“Is there anything interesting up there in Heaven”? – Jack TwistI have a special show planned during the weekend.
On Saturday, February 24, at 5 pm, you are all invited to attend
“The Cowboy Astronomer” at the Delta College Planetarium.
http://www.delta.edu/planet/
The basic premise of The Cowboy Astronomer is simple: we're in the Western outdoors, listening to star legends and cowboy tales around the campfire. Our cowboy astronomer gives us his perspective of the night sky, and the things he's found out over a lifetime of stargazing. He talks about star colors and temperatures — and we see how blue stars are hotter than red stars by the chili pepper ratings beneath them! We find the Andromeda Galaxy by hitting a first-base foul out of the park of the Great Baseball Diamond In The Sky. Along the way, we learn about young stars and supernovae, and what various cultures called the Pleiades.
We hear two Native American star tales: the Fisher story of the cruel chieftain holding the birds of summer captive, and the Devil's Tower tale of the Seven Indian Maidens and the Bear. We see the Anasazi pictographs of the 1054 supernova, and Sirius rising over Wyoming's Medicine Wheel. The show ends on a thoughtful, philosophical manner, as our cowboy muses about the constellation where he wants to head when he departs this Earth. He decides on Cygnus, for the black hole it contains.
There's never been a program like The Cowboy Astronomer. It's a fresh new perspective in the planetarium medium; a unique, different, and thoroughly entertaining show unlike anything you've seen or heard before. It'll make your audiences laugh, it'll tug at their heart strings — all the while teaching about the universe and humanity's relationship with the stars.
It features the planetarium narrating debut* of nationally-renowned cowboy humorist and poet Baxter Black, known for his commentary on National Public Radio's "Morning Edition," or TV performances on NBC's "Tonight Show", he's a first-rate storyteller and just the sort of person to personify a credible cowboy astronomer.
BAXTER BLACK is America's best-selling cowboy poet, the Poet Laureate of the Lariat. In addition to his many books, including his hardback, Croutons On A Cow Pie, Volume II, Baxter has catalogued his off-center cowboy poetry on at least six different cassette tapes and an Emmy-award-winning home video. With titles such as "#2 Hairball", "Range Fire", "Cowboy Standard Time", "Rudolph's Night Off", and "Why Do The Trees All Lean In Wyoming", Baxter's poems and stories spring from the wonderful world of cowboys and people of the land.
Baxter's talents have been enjoyed by millions -- at banquet and concert appearances; as a commentator on National Public Radio; a nationally syndicated columnist; and on network television as a regular guest on The Tonight Show. People magazine called him "an American original"; the Denver Post referred to him as "Will Rogers' weird grandson".
Raised near Las Cruces, New Mexico, Baxter grew up in and around the livestock business. He became a large-animal veterinarian, dispensing his medicine and practicing his humorous songs and poems on countless cowboys who worked with him on ranches and feedlots around the mountain West. Before long, Baxter was spending as much time entertaining as he was doctoring livestock. Choosing the cleaner of the two options, Baxter hung up his plastic sleeve in 1982 after a 13-year practice, and jumped head-first into show business. He hasn't treated a case of foot rot since.
http://www.lochnessproductions.com/shows/tca/tca.html* Baxter Black is NOT going to be there in person, it is a pre-recorded show.
