What the Hell?!? Friday - Spin(?)

Spin -- Illusion or Reality  .  .  .   Does it matter?




Mark puts this optical oddity into a real world context.  Check it out at his place.

Picture of the Day

Awesome!

Go see it at the source.

Via MoveOn.

H/T to Jane.

Mantle decorations

Tux posted a picture of one of his owners, posing in a high throne (or equivalent.)  We can also see a stuffed penguin and the brickwork of the fireplace. Not to be outdone, I took this crummy shot with my cell phone. Not that I have any lordly quadrupeds to feature. I do have a textured ceiling, brickwork fireplace, quite a nice painting of a brood of wood ducks, and a mantle adorned with a line of photos of my favorite young people.   (Only 7 of 11 shown.)

Cats? We don't need no stinking cats. We have GRANDCHILDREN!
.

Where Have I Been?

In case you

1) give a rip
2) don't have access to my cell phone.

here is a lousy pic I took with the phone's camera function.

i

So, as you can plainly see, I was in a largish room with Wayne Bergeron and some other cats.  This was rehearsal for our performance last Monday.

Wayne is an amazing musician and a VERY cool guy.  It was a thrill and real treat to perform with him.

Here is one of the songs we did.  There are a lot of YouTube vids of Wayne performing this sweet minor blues by Tom Kubis with various groups.

UPDATE:  Full disclosure - in case it is not perfectly clear, this is NOT the group I play with.

High Clouds and a Good Chance of Wayne Tonight

.

Best Wisconsin Sign

Check it out here

Update:

This one is my new favorite.

.

Thanksgiving in Bumpaland

Abby made this to hang on our door.

Abby and Grandmom

Lauren

Josh

Nate

Em

Danny

Ryan

Alexa

The Back-scratch Brigade

Kids on the Couch

Just a part of why I am thankful and blessed!
.

Halloween Me!

With my cousin Bela.

© 2010 Amanda, along with photo credit, scary Halloween edits, and eyeballs.

Haiku My Heart - One Genie

Amanda soars on

Sore dancing feet, and flights of

Imagination

Photo credit and copyright, Amanda Z
(Enhancements via Picnik)

Haiku copyright JzB

For more heart-felt haiku, visit

Haiku my Heart Friday

It's Lonely At the Beach - or Maybe Not

Southern Beale busts The Economist for its misleading cover picture.

You go, girl!

Penguin With Attitude

I received this image in an e-mail.  Don't know the origin, but my caption for it is

B.T. in Austria 

.

What the Hell? Friday Part 2: The Free Market Fairy

Adam Smith didn't quite get it right.  It isn't the INVISIBLE HAND that magically restores all markets at all times everywhere to perfect frictionless efficiency, it is the wand-waving of the FREE MARKET FAIRY.

I'm pretty sure I can't take total credit for this startling discovery. It flowered in discussions here and at Bad Tux's place. If he didn't have a visible hand in creating this notion, he at least encouraged and nurtured it in not-too-subtle ways.

I will, however, stake claim to the idea that the visible manifestation of the FREE MARKET FAIRY is an image of Milton Friedman in drag.

Full credit to BT for actually locating his (her?, its?) picture.

Free Market Fairy

Wave your wand, for rational,

Efficient magic.

What the Hell?!? Friday -- Totally Non-Original

I have a cold, and am not capable of duplicating last week's questionable brilliance. So, either on a whim, or out of desperation, I googled "What the Hell," and found - along with a lot of interesting stuff I don't want on my blog, THIS interesting photo blog.

Whence I borrowed the following picture. Go to the linked site for other quasi-real weirdness.

What the Hell?!? Friday Redux - Interesting Picture

Something to reflect on:  Classic Leg Photo can be found here.

The Arsenal

These are the horns I play regularly.  On the left, a Reynolds Contempura dual-trigger bass.  In the middle, my beloved King.  To the right, a Holton TR-161 large bore tenor, with F-attachment - my symphony horn.

Here is a closer view of the bell sections.   Each of them is special, in its own way.   The bass bell is either pure copper, or a very copper-rich alloy.  It is extremely soft and easily wrinkled, as I once learned to my chagrin.  The king bell is sterling silver - heavy, man.  The Holton has a rose brass bell.  This is a higher copper alloy than yellow brass, and is supposed to deliver a dark, rich sound at lower dynamic levels. 

.

Is it 2010 Yet?

I'll let Krugman handle the variation on the

Happy New Year

theme.

Or maybe not.

Cheers!  Better days are coming.

We just don't know when.
.

Merry Chistmas - All Lit Up

This Month in Photo of the Day: Animals
This is a Cuban tree frog on a tree in my backyard in southern Florida. How and why he ate this light is a mystery. It should be noted that at the time I was taking this photo, I thought this frog was dead, having cooked himself from the inside. I'm happy to say I was wrong. After a few shots he adjusted his position. So after I was finished shooting him, I pulled the light out of his mouth and he was fine. Actually, I might be crazy but I don't think he was very happy when I took his light away.

This photo and caption were submitted to Your Shot. Have a great shot? Send it to us for possible publication in National Geographic magazine.

________________________________________
From Nat Geo, obviously. Hat Tip to Yves at Naked Capitalism
.

Fairy In A Cage

Fairy in a cage

Not maimed by clipped wings, but

She can't fly away

Picture taken on the third floor balcony of the Great Wolf Lodge at Williamsburg, VA.

My Most Prized Possession

I thought that the silver and gold of my King 2B Silversonic* would stand out against the deep burgundy of this upholstery.  Alas, it's all too dark. 
___________________________________
* aka The Holy Grail

Wednesday Poetry Blogging

A few days ago, one of my friends sent me the pictures from the 2010 Playboy calender.  I didn't keep them.

Playboy photography strikes me as being too glitzy.  The girls in the photos display too much technical augmentation for my taste.  IMHO, it's glamor and/or sex appeal done all wrong: au naturale but aw, unnatural.

In short, it is off-puttingly artificial, and I was underwhelmed by the overabundance.

Deep Stupid #10

Great moments in Tea bagging.  Remember what S. E. told us, it's the Democrats who are the modern racists!

With a hat tip to Michael in comments at Duck and Cover.

Photo URL
http://images.huffingtonpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/1398/slide_1398_20072_large.jpg

There's more below the fold.