Steve Carrell plays fife??

Saw this clip from David Letterman where Steve Carrell guest starred and played a tune on his fife from his Fife and Drum Corps days years ago.  Seems I need to get out my fife and get in touch our local Old Guard Fifer Don Francisco for some lessons!

'Late Show': Steve Carell Plays Fife from War-Reenactment DaysWow, Steve Carell was such a dork. (Unless you're majorly into Revolutionary War history. In which case: Hot!) He revealed on the 'Late Show' (weeknights, 11:35PM ET on CBS) that the Carell men were avid members of a war-reenactment troupe in Massachusetts.

"I was in a fife and drum corps," he told David Letterman. "My father carried a musket, my brother was a drummer, and I was a fifer ... I did it for a few years -- and had no girlfriends during that time."

After this revelation, he pulled out a fife, "essentially, an 18th century flute" that would lead soldiers into battle. Though he hadn't played in 30 years, he gave the audience quite the scrappy performance.

Then the host further embarrassed Carell by unveiling his 1984 college graduation photo, which featured the actor sporting a not-so-stylish mustache. "You look older in this picture than you do now! How is that possible?" asked Letterman. Good question.

"Madonna of the Rocks" shows Da Vinci details

Restored Da Vinci painting reveals hidden details

AP - Wednesday, July 14, 2010 2:32:01 PM

Photo By AP

A restoration project for Leonardo da Vinci's "Virgin of the Rocks" has revealed new details and suggest the Renaissance artist may have painted all the picture himself, instead of with his assistants as previously thought, a British gallery said Wednesday.

The 18-month conservation project involved removing much of some badly degraded varnish that was applied to the painting in the late 1940s, enabling experts to take a much closer look at the picture's brush strokes and styles, the National Gallery said.

The cleaning revealed the painting's full tonal range, especially in the darker areas, and resulted in a clearer sense of how the artist intended for space to recede through the rocky landscape, the gallery said.

It also affirmed that Leonardo likely painted the entire picture himself and intended for it to be unfinished.

The restored painting showed a range of completion from the barely sketched hand of the angel to the fully realized heads of the main figures -- consistent with many of Leonardo's works. The Italian artist, said to be the "eternal perfectionist," is thought to have left his pictures unfinished because he wished to return to them later, gallery spokesman Thomas Almeroth-Williams said.

In the past, scholars believed the different levels of finish in "Virgin of the Rocks" showed that Leonardo was helped by assistants.

The painting dates from about 1491 to 1508 and is a later version of one on display in the Louvre in Paris.

The latest cleaning project followed years of scrutiny of the masterpiece.

In 2005, experts using infrared technology found two drawings hidden beneath the surface of the picture -- one design was never painted, and the second one revealed Leonardo changed his mind about the subject several times.

The painting goes back on display in the National Gallery on Wednesday.

Online:

http://nationalgallery.org.uk/