Friday Random 10 – Early AM Edition

Woke up at 5:15 this morning, and although I couldn’t get back to sleep for those final 45 minutes of shut-eye, I did enjoy listening to a pair of owls on the top of the house across the street discuss all the rain we’ve been having lately…

1. “The Love Affair [Final Version]” – Roger Eno, “Music of Neglected English Composers“
2. “This Time the Dream’s on Me” – Harold Arlen, “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil soundtrack“
3. “Quebec” – Geoff Downes, “World Service“
4. “A Cry for Everyone” – Gentle Giant, “Octopus“
5. “Lost and Found” – Roger Eno, “The Night Garden“
6. “Go Forward” – Lisa Gerrard, “Whale Rider soundtrack“
7. “Tales of a Damson Knight” – National Health, “Complete“
8. “Leonard and Natalie” – David Julyan, “Memento soundtrack“
9. “Livin’ for You” – Boston, “Greatest Hits“
10. “Go” – Asia, “Astra“

No bonus this week; Roger Eno got enough airplay this time around.

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Friday Random 10

Friday.  Music.  Random.  Ten.

1. “Don’t Answer Me” – Alan Parsons Project, “Ammonia Avenue“
2. “Circe” – Ira Stein & Russel Walder, “Transit“
3. “Midnight Blue” – Lou Gramm, “Ready or Not“
4. “One of These Days” – Pink Floyd, “Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd“
5. “Summer” – Joe Hisaishi, “Kikujiro soundtrack“
6. “Trains and Winter Rains” – Enya, “And Winter Came“
7. “Warriors [remixed excerpts]” – Synergy, “The Jupiter Menace“
8. “Going for the One [instrumental bonus track]” – Yes, “Going for the One“
9. “Chameleon” – Herbie Hancock, “Head Hunters“
10. “Ancestors” – Lisa Gerrard, “Whale Rider soundtrack“

 
Bonus track: “Shangri-La” – ELO, “A New World Record“

Lew Zealand: Muppet of the People

 Thought it was high time I gave a shout-out to my de facto avatar, Lew Zealand, Muppet extraordinaire.  Sure, folks have their favorite Muppet: Kermit, Miss Piggy, Gonzo, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew or Beaker, or even Sam, the American Eagle, but none of those have the quiet, confident demeanor of Lew Zealand.

Lew blew onto the scene in mid Season 3 of The Muppet Show, where in his opening sketch he “played” a musical number by squeezing various “tuned” fishes.  Later, he introduced his now-famous Boomerang Fish Act, and his follow-up performances almost all had some variation on the fish theme.  His best Muppet Show performance was with Spike Milligan in the classic “Intergalactic Brotherhood of  Man, Including Things“.

Lew Zealand is one of the only (maybe the only) Muppet ever to successfully stand up to Miss Piggy, expertly wielding a large fish to fend her off and avoid the Karate Chop of Death.  In The Great Muppet Caper, he swung a fish and got a hit when pitched the famed Baseball Diamond.  His last appearance (?) was in Muppet Treasure Island, where he had a cameo knitting a Jolly Roger while the ship was trapped in the Doldrums.

Pitchers’ Duel

Good friend Karl from church had an extra work ticket to share for the Saturday ballgame, and I thought I’d share some pictures from the game as a way to take my attention off the suck of the Twins/Yankees series so far.

“Yeah, and I never got my underwear dry from yesterday’s rainout.”

Friday Random 10

This week has been so busy with end of the school year activities, that the Friday Random 10 is the only post to make a showing.  Here goes:

1. “Radio Silence” – Thomas Dolby, “The Golden Age of Wireless“
2. “Diary of a Man Who Vanished” – Steve Howe, “The Steve Howe Album“
3. “The Rainbow Connection” – “The Muppet Movie original soundtrack“
4. “Heavenly Sarum” – Roger Eno, “Music of Neglected English Composers“
5. untitled bonus track* – Yes, “Tormato“
6. “Health Music” – Ozric Tentacles, “Bits Between the Bits“
7. “Angel Doll” – Joe Hisaishi, “Kids Return soundtrack“
8. “Tin Man” – America, “History: America’s Greatest Hits“
9. “Joanna” – Rick Wakeman, “Crimes of Passion soundtrack“
10. “Spirit of Summer” – Deodato, “Prelude“

*actually, the orchestra instrumentation to “Onward”

Friday Random 10

Friday means it’s time to set WMP on shuffle (like it wasn’t already) and capture the first ten songs to play again. Today’s playlist:

1. “Chariots of Fire” — Vangelis, “Chariots of Fire“
2. “I Want to Be Like You” — FFH, “I Want to Be Like You“
3. “Charlie Parker Loves Me” — Marc Jordan, “Living in Marina del Rey and Other Stories“
4. “Long Distance Runaround” — Yes, “Fragile“
5. “Copperline” — James Taylor, “New Moon Shine“
6. “Moses and Marco Polo Suite:  Marco Polo Theme” — Ennio Morricone, “Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone“
7. “Lennie” — Buggles, “Adventures in Modern Recording“
8. “Hey You” — Pink Floyd, “Echoes, the Best of Pink Floyd“
9. “Naon” — Jon Anderson, “Olias of Sunhillow“
10. “Jabular” — Ozric Tentacles, “There is Nothing“

Fin.

Economic Stimulus Package: Backyard Division

The Runner family has kicked in to help stimulate the local St. Charles economy by adding (finally) a patio/walkout pad and a 1′ skirt along the back foundation before the graduation reception:

Before:

After:

Now my work begins! Plans are to frame under the deck with rock and fill in underneath with pea gravel, add various plantings, clean the edges of the concrete and fill in with soil and reseed grass, etc. etc. Hopefully it will look great when all is said and done.

Plague #2

Today is a continuation on yesterday’s “Rhubarb Runner’s Wild Kingdom” — a story in the vein of Poe’s The Cask of Amantillado.

Last spring, K was grabbing her purse off the breakfast room floor on her way out the door to school, and found a small tree frog on it.  A day later, I found a second one.  A couple days later, I found one on the front window sill.  This one was a yard away from the ficus tree and it’s winter Grow Light, and I (correctly, it turns out) deduced that they had come in as eggs in the bottom of the ficus tree, and had just emerged that spring (there is an hand-hold opening in the side of the planter).

This winter, when it was time to bring the ficus tree indoors again, I wised-up and placed a strip of duct tape across the opening first.  No frogs were spotted, although I was pretty sure I heard the “cre-e-e-e-eak” of a tree frog from the front room at one point three weeks ago.

Yesterday, Mo decided it was time to move the ficus back outside again, so I trooped it out onto the deck to its place of honor (where the wind can blow it over every other week).  As I removed the duct tape, a skinny tree frog leaped right out, while its brother/sister looked on from within the hand-hold hole.  No telling how many others might have been in there, but darn if those little survivalists didn’t make it through the winter somehow.  I’m trying to remember my Exodus; is it lice or boils next?

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Oh, bonus — today’s Insect Photo of the Day: Double-banded Ant-mimicking Bycid – Euderces pini: