Desert in bloom

A couple of weeks ago, I was housesitting in a place on the far east side of town. While I was there, every cactus on the property burst into bloom, and the desert was a riot of bees and color. I'm not sure what kind of cactus this is, but I think it's related to the cereus. It's a fat, ground crawling variety that puts out enormous, colorful blooms. These flowers are as big across as a large human hand - wrist to the tip of your fingers. This particular cactus is in a shallow depression in the shade of a mesquite tree. It was a breezy day, so the petals were fluttering and the shadows were dancing across the face of the flower. Perfect conditions for taking a photo tour of the property!

About that Rush show...

Deviating from my standard photo form factor for a moment here...
I snapped a series of shots with my little camera phone while at the Phoenix show. Due to the camera's, ahem, limitations, these are best viewed at a smaller size. They look great on a phone screen - not so hot on a computer :(
The concert was AMAZING. One of the best Rush shows I've ever seen, and a great, engaged, audience to boot. While I have a few quibbles with the setlist (can we break up the Snakes & Arrows block, PLEASE?), the setlist hit most of my favorites, and even the tedious bits passed quickly. This year's tour featured a set of rotisserie chicken cookers on Geddy's side, and a gaggle of Barbie doll "fans" on Alex's side. Geddy also had a little scale model of Neil at his kit - you could even spin the drumstick in his upraised hand.
We had a great view from section 203. I think this is the first time I've ever had an unobstructed view of the entire stage. The folks in the rows ahead of us sat for about half the show (yay, unobstructed view!), but even when they were standing, I could still see everything I wanted to. What a lovely change from the standard "sir, could you please move your big, fat, head?".
I'm sad I'm going to miss the Red Rocks show this year, but the Cricket Pavilion show was wonderful enough to give me my fix of live Rush for another year or so. Here's hoping the wait between tours won't be too long!

Rush tour!

Meant to post this last week, but things got hectic, and it slipped. In 2004, I met up with a bunch of folks from the rushtour.com message boards to catch Rush's two-night stay at Radio City Music Hall. On the day of the show, we met up in front of the theater, chatted up fellow fans, and took an insane amount of pictures. This is one of the early shots, while group members were still trickling in. Having just come back from seeing Rush, again, in Phoenix, this photo brings back extra special memories. I hope the old gang catches a bunch of shows on the current tour!

Contrails from Wasson Peak

Ok...abandonning the daily numbering in titles for a while. I'm, obviously, not so good at updating daily, so numbers are going by the wayside. But, enough on that - you're here for photos, not explanations :)
Today's photo is from January, 2008. I was hiking to the top of Wasson Peak with a friend and we were doing our best to reach the summit before the sun set. Parks of the trail were in deep shadow, and others were glowing with saturated light. I happened to look over my shoulder and catch this great silhouette of mountain rock and blue sky. When I was little, my mom and I used to have fun scanning the winter sky for contrails, and I've always gotten a little thrill out of spotting one.