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Coyote Mercury Posts

Old Photo Friday

December 1, 2006 • • Leave a comment

When I was a kid, the story of the lost dutchman who disappeared while searching for a legendary gold mine on Arizona’s Superstition Mountain fascinated me. I remember looking at those mountains whenever we visited my grandparents in Phoenix and imagining all the stories that they must hold.

I like this photograph, taken with my old 110 in 1982, because faded with time and dirt, it reminds me of the myths of the old west and the magic they still hold for me.

I’d love to follow that old dirt road leading along the telephone poles up onto that mountain and search for that old mine myself even though I know it would be as futile as searching for the Loch Ness Monster or the Seven Cities of Gold. Hopefully, though, they wouldn’t some day spin yarns about the lost Austinite’s gold mine.

ACL Fest 2006 on iTunes

December 1, 2006 • • 2 Comments
The Tragically Hip at ACL 2006

Selections from the 2006 Austin City Limits Music Festival are now available on iTunes. The only acts I saw that are available are The Tragically Hip and The String Cheese Incident.

The sound at the Hip’s set wasn’t too good. Mostly the vocals were buried too far in the mix, and the iTunes selections reflect that, though the guitars sound great. There are seven Hip tracks available, the best being “100th Meridian” and “Courage,” which is about how I remembered the set. If you like The Tragically Hip, you’ll want these two at least. The rest are good, coming off better than they sounded in person.

I only downloaded one String Cheese track – “The New Pollution,” which was as good as I remember it being. Also available are Matisyahu, Gomez, Son Volt, Flaming Lips and a few others. Why, oh why, did they not record Calexico. I’ll never forget how good they sounded on “All Systems Red” and “Not Even Stevie Nicks…”

Still, it’s nice to relive a great weekend.

Friday Random Ten

December 1, 2006 • • Leave a comment

At long last, all of the non-jazz CDs are on the ‘pod. The next project is to get the rest of the jazz on board, which will dramatically change the character of the shuffle.

Here’s today’s random ten with *’s by the artists I’ve caught live…

  1. “Girlfriend is Better” – Talking Heads *
  2. “St. Mary’s Walk” – Shearwater
  3. “They Are in Love” – David Byrne
  4. “Tim Moore’s Farm (Tom Moore Blues)” – Lightnin’ Hopkins
  5. “Non-Addictive Marijuana” – Supersuckers *
  6. “Two Spaces” – Frank Black *
  7. “What Do You Want From Me (Live)” – Pink Floyd *
  8. “The Walk” – The Cure *
  9. “Honky’s Ladder” – The Afghan Whigs
  10. “Babylon (Live)” – David Gray

Notsogreener Scrooge

December 1, 2006 • • Leave a comment

This week’s edition of the Slate/Treehugger Green Challenge focuses on the holidays. Keeping in mind that no one actually diets during the holidays, I figured that carbon diets would be no different, and as it turns out I was right.

There was nothing I was willing to pledge to do to reduce my footprint other than recycle my holiday waste, which I was going to do anyway. That saves a statistically insignificant 15 lbs. I could have agreed to purchase various kinds of carbon offsets for the people on my list, but I’m thinking that would go over as well as, well, a lump of coal.

Speaking of lumps of coal, though, in an effort to reduce my carbon footprint in ways that aren’t recognized by Slate and Treehugger, I will no longer be giving lumps of coal to all the bad kids on my list. Instead they will recieve broken shards of solar panels and pieces of old windmills. That’ll teach ’em.

And so, this week I take no cars off the road and hold fast at the 32% reduction in my original footprint that I hit last week.

KGSR Broadcasts Vol. 14 Coming Down

November 29, 2006 • • 2 Comments

One of the best things about the Thanksgiving weekend in Austin is the annual release of the KGSR Broadcasts CD. I buy them every year, and they’re usually amazing. While KGSR has yet to match the sheer perfection of Vol. 4 (1996) or Vol. 8 (2000), I can say that after a few days digesting Vol. 14, it comes pretty close.

The set opens with Bruce Robison’s “Virginia” followed by a very cool “Soul Meets Body” by Death Cab for Cutie. The first disc also includes such diverse artists as The Blind Boys of Alabama doing “Go Tell It on the Mountain,” Spoon’s “I Summon You” and Kris Kristofferson’s brilliant and timeless ode to burning the candle at both ends: “Sunday Morning Coming Down.”

Despite the treasures on the first disc, the second is my favorite. It opens with World Party’s “What Does it Mean Now” and goes into “The Pugilist at 59” by Tom Russell, a song I heard a few times last summer and really liked without catching the title or artist.

KT Tunstall, Alejandro Escovedo, Slaid Cleaves, along with usual suspects Eliza Gilyson, Patty Griffin and Shawn Colvin make appearances as well. In all there are 38 tracks each capturing a unique performance by a very eclectic mix of artists.

These sell out fast, but you can order them from Waterloo Records for only $20 and all proceeds go to benefit the SIMS foundation.

Electric Green

November 27, 2006 • • 1 Comment

Last week’s quiz in the Slate/Treehugger Green Challenge focused on electricity. There was nothing in the quiz that we’re not doing already. Flourescent bulbs – check. Energy Star appliances (either already owned or we’ll get them when we replace things) – check. Unplugging electronics when not in use – check.

There were a few other items that I’ve forgotten, but there was nothing I could pledge to do that I’m not already doing, but while we were in Orange we got flourescent bulbs for my wife’s parents’ house and her grandmother’s house. Her grandmother seemed pleased that we were helping her do what Al Gore said we should.

Here are some other things you can do, according to the results page on my quiz:

  • Exchanging three frequently used incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs saves about 150 pounds of CO2 a year per person.
  • Unplugging your electronics when they’re not in use or using a power strip to shut them down saves about 500 pounds of CO2 a year per person.
  • Unplugging external battery chargers for MP3 players, cell phones, and the like saves 213 pounds of CO2 a year per person.
  • Replacing a conventional cordless phone with an Energy Star model saves 13 pounds of CO2 a year per person.
  • Replacing a refrigerator that is more than 13 years old saves about 50 pounds of CO2 a year per person, and an average of 650 pounds of CO2 per person over the life of the appliance. Energy Star-rated refrigerators use about half as much energy as models manufactured before 1993. Each year, that comes to about the energy it takes to light the average household for nearly five months. So, if you’re leaving on an old fridge in your basement to store extra food from time to time, you’re adding to your carbon waistline.

So, this week we spread the gospel and reduced our carbon load by 1178 lbs or .12 cars. This brings the total reduction to 6970 lbs or 38% of my original total of 18274 lbs.

Weekend Hound Blogging: Like a Band of Gypsies

November 26, 2006 • • 1 Comment

For Thanksgiving we packed up the pups and drove to Orange where my in-laws live. It’s about 300 miles from Austin, right where the Louisiana border and the Gulf coast come together.

It was Joey’s first road trip, and we wondered how he would fare. He loves the car and the drive was fine, but he was nervous when we got to my grandmother-in-law’s house. There were a lot of people who all wanted to meet him, which kind of freaked him out, but he rose to the occasion and showed off with some precision peeing in the front yard before going in to inspect the couches. They met with his approval.

Over the next few days, Joey settled in just fine and expanded his fan base to include the golden triangle.

[saveagrey]