Friday, July 17, 2015

Alton Brown's genius condiment bottle hack

I love language. I love first lines, lyrics, poems, and puns. I love Thomas Hardy's first line in The Return of the Native
A Saturday afternoon in November was approaching the time of twilight, and the vast tract of unenclosed wild known as Egdon Heath embrowned itself moment by moment. Overhead the hollow stretch of whitish cloud shutting out the sky was as a tent which had the whole heath for its floor.
Glorious! Equally, I enjoy the wit of Monty Python's writing about the Olympic sport of Thomas Hardy writing his first lines on The Return of the Native-



Song lyrics are supposed to produce an instantly indelible image in our mind while at the same time produce an emotion. A hard thing to do, if you have ever tried. Songwriters are an under-appreciated segment of the writer family. Here are several lyrics I just adore.

Man, it's a hot one. Like seven inches from the midday sun. (Santana, Smooth)

The Mississippi delta was shining like a national guitar. (Paul Simon, Graceland)

Speaking of genius, here is a short video from the ever entertaining Alton Brown.





2 comments:

Grace to You said...

My Spanish Harlem Mona Lisa! Love that song. Also love Michele Branch with Santana in The Game.

When I'm feeling more spiritual (ahem), my favorite artist is Michael Card, esp his Soul Anchor album. It's based on the book of Hebrews, which is prob my favorite NT book. I have so many favorite lines in that album:

Beyond their wildest dreams no one could ever tell
Of a high priest who would sacrifice Himself

From the sacrifice ~ from that dark disgrace
Came the power to make anywhere a Most Holy Place

But many more were martyred
Midst the crowds’ loud clamoring
By faith they would not bow the knee
Nor kiss the emperor's ring

But my absolute favorite is:

Behold you have come to Mount Zion
To the City of the Great King
To thousands and thousands of angels who've come
Assembled to joyfully sing

The words themselves aren't necessarily the most magnificent I've ever heard but the way the song is written and orchestrated, every time it comes to that part, near the end, I get just a brief glimpse into the majesty of heaven and it never fails to take my breath away.

You can hear the song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu4GJpKe3Ns

Grace to You said...

Oh, the bottle hack was cool too. :)