Nora

Looks like Nora lost her "binky".

I saw this during a recent lunchtime walk. I'm guessing somebody found it and wanted to leave it where it would be easily seen / recovered.

Just a little Slice-Of-Life...

Macro Challenge

Over at 365project, they run lots of photo challenges, and I participate often.

One of the topics I've been stressing this year is Macro.  I've tended to struggle with macro through the years, and figured the challenge would... well...  challenge me to improve.

The current theme is POSTAGE STAMPS.  Not my favorite topic, seems a lttle like taking a picture of artwork, but I tried to add some creativity.  I found some old (late 60's) postcards, here's what I came up with:

From a 4 cent Lincoln stamp, on a postcard sent to me by my grandfather in 1966.  I could go on and on about the deep symbolism presented here:  Lincoln representing the Federal government being above above the "STATES", the torn bottom (southern) edge, blah blah blah.

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Postmark from a post card sent to me in 1968, when my parents traveled to Europe.

Not really a postage stamp, but a postal stamp...

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Anyway, the challenge ends tomorrow (6/19) it will be interesting to see if I get a finalist.

UPDATE 06/23/2020:  The postmark image did receive finalist, and missed (by 1 vote) being in a  runoff for winner.  So that's cool.

Happy Birthday Paul McCartney!

Paul McCartney turns 78 today (6/18/2020)!   

McCartney started his career with the Beatles, probably the most important pop/rock band of the last century.  With 23 (US) chart topping singles in less than a decade, and 3/5 of Rolling Stone Magazine's top 5 albums of all time, they were pretty well known.

Subsequently, he's made the Top 40 38 times as a solo artist, including 8 times to #1.
And 24 more Top 40 hits leading the band Wings.  "Only" 7 chart toppers, though.

Most importantly, he's a bass player!

Happy Birthday Paul McCartney!

Chickadee In Flight

Carolina Chickadee approaching one of the backyard feeders.   

I've been taking a lot of photos lately, trying to catch birds in flight.  Set the camera on high speed burst mode, auto exposure, using high ISO to get fast shutter speeds.  Lots and lots of fails but a few cool shots, too.  This is probably my favorite.


     ISO=2500 (love my X-T3!)
     f/4.8
     Shutter speed = 1/1100 sec

June 1970

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

Well, during the 4 weeks of June 1970, there were 54 songs that spent time in the Top 40. Lots of great stuff.

Three (3) songs made the Top spot: Ray Stevens started the month #1, carrying over from May.  The Beatles spent the next 2 weeks at #1, with The Long And Winding Road.their last #1.  Jackson 5 closed the month on top, with "The Love You Save".

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

• The Long And Winding Road - The Beatles - 4.0
• Which Way You Goin' Billy? - The Poppy Family (Featuring Susan Jacks) - 4.3
• Get Ready - Rare Earth - 5.3
• Love On A Two-Way Street - The Moments - 6.8
• The Love You Save - Jackson 5 - 7.0
• Everything Is Beautiful - Ray Stevens 8.8
• The Letter - Joe Cocker with Leon Russell & The Shelter People 9.5
• Up Around The Bend - Creedence Clearwater Revival 10.0
• Lay Down (Candles In The Rain) - Melanie with The Edwin Hawkins Singers - 11.3
• Ride Captain Ride - Blues Image - 11.5

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

• The Love You Save - Jackson 5 - 15
• Ball Of Confusion (That's What The World Is Today) - The Temptations - 24
• A Song Of Joy (Himno A La Alegria) - Miguel Rios - 32
• Mama Told Me (Not To Come) - Three Dog Night - 33
• Spirit In The Dark - Aretha Franklin with The Dixie Flyers - 34
• Are You Ready? - Pacific Gas And Electric - 34
• O-o-h Child - The 5 Stairsteps - 35
• Save The Country - The 5th Dimension - 36
• Mississippi Queen - Mountain - 37
• Westbound #9 - The Flaming Ember - 37
• (They Long To Be) Close To You - Carpenters - 37
• Gimme Dat Ding - The Pipkins - 38
• Teach Your Children - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - 38
• Hey, Mister Sun - Bobby Sherman - 39
• Check Out Your Mind - The Impressions - 39
• I Want To Take You Higher - Sly & The Family Stone - 39
• Baby Hold On - The Grass Roots - 40
• Mississippi - John Phillips - 40
• (You've Got Me) Dangling On A String - Chairman Of The Board - 40

365project - Top Rated

I was looking at my "stats" page at 365project today, and the "Your Top Rated Photos" section.  They list your Ten (10) top rated photos, using their secret and undecipherable algorithm.  I decided to look back and see when I last posted that list to this blog, and the most recent I see is Monday, January 16, 2017.    So I'm rather overdue.  So, Let's Do This!


#1 - Just Hangin' Around...  January 26, 2020 

#2 - Lost In My Mind...  February 24, 2018

#3 - Frosty  November 1, 2019

#4 - Lost In A Fog  February 23, 2019

#5 - Old Chain Of Rocks Bridge  March 31, 2015

#6 - Muskrat  January 1, 2020

#7 - Ice On The Lake  December 17, 2019

#8 - Solitude October 19, 2019

#9 - Still Waters  September 21, 2019

#10 - Mellow Yellow  November 2, 2019

I think it is interesting that only one of the Top Ten from 3.5 years ago is still on there, but not too shocking.  I don't know if the algorithm is biased to newer photos, either.  But 7 of the Top 10 are within the past year.  That seems like a lot.

Hello My Ragtime Girl

So, as I was getting ready for work this morning, the singing frog song from the old Warner Brothers cartoon popped into my head, and refused to leave.  Most irritating little earworm...

So I figured I'd share.  Naturally it was easy to find on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRWlbX92B3I

You're welcome.

Before the kiss...

We planted some knockoff roses in the backyard recently, and this is the first blossom.    Very red.

Album Reviews - Index

OK, time to update the index for album reviews:   I'm hoping folk enjoy them; comments (and even requests) welcome.  My intention has been to focus mostly on stuff I own on vinyl, and stuff that is somewhat obscure.  But, as you can  see, that's not exclusively true.

You can see them all with the tag albumreviews.

Anyway:  here's what I've done so far, in alphabetical order:

Artist    -    Album    -  Released -   Posted (datecode)

• Arrogance - Suddenly - 1980 - 20180922
• Atlanta Rhythm Section - Atlanta Rhythm Section - 1972  - 20200602
• Atlanta Rhythm Section - Back Up Against The Wall - 1973 = 20200602
• Atlanta Rhythm Section - Dog Days - 1975 - 20181007
• Jules And The Polar Bears - Got No Breeding - 1978 - 2018102
• Christopher Cross - Christopher Cross - 1979 - 20180915
• J.J. Cale - Really - 20190321
• Derringer - Live - 1977 - 20181121
• Fogerty, John - Cebterfield - 1985 - 20190414
• The Inmates - First Offence - 1979 - 20190304
• The Kinks - One For The Road - 1980 - 20180908
• Louisiana's Le Roux - Louisiana's Le Roux - 1978 - 20180902
• McKendree Spring - 3 - 1972 - 20200419
• Missing Persons - Spring Session M - 1982 - 20190403
• Randy Meisner - One More Song - 1980 - 20181109
• Harry Nilsson - Nilsson Schmilsson - 1971 - 20180929
• The Outlaws - Hurry Sundown - 1977 - 2018128
• Ozark Mountain Daredevils - Men From Earth - 1976 - 20181202
• The Romantics - The Romantics - 1980 - 20181111
• The Rossington Band - Love Your Man - 1988 - 20191019
• Simmons, Patrick -Arcade - 1983 - 20191214
• Sugarloaf - Sugarloaf - 1970 - 20181014
• Peter Tork - Stranger Things Have Happened - 1994 - 20190223
• Triumvirat - Sparticus - 1975 - 20160920

And, as a bonus, here's a link to Matthew L.'s reviews at WPTS.  He's my go-to source for new music.

Thanks for reading!

Female Cardinal at the Feeder

I think she's moving empty sunflower shells out of the feeder. Either that or she dropped a full one.

I was watching her at the feeder, with ger back to me, hoping for some sort of shot.

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Some technical details on my bird photos, for the geeks out there.  The bird feeder is about 16.5 ft from our picture window, I general stand anywhere from 2-4 ft from the window.  So I'm just under 20 ft from the bird.  (If I get too close, they spook, especially the cardinals).

I'm using my Fujifilm X-T3, with the 55-200mm zoom at 200mm.  The Fujifilm has a 1.5 crop ratio, so that's a 300mm equivalent.  The resulting image is 6240x4160 pixels,  or 26 Megapixels.  I've been shooting bird photos at pretty high ISO in order to get good shutter speeds.  And frequently in burst mode, to try and catch the action.  In this case ISO=2500, F/4.8 gave me 1/1000th sec.  The X-T3 does great at high ISO, and I'm able to do a significant crop and still have a crisp / clear photo.  There's some minor post processing on the computer to clean it up, but not much.

Here's the original, if you want to compare.  Click to see larger.

Billy Powell on the Piano!

Today (06/03) is Billy Powell's birthday.  Born in 1952, Billy Powell played keyboards for Lynyrd Skynyrd from their 1st album (1973) through his death in 2009.  Including the "offshoot" Rossington Collins Band and Allen Collins Band, which bridged the time between the crash and the reforming of the band..

His piano was a key part of Skynyrd's sound, perfect counterpoint to their 3 guitar attack.

Billy Powell is on far right

Happy Birthday, Michael Steele!

Micheal Steele was the bass player for the Bangles.  Apparently she was also in the Runaways before they broke big...  who knew?  Per wikipedia:  "In 1983, Steele replaced original bassist Annette Zilinskas as a member of the Bangles. Steele made her entrance just in time to play on the band's first full-length album, All Over the Place. She remained with the Bangles throughout the high point of their career, contributing as bassist, vocalist, and songwriter".

I discovered the Bangles when All Over The Place was current, and have it on vinyl.  Great record.

Micheal Steele is the one on the right, in case you don't know which is the bass player...

Album Review: Atlanta Rhythm Section - Atlanta Rhythm Section / Back Up Against The Wall

In 1977, MCA records re-released the first two Atlanta Rhythm Section Decca albums on a double disc set.  This was after the 1976 breakout album "A Rock And Roll Alternative".  It included the 1972 release "Atlanta Rhythm Section" and the 1973 release "Back Up Against The Wall".  Just to keep it confusing, the used the cover artwork from Back Up Against The Wall, but removed the title.    There's no mention of the two records on the front or back, only a notice at the bottom right corner of the back cover stating "The selections contained in this album have been previously released on the Decca label (DL7-5265, DL7-5390)".  It is almost like they were trying to be obtuse.

Original albums:

Anyway, I recently picked this (the MCA double disc) up at a used record store, thought I'd review both discs here.


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Artist:  Atlanta Rhythm Section
Album:  Atlanta Rhythm Section
Released: 1972
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The most notable thing about ARS’s debut is that it features a different lead singer, Rodney Justo.  He was replaced by Ronnie Hammond by the second album.  The singing isn’t  dramatically different, but is clearly different.  Justo is not quite as “smooth” as Hammond, and that kind of goes for the whole album.  It’s a decent album, and the playing is solid, but there’s not really any standout songs here.  My favorite is the instrumental “Earnestine”.  There’s also an early version of “Another Man’s Woman”, which was perfected on 1976’s Red Tape album.  Overall, a very good album, if not a great one.  And it lays the groundwork for where they were going.

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Artist:  Atlanta Rhythm Section
Album:  Back Up Against The Wall
Released: 1973
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This album shows growth musically, as ARS was developing.  The addition of Ronnie Hammond on vocals sets the band's lineup that would be steady through the 70's.  And, except for changing drummers, the lineup held through 1983 (10 albums).  That's impressive stability.  

The band isn't as polished as they would become, but they getting close.  And there's some gems on this album.  Most notable, "Conversation" and "Back Up Against The Wall", both of which were included on their 1979 live album.  A very good record, more very good that their first, and edging towards great.

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Aside:  I wouldn't rate ARS as one of my favorite bands, butg I've always liked them.  I saw them a couple times in concert, never as a headliner...  but they were generally solid.  And somehow, through the years, I've ended up with 9 of their first 11 albums!  Just the way things have worked out, I suppose.

White Breasted Nuthatch

New visitor to the backyard feeder. Just caught him/her before they left.  I first saw this bird Saturday, when the grandkids were helping me de-poop the yard. (They're good at finding the dogs' packages, except when they get too competitive about it).  Anyway, we were at the back part of the yard, and my granddaughter noticed this bird picking in the bark of one of the pine trees.   We were probably 10' away, but I didn't have my camera.  So I was pleased to see it at the feeder Sunday.

Not the best photo, but sometimes you take what they give ya.

Happy Birthday, Ron Wood!

Ron Wood was bronn on June 1, 1947.

Best know as 2nd guitar for the Rolling Stones (sorry, Keith Richards will always be #1), Ron Wood was previously in The Jeff Beck Group (1967-1969, on Bass!), and Faces.  And some solo work and sitting in with other folk.