My fancy assed intro

So it appears as if I've joined the new millennium as it were and started a blog, or as i call it, " one of those goddamn pages  filled with 33 interesting things you can make with tin foil, brillo pad, and a glass pipe"

No worries however, because I will write about what interests me, and  I like cool shit. I also take photos because, art.   Bad puns are my friend and  I appreciate gallows humor.  I live in St Louis, which is hilarious in itself , and I have a hot red headed viking shield-maiden wife who has quite the jab.

Penguins make me laugh, but they also make me think..

(This is called a transition)

Carlo Gesualdo, 1560-1630, was a late Renaissance composer known for his wildly chromatic and experimental music. He also was a murderer.

He also was the first Italian recorded to visit Antarctica in the infamous Venetian-Florentine joint expedition of 1606 to that continent.

An interesting note long overlooked:  Gesualdo was the first to successfully bring back several penguins to his hometown; he housed them in the cloister of San Pesce where records indicate they quickly adapted to the amenities such as a large pool, fresh water fish, plentiful viol da gambas and gelatto.

Gesualdo listed a few of his birds' names in his diary, (translated from Italian): Silvestre, Tuitinius, Markus, Didius, Johannes, Iosef, Quintus, Sextus, Septimus, & Octavian.

It is a matter of conjecture but several authorities of late Renaissance madrigal singing have claimed Gesualdo's chromatic stylings are the result of his long hours listening to penguins in conversation.

CASE IN POINT:
The following song was written just after Gesualdo's penguins arrived, and their presence unleashed a wellspring of inspiration from the artist..
 Intricate passages, ebbing and flowing, rising and falling in an emotional crescendo; they breathtakingly dive into the depths, much line our white and black friends do from an icy ledge into the deep blue unknown...they speak to the soul of one's loneliness, of yearning for salvation, or for fresh cod or halibut...dissonant counter points lend a otherworldliness and gravitas to the piece seldom experienced in music from this period.

It was said the penguins gathered nightly in the cloister and sang their songs to the moon; at first their songs were mournful, perhaps mistaking the moon a large leopard seal looking down from above.  Later the penguins songs grew more bold, as if paying homage to the giant snow ball in the night sky...... Gesualdo captured  their essence.

Please please enjoy the following piece of music, bask in its divine glory; take in the delicate interweaving of the voices and meditate on such mysteries of life.

http://youtu.be/i3JwLnK6Efw