Moon Anniversary

I've been listening to an old favorite from high school in honor of the 40th anniversary of the lunar landing:  Apollo XI by OMD, from their album Sugar Tax.

I love the way historic radio broadcasts are used in this song.  In fact, they make the song - I probably wouldn't even like it so much without them.  I get nostalgic when I hear it because it reminds of college, when I used it for an across-the-floor exercise during a dance audition I was running for a production of West Side Story.  

User nigel2568 on Youtube created a highly enjoyable Apollo XI video using this track.  Enjoy the memories!

Is it geeky of me to swell with pride every time I watch the movie Apollo 13 and see all those heroic scientists at Mission Control confirming the math calculations with their slide rules?  Maybe a little, huh? But they're just so cool!   :)

Perhaps I feel a certain sympathy with the behind-the-scenes thinkers because they remind me of anesthesiologists.  The astronauts get the glamour and recognition, but it's the scientists watching over the mission that keep it safe and running...

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Fascination with the moon is so ancient.  Children look with wonder at it, parents show it to their children, lovers embrace each other beneath it, doctors joke about it being full when work gets crazy, stories are based on it...

Here are some moon quotes for the occasion:

"The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas."  -Alfred Noyes, The Highwayman (that one's for you, Dad!)

"Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody."  Mark Twain

"Oh, swear not by the moon, th'inconstant moon, that monthly changes in her circled orb."  -Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet 2:2:115

"I like to think that the moon is there even if I am not looking at it."  -Albert Einstein

"Don't think. Feel.  It is like a finger pointing out to the moon.  Don't concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory."   -Bruce Lee

"You want the moon?  Just say the word and I'll throw a lasso around it and pull it down."  -It's a Wonderful Life

"Guarda la bella luna. Guarda!" -Moonstruck