Polyp

Random pictures! Mainly of Charlie - we've been pretty Asher-centric recently so that's ok. 

Here she is fireman-poling around a playground. 

The next ones are from a school friends birthday party, it was at the big pet store near here. You cram a dozen or so kids into a tiny sound amplifying room, give them frosting and candy then bring in animals for them to touch. Sounds like hell for the animals but the kids LOVE it. I kept looking for the right time to make a Lenny/George joke but realized the parents who would get the joke were too busy making sure it didn't come true (yes, it's an easy Steinbeck joke but still, any Steinbeck joke is classy).

The guy brought in tree frogs and had them stick to the window. Puppies that sent shrieks through the store. A bearded dragon (which Charlie immediately told everyone she had held before). There was a small boa - it's funny, Charlie wanted to touch/hold EVERYTHING. Everything. Then the snake came out, I think she saw everyone else act scared, and she wanted nothing to do with it. For three seconds then she reached out to grab it. Every one wanted to hold the Chinchilla. 

Charlie and a little pug dog.                                                      Charlie and a legless lizard. Which is basically an 

earthworm's and snake's

 thick baby.

Tell me about the rabbit's George. (see, too easy.) 

 So THIS was super cool (everything was cool but this topped it). It's a sugar glider. The dude took them out of the bag and they looked like cute hamster/chipmunk thing. Then he held them by the tail like a lawn dart. Immediately they stuck out all their paws - they're like flying squirrels with skin between all their limbs, so they looked like a square coon skin cap.

Then he had the kids hold out their arms to the side and, super nonchalantly, just gently flipped the sugar gliders up towards the kids. They floated, again semi-lawn dart-ish, to the kids and landed on their shirts. It was like bean bag tag with rodents.

Pretty awesome.

Charlie and Quinn playing Operation. Ryan trying, desperately, to get a piece out.

Another of Ryan. We went back to the pet store to check out all the animals (they have everything. Wanna blow through 45 minutes with a group of kids? Pet store.) He was checking out these rotties seconds before the picture was snapped. Too bad his birthday has already passed . . .

Random stuff you won't care about but is bugging me because that's the way I work and it's my blog so thank you very much. Today's topic: Bands Named After Member's Who Are NOT The Lead Singers.

Ok, think about it. Who's the lead singer for the Dave Matthews Band? Right, Dave Matthews - it makes sense. The Jimi Hendrix Experience (people forget the 'Experience'). The Rollins Band (Henry Rollins). Bon Jovi? Jon Bon Jovi just dropped his first name off to make it seen like a band name (same with Danzing). Right. We're ok with this? I'm not talking about someone like Madonna, who is the performer and has a nameless vague backing band that might or might not be the same each time (do the people who played on Justify My Love still play with her?). Or Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band who are clearly two separate but specific things. The E Street Band is made up of the same people.

Bands named after one band member who seemingly controls the image/style of the band but is not the lead singer. The lead singer is customarily the focal point of the band. When someone needs a quote from U2 they usually go to Bono, right? The front man is usually the face of the band. The de facto leader so to speak. But, in the case of Van Halen or Santana (and I WILL get to him) who at least they drop off their first name to make it seem like a band name instead of a single person, are not the leads but still embody the band they're in.

So the other day my alt-country Pandora station played Blue on Black by Kenny Wayne Shepherd. Good song, love it, and it burrowed into my ear and is staying there. It's a damn good song. So. Click the link. Hear Kenny Wayne Shepherd's Blue on Black.

But here's the thing. IT'S NOT KENNY WAYNE SHEPHERD SINGING. Kenny Wayne Shepherd is also the name of Kenny Wayne Shepherd's band, with a lead singer who is not, in fact, Kenny Wayne Shepherd. So you could go to a Kenny Wayne Shepherd concert and never hear the dude the band is named for.

They (Kenny Wayne Shepherd), as a band, are still great but my mind was blown when I realized it wasn't actually Kenny Wayne Shepherd singing. It just seems weird somehow. Like, back in the day you had an AWESOME guitar player who wrote all the GREAT songs but didn't sing . . . and it was called The Who, not Pete Townsend (with Roger Daltrey on vocals).

The closest I can come to something else like it is the opposite - Eric Clapton was guitarist, lead singer and songwriter for Derek and the Dominoes . . . but he had an Allman Brother on board too. And he was in Blind Faith but so was Steve Windwood so it really was more of a group dynamic . . .

And Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks wrote and sang all of Fleetwood Mac's songs, a band named for the bass player and drummer, neither of which sung . . .

And there's always been two Van Halen's in Van Halen even if neither one sung . . .

Santana, however, geez. Let me get this straight, you start a band, play guitar, hire different singers to sing OTHER PEOPLE'S SONG'S and you still get all the glory? (Black Magic Woman, Oye Como Va and Evil Ways were written by other people). Chances are, if you can name a Santana song, the only thing Carlos Santana did on it was play the guitar. Really, really amazingly well, but still.

Thus ends today's rambling half-thought-out tirade. It's late. The lights are off. And I've lost my point LONG AGO. Screw it, I'm listening to Blue on Black again. Good night.