Guitarist Andy Timmons: "Deliver Us"

Somebody dropped by the blog and left a trail leading to an Andy Timmons performance video that I like even better than "Electric Gypsy" ... but I'd still like a quality version of "Beautiful, Strange."

The Grip Weeds- Salad Days Music Video

This group attains a spectacular 1960s-70s vibe with their music.

The group reminds me of the Who crossed with the Beatles.

Great guitar music: Hectic Watermelon with "Bionic Hillbilly"

I remember seeing that the Travis Larson Band appeared with this group. I was reminded of that when I ran across their cover of the Dixie Dregs' "Cruise Control" (great cover, by the way). Then I started looking at what else they had at YouTube. Some great stuff.

"Cold Hands, Warm Heart" by Brendan Benson

This is my favorite tune (so far) by Brendan Benson.

Nice use of simple line drawings to stylize the video. Reminds me of my old stick figure cartoon "Dr. Death" a bit.

New music at last from Michael Lee Firkins

clipped from www.magnacarta.net

I've been a big fan of Michael Lee Firkins' guitar playing ever since his Shrapnel Records debut. Several weeks ago I read an old interview with Firkins where he said he wasn't interested in performing instrumental music any longer.

That's about the last thing I wanted to hear from him, since I listen to instrumental guitar music a whole bunch and Firkins fits comfortably in my top five favorites for the last 15 years or so.

So, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Firkins has a new (and mostly instrumental) recording coming out on the Magna Carta label--the same one responsible for the Steve Morse "Major Impacts" disks.

Drop by and have a listen to some incredible chops and tasty tone. Better yet, buy it.

Dancing panda commercial: Snickers

I don't like the Snickers candy bar so much, but this is one of the greatest commercials of all time.

Hughie Thomasson dead at 55

New York, NY (CNS) - Hughie Thomasson, the most influential member of the Southern rock band, "The Outlaws," has died of a heart attack. Known for his signature voice and Fender Stratocaster guitar sound, Thomasson also wrote most of the songs for the band including their three biggest hits, "Hurry Sundown", "There Goes Another Love Song," and "Green Grass and High Tides."

According to his family, Thomasson, 55, passed away late Sunday from a heart attack during a nap at his Brooksville, Fla., home.

(AHN)

The Outlaws were one of my favorite bands from days of yore. I've had the instrumental tune "Waterhole" in my mp3 player this summer. The jams of the Southern boogie bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Outlaws and the Atlanta Rhythm Section (no kidding--check out "Angel" or "Another Man's Woman" sometime) laid the foundation for the deep appreciation for instrumental guitar music starting with the Dixie Dregs around 1980 or so.

Here's a video with recent tour footage with a new Outlaws tune as the soundtrack.

Hughie sounds pretty good. He'll be missed.

Skippy the Bush Kangaroo

No, not the remake! The original version!

"Skippy the Bush Kangaroo" was absolutely hilarious. It was like "Flipper" with a kangaroo substituted for the dolphin, except "Skippy" was Australian.

Though some of the comedy was achieved with the pioneering use of fake animal forelimbs--a couple of fur-covered sticks took care of quite a few tasks that might have taxed Skippy's manual dexterity or willingness to perform on command--most of the absurdity came from the plot.

Take the Jerry King character, for example. Jerry pilots the helicopter at the ranger station at Waratah National Park, where the vast majority of Skippy's adventures take place. Jerry probably crashes his helicopter a dozen times, but still seems to have no trouble retaining his pilot's license.

Or who can forget the episode the pitted the Hammond children against a jewel thief while riding a parade float through downtown Sydney? Truly a pinnacle in the art of staging a cheesy fight scene.

Some diabolical use of the theme song compounded the effect. One episode ended with a church wedding--and that episode ended with a shot of the church exterior as a church organ played the "Skippy" riff. Shameless!

The only downside is that some of the scenes probably bordered on animal cruelty (the show is from the 1960s, when there was less concern in the movie and television industry over such issues). It seems certain that off-screen assistants "helped" Skippy jump into the car or launch through the air to tackle an escaping bad-guy. Even then, it's hard not to laugh at the absurdity of what you're seeing.

Fleming & John

Fleming & John (Fleming McWilliams and John Mark Painter) are probably best known for a mildly popular AOR hit called "Ugly Girl," though they also have some popularity coming because of their odd matching of music and lyric (as with "Winter Wonderland" to the tune of "Misty Mountain Hop" and "I Got You Babe" to the tune of "Black Dog").

The biggest problem with this talented husband-wife duo is the fact that they release far too little of their own music in recorded format. I'm delighted to post F&J's MySpace store, featuring (as of this add) two new--at least to me--Fleming and John tunes.



As for the sound, I was a bit disappointed at all the noise on "The Way We Are." I like a stripped-down sound considerably more. Over the Rhine's "Drunkard's Prayer," for example, was a delight.

Guitarist Eric Johnson: House of Zen

EJ accompanied by drummer Bill Maddox (from way back with the Electromagnets) and Chris Maresh.
Yeah, there's a definite sound problem near the end.

Guitarist Travis Larson: "ADD"

Not to slight the rest of the band with the title--just trying to stick to the established form.

Part of the appeal of this band for me is the similarity to the Steve Morse Band.

The DVD is a good value, speaking from experience.

Guitarist Andy Timmons: "Electric Gypsy"

I'd have preferred a version of "Beautiful, Strange" but "Electric Gypsy" is far and away the best quality video of Timmons on YouTube.
It's a good tune, and the playing is great.

Guitarist John Petrucci: "Glasgow Kiss"

This is my favorite cut from John Petrucci's solo recording "Suspended Animation." Dave LaRue's bass playing is a bit more out front in this mix, which is welcome.



Petrucci is the guitarist for Dream Theater.

Guitarist Daryl Stuermer

Groove-approved guitar instrumental. "Urban Island" by alternate Genesis guitarist Daryl Stuermer.



Impressive. Most impressive.

It's not easy changing the world ...

My little project aimed at helping correct bogus quotations has bogged down.

The North Texas Skeptics keep right on using a bogus quotation attributed to James Watt. I've sent information showing the shady origins of the quotation. I've received replies from a representative, I've tried to answer the questions--but no luck.

Curt Mobley is slightly less to blame than the North Texas Skeptics. Mobley looked into the quotation and agreed that it wasn't legit ... and hasn't removed the quotation from his site after more than 30 days.
Busy, busy, busy! No time for truth right now!

For a second time I'll laud Raptor Educational Foundation. They took down the quotation even before verifying that it was false, based simply on the degree of doubt.

Bogus (the part in red very probably wasn't stated by Watt):

My responsibility is to follow the Scriptures which call upon us to occupy the land until Jesus returns. We don't have to protect the environment, the Second Coming is at hand.
James Watt, Secretary of the Interior for Ronald Reagan
Quoted in the Washington Post, May 24, 1981

And speaking of bogus quotations, atheist Jonathan Miller didn't pay his research team enough, judging from the results they produced for him in his "Atheism: A Rough History of Disbelief" series. Research there is progressing well.

Testing Clipmarks

Just wanted to see how much (or how little) of the chosen image turns up when posting.

clipped from www1.dfrc.nasa.gov

Starman: Invaders From Space - Part 1 of 8

Olbermann: Kyl Worst Person in the World

What's with all the YouTube videos?

Uh ... I've been posting videos at my other blogs, Sublime Bloviations and Bad Blogs' Blood--but the YouTube system sends them here instead of there. Instead of going through the trouble of fixing it (which would only fix things partially anyway), I just come here, lift the code for the video and paste it back in where I want it.

Sorry if this produces any confusion (granting that this blog is even safer from the threat of visitation than my other ones!).

Is America a christian nation?

Al Gore Interview With Dianne Sawyer

No fox squirrels yet

So I thought I'd post a few more pictures of 1:8 scale trains.




You've got to love the detail on this caboose.

These raised sections of track are mainly used to allow engineers to fire up steam locomotives. It takes almost an hour to stoke the fire and build steam pressure. There's a roof over this area, as indicated by the shadow.
A rail car for raw materials won't ordinarily be used for a public run. On this particular day, a local club was preparing to host an international meet.

Trains

A park near my house has a narrow-gauge railway setup.

Check out the trains.


That's a full-size train track in the background on the other side of the chain-link fence.


The "diesel" locomotive runs off a lawnmower motor. This, however, is a live steam engine. The owner had to build a fire inside the boiler compartment and let steam pressure build for almost an hour before moving it onto the rail system at the park. Note the coal car just behind the locomotive. Sure enough, there's a pile of coal in the car and he'll stoke the fire occasionally as he takes the train around the track, which is a circuit of a little over a mile.
The steam engine is a bit short on power. He'll add two cars to the back on which to carry passengers. The most powerful train at the park can pull up to 10 cars.


These locomotives didn't come out that day. I caught them in their storage locker. The models are built pretty closely to scale in terms of power, and incredible attention is paid to accuracy in terms of the powertrain and braking systems.

Photography project

I've spotted just three fox squirrels in my home state of Florida. The Southernmost variety is an impressively large squirrel, about twice the size of a common gray squirrel and with a dark mask-like pattern on its face.

They look a bit like big ferrets, and they strongly prefer pine trees, from what I've read.

I want to get some photos.

I note that Wall Springs lists fox squirrels as one of the wildlife varieties seen at the park. I admit looking in the pine trees for nests even before reading that blurb at the park Web site.

Wall Springs

Paid a visit to Wall Springs.

The park has opened up after a very long preparation period. I saw evidence that the people trails were laid on top of causeways built up with concrete scraps (old sidewalks and whatnot).


This is a pair of fish (imported Nile perch, I think, typically used in Florida to control algae growth), feeding in the mouth of one of the springs.

Note, June 13, 2007: I think I was way off with the Nile perch guess. A variety of triploid carp is actually the variety used for plant control, and tilapia may also occur in an environment like this--but without a much better look at the Wall Springs specimens I won't hazard another guess.


This is an older photo of the main spring. Water spills from the main spring into a freshwater lagoon, and then through a spillway into a mangrove estuary. The fish in the previous photo are in the hole represented by the dark spot to the right (the one that looks a bit like a woman's head in profile).


This is a cormorant resting on the wall between the main spring and the freshwater lagoon.


This is a view of the lagoon from the south. In the lagoon I spotted mullet, needlefish, and a juvenile snook in addition to what I presume are Nile perch.



This is the lagoon from the western end, above the spillway (which runs under a sidewalk). The lagoon is very shallow, averaging maybe 2-3 feet deep. In the foreground a deeper hole is visible just in front of the spillway. The hole may itself be another spring; the outflow is clearly greater from the lagoon than from the main spring. I couldn't detect any rippling of water over this hole that would indicate a strong outflow, however.



This is the outflow from the lagoon. The pic came out better than I hoped. The turbulence is readily apparent from the outrushing fresh water.


A cormorant fishing in the lagoon (might be the same one in the other pic).


This is a red mangrove. This specimen is in the midst of an estuary south of the lagoon at Wall Springs.



Here's a little blue heron, if I'm not mistaken, foraging along the north bank of the lagoon.



Cropped & enlarged.



This is a wood stork. I took this photo from an elevated observation deck. The stork was soaring at about 200-300 feet. There was also an osprey in the area, but the batteries in my camera had gone critically low by this time.



Cropped & enlarged.

Here's the park homepage.
I note with some satisfaction that I used the same angle for my photo of the observation tower as did the photographer who supplied the photos for the official page.

Nice aerial photo at the homepage. The freshwater area is near the top at the center. The spring is flanked, in other words, by saltwater shallows lined with mangroves.