April 28, 2009

After work, I surveyed our yard, noting what will need to be done, what plans are popping up; should they remain or be removed.  There is a whole stretch of wood violets in a section of my lawn; so, if I mow them will I be fined for deflowering the state flower?  Maybe I should give Russ Feingold a call, he's on the judiciary committee.

I scanned our trees for gypsy moth egg casings, didn't see any.  There are at least 5 rabbits that are hanging out in our yard and the neighbor's yard; I will have to keep a watch on them.

While outside I was reminded of the overbearing amounts of fornication going on around me (to paraphrase Werner Herzog); there were 2 cardinals mating in one of my bushes, basically just a few feet from me, couldn't they have waited?  Bird sex looks very uncomfortable, the male mounts the female, and then it looks like the male is surfing rather than depositing his seed; glad I don't have to do that.

iPod tracks played today: Creedence Clearwater Revival - Green River, while on shuffle there was quite a favoring of Neil Young: Lookout Joe, Down by the River, and Sedan Delivery all within close proximity of each other. It would be interesting to know how the contraption derives it shuffle 'feature'; if I recall, computers really cannot generate random numbers, rather it is layering of different algorithims; maybe I should give Bill Gates or Steve Jobs a call; after all they should know as they produce all those fabulous computing machines. 

Finished the Franklin's Tale, now starting the Physician's Tale in CT.

April 18, 2009

We attended the Spring Football game practice at Camp Randall, meeting up with an old high school buddy and his family.  We ate at New Orleans Take-out, as all the brat places were packed with people.  My catfish sandwich was still just as fine.  

Brett Bielema has lossed some incredible amounts of weight; I wonder if it could be from some type of eating disorder as much word around town is that he has been known to vomit in restrooms at public places.  While the common Wisconsinite would immediately conclude that such acts are due to too many shots of some type of alcohol, but to be fair, it could be bulimia, also. I mean one never really knows - but how consonant with his name - Brett Bulimia, that works out nice.

Barry Alvarez was there on the sideline with his belly still at Buddhic proportions; rub it for luck; word on the street is that some cheerleaders in the past have rubbed something else on him for luck, or a rhyming word to go with luck.

The football kids threw a lot of balls, I suspect they are getting it out of their system before the season begins and it will probably be all rushing. 

Camp Randall looks so strange when it is not full.  

April 15, 2009

So what's up with all this teabagging going on today? Shouldn't that be done in the privacy of one's bedroom with consenting partners? But, seriously, it was nice to see a change for once from the regular protest kids protesting the regular items to this new milieu of protesters. I heard related that one protester even had a sign stating that Obama is the anti-christ - could it be?

I received my registration license for my bike, and we have taken Karen's bike to have a tune-up. I will ride mine over to the shop tomorrow for its tune-up. Karen and I noticed that her bike still had its registration license on the frame from when it was last in Madison. She had her bike built in 1992 by some friends who worked at Trek at the time; it is very nice bike.

I purchased a liter of Jameson's Irish Whiskey (18.99) today, as it was on sale at the store near us. I also purchased a bottle of the Wollersheim's Winery Rose wine ($7.99) as it was a nice warm afternoon and such occasions call for a rose wine. We listened to Jimmie Dale Gilmore while sipping our wine and preparing dinner.

I am reading the Canterbury Tales - perfect for spring.

I am not sure what to think of my recent purchase of the Holy Modal Rounders' recording, Indian War Whoop. This was what I believe is their 3rd recording, circa 1967, and it appears to me even more crazier than their recording The Moray Eels Eat the Holy Modal Rounders. The title is a reference to the piece from the Anthology of American Folk Music, which is a fantastic verison of the song, but I am not sure how to describe the Rounders' treatment of the song. Sam Shepard is on the recording and would soon leave the band to polish up the screenplay for Zabriskie Point and then go on to writing those fantastic plays; wonder what he is doing now? I remember seeing him once at the St. Paul Public Library when I was on jury duty and was taking my lunch break.

April 14, 2009

It was much warmer and sunnier than I thought it was going to be today. I also was able to smell the faint odor of cow manure on my way to work this morning; makes sense, as spring becomes more pronounced, the fertilizing of farmland is under way. I think the cornfield by the building where I work has had some manure spread on it, as the Canadian geese were not around there today as they usually are. There are always a few that hang out to catch any stray kernels out there on the harvested field.

April 13, 2009

I watched the American Experience episode on the indigenous Americans and the first European settlements. I was amazed at undertaking such a journey; I mean 66 days overseas with those overwrought items of clothing to wear; could you imagine the stench? Enough to throw yourself overboard. Plus, when the settlers arrived, how sickly and pale they looked; I would have killed them just to help them out of their misery if I were the Wampanoeg.

I caught some of the college life show on MTV; this series is based upon college students here in Madison, so naturally, curiosity prevailed and I watched about 10 minutes of it. I must say I know I am old now; but I can't believe I was that immature at 18 or older. The dorms look the same and so do the antics; in my sophomore year, we had two separate parties, one with a 1/4 barrel, then one with a 1/2 barrel. We managed to not get caught and survive these events to live another day.

April 11, 2009

The day was sunny and warm, so I took a walk through the two parks near our neighborhood, Bluff and Hoyt Park. These parks basically touch each other. Bluff park is a much smaller park, but has an interesting feature; within the park there is about a 2 square acre area of prairie that is managed by the UW. It is managed in that the plants are native prairie plants, and there are periodic scheduled fires for the prairie. The charred grass still emitted the smell of being burnt, so there must have been a burn just recently.

I didn't see the hawks that live there and come down to our streets once in awhile for a quick sparrow snack.

After going through the parks, I arrived near the Forest Hill Cemetery; quite a big cemetery. I decided just to quickly walk through some of it, and was able to see the confederate graves of soldiers that were brought here to Camp Randall as prisoners of war and died here. I also came across a grave for a Harry Steenbock, a very straightforward rectangular stone that has inscribed on it his accomplishments - the isolation/discovery of Vitamins A and D. He died the year I was born, 1967.

April 10, 2009

I noticed to today on my way to the bus stop this morning that many of the little samaras (maple seed keys) that fell from the maple trees in the fall are now starting to sprout in lawns. So, as your eye glances at the smooth contours of lawngrass, there are these little elongated green leaves that interrupt it. Most of them will wither away/expire within the next weeks.

There have been a record number of loons that have decided to use the lakes and marshes around here as a waiting ground for the more northern bodies of water to thaw. This has caused quite a bit of excitement amongst the naturalists here, as loons usually do not congregrate in urban areas, as they tend to be private, and highly discriminating in the amount of noise and water pollution they will tolerate.

Karen and I went to view two documentary films at the UW Cinematheque. The first one was a bizarre film devoted to leaders and notation strips of film reels from a filmmaker's collection entitled 'Standard Gauge', made in 1984. It was singular to view a film that showed film itself, discussing indirectly the history of 3-print technicolor and the inside term for color rectification, which was termed the "China Girl." This is the woman one would see when a reel of film would begin. It was not always the most engaging film, but it does serve as a document what film actually looks like, something that most of us have less and less exposure to as digital methods of filming become more commonplace.

The second documentary was just as unique, but not as abstract. 'An Injury to One' is a film made by a CalArts MFA student in 2002 that centers on the history of the Butte, Montana Anaconda copper mine, with particular attention to the IWW member Frank Little who was lynched by company men in 1917; one of whom might have been the crime-novel writer Dashiell Hammett. The mine is now a lake that has a pH of 2.5, almost as acidic as battery acid due to copper, cadmium, arsenic, and the sulfate salts of these metal/metalloids. It is a very stark film, and it made me think of when I traveled there as documented in one of the films I posted on YouTube.

My friend and I tried to find Frank Little's grave in the graveyard at Butte with what little time there was before sundown, but we could not find it. We did see Evel Knievel's grave, though, as seen in the YouTube short. Butte's Mountain View Cemetery is just a short drive off I-90, and is quite a cemetery that documents quietly and solemnly the tragedies of mining. I remembered seeing at least two large obelisks commemorating different mining tragedies during the 1910's. It was interesting to see the various ethnicities, especially the preponderance of slavic folk as evident by their names in Cyrillic. Even though we didn't have enough time to check out the entire cemetery to find his grave, I felt at least satisfied in seeing some of the silent and poignant history contained in this place. Since I have been there, Mr. Little's grave has been renovated.

April 5, 2009

I woke up to a light dusting of snow today; a far cry from the 7 inches that was forecasted; what is it with weather forecasting lately? It is all done in the vein of alarmist sensationalism - 'major winter storm heading our way, what you and your children need to know . . .'

You always have to add the children line in there; that makes the market share agitate.

We have a rabbit that hangs out by our window. I think we have so many animals hanging out by our house because we don't have a dog or dogs, whereas I think the entire neighborhood has them.  There is this one guy that has 3 greyhounds; quite a sight to see him and the dogs stroll by. 

The male cardinals are starting to mark their territory/look for females.  The pair that live by us were visited by another male trying to announce himself as a new suitor; the paired male was not amused.

Buds are starting to appear on trees. I think the trees in my backyard are a silver maple and a shagbark hickory; I am not entirely certain of the shagbark, though, as the bark is not that detached as is customary for that type of tree.

I finally replaced a faulty interior door knob; even the most simple projects always have their pain points.