Tuesday Tunes – Lovebug – Jonas Brothers

 Fun Stuff, Insects, Pop Culture, Tuesday Tunes  3 Responses »
Feb 152011
 

Ryan FleacrestWelcome to a special Valentine’s-Day-Hangover Tuesday Tunes! You know the Valentine’s Hangover: the sugar crash from too many cinnamon hearts and boxed chocolates, itchy eyes and throat from all that unseasonal flower pollen, and don’t forget the sore back from sleeping on the couch because you innocently thought your significant other was lusting for another insect net! Everyone knows the best cure for a regular hangover is to keep on drinking*, so today I bring you the Valentine’s day equivalent: sickly-sweet pop music!

Some may consider the Jonas Brothers a plague upon their ears, but today’s musical selection is equally annoying for those living in the southern USA. That’s right, the springtime scourge of motorists, the Lovebug! Not truly a “bug” in the entomological sense, Lovebugs (Plecia nearctica) are in fact flies in the family Bibionidae. These flies emerge on mass in the spring and late summer, immediately begin swarming looking for a mate, and can remain in copula for hours when they find that special someone (hence, the common name). These swarms can reach overwhelming proportions, obscuring windshields, clogging air intakes, and their acidic bodies can ruin vintage car body work if their dead bodies are left to dry. There’s even an urban legend that University of Florida researchers created these “pests” and unleashed them on the public (note this isn’t much different from the origins of the Jonas Brothers…)

That song certainly contains more cheese than last night’s fondue, but I think we’re all over our Valentine’s Day hangover!

I can’t say I planned on featuring both of Disney’s poster children in the first few weeks of this series, so I think the next few weeks will be devoted to some music that will rock the sickly sweet detox program! Fleacrest, out!

If you still need more hangover relief, this song is available on iTunes – Lovebug – A Little Bit Longer (Deluxe Version)

* – Biodiversity in Focus and Ryan Fleacrest urge you to drink responsibly. More alcohol is not actually a cure for a hangover.

Tuesday Tunes – Madame Butterfly – Puccini

 Fun Stuff, Insects, Pop Culture, Tuesday Tunes  No Responses »
Feb 082011
 

Ryan FleacrestThere’s one more major insect order left to cover on this first round of Tuesday Tunes, and there’s no lack of songs to choose from! The butterflies are certainly the most easily recognized insects, and probably the most loved overall by the public, leading to a lot of artists aiming to capitalize on their popularity. Watch for quite a number of lepidopteran features in the future!

Tonight we start with the most recognized piece from Puccini’s 1904 opera Madame Butterfly, Un Bel Dì Vedremo. Although this piece is not explicitly entomological, it’s sung by the title character of the opera, and that’s close enough!

Fun fact: the opening notes of this aria send our cat into hiding. Apparently she’s not one for Puccini! Fleacrest, out!

This song is available on iTunes – Madama Butterfly: “Un bel dì vedremo” – The World of Puccini

Tuesday Tunes – Bugs – Pearl Jam

 Fun Stuff, Insects, Pop Culture, Tuesday Tunes  2 Responses »
Feb 012011
 

Ryan FleacrestIt’s not often an artist manages to fill their song with as many insect references as today’s song does! In fact, let’s just take a look at the first verse as an example:

I got bugs
I got bugs in my room
Bugs in my bed
Bugs in my ears
Their eggs in my head
Bugs in my pockets
Bugs in my shoes
Bugs in the way I feel about you

OK, so maybe that last one isn’t a true bug! Either way, Pearl Jam was channeling the Hemiptera vibe when they put this piece together!

Good luck getting this bug out of your head! Fleacrest out!

This song is available on iTunes – Bugs – Vitalogy

Tuesday Tunes – Cockroach – Sleepytime Gorilla Museum

 Fun Stuff, Insects, Tuesday Tunes  2 Responses »
Jan 252011
 

Ryan FleacrestEntomology is a science, and like all sciences, experimentation is the heart and soul that keeps the hemolymph cycling! Whether its a taxonomist testing their species concepts with a new specimen recovered on their latest excursion, or an IPM specialist running field trials against the latest threat to our farms, anyone who takes the time to observe an insect soon finds themselves asking questions and searching for answers.

But all in life is not science, and for as long as the curious have pursued answers, there have been those that have experimented with style, art, and of course, music. There are artists out there blurring the lines between science and art, and likewise, there are those which experiment with music, taking listeners to places they may not normally tread. Today I hope you’ll take the chance to broaden your horizons a little, and enjoy the music of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum.

Besides the eccentric band name, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum started off right with the arthropod crowd by performing their first set for a banana slug! That trend is continued with Cockroach, an ode to an insect reviled by most.

It may not be for everyone, but I hope this song will spring to mind the next time you see that cockroach dash for the shadows, and maybe cause a pause before the stomp! Fleacrest, out!

This song is available for download from iTunes – Cockroach – Of Natural History

Tuesday Tunes – Fly on the Wall – Miley Cyrus

 Fun Stuff, Insects, Pop Culture, Tuesday Tunes  3 Responses »
Jan 182011
 

Ryan FleacrestWhat’s the sound of POP (other than the most unfortunate of insects underfoot)? None other than the Queen of Teen, Miley Cyrus! Although the screams of adoring preteen fans may confuse passing cicadas, this week we’re sharing a song with the most noble of insects in a position that many of those preteens would love to be: Fly On The Wall.

Who wouldn’t want to have the ability to latch onto a wall with their tarsal claws and empodia like a fly? Who needs a seat at the rock show when you can attach to the stage itself, providing a unique vantage point right in the midst of the show? Of course many flies wouldn’t be able to actually hear the music (lacking a timpanic organ and all), but that’s beside the point! While I’d personally prefer not to be a fly on the wall of a Miley Cyrus concert, I salute her for bringing some Diptera love to the next generation of entomologists!

Thanks for tuning in, and if you’ve got a favourite ento-song, drop a request in the comments! Fleacrest, out!

This song is available for download from iTunes – Fly On the Wall – Breakout

Tuesday Tunes: Flight of the Bumblebee

 Fun Stuff, Insects, Pop Culture, Tuesday Tunes  No Responses »
Jan 112011
 

Ryan FleacrestWelcome back to Tuesday Tunes! This week’s feature is a special request by Bee-Bopping Beetle expert Ted MacRae: Flight of the Bumblebee.

Composed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov as a transitional piece for his opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan, The Flight of the Bumblebee is one of the most recognized pieces of music in the western world. Used in everything from cartoons to Kill Bill, there are a hive’s worth of artists performing this selection!

We start with Ted’s favourite, a face-melting, finger-blistering electric guitar solo by Luis Moreno.


That was one hyper bumblebee! Time to slow things down a little, with the most bumbley-bee version I could find. The Canadian Brass is a quintet ensemble known around the world for their crazy skill and light-hearted performances.

A truly eusocial endeavor! That’s it for this week, but I’ve got plenty of entosongs awaiting your auditory organs! Fleacrest, out!

You can purchase a more traditional arrangement from iTunes – The Flight of the Bumble-Bee from The Tale of Tsar Saltan – Rachmaninov Plays Rachmaninov (The Ampico Piano Recordings)

Tuesday Tunes: Ladybug – PUSA

 Fun Stuff, Insects, Pop Culture, Tuesday Tunes  3 Responses »
Jan 042011
 

Ryan FleacrestWelcome to the inaugural Tuesday Tunes! I’m your host, Ryan Fleacrest (best known for hosting ENTO40 and American Emerald), and I’ll be bringing you some of the music industries odes to Odes (and other insects of course), each and every Tuesday! Neatly placed into your blogweek (between favourites such as Sunday Night Movie, Monday Night Mystery and the dual powers of Friday Beetle Blogging and Friday Flower), Tuesday Tunes will showcase a wide array of musical talents and genres, all with an entomological theme, either in the song title or lyrics, album name, or artist! The request lines are wide open, so if you have a favourite song, feel free to pass it along in the comments!

The honoured spot of first Tuesday Tune goes to the Presidents of the United States of America with their lesser known single Ladybug. P.U.S.A. hit the top of the charts in the ’90s with hits like Peaches and Lump, but their geeky style and alternative rock sound have a solid place in my heart!

Join me next week when we continue collecting these entomological treasures! Fleacrest, Out!

Today’s song is available from iTunes – Ladybug – These Are the Good Times People

New Year, New Look, New Posts

 Fun Stuff, General Information  6 Responses »
Jan 022011
 

Happy New Year! Time for a little blog-cleaning!

Regulars likely noticed the blog has had a make-over recently. Not usually one for change, I had little choice after discovering that my old theme was being destroyed by Internet Explorer. After testing 3 different versions of IE (6, 7, & 8), I found that each version rendered my blog differently, and none for the better! Photos were skewed and distorted (a major no-no in my books), sidebars disappeared and formatting was practically non-existent. Since almost one third of the people who visit are using Internet Explorer, I wanted a more consistent theme. Why Microsoft continues to fail at web browsing is beyond me, but I would recommend anyone using Internet Explorer to consider making the switch to another, more web-friendly browser (my favourite is Mozilla Firefox, but Google Chrome is another great choice). [/rant]

As a consequence of this theme shift, I had to reset my RSS feed, so if you had previously subscribed, you’ll probably need to resubscribe. Click the green button on the right and choose your feed aggregator of choice from FeedBurner.

Now that the blog is looking good and working for everyone (hopefully), I’m going to keep the content coming at a more regular pace. The last few months have been a little more hectic than usual, but with a final road map to completion for my Master’s set out and the majority of work completed and written, I’m anticipating having more time to set aside for blogging. I’ve got some weekly features to implement, topics to catch up on, and plenty more!

Along with more content, I’ve signed on to Twitter, so get ready for a daily stream of posts, links, and other entomological miscellanea ready to help you procrastinate! You can click the button on the right, or follow me @BioInFocus. If you’re on Twitter, drop your tag in the comments below, or pass along those that you find worth a click!

Thanks for sticking around, I’m definitely looking forward to ringing in my second year as a part of the blogosphere!

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