First (Third) Time Out

Ooh, a new blog. Its easy to be tempted to think "a new blog, a first post. How to set the tone?" Well, no declarative statements need be made here.

I have begun a blog twice before, each withering and dying from neglect in next to no time. One of them did, however, get rated as something like the 17th best bird blog in Western Washington, praise akin to placing 3rd from last in an ugliest dog competition, perhaps (East Bay Birders was the blog: look it up).

Dana and I have discussed for some time the idea of creating a space on line where we can write as it is a process we both enjoy greatly. Hopefully with her participation this time around, this blog will survive the winter.

On the bird front: We walked along Ruston Way in Tacoma this morning and there was a nice array of watery birds; horned and red-necked grebes, barrow's goldeneyes, great blue herons, various gulls, a solitary surf scoter, tons of double-crested cormorants, 1 pelagic cormorant, a couple of belted kingfishers. The tide was high so we were denied the amusement of watching western gulls swallow seastars whole. Also, yesterday, I had to rescue a house finch from the jaws of our cat Kitty Chan.

On Beats: Dana and I went to see Method Man and Redman on tour last week. A good, not great, performance that we both enjoyed. One note: Why does the whole worl love "Rapper's Delight" so damn much? Meth and Red covered it and that was fun, but... as anyone who has read and enjoyed Jeff Chang's "Can't Stop, Won't Stop" will attest, the song's position as a kind of Tigres and Euphrates of recorded hip hop has occurred by peeps ignoring or (more likely) being unaware that the song more accurately marks the inception of the commodification of hip hop. (Sugar Hill was a fake band, not existent until the recording - The Hip Hop Archies if you will; The rhymes were all or mostly jacked from better MCs with no contract). I am not hating, just saying. Anyway, it was good to see Meth and Red; can't get enough of Da Rockwilda.