Look What Hit The Windshield

Tim was making his dash out the front door, ready to make a run up to BWI Airport to pick up a friend. When he did, a Bush Katydid (Scudderia sp. Order Orthoptera / Family Tettigoniidae / Genus Scudderia Stål, 1873) changed places with him.

Bush Katydid

Jan didn't think well of it.

"Where is it?"

"Right there on the floor," Tim replied.

"Where?!"

"There."

I picked it up, and then it flew over by the love seat in the living room, and landed on the floor under the coffee table. It was strange the way it looked as it flew.

"Where is it?"

"There on the floor," Jan replied this time.

"Bye." Tim went back out the door, laughing.

I picked it up again, and held it in the cup of my right hand while I juggled with my camera to change to the 55 mm lens. Jan helped, and I put the bright green insect down on the bench in front of the window.

Tron Light Sailer

It climbed around on my glasses as I took a few shots. I only guessed whether I was using the correct focus sensor as a rattled off several more shots. With that done, I picked it up a last time and gave it a toss out into the dark that was only lit by the 60 watt bulb outside our front door. I immediately went into flight mode, and as it sailed away, it looked kind of like the Tron Light Sailer - appearing to float effortlessly, slowly across the front of the house and out of sight. I wished I had my camera to capture it again - image only.
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I remembered, or so I thought, that there was a Steely Dan album titled Katydid, or something like that. I quick look on the Web and I saw that it was Katy Lied...so much for that working along with the big green insect I identified by Google'ing "big green insect," and described above. Interestingly, when I saw the cover of the album, it turned out to be a Katydid. The Wikipedia narrative describing the one of the songs mentioning the use a couple of times of themes around Katy:

The album cover features a picture of a katydid, a "singing" (stridulating) insect related to crickets and grasshoppers. This is most likely a pun on the album's title; the "singing" of a katydid sounds as though they're saying "Katy did, Katy didn't" although a lyric in the song "Doctor Wu" mentions "Katy tried, I was halfway crucified", and "Katy lies, you can see it in her eyes," which could very well be what the album's title refers to.

I wonder how it came about that a katydid singing inspired Walter Becker and Donald Fagan to write a simile about a "big green bug."

Two New Movies In Next Two Weeks

The Christmas movie season has arrived, and there are two films on my list - and won't need to check the list it twice. The first is the third installment of the C.S. Lewis Chronicles of Narnia series - Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I wrote about this some time back, it is my favorite from the BBC production that appeared on PBS over 20 years ago - even though Prince Caspian and Dawn Treader were bundled together into three one-hour segments. The new preview trailer looks great. The movie opens next weekend, Friday December 10. By the way, I recently read a good interview with Douglas Gresham, Lewis' stepson who was executive producer of the film.

My second season pick is the sequel to the original computer graphic science fiction film - Tron - and opens a week later. It is released by Disney - Disney dropped the Voyage of the Dawn Treader film after
Prince Caspian made half the revenue of the first Narnia production - The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I hope both films do well, but wish the better revenue return for Dawn Treader. I am curious what the Tron sound track will be like - like the computer-generated graphics in the original film are greatly surpassed by today's technology, I wonder how the use of the original Wendy Carlos Moog Synthesizer scores that were innovative at that time will work in the new film now - with Daft Punk as the musicians. Also, will an anthem by the group Journey wrap up the end of the film as well? Tron opens December 17.

The past year has been a bit of a crunch, so I am looking forward to some pure fantasy at the theater, to go along with my anticipated winter diet of Poirot classics. Yes, I know what I want to see this Christmas, and don't need to check my list twice.