All titles copyright Gary Likert mrgare5050@gmail.com
CLICK FOR HOME PLANETARIUM ASSOCIATION BLOG
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Whither Then My Kingdom An Opera of the Mists
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Re-Elect Joe Starr!
Video:
Elect Joe Starr!
Imagine if the Sun was our representative in the Galactic Congress, but he faced re-election every 4 billiion years. This is what the election would look like - our Sun - lovingly nicknamed 'Joe Starr', is running against Antares, Arcturus, and Rigel - three Galactic Heavyweights,,,,
The Candidates:
Antares - I am a red giant star and rather large - we may need to move Earth out a bit ....
Arcturus - I am only in the neighborhood a million years or so - elect me NOW.....
Rigel - I am a blue giant star - you have a blue sky, now add a blue sun!
Joe Starr - I am NOT a yellow star, in space I am all colors - a beautiful WHITE STAR!
Does the Sun get a second term? Vote today!
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On Faerie Stories
Video:
Faerie Stories
When the Big Ones Come
The Eyes of the Forest
That Stretch Where Nobody Goes
Video:
Faerie Stories - OUTTAKES
(extra original video)
Did it storm last night? Said she. I thought I saw lights
Lights where?, I replied.
Out on the back lawn .. didn’t hear any thunder though
No but. now try to keep an open mind ok? Every May Day eve they come - tiny .. Open mind right? Tiny fairies - they dance out in on the back lawn all night. Just that one night. I’ve seen them several years now, must be an annual thing.
Fairies? You're dreaming!
Didn’t you see the lights??
Well - I’ll humor you.. So May Day’s eve - tiny fairies dancing on the lawn...
Yes. And now, I can’t wait for June.
June? What's June?
That's when the BIG ones come.
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The Yahoo Vesuvius Show
Zapped by a cosmic lightning bolt, a mild mannered man is transformed into Yahoo Vesuvius, a volcano-headed, loud jacketed planetarium guy..
Mild Mannered Before
Yahoo After
Yahoo Vesuvius Guide to Planetarium Conferences
Yahoo Vesuvius Sings Planetarium Songs!
Yahoo Vesuvius Presents the Home Planetarium Association Blog!
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In the Hall of Kahn
Video:
In the Hall of Kahn Part ONE
greet him, he comes from far away
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a meeting of emotion by chance, we dance
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On the Plain of Salisbury
Video:
The Salisbury Trilogy
the gods of old have perished, and no longer haunt the plain
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In a Dream
Video: In A Dream
in a dream I could not see your face
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The Spyglass Suite
Video: The Spyglass Suite
Through the Spyglass
The Birthing Broth
Nomads Wander
darkness in the west has come
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Out Where the Sun Sets
and it seems to me, you're the one I see
‘You got me BOTH?’
Came my question to my daughter, laughing as she came in, flush with excitement with her brand new job at the Farm Store. We lived in a small Illinois town, one of those that from above must have looked like a small island in an endless sea of wheat. There were only a few groceries, a Casey’s and one of those Small-Marts out on the western edge of town just before the road literally ran out. Out literally where the sun set. I wasn’t sure which one she stopped at. It didn’t matter.
As a home working single mom, she had begun bringing me a little something after her shift to lift my spirits from my long days on the laptop. Today it was more than a little something though, for sitting on the table was not only the snack she usually brought, but also the more infrequent but equally welcome gaggle of flowers. Placing the fragrant bunch in one of those vases everyone keeps in the cabinet above the stove, I continued.
‘Don’t spend too much on me or you’ll never get your car’ I mumbled, half way through a cinnamon roll - they were good and I welcomed the interruption, even though I was looking at another long night making ends meet. The sweet taste of the roll, mingled with the equally sweet flowery cloud wafting round the main room of our townhouse , was certainly a better interruption than paying bills, taking calls, and reading endless emails from people I knew online.
‘Mom you deserve both’, she said through her smile. ‘You work so hard to give me everything, why don’t YOU deserve everything too. You’re like both of them anyway, beautiful and strong on the outside like those daisies, and sweet and gooey inside like a cinnamon bun. The flowers are for your outer life with me here and that whole big world out past our little town - and the rolls .. They’re for your inner life, you know how you like to write stories. don’t forget them. Maybe if we’d all stop interrupting you’d have more time for those too!’
With that more than usual philosophical outburst, she headed to her bedroom, a room of her own to work on her own life just beginning to emerge. ‘She’ll do well’ I thought.
‘And I already have’ I mused, gazing at the flowers.
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Tales of Christmas Eve
Video: Cold Grey Yuletide Eve
there's always room for two more in the Inn
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Under Ancient Egyptian Skies - featuring the Khufu Dance
Video:
Under Ancient Egyptian Skies
Ancient Skies So Bright - or are they?
Video:
Earlier Tour of Khufu's Lair
Video:
Site of Khufu's Lair - the Sumner Star Theater
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The New Day
Video:
The New Day!
Stanley Gardner, Planetarium Professional begins the show
There's another one!
Suddenly a brilliant white sun blazed forth!
Stanley settled back in a chair to see what the New Day would bring.
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The Enchanted Village (adapted from the short story by A.E. Van Vogt)
Video:
The Enchanted Village
Then he waddled out to bask in the sun ....
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Poetry Portfolio - A Suite Of Related Poems (a school project from 1970)
Video:
Poetry Portfolio
Night in the Forest (figurative language)
The Speck (symbolism)
Fly Away (sound devices)
Moonlight (unrhymed)
Silence (imagery)
Storm (rhyme)
Concert (encore)
Let your school projects live. Let them out.
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The Trees of Tennessee - Inspired while giving tours at Travellers Rest, Nashville, TN
Video:
The Trees of Tennessee
High Water Mark
In the Cumberland Shade
The Trees of Tennessee
If you would know true romance
The Trees of Tennessee are waiting there....
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Ghost Cat of the Planetarium - It really happened!
Video:
Ghost Cat Video!
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the Loosening
We look to the past to rescue us from the future but at best it can join us and go forth.
from the past
Rescue Me
the loosening
The Loosening
Speak soft this eve of tales come down
From hills of long ago
From mists enshrouded all around
Of blue, and grey, and indigo
Twas loosening of mane and curl
Twas aching in his trees
Of pinwheels long they wrote and loved
Of flutterbys and bumblebees
And luna silver in her hue
Did float above the world
And wove a mist about these two
This lovely boy and girl
But came the storms of passion
That frequent steamy seas
And love fell out of fashion
No flutterbys no bumblebees
But sparks once bright may live again
If sheltered from the gale
So still we hope that long lost friends
May once again regale
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obscure operas never written
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Short Story - A Most Peculiar Snow (or Up We Went)
It was definitely snow, not sleet or freezing rain (are those the same thing?) or hail. But, it was falling straight down, hard and fast, like rain. And I could feel it, like rain, each flake (or, I guess it must have been clusters of flakes) hitting me, like large raindrops, but with a bit of a sting. At least I could imagine it hitting me.
In a fever-dream, they'd turned me toward the bedside window of the hospital room, not knowing I was half awake, hearing.. hearing them say.. he won't last the night. I saw the weird snow, it was definitely snow, and I saw the stinging flakes hitting the ground. But they landed .. snow lands, rain coming down, hard and fast, doesn't Hours passed .. from the darkened room I began to think I saw lights out the window.. Swirling.. beckoning...I was out of my body then, floating towards them, their crystalline forms softly surrounding me.
I began to become like them.. arms and legs falling away and 6 intricate sides emanating from me.. I could see them clearly now as they closed in and embraced me.. they were angels I thought... beautiful crystal glowing angels.... In my last glance they assured me somehow no one was there to see us. And then they begun to unfall. And I was going with them.
And up we went.
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Short Story - Straight Through the Trees
Your family owns ALL of this I asked nervously, as it seemed plain to me it was getting late and we were lost
Back generations she replied ... you've heard of Crazy Granny haven't you, its a local legend that just won't shake
Oh yes i replied, wondering where we were and how we'd find our way back to her house. Talk about a date gone astray.... She was the one who could see THROUGH things right? some kind of witch ..
Well I'm not sure about witch, but they said she could at least see straight through the trees .. she replied, somewhat darkly anybody who came to her house out in these woods, she'd know somehow long before they got there..
That seems impossible I thought, glancing at the thick dark tangle of the woods .
Aloud I said .. well Ive lost track of our wanderings, that talent would come in handy to find our way back ..
She looked at me and smiled .. follow me was all she said
Wait I exclaimed .... you take after your Granny? you can see straight through ...
Oh more than THAT she laughed over her shoulder as she plunged into the dense forest .
And as I followed far behind, I could swear the trees were parting as we walked straight through them
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Short Story - The Big Dipper
I know a story about the Big Dipper, my daughter says, looking up. We're walking to the playground in the quiet spring night air.
Tell me, I say.
See that smallest star, at the end of the handle?, she points. That's the youngest brother. There was once a little girl who had no brothers. She made beautiful suits of clothes for seven brothers, and they made her their sister. But one day a calf came to the door and said that the buffalo herd wanted her. The brothers said they couldn't have her, so the the buffalo attacked. The girl and her brothers climbed up a tree to escape, and the tree kept growing higher and higher until they reached the sky. And they began to glow.
She points again.
And that's them? She nods. That's them. They turned into stars. Is that true, do you think, I ask as we reach the playground. Its a legend Mom, she says, and climbs onto the swing. Her toes barely reach the ground as she pushes off.
You pick if you believe it.
She stretches her feet toward the sky so hard that her long hair brushes the gravel in the dark, and I absolutely believe that a child can climb high enough to join the stars.
Postscript
I found the story in mother's trunk today when they came to sell the house. I've had no time to go through her things - my own brothers are settling the estate quickly, and a bit heartlessly I feel
I recognized it at once because I was that little girl. It was my long hair that had brushed the gravel in that long ago playground, after telling mom that long ago story.
But mother isn't dead.
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Short Story - Lightning in a Bottle
what was that? she said, looking up suddenly from my couch .. our first date was going smoothly, and with the movie almost over, who knew what could come next
what? i said, a little annoyed the mood could change
a flash of light, over there by your desk. she whispered .. lower this time. was that lightning? she continued
no, I said .. its them .. the jar people ... it always flashes when they are .
..
WHO? she sat up and said rather sharply ... she stared at my desk, where a small jar was flashing rather insistently .
.
well, i hesitantly explained.. at first i laughed when i thought i had lightning in a bottle, you know that old expression
..
AND? she was listening intently, but afraid to go over and look at the pulsating small glass container ...
it flashes, then .. i didnt know quite how to put this... then they begin talking...
can you SEE THEM? incredulous now .. beginning to think she'd fallen in with a creep
only blurrily .... I said, wishing it would stop flashing..
but it didn't
well go cover it up! she said, not knowing what else to say
actually i think we'd better leave, i offered, rather limply
LEAVE.. WHY she couldnt believe we were having this conversation
i took a deep breath as i slowly explained ..
well, next time they said they were coming through
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