We’ve lived in the Iowa City area for over 37 years and never heard of the Brain Rock until today. I don’t know how we ever missed it. It’s a work of art called Ridge and Furrow created by artist Peter Randall-Page, a world-famous artist from the United Kingdom.
It’s been called the Brain Rock for obvious reasons because the stone has what you might call gyri and sulci all over its surface. It has recently been relocated from the T. Anne Cleary walkway outside the Pomerantz Career Center to the Medical Education and Research Facility (MERF).
As Randall-Page says, if you trace the line from one side of the sculpture you can follow it to its end on the—far side of the rock, I guess you’d call it.
The other interesting thing about the Brain Rock is that a couple of intoxicated college students urinated on it back in November of 2021. No mention of whether they were trying to trace the furrow. Maybe they’d heard of the urinating sculpture and fountain called Piss in Prague.
There are going to be lots of fireworks shows for July 4th holidays! You can find an extensive list for events in eastern Iowa at the KCRG news web page.
The Coralville 4thFest will be at S.T. Morrison Park 1513 7th Street on July 4th at 9:45 PM.
The Iowa Capital Dispatch has the lowdown on the new Iowa laws on fireworks here.
I got a big kick out of the Big Mo Blues Show last night. And the Big Mo Pod Show this morning was another great teaching session by John Heim aka Big Mo.
It’s also another peek into the lives of blues and rock musicians which would appeal to the headshrinkers in the listening audience, including me. Coincidentally, on the shout-outs part of the show, Big Mo announced somebody he called “Dr. Jim, the shrink.” There are probably a lot of guys who could fit that moniker, not just me.
Anyway, one of the artists listed on the pod show included James Booker who played a piano piece entitled “Junco Partner.” It turns out Booker was in and out of jail and struggled with substance use disorder. He eked out a living from tips playing piano in bars.
The highlight of the pod show was Big Mo’s history of Howlin’ Wolf (Chester Burnett) who is well known for his song “Smokestack Lightnin.” As I usually like to do, I glanced at the web articles on sites with biographical information about Burnett, although I’m unable to curate them for accuracy. So, I checked the Britannica website entry. There are different versions of the story about what “Smokestack Lightnin” means. As near as a I can tell, I think Big Mo’s explanation is probably as accurate as you can get. There are web articles that claim Burnett said it was about train engine sparks blowing out of the stack.
Interestingly, Burnett formed a group that included another artist on the pod show, Little Junior Parker, whom I knew nothing about and as it turns out, neither did Big Mo. The question posed by Producer Noah was about how he got his name. Did “Little” mean there was a senior Parker? The African American Registry entry doesn’t shed any light on it. But both Burnett and Parker were inducted into the blues hall of fame. Burnett was also inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame.
Just a smidgeon of trivia on Little Junior Parker’s song “Look on Yonders Wall.” I know that other artists have recorded this song. Elmore James is one of them and I happen to still have a copy of the CD, Elmore James, Shake Your Money Maker, Best of the Fire Sessions, released in 1960 (I didn’t buy it in 1960). It’s just an odd thing that you can find on the web a YouTube version of that, the title of which has an odd note, “Wrong Lyrics.” It has the lyric “look on yonders wall, hand me down my precious cane” instead of “walkin’ cane.” I’m unsure if it’s legit. And the words of the title are “Look on Yonder Wall” instead of “Look on Yonders Wall” although I think I can hear Elmore James sing “yonders.”
Now, one of the most interesting parts of the blues show last night was not something on the pod show today. I think it was during the last half hour of the blues show. I heard a rock and roll song I’d never heard of and I don’t know how I missed it because it was during my wasted youth when I was listening to similar songs at the time. It was released in 1975. It was the song “Green Grass and High Tides” by The Outlaws. I was absolutely open-mouthed thunderstruck by the guitar licks. One bit of trivia is that the song title is very similar to the title of an album released in 1966 by the Rolling Stones, “High Tide and Green Grass.” There’s no song with that title ever done by the Rolling Stones, it’s just the name of their album.
Sena took video this morning of a pair of goldfinches having breakfast in our backyard garden. They were all about getting the seeds out of the thistle or knapweed, whatever that is out there. The female is harder to see, naturally, because of its muted coloration to make it less visible. The male is loudly dressed as usual.
I caught the Big Mo Blues Show last night and the podcast this morning, titled “Grab a Twelve Pack and be Somebody.” I had a hard time picking out any of the five songs having anything close to a lyric that would be close to “Grab a Twelve Pack and be Somebody” but it’s easy to get the idea that many blues and rock songs seem to involve references to alcohol.
I think even Big Mo thought one of the selected songs had something to do with either a 6 or 12 pack of beer. But he did talk about the song “Brown Liquor” by Ally Venable & Christone Kingfish Ingram reminding him (and it reminded me also) of Bob Margolin’s song “Brown Liquor in a Dirty Glass.”
In line with the theme of the podcast today, you could endorse the saying “The Blues had a baby and they named it rock and roll.” I had to look up that line and it’s from Muddy Waters” album, Hard Again (which I still have, by the way) and there’s a song on it with that title. Bob Margolin was in the band at that time. I still don’t understand the lyrics of another song on the album with the title “Crosseyed Cat.” But it’s still one of my favorites.
Just a remark on the Margolin’s song “Brown Liquor in a Dirty Glass” I found out something I didn’t know about ordering a drink “in a dirty glass.” It might mean adding an olive or olive juice. I don’t know if that’s true or not.
I was surprised to learn that one of last night’s song, “Sinner,” was by Robert Randolph, head of a gospel group. Judging from the lyrics, it sounds like the song is against religion.
But the first song of the night was “Summertime Blues”. It sort of fits the heat wave this weekend.
There is a Heat Advisory forecast for much of Eastern Iowa this weekend. Temperatures could be above 100 degrees with the heat index. Plan accordingly and be aware of National Weather Service alerts.
Yesterday we took our usual walk on the Terry Trueblood Trail. It’s customary as the seasons evolve for us to make sure everything is progressing as it should. It helps to make believe we’re in charge.
It’s still spring and flowers are still blooming and birds are still nesting and nurturing new life. There are lots of plants we don’t know much about except they make the land more beautiful.
After a short break during the Thanksgiving holiday your hosts are back at it again with another episode! This week features the usual mix of blues eras you’ve come to expect along with a few Californian artists, tune in to see which ones! Songs featured in the episode: Solomon Hicks – “Further On Up The … Continue reading
I just want to mention that I heard Big Mo do an extended version of his comedy bit on Mayree’s hand-battered catfish last night too. I never know when he’s going to do the long version of it and I nearly always regret not having some way to record it. It’s kooky and complicated with twists and turns like a long hairy dog story with punchlines scattered like land mines all over it.
Anyway, the pod show was pretty interesting. I think the Beth Hart song “Can’t Let Go” could be about more than a busted relationship, a frequent subject of a lot of blues songs. There’s a lot of baggage that we can’t let go of in life. The other notable feature of that song is Sonny Landreth cutting all the way loose with guitar licks spinning out beyond every nearby galaxy.
What was strange during last night’s blues show was I could have sworn I heard the lyrics of “Stand by Me” but it’s not on the list of songs. Songs sometimes don’t get on the list. Anyway, it reminded me of the Playing for Change version that starts with Roger Ridley and goes around the world, released 16 years ago.
This morning, we noticed the demonic robin flapping around our downstairs window well again. The window film doesn’t work, probably because it’s essentially clear and has a sort of light scattering pattern on it. So, Sena ordered a new film which is basic black. We’re hoping it eliminates refection, which we think is still the main explanation for the bird’s behavior.
I think this is a female because of the color of its head. Typically, a male robin’s head will be virtually black but a female’s head is mostly gray. That’s according to my favorite handbook on Iowa birds by Stan Tekiela, Birds of Iowa Field Guide, 2nd edition updated in 2023.
male robinfemale robin
I’m just remembering that it’s not entirely true that we’ve never had a problem with birds who had a poor sense of boundaries around houses we’ve lived in previously. In fact, one house we lived in was home to sparrows. We tried to scare them away with rubber snakes, but they didn’t work. I guess part of the trouble was they never moved unless we moved them around. And last year, a pair of house finches built a nest in the fake Christmas tree on the front porch of one of the previous houses we lived in. There were eggs in it when I found it. I set up a video camera to record their comings and goings. The eggs never hatched.
rubber snakehouse finch in fake Christmas tree
And that reminds me; we lived in a house many years ago in which a pair of mourning doves built a nest on one of our outdoor stereo speakers!
But before then, I can’t remember that we ever had birds’ trespass on the many properties we’ve previously lived in. It’s a common story. Bird encroachment can happen to you at any time in your lives.
There are many choices for how to cope with the issue, many of which you can find in the blog post with several years of comments, “How we stopped a robin’s pecking at window glass” I mentioned yesterday. Some suggested shooting the birds, although there is a law against it. Anyway, I’m pretty sure that, poor shot that I am, I’d put more holes through the windows than in any bird. Netting seems to be effective for some people, but for others only to the extent that they wrap themselves up in it because they’re fit to be tied from frustration.
While we’re waiting for the new window film to get here, I’m now wondering what’s going to happen to something else Sena bought the other day: patio tomatoes. We didn’t know you could grow tomatoes in a pot on your patio. Years ago, a garden center salesperson scoffed at the idea.
The pertinent concern is whether birds, like the Ms. Demonic Robin, will poke holes in the tomatoes. We have two varieties, the cherries and the slicers. One cherry tomato is already visible. Come to think of it, a lot of critters will eat tomatoes, and many of them trot, hop, crawl, or stomp across our back yard in and out of the woods.
The other plant Sena got was a Maltese Cross (Lychnis chalcedonica) flower. Because of the shape of its flowers, it’s named after the Maltese cross. It’s supposedly resistant to deer and rabbits. It can attract hummingbirds and butterflies. I think robins won’t eat it.
ADDENDUM: I almost forgot another interesting time a robin did something ridiculous at another house we used to live. You can read about the hoorah’s nest a robin built on our deck in the post “Who’s a Hoorah’s Nest?
Now we’ve got a female robin who is pecking our window well window and even tearing up the screen.
She can turn her head almost completely backward so I know she’s the window-hating, demonic robin from hell. She never pecks the window panes below the level of the well, which makes me believe this is still a problem with seeing her own reflection as another marauding bird.
I call her demonic because I caught pictures of her sitting on a wooden lath staring back at me with her head turned at pretty much 180-degree angle, glaring at me—like something out of the movie The Exorcist.
She’s been at it for over a week now with no end in sight. She’ll stay up most of the night flapping against the glass. Sena got the idea of trying some window film which has a pattern on it. Maybe that’ll break up the light. We taped it up just to see if it works.
It’s not like there’s a whole flock of birds attacking the house or the block or the town, like the movie “The Birds.” It’s not the Alfred Hitchcock thing, which he got from a story by Daphne du Maurier, also titled “The Birds.” I’ve never read it. I’m aware of one scientific explanation for birds attaching en masse, which was about the time thousands of seabirds attacked the coastline near Monterey, California because they ate neurotoxin infested phytoplankton.
It’s just one obsessed bird, and maybe she’s the only one snacking on poisoned phytoplankton. I can find plenty of advice on the web about how to stop this crazed bird-brain preoccupation. Take a look at the blog “Hinessight: How things look through an Oregonian’s eyes” and read the very long post “How we stopped a robin’s pecking at window glass.”
Read it for entertainment. And maybe you’ll find something workable to prevent devil-driven robins who spend a lot of time twirling their heads watching reruns of “The Exorcist” on their tiny screen TVs and get their kicks from pecking at your window. There are 13 years’ worth of comments, so get comfortable.
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