Ridgeline

A couple of early awards for this fall's TV and music pop culture events: Comeback of the Year: Nip/Tuck (FX Tuesday 10pm) They're back to the stylish, dark comic fun that made this show a gem originally, and that was sorely missing during the tired CSI:Miami "Carver" plotline. Joely Richardson's richly shaded performaces, week in and out, are the stuff of statues. Best New Show: The Nine (ABC Wednesday 10pm ), if the rest lives up to the pilot. Honorable mention -- Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (NBC Monday) -- I got chills wathcing the Gilbert/Sullivan parody-homage come together. Why Why Why? Survivor, The Bachelor, According to Jim. Why are they still on the air??? Who watches them? Fun CDs: Brazilian Girls, The Killers, Justin Timberlake, John Mayer Movies I can't wait to see: The Departed (will Scorsese finally get the Oscar); Little Children. Music rants and raves: I do really like Snow Patrol, but something about them reminds me of Moby. Remeber a ...

I've written several times about l'affaire Owens, and his excursions from the 49ers, to the Philadelphia Eagles, and now to Dallas. (I've never understood how Cowboys fans, or even Parcells, can stomach the fact that the visiting receiver who once celebrated on the 50 yard line star at Texas Stadium is "now" a Cowboy, but we'll leave that for another post.) But enough on that. Whether his pills incident last week was a suicide attempt, or an overdoes, or a cry for attention, scarcely matters. It would seem to this observer that Terrell Owens has some sort of emotional or mental illness, and the only decent response to this is to hope that he gets treatment, and gets well. Privately.

Franconia Parkway, from Cannon Mountain Originally uploaded by cmcnulty2000 . An older panoramic shot, a little grainy, of the entrance to the Franconia Notch, taken from Cannon Mountain and looking to the south.

Hometown farm, Laurel, NY Originally uploaded by cmcnulty2000 . Happy Independence Day, everyone! This farm runs down toward Peconic Bay -- the road on the left is Laurel Lane -- almost a mile (well past the trees over the white barn.)

The Skylark Brothers of Comedy! Here's a comedy classic...

I cant say I never watch TV (ha!) but Tivo has helped me become far more selective about only watching what I want. The rest of the TV videoscape is pretty much a black box to me. Well, this week I've been forced to see TV against my will. In particular, daytime television. I had a minor medical procedure this week, and had to wait for three hours in a doctor's office yesterday -- and I'm home for the rest of the week. I don't know what crazy soap opera was on -- something about a disfigured monk imploring his young charge to help him retrieve a sacred chalice in Rome to keep it from those who would do evil (hello, Da Vinci Code?), mixed in with a plot about a mermaid girl who's keeping her tail behind her legs, if you will, and so on. The woman hoping to get her child's assassin to start tailing her was the most conventional plot line. The quality of the acting was on par with the plot constructions. All I can think is, who watches this stuff? Then the ads came...

Hang on! Originally uploaded by cmcnulty2000 . Summer's coming, and though I'm laid up this week, about time to get back to a hiking/climbing post. This is from a few years ago, while hiking on Wachusett Mountain. My daughter Devin was about six inches from the ground for this.... Wachusett used to be one of my favorite "introductory" hike for Bostonians who wanted to get beyond the Blue Hills (which I love, btw). Anyway, for a while the mountain road was closed ad it was a nice starter climb. Unfortuately, now since the road has reopened you'r eas likely as not to run into the "Mt. Washington" prbalme at the summit -- dozens of idling cars, truck and motorcycles seem to take away from any natural mountaintop ambience.

Weathered fence Originally uploaded by cmcnulty2000 . Some love this, some like this -- it was a "found" moment in May 2006 when I was stopped on the side of the road, later in the day, in Westhampton, Mass. It was that "Cape light" time of evening... I had actually stopped to take a picture of an old truck and barn across the road, and noticed this shot forming up out the side window of my car as I was getting back in.

Some believe all time is a line. Everything that ever was, and ever will be, is happening, right now, somewhere else on that Line. Somewhere else. I am a child. My father is always comfortable with margins. He is an attorney. Lawyer jokes are not common. There is no Perry Mason, Johnnie Cochran, L. A. Law. Dad stops, remembers his early career. He is a farmer. Homesick, he postpones his college career. Then, he has bachelor's degree, a masters in engineering. An engineer in industrial America. Here is an old photograph of sixteen men and two women. My father and mother are both on law review at St. Joseph's University Law School. Mom is in her early twenties. Law review is a chance for the best and brightest students to compete by writing and editing scholarly articles on the most obscure points of law imaginable. My mother is 25 and beautiful, surrounded by a dozen young, brilliant, upcoming future judges, partners, CEOs. Somehow, Dad gets ahead of her many suitors. Dad works ...

Slipstream Originally uploaded by cmcnulty2000 . This one's gotten a lot of good notes on Flickr as well -- it's a timelapse from the side of the MassPike last week.

Orient Point Light at sunset Originally uploaded by cmcnulty2000 . Summer is almost here, and it was nice to find this picture from summer 2002 just the other day. I got a lot of nice comments on it from Flickr, too. I had almost forgotten I took it. Didnt do much other than wait for the sun to pass the lighthouse on the ferry.

Surf Clams, Nantasket Originally uploaded by cmcnulty2000 . A cold day in Hull...

Thanks, Uncle Bill. Good morning. Show of hands -- how many of you ever saw one of Mom's shows? Wow. Well, Mom loved a good audience, and you all are the best audience we could have hoped for this morning. Thank you. I also just want to especially thank the eighth grade from Trinity and Kathy Barnhart for you beautiful singing of the "Dona Nobis" -- I know it made Mom very happy. On behalf of the family, we’d like to thank each of you for honoring my Mom, Maureen McNulty, with your presence here today. We’d also like to thank the parish of St. Hugh for welcoming us, as they have for the past 35 years. It’s nice to be home. Here today with me are her children Tom, Liz, Mark & Meg, her brother Bill Tobin, her grandchildren, family, friends, colleagues and so many of her students. Many of us also honored my father on another beautiful morning. In 1993, we welcomed Dad into the arms of a loving God. It’s fitting that we gather here to do the same for my mother....

My mom, Maureen McNulty recently passed away -- April 23, 2006 -- which was her 69th birthday. We held her funeral at St. Hugh of Lincoln R.C Church in Huntington Station, NY on April 27, and buried her alongside my father, William E. McNulty, in family ground at the Sacred Heart Cemetery in Cutchogue, NY. About my Mom, I can't say much right now, other than thanks so many of our freinds, family and students who eased our grief by their presence, their love, their support, and all the wonderful stories we've heard this week. Thank you, thank you. Love you, Mom...

Greenleaf Hut, June 2001 Originally uploaded by cmcnulty2000 . OK, this *is* from a little while ago. But it belongs on a blog named Ridgeline, doesn't it? I was talking to a friend at work last week who had hiked up Lafayette last summer, and we were talking about the what a nice place Greenleaf is to just chill out and head up to the Lafayette summit. Anyway, spring will be here, but never soon enough...

Chrysler Building At Sunset Originally uploaded by cmcnulty2000 . Devin, Nate and I were in NYC as part of vacation week. Earileir in the day, we'd been to the Visionaire gallery in Soho to see an exhibit on flavor and art. I'm used to hearing about art from my wife, but my 11 year old daughter? (Well, it was the always au courant Weekly Reader.) Anyway, this was taken right at susnet, 23 February 2006, just as the city lights were coming on...

Northern State Originally uploaded by cmcnulty2000 . I miss these old streetlights. I found this photo somewhere on the web (I don't remember exactly where.) When I was a kid growing up on Long Island, the Expressway didn' have lights east of the Nassau-Queens line, but the Northern State Parkway was lit up all the way home. Anyway, although its a high speed limited access freeway, it had these quaint lamp poles. (Probably not so quaint if you hit one!) Today, the Northern State still has landscaping and stone-faced overpasses, but these lights are almost all gone...

For a Patriots fan, I guess its time to rest up. Seriously, I'm not accustomed to this much calm and quiet for the first weekend in February. By the way, Commissioner Taglibue, can we do something about the timing of the season? The Super Bowl used to be just after the holidays, but it keeps slipping later each year to line up better with cold weather Sundays, for maximum indoor TV viewership. Is it going to start running into baseball spring training? Other than user Madden 2006 to simulate a Pats-Seahaks Super Bowl, not much doing this weekend. Pittsburgh-New England is supposed to be one of the NFL's new hot rivalries, and I have a hard time warming up to the Seahawks, although I love the city. Well, its in Detroit, so let's stay with another Rust Belt city -- Steelers 17, Seahawks 13.

Labor Day 2002 Originally uploaded by cmcnulty2000 . I took this picture on the ferry line on Labor Day 2002. With the rain, it just said end of summer to me. This was on the ferry dock at Orient Point, waiting for the New London ferry.

12 July 2002 Georges Island 009 Originally uploaded by cmcnulty2000 . My family went to the Boston Harbor Islands a few years ago. It's a National Park, and they run a water ferry from the Long Wharf in Boston out to the islands. This picture was taken while exploring the ruins of the old Civil War-era fort on Georges Isalnd. The pattern of light on the floor, perfectly matching the path through the room, caught my eye.

London Eye Originally uploaded by merialc . Didnt realize I could blog other people's Flickr photos. This is a favorite of mine -- I've never made it over to the London Eye at night, although now I think I'll have to. Hard to appreciate just how big it is, except in person.

February 2003 Parabolic Dunes, California Originally uploaded by cmcnulty2000 . I could never have planned this color the way it came out.

Last year, I noted that Terrell Owens was preferable to Randy Moss: "Some of TO's off-field comments may be self serving, but he can play. Randy may be a playmaker, but I don't recall TO ever running down a police officer with his car. " (Ridgeline, January 2005) Well, I was wrong. Randy Moss didnt blow up the Raiders. Bye bye, Terrell. The NBA could use a class act like you.

Long time, no post. Well that's life. Sorry to see Tom DeLay stepping down -- what a shock. Well, someone's going to need to take over for Jack Abramoff in leading awkward lobbyist junkets. Here, once again, is my highly incomplete list of best, most interesting, memorable, notable music for 2005. Not quite as strong as last year, but still a solid year. Kanye West -- Late Registration -- Addiction One of this year's all-around best. Skip Golddigger and check a hard redning story about death and the diamond trade. Also, JayZ gets called out for glifying the bling, and at least has the courtesy to show up to defend himself. Queens of the Stone Age -- In My Head. Is "Song of the Year" too strong? Paul McCartney -- Fine Line If you haven't heard McCartney since "Band on the Run", check it out. Ranks up there with his best post-Beatles work. Louis XIV -- Me Me Me Me The best UK band ever to come out of San Diego. Beck -- EPro Return to mid90...