While we were gone recently, our daughter took good care of the flowers her mom had planted, and when we got home we had two planters full of beautiful zinnia flowers.
Of course, I flickr’d a few photos of the zinnias, along with some of the other beautiful flowers in our back yard. On the Flickr site you can see all of our flower pictures, with the newest ones towards the end of that set; here are just a few to whet your appetite: a yellow lily, a zinnia mix, and a pink hibiscus. Interestingly, the hibiscus is on the side of the house, outside our bedroom, and hasn’t ever been watered!
out of control.
To some degree, those words from the song Tons of Steel, describe Brent Mydland’s last troubled years.
It was 15 years ago today that Grateful Dead keyboardist Brent Mydland died. He was only 38 years old and left behind a wife and child.
Brent was the 3rd primary keyboard player for the Dead, and the 10 year or so age gap between him and his fellow band members contributed to his insecurities and as a result he didn’t always feel that he fit in with the other members of the band.
Audiences disagreed, however, and his gravelly voice and Hammond B3 organ with the swirling Leslies were very special to a generation of deadheads who came of age in the 1980s.
I saw him perform at his first concert w/the Dead, at Spartan Stadium in San Jose in April of ‘79. It was only my 3rd show, and enthralled as I was by the music, the fact that it started raining when they played “Looks Like Rain”, and stopped shortly thereafter, forever stuck in my mind.
As with many artists, his troubled life found release in his passionate playing and singing. These lyrics from one of his songs, Gentlemen, Start Your Engines, serve to illustrate that point:
One of these days I’ve gonna pull myself together.
Soon as I finish tearin’ myself apart
Let me tell you, honey,
There’s some mighty stormy weather
Howlin’ round the caverns of my heart.
Brent Mydland, 1952-1990, Rest in Peace
Image courtesy of Herb Greene and used with permission.
Here are some interesting pictures I found while looking for something else.
First, a couple of images from a very fine set taken at a small country fair in Missouri.
Second, for my daughter, a nice collection of almost 50 images of butterflies. The pictures are very crisp, with good color and sharpness.
Whenever we have a chance to enter the Grand Canyon from the east via Highway 64 we always stop by the Native American trading area located at the Little Colorado River Gorge. This year was no exception, and we stopped there early in the morning of June 23rd, 2005, after spending the night in Kayenta, AZ.
There is always a wide variety of hand-made goods ranging from jewelry to pottery, and changing slightly from year to year. In addition, the traders are located near a canyon so dramatic that it likely would be nationally famous if it weren’t located within an hour of the Grand Canyon.
I uploaded a number of pictures of the Little Colorado River Gorge to Flickr; a small sampling is shown below.
Last spring, Princeton University sponsored an interesting art competition. Called the Art of Science, the competition called for images “produced in the course of research or incorporating tools and concepts from science”.
The top 55 entries are now on display: Art of Science Online Gallery.
Below are two of my personal favorites. The research done with the ants, in the area of coordinated behaviour without a central controller, is quite fascinating. The strange crystal is mostly just pretty but does demonstrate some interesting mathematical concepts.
You can click on each image to get the detailed story behind the picture.
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