Tuesday Tones Staying in Japan, and in fact sticking with the same composer as last week: we return to Toru Takemitsu, the great Japanese modernist whose music evokes meanderings through time, space, and geometry, as is noted by the title to this work. A Flock Descends Into a Pentagonal Garden is…

Yup. I use jarlic and I regret nothing. (I do use fresh on occasion, but I have zero issue with the jar.)

The new playground and splash pad at the Buffalo Outer Harbor State Park looks fantastic! I hope it can be maintained and kept this nice.

I've always meant to go back and watch Season 8 of CHEERS. That was the season during my freshman year of college, so I don't really know what went on that year. I've heard tell, though....

GOOD NEWS! Researchers at Stanford University have developed a UNIVERSAL vaccine known as GLA-3M-052-LS+OVA, that protects against a wide range of respiratory viruses, bacteria AND even allergens. The vaccine is delivered intranasally AND provides broad protection in the lungs for several MONTHS.

Memoriam An annual reposting of some things pertaining to Memorial Day. First, a remembrance of a soldier I never knew. Fifteen years ago I wrote the following on Memorial Day, and I wanted to revisit it. It's about the Vietnam Veteran whose name I remember, despite the fact that I had no relation…

Another reminder: if there exists *any* class of people who don't have due process rights, then *nobody* actually has due process rights because the government can always just say you're in that class.

Y'all if you think that the reason we don't have universal healthcare is that it costs too much, I don't know what to say to you. We would get better healthcare for less money with universal healthcare. The cost is not the issue. There are many reasons we don't have universal healthcare.

What an amazing universe…. The things we have enabled ourselves to see never stop amazing me: Beacon of Light The heart of galaxy M77 shines brightly in this May 7, 2026, image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. The intense glow is due to gas being pulled by the strong gravity of the central…

After watching REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES (which The Wife picked) on Mai Tai Night (which i picked), I can now say that Tear Jerker Night and Mai Tai Night should NOT be the same night. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to rock back and forth for a while with my arms wrapped around my knees.

We all literally, LITERALLY just watched NASA fly four absolute all-stars the farthest any human has ever been from Earth and back flawlessly, and yet we're still continuously forced to pretend Musk's bullshit catastrophe factory is the future of human space exploration

This headline is hilarious when you learn that the rocket toppled over in a fiery explosion on landing

I saw this over on Threads, and on the one hand, I'm a D or E person. On the other, these images gloss over the REAL oddballs, because if you're eating the flat without separating the bones, there's just something very deeply wrong with you.

Butterflies…. Back in April, The Wife and I took a weekend trip to Canada. Among other things that we did, a major planned stop was the Niagara Falls Butterfly Conservatory in Niagara Falls, ON. This impressive facility is just that: a large indoor botanical garden that is loaded with butterflies.…

Butterfly IV. Niagara Falls Butterfly Conservatory, Niagara Falls, ON. Taken on Miranda (Lumix FZ1000ii), f/4.0, 146mm, 1/1250sec, ISO500. flic.kr/p/2s89HwW

So...is Bing about to have its big moment?

Something for Thursday I'm not sure this needs a hell of a lot of introduction. The duo is called Greenvines Duo, and they apparently do acoustic work in the UK and are available for events. I happened upon this cover of theirs while I was trying to decide which performance by the original artists…

A while back I wondered when Michael Caputo, one of the slimiest of all MAGA operatives, might come flapping out of whatever attic he's been hanging upside-down in. Well, here he is, wanting some of that sweet free taxpayer money for traitors. Of course.

Butterfly III. Niagara Falls Butterfly Conservatory, Niagara Falls, ON. Miranda (Lumix FZ1000ii), f/4.0, 69.6mm, 1/1250sec, ISO1250. flic.kr/p/2s89HwL

Heroes.

I'm not sure what the single dumbest MAGA talking point is, but "If you protested 'No Kings', why didn't you protest King Charles when he was here?" is certainly in the conversation.

Tuesday Tones Staying in Japan for the next while, we have a work by one of Japan's greatest composers: Toru Takemitsu. He lived 1930 to 1996, and he was also wildly productive: he composed a huge and prolific amount of music, and he also wrote extensively on music. One cannot consider oneself…

Butterfly II. Niagara Falls Butterfly Conservatory, Niagara Falls, ON. Taken on Miranda (Lumix FZ1000ii). f/4.0, 87mm, 1/1250sec, ISO800.

Well, now I want a romance novel in which the backdrop is a volcano.

Everybody’s starving, and those shifty Wilder boys are feasting on pancakes?! (a repost) I've seen some social media chatter lately about the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, and people discovering anew that there is a gaping distance between the Ingalls and Wilder lives portrayed in…

Sunday Stealing, plus a few other thoughts Some weeks, the Sunday Stealing quiz is big and hefty and can sustain an entire post on its own. Other times, not so much: Which one? 1. Pepsi or Coke? Coke, honestly, but it's not a super-strong preference. I'm not disappointed if I'm at a place that…

Happy birthday Uncle George! George Lucas,born this date 1944 George Lucas remains, perhaps, the single largest influence in my creative life. When 800 years old he reaches, may he look as good!

Something for Thursday From the Before and After Again art installation, Buffalo AKG Art Museum. More photos from this exhibit here. Four years ago was one of the worst days in Buffalo's history: a racist gunman came all the way to Buffalo to murder Black people in a grocery store. That's…

Me, when buying snacks and I see what the manufacturers are calling a "Party Size" bag now:

A writing vlog! I made a video about some thoughts on writing! Naturally I figured this would be a pretty quick and easy one, so naturally, I talked for something like 26 minutes. But still! Enjoy!

I thought I'd record a short video about writing. 26 minutes later...oh well, I do like the result! www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEWZ...

It amazes me how this guy looks his supporters in the eye and tells them straight-up, in one of his few consistently honest moments, that he just doesn't give a single shit about them. And then they come back for more. Kinda sounds like a cult to me.

Tuesday Tones I'd love to visit Japan. But that's not going to happen any time soon, so for now, I'll just listen to Japanese music. We'll start with one of Japan's first major composers of the 20th century, Kosaku Yamada. Yamada lived 1886-1965, during some of Japan's most tumultuous history. In…

Butterfly I Butterfly Conservatory, Niagara Falls, ON. Miranda (Lumix FZ1000ii), f/4.0, 140.1mm, 1/320sec, ISO1600. flic.kr/p/2s8abHq

Keep Clam

Enjoyers of art. Art Gallery of Hamilton, Hamilton, ON. Miranda (Lumix FZ1000ii), f/3.8, 34.4mm, 1/40sec, ISO1600 flic.kr/p/2s84k7E

Something for Thursday YouTube recently served up a bunch of clips from the 2000 movie The Patriot, the Revolutionary War epic starring Mel Gibson. It's a movie I've always had problems with...it is historically bad to an appalling degree, and it's one of those movies that spends so much time and…

Not surprising. A whole damn lot of people never seem willing to connect the dots between "The shitty results of this particular Republican president" and "Maybe Republican policies just produce shitty results."

I'm good with words, so the only thing keeping me from doing something fun with the fact that "Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen" has the same syllables and scansion as "Alexander Hamilton" is that I don't know shit about hockey.

Chatting at the Mall! Square One Shopping Center, Mississauga, ON. Ophelia (Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra), f/4.9, 1/10sec, ISO125 flic.kr/p/2s8acdt

I'm so glad someone else has the "Which overalls to wear today?" problem!

Tuesday Tones When I got in my car today, WNED was playing a piece called Suffolk Suite by Doreen Carwithen. I liked what I heard, so here it is! But wait...who was Doreen Carwithen? Carwithen was a British composer who lived 1922-2003. She is perhaps better known, sadly, as being the second wife…

I've been blogging for over 24 years now, and as a geek since birth in 1971, naturally a lot of that content has been about STAR WARS. So, here's a thread of stuff I've written about STAR WARS! I haven't written much about anything since THE LAST JEDI, though. I'm not sure why. Anyway:

Yes, it's STAR WARS Day. But it's also Audrey Hepburn Day (she would be 97 were she alive now), and I think that should be mentioned. Oh Audrey.... www.youtube.com/watch?v=uirB...

Last test! OK, this is the final one of these test posts. (If it works, I'll come back and add the explanation after it publishes.)

Absolute World Towers (sometimes called the "Marilyn Monroe Towers"), Mississauga, ON Miranda (Lumix FZ1000ii), f/11.0, 16.0mm, 1/250sec, ISO125

I have to admit a certain grudging quality to my enjoyment of NANCY during Caroline Cash's first few weeks running it (I loved Olivia Jaimes's run and I miss Esther and Robotics Club and all that!), but I'm coming around fast. Cash's work is really good. NANCY forever!!!

A magical night at the Botanical Gardens Miranda (Lumix FZ1000ii), f/2.8, 9.1mm, 1/50sec, ISO1600

and then laundered as important voices through the "legitimate" media platforms those same billionaire pedos have captured