Category: Life

“The Voice” Brings Out Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” For Sandy Hook Tribute

the voice sandy hook

Last night on NBC’s The Voice, the show opened with the contestants backing up the coaches — Blake Shelton, Adam Levine, CeeLo Green and Christina Aguilera — singing Leonard Cohen‘s “Hallelujah” in a tribute to those killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

The coaches, contestants, host Carson Daily, and Social Media Correspondent Christina Milian held up signs with the names of the 26 children and adults killed at the school as well as a card for Nancy Lanza, the mother of the mentally ill shooter (although it appears they opted not to hold up a card for the young Adam Lanza who also killed himself).

I am usually not a fan of the way people pull out “Hallelujah” as a tribute to those who have died. For example, I have seen awards shows use the famous Jeff Buckley recording to accompany a video of artists who passed away. The beautiful song is often overused, and despite the title and biblical references in the lyrics, the meaning of the song is not really as religious as many think, touching on love, obsession, and sex. Leonard Cohen has stated that the song “explains that many kinds of hallelujahs do exist, and all the perfect and broken hallelujahs have equal value.”

That said, The Voice rendition and their selection of which verses to sing was appropriate and one of the few times the song has been used so effectively in tribute. So as much as I don’t want to admit it, it is a beautiful tribute on what has become one of my favorite music competition shows. Check it out.

As Saturday Night Live did this weekend after its children’s choir “Silent Night” tribute opening, after the opening, The Voice went back to the usual show.

What do you think of the tribute on The Voice? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    In a School, a School, a Place Where We Send Our Precious Children

    So sad, so sad the news
    Come our way this morning;
    Like a bad bad dream,
    A dream that you’d never even talk about;
    In a school, a school
    A place where we send our precious children;
    The only place of innocence the world might ever let them know.

    kidsprayer

    As another heart-breaking story breaks today about a person with a gun shooting kids in a school right after there was another person shooting people in a mall, we see the usual pattern of questions being asked. How many? Who? Why? While we will eventually get some answers on the first two questions, we never find an answer for the last question.

    On days like this, I find some comfort in Dan Bern‘s beautiful song, “Kid’s Prayer.” In the song — written after the Thurston High School shooting in Springfield, Oregon in June 1998 — Bern asks the questions about what leads to such random violence but ultimately concludes that the only thing we can do comes down to taking care of our kids the best we can.

    There are things you know,
    Your kids will never know;
    There’s places they live,
    Where you will never go;
    So dance with your kids,
    Paint with your kids,
    Walk with your kids . . .

    The above Dan Bern performance is from Housing Works on March 26, 2004, available for free download at archive.org. And you may watch the video directed by Peter Franchella below.

    Be safe and hug your loved ones today.

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    More Online Timekillers IV: Abbey Road Edition

    Chimesfreedom's Pocket Watch

    We return to our periodic “Online Time Killers” feature of providing links to websites to occupy your time so you do not get any work done. Today’s online time killers feature a Beatles-related webcam and a fun game. Check them out.

    Abbey Road Beatles (1) Watch the Abbey Road webcam, which features the famous street crossing from the cover of the Beatles Abbey Road album. If you are lucky, you will catch some people trying to recreate the famous photo. From my time looking at the webcam, it appears that happens quite often.

    (2) In the Impasse online puzzle, you have to navigate the plus sign (+) to the check mark using your arrow keys. Once you see how it works, it seems easy at first, but the screens get more complicated and you have to figure out new ways to achieve your goal, such as realizing you can go off screen. Check it out.

    How far did you get in Impasse? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    A Legos Felix Baumgartner Breaks the Speed of Sound

    Felix Yesterday in New Mexico after several delays, Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner did a space supersonic free fall that broke records for both speed and altitude. During the fall, his body’s speed hit 833.9 mph (Mach 1.24) breaking the speed of sound. You have probably seen the video on TV or the Internet, but have you seen the version in Legos?

    On the same date in 1947, Chuck Yeager broke the speed of sound, as reenacted in the 1983 film, “The Right Stuff.

    Was Felix Baumgartner’s free fall heroic or crazy? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Magnavox Odyssey Video Game Released August 1972

    As a kid, I was lucky to get to play the first commercial home video game console, the Magnavox Odyssey. The game is pretty primitive by today’s standards . . . .

    magnavox odyssey

    Magnavox Odyssey, the world’s first commercial home video game console, was released more than four decades ago in August 1972. The game console preceded Atari’s Pong consoles by three years.

    I remember as a kid getting Magnavox Odyssey for Christmas that year.  My sister and I spent hours playing it.

    It is funny now to think how primitive the game was compared to what we have today.  You had to tape the layout screens to your TV screen, otherwise it just looked like a few white dots on your screen.

    The table tennis and tennis games worked pretty well.  After you hit the “ball,” you then were able to control it. I mean you could control it as much as anything else. The paddles were controlled with one knob for vertical movement and one knob for horizontal movement. And there was a separate knob to control the “ball.”

    Oh, and there was no sound.  And you had to keep score in your head or on paper.

    Some of the other games did not work so well.  We never got the add-on rifle, but the games were fun to play.

    We never advanced to getting an Atari as many of my friends did.  It would be many years before I owned another video game system.  But in 1972, it was fun being on the cutting edge for a short time with the Magnavox Odyssey.

    For you kids out there who do not know how good you have it, check out this commercials for the Magnavox Odyssey.

    For even more details about the game system, including how it was hooked up to your TV in those days, this promotional video goes into more depth.

    Several websites have more detailed information about the history of the Magnavox Odyssey, such as on PongStory.com, GiantBomb, and RalphBaer.com (by the designer of the game).

    Finally, a video by the Angry Video Game Nerd does a good job of illustrating how you played several of the games on the Odyssey (but it is not for those who do not like swearing or poop humor).

    What was your first video game? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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