I've been traveling a good bit so I haven't posted as much as I'd like to this blog. This week I'm headed to the west coast for a few days. The photo above will be a travel destination and I expect I'll be driving my rental across that bridge a few times.

I won't tell you where it is, but some may recognize the bridge or the city behind it. If I get a good Internet connection I'll post some photos from along the way.

Friday Fun Site: Name That Color

I'm a guy, so that means I'm generally bad with colors. So this little tool is really helpful.

The idea is pretty simple, select a color, and the website will tell you what it's called. Or, you can select from the more than 1,500 named colors, and it'll show you what it looks like.

For example, I explored various shades of green and found the following: parsley, salem, malachite, shamrock, bay leaf, zanah and padua (but they all look green to me).

Here's the link

"This Day in Music Trivia" on Twitter.

I've started something new. When I do research for the Great Openings Music Trivia Podcast, I keep running across interesting music trivia and facts. So I decided to add a daily feature where I post "This Day in Music Trivia" on my Twitter feed. I put them out Monday thru Friday around noon each day and so far everyone seems to like them. But you can only get them by following me on Twitter.

Invisible Movie Hint

This week's Invisible Movie from 2001 was the first in a series of wildly popular films based on a series of wildly popular books. Five movies have been released with three more on tap through 2011. Incidentally, in this first film, he was just 11 years old. How's that for a clue?

Simply identify the movie and turn it in with your first answer at Trivia for five bonus points.

A video about jump ropes? You bet!

Forget about Susan Boyle. Where did these girls come from? I didn't think a video about jump ropes would capture my attention till I saw this.

I did some quick research and the "Firecrackers" are from the Cincinnati area and have performed at a number of halftimes and high profile events including the inaugural parade for George W. It appears that this performance is from a basketball game at the U.S. Naval Academy earlier this spring.

Great Openings Podcast 043

Another podcast is up! This week it's a fun one with an unusual relationship between our featured artists. Can you identify the song and the artist after hearing only the opening notes? And as always I pass along some trivia about each of our featured classics; nuggets of information about how they came to be written or recorded, about the artist or something unusual that you’re sure to find interesting. The clues are from the bonus from our Saturday Music and Entertainment trivia shows.

To hear it, use the player in the column to the right (Click on the PLAY arrow)

or download it here:
Download to Windows Media Player, I-Pod or favorite music player

Here are the Shownotes and Answers

RSS FEED

Invisible Movie Hint

This week's invisible Movie is a 1998 comedy-drama that was based on the story of Hunter Campbell Adams, M.D., a real-life person who is a doctor and founder of Gesundheit! Institute. The notable star of this movie is often pictured wearing a red clown's nose in the film's promotional material.

Simply identify the movie and turn it in with your first answer at Trivia for five bonus points.

Friday Fun SIte: Dead at Your Age

My birthday is coming up in a month or so, so this web site really caught my eye for a Friday Fun Site. It's called Dead.AtYourAge.com.

Simply enter your birth date and it will give you a list of famous people who died at your age. For example here's the main entry for me...

"You've outlived Paul Gauguin by almost two weeks. He was a French painter whose best canvases depict Tahitian life in brilliant colors. He died of a heart attack on May 8, 1903, 51 years before you were born."

Other notable who died around my current age are (or were) Bevin Fagan, John Calvin, Peter Sellers and John Ritter.

As an added treat, it will also tell you how many days you've been alive. For me, it's 20,070 days. Now I'm really depressed.

Here's the link

Jim's Trivia Question of the Day

People really liked this when I did it before, so I'm bringing back my Trivia Question of the Day. I'll post the questions at 8 am, and answers at 8 pm. But you'll have to follow me on Twitter to see them. Starts Monday.

Monday Night Live Trivia Webcast

We'll do our live video webcast again this week from Wings & Things. Join us right here from 7-9 pm, or go to my "live webcast page" and chat.

Big celebration on July 8

It's a little too early to start getting excited about this, but if I wait to post it, I might forget about it.

At five minutes and six seconds after 4 AM on the 8th of July this year, the time and date will be - 04:05:06 07/08/09.

Should we plan a party!

Listen carefully and you can still hear the records playing

Most of you won't be interested in this, but I found it on YouTube today. This is a tour through the radio station building in Savannah where I worked about 30 years ago. Back then the stations were 63-WKBX and 95-WSGF. The building was abandoned about 10 years ago when the station moved into new facilities. The building may be in disrepair and now the home to snakes and rats, but its halls remain filled with memories of disco, rock & roll, talk radio and the Saturday Night Treasury of Gold.

I worked either part time or full-time at the stations over a five year period and logged a lot of hours in the control room and the sales offices. The tour guides are old co-workers and friends Big Mac and Lyndy Brannen, both of whom still work in radio in Savannah.

Friday Fun Site: Ball Droppings

I can see that this week's Friday Fun Site could, in the right circumstances, be therapeutic.

It's called Ball Droppings, and I'm not sure how to describe it, exactly. Just make sure your sound is turned up, watch the balls drop, draw a few lines, and enjoy the music. That's all there is to it.

Here's the link

Invisible Movie Hint

This week's invisible movie as a 1995 superhero film and the actor playing the role picture in our screenshot is a wacky comedian and actor that we all know and love.

In the film he plays a puzzling character who, in the TV version of the movie, was played by Frank Gorshin and John Astin. As a bit of trivia, among the many who have provided the voice of this odd character in animated versions, was Robert Englund, aka Freddie Kruger.

Simply identify the movie and turn it in with your first answer at Trivia for five bonus points.

Great Openings Music Trivia Podcast 042

Another podcast is up! Can you identify the song and the artist after hearing only the opening notes? And this episode there's a theme. Plus, as always I pass along some trivia about each of our featured classics; nuggets of information about how they came to be written or recorded, about the artist or something unusual that you’re sure to find interesting. As always, the clues are from the bonus from our Saturday Music and Entertainment trivia shows.

To hear it, use the player in the column to the right (Click on the PLAY arrow)

or download it here:
Download to Windows Media Player, I-Pod or favorite music player

Here are the Shownotes and Answers

RSS FEED

Monday Night Live Trivia Webcast

Last Monday night the video webcast worked great and we'll be streaming live from Wings & Things again this week. Join us right here from 7-9 pm, or go to my "live webcast page" and chat.

Invisible Movie Hint

I'm not sure if this week's Invisible Movie screencap is from the original 1940 Disney animated feature or one of the later versions. I do know that it's story is based on a 1883 story by Italian author Carlo Collodi, and that the name of the lead character is a Tuscan word meaning "pine nut." You can do the research from there.

Simply identify the movie and turn it in with your first answer at Trivia for five bonus points.

Mega and Giga Roller Coasters

I'm not a ran of roller coasters. In fact, I pretty much refuse to ride them at all. But they do fascinate me. Since we're getting into the travel season and a lot of folks will be making their way to amusement parks, this caught my eye. It's an interesting collection of "mega" and "giga" coasters. They're the world's scariest, highest, and fastest roller coasters.

"These monstrous beasts defy the laws of gravity, making our brains slosh around in our craniums and occasionally produce a trace of sickness as you are thrown over the sidecars."

Here's the link with some fascinating photos.

Friday Fun Site: Antipodes Map

I always wondered about this. When I was a little kid, I was always told that if I dug a hole deep enough, I would end up digging all the way through the earth and come back out in China. It turns out the geography of that notion is a little off. I would have actually wound up somewhere in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

This week's Fun Site is pretty simple. It's called an Antipodes Map.

"In geography, the antipodes of any place on Earth is its antipodal point; that is, the region on the Earth's surface which is diametrically opposite to it. Two points which are antipodal to one another are connected by a straight line through the centre of the Earth."

To use the site, just find your starting point in the top map and see the antipodes on the bottom map.

It should be noted that my China digging projects that I referenced actually occurred in suburban Pittsburgh, where I grew up, The map that I'm attaching shows the antipodal point for Atlanta, which is where most of my visitors are from. Either way, we'd still end up in the Indian Ocean.

Here's the link. Let's start digging!