POOL PARTY at T.R.A.C.S

T.R.A.C.S at Timothy Plaza on River Island

Land Mark: http://slurl.com/secondlife/River%20Island/221/249/22

Nightswimming

"Nightswimming" is a song by the American alternative rock band R.E.M. It was released in 1993 as the fifth single from the group's eighth album Automatic for the People (1992). "Nightswimming" is a ballad featuring singer Michael Stipe accompanied only by bassist Mike Mills on piano, a string arrangement by former Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones, and a prominent oboe by Deborah Workman in the latter part of the piece. Stipe sings about a group of friends who go skinny dipping at night, which draws from similar experiences in the band's early days.

Song meaning

The inspiration for the song has been debated by the band members. Stipe, in a 2001 Esquire article, clarified the true origin of the song. "A few years ago, I wanted to write a song about night watchmen, so I hired one to guard the R.E.M. offices in Athens. I bought him a uniform and a flashlight and everything. He turned out to be kind of crazy and called me up in the middle of the night to tell me dirty stories about the Kennedys. I wrote the song about him, but he was so paranoid he said he was going to sue me, so I changed the lyric from 'Night watchman' to 'Nightswimming.'"

Conversely in the past Mill's said, "It's based on true events", explaining that in the early 1980s R.E.M. and its circle of friends would go skinny dipping after the Athens clubs closed at night. "We'd go to parties, we'd go to the clubs and we'd go to the Ball Pump, and there would be any number of these same 50 people, so it was a very tight circle of friends." Peter Buck holds a similar interpretation. However, Stipe has denied that that is the topic of the song; rather, Stipe says the song is about a "kind of an innocence that's either kind of desperately clung onto or obviously lost." Stipe said there are autobiographical elements to the song, but insists most of it is "made up."

Nightswimming lyrics

Night swimming

 Deserves a quiet night

 The photograph on the dashboard

 Taken years ago

 Turned around backwards so the windshield shows

 Every street light reveals a picture in reverse

 Still its so much clearer

 I forgot my shirt at the waters edge

 The moon is low tonight

Night swimming

 Deserves a quiet night

 I'm not sure all these people understand

 It's not like years ago

 The fear of getting caught

 The recklessness in water

 They cannot see me naked

 These things they go away

 Replaced by every day

 Nightswimming

 Remembering that night

 September's coming soon

 I'm pining for the moon

 And what if there were two

 Side by side in orbit

 Around the fairest sun

 The bright tide that ever drawn

 Could not describe

 Nightswimming

You I thought I knew you

 You I can not judge

 You I thought you knew me

 This one laughing quietly

 Underneath my breath

 Nightswimming

 The photograph reflects

 Every street light a reminder

 Nightswimming

 Deserves a quiet night

 Deserves a quiet night

Swimming pool

A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply a pool, is a man-made container filled with water intended for swimming or other water-based recreation. A pool can be built either above or in-ground, and be constructed from materials such as concrete (also known as gunite), metal, plastic or fiberglass. Pools can be decorative or custom shape and size, or they may be standard sizes, the largest of which is the Olympic-size swimming pool.

Pool

Many health clubs such as the YMCA, fitness centers and private clubs have public pools used mostly for exercise. Many hotels have pools available for their guests. Educational facilities such as schools and universities occasionally have pools for swimming or physical education classes, or competitive athletics such as swim team. Hot tubs and spas are pools with hot water, used for relaxation or therapy, and are common in homes, hotels, clubs and massage parlors. Swimming pools are also used for diving and other water sports, as well as for the training of lifeguards and astronauts.

History

The "Great Bath" at the site of Mohenjo-Daro in modern-day Pakistan was most likely the first swimming pool, dug during the 3rd millennium BC. This pool is 12 by 7 metres (39 by 23 feet), is lined with bricks and was covered with a tar-based sealant.

The Great bath

The Great bath

 Ancient Greeks and Romans built artificial pools for athletic training in the palaestras, for nautical games and for military exercises. Roman emperors had private swimming pools in which fish were also kept, hence one of the Latin words for a pool, piscina. The first heated swimming pool was built by Gaius Maecenas of Rome in the first century BC. Gaius Maecenas was a rich Roman lord and considered one of the first patrons of arts.

Ancient Sinhalese built pairs of pools called "Kuttam Pokuna" in the kingdom of Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka in the 4th century BC. They were decorated with flights of steps, punkalas or pots of abundance and scroll design.

Modern pools

Swimming pools became popular in Britain in the mid-19th century. As early as 1837, six indoor pools with diving boards existed in London, England. The Maidstone Swimming Club in Maidstone, Kent, England is believed to be the oldest surviving swimming club in Britain. It was formed in 1844, in response to concerns over drownings in the River Medway, especially since would-be rescuers would often drown because they themselves could not swim to safety. The club used to swim in the River Medway, and would hold races, diving competitions and water polo matches. The South East Gazette July 1844 reported an aquatic breakfast party: coffee and biscuits were served on a floating raft in the river. The coffee was kept hot over a fire; club members had to tread water and drink coffee at the same time. The last swimmers managed to overturn the raft, to the amusement of 150 spectators.

In 1839, Oxford created its first major public indoor pool at Temple Cowley, and swimming began to increase in popularity. The Amateur Swimming Association was founded in 1869 in England, and the Oxford Swimming Club in 1909 with its home at Temple Cowley Pool.

The presence of indoor baths in the cobbled area of Merton Street, London may have persuaded the less hardy of the aquatic brigade to join. So, bathers gradually became swimmers, and bathing pools became swimming pools.

The modern Olympic Games started in 1896 and included swimming races, after which the popularity of swimming pools began to spread. In the USA, the Racquet Club of Philadelphia clubhouse (1907) boasts one of the world's first modern above-ground swimming pools. The first swimming pool to go to sea on an ocean liner was installed on the White Star Line's Adriatic in 1907. The oldest known public swimming pool in America, Underwood Pool, is located in Belmont, Massachusetts.

Underwood Pool

Interest in competitive swimming grew following World War I. Standards improved and training became essential. Home swimming pools became popular in the United States after World War II and the publicity given to swimming sports by Hollywood films like Esther Williams' Million Dollar Mermaid made a home pool a desirable status symbol. More than fifty years later, the home or residential swimming pool is a common sight. Some small nations enjoy a thriving swimming pool industry (e.g. New Zealand pop. 4,116,900 [Source NZ Census 7 March 2006] - holds the record in pools per capita with 65,000 home swimming pools and 125,000 spa pools).

A two-storey, white concrete swimming pool building composed of horizontal cubic volumes built in 1959 at the Royal Roads Military College is on the Registry of Historic Places of Canada.

Sexy 70's Party in Sweetgrass

More pictures for one week at: http://sweetgrassparties.weebly.com/index.html

Pictures are made Norbie.

BOY SCOUTS PARTY at T.R.A.C.S

We were "Be Prepared" for DJ Deepert, last Saturday 107 years after Baden-Powell founded the first one, and his great tunes. Great set you played, Deepert. Thank you!

We had fewer guests at our Jamboree, in the Woods of River Island, but we had a great time.

Here are the snapshots.

Deepert and Tim

Eleuth

Azza and Caasper

JK

Call

Tim

XP

Greek singing legend Demis Roussos dies aged 68

Artemios "Demis" Ventouris Roussos, 15 June 1946 – 25 January 2015 was a Greek singer and performer who had international hit records as a solo performer in the 1970s after having been a member of Aphrodite's Child, a progressive rock group that also included Vangelis.

He shot to fame in the 1970s after teaming up with fellow Greek musician Vangelis in the band Aphrodite's Child.He soon went solo and built a long career over which he sold millions of albums with such hits as

"Forever and Ever", "Mr Reason", "Goodbye My Love, Goodbye" and "Quand je t'aime."

"Along with Nana Mouskouri, he is one of the two biggest Greek pop music artists. They are the two great voices that put Greece on the map," French-Greek TV personality Nikos Aliagas told the AFP news agency.

Rest in Peace, Demis

The Theatre on the Hill

Tim and I at the Theatre on the Hill on Friday January 23rd.

Always great decors, great show and Tim and I always have a great time there.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Pure%20Luxury/

A clip made at TOTH of the Phantom of the Opera. This is a compilation video of some scenes from the show with views of the audience.

BOY SCOUTS PARTY

T.R.A.C.S in the Woods on River Island

Land Mark: http://slurl.com/secondlife/River%20Island/221/249/22

Ging Gang Goolie

Ging Gang Goolie or Ging Gang Gooli is a gibberish scouting song, said to be written by Robert Baden-Powell during the 1st World Scout Jamboree. It is popular among the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides.

Origin

During the Second Boer War, Baden Powell listened to songs in African languages. The nonsense lyrics of "Ging Gang Goolie" might have been inspired by these songs. Baden-Powell is said to have written this song during the 1st World Scout Jamboree in 1920. The song used gibberish to ensure that children from different countries could sing the song irrespective of what their mother tongue is. The tune is based on an extract from Mozart's Symphony No.1, composed when he was eight years old.

Dorothy Unterschutz, a Canadian Scout Leader from Edmonton, later invented a story as an explanation for the song's lyrics. The story "The Great Grey Ghost Elephant" was published in Scouts Canada's "The Leader" magazine in 1991 (June–July issue, Page 7). The story talks of a "Great Grey Ghost Elephant", who wanders in the African lands every year, after the rains. The villagers believed that if it went round their village, the village would have a prosperous year, and if it went through it, there would be drought. The elephant had been going through the village of Wat-Cha for the past three years, and therefore the villagers decided to come up with a plan to deter it from entering their village. It was decided that the village leader Ging-Gang and his men would frighten the elephant by standing in its path and shaking their shields and spears. The medicine man Shayla and his men would cast magic spells, and frighten the elephant by producing the "Shally wally" sound by shaking their magical equipment. When the elephant arrived, the villagers gathered started shouting the names of their leaders. They were successful in their plan, and the elephant went around the village, making the sound "Oompah, oompah". The villagers celebrated by singing the song "Ging Gang…". Around the campfire the scouts can be divided into section and the song is sung in rounds. It makes for a tremendous rousing experience.

The lyrics of the song are as follows:

              Ging gang goolie goolie goolie goolie watcha,

              Ging gang goo, ging gang goo.

              Ging gang goolie goolie goolie goolie watcha,

              Ging gang goo, ging gang goo.

              Hayla, hayla shayla, hayla shayla, shayla, oh-ho,

              Hayla, hayla shayla, hayla shayla, shayla, oh.

              Shally wally, shally wally, shally wally, shally wally

              Oompah, oompah, oompah, oompah

Parodies
Dutch

German

The tune is based on Mozart's Symphony No. 1 - I. Molto allegro

Boy Scouts of America and sexual orientation

The Boy Scouts of America (BSA), one of the largest private youth organizations in the United States, has policies which prohibit atheists, agnostics and, until January 2014, prohibited all "open or avowed" homosexuals, from membership in its Scouting program. The ban on "open or avowed" homosexual adults from membership remains in effect. BSA has denied or revoked membership status or leadership positions for violation of these foundational principles. The BSA contends that its policies are essential in its mission to instill in young people the values of the Scout Oath and Law.

The organization's legal right to have these policies has been upheld repeatedly by both state and federal courts. In Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, the Supreme Court of the United States has affirmed that as a private organization, the BSA can set its own membership standards. The BSA's policies have been legally challenged but have not been found to constitute illegal discrimination because as a private organization in the United States, the BSA has the right to freedom of association, as determined in the court case. In recent years, the policy disputes have led to litigation over the terms under which the BSA can access governmental resources, including public lands.

These policies have led to various disputes and controversies. In 2012, both Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and then President Barack Obama stated that they opposed the ban on gay Scouts. On May 23, 2013, the BSA's National Council approved a resolution to remove the restriction denying membership to youth on the basis of sexual orientation alone effective January 1, 2014. The policy for adult leaders remains in place: "[BSA does] not grant membership to [adults] who are open or avowed homosexuals".

Boy Scouting (Boy Scouts of America)

Boy Scouting is a membership level of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) for boys and young men. It provides youth training in character, citizenship, and mental and personal fitness. Boy Scouts are expected to develop personal religious values, learn the principles of American heritage and government, and acquire skills to become successful adults.

To achieve these, Boy Scouting applies eight methods of Scouting: Ideals (viz., the Scout Oath, the Scout Law, the Scout Motto, and the Scout Slogan), the patrol method, participation in outdoor programs, advancement, adult association, personal growth, leadership development, and the uniform.

In English, this motto is most commonly 

Be Prepared. In the third part of Scouting for Boys Robert Baden-Powell explains the meaning of the phrase:

The Scout Motto is: BE PREPARED which means you are always in a state of readiness in mind and body to do your DUTY.

• Be Prepared in Mind by having disciplined yourself to be obedient to every order, and also by having thought out beforehand any accident or situation that might occur, so that you know the right thing to do at the right moment, and are willing to do it.
• Be Prepared in Body by making yourself strong and active and able to do the right thing at the right moment, and do it.

Boy Scouting is generally available to boys between the ages of 10 and eighteen. They are organized in Scout troops, administered by volunteers with support of paid professional staff. Youth and adult members are Scouts, the boys are referred to as Boy Scouts, and the adults as Scouters.

In 1994, the Chronicle of Philanthropy, an industry publication, released the results of the largest study of charitable and non-profit organization popularity and credibility. The study showed that the Boy Scouts was ranked as the 7th "most popular charity/non-profit in America" of over 100 charities researched with 42% of Americans over the age of 12 choosing Love and Like A lot for the Boy Scouts.