All things weird and wonderful, 18

27 02 2012

Photo by Cienna Madrid

Because. . . why not?

h/t Cienna Madrid, The Stranger





All things weird and wonderful, 17

23 02 2012

Sree V. Remella/Nat Geographic Photo of the Day

Needed a bit of break, don’t you think?

 





All things weird and wonderful, 16

3 02 2012

Joe's 5th Semi-Annual Beer Tasting Party!

I don’t even remember if I attended this event, but I loved the invite, by host/artist Kathy Radke.

At least, I think it’s Kathy Radke Rathke—I can’t remember if I got her name right. Anyway, she was a fucking amazing graphics artist for The Daily Cardinal, a small, blonde, impish woman on a graphics staff that was, hmm, yes I believe it was all men. She was the graphics editor for awhile, and the menfolk—I’m thinkin’ of John Kovalic and Mark Giaimo (on whom I had a huge crush, and who was so out of my league in every way), in particular—who liked to get chesty with one another and anyone else, all bowed before Kathy’s  fierce talent and sly dry wit.

Sly: yes, Kathy was sly. As political as the rest of us (the Cardinal, back in the day, always had a Marxist editor), she paid attention, and led with absurdity.

She was an inspiration.

One final memory: At my first Cardinal party Kathy’s younger sister and I got drunk and sang Shirley Bassey tunes, enjoying ourselves immensely crooning “GolllllllllllldddddddFINguh!”

So. I don’t know where Kathy is, but I hope she’s absurdly well.





All things weird and wonderful, 15

17 01 2012

Physics and nerve:

This child of the Midwest never surfed.

If—if—the waves got big enough on Lake Michigan, one might have some fun body-surfing, and I have some hazy memory of someone sometime with a board somewhere on the beach, but as big a lake as Lake Michigan is, it ain’t the ocean.

Now, water skiing, that I could do, though usually on one of the smaller (and warmer) lakes in the area. And I’ve gone jet skiing, which (like snowmobiling) is stupid and polluting and a lot of fun.

Anyway, I always thought of surfing as tossing oneself into a tidal wave like this, and I wondered how the hell anyone could do that. It was as if the waves were magic and the surfers, magicians.

I never considered that most surfers are not sliding down forty-foot walls of water, but are happily dinking about in six or ten foot waves, working themselves up to 15 or maybe 20 foot waves. Maybe they get a chance to crouch through a tube, but most are probably just trying to let it ride.

I could do that. Hell, there are places to surf in parts of Queens and out on Long Island, with waves big enough to get up and small enough for an old newby like me to give ‘er a try.

I just might. Maybe. Y’know, someday.

Could be fun.

h/t  The Daily What, Chris Bryan film





All things weird and wonderful, 14

11 01 2012

Be Good Tanyas over under around thru Townes van Zandt:

A friend who booked the BGTs to his venue observed that they fought like hell with one another. And then they got on stage.

That Townes, he influenced all the right people.





All things weird and wonderful, 13

24 12 2011

Leapin’ lemurs!

Verreaux sifaka photo by Robyn Gianni/Nat Geo Photo of the Day

Okay, so she looks like she’s dancing (or maybe skipping) more than leaping, but still!

Those sifakas are somethin’ else.





All things weird and wonderful, 12

20 12 2011

This is a real thing in the world:

Photograph by Andrew Coffing/Nat Geographic Photo of the Day





All things weird and wonderful, 11

9 12 2011

Do you like what you’re doing? Would you do it some more?

(Yes, I was introduced to Nick Drake through a VW ad. Stupid way to learn about Nick Drake.)

Do you hope to find new ways of doing better than your worst?

(Even stupider would have been not to learn about Nick Drake.)





All things weird and wonderful, 10

4 12 2011

Critters, critters, everywhere, in shapes we I could not have dreamed up, yet they exist.

Nature is amoral, red in tooth and claw, fragile, a human construct, scary, comforting, everything all around us. . . whatever else nature is, she is a mother:

Southern white rhino photo credit: The Wilds

Giraffe photographer: Tibor Jager

Malayan tapir photo credit: Edinburgh Zoo

Okapi photo Credit: Julie Larsen Maher

Distant cousins. . .

Emperor tamarins photo credit: Drusillas Park

Cotton-topped tamarins photo credit: Drusillas Park

. . . and near cousins:

Orangutan photo Credit: Tad Motoyama

Gorilla photo credit: Wilhelma Zoo

I take nothing away from religious people, who find gods in all the weird wonder in the world, but I see all at this of the world, of nature, of existing for no other reason than existence itself.

Nature has no need of god, nor does one need god for wonder.

That’s not an argument for or against god, but an observation that there is already so much, on its own, already here.

(All photos from ZooBorns.)





All things weird and wonderful, 9

29 10 2011

Seahorsesy!

Photograph by Marc Mistersaro

h/t National Geographic Photo of the Day, October 28, 2011