Happy Birthday

Well the world wide web turns twenty today, or at least CERN's decision to keep it free, turns twenty today.  It is also Willie Nelson's birthday, he is older.  Anyway, tonight a picture of somebody wearing a Willie Nelson t-shirt posted to the world wide web.  Thanks Al Gore.

Annoying

Well, it appears that the NBA isn't returning to Seattle, a place it shouldn't have left in the first place.  It is disappointing, not that I am a big fan of the professional game, as it has too many resemblances to pro wrestling.  It's disappointing because I remember growing up with the game, the 1979 championship, Bernie's teams in the middle 80's and those wonderful teams of the 1990's.  I can remember being the Sonics taking on the hated Bullets and Lakers in my back yard.  It is dissappointing as this is something I can't share with my kids.   

The Ol' What to Post, Post

I really have nothing particularly interesting today, other than a photo of the countryside near Duvall.  As it was on this date back in 1968 that the great drug induced, Duvall Piano Drop took place.  The only thing that was higher than the piano when it dropped were the 3,000 people there to witness the spectacle.  It wasn't much of a spectacle the piano was dropped about 150 feet from a helicopter on to the soft earth with a muted whump.  The chemically enhanced crowd loved it and then settled in to watch a Country Joe and the Fish show. 

Galaxie 500

Tonight I am reminded that there things that will follow you for a long time, some good, some bad.  One of the good ones, for me at least, is Galaxie 500, no not a Ford Galaxie 500, a fine car well worth owning if you can find the right one.  No this is band, a short lived band from the late 1980s.  They were unique, nothing sounded like them, I remember wanting to like them, and it took awhile for them to grow on me and once they did, it stuck.  Tonight as I played around with some photos I got a chance to listen again and dare I say nearly 25 years later, it is still as enjoyable as it was when I was a skinny 20 year old kid. 

Celebrating Dinosaurs

Today is Record Store Day, a day to celebrate the end of the record industry and the record store.   With the rise of online music stores and the big box stores, the independent record store is dying a slow death.  The record industry too has been wounded by the Internet and the digital transfer.  So Record Store Day was born to celebrate both the industry and the record store.  For the music lover it is a great day because there are all sorts of rare and unusual stuff available.   It's also a day to try to ensure that world will have record stores for the near term.  It would be nice to have record stores around so my kids can browse and discover just like their old man.

The Happy Tax

Well, I could spend my time talking about how the Republicans once again did the right thing for mostly the wrong reasons.  After all, more background checks wouldn't have actually done anything to stop any of the high profile gun violence for which it was aimed to curb.  More and better background checks are important and probably should be done, that said until it is easier to get an insurance paid visit to a shrink than to purchase fire arms the legislation is mis-guided.  The background checks are mostly paid for by the gun buyer, whereas mental health visits are paid by insurance companies, so it is easy to see the route that was taken.  I could also talk about how the liberal, or fascist mainstream media has not covered the mass stabbing at a Texas community college the same as the sexier gun 'em down killing sprees.  Although one article noted the suspect didn't have a history of mental illness, but did fantasize about stabbing people, cannibalism and wear other peoples facing.  I could point out there hasn't been a call for background checks before purchasing sharp pointy things.  I won't write about any of that, as this is a photo blog and just don't have the right photos for any of that. 
Instead we'll talk about beer, which apparently makes you happy when you taste it, even without alcohol beer makes you happy.  Our Governor would like to tax beer more, as it makes him happy to thing of all the tax dollars generated by beer he drinks.  Our Governor wants to tax your happiness.  How much of a happy tax, try a 325% increase for small breweries.  That tax will be pasted on to the consumer, resulting in less happy making beer consumed.  Which will make small breweries sad, because they will go out of business and it will make us common folk sad as it will cost more to be happy and eventually require us to consumer Bud Lite to be happy, after the beer tax wipes out all the local breweries.  Then of course is the state which will be sad when it's happy tax dollars go dry.  Furthermore, it is a tax that is against business, against ingenuity and against happiness, what a terrible trio.  Raise the sales tax, because end of the day if you need to raise taxes make everyone share the burden, not just beer drinkers and breweries.

Ah, Rats

Great news for rats, scientists have made rat kidneys in a test tube.  These kidneys function like real kidneys and even look the same.  That is thanks to fancy science stuff that allows the kidney cells to grow within a frame work of the rat kidney.  Basically its like stripping your home down to the studs and remodeling from there.  This all meaning that there will come a day when there will be no more expensive rat kidney dialysis procedures.  Next on the agenda duck liver (except for in California) and pig brains.  Science is fun.

In The Moment

Every so often, I find myself in the moment, that rare time in which the past and future do not exist.  "They" say that humans have a difficult time living in the now, as now usually is corrupted by thoughts of the past or future.  To be in the moment is rare and I must say almost like being outside one's self.  It is really a lovely feeling, sadly it doesn't happen often enough for me, but when it does I am usually in the car.  Afterward, find myself wishing I had a camera so I could take a picture of the moment, to save it for the ages.  Then I could open a gallery of shots taken at 70 mph through my windshield, pictures of semi-trucks, and Chevy S-10 Blazers.

All Hail Beer!

Eighty years ago today beer was legal to buy, sell and consume in the United States for the first time since January 1920.  So here's to the greatest day ever!

Opening Day --- No Fooling

Baseball returned and it was spring like in Seattle.  And thus begins the long spring, where the Mariners and the temperatures sink a  little day by day.  However unlike the weather baseball is still enjoyable, even if the team is sinking.  The weather on the other hand will improve during the summer months.