Instagram

Some of you may know that I have had an Instagram account for a while.  Titled lsqrd42, it's been around since April 2014.  Posting was pretty spoatic for most of that time, but, I've really ramped it up over the past 4-5 months.

Lsqrd42

Check it out!!

Sunflowers!

The sunflowers are back at Columbia Bottom Conservation Area, after missing last year due to flooding.

It is cool that they're back; they have several fields, with staggered planting, so they should be around for a while.  These images were taken 7-10 days ago, just now getting around to posting:

Click on image for larger version

July 1970

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

Well, during the 4 weeks of July 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 Jackson 5 opened the month on Top, with "The Love You Save" finishing its 2 week run at #1.  Three Dog Night took over the the middle 2 weeks, with "Mama Told Me Not To Come".  And July closed with The Carpenters' "Close To You" reached the top in the last week.

Here's the top 10 songs of the month, ranked by average chart position over the 4 weeks of the month:

• Mama Told Me (Not To Come) - Three Dog Night - 1.5
• The Love You Save/I Found That Girl - Jackson 5 - 2.3
• Ball Of Confusion (That's What The World Is Today) - The Temptations - 4.3
• Band Of Gold - Freda Payne - 4.8
• Ride Captain Ride - Blues Image - 5.8
• (They Long To Be) Close To You - Carpenters - 6.25
• Lay Down (Candles In The Rain) - Melanie with The Edwin Hawkins Singers - 7.8
• Hitchin' A Ride - Vanity Fare - 9.5
• Gimme Dat Ding - The Pipkins - 11.3
• O-o-h Child - The 5 Stairsteps - 11.5

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

• Tighter, Tighter - Alive and; Kicking - 20
• Make It With You - Bread - 20
• War - Edwin Starr - 25
• (If You Let Me Make Love To You Then) Why Can't I Touch You? - Ronnie Dyson - 26
• Ohio - Crosby, Stills, Nash and; Young - 30
• In The Summertime - Mungo Jerry - 32
• I Just Can't Help Believing - B.J. Thomas - 36
• Lay A Little Lovin' On Me - Robin McNamara - 37
• Spill The Wine - Eric Burdon And War -38
• Steal Away - Johnnie Taylor - 38
• Maybe - The Three Degrees - 38
• Tell It All Brother - Kenny Rogers and The First Edition - 39
• Silver Bird - Mark Lindsay - 39
• Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours - Stevie Wonder - 39
• The End Of Our Road - Marvin Gaye - 40
• Trying To Make A Fool Of Me - The Delfonics - 40

Engine House Ruin

Took a day trip to Elephant Rocks State Park, not quite 2 hrs from home. Cool place, if a bit crowded... One of the side trails led to this 1890's era Engine House, built to house the train locomotives that hauled granite from the quarry nearby to St. Louis and points beyond.

As much as I love my Fujifilm X-T3, sometimes the iPhone gets the better shot... This is one of those times.  The inherent wide angle worked well here.

From a Quilt Shops and Photo Ops outing.

Popular Posts - July

Just for giggles, I wa slooking at my blogger stats page and wondering about my most popular July posts.  Based on # of views:

2019:
1)  July 15:  Happy Birthday, Linda Ronstadt!
2)  July 20:  Growing in the Nooks

2018:
1) July 22:  Acus Gu
2) July 12:  Sunflowers!

2017:
1)  July 29:  Boats Afloat
2)  July 09:  Layers

2016:
1)  July 16:  The Halls Of Montezuma (Indiana)
2)  July 18:  Christmas (Noel) Dagnet House

2015:
1)  July 06:  Water Inlets, Mississippi Chain Of Rocks
2)  July 26:  Centennial Cone Park, near Golden, CO


Anyway...  I can't discern anything meaningful from this exercise, except that it is a good thing that I don't really chase clicks, or judge my worth by my blog traffic.  Several of these posts have multiple images, maybe that's the key???

It is interesting that the top viewed post over the last 5 Julys is includes a photo that was used without permission on the Montezuma, IN web site...  I realized, and reached out to them, right before the pandemic went crazy, so it sort of fell through the cracks.  Guess I need to figure out plan B on that.

Where thrills become as cheap as gas (and gas as cheap as thrills)

Near Treloar, MO along the Missouri River bottomlands. This is Rt. 94, 60-65 miles west of St. Louis. The Missouri River is about 1.5 miles off tto the right, the hills in the distance are on the other side of the river.

From a "Quilt Shops and Photo Ops" excursion with my wife, first time in a while that we've managed that, with the pandemic lock down and all.  This version was mostly driving, only one quilt shop (in O'Fallon, MO).  Still, nice to get out, spend some windshield time...

The title is from the old Blue Oyster Cult song "Before The Kiss, A Redcap".  Which doesn't really fit the mood of this photo.  But I thought the lyrics fit nicely with the "road trip" aspect of the day.

RIP Charlie Daniels

I just heard (at lunch today) the Charlie Daniels has passed away.  From his website:

 Country music and southern rock legend Charlie Daniels has passed. The Country Music Hall of Fame and Grand Ole Opry member died this morning at Summit Medical Center in Hermitage, Tennessee. Doctors determined the cause of death was a hemorrhagic stroke. He was 83.


Charlie Daniels Band (CDB) was one of my favorite bands during the late 70's.  I saw them 3-4 times back then, and they always put on a great show.  The albums Fire On The Mountain ('74), Nightrider ('75), Saddle Tramp ('76) and High Lonesome ('76) are classics of the Southern Rock genre.  Charlie Daniels had his biggest commercial successes after that, starting with the iconic "Devil Went Down To Georgia" in 1979.  

Over 30 studio albums, almost 20 compilation and Live albums. 9 Gold or Platinum Albums.  Country Music Hall of Fame, Grand Old Opry member...  Again from his web site:
From his Dove Award-winning gospel albums to his genre-defining southern rock anthems and his CMA Award-winning country hits, few artists have left a more indelible mark on America's musical landscape than Charlie Daniels. An outspoken patriot, beloved mentor, and a true road warrior, Daniels parlayed his passion for music into a multi-platinum career and a platform to support the military, underprivileged children, and others in need.

Very sad with this one, CDB was a big part of the soundtrack of my late teens, and still gets played to this date.  I was just listening to Nightrider over the weekend...

Here's 5 of my favorite CDB songs:

Saddle Tramp

Birmingham Blues

It's My Life

Billy The Kid

Trudy

Squirrel Approaching

Playing around this morning...  Experimenting with the camera function on my camera (Fujifilm X-T3).  Then experimenting with Adobe Premier Elements (which has been on the computer for a couple of years but I've never used)...  Then had to try the built in uplead to Youtube.

SO:  Here's a short video of a squirrel, on my Youtube channel:

SQUIRREL APPROACHING

Drost Park Triptych

I'm not a huge fan of triptychs, but I don't really hate them.  I'm sure I've done at least 1 or 2 through the years...  but I can't remember any specifics.

Meanwhile, over at 365project, there's a challenge going on to do a triptych in the style of David Hilliard.  Now, my first challenge was to look into David Hilliard.  And he has some VERY cool stuff.  So, I've been thinking for a couple of weeks about trying a David Hilliard style triptych.   But only thinking.

I realized yesterday that I was about out of time, so I tried a couple of things during my lunch time walk.  But then I didn't get any processing done last night.  And then realized this morning that today (6/30) is the deadline.  So I reviewed yesterday's images, pict a series, processed them on the phone (Snapseed).  And then created the triptych in Powerpoint, and saved a screen capture.  All a bit low tech, but didn't turn out too bad.

Looking at the entries, there are several really great ones!

I do like the technique, will have to try some more attempts.

Shopping Cart Theory

From the internet: The viral "Shopping Cart Theory" proposes that an individual's moral character can be determined by whether they choose to return a shopping cart to its designated spot after use or whether they simply leave it wherever it suits them....  

To return the shopping cart is an easy, convenient task and one which we all recognize as the correct, appropriate thing to do. To return the shopping cart is objectively right. There are no situations other than dire emergencies in which a person is not able to return their cart. Simultaneously, it is not illegal to abandon your shopping cart. Therefore the shopping cart presents itself as the apex example of whether a person will do what is right without being forced to do it."

It's also a pet peeve of mine.  I saw this cart on the way into the shopping this afternoon left in the middle of a parking space.  It was 20 steps (yes, I counted) from a cart return.  That's 40 steps, round trip...maybe 30 seconds, tops.

I guess it qualifies as a "first world problem", though.

Cut Off

Tree cut off flush with the ground.  Well, almost flush.  I presume they'll come grind the stump up later....

Sometimes you look down, sometimes you look up...  Just keep your eyes moving!

ACC-116: Pica - What Is The Matter With You?

As you (ought to) know, one of my favorite challenges over at 365project is the Album Cover Challenege, where you take a randomly generated Band/Artist name, and a randomly generated album name, and make a mock album cover.  One of my favorites, and one I've entered pretty regularly.

Anyway, the 116th edition of the challenge is in voting right now.  I managed a finalist, and so far, I'm leading in votes.  If it holds, it will be my first ACC win of 2020.  I didn't win ACC in 2019, so I'll be pleased if I break the drought.  Over the past 18 months, there have been 18 editions of ACC, and I've entered 15 (83%).  And of those 15 entries, I have 11 finalists (76%).  But no winners.

So wish me luck! 

Here's my entry:

Artist: Pica
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aechmea_%27Pica%27

Album: What Is The Matter With You
http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/26803.html

Album cover challenge explained:
https://365project.org/discuss/themes-competitions/43582/album-cover-challenge-116

My prior posts here about ACC
https://lsqrd.blogspot.com/search/label/Albumcoverchallenge

Happy Birthday Allen Lanier... posthumous...

Allen Lanier was an original member of the band Blue Oyster Cult, playing guitar and keyboards.  He played on all but one of the band's records (missing 1985's CLub Ninja).

Allen Lanier's songwriting / co-writing credits with BOC include:

• Before The Kiss A Redcap
• She's As Beautiful As A Foot
• Workshop Of The Telecopes
• Redeemed
• True Confessions
• Tenderloin
• Searchin' For Celine
• In Thee
• Lonely Teardrops
• The Marshall Plan
• Don't Turn Your Back

He passed away in 2013 at the age of 67.

Time keeps on ticking, ticking, ticking....

So...  I've just had a birthday.  A milestone birthday.   Seems like yesterday I was turning 40, now I'm 1/2 again older.  According to Social Security Administration, my life expectancy is another 21.58 years.  WHO says 23.32.years.  Either way, it doesn't seem like that long.  Guess I need to start a bucket list, and start checking things off!

So here's  a song:

Old Man

Blue Jay #5215

I liked how it was showing me s colors... After several days of being skittish he/she let me get pretty close to the window,,,

Aside:  I did some research, and it seems that male and female Blue Jays are hard to distinguish.  Their coloration and such is the same, but males tend to be larger.  This Jay seems to be solitary, so I have no clue about relative size.  Though it is bigger than the Cardinals.