I have been waiting for it for 2 months, and today was the day.
Benelli introduced their new shotgun TODAY!!!!
The Benelli Vinci.
Go here to see the commercial, in depth video and and such.
And while those are cool, this REALLY shocked me when I read it:
"Twelve Vincis, three days, 88,000 rounds and zero malfunctions."
Holy CRAP.
It is a 3-piece modular system consisting of a Barrel/Receiver Module, Trigger Group/Forearm Module, and Quadrafit Buttstock. Equipped with the Benelli Crio Choke Tubes and the In-Line Inertia Driven System. The Benelli Vinci is also equipped with the ComforTech Plus system which reduces felt recoil, along with the QuadraFit Plus system which allows custom fitting of the Buttstock Module for drop, cast, comb height, and length of pull.
First off. You may have noticed a slightly different look on the Horn. With everything that has happened since yesterday, I felt a change was needed. And I think they are for the better. First, the header picture. This is a photo I took last November at the Fort Obie Turkey Shoot. While it is no Oleg Volk, I like it and think it is fitting. There are plans for this to change again later this spring, when my new custom scrimshawed powderhorn arrives and I finish one or both of the custom flintlocks I am working on. I have a vision of what it will look like, but I may have to enlist Mr. Volk to take the photo.
Second, as of 10:15 Thursday, I am no longer an orphan lost wandering in space. I was adopted into the Bad Example Family (WARNING-Trying to follow the Family History WILL give you a headache). Grandpa Harvey (the Family Patriarch) is also responsible for the providing the information that I used to start this wayward venture. Go read the adoption announcement. It includes a nice little stroll down memory lane.
Also, since big daddy is Contagion, there is also inclusion in the Frizzen Sparks Family.
Blogrolls for the Bad Example Family and Frizzen Sparks Family are now located on the sidebar.
And Finally.
He who I hoped to emulate, and have failed miserably, has resurrected himself in an all new Less Commie More Orgy v3.0.
Yes, Sports Fans, Graumagus is BACK. Frizzensparks LIVES. You'll laugh, you'll cry from laughing, and you will be ENLIGHTENED in ways that I could never even come close. The most important thing, is get your ass over there and read. A lot. HOWEVER, please keep in mind that some of it may contain passionate language and stupidity hate. If you are easily offended by reason that has nothing to do with you, you will end up crying.
I have been working a lot of extra hours on a second job I picked up for a short term thing. While I have been working on the CAD drawings for this second job, I have had the t.v. on in the background. But today has seemed like a really crappy t.v. day. I resorted to DVD's. Including the complete 1956 Cecil B. DeMile epic "The Ten Commandments" staring Charelton Heston and Yul Brenner. You know, the one that ABC runs every year at Easter. The classic piece of American Cinema. Also on tap for the day was "Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj" and the only movie that I like that Leonardo DiCaprio stars in, "The Man In The Iron Mask," which also includes John Malkovich and Jeremy Irons.
Anyway. About 5:30 I went home to train, run, and feed Omar the Wunderpuppy. Then back to the grind. I went channel surfing for a couple of minutes and ended up putting on "Sister Act."
At this point I think it is prudent to mention, I have already slid well towards total madness.
Back to the story. So the movie goes on as I continue to work on my project. But as the end of the movie comes and the nuns are performing for the "Pope," I actually got a few goosebumps.
For the record: 1) I am not in any way, shape, or form Catholic. Quite frankly, there several things in the disciple of the Catholic Church that I think are off base. I don't hold that against any Catholics, as I have lots of family and friends who are practicing, but it is not for me. 2) I consider myself to be a person of extremely deep faith. I was raised in the United Methodist Church and was VERY active through high school. I don't attend services regularly but still have all of the faith I had then, or maybe more. In fact, I can tell you where I was and the exact date that I accepted Christ. July 7, 1999. In Oneida, IL. Sitting in the bleachers of the R.O.W.V.A. High School Football Field, about 2 rows below the back rail, and just barely North of the Press box. The band Aldersgate from the Wesley Foundation at Western Illinois University (my future Alma Mater) played. Their drummer miss-stepped and fell off the semi trailer they were using as a stage. The feature speaker was a christian comedian named Pat Hurley. I had heard him speak a couple times before that day, but this evening in particular, something he said moved my heart. 3) I like some of the modern christian rock and praise music.
Which brings me to my basic question. Is it weird that a movie, staring an actress that I really don't particularly care for, actually moved my spirit in a small way? Or is it the movement of the Holy Spirit?
That's right boys and girls, it is St. Patrick's Day. The High Holy Day.
And for any o you naysayers, it IS A HOLIDAY. Here's proof.
And St. Patrick's Day would not be complete without a good pint of Guinness. And to properly enjoy a good pint, it should be drawn from the keg in a two-part pour.
Here, Fergal Murray, Brewmaster at the St. James Gate Brewery in Dublin, Ireland, where Guinness is brewed, explains the perfect pour.
So enjoy your pint with some good music.
Dubliners-Rising of the Moon
The Chieftains w/ the Kelly Family-Rocky Road to Dublin
Liam O'Maonlai-Paddy's Green Shamrock Shore
Planxty-The Jolly Beggar
Stan Rogers-Witch of Westmoreland
The Friars-Another Irish Drinking Song
And for your laughing enjoyment,
Tommy Tiernan on Duck Sex (NSFW)
If any of you are close by, at Budde's in Galesburg tonight, there will be corned beef and cabbage, beer, and Irish music (possibly or probably including me).
I'm posting this a couple hours before Monday, but I don't know what tomorrow will bring other than being busy as hell.
So to continue with the Irish music leading up to the high holy day, I picked a song that most would not actually think of when thinking about Irish music. In fact, the artist is best known as one of the best country music entertainers and is the biggest selling solo artist in U.S. music history.
Garth Brooks.
On his 1995 album (holy hell, it's been 14 years? Damn, I'm getting really old.) "Fresh Horses," which produced two number 1 singles (She's Every Woman, Beaches of Cheyenne), but it wasthe last track on the album which was simply titled "Ireland" that really spoke to me in a way other songs didn't. It was never released as a single, never played on the radio, but I wanted to hear this one song as often as possible.
It may be a major part of what led me to Celtic Music.
The song was written by Garth Brooks (useless piece of trivia I know, his real name is Troyal Garth Brooks), Stephanie Davis, and Jenny Yates. I haven't been able to find out what the story behind the song is but the lyrics are very much Irish in spirit. The spirit of rebellion against insurmountable odds.
They say mother earth is breathing With each wave that finds the shore Her soul rises in the evening For to open twilight's door Her eyes are the stars in heaven Watching o'er us all the while And her heart it is in Ireland Deep within the Emerald Isle.
We are forty against hundreds In someone else's bloody war We know not why we're fighting Or what we're dying for They will storm us in the morning When the sunlight turns to sky Death is waiting for its dance now Fate has sentenced us to die.
(chorus) Ireland I am coming home I can see your rolling fields of green And fences made of stone. I am reaching out won't you take my hand I'm coming home Ireland.
Oh the captain he lay bleeding I can hear him calling me "These men are yours now for the leading Show them to their destiny " And as I look up all around me I see the ragged tired and torn I tell them to make ready 'Cause we're not waiting for the morn.
Ireland I am coming home I can see your rolling fields of green And fences made of stone. I am reaching out won't you take my hand I'm coming home Ireland.
Now the fog is deep and heavy As we forge the dark and fear We can hear their horses breathing As in silence we draw near There are no words to be spoken Just a look to say good-bye I draw a breath and night is broken As I scream our battle cry.
Ireland I am coming home I can see your rolling fields of green And fences made of stone. I am reaching out won't you take my hand I'm coming home Ireland.
The last 24 hours have been loaded with stories of violence.
Nutjobs in Alabama and Germany who decide the world is against them and want to seek revenge.
The problem is that whenever these incidents happen the immediate knee-jerk reaction of the uneducated masses is to jump up about more gun control.
However, a reasoned examination of those who resort to these horrendous actions would never be stopped by punishing law-abiding gun owners. Quite frankly, less gun control could potentially stop many of these incidents prior to the horrific ends.
Look at Virginia Tech and NIU. One student or professor, properly equipped to protect themselves and others, could have saved so many lives.
Or look at Maryville, Illinois on Sunday morning. We know two things about that morning: 1) Illinois gun control laws did nothing to stop a seriously disturbed man from walking into Sunday services at a church and shooting the pastor, and 2) Illinois' draconian ban on law-abiding citizens having the means to protect themselves and others ensured that no one in the church on Sunday was able to save the life of Rev. Fred Winters.
So fight the knee-jerk and show that the Country still has some sense. Go to this article and on the right hand side, there is a poll on whether there should be more gun control.
This weeks Great Music is an old Irish tune that I first learned to apprecieate last April. While sitting in the tavern at Fort de Chartres, with the stories flowing as freely as the ale, one of the Chasseurs, Tatman, broke the general roar with the sound of shillelagh whacking against a table. Tatman stands up and begins to explain that he had just been informed of the passing of his good friend David Cooper. Coop is a legend in the mid-west among reenactors. He started sometime in either the late 60's or early 70's doing black powder shooting. He is a Charter Member of the Ouisconsin and Old Northwest Company and, as I like to say, the Godfather of the Illinois River Scum. There are many people my age and older who think of Coop as a hero.
Coop had started feeling poor in early 2006 and finally 9 months later, the doctors figured out what was wrong and started him on chemotherapy. Unfortunately, it was too late and Coop made his final portage in December 2006.
So we are in the tavern and Tatman begins this song for his departed friend.
Carrickfergus is a rather large city in Northern Ireland. But the song "Carrickfergus" is the lament of one who is sick and reaching the end of their life. Thinking back to the childhood memories, the singer is ready to go home to the friends and family he has lost.
It is performed by Orla Fallon of Celtic Woman. She is simply amazing.
In terms of the spending bill that we were lyingly told was a "stimulus," if the U.S. Government spent $1,000,000,000,000 in the next 4 years, it would be a spending spree of $7,922.02 every second for those four years (and yes, I included leap day in 2012). And just think, in the 45 seconds it took you to read this post, the government spent $365,490.90.
I just watched a news story about the homecoming for Sgt. Schuyler Patch. He is the American Hero I referenced yesterday. His body arrived in Moline this afternoon, and was escorted home by family and the Patriot Guard. The route was lined with friends and supports who had to pay their final respects and say thank you to a fallen hero. As they interviewed people at the airport and at a short service in Kewanee's Veteran's Park, I literally got goosebumps and could feel a lump in my throat.
Flags in Illinois are to fly at half staff for two days.
The reason?
An American Hero from Kewanee (12 miles from me) gave the "last full measure of devotion" in Afghanistan. A roadside bomb exploded last week killing two.
Please keep the family of these heros in your prayers.
And it is absolutely right that this country and this state pay homage to our heros. One of the ways is when they fall, we lower our flags. And for the last 7 years we have all see our flags lowered on so many occasions. When I was commuting an hour each way to work, my drive took me past a state park and so many times, I would see the flag at half staff an wonder why or who had gone home.
Then tonight, I was at a Masonic Lodge degree in Kewanee. One of the Brothers at the degree is a Principal at school in the QCA. As we were walking out, he commented on the flag at the Lodge building being at half staff and that he had just received the e-mail today from the state that Gov. Pat Quinn had designated today and tomorrow to be the days the flag flys at half staff, as it should.
I commented that I wished there was a way to find out why the flags are lowered to half staff. Now, I consider myself to be reasonably well informed, but if we lose a Hero from somewhere more than an hour or two away, the odds are that I won't hear about it. But if there was a spot on a state website or something along that line where any current notes on flags flying half staff could be found, would be great help.
And while I am at it, I must give kudos to the Principal. Whenever he gets a notice to fly flags at half staff he shares the notice with the students. Bravo.
Well, it is March. Which means that we are only 2 weeks away from the high holy day.
So at least through St. Patrick's Day, the GMM will be Irish music.
And what better way to start than with the "Song for Ireland."
From Triskelle: No matter who is performing ... this song always takes us back to the sunset at Doolin in County Clare. One day we were awaiting the sunset when a woman walked by. Just close your eyes and imagine an Irish woman on the east coast. Yep, that's her. Long curly red hair, sharp profile, long black dress and a dog to knee-height.
It is a dangerous song too. It makes us yearn for Ireland and the urge to buy a ticket is almost irresistible.
Couldn't say it better myself.
So sit back and enjoy as this truly great piece of music as Mary Black, Luke Kelly and the Dubliners, The Clancy Brothers and Robbie O'Connel, and Bard of Cornwall transport us on a trip around the Emerald Ilse.
Mary Black
Luke Kelly and the Dubliners (supposedly, this is the last song Kelly ever recorded)
I love the uilleann pipe bridge in this version.
Clancy Brothers and Robbie O'Connell
And finally, the young up-and-comer, Bard of Cornwall
+-+Copy.JPG)
