Dear Jennies,
Jenny Lewis is a Radio Dodo regular, and you should put her on your playlist, too. Here is your Jenny song of the day! More Jenny Lewis, right here, whenever you are ready! And you know what to do if you need even more: let your little fingers do the typing.
Dear Looking for a Song,
I sometimes listen to a radio station that does not have a DJ; which is awkward, because you don't always know what you heard. Which is fine and serendipity and all that; but sometimes you want to hear it again, and so you go to your great oracle and you enter some words & phrases and you get not what you want. But, no worries, I found it for you! Your absolutely fabulous song for today!!!
Dear Dodoheads,
Here is a song, your song for today, that will carry you away with its airy vocals and lilting chords. If you are like, maybe of a certain age, you will be carried to a time past as well; a time where the room was filled with paint fumes and pencil shavings; the deep concrete sill of the window is covered with bird seed, and pigeons have come to eat. The sky is light but not blue, and very large. The song is playing on a tape that a comrade has given you, and the swirling sounds suggest even more and further endlessnesses.
* Am I allowed to use this image image without clear understanding of air pressure high in the atmosphere? Yes, yes I can; and you can too! Because, kittens, we are using it in appreciation of its formal beauty, its aesthetic qualities.
Dear Waiting,
They say good things come to those who wait. I dunno. I do know, that some things have come to me, that I never expected to arrive. For example, the Pine Siskin- it is a bird that is in my range, my area, but for years (like 16!) I never saw one at my feeder, but then I did see them!
For a long time I searched the skies for a condor; I live near(ish) to their historical range and the range they set about recover the species in. I first saw one at the Grand Canyon, and that was a delight, but then, after another wait, then I saw them in Pinnacles National Park. They are always there in Pinnacles, from my experience, and one day, I will look out my window and see one here.
But that is about further waiting. My message today is about what has arrived, despite years of unlikely wait. This year, the aurora arrived at my back porch! No more hunting it, it came to me! I can hardly believe my good luck.
I took a long trip, like one does, to see Yellowstone National Park some years back- when you go there, you have a list of things you want to see so you can award yourself imaginary badges. You might see bear, bison, geysers, mud pots, elk, bighorn sheep, moose, beaver, otter, and wolves. We saw bison, geysers, and mud pots- I don't call it a failure, but it isn't all that many badges, considering. I went to Alaska, too, where you are almost guaranteed an orca and a bear, but those badges will have to wait. Also, you might see wolves.
Can you guess where I may next be going? Well, I am not going anywhere, because now, the wolves, the darling wolves, the wolves of all your fairy tales and metaphorical fears, are coming to me! I can't wait!
PS You probably can't wait to hear that song again, either, and you don't have to!
Dear Suzanne,
Here at the Dodo, we are very lucky to have a jimdandy public radio station with a bunch of great DJs that play things I would not hear anywhere else. Here is such a song, your song of the day! Whenever I am not writing to you here, I am listening there.
Dear Long-Time Viewers,
If you have been a regular reader you will know that it has been an age, an age! Of over 5 years (January 11, 2020), since I have added a new roller rink to my list! Now, another thing you know already is that I live for a list, and if not for enumerating, inventorying, itemizing, cataloging, and tabulating I'd be in ever so much more of a dither and a pother.
Oaks Park Roller Rink makes the 40th roller rink I have visited, and the 37th I have skated in. (There are three that we did not skate in; in some ways they don't count but I count them in a parenthetical way.)
The Oaks Park Roller Rink is also the best rink I have been to- it has edged out the Sunrise Roller Rink in Citrus Heights- which maintained its preeminence for 10 or 12 years! What Oaks Park and Sunrise have that makes them the best, is a rotunda wood floor. This is where the boards are bent to follow the curve of the corner. Wood skating floors can come in two other main types: all the boards running the same direction, or with a hex pattern, with boards set at angles in the corners.
Oaks Park is probably the oldest rink I have skated. It has been there since 1905! It has a huge skating area- 20,000 square feet! And an amazing Wurlitzer that we happened to be there to hear for the Sunday organ skate session. The floor is the smoothest thing ever; there are rinks named Paradise, but Oaks Park is Skate Heaven. If you think it sounds good, it is! If you go to only one rink in your life, let it be Oaks Park. There is a little hand rail place for beginners, a space on the side of the rink for more practice, and at the back of the room, a place with wood moguls to skate! Opposite the practice and organ key board side there is a big snack bar and nice seating for folks who want to rest or watch. They have a skate shop, too, because Oaks Park Roller Rink has everything!