Late afternoon, a westbound jet.
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2jul2009 - Ten Songs of Summertime
Hey baby, it's the Fourth of July! Time for my list of great summer songs -- these are of the obvious summer themed variety. Enjoy.
10. The Boys of Summer by Don Henley (Eagles live version).
9. Thunder Road by Bruce Springsteen, 'storytellers' version.
8. Groovin' by the Rascals, (this is the 'New Rascals' version, not the original, but not bad).
7. Night Swimming by R.E.M.
6. Summer Wind by Madeline Peyroux -- yes, Frank's version is great, but this is fresher.
5. Fourth of July by X. Unfortunately I couldn't find a good viddy for this one, but the audio is good anyway.
4. Summertime by Gershwin, Miles Davis version. The greatest American master.
3. Summer In the City by the Lovin' Spoonful. Send your ears to New York.
2. Summer Skin by Death Cab for Cutie. Haunting.
1. Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun by Debussy. Not exactly Tilta' Whirl material, but unsurpassed in terms of evoking the feeling of a summer afternoon.
24jun2009 - My, what an interesting plant.
Yesterday I noticed a nice display of common bladderwort in bloom in a small roadside marsh near Lena Park (Starke Co., Indiana). Bladderworts are a widely distributed carnivorous plant -- insectivorous might be more accurate, it's not like they're roaming the land, trifid-like, seeking their prey. Living in acidic marshes, their habitat is rich in water and sunshine, but deprived of certain nutrients, especially minerals. They are able to acquire some nutrients by capturing and devouring small animal life (insect larvae, fairy shrimp perhaps) in nifty little sacks that capture their prey. Marsh water is almost absurdly rich in these kinds of creatures and bladderworts are fairly common, but nevertheless little known by non-botany types. Here's a more detailed account from the US Forest Service: Common bladderwort (Utricularia macrorhiza Le Conte).
They are, for some reason, difficult to capture in a photograph, but I tried couple of shots. Here's my photo of a colony of Common Bladderworts in Bloom.
23jun2009 - 8 Principles of Open Government Data
The Eight Principles of Open Government Data on resource.org. Yeah, that's about right.
22jun2009 - Gallardia
Acoustic Improve #6: Gallardia. A summer song on the classical. [capo 3, Emin position, actual key Gmin]
19jun2009 - bigeastern.com covers on Picasa Web
Bigeastern.com is still hand coded, I suppose it always will be, and it always features a 'cover' image at the upper left, functionally similar to the cover of a magazine. Since the inception of the current proto-blogish format in January of 2004, there have been about 122 covers, by my count. I've posted an archive of all the covers as a Picasa Web Album -- here's the Direct Link. A permanent link is included at the end of the caption of the current image. The hand coded archive here on bigeastern.com is no longer being maintained, due to the larger format images I'm using now.
15jun2009 - Odonata of the Chicago Region
It's a great time of year to be outside in the Chicago region, and you're certain to see some interesting dragonflies and damselflies (order Odonata). If you'd like to know their names and maybe something about their lives, here's an excellent page with very helpful photos of most of species you will likely encounter:
Odonata of Northeastern Illinois, USA.
Most of the common Odonata I see here in NWIndiana are shown. Hosted by the Field Museum in conjunction with Chicago Wilderness.
15jun2009 - Whippoorwill Improv
Last week we had a few guests to the Cabin at Lena Park (the Tippecanoe-Wythogan chapter of the DAR) and I showed some slides about our efforts to preserve the natural qualities of Big Eastern's lands. One of the slides was the very minimilist nest of a whippoorwill. One of the members mentioned that she hadn't heard a whippoorwill in a long time; they are in fact a declining species. Right on cue, as we were packing up one began to sing it's haunting, though mechanically repetitive song. (here's a link to a brief field recording).
The next morning I tried to capture something of it in a guitar improv, and posted it. Listening back, I wasn't satisfied with the sound and tried again substituting a Spanish made classical guitar for the American steel string I'd used on my first take. Here it is: Whip-poor-will Improv {#5 in the acoustic improv series on the right side of this page].
If you want to try it, drop the low E to D and capo 6, start out in position xx3010; that's sort of an F2 position, I suppose. Rhythmically this take is ad lib, but I'm not sure if that works. I wanted to avoid turning it into a bluegrass tune, seemed too obvious. Perhaps a steady beat would have been better. I may try it that way sometime.
5jun2009 - Bike Safety
Take a few minutes and review bike safety with this YouTube viddy:
Posted on YouTube by PublicResource.Org.
4jun2009 - Through Handlens and Binoculars
Readers interested in the natural ecology of the northern Indiana region will find much to enjoy, and plenty to learn as well on Lindsay and Scott's Through Handlens and Binoculars blog.
3jun2009 - 8 Wedding Songs
Over the years I've learned (or perhaps I should say, hacked at) hundreds of songs, but choosing songs for a wedding always is a challenge. Most good songs have some irony, some pain, some sense of loss, something that just doesn't fit in at a wedding. My wife Corinne and I selected these eight songs for her nephew Craig and his lovely bride-to-be, Val, so they could pick from them for their wedding. We've arranged them to be wedding friendly, changing some lyrics a little where needed. All were recorded totally live and acoustic, with no edits and just a single mono mic, so don't expect fabulous production. Personally, I like the natural sound of real living room music, but there's too much hiss on a couple of the cuts, not sure why. Anyway, I hope you enjoy these unambiguous love songs.
Painting by Chagall - By the Weepies, the lyric wonderfully evokes Chagall's work in a modern folk style.
First Day of My Life - An excellent love song by Bright Eyes, very playable with a lyric that rings true to life. I add some Travis Picking to keep it flowing without being too strummy-wummy.
Like a Star - Our bossa nova influenced version of this beautiful song by Corinne Bailey Rae.
Such Great Heights - Originally by the Postal Service, our version is based on the charmingly delicate Americana infused Iron and Wine version. The lyrically observant might note some parallels with painting by Chagall.
If - This classic soft rock ballad by Bread was a staple of wedding in bygone days. Sure, it might be a bit on the sugary side, but that's okay at a wedding, right? Fun to play too.
Kiss of Life - The Sade hit gives me a chance to play some classical guitar in the bossa nova style, and Corinne nails the vocals, IMHO. This song is so warm, sweet and sensual, it sets a nice mood. Perhaps more appropriate as a prelude rather than during the ceremony. The structure isn't too complicated. [hint, we do it Capo 2, making it mostly open, a real helper when playing acoustic]
Feel My Love - A soulful ballad originally by Bob Dylan, Josh Kelley recorded a nice cover. This recording has too darn much hiss, but nevertheless this would be a good choice for a couple who like that soulful thing, and like Dylan songs in general, offers lots of room for interpretation. We modified the words slightly to make it a bit more wedding appropriate.
Love Song - A simple and slightly quirky piece by Tilly and the Wall with an appealing intimacy -- easy to play.
5may2009 - Railroad Report
Here's the FTA's 'Rail Modernization Report to Congress'.
5may2009 - Coast to Coast of Indiana 2009 update
Warm weather is here, time to get biking -- here's the official flyer and entry form for the 2009 running of the Race Coast to Coast of Indiana. The sixth annual running of Indiana's toughest race -- from the banks of the Ohio to the dunes of the Big Lake -- will be August 1 and 2, 2009. The C2C/IN is a benefit for Cystic Fibrosis research.
29april2009 - Tweet!
I'm now on Twitter as 'MartyRLucas' -- it makes posting much easier during a busy workday. I'm experiencing some bugs there, but I can see why Twitter is so popular. It's easy.
I've posted an MP3 of a bit of the old down-home guitar pickin' if you're so inclined: Gloomsday. Enjoy and feel free to share -- it's in double drop D tuning, capo on the 7th fret, centered around a D7.
25march2009 - Aaron Booth
Here's a link to Aaron Booth, and excellent Canadian singer-songwriter -- includes some free downloads.
4february2009 - today's music video: Lutenist Ronn McFarlane
Ronn McFarlane is a master of the lute, the ancient forerunner of today's guitar. He is recognized as one the finest performer's of the early music repertoire of the lute, but he started out as a rock guitarist, and being a native of the West Virginia/Maryland area, also knows his way around American mountain music. Today's video selections are from his Indigo Road album a fine collection of McFarlane's original compositions, drawing from a wide range of styles. It's received a Grammy nomination in the 'classical crossover' category -- that sounds a bit dull, but the music is simply beautiful -- perfect for a snowy day, or for Valentine's Day for that matter. If you have a fast link, choose the 'HD' in the tab at the lower right of the YouTube interface on the Indigo Road video. That'll get you the hi-res hi-fi version.
27january2009 - a useful whitehouse.gov
The Obama administration has already rolled out a totally reconfigured website for the Whitehouse. It includes statements of the Obama agenda, a blog of current actions, and copies of executive orders. A video clip of the president's weekly address to the nation is available. It's an excellent way to keep in tune with the new administration without the intermediary of the press. Here's a link to the rural agenda page; those of you who've read bigeastern.com in the past may find this agenda familiar...
9january2009 - today's listening pick
The Austin Connection is a series of podcasts featuring live performances by some of the top singer-songwriters in Austin Texas, hosted and recorded by Jeffrye Glenn Tveras. The sound quality is outstanding and there are more than seventy programs available for free download. Here's a good one to start with: a 36 minute performance/interview with Jackie Bristow [mp3 format].
8january2009 - Now controversy free
I've accepted appointment as Starke County attorney, and therefore will be avoiding controversial political commentary here. Not that anybody would complain, and certainly nobody asked me to refrain from commentary. I'll simply have enough controversy in my life without doing anything to actually create it. To any of the citizens of Starke County who may drop by here, I'll try to do a good job; many challenges face America over the coming years and county government is no exception. But here in Starke County we're not strangers to a little adversity -- as they say, a country boy (or girl) will survive.
15december2008 - A new look for 2009
I'm revamping bigeastern.com's homepage; reducing the number of links, allowing for larger images, and hopefully adding some audio offerings too.