Kangaroos. Boxing.

This is just too cool. I just registered with YouTube so I can put some video from Australia up. I took this is Canberra in mid-October. I had gotten up at my usual Australian waking time of 5:30 and gone for a walk. This is right in the center of town. I saw my first two kangaroos, in the wild (zoos just aren't the thing), munching grass at a high school not far from the Australian War Memorial.

I was ecstatic.

And they did a show for me. Unbelievable. The buggers even seemed to stop and wait until I had my camera ready. Check it out.

Bottomfeeders on Tradebit

My CD Bottomfeeders is available at CDBaby, and they've sent it out to so far 26 online music distributors. iTunes has had it for some time, and I just found out that Tradebit now has it up. Looks pretty simple. You can even use PayPal.

A bargain at a buck a song download. Perfect for the holidays. (Just found out the entire album is available on this page.)

Katia and Kylie Mac: The Podcast

I got a notice a while back from a couple new computer radioheads in Paris letting me know that they had used a song of mine for the teaser for their upcoming podcast. They are now up and running. And they've used the song as their theme song:

k&k podcast : Katia and Kyliemac, an Australian and an American living in Paris, podcast about the expat life and how they eat Oreos.

(Thanks to Little Thom for the great song we've used as our theme tune!)

Thanks Katia! Thanks Kylie!

You can subscribe to their show on iTunes and various pod places at the above link and here at the Podsafe Music Network, which is where they found me.

South Africa to the Fore

An example for the world.

S Africa approves same-sex unions

South Africa's parliament has voted to legalise same-sex weddings - the first African country to approve such unions.
The controversial Civil Union bill was passed by 230 votes to 41.

...

The ruling was based on the constitution, which was the first in the world specifically to outlaw discrimination on the grounds of sexual preference.

Photos by the Sea

Sculpture by the Sea in the east Sydney suburbs is a truly enjoyable, makes you happy to be alive kinda event. A few kilometers of wind-sculpted sandstone beachfront (Tamarama to Bondi) with cleverly (and not-so-cleverly) installed sculpture, some on a grand scale, appearing along the way. People seemed to arrive in a good mood and it got better through the day. Many thanks to Christine's sis Shannon and her Kevin for taking us there.

Extra coolness: Kodak, the major sponsor of the 17-day—and free—event, had booths set up along the way where you could, if you had a digital camera (we got one the day before the trip) get three free prints and enter one into a photo contest. I entered this one:



It was one of the five finalists for the day and I'm now in the running for the grand prize (camera and cash). How cool is that?

Lots more photos coming, flora and fauna.

UPDATE: I didn't win. Bastards.

Back From Australia

Saltwater crocodile on the South Alligator River in Kakadoo National Park.

I was in a boat.

It was still a little freaky.

Top 300 Songs of the 20th Century

I normally don't give a crap about such lists, but NPR puts a personal hero up high where he belongs.

#12: "Angel from Montgomery" John Prine, as performed by Bonnie Raitt (1971)

The Constitution of the United States 2.0

Political Cortex:

ARTICLE I

Section 1

All legislative Powers are hereby ceded to the Executive branch, though the Congress will still make a Grand Noise and wave their arms as if they give a Damn.

Browsing

Via Metafilter:

• Air Sex!

• Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo is a grammatically correct sentence.

• Kung Fu v. Yoga

BOTTOMFEEDERS on iTunes

I've told you about CDBaby before - great place for unsingined and signed musicians alike to get their stuff out and into the world. Today I got up and lo and behold, BOTTOMFEEDERS is on iTunes. Thanks to the gang at CDBaby.

You can go there and buy one song at a time to download onto whatever device it is you have for 99 cents. How cool is that?

Of course, you can still go to CDBaby and get the entire CD shipped to your home and get the great graphics and all the lyrics too. Woo hoo!

Bottomfeeders, available at CD Baby.

The Hour of Dave

I haven't advertised the Greatest Podcast On Earth lately, so here ya go: The Hour of Dave. Go, download, open beer, listen. Piece of cake.

And better yet, a baby (created by Dave and Sage): The Sadie Project

The Sadie Project is an attempt to take two pictures per day of my new baby Sadie- one of her face and one of her whole body- in an effort to make a time lapse movie of her development.

This, my friends, is Sadie June.



I have smelled this child, and I can tell you with no hesitation that she is a perfect little inhabitant of our now-better world.

Meet the Relatives II

Brothers and sisters, the head of our cousin the hellgrammite as seen under a microscope:



I found this on the the helgrammite page of the Web site of the Stratford Landing Elementary School in Fairfox County, Virginia. The give credit to Uglybug.org.

I've gotta get out of here, so I'll just leave you some photos to drool over. Here's another view of the head:



And here's a view of the the head of what the hellgrammite turns into:

Thumbs Up, Roger

Yes, I am a sucker for sick sweet stuff like this.

Roger Ebert, still recovering from an arterial burst following surgery to remove cancer near his jaw, could use a little love. Show some, and be a gigantic nerd, by taking a picture of yourself giving a "thumbs up" and uploading it to this Flickr Group. They'll be sending the whole spiel to the good sir himself after they have enough pictures uploaded.

Your 2007 Tax Dollars

Via Metafilter again, a detailed look at the 2007 budget from Death and Taxes.

I'm Ready

Via Metafilter, this.

Keep it brief here. Just want to say, uh, family, take care of yourselves. Uh, look at this as a learning experience. Everything happens for a reason. We all know what really happened, but there are some things you just can’t fight. Little people always seem to get squashed. It happens. Even so, just got to take the good with the bad. There is no man that is free from all evil, nor any man that is so evil to be worth nothing. But it’s all part of life, and my family, take care of yourselves. Tell my wife I love her. I’ll keep an eye on everybody, especially my nieces and nephews. I’m pretty good. I love ya’ll. Take care. I’m ready.

A Song For Steve Irwin

Oh jeez. Just looking through some Aussie papers and I found a song by Colin Buchanan.

1. Wasn't he a beauty
Crikey what a gem
A dinkum Aussie treasure
A khaki larrikin
Throwin' it all out there
Doin' what he'd do
You'd better duck for cover
Cos Steve is comin' through

2. Crazy as a cut snake
Bold as any man
He'd dive onto a crocodile
Hold spiders in his hand
Dodge a deadly brown snake
With big-eyed, "Holy
Smoke!"
You could love him
You could loathe him
But you couldn't miss the bloke

CHORUS

And wasn't he a beauty
Crikey what a gem
A dinkum Aussie treasure
A khaki larrikin
Throwin' it all out there
With his heart upon his sleeve
Goodbye Crocodile Hunter
Farewell Steve

3. He loved those deadly creatures
He gave the bush his all
The nastier the moment
The more he had a ball
1000 miles a minute
A showman to the core
He'd take a bit of bark off
And keep comin' back for more...

CHORUS

And wasn't he a beauty
Crikey what a gem
A dinkum Aussie treasure
A khaki larrikin
Throwin' it all out there
With his heart upon his sleeve
Goodbye Crocodile Hunter
Farewell Steve
Goodbye Crocodile Hunter
Farewell Steve
Farewell Steve

Farewell from over here too.

CD Baby

Portions of the funding for this life brought to you by Bottomfeeders, available at CD Baby.

The Folks: Chris Chandler

I'm going to start a new regular feature here at LTB featuring my favorite, mostly underground, singer/songwriters. For many it will simply be a link, since a lot of these foks don't have video and I don't have the know-how to put a player in here. Yet.



Chris Chandler has been on the road for, I don't know, more than 15 years, playing at hundreds of places along the way—festivals, concert halls, union meetings, living room concerts, bars. Chris does something that is All. His. Own. I don't have time to do him justice this morning, but just check out this video, made with fellow New Orleanian David Roe.

Here's the Web site. Browse around, check out his New Orleans videos, listen to some tunes, buy a CD. He's out there for us. And here's Chris's MySpace site.

The ABCs of the 9/11 Commission Report

The best part of the statement from American Airlines is this:

A factual description of those events can be found in the official government edition of the 9/11 Commission Report and supporting documents.

A factual description of the events that you portrayed as based on the 9/11 Commission Report can be found…in the 9/11 Commission Report.

Twist.

Australia

Crunchtime is over. The book has gone to press and I am out of here. In early October Christine and I will be flying to Los Angeles and then to Sydney—for a five week stay here and there in Australia. I've never been; Christine is Australian. I am, of course, very excited and will be reading and watching whatever I can to prepare myself for best absorption. (My sister Sue just recommended Where the Green Ants Dream.) If anybody passing through this little site has a book or film recommendation, or a site in Sydney or around Darwin that I have to go and see, ithe advice would be greatly appreciated.

Here's to a good September.