K3, loud and soft

I lied! Here’s more with K3. First, there’s an amateur view of the ladies waving bye-bye at the big, splashy Studio 100 Summer Festival in Holland, taking Mega Mindy with them up the stairs.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2008/OCT/K3ByeBye.flv 440 330]

“K3 10 Years,” but for me it’s only been four months. At first I wondered why they always use large, handheld microphones instead of small headsets. The mics must constrain the choreography, but after thinking about it I realized they reinforce who’s singing.

And here is a real treat. K3 shining in a smaller, quieter setting. If, after seeing this warm and winning performance, you still aren’t sold on K3, I give up. (Sorry, there’s nothing I can do about the video compression glitches.)

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2008/OCT/K3Quiet.flv 512 288]

I won’t speculate if Karen, Kristel and Kathleen could match Petula Clark as solo performers. That would be a totally unfair comparison. My feeling is that K3 is/are, like other groups I appreciate, being much more than the sum of their parts. And I have no complaints about the parts! 😉

K3 in 2008 Summer Festival Outfits

Studio 100 ZomerFestival

2008 Zomer Festival poster

You missed it! I missed it too. I’m speaking, of course, of Studio 100’s Summer Festival at the Ahoy Rotterdam stadium, Netherlands, this past June. But thankfully we can watch some video highlights, including K3 and Mega Mindy sharing the stage. It just doesn’t get any better than that!

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2008/OCT/K3ZomerFest2008.flv 512 288]

Look at all of those adorable little Mega Mindys! But why not more of Mindy herself in the video? Maybe she had to get back to Plopsaland in Belgium to capture some crooks. Why would anybody NOT want to be caught by Mega Mindy??

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2008/OCT/MegaMindyJetSki.flv 512 288]

This will be it for a while before I post more about K3, girl group extraordinaire. Thank you for your indulgence.

K3 at 2008 Zomerfest

Oxi Fresh, Baby

The local paper had an item about the economy tanking, with a one-man carpet cleaning operation cited as an example. By coincidence a postcard came in the mail for a carpet cleaning franchise called OxiFresh.

OxiFresh postcard

Carol was really amused by this, and she had the following observations, which I admit didn’t occur to me.

  1. The woman is 40-ish
  2. The woman looks pregnant.
  3. The baby is under a year old.
  4. The baby appears to be gigantic.

Taking the techie point of view, I’m assuming Photoshop was used. One has to wonder who approved the picture. A pregnant 40-year-old woman whose baby is only crawling age?

Northern Exposure

Here’s a story that’s been floating around in various versions for at least a couple of years. It describes a possible scenario if Sarah Palin exceeds everybody’s low expectations of her in the debate tonight.

From the MANITOBA HERALD

A flood of American liberals sneaking across the border into Canada has intensified in the past week, sparking calls for increased patrols to stop the illegal immigration. The possibility of a McCain/Palin election is prompting the exodus among left-leaning citizens who fear they’ll soon be required to hunt, pray, and agree with Bill O’Reilly. Canadian border farmers say it’s not uncommon to see dozens of sociology professors, animal rights activists and Unitarians crossing their fields at night.

“I went out to milk the cows the other day, and there was a Hollywood producer huddled in the barn,” said Manitoba farmer Red Greenfield, whose acreage borders North Dakota. The producer was cold, exhausted and hungry. “He asked me if I could spare a latte and some free-range chicken.”

Officials are particularly concerned about smugglers who meet liberals near the Canadian border, pack them into Volvo station wagons, drive them across the border and leave them to fend for themselves. “A lot of these people are not prepared for rugged conditions,” an Ontario border patrolman said. “I found one carload without a drop of drinking water. They did have a nice little Napa Valley Cabernet, though.”

When liberals are caught, they’re sent back across the border, often wailing loudly that they fear retribution from conservatives. Rumors have been circulating about the McCain administration establishing re-education camps in which liberals will be forced to shoot wolves from airplanes, deny evolution, and act out drills preparing them for the Rapture.

In recent days, liberals have turned to sometimes-ingenious ways of crossing the border. Some have taken to posing as senior citizens on bus trips to buy cheap Canadian prescription drugs. After catching a half-dozen young vegans disguised in powdered wigs, Canadian immigration authorities began stopping buses and quizzing the supposed senior-citizen passengers. “If they can’t identify the accordion player on The Lawrence Welk Show, we get suspicious about their age,” an official said.

Canadian citizens have complained that the illegal immigrants are creating an organic-broccoli shortage and renting all the good Susan Sarandon movies.

“I feel sorry for American liberals, but the Canadian economy just can’t support them,” an Ottawa resident said. “How many art-history and English majors does one country need?”

Back in the running

Excellent news! Other than normal wear-and-tear for someone my age, the MRI of my spine shows a “slight protrusion” — no rupture — between the L3 and L4 vertebrae, resulting in L4 touching the right nerve root.

After some physical therapy and, to my chagrin, weight loss, I should be fine and able to run again. This whole episode — which left me crippled with blinding pain — was caused by playing fast and loose on a 6-ft. step ladder while working outside, leaning way over and wielding an electric hedge trimmer.