsed my previous daily high of 34 (?), achieved in and around Gettysburg on the way to another wargaming convention. This brings me to a total of 984 caches, just shy of a caching magic number of 1,000. My day's total of 45 also eclipses my grand total for the entire year of 2012, which was an embarrassingly low 40. Yikes. I have now found 55 in the last week...

I am remembering how much I like geocaching, and the places that it takes me, and am committed to making the effort to set aside some time for it this year. I will achieve the 1,000 milestone very soon, and Grace has made me promise that she must be present when I do. This brings a smile to my face.

I also still get to maintain the anticipation of a wargaming convention, which will occur tomorrow, and not today. Silly me... But in the unexpected, we often find blessings.

Geocaching - 2012 and 2013

This will of necessity be a very short post. Geocaching, while I claim to have not lost an interest in it, was not much of a factor in spending my free time last year. After 558 caches in 2010 and 327 more in 2011, I started the year at 885 and ended the year a paltry 40 caches later at 925.

Along the way, I did add some additional geography, notably the state of Texas in January, Washington DC on the family trip in the summer, and several upstate New York counties during the Adirondacks trip with the guys. It does seem that caching while traveling was about the only caching I did.

This year, I intend to get back out and do some more of this, hopefully with a daughter or two (or a brother) in tow. I know that Dave would be more than willing to take part in some hiking/caching trips, as this is the kind of caching he likes to do, and we can get outside, get some exercise, and kill two birds with one stone. The greatest enjoyment I get from gecaching continues to be the fact that it takes me to places, and allows me to see, more things than I would see otherwise. I love collecting new geography...

As for goals in 2013, I will be as vague with this as I was with my miniatures hobby goals posted earlier this month. This ties back into something that my wise older brother mentioned in a blog post of his at some point; I have chosen this year to have "intentions" and not "goals." Goals seem very specific and beg to be measured. Goals can almost become a burden. Intentions are more an expression of where your heart is at at a given point in time. So I have intentions.

• Simply put, I want to be more active than I was this year (which could be rephrased as being active at all).
• Going into 2012, based on prior history, it was inconceivable that I would not reach the major caching milestone of 1,000 finds. But to quote Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride (with regards to "inconceivable")... "I don't think it means what you think it means." I managed to come up way short. I will not come up short again this year. I don't know how far beyond 1,000 I will get, but I will get this milestone. I promise myself that much. If I could get 250-ish finds and end near 1200, that would be a fine year. Anything beyond that would be a bonus.
• I have this "collecting" thing about getting new geographies. I would like to add a few states and some new counties in the local area. The guys trip for this year is leaning toward Maine, so that would seem to be a no-brainer. Perhaps business travel will add a state or two. Some road trips in the summer to Jersey, Maryland or Delaware beaches would add some counties.
• In relation to the silly statistics that cachers keep track of, I would like to fill in some of the empty dates on my calendar (the ultimate goal being a find on every calendar date in a 366 day year). 2012 was a leap year, and I did get a cache on February 29, so that is not something I will have to wait until 2016 to deal with. I begin the year with just short of 260 dates; I would like to get 20 or 30 more. This would require judicious planning of "on the way to work" and lunchtime cache finds. In this case, the fact that I have been only an occasional cacher in 2012 should help. New caches have been placed that I have not been paying attention to or have dealt with.

The most important thing by far will be to get back to making this a fun part of my limited spare time. I still have the interest...I just need to make the time.

Postcards from a Rock and Roll Tour

I'm not exactly sure what I was doing at the time, but I was on Amazon looking for something, and I stumbled across a link to the above titled book. Postcards from a Rock and Roll Tour is a book length series of vignettes written by Gordon Marshall, the backing drummer for the Moody Blues, and covers a summer and fall tour of the US and Great Britain in 2010. Given my love of the Moody Blues, I ordered a copy and devoured it in a couple of days.

It was a very interesting book, and a good read in its own right, but was a little disappointing in some ways.

Marshall first toured with the Moodies in 1991 in what was supposed to be a nine-week stint as a second backup drummer while Graeme Edge, the drummer, played through and recovered from an injury. Things went well, and Marshall has been touring with the band ever since. His journal-style recollections from this particular tour are a fascinating insight into the life of a traveling musician, if a bit repetitive at times. Varying quality food, some sightseeing, familiar venues, jogging for exercise, exhaustion, planes (rarely) and tour buses (generally). The Moodies have been touring for the last bunch of years with three original members as well as four secondary musicians to fill out the sound. Marshall paints a picture of the main guys being nice and down to earth, but recognizes that even after 20+ years touring with the band, there is a difference to being with the band versus in the band (not with any bitterness, just matter of fact). Things like playing a show in one city one night, getting in the tour bus at midnight for the eight hour overnight ride to the next city, while the three main guys hop a lear jet and get there in an hour and a half. As you would expect, being a superstar means you ride the bus some of the time, but not all of the time...

The only minor disappointment for me was that the amount of content specific to the Moody Blues was less than I had hoped for. Presumably in respecting the privacy of the others (his employers), there is little sharing of any kind of personal insight into any of them, and much of what Marshall writes could be true of touring with any band, not just one of my favorites. That is a quibble though of a hard core fan; this is a quick fun read that would be good under any circumstances, and had enough Moodies material to keep me happy.

History Book - Protecting the Flank

Protecting the Flank: The Battles for Brinkerhoff's Ridge and East Cavalry Field, by Eric J. Wittenberg (2002).

I finished this smallish book over the weekend, and liked it very much. It's been sitting on the bookshelf for quite a while, and I was in the mood for a Civil War book, so I started it last week and finished it in a matter of a few evenings.

The book covers the actions on the northeast flank of the Gettysburg battlefield on July 2nd and 3rd, 1863. On the 2nd, David Gregg's Union cavalry division contested Brinkerhoff's Ridge against Walker's "Stonewall" Brigade of Johnson's Division of Ewell's Corps, which was feeling for the Union flank. On the 3rd, Gregg's division (reinforced by other Union cavalry elements) successfully held off a substantial attack by Stuart's cavalry, which was attempting to turn the Union flank and get into the Union rear in conjunction with the Pickett-Pettigrew-Trimble charge occurring elsewhere on the field.

This is the second or third of Wittenberg's books that I have read, and he has an easy to read style. This particular book is a relatively light 132 pages (not including the substantial section on the driving tour of the battlefield today), but has a nice amount of detail on a part of the battle that is generally glossed over quickly in the histories of the overall battle, and a part that I didn't know much about. It was informative, and taught me some things, which is always what you want.

There are lots of good maps, and pictures of many of the officers and men from units on both sides. As always, there are the repetitive quotes about "the toughest fight ever in the history of mankind", "bullets flying thick as hail", and "Captain XYZ was most gallant soldier ever", but not excessively so. A very good read.

Recommended for those with those with an interest in Civil War cavalry actions and/or a deep interest in Gettysburg.

Les Miserables

My wife and I enjoy musical theater, and good music in general, and my favorite stage musical is Les Miserables by a wide margin. Over the last year or so, daughter Julia has become obsessed with Les Miz through the magic of YouTube and the iPad. When we saw that a traveling company of the 25th anniversary staging was coming to the Academy of Music, it seemed a logical thing for Julia to ask Santa for as her big Christmas wish. Santa came through in a big way, and so yesterday the three of us went into the city for the 2pm Saturday matinee.

Amp and I have seen the show three times, but none of them recently. Our first time seeing this would have been in the late 1980's in Philadelphia, probably at the Forrest Theater. For that show, Craig Schulman (one of the more famous American Jean Valjeans) was the lead but we saw his understudy Mark McVey instead. The second time we saw it in Philly a few years later, Mark McVey was the lead, but we saw his understudy instead. Finally, things came full circle the third time we saw the show a few years later on Broadway, when we saw Schulman as Valjean (in a show that also featured pop star Ricky Martin as Marius...weakly I might add).

Our seats for this show were in the third row, center balcony, and gave us a fantastic vantage. Julia was so excited I thought she might burst while waiting for the show to begin. I saw the conductor enter the pit under stage center, and saw him raise the baton to launch into the overture, but Julia did not, and when the music started she pretty much jumped out of her chair. We all had a good laugh at that.

The new 25th anniversary staging of the show had minor differences from what we had seen before, and everything was terrific. The cast was great (Peter Lockyer as Valjean, Andrew Varela as Javert), the orchestra was tight, Julia was in her own personal heaven, and it was a truly great show. I would say that this was as good if not better than any of the other shows we had seen over the years, which is saying a lot. All the highlight songs were fantastic, the cast was strong, and the show had as much emotional impact on me this time as it had in all prior viewings (yes, I do tear up a little when Valjean dies...). Javert, my favorite character, was fantastic, and his suicide scene was staged amazingly well when he plunges from the bridge into the swirling waters below. Two of my favorite songs are Javert's Stars and Soliloquy (Javert's Suicide), and both were sung with the passion and... ferocity... that they require. I was very pleased.

It was a wonderful afternoon out in the city, and Julia absolutely loved it. The look on her face all throughout the show and afterwards was priceless. Nothing gives me a warmer feeling inside than making my children happy, and this was a great day for Julia.

Miniatures - Looking Back and Ahead

I guess it is time again for the obligatory "what I did in 2012 and what I plan to do in 2013" series of posts, so here goes (miniatures hobby stuff anyway...).

2012 in Review
2012 was a very different year for me with regards to my miniatures hobby. I probably painted more things this year, and in greater variety, than in any year in recent memory. And although "recent memory" these days often barely stretches back to breakfast, as far as painting goes this may have been one of my more productive years ever. While not always documented here on the blog, at various times I painted more medievals, some Seven Years War, some Napoleonics (in 2 scales), some fantasy, some science fiction, lots of buildings, and a whole variety of other odds and ends. I showed my typical lack of focus, with most of my painting moving from period to period and topic to topic, but in aggregate, I painted a lot. In terms of any individual period though, I didn't paint much (with the exception of medievals, where I always paint plenty).

On the actual gaming front it was a whole different story. Outside of some conventions games, there were very few games played this year. That is something that needs to change. I get great enjoyment and relaxation from painting in and of itself, but actually using the figures is something I shouldn't lose sight of. It's amazing how fast time passes...

I ended the year by making myself a new paint rack, so that I can better organize my painting area. It seems that if you leave paint jars unsupervised overnight they tend to multiply, or so it appears to me. So a larger paint rack built to fill the available space seemed reasonable, and was a quick holiday vacation project.

2013 in Intent
Other than the aforementioned need to play more games and use my figs, there isn't too much I would change about my painting from this year. I am content to move from project to project adding a unit or two here and there, and my vague goals below will bear that out. The periods that I am collecting are well enough along (for the most part) that painting the way I have been is adequate.

(All are 25mm unless noted otherwise)
Medieval periods

• 15mm Crusaders - Finish the long overdue re-basing project to get them all onto Impetus style bases. Add a few scenery pieces.
• Hundred Years War - Add a few units by finishing up painting existing fig stock. This is primarily more mounted knights and a scattering of foot.
• Generic Medievals - Again, use primarily existing fig stock to add a few units, especially more mounted knights. These will come from Old Glory's 3rd Crusades range and the Mongols/Liegnitz range.
• Ottomans - I don't have enough of these painted yet to game with, so I should probably spend more of my medieval time working on these. We shall see...

Napoleonics

• Maybe paint a unit or two in 25mm just for fun.
• 15mm - Decide on a basing scheme and stick to it. I have French, Peninsula opponents, and some Austrians, all in a variety of basing schemes. Perhaps add some bicorne Prussians or Austrians to go with my bicorne French (who need painting).

Horse and Musket periods (other)

• Seven Years War - Finish basing the Austrian order that is back from Sri Lanka. Assemble and paint Austrian and Prussian artillery to go with the crew that are done. Pack and ship an order of Prussians out to Sri Lanka for painting.
• English Civil War - Add a unit or two to this little side project which will never ever be completed.

Others

• Lord of the Rings - Make some progress on my Rohan and Isengard armies.
• Fantasy - Paint a few units of Warhammer Empire or Undead if the mood strikes.
• Sci Fi - Likewise for Imperial Guard and Tyranids. Or sell this stuff off (probably a better option).

And so that is the goal. Or intent, as I said above. I don't plan to hold myself to anything in particular, as I am very much in a phase of "do what I want when I want." As always, this could change tomorrow...

Concerts - 2012

One of the things I wanted to take advantage of in 2012 was the opportunity to see as much live music as reasonable. I did a pretty good job of that.

Eric Johnson and a Fender Stratocaster

The year started with an amazing Eric Johnson concert at the Colonial Theater in Phoenixville in January. Then there was Willie Nelson at the Keswick in May. Both of these were firsts for me, and great shows.

There was a gap after Willie, but the Fall and Winter were good, with Rush at the Wells Fargo Center (3rd time) and Asia at the Keswick (2nd time, but 29 years after the first time) in October, and the Moody Blues in Atlantic City in November.

In December there is one more show ahead, with Little Feat coming to the Scottish Rite auditorium in South Jersey on Saturday evening. This is another band from long ago that I have always liked, but have never seen live. Dave saw them earlier this year at the Philadelphia Folk Festival and raved about them. He bought the tickets to this show and had extras, so I will be gladly tagging along. Feats don't fail me now!

From a concert-going perspective, if every year could be like this I would be very happy indeed. Going into 2013, I will renew my commitment to seeing as many bands as I can, especially as so many of the groups that I like are getting up there in years and there may not be that many chances left to see some of them.

In 2013 I plan to take advantage of any opportunities that come along, but high on my list would be seeing Yes again if the stars align... And Eric Clapton...

Christmas Day 2012

As always, Santa has been good to us this year. And the kids were kind as well, with Grace not waking up until 8am, at which time the festivities began.

Julia's favorite music is the soundtrack to Les Miserables (go figure), and with a touring company coming the Academy of Music in a week or so and the movie version starting today, this Christmas season for her has been all about wanting Les Miz stuff. She wasn't disappointed. Santa managed to get 3 tickets for the matinee downtown a week from Saturday, along with all sorts of books, CDs, videos and movie tie-in materials. She was in heaven. As I write this at 2:30 in the afternoon on Christmas day, she and Amp are at the movies. She doesn't even know she is also getting a Nintendo 3DS xl later, which will also make her very happy.

Grace got a kitchen set for her American Girl doll collection, some other doll odds and ends, an Otter Box to protect her already cracked iTouch, One Direction CDs, and a bunch of little things.

Amp got some clothing, a nice pair of boots, some music (Bruno Mars) and a few other things.

I was fortunate to get some music (all Asia; Phoenix and "XXX", and a live one from 2009), a couple of books (digital photography and a nice guitar how-to), as well as a new guitar toy; a Dunlop Crybaby wah pedal with power supply and extra cords. I need guitar toys like a need a hole in my head, but they are fun and I enjoy playing around with them. Perhaps some day my ability will come close to catching up to my purchases. Probably not, but you never know. One can dream...

I write this while killing some time waiting for 4pm to roll around so I can get an 8 lb standing rib roast into the oven. Nothing says holiday like a huge hunk of medium rare red meat.

Like Thanksgiving, it is also worth taking a moment to reflect and be appreciative of all that we have. We are more fortunate than most, and I recognize that. Very fortunate indeed.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!

Christmas Eve 2012

It's mid-afternoon on Christmas Eve 2012, and it's turning out to be a pretty lazy day. My wife's sister and her family are staying with us for a few days, which is nice, as it gives us a chance to be together and for Grace to play with her cousins. Later tonight we will head over to Anthony and Cathy's (our second family) and spend some time with them before coming back and getting the girls into bed.

Tomorrow will be presents in the morning, a late brunch, grazing on all sorts of goodies throughout the day, and then a nice heavy dinner of a standing rib roast to end the day with a food coma. My Mom and brother Chris are going to Brother Dave's house, which we will miss out on this year because of company. We'll have to catch up with them over the next few days.

Work has been crazy in December, and the down time is especially welcome. There will be some checking of the Blackberry this coming week but not too bad. I'm not going back into the office until January 2. The time with family will be nice.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Quality Time

It's nice to be able to spend a good chunk of time at home with family and friends over the holidays, and to be able to indulge my passion for cooking.

Grace is my constant companion in the kitchen these days, and I am thrilled that she is showing an interest in learning how to cook alongside me. She is my mixer, my stirrer, and where it makes sense, my slicer/chopper.

I am trying to make her understand that flames on the range are dangerous, as are boiling liquids, hot ingredients and sharp objects like knives. But I am also trying to teach her that accidents can be prevented by having the appropriate training in what to do, understanding how everything works in the kitchen and in the cooking process, and being respectful of the dangerous items. And proper adult supervision of course. She is a very attentive student and is very careful about things like where her long hair is, what is hot and what is not, etc. She's also learning a lot about ingredients, cooking methods, and what goes well together.

We have a lot of fun together, and it is great that she is the one asking me to be involved, rather than me asking her to help out with something that doesn't interest her. She makes me proud.

10 inch razor sharp chef's knife with proper technique

Dave Brubeck, Rest In Peace

I learned with great sadness that Dave Brubeck, one of the greatest jazz pianists (and musicians) of all time, died yesterday at the age of 91. I am a big fan of jazz music in general, and especially the era of the pioneers in the 1950's and 1960's. Brubeck would be front and center among the pantheon of giants from that era: Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Thelonius Monk, Chet Baker, etc. Having played trumpet for many years, I have always had a special fondness for the great jazz trumpeters, but the melodic beauty and technical complexity of Brubeck's playing always struck a chord with me. A quick peek at the CD collection shows that I own at least 7 of his albums. Certainly the Time Out album containing Take Five and Blue Rondo a la Turk must rank as one of the greatest jazz albums of all time. Most people wouldn't recognize the name (song or artist), but if you hummed the music from the Infiniti car commercials from a few years back, just about everyone would recognize the tune. And this is after Time Out sold a million copies on vinyl 50 years ago, and merited a jazz musician unparalleled commercial success. A quick read through some of the articles that a Google search turned up today helped drive home the point of how tremendously influential Brubeck was, and I am not enough of an expert to be able to judge that, but what I do know is that he created some truly wonderful music that sounds as fresh and alive today as it did the day it was composed. Farewell Dave.

Moody Blues, Atlantic City NJ, Fri Nov 30, 2012

As has been well-documented here in the past, The Moody Blues are one of my favorite bands, if not my favorite band of all time. I have seen them more times live than any other band by far (at least a dozen times beginning in 1982 at the Spectrum; Rush and Dire Straits/Mark Knopfler are a very distant second at 3 times each if memory serves). We were sitting around our kitchen table with Anthony and Cathy one evening a few months back when I got an email notification that they were coming to Caesar's Palace in Atlantic City. Anthony said that they were a band that he had always wanted to see, and I said that given their ages he should see them sooner rather than later. Before the evening was over, much to my surprise (and pleasure), we had four tickets to the concert, a pair of hotel rooms, and plans to do an overnight trip to see them.

Consequently, by 3pm on Friday, brother Dave's Darling Wife was at my house to stay with the kids overnight, and the four of us were on the road to AC. We arrived at Caesar's at around 4:30 after a quick and uneventful drive, freshened up, and then wandered around the casino killing time before our 6:15 dinner reservation. We wandered through the gaming areas (most of which I find fascinating, but don't know the rules), checked out some of the shops, and settled in for a drink at a place next to the restaurant.

Dinner was at Buddakan, a Steven Starr asian fusion place, and it was absolutely fabulous. All four of us appreciate good food, and this was a meal to remember. We all agreed to try the chef's tasting menu, and out of the 4 appetizers, 4 entrees and 3 desserts, ten out of the eleven selections were fantastic. And the one that wasn't fantastic was still perfectly fine, just not memorable. Especially memorable were the edamame ravioli, the asian "caesar" salad, the king salmon and the horseradish crusted filet. Even the side dishes of wasabi mashed potatoes and grilled eggplant were out of this world (ok, make that 13 dishes not 11).

By the time dinner was over, it was time to make our way to the "Circus Maximus" theater for the concert. I was very excited, but also a little apprehensive, to be honest. My heroes were getting pretty well up there in years, and I was unsure as to how they would sound. Since this was Anthony and Cathy's first show with them, I hoped they'd sound good. The theater was small, perhaps a few thousand seats, and was completely sold out. By my count, we were in the 21st row, a little off to the left of center. Great seats. The band took the stage a few minutes after the 9pm show time, and launched into a setlist that, having researched it on the internet ahead of time, looked to be a greatest hits show (not surprisingly).

Having seen them the number of times that I have, there is a lot of live experience that I have to draw on by way of comparison, and my initial impression was that they sounded good from an instrumental standpoint, but that Justin Hayward's voice sounded strained. I don't know how to describe it exactly, but I just got the sense that he was struggling somewhat. I began to believe that this was true when they began to skip some songs compared to the expected setlist that I had written down from shows earlier in the week. One of the things about the Moodies is that they tend to be very predictable on tour, rarely straying from that tour's setlist on a night to night basis. If the prior shows' posted lists can be trusted, they ended up skipping 5 of the intended 20 songs, making for a fairly brief hour and a half show.

The exact setlist they did perform was (and you can bet the house on the accuracy of this...):

1. Gemini Dream
2. The Voice
3. Steppin in a Slide Zone
4. You and Me
5. Tuesday Afternoon
6. Peak Hour
7. I Know You're Out There Somewhere
8. The Story in Your Eyes
9. Your Wildest Dreams
10. Isn't Life Strange
11. Higher and Higher
12. I'm Just a Singer (in a Rock and Roll Band)
13. Late Lament / Nights in White Satin (actual YouTube performance video linked)
14. Question (video the night before)
15. (Encore) Ride My See Saw (video also the night before)

If the prior shows' setlists are to be believed, they dropped 3 songs between Tuesday Afternoon and Peak Hour (Gypsy (video from the night before), Nervous, and Say It With Love), as well as two songs later in the show (The Other Side of Life, and Driftwood). I have to admit, these drops disappointed me. Having seen the band as many times as I have, and taking into account the fact that they generally play a very similar list these days, it is the few nuggets from days gone by that they add in that are the special treats for me. For this show, I was looking forward to Gypsy, Nervous, and Driftwood. I hadn't heard any of these 3 songs live since the 1980's (as best I can remember), and hearing them again after all these years would have been the icing on this particular cake. Each of these, as they were skipped, was a tiny little dagger in the heart. Gypsy is a great up tempo song from the late '60's that has always been a favorite of mine, Nervous is a very good song from 1981's Long Distance Voyager album, and Driftwood is one of Hayward's best (but lesser known) love songs (from the "reunion" Octave album of the mid '70's). On the plus side, Peak Hour (1967) and You and Me (1972) were both old chestnuts that were a live first for me.

My overall impression of the concert, once I had some time to reflect, is that it was a good show. Not great by any means, but good. Anthony and Cathy said they loved it, which is also worth something. That being said, I had a hard time not comparing it to all the other shows I had seen from them before, and this made it hard not to feel a touch of melancholy. There were some songs where they sounded great (Nights in White Satin among others was certainly a highlight), but also some where they sounded more like a remembrance of what they have been. Perhaps this is unfair, but life, and the aging process, isn't fair.

Writing this reminds me of a couple of appropriate lines from Moodies songs. In the poem Late Lament, which leads into Nights in White Satin, Graeme Edge says "...senior citizens wish they were young...". And in Never Blame the Rainbows for the Rain, Hayward says "...the last whispered wish of age is to live it all again". Amen.

I should remind myself to see the glass as half full. Justin Hayward is 66, John Lodge is 67, and drummer Graeme Edge is 71. And they are still touring, sounding pretty good, and making me feel young. So there is something to be said for that. Something pretty important.

If they come around again, I'll be there...