If you’re interested in streaming some really great old concerts, check out Wolfgang’s Vault, which is all old Bill Graham shows from the Fillmore. You have to register, but it’s free. They have a nifty little player and the concert notes are fantastic. Highly recommended
Just wanted to do a quick roundup of my favorite music stuff on the Internet.
Places to buy music:
Other things of interest:
I’m talking of course about the singer Beck, not our beloved baby. (No relation of course.) Anyhow, Mary and I have both been enjoying his new album. He did a couple killer performances on Saturday Night Live last week and I finally found someone linking to them on YouTube, which will no doubt get pulled as soon as the global media conglomerate gets wind of it.
One of the best things about it was that a bunch of guys were playing spoons in Clap Hands. And the other best thing was that he had marionettes off-stage that were mimicking the band (including said spoons). Awesome stuff.
Even odder was that Mary and I watched Team America: World Police that night as well, so it was like puppet night. Speaking of Team America, I enjoyed it. If you watch it, be sure to watch some of the extra stuff on the DVD about making of – pretty amazing.
I have four recent nature-related items to report.
Item #1: A couple weeks ago we had a large and beautiful spider set up residence on our front porch. We later determined it to be a yellow garden spider. It was pretty big (probably 1 inch or more) and the web has a distinctive zig-zag pattern that is used to warn birds so that they don’t run into the web. You can see the pattern at the top and bottom of the picture.
After a few days he disappeared and showed up in a new web stretched across our master bedroom window. The kids had a great time checking on him every morning. Eventually we had some wind or rain and he was gone.
Item #2: Last weekend we were driving around in the suburbs and saw two large red-tailed hawks in a bare tree in a field. They were pretty big so we pulled over to watch them for a little while. They were flying from branch to branch in this tree acting a little strange. Finally we figured out that there was a squirrel in the tree and they were chasing him up and down the trunk trying to catch him! We gave up before they did but I’d put my money on the hawks.
Item #3: I came home early on Tuesday to give Mary a hand and found that she had rescued a pretty big turtle from the near outside our subdivision. So I took him and the kids down to the woods and let him go. They thought it was hilarious that he pooped all over the wagon Mary stashed him in.
Item #4: Today we visited the World Bird Sanctuary in Lone Elk Park for their open house. If you’ve never been there, I highly recommend it. Or maybe I’m just a sucker for seeing owls, eagles, parrots, etc. They have some amazing animals and do really world class conservation work. We’ve been there before and I always have a great time. Truman liked the parrots a lot this time. Here are pictures of an owl and a bald eagle:
I love seeing the owls. They are definitely my favorite.
Mary and I got out to see Little Miss Sunshine tonight. I’d give it a big thumbs up. The whole cast is great and the story itself is by turns hilarious and touching and rewarding in the end. There are some great shots in it with the classic VW bus posed against skies that are just great.
