The Explorers' Club, № DCCCII

Operation AXIOM: The Space Race—In Memoriam Elliot See & Charlie Bassett
28 February 1966: Elliot See, U.S.N.R. (1927-1966) & Major Charles Bassett, U.S.A.F. (1931-1966), the prime crew for Gemini IX, died when their T-38 Talon crashed into the McDonnell Aircraft factory wherein their Gemini spacecraft was being prepared; the crash was attributed to pilot error by See; See was survived by his wife, Marilyn, & three children; Bassett by his wife, Jeannie, & two children.

Commentary: Gemini IX backup crew Tom Stafford & Gene Cernan flew to Saint Louis in a T-38 in formation with See & Bassett, but landed safely; they became the new Gemini IX prime crew & flew the eventual mission. Gemini X backup crew Jim Lovell & Buzz Aldrin became the new Gemini IX backup crew, which put them in the rotation to be the Gemini XII prime crew, giving Aldrin the space flight experience to be assigned to Apollo 11, the first Moon landing.

Bonus! Space Race Song o' the Day: In Memoriam
The Phenomenauts, "Heroes" from For All Mankind (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)

Semper exploro.

Saints + Scripture: II Sunday of Lent — Please Stand By

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Lord's Day: II Lent

Second Sunday of Lent
Sufjan Stevens, "The Transfiguration (Home Demo Version)" from Sufjan Steves Invites You To: Come On Feel the Illinoise (A.K.A. Illinois) (Sinner Mike Papa Whiskey)

Saints + Scripture: Quadragesima — Please Stand By

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day

Earthling Scum, "Getta Bloomin' Move On (The Self-Preservation Society)" from Themes from the Sixties, Vol. 3 (Mike Papa Whiskey)

The Rebel Black Dot Fish Fry Song o' the Day!

The Aquabats!, "Beat Fishin'!" from The Aquabats! Super Show! Television Soundtrack: Volume One (Captain Thumbs Up!)

Saints + Scripture: Quadragesima — Please Stand By

The Popish Plot
"On Being on The Quizzical Papist"

Saints + Scripture: Quadragesima — Please Stand By

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day

Rude City Riot, "25 Years" from the Rude City Riot E.P. (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: A song in the classic ska vein of pleading with rude boys to mend their wicked ways before it is too late, in this case before someone dies & the protagonist is sentenced to twenty-five years in prison.

Saints + Scripture: Quadragesima — Please Stand By

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day

The Interrupters, "Loyal" from Say It Out Loud (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary:

"Loyal 'til death, 'til death what we do,
We stand together, we stand by our crew!
Loyal 'til death, 'til death what we do,
We stand together, we stand by our crew!

"We're bound by blood and we're bound by history,
We've seen each other suffer and we've seen each other bleed,
When times get tough, yeah, they always stand with me,
Through thick and thin, it's my family.

"Loyal 'til death, 'til death what we do,
We stand together, we stand by our crew!
Loyal 'til death, 'til death what we do,
We stand together, we stand by our crew!

"December 1, another year, I watch up the grove,
Even when I lonely, well, I'll never be alone,
We got one heartbeat, yeah, we got one soul,
Got solidarity, the only thing we know—hey!

"Loyal 'til death, 'til death what we do,
We stand together, we stand by our crew!
Loyal 'til death, 'til death what we do,
We stand together, we stand by our crew!
Let's go!

"Loyal 'til death, 'til death what we do,
We stand together, we stand by our crew!
Loyal 'til death, 'til death what we do,
We stand together, we stand by our crew!
Loyal 'til death, 'til death what we do,
We stand together, we stand by our crew!
Loyal 'til death, 'til death what we do,
We stand together,
We stand together,
We stand together,
We stand by our crew!"

Saints + Scripture: Quadragesima — Please Stand By

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day

Avril Lavigne, "Innocence" from The Best Damn Thing (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary:

"Waking up to see that everything is O.K.,
The first time in my life and now it's so great,
Slowing down, I look around and I am so amazed,
I think about the little things that make life great.

"I wouldn't change a thing about it,
This is the best feeling!

"This innocence is brilliant,
I hope that it will stay,
This moment is perfect,
Please don't go away.
I need you now and I'll hold on to it,
Don't you let it pass you by.

"I found a place, so safe, not a single tear,
The first time and now it's so clear,
Feel calm, I belong, I'm so happy here,
It's so strong and now I let myself be sincere.

"I wouldn't change a thing about it,
This is the best feeling!

"This innocence is brilliant,
I hope that it will stay,
This moment is perfect,
Please don't go away.
I need you now and I'll hold on to it,
Don't you let it pass you by.

"It's a state of bliss, you think you're dreaming,
It's the happiness inside that you're feeling,
It's so beautiful it makes you wanna cry.
"It's a state of bliss, you think you're dreaming,
It's the happiness inside that you're feeling,
It's so beautiful it makes you wanna cry.
It's so beautiful it makes you wanna cry!…"

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' Today

Montag, 22. Februar
Rude City Riot, "Victoria" from the Rude City Riot E.P. (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary:

"When he came to there was a pistol, twenty-two,
Cocked and pointed right betwen his eyes,
She said, 'Your money or your demise'…"

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Lord's Day: I Lent

Sonntag, 21. February
First Sunday of Lent
John Williams, "The Desert/The Robot Auction" from Star Wars: Episode IV—A New Hope (Sinner Mike Papa Whiskey)

Saints + Scripture: Quadragesima — Please Stand By

The Explorers' Club, № DCCCI

Operation AXIOM: Destination Moon—The 50th Anniversary of Apollo 14, Part IV
The Moon Trees—Apollo 14 C.M.P. Stu Roosa had served as a U.S. Forest Service "smokejumper" (wildland firefighter) in 1953 & carried hundreds of seeds from five different species of trees to lunar orbit; after the return of Apollo 14, the seeds were germinated by the Forest Service & planted around the U.S., most as part of the Bicentennial celebrations of 1976, & also in Brazil, Switzerland, & Japan.

Commentary: The five species of "Moon tree" were loblolly pine (Pinus taeda), American sycamore (Platanus occidentalis), American sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua), California redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), & Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii).

Semper exploro.

Saints + Scripture: I Sunday of Lent — Please Stand By

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' Today

Samstag, 20. Februar
Bite Me Bambi, "Crazy" from the Crazy single (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary:

"I'm not the kind of girl who'll bail,
I just love to read your mail,
Can't you see we're meant to be?
Don't worry, I don't have a gun,
Oh, God, what have I become?
Look what you've done to me!…"

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' Yesterday

Freitag, 19. Februar
The Interrupters, "A Friend Like Me" from The Interrupters (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary:

"I know that you won't find a friend,
No, you won't find a friend like me…"

The Explorers' Club, № DCCC

Operation AXIOM: The 20th Anniversary of Robert Hanssen's Arrest
18 February 2001: F.B.I. Agent Robert Hanssen was arrested for spying against the United States since 1979, for first the Soviet Union & later the Russian Federation; in 1987, Hanssen led a "mole" hunt within the F.B.I., hunting for himself; Hanssen avoided detection in part because his activities were blamed on the C.I.A. traitor Aldrich Ames, arrested in 1994; his code name: "Ramon Garcia."

Commentary: In the more innocent—read: willfully blind & criminally self-satisfied—world that existed between the fall of the Berlin Wall & 9/11, Hanssen's treason was a major national security scandal.

Semper exploro.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day

The Interrupters, "By My Side" from Say It Out Loud (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary:

"I don't wanna die,
I don't wanna die,
I don't wanna die!
But if I do die, do die,
I know you'll be by my side…"

Bonus! Song o' Perseverance & Ingenuity

Hannah Russell, "Mars" from Space Songs: A Children's Intergalactic Musical Journey (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary: "Mars" references the 1996-1997 mission of the Pathfinder lander & Sojourner rover. So, though I considered "Mars Attacks" by the Misfits, "Mars" struck me as a more apropos song to fete the successful entry, descent, & landing of the Perseverance rover & the Ingenuity helicopter.

Operation ÖSTERREICH: Post Madri Gras Edition

Weekly Wednesday Weigh-in
Last weigh-in: 338.0 lbs (Wednesday, 20 January 2021)
This weigh-in: 339.2 lbs.
Difference: +/1.2 lbs.

Over the last two fortnights, I've gained one & one-fifth pounds (+1.2 lbs.), instead of losing a projected eight pounds (-8 lbs.). However, given the shambles my diet & discipline have been, I'm pleasantly surprised I didn't gain more.

Bonus! Lied von ÖSTERREICH
"Weird Al" Yankovic, "Eat It" from "Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D (Mike Papa Waffle)

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' Ash Wednesday

Mittwoch, 17. Februar
Melanie Rea, "Come Ye Sinners" from It Is Well (Sinner Mike Papa Whiskey)

The Rebel Black Dot Anti-Valentine's Song o' Yesterday

Dienstag, 16. Februar
The Eyeliners, "It Could Have Been You" from Sealed with a Kiss (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary:

"Saw you sitting there, didn't have a care,
With a leather jacket and purple hair,
Want to ask you out, but I walked away
Because I didn't know what I could say.

"When I think back to that day
Could things have gone a different way?
But I know this much is true:
You never had a clue that it could have been you.

"Well, I guess you never knew that it could have been you,
Yeah, I guess you never knew that it could have been…"

The Rebel Black Dot Anti-Valentine's Song o' the Day

Super Boat Warp, "Breaker of Hearts, Destroyer of Worlds" from the Fire All Weapons! E.P. (The Last Angry Man)

Commentary: I am still not accustomed to the reality that I am a heartbreaker, but the evidence is clear that I am. I have no idea how that happened.

Bonus! Song against Valentine's Day

Bite Me Bambi, "This Love Is Dead" from the Hurry Up and Wait E.P. (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary:

"This isn't what I wanted,
This isn't what I planned,
As I stand here, gun in hand.
It all happened so fast,
I thought that we would last,
It was all gone in a flash.

"We always said, 'Til death do us part,
But now you've gone and crushed my heart,
Look at what you've done to me,
Put my finger on the trigger and
Pull and beg, and beg, and beg, and beg,
This love is dead!

"When I saw you standing there
With her hands in your hair
My heart was in such despair.
Was she better than me?
Did she give you everything?
Why couldn't she just leave us be?

"We always said, 'Til death do us part,
But now you've gone and crushed my heart…

"Be careful who you love and who's loving you,
Because you'll never know just what they will do,
Hold on, hold to these words, I say,
Some other time you might find it's your love is dead!…

"This love is dead!
This love is dead!
Dead!"

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Lord's Day: VI

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
"Weird Al" Yankovic, "Party at the Leper Colony" from Poodle Hat (St. Mike Papa Whiskey)

The Rebel Black Dot Anti-Valentine's Song o' Today

Samstag, 13. Februar
The Capsouls, "Took My Love" from Birth of the Fourth Wave of Ska (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: It's good to know that the emerging Fourth Wave of ska is as heartbroken by romantic love as the Third Wave.

"Now I know now (Know now),
That you don't love me no more, no more,
You took my love and now youre gone, gone,
You took my love and now you're gone…"

The Rebel Black Dot Anti-Valentine's Song o' Yesterday

Freitag, 12. Februar
Matamoska!, "East L.A." from Birth of the Fourth Wave of Ska (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary:

"It's been so long
Since you've been gone,
My loneliness is inconsequent,
Used to be so kind,
Used to be so sweet,
Wish things hadn't changed,
Wish you were still with me.

"And I guess that over time,
I try to convince myself,
But it doesn't work,
No, it's impossible
For me to look at you,
Your pictures on my phone
Remind me that I'm gonna die alone.

"The future's not in stone,
But I feel it in my bones,
Wish that you were home
In East Los Angeles!
Oh, babym you know it's true,
I'm dying without you,
With nothing left to do,
With nothing left to do.…"

The Rebel Black Dot Anti-Valentine's Song o' the Day

Bill Withers, "Ain't No Sunshine" from Bill Withers' Greatest Hits (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary:

"Wonder this time where she's gone,
Wonder if she's gone to stay,
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone,
And this house just ain't no home
Anytime she goes away…"

The Stars My Destination: Apollo 14

The public are damnably fickle. After the triumph of Apollo 11, public interest—at least as gauged by our supposed betters in the self-appointed fourth estate—waned during Apollo 12 & in the run-up to Apollo 13. The "successful failure" of Apollo 13 captivated the world, & even after the long layoff for hardware redesigns before Apollo 14, men walking on the Moon was big news again. It did not hurt that the mission's commander was America's first astronaut, Alan Shepard.

By early 1971, the National Aeronautics & Space Administration, always at the mercy of the United States Congress, was facing budget cuts & committing itself to a course that would end manned exploration of space beyond low Earth orbit (L.E.O.) for the next half century. Apollo missions started to be cancelled & the L.E.O.-only capable Space Shuttle was already under development. After Apollo 12 (November 1969), the Apollo 20 mission was cancelled so that its Saturn V could be used to launch the Skylab space station. After Apollo 13, it's landing at Fra Mauro was reassigned to Apollo 14; also, Apollo 18 & Apollo 19 were cancelled, essentially reducing the program by three flights.

The backup crew for Apollo 14 was CDR Gene Cernan, a veteran of Gemini IX-A & Apollo 10; & C.M.P. Ron Evans & L.M.P. Joe Engle, both rookies (though Engle had earned his Air Force astronauts wings as an X-15 pilot). The standard rotation at the time would mean that the backup crew for Apollo 14 would become the prime crew for Apollo 17, the last scheduled Moon landing, though as 1971 progressed 1972's two scheduled flights, Apollo 16 & Apollo 17 would themselves be imperiled. Would Gene Cernan & Joe Engle become the last two men to walk on the Moon? Stay tuned to The Secret Base to find out.

We here at The Secret Base are now back on track, having celebrated the fiftieth anniversaries of Apollo 11 (July 1969), Apollo 12 (November 1969), Apollo 13 (April 1970), & Apollo 14 (February 1971) & the fifty-first or fifty-second anniversaries of Apollo 7 (October 1968), Apollo 8 (December 1968), Apollo 9 (March 1969), & Apollo 10 (May 1969). We're looking forward to the fiftieth anniversaries of Apollo 15 (July 1971), Apollo 16 (April 1972), Apollo 17 (December 1972), Skylab 2 (May-June 1973), Skylab 3 (July-September 1973), Skylab 4 (November 1973-February 1974), & the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (July 1975).

The Wayback Machine Tour of Apollo 14
№ DCCXCVII: The 50th Anniversary of Apollo 14, Part I
№ DCCXCVIII: The 50th Anniversary of Apollo 14, Part II
№ DCCXCIX: The 50th Anniversary of Apollo 14, Part III

The Rebel Black Dot Anti-Valentine's Song o' the Day

New Found Glory, "The King of Wishful Thinking" from From the Screen to Your Steeo, Part II (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary:

"I don't need to fall at your feet,
Just 'cause you cut me to the bone,
And I won't miss the way that you kiss me,
We were never carved in stone.

"If I don't listen to the talk of the town,
Then maybe I can fool myself.

"I'll get over you, I know I will,
I'll pretend my ship's not sinking,
And I'll tell myself I'm over you,
'Cause I'm the king of wishful thinking!
(I am the king of wishful thinking!)
I am the king of wishful thinking!

"I refuse to give in to my blues,
That's not how it's gonna be,
And I deny the tears in my eyes,
'Cause I don't want to let you see, no.

"That you have made a hole in my heart,
And now I've got to fool myself.

"I'll get over you, I know I will,
I'll pretend my ship's not sinking,
And I'll tell myself I'm over you,
'Cause I'm the king of wishful thinking!…"

The Explorers' Club, № DCCXCIX

Operation AXIOM: Destination Moon—The 50th Anniversary of Apollo 14, Part III
9 February 1971: The Antares lifted off & docked with the Kitty Hawk using a new direct rendezvous technique; during the voyage home, the crew conducted a press conference live from space; the Kitty Hawk splashed down in the Pacific & was recovered by the U.S.S. New Orleans; Shepard, Roosa, & Mitchell were the third & final Apollo crew to spend three weeks in the Mobile Quarantine Facility.

Bonus! Moonshot Songs o' Apollo 14
Michael Giacchino, "The Incredits" from The Incredibles: Music from the Motion Picture (Space Cadet Mike Papa DSKY)

&

National Aeronautics & Space Administration, "Apollo 14 Excerpt 18" from The Apollo Missions (Space Cadet Mike Papa DSKY)

Semper exploro.