Giraffe tongue!

More from the zoo trip...

We headed over to the giraffe exhibit in time for the 2pm feeding. For $2, you can buy a handful of lettuce and go out onto a special balcony that overlooks the giraffe pen. All three know when it's close to a feeding time and come right up to the balcony to snatch treats out of your hand. I took this shot before the feeding started, but after the giraffes had already gravitated to the walkway. This one was trying to reach some new leaves on a palo verde tree (obviously stripped as far as a giraffe tongue can reach).

The world's largest pigeon

No, I'm not exaggerating :) Here's a resident of one of the Reid Park Zoo's aviarys:




The first thing that struck me about this bird was the fluffy mess of fine feathers on top of its head. It was preening and kept shaking its head so fast that the feathers would blur into a kind of corona. It's about the size of a small turkey and, while shy, came right out onto the pavement when the zookeeper came around with food bowls. It never occurred to me that this might be a pigeon until a friend identified it for me. Now I can't help but see the resemblance. I see hundreds of regular city pigeons around downtown every week - this is just a grossly exaggerated version. Fun to be able to get so close to such an exotic critter.

A trip to the zoo

On Saturday, my friend and I took her daughter to the zoo. It was pretty hot in the sun, so we took a break by the koi pond to cool off for a bit. After a while, the koi got interested in the handful of food pellets we were tossing into the water, and we got a good look at the wide variety of fish in the pond. This one was my favorite - it had long, fluttery fins and looked downright ghostly as it rose through the water. Reminded me a lot of Cleo, the goldfish in Disney's Fantasia (the original 1942 edition).

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.

Day #41 - Springtime in the desert

As my rampant allergies can attest, everything is blooming right now. The tree pollen is insane, but the stunningly vivid cactus blooms make it worth the suffering. This one is at a friend's house and is usually good for a few clusters of blossoms every year. They're about as big across as your hand, and the kind of wild red that makes you stop in your tracks and stare. When the desert blooms, it doesn't cut corners.

Day #40 - Valley of the Moon

Ok, last Valley of the Moon post for a while. This is a large mural underneath the Wizard's tower. I'm not sure how old it is, or how long it's been exposed to the elements, but it's obviously suffering some wear. Still, it's impressive to turn a corner and suddenly see a wall of Dragon before you.

Day #39 - Valley of the Moon

On the property, there's a small, old adobe house. It's currently being used for costume and prop storage, but seems to be mostly habited by spiders. There were some enormous webs strung up in the corners. I love the juxtaposition of webbing and costume fairy wings here.

Day #38 - Valley of the Moon

This was such a neat tour, so I'll post quite a few more pictures from it here. Next up, the "Hobbit house". There are several of these scattered about the property, in various shapes and sizes. All are concrete and pebble, but there's a lot of variation in the extra materials. This one had a lot of bottle glass in it.

Day #37 - Valley of the Moon

One of the perks of my job is behind the scenes access to historic sites, whether they're open to the public or not. On Wednesday, we got to take a short tour of the Valley of the Moon. The place has been mostly closed to the public for a while now due to safety issues. Some of the folks on the tour joked that we should have brought hard hats. It's a quirky slice of Tucson history, and a funky mix of imagination and folk art. One of the highlights of the site is the large "Wizard's tower" that dominates the central part of the park. It used to be the climax to the tour, and the site owner would let the kids come up into the tower after seeing the rest of the park. It's in a horrible state now, and long since closed, but you can still get a sense for how magical this must have seemed in its heyday.

Day #36 - A peculiar sunset

I was housesitting on the far east side of town, and happened to be driving east as a big monsoon storm rolled in. The sun was setting in a blaze of color behind me, but it was nothing but grey swirling clouds to the east. Suddenly, this otherworldly spot of color flared behind the clouds. It lasted for a couple of minutes - a bizarre trick of reflection and refraction. I've never seen its like.

Day #34 - for the Rush fans

I just realized that I'm less than a month from my next Rush show. Woohoo! I've caught them on every tour since Vapor Trails (yes, I know - late bloomer), and we always make a point of catching at least the "local" show in Phoenix. We always leave Tucson in the late afternoon, then stop and find dinner on the road - usually in Casa Grande. A few streets in from the highway, we stumbled upon this sign. It's only significant to Rush fans and the townsfolk who named it, but it's become one of the places we *have* to stop and take pictures on the way to a Rush show.

Day #33 - Fox Tucson Theatre

In 2005, I got to take a tour of the renovations of the Fox Theatre. The place was pretty torn up, but a few parts were starting to come together. One of the most striking features in the theatre is a massive art deco (or "southwest deco") chandelier that hangs in the middle of a vividly painted ceiling mural. When we did the tour, the chandelier was lowered to ground level for repairs. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity to get so close to this Tucson icon.

Day #32 - Tucson in summer

Continuing the monsoon theme, here's a shot from 2004. I was visiting a friend and we were in the back yard with the dogs. When the monsoons are here, it's typical for the skies to be absolutely clear in the morning, then a bunch of clouds roll in by the mid-afternoon, then the rains come in the late afternoon, and things clear up until the next day. Summer skies tend to be diffuse and washed out by the strong desert sun, but during monsoon season, everything takes on a rich, sharp tone. The colors pop, and there's a kind of electric undercurrent in the air. I hate the summer heat, but the monsoons are fabulous!

Day #31 - Desert tortoise

Ever seen a baby desert tortoise? I housesit for a woman who takes care of several desert tortoises, and this was one of her younger charges. The shadow lines are from a metal grate that was over his enclosure to keep an opportunistic raptor or racoon from stealing a tortoise snack. This little guy ended up crawling out of his enclosure about a year after this picture was taken, wandered around the desert for about 6 months, and finally made his way home. He's got a tracking number on his shell, so they knew it was him when he returned. He's back in his enclosure now, and the family was thrilled he returned. He's a bit bigger now (by a couple of inches), but still quite small.
He used to stretch out to greet me every time I walked by the pen and nearly flipped himself over a few times.

Day #30 - Sunset

One of the best parts of monsoon season is the incredible sunsets that result from all the moisture in the air. This one was taken from my old front yard (now, sadly, a vast parking lot for an LA Fitness).

Day #29 - Summer monsoons

I just uploaded a tremendous backlog of old photos to my flickr account, so I think I'll draw heavily from those for the next few days. This first one is a shot I took in August of 2004. I had just come home from work and the rain started pouring. We had a metal awning over the carport, and the rattle of raindrops was almost deafening. Wasn't fast enough to pull in the patio chair before it got thoroughly soaked. Whoops!
I love the way all the moisture diffuses the harsh sunlight and suffuses everything with that characteristic late afternoon glow.

Day #28 - wildlife

I just walked a few blocks downtown to drop a NetFlix DVD in a mail box and had at least 5 encounters with gorgeous blooming flowers, birds, butterflies, and quite a few examples of human, um...streetlife. Would have been a fabulous time to have my camera with me (alas), but you'll have to settle for this shot from the Botanical Gardens. Can't say as I've ever considered hanging out *on* a cactus before, but this critter seems perfectly content. I miss the "alligators" from my previous house. Not enough open space at the new place to accommodate anything more than the pink geckos that hang out around doorways.

Day #27 - XD

I'm not a fan of April Fool's Day, so you get the XD cake today...