Hey, guess what we did Tuesday night. No, we didn’t sit in the basement and watch Lost. The rest of the world was watching Lost, but we weren’t. Good thing we saw it on the internet Wednesday evening because I would have been upset if I really missed it.
Instead of watching Lost, we went over to Eastern Connecticut State University (EastConn? – do they call it that?) to see Danny Glover and Felix Justice give a performance called “An Evening with Martin & Langston.” I will admit that it was very good.
Here is a pretty decent description I found at GTN:
“An Evening with Martin & Langston” draws audiences inside the worlds of two of the greatest orators of the 20th century: Martin Luther King, Jr., and Langston Hughes. The evening begins with Justice`s critically acclaimed portrayal of Dr. King; through the words of his most memorable speeches, Justice transforms into the legendary civil-rights leader, recreating the power of the man and his message. Justice then introduces “an old friend of mine I think you may have heard of,” and Glover enters the stage to bring to life the words and poetry of Langston Hughes. Accompanied by readings of his work, Glover portrays one of the great American writers in modern history.
Following their respective performances, Justice joins Glover on stage for a question-and-answer session to complete an evening that is memorable, heart-felt and not to be missed. To quote The Los Angeles Times: “The entire program turned out to be all about dreams…”
Danny Glover and Felix Justice At Eastern Connecticut University – #1
Danny Glover and Felix Justice At Eastern Connecticut University – #2
I am going to be very honest here. While the performance was very moving, I didn’t hear it all that well. We kind of sat towards the back and I am hard of hearing at times. My better half apparently heard everything just fine. I am sure she could recite much of it word for word.
I did feel a little guilty just smiling and nodding my head when we discussed the performance later on that evening. It’s not easy to put on that type of charade for as long as I did. I was kind of like, “Yeah, I think so too.” and “Absolutely, that part was great.” Then I would quickly change the subject to something more along the lines of Jiu Jitsu. That usually does the trick.
I hope she doesn’t read this. I am in for a beatdown if she does.
I keep thinking…if people mow their lawns, bag the clippings and rake up all the leaves, where does the lawn soil get any organic material from? It’s an interesting question and one that I haven’t found the answer to yet.
I used to bag the lawn clippings. I was having fun doing it too. Then, I read that I could just mow the lawn and let the clipping stay. Of course the article was written by one of those freaky granola people with a dirt lawn. You know the type, the guy who tries to eat the lawn weeds. I always try to take advice from people I want to be like, not some weirdo who jumped on the “green” train. So, I kept on reading articles from a variety of authors. I came to the conclusion that leaving the grass clippings on the lawn is okay if you mow frequently. If you mow infrequently, you will get big grass clumps that will kill the grass underneath. I think I can handle mowing regularly. About half way through this last Summer, I stopped bagging and the lawn looked the same thereafter.
The whole reason I did that research is because every time I bagged the clippings, I felt like I was taking a little bit of love away from the soil. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out how that soil was going to get the organic material back. I mean, was it from the leaves I pick up every Autumn? No, because they obviously aren’t there anymore (I picked them up, duh).
I had a vision in my head…I visualized the lawn in five years. It was horrible. Everything was in black and white and looked barren like the moon’s surface. You can even use Mars as an example. I didn’t like having a lawn with no nutrients and dark soil. I decided to keep reading and to research what would happen if I just mulched up the leaves that fall from the trees every year and kept them right there on the grass. Well, wouldn’t you just know it, other people were having the same thoughts and a group up at Michigan State University did a study on this exact topic.
I am going to jump right to the conclusion of their study. They said that it is okay to mulch your leaves into the grass and it’s actually better for the soil. It helps out all those microbes and the worms as well. I know about the worms because my compost pile is FULL of them. Worms like organic material. If the lawn had more organic material, I could imagine that the worms would find their way there.
I’m going to do it. This year, I am going to mulch the leaves and leave them on the lawn. I am going to have to do a really thorough job though because there are a lot of leaves. That’s good because there are some areas of this lawn where the soil is just stripped of any nutrients. I wouldn’t even call it soil anymore. It’s like dust when it gets dry.
I suppose I could always just spread peat moss or compost over the grass every Autumn. That wouldn’t really be fun. Besides, where would I get my compost? From the big pile of leaves and grass clippings I raked up and bagged the year before?
This year will be the experiment. I will let you know how it goes. If things look good in the Spring, I will tell you. Actually, I will tell you either way. It can’t get any worse than it is now. Although, I am looking at the grass after a three week spell of no rain and a thorough dethatching job. Things ain’t looking so great.
Internet Population Passes One Billion; Top 15 Countries
The number of people on the Internet surpassed one billion in December, according to comScore. The actual number is probably higher than that (Internet World Stats counted nearly 1.5 billion Web surfers worldwide as of June 30, 2008). In any case, only between 15 and 22 percent of the world’s population is on the Internet. We have a long way to go.
Climate Change Killing America’s Trees at Ever Faster Rates
Trees in western North America are dying at faster and faster rates, and climate change is likely to blame. The mounting deaths could fundamentally transform Western forests because tree reproduction hasn’t increased to offset losses, according to a new study published Thursday in Science.
There is fierce debate over the direction humanity should take when exploring the solar system. Plans for human exploration of the solar system and beyond often polarize opinions among the public and scientific communities.
Nobody pretends that polluted air isn’t terrible for your health. Clean up the skies over any dirty city and the people who live there will all but certainly become healthier. That, at least, has been popular wisdom, but until now, no one had ever put it to the statistical test. Now someone has and the results are striking.
Mars and Mercury were formed from the scraps of Earth and Venus, according to a radical new theory of rocky planet formation. The model could explain some characteristics of Mars and Mercury that have long puzzled scientists, said Brad Hansen, an astronomer at the University of California, Los Angeles.
