On July 30th, 2011, NHC hurricane specialist Eric Blake summed it up well as tropical storm Don disappeared without a trace: "Don is dead." So is my late husband, percussionist Don Alias. Yet, tropical storm Don performed an amazing stunt before his untimely demise, just as Don's incredible talent electrified audiences worldwide. He is on Miles Davis' Bitches Brew and played regularly with Dave Sanborn, Joni Mitchell, Nina Simone, Herbie Hancock and countless other jazz luminaries. Ironically he called to the Afro Cuban gods Oshun and Ogun during his mesmerizing solos, perhaps with repercussions on my spiritual quest. Ogun and Oshun are gods from the West African Yoruba culture. Listen to a solo from Stone Alliance's "Marcio Montarroyos". Don formed Stone Alliance in the sixties with Steve Grossman on sax and Gene Perla on bass.
And a video of Don with Miles, Marcus Miller, Dave Sanborn, Kenny Garret and Joe McCreary playing Miller's Tutu.
Tropical storm Don's tour de force was to split into two sections right before hitting land, a process called forming a mesoscale vortex. He was forecast to hit more towards Corpus Christi but the offshoot mesoscale vortex made a beeline for Brownsville.
Of course the neat part is that my name is Catherine Brown, Catherine Emily Brown. To add to the symmetry, last year's tropical storm Hermine also targeted and hit Brownsville. Yes I know it's pronounced Her-mean, but as a hopeless romantic I prefer to say it the way it's spelled.
And as to tropical storm Don's failure to relieve the drought, I found it interesting the cotton farmers didn't want any rain; they said it would make cotton buds drop and get dirty... some people are happy! Now there's invest 91-L, a wave in the Atlantic which is headed straight for us in the islands. She will be called Emily. Although the wind hits hard at the top of the hill where I live, dubbed Beverly Hill, the house is a concrete bunker with wrap around panoramic hurricane proof windows. Stay tuned... Little next day note: Today July 31st, I just noticed tropical storm Eugene is swirling in the east Pacific. Eugene was Don's dad... then on August 10th, tropical storm Franklin, Don's grandson's name, wandered over the Atlantic.
This past year I blogged less and ate more. The point hit home June 30th when Tropical storm Arlene brought out the question: what do I look like nowadays? Naturally, my first thought was 'am fat'. Then I dutifully set about to take some pictures, especially since Arlene hit CaboRojo in Vera Cruz, which translates to red thing or red handle, the essence of my old myspace avatar, shown below.
Just as I was about to take the pictures, Arlene's thunderstorms hatched a haboob in Phoenix... Ha! boob... Got it, coming up...
Flickr photo by Daniel Bryant
And then Hurricane Calvin waltzed through the Pacific for a day or two; calf in? Yep, it's in there! Spirituality is fun, bouncy and comes in all shapes and sizes! July 24th update To wrap up the ha boobies episode, last week typhoon Ma-on was forecast to hit Japan as a cat 3 and ended up weakening to a cat 1. Here's what meteorologist Dr. Jeff Masters wrote in his Wunderground blog on July 17th: Typhoon Ma-on headed towards Japan
Powerful Category 3 Typhoon Ma-on is headed northwestward towards Japan, and is expected to brush the east coast of the main island of Honshu on Tuesday. The typhoon has weakened some over the past day, thanks to an eyewall replacement cycle where the inner eyewall collapsed, and a new, larger eyewall formed from an outer spiral band. Once this process completes, Ma-on is expected to intensify into a Category 4 storm. With water temperatures along the path of the typhoon ranging from 29 - 30°C, and wind shear expected to remain in the low to moderate range of 5 - 15 knots, Ma-on has the potential to hit Japan as a major Category 3 storm. And his revised forecast on July 18th: Weakened Typhoon Ma-on headed towards Japan
Typhoon Ma-on has weakened to a large Category 1 storm as it heads towards Japan, and is expected to brush the east coast of the main island of Honshu on Tuesday. The typhoon weakened over the past day, thanks to an eyewall replacement cycle where the inner eyewall collapsed, and a new, larger eyewall formed from an outer spiral band. Ma-on was expected to intensify once this process completed, but the eyewall replacement process significantly disrupted the storm, and it is unlikely Ma-on will be able to recover. This is good news for Japan, since Ma-on is a huge storm with tropical-storm force winds that extend 225 miles north of the center. Defying logic to bring us some relief? Baby is on! Although, one hopes the name Ma-on alludes more to closeness than age; I'm barely fifty!... What's next, tropical storm Gamma? Here's Dr. Masters' poetic forecast for July 19th: Tropical storm Bret is no threat. July 16th:
July 18th:
And Bill? Well, in a perky co-incidence he just Tweeted about his latest video with the words #Undefeated #Boobs. In his usual scintillating wit... all perfectly justified as a jab at Michelle Bachmann, Sarah Palin, and the Palin movie 'Undefeated'. Is he consciously involved in this, or conscious of it at all? An interesting detail revolving around a big mystery. Bill Maher @HBO #RealTime: #Undefeated #BOOBS 16 Jul
