Reason for a Change-Mitch’s Blog

I took the day off from work, as I was scheduled to sing at the expected long lines at the polls today. I started at 8:00 am, but it was cold and there was no one but the workers at the polling stations. I checked all my spots, and so got to ride around town quite a bit. It is amazing how beautiful the town is in spring and fall, and I just cruised around absorbing the colors.

Down near Templeton School, I found a bunch of kids playing in the street, and they were making some incredible chalk drawings. I told to be careful of the crazy people in the cars, but there are no sidewalks, and they seemed to own the space.

I went to the County Courthouse around 5 pm, hoping for a line, but no go. Deke was there, ready to play, as was Katie Hicks with her fiddle. Deke and I sang some tunes, and then Katie and I jammed on some tunes, while Deke took our picture. The one below was fuzzy, but cool, so I ran it through some filters to make “impressionist” rather than photorealistic. Yael showed up with Jarno and Solveg, she did some recording for WFIU. We hung out in the dusk, I got to play with the kids, and finally it was time to go home and make dinner, Eileen worked at the polls all day, from 5:15 am till after 8:00 pm, quite long workday!

Work is fun at Creative Services, no doubt about it! We are holding Mona Lesa (Petersen) for ransom. Argh!

Being an amateur mycologist, when walking in the woods, I am always on the lookout for mushrooms. I can identify quite a few, and it is always fun to find one that it is new to me. I most often find them when walking in the woods at Griffy or the forests all around Bloomington, and often the deeper you go into the woods, the better the finds.

Well, I’ve found that you really don’t have to go all the way to the Deem Wilderness to find something exceptional, I just had to look next door. On the old damaged maple tree, I found a great specimen of the Lion’s Mane, Hericium erinaceus. It is quite edible and highly prized in Chinese cuisine and traditional medicine. Recent studies have confirmed it has both anti-oxidant and lipid lowering properties compounds.

I was walking in Dunn Woods yesterday at lunch when I noticed a bunch crows and jays just cawing their heads off. Jays and crows are cousins, but don’t normally hang out together, let alone co-operate, so I figured there must be a predator hunting in the woods somewhere. I’ve seen both crows and jays harrass owls while out riding in the woods, but never together. I looked and looked, but saw only the jays and crows as they flew from tree to tree, vocalizing their displeasure with the situation.

After a while they quieted down a bit, and I had to get back to the office. Just as I walked out of the woods and headed towards Sample Gates, I saw a hawk (not an owl) as it passed right over my head, flew over the gates, and down Kirkwood before turning south over Kilroy’s. I had felt that she/he was there, so it was a great pleasure to see him/her flying over town. I do wonder why the jays and crows did not bother them during nesting and fledging in the spring, I suppose having the 2 parents there kept the jays at a distance, I don’t know if Cooper’s hawks will attack crows, but they do eat jays.

I think I first heard of this from a Tom Brown Jr. book, he was talking about getting in tune with the insect world. I gave it a try last year, and again last week when I was visiting the Sprouts Garden. I love the hyssop that is flowering even this last week of September, so do the bees and butterflies.

The bees were numerous, and I was feeling good about them being there, so tried petting one of the bees. She flew off quickly when I touched her, but then I tried another, and got 2 strokes in before she moved on to the next flower. I could tell I didn’t scare her off, rather, she was busy gathering nectar and needed to move on. I’ve done this several times since. I think it is important to have no fear, and useful to feel loving towards the bees. They can be like cats, a bit standoffish at times, but they will allow you to pet them, if they have time!

I couldn’t hold the camera and bee pet at the same time, so I did not get a shot, but there are several Youtube videos showing bee petting, who knew?

We played our first gig on Friday nite at Max’s, it was a blast, and the place was packed. I feared we might be too loud (I have always played “acoustically”, but this band has twinges of rock and roll, and my banjo was plugged in to a DI). Travers dressed as a Pirate, as did the rest of the band, but we may not be quite so dressed up till next “Talk Like a Pirate Day”. Everyone had a good time, it looks like we will keep playing our salty old tunes for a while. We are are playing in the Battle of the Bands at Festers on Tues Oct 21, and we are scheduled for the day after Thanksgiving at Max’s, perhaps the Spoon or Player’s Pub, I know there will be venues! This winter, Treasure Island is being produced by the Cardinal Theater, so perhaps our band will still be afloat at that time.

The show was for WFHB, and it the audience was great. My buddies from the Friday night session at the Spoon showed up as well, and the benefit was a success (money was made!) I played for a couple of hours before the show so I was well warmed up, but I still have some work to do in working with an amplified banjo! I’ve been using the Kid’s, which has a pickup built-in. This been a bit of workout as his banjo is tuned like a viola, CGDA, rather than the more common violin tuning often used for Irish music GDAE. This second tuning makes it easy to follow the tunes as I can watch the fiddle player’s figures when I am lost. With the CGDA tuning, you have to use A fingering to play in D and D finger to play in G, and so. But it sure is interesting to play that way, I may try it on my (shorter necked) tenor.

Eileen and I attended the dedication and reception for the Hoagy Carmichael sculpture, and I was there to catch this picture of Randy sitting with his dad on the piano bench. The sheet music Hoagy is reading is Memphis in June.

I found this oak leaf along the shore of Lake Monroe during the last week of summer. It’s a sure sign of fall, with the equinox coming this Monday, Sept 22. Only a few trees have leaves turning, but the greens are less vibrant, and there is more variety in color.

I’ve been rehearsing with Captain Kidd (Kazooey) and the Pirate Flags for the last couple of weeks, and it has been quite fun. Deke, Chris, Larry, Sam, and bunch of other pirate souls have been rehearsing a variety of seafaring, piratical songs, getting ready for the big show at Max’s Pizza, Friday, September 19, 2008, 9:00 pm. This is an adult show, a bunch of blood and gore songs, with a bit of humor tossed in for good measure. Here’s the Kidd and Turq in the belly of the ship during a recent rehearsal.

While Jojo and I were out canoeing on Lake Monroe during the last week of August, I noticed a large splat of bird poop along the shoreline where we were swimming. I saw there was a large dead tree above, and speculated that it had to be a big bird hanging out in that tree. As we were paddling along the shoreline later, I noticed another big white splat on the rocky shoreline.

Just as I pointed it out to Jojo, a full grown bald eagle took off from a tree above us and flew along the shoreline for a while, then headed across the bay. If you look closely you can see the white on the rocks just to the left of the log in the picture below