I'm off to a field trip with my mushroom identification class. I'll be back later, but I'll leave you with a swinging little musical interlude called Making Love after Hours, by Rahsaan Roland Kirk, from way back in 1967.
later, alligator.
Brain won't turn on. Seeking a double scotch.
Here's Monk, playing Epistrophy.
Catch you later.
(PS I want a hat just like Monk's when I grow up)
I bought a safety vest. I did this after my brother the trout, Salvelinas Fontinalis, sent me an email about the upcoming turkey season. By the time I finished reading his missive, I was imagining turkey hunters behind every tree firing away at me and Memphis as we stumbled through the woods in search of tasty edible mushrooms.
When I started foraging for mushrooms, I hadn't considered hunters, but no doubt we frequent the same forests and at the same time too. I know most hunters are very careful about what they shoot, but now and then some guy gets mistaken for a deer somewhere or another and gets blasted.
My brother suggested that a vocal warning accompany bright clothing. He uses "Yo Bob!" which he periodically shouts in the woods, suggesting that not only is here there, but maybe somebody else is in there too, so better becareful.
....by asking Google if anchovy extract was made from anchovies. Let me clear this up right now. Anchovy extract is indeed made from anchovies. This public service announcement has been brought to you by the Anchovy World Headquarters Parking Authority.
Tuffy and I are taking a week off work, and we're not planning much. Beautiful thought, isn't it?
Hopefully the rain will hold off, or at least get it over with overnight. I'm planning to BBQ a variety of kabobs...various meats, veggies, fruit, tofu. Off shopping this morning...
stumble upon a discarded but incredibly valuable work of art?. I would.
We spent the afternoon at Pigeon Lake for a family get-together. Lovely day to be out of the city!
We were out for a walk with the pup yesterday evening when we came across two women talking on the sidewalk. One of them had a dog on a leash, and was also holding a small brown animal about 6 inches long. She told us it was a baby groundhog that she found in a nearby parking lot while out walking her dog. She was happily petting the animal, who seemed remarkably chilled out by the whole experience. The woman had tried to call the humane society but was getting no answer. We suggested she call the animal control people. There was really nothing else we could do to help, so we continued on our way.
Early this morning, I took Memphis out for a walk and saw the same woman out with her dog. I asked about the baby groundhog. She told me she had finally got through to someone on the phone who told her to take the animal back to the parking lot and look around for a groundhog hole. She was then to drop the baby animal down the hole for the mother groundhog to find. She did this. Hopefully there was a happy groundhog mother-child reunion last night.
Way back in the mid-80s, I got on the subway with a fellow named Rob, with whom I was sharing painting studios. As we approached a bench seat, Rob picked up a new age magazine that was lying around, and started reading it on the ride. "Hey look at this, the Great Gasparetto is coming to town." "What are you talking about?" "Gasparetto, man, he channels dead painters. We have to go."
So, we gathered up a bunch of friends and off we went to the Great Hall on Queen St. W., here in Toronto, to see this character channel painters. The place was packed with new-agers + us, a bunch of artists from the neighbourhood. He had a great gaff. He would go into a trance and channel two different artists at once, one with each hand, and in a matter of minutes he would crank out a Van Gogh or a Monet or a Rembrandt. He only channelled artists whose names were very very well known. Then someone in the crowd would scream out, "My God, it's a Monet". Naturally, he auctioned off his creations at the end of the show...er, um, I mean the channeling session.
I was telling someone about this recently and I decided to check YouTube just to see if he was still doing his schtick and if he was on-line. He sure is!
Wonderful stuff. I wonder if there's still a good buck in the channeling business? I seem to recall him saying that he had a brother who channeled dead musicians, like Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. Now THAT would be fun. I think if I became a channeler, I would be doomed to channel obscure "painters' painters" that nobody remembered. People would just think I was nuts.
You remember album covers don't you?
via bifurcated rivets
An ad network that lets users profit from Twitter is making it harder to distinguish between autobiography and advertising on the social networking site.
I'll be the first to admit that the success of Twitter is totally baffling to me. Perhaps it's betraying my age or my generation or just that I'm reaching premature crusty old fart-hood. I'm not so very surprised though that some enterprising folks have come up with a way to inject advertising into the mix. Users are getting paid to have ads sent from their accounts to their so-called followers.
Now is that a nice thing to do to your friends?
The cynic in me, having seen the wildly viral Susan Boyle clip, asks the question "Is it for real?" The story is almost too good. She's from a little village in Scotland. She's an unemployed church worker...never been kissed. She even has a cat named Pebbles!. I can see half a dozen marketing guys in a back room somewhere with a bottle of cheap scotch cooking this up.
But then again, I've long suspected that J.K. Rawlings' story is too good to be true as well, and everybody says hey Mister Anchovy, you're nuts. But I say, who could write that many books, that many words that fast? Her story is perfect too. Could she be an actress? Could it be the books are all written by teams of writers?
I promise I won't talk about the Illuminati. Har!!
There was an interesting article the other day in the National Post about bike helmets for safety and stylin'. I typically wear a helmet when I ride...there's a lot of gravity involved and I like to have some protection. I assumed that all bike helmets looked alike - mostly ugly - and uncomfortable too. Little did I know there is a movement afoot for making the whole business more interesting.
I did a little google image search and came up with the pictures you see here. Very nice.
I didn't take the time this year to mess with the fancy decorations on top, but still this is tasty Easter bread.
Yesterday morning, we visited our Landseer Newfoundland pup Memphis. Memphis was born on February 28, so she's about 6 weeks old. The breeder is a two hour drive away, but it was a nice day to get out. Memphis is doing fine. I think she's grown since I saw her last Sunday, and for sure she's become more playful and interested in the world around her.
When we got home we started in on a job we've been stalling - sorting through our many boxes of books and filling our book-shelves. We got a lot done, maybe two-thirds of it, but there are plenty of boxes still to go through.
We've decided to release some books into the wild. In fact, I'm going out to release some right now.
