May 6, 2008
Bee-autiful
Attack music!
In my continuing parade of neighbors with furrier limbs than mine, I hereby present you with this colorful gal, who was sleeping on a cushion by the front door just a moment ago. I find her most attractive.
Objects in photo are slightly larger than they appear: she’s large– over an inch long– but not quite as impressive in real life as she is in this, her press kit glossy for the starring role in “The Bee That Ate New Jersey.”
Aptly known as an orange-rumped bumblebee, now she’s buzzing around the hummingbird feeder, nearly as big as those guys and soon becoming a candidate for my Mobile Emergency Insulin Unit.
I’m busy as a bee today too, and am having one of those head-spinning moments where with so many items buzzing on my to-do list, I’m temporarily flummoxed as to which to attack first.
Maybe I’ll just start with New Jersey.
Glenn Buttkus said,
May 7, 2008 @ 7:05 am
OMG, now you have me doing research on bumblebees:
The orange-belted bumblebee (Bombus ternarius) is a yellow, orange and black bumblebee that is commonly found throughout the United States and parts of Canada.
Description
A small, fairly slender bumblebee. The queen is 17–19 millimetres long, the worker 8–13 millimetres and the drone 9.5–13 millimetres.
The queen and the workers are black on the head, with a few pale yellow hairs. The thorax and the first abdominal segment are yellow, abdominal segments 2 to 3 are orange, and the rest of the abdomen is black.
The drone has a yellow head with a few black hairs. The coloration of the thorax and abdomen is similar to that of the females, with the exception that the abdominal segment 4 is yellow and the last abdominal segments are yellow on the sides. The fur of the drone is longer than that of the females.[2]
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Apidae
Subfamily: Apinae
Genus: Bombus
Species: B. ternarius
Binomial name
Bombus ternarius
Bumblebees are not supposed to be aggressive, but they can sting you several times without losing thier stingers.
Your musical clip ASYLUM @ 1:19 is wonderfully frenetic. It shook me up, awakened me at this early hour, put me in mind of bedlam, dread, horror, fear, chaos, and an odd need, or fantasy about wanting to “dance”, to defy gravity, to fly like Nuryev, to leap into the air like an acrobat, and just not come down, to levitate, to fly. I cannot find it on my NOTES FROM THE KELP CD, and there is no explication on the “About the Music” clicker, just a connection with your composer page. So what’s the skinny on this fantastic composition?
Glenn
Alex Shapiro said,
May 7, 2008 @ 11:41 pm
Yes, bedlam and horror! We need more of that, since real life isn’t quite enough. 🙂
I am SO glad I do not get television reception in this house.
“Asylum” is a cue I did years ago for a bedlam-chaos-and-horror low budget flick. It was a chase scene as I recall; either the good guy or the bad guy seeking escape from an ever-intense situation that did not bode well.
Kind of like me, leaving Los Angeles! 🙂
hoiplospivorb said,
November 23, 2009 @ 11:24 pm
Wow loved reading your post. I submitted your rss to my reader.