May 30, 2003

Follow Ups
After my post about Terrorist Alert Orange and the harassment I received for taking public domain snaps on public property, I received a ton of helpful links from peeps about my rights as a photographer. The best one comes via kottke.org and explains "Your Rights When Stopped or Confronted for Photography". Unfortunately, I'm not the only one who is being confronted and shook down for their public use of digital photography. Know your rights kids. The thing that gets me about the whole debacle is that the cop in the bank had obviously seen me outside through some sort of surveillance camera. So while it is alright for me to be video taped on public property by the bank it is NOT alright for me to turn my camera on the bank. That don't sit right.

A few days a ago I took an unharassed snap of a a soldier stencil. Brian has tracked the origins of this public art to a guy who runs a little site called WithRemote. Cool stencils. Check out his epic senior thesis on street art.

May 29, 2003

God Hates Dangling Modifiers
This morning while watching the second round of the French Open on ESPN2, I feasted on some Limited Edition Incredible Hulk Cereal. It's basically like Corn Pops cereal punctuated with Hulk inspired marshmallow combinations. There's a beaker shaped marshmallow that is supposedly half filled with the mystery chemical that turns Bruce Banner into the Hulk. There's a eight pointed bright yellow star marshmallow that represents the exploding of Bruce's laboratory and then there's a salmon colored cube that represents the all bricks the Hulk likes to smash. Then the Incredible mellow bouillabaisse is toped off with an Hulk signature green marshmallow that is vaguely human in design. The whole effect is magical. When the cereal is gone your left with iridescent green colored milk that could very well be radioactive.

Fueled on Hulk cereal, I took to my bike. I rode by this church near my apartment that advertised a sermon for June 1st called God Hates Dangling Modifiers. That's odd enough to almost make me want to go check it out. Also on the sign was an anti-gun notice that all public places need to display in order to tell its patrons that carrying a gun ain't cool. Jeez, people, the Hulk don't need no gun.

May 28, 2003

Terrorist Alert Orange!
Things are getting a little nutz people. Let's all just take a deep breath and calm down. This slippery slope towards loosing all our civil liberties is getting way to slick. I just got arrested and detained inside a Wells Fargo bank for suspicion of being a terrorist. Yup, me - a terrorist! Can you believe that crap? The idea is absurd.

For lunch today my buddy A-Dawg and I had to make a stop at the Wells Fargo bank before heading on to gather foodstuffs for our bellies. He went into the bank to make a transaction and I stayed outside, determined to soak up a little summer sun and take a few snaps. I strolled around but nothing caught my eye. Suddenly, out of the bank comes one of Minnesota's finest running towards me screaming a laundry list of commands. He jumps me. With his hands on me he starts in about, "Do you have any guns on you - do you have any knives on you that I need to know about".

"What the fuck is going on" is about all I could think.

He starts asking me what it is I think I'm doing out here. Before I can answer anything he's dragging me into the bank asking me one question after another without giving any kind of pause so that I can answer his stupid and relentless questions.

I get dragged into the bank managers office for a full scale Tuesday afternoon interrogation. I try and mutter stupid things about architecture and the fact that I hadn't even taken any pictures. Which I can prove. The asshole cop is ferious. We hate each other. He starts in about how he caught me taking pictures of employee's cars. He's yelling at me about Terrorist Alert Orange and don't you know what that means? I tell him frankly I don't know what that fucking means, do you? Does it mean you have the right to take over any human you wish and ruin their entire fucking day. If that's what it means, than I'd like to take a big shit on top of Terrorist Alert Orange, cause I think it's just a cleaver little euphemism for Police State.

Whoa. Sorry about that. I had to get that out of my system. That's just not cool. And it makes me very afraid of what's going on with this country. Anyway, I was eventually released and I steamed about the incident all during lunch. Then I took some snaps of radiators. The radiators didn't care that I was taking their picture. I felt better.

How The West Was Won
Dancing days are here again. The sun is still shining and I've got Led Zepplin III on the Hi-Fi thanks to a high impact shipment from the west. I've got the White Rock Itch. Yesterday I played The Replacements, Hootenanny, back to back for about three hours. What great music. The Zeppelin has a new triple threat set of live shows out called How The West Was Won. Read a review of it in the Times. [update: holy shit - Opeth!]

May 27, 2003

Sunny Day Real Estate
I had to change things up here at Afrojet to properly reflect the beautiful summer weather we are having. Luckily the flexibility of CSS makes doing this as easy as putting on a new pair of sneakers. Refresh those screens people.

New Day Rising
Boy, it could not be any more beautiful outside today. What a great memorial day weekend. Tons of sun, tons of fun. There must be thousands of students pleading with their teachers to hold class outside today. So good to unplug for a few days. I went to my first ever traditional Jewish wedding (congratulations Jill and John). They had perfect weather for their wedding.

May 24, 2003

Friday Turns to Saturday
Well I got to say, after witnessing the amazing South Dakota inspired, plain swept performance by Kid Dakota last night at the uptown bar, I am looking forward with glee and possibility to later bar closing times on the streets of Minneapolis. Sometimes, when the music is good and the drinking is smooth, that one o'clock hour approaches with unkind shifts in lighting and mood, casting an unflattering glow on our pasty midwestern visage. It's cruel and unnecessary. The later 2AM bar closing that finally past the Minnesota legislature this week is a beautiful and positive step in the right direction and will probably stand to be the only decent worthwhile piece of law to come from those gear heads this year. Budget cuts that run deep will all be made tolerable as long as we can hold our bar stool and stare into our pint for one more hour.

Now for some early saturday morning randomness:

Almuajaha is an interesting independent newspaper from the youngsters out of Iraq. Both critical of Saddam and the US occupiers, it's published in both english and arabic. (via Salon)

Cool vegan shoes.

Bacterial and microbe plushies. Makes for a perfect get well gift.

The museum of unworkable devices.

Natalie's fotolog of some great found images. Think Trachenburg Family Players.

May 23, 2003

Rack O' Knobs
During my lunch hours this week, I have been frequenting this architectural salvage lot just down the street. There is a great antique rare book/record store above it too. Yesterday I bought "Learn How to Play Folk Guitar with Pete Seger". The guy who runs the book store is so fiercely independent that he refuses to keep the hours that he has posted on his door. Consequently, I have had to kill time in the architectural salvage lot hoping the proprietor of the book store will show up. This snap of door knobs is from the salvage lot.

Henry Rollins
I was lurking at Border's books last night trying to find Zeldman's new book but I came up empty because it either hadn't arrived yet or they already sold the few copies they had on hand. I asked a horribly annoyed clerk if they had Glenn E. Friedman's book The Idealist, which came back negative too. So I wandered through fiction and on a whim pulled out a collection of letters written to Henry Rollins. The letters were basically all "Fuck You" letters, and were hilarious. I was so heavily engrossed, I didn't even realize that I was sitting on the floor crushing page after page until some employees started gathering around and giving me strange vibes. I didn't buy the book. Which turned out to be a good call as Hank's selling the book for two bucks from his own store. Incidentally, surfing the rest of the Rollins site, I found out that the Rollins Band will be touring this summer doing all Black Flag covers. All the money from the tour will be going to support the West Memphis Three Defense Fund.

May 22, 2003

TypeCon 2003
I'm getting all fired up over the upcoming Typecon 2003 conference that is quickly approaching. Last night I finally had a chance to look over the names of the speakers coming to Minneapolis and realized that I didn't know a great deal of them or their work. The typecon2003 site where the list of speakers appears didn't include and URL's for these folks So armed with my trusty Google tool, I went and tracked down as much info as I could on these type tutors. Some pretty dynamic stuff. It's going to be hard to decide where to spend my time. Where I could, I found information on the individual, failing that I linked to their organization(s). Individuals who maintain weblogs are designated with a (*). Don't forget to check out last years conference type gallery.

TypeCon2003 Presenters, Panelists, and Workshop Leaders

Janet Abrams, University of Minnesota Design Institute
Ken Barber, House Industries
Jill Bell, Jill Bell Design and Lettering
Jared Benson, Typophile / Punchcut
Peter Bilak, Typotheque
Andrew Blauvelt, Walker Art Center
John Butler, Eccentrifuge
Michael Byzewski, Aesthetic Apparatus
Leslie Cabarga, Flash Fonts
Matthew Carter, Carter & Cone
Allison Chapman, Minnesota Center for Book Arts
Mike Cina, We Work For Them / True is True
Michael Clark, Lettering Artist
*Stephen Coles, Typographica
*Jon Coltz, Daidala
Jan Conradi, Department of Visual Arts and New Media, SUNY Fredonia
Rick Cusick, Hallmark
Simon Daniels, Microsoft
Joshua Darden, Hoefler Type Foundry
Bill Davis, Agfa Monotype
John Downer, Sign Painter and Type Designer
Florian Fangohr, Gura+Fangohr
Dave Farey, HouseStyle Graphics
Victor Gaultney, SIL International
Gilles Gavillet, Optimo
Jemma Gura, Prate(tm) Computer Channel / Kilter
Sibylle Hagmann, Kontour
Allan Haley, Agfa Monotype
Ted Harrison, FontLab
Scott Helmes
Grant Hutchinson, Veer
Dan Ibarra, Aesthetic Apparatus
Akira Kobayashi, Linotype Library GmbH
Mike Kohnke, Typebox / We Associated
Joe Kral, Test Pilot Collective
Craig Kroeger, Miniml
Sara Langworthy, Minnesota Center for Book Arts
Kent Lew
Jason Lewis, Department of Digital Image/Sound and the Fine Arts, Concordia University
Deborah Littlejohn, University of Minnesota Design Institute
Jim Lyles, Bitstream
Conor Mangat
Steven McCarthy, Dept. of Design, Housing and Apparel, University of Minnesota
Rod McDonald, Rod McDonald Typographic Design
James Montalbano, Terminal Design
Bill Moran, Blinc Publishing
Joachim Müller-Lancé, ">Typebox / Kame Design
Eric Olson, Process Type Foundry
Leonard Otillio, Lettering Artist
Jim Parkinson, Parkinson Type Design
Mary Jo Pauly, Minnesota Center for Book Arts
Joe Pemberton, Typophile / Punchcut
Laurence Penney, MyFonts.com
Thomas Phinney, Adobe
Will Powers, Minnesota Historical Society Press
Charles Quimby, Words At Work
David Rust, Optimo
Stuart Sandler, Font Diner
Chip Schilling, Indulgence Press
Bruno Steinert, Linotype Library GmbH
Ilene Strizver, The Type Studio
Erik van Blokland, Letterror
Just van Rossum, Letterror
*Armin Vit, Speak Up / Norman Design
Diane von Arx, Designs, Diane M. von Arx
Sue Zafarana, Bitstream
Richard Zauft, Peck School of the Arts, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

May 21, 2003

What the war with Iraq has gotten us (from Media Whore Online):

Osama is on the run.

Saddam is on the run.

The US plan for Iraq democracy has been scrapped.

No WMDs have been found in Iraq.

147 US Servicemen were ordered to their deaths by George W. Bush for no apparent reason other than rewarding contributors with huge rebuilding contracts.

What the war with Iraq could have gotten us (from Clamor Magazine):

(1) Free health care for 50,000,000 people in the developed nations (based on current per-capita expenditures in Canada)

(2) Adequate basic health care for 5,122,950,820 people in developing nations. (based on estimates by Dr Lieve Fransen in 1997 and with 2% inflation incorporated)

(3) All undergraduate expenses (tuition and living) in America for:
- 2,709,831 private university students (4,104,416 tuition only)
- 5,840,667 4-year public university students (18,377,849 tuition only)
- 7,171,543 community college students (43,227,666 tuition only)

Morning Bike Commute Snap
Stencil of a sad soldier. Located on Lyndale just south of the basilica.

More snaps

May 20, 2003

Beer, Authors, Art, and Tortureous Music
I added a wonderful new beer to my ever growing arsenal of micro brews the other night. Moose Drool had me in name alone and embraced me warmly with it's brown ale and malty goodness. Read reviews here and get your drool on.

Both Ray Bradbury and Kurt Vonnegut have issues with the general direction of world events and social progress.

Art is still pissing people off and I continue to exalt and praise Barry McGee.

The Guardian asks what music would you play to torture someone. I like the guy who wrote: "Anything by Moby, Radiohead or Coldplay should do it. Play them all at the same time along with lectures from aforementioned pretentious 'artistes' for guaranteed affect."

Waiting for the Up's Man
I'm sitting around eating from a large bowl of red grapes, wondering when the UPS guy will come by. His note, left on my mailbox yesterday said he'd be here before 10:30 this morning. I figured I'd just wait around for him. I've already missed him twice and if I don't see him today then he'll return my package to sender and that would be a huge disappointment.

Yesterday, during another torrential May monsoon storm, I went over to this great store called the Paper Depot. It's located right next to the Minneapolis farmers market. The Paper Depot is my new playground. I went a little crazy buying jet airplane punch cutters, and paper with rubber ducks printed on 'em. Shit, I bought a lot of crap with not one real project in mind. It's just good to have stuff like that around. There are people who work at the Paper Depot who will help you find the right paper, invitation, do-dad, and rubber stamp, for any occasion. I watched as an engaged couple, picking out stationary for their wedding, made a bee-line for the most brutal-creamed-out-god-awful-excuse-for-patina-paper the store offered. I feel sorry for their wedding guests. They should have used the rubber ducky paper.

After the Depot, I went and got my geek on at the Urban Bean with 'sonic. He was recovering from a 'weekender' and putting the final touches on a redesign of his site. I got a sneak preview and it looks pretty smoking. I'll give you a hint of what it looks like...go outside and look up. Whoa.

Whupawitz. My package has arrived. Later.

May 19, 2003

1000 Journal Project
The first journal has returned! Check out 1000journals.

"The1000journalproject is an independent, privately funded social experiment. It is an attempt to follow 1000 journals throughout their travels, to see where they go, and what people do with them."

Bart of War
Damn. How about that Simpsons episode last night? So good. Giving up on the U.S. national anthem in favor of the Canadian anthem while they all join hands to make a giant maple leaf, Bart's last line about war being the only way to solve America's problems, Flanders secret collection of Beatles memorabilia, how do they do it?

Garage Sale Days Revisited
My neighbor was at it again this weekend. Hosting what she calls her 'annual' garage sale. But I checked my post of the last time I wrote about this and it was on October 5th of last year. Either this years sale is early or she's planning on sneaking a couple more sales into the summer. She's definitely the type who could have one of those permanent on-going garage sales. I'm watching her now outside my window. She's busy. So that's what I call her - Busy. Her garage is filled from top to bottom with boxes and rubbermaid containers filled with the contents of so much jim crack and nick-nack. She's got a huge Ryder-type moving truck that she owns filled with product that sits on 35th avenue, taking up precious on-street parking. It wouldn't be so bad but all the windows of the apartment face the back of her property which means I've got a full view of the sale snoopers and wobegon buyers and they've got full view of me. If there weren't screen's on my windows I could literally reach out and grab at shoppers and shake them. "Sir, put down that used Carl Sagan book, you're never going to read it."

This time I actually went over to the sale. I bought an automatic numbering machine for $3.50. It's one of those stamping machines that all customs and visa officials still use in all latin american companies. It delivers that great satisfaction when you slam home a solid stamping. 'Cha-chank'. I'm numbering all my documents now.

May 16, 2003

Matrix Reloaded
What was good about the new Matrix sequel:

1. Cornel West playing Zion Elder Counselor West. Let's hope his role is expanded even further in the next one.

2. Monica Bellucci. Good god! I vote her and Cornel West hook up in the final film.

3. Fighting. Kicking. Punching. Flying. Shooting. Twirling.

4. Lot's and lot's of Mr. Smiths. If you got a good thing baby, just make more of 'em.

5. Getting out of the movie just in time to watch the full lunar eclipse from the top of the Mall of America parking garage.

May 15, 2003

Frankie
One of the scariest snaps I've seen in a long time. Click if you dare (you were warned).

How Everything on eBay is Connected to Everything Else
After reading bits and pieces of Albert-Laszlo Barabasi's Linked: How Everything is Connected to Everything Else and What it Means, I decided to see how far I could stretch the hard boiled logic of his 'complexity theory' in the big bad land of eBay. I started with the hypothesis that if I search for my last name on eBay, I'll find things that are strangely unique and connected to my name and general outlook towards the world. What I found was astounding. Almost scary.

Actually what I found was a bunch of Skelton authors, most of whom I had never 'connected' with before.

First up was my name sake, John Skelton - Selected Poems. Sadly, as of this posting the starting bid on this masterful work is a paltry $3.99 and no one has bid on it yet. That's criminal considering it's one of my best works to date.

Next up we got some Russell R. Skelton with his heavy Route Surveys (First Edition). Not really sure what that's all about but it's cool to see your name in gold on a black binding.

Then it's on to James Skelton with Niagara Days. This one is a total mystery and I may just have to bid on it one as I also feel a special connection to the minimalist light blue cover and the simple layout of the title type. Smooth.

Elizabeth Skelton, weighs in with her epic treatise on horses in Ringcraft. I'm digging the cover on that one too.

And then we come to my favorite. Skeeter Skelton. I feel a special kinship with this man's prose deeper than I can fully express. I'll let you peep his prose as these eBay auctions wont be up forever. From the incredibly titled, Good Friends, Guns, Whiskey:

"If I had known early on what a fascinating path handguns were going to lead me along and the intriguing experiences and people I would encounter, I might have hurried. But I'm not prone to hurry...and I've been able to savor every shot I've fired and every friendship I've made...."

More deft poetry from Skeeter, this time from a dusty tomb entitled, Hotlegs, Hipshots and Jalapeños:

"These men know guns, and how and when to use them, and (they) are a great comfort when you kick in a door and go in for the bad guys."

So True. So True. Skeeter, you are a wizard with words.

Lastly we got C.L. Skelton with what looks like a romance novel called Hardacre's Luck. Happy bidding folks.

May 14, 2003

Strongbad vs. David Hasselhoff

Style Wars Revisited
I saw Style Wars for the first time in its entirety about five years ago when I was involoved in the filming of our own graffiti document - Minneapolis Massive. When I saw it for the first time, I remember it was a great visual treat to see the pieces, tags and throw ups of legendary writers that I had seen photos and heard stories of but had never come in contact with. It wasn't until I saw Style Wars that the whole picture came into view.

The new double disk Style Wars DVD from Plexifilm takes it even further with even more artists interviews and footage of their pieces. An interesting "where are they now" section and great commentary from both the director and producer, make it the best video document of graffiti writers living and painting in NYC.

At one point the director, Tony Silver, makes a great comment about the wholly opposite goals of the creative writers and the people making city policy. Each parties refusal to back down from their goals lead to some serious strife and some brilliantly captured on-screen drama. That tension is so visceral throughout the documentary. Nowhere is it captured better than in the interviews with then Mayor Koch. When I first watched the film, Koch just seemed like a two-bit hater. Watching the film again I realize that although Koch has no love for graffiti, he is desperately trying to heal the city, trying to address some of the underlying root social problems that people are forced to deal with in the tags and pieces that are splattered on the trains. Koch, for all his anti-graffiti talk, does seem to be reading the writing on the walls.

It was also great to see the out-take footage on Dondi. He gets so little air time in the film. The out-takes give the viewer a deeper understanding of his craft.

To read and see more of Dondi, check out the Dondi White book, dondiciakings, at149st.com, and artcrimes.

To read more about Style Wars, checkout this piece by David Samuels in last sunday's NYT and this NPR piece. Also stylewars.com.

Paranoia Strikes
I had my first SARS scare yesterday. I was browsing magazines at the Borders up on Hennepin, which is attempting to unionize. I sat down with a couple titles on a little reading bench they have there next to another fellow browser. This guy immediately starts coughing these terrible little hacks that sounded like overblown throat clearers. And they just kept coming. Every 15 seconds another little burst of coughing. I lasted about a minute and a half. I quickly got my paranoia on and diagnosed this plague spreader with a full blown case of SARS. I threw my stack of 'zines to the floor and bolted from the bench. Super-skedaddling out the door of Borders, I ran down to the public bathroom for a timely pathogen bath.

May 13, 2003

Living the Dream
It's my birthday today! 30! Three decades thick. Time to do a check in, eh? Let's see here...

Hair? Check. We're good. Mostly still all there.

Liver? Check. Still processing.

Excellent. Let's carry on then. The Melvins decided to come back into town and help me celebrate my birthday last night at the Quest. Thanks guys. How about we make a regular event of that? Same time next year, eh? I can think of little else that could be so inspiring on my 30th birthday than watching guys at least ten years my senior rock out so hard.

For my birthday I received a beautiful black lacquered Underwood Standard Typewriter No. 5. It's an antique beast and weights somewhere close to fifty pounds. It's all chromed out. It's fantastic. I also got a bottle of Ouzo. So, yeah, I'm pretty much set for the next ten years. Now if only the Wild can start winning again...

May 09, 2003

Cancer Sticks and Hockey Sticks
The best part of last nights game was watching a whole stadium of home town Vancouver fans go home sad. Beaten in their own backyard. See ya Bertuzzi. So long Jarkko Ruutu. Hazah! I feel it hard to write about anything else this morning as I am still high and tired from watching last nights glorious victory. And now it's on to Anaheim, where Minnesota has some unfinished business after the Twins' playoff dreams were mercilessly broken by the Angles last year. It's time to make those Left Coast suckers pay.

Just so this doesn't become a myopic Hockey Blog (1, 2, 3) over the next couple of days, I will try and keep things balanced with some other blathering and goodness.

I find this hip hop blog written and maintained by Jay Smooth really freaking interesting. He seems to have the line and all the odd legal handlings, beef, drama, and audio gymnastics coming out of the scene today. He's also got some good radio shows worth their weight in vinyl.

August, is a beautiful type face designed by Gareth Hague. It's described as a "mix of references: softness and femininity attenuated by sharpness and angularity." I really dig the "J" letter form and the "S", which just happen to be my first and last initials.

Miss Miller has made the recommendation that "The Day My Butt Went Psycho" be added to my reading list immediately.

Make your own safety signs. Then print them out as PDF's. Wow!

Chel (a.k.a Grey Duck), spurned on by a posting of mine (see below) about a duel I had with a massive rabbit, got to thinking, did some research, and came in with some hard Flemmish facts. Read about it here.

Atari is coming back.

The new issue of Modern Drunkard has arrived and as the Washington Post reports the final Clash of the Tightest: History's Greatest Drunks Square Off, will be..."with comedian/drunk Jackie Gleason facing poet/drunk Charles Bukowski in a championship drinking bout with play-by-play narration by sportscaster/drunk Howard Cosell and actor/drunk Sir Laurence Olivier ." It's sure to be an epic match. Read the semi finals here.

May 08, 2003

Go Wild!!
Honestly, in the world of dedicated sports viewing, it's all about positioning. Getting the right seat at Liquor Lyle's so that you can watch the Twins wax the Devil Rays, while at the same time catching the bruising that the Wild are handing down to the Canucks, is a strategic decision that must be carried out without giving thought to friendship, diplomacy, or natural human laws of kindness. It's a sport in itself. You must be forthright in calling out which games you need on which televisions and you have to be confident in your shouting to move idle humans from your needed visual panorama. It's also important to roll deep and order 'em up two at a time.

But damn, what a game! The second period of last nights Vancouver Beat Down was probably the most commanding hockey I have ever seen played. Serious Shock and Awe. Take the midnight flight out of Minneapolis and do it again tonight.

Believe it. The high speed power assault carried out by The Boys of Minnesota, is unquestionable. But what really gets me is the way these kids and their coach carry themselves after victory - after declaring "mission accomplished" for the night. It's a perfect study in humility, grace and maturity. It makes me think of our foolish and feather brained president and his pension for grandstanding, showboating, swooping onto aircraft carriers wearing sheep's clothing, and just looking really really stupid. Please, dude. Act with some dignity. Watch the Wild tonight and, win or lose, take some notes on character and integrity. I'll be taking up my position.

May 07, 2003

Jau du iu Sei?
Rafael Varela, Editor of a local magazine aimed at the Twin Cities growing latin community called El Pregunton, always does a language section with the goal of teaching spanish speakers a few expressions of english. I enjoy reading this section very much, mostly because of his phonetic breakdown of english expressions. Here are a few from the May issue.

The plane is about to take off.
De plein is abaut tu teik of.

Can you take out the garbage.
Can iu teik aut de garbesh

Take your time, don't rush
Teik ioar taim, don't rash

A very serious accident took place here
Ei very sirius axident tuk pleis dear

They took me for Mexican, but I'm Peruvian
Dey tuk mi for Mexican, bat aim Peruvian

She is not here, she took the day off
Shi is not jier, shi tuk de dei off

We take turns during the night
Gui teik terns diuirn de nait

May 06, 2003

Factually Accurate Portraits of Sharpness and Faith
Today I was absurdly attacked by a huge bunny off Lake Street near the abandoned Edison School. Impossibly big. It's being fed by someone or something at a gross rate. It bushy tail was almost the size of my head.

I wanted to know the history of the @ sign so I looked it up.

The new Latin fusion restaurant downstairs makes my office smell like fresh tator-tots all day long. Sometimes it smells delicious and other times I hate it.

The office down the hall is populated by larger women on diets who make microwave popcorn all day instead of eating meals. I don't like that smell of that at all!

I have a "confidential" stamp that I now use to stamp every document on my desk.

This morning I spilled coffee on a picture of one of my clients posing with Fidel Castro. I was supposed to scan the image for a site. I'm in big trouble. Some of the coffee spilled on my machine. I have already destroyed two computers by spilling the contents of my vices into the accepting arms of their keypads.

Hard Times Cafe offers Vegan biscuits and gravy 24 hours a day. They taste better after three in the morning.

Treasure Island Casino is a good place to catch a nap. The dull ambient noise of the nickel slots can sooth you to sleep in a gentle mechanical lullaby payout.

Johann Johannsson's Englaborn CD is some great music.

I didn't win any money on the Kentucky Derby.

I like blogging.

May 05, 2003

Happy Cinco de Mayo
Spent all day yesterday getting punched in the solar plexus by Simon. His tolerance for sarcastic banter is minimal. He's a quick kid. Smart as hell and although he doesn't actually understand sarcasm, he knows enough to know he's being fucked with. I guess it's pretty natural to expect to get punched when you take advantage of a kid's mental maturity. But Simon rocks. We watched the Mayday Peace Parade (snaps 1 and 2) together. Then we ate huge plates of mexican food and drank Sopa Azteca out of lime green Fiesta Ware bowls. Walking around after lunch, we got caught in the rain and were forced to duck into the Chatterbox Pub. Now, I can't really advocate children hanging out at pubs all day long but The Chatterbox Pub, with it's Atari 2600's, board games, Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots and lots of television sets featuring cartoons, is a hang out for 20 something's pretending to be kids anyway, so it was a natural playground for Simon.

May 01, 2003

Deck of Death
My Friend A-Dawg Lockstershaft just hooked my up with the now infamous deck of death. It's hard to pick a favorite, but if pressed, I think it would have to be the eight of hearts: Sultan Hashim Ahmad Al-Tai.

Bomb The Suburbs
William Upski, author of the seminal Bomb The Suburbs and the multi-faceted No More Prisons will be throwing down at the Walker tonight to talk about activism, urban life, home-schooling, the Cool Rich Kid's Movement, the prison system, community organizing, and the new Adventure Philanthropy. Check out Upski's new project Future 500.