Monday, June 27, 2011

Playing The Basement in July

I've gotten word that I'll be playing at the legendary Sydney club The Basement on Thursday, July 14—Bastille Day. There are four acts on the bill—Kooyeh, The Raw Tide, Bones And All—along with myself.

A review of The Basement here.

Update: They've updated to include this particular show - and didn't include my name in the ad. Oh well.

Cougar Sightings

Something you will never see in the news in Australia: Cougar sightings up in Ashland, Oregon, my old home:

More cougar sightings in Ashland parks have been reported to the city's Parks and Recreation department.

The Parks Department received two reports of cougar sightings on Wednesday, just weeks after a man reported seeing a cougar feeding on a deer carcass in Lithia Park on May 20.

I saw a cougar just once in my twenty years in Ashland, leaping two lanes and shoulders of the highway in front of the car in front of me on I-5 just north of the Ashland St. exit. Beautiful sight.

Friday, June 24, 2011

Good Tasmanian Devil News

I've blogged about the Tasmanian Devil face cancer epidemic—it's communicable!—before. Well, today, some good news:

Efforts to save the Tasmanian Devil have received a boost, with the first joeys arriving in an insurance population of the species at a Hunter Valley property.
A year ago 50 devils were released in a free-range enclosure at a property owned by media mogul James Packer, as part of a plan to produce a thousand disease-free devils by 2021.
The Devil Ark program is run by the Australian Reptile Park and spokeswoman Liz Vella says the ambitious plan is paying off.
"We have got several mums with babies," she said. 
Much more info at TassieDevil..com

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

State of Origin

There's a rather large - okay huge - Australian sporting event on tonight:

Described as "sport's greatest rivalry", the State of Origin series is one of Australia's and the region's premier sporting events, attracting a huge television audience and usually selling out the stadiums in which the games are played. Despite the existence of international tournaments and State of Origin being a domestic competition, it is frequently cited as being the highest-level of rugby league played anywhere in the world.

That might contain just a wee bit of Wikipedia bias. In any case, I'll be watching with the neighbor across the hall, Andrew - on his brand new 46-inch, HD, 3-D, death-ray capable flatscreen TV - and his folks and some friends, so this will be a significant Austrlian learning experience for me. I'll definitely be filing a report on it tomorrow. If I remember anything...

Aussie Dentist

Me: Tooth face neck hurt ow.

Aussie Dentist: Hmm. [needle needle] Let's just pop that sucker out.

Me: Rnph ow?

AD: Sure, why not.

[AD grabs pliers, stands up, leans over, reaches into mouth, pulls out right top rear wisdom tooth]

AD: Smell that. [holds freshly extracted tooth to my nose]

Me: GAH!

That was my first gone wisdom tooth. AD asked if I wanted him to use one of his dental drills to drill a hole through it so I could put some string through it and wear it around my neck. While I have no plans to wear my gone wisdom tooth around my neck, I said Of course.


That is one nasty looking tooth.

Cost of emergency visit, x-ray, tooth extraction, temporary filling in cavity exposed after extraction: $290 AUS (about the same as US dollars). That's possibly close to what it would cost in the U.S., not sure, but I think it's a bit cheaper.

Monday, June 6, 2011

2 Lorikeets, 1 Mirror

Two wild lorikeets, taken by son-in-law Hans on his veranda. (The moment at about the 25 second mark, when the one bird's head goes over the others - while looking into his own face - is hilarious.)

Friday, June 3, 2011

Lizard

Took this photo in 2006. East of Canberra got out of the car for some reason or other, saw this little guy not far from the road digging a little hole. I don't know what type of lizard he is. I'll try and find out.

Look at the back legs on that sucker.