DrW

TransSiberian (2008) Smilla's Sense of Snow (1997)

Does humor belong in music? Most certainly... Here is The Bonzo Dog Doodah Band with "Hunting Tigers out in India".

Donovan's "Season Of The Witch", here in a beautifully haunting cover by Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger and the Trinity...

Finally, an excellent live clip of Heron Oblivion...

British "heavy prog" from the early 1970s: Atomic Rooster (with Vincent Crane on Hammond organ)

Despite the rather inane lyrics, one of my favorite Stones song. The instrument that gives it its unique sound is Nicky Hopkins' piano.

I am a bit surprised that nobody has yet mentioned the Residents (at least not in such a way that the search routine can find them)...

Each team has now played their first game. Looked good: Japan, Brazil, Germany, Spain, US Had problems: England, France, Canada Later tonight, Switzerland and co-host New Zealand can punch their tickets to the knock-out round.

One of the most fun Zappa concerts on record: Barcelona 1988

When we visit the kid in Austin, we love to go to Barton Springs Pool. It is 3 acres large and natural, but with man-made improvements. The water is obviously pretty clean, as it is the habitat of the Barton Springs salamander. If you arrive before 8 am, parking and entry is free. The best feature for the birdwatcher: there is a pair of red-shouldered hawks in the vicinity.

More folk-jazz than folk-rock: Pentangle, "Hunting Song"

"Rawalpindi Blues", from "Escalator over the Hill" by Carla Bley and Paul Haines. With Carla Bley, Jack Bruce, Paul Motian, and John McLaughlin.

My wife and I have separate bedrooms for more than 10 years by now, and it preserved our marriage. We both work in academia, for significantly more than 40 hours per week; thus, lots of work is done at home. We both use our bedroom also as office. In addition, we have completely different sleep cycles; she is tired by 9 pm while I can read or watch TV late at night.

Paint - "Plastic Dreams". Paint is the solo project of Allah-La's guitarist/vocalist Pedrum Siadatian. Siadatian writes lovely "simple" songs that remind me of a guy who had a career 50 years ago: Kevin Ayers.

Most rural school districts here are so small that they cannot afford to lose another kid. And I can tell you from my own experience (my kids went to a pretty large suburban/rural public school district here in Lubbock, but had a number of friends in smaller rural districts) that the teachers and administrators in these small schools make tremendous efforts for a lousy salary.

Here in West Texas we have a long-standing opposition against school vouchers, driven by an unlikely coalition of rural republicans and democrats who fear that vouchers would take money away from the public school districts which badly need it. In most parts of the country here, there is just no private school within 50 - 100 miles.

King Crimson with John Wetton on bass and vocals: "Easy Money"

From the guy who played with nearly everybody... My favorite Adrian Belew song is "Lone Rhinoceros" I know the zoos protect my species They give me food, collect my feces But I can't help it, I miss the past I'll never again see my good old mudbath

The Black Keys - "Oceans and Streams". From their album "Attack and Release". Many critics consider their next album, "Brothers", their "master piece", but I personally favor "Attack and Release".

While there are many things wrong with Texas (a very recent example: Ken Paxton), one thing they got right: a quota for gifted students, whatever their color may be. If your kid graduates in the top 10% of his/her high school class, every Texas ***** university has to take you (well, UT Austin got an exemption: they only need to take the top 7%.) Couple that with in-state tuition of about $6,000 per semester even for the best universities (such as Austin), and you have a real bargain.

To me, a paddle board seems to be ideal for spontaneous, relatively short-term excursions on quiet water. When my then girl-friend, now-wife and I lived in Rochester, we preferred going downstream on fast creeks and very easy white water, mostly with a canoe, but sometimes when we had a third person with us, I would switch to kayak. But that requires lots of planning most of the time and using two cars. But we had lots of fun in the Adirondacks, the Alqonquins, and the Finger Lakes (the most daring trip was down the Canisteo). Sadly, here in Lubbock the boats are just hanging in the garage.

Interesting point from a historical perspective. However, the George Floyd aftermath seems to show that a general population which is allowed to carry arms is not able to prevent such riots.

A few days ago on one of the cooking channels they showed a rerun of Andrew Zimmern's "Bizarre Foods" episode on the Ozarks. One dish they featured were bacon-wrapped crow breasts. As it turned out, "eating crow" is not always as disgusting as it sounds.

Let's start with a nice cap...