Virtually Home

Miwi La Lupa, left, on guitar and vocals I have a feeling this show is going to remain one of my favorite musical moments. The 40th Street Theatre was recently acquired and remodeled by some folks who own a stringed instrument store in Omaha. Apparently they did all the work themselves, and it looks like it was a little theatre, before. It has room for 200, if people are friendly, and a small raised stage. Conor decided to play a show there, and I think it was the inaugural show for the venue. Tickets were sold only in person, for cash, at Solid Jackson/Almost Music or Pageturners. Ryan was kind enough to pick me up a pair on his lunch break. They were really good-looking, hand-numbered, screenprinted tickets that glowed in the dark and displayed a secret message. I thought this was a really great touch, especially in the era of identical, mass-printed Ticketmaster ticket stubs or print-at-home sheets. Hartford/Focht opened. They're a husband-wife team who play and sing tog...

Female cricket at my field site. January started in the back lot of a Lutheran Church in Hilo, Hawaii. I recorded and captured crickets with my colleagues, counted invasive cane toads, and collapsed into bed sometime after midnight Hawaii time (hours after my friends in Europe and the continental US had finished celebrating). I spent as much time as possible on that trip snorkeling and reveling in the warm weather. Grand Canyon is Grand February was pretty quiet, but we saw the Wild play the Islanders in Saint Paul, and the Gopher men's gymnastics team take on the Nebraska Cornhuskers in Minneapolis. I caught Josh Ritter and Guster on tour. I tried not to freeze to death. My life as a lab rat in the spring In March, Jacob and I took a massive trip to Arizona. We visited his family in Phoenix, camped for three nights on the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park, and roadtripped to Canyon de Chelly, Walnut Canyon, and other places. We saw a lot of amazing Pueblo dwe...