Street View

Randomness....
I decided to check out Street View and see all of the places I've lived...  almost 60 years, 9 locations.  And all of them still show up in street view!  Here's what I found:

#1 Charleston WV

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#2 Charleston, WV.

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#3 Pittsburgh, PA (Squirrel Hill)

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#4 Pittsburgh (O'Hara Twp)

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#5 Duke University (East Campus)

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#6 Duke University (Central Campus

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#7 Silver Spring MD

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#8-Silver Spring, MD

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#9 - Glen Carbon, IL

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These street view photos were between a few months old and 13 years, so there's no guarantee that all the dwellings are still there.  In fact, I know that the Central Campus apartment (#6) was torn down last fall....  But those buildings are all at least 30 years old, and pretty sure #3 was built in 1920!  It is interesting that they all look pretty much the same as when I lived there.  Maybe a coat of paint, or new siding, or needs paint...  but no dramatic changes.

Granted, most of the photos don't really show the residence so well, but that's how street view works.

Still, a fun (for me) walk down memory lane.

Trio

A trio of baby birds...  The nest is on top of one of the porch lights beside our front door, nestled between the brick wall and the top-piece.  This is a "blind" shot with my cell phoneheld above my head to see in the nest.

I originally thought these were baby Robbins, after doing some baby-bird googling.  But after further review, I've decided they're more likely House Finches.   Logic as follows:

There's a pair of house finches (male/female, presumably the parents) that have been hanging out in the nearby trees, raising a racket whenever anybody is on / near the front porch.  Yesterday they were more on less presenting themselves, acting more bold than normal..  I think they were trying to draw me away from the nest.  Here's the male:

Also, when I googled "house finch nestlings" I found several articles noting that house finches do not clean up the baby's poop, simply pushing it to the edge of the nest (as opposed to carrying it away).  That's certainly the case here, as the edges of the nest (and spilling to the ground nearby) is a mess.

Anyway, the top photo is from 4 days ago, which was 11 days after I first noticed the very new looking babies.  I saw one of the baby's fly from the nest yesterday, so I guess they're fledglings now.

The End Of And Era...

I was thinking today about places I've lived through the years, and remembered reading that Duke's Central Campus was going to be torn down.  But I couldn't remember when I read it, or when they were to come down.  So, a quick google shows the following, from today.duke.edu, from August 2019:

That's the building I lived in for my last 2 years of college, including the summer between.  Our unit was the top-right.  Kind of sad to see it gone, lots of good times there.

Central campus we university owned apartments.  They were built fin the early/mid 70's, intended for for graduate students or married students.  But by the end of the 70's some of the units were available for undergraduates.  I'm pretty sure most of the units in our block were undergraduates. 

It was a great location, isolated from the distractions of the dorms, but an easy walk to campus. 

Coming in....

Tis one's a few weeks old....   the holly bush right outside our window was buzzing with bees; pollen season!!

Red Bellied Woodpecker

 Red Bellied Woodpecker

This fellow's been feeding atthe suet cages for a few days.   Cool bird.  Seems a little mis-named, with that bold red head, and just a hit of color on his belly. He's quite a bit larger then the Downy Woodpecker who is also a regular...  see below

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Downy Woodpecker

Shoeless

Walking the bike trail recently, and I noticed this shoe off to the side, at the entrance to an overpass.
I wonder the story behind this single shoe, not exactly what one would wear on a hike....

Perhaps you can come up with a narrative? 

Happy Birthday, Stan Lynch!

Stan Lynch, born this day (5/21) is 1955.  Stan was drummer for Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers from 1976 through 1994, including the band's first 8 albums. 

So guess what I'm listening to today??


Happy Birthday Stan!

Tufted Titmouse Tasting an Orange

I've never put fruit out for the birds until a couple of days ago.  My sister-in-law mentioned it, and we had some past-prime clementines.  I haven't seen a lot of traffic yet, but the pulp is getting eaten.  This was the first bird I've actually seen eating.  I'm hoping to attract some more variety of birds....

This is "just" one of our regulars, a tufted titmouse.

I rather like this photo, though.  The background is the big oak up front,, and the little oak behind.  Nice blur with the the shallow depth of field.  I like the overall grey feel, except for the POP of orange.

Technical notes:
This was shot with my Fujifilm, X-T3 mirrorless, with the long zoom (200 mm, which is 300mm equivalent @35mm).  There's also a healthy crop, but not extreme.  It was pretty late (~6:30 pm) on an overcast, wet day, so the lighting was pretty flat.  I was shooting aperture priority, which I don't do often.  But trying to catch birds, I like not worrying about exposure.  ISO is all the way up at 1250, due to the lowish light.  Really pleased with the X-T3 in this regard there's not much noise.  I was shooting in "continuous" mode, this is from a burst of 5-6 shots.  Shutter speed is 1/110 sec, pretty slow for moving birds....

Happy Bithday Cher!

Cher, aka Cherilyn Sarkisian was born today (5/20) in 1946.

From her 1st Top 20 single in 1965 (a cover of Bob Dylan's "All I Really Want To Do") though 1998's #1 "Believe", Cher has been a force in pop music.  22 Top 40 singles during that time, 12 of those Top 10.  And four #1s.   Oh yeah, she had some success with Sonny and Cher, with 11 more Top 40 hits.  Six (6) of which made Top 10.  Sonny and Cher only hhad one #1, but that was the iconic "I Got You Babe".


I especially like the version of "Unchained Medley" from Sonny and Cher's 1965 debut album.  I picked up this album in a Goodwill in Durhan, NC back around 1980 or so.

1965   -   1973   -   1989

A Close Shave

If you've followed me for any length of time, you may have noticed that I struggle with Macro.  A  LOT.  But I've been working on it lately, and I'm feeling a little better.  Not sure it'll ever be my favorite form, but it has it's moments.

Anyway, over at 365project, they do a "Macro" challenge, and I've been trying to focus on it.  To that end, I've entered 2 of the 4 rounds this year.  It's a start.

The current round has the theme Morning defined as "Something you see in first thing in a Morning, or something that's Morning to you."  Above is what I came up with, I was pretty happy with it.  And it was picked as a Finalist, so that's kinda cool.

Notes on Technique:
As much as I love my Fujifilm X-T3, I don't have a good lens for macro with it.  I decided recently to dig out my old Nikon D3200,, and the 60mm Macro lens I had for it.  And, most importantly, the tripod.  That's probably my biggest failure as a photographer...  I don't like tripods.  I use a mono-pod some, but I just prefer to travel light.


Anyway, I set up the tripod, and a sheet of matboard as a backdrop.  And leave the D3200/macro lens with it, and ready to go.  Tripod, ISO=100, step down to get some depth of field....   and try to figure the whole composition thing on close up.

Here's some other examples:
Nuts
Down To The Wire
Argus
Samara

When you held my hand, and you wouldn't let go.....

So I woke up this morning with this little snip of music circling in my head.

It is the   1st line of the pre-chorus for the song "That's What Life Is All About", which kicks off the 1982 album "The Kids Are The Same" from Paul Collins' Beat.  Granted, I did listen to this album last week, but it is a strange snip to be stuck in my head.  But WAY better than the typical earwig.

Check it out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqr6ynhSd54

Line ups

Detail of a circuit board, something I dug up from the dusty depths of the basement...

ACC-115 : Stephen Speed / Per Hållberg

It's been a while (almost 6 months!?!) since I've posted a mock album cover here!  Shocking.

I guess I need to fill 'em in.  Anyway, here's the current round of the challenge, I did two entries.

Over at 365project, voting for Album Cover Challenge #115 is well underway.  I had 2 entries, one of which made finalist.  As a reminder, The challenge is to take a randomly generated band /artist name, and a randomly selected album name, and create an album cover.  Click on the link above if you want more details.

Anyway, here ya go:

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Stephen Speed - We're not lost, we're locationally challenged

This is the one that made finalist.  Not going to win, but that's not really the point.

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Here's my second entry, I think I might like it better:

Per Hållberg - so hard on my vision

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May 1970

Fifty years ago this month, what what happening on the music charts?

Well, during the 5 weeks of May 1970, there were 52 songs that spent time in the Top 40. Lots of great stuff.

Three (3) songs made the Top spot: The Jackson 5's "ABC" started at #1, for the 2nd of their 2 week run atop the charts.  then The Guess Who took over for 3 weeks, with "American Woman / No Sugar Tonight".  Ray Stevens closed out the month at the top, with "Everything is Beautiful".

Here's the top 10 songs of the month, ranked by average chart position over the 5 weeks:

• American Woman/No Sugar Tonight - The Guess Who - 1.5
• Let It Be - The Beatles - 5.0
• Vehicle - The Ides Of March - 5.4
• ABC Jackson 5 - 5.8
• Everything Is Beautiful - Ray Stevens - 7.0
• Turn Back The Hands Of Time - Tyrone Davis - 7.6
• Spirit In The Sky - Norman Greenbaum - 9.0
• Cecilia - Simon & Garfunkel  - 9.4
• Reflections Of My Life - The Marmalade - 11.2
• Love On A Two-Way Street - The Moments - 11.6

24 songs made their Top 40 debut, here they are (ranked by entering position):

• The Letter - Joe Cocker with Leon Russell & The Shelter People - 26
• My Baby Loves Lovin' - White Plains - 26
• Question - The Moody Blues - 29
• Up Around The Bend/Run Through The Jungle - Creedence Clearwater Revival - 30
• United We Stand - The Brotherhood Of Man - 30
• Daughter Of Darkness - Tom Jones - 31
• Soolaimón (African Trilogy II) - Neil Diamond - 33
• Brother Rapp (Part 1) - James Brown - 33
• Viva Tirado - Part I - El Chicano - 36
• The Long And Winding Road/For You Blue - The Beatles - 35
• Hitchin' A Ride - Vanity Fare - 36
• The Wonder Of You/Mama Liked The Roses - Elvis Presley - 36
• Reach Out And Touch (Somebody's Hand) - Diana Ross - 37
• Band Of Gold - Freda Payne - 37
• Puppet Man - The 5th Dimension - 38
• Hey Lawdy Mama - Steppenwolf - 38
• Ride Captain Ride - Blues Image - 38
• It's All In The Game - Four Tops - 38
• Let Me Go To Him - Dionne Warwick - 39
• Lay Down (Candles In The Rain) - Melanie with The Edwin Hawkins Singers - 39
• Come Saturday Morning - The Sandpipers - 40
• Oh Happy Day - Glen Campbell - 40
• Sugar Sugar/Cole, Cooke & Redding - Wilson Pickett - 40
• Love Land - Charles Wright And The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band - 40

Philadelphia Fleabane

From a social-distancing walk in the Nature Preserve at our nearby University (SIUE). This wildflower is pretty common around our area, but still still beautiful. The flowers are small maybe 1/4" to 3/4" across.

10 Albums Influence 7-of-10

Continuing to pop these in every couple of days, will get through all 10 sometime!!

So, over on the Book of Face, I recently did a challenge:  "Choose 10 albums that greatly influenced my taste in music.  post one album per day for 10 consecutive days.  No explanations, no reviews, just album covers."

Obviously, I had to do it.  But as hard as it was to pick 10 personally influential albums, it was harder yet to post with no explanations!!  Fortunately, I have no such restriction on my blog.  'Cause I make the rules!  So here we go, a reposting of the 10 albums I posted on Facebook, but now with a short explanation of each explain WHY I chose it as influential. And not exactly consecutive days, but t'll have to do!

Note:  these are presented in the same random order I used over there....

Day 7 of 10

Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - Dirt Silver and Gold - 1976

A three disc compilation from NGDB, covering the first 10 years of their material.  Can't really call it a greatest Hits album, but it's still a treasure trove of music, covering their Jug Band days through "Mr. Bojangles" and "Will The Circle Be Unbroken".  I expect that I only knew Mr Bojangles at the time that I bought tise (when it was current, 1976).

As to influence, this album really opened the doors for me to the world of bluegrass music.  It didn't hurt that I discovered backpacking about the same time I discovered this album, and significant time in my personal growth.  Blah blah blaaah....  The original release came with a (folded) poster of the album cover, which adorned my dorm room in college (and subsequent apartment).

But this is an album where I know every note of every song, one I still listen to today.  And one that opened new doors for me.

Like Clockwork

Detail of the mechanism inside my grandfather's pocket watch. Nothing fancy, but great sentimental value.

Just a little Westclox Bull's Eye, nothing fancy.  It only works sporadically, but not really reparable.

Argus

A close up of my grandfather's Argus C-3. Not to be confused with the Wishbone Ash album...

I've had this camera since the late 70's have never tried it out. All of the functions seem to work, thought I don't see well enough to judge if the rangefinder is accurate.... Every few years I vow to run a roll of (35mm) film though it, but I never get there. I don't have a light meter, I guess I could use the internal one on one of my other cameras.

10 Albums Influence 6-of-10

So, over on the Book of Face, I recently did a challenge:  "Choose 10 albums that greatly influenced my taste in music.  post one album per day for 10 consecutive days.  No explanations, no reviews, just album covers."

Obviously, I had to do it.  But as hard as it was to pick 10 personally influential albums, it was harder yet to post with no explanations!!  Fortunately, I have no such restriction on my blog.  'Cause I make the rules!  So here we go, a reposting of the 10 albums I posted on Facebook, but now with a short explanation of each explain WHY I chose it as influential. And not exactly consecutive days, but t'll have to do!

Note:  these are presented in the same random order I used over there....

Day 6 of 10

Miles Davis - Kind Of Blue -1959

I didn't really discover Jazz until college, and this was the first album I owned  A great album, very accessible,  I had this on a cassette, and never did own it on vinyl.  Obviously,  I  have it on CD these days.  As noted on wikipedia:  "Kind of Blue has been regarded by many critics as the greatest jazz record, Davis's masterpiece, and one of the best albums of all time. Its influence on music, including jazz, rock, and classical genres, has led writers to also deem it one of the most influential albums ever recorded. The album was one of fifty recordings chosen in 2002 by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry, and in 2003 it was ranked number 12 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. It was voted number 14 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums."

It is still one of my favorite Jazz albums, but get's tagged here as the one that really got me exposed to the genre.

One Subject, 30 Shots - Week 5

Sorry folks, I'm a few days late posting the last few days of April's One Subject, 30 Shots challenge.  No complaints must mean nobody noticed, at least (heavy sigh).

So, over at 365project, there's a new challenge going on for the month of April.  Specifically:  pick a subject, any subject, so long as it is something you will have access to every day during the month of April... and every day, think of a new and different way to take a picture of that subject.
I decided to do the oak tree(s) in my back yard.  It's close (with the whole "stay at home" thing), it is in transition (with spring)...  and I like trees.

We're in the home stretch now, only 4 days left.  Still hanging in there.  Anyway, the last 3 Sundays I've posted the previous week's entries, here's the fourth!

(click the title for the full size version)

27 of 30

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28 of 30

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29 of 30

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30 of 30

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This has been an interesting experience, and I rather like several of the photos.  A couple are "blah", but all in all, I;m happy.  And it was a fun experience, and successful in knocking me out of a photo-doldrums I'd been in for a while.  Over at 365project, the 30 shots received "Popular" designations 11 times  and Trending 2 times.  That's pretty much normal for "Popular", but probably 1/2 what I'd expect for "Trending".  That's life, I suppose.

 All of my 30-Shots images can be seen here.

Happy accident...

I've been playing around recently with macro, using my "old" Nikon D2300 DSLR.   I have a 60mm macro lens (originally bought for my Nikon D-70), and I don't have a macro lens (yet) for my Fujifilm X-T3.

Anyway, I feel that I'm making some headway with macro, but I'm still far from competent or confident.

So, that leads us to this:

It is a detail of my grandfather's Argus C3 rangefinder camera.  probably from the 50's or early 60's?

I had carefully composed this shot, and focused it (my macro lens is manual focus), and was trying to dial in the exposure.  And somehow* I managed to trigger a flash shot.  When I transferred everything to the computer, I actually liked this shot better than the carefully lighted / exposed images.  Something about the blown out highlights appeals to me. That said, there's a bit of post processing here, to bing in the edges, and tone down the color of the camera body, but not the numbers 5-6-7. 



* One deficiency with the D3200 (for me at least) is that the shutter speed and aperture are adjusted using the same thumbwheel on the camera back.  In manual mode, the wheel adjusts shutter speed, and you have to hold a button beside the shutter release while rotating the switch to adjust f-stop.  When the D3200 was my primary camera, I tended to shoot in either shutter or aperture priority rather than deal with it.  But for my macro dabbling, I wanted the control of manual.

10 Albums Influence 5-of-10

So, over on the Book of Face, I just did a challenge:  "Choose 10 albums that greatly influenced my taste in music.  post one album per day for 10 consecutive days.  No explanations, no reviews, just album covers."

Obviously, I had to do it.  But as hard as it was to pick 10 personally influential albums, it was harder yet to post with no explanations!!  Fortunately, I have no such restriction on my blog.  'Cause I make the rules!  So here we go, a reposting of the 10 albums I posted on Facebook, but now with a short explanation of each explain WHY I chose it as influential. And not exactly consecutive days, but hopefully close!

Note:  these are presented in the same random order I used over there....

Day 5 of 10

Lynyrd Skynyrd - Pronounced Leh nerd skin nerd - 1973


During the mid to late 70's, I was a huge Southern Rock fan.  And this was the album that kicked it off.  I think it was sometime in '74 when I picked up this album, because of hearing Free Bird on the radio.  Not too long after, a friend introduced me me CDB (Fire On The Mountain) and MTB (Searchin' For A Rainbow) and it was off to the races.  But Skynyrd was my favorite, through most of High School and into college. I think this was the first album that I wore out and had to replace.  Either this or Skynyrd's live album...

The liner notes for the album listed who played "lead guitar" on each song.  I would try and discern the differences in each player's sound/style...  pretty geeky.

10 Albums Influence 4-of-10

So, over on the Book of Face, I just did a challenge:  "Choose 10 albums that greatly influenced my taste in music.  post one album per day for 10 consecutive days.  No explanations, no reviews, just album covers."

Obviously, I had to do it.  But as hard as it was to pick 10 personally influential albums, it was harder yet to post with no explanations!!  Fortunately, I have no such restriction on my blog.  'Cause I make the rules!  So here we go, a reposting of the 10 albums I posted on Facebook, but now with a short explanation of each explain WHY I chose it as influential. And not exactly consequtive days, but hopefully close!

Note:  these are presented in the same random order I used over there....

Day 4 of 10

Joe Jackson - Look Sharp - 1979

Summer of 1979...  I had just finished my freshman year of college, and was home for the summer.  And it was a pretty dynamic time for new music.  The previous 12 months had seen debuts from band s like The Cars, The Police, Dire Straits,   Bands like Blondie, Elvis Costello, Talking Heads, Cheap Trick and Tom Petty were ascending.   Lots of good stuff, and my tastes were broadening from my high school days...  . And my brother slipped Joe Jackson into the mix.  Or maybe shoved.  And this quickly became one of my favorite albums, of that "new wave". 

Joe Jackson was one of my favorite artists throughout the 80's, and I picked up each of his first 8 alums pretty much when they were released.  I was able to see him twice in the decade (Merriwether Post Pavilion, in the DC suburbs).

40+ years later, still love this album.

10 Albums Influence 3-of-10

So, over on the Book of Face, I just did a challenge:  "Choose 10 albums that greatly influenced my taste in music.  post one album per day for 10 consecutive days.  No explanations, no reviews, just album covers."

Obviously, I had to do it.  But as hard as it was to pick 10 personally influential albums, it was harder yet to post with no explanations!!  Fortunately, I have no such restriction on my blog.  'Cause I make the rules!  So here we go, a reposting of the 10 albums I posted on Facebook, but now with a short explanation of each explain WHY I chose it as influential.

Note:  these are presented in the same random order I used over there....

Day 3 of 10

Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon -1973

I made the comment once that this album was not just good, it was "important".  And I still feel that way.  It was released inn the spring of 1973, when I was in 7th grade.  A I don't remember exactly when I got the album, but it wasn't too much later. And it blew me away.  The soundscape, the lyrics, the overall look and feel.  It really opened my eyes to a broader scope of music than I'd previously listened to. 

DSOTM spent 741 weeks on Billboard's album charts, from 1973 to 1988. Kind of impressive...

I'm not sure Sark Side was ever my most played record, but it has gotten regular play for +45 years.

A Place To Perch

Red Winged Blackbird hanging out on a piece of driftwood, at the edge of a pond....

Riverlands Migratory Bird Santuary, West Alton, MO