The Titan family. If I must be more specific than that, the Titan IIIc. As pictured.

Titan family is good.

I guess all rockets are now off the table!

There goes my Saturn V pick...

I'll take Vertigo. I am surprised Hitchcock has lasted this long, I guess it helps to have an early pick. Write up later.

West Side Story

(I'll do all the write-ups and clarify the computer pick soon.)

To keep things moving, I'm going to buck my trend of coherence and just take someone awesome. This is a fairly difficult category to tie in with my culture so far, at least with someone worthy of drafting, so, for performing artist, I take Louis Armstrong.

John Cole autoskipped, so I PMed both him and mrbaseball.

Johncole made up his pick a few posts up. Don't think he should be auto skipped unless he owes another pick

Oh, oops, well, I PMed him too.

Round 3

Philosophy: Equality




I'm drafting the philosophy that all people should be treated equally. Culturally, a vast war was fought over the last hundred plus years. Of course the concept of equality goes back way before the twentieth century but some of those who esposed it would have scoffed at the concept that men and women are equal, the concept that blacks and whites are equal. I am immensely proud of the social advances humanity has taken the last hundred year particularly in the western world and I wanted to draft someone to reflect that but no one leader or no one thinker or no one country can claim ownership of the change. The free and equal society we have today happened because millions of people over generations changed themselves and the world. The fight is still being fought but the strides made have been immense.

Also,
"...equality does not mean an equal amount but equal opportunity... Do not make the mistake of identifying equality in liberty with the forced equality of the convict camp. True anarchist equality implies freedom, not quantity. It does not mean that every one must eat, drink, or wear the same things, do the same work, or live in the same manner. Far from it: the very reverse in fact... Individual needs and tastes differ, as appetites differ. It is equal opportunity to satisfy them that constitutes true equality... Far from levelling, such equality opens the door for the greatest possible variety of activity and development. For human character is diverse."Alexander Berkman

Round 4

Long Form Literature



Lord of the Rings is the ground breaking book that launched a genre. I want to be able to escape into a worlds of great heroism and great villainy, worlds of hair-raising adventuring and duplicitous politicking, worlds where anything is possible. I'm taking it as a great book but more for being the genesis of this great genre of fantasy that continues to thrill millions both in books and on film with the latest and greatest standbearer presently breaking into television: A Game of Thrones.

Valar's Draft
Modern Installation/Sculture: Panama Canal
Architecture: Empire State Building
Modern Philosophy: Equality
Long Form Literature: Lord of the Rings

Pet peeve of mine is when they replace a book's original artwork with a movie poster. Not sure if the case with LOTR, just saying...

I just used a movie poster because I had it handy (from drafting the movie). But I'm sure they have released a version of the LOTR book with movie images. They always do it.

I made my Round Four pick, just haven't had time to do a write up. (I work just about full time these days now.)

I know...you're cool...but now u owe a round 5 pick.

The paperbacks I have of the LOTR books have movie pictures. Return of the King has a cool picture of Aragorn wielding his awesome sword.

I love the Equality pick by Valar. Great pick.

Round 5

Music

Sing Sing Sing (with a swing!)

This is probably the most recognizable song of the Big Band era and that is because it is simply spectacular. It was written by Louis Prima in 1936 and popularized by the Benny Goodman Orchestra. Goodmans original recording of it was an unheard of 8 minutes and 43 seconds and used both sides of a 78rpm record. It has been featured in countless movies.

You can't list to this song without tapping your foot or bobbing your head along with it. I often find myself air drumming along with Gene Krupa. I don't know how to post those instant video things but I'll give a couple of youtube links. The first is a music only 5 minutish version by Goodman and the second (highly recommended!) is about a 2 minute video of it with Krupa nad Goodman plying their crafts to perfection. I love the drumming in this song and the way Krupa goes nuts at the end.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2S1I...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9J5Zt2Obko

so far:
Mount Rushmore (sculpture)
Golden Gate Bridge (architechture)
Casablanca (film)
The Kiss (photograph)
Sing Sing Sing (music)

Louis Armstrong is about a strong a pick as you can get for performing artist (musically that is); Love it.

And speaking of Jazz, Sing, Sing, Sing is about as good as it gets also. I never tire of listening to it.

I would have picked the Saturn V rocket (like Dom). It was (and still is) the most kickass rocket ever constructed. I have seen one of the rocket engines up close in a museum and they are awesome. The Saturn V rocket had five of these monsters.

Below is some info gleaned from a Popular Mechanics article:




It was the largest, most powerful rocket ever built and, having served as the launch platform for the Apollo manned moon mission, probably qualifies as the most famous rocket as well.

The Saturn V's task may have been the most monumental in a clearly audacious project. While earlier rockets struggled to put even small capsules into Earth orbit, the Apollo program needed to heft a complex package consisting of a Command Module, a lunar lander and a capsule capable of returning home after a round trip of more than a half-million miles.

It took more than a decade of debate to come up with the final design of the Saturn V and the Apollo spacecraft it would blast into the heavens. Research on a 1 million-pound thrust engine actually began in 1953. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) gave approval to the Saturn development program on New Year's Eve, 1959.

A team led by German-born Wernher von Braun at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., came up with a 3-stage design that stood 363 ft. tall--60 ft. taller than the Statue of Liberty--when the Apollo spacecraft was sitting on the launchpad. When fully loaded with propellants, the rocket weighed 6.2 million pounds. It had more than 3 million parts. At full throttle, its five first-stage engines produced a thundering 7.6 million pounds of thrust at liftoff. All told, a Saturn V churned out more power than 85 Hoover Dams or, if you prefer, enough energy to light up New York City for 75 minutes.


Read more: Saturn V is the Biggest Engine Ever Built - Popular Mechanics

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-Zeno

I thought about Saturn but was torn between Titan and atlas. I wanted a workhorse and Saturn just seemed like overkill.

And initially I drafted all of them. Our arbitrary arbiter didn't like that.

Lol...it's like saying, "I take 'a building.'"

Dom is a pain in the ass sometimes. But that accusation can be flung at most everyone - Except Zeno. He is perfect. And so is John Cole. Age has its prerogatives.

-Zeno

No, more like; I take a skyscraper. At which point it is a legimate question to ask - Ok, which Fu*king skyscraper.

-Zeno

No, it's more like saying I draft all the rockets, at which point he said No, you can't have all rockets you greedy presumptuous ass.

It's good to be the king

Okay Round Five pick is in architecture:







I love Frank Lloyd Wright's designs, and Fallingwater is perhaps the greatest home in America, if not one of the greatest in the world. The Kaufmanns wanted a summer retreat situated so that the home looked out at the waterfall. Wright, though, after seeing the land immediately recognized that the home needed to be built on top of the waterfall.

Not only did Wright design the main house, but he also designed the servants' quarters behind the house, and he lavished the same care on the servants' quarters as he did on the main house. Notorious for going over budget, Wright made no exception here, spending five times the estimated thirty-five thousand.

Wright also designed almost all of the furniture in the home, but, wisely, Mrs. Kaufmann kept some of her furniture, which was far more comfortable than Wright's. (Wright built beautiful but rather uncomfortable furniture.) You can also find a work from Tiffany and Co. in every room in the home.

By the way, the photos are ones I took last summer when I finally got a chance to visit. One great final touch is the stairway in the bottom picture that leads to nowhere. Mr. Kaufmann wondered why he was spending money on this, but it became a favorite hang out spot for the family in the morning.

I have no idea who's after me! I mean, who follows me in the draft. I'm not paranoid.