Here's Some Music

A Mexican Folk duo that are primarily influenced by thrash metal? Yes please. Bear in mind (I know this video sucks even though the music is great) that there isn't a drummer in this band - just a guy and a girl and a couple of nylon string guitars.

Rodrigo y Gabriela - "Orion" (Yes, that "Orion")

"Suffer No Guilt, Ye Who Wield This In The Name Of Crom."

Can anyone tell me specifically where that's from?

RIP.

Laugh.

Fin.

Something

Vader!

Also, this.

The "Real" Post

Every once in a while, they do actually sit together nicely. Although they usually aren't in the least bit quiet even then, at least there not yelling at each other.

This made me kind of sad. I know that there's many people who think that these monkeys are just "aping" humans and don't really understand ASL. I think that's probably true for the most part (there were a few documented instances of Washoe communicating that are pretty damn compelling, though. Look up the baby story on the Friends of Washoe website). But I got to tell you, I went and saw these monkeys three or four times while I was at CWU (I know, chimps aren't monkeys, but I like the word monkey better), and usually when you would go into the viewing room, they would all be laying around, flipping through magazines, trying on clothes, putting make-up on each other - all in a very human way, and aside from the fact that Washoe taught the other monkeys some ASL, they always seemed to be communicating amongst themselves in other ways. And. My first year at CWU I had an apartment north of campus and I'd have to walk by the chimp house to get to class, and more than once one of the monkeys would have climbed up to the apex of the fence-roof in their yard and would just hang out and watch people walk by in a very human way. It kind of creeped me out (so did seeing the monkeys looking at magazines), not least of all because the ape that would watch people looked like one of the trolls from "Willow" at that distance (~30ft?).

Unlike the last few years, I have had some limited success with hunting this year. So I made some Wellington of Duck Breast with a Cherry and Orange Brandy Sauce, and some Cream of Potato with Leek soup one night. While it was good - and I'll share the recipe for Wellington with anyone interested as it's a nice "presentation" dish that's really not all that hard to make - I think that next time I would use puff pastry dough rather than phyllo, and I would use domestic duck rather than wild so that the center could be left medium rare. The shit quality of the resolution on these pictures doesn't do the dish any justice.

WTF is that thing!

Cindy and I went for a hike a while back (this was probably late August/early September) and when I heard her yell from behind me "Oh my god!" or some-such thing, I knew that I was going to get to see something cool, because she's not the type that freaks out over most things. I thought maybe there was a bear hanging around the trail, or a moose, or an arboreal antelope. But it was a snake, trying to eat a huge frog. We watched for a while - frog squeaking and struggling, snake trying his/her hardest (there was no way this frog was fitting down that snakes gullet). Real "Wild Kingdom" type of stuff.

But the frog ended up getting away, so here we have a dejected snake. Apologies again for shit picture quality - I think that it is time that we upgraded the camera! I'm not familiar with the herpetological species back here, or I'd tell you what kind of a snake (and frog) it is. Also, this happened again when we were working in the yard a week or so later - albeit with a smaller snake and frog. I think in the yard wife rescued the frog.

There's a ton more pictures on my Flickr page if anyone is interested, maybe I'll post again tomorrow. That's all for now.

A Response

Bryan. I started to write you a reply in the comments to your last post, but it got to be a bit long winded. So I'll share my unoriginal musical tasted with everyone else.

Everyone else - you should check all of these bands out, too, and I'll make a real post later after my days session of watching cells fall into tubes has begun.

I don't know exactly how your musical tastes run right now, or how many of these you may have already heard, but here's a few bands that are in near constant rotation in my lab (I couldn't make it through the day without some tunes):

-Supergrass: I think that this is about the most perfect, well rounded Brit rock band that's around. Nothing like Oasis.
-The Dandy Warhols: Solid rock music that's also sort of hypnotic and nice to have on in the background
-Sigur Ros: Weird (beautiful) Icelandic rock(?). I'd listen to this if the stress level is way up, or in bed with a lucky lady, but not while driving - it might cause some nodding off.
-Rufus Wainwright: Good stuff. Can't really elaborate, but check it out.
-Mika: Spunky brit pop. The good kind. But definitely not for everyone.
-Scissor Sisters: This is another one that people seem to love or hate but I recommend a listen.
-Dwight Yoakam: I am, for the most part, not a country fan. But Dwight's right. Plus he used to open for punk bands at the Whiskey A-Go Go in the 80's, so he's got some hipster cred if you care about that sort of thing.
-Muse: Like Radiohead without all the computer shit and pretentious. Solid musicians - I like the cool, angular guitar solos (nobody else on the radio plays around with intervals quite like that!) and groovy, driving bass lines. Has gotten a bit played out, though.
-Tunng: Catchy, spacy, folk rock. Very listenable, but sort of borders on pretentious sometimes. Another good band to listen to at work, when the stress level is high.
-The Arcade Fire: But only their first disc. Kind of hard to explain, but I've heard more than one person (and I whole heartedly agree with all of them) describe the music on this CD as reminding you of what it's like to be a kid again.

Then there's all the old standbys and Desert Island Discs:
Alice In Chain's Unplugged album, classic metal, Vivaldi's Four Seasons, Miles Davis "Kind Of Blue" (I actually don't think that's as revolutionary as everyone else seems to, but it's damn good music to have on when nothing much else is happening), classic metal (Metallica, Judas Priest, Ozzy), you have to throw in some 80's metal and power ballads once in a while to remember the roots, the 'Stones, Dylan, Led Zep, classic metal. Did I hit all the bases?