A State of Grace

As an aficionado of psychedelic and acid rock in its formative years in the mid to late sixties my favorite female vocalist by far and hands down is the iconic Grace Slick of The Great Society, Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, and finally a solo artist.  She would eventually transition to be an author and painter.  Endowed with classic beauty and a melodic and yet powerful voice she is rightly called the Queen of Acid Rock.  The first time I heard “White Rabbit” she was like one of the sirens from the Odyssey that pulled me right into the counter-culture music of rebellion set to music.  I have had a crush on her for almost as long as I can remember.  For me, she was catapulted to my attention by the horror of the Rolling Stones film “Gimmie Shelter”  when it was the first time I had seen her and Jefferson Airplane perform.  The group dealing with the festival dynamic of violence that emerged during their set that eventually led to a member of the Hell’s Angels stabbing a man brandishing a pistol during the Stones' set is still burned into my mind.

Though I can’t quote her verbatim, because I simply couldn’t find it, she once said something in an interview that really turned my head and was revealing and showed just how aware she was of her world and her place in it.  To paraphrase it went something like this:  "We were taking drugs and thinking it would lead us to a higher plane of consciousness and awareness that would lead to more creativity when all it did was make us dumb and lazy."  Though I think that was a given to most of us that was the sheen that provided the shimmering glamor of the rock world that came out of England and gestated in San Francisco to what would eventually be the music that would define a generation.  Come October, the month when the redoubtable Ms. Slick was born, I will honor her with a slide show in my sidebar.  Until then here is one of my favorite photos of her at Woodstock on an early Sunday morning August 17^th, 1969.  Enjoy. 

Scherman, Rowland. Jefferson Airplane performing at Woodstock: Grace Slick on stage, with audience in background, August 17, 1969. Rowland Scherman Collection (PH 084). Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries

APOD: The Great Carina Nebula

With natal dust clouds in silhouette against glowing atomic gas, this colorful and chaotic vista lies within one of the largest star forming regions in the Milky Way galaxy, the Great Carina Nebula. The telescopic close-up frames a field of view about 80 light-years across, a little south and east of Eta Carinae, the nebula's most energetic and enigmatic star. Captured under suburban skies improved during national restrictions, a composite of narrowband image data was used to create the final image. In it, characteristic emission from the nebula's ionized sulfur, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms is mapped to red, green, and blue hues, a color palette also popular in Hubble Space Telescope images. The celestial landscape of bright ridges of emission bordered by cool, obscuring dust lies about 7,500 light-years away toward the southern constellation Carina.  Enjoy. 

Finally Getting That Hit Of "Fresh Air" From Quicksilver Messenger Service

As an old hippie that found himself in his formative years in the late 1960s I, like most of my generations, latched on to the music of the period to help define who I was.  Though at the time I wasn’t cognizant enough to be aware of the minute distinctions of the music of the period, I just knew I liked what I heard coming out of my transistor radio.  I was enamored with groups like Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Jefferson Airplane, The Doors and etc.  As to whether or not they were a “San Francisco” based band ala one of Bill Graham's Fillmore West related venues band or from the British music invasion was of little consequence.  I gobbled it up as fast as my meager discretionary funds that I was in possession of as an early teen allowed me to.  But for some reason I missed this group and this song, “Fresh Air” by the Quicksilver Messenger Service from their album Just for Love, 1970. 

I am vaguely aware of seeing their albums in the usual retail music venues of the period but I never was aware of anything they did that passed by my ear.  But this week I stumbled upon this song when I was looking for something else that introduced me to this incredibly talented and profoundly progressive band.   What’s so striking to me is how fresh this song sounds today like it was recorded last week.  And the vocals by Dino Martini are incredibly melodic and haunting as is the guitar work by the late John Cipolina. How I missed hearing this song is amazing to me. I’m sure it had the requisite air play but for some reason I never connected with it.  Now I can’t hear it enough as I’ve really been playing it lot this past week since I ran across it.  If you are like me or are someone of a different generation doing a little music exploration here is this golden nugget of the past remastered.  Enjoy.

Ancecdote: Medicine & Expectations of Character

Donald J. Trump's recent obsession and promotion of hydroxychloroquine reminds me of an anecdote regarding character, medicine in general, and one's relationship with personal responsibility for healthcare that demonstrates the fact that it depends on one's point of view when it comes to others and their relationship with medication and medicine.

Anecdote: An old lady, on her way to a summer resort, kept pestering the conductor to tell her when they would reach Ellenville.  Finally, harried by her constant questioning, he pleaded with her to bother him no more, that he would tell her as soon as they reached the town.  Becoming busy with all his duties, the train reached and passed Ellenville with the conductor forgetting all about the old lady.  Suddenly recollecting her anxiety about the place, he backed up the train and as it pulled into the little station, he hurried out and told the women, "Here you are now- in Ellenville.  I'll help you with your luggage."

"Oh, thank you," replied the dear old lady.  "Never mind.  I'm not getting off here.  My daughter just told me that when I got to Ellenville, it would be just about time to take another of my pills." 

#1726

NASA Ready To Move On With First Domestic Human Space Flight After Nearly A Decade

On July 21st 2011 at 9:57 UTC STS-135, the last NASA manned space mission landed, effectively ending for the foreseeable future the United States' domestic space program.  The shuttle Atlantis landed with its final four-member crew officially ending the Space Shuttle program. It has been nearly a decade since NASA astronauts used a domestic American space program to send its astronauts to the International Space Station and solely relying on the good offices of Roscosmos, the Russian space program, to ferry them back and forth.  This use of the Russian space program as a taxi cab for our astronaut crews to man and return ISS crews averaged around $60-$80 million dollars and flight.  The big news for NASA and its supporters and followers is today, Tuesday, May 20^th the astronaut crew for NASA’s Crew Dragon Demo-2 or its official designation SpX-DM2, is scheduled to arrive at Cape Canaveral to begin its preflight activities for  it’s planned Wednesday, May 27^th launch date from pad 34A.

The SpX-DM2 crew will be the first two manned astronaut crew since NASA shuttle mission STS-4 launched on June 27^th, 1982.  The two astronauts will be Spacecraft Commander Douglas G. Hurley and Joint Operations Commander Robert L. Behnken.  This will be the third spaceflight for both.  In a twist of irony Commander Hurley was a member of the crew for STS-135 the last space shuttle mission referenced above that ended America’s domestic human spaceflight program.  Now Commander Hurley will find himself in the inaugural NASA mission to kick off a new era of the United States domestic human spaceflight program officially ending its sole reliance on Rocosmos transportation to low earth orbit and the ISS.

 

This author/blogger as a longtime space enthusiast and follower is pretty excited at the prospects of this new era.  Aspirational plans to kick off planned missions beyond the currently restricted LEO (low earth orbit) expeditions will be welcome and refreshing.  This is supposed represent our first tentative steps leading to future expeditions to the moon, mars, and beyond.   I am excited to use this blog to follow the arc of this new era for all that are interested.  Stay tuned.

SpX-DM2 Flight Simulation