Taken from my iPhone, a hummingbird moth feeding last night.
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Good Crop!
There are two fruit trees on the property - one apple, one pear- and both seemingly on their last legs. But this year, looks like a bountiful harvest!
New Beginnings
This is a special time of year, maybe the best time, with so many people shifting and starting something new: school, and so often with me over the years, a new job assignment or something else that was an exciting change. And of course I’ve got to mention the seasonal shift just beginning, just around the corner, and all the birds about to pivot and migrate. This is such a great time of year. And when a sticky note shows up on the window when you return to a car that’s been parked on a side street, well, you just gotta take notice!
A New Kind of Whiskey
While the whiskey barrels age at the Death’s Door distillery in Madison for another couple of years, I was lucky while in Seattle last week to meet Andrew Friedman, the owner of the very hip bar Liberty, who introduced me to California distilled Charbay R5 Aged Whiskey, made from a hoppy IPA well known as Racer 5! Very interesting and really good:
Embarrassing there were some computing shortcuts I didn’t know, particularly since I pride myself so much on being efficient!
Migration Update
A couple of weeks ago, waves of mostly young American Robins flying just over the treetops as the sun was setting. Then next week, larger squadrons of Cedar Waxwings; we’re talking serious movement by one species of bird! But waxwings are fascinating, they don’t always go north-south; they often go east-west - they are looking for the best places for food. Then last week, the flyovers of Common Nighthawks peaked, high in the air. The woodpeckers are definitely passing through (maybe I’ll see what is becoming a yard bird nemesis - Red-Headed), as well as some dragonflies. And a slight uptick in the number of hummers coming to the feeder (side note: two days ago, over the course of 24 hours, the apparent increased presence of hummingbird moths in the area was brought to my attention by two different people, only hours after we had earlier seen one feeding on the flowers on the deck). But no major passerine migration yet. Photos below are from Google Images:
Berkeley
I already posted one of these photos on FB, but want to get them included here. First, Goat Rodeo at the Greek Theater last Friday night, with Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Chris Thile and Edgar Meyer, with singing accompaniment by the amazing Aoife O'Donovan:
And a view of San Fran Bay from a deck on what is now called the Hippie House:
I'll leave it to you, Japanese style
Omakase! In Seattle with Brent last Monday; new things raw for me: snail, squid, and scallop. Highlight was shortspine thorny head fish (cooked). And sake flight!
How would you have felt?
In 1944, my adoptive father, Irv Rusinow, at age 30 was brought before the Fourth U.S. Civil Service Region Investigations Division as part of a hearing involving his application for a photographer position with the Civil Service Commission. What follows is a transcript of that hearing, as well as an incredibly well-written summary of his ‘world view’, in his own pen. Shades of Joe McCarthy, long before the Senator from Wisconsin conducted his 'Red Scare’ witch hunts in 1954.
Today, we still have people and media networks who love to try to scare the living hell out of us. I learned a long time ago not to get caught up in their batshit crazy ways.
Thanks Dad.
Fall Migration Already?
200+ mostly juvenile Robins flying southward in small groups of 5-10 from 7-8 p.m tonight. Robins overwinter in southern Wisconsin to some extent, but the vast majority head further south. But this seems pretty darn early for true Fall migration.
Have not posted much lately, but my friend Bob sent me this today and I just had to share…
Hey Oldsters, listen up!
Riffs From Vegas About EDM & Clubbing
Wrapping up a long weekend in Vegas with friends. Lots of fun.
What follows is part of an email I sent to Bob Lefsetz, who has been writing a lot about EDM (Electronic Dance Music) and, to a lesser extent, the high revenue generator in Vegas these days involving clubbing with incredibly highly compensated DJ’s. Need to know more about EDM before you continue? Check this out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWb5Qc-fBvk
My email to Bob: "Two nights ago we were invited to go clubbing at a very popular club here in Las Vegas, Hyde, at the Bellagio. My first experience. I’m about your age, by the way. Our friend, who is very close to the industry, summed it up like this, when asked to explain just who is paying all these crazy high prices to ‘rent’ a small space for a few hours: “a third is family money, the second third are professionals like money managers, sports/entertainment execs, and the final third are people who have no business paying so much but who are desperate for access”. Very different model than the whole EDM scene you write about at music festivals where everyone’s 'equal’.
The pressure to keep up with the Joneses is off the charts at these places. That vibe has been out there forever, of course it’s part of the human condition, but it’s just out of control now in places like Vegas. And no doubt Miami. And from what I heard, the guys paying the big bucks at these Vegas clubs, not to mention many of the attendees who wait in line forever to get in, don’t gamble as much, and that eventually there will be a shift in real estate from casinos to more high end clubs.
I am writing this poolside from our hotel in Las Vegas, enjoying the sights, but not the sounds. A few days ago one of those day then night outdoor dance clubs (Daylight/Light) opened a few hundred yards from the south wall of hundreds of rooms at the hotel. The pulsating bass beat that penetrates the walled enclosures around the pool and has a straight shot to the hundreds of rooms at 3 A.M. in the future mornings, I predict, are going to be a big problem for management. Sort of a clash of cultures. We moved our room to the other side the first day we got here as a preventative measure.
This is not a whole lot different than second hand smoke, but I digress.
Last night we saw Santana at The House of Blues. Carlos, of course, was incredible, but his band mates were also amazing.
I will challenge myself and try to understand the 'layers’ of EDM that you suggest exist in your Ibiza post, but man, right now all I can hear is the incessant bass beat emanating from Daylight! Enough fricking bass already! How this can be in the same universe of what I heard last night from the likes of Gregg Rolie (keyboards), Michael Shrieve and Michael Carabello (drums/percussion) and Benny Rietveld (bass), I need to spend some time and figure out.
I’m not holding my breath.“
Got the Bird!
Travelled to beautiful Cave Creek Canyon past Portal in the Chiricahua Mountains in SE Arizona to try to find a Slate-throated Redstart, seen only seven other times in the U.S., and early yesterday morning, got the bird, spotted by a fellow birder! #648 on my ABA Life List. This bird was constantly moving all around, almost frenetic, and truly elusive; I am using the Google Images photo of the bird that shows how he was often ‘displaying’ his tail feathers:
Derby Day!
Of all the days of the year, no doubt my favorite throughout my life has been the day of the Running of the Roses. It’s Springtime, and things are budding and getting green and the birds are migrating in full breeding plumage, with most singing up a storm as they head north. And on this day, it’s the best young horses in the world racing in one of the most popular sports events in the country.
For me, it just doesn’t get any better than this. While I have fond memories of being in the infield during past Derby Days, it really is just as much fun hanging around the house tracking down warblers, and then handicapping a winner before the race begins late in the afternoon.
Today, I picked the winner, Orb! And I can prove it! My sister, who is well aware that her brother used to be into race racing big time, texted me to see if I had picked a winner. Here’s the text snapshot:
There was a time when I thought I can actually make money handicapping horses; when I lived in San Marino, California, I was ten minutes away from one of the best tracks in the country, Santa Anita. I would work every Saturday morning, then head out to the track mid-afternoon and try to catch the feature race, which was often a Grade I or Stakes race. It was high-end horse-racing, and I was into it.
But thank God I came to realize that unless you live at the track, and have access to all the inside scoop around the stables and during the early morning workouts, you were at a major disadvantage. And I also concluded just how much ‘luck’ played into the way a race unfolded. You can get sucked into thinking you can figure it out, with all the Internet access now to databases and charts and previous race videos, ad infinitum (remember when it was just The Daily Racing Form?), but at the end of the day, it’s a crapshoot.
But I still feel pretty good when I pick a winner!
Warbler Jackpot!
Very lucky to be in Milwaukee in the middle of a warm spell, which pushed huge waves of migrants northward in the past couple of days. 14 species of warblers around the house today, and 3 were new yard birds: Orange-crowned, Blue-winged and increasingly rare Cerulean! (Photos from Google Images)
Eggs, now nestlings - two little Anna’s Hummingbirds, in the front yard!
Top Ten on Idol
A year ago last night I was staying at a hotel in Beverly Hills and when I was in the lobby I saw American Idol contestants milling around, checking in (and out). Coming out of the elevator, all of a sudden was face to face with Phillip Phillips and Heejun Han and asked them point blank in they made it through to the Top Ten (the show was airing in an hour or so) - they said they weren’t supposed to say anything but indicated that ‘yes’ they did. Last night’s show brought me back. I admit it, I really like watching Idol. I have seen a total of 30 minutes of The Voice, X Factor and America’s Got Talent in the past year, no interest whatsoever. Idol? Different story. They have cracked the code for the winners to become industry home runs. This year the girls are terrific, don’t you think?
But I thought it was "I can't get no girl reaction"!
For years, I have made a concerted effort to protect against hearing loss; as an avid birder, hearing all the frequencies of their songs is really important. We wear ear plugs when we fly, during any concerts, and even use them during the ‘previews’ before a movie at a theater. And I rarely use headphones or earbuds to listen to music. So far, so good: according to the very cool app Mosquito, I still have the hearing of a 15 year old. If only everything else worked so well!
But I gotta admit: I just started listening to my Spotify playlists with earbuds while on run/walks, and man can I hear the lyrics of the songs so much more clearly. Something about maintaining focus on just the song? I don’t know.
But I do know now, after 40 years of having it wrong, that in the Stones song 'Satisfaction’, the lyrics are 'I can’t get no girlie action’!
Hmmm..I wonder how many more lyrics I’ve got wrong? Ha!
When I was in the 10th grade - way, way back in time, like decades - I knew a guy, Robert Fulton, who one afternoon tried to teach me the difference between Basic and Fortran codes. Ha! I still have no idea how to code anything. But I’ve been smart enough to have figured out that people who code are precious cargo, and true code ninjas, a name I bestow upon them with much reverence - the people at the top of this game - are true rock stars. The creme a la creme are hard to find in the Midwest: there are people who code, and there are ninjas. But in California, and in Ivy League dorm rooms, ninjas are everywhere, and they start companies like Microsoft, Facebook, Dropbox, and most recently, SnapChat. This video was posted yesterday, and it has already 2 million views. Good God. I look back at all the classes I took at a very good university and shake my head at how unimportant most of them were in the context of optimal teaching in terms of bringing home a lot of bacon, or changing the world, or both.