Rainy Day, Dream Away

Just a little slice of life, on a rainy Halloween eve.. 

Thatks to Jimi Hendrix for the post title

Rainy day, rain all day
Ain't no use in gettin' uptight
Just let it groove it's own way
Let it drain your worries away yeah
Lay back and groove on a rainy day hey

Happy Birthday, Timothy B.!

Timothy B. Schmidt turns 66 today! 

Best known as bass player for the Eagle, although he didn't join the band until after they did Hotel California.  And while his most popular song was as an Eagle (I Can't Tell You Why), my favorites are fron the 11 albums he did with Poco between 1970 and 1977...

My Top 3 favorite Timothy B.Schmidt authored song:

• Bitter Blue
• Starin' At The Sky
• Just Like Me

I (of course) have a playlist of T.B. Schmidt authored (or co-authored) songs.  Guess what I've been listening to?

On The Run

Taken several years ago, during a trip to Disney World...

Last night my younger daughter posted the following to Facebook:

 

I have to change my profile to a giraffe. I tried to answer a riddle and got it wrong . Try the great giraffe challenge! The deal is I give you a riddle. You get it right you get to keep your profile pic. You get it wrong and you change your profile pic to a Giraffe for the next 3 days. MESSAGE ME ONLY SO YOU DONT GIVE OUT THE ANSWER.Here is the riddle: 3:00 am, the doorbell rings and you wake up. Unexpected visitors, It's your parents and they are there for breakfast. You have strawberry jam, honey, wine, bread and cheese. What is the first thing you open?Remember... message me only. If you get it right I'll post your name here. If you get it wrong change your profile picture....

Well, I'll contend I provided the optimum answer, but I'll concede the argument (a little).  Or maybe not, as this article agrees with me...  No profile picture, but a blog post (which will be posted to my timeline).

Sorry kiddo, that'll have to do!

Autumn Leaves

Finally getting some fall colors.  This is one of the maple trees in my front yard.  Taken from underneath the canopy, with the sun back-lighting...

Another image from the same session, a little less zoomed-in.  Notice there's still a lot of green...

All That Jazz

I've been listening to (mostly) Jazz the past couple of days.  iPod on random, everything from Marcus Miller to Thelonious Monk.  From Mose Allison to Dave Brubeck to John Coltrane...  Old, new and in between.

All good stuff.

Meanwhile, the wallpaper on my work computer is based on the image below.  Which seemed somewhat "Jazzy" to me.  What ever that means...

This was taken a couple of years ago, during late autumn. Playing with intentional camera movement..

10 Years Ago Today (almost)...

This was taken 10/19/2003.  10 years (and 3 days) ago.  McAdams Peak, above Pere Marquette Lodge in Grafton.IL.  That's the Illinois River in the distance.  Maybe 5 miles above the confluence with the Mississippi River...  Ecaxt location and larger (and un-effected) version HERE.

I know this one has been posted several times in several places.  Call it a classic??

I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.

It's harvest time around here.  I passed this scen on my drive home.  (Relax, this was taken at a red light).  Not far from my office.

Title is from John 4:35 (NIV)

Amazing Grace....

We had our granddaughter visiting for a couple of days, and I tried to take a coupleof photos.  It's never easy, as she's a very active 2.5 y/o kid, and I'm not all that comfortable with people pictures.  Lots of blurry images later, he's a couple taht aren't TOO bad.  Except for the sloppy nose...

 

 

Playing around with her Uncle's football, at Miner Park in Glen Carbon....

Still Waiting On Fall Colors

Not a lot of Autumn happing in the midwest....  yet.  This is from Thursday's lunch time, at Pleasant Ridge Park.  I noticed this lonely leaf hestled in the wedge of of tree branch....  You know, like an upside down armpit???? 

Never mind.

Mountains Speak And Wise Men Listen

"Society speaks and all men listen; Mountains speak and wise men listen" - John Muir

An oldie, from back in the '70's.  Scanned from a slide, from a backpacking trip during my High School days.  I know I've posted it a few times over the years, but I do like it.   Not the best photo technically, but it catches a nice moment in time.  And hey, I was just a teenager!  Sure whish I could step around that pine branch, though....

This is North Fook Mountain, overlooking Seneca Rocks in W.Va.

Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame 2014 Nominees

Nominees for the 2014 class have been announced. Here they are, with my thoughts, with the nominees ranked based on representation in my music collection

• Linda Ronstadt (89 songs). I’ve seen in concert twice. “one of the most popular interpretive singers of the '70s, earning a string of platinum-selling albums and Top 40 singles… followed by a lengthy career bridging styles from country to soul to standards.”
• Yes (53 songs). I’ve seen in concert twice. “The definitive English progressive rock band, purveyors of virtuoso playing and vast musical tapestries topped off with gorgeous melodies.”
•  
• Deep Purple (31 songs). (repeat nominee). “Progressive rock giants who made hard rock a fine art, and unleashed some of the greatest guitar riffs known to the world”
• Peter Gabriel (30 songs). “Theatrical leader of '70s-era Genesis and a bona fide pop star by the '80s despite his experimental, often exotic, material”
• Hall And Oates (22 songs). “Duo whose smooth, catchy take on Philly soul brought them enormous commercial success …. yet little critical success.”
• Nirvana (12 songs). “After the band's second album, 1991's Nevermind, nothing was ever quite the same”
• Cat Stevens (12 songs). (repeat nominee) “Acoustic-based hitmaker who became one of the most popular singer/songwriters of the '70s thanks to his invariably catchy material.”
• Kiss (6 songs). (repeat nominee) “Garish glam rockers with anthems galore, who became rock legends with a reputation for incredible live shows… Most kids were infatuated with the look of Kiss, not their music.”
• · The Zombies (3) “Aside from the Beatles and perhaps the Beach Boys, no mid-'60s rock group wrote melodies as gorgeous as those of the Zombies… To this day, they're known primarily for their three big hit singles.”
• Chic (2) (repeat nominee) “There can be little argument that Chic was disco's greatest band”
• Link Wray (1) “Link Wray may never get into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, but his contribution to the language of rockin' guitar would still be a major one”
• Paul Butterfield Blues Band (1) (repeat nominee) “Iconoclastic Chicago harmonica player whose storming blues band produced seminal work that drew on rock, psychedelia, jazz, and Indian classical.”
• The Replacements (0) “Willfully messy and driven toward self-sabotage, they became one of the best and most influential rock & roll bands of the '80s.”
• LL Cool J (0) (repeat nominee) “Queens rapper who fused beatbox minimalism with defiant lyrics, pushing the music into new terrain and becoming a superstar in the process.”
• N.W.A. (0) (repeat nominee) “Incendiary Compton rappers who introduced the world to gangsta rap”
• The Meters (0) (repeat nominee) “The Meters defined New Orleans funk, not only on their own recordings, but also as the backing band for numerous artists”

 IMHO, Nirvana is a slam dunk, no brainer, certain choice. I’d like to see Yes and Linda Ronstadt, but doubt either will have the support of the . Peter Gabriel has a good shot, unless he’s held back because of Genesis’s induction (2010). I’m not a big Kiss fan, but they probably belong. Remember the criteria is (theoretically): “the influence and significance of the artists’contributions to the development and perpetuation of rock and roll.”…  Once again, there’s a fan vote, let your voice be heard!  But, the key is the opinion of “an international voting body of more than 600 artists, historians and members of the music industry”.

Yes, We Have Control Switches!

Here's a real rarity, a photo of me! I promise not todoit again soon.  Taken during last week's business trip to Washington State for my company's annual sales meeting.  During one of the sessions, I received an email from one of my coworkers back here in the mid-west asking if we now had control switches.  Rather than responding with words, I sent a camera phone picture of me holding one of the new test switches.... 

I know, I know.  But I thought it was amusing at the moment...

Clouds At Sunset, Moscow,ID

I try to notice sunsets as often as possible.  And regular readers will know that I try and capture them more frequently than I should.  This isn't a sunset per se, but clouds illuminated by the setting sun.  Looking south from the parking lot of the Moscow Idaho LaQuinta hotel, last week's home away from home.

Bonfire!

Back In The Flatlands (Again)

Just NE of MidAmerica Airport, on the way home from my week in Pullman.  Looking towards Lebanon (about 3.5miles off).  Larger version (and location) at Panoramio.

Above The Clouds

Somewhere around 40,000 ft, between Pullman Washington and Belleville, Illinois.  It's always nicer on the flight home.  And having the (rare) opportunity to ride the corporate jet makes it even more so.  No fuss, no lines, no TSA....  and door to door in well under 1/2 the time!  Gotta love it!

I just looked upthe GPS coordinates, this is somewhere over NE Wyoming

Grey Day On The Palouse

I'm just home from a week in Southeast Washington State.  This photo is from the window of a rental car, about .5 mile west of the Washington/Idaho border.  And about 0.5 miles east of one of my favorite Palouse photos...

Obviously a lot of post processing, I was trying for a vintage look.

Waiting For Some Colors...

Early October, and still waiting on some fall colrors.  But I looked back at last year's images, and it's pretty much the same:

This one was taken just over a year ago, 10/2/2012.  But wasn't posted previously.  Here's one from the same session, which I du\id post (but over a week after it was shot).  Looking back, I like this one more...

This was St. Ellen Mine Park, during a lunch time excursion.

It's not so long until the harvest comes... (Pt. 2)

 

Another photo from a recent lunch time.  These grain bins are about 1/2 mile from my office, not nearly as close as the recent corn photo....  It was a rather grey day, this would be SOOO much better with blue skies and a few puffy clouds.  But sometimes you have to take what you can get.  Maybe next time.