Another time waster… But fun.

Plastic Martians - Plastic Martians -> PLAY

The guys over at talklikeapirate.com would like to remind you that today (Friday 9/19) is International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

In the seven years since Dave Barry mentioned us in his nationally syndicated newspaper column, what once was a goofy idea celebrated by a handful of friends has turned into an international phenomenon that shows no sign of letting up. Maybe you read about us on line.

Talk Like A Pirate Day - September 19

If you want to get anything done at work (or home) today, you might not want to click on this link…

Samorost 2

Good (and maybe slightly obvious) news! Sex is good for relationships. Two couples have documented their goal of daily sex in an effort to improve their relationships.

If you decided to have sex every day, would your relationship benefit?

Two long-married couples decided to find out. When lovemaking fell off their respective “to-do” lists, they ditched the sweats, bought sex toys and books, stepped up exercise, lit candles, and took trips. Then they chronicled their “sexperiment” in two recently released books, Just Do It: How One Couple Turned Off the TV and Turned On Their Sex Lives for 101 Days (No Excuses!) by Doug Brown and 365 Nights: A Memoir of Intimacy by Charla Muller with Betsy Thorpe.

Can 365 Nights Of Sex Bolster A Marriage?, When Their Marriages Fell Into The Doldrums, Two Long-Married Couples Took Action - CBS News

“HAPPY WHEATLAND!” It is a phrase that you hear more than a few times at the Wheatland Music Festival. If you didn’t yell it out yourself a few times, then you really weren’t there.

Wheatland takes place on the first weekend after Labor Day every year outside of Remus, Michigan. The festival is a celebration of traditional arts and music.

Every year Wheatland starts early on a Friday as people in cars start lining the roads surrounding the festival site. It usually takes a few hours to get in through the gates, so everyone starts walking around to the nearby cars and introducing themselves to their neighbors. Many have a choice campsite already picked out, and there is a rush to get through the gates to claim your spot.

A few hours later, when everyone has met their neighbors and shared a beer and/or story, folks get settled in. The music usually starts around noon, when people wander off to see a performance, find their buddies or go to a workshop.

After that the weekend is filled with music. Lots of it. Hearing it, making it or moving to it, music is all around you. Walking through the campsites and meeting new people is one of the best pastimes that Wheatland has to offer. As you move, you enter into different pockets of sound as the tunes from one site slowly blend with the next.

It is all about the music.

Roly Poly

That piece there wasn’t on any of the programs. It wasn’t on a stage. It was played at an impromptu jam session in a canvas tent in one of the campgrounds. Stumbling upon music such as that is a pretty common occurrence at Wheatland. They’ll probably offer you a beer while you’re there too. It’s that kind of place.

Some of the performers made comments about the difficulty of playing at Wheatland because they aren’t just playing for people, they are playing for other musicians. Almost everyone that comes plays an instrument or sings (or both). Not necessarily well (after all, I was there) but everyone takes part in some way.

Most events of this nature are a place for performers to do just that, perform. But Wheatland is a lot more. You are part of the event by being there. There are workshops for everything from clogging to dulcimer playing to making a bug house.

The focus of Wheatland is traditional arts. By that, they mean music and art that is taught, from one person to the next, and passed on. If you’d like to learn a bit more about an instrument, there is a workshop at Wheatland. Or maybe you want to pick up a few new moves for your next clog line? You can do that too.

One thing that Wheatland has done to ensure it’s long term survival is to incorporate children into the event. It is very kid friendly. There is a Kids’ Hill playground area with crafts and performances for the children and teens. Some of the campgrounds (of which there are many) are geared more toward families. They lack the late-night whooping-it-up feel that some of the camps for the younger adults are known for. The kids usually have as much fun as the parents, if not more.

We ran into a few folks while taking a breather from Cajun dancing. Two of them were sisters who have been going to Wheatland for 20 and 21 years respectively. They said that they had friends there who were conceived at Wheatland, and have gone every year since. It’s in their blood. You could even say that they owe their life to the festival. One of the sister’s two-year-old son was back at the campsite with grandma. The tradition continues.

Until next year, Happy Wheatland.

If you’d like to learn more about the Wheatland Music Festival, check out wheatlandmusic.org.

You can see more pics from Wheatland (this year and past) on Flickr.

Huh. You learn something every day. Bugs, and fungus, are responsible for the spice in chili peppers. Who’da thunk?

If you’re a fan of habañero salsa or like to order Thai food spiced to five stars, you owe a lot to bugs, both the crawling kind and ones you can see only with a microscope. New research shows they are the ones responsible for the heat in chili peppers.
Bugs put the heat in chili peppers 8/20/2008