Plenty of Nothing

Apollo 11 Launch, Camera E-8

Apollo 11 lifted off for the moon on this date in 1969. Watch the launch from the vantage point of Camera E-8, with a commentary on the functioning of the launch pad.

Thousand Cranes (1969)

Kawabata on the set of the 1969 film version of his novel Thousand Cranes. He's with Yōko Namikawa, Ayako Wakao, and Eiko Azusa. Source.

Plastic Hawkins Band

Ronnie Hawkins, Wanda Hawkins, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, at the Hawkins' house, Mississauga, December 22, 1969. Ronnie Hawkins talks about it.

Plastic Trudeau Band

Source.

Gratuitous Led Zeppelin Link

Dazed and Confused, 1969, with bowed guitar.

Man On Moon

Tranquility Base As A Baseball Diamond

It's Apollo 11 Week at Plenty of Nothing.  Here we have a US Geological Survey map comparing of the Tranquility Base landing site to a baseball diamond.  As you can see, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin pretty much stuck to the infield, except for that one ramble into centre field by Armstrong.  In addition to the first walk by humans on the moon, 1969 saw the Mets win.  Source: Talcott Mountain Science Centre.

 

Snoopy Still Flying

It's the fortieth anniversary of Apollo X, the moon landing rehearsal flight.  In 1969 the US space program and Charles Schulz's Peanuts were both in their heyday and about equal in cultural sway, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that the Apollo X command module was named Charlie Brown, and the Lunar Module Snoopy.  Apollo X did everything Apollo XI did later in July 1969 except touch down on the moon, but a significant difference is the fate of the two lunar modules.  Apollo XI's lunar module is in two pieces on the lunar surface, the descent stage at the Sea of Tranquility landing site, and the ascent stage someplace else, smashed to bits after having been jettisoned prior to the crew's return to earth.  In the case of Snoopy, it's the descent module that crashed into the surface.  The ascent module was fired away from the command module and now orbits the sun, the last inhabited Apollo spacecraft still flying.  The reentry capsule Charlie Brown resides in the Science Museum in London, England.