Little Dudes: Spotted Bat (Euderma maculatum)

Michael Durham Photography has a plethora of great wildlife photos posted on his blog, which I encourage you to check out. This post with the Spotted Bat really caught my attention.

Here are some of the photos, click here for the rest. Oh and remember you can click on the photos to get bigger versions.





Enjoy little spotted furry flying dudes,

Bp

[all picture credits at Michael Durham's site]

Take a baby Mushrooming! Take a class on taking your bebeh mushrooming!

What have I been doing you ask? Well, getting out and mushrooming as often as I can. Since I'm home with the Bebeh 3 days a week, we just take her along.

Some very helpful, patient and kind friends and I have made two trips up into the Oregon Cascades for mushrooms in the last two weeks. The first trip was dry and sunny and provided us with those lovely, early-season tan chanterelles. Dry and clean and perfect for pasta.

The second trip was much colder (in the low 40's) and wet, and we really had to bushwhack to get in. The baby was an absolute trooper, got swaddled up and conked out for an hour once we got into good mushrooming territory. Thanks to Canukistani Kate not only for the pictures but for being on Nap Duty both trips.

As for the class, here is the info from Arctos School of Herbal and Botanical Studies:

Mama/Papa and Babe Mushroom Outing with Missy Rohs
Tuesday, October 6, 10am-4pm

By special request, this excursion is geared towards parents with little ones. The day is a little shorter, and we won't be away from the car for more than an hour and a half at a time. This parent- and baby-friendly hunt will focus on delicious edible mushrooms like Chanterelles and Matsutake. Our hope is that we'll not only find an array of beautiful fungi, but score a basketful to take home and savor! Bring sturdy hiking shoes, water, and lunch.

Carpool will meet in SE Portland. Register by Oct. 3rd by emailing missy@arctosschool.org.
Cost: $35 per adult (sliding scale available) -- kids under 10 are free!







Enjoy sharing your life with little ones,

Bp

[huge thanks to Canukistani Kate for not only the pictures, but all the baby holding]

The Pretenders -- L.A. punk meets 80's guitar rock

Driving with a friend tonight, the musical conversation somehow turned to good punk. He's younger than me by at least 10 years, so I asked if he was familiar with The Pretenders first album, or any of the harder songs off of it. He was not, and this post was born.

The first album (self titled) by The Pretenders has something like 6 or 7 hits on it. Their hard-driving, punk-inspired songs really caught my attention at the time, more so than the good but over-played hits. Their drummer had a fast, syncopated style that I really enjoyed.

Here is one example of these "harder" songs from their early years, The Wait, caught live in 1984. Surprisingly good concert footage for Youtube:



Chrissie Hynde is an absolute phenomenon if you really look at the span of her career, her stage presence, her lyrics, and the range of styles she successfully mastered.


I can't let this post go by without sharing another song that exemplifies the qualities of my favorite early Pretenders songs.
Tattooed Love Boys at first listen simply sounds like a raunchy song about rough sex, but on closer examination is much darker than that (as her announcement in the beginning of this performance exposes).



Although there is much much more to explore with this band, Chrissie, and their various styles and rebirths -- I'll leave this to these early songs that my younger friends may not have been aware of.

Enjoy being introduced to new/old music,

Bp

Master Pickler Alex Hozven

Occasionally, my past rises up and startles me.

I knew Alex back in The Day, when I was a free-range bohemian living in a VW bus in Bezerkeley.

Now, she's a master pickler, her shop is called the Cultured Pickle Shop. I wish she had her shop in Portland because I love real cultured veggies. I'll let the video speak for itself, great stuff.



Enjoy your blasts from the past,

Bp

[via the Good Reverend John Nathan B.]

My Housemate is better than Yours: The Rose Wall

T. is rocking the garden this year.

Check out this noise -- a beautifully executed rose wall behind the bee hive on the South side of the house. Seems he set it up right, and chose the right varieties to make it happen. Just amazing.

What can I say, my Housemate is better than yours. Sorry, but it's true.






Enjoy friends who help make your life immeasurably better,

Bp

Saturday Morning Awesome: Wingnut Confections

What is more awesome than candy? Well locally made, organic, fair-trade, vegan bike-delivered candy of course!

Wingnut Confections is the brain-child my friend Dave Beer. With a history as a pastry chef, and an adoration of dark chocolate, he decided to create candies of an entirely different caliber. Since Dave has plenty of friends with an intolerance to dairy, he worked to create luscious chocolate without it. He figured it out.

I can vouch for the truffles, they're amazing. They're fantastic. He has some trippy flavors as well, including Thai Chili, and Habanero Mole.



I don't know that I could say what my favorite truffle is, but some days its Thai Chili, and others (many others) its Earl Grey. Of course there is much research yet to do, as he has candied Oregon nuts, candied citrus, and Goji berry/Brazil nut clusters that I haven't even tried yet.

It's a rough assignment, but I'll do it -- for you, the reader.

Where do you get em? First off -- you can get them on line. Better yet, you can find Dave at the People's Farmer's Market year round (Wednesdays) and Saturdays at the Hollywood Farmer's Market (which just opened May 2nd). They are also carried in many local stores, including Whole Foods, the Alberta Co-op Grocery, and Proper Eats (among many others, check the link).

Now if I can only convince Dave to start mass-producing his fruit meade so I can have it more often...

Enjoy your friends pulling off epic business feats,

Bp

[all photo credits at the Wingnut Confections website]

Saturday Morning Awesome: Stills

Since I don't have any moving-picture awesomeness, I thought I'd provide two stills.

This first one is so awesome I have a hard time looking directly at it for any length of time -- it burns with awesomeness. I, unfortunately, have no attribution. My source was a Facebook group called "I have to pee when I get home." Basically an enormous compendium of intartube randomness.

I know that's a lot to take in, I'll leave it at that.



Another unattributed photograph posted at xx-xy.org (whatever that is) that rocks so hard I had to share it. It's also begging for a caption, but I won't put ya'll through that.



Enjoy following the quirks of the kids these days,

Bp

Bee Time + Eddie Izzard on Bees

Spring is not just Garden Time and Nettle Time -- it's Bee Time. I'm excited.

I went down to Ruhl Bee Supply with Estu to pick up his hives, equipment, and some packages of Carniolans. He, too, will be mixing a Langstroth hive into his home bee keeping, while continuing to work with his Top Bar hive.

I still need to assemble my Langstroth for the garden, and paint it, before I get a nuc to ensure a nice solid take with the new bees. I'm very excited, only a couple weeks and I'll be in business.

Looks like I'll be lending out two of my top bar hives to friends, and will keep one to gather a swarm into this season. The idea is to see if there is any way they'll stay in a top bar up in its current location -- it would be fantastic if they'd stay, because I could get a few hives up there without much trouble at all.

Anyway, plans and dreams aside, below is a great Eddie Izzard skit about bees to finish off this post.



Enjoy the care and feeding of small creatures,

Bp

Songs Stuck in my Head Series: The Scotsman

Canukistani Kate gave me a mixed music CD and finished it off with The Scotsman, by Mike Cross. It's now stuck in my head, of course.

Below is a World of Warcraft animated video for the song.



Enjoy bawdy drinking songs becoming deeply inculcated into modern geek culture,

Bp

Tea Kettles, Plastic and Aluminum poisons, and the Precautionary Principle

Ever since The Wife's pregnancy, the fact that our electric tea kettle (which gets scads of use from the tonnage of tasty tasty Jasmine Pearl Tea Merchants teas that get brewed here every day) has an aluminum heating tray and plastic water reservoir has been bugging me.

[Why yes, that was a blatant plug for our friends' tea business]

Are studies absolutely conclusive that aluminum causes Alzheimer's? Well, not conclusive no -- it's probably multi-vector, etc etc. Is it conclusive that heating food substances in plastics is dangerous? Well -- if they have Biphenol A it probably is, but I'm not sure our kettle does.

Regardless -- a father frets.

I decided to go with the Precautionary Principle on this one. I did some research looking for stainless steel electric kettles. I found out that many have stainless on the outside but not the inside. Many still have plastic water reservoirs. No go.

The Aroma Stainless Steel Electric Water Kettle has neither. The only contact water makes with plastic is a little bit goes into a side reservoir to display your water level in the kettle. Considering all the other options, I'll take it.

I'm sure there are sexier (and much, much more expensive -- this one is only $30) stainless kettles out there, but I just need functional, not fancy. Plus, the customer support lady from Aroma was very helpful, responsive, and friendly when answering my questions. That clinched the deal.

Time to go have some Bombay Breakfast with this new non-toxic water.

[Yep, another shameless plug]

Enjoy not poisoning your family,

Bp

How all Portland drivers think of other Portland drivers when it's snowy

Here is the famous video. This guy/gal seems to be in a rage or out of their mind, as they are completely gunning the engine as they reap destruction. Not normal behavior at all.

Complaining about other drivers is one of the top activities when the weather is like this in Portland. But to be honest, once the roads got really bad yesterday, I found people to be quite considerate and careful on the routes I was driving.

And, regardless of reality, here is the video from 2004 that set the nation's minds about Portland winter drivers -- it's a peach, really:



Enjoy holing up,

Bp

[video find via A Girl and Her Cat]

Dogsmile

Working dogs strike me as the happiest dogs. Here is a picture of a bird dog happily working her butt off. You can't tell me dogs don't smile.

Thanks to Stu for taking me out chasing birds this last week and giving me the chance to see his pups do their thing. It was a blast.



Enjoy watching trained professionals ply their craft,

Bp

Baking Boots -- the art of Sno Seal application

My beloved hiking boots (Men's Vasque Sundowner Classics
for the curious in the crowd) were looking a little scuffed and dried up. On my last mushrooming trip my feet were *virtually* dry at the end, but they weren't bone dry. So I decided it was time to re-waterproof my boots.

The only kind of waterproofing I could find was Sno-Seal Original Beeswax. I'd heard about Sno Seal for years, but always blew it off because I heard Nikwax was a lot easier: rub it on, done.

But the appeal of beeswax and the old timey aspect got to me. It smelled (yes I smelled before I bought, don't YOU) of beeswax and kerosene -- which, again, set off my old-timey alarms, so I picked some up.


I set my oven on "warm" (approx. 120) and cleaned my boots while it got to temperature. I baked the boots for about 15 minutes, and then brought them out and gave them the first application of Sno Seal. It did melt right into the leather, as advertised.

I rubbed and buffed and carefully overloaded the seam areas, and when the boot looked all done, I stuck it back in the oven for about 15 more minutes. When I pulled it out, the toes and the backs were dry all over again. Like before I'd started. Much of the rest of the boot looked "finished" but these scuffed areas drank up a lot of sealer.

So I changed tactics, I slathered the stuff thickly on the dry areas -- enough that it left a film on the leather. I still buffed up the other areas lightly, and then baked the boots again. Sure enough the dry areas drank up most of the sealer yet again -- but much more of the boot now looked finished. I repeated the last step one more time and now I'm done.

I'm sure now that had I put a thick, goopy layer of the stuff on the first time, it would have melted in and I would have been done in less time than my 3-4 repetitions took.

I'm surprised how much sealer the boots sucked up.

I'm excited now to head out to The Palouse and chase birds with Estu in my spiffy dry boots.

Enjoy taking care of your equipment and reaping the benefits of said care,

Bp

[Note: See the comments below -- I will report back to see if I have over-proofed my boots or not]

Gear Daddies, it's Dale's fault

Dale, over at Faith in Honest Doubt posted a Drive By Truckers video yesterday. It reminded me how much I like a twangy country-tinged indie rock sound.

The first band that inspired me in this genre was the Gear Daddies. I ran into them during a streak of loving Minneapolis (and surrounding areas) bands, such as The Replacements , Husker Du , and Soul Asylum . Of course you youngin's who read this blog (you know who you are) will have NO idea of what I'm talking about, because it was eight MEEELION years ago, but screw it I don't care if it dates me I loved these bands and they hold a special place in my heart.

Anyway, Dale made me reminisce about these bands and now I must post some videos. This first one is an appearance the Gear Daddies made on the Letterman show. This must have been the absolute height of their career at the time. They're playing a middle-of-the-road single (in my opinion), but the sound and video quality were good, so I chose this video.



This next video is one of my favorite songs by them, called I Wanna Drive the Zamboni. It's actually a little heart-breaking if you listen to it, as humorous as the initial concept may seem. I always thought it was unexpectedly poignant, and full of black humor at the same time, which endeared the song to me.

Enjoy the prehistoric musical ramblings of an old geezer,

Bp

Major Herp sighting: Coast giant salamander , Dicamptodon tenebrosus

Look at that handsome Fella!

I was so excited when a mushroom picking friend spotted this "little dude" when we were in the woods. I had just walked past it, in fact. At first, I thought it was a Cope's giant salamander (Dicamptodon copei), but on closer inspection I do believe it was a Coast giant salamander (Dicamptodon tenebrosus). Make sure to click on the thumbnail photos to get a better look at this handsome dude(ette).

I call this a major herp sighting -- but that only applies to me and my excitement level. These guys aren't rare, but they can be rare to spot due to their reclusiveness and camouflage. "Real" herp experts in this region probably see them on a regular basis.

As amphibians go here in the NW, this guy definitely is a giant. Check out the size compared to my friend's hand. He was a good 10 - 12" long, and hefty. He didn't move a whit when we were surrounding him and talking and pointing and snapping photos. It was quite a sighting, I was very excited.

So, technically this is a "little dudes" post, but a Big Little Dudes one. If I weren't mushroom picking at the time, I'd tell you where I spotted him. As it is, you will have to pry the information from my cold, dead fingers.

Enjoy unusual wildlife sightings in our beautiful Pacific N.W. rainforests,

Bp

[photos by the lovely Alethea]

Flying Bulldog

When in doubt, or angst, or on the horns of a quandary -- create art. Here is a nice little collage a fellow Qi Gong student, Leslie Huddart, made this election season. I thought ya'll would appreciate it.
Enjoy the cathartic work of talented friends,

Bp

Techno pumpkin light show

One of my favorite people lives outside Salt Lake City. He's an enormous geek, a talented poet (won and placed in the Utah slam competition multiple times), a musician, amazing husband and Dad. His screen name is Stingite, from an old MMORPG we used to play together, Everquest. And this is his front yard during Halloween, simply fabulous:



PS: make sure to click the youtube link and then "more details" so you can read the technical details -- just hilarious.

Enjoy your talented and eccentric friends using their multitude of skills to be uber dads,

Bp

Max Payne -- schlocky action movie

Tony and I have this tradition, I realized as I was driving him home from this mediocre schlocky action movie. We like junk. Trash, rather. Or at least, when we're together, we can complain about it enough to create enjoyment.

After every term at Portland State we had together, we went out for honorary drinks. But not good drinks, see. We went to a shitty SE dive called The Space Room for sugary drinks that glowed in the blacklight, named after bugs or candy. (To this day The Space Room is the only Portland bar where I've seen an actual lady of the night hawking her wares -- she was pretty too, which surprised me somehow).

We also watch schlocky action movies.

He called mid-week and said we were going to see Max Payne. I knew it was going to be total schlock, but I didn't know until Tony told me in the theatre itself that it is a movie based on a video game. That's an even lower bar than "schlocky action movie." Normally I wait until at least Beer theaters for those dogs, sometimes DVD, often I just skip them entirely.

So, yeah -- we went to the movie. It didn't totally blow chunks, but it was no Professional or Bourne movie.

The movie is well shot, but completely and utterly formulaic. And, it spends way too much time on back story and motivation. We get it, he's getting revenge, he's dead inside, yadda yadda yadda. More guns less talk, people.

I am feeling (and was feeling) generous, and give the movie a C. I like Marky Mark, what can I say.

Wait for a DVD rental on this one, or -- if you are feeling flippant, a beer theater. Here's a trailer, in case you missed it.



Enjoy watching dumb movies with friends,

Bp

Some good reading: Stu's letter to the Editor regarding the Bailout

Stu send this via Email and I saw it wasn't on his blog. I figured it aught to be on someone's blog, for crissakes. The Times sure as hell won't be printing it.

----

To the editors of the New York Times:

When I saw that the New York Times had posted the text of the economic
bailout bill (H.R. 1424) I decided to attempt to read the bill.

While I have not yet read the entire 451 pages, my first scan of the text
turned up several surprising sections:

Sec. 402. Permanent authority for disclosure of information relating to
terrorist activities

Sec. 502. Provisions related to film and television productions.

Sec. 503. Exemption from excise tax for certain wooden arrows designed for use by children.

Sec. 504. Income averaging for amounts received in connection with the Exxon Valdez litigation.

These sections are disturbing to me in a number of ways. Among them:

* How can a there be time to insert unrelated (and, in the case of
section 503 (e..g.), frivolous) provisions into a bill of such purported
importance and urgency?

* Is our Congress truly incapable of passing legislation which is not
treated as a vehicle for pork barrel politics?

* Section 402 leads me to wonder how deeply the administration's war
on terror has insinuated itself into unrelated legislation, and how broad
and deeply the powers and provisions of that effort are intertwined in our
laws.


I also wonder where the free press is in this debate. It seems to me that
more attention should be given to informing the public regarding the actual
provisions of this legislation and less to the political posturing of the
various parties involved in drafting and passing the bill.

This bill, and the economic crisis that it is intended to address, have
further eroded my already shaky confidence in our elected officials. The
partisan and ideological wrangling surrounding the effort demonstrates that
those officials are concerned first and foremost about political power.

In addition, the complete lack of accountability on the part of those
officials is disingenuous and self-serving. This crisis has its roots in the
anti-government sentiments that became entrenched during the Reagan
presidency and continue until today. Neither party can claim innocence, as
both parties have held the presidency, majorities in Congress, or both
during this period, yet neither was vigilant in putting in place the
regulatory boundaries that could have prevented the current situation.

I am again left to wonder whether our elected officials are concerned
primarily with the interests of the citizens who elect them or the special
interests that fund them. Again, neither party is faultless; most special
interests, including the financial sector, are careful to spread their
monetary and political support between both parties in order to ensure that
their interests are considered and protected regardless of the party
currently in power.

My wife and I are in out mid fifties. We are seeing the value of the
investments - investments funds, 401k, IRAs, and our home - that we worked
for in order to secure our retirement decline sharply, and while we wonder
whether the value of those assets will recover so that they are sufficiently
for their intended purpose.

I am distressed to discover that our elected officials have, in many ways,
treated this bill as politics as usual, all the while giving lip service to
its importance and calling attention to what they would have us believe is
their concern for the American taxpayer.

I am distressed that the press has neither provided us with information to
help the public better understand this crisis nor alerted us to the facts
and details of the legislation as proposed and passed.

I note with pride and satisfaction that one of the Senators from our home
state of Washington, Maria Cantwell, opposed this bill. I note with distress
that the other, Patty Murray, supported it.

I also note that both presidential candidates supported the bill, and wonder
the extent to which that support was decided upon based on the political
risks and benefits to their campaigns, as opposed to the content of the
legislation.

Finally, I wonder who, if anyone, will benefit from the bill as written, or,
if benefit does accrue, whether it will extend beyond the politicians'
backers in the financial industry.

Musical Discovery: Yoshida Brothers

I totally dig the Yoshida Brothers. They are two young Samisen players out of Japan. They can play traditional music, but they also create new and fusion styles with their instruments, and in all cases they rock the effing house.

This first video is hands-down the best "gamer music" that I've ever encountered. It's used as the theme song for Nintendo's Wii game console. I am happy that these guys are getting exposure through the marketing campaign, the more people that know about them the better.



And here is a video of them playing a traditional Japanese folk song called "Tsugaru Jongara." I'm ignorant of the art form, so I immediately wondered if they "jazzed up" the song from its original style. After seeing this and this video, I realized they didn't. Japanese folk music just rocks, apparently.



Enjoy discovering not only new musicians, but new musical forms,

Bp

[original contact with Yoshida Brothers via Dani the Canukistani]