Manic Mushroom

... was gettin' set to mow the lawn a few weeks back... did a quick walk-thru... what's this... ? ... got two strange mushrooms growing in the backyard....

... "Fat Man"...

... "Little Boy"...

... WTF???...

... finally got around to lookin' 'em up today (on line)...

... turns out that they're (possibly) a highly poisonous and/or hallucinogenic mushroom known as 'Amanita Muscaria' - the 'Alba' variety... look 'em up...

... further "research" reveals, among other things, that the ancient 'Norse Vikings' SpecOps 'Berserker' "forces" used to eat these things to literally make 'em "Berserk" (hence the term) prior to engaging in battle...

(Internet info)

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(conceptart.org)

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(conceptart.org)

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... our kind of guys....

Edit 10/25... Gotta' include this!!....

... watch the movie...

... Brilliant!!!...

Pink Helmet Posse

... big fan of these little "guys"...

... the 'Pink Helmet Posse' (www.pinkhelmetposse.com)...

... 'Relz, Sierra and Bella'...

... can also check 'em out here - 'Girl is NOT a Four Letter Word' (http://www.girlisnota4letterword.com/) with a lot of other surfin' and boardin' little gals...

... "them's some tough little ladies"...

... these two gals would probably have fit right in "back in the day"...

... could "take 'em out and beat 'em up"...

... here along the "Yough River Trail"...

... hangin' out near 'Rivers End Rapid'...

... hand-walkin' the vine up the steep hillside on the way out...

... hangin' out with 'Howie' near 'Double Hydraulic Rapid'...

... rock climbin' up in 'Chestnut Ridge' - was actually able to eventually find her an old pair of 'EB's' resoled with 'Five-10 "Stealth" Rubber'...

... still got 'em - picked 'em up from a cobbler located in 'Great Falls, Virginia' who used to re-sole climbing shoes - was in the shop one day pickin' up a pair of mine - these were settin' on the counter for sale - said that a guy had 'em done for his girlfriend who had super small feet - they recently broke up so the guy dropped 'em off for the shop to sell for him - got 'em for $10!!...

... some hikin', bikin', raftin' and climbin' little girls at the time...

MacAskill and Scotland's Cuillin Ridge

... back in the mid '90's was takin' a few digital imaging and editing classes at 'Pittsburgh Filmmakers' - one of the assignments involved creating a few composite images of whatever subject ya' wanted and adding some text...

... along with some other fun stuff, made this small poster - depicted a totally impossible feat - but had a lot of fun watching everyones eyes widen and jaws drop when I'd first whip it out for them to view... not a great copy above - no longer have the original digital file - that's a scan of the poster print...

... well, maybe not that all improbable - check out this just released new video featuring the amazing pro biker 'Danny MacAskill'...

... 'The Ridge'...

... totally brilliant video - photographed on location at the 'Isle of Skye' in Scotland, along the 'Cuillin Ridge'... totally flawless - excellent in all aspects - photography doesn't get any more gorgeous than this... good music track as well featuring the late, great 'Martyn Bennett'...

... "great work" to everyone on this one... 

... wish we would'a had access to a modern 'quad-copter' and 'Go-Pro' cameras back when we filmed 'Backcountry' (see website 'Cinema' page) years ago - weren't invented yet... we actually did shoot  some aerial footage - photographed from a 'rented for the day' ($35!!) 'Cessna' plane with pilot - however, the updrafts along 'Chestnut Ride' from the river gorge that day were totally horrendous - was like trying to photograph hand-held from inside a spinning front-load washing machine - gotta' give the pilot credit for hanging in there, though - we really got buffeted... but the footage turned out to totally horrible... one cool highlight of note from that day - while flying over from the local airport, a large 'Red-Tail Hawk' flew with us for about half a mile - staying to the right and level with the plane, about 50 feet out...