I’ve been trying to get to a couple of posts, but there have been numerous outside projects to be tackled (which are coming along fine, and some even completed) and so the time just hasn’t been there. And I’m exhausted right now, so I’m sneaking in a little very late Sunday color, largely because it doesn’t fit with any other topic in the works, and promising that more will be along soon. Maybe later Monday; there’s an early Monday post lined up, but more plans for the morning, and who knows what’ll happen after that?
So, color, and promises. Open promises, no timeframes or deadlines, no specific promises of what, so easy to keep. But they’re coming.
Our nature photography model this week is Balthazaar, also a drama coach, philosopher, father, and nativity display evaluator, here obviously disappointed at this disorganized mess. Balthazaar has been in the biz for over a decade and is highly sought-after by discerning art directors because of his chiseled features and extensive repertoire of legume trivia, which makes more sense if you’re familiar with art directors. He used to be incredibly shy, but got past this on the kindly advice of his ninth-grade teacher, who said, “Don’t.” [Amusingly, she had actually said, “Dolt,” which wasn’t discovered for years, but upon finally finding this out, Balthazaar thanked her anyway and then reported her to the school board for calling names.] Balthazaar collects the paper floor mats that mechanics put in your car, and often creates minor issues with his vehicle just to obtain more; as you might imagine, this has cost him quite a lot of money and has resulted in him having the transmission replaced seven times. Not that we’re saying anything. At some point in the future he would like to run for office because he really hates to see bare, uncluttered medians. He once said, “There’s a fine line between a reprimand and jail.” Balthazaar’s preferred dipthong is aʊ.
You don’t have to join us next week if you never leave!
Had an outing with Buggato, and as we parted, he vowed that he was going to post something before I did. And yet, it’s after 10:30 PM, I’ve already had dinner, and still no post from him. Ah well. Here’s a great blue heron (Ardea herodias) hanging out on a dead tree near sunset; he didn’t stick around for the real sunset colors, but they weren’t that strong anyway.
More pics will be along eventually, but first, we need to check in with our latest nature photography model. Let’s see, who’s it gonna be?…
We’re having great weather now, but so far the activity hasn’t changed significantly among the wildlife, or at least not that I’ve seen – they may be playing it cool when I’m around, because I’m old enough now to be a square, a real wet blanket. So yesterday’s circuit of the pond netted a handful of images, but nothing that really adds to the stock, you know?
The turtles were out in force, and a little less spooky than normal, but I was approaching cautiously and peeking through gaps in the foliage, as you can detect the hints of from the green haze at lower left. The lead one here decided that she’d had quite enough sun on her legs, as opposed to the next one.
With restrictions being lifted, I’m guessing that this one had finally gotten her nails done and was hoping someone would notice – we are now in open-toed sandals weather. For a bit anyway, perhaps. And of course, the balancing act is none too subtle, so I’m pegging this one as a teenager. Either that or she’s been there for a long time while the water’s been receding; perhaps she’s stuck. Nah, I’m going with being an attention hound.
And yes, I backed off the focal length a little to get that reflection in there. Here you were thinking this was accidental or something – you should know better.
Around the other side of the pond, we approached another basking turtle slowly, but needn’t have bothered – it didn’t budge a bit, and as we got around front, we discovered why.
Not only did it appear to be completely blind, but from the size I’m reasonably sure this is the same one from last year, so he’s doing okay for all that. He did eventually raise his head and begin listening to us carefully, trying to determine the threat level, but we left him alone at that point and moved on, so he could continue basking undisturbed.
And a handful of birds, of course.
Not far from a nest box, we saw a female eastern bluebird (Sialia sialis) cruise up to an obvious branch and sit patiently watching us, and I ended up having to creep closer to change the angle of the intervening twigs, which were sitting right in front of her eyes. No sign of the male, though I imagine he wasn’t far away – it’s that season, after all. For a bit anyway, perhaps.
A female double-crested cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus) was hanging out in the usual spot, and I lined up for the fartsy shot with the pilings in the foreground.
I managed to sneak in one frame before she offered her opinion of my skills and/or nature photographers in general:
Even as the moment had passed, the ripples and milky cloud remained, effectively ruining any further attempts at this composition, so there’s no question in my mind that she knew exactly what she was doing. I mean, look at the eye contact.
[To be serious for a mere second, birds can often be seen defecating when they find danger threatening, presumably to reduce weight as much as possible should they need to take flight, but there may be other reasons, such as the vaguely repellent effect. As you’re stalking birds you may see this fairly frequently.]
Back home, I was doing work in the front yard when I heard a sharp kip! from the immediate vicinity, and soon located the source in the neighbor’s tree, where we both had a clear view of each other.
This is an accipiter, either a Cooper’s hawk (Accipiter cooperii) or a sharp-shinned hawk (Accipiter striatus) – they’re very similar in appearance, only slightly different in size, and have the same alarm call. The only decent way to tell them apart is from the tail in flight: Cooper’s will have a rounded end to the tail feathers, while sharp-shinned will have a straight edge like a broom. Cooper’s are slightly larger, but their sizes overlap (females of both species are larger than the males, and the female sharp-shinned may be the same size as the male Cooper’s.) Since we had a brood of Cooper’s raised in the immediate area last year, I’m favoring this being a returning member of that family, but I’ve also seen sharpshins in the exact same area and the neighbors have several bird feeders, which can attract the bird-eating accipiters, so it could go either way. In fact, let’s see one of those photos from last year again.
Looks drastically different, doesn’t it? The eyes don’t even match. But this is a typical change between the juvenile and the adults, for both species, so all bets are off, and as I said, I faintly favor the Cooper’s at this point because they’ll occasionally return to the same nesting location. I’m just pleased that a semi-secretive (well, except as new fledglings) and hard-to-spot hawk chose to attract my attention and wait around just long enough for me to get the long lens out. Not to mention being in such good light. I can live with it.
It’s time for a little more music – good music, mind you – and this fine Tuesday/Dittyday the selection is a rather largish English band called Madness. Formed in the late ’70s, peaking in the mid ’80s, they’re still performing today, albeit with a lineup that seems to change weekly.
I’m not the person to inform anyone about music styles and all that – I just know what I like, but edumacated sources pin the bulk of Madness’ style as ska or two-tone, primarily a strong bassline and beat-method that gave rise to reggae while branching off in another direction, gaining more rock/punk overtones. It’s different, very obviously, and energetic. Madness was also notorious for gently grasping the burgeoning field of music videos and thrashing the hell out of it, and no one ever matched their spirit and enthusiasm in those.
We’ll start off with the only official release in the US, ‘Our House,’ and it would be inexcusable to simply use the sound file.
To be honest, I have no idea how much of that was inspired by the band, how much the director, how much the label, whatever – it’s infectiously entertaining and upbeat, and even when you’ve known it for damn near four decades, it still gives an unmistakable vibe of having a blast. But within all that is a wonderful mix of instruments and riffs, blended in complementary ways that defined so much of the music of the ’80s. After disco died out, horns and brass virtually disappeared from the pop music scene save for saxophone, and it’s a shame because, done well, they provide great tone that offsets, really, too much guitar in a lot of music.
The theme continues with ‘House of Fun,’ sly commentary on the difference between ‘legal age’ and ‘adulthood.’
If you can emulate lead singer Suggs’ “N-n-n-n-n-n-n-no no miss,” you’re doing better than I can – I always imagine that little things like this, done in the studio where multiple takes are common, obligates the singer to repeating the feat for every live performance. He did it quite well when they appeared on the British counter-culture program The Young Ones though, the only band to be featured twice (but appropriately – they’re all kindred spirits it seems.)
This song was also used in the soundtrack to Shaun the Sheep Movie, reminding me that I needed to do this post.
Getting a little more ‘serious’ musically, we have ‘It Must Be Love,’ a cover of an original work by Labi Siffre, and much more representative of the typical ska style. Siffre’s version is also quite nice – not quite as dynamic – and Siffre himself appears in the Madness video right near the end, one of the violinists removing his sunglasses.
[Let me tell you something, writing this is introducing all sorts of rabbit-holes, and it’s taking far longer than it ever should; now I have to look for the movie The Tall Guy, which used the above song in its soundtrack and looks like it might be entertaining.]
There are plenty of other songs by Madness, with varying levels of kookiness, and I’ll leave that to you to chase down – this post could be a lot longer. Right now, I’ll feature a slight departure. I stumbled across this one a few years ago while ferreting out other music, and gave it a listen; it took a moment to realize this was the former (and returned) lead singer, Suggs, on a solo project. Camden Town is a suburb of London, a touristy area that was where the band originated, and Suggs pays homage to the eclectic nature of it, and to the Jamaican music roots, with ‘Camden Town.’
Oh yeah, we need the lyrics for this one:
Sing up tourists, sing
There’s a great crowd of tourists and they’re coming down the street
Pleased as punch with brand new Doctor Marten’s on their feet
Past stalls with leather jackets, old bric-a-brac
Indian sunglasses or a Chinese bobble hat
Tramps stare in the window of the local butcher’s shop
Like a pack of wild dogs they’d run off with the lot
In Primrose Hill, an angry man his hair standing on end
Shouts and rants in the ear of his imaginary friend
In Camden Town I’ll meet you by the underground
In Camden Town we’ll walk there as the sun goes down
In Camden Town
In Camden Town you can do anything you want to
A drunken busker hits the pavement, sending hot-dogs in the air
Towards a broken down bus full of people going nowhere
A string of Irish pubs as far as you can see
Greek, Indian, Chinese or would you like a cup of tea?
There’s tapas, fracas, alcohol, tobaccos
Bongs, bongo bingo, Portuguese maracas
There’s reggae in the jeggae, music everywhere
Every kind of song and dance, madness in the air
In Camden Town I’ll meet you by the underground
In Camden Town we’ll walk there as the sun goes down
In Camden Town
The tourists sing
Ooooh, they sing
Ooooh, sing up
Ooooh
And what’s my name in invisible game?
The two fat Americans interrupt their stay
They put down their bags, they were clamped and towed away
There’s Turkish cakes, designer fakes, fathers dressed as nuns
Every kind of music here, the night has just begun
In Camden Town I’ll meet you by the underground
In Camden Town we’ll walk there as the sun goes down
In Camden Town
In Camden Town you can do anything you want to do
In Camden Town
In Camden Town
In Camden Town
In Camden Town
… and you did catch the overdub when he sings, “madness in the air,” right? And that he plucks a Madness album cover out of the air when he does so?
[By the way, countless versions of this on YouTube are absolutely horrendous quality – this one took a while to find.]
If that was enough to interest you, there’s plenty more to be found, so have at it. And keep a couple of links handy when you’re feeling down.
Boy, that’s an awkward phrase, isn’t it? A certain small percentage of the reason why metric measurements haven’t replaced “English Standard” in this country is the language, because we ‘Murrikins can’t take that much time with single words. When it finally is adopted, we’ll have “centimeters” shortened down to “semeers” within a year.
Anyway, the title refers to the idea that spring is, in fits and starts, moving forward; since we’ve dropped down to the freezing level several past nights, it’s not fully established yet, but I’m including a little color to show that indications are here, at least.
I’ve shown this flowering tree from the backyard before, and unless I’ve forgotten, I’ve still not identified it. Mostly because I’ve been as lazy as I am now (I have other projects waiting, so I’m fulfilling my obligation to the blog briefly,) and not looked it up. But these were the first blossoms peeking out, and I was in the backyard with the camera for other reasons, so I shot them.
The same may be said for the next. Perhaps.
As I said before, I had initially identified this weed as a winter aconite, but I don’t think it is now. It was all by itself in the middle of the backyard as I passed, so I stooped and shot a frame from above.
And if you look at the leaf at lower center, you’ll see the preliminary specks that indicate that the longneedle pines are starting to shed their pollen, meaning everything is going to be greenish-yellow very shortly. Many people consider this the cause of their spring allergies, but pines aren’t on the list of reactive pollens; it’s simply that something else is blooming at the same time, pollens that we can’t see, and we blame it on the highly-visible pines. I’ve already started off on that aspect myself, so I’m sympathetic. And apathetic too, but no one cares.
I’m not even going to try identifying this, except to say that it’s an iris, because we didn’t plant them and there are umpteen different varieties, but it was there, so I shot it. I’m O’Keeffing again – I’ll try and stop that. A little later.
Because I had to show this one, being the solitary blossom on my almond tree. We had three, two (no, three) years ago, and nothing ever came of them and there haven’t been any since. I should probably check and see if almonds are those type of trees that need another of the opposite sex to produce nuts…
Wow, that tree’s nine years old now.
And a mud ball.
Yes, another frog, but that’s what I’m seeing – even the raptors wheeling overhead make themselves scarce as soon as I have the long lens out. This rotund little Copes grey treefrog (Hyla chrysoscelis) was visible between frosty nights, probably none too happy with this peekaboo spring and taking advantage of the daylight warmth here. This is perhaps the roundest treefrog I’ve seen, but right now I’ll credit that to conserving body heat – we’ll see if I spot it later on when it can stretch out a bit.
Holiday time is rolling around again of course, and far be it from me to maintain my typical curmudgeonly attitude in the face of the worldwide celebrations, thus my festive contribution to today, which is I Meant To Do That Day, the annual holiday where we maintain the bare truth that, although it looks like an accident, it really was intended to be exactly this way. My example:
Yes, once again we see Mr Bugg, but even though it looks like he’s chimping, there’s no way in hell that he could possibly be doing that because he’s assured me that he’s broken that habit. He even agreed to let me shut off the review function entirely, and will soon be taking up film where of course this is entirely impossible: that’s how confident he is of his advancement. However, what he didn’t do was hold his camera where it was supposed to be for this dynamic zoom effect, where the focal length of the lens was changed during the exposure, producing these attention-focusing streaks of motion. The changing field of view causes motion blur, with the effect strengthening with distance from the center of the frame; in this manner, only the center of the frame remains with little to no blur, and our attention is drawn right to that spot. It looks off-center here because I know what framing and cropping are. The zoom should have drawn attention to his camera, had he cooperated, but what can you do?
Note too that the shutter speed (mine, not his,) was only 1/100 of a second, thus the zoom had to be taking place in this very brief time frame. That’s professional timing, that is. Alas, I can only control what is in my power; next time I may have a model that can follow instruction.
I will swear the truth of all this upon a stack of bibles, or whatever other collection of ludicrous fiction you procure.
This week we meet Prudence: model, fitness instructor, and home gardener (as indicated by the grove on her back.) Prudence is a popular yoga coach with the elderly because she doesn’t include some of the more flexible poses like Ankle Phone and Stuck Stepsister, plus she’s slightly cranky and not all bubbly motivated – we all know the type. She intends to start her own business creating business names for entrepreneurs called, Enterprises Enterprises, Inc. – she’s already mastered the catchphrases that make most of them giddy, like, “porting,” “cloud-based,” “insourcing,” and, “fauxquiescence.” Prudence had a traumatic childhood because she grew up before chicken nuggets were a thing, but with therapy she overcame her nightmares and now only shivers slightly when someone says, “honey mustard.” For giggles, she likes going to little country stores in the mountains and enthusing loudly about not marrying a relative. She has avoided college, thinking that a “well-rounded education” meant she would have to obtain 360 degrees, but she is considering Kevin Bacon University because that requires a lot fewer, plus she knows about Pyrates. She plans to retire in a few years, but the tread is still way beyond Lincoln’s nose, so no hurry. Her favorite solder blend is Sn63Pb37.
Be sure to stop by next week before the leftovers get too old.
Did you get that whole, “March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb, or vice versa,” bullshit when you were in grade school? Are they still pushing such folkloric nonsense on kids instead of some beginning critical thinking? If you have no idea what I’m talking about, good! I mean, with the whole March thing – if you have no idea what I mean by critical thinking, just… keep it to yourself, because I don’t have the strength to deal with that right now.
Anyway, it’s the end of the month abstract, posting a little late because I forgot about it last night – was working on other things and set it aside. We have two entries today, to reflect the whole meteorological intransigence of the month – and then we’ll look at some chicken entrails and read the bumps on our skulls. The first is – can you guess? – a tulip blossom on the back porch, because I (almost) avoided the daffodils this year. You know how everyone says, “Oh, look, a tulip!” – but tulip is the name of the entire plant; what you see here is the blossom. Feel free to correct everyone about this from now on.
Meanwhile, I cropped tighter to accentuate the whole ‘mouse ears’ thing, as if Mickey was bright yellow, had six eyes and a popped collar…
Let’s just move on to the next.
When the vicious, life-threatening storm was rolling in, I saw a patch of odd-colored sky out over the neighbors roofline, framed by two trunks and making the tree branches stand out distinctly, so fired off a couple of shots. This resolution lets us see that they were just starting to bud out, so again, appropriate for the month, expressive and poignant and, I don’t know, ineluctable of something. It’s fart – it deserves adjectives. The thing is, I remembered the colors as more distinctive and atypical than what appeared in the frame once downloaded, which probably only shows that my eyes were adjusted for the rest of the sky, since what initially showed up in the image was very common stormy blue-grey, so I tweaked the colors and saturation just a tad to represent what I thought I was capturing. It still has that kind of sheet-metal, silhouette art frame look to it, which is what struck me as I saw it, and your task is to fill in each open space using only four colors and ensure that no two adjacent spaces are the same color. That should keep you occupied.
And be sure to inform small children that March comes in with some kind of weather, and goes out with some kind of weather, which may be different or may be the same, just like every other month. Let’s not take up brain cells with goofy shit – we’ll need them to remember song lyrics.
I have a small confession to make: I recorded this back in February with the intention of posting it as March’s monthly podcast, and so set it aside. And forgot about it – after a little time had passed, I largely just remembered it as having already been posted. Then the 2,000th post was coming up (“For dog’s sake, will you quit harping on about that?”) and I had that project/goal to finish for it, so naturally that had to be a podcast, and I was in the middle of that when I realized that this one had never posted. No big deal, really, and it allowed me to update the music, but you can ignore the point in there where I say that it’s still winter…
So let’s delve into criticism – how to receive it, how to give it, how to embrace it, how to deny it, how to get all huffy about it. Well, a couple of those, anyway.
Walkabout podcast – Criticism
I think the best thing to remember is that good, useful criticism isn’t about ego, or opinions; it’s about reaching goals. That’s what we should aim to give, and try to encourage or prompt when receiving.
This is an example photo, plus I just needed an image for the post. But I can name several things that I like about this frame, and several things that I don’t – some of which I had no control over. Not everyone would agree with them all, and some people might introduce aspects or ideas that never occurred to me. All of that would be guidance towards the next time that I’m faced with such a vista.
