A bat visits

I had a bat in the room at 3 am. I heard a fluttering of wings by my
head repeatedly. Thought it was a moth. Eventually I see it, flying
just like in the Abbot and Costello movie with Dracula. I put the cat
in the closet and closed the windows. (All have screens on them.) I
then waited by the open front door as that was the only fresh air
coming in, which is what the bat was going for. In a little while,
the bat came to the front door. It was hard to see but I saw it crawl
around the screen. I opened the door. I wasn't sure but I thought it
flew out. I closed the door and opened the windows again. What an
adventure. How did it get in? From the screen by the kitchen vent?

Furnace causes this?

P8080009, originally uploaded by Lipwak.

Yesterday I filled the birdbath with clean water. Last night it rained. Today, as often happens, the birdbath is full of this dirt.

I used to think it was from whatever animals were using it (raccoons, woodchucks, who knows what). Now I think it is soot from my furnace. The furnace would have run during the rain, causing the soot to not get far. (The furnace really smells when it runs. It ought to be replaced.)

Nyack Jazz Week, Tuesday, 7/24

Saw Steve Bernstein and the Millennial Territory Orchestra again last
night. They played at Memorial Park in Nyack. I'd seen them back in
2005 at the Hopper House and once before then at the Nyack Center
either in 2003 or 2004.

I was disappointed. They played the almost all of the same repertoire
that I heard back at the Hopper House. Why don't they change it? They
opened with the same two tunes, St Louis Blues and The Boy In The
Boat. St Louis Blues was done reggae style which at least was a new
twist. Darling Nikki, which is one of my favorite SB/MTO tunes, a
Prince cover tune actually, was not as well played as was at the
Hopper House. (I think they also played that at the Nyack Center too
but I can't be sure.)

Some of the players were different from the last time I'd seen them.
Matt Munisteri, who's played with them for awhile but wasn't at the
Hopper House gig, played nicely but I don't see what makes him so
special. His other gigs and CDs are probably more interesting. Peter
Apfelbaum played sax tonight but I was more impressed with Michael
Blake at the Hopper House gig. Ben Perowksy was truly inspired at the
Hopper House gig. Not last night.

Charley Burnham wasn't that amazing as he has been. He was incredible
at the Hopper House gig and when I saw them at the Nyack Center.
Absolutely amazing. Here he didn't quite get all his notes in when
featured. I'll let him slide. He still is a hero of mine so one night
won't lower him in my eyes.

I was hoping the score Steven created for the Laurel and Hardy movies
would be truly amazing. It wasn't. (Only "Sugar Daddies" was played.)
I didn't really get it but will hear it again as I had taped it.
Maybe it will make more sense then. I hope the rest of it works
better at the other gigs.

DirecTV is now airing the Ovation network. Great music, dancing and
other performance. Awful ads. Why is that? Great art and they can
only attract awful sponsors?

Still, I am going to LOVE Ovation. Gabriel Yared! The TIger Lillies!
Harry Smith!

Sigh. There IS something worth watching on TV at last.

I've seen the house wren sitting on a fencepost near the bee balm today. I am wondering if it is defending its territory from the hummingbird(s) that I've been seeing lately. While I love having the house wrens nesting in the birdhouse in the garden, I am hoping that it won't scare off the hummingbirds!

Twice now, hummingbirds have checked me out as I have stood by the bee balm. I've been wearing bright colored shirts that probably make them think I am a tall flower! They hover around briefly but very close. I haven't been able to take pictures or movies of them yet but I hope to asap. I think I have seen two, one yellow and one green but I'm not sure they were really different at all.

I happened to notice when CNBC had their telePrompter feed go out
over the air last night. I don't see anything else on the web about it.

Saw this fawn today, racing back and forth just past the garden. Thought it was a mountain lion perhaps. It stopped racing back and forth and then appeared on side of the garden and walked into the woods. Here is part 1


The fawn in the back yard now, looks at me (perhaps) and heads into the woods.

I've been bored with what's on tv lately. So, I thought I'd go
through my videotape library. I have at least 360 (numbered) tapes
(and many more that are titled and otherwise filed). That's 2160
hours of video. If I watched them 24 hours a day, it would take me 90
days to get through them all. (I recorded pretty much all of them at
EP, the slowest speed. Well, now that I think about it, when I had
my first VCR I used the LP speed, so those would be 4 hours long.)

Let's see. I saw two woodchucks and a fawn yesterday. A cottontail
rabbit and a young deer today. Didn't get any pics of the first three
as they all ran away quickly and I didn't have my camera handy anyway
(and seeing deer other than fawns is no big deal so I didn't need to
take a pic of that.) It is nice to know there is wildlife here.
Haven't seen any wlld turkey yet this year, (I wonder who the fawn
came from...)

Two YouTube videos about the great Camellia Grill in New Orleans which has reopened.



Good to see Harry. God bless you.

One of the most beautiful scenes in music videos I've seen, the aparks going up into the blue sky. Thank you, Severa Nazarkhan.

Today's bug

Today's bug, originally uploaded by Lipwak.

Found by the cat, her staring at it clued me in to there being something there. I have seen these all summer long inside. Might be a lightning bug. Haven't seen any flying around inside at night glowing away yet though.

What is it? The brown line may be his antenna but might also be something in the cup, I don't remember. Probably antenna.

Wild strawberries! (fraise du bois)

P5280008, originally uploaded by Lipwak.

Wild strawberries are appearing in the lawn! How cool is that!

Bloosoms on the wild rose

P5280006, originally uploaded by Lipwak.

I hate wild rose but at least the flowers are nice.

Two bugs I had to remove from the house today, before breakfast!

P5280003, originally uploaded by Lipwak.

P5280002, originally uploaded by Lipwak.

I am stopping refilling the suet feeder today. I have already had a
few birds come by to check it out to find no suet in the feeder. They
may be disappointed, I don't know. Woodpeckers get all excited when
I've had suet. I hope they aren't too disappointed now but it's
getting hot enough that the suet gets all over the place when they
peck at it. It's getting to be a mess. There are plenty of bugs for
them to eat. I don't think too many birds will be disappointed.

Spring afternoon sun

P5240005, originally uploaded by Lipwak.

P5240004, originally uploaded by Lipwak.

AT&T New Orleans Jazz Fest 2007 video

WHEN will AT&T have the archives from this year's Jazz Fest
available? It's been two weeks since the fest was over. When will we
get to see anything? Why does it take so long to do this? They could
have been ready the next day...

See here:
http://blueroom.att.com/events/jazzfest.php

Fox talking heads dismissed Ron Paul's performance minutes after the
Republican debate tonight in South Carolina but Fox's own text
message poll has Ron Paul in FIRST PLACE!

Bravo! Ron Paul's comment that we have to answer for why we were
attacked on 9/11 are words we need to hear more of. I like Ron Paul.
I don't like Republicans but so far, hearing Ron Paul tonight, I like
him. The others are trying to prove they are tougher SOBs than the
rest, a path we shouldn't have gone down in the first place.

birds and ants

Interesting bird behavior seen today and yesterday at breakfast.
Yesterday I noticed, as I sat down to breakfast, that there was some
activity at the birdhouse. I've seen sparrows lately using it.
Yesterday, One was going to the honeysuckle bush, getting something,
a seed? a flower part? and then flying back to the top of the
birdhouse, SITTING on top on the other bird who would stick it's neck
up and have it's mouth open and then fly back to the bush again. It
looked like it was hitting the bird, flying back to the bush and then
flying back again, hitting the lower bird again. Or maybe it was
mating. I don't know. Whatever it was it was funny to watch. I went
and got my camera but by the time I'd done that they'd stopped doing
it.

Today. I noticed two sparrows on the birdhouse. A third larger black
bird swooped in and was repelled. Then, what appeared to be the
previous tenant was rebuffed by the sparrows on the birdhouse. The
rebuffed bird, could have been a sparrow but might have been a wren
with its longer beak and stubbier tail, chirred from the fence post
as one of the new sparrows sat right next to it and preened itself,
confident that they had one. The old resident moved further away,
chirring, and the new residents passed a piece of tissue paper they'd
found for nesting material (litter is never too far away in this
property despite my efforts), into the nest inside the birdhouse.

I went to get my camera and looking glass for this too but when I
came back, they had finished.

This birdhouse is supposed to be for Eastern Bluebirds ONLY. I have
only seen sparrows using it, and only a few, at various spring and
fall times of year.

Also on the topic of birds, we have had geese in the neighborhood
lately, honking away. I don't know what is attractive to them here.
There might be someone's pool. Maybe someone's lawn? Both morning and
night (not so much during the day) one or two will be honking alot,
fly around and eventually come back. Something to do with the mating
season? (See also the goose on the roof story a few days ago here.)

As for the ants, I have stopped seeing the little sugar ants. I now
have, a few a day in the kitchen, larger black ants. Is the Combat
working? Is it attracting the new ones? I am happy the little ones
have stopped but wonder when the large ones will too. Ever?

The large ones are easy to capture and throw outside. They often sit
there, probably asleep and you can get very close to them without
their moving. They do run faster, and respond quicker, than the
little ants but since you can creep up on them more easily, are more
easily rounded up in cups I keep strategically near me in both the
kitchen and the living room. I open the kitchen window and band the
cup on the side and they are dropped out into the lawn below, or I go
out my front door, tap the cup on the railing and they get dropped
out onto the lawn or landing below.

For some reason, many will be attracted to my legs. Once a day it
seems I will feel one crawling up. I then walk out the front door and
shake it off. What IS the attraction to my leg? Sweat? Soap from my
shower? I don't know.

Oh I love it. Sen Domenici of New Mexico is but a shell of what he
was when he was in charge of whatever Senate committees he was on.
Seeing him in the "Reducing U.S. Oil Dependence" hearing today, is so
refreshing. When the Republicans were in charge, he was one of the
worst examples of hubris out of control, rolling over what many would
consider reasonable people who think we should do something else to
solve our energy problems besides drilling for more oil. Now he looks
badly broken. Maybe he has gotten religion... There is justice in
this world!

5 thermometers all tell a different temperature here

I have 5 thermometers in various places in my little second-story
square house which has windows in all four directions. They tend to
give different readings from each other.

Today's temperatures at about quarter of 3 pm.

#1 (outside, North) - 77
#2 (inside, East) - ~76 (hard to read)
#3 (outside, West)- 97 (in hot sun today), inside - 75
#4 (inside, South) - 87
#5 (outside, South) - 104! (in hot sun today)
#6 (inside wall by bathroom) - 75

Somehow I think it isn't 104 degrees outside today. Nor 97. More like
in the 70s (mid 70s in the shade?, hotter in the sun.)

Will try to add some more disparities as it gets warmer.

About the thermometers

#1
Where - On stereo cabinet. near Eastern window/northern side of the house.
Make/model # - Taylor 5381
Type - digital, battery operated
Indoor/outdoor? - Indoor/outdoor
Wireless/wire/one piece - wire for outside temp goes to outside of front door
Accurate? - I trust the readings on this one.
Handicap - It is on the shady side (North) of the house so will give
cooler readings in both the summer and winter.

#2
Where - inside room by comfortable chair near Eastern window/Northern
side of house.
Make/model # - "accurate" (different brand than #5)
Type - mercury
Indoor/outdoor? - Indoor
Wireless/wire/one piece - one piece
Accurate? - Well, the mercury container came loose in the holder. I
readjusted it but it may not be quite right. I consider readings from
it to be approximate.
Handicap - See above

#3
Where - On bedside table. Outdoor sensor is in mailbox that is on the
West side of the house.
Make/model # - Sharper Image OQ234
Type - digital, battery operated
Indoor/outdoor? - indoor/outdoor
Wireless/wire/one piece - wireless
Accurate? - The outdoor sensor is in a mailbox that faces the West.
It gets hot in the summer so I bet it won't be accurate. I haven't
had it long enough to really know. The indoor reading is trustworthy.
Handicap - Sensor in the mailbox gets direct sun.

Also, the outdoor reading sometimes appears blank. It is receiving a
signal but it doesn't display the temperature sometimes.

It has memory so I can tell how hot and cold it has been since the
last time I changed the battery. (~ 2 or three months)

#4
Where - On the kitchen table near windows that open to the South.
Gets direct sunlight
Make/model # - Atomic Time RCL-19 (radio controlled AM/FM clock radio)
Type - digital, runs on house power
Indoor/outdoor? - indoor
Accurate? - It gets direct sunlight. In the summer it gets hot.
Winter is probably more accurate.
Handicap - Sitting in the hot sun in the summer I doubt it is
accurate of the room temperature but it may be close.

#5
Where - On the kitchen table near windows that open to the South.
Get's direct sunlight.
Make/model # - "Accurate" (different brand then #2)
Type - digital, battery operated
Indoor/outdoor? - indoor/outdoor but I only care about the outdoor reading.
Wireless/wire/one piece - wire to outdoor sensor
Accurate? - Since it is in the sun it tends to show higher than air
temperature. The outdoor sensor even though I covered it with a
makeshift cover, tends to show higher than real temperatures.
Handicap - Indoor temperature is read from clock radio that sits on
kitchen table. Outdoor sensor even though shaded, gets hot.

#6
Thermostat
where - on wall by bathroom. Shaded all day.

#7
Where - in car
type - mercury

Jazz Fest notes (Fri 5/4 - Sun 5/6), listening to WWOZ on the internet and watching the AT&T video stream

Friday, May 4

I see that OZ has not updated its web page. The schedule for Fri 4/27 is still up and there is no more information. I'm not surprised.

We'll wing it today. See if they tell us who's on when.

They go to the fairgrounds at 12 ny time. level is low for cd.
Charley B & the Problem Child DJ

(NO times) Sharon Martin 12:20, Ellis Marsalis 1:25 - 2:25, blah blah blah, Who else is on?..., Dirty Dozen 3:50 - 4:55!, World Sax Group? Quartet 2:50, John Boutte (not broadcasting that???)

John Boutte from last year's fest, LA 1927. I'm glad they're playing this often. Very good.

Problem Child: wuffman... (for Walter Wolfman Washington.) Level goes up. "There was so many people came"... "arch-chivist". No, it's archivist...

Charley: "just ahead" (An hour from now. Is that just ahead?)

We hear the DJs come on and the director telling them what to talk about! Talk about food...

I don't think I want to know about that banana.

Dis Pas De Marriage - Little Band Of Gold. Un hunh. I prefer the un-rock and roll versions.

Skeleton crew! Glad to hear they are still around.

Before they go to the cd I hear the director say ID...

t1 >1550 zydeco (not worth saving)

Nice to see some pics of OZ'ers on the blog.

Wee wee hours again.

Give the director a mic if he is going to talk to the DJs on air. No, Ellis Marsalis is after Sharon... not WSQ/G.

(I recycle the tape. Nothing in this first hour and a half worth saving.)

We go to Sharon. She's singing but we can't hear her very well. (What a little moonshine can do.) Can barely hear the piano and band. Good mix. Nothing being done about it. Is anybody home?

Next song, Blue Skies, still bad mix. Either they are unable to fix this or they don't know the mix is real low.

Next song, still low. Antonio Carlos Jobim - Ge Ge? Level comes up a little. Yawn. Not my cup of tea. Nice drum solo. Some nice vocalizations.

Dj IDs.

Level is still very low. Rt 66. Signal breaks up, bad cable or VERY dirty fader. Now level goes up then goes back down.

Suddenly level goes up. Better. Thank you.

Background hiss is horrendous as DJ comes on and very noticeable otherwise.

I Will Survive, not exactly on key and oh so tired a song. At least the mix is up to a proper level. I like her singing but not this song. Nice ending.

Horrendous hiss/white noise as the DJs come on. Great. Horrendous! Is anybody aware of this? The DJs are oblivious. Hear the druming? No, all we can hear is hiss. Hiss gets worse. Your listeners on the WWW are hearing nothing but hiss, folks. Gambe Brass Band from Gambia. So, the CD works fine, no hiss. The mics are total hiss.
If OZ had an e-mail alert line I would let them know this. 'Course, they wouldn't necessarily read incoming e-mails....

CD stops or ends and then we have silence. Why?

I go outside to have lunch and when I come back we have audio. Probably Ellis Marsalis's set. A familiar tune.

Nope. A CD.

(3:15 NY time) brass band CD. Bonerama? Nightcrawlers? A familiar tune. I say Nightcrawlers. Could be Dirty Dozen but they aren't as good as that. Levels are good on CDs...

DJ Freddy Bloom is familiar from last week. Ah, the rain has caused the problem. WHY doesn't the DJ have any info about the fest? WHY WHY WHY? Idiots. Big bad thunderstorm moving through on the weather maps. (OK, so I know it's raining. What I want to know is why the feed is out. Why doesn't the DJ know that?)

Stupid song.

3:32 NY time they go back to the fest, Ellis Marsalis. Ellis over at 3:45 NY time.

Problem Child: WSQ on at 4:15 NO time, Walter Woofman...
So it looks like things are pushed back about an hour and 15 minutes.

Have some slight activity at 16k (for that CDs at least). Don't know about the fest feeds.

Bonerama - familiar tune/song (doesn't have any 16k).

Dirty Dozen - Meet The Flintstones. Lots of brass band CDs being played today. Thank you.

Tom Morgan & Cousin Dmitri. 4pm NY time. 2-3" of water at spots in the Fairgrounds. Hey, it sounds better... no hiss.

I'd be out there in the rain for Etta James!

007 reggae cover of Summer Breeze. Ugh.

Endless cover tunes. Will New Orleans ever get sick of them?

They go to the WSG at 5:30 NY time, beginning of t1 b side. This at least should be interesting. We hear a tune then silence. Then another. Good, no DJ inbetween.

Little Wing! (a cover, I admit). Some bass from some other stage is bleeding through.

MC is out of the mix.

Getting some, not much, 16k out of the festival feed.

Dmitri does ID at 6 pm NY time, inbetween tunes. Nice and tight.

Done by 6:20 NY time.

The difference between a band like the WSQ/G and most of the brass bands of New Orleans is that these guys know what they are doing; when they go off into free-form, it makes sense and is in known keys. Most brass bands, and many other New Orleans bands, are just plain oblivious to playing in key even when they are trying to be avant-garde.

Fuck. No Dirty Dozen. Goodbye.

***

Saturday, 5/5/07

I forget to record via Radio Recorder until I get home from a day out so I miss all day up to about 5pm NY time. Roy Hargrove is on. I'm not interested. I set up Radio Recorder to record the rest of it since I am going out tonight. I'll have to listen to it later.

Same with Sunday. I'll be out all day so I'll have to record it all and listen to it later.

(Now listening to the recording I made with Radio Recorder.)

A woman singing straight jazz (Sept In The Rain). Some fun scat with the band backing her up.

Mostly drumming then big band...

Poetry. Chuck Perkins. Open to all kinds of influences.

Deacon John - Some Day I don't know this song but I do remember him sounding great back in 1991 or so with some of the best sound I ever heard at a concert. Might have been on the riverboat before Etta James.

Is this Henry Butler's piano piece? Yeah, Orleans Inspiration, live at the fest.

Tom Morgan and The Problem Child.

They had a shout band? Who? Ah, The Madison Bumble Bees. Sorry I missed them. (Twice!)

Donald Harrison on now... It's great to play these back using the Quicktime player at 3X the normal speed. It'll get me to where I want and breeze through the stuff I don't want to listen to in real time.

They do an African Blessing with Bill Summers. Starts off with one of the vocalists out of the mix. It gets better when the percussion starts.

A Mardi Gras Indian tune, sort of.

That closes out Saturday night.


***

Sunday, 5/6/07

I start to listen for the Breakfast Jam. Some interesting stuff. Holmes Brothers sound good and I usually don't like them. Will recored stuff once I leave. I'll be out all day today but will record all of it, once I leave.

Holmes Brothers talk is OFF MIC! What idiots OZ are. You couldn't set up the mic so that when they talk we can hear them? Good mix otherwise.

I start recording at noon, NY time, as they go to the fest. (Theme song: Oh Poop Oop A Doo). Mark Hawkins & Sondra Bibb as DJs, nice. "Saddening" news: Alvin Batiste died. tribute comes with "added brevity"??! So I guess 4:10 Marva Wright, 5:45 Taj Mahal are what OZ will webcast. (They just say they have them on X stage....)

Marsalic Music?

Damn. AT&T is streaming video and audio of:

May 5th Lineup
01:00 PM Theresa Andersson!
01:21 PM Rockin' Dopsie, Jr!
01:34 PM Jon Cleary!
02:05 PM Buckwheat Zydeco!
02:53 PM Henry Butler!
03:12 PM Subdudes!
03:31 PM Galactic
04:17 PM Zachary Richard!!
04:40 PM Marcia Ball!
04:57 PM New Orleans Social Club!
05:37 PM John Mayer
06:22 PM Norah Jones
06:37 PM Rod Stewart

May 6th Lineup
01:00 PM Irma Thomas!
01:46 PM Allen Toussaint!
02:57 PM Mahalia Jackson Tribute!
03:39 PM Johnny Rivers
03:42 PM Luther Kent!
03:57 PM Brad Paisley
04:53 PM Bonnie Raitt!
05:31 PM Joss Stone
07:00 PM Harry Connick Jr!

and I am missing it all! Damn.

Maurice Brown at 11:30, Jermaine Bazzile follows. "Commemorative" bumbled.

I leave at 12:45 NY time, some straight jazz (from CD?) is playing.

(Listening to the recording on Monday now.)

Woman singing.

Mark and Sondra on now. Marva Wright and Taj Mahal coming up.

Jesse McBride.

Tom Morgan & Lisa Barrios on now.

Radiators coming up? Don Vappe & The Creole Serenaders? Bob French?

WSG.

Music Came - Henry Butler/Alvin Batiste


I come back at about 6pm. Bob French is doing (repeating endlessly) Do What You Wanna. Sounds good. End one recording, start another 6 hr.

Ella Smith sings Do You Know What It Means (To Miss New Orleans).

Just A Closer Walk With Thee - Original Tuxedo Jazz Band with Branford Marsalis and Harry Connick Jr (5/6/07 5:59 - 14:36)

Didn't He Ramble 26:49 (Not worth saving)

By Bob. Good riddance.

Somebody at OZ trips over the mic. Tom's mic is set wrong, he sounds off mic.

Good Prof Longhair tune. Waiting for Taj Mahal.

1:14 we go to him.

Nice. After, he talks and is low in the mix!

Next song (12 bar blues) , he is low in the mix. They find him but the mix is still bad. Organ is low, drums - all we hear are the cymbals and the snare.

Next, we hear him just fine. Electric dobro? My Creole Belle. His great low voice! Nice!

I'm A Goin Fishin. Yeah! Nice gtr.

Corrina! 'A beautiful blues song, not just dit da dit da...'! Yes indeed.

Play a little of that cool 60s pop organ tune...

Blues with a Feelin. (His voice sounds thin in all of these due to the mix. And I'm listening through the stereo. Too bad it's mono too.)

His between-song voice sounds good.

His Wolfman Jack voice is pretty cool. His voice is much better in this song's mix. Full. (Sweeter Than The Honeybee)

'I know you're feelin good cuz I can smell it'!

Cool electric blues. Disco style. The Blues is Alright, everybody singing along!

Nice set, Taj!

'Thought they were gonna get some old blues man. No, it ain't like that!'

Idiot MC, 'you want some more, lets hear it'. What the fuck do you think they are screaming for? You think you need to rile up the crowd? Idiot.

'I got a banjo and I know how to use it.' Too bad the banjo is low in the mix.

(Lookin at the interactive Cubes on the OZ site, I'm wondering why the Jazz Fest site doesn't have an interactive page like that too? That's ONE thing OZ did better than anyone.)

Nice encore.

Tom comes on to close it out.

Best set today - Taj. best set all fest. Taj probably. A pretty lackluster Jazz Fest from what we could hear over OZ. Let's hope the AT&T video stream will have some good stuff.



Notes on watching the AT&T video stream Sunday.
I'm watching Bonnie Raitt on the AT&T page too! Woman Be Wise. Switched cameras!

Plenty of problems with the AT&T player on a Mac. I see Joss Stone now, when it works. Doesn't work well enough so I give up.

OZ is talking to Henry Butler about Alvin Batiste.

Got VLC player to work. It's jerky but ok. Joss Stone.

They fade to some fest B-roll. Then to a Harry Connick promo. Then they go to him on stage in the middle of a song. OK. Bill Bailley.

Very little at 16k but it sounds good.

Jambalaya.

others. fun to see the trombone player channel louis armstrong on top of the piano.

Hello Dolly?

Earlier, a corner from the backdrop was flapping around. Someone tied it down soon after I saw it. That kind of attention to detail is what OZ/NO needs... Do a good job.

Goin to the Mardi Gras! Butt shakin!

Junco Partner. Piano pounding! Yeah, you right!

birds and apple blossoms

Taken with a still picture camera so that's why it looks so bad.

Geese on the roof, again

This morning at about 7 AM I heard a goose that sounded like it wasn't doing well. I'd heard this before in the past few days. A little while later I heard what sounded like the goose landing on the roof! I thought about getting out of bed to try to look at it but didn't think I would get to see it, the roof is angled so that I can't see much of it. I did hear a little rustling, the goose walking around but it was mostly pretty quiet.

A little later on, I heard a honk and some rustling so I got up and looked out of my front window. TWO geese had just flown off my roof and were flying past my landlady's house. I was worried they may not find a route to fly away with all these trees around here but they seemed to make it without a problem.

See also the goose on the roof story in an earlier blog posting (posted 7/10/06 but took place in April, 2006).

A woodpecker and other sounds recorded around my house

A woodpecker banging away on my house. Recorded 11/4/06.

More sounds from around my house in my Yahoo briefcase. Birds, insects, singing Christians and Jews, fireworks and my favorite, a bear!

Ch 13 video problems

Ch 13 (WNET, NYC) has looked terrible lately. (I watch via DirecTV.)
Oversaturated colors. I reset the tv to the factory settings but can't stand
looking at Ch 13 in particular. Tonight, Charlie Rose is interviewing Pres Bush.
Even with my adjusting the settings to the colors are horrendous, I
am seeing a red edge on the right hand side of the their faces. I
hope this isn't due to the tv going bad. I think this is what
happened to my last tv as the first sign of it going bad.

Or Ch 13 is still screwing up. I don't understand why their channel
stands out with horrendous color saturation.

After the interview, the video looks normal, so it was the interview
that was poorly shot. Way to go 13.

P4210005, originally uploaded by Lipwak.

This daffodil turned up in the pachysandra for the first time since I moved here 5 years ago.

P4190022, originally uploaded by Lipwak.

The cat in the afternoon light.

Cardinals have a habit of standing out this time of year.

French Quarter Fest Video and pics

http://www.thenew995fm.com/cc-common/mainheadlines2.html?feed=135659&article=1988094

It is a Fox News radio station but you'll get a good idea of some of the music and scenary.

Wow. Ants love Bailey's Irish Cream. I left a small amount in my
glass on the counter about an hour ago and when I came into the
kitchen just now, there was the biggest swarm I've seen yet.

The Combat hasn't quite finished them off yet. It's been almost 2
weeks since I got the Combat. Is it going to work? One more week and
then I call in the bigger guns.

Administration leak discovered ...

Administration leak discovered ..., originally uploaded by guano.

I am using the VLog part of YouTube. Check out my favorite music videos.

Rachid Taha - Barra Barra

I first heard this on Rob Weisberg's Transpacifc Sound Paradise on WFMU on 4/13/03.
I am impressed that they did this, with all the effects and it's such a sharp recording, live.
Was one of my favorites for a long time. Now his 1-2-3 Soleil show is my favorite.

John Boutte Sings "Why"

I heard him sing this at Jazz Fest last year, on WWOZ. This is from Austin City Limits, The New Orleans Social Club.

Crocus

P4030021
Originally uploaded by Lipwak.

Saw this crocus today.

Most everything is still brown here but things are just beginning. Croci are out, shoots are coming up for the day lilies, the lilacs have buds, the Japanese maples have just the beginning of pink buds!, the hyacinths are coming up, the two tulips shoots are up, the wild rose are looking green and have spurts coming out.

I've seen a Robin in Princeton and Airmont but not here yet. Lots of bird songs for the past few weeks but I can't tell who they are.

Looking forward to seeing greenery appear.

First lawn crew of the spring summer fall season has arrived. Hard to
tell if there is an Indian Point siren going off or if it's just the
lawn crew. (They are having Indian Point siren tests this week and
have already had one today. Both have high pitched steady tones. You
tell the difference...)

ants, pt 3

Definitely spoke too soon about no ants in the kitchen. I just walked
in and saw 4 or 5.

We have a way to go.

ants, pt 2

I noticed an ant twitching today. While I don't like to see any
living creature in pain, I am relieved that the ant poison I have put
down seems to be working.

I don't see any ants tonight as I go into the kitchen. I'm sure I'll
see some more soon enough but this may be a sign that the ant poison
is working. (I did just see an ant by the computer. What they are
doing there I have no idea.)

killing ants

Ants have reappeared in my kitchen and bathroom, and the occasional
one is seen near or on me as I sit in my chair. It's one of the signs
of spring.

I had a bad infestation of ants last year. Lasted from spring through
most of the summer. I laid barriers of baking soda by my kitchen
sink, the counter-tops all around and the baseboards. It worked well
by the baseboards. After pouring it all along the baseboards, the
ants stopped finding the cat food. That wasn't the case on the
counter-tops. They bothered me all summer there.

And that is what I am faced with now. My current technique to deal
with them is to wet a sponge, sweep them up with that and then rinse
the sponge under the faucet. This usually makes the ants fall into
the running water although sometimes I have to squeeze the sponge to
get them all out. The ants get washed down the drain in theory (out
of sight, out of mind being the rationale behind that) but many climb
back up out of the sink. I sweep them with a sponge again. And lately
I am thinking that my squeezing the sponge hard enough might kill
them or injure them. The temperature of the water too should be
considered. Too hot or cold will kill them,

It bothers me as I kill them. My heart feels a little ache each time
I do anything about it. I am intentionally killing them all. I don't
like that. When more come back again and again (different ants,
probably not the same ones) I get aggravated and sweep them up with
anger, feeling less guilty. But here I am, killing many live
creatures. The Jains don't like to kill germs. I don't like to kill
ants.

I probably will get some real toxic commercial spray since other
approaches haven't worked for me. I'll have to be careful it doesn't
harm the cat.

I guess I prefer to wash them down the drain because I am not
actually killing them then and there with that action. I am not
squishing each one. I am moving them somewhere else where, it
happens, they probably die. Some escape. Most die by drowning. Others
due to the temperature of the water. Others from whatever nastiness
is in the drain (chemicals, waste although ants can deal with some of
that stuff in their normal encounters in life.)

They don't scream. They do run away, sometimes. When I stand by the
sink or shower, at least when this started, they run away. Later on
in the summer, at least last summer, they didn't respond when I made
my presence known. I wonder why.

Technorati Profile

Stevie Wonder, A Night of Wonder, was on VH-1 Classics. Very good
show. Great sound. Good songs. Too bad it was only an hour with
commercials.

The drummer played a rock beat throughout, not a funky soul beat. I
wonder why. Not very ornamented. It sure could have been.

Movies full of lessons for life

Have seen two movies in the past few days that I'd seen years back,
in college. Both are full of life instructions: A Thousand Clowns and
Harold and Maude. A Thousand Clowns didn't have as much of an impact
on me this time around but it's full of bon mots. Harold and Maude,
besides being side splitting funny at times, also has the music of
Cat Stevens in it which sounds as good now as it did then.

I also saw, again but in full this time, Human Nature. Also laden
with messages about the meaning of life but nowhere near as rich
overall.

Carpe diem is the message.

ah, spring

Time for the quiet of the winter to be repeatedly shattered by loud
motorcycles, loud car stereos, more cars honking their horns because
the car in front of them at the light isn't starting up fast enough
and so on.

It has started already.

Indian Point siren tests today

They tested the Indian Point sirens three times this morning.

At 10:35, as I was outside getting the morning paper, I heard a
steady tone, not too loud, heard from towards where the Rt 306 old
siren is/was, possibly one in the other direction. A short test,
faded to nothing without changing tone.

The second test was at 11am. The tone is not very loud inside the
house and it varies! There is no wind ot speak of. (For the first one
too.)

The third test, at 11:30. Longer but barely audible. Sounds like it
is coming from more due east...

Not very impressive. I live just outside the 10 mile zone, maybe a
tenth of a mile if that. I can barely hear the sirens. I think they
need to be A LOT LOUDER!!

Indietro Tutta found on YouTube!

Here is a short bit of the intro.



A wonderful show. I understood very little of it (I don't speak Italian) but found it hilarious and intriguing. I hope to see more!! I might put what I have taped on YouTube too.

Polyphonic Spree (at SXSW on DirecTV)

I'm watching the Polyphonic Spree (live) at SXSW on DirecTV. I've
seen them on Austin City Limits before this. They crack me up, give
me joy... The music is awful but I love to watch the choir. They look
like a bunch of Moonies all swinging and twisting their heads in
unison. I wonder how many get neck injuries. And they never have to
dry their hair. All that tossing around will do it for them. They
definitely have the market cornered for the
women-all-dressed-the-same-head-twisting-in-unison dance form.

And there's a new girl in the front row center, at least since I saw
them on ACL, who's got the best head flip, very sexy. (Is one of the
requirements to be in the choir to have black hair?)

I think it's the Addicted To Love look to it all that I like about them...

(PS. I realized I had spelled cornered as corned. Apparently Blogger's spell check thinks that "corned" is a word that doesn't need to corrected. Interesting. Corned...)

2 good music events on tv this week

I taped the documentary on IFC called Tom Dowd: The Language of
Music. Very worthwhile. Lots of behind the scenes stuff, we see my ex
boss- Phil Ramone. I never met Tom but he sounds like a real nice guy
and smart. Worked on the Manhattan Project!

Also caught the Summerstage 7/16/06 show of Daby Toure. I thought it
might be good and it was excellent. He is the son of one of Toure
Kunda, one of my favorite afro-pop bands ever. Same high pitched
voice, great singing, great percussive and light acoustic gtr! Wish I
was there. Apparently it was a HOT day, about 100.

I also taped the Richard Thompson at Sierra Center Stage that I'd had
on the DVR for awhile. Excellent, although for some reason the DVR
cut off the last 15 minutes or so. I could have sworn it was ok the
first time I saw it.

First signs of spring!

The first signs of spring seen today: an ant in the shower and some
croci outside. I've also heard some bird songs that are probably from
birds passing through. Haven't seen any that are harbingers yet.

I will also have the mellifluous sounds of a house being constructed
nearby all spring and summer and who knows how much longer than that
to look forward to.

Some pics recently taken



The sun setting from inside the house with the tv's scan lines being caught.

It's marathon time for WFMU. Here's a way to help.

How This Works...

Support Freeform Radio! Your Name Your Email Your Pledge $ Add this banner to your site!

Midnight. More loud music from the Orthodox Jews nearby. Obnoxious
but perfectly legit since it is their holiday. (To hell with
everybody else.)

So it's Purim. The Jewish people in my neighborhood don't mind
playing loud music late at night. They're disturbing the peace. It's
ok because the majority of people around here are Jewish. It is still
obnoxious. And the music isn't very good. Tacky. Just loud.

Washington Week In Review weirdness

During the intro, the voiceover sound was tinny or out of phase, the
roll-ins were fine. During the show, the studio sound was fine, the
roll-ins were tinny or out of phase.

During the intro, the studio video was horrendously saturated. In the
studio, all cameras except Gwen's looked fine.

What was going on?

I watch via DirecTV.

A geranium blooms in February

The last time I checked this geranium I'm wintering in my garage with no heat, it had flowers on it! Here it is today with fewer flowers but seemingly happy. Amazing. It's in the 20s outside and it is flowering and has lots of leaves.

Oh, and I water it about once a month!

Breaking News on Fox

Breaking news on Fox today:

'Anna Nicole's mother wasn't on the best of terms with her.'

hahahahahahahha

Go Fox. THAT's news!

My Orthodox Jewish neighbors are playing some really loud music right now. It is intentionally being blasted outside. Why? I have my windows closed and it is very loud. Their house is maybe a hundred yards away. They are intentionally disturbing the peace with their music. That's rude. (And not the first time it has happened.)

Some video taken 7/15/95 at my old house in Greenwich.

My late cat Bluto, my car, my gardens. No, it wasn't 105 degrees out then. That thermometer wasn't very accurate in its later years.

Friday's Paradecam was excellent. Great quality video and audio and
full motion most if not all the time.

Saturday's has been poor. Lots of blue screens, freezes, audio
dropouts and echoing. Both for the mid-day and evening parades.

Let's hope Sunday, Monday and Tuesday are good.

Juncos appear

I haven't seen juncos until now, when we're having a winter storm!
These fat little black birds. Bunches of them, hopping around, poking
at what's on top of the snow, not much (more snow and sleet). I
wonder where they were until now.

Geraniums are flowering!

The geraniums I put in the garage, which I had heated with the excess from the boiler room until recently (when the cold water pipes almost froze noted earlier), are flowering! I watered them today and voila, there were a few white flowers leaning towards the sunny windows. I was afraid they whole plant had been killed with the extreme cold we've had lately so it's a nice surprise to see it doing so well!

Mardi Gras is coming!

Here are the Bourbocam, Paradecam and the actual parade schedules. Watch!

(Times are New Orleans time which is Central time.)

Apparently the hosts have been cancelled on the Bourbocam and it looks like it's going to be a cold Mardi Gras this year. 40 degrees.

Friday, February 9
• BourboCam: 6:00 p.m. - 1:00 a.m.
• ParadeCam: 6:00 p.m. - Til
Saturday, February 10
• BourboCam: 3:00 p.m. - 1:00 a.m.
• ParadeCam: 1:00 p.m. - Til
Sunday, February 11
• BourboCam: 2:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
• ParadeCam: Noon - Til
Wednesday, February 14
• ParadeCam: Noon - Til
Thursday, February 15
• ParadeCam: 5:45 p.m. - Til
Friday, February 16
• BourboCam: 3:00 p.m. - 1:00 a.m.
• ParadeCam: 11:00 a.m. - Til
Saturday, February 17
• BourboCam: 3:00 p.m. - 1:00 a.m.
• ParadeCam: 11:00 a.m. - Til
Sunday, February 18
• BourboCam: 3:00 p.m. - 1:00 a.m.
• ParadeCam: 11:00 a.m. - Til
Monday, February 19
• BourboCam: 3:00 p.m. - 1:00 a.m.
• ParadeCam: 5:15 p.m. - Til
Sunday, February 18
• BourboCam: 10:00 a.m. - Midnight
• ParadeCam: 10:00 a.m. - Til

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9
Orleans / Jefferson
• Oshun - Uptown, 6:00 p.m.
• Pygmalion - Uptown, 7:00 p.m.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10
Orleans / Jefferson
• Pontchartrain - Uptown, 1:00 p.m.
• Shangri-La - Uptown, 2:00 p.m.
• Sparta - Uptown, 6:00 p.m.
• Pegasus - Uptown, 6:45 p.m.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 11
Orleans / Jefferson

• Carrollton - Uptown, Noon
• King Arthur - Uptown, 1:15 p.m.
• Barkus - French Quarter, 2:00 p.m.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14
• Druids - Uptown, 6:00 p.m.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15
• Babylon - Uptown, 5:45 p.m.
• Chaos - Uptown, 6:30 p.m.
• Muses - Uptown, 7:30 p.m.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16
Orleans / Jefferson
• Hermes - Uptown, 6:00 p.m.
• d'Etat - Uptown, 6:30 p.m.
• Morpheus - Uptown, 7:45 p.m.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17
• Iris - Uptown, 11:00 a.m.
• Tucks - Uptown, 12:30 p.m.
• Endymion - Uptown, 4:30 p.m.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 18
Orleans / Jefferson
• Okeanos - Uptown, 11:00 a.m.
• Thoth - Uptown, 11:30 a.m.
• Mid-City - Uptown, 2:00 p.m.
• Bacchus - Uptown, 5:15 p.m.

LUNDI GRAS, FEBRUARY 19
• Proteus - Uptown, 5:15 p.m.
• Orpheus - Uptown, 5:45 p.m.

MARDI GRAS, FEBRUARY 20
Orleans / Jefferson
• Zulu - Uptown, 8:00 a.m.
• Rex - Uptown, 10:00 a.m.
• Elks Orleans - Uptown, 11:30 a.m.
• Crescent City - Uptown, follows Elks

What killed the squirrel?

Saw this squirrel as I put the recycling out today. What killed it? Did it fall from the roof, a nearby tree? Or was it hit be car? It wasn't squished, no blood is visible. It looks like it was in flight before it landed on the ground. (The pic should be rotated to the left, sorry.)

The tap in the background is dripping water (to prevent the pipes from freezing). Was there something in the water, something leftover from something that was poured there in warmer weather? Would something the squirrel drank kill it that quickly? So close to what it drank? How does the posture of the squirrel indicate what it died of?

Close call with the water today

After flushing the toilet first thing in the morning, I realized that
the water wasn't filling back up. Then I realized that I had no cold
water. Fearing the pipes had frozen I went downstairs and closed the
door that separates the furnace (boiler really) room from the rest of
the downstairs, a garage used for storage space. (I had been leaving
it open hoping that the heat from it would keep the downstairs warm
and thus keep the upstairs a little warmer too. By the same theory, I
leave it open in the summer so the heat dissipates. Two effects of
the same theory perhaps...) By the time I got back up stairs, a few
seconds, the cold water started flowing again. I was able to take a
shower, etc.

I see that my landlady has got a faucet dripping outside. I would
think her basement would be warm enough to prevent pipes from
freezing but I guess not. (it is big).

Saw a bird go into the bird house after breakfast.

Ah, winter. 11 degrees outside now, not including the wind-chill. The
boiler is coming on every 7 minutes and making the outside smell like
the back of a bus.

Deer trail

Deer trail noticed. See the straight line in the the middle? I've had plenty of deer walk through the side yard here but I have never seen a deer trail before. The deer wander in this general direction all the time. Why would I only see this path now? Was there a deer that was dragging its feet/foot (injured)? Most deer don't leave a visible trail. Why am I seeing one now for the first time in 4 years?

The EPA should fine my landlady for polluting the air. My furnace
makes the outside smell terrible every time it heats the house. Now,
I don't want my landlady to really be fined but it does bother me
that the furnace that is heating my house, pollutes the air so badly.
It really stinks. I worry that birds using the suet feeder or deer
walking nearby will be breathing this terrible air. I used to think
it was a bus passing by but it is my house.

My new guilty pleasure - Superbus - Tchi Cum Bah

Cat is back on insulin

The vet put my cat back on insulin today. She'd been diagnosed as diabetic two years ago but taken off insulin about a month after that when it was doing more harm than good. We've been using Purina DM (dry mix) seemingly successfully since then. It's too dry but perhaps has been improved since they now line the bags with foil, after I complained to them that the food was too dry, coincidentally or not to my writing them.

I am probably more worried than the cat at this point. I don't look forward to giving her her shots. Apparently she took them well at the vet today so let's hope that continues to go well.

More as it comes.

New Year's Eve at my house

On the food menu:
1 - Shrimp platter. The 12oz version, from Thailand, little shrimp.
Next time I should get some real big, sweet, LA shrimp. More
expensive but worth it. I thought a whole shrimp platter would do me
but I'm still hungry so on to the Marie Callendar's Fettuccine
Alfredo, this time with fresh pepper, provided by my sister Sue
(thanks!) since they don't provide pepper anymore. Cheapskates. The
pepper turns out to have a little flavor of something I'm not wild
about so I may not use it that much. (red peppers? green peppers?)
Marie Callendar's had a good pepper that used to be included in the
box...
- As much McCormick's Irish Cream liqueur as I want. I usually buy
Bailey's but it is much more expensive. Started drinking at about
8:30. Also have a nice supply of Yuengling's Black and Tans ready to
go. The supermarket doesn't stock their porter.
- Have Boston Cream Pie, chocolate chip cookies, potato chips and
chive cheese dip ready to go (whoopie!) but that fettuccine seems to
have filled me up.

On the entertainment menu:
8-11 The Big Broadcast on FUV. Some nice 20s and 30s music.
10- 1 Prairie Home Companion on PBS. Radio on the tv. Rare.
At 11, I'll tape Peter Bochan's Short Cuts on BAI. Always a good New
Year's Eve compilation of the year in sound. Probably will be too
much crappy pop music but should be some good soundbites.

(I re-foamed (put a new foam ring around the cone cuz it really blew
a night or two ago) the right speaker today so it is hopefully ready
for whatever loudness I throw at it tonight.)

Sound like fun, right?. Wouldn't you want to be with me? Ha!

(Getting harder to type the more I drink... Only 2/3 through my first
tall glass so far.)

I love Thai ice tea. So, with it being time to drink egg nog now, I
have ended up having egg nog left over in my glass which I'm too lazy
to wash out or replace so I pour some ice tea in there, my drink of
choice the rest of the year and voila'. I have egg nog ice tea.

What do you think of that? Gross or good?

I love it. As long as the egg nog isn't too spicy, which most store
bought egg nogs aren't, it works.

Should it be called something else? New England ice tea? What would
you call it?

My Darlin' New Orleans

I enjoyed the New Orleans benefit at Riverspace last night. The readings were thoughtfully chosen and evocative. The singing was excellent. I hope lots of money
was raised. My $20 was the first in the cardboard box. It did go on a
little long though, I thought.

But let me be picayune (inside joke).

Two names were mispronounced. One was the Sho Bar, pronounced shoe
when it should have been show. Made it sound like like some NY fetish
bar, giving it some cachet which it probably never had. The other was
a street name but I forget which street. (And it wasn't a Bur-GUN-dy,
like the natives say, vs BUR-gun-dy, how normal English is pronounced,
kind of mistake.)

I did love the characterizations of Truman Capote and Andrei Codrescu.
Can anyone tell me what the Winona Ryder-like woman was talking about
in French?

The Jonathan Demme film wasn't much of a film yet. The first half
endless shots of the devastation that still remain thanks to George W
Bush, FEMA and the Republican party. The second half. an interview
with (? Parker?) in her dark shell of a house. I do look forward to
seeing the finished product. It is always good to see the humor that
defines New Orleanians present - "House for Sale, Needs some work" and
"One pissed dog" are two spray-painted messages I remember.

I wasn't sure what the music that played during the devastation scenes
was meant to say. A nice fiddle piece, reminiscent of the late great
Johnny Cunningham to me, but not relevant that I could tell, unless it
is a contemporary piece, hopefully by a New Orleans or LA musician.
(And did anyone notice that a French Canadian song was played during
the slide show? I love French Canadian music but I'm not sure what the
connection was there other than it being French.)

And for the food served afterwards, I'm no expert on gumbo but
shouldn't it always have roux? Wouldn't that prevent the sausage from
ending up looking unappetizingly waterlogged grey? It was tasty
though. (It is probably responsible for waking me up at 5 am to think
about these things and my getting up to write this before the sun
rose.)

A tip to the band who played the half-hearted New Orleans covers
(Walkin' To New Orleans, Jambalaya, etc). While New Orleans bands may
not always play on key, and thankfully you did, one thing they don't
lack is passion. I did enjoy hearing Holy Cow though...

Eh la bas.

John L

Charlie Rose (on DirecTV) continues to have these video glitches (digital artifacts). Here is one shot OUTSIDE of the studio. How come these things still happen?

Half jelled

I went to the Riverspace Jazz Cafe in Nyack yesterday. First time
I've been in that theater. My impression is that while it is an
interesting space, it has some problems.

1) It smells. When I first got there at around 4 pm, it smelled
moldy. Who knows what mold lurks. (The snack bar also looked like the
Health Inspector should visit it, The counter hadn't been cleaned and
there was food all over it. I think that was cleaned later but when
the food arrived the counter was ugly/gross.)

2) It was cold. It did warm up after more people arrived by the time
the jazz jam started but until then it was cold. Maybe they could
turn the heat up until it gets warm?

3) It was too loud. I tried to figure out why. The acoustic bass
wasn't amplified as far as I can tell so I think it was the kick drum
and the tom tom. Using them muddied the sound to the point of making
it damn near unlistenable. When other drummers used a lighter touch,
it was quite nice. Some acoustic materials may be needed though. I'd
recommend banning the use of the kick drum and the tom tom. It'd help
a lot.

The music in the first set didn't do anything for me. Free jazz but
not very interesting, to me. Maybe to others. Good for them.

The jazz jam was better. I could understand what they were doing.
There are some talented people who showed up. Especially notable was
the woman singer; I didn't get her name.

So, all in all, it kinda half-jelled for me. The jazz jam was good.
The first part wasn't.

And one note about the bathrooms. The men's room is "decorated" on
the inside with graffiti by the door. A very poor choice. And they
think they are being clever by painting over anything that is
recognizable as the door so you can't tell where the door is. You'll
be able to get out but some sort of clue would be nice as to where
the door is.

I love the angels. Another person I spoke with hated them. I couldn't
figure out why.

I am very excited about the upcoming programs there. It looks like a
very interesting lineup.

It's that time of year again

OK. It's that time again. Christmas, Hanukkah, the solstice.

Here are some sites to check out:

The Christmas Light Finder
Look for houses nearby that have overdone Christmas displays
http://www.christmaslightfinder.com/

Also good, the PlanetChristmas "Showing Off" section:
http://www.planetchristmas.com/ShowingOff.htm

Ah, but for MOVING pictures with MUSIC, check out these!
http://www.lightorama.com/Videos.html
(The music for some of them, Wizards in Winter, is by the Trans
Siberian Orchestra and is perfect for these hilarious displays.)

Surely the apotheosis of American culture.

More goodies here (including Halloween and other musical light displays):
http://www.animatedlighting.com/showcase/customershows.asp#

I'll leave it at that. I'm getting queasy and I haven't even had any
eggnog yet.

So, I've been away from this for awhile.

Two pics to add.

A nice full moon.



And pareidolia ((the perception of a pattern where none is intended). I've been seeing this face in a cellophane bag for awhile. I think it looks like either Shakespeare or Pirandello. In reality it is a bunch of cables and a pair of headphones in a cellophane bag with the morning sun shinning through it.


Pic is turned sideways. That's a letter shelf it is sitting in.

1st snow of the season, a slight flurry this morning as the sun was shining.

This just in: John Bolton is stepping down! Hallelujah!!! Whoo hooo!
Good riddance.

President Jimmy Carter is showing up on tv in the same jacket I just
bought! Makes me feel better about the fashion changes it has: padded
shoulders and a higher cut in the front.

The last jacket I bought was in the mid 70s or so. It was time to buy a new one.

Amory Lovins, CEO, Rocky Mountain Institute, for President! Saw him on Charlie Rose tonight. Brilliant, visionary, can get us out of dependency on oil and thus relieving us of its effects/consequences.

If only he would run. Imagine, for  a change, having someone intelligent, brilliant, leading us.

New piece of trash visible: A green plant pot, near the grey bucket.
Pics to come.

My shadow after a haircut. My newly discovered big ears are what inspired this.

Just saw a flock of wild turkeys saunter throught the woods at a somewhat fast pace. Took some movies of them but they are not worth posting. Always good to see them here.

List of visible garbage expands to 4. A reddish clay or plastic flower pot can
be seen, in certain lights. Pics to come.

Visible garbage in my neighbors' yards: count grows to 3

My view out back is of a nice woods. In that woods are a piece of litter here, a piece of garbage there.

The yellow thing that I thought was a Linden's butter cookie wrapper
turns out to be a coffee can.

I also see a rusting bucket and close to another neighbor's lawn, a
plastic water jug. What slobs. And I have to look at
this all winter and spring, until the weeds and bushes grow back
again. I would venture back there to clean them up myself but I don't
want to trespass. I may post pictures at some point. (I'm sure the
count will grow too.)

I also worry that any of the wildlife I see will hurt themselves
stepping on this crap. I've found broken glass, barbed wire, all
kinds of manmade crap on the edge of my property. All you have to do
is dig a little under the leaf cover; you'll find all kinds of
garbage. It really is a minefield. Who knows what else is back there?

I watered the geranium today for the first time since I'd brought it
in back in September. As I was pouring the water in I could smell the
slight fragrance they give off. I'd like to think they were thanking
me.

The god-damned Christmas ads have started on tv, goddam it.

The last flower in the butterfly garden provided free by O&R has
finally bloomed! It's been looking like a bud for a long time and
either today or yesterday, finally bloomed!

The others, doing well this late in the year.

Republicans get their asses whipped!

Hallelujah. The Republicans got their asses whipped! And what a
coincidence, Don Rumsfeld gets canned the day after. Whoo hooo!! I
look forward to congressional investigations on all kinds of subjects.

Do the happy dance!
(http://youtube.com/results?search_query=happy+dance&search=Search)

I've been doing the Soupy Shuffle but haven't found any video of it
on the net yet.

The suet feeder has been discovered! While it is around the corner
from my front door and side window so I can't see who's actually
eating there, I have seen a wren and a titmouse landing nearby then
heading for it. We're off and running then for the feeding season, to
have birds be seen so close to the house. The cat is pleased. Lots of
birdwatching to come on the widescreen tv otherwise known as the
front door or side windows.

And the woodpecker was pecking away at my house. See the sound file
in my Yahoo Briefcase for yesterday's pecking. (Link at the top on
the left of the first page of my blog.)

Got a DVR from DirecTV Friday. They say it is free. Good. Let's
hope it is. So far it seems kinda buggy. It's an R-15. At first the
guy set it up so the remote would turn the TV and the DVR on and off
at the same time. But he didn't set up the remote so that I could
change inputs on the TV, something I need to do when watching the
VCR. So I tried doing it. Now it's harder to turn on and off the TV.

- The software has frozen up once so far, when I was trying to move
around the menu while recording.

- The clock was a minute and half off when I first checked it. Now it
seems to be ok. It recorded at least one show after it started but I
am hoping the rest will be ok. The old set-top box was right on in
turning on EXACTLY when a show started and ended, the best
co-ordination I've seen with showtimes and the VCR. Let's hope the
DVR gets its act together.

Is it really free? That's what they said when they signed me up. I'd
only be charged if I break the 2 year contract. (Moving is ok.) I see
on their website that they charge $4.99/month for DVR service. Will I
charged for that? If so, I'm sending the DVR back...

- The forums say you can't record using the USB out. I will try. My
old setup, using the USB Vision $20 cable still works so I can still
do that. Wish it had a Firewire out.

- One show had some audio problems. Was that the DVR or did it
originate from the broadcaster? Could very well be from the
broadcaster.

- It has been handy to replay stuff. If you see something you want to
look at again, it is easy ot do so.

- How do you, when you are watching a program being replayed, go back
to the live version? The way I have figured out to do this is to
change channels. Seems kind of a stupid way to do things. There
doesn't seem to be any button to get you straight to the live
program. There should be. The Stop button doesn't do anything! (How
do you tell which version you are watching, the live or the replayed
version? You can go through lots of menus to tell but there might not
be a simple way. Maybe there is. I am still finding my way around the
menus and buttons.)

Somewhat related to DirecTV... WLIW Ch 21 on Long Island has been
broadcasting at a higher audio level than any other channel on
DirecTV for about a YEAR now. I've called DirecTV and written to both
DirecTV and WLIW about this and it's gotten nowhere. Will someone
please fix this? I'm watching Austin City Limits right now and as
usual, it is off balance as well, left lower than right by 2 db or
so. This too has gone on ever since 21 has been too hot, audio-wise.

Woodpecker heard banging away on the house again. Hear it as a sound
file in my Yahoo Briefcase, "Sounds from around the house" folder.

Suet put out for the first time this season. I'll do that until it
warms up again.

Saw a bird, not a woodpecker like before, checking out the birdhouse.
Let's hope it moves in. Looked like a song sparrow but couldn't
really tell. See the pic.

And I've seen my first piece of trash in my neighbor's back yard.
With the leaves off the trees, eventually I will see a scattering of
junk in the woods behind my house. My neighbors, apparently, like to
dispose of their trash in the woods. I see rusty buckets, plastic
jugs, metal things, other odds and ends. Disgusting. Pics to come if
they show them well enough.

I feel like bitching about Yahoo.

- The website is slow to respond. I have to click again and again to
get it to refresh pages or go where I want. I am using a cable modem
and every time I check I see that I am getting GREAT connection
speeds so it isn't the ISP or me.

- The web-based mail is stupid. You have to readjust your viewing
preferences Every god-damned time. I want my mail sorted by sender. I
have to do that with EVERY PAGE VIEW. Why can't their server remember
that?

More bitching to come.

And while I'm at it, Blogger is having its problems too. You can't
post messages today. Will keep trying, see how long this lasts. (Fixed by ~3pm. started trying to send via e-mail around 11am.)

- Also, when uploading pictures, I can't upload more than one at a
time. My browser, Camino, won't allow that. Others might and I use
them sometimes. Firefox doesn't either. Also, Blogger's setup for
uploading pics says "use this layout every time". Trouble is it
doesn't remember what setup you are using so despite having chosen
that option, I have to choose the justification (none) every time.
Bad programing.

Japanese (and other) maples are peaking!


A neighbor's Japanese maple. (Looked much deeper and stronger red than this pic.)


Yesterday was Halloween. A gorgeous day, warm and amazingly colorful with so many trees with their most vivid colors. It was surreal to walk outside towards the evening. And then we are treated to a half moon, looking properly spooky.

Rockland County's Board of Elections website s****

Good luck figuring out who the state and local reps are and what your districts are. Rockland County's Board of Elections website is a mess.

The website says I am in these districts (I've changed some numbers to protect my privacy):

Election district - A

Congressional district - 17th district

Assembly district - B

Legislative district - C

The sample ballot they provide says my:

Rep in Congress - 17th district

State Senator - 38th district

Member of Assembly - B

Translating all this then:

- Election district is how Rockland divides up all the county districts.

- Congressional district on BOE website (= US Senate) = Rep in Congress on ballot.

- Assembly district on BOE website (=NY State Assembly) = Member of assembly on ballot.

So, my State Senator is in the 38th district. I am in Rockland County election district "A", Assembly district "B" and apparently, Legislative district "C". Got it? So can I tell who I can vote for? I know my US Congressman is Eliot Engel and NY State Senator is Tom Morahan. I'm not worried about who's who in the the major races but the local stuff is a mystery.

What a mess! The website is no help at all. It's just a jumble of numbers without any help in making sense of them all.

In small print on the lower right hand edge of the page is this: "Congressional, Assembly or Legislative district lookup click here". (http://www.co.rockland.ny.us/BOE/districts.html ) This page leads to a page of numbers. How do you figure out which ones apply to you?

Then it says,

"Don't know your election district? Go to Polling Place."

What the F? No link to a page that shows the polling place? (Suggestion: Either have that be the link or add the word "above".) There are a bunch of links above that; one says polling place. The page that link brings you to asks you for some location info and then brings you to page where your polling location is listed, and in addition, your election district which turns out to be the key to unlocking your info.

But trying to figure out the rest of the info? Good luck...

One poorly designed website.

People ought to demand info that actually helps. The state's website isn't much help either.

Political endorsements (not that I have any influence!)

The League of Women Voters has published their voting guide. I've
read through it and have come to some conclusions about some of the
candidates. (Try it. Read each candidate's response. Slowly. Let each
sentence stand on its own. Do you agree with it or not? Is it
encouraging, flat-out wrong or indicative of leaning in the wrong
direction? Some say some good things. Others just beat around the
bush.)

The Greens have some good candidates. I was even impressed with some
Republican's statements but none impress me enough to actually vote
for any of them. (What, give them a signal that all the shenanigans
they've put us through for the past 6 years is ok? No way.)

Comptroller
Julia Willebrand - Green

Attorney General
Rachel Treichler - Green

State Supreme Court
Two democrats - Alan Scheinkman & Sam D Walker

State Senate
Nancy Low Hogan
tom Morahan has been acting nervous. His minions have bugged me twice
by calling and pretending to be an independent poll but as the poll
goes on, it becomes obvious that it is Morahan behind it. Morahan has
done some good things (mental health, possibly environmental) but he
is a a calculating, sleazy Republican so I hope he loses.

US House
17th District (my district) - Eliot Engel. He's been on the right
side of almost everything I have petitioned him about. One or two
votes were very wrong and inexplicable but overall he is very good.

19th District (not my district) - John Hall
Hall has a good chance to unseat Republican Sue (Bush rubberstamp)
Kelly. I hope he wins.

County Judge
Two Democrats - Victor Alfieri & Charles Apotheker

Rockland County Legislator
17th District (not my district)
Connie Coker - Democrat

6th District (not my district)
Bruce Levine - I like damn everything he said in the League's Voter Guide.
Alden Wolfe has also been responsive to an issue I wrote about but as
far as I know he isn't actually running yet remains on the ballot.
(And isn't in my district anyway.)

All gubernatorial candidates say they are against gerrymandering. So
why does it continue? Why aren't more people upset that the two
dominant parties rearrange the voting districts each time they get
the chance, so that they can remain in power. Wake up people. (And
while we're at it, let's open up the airwaves (cable too) to ALL
candidates for free. The price of TV ads are one major source of
corruption in the whole election/democratic process.)

A few more things to worry about:
- How may dead people will vote this election? The paper today said
that there are 75,000 in NY State? The election process is DEEPLY
flawed. Local Board of Elections (choose your locality) are nests of
incompetence and partisanship (whatever the reason why). Be
suspicious. Be protective of your right to vote accurately.

- Will election machines actually record our votes? Will any partisan
hanky-panky or volunteer poll-worker incompetence affect votes
near/in the election places?

Other endorsements will come before election day. My overall approach
- Republicans are de facto NOT worthy of a vote unless there are
extraordinary circumstances: What would make me vote for a
Republican? If they are actually good people. If they have
interesting ideas that will actually help society rather than
continue the status quo of their party. I haven't found anyone worthy
of breaking this rule this time around.

Oh, one last thing. Look this up on Spencer in the Journal News:
U.S. SENATE RACE A TRADITIONAL CONSERVATIVE
January 15, 2006 ** 2984 words ** ID: wst2006011610550993

He sounds like a perfect Republican candidate!

(Me, I'm a a proud Tax-Raising, Latte-Drinking*, Sushi-Eating*, Volvo-Driving*, New York Times-Reading, Body-Piercing*, Hollywood-Loving, Left-Wing Freak, I mean liberal. * PS I don't actually drink latte, eat sushi, drive a Volvo or have any body piercings but I agree with the sentiments.)

Saw two deer today. Perhaps the mother and her fawn. Mom? licking the
younger one, then mom? heading over behind my house to eat my
geraniums by the birdbath. I didn't want to disturb her so I let her
eat them. I should have left some water in the birdbath. She licked
it anyway, getting the dew.

I took some short movies but both deer are so well camouflaged that
they are pretty hard to see, so not worth posting here or in my Yahoo
Briefcase.

More pics of fall colors. These pics (my camera and my picture taking skills) don't show half the brillance of the colors this year. Several trees and bushes have been spectacular.