Back on Mars Hill

I've been traveling since, well, 2011 2012. The last few days have found me in Flagstaff, at Lowell Observatory staying in the chalet on Mars Hill. It's really a great place, sort of the Wrigley Field of American astronomy, and it still retains a lot of its late 19th/early 20th century charm. I've been lucky enough to spend two long stints here: a month in 1989 for Astronomy Field Camp, and the summer of 1995 for a graduate student program.

The 1995 graduate program coincided with the yearly undergraduate internships run by several Flagstaff-area astronomy institutions, and there was a group of about 10 of us (graduate and undergraduate, plus a high school intern) who hung out together much of the summer. At one point they heard me play guitar, and humored/cajoled me into playing a "concert" for them one night up on Mars Hill.

Since I'm staying on Mars Hill again, I thought I'd post a few of the songs that they recorded from that night.  They're not great recordings, plus Get Out of My Life is notorious for being a swear-filled monstrosity, but I don't think people listen to any of the songs I'm posting, so I think I'm in the clear. :)

1. Another Margarita
2. The Astronomers Song
3. Get Out of My Life (aka Psychopath) VERY NSFW!!

UPDATE: I should have included a link (or two) to the song I wrote that summer, Crunchy Granola Girl. I didn't perform it since it wasn't written yet, but I did record a 4-track version (one of the first posts on this blog!) when I got back to Tucson and it was the anchor song of Do Not Tip or Rock.



Bonus Anecdote: That summer was also the only time I played an open mic night (at least prior to the AGU one). Get Out of My Life was a crowd-pleaser, though of course the crowd was small. Near the end of the summer, Tim Spahr and I were bowling when a large, drunk-looking biker type aggressively came to our lane. I thought it was to beat us up since we kept having malfunctions, but instead he said "Hey, you're the guy who had that lunatic song!".