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Greatest Christmas display in Bismarck-Mandan, 2006
UPDATE:I brought this post back up to the top of the page and added some more photos because Paul Schaff is going to be on the PH Phactor on KFYR AM 550 radio – Thursday, December 7th at 8:15am. Tune in at 8 and go see this Christmas display!
Sure wish I knew what this thing is
UPDATE: This is a memorial to a young man who died unexpectedly. ’nuff said.
Advancing front
I had the camera set to 3200 ISO, which (if I do my math correctly) is about 8x more sensitive than your typical digital camera will go. That would hopefully allow me to capture the moment, which it did. It was still a little blurry because I am not very steady while protruding from a truck window. But I took it in order to show other people what the clouds looked like last night…so it works.
Parhelion
I saw this as a bunch of low clouds rolled past. The remnants of the clouds caused this phenomenon to occur, and it disappeared when the skies cleared completely.
Lori Line returns to Bismarck-Mandan
Lorie Line played the Bismarck Civic Center once again with a show on Saturday Night. As you can tell from the photo, Stacy and I had really good seats: just four rows back, with a great view of Lorie’s keyboard. That lady sure can play! I don’t know how many of you are fans of Christmas at the Minneapolis Dayton’s from years past, but she used to play there back in the ’80s. I never made the connection until the first time I attended the show here in Bismarck.
I’ve been a Lorie Line fan since my wife and I started dating. She’s extremely talented, her husband does a great job as the emcee, and the production is always top notch. This year’s show was really good…but it was nowhere near the high standard they’ve set in years past.
One downside to the show is that gospel singer Robert Robinson is no longer touring with the group. That man’s voice could draw tears from the hardest of hearts! Hearing him sing carols like “Oh Holy Night” “What Child is This” is enough to make your knees weak. I wish him well in whatever his current endeavors may be. The bright side is that his replacement, soprano Kelly Smith. She’s definitely a worthy successor to Mr. Robertson.
Another element missing from this year’s performance is a trademark Lorie Line feature. She comes out with a legal pad and asks the crowd to belt out requests. She then sits down at the piano and makes an impromptu medley of the list! It seems that someone always yells “Spongebob Squarepants” but there are also requests like “Inna Godda Da Vida and other challenging tunes. We kept waiting for this part of the show, but it never came.
I don’t get it…this show’s theme was supposed to be “The Traditions of Christmas” but I didn’t really feel the Christmas spirit by the time the show was over. It was certainly a great performance by everyone, yet really didn’t capture the fun and sparkle that one normally gets at a Lorie Line concert. My favorite show of hers happened to be themed, “My Favorite Things.” This one, however, didn’t really seem to have a theme. Hopefully things will be back up to that sky-high standard next year.
If you have an opportunity to see Lorie Line this Christmas season, don’t pass it up. Don’t let my comments about not living up to last year’s show stop you: I doubt anything could match it. I do hope, however, that Lorie brings her legal pad with her the next time she comes to Bismarck.
Identify that statue IV
Hazy shade of winter
Really bright sources of light tend to shoot spires of light straight up into the sky, which are visible for quite a long distance. It’s almost like a “synthetic aurora” in a sense, except they don’t dance like the real thing.
Operation success: airport caves to jihadist imams
Scroll down a couple of posts, and you’ll see my theory that the six imams who behaved like textbook terrorists, then were evicted from an aircraft, were actually carrying out an operation which achieved its desired result.
Now in this report from Minneapolis – St. Paul, they’re being served a little more victory:
Airport officials said Friday they will consider setting aside a private area for prayer and meditation at the request of imams concerned about the removal of six Muslim clerics from a US Airways flight last week.
…
Airport officials will accept the group’s invitation to visit a mosque, airport spokesman Pat Hogan said.
“I think there’s a mutual recognition that it would be helpful for there to be a solid understanding,” Hogan said.
These people are not going to be satisfied until Islam is institutionalized. They understand how to do it, and little tiny incidents like this will add up and set precedents over the long term. It’s too bad the West seems willfully blind to what they’re trying to achieve, even though they make absolutely no pretense about their goals and methods.
Northview Lane in full swing
Yes, that’s right…the neighborhood on the hill that decorates all their trees the same is at it again. This street becomes quite busy between Thanksgiving and Christmas! There was a lot of traffic last night, which we joined as we made our way up and down the street. Of course, we also saw the HILL sign with LEA ghosted onto it and lots of other nice Christmas lights. This was an incidental visit; we haven’t yet taken our annual tour around town to view Christmas lights.
Put it in your iPod for the Parade of Lights tonight in downtown Bismarck, and keep the CD in your car. It’ll put you in the Christmas mood any time you hear it. Once the snow comes and stays, this is the minidisc I put into the player in my truck, and it doesn’t come out until the snow’s gone. Please go buy this CD: trust me, it’ll bring you Christmas joy on Northview Lane or any other Bismarck-Mandan street this winter.