By Jim Parisi
Rock and Roll has had an element of humor and playfulness since its inception; it is simply a part of its inherent makeup. Sure, there is a serious side, as well: the musicianship has always been concrete and the messages diverse, be they political, philosophical or romantic. But the whimsical part has always been there, throughout the history of Rock and Roll. Ben Orton has been a serious Rock and Roll musician with a serious funny bone for more than twenty years. Born near Champagne, Ill, he relocated to the Ozark Mountains and Fayetteville, Ark to pursue his college degree “in three easy decades” as he has explained it. Ben has spent time living in Seattle, India and Iran as he took the long road to eventually come to Costa Rica and live in the Quepos/Jaco area. On his way here, he paid his dues, including playing bass guitar and recording with a biker/porno band, and then released his first solo project, “Ben Orton & Other Infamous Fugitives”, a good, straight-forward rollicking, rocking album. He recently released his first album from Costa Rica, a self-produced CD entitled “Hecho en Costa Rica” along with his band BenJammin and the Howlers. All the songs are Ben’s original material and the album was recorded in Jaco and Quepos.
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Filed under: Jim Parisi, Music Review on November 27th, 2009
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by Jim Parisi
Willow Zuchowski needs a hat rack simply to distinguish her many occupations: this woman wears a lot of different hats. First and foremost, Ms. Zuchowski is a botanist who has lived in the Monteverde area of Costa Rica for nearly three decades. She had come to Costa Rica a few times in the late Seventies as a vacationing botanist, then accepted a position in the early Eighties that allowed her to return to Monteverde to work as a field assistant on a hummingbird-plant interaction project and has called that area “home” since then. Willow is also a renowned author with four books to her name, as well as a booklet of Common Flowering Plants of the Monteverde Cloud Forest and a four-fold laminate covering the Cloud Forest of Montverde. She writes passionately about this area. Willow is also an adept illustrator and includes her work in each of her books. Truly, the culmination of these endeavors makes Willow Zuchowski a formidable teacher and instructor. Her works are detailed and specific enough to serve any advanced botany student and yet straightforward and digestible for any lay person, such as myself. For me, this is an indication of a natural teacher.
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Filed under: Book Review, Jim Parisi on November 27th, 2009
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At Titi Conservation Alliance, we focus daily on our mission to save the endangered titi (squirrel) monkey by promoting sustainable development and conservation for Costa Rica’s Central Pacific coast. Our energies are spent most diligently in three primary project areas: 1) Sustainable Development; 2) Habitat Reforestation; and 3) Environmental Education.
So what exactly does that mean we do on a daily basis?
I’m glad you asked.
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Filed under: Ingrid Kuegeman, Titi Conservation Alliance on November 27th, 2009
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by María Pía Martín, DVM
The sloths are part of the Xenartha order which also includes anteaters and armadillos. This bizarre order is only found in Central and South America. They are different from all other animals in that they have an unusual lower back vertebrae and two vena cava (returns blood to the heart, the other mammals have only one).
Evolution
They are some of the most ancient mammals and have been on Earth for more than 60 million years ago. For example, they are so primitive that their reproductive and digestive tract open into a single chamber called cloaca, like birds and reptiles.
At the beginning, the Megatherium were 6 meters (20 feet) tall giant ground sloths.
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Filed under: Kids Saving the Rainforest, María Pía Martín on November 23rd, 2009
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El Día de Acción de Gracias es una de las festividades favoritas en Norteamérica. Los estadounidenses lo celebran el cuarto jueves de noviembre.
La fiesta tiene relación con los colonos ingleses que en 1620 viajaron a América en el barco “Mayflower” y que más tarde serían conocidos como peregrinos. El difícil invierno en esa región de Norteamérica los tomó por sorpresa y más de la mitad murió víctima del frío y el hambre. Quienes sobrevivieron lo lograron gracias a la ayuda que los indígenas de aquellas tierras les proporcionaron.
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Filed under: Academia D'Amore, Tico Talk on November 23rd, 2009
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by Carol Vlassoff
(en Español)
With his grey blue eyes, fair skin and closely cropped silvery hair, Luis Bolaños may not look like a typical Tico. But he’s a Tico through and through. He has a deep social conscience, is proud of his country and is well informed about its history, politics and the challenges it faces.
We meet in his office in the Best Western Hotel Kamuk, a landmark in Quepos because it overlooks the levy and the Pacific beyond. Its restaurant on the third floor, Mira Olas, provides a panorama of the entire waterfront.
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Filed under: Carol Vlassoff, Personalities in Our Midst on November 23rd, 2009
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by Matt Casseday
On the other side of the globe suicide bombers are blowing themselves up more than ever, and although it may sound politically incorrect, even appalling, I must admit I typically feel a bit of sympathy for these desperate young men. I can not imagine what it must be like growing up in that part of the world, living an existence so cloistered, so bleak, so futureless, that the notion of blowing ones self up to kill other people because you have been promised 72 virgins in the afterlife seems a good option. Any time I read or hear about yet another of these acts of terror committed by relatively innocent kids, I consider what, in a perfect world, could be done to dissuade them.
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Filed under: Crazy From the Heat, Matt Casseday on November 17th, 2009
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