Healdsburg Guitar Festival

Main Exhibit Floor
Originally uploaded by Bill Walker.

Pat Smith invited me up to Healdsburg for the Healdsburg Guitar Festival this weekend. This festival brings together an impressive collection of high-end luthiers and guitarists from bluegrass to classical to jazz for an intense weekend of concerts, workshops, and exhibits.

We performed for an hour in the Cabaret (a respite for those overwhelmed by the exhibit floor), after which I was Pat's teaching assistant for a workshop entitled "Stuff about the Blues". The next day we were the host band for Tom Ribbecke's legendary festival party, hosted at his nearby workshop. Despite the long drive, we had a great time!

Ashland Day Four

The Belle's Strategem

A delightful 18th century play by a female playwright, this show makes a wonderful counterpoint to Shaw's The Philanderer. Both are concerned with the changing roles of women in a changing society. Strategem offers a less cynical take on marriage, and seems to offer a lot of social commentary on the comparative manners of English versus continental women. Apparently, this play hasn't been performed in nearly a hundred years. I hope it gets another revival soon.

Ashland Day Three

Richard III

Probably the best show of this weekend, perhaps the best show of this OSF season. This sequence of the history plays that began several years ago with Dan Donahue fabulous portrayal of Harry becoming Henry V. James Newcomb hinted at greatness last year with his portrayal of Richard in Henry VI. He commands the stage this year as Richard III, by turns beguiling and terrifying, flitting around the stage with alarming switfness on crutches only to brought to the ground by his deformity. The barren set, punctuated only by two enormous columns, keeps attention riveted on the characters. I also loved the haunting character of Queen Margaret, who haunts the back of the set everytime her name is invoked. Robin Goodrin Nordli's blood-curdling delivery of Margaret's dire insults was outstanding.


Twelfth Night

It's hard for new performances of Twelfth Night to distinguish themselves in my memory, having seen this play quite a few times. OSF can produce just such a performance, as it did last year with an inspired Los Vegas setting of Comedy of Errors. This year's Twelfth Night is particularly noteworthy for Ken Albers's excellent performance as Malvolio. Where most actors make Malvolio into a blustery, overblown character, Albers offers us a quiet, intense figure, still pompous but much more believable. The power struggle between Maria and Malvolio during the late-night kitchen brawl was wonderfully believable and quite different from any other version I've seen.

Ashland Day Two

Napoli Millionaria

A multi-generational family drama about life during wartime. A moving script, brilliantly acted, fabulously costumed, with a set that powerfully evokes the narrow streets and crowded living conditions described in the program notes. Particularly great performances from Linda Alper and Richard Elmore.


Love's Labors Lost

I'm certain this is not Shakespeare's wordiest play, but I think the program notes were right to say it is one of the plays most centrally about language itself. The characters spend most of the play delighting or amusing each other with improvised poems, witty insults, and dopey love sonnets. After having seen this play several times, I still don't understand the emotional flow of the ending. The abrupt appearance of a messenger announcing the death of the King of France and the suddenly serious conversations of the four previously happy-go-lucky young couples feels out of place. It's almost as though Shakespeare didn't quite know how to end the thing. OSF applies its usual high standards to this production, but I can't say this play is a favorite.

Ashland Day One

Gibraltar

This compelling new play was the result of a unusual collaborative process between the playwright and several of the company members. It weaves together a collection of brief stories about love gone wrong. The performance we attended was cursed by an electrical power failure that forced both an unscheduled intermission and the running of the second half of the show with houselights up. Despite the intimate nature of the New Theatre, both cast and audience stayed in the moment and were not distracted by the lighting irregularities, a tribute to both.

The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus

I really enjoyed the lavish, macabre staging of this play on the Elizabethan stage. With its heavy candlesticks, occult symbols, and piles of skulls, it evoked Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Far and away my favorite aspect of this production was Ray Porter's portrayal of Mephostophilis -- mysterious and menacing, tightly controlled but prone to frightening bursts of temper or appetite.

Izzy likes corn

Izzy likes corn
Originally uploaded by Bill Walker.

Does this seem like normal pet behavior? I've known about Izzy's prediliction for corn, but never before had the opportunity or inclination to acquire such graphic photographic evidence.

Harry Potter release party

We had a great time attending the Harry Potter release party at "M" is for Mystery bookstore in San Mateo. They turned the alley behind the bookstore into a Diagon Alley with various vendor booths, lots of folks in costume. As always, it's so cool to see that many kids so excited about reading!

GrooveLily @ Little Fox Theatre

GrooveLily did an excellent show tonight at the Little Fox Theatre in Redwood City. Sound was excellent, thanks to their Bose gear along with a clean house PA. This is a very nice venue, highly recommended.

I really enjoyed myself. I especially loved the revised live arrangements of songs from their older records (especially You Take Control or Weight of the World). These folks can really _rock_ one second and be terrifically sensitive the next. Their message is fundamentally upbeat and encouraging, despite all the lyrics about how hard it is to make it as a musician. Great stuff. Now make us a live album already!

Set 1:

Looking forward to looking back
Live Through This (Are We There Yet?)
Snow Song
Can't Go Home
Give the Drummer Some
Every Little Bit (cover of Patti Griffin)
Million bucks
No room in your bag

Set 2:

Patiently
You Take Control
wheelhouse ... Open roads
wheelhouse ... Way to see america
wheelhouse ... Givin' it all away
Weight of the World
Try Again
Apocolyptic Love Song
The Odometer Song

changes at birdWalker

I uploaded some changes to birdwalker today. The change I intended to upload was a new scheme for browsing through trips with next and previous links at the top of the page. Try it out and let me know what you think (You could, for example, start here).

I accidentally uploaded a new "species of the day" entry on the front page, with a photo (when available) and a map showing all the places where we've seen the species. I love the way the trip entries look in the right hand-column -- now I just need to make up something plausible to put in the left-hand column!

KKUP Jazz Marathon, July 10, 2005

KKUP Jazz Marathon
Originally uploaded by Bill Walker.

Hey you all, it's time again for the annual KKUP Jazz Marathon in Santa Clara. Come hear me perform with the Pat Smith Trio on Sunday, July 10th, at 5pm. We'll be playing out in front of the KKUP studios at 1241 Franklin Square in downtown Santa Clara. The music starts around noon and runs all day, so grab your lawn chairs and get on over there! See the KKUP website for more details.

Kern River 2005

We're just back from an outstanding four day trip to the Kern River valley. Our fearless leader, Bob Power, showed us a lot of beautiful mountain birds, including some Mary and I hadn't seen in a long time. One of them, the Green-tailed towhee, has been my nemesis for eight long years, ever since Mary saw it on one side of an interstate rest stop while I was on the other side.

This trip was also notable because I rented a Canon 500mm f/4L from Keeble and Shuchat and dragged it with me everywhere. Although it got heavy from time to time, I really enjoyed using it, and got some decent results, most of which are posted at birdWalker.

You can look at the thumbnails for all the pictures organized in by date, the Kern ones are at the top:

You can look at the reports for days one, two, three, four of the trip, click on the little Cameras to see the photos.

The Tubes, San Jose

Roger Steen in action
Originally uploaded by Bill Walker.

Last night I went to see The Tubes playing at a park in downtown San Jose. They played a great show! I was particularly impressed with the guitar playing of Roger Steen. His soloing can be virtuostic, but more often has instead that thoughtful, melodic quality that I so admire about Eric Clapton.

Quick trip to Cape May

Grey Catbird
Originally uploaded by Bill Walker.

We just had a quick trip to Cape May (see details for day one and day two) where we worked on familiar east coast birds like this here Gray Catbird. Hot and humid, but well worth the trip.

Hooray for summer!

American Avocet
Originally uploaded by Bill Walker.

I love the part where I can get in a few photos after work and the light is just getting good. On this particular tuesday I was practicing flight shots, and these guys were moving slowly and predicably, so I got them in focus.

you know you're an XSLT geek when...

you know you're an XSLT geek when you've read about and start to understand the Muench technique for building an index over an XML document that helps you remove duplications from collections. [thanks to Joe Pallas for tracking down the URL]

Blessing the Rectory

University Church Rectory
Originally uploaded by Bill Walker.

After many years, University Church in Palo Alto, California blessed its new Rectory on Saturday. I served on the Pastoral Housing Committee for at least five years, and to be honest I had many doubts we would ever get to this point. Many thanks to our outstanding project manager Duane Bay, without whom this would never have happened.

bye bye, piano

bye bye, piano
Originally uploaded by Bill Walker.

Well, the time has come to return Pastor Foster's piano. At least he has a parsonage with a lovely Great Room that accomodates the piano very nicely. I was a very fortunate to have had the use of this vintage Steinway D for several years, and I bid it a fond farewell.

My Mom Rocks!

My Mom and Brother
Originally uploaded by Bill Walker.

How do I come by this cool photo of me, my Mom, and my brother? Because my mom made this cool scrapbook from when I was thirteen. And this is just one of several big volumes of really cool stuff from my childhood. Thanks, Mom!

South Texas Slideshow available

Neotropic Cormorant
Originally uploaded by Bill Walker.

I've put together a slide show from the South Texas Tripat at flickr. You can watch an automatic slide show, or page through at your own rate. Enjoy!

My Cliff Swallow published in Berkeley

My Cliff Swallow photo has been published by the Berkeley Daily Planet in an article entitled Cliff Swallows Use Social Strategies for Survival. Check out the article, it's very interesting!

Ivory-Billed Woodpecker Rediscovered in Arkansas

Holy Cats!

Inca Dove

Inca Dove
Originally uploaded by Bill Walker.

Well, we're back from Texas, and I'm finally starting to sort through all the pictures I took, including this cute lil' Inca Dove who seemed to be nesting in the Frontera Audubon parking lot.

South Texas Day Five

50 species, including four life birds.

(Will have to write more trip notes later. Just got home at midnight sans luggage after changing our plane tickets in Dallas. Grrr, gosh darn airport luggage office. Meanwhile, you can admire the species list for the whole trip)

South Texas Day Four

83 species, including four life birds.

An overcast day with winds from the northeast gave high hopes of being a premium fallout day, but we had to settle for quality over quantity at Padre Island. Life looks at the Cape May Warbler at the convention center were enough prize to distract us from a "low" day total.

Our first trip to the convention center turned up only, ho hum, Blue-winged, Nashville and Tennessee Warblers, 2 orioles, Indigo Bunting and a few other passerines. We took a break by going to look at plovers, terns and gulls on the beach behind the convention center itself. On our return, the Cape May Warbler was spotted almost immediately by the 5 or more photographers with large rigs pointed right at the bird's last known location.

We stopped at the beach and jetty at the south tip of the island, then said good-bye to South Padre and headed out to Bensen for owls and nightjars. An elf owl emerged from a known location at 8:14 pm and was quickly joined in a near-by conifer by a second bird. In the dusk, we observed multiple food exchanges between these two birds before it got too dark to see them at all. A much more satisfying experience than a simple check-mark on a list.

Birds observed by others on the trip include: Clapper Rail, Least Sandpiper, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Ladder-backed Woodpecker, Bank Swallow, Cave Swallow, Grey Catbird, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Clay-colored and Savanah Sparrow, Hooded Oriole

(notes by Mary)

South Texas Day Three

112 species, including 5 life birds.

Weather was extremely hot and muggy, with varying clouds and occasional breeze.

In addition to the female Northern Parula, we observed a hybrid Northern x Tropical Parula.

Other critters included Pocket Gopher, Coyote, White-tailed Deer, Eastern Cottontail, and Spiny-backed Orb Weaver.

Today we celebrated our 450th life bird, a Grasshopper Sparrow seen at Santa Ana NWR.

South Texas Day Two

112 species, including 9 life birds

Weather was extremely warm and humid.

We started the morning at Sabal Palm, then spent the afternoon at the convention center at South Padre Island, returning to Harlingen by Old Port Isabel Road.

Birds seen by others on the trip include: White Ibis, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Green Kingfisher, Bewick's Wren, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Grey Catbird, Scarlet Tanager, Chipping Sparrow, Lazuli Bunting, Painted Bunting.

There was an alligator just off the boardwark at South Padre Island convention center.

South Texas Day One

49 species

Arrived at McAllen airport around 3:18pm. By 3:54pm, we'd shown Dolores her first life bird (Great-tailed grackle) while on the way to the Best Western in Harlingen. We stopped there only briefly, then ran down to Laguna Atascosa NWR for picnic supper and birding. It was really wonderful to see so many of the highlight birds right away on the first day.

Mammals: mexican ground squirrel, collared peccary.

"Beer Butt Chicken"

"Beer Butt Chicken"
Originally uploaded by Bill Walker.

Yes, that's right, we're headed back to Texas. Bright and early tomorrow we're headed through Dallas to McAllen for five days of glorious birding. Groove-billed Ani here we come!

"Christy" (return of big trash)

"Christy"
Originally uploaded by Bill Walker.

It's time once again for what we like to call Big Trash Day, where once a year Santa Clara picks up darn near anything you leave on (or near) the curb. I always enjoy photographing the interesting juxapositions I find walking to the train this time of year.

All hail Art!

All hail Art, newly ascended demigod and holder of third highest all-time score in nethack.

(Art phoned us and we got to tune in via telnet to the server and watch his ascension in real time. Congrats, Art!)

Rookery heating up again

Great Egret
Originally uploaded by Bill Walker.

Last night I attended the monthly meeting of the Bay Area Bird Photographers club, where I saw an excellent presentation by local photographer John Cang. He had many interesting suggestions about how to go beyond traditional bird portraits and make more interesting photos. I also heard that the rookery next to the Palo Alto Duck pond is getting busy again. I've got to get back out there some morning. This egret is one of my favorite shots from last year's rookery shots.

recent changes to birdWalker

Just wanted to mention some recent changes to birdWalker:

* Species lists, when subdivided taxonomically, are subdivided by Family. Formerly, they only subdivided by Order, which was confusing. Here's an example.

* The CSS should work properly on Firefox and Internet Explorer on both Mac and Windows.

* Randomly selected photos should stay the same for an entire day, so the Featured Photos on the front page should be there all day.

On watching college basketball

So, back in the old days, when I wanted to watch Illinois during the
NCAA Men's basketball tournament, I pretty much had to live with whichever games my regional CBS affliate wanted to show me. Or go to a sports bar with satellite TV. For the first game on Thursday night, we
tried the latter -- we did go to the Old Pro in Palo Alto, but it was
too loud and too crowded for our tastes. Then again, it was also
St. Patrick's day.

Saturday, we sat down to watch the games at our house. I decided it
was time for something different.

On those rare occassions when our game was on KPIX, it was a simple
matter of watching the TiVo connected to good, old-fashioned Comcast
analog cable.

When they switched to some other (lesser) game, I used Firefox and the
Windows Media Player 9 browser plug-in to watch streaming video of the
Illinois game via Comcast High-speed Internet through my Linksys router to the Airport card of my Powerbook. From there it was a simple matter to
connect the stereo audio and S-Video output from the Powerbook to the
Onkyo A/V Receiver.

A few commands listed on the LCD of my Harmony universal remote allowed me to switch between the two inputs.

Oh, and after the game we switched the RealOne player and listened to the post-game interviews with the players and the coach.

What could be simpler?

And then there were 16...

Illinois Final Four 1989 t-shirt
Originally uploaded by Bill Walker.

Hey, well, we made it past Nevada. Don't want to jinx Illinois's chances in the tournament this year by actually wearing this old shirt yet, but if we win next weekend, I definitely will.

Hammond C3

Hammond C3
Originally uploaded by Bill Walker.

I love my Hammond! I'm not actually storing it at my house right now, and I don't make time to visit it at Pat's house nearly as often as I should. What a sound, man, what a sound.

Illinois Final Four 1989 t-shirt

Illinois Final Four 1989 t-shirt
Originally uploaded by Bill Walker.

I'd just like to say that my university's men's college basketball team hasn't lost AT ALL this season. How 'bout yours?

"foohud"

"foohud"
Originally uploaded by Bill Walker.

in the end, you'll have to ask spinnity for the full story about "foohud". She says that's what the Una Mas guy wrote when she ordered a Foghat burrito. Since then, "foohud" has become a legend.

Surf Scoter, Mountain View

Surf Scoter, Mountain View
Originally uploaded by Bill Walker.

I took another trip back to Shoreline Lake and found this cutie right next to shore

my brother gives birdwalker a facelift

My brother John, despite being utterly preoccupied with little Sarah, found time to (1) suggest Gill Sans as a Tufte-approved font for our birding site, and (2) design a favicon for the site. Thanks, John!

flickr, flickr, flickr

Hey all,

While sitting here at the Blue Rock Shoot in Saratoga (totally free WiFi!) I have decided to plunk down my hard-earned cash on a flickr account. (In the interests of full disclosure, I will add that I was pushed over the edge by the knowledge that my very creative friend Cassidy, originator of the graffiti archaeology movement, has a big presence there.

flickr is far and away the most interesting social networking website I've played with, even though it has the fewest number of people I already know. Something about fact that all the participants are creating and posting photos gives it a very creative feeling.

flickr is also far and away the most aesthetically pleasing photo sharing website I've ever used, even though it doesn't (yet) have the kind of bird photographer community I find at fredmiranda.

Anyway, I'm enjoying posting stuff there and being the recipient of near-instantaneous random acts of positive feedback as people discover my latest uploads. Rather addictive, actually!

New bird photos: Common Goldeneye, Ring-billed Gull

I was out shooting this morning and saw that the Common Goldeneye are starting to do their wacky mating behavoirs. As one bird was showing off I got this picture. Then, a Ring-billed Gull landed right next to me and started screaming. I got this portrait before he flew off again.

birdwalker release notes

Hey all, I updated birdwalker today. Noteworthy changes:

* You can view map versions of any species, trip, county, or state page.

* I created bogus, non-ABA-countable species pages for Dowitcher and Yellowlegs.

* Marked Audubon's Warbler, Yellow-shafted Flicker, Red-shafted Flicker as non-ABA-countable

I'm really digging this map stuff. For example, here's the map of sites I've birded in my home county.

I have a niece!

At 2:29pm Eastern, my sister-in-law Susan gave birth to her first child, Sarah Elise Walker, 7lbs 5oz. Susan, Sarah, and my brother John are all doing fine. May God bless and protect them.

Adam Curry lives

If, back in 1983, you told me that I'd be downloading an independent radio show featuring Adam Curry over my cable TV cable to a 5GB portable music player, I would not have believed you. Nor would I have believed that Adam Curry is automating his website using Userland Frontier. Truth is stranger than fiction.

"Why do the white gulls call?"

Roll credits for Return of the King. Even after several times through all of these, I still get misty for Denethor's death scene, the farewell at the Grey Havens. I would still edit out almost all of Gimli's annoying comic relief scenes (especially the drinking contest and any line involving "tossing"). I still think these films _rock_.

LOTR marathon resumed

Back from dinner, hyped up on coffee, rarin' to go.

LOTR marathon paused

Ok, we're stopping at the beginning of chapter 33, disk 1, ROTK to go to dinner. Making good progress. Does Elrond tell Denethor that Aragorn is going to take the path through the mountain? Back after dinner.

Done with Two Towers

From what I've heard, it's after two movies that most people hit the wall. We've got a dinner invitation, so we won't get through all of the third movie until after dinner.

Seeing the first two back-to-back helps you better perceive the arc of various themes -- Aragorn's decision to accept his destiny as King, Smeagol versus Gollum, Frodo being consumed by the Ring.

Helm's Deep

(When earlier I said "at the Black Gate" I meant Frodo and Sam, not Aragorn)

Battle of Helm's Deep. Time for some serious butt kicking.

At the Black Gate

We've gotten to the Black Gate, and started on the cookies. We're holding up well.

Finished first movie

OK, well, one down, two to go. Woo!

Made it to Rivendell

Well, so far so good. Viggo rocks.

Lord of the Rings (extended edition) marathon begins

OK, here goes. We're going to try to watch all three extended editions today. Made english muffins with egg, strong coffee. Laid in supply of biscotti. Roll Fellowship.

My first treo blog

My first treo blog
Originally uploaded by Bill Walker.

So, I had to try uploading a camera phone picture to Flickr and blogging it. Pretty slick, once you get the infrastructure figured out. The big question -- is ATT (Cinqular?) charging me per message for this?

favorable review of my employer's product

I am pleased to mention that the product I work on all day for my employer, Reactivity, has been favorably reviewed by Network Computing magazine.

He writes, "I went out today and found 10 Hawk Owls and 3 Great Gray Owls"

There comes a point in your birding career when a sentence like "I went out today and found 10 Hawk Owls and 3 Great Gray Owls" makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up. And then you look at his photos. Holy cats.

Wings over Merced

The rolling thunder of Steve Shunk's annual visit to San Francisco continues with this year's edition of Wings over Merced, including great looks at Sora and Cattle Egret. Our 2005 year list has already reached 156, woo!

(Also: I posted a new version of birdwalker that actually knows about the year 2005, and has a few other bug fixes. Enjoy)

High Tide Weekend wraps up

We wrapped up our three days of high tide birding with a swing through sites in the east bay, including some amazing looks at rails and Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow at Arrowhead Marsh. Here's the day list, including a photo of very cooperative Canvasback.

Life bird, dude!

Today we saw our very first Yellow Rail, and it was a doozy! Here's the day list. I am just beginning to understand that these January high tides are not at all a nice experience for the Rails and mammals that get flooded out of their homes. Sure makes for high drama at the swamp!

Greetings from Novato!

Greetings from the Best Western Novato Oaks Inn, where we are winding up the first day of the big Paradise Birding High Tide Weekend. I have posted our trip list for today, including an impressive 93 species for us (99 for the group as a whole). I had a few decent photos of passerines found at the Coyote Point museum, but might not get around to posting them tonight.

The new $20 rainpants from REI were a success, the afternoon was not even rainy. I call it a complete success.

Photo Challenge: Best of 2004

I am very pleased to announce the results of the Best of 2004 Photo Challenge. This is a fabulous group of photos, well worth your time to view.

worth a look: College Photographer of the Year

I recommend a look at the winning images from the 59th college photographer of the year contest. Amazing stuff, especially Kevin Nibur's "Ahead by a nose".

Birds love the new feeder

Birds love the new feeder
Originally uploaded by Bill Walker.

They found this feeder overnight, and have been mobbing it ever since.

two more bird photos

I posted an Osprey and a Common Merganser at birdwalker, but I'm not crazy about the Osprey -- the light angle was not good. Had great luck with the new thistle feeder in our backyard. We had nearly a dozen goldfinches right away, and our first pine siskin!

Christmas Bird Count Photos

I posted our trip list and some photos from a very lovely day doing the San Jose Christmas Bird Count near Drawbridge. Especially exciting was the squabble between two golden eagles over a squirrel that took place directly in front of the car.

doing cool XML stuff with flickr

Hal pointed me at this cool article about using XSLT to transform the XML you get back from flickr.

Save Pale Male

For roughly ten years there have been Red-tailed hawks nesting on a fancy apartment building across the street from Central Park. Without warning or provocation, the apartment building management company recently destroyed the nest. Can they be persuaded to let the hawks rebuild? For the latest on this epic struggle between good-hearted and heartless New Yorkers, look here.

Visualizing the chord changes to "Giant Steps"

(link courtesy of Pat Smith)

Have you ever tried to learn John Coltrane's "Giant Steps"? It's gnarly. The chords sound right, but soloing over it is extremely confusing. Help is on the way -- Iain Houston has created a nifty animation for visualizing the chord changes of "Giant Steps". Truly, the internet is amazing.

birdwalker2 updated

I just updated birdwalker2. New features include the ability to see all the photos for a trip, location, or county. I am refactoring the PHP code to use objects, which is working very nicely. In the course of doing this I lost track of some of my first sighting calculations, which I need to integrate with the new PHP objects. Another new plan -- tag my cvs repository when I post changes to my server, so I can write better release notes next time.

Custom Wall Calendars Ordered

Well, after looking at the Ofoto calendars, I decided to order from Ofoto using mostly my JPEG's saved with sRGB. While the JPEG's saved with Adobe RGB color space were less red, they were also dark and dull. We decided that overly red was better than too dark.

Custom Wall Calendars, Part Five

Responding to my second email request for information about color management, Ofoto tech support has this to say:

"At this time, Ofoto does not have or support ICC or any other color
profiles. We will notify registered members when this option becomes
available. For best results, Ofoto recommends using Adobe Standard RGB
color spaces.

We suggest that you adjust your monitor so your onscreen image more
closely resembles your calendar from Ofoto. You will then have a more
accurate view of your file and can edit your images to produce the best
photograph possible."

So, there you have it. I have regenerated my images with Adobe RGB and uploaded them to Ofoto. Mary thinks I should do another test.

Bill discovers GrooveLily

Thursday, we presented ourselves at the time and place appointed on our TheatreWorks subscription tickets. As has been our recent custom, we arrived at the theatre knowing nothing about a show called "Striking 12".

What we experienced was a phenomenal performance by GrooveLily based very loosely around Hans Christian Andersen's story, the Little Match Girl.

GrooveLily is a trio featuring drums, keyboards, and electric violin. All three musicians sing. The result reminds me by turns of Shawn Colvin, Christine Lavin, Steely Dan, James Taylor, Laurie Andersen, and Genesis. The lyrics feature clever word play offset by startling imagery. Excellent funk grooves, tasty use of odd meters, fiercely optimistic uptempo anthems.

Afterwards I bought all six of their CD's. I have scarely listened to anything else since. You really should go see this show. The San Jose Mercury News says the same.

Custom Wall Calendars, Part Four

Well, I picked up the Kinko's calendar at my nearest Kinko's this morning. I give them high marks for customer service -- they not only responded to me email query in email but phoned me as well.

The calendar itself is spiral bound with large images, all good. But, the actual calendar pages are pretty ugly, and the quality of the photo printing is no better than the Ofoto and cafepress contestants.

Still leaning towards Ofoto. I wrote to them again about color management.

Custom Wall Calendars, Part Three

We showed the two calendars to various friends. Most seemed to prefer the Ofoto calendar with its professional binding and nice packaging.

On Sunday, Dan and I got around to looking at the color print quality in detail, examining the two calendars with a magnifying glass and comparing them to the original JPEG's as displayed on my color-calibrated powerbook display.

Both calendars overemphasized reds and yellows; I wonder if this is intended to make family snapshots look warmer? Also, both calendars exhibited vertical banding, especially evident in low-contrast backgrounds.

In the end we slightly preferred the Ofoto calendar, but really expected Ofoto to do a better job of color management.

I used each website's support section to write to customer support complaining about the red shift and asking for a copy of their printer's color profile. Cafepress never wrote back at all. Ofoto wrote back to say that my images weren't of sufficiently highly resolution, which is both wrong and irrelevant.

We decided to add a third entrant to the competition, Kinko's. After a bit of wrangling, we managed to get all the images uploaded to the Kinko's site. They have a nice GUI for cropping and laying out the images. I was eventually able to order and pay for the calendar at their website, and arrange to pick it up at my nearest Kinko's store, thus saving on shipping.

Custom Wall Calendars: Part Two

Both the Ofoto and cafepress calendars arrived today via FedEx and UPS, respectively. That's two days after placing the order -- pretty impressive! The Ofoto calendar was wrapped in a plastic envelope containing a silica gel dessicant inside a cardboard box mailer; the cafepress calendar was shrink-wrapped to a corregated cardboard sheet inside a sturdy brown mailer.

First impressions -- the Ofoto calendar with its spiral binding and nice packaging seems much more professional and impressive. The cafepress calendar is larger with large, borderless photos, but its inexact folding and stapling job made it seem much less polished and professional. Also, cafepress put the cover image on upside down.

Both websites did a good job providing order status information, email updates, and links to shipper tracking information.

Custom Wall Calendars: Part One

Inspired by some stuff that my wife Mary found on the web, I decided to try to make a custom wall calendar containing twelve of my photos. Since her original inspiration came from cafepress, and since their website was pretty slick, I definitely wanted to try them. However, some disquieting comments from dissatisfied cafepress customers made me want to try at least two vendors. After looking around, I settled on Ofoto as the second contender.

I downloaded the cafepress template for wall calendars (3,450 by 2,700 at 300dpi), built a set of high-quality JPEG's using Photoshop CS with embedded sRGB color profiles, and uploaded them to both the cafepress and Ofoto websites.

When I started to create the custom calendar at cafepress, I ran into my first problem. Since my first look at cafepress's "Create & Buy (tm)" section several days earlier, the Wall Calendar ($14.99) item had disappeared from the list of Products. Only by fiddling with the URL did I get to the page that allowed me to create the Wall Calendar. An email query to cafepress concerning this oversight produced no reply.

Eventually, I uploaded all the photos to both cafepress and Ofoto. I added captions for the Ofoto calendar; cafepress expects you to format your own captions as part of the image you upload, which is both more flexible and more work.

I ordered both calendars today at midday, November 22nd, to be delivered to my house via second day delivery. Within a few hours I received email acknowledgements from both companies.

Tom Stoppard's "The Real Thing" at ACT

We went last night to see Tom Stoppard's play "The Real Thing" done by American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. I should mention up front that I'm a huge Stoppard fan, having been won over by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's production of "Rough Crossing" several years ago.

Like all his work, this play is self-referential and multi-layered. A play-within-a-play in the very first scene fits perfectly with the main theme of trying to work out when a relationship is The Real Thing. His use of symmetrical scenes in which lovers confront each other lends weight and rhythm to the interlocking stories of theatre people trying to make sense of their intertwingled professional and personal lives.

During the second half I was sure he was setting us up for another devastatingly sad ending as in his play "Arcadia", but instead he gives us a quiet, faintly optimistic one, hinting that Stoppard, like his playwright main character, is quite a romantic.

photo: ucsf vanpoo?

ucsf vanpoo?
Originally uploaded by Bill Walker.

I swear I did not manipulate this photo. That's what the side of the van said. Spotted in Belmont, CA turning from Old County Road onto Ralston Ave.

Photo: Cooper's Hawk Close Encounter

Cooper's Hawk 2
Originally uploaded by Bill Walker.

Woah. So there I was walking along the sidewalk between the Charleston Slough pond and the windsurfing pond when I hear a rustle like ten feet ahead. I look up and this lovely creature lands just ahead at eye level in a little tree. I just had time to grab like 6 or 8 shots before he got wigged and flew off.

Report: Trip to Malheur NWR

Wow!

We're just back from an amazing weekend at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon with our favorite birding guide, Steve Shunk of Paradise Birding.

Despite unseasonably cold and snowy weather we really enjoyed ourselves and got to see almost all the birds we could reasonably expect at the Refuge. I really recommend a visit to the high desert of eastern Oregon. It has a kind of serenity you don't find anywhere else, due largely to the striking volcanic rock formations and fantastic cloud formations. The sunlight at dawn and dusk is warm and velvety, you could shoot landscape pictures all day and never get tired of it. (note: I'll post some of my landscapes soon, I promise).

For you birders out there, I've posted my trip lists for days one, two, three, and four, and you can also take a look at the weekend total species count.

I had a few good bird pictures over the weekend, especially this American Dipper.

Riders

Great America
Originally uploaded by Bill Walker.

While looking for a Plumbeous Vireo and a Clay-colored Robin in the parking lots around Great America, I had several chances to photograph folks riding the roller coasters; this is one of the best ones

About this whole accordion thing...

So, my wife and my guitarist have been hassling me for years to take up the accordion. Although I might grudgingly admit that certain applications of that instrument (for example, in Zydeco music) are pretty cool, I'll certainly never tell them that. The more they talk about it, the more I dig in my heels.

Until now.

RSS is actually Simple?!

Conventional wisdom around our office is that any specification or standard that begins with Simple or Lightwight is definitely neither (anyone care to make the case that LDAP is truly lightweight?). Imagine my surprise this morning when I managed to add an RSS feed to my birdWalker site in about 10 minutes. If only WSDL, XML Schema, and SOAP were this easy.

birding website now "bloggier"

On Saturday, I updated the look of my birding field notes website to make it less cluttered and more blog-like. I especially wanted the front page to show details of the most recent trips at the top, with as many photos as possible. Feedback appreciated.

Dowitchers and Plovers

Dowitchers and Plovers
Originally uploaded by Bill Walker.

Dan and I combined his lovely new Canon 20D body with my 300mm f4/L lens at coffee break. I wanted to see how the AI Servo focus mode on the 20D, combined with its large shooting buffer, helps with taking shots of flying birds, a task which is very difficult even with all these amenities. I filled up 2GB (!) of Compact Flash in like 20 minutes. This is one of the better shots, slightly cropped. Here we see a flock of Dowitchers (smaller) with one Snowy Plover (larger) leading the flock. Note the black wing pits.

What's on the iPod: "COWBOYbebel"

The playlist-of-the-week on my iPod is the one I titled "COWBOYbebel". It's two parts "Cowboy Bebop" anime soundtrack per one part Bebel Gilberto's latest album.

Just in terms of story and visuals, Cowboy Bebop stands apart from every other piece of Anime I've watched. What really makes it special is its pairing of techno/film noir visuals with retro big band music. It's a combination that really seperates Cowboy Bebop from the rest of the pack, just as Vince Guaraldi's soundtrack lifted the Charlie Brown animated specials into the realm of classics.

Bebel Gilberto's latest (self-titled) album is more mainstream, less techno than her previous offering ("Tanto Tempo", also excellent). She mixes up singing in English and Portuguese this time, and the results are infectious, light, airy.

I couldn't say why these two seem to fit together; I guess it says something about my appetite for eclectic juxtaposition. Anyway, give 'em a listen and lemme know what you think.

Where's that confounded bridge?

Natural Bridges State Beach, Santa Cruz
Originally uploaded by Bill Walker.

Here's a look at half the bridge from the beach in Santa Cruz. Pelicans really dig it, as you can see. (hint: those rocks aren't naturally white and streaky like that)

Another friendly bird

Red-necked Phalarope
Originally uploaded by Bill Walker.

I noticed someone digiscoping with their Swarovski spotting scope, and headed over to see if he had found something interesting. He had evidently been looking at some Phalaropes. Although they flew off as I first approached, they later returned to a much sunnier spot.

Black Turnstone

Black Turnstone
Originally uploaded by Bill Walker.

We got to Natural Bridges toward sunset, and the Turnstones and Sanderlings were feeding in the surf, seemingly oblivious to nearby people and pets. I've never gotten so close to a Turnstone before, it was really magical. I shot nearly 80 pictures in about 20 minutes

Willow Flycatcher

Willow Flycatcher
Originally uploaded by Bill Walker.

Here I am testing Blogger's integration with flickr. This photo is allegedly of a Willow Flycatcher we saw with the Audubons at Point Reyes National Seashore. I'm not sure there are enough field marks here to really be sure of the diagnosis. Any opinions?

Gear lust

I wonder if I can explain to you with a straight face why I really, really need a Canon EOS 20d camera body. My buddy Dan just got one, I played with it at lunch today, and WOW it's nice.

Compared to the Canon EOS 300D I already have, what has this new camera got? Glad you asked. Mostly, it's just faster -- it starts up faster, writes pictures to the memory card faster, lets you change your settings faster. It does that really cool AI Servo autofocus mode whenever you want, the one that lets you track flying birds (the 300D only does it in dorky Sports mode). And it's a lot less likely to tell me BUSY while I'm trying to capture that hawk flying right overhead.

And, it's black. Need I say more?

We ROCKED the CFC

We did the SFBBO CFC and WE ROCKED. More news later, very sleep now.

SFBBO CFC Madness

Every year the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory sponsors a Big Day competition called the California Fall Challenge, in which teams attempt to raise the most money while seeing the highest possible percentage of the known birds in a particular California county during a single 24 period. We did San Mateo county last year, and had a great time. We've only today signed up to do San Benito county with R. J. Adams tomorrow! And when I say tomorrow, I mean starting about 12 hours from now. Wahoo!

an evening with the Santa Clara Valley Audubons

Last night at the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society general meeting, I saw a very cool lecture by Doug Cheeseman about Antarctica. He's a very engaging speaker, and has accumulated some 20 years worth of excellent photos of penguins, seals, glaciers, sea lions, and albatross. Someday, Mary and I hope to go on one of his Africa trips.

After the lecture I had a chance to chat with birder and photographer Mike Danzenbaker. I met him over Labor Day while we were both out shooting, and was amazed to see that he handholds an eleven pound 500mm lens using a shoulder stock (like a rifle). The results are incredible. I don't think I've ever seen so many crisp flight shots of passerines know for their erratic flight (i. e., Chimmney Swift) as you'll find on his site. An inspiration to us all, and a very helpful and friendly guy.

you know you're a birder when...

...you spend time at work solving other people's Eagle identification problems over the internet using google and instant messenger to your spouse. It was fun.

is Diebold going to count your vote? is it really?

Please read this blackboxvoting.org article about Diebold voting equipment. It is very worrying.

hey web people, lend me your ears

I have just posted some new viewing capabilities for birdWalker, my field notes and bird photos database. I would love to get some reactions to the information design and navigation controls. Basically, from most pages you should have several options:

* breadcrumb trail -- leads you from the specific page you're on back up to the title page

* browse buttons -- lets you move to the next, first, last, previous item to the one you're viewing

* view buttons -- view the current item in different ways (by year, by month, as list)

* global menu -- get back to the main indices for trips, locations, birds

Does it make any sense?

The Big Lens Weekend

I hope everybody had a nice holiday weekend. Thanks to a lot of legwork by Mary, we got to spend Saturday up at Point Reyes National Seashore. We spent the morning birding with the Santa Clara Valley Audubon society folks, the afternoon on our own. Here's our trip list, click on the little camera icons to see the photos.

These photos were taken with the Canon 500mm f4.5/L that we rented from Keeble and Shuchat for the weekend. It is a very nice and very heavy piece of glass. I wanted to find out whether I'd be willing to lug this monster around on a birding trip and actually keep up with other birders. The answer is a qualified "yes". I carried it around the Drake's beach visitor center, and from the parking lot out to the Point Reyes Lighthouse. Some kind of carrying strap would be nice, but in the meantime the tripod ring serves as a pretty well-balanced handle.

I got roughly the same proportion of good photos that I always get (i. e., fancy equipment does not make you a better photographer, dang it). When I was able to hold the lens still with good light, the results were pretty amazing, this thing is very sharp.

I took it to Picchetti Winery on Sunday, and photographed some common birds (particularly the Dark-eyed Junco). I also took it to the Coyote Creek Field Station and to the Don Edwards NWR on Monday. While at Don Edwards, I met a fellow who uses the newer 500mm f4/L IS with a shoulder stock and no tripod. Amazing.

must read: Mark Pilgrim on "Why Specs Matter"

Mark Pilgrim has written a brilliant essay called "Why Specs Matter". If, like me, you've struggled to implement and explain systems that import, use, or generate WSDL, XSD, or XSLT, you gotta read this.

the entropy pool is closed for cleaning!

Did you know that your Linux computer can run out of entropy? And that "When the entropy pool is empty, reads to /dev/random will block until additional environmental noise is gathered." Guess whether that has a salutary effect on the Java virtual machine!