Cicada Mania

Dedicated to cicadas, the most amazing insects in the world.

April 13, 2007

The Cicada Lover Song

Filed under: Brood XIII,Pop Culture — by @ 10:46 am

One of the fun things about large 17-year cicada emergences like Brood XIII is the pop culture that emerges from the imaginations of inspired cicada maniacs: people write and record songs, perform plays and musicals, make independent films, paint paintings, wake websites, etc.

Today we got an email from a song writer named Gregg who has a song called the Cicada Lover song that he recorded 17 years ago. It’s back, Cicada 2.0 style.

My name is Gregory Paul. I thought you might be interested in this website: www.cicadalover.com.

This is a song that I originally wrote and recorded 17 years ago. Kelly Clark sang it then, too. We were both just getting started in the Chicago theater scene. Since then, we’ve both gone on to do a lot of shows at various theaters around the city but this is the first time we’ve worked together again since the 1990 recording. Cicada Lover was played on the local radio stations then and was a popular number on the Dr. Demento show.

We just re-recorded the new version (we call it Cicado 2.0) last week to celebrate the imminent return of the 17-year-locusts to Chicago.

April 11, 2007

Brood XIII News Update

Filed under: Brood XIII — by @ 9:07 pm

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Creating a buzz: After 17 years underground, millions of cicadas are ready to invade.

UPI: Cicadas preparing noisy invasion.

Cheese-o-sphere: GROSS! Millions of cicadas expected to emerge in SE Wisconsin in late spring. I tell you what’s gross: cicadas dipped in savory Wisconsin cheese.

The Chicagoist: Brood XIII: They Reap What They Have Sown. Nice picture of a Magicicada in the article.

Catherine Savage of the Lake County Forest Preserves wrote with a bunch of links from their “Cicada Media Day” — they even named their festival “Cicada Mania”. Watch a presentation of the event.

April 9, 2007

Mark Hurley’s Cicada Mobile and other Brood XIII News

Filed under: Brood XIII — by @ 8:50 pm

Video: A CBS news story featuring Mark Hurley’s Cicada Mobile

Video: ABC: Cicadas to invade Chicago. Kids celebrate cicada mania!

Audio: Chicago Public Radio: Periodical Cicada to Hit the Chicago Area.

Thanks to Roy for the links.

Public Domain Cicada Images in the NBII Digital Image Library

Filed under: Cicadas Misc. — by @ 8:37 pm

Public Domain Cicada Images in the National Biological Information Infrastructure Digital Image Library. Big images of Magicicadas.

Two cicadas crawling up a tree.

A Cicada sitting on a leaf.

Cicada on a wooden post.

A Cicada skin and live Cicada atop leaves.

Cicada skins on forest floor.

Two cicadas crawling up a tree

April 7, 2007

Santisuk Vibul’ s Cicada Photos of Genus Dundubia from Bagkok, Thailand

Filed under: Thailand — by @ 10:57 am

A new gallery folks: Santisuk Vibul’ s Cicada Photos of Genus Dundubia from Bagkok, Thailand.

Santisuk Vibul' s Cicada Photos of Genus Dundubia from Bagkok, Thailand

Broodmaps with Google Maps

Filed under: Magicicada — by @ 10:46 am

In my spare time (not a lot lately) I’ve been working on Google maps for plotting Magicicada Brood maps. I came up with a brood map for 2004 Brood X, but in it’s current state it’s very processor-intensive because it loads an XML file with about 300 entires, and each entry requires a call to Google. It’s not ready for “prime time” (still alpha, not even beta). I’m going to recode it to work off of longitude and latitude, and that should improve performance.

Hopefully people will mail us their 2007 Brood XIII sightings so I can build a Brood XIII map as well. I might even set up a form that lets people find their location on a map, and then submit it as longitude and latitude rather an actual address (for privacy reasons).

2004 Brood X map.
brood x map

April 3, 2007

Brood XIII t-shirts and other stuff

Filed under: Pop Culture — by @ 9:42 pm

People have started asking for Brood XIII shirts and other stuff like mugs and pillows, so I made them. The cicadas will be in the ground for about 2 months but the shirts are here. I recommend that you don’t buy one unless you see (and hear) the actual cicadas. Otherwise it’s like wearing a Bahamas t-shirt without ever going there. :)

New Brood XIII t-shirts and stuff: Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Wisconsin, and a real Magicicada photo.

April 2, 2007

Cicada News

Filed under: Brood XIII — by @ 4:36 am

Ask Tom Why: What impact has our winter had on the 17-year cicadas that are coming this summer?

The Notebaert Nature Museum (thanks for the link)

MAGICICADA: The Magic Cicada Opens April 21

Thanks to Roy for the links.

« Newer Posts

All content on CicadaMania.com is owned and Copyrighted by the content's creator. Terms & Conditions, Privacy Policy, and Help