Outside The Interzone: Sep 23, 2012

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Saturd80's: The Women Rock It Edition

Divinyls "Science Fiction"

Siouxsie & The Banshees "Peek-A-Boo"

Blondie "Angels on the Balcony"

Monday, September 24, 2012

Autumn

For reasons not entirely clear to me, Interzone got a piano yesterday. My (vague) understanding is that someone is simply storing it here for a few months, and someone else is kinda maybe thinking about using it for a performance series this fall. Whatever, we'll see. But a young woman just came in, sat down, and played some very nice bits of music. When she finished up, I asked her what it was, as it had sounded a little familiar. She replied she'd just been making it up as she went along... a fact I find very impressive. She sounded like she'd played it before, needed a bit more practice, but was playing a well-known piece. The idea of composing it as she went along is difficult for me to grasp.

At any rate, in one of those recollective belches that happen to me frequently, I was able to come up with the album of which her music reminded me. I commented to her that while much of the "New Age Music" of the 80's-90's could get very trite and cliche, some of it (especially, in my experience and opinion, from Windham Hill) was really quite lovely. Here are a couple selections from George Winston's album "Autumn."
Colors/Dance

(Not sure which pieces are included in this; it's at least three tracks from "Autumn." That minor sound is what reminded me of the young woman's ad-libbing, but the original post is in Japanese.)

This morning was the first this fall cool enough to prompt me to wear a jacket. The foliage is only just beginning to change, and it won't really feel like autumn until we get some real rain (still none in predictions), but these piano solos feel right for today... cool and crisp.

Followup: Yes, it looks like there is a music series planned for this fall and winter.

The hard surfaces in this space make it painful for me to listen to music- especially amplified music- for any length of time, so expect no reviews here.

Recent Twitter Geophotos

Most Mondays, at least when I remember, and from time to time on other days, I post a geology photo on Twitter. Now that I have time and a cooperative computer for blogging, I figured I'd repost some of those recent photos here- not everyone is interested in playing the Twitter game. To be clear, I tend toward things I've recently done and seen, but my Twitter geophotos have no real rhyme or reason; they're just images that appeal to me at the time. (They'll get bigger if you click on them.)

"Looking forward to Silver Falls tomorrow. North Falls plunge is 136 feet." (North Falls, Silver Falls State Park, Oregon)

"Couple of Monday Geophotos: ledge of Grand Ronde Columbia River Basalt over seds, North Falls, Silver Falls SP, OR." (Note people for scale; this alcove is huge!)

"#2, looking up from ~ where people are in 1st photo: tree trunk casts; trees growing in seds swamped by CRB flow." (North Falls, Silver Falls State Park, Oregon)

"Monday geophoto: Fossiliferous sandstone in CCC building, Silver Falls St Park, Oregon. Mostly pelecypods."

"Monday Geophoto: Petrified wood at Sweet Home Community Museum." (Flash Earth link, crosshairs on shadow of sheltering awning. Sun/shadow geometry very nearly the same in linked image as in the above.)

"Monday Geophoto: Petrified wood at Sweet Home Community Museum- cross section of top of log."

"Monday Geophoto: cross section of top of log, closeup. Lens cap is 52 mm."

"Monday Geophoto: Volcanic neck, ~7.9 mile past Green Peter Dam, Quartzville Area (Auto levels for contrast)."

And here's today's:

"Monday Geophoto: pyrite on a jointing surface, currently unused quarry, Quartzville area, Oregon."

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Sunday Funnies: Cautiously Re-Testing the Waters Edition

It's been quite some time, but this electronical difference engine is (for browsing purposes anyway) much faster than my old one, which with respect to the web, was more of an abacus than a computer. This one has a glitchy screen, and I don't think it will be as good with media, but I've been able to get through quite a bit more than usual today. I've gotten out of the habit of setting funnies aside for Sundays, so this actually is a compilation of the things I've marked since early May. We'll see if I can fire that habit back up again.

Darius Whiteplume's Tumblr

"Captain Canada: so Canadian he pisses maple syrup" Sofa Pizza

Sober in a Nightclub

Darius Whiteplume's Tumblr

So Much Pun

RoflRazzi

"Looks like Boo grew up." RoflRazzi

Comixed

I Can Haz Cheezeburger

I Has a Hotdog

Engrish Funny

I Can Haz Cheezeburger

Bizarro Blog

Julia Segal Time

Cyanide and Happiness

If only she was running... Epic4Chan

...and on a good day, it took half an hour to download a 100K jpeg. Comixed

Blackadder

I can Haz Cheezeburger

...and that's why I love teaching, and teaching geology especially (click over to read the hovertext). xkcd

Willamette Valley Geology Online Resources

Last Saturday I presented for a workshop on Willamette Valley Geology for the Oregon Master Naturalist Program (henceforth OMN), an outreach program by Oregon State University. I'm now switched over to my new (to me) rebuilt computer, and while I'm not very accustomed to it yet, browsing and reading is definitely going faster than on my old machine, and it looks like I'll have more time to blog.

One of the components I was requested to submit was a list of online resources, and there's no doubt in my mind that first among those are posts by our wealth of PNW geobloggers, so that makes up the bulk of this list. Note this is not organized by topic, but primarily by blog and the order in which I found them.

In other notes, I'm initiating a label for OMN, to indicate topics that may be of interest to that group- I'll be primarily focused on earth sciences, but will likely include broader science topics dealing with Oregon's fabulous natural history.

Uncovered Earth (Michael Klaas, Portland, Oregon) http://uncoveredearth.com/

Silver Creek Falls http://uncoveredearth.com/2012/03/06/take-a-hike-silver-falls-state-park/
Fossils in CCC building at Silver Creek Falls http://uncoveredearth.com/2011/09/27/where-the-mundane-is-anything-but/
Geo History of Sullivan's Gulch & Alameda Ridge, Portland http://uncoveredearth.com/2011/10/06/a-geological-history-of-sullivans-gulch/
Picturing Columbia River Basalt Eruptions http://uncoveredearth.com/2011/10/04/hawaiian-fissure-eruptions-then-now/
From this post http://uncoveredearth.com/2011/09/26/geek-art-lidar-nice-enough-to-frame/ , a LIDAR image of Willamette channel meandering near Corvallis (Older channels are darker blue, current channel darkest) http://www.oregongeology.org/pubs/ll/p-posters.htm#Willamette
Run-down of PNW Geobloggers http://uncoveredearth.com/2011/09/05/geoblogging-the-northwest/

En Tquila Es Verdad (Dana Hunter, Seattle area) http://freethoughtblogs.com/entequilaesverdad/

Learning from Lockwood (a very flattering post that made me blush) http://freethoughtblogs.com/entequilaesverdad/2012/07/23/learning-from-lockwood/
Fun photo of Dana and me at Erratic Rock Wayside http://freethoughtblogs.com/entequilaesverdad/2012/07/10/im-back-feeling-a-bit-erratic/
Our visit to Silver Falls in March http://freethoughtblogs.com/entequilaesverdad/2012/03/15/the-scenes-we-saw-day-four/

Got The Time (Aaron Barth, recently moved to Eugene, Oregon, just moved from VA) http://iapetancaptain.wordpress.com/

McKenzie Crossing http://iapetancaptain.wordpress.com/2012/07/12/mckenzie-crossing/
Skinner's Butte http://iapetancaptain.wordpress.com/2012/07/03/skinners-butte/

Outside The Inerzone (Lockwood DeWitt, Corvallis, Oregon) http://outsidetheinterzone.blogspot.com/

Gold in Oregon (Not much, but more than most realize.) http://outsidetheinterzone.blogspot.com/2011/04/adoregon.html
I Slept Through the Big One http://outsidetheinterzone.blogspot.com/2011/01/i-slept-through-big-one.html
Reverberations of the (Tohoku) quake in the PNW, partway down this post: http://outsidetheinterzone.blogspot.com/2011/03/cobbles-and-gravel.html
Lotsa Water http://outsidetheinterzone.blogspot.com/2011/01/lotsa-water.html
Being Careful What I Wish For http://outsidetheinterzone.blogspot.com/2010/12/being-careful-what-i-wish-for.html
The Geo Biz http://outsidetheinterzone.blogspot.com/2010/10/geo-biz.html
Show me your sidewalk http://outsidetheinterzone.blogspot.com/2009/06/late-week-geo-meme-show-me-your.html
The Great Flood http://outsidetheinterzone.blogspot.com/2009/08/great-flood.html

Fluvial (stream) Geomorphology (landforms)

General overview of "mature" stream landforms http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meandering_river#Associated_landforms
Nice clear introduction to fluvial geomorphology http://www.scienceclarified.com/landforms/Ocean-Basins-to-Volcanoes/Stream-and-River.html
Source for Willamette Valley stratgraphic columns and cross section: www.wou.edu/las/physci/.../willamette_geo_field_guide.pdf
Source for images of meandering stream, oxbow formation: http://www.sci.uidaho.edu/scripter/geog100/lect/11-rivers/11-rivers.htm

New things- posted or found since the above were submitted in August:

http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20120909/OUTDOORS/309090058/1103
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/rosetta-stones/2012/08/29/how-would-you-like-to-take-a-hike-across-a-geologic-diagram/ (Dana Hunter's other blog- she started with Sci Am fairly recently)
http://www.flashearth.com/
Natrolite http://www.sandatlas.org/2012/03/natrolite/