Angelo Badalamenti - Pretty Fifties: From the Mulholland Drive Soundtrack, a ballad-like tune with that creepy Badalamenti sound.

Dead Milkmen - Tiny Town: Typically fast and goofy.

Hella - Woman of the 90's: Typically fast and crazy.

The Fiery Furnaces - Here Comes the Summer: Not the most original song from the band, but a fun bouncy track.

Tom Waits - Road to Peace: One of the very, very few Waits songs I don't care for much; guess I'm not much on the preachy tunes.

Tom Waits - Books of Moses: That's better.

Sebadoh - Notsur Dnuora Selcric: The old, yelling Sebadoh!

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Sweat: Raw song from a fun era of the band.

Out and about last weekend. I enjoy their happy cat faces.

I got there right at feeding time. A 125 shutter speed, in retrospect, wasn't nearly fast enough to capture them without blurring.

Carter USM - Cheer Up, It Might Never Happen: Loud, fast Carter.

Subtle - F.K.O.: I had a couple Subtle albums before recently grabbing A New White which I think is one of the most unique, engaging releases I've heard in a while. This is a good example of their ability to mix a bouncy track with a slow, haunting beat.

Tool - Hooker With a Penis: Pffth, I have one of those.

Robyn Hitchcock - The Yip Song: A happy song about dying that few people other than Robyn Hitchcock could probably get away with.

Husker Du - You're a Soldier: Fairly blah song from the Warehouse album.

Nuno Canavarro - Bruma: One of the few tracks with an actual title from the wacky Plux Quba release.

Miss Violetta Beauregarde - I'm the Tiennamen Square Guy and You Are All The Fucking Tanks: Can't get much more enjoyably annoying than this.

Hawkwind - Rocky Paths: Not enough songs about Elric these days...

From a recent trip to the National Zoo.

I caught this couple in the act yesterday.

There are so many things to look at on these two that I could spend hours marveling over the complexity of their bodies. First, look at how fragile the leg joint / knee looks:

Going down the tibia, we can see the differences in spines between the two:

I found it interesting that this one is using the tarsus of its leg to balance on the stem:

Finally, I can make out 7 of the 8 segments of the male's abdomen:

Although less naughty for the camera, this guy has some great claws to show:

Look at these on the tip of the middle leg:

And then this spur that appears between the tibia and tarsus.

This neat site from the USDA helped me with a lot of the anatomy.

Gang of Four - At Home He Feels Like a Tourist: Good ole classic punk.

Tyson Meade - The Sundown Shade: Fun solo track from the Chainsaw Kittens front man.

DJ Shadow - Walkie Talkie: A pretty wild track from the Live album.

Rush - Red Lenses: This came from a very strange transition in Rush's history.

Carter USM - The Taking of Peckham 123: Strange little track.

Caribou - Sun: Bouncy song from the unique artist.

Rush - The Body Electric: From the same strange transition as above.

Tool - Triad: Loudly ending the Random Eight.

Nature is cruel sometimes.

This guy looked down at me from a tree leaf.

Woohoo! Today is Rock Flipping Day.

A collection of shots from today's participants can be viewed on Wanderin' Weeta's Website.

My favorite rock flipping trail has been closed for most of this year because of a "gravity redistribution" project. The county has restructured the entire stream system for some undisclosed reason. The trail is still closed, but a major portion of where I normally steal away has been finalized and I made my first hike of the summer this morning along its new trial.

Last year, Rock Flipping Day gave me the opportunity to discover millipedes. Since then, I've set up two terrariums with millipedes as the primary tenants. They are remarkable to watch and have been thriving in the environment. I discovered a bunch yesterday when walking and a few more this morning.

I don't normally find these boxelder bugs under rocks, but I guess this one wanted published today.

This pillar seemed unhappy to be disturbed.

Ants!

I found this scarab beetle grub last week, buried under a small tree branch.

And finally, one of many crickets.

Rush - The Analog Kid: I always liked this song from Signals.

Jeff Beal - The Mark of the Beast: Haunting track from the Carnivale soundtrack.

Thymme Jones - Disjunct: I like songs that make me think something is wrong with the iPod (unless there was something wrong with the rip...never can tell with these things).

Philemon Arthur & The Dung - Goda Grannar: As wacky as ever.

The Flaming Lips - Placebo Headwound: Quiet, odd lips is just as fun as loud, odd lips, I think.

The dB's - Neverland: One of their fastest, bounciest songs.

Toad the Wet Sprocket - Brother: During my Toad phase during the blizzard earlier this year, I ordered a live album that I previously didn't know existed. The majority of the songs on it were from Pale and Fear, which are my two favorite and most familiar releases. Can't say I know this song, but it is striking me as a bit dull.

Boom Bip - Popsicle: A band I've kinda gotten into lately along with similar groups like Themselves and Subtle. I'm not sure what the connection between them all is yet (haven't spent the 2 minutes researching it online to figure it out), but all the music is really fun.

Almost Thursday...but the two year anniversary for the Random Eight.

Deerhoof - Sophie: From the wacky first album that isn't really reflective of how good the band is today.

Stewart Copeland - Samburu Sunset: From Copeland's African music inspired The Rhythmatist, this is a bit more random than most of the tracks.

Painkiller - Tortured Souls: There is no stopping the pain in one's ears with this tune.

The Flaming Lips - Suddenly Everything Has Changed: Certainly not the Lips of old, but I really liked The Soft Bulletin which was probably the last time I really got into the band (minus their recent cover release of Dark Side of the Moon).

The Velvet Underground - There She Goes Again: Yea Velvets.

Robyn Hitchcock - Queen Elvis II: The electric version from the great Eye album.

Sonic Youth - Pink Steam: Admittedly I've pretty much ignored a lot of new Sonic Youth songs even though they all reside on the iPod. As if I'm hearing it for the first time, I kinda like this tune.

Those Bastard Souls - Curious State I'm In: Really fun song from the 90's band comprising of players from multiple indie bands at the time.