2017 Orangutan SSP Husbandry Conference - New Orleans

Orangutan SSP Steering Committee & Advisors

With Friends in New Orleans

The Audubon Zoo

Didgeridoo Update!

My Australian eucalyptus didgeridoo arrived about a week ago from the Outback and I have even managed to figure out how to play it...I admit it took a bit longer to figure out than I thought it might having been a seasoned trumpet player, but the didgeridoo requires a whole other technique, though in some ways still similar and being a brass player definitely helped figure out the didgeridoo.

 

Here's the guy who made my didgeridoo playing another didgeridoo he made in a different key (mine is 47 inches in the key of D, this one is 39 inches in the key of F), but close enough - doesn't get more Australian than this:

After becoming a little obsessed with my didgeridoo, I discovered the didjeribone, which is made out of sliding pvc pipes and can be played in multiple keys. It's pretty great what can be done with the didjeribone; though its sound will never be quite as crisp as the indescribably amazing sound of the didgeridoo when played just right, it's still incredibly fun to play:

Redd turns 1!

Still hard to believe that Redd is already 1! Here are some photos from his birthday celebration:

Batang was in a weird mood all day, but she partied too!

Didgeridoo!

I decided to buy myself a birthday present - this is as good of a time as any to purchase something I have always wanted--an authentic Australian didgeridoo. I saw some bamboo didgeridoos at the MD Renaissance Festival last week and have been thinking about them ever since. I did some research and found a guy in Australia who makes fantastic termite-hollowed didgeridoos handcrafted from Australian eucalyptus. I ordered myself this gorgeous 47 inch didgeridoo in the key of D and should receive it in 2 weeks:

If you have never heard of a didgeridoo, they are one of (if not the) oldest wind instruments, developed by indigenous Australians.

Here's a didgeridoo duet:

39 years

Today I turned 39 and pondered my existence as I tend to do on my birthday. One of my staff gave me this lovely print that she picked up at a recent local primatology conference that reminds me a lot of one of my favorite wild orangutans. I love it for that reason and because it looks like the orangutan in the print is also pondering her existence:

In the evening my parents came over from Falls Church and we went to eat at & Pizza, a wonderful pizza place I discovered when my friend Ruth was visiting during the recent AAZK conference held here in DC. The pizza place is right by Sticky Fingers in Columbia Heights and is fantastic. Later we went back to my neighborhood to see opening night of the remake of Stephen King's "IT", which was properly disturbing considering my lifelong coulrophobia and distrust of clowns. That said, I am now considering reading the book (which of course was published in 1986--1986 seems to be the year of all interesting/noteworthy things in my childhood--including Halley's Comet, the Challenger explosion, my interview at NZP with the woman who held my job for 34 years...) considering that Stephen King is an evil genius to come up with the idea of a clown that comes out of the sewers to terrorize the fictional town of Derry, Maine every 27 years.

Original cast from the 1990 adaptation of IT

  2017 cast from IT...loved the hypochondriac kid!

Tim Curry's Pennywise was disturbing...

...but Bill Skarskgard's Pennywise reaches a whole other level!

 

I even broke down and bought the book version of IT, since Stephen King is an evil genius:

Recently there was a very timely Frank & Ernest cartoon in The Washington Post:

My parents gave me some lovely birthday gifts, including copies of the full Chronicles of Narnia and a gorgeous book about dragons:

 

Total Eclipse of the Sun!

Ever since learning that for the first time in my lifetime there would be a total eclipse of the sun in North America from NASA while at Awesome Con, I have been looking forward to today. Here in DC we only experienced 81% totality, but it was cool enough I am hoping to go to the path of totality, probably in PA or OH during the next North American total eclipse coming on April 8, 2024.

 a few photos we were able to take using eclipse glasses as a filter

watching the eclipse with coworkers

had made it to the area of totality, I would have seen this...

Awesome Con 2017!

This year I went for the second year in a row to Awesome Con - basically a weekend for nerds that is, well...Awesome! I spent a lot of time attending NASA discussions about the solar eclipse coming up later in the summer, physics talks about parallel universes and their role in SciFi/Fantasy, and a World Building panel. And of course I spent a lot of time shopping in the amazing Exhibits Hall.

Here are a few photos:

 

...with Chewie and R2D2 in the Exhibit Hall and a dragon that made his way home...

you never know who you might run into at Awesome Con...

Climate March

The Climate March was the weekend after the March for Science, only many degrees hotter. Fitting considering the theme of the march…

March for Science

Rain didn't stop thousands of scientists from taking to the streets here in Washington and throughout the country and world. Very empowering, but also sad that such a protest was necessary. 

Infinity Mirrors Exhibit

Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Mirrors exhibit at the Hirshhorn Museum - pretty spectacular!: