Party On

We recently enjoyed the CAI holiday party at the Hotel DuPont. The best part of the night was seeing daughter Karen dreesed to kill, in a real dress even! Here she is with boyfriend Adrian.
She looked even better in person - simply gorgeous.

Wave On

Here is great shot of Saturn's tiny moon Daphnis, which the Cassini orbiter discovered inside of the rings. The moon, named for a shepherd from Greek mythology, creates waves in the rings as it "shepherds" the material and creates one of the prominent gaps in the structure.

Zappa Plays Zappa

We took in a wonderful tribute concert by Dweezil Zappa in Atlantic City. The terrific band played a wide range of selections going back to "Call Any Vegetable", but included much of Frank's later, jazzier music. Other highlights were "Peaches en Regalia", "Montana", "Zombie Woof", and "Idiot Bastard Son".

http://zappa.com/zpz/index.html

The show featured Zappa alums "stunt guitarist" Steve Vai, drummer Terry Bozio, and Napoleon Murphy Brock on vocals, sax and flute. The band also included another drummer, percussionist, guitar (along with Dweezil), bass, keyboards, and additional saxophone. I have never seen so many percussion instuments on one stage (this, from someone who has seen a lot of indoor drum line performances).

It wasn't quite Frank and the Mothers at the Filmore, but it was great to hear that music played live.

Blue Corn Tortillas

Nice teeth.

Thanks, Matt.

http://www.stiny.org/index.php?c=1

The play's the thing

Joe just completed a run playing in the pit orchestra for the Rutgers production of the hilarious play "Urinetown". He played trombone and euphonium for the quirky, offbeat musical, and sounded great!

In this picture, he certainly looks like a denizen of the town where everyone is forced use pay toilets, or else!

Ring Light

A beautiful view of saturn and its rings, taken while Saturn was between the Sun and the Cassini probe.



More at: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm

Giant Pink Space Frog

Giant Pink Space Frog Crushes Earth

His eyes see nothing but the sorrow of eternity.

http://www.stiny.org/oekaki/

Rutgers Rah Rah

Some scenes from the Rutgers homecoming game last week, and the Rutgers Glee Club.

RU Rah Rah!

RU Rah Rah!

Hoorah! Hoorah!

Rutgers Rah!

Upstream Redteam!

Redteam Upstream!

Rah Rah Rutgers Rah!

Agent #1

Good thing he's on our side!
More of Agent #1, and Stiny, at www.stiny.org

Steelyard "Sugartooth" McDan

That's the name of the wonderful summer tour featuring Steely Dan and Michael McDonald. We caught them on a beautiful August evening at the Tweeter Center amphitheater on the Camden Riverfront.

The show opened with Michael McDonald doing a long set that combined many Doobie Brothers hits, along with Motown covers that he has featured on his last two CDs. McDonald's voice was in great form belting out Marvin Gaye and Smokey Robinson tunes, accompanied by a strong backing band that included a terrific sax and backup vocals. He finished up with a rousing rendition of "Taking it to the Streets", that brought the crowd to its feet. We felt that we had already gotten our money's worth with half the show to go.

Donald Fagen and Walter Becker arrived with a 10 piece backing band that included four horns and two backup singers. They opened with the exuberant "Bodhisattva" and then carried on with a virtual greatest hits list of Steely Dan songs, including "Aja", "Peg", "Hey 19" and many others. Only one recent tune, "Pixeleen", was tossed in the mix. I would have enjoyed hearing "Cousin Dupree", or anything from Fagen's excellent new Morph the Cat CD, but most of the songs were rooted firmly in the 70's. Mid way through the set, Michael McDonald joined in on vocals and keyboard. He added an extra spark to "Show Biz Kids", "Do it Again", and others. The show ended with my favorite Steely tune, "My Old School", filled with wild guitars and a crowd once again standing and singing along with every word.

We left feeling that we had gotten two great concerts for the price of one.

They got the house on the corner

With the rug inside

They got the booze they need

All that money can buy

They got the shapely bods

They got the steely dan t-shirt

And for the coup-de-gras

They're outrageous
Show Biz Kids

Steelyard "Sugartooth McDan - The man, the legend

All God's Critters

We took a day off to visit the Philadelphia Zoo. And who did we find in the Monkey House? None other than Terry Hendrix and WXPN's Kathy O'Connell. WXPN is the University of Pennsylvania's celebrated radio station, where we first heard Terri's music. Kathy is the host of XPN's "Kids Corner" show - a truly unique and fun radio show for kids of all ages.
We said hello to Terri and Lloyd Maines when we first arrived at the zoo. They were setting up for their show - part of the zoo's Rock 'n' Roar concert series. They smiled at our shirts and we talked briefly about seeing them at the Tin Angel.

We let them finish setting up and visited some of the animal exhibits. When we arrived about 10 minutes before the show, we saw Terri and Lloyd talking with Kathy. Lloyd waved us over and we said hello to Kathy, who says she has the best job in the world. Terri asked to take a picture of us with Kathy. Then we took some snapshots of them.

We talked about seeing Terri and Lloyd in Amenia. Lloyd remarked about how beautiful that area was. He also really enjoyed New Hampshire, where they had recently performed at an area the reminded him of On Golden Pond. Kathy O'Connell is originally from Long Island, and has family in Beacon and Fishkill.

Marsha told Terri that we wanted to see them in Texas sometime (although they said it was too hot in San Antonio during the summer - come in the spring). Terri recommended coming for one of her "Life is a Song" workshops, or one of the festivals in the area that, feature other Texas musicians, as well.
The concert was a mix of many of the songs from her children's CD, with a few other songs thrown in (notably, the zoo themed "I Found the Lions", "Wallet", and the fun "Wind Me Up").
Terri got all the kids to roar like lions and make their favorite critter sounds.

Get on up and dance everybody, get on up and dance . . .

. . . and get your goat on!

All us critters clapped and sang along to "Play Ball", "Car Car", "Celebrate the Difference", and more. What a wonderful day at the Zoo! And we didn't even get to the animals yet. More pictures to come!

The Garden Diaries - August

The weather is hot and humid, and the tomatoes are ripening on the vine. Can we eat them fast enough?

The eggplant have certainly grown - but we are still waiting for fruit.

The crook-neck squash are fairing better.

Spicy pepper, anyone?

Self portrait with sunflower. About 7' and growing.

Red and juicy . . .

Or try a Golden Jubilee

Blowin' in the wind

The answer, my friend, is located in the Pocono Mountains, near Wilkes-Barre, PA. As we traveled home from Syracuse, we were amazed at the sight of these giant wind-powered turbines sitting on top of a ridge. They are 397 feet high (255 feet of tower, plus the upright blade) - almost 100 feet more than a football field, or the Staue of Liberty. They stand out like Brobdingnagian giants, turning gracefully in the breeze. These turbines are part of the Bear Creek wind farm. They provide energy to Pennsylvania Power & Light, and the University of Pennsylvania, among others. All told, there are 12 generators putting out 2 magawatts each. Expectations are to generate 75 million kilowatt-hours per year.

If you want to see this sight for yourself, just head south on the Northeast Extension of the PA Turnpike from Scranton. As you can see, this shot was from mile marker 110.

Summer Syracuse Girls

There is nothing like Syracuse in the summer - Lots of sun, fun and food. Of course, on our trip we ran into a little stormy weather. Fortunately, we had the birthday candles ready when the lights went out.

Happy Birthday Elise!

On some of those summer days, it can be so hard to wake up. . .

. . .at least until you find a monkey

eek eek

Terri and Lloyd at the Tin Angel

We saw Terri Hendrix and Lloyd Maines for the second time, at the Tin Angel in Philadelphia.
This is a small performance space above a restaurant in the Old City section of Philadelphia (near the Plough and Stars). The room is about 15 feet wide and 100 feet long. We had seats about 6 feet from the stage and took these (no flash) pictures - some with Marsha's cell phone.
The Philly crowd was very different from the ones at the country club in Amenia, NY. These fans were very familiar with Terri's music. I suspect that, like us, they had heard Terri played on the University of Penn station, WXPN. Terri told us how she had met Gene Shay, who DJ'd a folk music show in Philly for many years, at a festival in Texas. She was thrilled when Gene brought one of her early CDs back with him - excitably telling all her friends that she was being played in far off Philadelphia.
Terri and Lloyed played up a storm! I can only describe some of their furious strumming as fierce. And their voices were wonderful. Terri easily floats from country crooning, to skat, to soulful ballads that will melt your heart.

They had us all sing along with the Car Car song, instructing everyone how to make the correct bbbbbbppppp engine sound with their lips.

Terri also sang a couple of new songs, and Acre of Land (which we had heard in NY) and Spirtual Kind, where Terri explained her religious upbringing:

"I'm a little bit Catholic, a little bit Jew
a little bit Baptist, and Episcopalian too"

Right now, Terri is in the studio recording music for her next CD.














Strummin' hard!

They also talked about how well their children's album has been received. They are coming back to the Philadelphia Zoo in August to perform for the kids. Performing for children has been an eye opening, and scary, experience however. Lloyd explained that when they start to play, all of the kids are immediately entranced . . .

... for 15 seconds. Then the short attention spans kick in. Lloyd mentioned that, in the middle of a song, one kid jumped and pointed to the ground, shouting "A grasshopper!".














You da man! No, you da man!


We will try to get to the zoo to lend some support, and enjoy the music. Marsha had a nice conversation with Terri after the show, and took a picture of her with a shocked fan. We are both very impressed by just what nice people Terri and Lloyd are. Marsha told Terri that we will have to go see her in Texas, as soon as she gets some black T shirts to sell at the show. San Marcos, here we come!

Happy Half-Way Mark

The Cassini spacecraft has now been orbiting Saturn for two years - half way through its planned mission. The pictures returned to earth have been nothing short of spectacular. Here are a few recent shots.

Rings and shadows of rings

Moon Dance - from right to left, Thethys, Enceladus (faint middle smudge), and bright Titan dance among the rings.

Enceladus, close up and color enhanced.

Many more pictures at http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm.

Photos Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech