I photographed “Tufts” and “Mr. Greenfangs” on my orchid that just bloomed. Also, for the first time, I photographed a house centipede. These are usually too fast to capture in a photo, but this one was rather old and slow-moving. Click on the photos below to see more of each insect/spider.
Tonight I saw Carlos Santana at the Palace of Auburn Hills. This was my 5th time seeing him play. The first four times were at DTE (Pine Knob) and were pretty hard to beat (since I love outdoor shows and the performances themselves were so incredible—he always brings an excellent group of musicians with him). The last time I saw him was June 25, 2005, so it’s been almost 3 years. I was amazed to be able to get main floor seats (12th row, but on the far left two seats from the aisle), something I can rarely accomplish for any of the bands I want to see at that venue, even if I am on Ticketmaster the second they go on sale. I actually got there on time to see opening act, which was The Derek Trucks Band (which I’ve seen once before, so I didn’t want to miss them). Most people weren’t too into them though and were sitting down the whole time, so although I wanted to dance, I didn’t want to obstruct people’s view. Also, with everyone sitting, and a lot of people not even in their seats yet, I had a great view of the whole stage (which wasn’t the case when Santana came on and everyone stood up). Just when Santana started the first song, “Jingo”, the couple who belonged in the seats next to me appeared. The main floor seating was quite cramped, not like the regular seats there. After a few songs, the people next to me were nice enough to switch with us and I stayed in the aisle. It worked out well for all of us because it gave them an extra seat’s space. Then I had room to dance and I felt so much better. He played many of my favorites, a lot of the older material that I love, “Everybody’s Everything”, “Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen”, “Oye Como Va”, and “No One to Depend On.” He also played several songs from the more recent album “Supernatural”, like “Smooth”, “Maria” and “Corazon Espinado.” Near the end of the show, Derek Trucks came out and played with them. They did some awesome versions of Bob Marley’s “Exodus” and Marvin Gaye’s “Right On”, with a long jam in between. It was one unforgettable night of music, along with Carlos’s inspirational words about achieving peace and harmony in our lifetime, something he always tries to speak of at his shows, but not something that a lot of people seem to care about. It saddened me that during the intro, when he started with a movie, instead of listening to his words, when people saw his face on the screen, they just started whistling and screaming, and I could barely make out what he was saying. If they truly had any respect, they would have been quiet. Oh well, can’t say I was surprised—I deal with much worse during my daily life at the workplace (public high school). The encore song was “Soul Sacrifice” and the show ended very abruptly, lights on, no time for anyone to cheer or anything. Everyone just left. The “hair test” proved it was a good show—at the end, my braid was soaked to the bottom (meaning I really was gettin’ down). One woman told me that I was the best dancer…ever. And another woman said “Thank-you”—never gotten that one before—guess she enjoyed what I added to the experience. Most definitely an unforgettable night.
I saw Robin Trower for the second time. This concert was at the Royal Oak Music Theater like last time. It was sold out. I actually had to hang out in the lobby this time, because there were so many smokers, and so little ventilation, that I could barely breathe. Out in the lobby, I could at least take a full breath. Couldn’t see him play, but at least I could hear without my earplugs and dance freely without breathing cigarette smoke—never seen it this bad before. Oh well, I still had fun—he sounded great.
After spending a nice afternoon with my family at my grandma’s house (my dad’s mom), my grandma gave me some old photos of my relatives. I really want to preserve these things, so I scanned them in and created a new Paternal Relatives Page since there were so many. There are still more to come (my dad has more albums) and I would like to do a Maternal Relatives Page too one of these days. Click on the photo of my grandfather on the family farm to see the rest of the photos.
I photographed my favorite two spiders—Tufts and Mr. Greenfangs. I decided to start a new Jumping Spiders 2 page for my 2008 spiders since the other page has gotten so full (it had numerous photos of 31 different jumping spiders!). I made two animations from photos of Tufts. Click on the one below to see the results of this photo session.
I saw Eric Sardinas, an incredible slide guitarist, at the Ark in Ann Arbor. Click on the photo of me and Eric below to read more.
The Music Machine, my airbrushed art car dedicated to Frank Zappa, was accepted to display at this year’s Autorama. Click on the photo below to read and see more pictures from the show (other cars too).
I saw Adrian Belew at the Magic Bag tonight. I also got to meet him and hang out with the rest of the trio after the show. Click on the picture of us for more info and another pic of me with Adrian.
I really had fun with the last icicle photo shoot I did on January 26th and I was very happy to have the chance to do another one. It’s really great when the icicles are melting because by modifying a few settings on the camera, one can produce amazingly different images from the same scene. This time, the sky was bluer and there were some clouds drifting by. It gave me the idea to do a stop-motion animation from some of the photographs. I made three movies. One is below. Click on it to see the rest of the photographs and movies from this shoot.
I haven’t built a snowman for over 7 years. I made one today. Click on the photo below to see more pictures of him.
Tonight I saw North Mississippi Allstars at Saint Andrew’s Hall in Detroit. They played for about 2 1/2 hours. I hadn’t seen them since 2001, when they had just come out with their first album, “Shake Hands With Shorty.” I remember having a great time at that show and figured they could have only gotten better over the last 7 years. They had—it was an incredible show! I danced the whole night. I was really glad they played my two favorite songs from the first album—”Po Black Maddie” and “Shake ‘Em on Down.”
The other great thing about this night was that I got to try out the new musician’s earplugs I recently picked up. I didn’t even know such a thing existed until I went to the doctor for the hearing difficulty and ringing I’ve been experiencing. For the last few years (since I’ve noticed my hearing declining), I’ve been wearing earplugs when I attend concerts, but I always hated how much they distorted the sound—however, I couldn’t go without them because it caused me physical pain to be exposed to that loud of music. These new earplugs are not plugs exactly—they have filters in them that dampen the sound without distorting the tones. They cost $120 a pair, but they were so worth it. I haven’t heard a concert sound that good without hurting my ears in so long. I would recommend them to any concert-goer whether or not they are currently experiencing hearing problems—-save your ears, people! Click here to visit the Westone website, the company that makes these hearing protectors.
I took photographs of two icicles on my porch under different settings. Click on the photo below to see the rest.
It was one of the first days in quite a while where the sun peeked through the clouds on occasion. I felt motivated to go out and capture some of the beauty of the winter storm we recently had. The snow was still in the trees, making them look like a fantasy-land. I drove down Hines Drive from Ann Arbor Trail to Northville Road and stopped at a few places along the way. Click on the picture below to see the rest of my photographs.
Ok, so I’ve had about enough of people out there talking about how Snoop Dogg is trying to be like T-Pain with the vocal sound in his new single, Sensual Seduction [Sexual Eruption]. Yeah right, like Snoop needs to be anybody but himself! There are so many people out there that think that what Snoop and T-Pain are doing with their voices is the exact same thing, so I felt compelled to write an entry to clear up any confusion.
Both the talkbox and autotuner perform a similar function in that they cause the voice to be heard in steps—single notes without any transition in between. The tones jump directly from one to the next like steps instead of a gradual progression like a person’s normal singing voice. The way this function is accomplished is what is important—all you have to do to use an autotuner is sing into it and the computer determines what note you’re trying to hit. There’s no skill involved. This is what T-Pain is using. He uses an audioprocessor called Auto-Tune.
The talkbox, on the other hand, requires some skill to use (not to mention it sounds way better). You have to use it through an instrument, generally a keyboard, although players like Peter Frampton (and his device called the Framptone) use theirs through the guitar. Basically, you whisper into a tube (you are not singing) and you have to PLAY the notes that you want your voice to make on the keyboard/guitar. It requires some skill. This is what you see Snoop doing in the video for Sensual Seduction—that’s what the tube is and that’s why he’s holding a keyboard.
This is not new! The talkbox has existed since the 60’s and was pioneered by Roger Troutman—he was the master at the talkbox (was unfortunately murdered by his own brother over a business dispute). Look up Roger and Zapp and pick up some of their albums—you will quickly discover that many of the rap artists of today are sampling their songs like crazy. They’re truly awesome and I only just discovered them about a month ago—you’ve never heard “California Love” sound so incredible until you’ve heard them do it. Here’s a good live version of “More Bounce to the Ounce” on Youtube. Stevie Wonder is also known to use the talkbox. I totally want one now.
Check out this awesome live video from 1989 of Roger and Zapp. He’s playing guitar for the first few minutes and then he switches to the talkbox.
Ok, so I burned some CDR’s of some cheap brand called Dynex. I put one in my truck’s factory CD changer (it’s a 1995 Ranger) and it played until about track 8, when it suddenly started skipping, then turned off, and the display said “no cd”. Then I smelled an electrical burning smell. It completely fried my CD changer! I strongly suggest if you have any older CD players, you don’t use this brand of CDR in them. I’m not going to use them in anything else I own, new or not. So then, I was freaking out because I didn’t know what I was going to listen to anymore in my truck (and I hate the radio (especially talk radio in the morning on the way to work) and can’t stand silence while I’m driving).
So I dug out my old tapes. Luckily, I had some that I actually didn’t mind listening to. The funniest thing was that after a few days of listening to some of the tapes that I was listening to on CD, I realized that the low bass was sounding better on the tapes. I always wondered why some of my rap cd’s never sounded as good as back in the day when I played them on tapes, but always attributed it to a new car, new stereo, etc. I never realized it was actually the media! So now I find myself wondering if I should buy some of my favorite rap albums on tape!?!?
So this could only last so long of course—I had to get CD capability back in my truck. It was going to cost a lot of money to buy a new changer, which might also require a new head unit to operate it. So I researched it and discovered that there are basically only two types of changers that were installed in Ford cars and trucks—one with a gray eject button and one with an orange button. I had the orange button one, which used a 12-pin connector. On one forum I was on, some guy said any 12-pin changer will work in any Ford car/truck. Hoping he was right, I bought one on E-bay from someone who had it in a 2000 Ford, so it was 5 years newer and a different model number. Installed it in about 5 minutes yesterday and it works great—it actually sounds better than my old one!
So what could have been a bad experience turned out well in two ways—I now have a better changer (although it cost be about $100 after shipping) and I discovered the benefits of tapes.
I thought it was about time to do a new collage for the homepage. I like to use my own artwork as the background, but I don’t do too many paintings with landscapes—the last one used the Vegetanimal in Outer Space watercolor as a background. This one uses the Toads of the Short Forest painting. I have been working on it off and on for a few weeks. It takes a long time to select and cut out the different collage items. Some, like one of the elements from the Elusive Sleep watercolor, took about an hour to cut out!
Click here to visit my homepage to see it and take a mystery tour around the site.
Well, I attended my first St. Alphonso’s Pancake Breakfast (I sure hope there will be more, but if Gail gets her way, they will probably all be canceled like she tried to do to all the Zappa birthday celebrations across the country this year—hmmm, what a pleasant way to spend your husband’s birthday—trying to ruin everyone else’s celebrations of all the happiness and inspiration Frank has brought to us). There were way more people there than I expected—King’s Brewery in Pontiac, MI was packed full of Zappa fans enjoying pancakes, sausages, coffee and beer, all while enjoying an awesome set by Ugly Radio Rebellion with special guest, Ike Willis. A great time was had by all—the best Zappa birthday celebration ever (usually I just celebrate at home—make a cake, light a few candles, watch Baby Snakes or some other favorite FZ DVD, and listen to his music).
One of my favorite fish ever died this morning, Eddie the Parrotfish. I’ve had him since 2001. He lived with another one, Flo, that I bought at the same time and they were best friends. That is the saddest thing about this—that poor Flo will be all alone now.
Finally, I have photographed all four of my pet spadefoots. Click on the photo below to visit my Spadefoots Page to see the rest of the photos.
I took photos of three jumping spiders today. Click on any of the photos below to see the rest.
Since Frank the Spadefoot died in February, I purchased more spadefoots in May, but never photographed them. I finally took some pictures of two of them. They are on the new Spadefoots Page. Just click the photo below to see them.
Tonight I saw Van Halen for the second time. The first time was right after the Van Halen 3 album, with singer Gary Cherone. This time, David Lee Roth sang. He is one energetic guy—he was doing all these crazy kicks the whole night. They played for about 2 1/2 hours. During the end of the second song, I was thinking how much I wanted to hear “Runnin’ With the Devil”, and about 10 seconds later, they played it! Eddie did a special solo and he was doing things to the guitar from the back (he actually had the plate off the back). I’ve never seen anyone do that before. The encore was absolutely spectacular—it started out with a huge disco ball. Then a blimp came out and floated around the crowd. There were lasers and other light displays. Then Roth carried out a huge blow-up microphone. Then the best thing happened—all this confetti came out from the ceiling and was blown around by fans. With the lights the way they were shining and the way the confetti pieces flipped and twirled, it was so magical-looking. I’ve never seen such a beautiful confetti display. I didn’t think any of the pieces would reach us, but just when the lights came on, one lone piece came twirling towards us and Brian caught it. It was one of the most expensive shows I went to this summer (about $100 for a crappy seat on the side in the second level), but definitely well worth it.
A student brought in a Pandora Sphinx Moth and I took it home to photograph. I had to put them on a brand new page because I took so many photographs. Click on the photo below to see them.
I also photographed these unusual wild cucumbers. I grew a plant from seeds my dad found last fall. Click on the photo to read about it and see the pictures.
I finally had a chance to process and upload some pictures from the summer. There are photos of a leafhopper, katydid, and jumping spider. Just click on each photo below to link to more photos of that creature.
I saw Steve Vai tonight at the Royal Oak Music Theatre for his Sound Theories tour. Apparently, many people did not realize that he was going to make many of his compositions into more classical-sounding pieces by using two violinists—I say this because they were one of the most lame audiences I’ve ever seen—no one was moving at all. I guess they expected Steve to rock out more like he usually does. It would have been nice, but I still enjoyed myself and was able to dance quite a bit, but nothing like George Clinton last week. As he has done many times before, he ended with my all-time favorite song, “For the Love of God”.
I saw George Clinton at the Royal Oak Music Theatre tonight. This was my first time seeing anything P-Funk-related. I had such a great time—there’s nothing better than funky music to dance to. By the end of the night, my braid was soaked all the way to the bottom from dancing so hard. I was also quite thrilled that they even threw in a little Zappa and played the beginning of “I’m the Slime”! Definitely a great time—I hope they come back again soon.
Tonight I saw the Jack and Jim Show, which was Jimmy Carl Black on percussion (from the Mothers of Invention) and Eugene Chadbourne on stringed instruments (guitar and banjo mostly). They also had a keyboardist, bassist (who played the huge bass), and another musician who played some crazy instrument that had strings and a horn—he used a bow on it like a violin. It was one weird thing. The keyboardist had some device hooked up that acted like a theramin—you could make different hand motions and it would change the pitches and effects. I saw Jimmy play back in 2000 with the Grandmothers (many former members that played Zappa’s music). I wished they would have played a Zappa song or two, but it was Captain Beefheart night. I don’t really know much Captain Beefheart and what I have heard, I didn’t care for too much. The show was held in an unusual venue—a place called the Bohemian National Home. It was advertised on Jimmy’s myspace as being the Bohemian Ballroom, which caused some confusion when I tried to find the place—I didn’t think they could possibly be the same thing. I mean, what is a “national home” anyhow? The show wasn’t advertised much and the venue didn’t hold that many people. I think there were only about 40 seats or so in the place and they were pretty much filled, with a few people standing, so it was quite an intimate setting. After the show, Jimmy came out to see the Music Machine, but unfortunately, it was very dark and the lighting was poor. Even with the lantern I brought, it was difficult to see. Tried to get a picture, but of course the hood didn’t turn out. Click on the photo below to go to the page where you can see a larger view.
I saw Stevie Wonder tonight at Meadowbrook. It was the most crowded show I’ve ever been to at that venue. I was hoping to dance by my favorite tree (that’s the one thing I love about Meadowbrook—most lawns don’t have trees), but there was no way that was happening. I was lucky to get a spot by the aisleway just barely on the grass. It was awesome—he played all my favorite songs, or at least parts of them. I thought he did a little too much talking (and I can’t always make out spoken words at concerts). He could have fit in another song or two if he hadn’t said so much, but overall, I was definitely glad I got to see him.
I saw Rush tonight at DTE. It was a really packed show. They played a lot of songs from their new album, Snakes and Arrows, which I guess just weren’t quite my style. I expected to have more upbeat songs, but these were just a little too slow and melodramatic. I just couldn’t get into them (maybe I’m just not that big of a Rush fan). They had really cool lasers and other visual effects during the show, so at least there was something to look at during the show. I know I wasn’t the only person who didn’t get all excited about the show—when I was leaving, the first comment I heard from someone was, “man, was that boring!”. I didn’t stay for the encore, which might have very well been the best part, but I couldn’t afford to be stuck in traffic for an hour and then another 40 minutes to get home. I had to get up for work the next morning.
This morning was a sad one. When I went to check on Biglegs the jumping spider, he was on his back, dead. I think it’s possible that Speedy attacked him, but I can’t be certain. I had him for almost a year—he was the best spider ever. I will really miss him. If you haven’t seen his pictures and read his story, click on his picture below…
My friend Myla got some free lawn seats to the 311 show tonight at DTE. I saw them quite a few years ago, so this was my second time. I was glad that they played some of their older songs from the era when I enjoyed them most, back in the mid-90’s. Matisyahu opened for them and put on a great performance.
I went to see Zappa Plays Zappa today. It was at the same place as last year’s show—Meadowbrook in Auburn Hills, MI. This time, the special guest was Ray White, whom I have never seen before. I took some photos and two video clips. Click on the photo below to take you to my ZPZ 2007 Page.
I finally had a chance to add some of the photos I’ve taken recently. There are two spiders—a jumping spider and an orb-weaver. As far as the insects go, there is a katydid, a stag beetle and a grapevine beetle. Click on each photo below to take you to the photos of that insect or spider.
I saw the Police tonight at the Palace of Auburn Hills, MI. I have liked this band for about 24 years—I don’t think I’ve listened to any other band for that many years without seeing them on tour at some point. They opened with Message in a Bottle, and then played my favorite song, Synchronicity II. It would have been an enjoyable show, but unfortunately, the people behind me were extremely disruptive and drunk and wanted to sing (yell out of tune) every song! It was absolutely horrible and made it very hard to hear Sting’s voice and the accompanying music. Worse still, during the instrumental parts, they talked as if they were half-deaf—it was so distracting. I think I would have enjoyed the show more if it weren’t for them, although there was a lot of time alloted for audience participation—and that can be pretty bad if the people behind you can’t sing worth a crap. Also, it was not mixed to my preference—I could barely hear the guitar, because I think Sting wanted the audience to hear him playing his bass. My favorite guitar parts seemed to be far off in the distance. Also, if you’re planning on hearing your favorite tunes the way they sound on the album, forget it—Sting changes the notes around so much that you can hardly recognize the song if it weren’t for the lyrics—not that it was bad, just different. I would have had a better time without the people behind me, but I still wouldn’t rate it as the best concert of the year.
Today was my birthday, but it wasn’t too happy. My central air died and it reached 90.3 degrees in my house according to my digital thermometer. It never went below 87 for over 36 hours. I didn’t think to check on my african clawed frogs because, hey, aren’t they from Africa? But one of them died. And the other two were a very pale green—just like a stressed fish tends to whiten. I immediately changed them into cooler water and moved them to my den where I hooked up a small window AC. They turned green again after a few hours and will most likely be fine. But I am sad about the other one, who has been my pet for about 15 years. I am thinking that because they were most likely lab-bred frogs, they probably have weaker genetics and can’t handle the heat like a wild-type frog. I guess I learned my lesson and will never let that happen to my other two frogs. These guys are known to live for up to 30 years, so they should have a lot of life left in them.
Also, one of my favorite spiders died. His name was Midnight Pouncer—he had the most beautiful chelicerae ever—they were blue! I think the reason he died was also because of the heat, although I was giving him water. Click here to see previous photos of Midnight Pouncer. I moved all of my other pets into the den today. It’s quite crowded, but it’s the only safe place for them.
I just posted a bunch of new photography. My favorite insects were the weevil and nymph. My favorite spiders were the striped jumping spider and the mother with spiderlings all over her back. Just click on a preview picture below to take you to the rest of the photos of that insect or spider.
I saw Steely Dan in concert for the second time today. The first time was at DTE in Auburn Hills, MI. This time, they played at the Freedom Hill Amphitheater in Sterling Heights, MI. I had lawn seats and rain was predicted. For about the first 45 minutes, it was a great night as far as the weather goes. Then it started raining. I was surprised that once it rained, this venue allowed everyone to fill in the empty seats in the pavilion. This gave me a large cement area behind the pavilion to dance in with an unobstructed view—I was so happy! They played so many of the classics—it was an awesome show!
Speedy’s babies (fathered by Biglegs) emerged from their egg sac on May 25, 2007. I’ve never seen baby jumping spiders before! They’re so cute! I just added pictures of them. Click the photo below to see them.
Tonight I saw Jean Luc Ponty at the Detroit Music Hall, the same place where I recently saw George Duke. This time, I hadn’t found out about the concert until much later, so I was unable to get as good of seats. I had front row of the balcony. The sound quality was excellent, even up there. I really like that place as far as acoustics go. He put on an awesome show and brought along some great musicians. There were two drummers, a bassist and keyboardist accompanying him. Check out the encore below…
I finally had some time this weekend to process some photos I took a while ago. There are photos of a jumping spider with BLUE chelicerae, a crab spider, and a tiny jumping spider. There are also photos of the flowering crab tree in the front of my yard which was in full bloom on April 30, 2007. Just click on the preview photos below to see more of that subject.
Tonight, I went to the Heaven and Hell Tour at Cobo Arena, featuring Black Sabbath with Ronnie James Dio. Although I would have rather heard some of the songs that Ozzy sang on, I still had a great time. Machinehead and Megadeth opened for them. I missed Machinehead’s performance, which was only about 25 minutes. Megadeth was awesome—this was my second time seeing them play. I met them a while back too when their CD, “Risk” came out and they held a signing. It would have been a great overall time except for what happened close to the end. It didn’t say anywhere on the ticket or in the venue that there was no recording or photos, so people all over the place had their cameras out, me included. Then, shortly before the encore, two of the ushers came by and told me to give up my camera. I refused, stating that no where did it say I couldn’t have it. Then they said I’d have to come with them. While I was explaining to Brian what was going on, they walked off and left me alone. Unfortunately, I was unable to take any pictures or video from the best part of the show, which was pretty disappointing. I don’t understand why they weren’t harassing the numerous others with cameras out, especially those on the main floor getting way better pics and video than I ever could from my crappy side seats! When I have time, I will post the few pics and videos that I took.
I’ve liked the band Fishbone since 1991, when a friend of mine introduced me to their music. They have played in Detroit on several occasions, but for one reason or another, I was never able to attend. Finally, I made it to one of their shows. This one was at the Magic Stick in Detroit. I was really happy that they played two of my favorite songs off the “Truth and Soul” album, one of their older albums. They did “Ma and Pa” and “Freddie’s Dead”. It was so much fun dancing to those songs live! There were several guys skankin’ and that’s something I don’t usually see at the shows I go to—wish I could learn some of those moves!
I went to see George Duke at the Detroit Music Hall. Click on the photo of me and George below to link to my new George Duke page. There, you can see photos from the show and watch some video clips.
Here’s one of his solos…
I found Biglegs a new girlfriend. Her name is Emma. Click on her photo below to see more pictures of her.
My dad gave me a spider that looks almost like Biglegs! Click the photo of him below to see the rest of the pictures.
My jumping spider, Speedy was recently introduced to my other buddy, Biglegs. After a few weeks, Speedy allowed Biglegs into her resting sac and mated with him. You can read all about the couple on the Biglegs and Speedy Page. I just added some new pictures of Speedy, showing her huge abdomen. Click the photo below to shortcut to the most recent photo shoot.
I recently completed an introductory glassblowing class. I just finished adding the photos of the pieces I created. Click on the heart paperweights below to shortcut to the photos and a description of my experience.
I took some more photos of my two favorite jumping spiders, Biglegs and Speedy, this time on an iridescent rock. I also made 2 animations of Biglegs. Click on the animation of Biglegs below to see his photos. Click here to see the photos of Speedy.
I made six new animations from my watercolors and tie-dyed bandannas by shifting the hues. Click on the animation below to see them.
I uploaded some pictures of a really tiny jumping spider I found last as well as some new pictures of Biglegs. Click on the photos below below to see them.
Tonight I saw Bob Seger for the first time. It might also be my last time, since I have heard that this may be his last tour. Tonight’s show was being filmed—it was the last show of his “Face the Promise” Tour. The Silver Bullet Band really sounded great—I’m sure it helped that they had already performed quite a few shows together. Kid Rock even made an appearance for the song “Real Mean Bottle” just before the intermission. Here is the setlist…
Roll Me Away
Trying to Live My Life Without You
Wreck This Heart
Main Street
Old Time Rock and Roll
Wait for Me
Face the Promise
Sunspot Baby
Betty Lou
We’ve Got Tonight
Turn the Page
Travelin’ Man
Beautiful Loser
Real Mean Bottle
Intermission
Simplicity
Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man
Cest La Vie
Nutbush City Limits
Good For Me
Fire Down Below
Horizontal Bop
Katmandu
First encore
Still the Same
Hollywood Nights
Second Encore
Against the Wind
Rock and Roll Never Forgets
No, not really, I’m just a terrible forensic scientist. When I found the dead jumping spider in my basement a few weeks ago, I assumed it was Biglegs because it had the same crab-like front legs. I should have looked at it closer. It wasn’t until last Tuesday when I almost stepped on a spider in front of my refrigerator, that I discovered Biglegs was alive and well! I fed him 2 crickets and gave him another photo shoot. Click on the photo below to see them.
I went to the 2007 Detroit Autorama tonight with my dad and took lots of photographs. Click on the photo below to see them.
Tonight at Washtenaw Community College, there was a reception for Ann Savageau, a teacher I had for my Elements of Design class at the Residential College at U of M Ann Arbor. She was also giving a talk about her latest installation. To see my photographs of her work and read more about it, click on the photo below.
At around 10 o’clock on the evening of Feb. 24, 2007, I found Biglegs dead on the basement floor. I don’t know why he decided to go into the basement, after staying in my den for the past 5 months, but that’s where he was. I was lucky to spot him because he was in an area I don’t go in often. I never thought I would cry over a dead spider, but I did. His body was still limp, so I was able to mount it. I hope to have him encased in resin so that I can wear him as a pendant. This guy, Charlie Hines, at bedebug.com does a really good job with this art form and I talked to him previously about custom orders, so it should be possible.
Even more depressing, it was around 3:40 am and I had just taken Frank out of his hypertonic ringer’s solution that contained the antibiotic. He looked really bad, although I still had hope because he had swallowed a worm down earlier in the day, he had lost a lot of the bloating due to excess water, and I even saw him urinate for the first time in about a month. I was holding him in my hand, as I try to do each day for a little while, and I told him “Frank, you know I love you, and you’ve fought really hard, but if you have to die, then please die with me.” I continued to massage his back and legs. He was barely moving. About a minute later, he took a few deep breaths and went limp. I saw his hind legs twitching and I knew he had passed. His exact time of death was 1-25-2007 at 3:43am. I had previously envisioned him dying in my hand. That was how I wanted it to happen. I didn’t want him to be all alone. Although it was very sad, and I am crying now as I write this, I am glad it happened that way and that he was with me. I will miss him tremendously.
While I have managed to slowly decrease Frank’s water weight, he is still in very poor health. Over the past week and a half, his lungs have filled with more and more fluid. At times, I have seen him breathing with his mouth open, a sign of suffocation. Because his nostrils were getting covered in soil, I can no longer keep him in his favorite setting, so he is rather uncomfortable now. I have him in a container with a paper towel that is soaked with ringer’s solution. Last week, I managed to force feed him a few crickets, but for the past 7 days, he has vomited them up. Today, I am trying worm bits. On try #1, he threw it up after about 15 minutes. I am still waiting to see the results of try #2. He was getting stronger after he ate a few crickets and I was starting to exercise him for about 30-45 minutes each day, but he hasn’t been strong enough to walk for the last 3 days now. He hasn’t even opened his eyes for 3 days either. Anyone that knows me knows that I won’t give up on him until he is dead. I can’t lose hope until there is no more hope to be had. So I will keep trying my best to save him.
My new ring flash arrived, so now I can photograph insects and spiders indoors. I could finally photograph my buddy, Biglegs, who has been living with me since late September. He came out yesterday and I took a bunch of photos, so many that I had to give him his own page. Click the photo of him below to take you to the new Biglegs Page.
Amazingly, Frank is still alive. I found a way to get the excess water out of him. I know from experience that when he is in very dry soil, he weighs a lot less, so I thought—why not dry out the soil? I baked it in the oven until nearly all the moisture was released. I put Frank in the baked soil after it cooled. He dropped about 14 grams overnight! Since then, I have been monitoring his weight every few hours (while I’m at home and awake) and trying to look for patterns. So far, there aren’t any. He has both gained weight and lost weight in the hypertonic ringer’s solution (which also contains an antibiotic), while in theory, he should only be losing weight. He has both gained weight and lost weight in the regular ringer’s solution, while in theory, he should remain constant. He has both gained and lost weight in his regular soil. The only thing that went according to theory was that he always loses weight in the baked soil. So all I can do is keep giving him his treatments, try to monitor his weight and keep him from getting too bloated, and hope that the antibiotics are working. I’ll write an update if anything has changed from my current treatments.
Just when I thought Frank (my spadefoot toad) had recovered from his bout with fungus, he is now suffering from something more serious. When I dug him up to feed him on Monday, he was very bloated and having difficulty breathing. On Tuesday, I took him to the vet. The bloating was fluid, not air. It contained rod-shaped bacteria. He is on an antibiotic for the bacteria, which may or may not be effective against this type of bacterial infection. Even if the bacteria can be killed off, it is still not certain whether they are the cause of the bloating. That could be caused by liver, heart or kidney dysfunction. I mixed up a hypertonic ringer’s solution using some chemicals from work and a recipe given to me by the vet. It was supposed to help remove the water from his body. I weighed him before and after the treatment and he ended up getting almost 4 grams heavier! So it didn’t work. The vet had suggested I take him out of the soil and give him some moss to bury in, but he was so unhappy in that setup, constantly trying to dig. Since these may be his last hours with me, I figured it would be best that he is comfortable, so I went against the advice and put him back in the soil. As soon as I set him down, he was buried within a few minutes. Please keep him in your thoughts—maybe there’s some slim chance he can make it through this.
I made an animation from the different stages of growth on my Homer Simpson Chia Pet. I also started a new Animations Page where you can see all of the animations I have done so far. Click on Homer to visit my new page.
This morning, I woke up to a great surprise. I knew I had two jumping spiders living in my den that I released there at the end of September. I have been feeding them crickets whenever I see them emerge and they’ve been doing very well. One is easily recognizable. He is the last one I photographed in September on my Jumping Spider Photography Page. He has very long legs so I call him “Biglegs”. I had a feeling that somehow a third spider had wandered in because the appearance of the abdomen of the other spider seemed to change shapes. This morning, on 1-23-07, all three spiders came out at the same time! I thought it was funny that they would choose today’s date (1, 2, 3) to emerge together. Even more surprising is that out of all the rooms in the house, they choose to live in the same room where I spend most of my time when I’m home. They haven’t left this room in almost 4 months!
I took some photos of the trees and shrubs covered in ice over the last few days. Click the photo below to see them.
I went to see my favorite live band, Project Object, in Chicago at Martyr’s on Friday, January 5th and Saturday, January 6th. They didn’t come to Detroit this time. They were awesome as always, even though Napoleon Murphy Brock wasn’t on this tour since he’s playing with Zappa Plays Zappa. I took a few pictures of the band playing. There are even a couple movies. Click on the photo of Andre to see them. I drove the Music Machine and took four new photos of it from the hotel window. Click on the one below to take you to the rest.
Over my winter break, I painted a new watercolor called “Frank and the Toads of the Short Forest”. Click the photo below to see a larger view as well as details of smaller sections.
If you don’t know who Tom Gaskins is, then please check out my Tom Gaskins Page. He was a very unique individual and I share his love for cypress knees. Below is a picture of a postcard showing one of his famous knees, the Bona Lisa.
I spent what would have been Zappa’s 66th birthday at the Magic Stick. Ugly Radio Rebellion played over 3 hours of Frank’s music. It would have been nice if more people had shown up on this rather unpleasant, rainy night, but I must say, I had a whole lot of room on the dance floor—more than any other time I’ve seen any live Zappa music. So I was really gettin’ down! It was an awesome night—the best celebration of Zappa’s birthday ever!
This date was a sad date for music fans. John Lennon shot on this day in 1980 and Dimebag Darrell from Pantera shot in 2004. I miss them both and wish we could have enjoyed more of their musical talents. I am also sad because my friend Frank, the spadefoot toad, is very sick. He has a skin disease. I took him to the vet yesterday and got some medication to try, but there are no guarantees since this kind of condition is difficult to diagnose down to the specific type of fungus or bacteria. Please keep him in your thoughts and wish him a speedy recovery! I love this little guy!
The orbweaver I photographed at the beginning of the month is still alive, even after laying a humongous egg sac. I decided to do another photo shoot of it. Click the photo below to see the rest of the pictures…
Yeah, I know, it’s early. But I love to enjoy the tree as long as possible, considering it takes 5-6 hours to put up. I took pictures of it, as always. Click on the animation below to see them.
I had been running behind on processing these photos, but I finally got through them this weekend. I photographed an unusual fungus that consists of long filaments covered in spores. To see the photos, click the picture below.
It’s been a sad two days. Yesterday, I lost Little Toad and today, I found my blue botia (fish) and plecostomus (algae-eater) dead. Click here to read more about them.
If you know about the band Primus, then you know I’m only kidding because that’s just something Primus fans say. I saw them play live at the State Theater in Detroit tonight. This is my second time seeing Primus and my third time seeing Les Claypool. I saw his Flying Frog Brigade Band once and also saw the “Tour de Fromage” where they played the entire “Sailing the Seas of Cheese” album. Primus seems to have a pretty good following in Detroit. I was on the Ticketmaster site the second the tix went on sale and I could still only get the back of the mezzanine. My seats were in the center though, which was good. It was a great show. They did a couple of long jams in the middle of songs that were pretty interesting. One was during the song “American Life” and I can’t remember the other song. They also had a light system with bands of LED lights that pulsed to the music and changed colors. Luckily, there was only one row behind me and the guys behind me were really getting into it and were already standing up, so I figured I might as well dance. It was nice to have some room up there because the main floor was super crowded. I would not have enjoyed myself down there. Things were really crazy by the stage. During nearly the entire time, there would be someone down there at the front of the stage crowd-surfing (there were actually signs in the lobby stating “no crowd-surfing”, but it didn’t seem to be enforced). It was definitely a great time!
Today, I visited the Croatan National Forest in North Carolina. I had won an Ethan Allen Radius Collection dining set on E-bay and my dad and I decided to pick it up instead of having it shipped. Rather than simply pick up the set, we wanted to do something interesting and see some of the environment in North Carolina, since neither of us had ever visited. I discovered that the Croatan National Forest was only about an hour or so from the location of the dining set. We decided to explore three different areas of the forest. Click on the photo below to see the rest of my photography.
My dad found a beautiful orb-weaving spider and brought it over to my house for me to photograph. Click the photo below to see many different views of this spider.
I finished my first woodburning with my new Burnmaster woodburner. It is a cross-section of the Vegetanimal from Outer Space. Click the photo below to see and read more.
I also photographed some forgotten sour cream that was 8 months past its sell-by date. An interesting organic experiment.
Yesterday, I saw Al DiMeola at the Magic Bag in Ferndale, MI. I first saw him about 4-5 years ago at the Royal Oak Music Theater. The Magic Bag was an awfully small venue to hold this show, as he has so many fans. It was very crowded. I was near the front of the stage until the people got too packed in and I moved to the side, where amazingly, I found enough room to dance (I was the only one). Andre’ Cholmondeley is Al’s current guitar tech. I know Andre’ from Project Object. He made sure that after the show, Al got to see the Music Machine before he took off. Unfortunately, my camera was too cold and the flash wouldn’t work, so I couldn’t get a photo of us with it. Luckily, my friend Dave, who I know through Ugly Radio Rebellion, had his camera, so he sent me the photo of Al and me below. I enjoyed this show more than the first time I saw him—he did more of his older, faster-paced jazz fusion, rather than working with the World Sinfonia like when I saw him previously. I had an awesome time. And it was great showing the car to everyone in the band. Click the photo below for a link to the setlist.
Today I visited my friend Matt on the west side of Michigan. I drove the three hours there all by myself this time, went for the day, and drove home that night. There was no way I was going to miss out on hiking through the dunes even though it was only about 55 degrees Fahrenheit. It had been over 2 years since my last trek. Matt and I like to do what I would call “extreme hiking”. We scale all these crazy near-vertical slopes and really push ourselves to the limit—something many hikers probably wouldn’t be up for. I had a great time, as always. Click on either of the photos below to see the rest of my photography from the trip.
Today, I photographed an unusual-looking crab spider. Click the photo below to see the rest of the pictures…
Tonight, I saw Robin Trower at the Royal Oak Music Theater. I didn’t realize how popular he would be—the place was absolutely packed. I ended up standing in the back because Brian had school and we didn’t get there until 5 minutes after it started. Until several years ago, I had never heard of Robin Trower, but after my dad loaned me “Bridge of Sighs”, I was hooked. He played a lot of my favorite songs at the show. I was really glad to have had the chance to see him, since I doubt he’ll be touring much longer.
I finally got around to processing some of the photos from earlier in the week. My dad and grandma found a Giant Puffball while looking for wild mushrooms. They also found some strange tiny watermelon-like fruits with spikes. Click on the photos below to read and see more.
Last night, I saw Ugly Radio Rebellion at Boulder’s in Plymouth. This time, there was no Ike Willis and they played as a three-piece—Just Scott, Layla and John. Sounded great though. Every time I see them, they just keep getting better!
I photographed four different jumping spiders during the month of September. Click on the photo below to see them.
Today was my third time seeing Jeff Beck in concert. The first time was with Jonny Lang at DTE Energy Music Theater (Pine Knob). I actually went to see Jonny and then ended up liking Jeff better! Then I saw Jeff again with BB King. This time, he was by himself. He had Vinnie Colliuta on drums (Zappa alumnus). I would have to say, he read my mind—he played all my favorite songs, several choices from Blow by Blow and There and Back (my favorite albums).
The neatest thing had to be the rainbow connection. This year, I have seen two rainbows, both after funerals or thinking about people that have died. Today, I was talking to my 1st hour class about my grandfather who had passed on and how the Music Machine belonged to him at one time. I also brought up my deceased uncle in conversation after school with another teacher. On the way in to the show tonight, at about 7:40, there was a rainbow—right in the heart of Detroit! The whole entire arch was there! To top things off, the last song Jeff played tonight was “Somewhere Over the Rainbow!” He had to have seen that rainbow tonight!
All in all, it was one incredible night!
I photographed an adult cicada yesterday and a woolly bear caterpillar today. Click on the photos below to see the rest of the pictures.
On September 4th, 2006, I went to the Detroit Jazz Festival to see the Ed Palermo Big Band play the music of Frank Zappa. Click on the photo of Ed and me below to see photos and videos from the show. It’s funny because on the first day of my summer vacation, I saw Napoleon Murphy Brock in Chicago, touring with Zappa plays Zappa. On the last day of my summer vacation, I saw him again playing with Ed Palermo!
I also took some photographs of bumblebees and mantises before I went to the concert. I finally had time to process them today. Click on the photos below to see them.
I photographed an adult mantis emerging from its skin on August 28th. On the last day of my summer vacation, I went canoeing on the Huron River. It’s funny because that is exactly how I spent my last day in 2005. On August 31, I photographed another jumping spider. Click on the photos below to see them.
I photographed some butterflies and bumblebees on my butterfly bushes. Click on the photo below to see the butterflies. Click here to see the bees.
I took some photos of Frank, the spadefoot toad I’ve had since 2001. He is at his largest size ever. Click on the photo below to see more shots of him.
Just recently got back from the Lynyrd Skynyrd concert at DTE Energy Theater in Clarkston, MI (aka Pine Knob to the locals). I haven’t been to that crowded of a show in a long time (it took a whole hour for our car to move a foot in line on the way out). It was sold out before everyone even arrived. They were turning people back who didn’t already have tickets right at the car entrance gate. I’ve never even had them check my ticket at that point before. Interesting crowd—about half were over 40 and the other half under 20. They played “Free Bird” for the encore, like I figured they would.
Since school will be starting soon, I’ve been doing a lot of cleaning up and organizing (yeah, I know, what else is new?). I decided to put away some smaller collections of ephemera. It’s just too hard to keep everything from getting dusty. I photographed some of the items before storing them away. Click on the matchbox below to see some photos of my beer bottle collection. There are also a few additions to the Miscellaneous and Toys pages. I also took some photos of Darwin. Click on the photo of him to see the rest.
Well, this has been a pretty fun weekend. On Friday, during the day, I took a cruise down Woodward with the Music Machine.
At night, I went to the Fox Theater to see Dave Chappelle. While Dave was absolutely awesome, the Detroit crowd was not. I was very disappointed that certain members of the audience seemed to think it was their show and not Dave’s—especially the people in the front row. They kept talking and interrupting Dave and affecting his concentration. Dave even said near the end as a joke that he “got through about 11 minutes of material in an hour and a half” because of all the people trying to steal the show.
On Saturday, I went to the Woodward Dream Cruise again. Unfortunately, there were more regular cars than cruisers, so it was a bigger traffic jam than normal. The average speed ended up being 1 mile per hour. So not many people got to see the Music Machine this year. One good thing though is that
