Out and Back

So that's what it's called

Anyone who has ever been to a circus or a carnival is probably familiar with a certain piece of music.  It's a jaunty-yet-slightly-eerie song that relies heavily on the chromatic scale, and it was even worked into the melody of a Three Dog Night Song, The Show Must Go On.  The other night, as my husband and I were driving home from Greenville, we both started humming it and that of course led to the discovery that neither one of us knew anything about this weird little tune other than its melody.

When I was in college, I played Deep Sea Edna in production of Len Jenkin's stream-of-consciousness play, Dark Ride.  In our production, the opening lines, "Listen, lady. If he's old enough to enjoy the ride, he's old enough to need a ticket," were followed by a slowed-down, creepy calliope version of that same tune.  As I said before, it's a tune that anyone who has ever been to the circus will recognize.

The next morning, I set about searching for some information on the piece, and I was rewarded much faster than I thought I would be.  Turns out the name of it is Entrance of the Gladiators, and it was composed in 1897 as a military march by Julius Fucik, a Czech composer.  In the circus world, it's known as Thunder and Blazes, and the majority of the armies it accompanies nowadays seem to be armies of clowns.

Here's a link to the tune, if you still can't bring it up in your mind.  I guarantee you'll know it when you hear it, though, and you'll be able to tell all your friends the name of "that circus march" the next time it comes up in conversation.  You'll be a hit at parties.

This is quite possibly the most sublime thing ever

My favorite band singing one of my favorite songs... this made my night tonight.

A week for surprises

Here's my horoscope for today, courtesy of Kajama (one of my favorite sources for horoscopes):

Personal relationships will take a little more effort than usual today, for others' actions won't match their words. If you ponder the motives behind someone's bad mood, you'll know what to do to comfort them. The full Moon in Gemini will illuminate the landscape and some new concepts for you to consider. Your tarot card is the Magician, so watch for a number of surprises to come your way this week.

Surprises, huh?  Well, I hope they will be pleasant ones.

I don't really believe in astrology, but I like reading my horoscope... it gives me something to reflect on.  I treat my horoscope more like a "thought for the day" as opposed to a predictor of how my day is going to go.  And anyway, if my horoscope actually predicted my day, it would go something like this:

You'll spend the morning doing laundry, and then be overcome by an attack of boredom mid-afternoon.  Hit the mall.

I love this!

This was on The Colbert Report a couple of weeks ago.  I just about died laughing.  The best part is that Jane and Gloria are totally in on the joke.

Hi, I'm Scarlett Johansson

This is so freakin' cool.  Go to MyHeritage, upload a photo of yourself, and it will tell you what celebrities you most resemble.  I read a news item about the site so I decided to check it out for myself.  I uploaded this photo of me (the undoctored version of my blog photo):

And MyHeritage said I most resembled Scarlett Johansson, Jean Harlow (now that's just hot), Reese Witherspoon, Heather Graham, Elle MacPherson (whoa!), and Nicole Kidman, among others.

Who knew I was such a smokin' babe?

Try it out for yourself.  I'm dying to know who my husband looks like.

(PS - He looks like Chevy Chase, 50 Cent, and Daniel Day-Lewis, to name a few.)