Then I read about a strange fish called Barreleye. It has a transparent head. How amazing is that? A six-inch long fish that lives at 2,000 feet under the ocean has a see-through head. They look up though their heads to find prey above them. Nature is truly wondrous.
But it gets even better. A clever little octopus fiddled with a valve in her tank and flooded an aquarium with 200 gallons of salt water. You’re not supposed to encourage mischievous children and animals. But this Two Spotted Octopus made my day.
While listening to me rhapsodize about these things, a friend gave me a link to the Psychedelic fish. A wildly patterned piscis from Indonesia, its fins have evolved into a limb like appendage that it uses to bounce from coral to coral, looking for goodies. I’ve watched the video several times now, and every viewing elicits laughter and smiles. Check it out, it has the grumpiest expression on it’s face and bounces around like a drunken college student trying to get to the next bar. It doesn’t get any better than this.
Wrong. The Weta Studio is renowned for making film props like Hobbit feet and Ork faces, but that’s not all. Nadya Vessey lost both her legs as a child, and wrote to Weta telling them about herself and her life long desire to be a mermaid. In between film projects, the people at Weta worked on the mermaid suit and fulfilled Nadya’s dream. Before setting her free in the ocean, they tested the suit in a pool, it worked perfectly. And it looks incredible. Being an Oceangal, you might guess that I am a swimmer. And you would be correct. But not only do I swim like a fish, I used to play mermaid as a child. Clamping my legs together, I flapped them like I had a tail instead of legs. And now Nadya can swim like a mermaid too. I hope it is as wonderful for her to be a mermaid, as it was for me.
All of these things have conspired to remind me that we live in a pretty cool world. And I may be biased, but the ocean is, by far, the most amazing thing about it. My cynical, blasé heart is unfreezing. I am becoming twitterpated and I can’t open my mouth without a song jumping out of it.
Billy, who we will all be hearing of soon, is in the front on the right
Through what I can only describe as cosmic convergence, I discovered the most beautiful rock n roll band in the world. The convergence covers brings together some of my most favorite things in the world: the early 1970’s L. A. rock scene, groupies, gorgeous men in drag, fabulous rock-n-roll, and above of all, my love of dramatic tragedy. A fellow devotee of the aforementioned favorite things discovered a remarkable interview with two of the most famous L. A. Queens, Sable and Queenie. Being generous, she shared the interview with me. Of the many fascinating observations from Sable, she tells us who she thinks are the sexiest men in around. Which in her opinion are Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin and Billy, the drummer for a band Shady Lady, but not Mick Jagger. Sable assures the interviewer that we will be hearing of this Billy soon. This interview took place in June of 1973 and I although I had heard of Robert Plant, I still hadn’t heard of this extremely sexy drummer for Shady Lady called Billy. Now this is a woman who knew men, she had to be right. This is where the mystery started. After exhaustive research I now know the secret of Shady Lady. But my friends, that is a tale that is going to have to wait until I’m done with NaNoWriMo.
What was it about the 70’s and men in tight jeans? In that picture Percy’s bits and pieces look about split in half. I miss that in today’s world where baggy jeans and puffy fronted dockers trousers are all men wear. Thank god for the occasional cowboy in his Wranglers or I’d never get to see a tight ass in snug jeans. But those aren’t even as snug as our Percy’s tackle splitting denim. Maybe I need a vacation in the Castro or the Hillcrest, do gay men still favor ass-hugging jeans for our package viewing pleasure? Or are they being sensible too? Sighs, How’s a 43 yr old inveterate crotch watcher in a small town supposed to get her jollies when rodeo season is over?
The funkiest turtle I’ve ever seen was introduced to me by my fave website BoingBoingdotnet. He’s a true punk and rocks the green mohawk. My turtle and tortoise loving friend The Floyd, tells me you have to scrub captive turtles or they grow the algae. Guess this feller hasn’t had a good scrub in ages, but all the better for my amusement.
Apologies to Alex Trebek, Sony Pictures, and Merv Griffin (RIP) but while waiting for work to walk through the door, a discussion took place between myself and a few coworkers, all of us with a similar love of the things that make our town the place it is. The result of which was a game of Jeopardy tweaked to fit our strange little town of Ellensburg WA.
Category: Things you see at Super 1 Grocery Store
$100 -Flesh that rolls over the waistband of jeans or shorts / What is a muffin top?
$200 -Twelve half racks of PBR and three bags of ice / What are supplies for the weekend?
$300 -One deli pizza, a pound of jojo’s, and a Rock Star/ What is lunch for Ellensburg HS student
Category: Rodeo Weekend Events
$100 -Drunk man who falls off horse / Who is a member of the Sheriff’s Posse
$200 -Short guy, covered in dirt, who asks repetitive questions / Who is a Bull rider that didn’t make his ride
$300 -A bronc rider who rides with three broken ribs, a separated shoulder and torn ACL / Who is the poster boy for the term ‘Cowboy Up’
Category: The Central Washington University Students
$100 -The biggest party of the quarter / What is financial aid check day?
$200 -.119 / What is the BAC of a CWU freshman who has been binge drinking for the first time and is unconscious
$300 -An epidemic of panic attacks among college students / What is finals week?
Category : Read in the Police Blotter
$100 -“There’s a strange smell coming from Kamola Hall” / What is suspicious odor complaint?
$200 -“My neighbors fence is down and his cows are out” / What is livestock in the roadway complaint?
$300 -“A man squirted catsup on my 3/4 ton” / What is condiment vs pickup complaint?
From the Deep Creek Times of McHenry, Maryland via the Fortean Times. The fawn evidently followed the beagle home and through the doggie door. As soon as I saw the photo, I melted. I dare you to not melt. If you don’t melt, I will consider you to be a vile human being, or perhaps something not human.
This photo was snapped .15 seconds after the world's first atomic bomb exploded on July 16, 1945. It was taken six miles from ground zero.
Sixty three years ago, the first atomic bomb, named Trinity, was exploded in the Alamagordo Bombing Range in the New Mexico Desert. I won’t go into the history of the Manhattan Project, we should all know it by now, this anniversary reminds me of the reason we live in fear on a nearly daily basis. This clip is from the documentary Atomic Cafe.
Those who say “who cares we’ll all be dead anyway” need to be reminded of the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This is Asa Takii, who’s husband and children died in the bombing of Hiroshima, who survived trapped in a building for days.
Mrs. Takii's memory of the bombing of Hiroshima "I was washing clothes when I saw this incredible flash''
On Sunday, Peromyscus blogged on a piece I had found interesting, the Sunday Times article on the state of music by Simon Jenkins. Peromyscus spoke to the author’s assertion that rather than the disconnect afforded by the Internet, people were craving congregation. Do use the link I provided to check out L. Hopwood’s thoughts, it’s what I thought when I read first read the Jenkins article, Hopwood just beat me to it. My thoughts that Peromyscus did not address were about what Jenkins said regarding cd sales falling and live music attendance increasing. Recorded music is heading in the direction of becoming the promotion for the live event and that being how artists are going to be making their living. I can truly see that being the direction music will be heading in. Album/cd sales are down 10%, conversely, live event attendance is up 13%, despite ticket prices. Something will have to do something about the costs of attending events. Jenkins thinks people will pay whatever they have to but ticket prices prohibit a lot of people from attending concerts. I can’t imagine anyone, particularly the artist, would want live music to only be available to the elite who can afford it (yes I realize I’m a naive idealist, but please leave me that way). They’re also going to have to do something about ticket resellers. It wasn’t the Ahmet Ertugun Fund making £7,425 a ticket for O2, the tickets originally sold for £125. Who got the change? Seatwave, Viagogo, and eBay, are mentioned as top resellers of live event tickets. What was the profit distribution for them? Couldn’t find the answer by googling. *Edit 7/8/8 – Consumer Reports Article on ticket resellers, still don’t know who kept the £7300, fans? Doubtful. Ahmet Ertegun Fund? Ditto. Evil Entity? Absolutely.
Should my wildest dreams come true, and Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones rejoin musical forces and tour, I hereby promise them that I will attend whichever concert proves to be closest to my base. I also promise to purchase their recording should they issue one, and not download it (unless that is the mode of distribution).
Dave, Jimmy, Taylor and John after the Wembley gig 6/7/08
I have a lovely aunt who sends me lots of cool stuff she finds on the internet. She never sends me bambi mail, except once when I had been out of communication for a very long time due to an existential crisis. Then she sent one about sisters mothers aunts etc that was guaranteed to make me feel guilty. It did of course and I promptly sent an angst filled response, enumerating the worthlessness of my life, she fired back a response that pretty much said “snap out of it” which worked. We have since back to our usual, she sends me scads of cool/funny internet items, and I periodically respond appropriately. This is one she sent recently, and as my favorite blogs have all been posting happy-I-love-the-world items, I decided to join in.
Maeva and William’s boogie-woogie is guaranteed to make you smile and improve your attitude. I can say this with certainty because it worked on me.
Then I read about a strange fish called Barreleye. It has a transparent head. How amazing is that? A six-inch long fish that lives at 2,000 feet under the ocean has a see-through head. They look up though their heads to find prey above them. Nature is truly wondrous.
Wrong. The Weta Studio is renowned for making film props like Hobbit feet and Ork faces, but that’s not all. Nadya Vessey lost both her legs as a child, and wrote to Weta telling them about herself and her life long desire to be a mermaid. In between film projects, the people at Weta worked on the mermaid suit and fulfilled Nadya’s dream. Before setting her free in the ocean, they tested the suit in a pool, it worked perfectly. And it looks incredible. Being an Oceangal, you might guess that I am a swimmer. And you would be correct. But not only do I swim like a fish, I used to play mermaid as a child. Clamping my legs together, I flapped them like I had a tail instead of legs. And now Nadya can swim like a mermaid too. I hope it is as wonderful for her to be a mermaid, as it was for me.
Oceangal 
You must be logged in to post a comment.