June 2010
1 post
Thoughts on recent events, both local and national
Hymie’s Records recently moved down the street. It sounds like they’re happy to be rid of their old landlord, but I still miss that weird, aquamarine building that they used to occupy. And now, much to my dismay, that building has been painted over. If you look closely, there’s still some greenish-blue paint left around the trim of the door. Hymie’s now occupies the...
May 2010
1 post
The designated hitter
I have spent my whole life in a sports market that is home to an American League baseball team. In many ways, I am just starting to coming to grips with the fact that the AL is not representative of me or my feelings towards baseball. In fact, I’d even go as far as to say that I agree with Crash Davis’ famous statement that, “there ought to be a constitutional amendment outlawing Astroturf and...
December 2009
5 posts
Farsighted and groggy
After nearly three weeks of being too busy to blog, I’ve decided to post once more in 2009. This won’t be some sort of grand, end-of-the-year post trying to summarize a decade, a year, or even a season. Rather, I’m posting a cranky rant about forgetting one’s glasses. You see, since I have been relocated to our St. Paul office, I am required to wake up earlier just to...
The first trillionth of a second
“Next year the CERN physicists plan to ramp up to 3.5 trillion electron volts and begin doing physics at an energy never encountered before in search of forces and laws that prevailed during the first trillionth of a second of time.”
This quote, from an article on the Large Hardon Collider, is both fascinating and frightening to me. The FIRST TRILLIONTH of a second of TIME! I hate...
Thoughts on being transferred to our St. Paul...
I imagine that when the day comes (and it is coming next week, dear readers) that my employers will give me cab fare to take me just as far as the county line. The drop-off point will either be the bridge where Lake turns into Marshall or at the intersection Emerald Street and University Ave. I will get out of the cab, and it will be snowing. I’ll see a sign that says “St....
“There’s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now,...”
– Hamlet in Hamlet (5.2.207-209)
Godard/Spillane
Do you ever stumble across a book, a CD, or a film that makes total sense, that seems to bring together thoughts you could have sworn that you’ve had in a form that you could’ve sworn you’ve dreamt up? Have you ever found out that this idea, still incubating in your own mind, was realized by someone else in a concrete form, say, a decade ago?
That’s what happened when I...
November 2009
6 posts
Spiritual bookends
I like the Monsters of Folk disc. I cringed the first few times that I heard that name, but the music is enjoyable. I am a sucker for the well-worn sounds of acoustic guitars and lap steels with the occasional twist (is that some sort of harp sample on the first track?). I’ve heard the CSNY and Wilbury comparisons, and to a certain extent they’re valid—Monsters of Folk make...
Bob Vila, Dock Ellis, and Sonny Rollins walk into...
My thoughts seem to be coming in bursts today—almost like bullet points. The things that have grabbed my attention have been similarly focused (and topically scattered). Because I think it will be the most effective way for me to communicate right now, I intend to present this blog in a form that mirrors my thought process. Here goes:
BOB VILA APPROVED!
This is what I saw on a full-page ad...
Missed shows; mixed feelings
I’m blogging from work again, so I’ll make this quick.
2009 may go down as the year that I had the opportunity to see two veterans of the legendary SST record label and missed my chance. The first occasion was earlier this year, when the Meat Puppets played the 7th St. Entry. I think the show was on a Sunday or something, and I decided that I couldn’t hang out at the 7th street, waiting til one...
A phony letter for the end of the week
There’s half an hour remaining until I can leave work and nothing for me to do, so I’ve decided to blog undercover. If I were to type this post out in my web browser, it would be a dead giveaway to anyone walking by my desk, so I’ve begun writing this post in a Word document with a fake salutation at the top. From a distance it appears I am writing a letter to a client: “Dear Mr. Rosewater, / I...
Three iterations of Beethoven's Fifth
In an effort to combine two of my passions, I have chosen to do my final project for my Advanced Cataloging class on “Music Cataloging.” The opportunity to do an independent project for thisfinal offers both a blessing and poses a great challenge: The blessing is that not only will I be cataloging a large number of items (something that I am particularly interested in as a possible...
Flying first class
Earlier this fall, Sufjan Stevens brought his touring band to town, playing a small show at a favorite club of mine. The day that tickets went on sale I found myself in a predicament: I knew that I would be busy at noon when the online queue for taking ticket orders would open up. In an act of forethought, I wrote down my credit card number and expiration date for Jenny to use to buy tickets the...
October 2009
5 posts
Timing!
I opened up the NYT book section today and read this excerpt of a memoir about cooking: ”A lifelong interest in recreating the cuisine of my childhood is proof of the persistence of memory and its power to shape one’s days,” he writes. He adds, “The lakes and dark forests of Maine are the default landscape of my soul.”
This single sentence is so much more articulate than my previous post...
uncanny cooking
Lately I’ve been cooking a lot of the recipes that my mom prepared during my childhood. I’ve loved cooking ever since I was in college, but prior to that I largely took for granted the preparation of my food. Now I feel as though I’m calling my mom once a week to ask, “Did you use sage in this dish?” or “Don’t you feel that this recipe could use more...
thx for clarifying
I’m glad that someone finally asked Kurt Vile’s parents about whether or not their son’s name has anything to do with Kurt Weill. It turns out that it’s a coincidence.
Music that moves and movements set to music
My fiance and I tried something new on Thursday: we saw a performance by a modern ballet company. As much as I love the performing arts, I had never given dance (and particularly modern dance) a fair shake. I always kind of assumed that it wasn’t for me. While I find music and theater to be among the most incredible forms of artistic expression, dance seemed somehow inaccessible (perhaps...
It’s Sunday afternoon, and I’m joyously doing nothing. After what has felt like months of non-stop activity on both weekdays and weekends, I see some normalcy returning to my life. The house that I now live in feels comfortable (three weeks after moving in), and the weather, though cold, reminds me that fall and winter are better than most people give them credit for.
I’ve...
