ChickenVoxBlog

Friday5, photography (way late, but here it is)

This is actually from two Fridays ago, but I am slow and scattered and easily distracted (the interwebs are hell for those of us with "A.D.D."!), and my I spent way too much time finding, selecting, and editing the photos, tweaking the layout, and blah blah blah.  Anyway, for what it's worth, here 'tis:

Friday5, photography

1. What kind of camera do you have?
2. How often do you take pictures?
3. What's the last picture you took?
4. What is the first camera you ever had?
5. Show us your best shot.

1. What kind of camera do you have?
I'm married to someone who takes pictures for a living, so we have several, most of them his; I lack the knowledge to use the "good," "real" cameras, and really couldn't tell you what he uses; he has 35mm SLR print and digital cameras, all of which are far too advanced for me.  We have a few antique (or at least elderly) cameras from my Daddy and my Paw-paw, including an awesomely bizarre black & white Polaroid from the '60s or so that takes pictures that turn out like eerie mini art projects; you never know what's going to come out of it!  We also have a nice little point-and-shoot film camera, made by Olympus (the Olympus Infinity Zoom 230).
 

But, anyway, the one I use is a Kodak DC4800.  (This is good; it's a little Quicktime thing where you can see it in 360° by clicking and dragging.) It's a few years old, purchased before some trip we took (though I've forgotten which one); it's 3.1 megapixels, which doesn't sound like much now, but was about as much as you could get then.  And it's plenty: at the highest resolution, the pictures are huge, something like 30" x 20", and you can still get a ton of them on its compact flash card.  We bought it based on Consumer Reports' reviews; if you're looking for a used or refurbished digital camera, this one would be a good choice.  It doesn't take mini-videos, which would be nice sometimes, but we've never really needed that feature, or anything else it doesn't do.  Most of the pictures I post here were taken with it, except those that are obviously cadged from the web or scanned (like that one of me at age 5, when I doubt anyone had even dreamed up a digital camera yet).  It takes nice, clear, sharp pictures, and has a few nice bells & whistles; what more could you want?  (Well, except a lens cap "leash."  It didn't come with one, so I made one out of beading cord; that didn't last long, so then of course I lost the damn lens cap.  The shutter doesn't close over the lens, so you have to be extra careful not to touch it or let it get dirty.  And it sort of eats its batteries for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  Otherwise, though, it's good.  No, really!)

2. How often do you take pictures?
As often as the mood strikes me, or if there's something that needs its picture taken, like something pretty blooming in the yard, or people at family gatherings.  On vacation, of course, I take way more pictures, though my images pale in comparison to hubby's.  (I have lots of vacation pictures of him taking pictures!)  We also have way more than we "should" of the kitties.

3. What's the last picture you took?
Guess what the subject was?  Here are our little sentries:

Dixie & Lucy in the window (with flash)

Dixie & Lucy in the window (available light)

There's actually a beautiful quilt, pieced by my great-grandmother Maw and quilted by my grandmother Bobo, on that bed (the pattern is called "tumbling blocks," for those who know about such things; I'm not one of them, I'm afraid), but we keep it covered with an old blanket to keep the kitty fur (and hairballs, etc.) off of it. (If anyone would really like to see it, I can try taking a picture and posting it.) 

4. What is the first camera you ever had?
The first camera I had, when I was a kid, was a little 110 instamatic Kodak that my parents got for me, either for free or purchased for next to nothing; it had something to do with a lost-and-found box when we were on vacation, maybe?  I loved that thing, and took lots of really-not-too-good pictures with it.  Since I'm a total pack-rat and never get rid of anything, I'm sure I still have it somewhere, or one of my parents does (because where do you think I got the pack-rat-itis from?).

5. Show us your best shot.
For a lousy photographer, occasionally I'll manage to shoot something I really like.  I don't know if any of the pictures are "good" by any "objective" definition, but if I like them -- and I'm shooting mostly for me -- isn't that the most important thing?  It was hard for me to pick a "best," so of course I had to choose more than one.  I sort of arbitrarily did or didn't edit these down to smaller file sizes; I left some of them really big so you can see the details better -- or just because I like them.  Not surprisingly, to me at least, many of my favorites were taken at either the greatest state fair in the world, the State Fair of Texas, or in Hawaii.  Probably because (a) they're among my favoritest places ever, and (b) I tend to take my camera when I go there, hence lots of pictures.

(Click twice on any of these to view full size.)

This one was taken on the Big Island of Hawaii, in the Upcountry.  You can see Maui peeking out of the clouds in the distance (I think that's Haleakala volcano -- either that or my memory of the geography is really screwed up, and it's either Mauna Loa or Mauna Kea on the Big Island):

Hawaii - Big Island: "Jabba the Hutt mountain," with Maui in the distance

This is another shot of the same mountain.  The main reason I posted it is that it reminds me of Jabba the Hutt (which you can tell more clearly here) and I want to see if anyone else sees the resemblance.  Heh.  Plus, I really like the clouds, and the shadows they cast on that impossibly green expanse of grass and bushes:

Hawaii - Big Island: "Jabba the Hutt mountain," close up

These two are from the State Fair of Texas.  The first is, obviously, our ferris wheel, the Texas Star, which is the largest in North America, and possibly in the Western Hemisphere -- that's what its plaque says, anyway, though I guess that could have changed in recent years.  Regardless of what records it may or may not hold, it's spectacular.  I just wish I could make the picture on this page a little bigger, but you can click to see it full size.

This may be my favorite photograph I've taken, ever:

Ferris Wheel at the State Fair of Texas

It's really gorgeous at night; I'm sorry I don't have any pictures of that.  I thought about editing some of the stuff out, like the corner of that tent (or whatever it is), or the tree, or the power line, but I like it this way.  It gives it perspective.  (FYI:  Those little cages can hold up to six people, or four normal-sized adults pretty comfortably; it's a bit of a tight fit with six grownups.)

This second one was taken at the State Fair Bandshell not long before sunset.  I love the clouds in this picture.  The Bandshell is where they have things like Shakespeare in the Park in the summer, and the occasional concert -- plus one of the best (free!) things at the State Fair, the Birds of the World show (which is what we and the dimly-lit people in the foreground are there for):

Bandshell at State Fair of Texas - clouds before sunsetclouds before sunset

I also have a really pretty picture of the carousel at night, but I wasn't paying close enough attention to what was in the shot, and there are people in it who annoy me.  Eh, I could post it if someone really really wanted.

This last one is from my very own back yard, a close-up of our crabapple tree in full bloom.  I love how blue the sky looks (a "trick" of shooting due north).  "She" has pretty much outlived her life expectancy, and every year we think it's going to be her last, but we try to take good care of her, and every year she comes back to surprise us, blooming better than the year before.

Close-up of my crabapple tree

FIN.

QotD: Worst. Hairstyle. Ever.

What was your worst hairstyle decision ever?

This is a long and mostly uninteresting reply to a... well, it was not a bad QotD for a change.  If you wish to skip the History of Chicken's Worst 'Dos, I certainly understand.

I don't know about worst, but there have been a few...minor missteps.  Which is not to say I've always had awesome hair, because that couldn't be further from the truth.  I'm just a big chicken (hee) about my hair, so tend to just leave it be, for the most part. 

My least favorite was when my mom, who I think up until that time had been cutting my hair herself, took me to her hairstylist, Joan, when I was in fifth grade.  She didn't discuss this with me beforehand; my hair was long, and I didn't really think about it one way or another, but I guess she was getting tired of dealing with it.  She had Joan chop it off into a shag!  I wasn't horrified, until later, when people I knew didn't recognize me, and strangers started mistaking me for a boy.  Ouch. 

I also had a brief period in ninth grade when I was growing out a "Hamill camel."   

Dorothy Hamill

I don't remember why I went so long between cuts, but the underneath layers, that part in the back at the nape of the neck, got way too long, and it looked pretty bad. 

College, unsurpisingly, was when I did the "weirdest" things with my hair.  (But since it took me nearly a decade to get my BA, I had much more time than most for this!)  This was the early '80s, so weird was pretty much en vogue; my hair still was quite tame, relatively speaking.  I had spent a long time growing out whatever layers and bangs and whatnot that I'd had, and my hair was finally all one length, and long -- about to my bra band in the back.  (It's so hard to remember those carefree days, when I never blew my hair dry, and it looked decent regardless.  Youth -- and good hair -- is wasted on the young.)  But I was hanging out at punk(-ish) clubs and wanted to make some sort of a statement, yet didn't want to do what all the other "nonconformists" were doing, so I dyed various parts of it a bright magenta.  It looked pretty cool, actually, on my light blonde hair.  Sometimes I'd do streaks, sometimes I'd dye an inch or two of the ends, à la Terri Nunn from the group Berlin (though not as big a...swath).   

Terri Nunn (today)

Terri Nunn ('80s)

(I did this again for my fortieth birthday, with streaks near the front.  It didn't show up as well now that I've gone sort of a light auburn, but it was still satisfying somehow, to try and recapture that part of my youth -- or something.)  Since I was in college, and, during this era at least, didn't have a job, the only time it was ever a problem was when my grandfather died, shortly after I'd just colored the ends again.  That stuff (Manic Panic) was very temporary, and when you wanted it to last, it would wash out immediately, but, Murphy's Law being what it is, no matter how many times I shampooed, I could not get that pink out of my hair!  It finally faded to a sort of pale pink, but didn't blend well into my very blonde hair.  I tried to disguise it by wearing my hair in a French braid, and tucking the ends up and under, but my Bobo still saw it.  She found it amusing (which caused me to nearly fall on the floor, as she was definitely my "conservative" grandma) and said that Pop would have found it hilarious, which did my heart good. 

Later, I decided to cut it sort of short, and a friend's roommate had given other friends good haircuts.  I let her cut mine, and she did a great job, doing sort of an asymmetrical, side-parted bob, shorter on the right than the left, and longer in the front than the back.  I also had her leave me a "tail" of my longer hair, which was very in style then, and since my hair was so long to start with, it was impressive!  The only problem was, she did a lousy job eyeing where to select the hair from, so some of it was from the nape of my neck, and some farther up into my scalp.  Sigh.  But it looked OK from the "outside," and that was what mattered.  I always braided it, using a narrow satin ribbon to tie it off, and I'd start the ribbon a few inches up into the braid; it looked pretty cool that way, and I often got comments (if not always compliments).  This little hair choice did turn into a bit of a misstep later, when I let my hair grow back out eventually, and had this long bit sticking out from the bottom. 

I had an ill-advised "spiral" perm once, in the late '80s, but am glad that mood passed; my hair did not take kindly to it, and the perm "fell out" of some parts of my hair faster than others.  The front parts of my hair have always been a slightly different texture from the rest, and more porous, so it takes perms and colors differently from the rest; the perm didn't take as well there, yet it relaxed more slowly as it grew out, too.  Weird.  I was very glad when this perm was finally gone. 

As I got older, my blonde slowly started darkening, and I also started going grey a lot sooner than most people, thanks to genetics.  In my late twenties I started having it highlighted to counteract both of these, and it looked great; I had an amazing hairstylist.  (Heh -- she's quite a character, and I could write a few posts just about her!)  Shortly after I got married, she and I both tired of the long process of adding the highlights; meanwhile the grey was coming in fast and furious, so she suggested all-over color.  I went for it.  I think we did maybe one successful all-over color job, which looked great, then with the next one, something bizarre happened and my hair came out sort of pink; either the color was old, or the developer was off, or something (or I was channeling my Nanny?) -- and she fell all over herself apologizing.  It was too soon to do anything to correct it, and it really didn't look that bad -- more an off-color strawberry blonde than something truly horrid -- that I couldn't live with for couple of days, so she made an appointment for me to come in a few days later as her last appointment of the day, to fix it.  She closed the shop, and we had some wine, and I decided to hell with it: if I was going to color my hair, I was going to have fun!  I'd enjoyed the "red" hair (and it really does look right with my coloring), so we decided I'd just go full-on red.  It came out this great, bright auburn color, and in our tipsy state, she thought I would look perfect as one of the B-52s, so she did my hair in this enormously, ridiculously tall beehive!  (That is one 'do I wish I had pictures of!)  We almost couldn't finish it for laughing, and hubby was quite startled when I returned home.  But it was way too much fun; I would love - LOVE - to do that again.  And -- I've been a redhead ever since. 

What's weird is how curly my hair has gotten as I've gotten older.  I don't know if it's the grey or what, but when I was a kid I had these ferocious cowlicks that drove me mad, one on either side of my face like horns.  They made having bangs, especially the winged kind in the '70s, a chore, because they wouldn't do what they were "supposed" to.  I guess those cowlicks slowly started taking over my whole head, and I'd have to work harder and harder to get my hair to look decent every day, futzing with a blow-dryer and big-barreled curling iron to smooth and straighten it.  Long about my mid-thirties, after letting it air-dry "unrestrained" one day, I finally realized it really was curly all over, and just let it go wild every dat.  But it's curlier in the front than anywhere else, and the ends never spring up properly, so I really prefer to spend the extra time to straighten it.  But, living in Texas, that means high humidity most of the time, which works against having pin-straight, non-frizzy hair, plus it gets so hot that standing under the blow-dryer for as long as it takes that it just makes me all sweaty, instantly ruining my look.  It's a constant battle, but I try not to complain -- and pay attention to the weather, so I know ahead of time if it's even worth the effort to blow it straight.  I know there are people who would kill to have naturally curly hair, who would consider it a "gift," so I try to remind myself of that when I'm fussing endlessly with it, trying to get it to do what I want. 

I feel very fortunate that I've found a succession of very good stylists/hairdressers, and I'm very loyal once I find someone I like.  After I graduated from college and moved from Small College Town to Big City, I drove the hour-plus to go back to the stylist who had been cutting my hair for most of the duration of my time there.  Then I went to the woman who started the whole redhead thing for over a decade, and when she "retired" to have babies, I went to her sister.  When she "retired" a few years later (and actually pretty recently), I asked my sister-in-law for a recommendation, and really lucked out, because I adore "her" guy.  I haven't had a male hairdresser since forever.  He did such a great job I didn't need a cut again for a really long time, though I sorely do now.  I went to someplace like Supercuts once in college, because I was broke -- and then had to pay my regular hairdresser (and lie that I let a "friend" cut my hair!) to fix it.  Expensive lesson learned!  (Before I get hate mail:  I know there are good stylists at Supercuts; I just didn't happen to get one.  It's always a game of chance going someplace like that.)  I color my own hair now, which I really dislike dealing with (and therefore often let my roots get way, way too long), but the color I buy lasts much longer than salon color, somehow, but normally I think paying someone to do it is worth the money (as long as they're reasonably priced, that is).  Though it's not necessarily true across the board -- because I don't really believe in salon products; they're mostly unnecessary, and overpriced -- and some stylists charge outrageous fees because they can -- with hair care, you get what you pay for.  

So -- here's wishing you a lifetime of good hair days, aided by awesome stylists! 

Quelle surprise: I'm a nerd!

No surprises here, really.  This description is pretty apt, although I don't know that I'd go so far as to call myself "cool."  Or even "modern" most days!

But for a great example of what a nerd I am:  I corrected a spelling error and a punctuation goof in the text of my quiz results before I posted this.

---

Your Score: Modern, Cool Nerd

     

73 % Nerd, 56% Geek, 30% Dork      

For The Record:

A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.
A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one.
A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions.

You scored better than half in Nerd and Geek, earning you the title of: Modern, Cool Nerd.

Nerds didn't use to be cool, but in the '90s that all changed. It used to be that, if you were a computer expert, you had to wear plaid or a pocket protector or suspenders or something that announced to the world that you couldn't quite fit in. Not anymore. Now, the intelligent and geeky have eked out for themselves a modicum of respect at the very least, and "geek is chic." The Modern, Cool Nerd is intelligent, knowledgeable and always the person to call in a crisis (needing computer advice/an arcane bit of trivia knowledge). They are the one you want as your lifeline in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (or the one up there, winning the million bucks)!

Congratulations!

The Nerd, Geek, or Dork Test

QotD: Do Not Want (To Eat)

What do you absolutely refuse to eat?

Animal flesh.

OK:  except for the very rare piece of ahi tuna, either an expertly-seared steak, or raw (sashimi).  What's the technical, official name for this type of vegetarian, you ask?  "Hypocrite."  ;-)

I've been a vegetarian since shortly after my wedding in 1993, which I almost missed (along with the rest of my life!) due to an especially nasty case of food poisoning.  Since that particular case of Campylobacter (probably c. jejuni) was from chicken, and because I've since developed a certain...affection for the creatures, you can be fairly certain that poultry will never cross my lips again by choice.

On a deserted island, with few food choices, of course all bets are off.

I didn't really have a whole lot of interest in answering this, because my "choice" not to eat meat always seems controversial to some people (although less and less so as the years pass), and people make assumptions or downright judgments about it that tend to irk me (like assuming I'm going to judge you for your food choices -- or even that I find discussing it interesting!) -- but then I remembered I had this picture on my hard drive, and wanted to use it.

064_cat_donotwant1

(Which is kind of funny, when you think about it:  Cats are almost exclusively carnivores.)

Crazy-Lady Rant #3169

        I briefly had a really pretty new theme for my little space here.  It had my favorite purples in it, but was light and breezy, with little flowers throughout, including as "bullets" beside each entry.  I didn't know what the heck the name was that was in the "title" of the design, but I figured it was a Vox user who's a graphic designer and likes to make Vox banners, which is what many of them seem to be (although I could be way off there).  Then, I just happened to be looking at my blog page (which, honestly, how much of that does one do?  You check to make sure the formatting of your last post is OK, then you click "home" -- and I'd already checked out the new layout and liked it, or so I thought), and noticed there was a link over on the side of the banner.  A link that I didn't put there, and nobody asked if I wanted!  So, naturally curious about what I would be advertising, I clicked it.

        And then my head threatened to explode.

        It's a site that sells flip-flops.  First of all, I don't want to advertise anything unless I'm to be paid for it.  I don't wear anything with brands on it if I can help it (though I do have some freebie t-shirts that I occasionally wear around the house), and I couldn't care less about designer labels.  I have never understood why people would pay good money for a t-shirt that says "NIKE" or "COCA-COLA" or what have you, when, if you think about it, those companies should be either giving the shirts away or paying you to wear them.  It's better than free advertising for them -- people are paying for the dubious privilege of wearing their advertisements!

        Secondly, and if I get hate mail for this, so be it:  I abhor flip-flops.  I hate that people wear fancy ones and try to pass them off as dressy shoes, or even casual ones.  People:  Flip-flops are what you wear in the shower to keep from getting some scary fungus -- or, from your dorm room to the bathroom, or to the curb to pick up your newspaper, that sort of thing.  These are not shoes that should be worn in public.  It doesn't matter how much fancy sparkly, spangly, frou-frou stuff you put on them, they're still shower shoes.  I don't know, it probably has something to do with where I grew up; only trash wore rubber thongs in public.

        Thirdly, their whole site is in Flash, which bugs the holy bejeepers out of me.  I have Flash disabled on my computer (thank you, Firefox & Greasemonkey!) because I can't stand flashing ads and whatnot, fluttering in my sight-line, distracting me and bugging me and giving me a headache.  (I've fired off angry-yet-sane e-mails to companies whose advertising I find irritating beyond forgiveness, and nine times out of ten, it's Flash -- and I vow publicly and privately never to patronize them.)  And what if you have an old clunker of a computer and can't use Flash, or it crashes your browser, or a million other things?  On almost every page of theirs, until I got to the actual catalog, I had to enable Flash if I wanted to view it.  (A simple mouse click, but still.)  They were quickly losing points with me.

        Then lastly (maybe!), when I finally got to the catalog page, I find that this company pretty much only sells flip-flops; not only that, but some of them sell for $70!  Seventy-dollar shower shoes!  What is this world coming to?

        So, before my head exploded, I quickly changed my theme back to this "efflorescent purple" one, which I've never been crazy about, but it's purple, so it will do until I've designed a banner for myself that I like -- and, most importantly, it does not force me to advertise a product I would never own (or, at the very least, never wear on the street), much less promote.  (Not only is it free advertisement for them, but there's a link, instead of just text with a URL, which I would find slightly less offensive.)  I don't care if it's supposed to be Hawai'ian or whatever (although if I lived on the Big Island I might not disapprove of flip-flops So Very Much); it's just not right.

        You hear me, advertisers?  It just ain't right to make people advertise your crap just because you made a semi-cool-looking blog template.

        I'm also (mildly) annoyed at the Vox people for not allowing us more control over the themes.  Why can't I use that one, for example, but "opt out" of the stupid link?  I absolutely don't mind one that says "theme designed by so-and-so," and maybe even "at such-and-such company," but not a blatant ad.  It's possible I would use, say, one of the countless Nokia themes if I had such a choice, but as it is, I refuse to even glance at them, because I think their phones are crap and wouldn't advertise them even if they did pay me.  And why can't I choose different colors, or fonts, or my own background image, if I choose a "personalized" theme?  I really do love this place, but am endlessly frustrated with certain (albeit minor) things about it.  (And lest you think I'm bitching just to hear myself whine, the nice people at Vox do hear about it from me, though I try to wait until Crazy Lady crankiness subsides, so I can be as polite as possible.)

        And, believe me, the people at this company-who-shall-remain-nameless will be hearing from me, just as soon as I don't feel like I'm ranting like a lunatic.

Vox Hunt: Back In The Day

Show us a photo of you from when you were in grade school.

I have some really scary pictures of me from grade school -- scary in that wasn't-aware-of-fashion, only-brushed-my-hair-when-I-brushed-my-teeth, no-self-awareness, little-kid kind of way, not like I-was-a-childhood-vampire scary!  According to the note my Bobo (paternal grandmother) wrote on the back of the picture, I was five when this was taken.  I had to do a little color correcting, because it was really yellowed with age (it might have overdone it a little, since those curtains were more off-white/beige than that), otherwise it's unretouched.  Note the fab '60s décor; my mom still has those wing chairs, only recovered; she gave the heaviest-sofa-ever away a while back, but kept it a surprisingly long time.  And check out the ancient encyclopedias behind me; Mom became a World Book saleslady not long after this, so we could have a new set.

tiny Chicken in plaid outfit

My grandmother made me this outfit.  I still have the hat somewhere.

QotD: My Favorite Fictional Father

TV, books, movies: Who's your favorite fictional father?

I have to tell you, I was shocked -- shocked! -- to see that I'm the only one in my 'hood who picked him!  When I saw the QotD, he was the first (and practically only) father who sprang to mind.

Atticus & Scout

Atticus Finch, in To Kill a Mockingbird.  He's the best father in fiction, period.  I loved him in the book, and Gregory Peck was just the perfect embodiment of him in the movie (which remains probably the best book-to-film adaptation ever).  Except for the fact that I love my daddy, I would have wanted Atticus to be mine.  He may not have been the most affectionate or demonstrative father, but he loved his children deeply, and they knew it.  His patience with them was limitless, and he spoke to them like adults. 

Atticus & kids outside the courthouse

"Miss Jean Louise, stand up.  Your father's passin'."  Still makes me cry.

Atticus in the courtroom

To Kill a Mockingbird

I uploaded a bunch of pictures, because I couldn't decide which to use; here's the collection, if you haven't gotten enough of Macomb just yet.

QotD: Current TV

After all the recent season and series finales, what are you watching on TV these days?

If anyone really, really cares about this...
This summer, we're catching up on the shows that got backlogged on tape and the DVR over the regular season (including The Tudors on OnDemand) due to hubby's unpredictable work schedule.  For new (i.e., first run) shows, we're watching Big Love, Entourage (new season starts Sunday - w00t!), Kyle XY, Creature Comforts, and the final episodes of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (which sometimes I feel as if we, and Emily Sears, are the only people in America watching -- and mostly liking).  And maybe catch up on any Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations I missed the first time around.  If you've never watched it, I highly recommend it; for a travel/food show, it's spicier than your usual bland fare.  Tony B is sort of the rock 'n' roll chef.  I'll probably take the opportunity to watch shows like Bones, CSI: NY, and maybe Criminal Minds, since they're normally up against shows I already watch, and since we already get so far behind, it just hasn't been worth it to watch more procedurals.

But I won't watch "reality" shows, and you can't make me!!

After a couple of days of feeling like I was posting into a vacuum (and granted, neither this nor the other things I've posted are all that interesting, but still!), I realized I hadn't "unhidden" this yet.  Whoops.  Now if there's radio silence following this, it's nobody's fault but my own.  Heh.

Vox Hunt: Me, on YouTube, part two

Video:  Show us the first video that appears when you search your name on YouTube.

I was happy to see something good actually showed up first when I typed part of name into the YouTube search engine -- and it's actually a song I know and love (and have even chosen over other songs of hers to put on mix CDs).  Will wonders never cease?  Still, it's no "chicken, chicken, chicken..."  (Nor RobbieDobbie's Rob Zombie video!)

Liz Phair on Letterman - Supernova

Caveat:  She really doesn't sound that great here.  To hear the album version (if you don't mind the "F" word - ha), click here:

Liz Phair - Supernova

She may not have the strongest voice in rock history, but she still RAWKS.  Or used to.  She seems to have wimped out in recent years.  Who knows, maybe she'll find her ovaries again.

Vox Hunt: Me, on YouTube

Video:  Show us the first video that appears when you search your name on YouTube.

This is just too bizarre, and too hilarious -- and it really was the first thing that popped up!

Chicken chicken chicken

As I've always said:  Everything really does come back to chickens.  Always.