Fading Fall...

Bright sunny day yesterday (Wednesday), but a touch of chilly and breezy.  Not warm "Indian Summer", like it looks.  But a nice day all the same.  This is from a lunch time excursion at St. Ellen Mine Park.

And, for giggles, here's a posting from 2 years ago, the same area.  I like the old ones better...

Waiting for the drawbridge, Crossing the Illinois River into Hardin, IL

Last image from last Saturday's excursion.  More of a snapshot, I suppose.  Headed across the Illinois River at Hardin, we had to wait for an upstream barge to pass the drawbridge.  Kind of hard to see, the raised part is about 1/4 mile ahead of us.

Calhoun County Panorama

Another from last weekend's excursion.  This is just a few yards from Saturday's post.   Larger version and location here.

Interesting, when I looked up the location, there's no lake on the satellite photos.  Neither Google-Maps nor Google-Earth.  That's a lot of water to not be there....

Fall Colors #41,937

Taken during yesterday's excursion.  This was at Pere Marquette State Park.  Pretty colors!

Saturday Drive, Calhoun County, IL

Beautiful Saturday today, we decided to take a drive and see some fall colors.  A really nice excursion: up the Great River Road from Alton to Grafton, and on up to Pere Marquette State Park.  Continuing north past I-72 to Jacksonville.  Then south along Rt.267 south to Godfrey.    And then home.  The whole loop was just over 200 miles.

This image is just a bit north of Pere Marquette, and just a bit off Rt. 100.  Larger version and "exact"location at Panoramio.

Sunset, MSP Airport

I was travelling last week: STL to ORD to MSP to STL...  Busy, busy.  No time for photos, except for at the airport.  This plane was at the gate next to my departure for home.  From the humble iPhone.

Genius #41,929

I have  alove/hate relationship with the genius function in Apple's iPod.  Right now we're leaning towards the "Love" side.  On my commute home last night, the playlist I was listening to ran out.  For simplicity, and as a test, I decided to just do a genius play list off the last song playing.  A test in that it was a less known song that I only recently purchased.  Sometimes Genuis chokes on that.

Anyway, it did create a playlist, and a really good one...  So I thought I'd share:

No Way Out – Firefall (seed song)

It Doesn’t Matter - Firefall

Visions - Eagles

Boulder Skies – Pure Prairie League

The Treasure – Stephen Stills And Manassas

Two Cents Worth - Kansas

Love me Tonight – Head East

Bound And Determined – Marshall Tucker Band

Go And Say Goodbye - Poco

Angel #9 – Pure Prairie League

Ukiah – Doobie Brothers

Special Care – Buffalo Springfield

Sold On You - Firefall

Border Town – Souther HillmanFuray

Prisoner In Disguise – Souther Hillman Furay

Widowmaker – Poco

Spaceship Orion – Ozark Mountain Daredevils

Keeps Me From All Wrong – Marshall Tucker Band

Pursuit On 53^rd Street – Doobie Brothers

Find Out In Time – Poco

Rain In Spain – Sea Level

Keep Prayin’ – Outlaws

Song In The Breeze – Outlaws

Mexico – Souther Hillman Furay

Love Me Somebody – Bad Company

Granted it's not perfect, but the only real "miss" (IMHO) is "Rain In Spain".  Which is a fine song, but not a good fit for this playlist. 

The image here is the album covers from the bands that have 3 songs in the list (Top Row), or 2 songs (bottom row).  That represents just over 2/3 of the playlist.

Abstract #41905

Field in the palouse, after harvest.  Taken ~2 weeks ago on take-off from the Pullman, WA, airport.  Effects in PSE.

larger version here:

Sunset, Pullman, WA

Another from last week's business trip to Pullman.  Pretty stunning sunset, captured w/ my humble iPhone.  As always, the best camera is the one you have with you!

Pop Music - October 1974

Wordle from lyrics of You Ain't Seen Nothin Yet

October, 1974...  Racial strife in Boston, IRA Bombings in Guildford England. Unrest and turmoil

Looking at American Top 40 charts for October, 1974... 40 years ago this month: What songs made their Top 40 debut? What was new and trending?

Well, there were 27 songs entering the Top 40 during September (4 weeks).  And three (3) eventual #1s!  Here they are, ranked by eventual peak:

• I Can Help  - Billy Swan - #1
• You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet  - Bachman-Turner Overdrive - #1
• Whatever Gets You Thru The Night  - John Lennon - #1
• Do It ('Til You're Satisfied)  - B.T. Express - #2
• When Will I See You Again  - Three Degrees - #2
• My Melody Of Love  - Bobby Vinton - #3
• Back Home Again  - John Denver - #5
• Longfellow Serenade  - Neil Diamond - #5
• Everlasting Love  - Little Carl Carlton - #6
• Carefree Highway  - Gordon Lightfoot - #10
• The Need To Be  - Jim Weatherly - #11
• Wishing You Were Here  - Chicago - #11
• I've Got The Music In Me  - Kiki Dee - #12
• Love Don't Love Nobody  - Spinners - #15
• Rockin' Soul  - Hues Corporation - #18
• Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)  - Raspberries - #18
• Give It To The People  - Righteous Brothers - #20
• So You Are A Star  - Hudson Brothers - #21
• People Gotta Move  - Gino Vannelli - #22
• Honey, Honey  - ABBA - #27
• Distant Lover  - Marvin Gaye - #28
• Straight Shootin' Woman  - Steppenwolf - #29
• Papa Don't Take No Mess  - James Brown - #31
• Kings Of The Party  - Brownsville Station - #31
• Devotion  - Earth, Wind & Fire - #33
• Second Avenue  - Art Garfunkel - #34
• Higher Plane  - Kool & The Gang - #37

I was actually able to find 20 of these 27 songs on Spotify.  And added to a playlist covering all of 1974.  It includes 228 of the 251 songs which entered the Top 40 in the entirety of 1974. I'm pretty impressed that they have over 90% of these songs...
Check it out: http://open.spotify.com/user/lsqrd42/playlist/23G0cY9o6mflTaGwievQ9z

Windmills On The Palouse

Along Rt. 195, just a bit north of Steptoe Butte, the windmills are taking over.  I suppose it makes sense through here, it's a rather windy area, solidly agricultural.  Somewhere around HERE.  Maybe not so good for the bats and birds, though...

Favorite Beatles Album?

The website Allmusic did a poll recently, asking folk to vote on their favorite Baetles album.  Over 1500 people (including me) responded:

1. Revolver                            26.6%
2. The White Album             17.3%
3. Rubber Soul                      16.6%
4. Abbey Road                      14.2%
5. Sgt. Peppers LHCB           10.4%
6. Magical Mystery Tour    4.4%
7. A Hard Days Night            3.6%
8. Help                                     2.5%
9. Beatles For Sale                2.1%
10. Please Please Me            1.4%
11. With The Beatles              0.6%
12. Yellow Submarine            0.1%
13. Let It Be                             0.1%

I largely agree with this, I did vote Revolver #1.  I'd probably bump "The White Album"down 2 (to #4), and maybe bring "Let It Be" up a few notches...

The Rolling Stone Magazine list of Top 500 Albums of all time ranked the top 5 thusly:

1. Sgt. Pepper (#1 overall)
2. Revolver (#3 overall)
3. Rubber Soul (#5 overall)
4. The White Album (#10 overall)
5. Abbey Road (#14 overall)

What's YOUR favorite Beatles album?

Looking At Myself...

Self portrait, sitting in a hotel room in Pullman, WA.  Using iPhone's timer.  Surprisingly "noisy" photo, cleaned up a bit  in PSE.  Of course, you'd think I'd've taken the time to move that lamp behind the chair, I know better than to have steel rods popping out of the top of my head!

Between the Rivers

Calhoun County, between the Illinois (left of image) and Mississippi (right of image) Rivers.  The island on the bottom left is "Hurricane Island". Loking south towards Pere Marquette State Park, which is at the top left.  It's about 20 miles from Hurrican Island to Pere Marquette.

Taken on the return flight from my trip to Pullman Washington.  Larger version of the photo is HERE.

Pausing On the Palouse

Just home from one of my periodic pilgramages to palaver on the palouse...  And feeling a bit alliterative.
I was driving from Spokane to Pullman, and stopped in Colfax long enough to check some emails.  And snap a quickie:

Faded

When we first moved to St. Louis area, back at the end of the 80's, St. Louis Lambert Airport was a hopping place.  And it was dominated by TWA.  I seem to remember hearing that TWA had 85% of the traffic through STL. So, when TWA "merged"with American Airlines back in 2001, well, the writing was on the wall.  American already had two major mid-west hubs, in Chicago and Dallas.  They would not keep a third.  Consequently, traffic at Lambert fell from 30.5 Million passengers in 2000 to 12.7 Million in 2009.  Not quite a 60% decline.

As a traveller, it used to be easy to get from St. Louis to any major US city.  And the airport was always (anoyingly) crowded.  Now? Planto change planes in a hub city.  And large swaths of the airport are simply closed off.  It is kind of sad.....

After The Reaping...

 

A true sign of autumn, they harvested the corn field by our office this week.  The machines are quick...  and thorough.  I suppose it is a good thing that no one around here relies on gleaning to survive.

No foddershocks here!

October 1974

Continuing the series, (Jan, Feb, Mar ,Apr, June, July, Aug, Sep):

October 1974... 40 years ago this month.  The NFL Season was in full swing, as the Pittsburgh Steelers started a winning streak that turned a 1-1-1 start into 6-1-1.  On their way to a 10-3-1 season, and the first of their Super Bowl wins. 

Meanwhile....  What was happening in music?

Albums released in August1974 include:

• Ozark Mountain Daredevils - It'll Shine When It Shines
• Dan Fogelberg - Souvenirs
• Tom Waitts - The Heart Of Saturday Night  (#339 on the Rolling Stone Top 500 Albums)
• Bob Marley - Natty Dread (#182 on the Rolling Stone Top 500 Albums)
• Rolling Stones - It's Only Rock And Roll
• Jethro Tull - War Child

As for singles, 3 songs topped the charts in (the 4 weeks) of October 1974:

• I Honestly Love You - Olivia Newton John (10/5/74 & 10/12/74)
• Nothing From Nothing - Billy Preston (10/19/74)
• Then Came You Dionne Warwick (10/26/74)

A few really good songs made their Top 40 chart debuts, but no #1's.  Notables (IMHO) include:

• Overnight Sensation (Hit Record) - Raspberries (peaked at #18)
• Carefree Highway - Gordon Lightfoot (peaked at #10)
• I've Got The Music In Me - Kiki Dee (peaked at #12)