The one Wednesday I'm not at the zoo they are having a big media day for the baby moose that are now on exhibit. grr...I won't even be in the cities to see any footage on the news.

One really big major upside...

DAVID COOK TONIGHT!!! :D

Leaving for Duluth around noon to give plenty of time to take "the scenic route" with maximum photographic detour opportunities. ;) Thursday we're going to Lake Superior Zoo and maybe a little bit of hiking before heading back.

I love that they actually scrapped the Idol winner coronation song. In eight seasons I don't think that has ever happened before. And the setlist replacement is probably my favorite song by The Killers.

Reading about the shenanigans of Kradam hosting American Top 40 is cracking me up. I can't wait to hear the whole thing tomorrow morning when it plays locally. lol, discosticks. XD

Took me forever to figure out why I could see marching band formations in my head. Never just an earworm these days; I tend to get a specific visual along with the music. Who needs an internal radio station when you can have an internal music videos on demand? =P

Still one of my all time favorite field shows. I remember watching it live for this first time and being completely blown away. Even watching this "meh" quality video gives me chills.

PS: Didja know there's an official soundtrack to the Kentucky Derby? Check out tracks 5 and 6, because I swear all things I enjoy somehow manage to get connected to each other eventually. That's the lead singer of Escape From Earth (and possibly other bands on the downlow *coughcough*), a band who have just made me way too giddy for my own good Tweeting about them jamming together recently. NEED EFE CONCERT FIX NAO!!

He was in the den when I first entered the gazebo, but came out to see why the other three were causing such a fuss. Tano (I think?) caught a blue jay! I was impressed; usually the jays are quicker than that.



Only major thing at the zoo was that Godiva (Brown Swiss Cow) sadly had to be put down. She had a twisted stomach about a month ago which they had to go in and fix. They still couldn't get her to eat and had her on IV for a bit. When I saw her on Saturday she was looking really skinny and unhealthy, so not surprised to hear the news. Bummer the generations of chocolate are now gone. Her twin calves are both bulls so the farm has no heifer calves to continue the line.

Video because I watched it right before leaving for the zoo and it was stuck in my head all day. I'm loving the concert review from last night that referred to it as Minneapolis-funk. Anything to connect Adam Lambert to my home state. ;P

Someone get me tickets to that and you'll be my favorite person forever. It's a good thing the MINN show isn't until September. That gives me even more time to win tickets off the radio. I'm still angry about my fail to win that "Name That Sound" screaming goat. grr, why did I have to not be listening at a time I normally would be? It's like the universe was throwing an easy one my way and I blew it.

In way happier and exciting news, a week from tonight (almost to the minute) I'll be seeing DAVID COOK in concert!! :D

Seriously, when I heard this news my reaction was "lol, maybe it's because they are secretly in Oh, Hush!"
And the theory also came from a fellow Glambert fan! What What!! XD

Some video spam from last night's American Idol Tour kick-off. Why don't I have tickets to this tour yet?

I highly approve of The Jacket (I'm a sucker for tails) & this entire video as a whole. lol, so that's what AI was hiding with all those quick cutaways and above-the-waist Elvis treatments all season long. XD

( some KradisonG love under here )

Well, this sounds like a good excuse to spam videos of my favorite local/unsigned bands. :)

( all the usual suspects... )

Leaning against a completely metal grain elevator with lightning in the sky right above you. Yay, massive lightning rod. And if I was paying attention I would have seen some sort of slight cloud rotation just to the north. My mom and sister were at the zoo today and took a picture of it from the monorail. It think it was maybe just scud, though. I definitely felt the downdraft minutes before it started to rain. I left a few minutes early and it was just starting to come down in heavier drops as I got into the main building. By the time I got up to the 3rd floor lounge it was a torrential downpour.

Bam Bam was watching from inside the barn and came trotting over to greet me at the fence when I first arrived at the farm. That's a new one. Usually I call for him when I get to the fence and he slowly moseys on over. My fingers were completely black from the dirt after I gave him a good 20 minutes worth of scratching. At least my skin felt nice from the lanolin in his wool.

Not much else to mention for today. Drizzly this morning when I worked Africa. I'm really nervous about tonight due to the fireworks. The African animals are really flighty, and in 2006 July 4th came around, they freaked, and one of the zebras crashed into a fence and broke its neck. Now they leave the animals out on exhibit overnight to give them more space to run when spooked, but still...so nervous about it. One volunteer said they were walking the trail after hours with an overnight group, the African animals were out and completely bolted when one little boy shouted in excitement.

Unrelated, but between the Dead By Sunrise show tonight and the American Idol tour starting tomorrow, I'm looking forward to my hours wasted on You Tube in the coming days. I seriously can't wait to see The Jacket in action after hearing about it in interviews nonstop. :P

in case you were wondering about the music stuck in my head

This review sums up the show last night pretty well. Seriously, Eli was completely adorable. I noticed at least one guy in the audience video recording the whole time so hopefully something will show up on Youtube later.

Getting the chance to work these concerts every summer is more or less the yearly payoff of volunteering. I love the chance to sit in the venue early, sometimes watching sound check and all the other behind the scenes action. I unknowingly chatted with Dave Pirner a bit. lol, go me not recognizing people in the band! Tommy Stinson is also really, really cool. And the fact that Soul Asylum's mixer also worked for Lady Gaga made me way more excited than necessary. I don't even like Lady Gaga.

The zoo really needs to continue in this genre direction for future concerts. Reel Big Fish will also be playing the zoo later this summer, so we're off to a great start. Keep it up, Sue McLean! I have a running list in my head of artists I want to see at the zoo, feel free to come to me for suggestions anytime you like. ;P

How about that - another Wednesday where it rains. Luckily this time around it was mostly a drizzle, and it was dry and swept up enough to open by 1 o'clock. So now we've actually managed to open the yard a whole two times this season.

Best part of the day was walking to the farm this morning and stopping at Tiger Lair. Anya was out and hanging near the waterfall, which is a direct diagonal across the exhibit from the viewing window. I was all the way zoomed in on her when she noticed me and went running full tilt to the window to pounce at me! AMAZING!! I've been pounced a few times by Lana, but in those instances it was maybe 10-15 feet from the window not the ENTIRE LENGTH OF THE EXHIBIT!! The Minnesota Zoo has the largest tiger exhibit in the United States (maybe even in North America, I can't remember exactly), so that's a lot of space to cover. I quickly switched to video and got the last couple seconds of the charge recorded, although I didn't have time to zoom out. Some epicness is lost due to this fact, but the link to the video is here.

an excerpt from this new David Cook interview: David said that has some other covers up his sleeve, but his band hasn't pulled them out yet, like a hard rock version of "I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight" and Nine Inch Nails' "Every Day Is Exactly The Same".

OMG THAT NIN COVER NEEDS TO HAPPEN AT MY SHOW! 15 DAYS!! :D

Random unrelated video of Castledoor covering a James Brown song because it's awesome.

lol, the whole time watching this I was thinking about how I would run off if I got to wear that jacket. It's my favorite - YAY FEATHERS!!! And then the ending happened. XD

Normally I keep the weekly zoo segments from Fox 9 to the zoo blog, but yay bird show! I'm so bummed my computer froze up and I missed the ending. Tom is pretty good at asking what the bird's name is toward the end, and I want to know if they are continuing on the recently enacted rock naming theme. Currently the show has birds named Ozzy, Slash, Angus, The Edge, Elton, and Floyd. I still want them to name something Chester. I think that would've been the perfect name for the barn owl. But Angus works as well. Angus was suggested on live TV, so it makes sense to be the chosen name.

lol she is such a spaz. I LOVE IT!! And I just noticed the random clip in Kris' hair. XD

( Allison interviews Kris plus some KRADAM!! )
So, zoo today. It rained for the first couple hours so we didn't bother opening goat yard. So far this summer we've only opened it once; it keeps raining on Wednesdays. I'm also convinced the goat barn 3A1 key self-destructed because it disappeared around noon and we spent the better part of the afternoon looking all over for the darn thing.

Oh, and I managed to miss out on winning AI tour tix off the radio yesterday morning. I tuned in as they were playing a "Guess That Sound" contest. They had already been playing for 20 minutes, and at that point they had someone with the correct answer on the phone and were playing the sound one last time before having her say what it is. And it took me only a few seconds of listening to know instantly that it was the sound of a bleating goat. I've heard the zoo's dairy goats make similar sounds when getting impatient for milking time. It sounds sort of like a man screaming in pain, so I can see why it took so long to find a winner.

If only I had begun listening sooner. In fact most days I would have been listening at the time the contest had started. Seriously, that contest was made for me to win. Who else would win tickets to the American Idol Tour by correctly identifying the sound of a crazy screaming goat? Epic fail on my part.

okay, I should probably get ready for the zoo now...

Today it's in the mid 90s with an excessive heat warning. Just a little over two weeks ago it was a high in the 50s and a cold rain. Never boring weather around here.

Last night was fun trying to sleep. It was near 80 degrees in my room. And the entire neighborhood experienced a mass power outage for a bit. Good times.

First time they were close enough to get an okay photograph. Usually the oryx, along with the wildebeest, hang around behind the pond way back on the hillside. And I should really accustom myself to referring to the oryx as gemsbok because that's what the zoo is calling them. I've always called them oryx so it's a hard habit to break. I still mentally refer to the bison as tutanka every time I walk by that exhibit.

I got to handle a Sonoran Desert millipede for the first time today! Not as big and impressive as the Giant Africans, but they seem to be much more active. I had the one crawling hand over hand like one would a pet hamster the entire time. The GAMs often stayed rolled up the entire time and guests would wonder if it were even alive.

Maybe I shouldn't be excited about this sort of thing? Severe weather season has begun way too late this year. It took me a while to get to sleep last night due to this awesome intense lightning storm. I couldn't pull myself away from the window, watching the light show.

So...zoo yesterday. The farm has a bit of an "enrichment show and tell" with a mob of staff from other parts of the zoo flocking from barn to barn to see it in action. I have some video of the enrichment for the cows and goats. Dixie was hogging the brush and I didn't know cows could growl like that! I also missed getting video of one of the goats resting it's front legs on either side of a corn cob, eating it in a very human-like fashion.

The Wednesday volunteer crew is also in the early planning stages of a group field trip of horseback riding. Why we never thought of planning extracurricular activities sooner I have no idea. The last time I went riding was at least five or six years ago, so I for one am all for it.

lol, Linkin Park members need to do speeches more often. XD
I just about fell off my chair at the Glambert zing. And then the singing...*dies laughing*
( watch it under here, it's worth your time )