Gala event

A very special performance took place tonight in the Camp Chicago area. The Beastie Boys played a Gala Event at the Riviera Theatre in Uptown. My quick analysis is that the Beastie Boys have parlayed a really stupid album from the mid-1980s ("Licensed to Ill") into a platform for some great music and a lot of fun. They actually still seem to like each other and their audience. The brilliant New York trio opened the show up to cameras and camcorders. I have a lot of footage and photos besides this one.

Uptown scene

Video is definitely still a new frontier for this blog. A digital camera video plus YouTube compression leaves a lot of detail out of the above (warning: 1 minute, 47 second video).

Weekend rambles

There are some new photos posted at http://www.flickr.com/photos/driftlessarea from travels around Chicago the past two weekends.

Roasted bunting

I didn't know until today that songbird eating was a tradition in France. It's illegal, but many still eat roasted ortolan. This bunting species breeds in Europe and migrates to Africa in the winter. It's best eaten whole: bill, bones, feet and all.

Motorboat terror

My biggest fear when camping isn't bears, squirrels or wolves. It's people. One or two rivercombers can ruin even the prettiest night under the stars. And the isolation of camping makes these encounters all the more terrifying. These drillrods ruined lots of family vacations in the Boundary Waters.

Window birding

I don't have much to report, but it does seem like birds are on the move. The New York Times wrote a nice story about fall migration season. Yesterday, I counted eight species from my cubicle window: common grackle, american kestrel, red-tailed hawk, american crow, rock dove, mourning dove, european starling and ring-billed gull. It doesn't sound like much, but it was quite a day. And when I wasn't gazing out the window, I got a whole lot of work done, too.

Blue harbor

The early meteorological autumn chill has continued in recent days. This morning, Freeport, Ill., on the edge of the Driftless Area, registered a 32-degree reading. According to accuweather.com, this breaks the previous record of 38. It was just 42 at O'Hare this morning and 36 at Aurora. Madison, Wis., and Fond du Lac, Wis., reached 33 degrees for overnight lows, and Champaign, Ill., chilled to 37 degrees (accuweather lists the record as 40). The crisp air has made for near unlimited visibility. The colors were particularly vibrant at Montrose Harbor today (above).