The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Ditch: Fun song from the exciting blues explosion.

Boomtown Rats - Nothing Happened Today: The early Rats always had an urgency to their music that I find very compelling.

Brian Tyler - The Mummy's Eye: It has been a while since the Bubba Ho-Tep soundtrack made an appearance here. This is a wacky dysfunctional collection of banging and noise...I guess a mummy's eye would bring terror (the mummy is coming, and he's looking at you...better walk faster...).

Cabaret Voltaire - Jazz the Glass: I don't know enough about the band to understand why they sometimes sound dancy and why they sometimes sound like The Residents. But I like The Residents sounding tunes.

The Beta Band - B + A: Another band I don't know much about, but I really like The Three E.P.'s release that this tune is from.

Pit Er Pat - Uh-Oh: A simple-sounding band that just goes off in strange enough directions to be very entertaining.

Cursive - The Road to Financial Stability: After a Cursive song appeared here a few weeks ago, I've been listening to the latest Mama I'm Swollen release pretty much non-stop. I didn't care for that release much at first...mainly because it wasn't The Ugly Organ which is simply fantastic, but now I'm starting to think Cursive gets better with every album.

Subtle - Call to Dive: If this trend keeps up, one might think I have a lot of songs from this decade on the iPod. Go 21st century...

From a walk this past weekend.

Two Friday's ago, I went to the pet store to pick up a giant bag of food for our Hoovers. A local rescue team, Four Paws usually has a couple cats in the store who I stop by to pet and encourage them that they'll find a good home soon.

Monty, one of two orphans, raised his nose to nudge my finger through the bars of the cage immediately. He was an active, loving little guy who was quick to follow me with his eyes and direct his head to my extended hand. I'm not typically a sucker for this type of display; while I'd gladly take all the cats in the store home, I figure the friendly ones are destined to find owners soon enough.

It wasn't until I read the printed story of Monty that I became compelled by the guy. While most cats are rescued from a dire state (Coco was alone only two days after birth; Oz was saved only a day from being put down at a pound), Monty had simply been exiled from his home for not being "outgoing" enough.

As I've said more than once since then, if not being outgoing was a valid reason for being thrown out of a home, I probably would have spent my whole life in a cage at a pet store.

Perhaps needless to say, this got me good and spun. One day later I had Nicole at the store to bask in Monty's loving attention; two days we had an application in; three days I convinced Four Paws that Monty would have a good home with us; and in four days he was living in our spare bedroom.

Ozzy approaches Monty cautiously, but for the most part they seem friendly together.

Sasha is more hesitant that I would have thought, watching the BigBlackFurry beast from a safe distance.

Coco's just a spaz. She always will be.

Monty is fitting in with the crew very well. He is more loving that we ever could have imagined, and while outgoing might not be a valid description for him, he certainly likes to follow us everywhere, seeking attention at every turn. His introduction to the house has been intentionally slow, but everyday he is more comfortable and we are happy to have him.

For as much as I like watching life progress in the terrariums, it always wigs me out a little when I look in to find something flying around that wasn't there a day earlier.

Making a terrific buzzing noise, two of these critters were flying around the tank. One did a nose-dive straight into a millipede who reacted very negatively, thrashing about and running across the tank to escape the assault. My thoughts instantly thought I was dealing wasps, but after closer inspection, I determined the insects were simple flies.

Given their bright coloring and red eyes, I'm pretty convinced they are long-legged flies (Condylostylus {one of many potential species}). Like many insects that appear seemingly out of nowhere, I have no idea when I would have pulled in their eggs or larva. Likewise, the flies appear to have died off as quickly as they arrived, unless they have simply been hiding from me the past couple days (although I doubt the optimistic thought holds true).

As to why one dove on the millipede, and why the millipede reacted so negatively, I couldn't tell you. I don't think they could harm the thick-shelled insects; I'm guessing it was more just a random flight accident. And, at the time, perhaps the millipede was a freaked out as I was.

I pulled my head up from the wealth of insects on the trails today to see a young heron flying and landing near some standing water.

Like most herons, she wasn't too happy about me hanging around, but never flew too far off so that I was able to capture a few shots.

I think the shots were worth a pair of muddy boots.

Tom Waits - Hoist That Rag: One of the most fun songs to hear Tom play live on the past two tours we attended.

R.E.M. - Crazy: An old Pylon cover from an old R.E.M. b-sides and outtakes collection.

Consonant - Night For Love: Interesting title for the MOB band mates.

Michael Petak - Queen For a Day: Very glad I was introduced to Petak's releases in the 90's.

Snog - Chasin' and the Jargonauts: Instrumental tune, probably deeply against the Government somehow.

Meshuggah - Personae Non Gratae: Scream like a bear!

Talking Heads - Life During Wartime: Run run run.

R.E.M. - Life and How to Live It: I've written about the Fables album being my favorite R.E.M. releases, and this song is a shining example as to why.

"Who is in that room?" Ozzy asked.

As quickly as they came, the bluebells have begun to deteriorate. They brown, decay, and disappear as if they had never existed.

The trails are now green; soon the trees will explode in a mass of leaves and the dirt paths will become nearly impassable with flowering growth and swarms of mosquitoes. It is a very interesting look into how spring moves on towards summer.

I took out the trash tonight to find this in our front yard:

Three heart balloons, two still floating, one reading "Happy Valentine's Day," were trapped in a bush near the stairs.

Thanks to whoever, even if it was only gravity.

Tom Waits - Hold On: Which instantly reminds me of a dream I had last night where I went to see a Tom Waits show and he sat back and let a ballet team take his set. After about one hour of this, the crowd jeered until he came on stage to play. Then he asked me up on stage to help build a giant sandwich out of car parts. Anyhow, I really like this song.

The Red Krayola - Rapspierre: I love the weird Krayola songs.

Poster Children - Get a Life: High energy tune for a low energy morning.

Tom Waits - Yesterday is Here: I was thinking recently that it has been a while since Tom Waits appeared on the Random Eight (yes, I think about these things). Coming back with strength, he is.

Beatles - Why Don't We Do It In The Road: Promoting my membership in the Beatles lack-of-appreciation club.

The Flaming Lips - Stand In Line: Sad that when I saw the song title my first thought went to hair/guitar hero Chris Impellitteri and his "Stand in Line" tune. Back to my punkish / alternative roots, from the In a Priest Driven Ambulance album, this is my favorite period for the Lips.

The Paper Chase - We Will Make You One Of Us: And if they do, you are gonna be miserable.

Cursive - Caveman: I've not really given the Mama, I'm Swollen release substantial listening time, but when I do play it, I really enjoy it. This is a fun song from the collection.

Odd flowers hanging from trees on the nearby trails.

I'm very glad I was able to sneak up on this one and snap off a shot.

Lucienne Boyer - Le Train Du Reve: 78 RPMs and counting

Lou Barlow - Ride a Hearse, Build a Throne: From the old Sebadoh days, before they were Sebadoh (Sentridoh, I guess...it is all so confusing). Call this the last of the four track tape home recordings.

R.E.M. - Underneath the Bunker: Fun, goofy little track.

Autechre - Kalpol Intro: From the Pi Soundtrack, this is one of a great collection of electro / ambient /and/or bouncy tunes.

Husker Du - Newest Industry: From the crazy punkish Zen Arcade, one of the lesser obvious songs from the collection but still a strong tune which kinda goes to show how good this record was.

Marillion - Market Square Heroes: The creepy prog band's attempt at making a pop tune in the early days of their existence.

Tommy Stinson - Someday: I go back and forth on Village Gorilla Head sometimes, but overall I think it is a fun release from the ex-Replacement. He certainly has maintained some great releases after the split of God's favorite band...being a G&Rbassist notwithstanding.

Everly Brothers - Nashville Blues: Repeat from a few weeks ago, still a silly tune to call "blues."

Why the hell is that bee buzzing so loudly?

Oh...

Only not burrowing.

They were hiding so well, I could have easily mistook them for leaves underwater. But call it my attentive eye to look for life where there probably is life, yet it is just hard to see; I noticed something that could be a frog and figured it would have to breathe eventually. And, eventually, they did.

Turned out (after a comment on my facebook link) that they were toads. They swam around a bit, but kept within range of me and the camera. I'm sure they knew I was there; most toads (and frogs) plop underwater and completely disappear as soon as they pick up the vibrations of me lumbering along. But they decided to give me a show; a rare, exciting look at them scurrying about.

I found the blueness of the eyes very nifty, even if it is just a trick of the water and light.

Deerhoof - ?: A track that lost its title on the iPod, and I have no mental ability to match the tunes to their names. I like it, though; but then, I always like Deerhoof.

Jeff Buckley - So Real: I thought Grace was a fantastic album before Jeff Buckley died tragically (and, somewhat stupidly), and something in the postmortemness of it gives it a floating glow over the music world. This isn't one of the more replayed tracks from the album, but still a great insight into his creativeness, range, and tendency to be just a bit crazed.

X-Ray Spex - I am a Cliche: Not sure cliches can be this goofy.

Billie Holiday - Detour Ahead: Slow, moody track.

Paik - Outro: Lots of noise and boom in this album, but the outro is just that, 40 seconds of random inappropriateness.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - Rabba Lakh Lakh Shukar Manaawa: The amazing voice artist who, in another Random Eight interrelatedness, greatly inspired the singing of Jeff Buckley.

Nico - Lawns of Dawn: From the haunting and wonderful The Marble Index release.

Grant Hart - She Floated Away: A solo live version of the Husker song from Zen Arcade on Grant's Ecce Homo. I was lucky to see him play in front of about 100 folks a few years ago, hammering on his guitar and ripping out classics and new songs like a punk hero.