New Year Coming

United States Calendar for year 2013  .  Weather around the World  .  When year 2013 starts around the world  .  Facts and trivia  

Let go of what is no longer needed. Manifest what is to come…Bud Ruff 

Driving up 154 yesterday Patti Gutshall saw some Figueroa Mountain snow.

La Cumbre Peak Snow Jack Elliott 

Thoughts on the Eve of a New Year

Timothy Henry Gray, a homeless long-lost relative of the reclusive and eccentric heiress Huguette Clark, was found dead under a Union Pacific Railroad overpass in Wyoming.  He stood to inherit $19 million of her $300 million fortune.

Fiscal cliff deadline looms as talks on a deal continue – live updates 

 No agreement between White House and Republicans
 Joe Biden and Mitch McConnell in early morning talks
Latest deal to raise taxes on incomes over $450,000
Harry Reid: 'We really are running out of time
TIME IS ON OUR SIDE?
Free child, time is on our side
Free child, where's the freedom we will ride
As time child, runs to make a stand
Time child, cos destiny is in my hand

The door was open I was seething
Your mother burst in it was freezing
She said it looks like it's trying to rain

Father Time

“There is a saying in Tibetan, 'Tragedy should be utilized as a source of strength.'
No matter what sort of difficulties, how painful experience is, if we lose our hope, that's our real disaster.” ― Dalai Lama XIV
 Time to drink champagne and dance on the table....

Don't forget your Black Eyed Peas!

G.A. Smith's 'Santa Claus' 1898

Made in 1898, G.A. Smith's 'Santa Claus' is a film of considerable technical ambition and accomplishment for its period. It uses pioneering visual effects in its depiction of a visit from St. Nicholas.
A former magic lanternist and hypnotist, Smith was one of the first British film-makers to make extensive use of special effects to create fantastical scenes. It comes as little surprise that Smith corresponded with the French pioneer Georges Méliès at about this time, as the two men shared a common goal in terms of creating an authentic cinema of illusion.

At last! A real film! George Albert Smith’s “Santa Claus” is the most magical, creative short yet.

George Albert Smith  (1864–1959)

Short video clips

Dave Brubeck Legendary Jazz Pianist and Composer RIP

Dave Brubeck    Who Helped Put Jazz Back in Vogue, Dies at 91

DAVE BRUBECK QUARTET - Take Five

Official site for the jazz pianist and composer. 

Offers complete biography, itinerary, news, gallery, and streaming audio.

Dave Brubeck, a jazz musician who attained pop-star acclaim with recordings such as "Take Five" and "Blue Rondo a la Turk," died Wednesday morning at Norwalk Hospital, in Norwalk, Conn., said his longtime manager-producer-conductor Russell Gloyd.
Brubeck was one day short of his 92nd birthday. He died of heart failure, en route to "a regular treatment with his cardiologist,” said Gloyd.

"Born out of a post-adolescent loathing and hatred of all things disco, I discovered an album at my local record store that I still have to this day: "Adventures in Time," a sort-of greatest hits two-record album with the Dave Brubeck Quartet that absolutely floored me when I listened to it. And listen to it I did, over and over again. Thanks to Maestro Brubeck and the amazing music he wrote, I discovered his amazing saxophonist, Paul Desmond, and subsequently Stan Getz, John Coltrane, Oscar Peterson, Joe Pass, Duke Ellington (one of America's greatest composers, by the way), Count Basie, Sonny Rollins, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Vaughan, and the rest of the pantheon of jazz gods that I've come to love as much as my beloved classical music.

Thanks, Dave, for lighting the fire in me. Godspeed and may you rest in peace."  By George Moneo

The seminal album "Time Out," released by the quartet in 1959, was the first ever million-selling jazz LP, and is still among the best-selling jazz albums of all time.

Kennedy Center honoree Dave Brubeck stands for the National Anthem at the Kennedy Center Honors gala in Washington in 2009.

Ambassador of jazz.