|Adventure Film Tours

Outdoor adventure enthusiasts have three major film tours to salivate over.

(1) Reel Rock Tour. Reel Rock 8 will start touring in September: U.S. Schedule. Climbing.

"The REEL ROCK Film Tour brings the best climbing and adventure films of the year to live audiences throughout the world. REEL ROCK shows are high energy, community events that go beyond mere film screenings to include prize giveaways, athlete and filmmaker appearances, non-profit fundraising, and a party atmosphere."



(2) BMFF Radical Reels Tour. U.S. Schedule. Numerous action sports.

"Every year, the Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival presents the wildly popular Radical Reels night – a presentation of the best high-adrenaline films entered into the Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival competition."  

This focuses on the action/adrenaline films presented at the BMFF. It includes climbing films such as those in the Reel Rock tour, but it also covers other adventure sports.



(3) BMFF World Tour. U.S. Schedule. Action sports plus other themes.

"The Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour brings Banff to audiences around the globe. Immediately after the Festival ends in November, a selection of the best films go on tour across Canada, the United States, and internationally from Scotland to South Africa to China, Japan, New Zealand, Antarctica, and points in between. Each year, the films travel to 40 countries reaching more than 330,000 people at over 735 screenings."  

This includes a broader range of films than is shown in the Radical Reels Tour--more animals, culture & conservation.

Events in IL, IN & MI

2013

• October 26, Reel Rock, Ann Arbor MI, Planet Rock.
• October 05, Radical Reels, Grand Rapids, MI, Calvin College, 616-526-6282, jrs39@calvin.edu

2014

• March 29-30, BMFF World Tour, Bloomington, IN  
• April 03, BMFF World Tour, East Lansing, MI, Michigan State University Outdoors Club, 484-798-8650 (Brian Wolff), msuoc.bmff@gmail.com
  
• April 04, BMFF World Tour, Grand Rapids, MI, Calvin College, 616-526-6282, mcw3@calvin.edu  
• April 05, BMFF World Tour, Midland, MI, Chippewa Nature Center, 989-631-0830, dpilaske@chippewanaturecenter.org  
• April 06, BMFF World Tour, Ann Arbor, MI, U of Michigan Outdoor Adventure, 734-764-3967, swerdlow@umich.edu
• April 08, BMFF World Tour, Traverse City, MI, Vasa Ski Club, 989-245-2758, curtpete@gmail.com  
• April 11-12, BMFF World Tour, Chicago, IL,  Mountain Gear, Inc.

|Visitors

These animals visited us in one day. This is only the second time we've seen a deer here.

The crane parents come over once in a while, but this is the first time we've seen the kiddos.

This owl perches on this branch at dusk fairly often, but we hadn't seen him for a few days.

Overall, it was the best day of animal watching that we've had here.

Here are bonus pictures of baby bunnies. This was the only day I've seen two of the little ones. We see one little guy fairly often, though we didn't see it on the same day as these other animals above:

Here the bunny is eating morning glory right outside our window.

|We Like Animals

These are animals we hung out with at our last place:



And these are animals we are currently getting to know:

--COMING SOON--

|Friday Web Round-up

Adventure

• Grand Trunk Road (trailer)
• The Last Ice Merchant
• A Life Well Lived -- Jim Whittaker
• Everest: A Time Lapse Short Film
• Dan Ross - Drawing Different Lines

Environment + Sustainability

• Toxic waste spill in northern Alberta biggest of recent disasters in North America (Nathan Vanderklippe, The Globe and Mail) 
• Permies
• Rios Libres: Environmental Dispatches – Episode 1, The People (The Cleanest Line) 
• Rios Libres: Environmental Dispatches – Episode 2, The History (The Cleanest Line)
• Techno-Fix--Michael Huesemann & Joyce Huesemann believe technology won't save us or the environment, but rather hastens collapse. (Utne) 
• Hemp History Week 2013 (Prana)
• The Fascinating Story Of Hemp (Prana)
• POW! David Letterman’s Epic Rant Against Fracking (Liberals Unite)
• Global warming: Not too late to rein in climate change, group says (Pete Spotts, Christian Science Monitor) 
• One Percent for the Planet

Health + Food

• 29 Amazing Vegan Ice Cream Recipes (BuzzFeed)
• Vegetarians live longer, researchers find (Grist)
• Why the King Amendment Would Preempt State GMO Labeling Laws (Mother Earth News)
• Will my 'paleo' diet prevent cancer? (Mother Nature Network)

Technology + Science

• Fairphone is going to be a real thing! (Treehugger)
• Yosemite's Iconic El Capitan Mapped in High-Res 3-D (National Geographic)
• Pixlr
• Digital Public Library of America

Animals

• Wild Orca Puts on Amazing Aerial Display (Adventure Journal)
• The Cutest Interspecies Animal Friendships (BuzzFeed)
• 20 Unlikely Animal Friendships (BuzzFeed)
• Biological clocks 'beat quicker' in cities (BBC)

Psychology

• The Question That Changed Everything for Me (Storyline)
• Why French Kids Don't Have ADHD (Psychology Today) 
• The Riddle of Consciousness (Gary Marcus, The New Yorker)

Craft

• Charlotte (film trailer)

Humor

• You Had One Job

Music

• The AJ List: 17 Of The Best Songs About Mountains (Adventure Journal)

Bonus

• Better World Links
• Christian Ethics

|Maiden Kayak Voyage

Thanks for lending us the kayak, Dad! I got frustrated while trying to figure out how to set it up (see crossed-arms picture), but Charissa's patience prevailed and we eventually got the pumps and valves in order.

|Visit by Sandhill Cranes

You know that I like sandhill cranes (one, two, three, four). Well, this afternoon we got our first visitors. First they were between us and the neighbor:

A few minutes later, I opened the blinds in our bedroom, and the couple was just outside at the feeder:

I've heard they sometimes have offspring in this area. I hope to share pictures of said peeps later...

|House Wren Family on the Way

A couple of house wrens (Troglodytes aedon) are building a home just outside our apartment. They keep carrying twigs and other materials into the bushes below this dark purple lilac tree (?).

And here is one of the wrens in the lighter-colored tree that's closer to our window [click to enlarge]. I took this picture from inside the house, sitting on the chesterfield, I mean, the davenport or veranda.

At least I think they're house wrens, and I think those are lilac flowers. I really don't know what I'm talking about. But I do know I like their song.

|White-crowned Sparrow

This white-crowned sparrow was doing all it could to warm up--fluffing its feathers and catching the morning's earliest rays of light (low 30s or high 20s last night):

A few weeks ago, our resident tunnel maker also warmed in the morning light in nearly the same spot:

Both pictures were taken through our living room window.

UPDATE: Here's a picture I just took of a goldfinch outside our bedroom window. The feeder is too far away for my little camera to capture well. The second below is later in the day. A real camera and an open window would make beautiful things possible.

|Local Bird Action

Today we were visited by a number of bird species--tufted tit-mice, black-capped chickadees, red-breasted nuthatches, cardinals, downy woodpeckers and these colorful friends:

Baltimore Oriole (Icterus galbula)

Rose-breasted Grosbeak (Pheucticus ludovicianus)

Bonus

These pictures have not been cropped or altered in any way. This is the best I could do taking pictures through a closed window with my point-and-shoot.

EXTRA BONUS:

|Friday Web Round-up

It seems I'm not writing much these days, just posting links. So here are more:

Adventure + Travel

• Africa-Americas Rowing Voyage – Four Guys in a 29-Foot Boat Rowing from Senegal to Miami (Hillary Fleming and the crew of the James Robert Hanssen, The Cleanest Line) 
• Uncharted Waters (Three Mystic Apes) 
• Kayaking the Great Bear Rainforest (Three Mystic Apes) 
• NRS – Walk on Water (Three Mystic Apes) 

Animals

• Six Animals with Pets of Their Own (MNN)
• Kittens vs. Eggs
• Animal Odd Couples (Nature, PBS)

Health 

• My Wife’s Fight With Breast Cancer (Storms of Silence) 
• Green tea‚ coffee lower risk of stroke (Himalayan Times) 

Environment

• Enjoy* (Three Mystic Apes) 
• Choose Organic Cotton (Three Mystic Apes) 

|Web Round-up

Adventure (Sports, Travel, More...)

• Matt Whitehead Moped Surf Trip (Mollusk Surf Shop)
• 2013 Radical Reels Tour (USA / Canada) (The Banff Centre, Trailer)
• Making Tommy (Patagonia)
• The Outlaw Life of a Train Hopper (David Rosenberg)
• Chris Burkard (Infinity List)
• TiTS DEEP Chapter ONE: Kayaking (Prana)

Spirituality

• Rob Bell's recommended books at B&N

Animals + Nature

• Up close with animals living at Earth's poles (Jaymi Heimbuch)
• 9 videos of cats meeting wildlife (Laura Moss)
• Wombat (Cute Overload)
• 2 Kitty Cats (Cute Overload)
• Busted Dog (Cute Overload)
• The Famous Maru - Sans Boxes (Cute Overload)
• The Great Disappointment Song (Cute Overload) [family warning]

World

• Afghanistan In The 1960s. Prepare To Be Very, Very Surprised. (Rollie Williams)

Sustainability + Environment

• 10 Awesome Upcycled Products from Ethical Ocean (Mary Mazzoni)
• 6 fascinating people who own almost nothing (yerdl)
• Allan Savory: How to green the desert and reverse climate change (TED)
• Wooly in Patagonia (Jim Little, Patagonia)
• Look Carefully at Those Seeds (Margaret Roach, NY Times)
• So You Want to Save Water? (Prana)

Health

• Salami Suicide: Processed Meats Linked To Heart Disease And Cancer (Nancy Shute)

MORE: Christian social ethics/action

MORE: General social ethics/action

|A Walk in the Woods

We went exploring in our new "backyard" today.



The ice music mentioned near the end refers to this.

|Birds of the Balcony (updated)

I originally posted a couple clips of getting to know the birds on our balcony. Now I have added footage from multiple days to form an expanded video.

|Cranes in the Rain (Kensington)

Kensington Park is quite an amazing place.

10-minute version:



2-minute version:

|Morning at Kensington

The colors of these pictures are not nearly as rich as the originals, but they convey the scene well enough. On the way back from my walk, I ran into some old friends.

DISCLAIMER: I don't know why this video is running so strangely. I'll try to get it back to normal.

|Kensington Park

T'was another fine day at the park. No deer or raccoons this time, but there were plenty of other creatures dotting the landscape.

|Natural Wyoming

The animals:


The land:

|Local Animals

Here's at video from Kensington Park.


And this is from our balcony.

|Yvon Chouinard & Patagonia

I appreciated Yvon Chouinard's first book, Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman, in which he shares his own life story as well as the story of the company he started, Patagonia. Now I would like to read his more recent book, The Responsible Company: What We've Learned From Patagonia's First 40 Years.

You can learn more about Yvon and Patagonia here:

• Wall Street Journal
• Fortune
• LA Times
• Grist
• Treehugger
• Wikipedia

And if there's another old dirtbag who equally impresses me, it's Fred Beckey.

• http://www.thecleanestline.com/2012/03/beyond-and-back-fred-beckey.html
  
• http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/athletes/Stoned.html?page=all
• http://traditionalmountaineering.org/News_FredBeckey.htm
  
• http://www.patagonia.com/us/product/100-favorite-climbs-book?p=BK570-0-000

|Birds at Camp Friedenswald

Here are some videos of the morning mist at Camp Friedenswald:

• Video 1 -- http://youtu.be/6zPaIC29eC4 (can you see the baby? it's easier to find in the picture below; behind them is a sleeping goose that later awoke.)
• Video 2 -- http://youtu.be/6kgnB2aZQcc (notice the cranky red-winged blackbird)

Because the colt (baby sandhill crane) is hard to see in the video, here is a photo of it. At that degree of zoom, my point-and-shoot isn't very clear.

In Nebraska we'd sometimes go watch the sandhill cranes in migration. Info:

• http://outdoornebraska.ne.gov/wildlife/guides/migration/sandhill.asp
• http://www.rowesanctuary.org/
• http://www.nebraskatravels.com/sandhill-crane-migration.html
• YouTube -- http://youtu.be/0A2vT_EF7bk
• In this map, you can see the migration pattern that has a bottleneck in NE -- http://www.nebraskaflyway.com/page.php?pgID=2.