For all you marionette-lovers out there

For fellow lovers of Being John Malkovich, Team America, and other such inventive endeavors that involve marionettes (not just puppets, but the ones with strings attached and their oh-so-subtle movements)-- I have a treat for you. Josh Ritter, a singer song writer that I have liked for a long time and have probably blogged about before, just released a new album and one of the songs is about a mummy who awakes in his sarcophagus only to fall in love with the archaeologist who found him. It is a lovely song, and the video is way more fun than most videos these days. If you want to check it out, they are streaming it at npr.org. Josh is also on tour in the US in June (and coming to Dallas, so there will be a concert review forthcoming!) If you haven't seen him, he puts on a fantastic show and you should. Here I am with he and my friend Katy at the last show I saw him play, some time in 2008. Very warm to all us fans after the show, in addition to a great performance.

More blog spawn

I feel like I mentioned this already, but rather than read my own blog and find out (sounds even more self-centered than writing my own blog), I will risk repeating myself.... my blog has produced another spawn! Is there no end? This one is also music-related, but much to everyone's delight, not music that I am involved in making (I can almost hear the collective sigh of relief over the interweb). Coach Moore and I have teamed up to bring you a weekly dose of new music over at Pancho and Lefty's New Music Monday site.
For a while, we have had a weekly phone appointment on Mondays to exchange tips about new bands that we come across-- kind of like insider trading for people who like music. We definitely ripped the name off from a brilliant feature on an average radio station back in Indiana (92.3, WTTS), but if imitation is the greatest form of flattery, then they should be thanking us if they ever find out. The blog was born when Chris came to visit and we realized that we should share these tips with the world (and that we would forget the name of last week's band if we didn't write it down somewhere). I am pretty sure only one person other than Chris (Lefty) and I (Pancho) have read it, and it is fine if that is the way things stay, but if you are interested in something new to listen to, I encourage you to check it out. We put a link where you can stream the band of interest, a short description of the music, and a picture. There is a lot of really good stuff up there already (and we are pretty quick to point out when it isn't that great too), and there should be lots more to come.... hope you enjoy!

Pictured (from left to right): portraits of Pancho and Lefty in pumpkin with candle

Life's Little (and Big) Pleasures

Just a cool picture to get the juices flowing because I am out of blogging shape.... This photo (posted by kibuyu) recently won 1st place in a photo contest entitled "Translucent" -- pretty cool, eh?

Ok, that was easy enough-- juices flowing! We have a new addition to the SHoF dear friends-- Britt Koskella made her illustrious debut this past weekend while stopping by UTA to give a fantastic seminar on her research (on red queen dynamics in both snails and horse chestnuts) and visiting with her family (who, somehow, thrive in the metroplex! I can't figure out how they do it-- but they are creative, environmentally conscientious, fun, kind people and they happily call Dallas their home! I need to learn more from them....) It was a great weekend, though too fast and too short as always. Speaking of short, time is limited for future inductees who may be out there, hoping to earn a spot in the Texas edition of the SHoF. I recently got an offer to do a post-doc in Portland, OR and will be moving there at the end of August. This, of course, has some wonderful benefits, not the least of which will be the chance to be closer to my family who live out in them thar hills. The other plus is that hopefully I will no longer have to coax people to come visit by inducting them into a illusory cyber hall of fame based on spending the night in a trailer (though that really seemed to work wonders!) If you haven't been to Oregon, you have to come. It is beautiful, and very west coastly but without the hype of California or quite as much rain as Washington. There are mountains, rivers, vineyards, deserts, coastline, forests-- all for the meandering. The state slogan was recently changed to "We Love Dreamers"-- so who wouldn't want to go there? Of course it isn't all just a bed of roses, as I have become quite attached to folks here in Arlington as well. This weekend, my bosses threw a great party as they often do, and it really made me realize how lucky I have been to have this job, in this place, at this time, despite all my pooh-poohing of Texas and its strange laws and customs (did I mention that I got pulled over at a police checkpoint last week? welcome to the independent republic indeed!) In addition to my happiness at work, which really couldn't be greater, I have been welcomed into the hearts of two gentlemen (one big, one small) who make life in the Lonestar state not lonesome at all. The big one played a rockin' show this weekend at my favorite local dive bar (called Caves, and it does pretty much feel like one) with one of his bands, The Future Unlived (to listen to my favorite of their songs, Wage War, click here). The small one entertained us all the way home from a barbecue last night by singing songs he made up on the spot-- music must run in the family. Being serenaded like this? maybe I don't have to consult with Britt's folks about how to make life sweet in the metroplex afterall....

When You Can't Send a Card, Write a Limerick

A More Than Just Mother's Day Limerick

Of the many on whom we depend,
Wounded hearts and scraped knees to help mend,
In our darkest of hours,
They gather their powers,
And become not just our moms, but our friends.

Happy Mother's Day Mom!!!

A New Addition to the SHoF Can Uncover Hidden Gems

A quick post from the brink-- I am back in Arlington after the conference in Canada that made me question my whole scientific self. As you know, I study transposable elements, and the meeting was about transposable elements. So, you can imagine, when I was at the meeting and not understanding very much, it called things into question for me. But now I am back in my cluttered office where I have more of handle on how things work and why, and I am trying to get back to the grindstone. The intervening weekend, however, was spent hosting my friend Matt Carrigan from Gainesville, FL, the most recent inductee into the SHoF. Matt and I were in grad school at the same time, way back in the late 90's at the University of Florida. He was in neuroscience, but moonlighted in the biology department when seminars or journal clubs caught his fancy. A few years later, when we crossed paths at the Evolution meetings in CA, he remembered me as the loudmouth biology girl in said classes, but since he didn't know anyone else at the meetings, he figured I was as good a person as any to befriend. I remembered Matt too-- punk-rock haired, ambulance-driving, free-lancing academic rogue who worked on scientific questions that seemed almost like fiction (what were the first molecules that constituted life?) Luckily, his astrobiology conference hosted by NASA (no, I am not making that up) was in Houston this year, so he was able to pop up to Arlington for the weekend so we could recover from our overly technical existences, together. In the process of showing him around, I found out (again) that Arlington isn't as bad as I necessarily think-- especially when we went to a new music venue in the Bishop Arts District of South Dallas on Saturday night to see music (among others, Jacob Metcalfe and his musical troubadours, pictured above on the right) and then on Sunday when we went to play at Dinosour Valley State Park. Nestled just past the Creation Science Museum and the Dinosaur Theme Park, the DVSP is actually a gorgeous piece of public land with a beautiful river, rocky cliffs, and unbelievably awesome, clear dinosaur footprints in the water. Apparently, these kinds of sites are not uncommon in the US, but I had never been to one, and found it to be incredibly cool. I can't wait to go back, perhaps with the next inductee? We shall see....