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Rifftides

Doug Ramsey on Jazz and other matters...

Other Matters: The Owl

February 19, 2012 by Doug Ramsey

Toward evening yesterday, we heard a raucous disturbance among the flock of blue jays occupying a blue spruce at the edge of the yard. We looked out to find the jays dive bombing a row of arbor vitae. About halfway up one of the shrubs was what we later concluded was a western screech owl. It wasn’t screeching, just peering out of its refuge looking unconcerned and, of course, wise. Owls are so infrequent in our neighborhood that I took a picture through the window with an inadequate point-and-shoot camera. Digitally enlarged, the section of the photo with the owl in the bush took on a sort of pointillist character. Posting this, I considered finding appropriate music to go with it: “Owl Be Seeing You” or “Owl Be Around,” perhaps. But that would be unforgivably corny, wouldn’t it?

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Comments

  1. Bill Crow says

    February 19, 2012 at 7:10 pm

    Owl of me?

  2. Bill Crow says

    February 19, 2012 at 7:11 pm

    OWL BLUES

    • Doug Ramsey says

      February 19, 2012 at 7:27 pm

      I was afraid this might happen.

  3. Charlton Price says

    February 19, 2012 at 8:37 pm

    Owl or Nothing at Owl

    ..you were right to be afraid. Very afraid.

  4. Hans Doerrscheidt says

    February 20, 2012 at 1:44 am

    Cole Porter’s “Owl Through the Night”
    Duke Ellington’s “Owl Too Soon”
    Haymes’ & Brand’s “That’s Owl”!

  5. John Birchard says

    February 20, 2012 at 2:10 am

    Owl Be Glad When You’re Dead, You Rascal Ewe

  6. Bill Crow says

    February 20, 2012 at 6:55 am

    Fear not!

    It’s Owl Right With Me
    Owl I Do Is Dream of You
    I Guess Owl Have To Change My Plan
    That’s Owl

  7. George Ziskind says

    February 20, 2012 at 9:52 am

    Owl Man River.

  8. Alex Tough says

    February 20, 2012 at 11:41 am

    Owl By Myself

  9. brian turner says

    February 20, 2012 at 1:03 pm

    I’ve taken a lot of aspirin, but it doesn’t make the pain go away.

  10. John Wiitala says

    February 20, 2012 at 6:07 pm

    God!, Owl’s Chillun’ Got Rhythm!
    Owl Wait For You
    Crazy Hick Owls Me
    Con Owl, Ma

    …My God….

  11. Brew says

    February 21, 2012 at 3:43 am

    Are You Livin’, Owl Man?
    Bugle Owl Rag

  12. David says

    February 21, 2012 at 12:43 pm

    Readers must be howling at all these owlful puns. It’s owlandish that a jazz blog would publish such stuff.

    • Doug Ramsey says

      February 21, 2012 at 1:51 pm

      Now you’ve got me owling. I hereby declare this competition ended

Doug Ramsey

Doug is a recipient of the lifetime achievement award of the Jazz Journalists Association. He lives in the Pacific Northwest, where he settled following a career in print and broadcast journalism in cities including New York, New Orleans, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, San Antonio, Cleveland and Washington, DC. His writing about jazz has paralleled his life in journalism... [Read More]

Rifftides

A winner of the Blog Of The Year award of the international Jazz Journalists Association. Rifftides is founded on Doug's conviction that musicians and listeners who embrace and understand jazz have interests that run deep, wide and beyond jazz. Music is its principal concern, but the blog reaches past... Read More...

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Doug’s Books

Doug's most recent book is a novel, Poodie James. Previously, he published Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond. He is also the author of Jazz Matters: Reflections on the Music and Some of its Makers. He contributed to The Oxford Companion To Jazz and co-edited Journalism Ethics: Why Change? He is at work on another novel in which, as in Poodie James, music is incidental.

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