I’m kind of adjusting to my new role here at Balloon Juice as the Prime Time and early late night entertainment. I’m kind of like the Thursday Night NBC routine with the Cosby Show/Family Ties/Cheers/Night Court/Hill Street Blues/local news/Carson. AL has the Letterman/late night slot, Mistermix rolls with the Bryant Gumbel/Jane Pauley schtick in the am, and he rest of us just pop off during the day until AL picks up at 4-5 pm slot with Barney Miller/the Muppets, and a solid Family Court episode. And yes, I did play outside as a kid. I just remember shit.
This probably makes no sense to you whippersnappers who never owned a Rock ’em Sock ’em.
Was sitting on the back porch looking up at the big dipper and just enjoying the low humidity while the dogs caroused in the yard, and a large bug over my head fluttered around for a bit before out of nowhere a bat swooped in and ate that thing up, flying only a foot or so over my head. I had no idea bats ate bugs that big, but this just makes me want to get my bat boxes up in the pines even sooner. Any of you ever built a bat box?
Oh, also too- watching the Jackal, which I remember as being bad but fun, but I could not remember the ending. Love being able to stay up late and wake up to sunlight.
NickT
I once built a batshit crazy box in the 6th district of Minnesota. Worked pretty damn well until this year when the resident decided to head for pastures new and greenbacks greener.
Gian
I’ve seen them on the Wild Kratts.
Suzanne
I didn’t even know that a bat box was a thing.
There is a Disney movie on, and I’m the only one in the room.
Punchy
BLAXHAWX BITCHEZ! SEABROOK 4 PREZNIT! LA can take their defensive style and watch it get crushed by Hossa and Kane. Hawks in 5, yo.
Redshirt
The second star in the handle of the Big Dipper is actually two stars. Get some binoculars and see!
Redshirt
Also too: Where’s Dennis G.?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Redshirt: And Bernard Finel. How are we supposed to know how stupid we are?
Karen in GA (who really needs a better name)
Is Roberto. He no like the light.
Jerzy Russian
@Redshirt:
As I recall, each of those stars is actually a spectroscopic binary, so there are 4 stars in all, that we know of.
srv
How will kids relate the times of day to video entertainment now that it’s all on demand?
Their kids will all just wear googles and ignore them completely.
At least they won’t see the meteor coming.
GregB
Cole, you are like our Aaron Brown on the World News Late Night show.
Try to learn the accordion so you can close out the show.
Suffern ACE
@Jerzy Russian: I’d ask for pictures, but I don’t want to start that fight all over again.
p.a.
I think the NWF website has plans for boxes. Fairly easy, narrow box open at the bottom with some venting at the top, rough up the wood on the inside and paint it black (inside), set at least 150′ from house. Forget exact dimensions.
ruemara
Our local municipality encourages bat boxes for sustainable pest control measures, so go for it. Oddly, I still haven’t really seen a bat, just a blur after that weird, almost techno sounding chirp.
kwAwk
Here’s one for you.
When Foxnews is going WTF guys? You know you have some serious right wing hypocrisy going on.
Sean
42 years old here, and I understood all of that perfectly.
I’m going out to yell at some kids who are getting too near my lawn now.
burnspbesq
New vinyl night. She & Him earlier, Dawes now, and maybe Richard Thompson after that if I have any energy left.
p.a.
I’ve always thought of you as the Tom Snyder of this blog.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@Punchy:
I was going to be happy if the Wings won one and kept another game very tight. If I was a Hawks fan, I wouldn’t go into this next series- against, ya know, the defending champs and their white-hot goalie- feeling so confident.
Chickamin Slam
Growing up we used to spend summer nights outside staring at the stars. The evergreen shrubs had become twisted due to a bad icestorm. A scene not unlike a Starry Night. Bats flew overhead. We knew they were out there just never thought they would be the kind to hang around our yard.
“Greetings, greetings fellow stargazers …”
Then we’d watch Red Green.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Where’s [BONERS] ? He hasn’t posted in ages.
TaMara (BHF)
I juggle. Learned in college. Occasionally I grab my juggling balls, or even better, my mini-beanie baby flamingos and brush up on my skills. Kids love the flamingos.
Anyway, I was practicing tonight when I looked down and realized I had four cats staring up at me. This was obviously better than that silly laser light. I kept it up for another 15 minutes, they watched intently. Finally my big tuxedo jumped on the arm of the couch and then jumped up and tried to grab one of them mid-juggle. He almost got it.
Just another Wednesday night at my place.
JustRuss
Bats are cool, but I’ve run into too many crazy ones, which probably means rabies. No bat box for me, thanks.
Jerzy Russian
@Suffern ACE: Here is the WIki page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mizar_and_Alcor
Mizar (the brighter star) is resolved into two binaries. The fainter star, known as Alcor, has a common proper motion with Mizar. Recently, Alcor itself was resolved using adaptive optics into two stars. So there are at least 6 stars in that system!
Elias
You know nothing John Coal.
Higgs Boson's Mate
I built a bat box for my wife.
The cops made me let her out.
Cacti
So, has anyone caught wind of the news that when McCain was photo-opping in Syria, he posed with a kidnapper of Lebanese pilgrims?
maya
If you really cared about bats you’d build them a cave.
Jerzy Russian
@Cacti:
I did not see this. I did, however, see the Onion article on this:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/family-concerned-after-john-mccain-wanders-into-sy,32601/
I read the Onion more than I read CNN. I find that I am more informed that way.
Alison
@The prophet Nostradumbass: I’m hoping he crawled up his own ass and got stuck.
Joey Maloney
I’d much rather watch C.J. Cregg do The Jackal (Season 1, Episode 18, “Six Meetings Before Lunch”) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7H_L5cYkg8
princess leia
Anyone know the best place to really see the milky way (near the west coast)? I realize that I have never actually seen it, just pictures. And since I live in the LA area, the light pollution is really bad. Any ideas? Thanks,stargazers.
Cacti
@Jerzy Russian:
There’s a good one from the New Yorker too…
Syrian Rebels Urge McCain to Get Over Losing to Obama
Higgs Boson's Mate
@princess leia:
You can go to Joshua Tree National Park. It’s roughly 100 miles east of LA. If you aren’t a camper you can stay in the town of Joshua Tree and just visit the park for stargazing.
burnspbesq
@princess leia:
Way up 395 in the Owens Valley, past Mammoth. Or the back country of Yosemite.
Jerzy Russian
@princess leia:
Head east towards the desert. For an even better view, go to Joshua Tree National Park, or to the hills above Palm Springs. You won’t be disappointed.
trollhattan
@Jerzy Russian:
We can’t ignore this Onion scoop.
Jerzy Russian
@Cacti: That was funny.
Linnaeus
@Punchy:
Dunno about that. The #7 seed that the Blackhawks were supposed to smoke in 4 or 5 needed an OT winner in Game 7 to advance. Kings are more physical and their goalie is playing even better than Howard was. I like the Kings’ chances for an upset here.
John Mc in NC
Which “The Jackal”? The original is a classic, IMHO, with the underrated Edward Fox. But the remake has Jack Black getting his arm blown off…
maya
@princess leia: Who knew yahoo could answer your question.
Here in NorCal. No towns nearby, just a neighbor’s grow lights below and I can see the Milky Way almost anytime when the moon isn’t bright. Shooting stars and satellites are also fun. This is why I could never go back to living in the city or suburbia.
moderateindy
Suck it Red Wings fans!!!!!! I only say that because there isn’t much chance of meeting in the playoffs again any time soon, which is a shame, and I will miss it. It was bad enough when the North Stars left for Dallas, but Hawks/ Red Wings was a truly great rivalry. Now who can a Blackhawks’ fan hate; the Cannucks?
That was a truly great win, considering one of the most curious calls I’ve seen to disallow a goal. Seriously, after letting pretty much everything go in that third period, you’re gonna step in with less than 2 minutes left, and stop an obvious developing scoring chance to give coincidental minors on a play outside the offensive zone? Particularly when the Hawk’s Saad was basically being worked over, and managed a single half-assed punch at the guy who had just body-slammed him to the ice. And that ref used to be the head of officials? Why did he come back to the game, did he find it too difficult to try to change the games outcome when he wasn’t on the ice?
Also too Red Wings fans don’t forget…..SUCK IT!!!
trollhattan
@princess leia:
Agree with the others–desert or local mountains in winter, the Sierra in summer. Can’t overstate how many stars there are at 10k feet versus in the city.
Linnaeus
@moderateindy:
Well, you’ve got Minnesota, St. Louis, Nashville…
The officiating was inconsistent all series, frankly, but the teams played through it and made this a great series.
Good luck against the Kings. You’ll need it.
trollhattan
@princess leia:
Wanted to add that in clear conditions in the high mountains you can see well enough to walk around in starlight and I’ve been able to see color on moonlit nights.
princess leia
Do i need a telescope?
princess leia
@trollhattan: That sounds like paradise!!!!
Higgs Boson's Mate
@princess leia:
Nope, no telescope needed. The Milky Way just spills gloriously across the sky from horizon to horizon.
Jerzy Russian
@princess leia:
You won’t need a telescope to see the Milky Way. A small telescope or a good pair of binoculars is useful if the moon is up, or if there are some bright planets.
Jerzy Russian
@trollhattan:
I have seen my shadow by moonlight. I heard someone boast that he saw his shadow cast by Venus when he was in the Andes in Chile. I have not been able to reproduce these results.
By the way, always have a flashlight with you when outside in the dark…
Spaghetti Lee
A high school friend of mine and I are thinking about getting together a cover band to perform at local bars with yours truly on the vocals. I’ve been wanting to do something to get out of my shell, and this (if it works out) would be the equivalent of jumping off the high dive on your first day at the pool. Any advice?
dance around in your bones
I lived in Tucson for a couple of years, and we had bats that just clung upside down on the adobe walls. At night they would swoop over the swimming pool and scoop up bugs attracted by the underwater pool lights (while we were cavorting in said pool) – they never touched us and I found them rather charming.
We also would pull up to the house late at night and see rather large tarantulas hanging out on the walls. They didn’t bother me much, it was those bark scorpions (Centruroides sculpturatus) that freaked me the fuck out. Also, they glow under a blacklight, I hear, though I never checked that out myself. I just checked my shoes a lot.
YellowJournalism
Whenever I hear Jackal, I think of Janet the Jackal from “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.” I love that movie.
trollhattan
@princess leia:
I’ll be honest, backpacking in the mountains is my #1 vice. It’s an early season this year and I’m beyond ready to go. Sequoia/Kings Canyon aren’t too far from you and offer some of the finest mountains anywhere. Big, big country.
Elias
No telescope. You just go out and look up. It’s this glowing strip across the sky. Very, very easy to see. A telescope is nice if you want to see the moon, but the stars and Milky Way are more impressive with no moon. Try to go with a new or minimal moon. Less moon = better stars/meteorites/Milky Way.
New Moon + Meteor Shower is the best.
princess leia
@trollhattan: I haven’t camped out since I was a kid. I am sad that I am only now realizing how much I have missed by choosing comfort over wonder. It seems like a HUGE step to actually do it now.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@moderateindy:
Well, there’s always that reflection in the mirror. As for us, we get to resume our rivalries with the Leafs and the Habs, both of whom with we share a much richer history. It won’t be long before we get to scoop up cheap tickets, below face, at the United Center for our annual game there, as we could for the majority of the last 20 years. Bon chance. You’ll need it.
Linnaeus
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again):
As a Wings fan myself, I’ll miss the Red Wings – Blackhawks division rivalry (no two NHL teams have played each other more) and I wasn’t a fan of the realignment mostly for that reason.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Linnaeus: at least it appears that the old Pacific division (minus Dallas) will be kept together. The Stars never really belonged in it anyway.
trollhattan
@princess leia:
Yup, planning, gearing-up and getting organized can seem overwhelming but once you’re out there it seems to easily fall into place (occasional snowstorm aside). Good news is modern gear is really nice and really light (for which I’m truly grateful).
Redshift
We had a bat house for a while — when we got our back fence replaced, we put in an extra-tall post to mount it on — but we never got any bats. I’m not sure what I did wrong with it.
ETA: Luckily we do have bats around the neighborhood, just not living in our yard.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@Linnaeus:
I grew up here in G.R.. When I was a kid in the ’70s I couldn’t get the Wings on the radio (no one carried ’em locally, and we’re in WJR’s dead zone), so I ended up listening to a lot of Hawks games. So I’ll miss the Hawks a bit.
But I’m a Michigander, so (thanks in no small part to the likes of Ernie Harwell and Bob Ufer) I’ve got a sense of history and tradition when it comes to sports, and the Wings have much more of those with the Leafs and Habs, especially the Leafs. When the last realignment took place and the Wings and Leafs had so few games against each other, it hurt.
And let’s admit it: Having all those fucking games with 10:00pm (Eastern) starts really sucked.
? Martin
@princess leia: Yeah, Joshua Tree is one of the best possible places – it’s both very dry and relatively high. Pick a time when it’s going to be dry and clear. Not during santa anas, because the wind fucking howls out there like you wouldn’t believe. Also aim for the week before and after a new moon when it’s extra dark. The full moon out there lights the place up like daytime. You can easily wander around without a flashlight its so damn bright.
You can stay in town. Drive into the park before sundown (check the moonrise and set times and make sure you go when the moon is set) and find a place well clear of the lights. A spot near Belle or White Tank campground is good and not too far from town. This time of year find a good solid rock to get up on – scorpions and snakes and shit in summer, or if your car suits lay on top of it or in a pickup bed. Bring a blanket if you go for the rocks – the rocks get hot in summer. It’ll take an hour or more for your eyes to fully acclimate, but it’ll be glorious. The milky way is clear as day stretching across the sky. The constellations are hard to pick out because there are so many starts cluttering them up. An iPad and app like StarWalk is highly recommended.
If you go when there’s a quarter moon or so and can go out while it’s still below the horizon, if you look directly overhead you’ll start to notice objects drifting uniformly across the sky – those are satellites reflecting the sunlight, and you can see quite a lot of them. There will be one every minute or so. You can make them out with the naked eye.
I recommend going in winter, though. It’s pretty cold out there, so you’ll need to bundle up, but the cold air makes viewing better and the air is dryer. Plus no critters. Plus the rocks are cool. Plus you put in several hours of stargazing and still get into town at a decent hour.
Elias
@Spaghetti Lee
There are entire forums online about cover bands. All I can say in short is that cover music is a fun business, but you’ve gotta figure out your market and play what they want to hear. Otherwise you play to small crowds and not very much or for much pay. Most of your standard bar bands make $100/member for a night. Won’t make you rich but pecunia non olet.
Try the ‘band management’ forum at Talkbass.com, there’s a lot of good advice there. Dig into that sticky up top.
Spaghetti Lee
@Elias:
This is gonna be more for fun than for money. The guy putting it together says he’s only doing it for this summer. Honestly (and I don’t mean to sound corny here) money would be a nice secondary thing, but for me the big deal here is trying something new and getting over my social anxiety.
Yatsuno
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again):
Not a Michigoose?
princess leia
@? Martin: @trollhattan: @Elias: @Jerzy Russian: @maya: @burnspbesq: @burnspbesq: You’re the best. Thanks more than I can say for helping me out.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@Yatsuno:
Noooo….I am a guy, ya know. Not a TG guy, either. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
And, technically, it’s “Michiganian”.
The Dangerman
Another vote here for Joshua Tree but do go in the daytime, too (well, not in Summer, unless you’re a masochist). It’s well worth exploring as it’s quite beautiful in its own mysterious way; just do it safely (for whatever reason, it’s easy to get lost out there if you wander too far off the beaten path).
? Martin
@princess leia: Make sure you read up before you go. California is a really diverse place to camp and different parts of the state present different challenges.
If you decide to start camping, pick a place really local – within an hour. Your first time out will probably be a bit of a disaster – little (or big) things you forgot, stuff you don’t know how to do well. If you’re close to home, worst case is you pack up, go home, make some notes, climb in bed, and try again a week later. But if you realize you need something you didn’t think of, REI is probably only an hour away, so just go get it. My first half dozen trips kind of went that way. They were all fun, but there were definite inconveniences and uncomfortable points. Practice helps a lot. You never know when you’ll need to set up a tent in the dark because you arrived later than planned, or have to cope with the rain.
You can do a bunch of 2 night weekenders and really learn a lot in a short time. Do your local parks. Go to the mountains in summer. Do one at the beach. When it gets cooler head out to the desert. When the Big Bear/Landers quake hit, my wife and I threw the camping gear in the car and headed off for Idyllwild for a few days. We sure as fuck didn’t want to be in buildings through that. It’s an hour and a half away. This is a great place to camp, enjoy it.
Dead Ernest
@YellowJournalism: ah, Y. J. We meet again, similar topic.
I, too, think Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is a joy to watch and watch again.
You likely already know, but it was well after I saw DRS, that I learned its (sort of) a remake of Bedtime Story (circa 1964ish). David Niven as the ‘Count’ and Marlon F’in! Brando in the role S. Martin played.
D-eeeeVine!
princess leia
@? Martin: It says more about me than I’d like to reveal that the idea of practicing nearby never occurred to me!
Yatsuno
@The Dangerman: I went to Joshua Tree in April and it was divine. I also had the misfortune of visiting 29 Palms. Lawd what a miserable place. And more car dealerships than restaurants. Exploitative fuckers.
And I didn’t see a tortoise. Sadness.
YellowJournalism
@Dead Ernest: I knew that, but I’ve never been able to catch it. I’ve always wanted to see the DRS play performed onstage, too.
That movie makes me want to be a con artist, although the respectable kind, not the Palin/Fox News kind.
Anne Laurie
@princess leia:
Not on the west coast, but all you really need is a clear late night as far from the lights as you can get. .. which doesn’t have to be all that far. Spousal Unit likes to stargaze when a particulary good asteroid night is predicted, and for us that usually means a forty-minute trip north to Salisbury Beach, MA to lie back on the sand & look towards the ocean. But our most recent outing ended up at an I-93 truck pull-over in Tewksbury, around 3am, looking straight up into the gauzy shreads of the Milky Way (& a dozen or so swift vivid sparkly shooting stars, before we got cold enough to call it a night).
You can probably find a dark-enough beach on your coast. Bring a friend, because you need patience to let your eyes adjust — ten minutes minimum, which seems like forever when all you’re doing is staring at the sky.
Elias
@Princess Leia
Camping isn’t that tough. I go backpacking with a tent (rarely use it), sleeping bag, foam pad, stove, water (and filter for longer hikes), food, lighter, flashlight, toilet paper, and a rope and bag so I can toss anything that might interest a bear up into a tree away from my campsite. It’s primitive but nice enough. You should add chairs, musical instruments, firewood, and a nice air mattress instead of the foam pad for car camping.
It really is easy. You’ll forget stuff your first time but it won’t ruin the experience. Beautiful stars, nature. It’s really nice. Yosemite or Joshua Trees is where I’d go first if I was you. Maybe someday you’ll be boldly exploring primitive wilderness like the Trinity Alps (the best kept secret in California).
Do not forget toilet paper.
princess leia
@Elias:toilet paper I got, but ,OK, I will admit I have stayed away from camping – and my love of nature- because of a snake phobia. Thoughts on that?
Anne Laurie
@Sean:
You’re the same age as Mr. Cole. He just writes like a cranky old septegenarian.
? Martin
@Yatsuno:
We brought our California desert tortoise out there. He didn’t really belong in the OC. There’s a few rescues and they’ll put them back in the wild if they think they’re suited. The day we dropped him off they had a whole mess of baby desert tortoises, all about the size of a quarter. Cuter than kittens they are.
Jax6655
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again):
58 years in Michigan. It’s Michigander. Nothing to do with gender.
Never heard of ‘Michiganian’.
? Martin
@Anne Laurie: Desert star gazing is like nothing you’ve ever seen. I did a lot on the east coast. My godparents had a bunch of land out in East Jesus upstate New York where we’d camp all the time – no lights for 10 miles.
But the first time I stargazed the desert was a whole other thing: 5% humidity up at 5,000 feet and as clear as can be. I swear there’s 10x as much to see as the best day I experienced on the east coast. The milky way isn’t gauzy shreds – more like a city plastered across the sky. You go and see it and you fully understand why people a thousand years ago constructed grand mythologies around the stars. They saw that every night. That was TV. And it’s the most amazing thing.
princess leia hasn’t seen from LA but the slightest hint of what’s in store for her. It’s going to fucking blow her mind when she goes.
Elias
@Spaghetti Lee:
For sure. If money is the main motivation music is the wrong place to be.
I like to see pretty girls dancing when I play. That’s my main motivation for playing music. I try to play whatever gets them to dance. Conveniently that’s good for the bar (every dancing girl = a couple guys buying drinks) and gets us invited back for regular paying gigs.
If you just want to do a couple gigs for friends this summer and call it a day it shouldn’t be super hard to find a dive and convince them that all your friends will show up.
Do you have a PA? Can your guitarist control his volume?
Check out the set lists of some good cover bands in your area. Do most of their songs.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@Jax6655:
Really? Geez, I remember hearing arguments about this when I was a kid. Check this out.
Elias
Sorry for the dp.
@Princess Leia:
I’ve never seen a snake in a campground. They usually avoid that much human activity.
If you go hiking you sometimes run into them. Warm rocky areas. Most of the time you’ll never notice them. After half a decade working in forestry I can count the number of rattlesnakes I’ve met on two hands. You could go car camping for the rest of your life and probably see none.
I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Sleep in a tent.
princess leia
@? Martin: I started learning constellations this year, and that is when I realized that the 40 or so stars I could see here in central Orange County was not the “heavens” that awed humankind. I am still amazed that I have lived 50+ years without looking up!
Elias
@Princess Leia:
Just realized I told somebody with a snake phobia that I’ve run into at least one per year. I have a ton of exposure because of my work. I go to places where they’re common. If you stick to campgrounds you’ll run into none. It’s exceedingly rare to find them on popular trails. Backpackers and forestry sorts run into them.
Anne Laurie
@? Martin:
I am willing to believe you. I grew up in the heart of the Bronx; my Spousal Unit grew up in the boonies of upper lower Michigan (he has a funny story about his six-year-old self bicycling to the general store all by himself, and running into a black bear walking down the road in the opposite direction). So he knows & love astronomy in ways that I’ll never fully appreciate from having only memories of the Hayden Planetarium. But I wanted to let Princess L know that she she can start star-gazing and still sleep in her own bed!
Jax6655
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again):
No argument really. Majority prefer Michigander
http://m.upi.com/story/UPI-73121297414800/
Jax6655
@Jax6655:
Can’t edit on iPhone. Majority prefers ‘Michigander’. In spite of the jokes, it’s not about geese or gender. Luckily though we Michiganders like a good joke
Redshirt
Dang it! I missed JP chat! What a magical place – it feels like dinosaur times.
I spent an incredible, magical weekend in Frontiertown, which is close enough to Palm Springs. A horse riding town, Will Rogers built it for his movies in the 30’s and it stayed, pretty much unchanged.
I get to see the Milky Way every clear night, up here in the mountains. In fact, I can chart it – it spins as the season goes along (we spin of course, but, perspective!).
Fred Fnord
I have to admit, I’ve never heard of Family Court. Looking at IMDB it appears to be a TV series that aired in Canada for one season, in 1971.
Perhaps you meant Night Court?