Weekender #25

• The weekly birb update: Handsome continues to come around daily for snacks with his injured foot. As the 2nd week of his injury progressed, he seemed to become accustomed to hopping around on one foot, and has gotten quite good at balancing on one leg. Today (Sunday), I noticed that he was attempting to stand with both feet on the ground, but would periodically lift his foot. I’m guessing it’s still sore, but he’s slowly healing. I’ll keep watching to see if it gets better.

• This past Friday, one of the first dogs I ever followed on Instagram passed away. Momo, the star of the Find Momo books, was a dog that I’ve never met in real life, but one felt like a close friend. Momo was a Border Collie like my dog Roxy, which made him feel familiar, but Momo was different. Andrew Knapp, Momo’s owner, shared so much of him with the world through his Instagram account. For those that don’t know, Momo and Andrew traveled the world together. Andrew would place Momo in a particular location, then tell him to stay, while he took a photo. In each photo, Momo would be hiding, sometimes in a crowded city scene, sometimes in a forest or in the mountains. Andrew’s photos were beautiful, and finding Momo was the icing on the cake. I’ll miss finding Momo.

• Andrew also made a separate account called Momo’s face, featuring photos of Momo looking up at Andrew in various places.

• As my thoughts were with Andrew and Momo these past few days, I watched a TED talk featuring both of them. It was just around the time that Andrew started using Instagram and sharing his photos where we could find Momo.

• During the past couple of months, Audra and I have been watching Odd Taxi on Crunchy Roll. We finished the series this week and were blown away by how good the story telling was. The best way I can describe this story: it’s a cross between Pulp Fiction and a who done it crime story, set in a world of anthropomorphic animals. The first few episodes were a bit confusing, as you’re introduced to characters, but have no idea how their stories are related to each other. I’m always willing to give a series a few episodes to unfold and to capture my attention. This one drew me in with its characters and storytelling. It’s the best animated series I’ve watched in a while.

• The summer is winding down, and I’ve been hammering out my summer projects one by one. I just need time to write about them. I hope to do that in the next few weeks before school starts up again and things get busy at work.

• For a few years, I thought The Wallflowers were done for. From what I could gather, the original lineup of musicians all left the band and only Jakob Dylan remained. Their last full album, Glad All Over, released in 2012, marked the return of the band after Dylan’s successful solo career. Almost 10 years later, we finally get a new album from The Wallflowers: Exit Wounds. Dylan’s voice and lyrics make this album shine, and while I will miss Rami Jaffee’s keyboards, I enjoyed hearing Shelby Lynne lending vocals on a few of the tracks. Some might call this a Jakob Dylan solo album, but to me, it has a distinct sound that makes it a Wallflowers album. Listen: Apple Music.