Vancouver! Vancouver! This is it!

mount saint helens 2005

Ben, I am so glad you mentioned Kilauea! World Of Volcanoes: Hawaiian Volcanoes is another documentary on this particular shield volcano, though much older and certainly not as hi-def as Mountain of Fire, it is fantastic nonetheless.

fun fact: Harry Glicken, one of the scientists featured in World Of Volcanoes, was also a member of the crew monitoring Mount St. Helens in the spring of 1980. He was scheduled to work on May 18, but took the day off and was replaced by David Johnston - the only team member who believed the volcano would erupt laterally - which it did! Can you believe that?! His observation post was 5.7 miles from the blast and was considered to be in a relatively safe location. Yet the guy who got it right and wasn't even supposed to be there, was overcome by a blast of heat measuring 660°F and traveling over 300 miles per hour! Seriously think about that for a minute.

[Harry Glicken died 11 years later from the 1991 eruption of Mount Unzen in Japan]

Stratovolcanoes [Mt. St. Helens] are common where ocean plates are thrust under another tectonic plate and their eruptions are massively explosive! Shield volcanoes [like Hawaii] are common around hot spots, which emit thermal plumes - they are the gentlest volcanoes around! [aaaand they are named after Skjaldbreiður, the Icelandic volcano whose name means broad shield]

Oh, the Earth is alive and fulfilling an agenda of its own!

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other things to mention:

ben! not a huge fan of tracks 5-7, but i enjoyed the mix. that being said, please use paragraphs when posting? <3

i will continue to forward any materials i come across pertaining to twilight, tween entertainment, drug busts and religious nonsense to robert - so be sure to check his/andrea's blog for comedic relief. i'm going to try my very hardest to post about things that excite & inspire me, rather than just the ones that make me say, "wtf, who does that?!"
glass half full might do me some good. if you're looking for my blogging mission statement, i guess that'd be it.

Thanks for all the Shoes welcomes Christine and Benj as contributors

Well I'm happy to say two of my friends have joined the blog as contributers my GP Christine and DP Ben! I'm glad to have them on to make the blog more lively as currently I am a bit slow in my postings. Ben I think will be more focused in his postings, Christine and I will probably be all over the place. I am excited to co-write stuff with both of them as well as have their individual contributions. Thanks to both of you!

So long... and thanks for all the shoes.

When I was added as an author I took over this site and made it my own b/c Nikola wasn't posting now he's back and he's brought Christine and they've ruined my domination of the blog. So all these gay polka-dots you see around this post are not my doing. But I am sure everyone will love it, so all I can do is add a skate video to make the site more RAD!!!!

Hawaiian Hawk aka 'Io [ee-oh], Pillow Lava, and the music of Kilauea

Status: Protected as an Endangered Species in the United States

IUCN Classification: Near Threatened

Scientific Name: Buteo Solitarius

This magnificent bird is the only hawk native to Hawai'i. I recently learned about it while watching the newest Nature episode on PBS: Kilauea: Mountain of Fire. During the documentary the filmmakers explore kipukas or volcano oases. As you can imagine they are areas where stubborn vegetation grows despite being surrounded by hardened lava. Usually as the lava finds new avenues through the ground these oases can be totally destroyed. But, there are always new ones that spring up.

So, I was researching these kipukas (I couldn't find them for the longest time b/c I thought they were spelled kapukas or kapookas) and I found many pictures and amongst them were pictures of birds that frequent these oases. As I was browsing I came across this persons online journal of their current travels through Hawai'i. In a post from sometime in February there are some pictures of an 'Io resting in a tree. This bird really fascinated me so I started looking it up and I realized that this is the perfect animal to be the first that I share on this blog. I want to bring light to animals that are between slightly endangered to critically endangered. This is one that is in the middle. It is only found on Hawai'i, so it has a very localized population, and there are somewhere between 1,600 to 2,700 birds. That may not sound like a lot, but the population is still pretty stable since the area they inhabit is so small. The danger comes with the native ohi'a trees they nest in. These trees are where their most successful nesting occurs and they are slow growing and generally in decline. Continuing threats include forest clearance for agriculture and other developments, logging, and the actions of introduced ungulates that degrade native forests and inhibit their regeneration. The lack of information on historical numbers makes an assessment of this species difficult, and the underlying trend may be of gradual decline as nesting habitat disappears.

I was trying to find a video of the pillow lava from the Kilauea episode of Nature, but had no luck. Instead I have a video I found where the diver actually pulls at the lava as it moves through the water (they didn't do that in the Nature episode). You have to see this shit:

Also during Kilauea: Mountain of Fire Geophysicist Milton Garces uses infrasonic technology to listen in on what's happening in Kilauea's lava tubes. Best New Music 2009? You Decide:

Whatchamacallits vs. Oh yeah, Ideas

Since I've started to blog [many thanks to Nikola for getting a blog started for us] I have been wracking my brain about what to write about. What is the focus of this blog. Is it music and culture. Is it day to day observations and opinions. Is it turning drama and gossip into parody. Is it a social commentary on the obtuseness and folly of humanity. Or is it going to be a whatever the fuck you feel like blogging today blog.
I personally feel there have to be some focal points which we must use to help guide this blog towards some purpose. I don't want it to be potpourri. B/c it would be easy to say this is a bullshit blog so who cares what we write about. I don't want this to be blog #3,445,222 I want this grain of sand to be a scroll among crumpled up pieces of typewriter paper. [Very quickly: we all know i.e. or id est is Latin for that is well I am starting r.i. or related and interesting] (r.i. Jack Kerouac, a fast typist at 100 words per minute, typed On The Road on a roll of paper so he wouldn't be interrupted by having to change the paper. Within two weeks of starting to write On the Road, Kerouac had one single-spaced paragraph, 120 feet long. Some scholars say the scroll was shelf paper; others contend it was a Thermo-fax roll; another theory is that the roll consisted of sheets of architect’s paper taped together. (Wikipedia, Typewriter)) Don't judge me for copying and pasting from Wiki. I admit lameness.
So, what is my topical agenda you might ask? Specifically and yet broadly: Music, Nature, and Politics. These are the roots. How interesting or entertaining my posts are all depends on the species of the plant. If it is a night blooming cereus they could all be strange and dull except for one spectaular post in the middle of the year. If it is a sundew it could be entertaining year round as each post lures the most intriguing information and digests it to become pure enlightenment.
I don't know how this blog will evolve, but I at least want to start it as a blog full of ideals before it becomes another blog full of whatchamacallits. B/c after all doesn't the word Blog already sound vomitous (vomitous is not a word apparently, yet vomitously is. I don't get grammer).

Blig, Blag, Blug... Blog.

Weekly Mix EPs

I am going to post weekly music eps. Some will be all new music. Some will be new music I have discovered but is old. And some will have other themes. I'm doing this because I download so much music and I need to share it, so all of ya'll are going to get the best of the best when you listen to these. Enjoy. Tell me what you think of certain songs. I will be more in depth about the artists/songs I've selected. I'm just short on time. But one thing you should know: Friendly Foes is Ryan from Thunderbird's new band. Enjoy!

Dark Was The Night... Red Hot Does it again!

Nearly 15 years after "No Alternative" Red Hot organization (HIV AIDS charity group) drops another perfect compilation album set to serve as a placeholder for music of the time. This 31 track masterpiece features music from today's Indie elite... from Arcade Fire to Yo la Tengo... Bon Iver to Sufjan Stevens... Feist to Yeasayer.

Produced by The National's Aaron and Bryce Dessner the album is strong, catchy and memorable from beginning to end. Highlight tracks include a playful opener by Dirty Projectors and David Byrne in Knotty Pine, a haunting cover of the Castanets's "You are the Blood" by Sufjan Stevens, and a perfect collaboration of Blonde Redhead and The Devestations on "When the Road Runs Out", along with many more. From start to finish this album delivers and will surely be a classic referred to for years to come.