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.