Celtic Tenors perform "Danny Boy"

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! The Celtic Tenors were kind enough to allow me to record and post this fine Irish tune, performed at McCain Auditorium in Manhattan, Kansas, on March 15, 2013.

Celtic Tenors Return to Kansas

Irish group, The Celtic Tenors, return to Salina's Stiefel Theatre Thursday night, and have another gig Friday night at the McCain Auditorium in Manhattan, KS. Tickets are still available for both performances.




I first saw the group in December of 2011 at the Stiefel Theatre, where these photos were taken.




This was a great Christmas show and I can't think of better entertainment for the St Patricks Day season. Their rendition of Danny Boy brought the audience to tears. (More photos: 1, 2)




James Nelson




Daryl Simpson (another photo)




Matthew Gilsenan




Gilsenan actually shaved during intermission (other photos: 1, 2)




Musical Director Colm Rogan provided guitar. (another photo)




Each member of the group passed a woman in the audience a rose. Patsy Terrell got this one from Gilsenan.




Despite the fact this concert was in December, Ace Jackalope wore a green shirt for St Patricks Day, figuring that's about when this would be published.

Winter Storm..."Q"

John de Lancie, if this was your doing, will you please shovel my driveway?

The actor who played the nearly omnipotent "Q" on Star Trek the Next Generation posed with Ace Jackalope at the 2009 Trek Expo. The Weather Channel named the late February 2013 winter storm "Q".

Where is Ace Jackalope? (Episode 32)

Really, this one's too easy.

Happy 2013

Happy New Year from us to you.


Here's another of the automated scenes from The Trail of Lights in Branson, Missouri.


And this is one of the last panels on the trail. The music they play near it is Auld Lang Syne performed by Barenaked Ladies.

2012 Joplin, Missouri, City Hall Holiday Windows

For the past few years, the city of Joplin has used its City Hall windows for a holiday display. This year the theme is Route 66, as the city is hosting the International Route 66 Festival this Summer.



City Hall is located in the historic Newman's Building, built for the Newman's department store. As of December 28, 2012, the windows were still on display.

For a previous incarnation of the windows, see Joplin Christmas Window Display, 2010.

New Rides to Grandma's House



Hutchinson's resident nuclear scientist (for real) and yuletide inventor, Dale Hankins, has been at it again with not the usual one, but three new robot kids traveling across his lawn to Grandma's House.

Here's a video that shows you the whole thing:

 

If the above embedded video does not work in your browser, try this link.



 

 

His original intent was to add only one - Hitchhiking to Grandma's House - with a motorized arm and turning head. This is the first of Dale's automations to be placed such that its face is readily visible.

 

 

It sits facing the corner of Countryside Drive and Downing Road, with its back to the lawn full of motorized grandchildren.
 

 

A surprise awaited Dale...well, two surprises, really. Children donated a play car and fire engine and so Dale decided to use them this year. The car was easy enough and his daughter, Cheryl Cox gave the robot driver a Danica Patrick look via the hair. 

 

The fire engine patrols near the roller coaster. 

 

Dale and his daughter, Cheryl Cox, show me Dale's custom lever mechanism by which the fire trucks siren activation button is regularly pressed to keep the lights and sounds going.

This video offers a daytime tour and more of an explanation of the mechanics of the whole thing:

If the above embedded video does not work in your browser, try this link.

Stan Lee Turns 90

Friday, December 28, is the 90th birthday of Marvel Comics' Stan Lee. Ace Jackalope met him earlier this year at Dallas Comic Con. (photo by Froggy's photos)




Of course, we had to get a Captain America shield signed.

Christmas Fantasy Village, Great Bend, KS, 1991

For your enjoyment this Christmas Eve, here's a look back 21 years ago to the since-defunct Christmas Fantasy Village entertainment and retail complex in Great Bend, Kansas. I shot the original Hi8 tape in December of 1991; this is an edited digital conversion:

Orion and the Star of Fredonia

I'm enamored of the giant man-made Christmas stars that once shone over towns across the country and are now fading. In particular, I've noted the Star of Fredonia these last few years. On the clear and cold night of December 13, 2012, I had a chance to shoot it with the constellation of Orion the hunter above.

 

The Star rests atop Fredonia's South Mound and is visible over much of the city and from hwy 400. Here, it is seen from the square on December 23, 2012.

 

The star is over a half-century old, having been placed there in the early 1950s.

 

Different lights within the frame can make the star double as a cross at Easter time. A motor rotated the whole thing until 2008 when it gave out. I am told that parts have been difficult to find.

  See also Star of Fredonia and The Cross of Fredonia.

More Christmas Music from Hutchinson

We do like to sing in Hutchinson, Kansas.

Faith Pendarvis, bell ringer for the Salvation Army, belts out O Holy Night in front of Wal-Mart:




Ryan Coon and Frankie Shayne play Coon's arrangement of Carol of the Bells at Metropolitan Coffee:




Bob Colladay leads a Jingle Bells sing-a-long with his ukulele:

The Star of Hutchinson

I finally got a shot I'd been wanting for a few years when a clear sky coincided with me being at home in Hutchinson, Kansas, during a waning crescent December moon.



Here's the scene: a decades-old Christmas star atop what is now Cargill's grain elevator near 3rd and K-61 in Hutchinson. I cropped out the ground clutter.



I'd actually been trying the shot since about an hour after the moon rose that morning. Contrast and limited dynamic range were a problem, but pre-twilight conditions still netted me the moon, a man-made star and a real one (or planet?). I was actually trying to get the moon inside the star, but my position for that alignment kept ending up being on someone's house, in their yard or in a tree. Bear in mind, this is the middle of the night (I started at 4:30) and I'm driving slowly down streets and alleys; it's a small wonder the police were never called. Plus, I was freezing.



The pre-dawn blue sky enabled my favorite result.



By the time I could actually get the moon inside the star after sunrise,  I could see it wasn't what I wanted at all.

I'd love to know all about the history of this star, especially as I've already done a story on the star in Fredonia, so if anyone can inform me, please do.

The one person who stopped and asked what I was doing said he was related to the builder of the star. I'll follow up on that in the new year. He also said that when a bulb blows, it sounds like a bomb going off.

Big Spring Park, Neosho, Missouri, December 2011

I love neon city arrows. Neosho, Missouri, has one, as does Webb City on the other side of Joplin to the north.

But Neosho's prettier lights in the Christmas season are in  Big Spring Park. Here's a selection of photos I shot on December 29, 2011. 

 

 

The park is host to one of the older displays of animated light frames. This is a time exposure. The sequencing depicts one deer jumping.




The landscape is quite steep, as houses on the perimeter of the park illustrate.





And there's actually a spring there, complete with ducks.

 
A dusk view shows an old pool house in the distance.



Frame soldiers seem to salute a mosaic across the street.

12-12-12 12:12:12 Flash Mob

Well, we won't have another repeating date in our lifetimes, so a bunch of us made the most of this one. At 12:12:12 pm on December 12, 2012, we sang The Twelve Days of Christmas at Cool Beans restaurant in Hutchinson, Kansas. Instigator Bob Colladay is the one with the Uke; he says he got the idea from Mike Miller. Enjoy.



Oh, this was recorded with a Canon T4i and 18-135 stm lens. The focus motor was quiet but note that it has a little trouble locking on to people at first.

Joplin's DickensFest this Weekend

Charles Dickens' 200th birthday was this past February 7, so I'm feeling especially Dickensonian this Christmas season. Too bad I can't go to the third annual DickensFest in Joplin, Missouri this weekend, but maybe you can. Here are some pictures and a video from 2011. The festival is Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 6:00 to 8:30 PM. See their website, here.



The festival, centered on Moffet between 3rd and 4th streets, is in the Murphysburg Historic District of Joplin, Missouri. Just as last year (above) there is an art walk inside the lobby of the Olivia apartment building, where costumed merchants show their work. Last year, an organ player entertained; I'd bet on the same this time around.




Dickensonian dress was abundant. Here's a group shot of, I believe, the Dream Theatre Troupe.

Here, dancers from Dream Theatre performed in front of the temporary Victorian storefront black that has become a centerpiece of the festival:



I first posted a longer version of the video above but it was flagged by YouTube for the copyrighted music to which the performers were dancing. I re-edited it down to 30 seconds, a generally accepted  "fair use" practice and, so far, no problem. I also shot a walk-through video, going down Moffet from 4th to 3rd streets, which can be found here. It's pretty crude but gives you some of the flavor of the event.



Beside the Olivia was a live nativity scene.




Not all the animals were in the petting zoo.




While you're there, do take a walk or drive around the neighborhood, which contains the William Picher House, built circa 1899.




Across the street, The Schifferdecker Home, built 1890, looms like a castle.




Another of Murphysburg's homes was decorated for Christmas.




The clouds were moonlit and moody last year as they glided above the historic First United Methodist Church, where entertainment can be found at the festival.




Did I mention scenes from A Christmas Carol will be enacted in the street and in front of various buildings? That's what's happening above in this picture from the first Murphysburg DickensFest in 2010.  For my post about the 2010 Joplin DickensFest (above), check here.