This one has been making the blog rounds the past few days: Erik Solheim took pictures of the view from the same place on his balcony for a year and then made a beautiful video showing the entire year in 40 seconds. There’s also a 2-minute version:

And, by the way, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

How Erik Solheim did it

Check it out: Wilbur Hall’s comedy vaudeville act abusing a violin (and a little later, a bicycle pump). It’s amazing that he’s actually a really good player. Even more so when you learn (according to Wikipedia) is that his first instrument was trombone.

tidbits: The British composer, Oliver Knussen, mentioned in an interview that this video was a source of inspiration for his violin concerto, which is how I came to find it. Hall played with some great bands, Paul Whiteman’s. Whiteman was the guy who got Gershwin to write his Rhapsody in Blue. Wikipedia also says that Hall reprised this bit on The Gong Show in the 1970s…

Twenty-six years ago, I got lucky and met my partner/BFF Tom. Here’s to the next 26!

(That picture was taken when we exchanged rings on our 10th anniversary… on a cold icy New Year’s Day in front of Oscar Wilde’s grave in Paris’s Père Lachaise cemetery.)