Eight-legged freaks of California and beyond

Here's the bold jumping spider in action, © Peter J. Bryant.

One thing I didn't see much of in the Bay Area that I do now that I've relocated to the Central Valley is lots of interesting-looking spiders.

At the doorway of my house in Merced is a frisky little fellow of genus and species Phidippus audax (family Salticidae), a.k.a. the bold jumper or bold jumping spider.

He's a furry, black and white arachnid that I noticed on closer inspection has two large, matte metallic, jade-colored spots on his face called chelicerae, actually part of his fangs.

The critter, about the size of a dime, is described as common to North America, but this was the first one I've ever seen. 

As I approached him and tried to steer him toward me with my baseball cap for a better look, he reared up on his hind legs to ward off the rude observer with his airborne front paws.

A fine image of this pose and other close-up shots of the bold jumper are on a site hosted by UC Irvine, as sampled here.

For more on this biting subject, visit my relevant San Jose Culture Examiner post.

I know, I know, this isn't really a fit for San Jose journalistic terrain, but that's what happens when you up and move to a place without an Examiner edition -- yet. Stay tuned for a Fresno site, y'all!

So I just moved to the Central Valley, where your delicious plums, apricots and other orchard edibles come from.

This weekend here in ag-ville, Michelle Obama is set to give the commencement speech to the first graduating class of UC Merced. The youngest campus in the University of California system scored a major coup in luring the first lady to the area, slammed by 20 percent unemployment and stalled development thanks to the recession.

Hopes were sky-high not long ago that the university would inspire an economic rebirth for the community, which didn't quite work out the way the powers that be had hoped.

For instance, I'm sitting in a spacious tract house with fruit trees in my backyard next to a field that had been slated for yet more sprawl homes that, thankfully, appear on hold while local construction is at a standstill. Between me and the school is about four miles of spotty housing development and lots of open fields awaiting the roar of bulldozers.

Merced is popularly known in the media as ground zero for the housing boom turned bust. Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble .... 

CLICK HERE for more housing-downturn details in my expanded San Jose Culture Examiner post on this topic.

Culturally speaking, the local kiddies refer to their 'hood as Mer-dead. Still, I like the mood here a lot; must remind me of the rural outskirts of Chicago, near where I grew up. 

It's peaceful in Merced compared with the frantic, freaked-out Bay Area I just left. The wind rustles through the trees, and time don't matter to me. I'm a thousand miles from nowhere, but there's no place I'd rather be:

Brisbane officials get bootylicious for art

We all gloat when politicians make asses of themselves, but officials in the small city of Brisbane took things to another level when they agreed to let an artist imprint their derrieres on seat cushions for an exhibit.

May is the last month to assess "Seats of Power" at Brisbane's City Hall, an installation by Beth Grossman. She persuaded the mayor, the fire chief and a bunch more bun broadcasters to pose their posteriors for images she emblazoned on cushions that were then, ah, mounted on the wall.

For the full story on my San Jose Culture Examiner page, CLICK HERE. 

Go on, get off your seat.