June 23, 2005

On to the Rose City
Tomorrow it's off to the Pacific Northwest for some good Portland time. Blogging will be sporadic over the next ten days or so. I think it's a good time to get out of here as the high humidity and the 90 degree temperatures have left me soaked in my own sweat.

Also, great old maps of Dutch cities, surreal serigraphs, old mall photos, and a technical guide by HST's editor on how to edit Gonzo.

June 21, 2005

And Then The Sky Turned Green
An apocalyptic storm blew through town yesterday, leaving an alarming path of destruction in its wake. Our garden looks like Sasquatch decided to play Dance Dance Revolution on our tomatoes and baby lettuce. Down the road two trees were felled, one on each side of the street. They both fell across the street and sat parallel to one another. In between the fallen trees stood a motorcycle that remained unscathed. Had the rider parked his hog one foot further in either direction it would have been annihilated. The whole storm lasted about 35 minutes. The strib has a nice photo gallery of the event.

James Frey, author of the amazing minimalist addiction memoir, Million Little Pieces will be at the B&N in the Galleria this Thursday to read from his new work My Friend Leonard. Can't wait to read the new one.

Also, coolness can be found in these Ben Sherman all-Vegan Compton Sneaker.

And, a few highlights from the new Harper's Index:

"Annual cost of all sixteen U.N. peacekeeping missions currently underway: $3,870,000,000."

"Monthly cost of the U.S. occupation of Iraq: $4,100,000,000"

"Amount a Chinese online gamer made last year by selling a virtual sword he had borrowed from a friend: $850"

"Months later that the friend retaliated by stabbing him to death with a real knife: 6"

June 20, 2005

Bad Skelton
With total disregard for the high standing moral code that we Skelton's are known to live by, I am saddened to bring to you this bizarre and tragic story from the Star Tribune. Seems troubled Jeffrey Skelton took the law into his own hands yesterday and murdered the guy his wife was having an affair with. Even stranger, Mr Skelton then called WCCO radio and spoke with a reporter there in an attempt to give his side of the story (audio). From the sound of it, he was having a really bad Fathers Day. But that's no excuse. I assure you, a true Skelton would be above this type of simpleton act. As a high ranking executive in the Skelton Clan myself, I would like to make clear to everyone that Jeffrey Skelton will be stripped of his name and excommunicated with no further representative powers. Feel free to throw stones...or tomatoes.

June 17, 2005

Reception Fashion
Going through the first round of photos from our party of June 3rd, I was struck by the number of great garments people wore. I decided to make a little swatch collage here to document some of the colors and patterns that were present.

June 16, 2005

It's All About How You Get There
Heading out to the Sleater Kinney show last night I travelled first by bicycle over to Jodi and Heather's house. To get there one takes the Minnehaha Creek bike trails which lately I've been loath to ride. I'm convinced that other people on bikes pose more of a danger than the cars in the street. The path is split down the middle with a thick blue line, two lanes you see, I travel on the right and if you are heading my way you stick to your right. If we all follow this simple rule than I won't be forced to grab my flare gun and fire one across your bow. The most common problem seems to be lackadaisical bikers whose thoughts are a million miles away from the asphalt passing beneath their tires. Their heads swing lazily back and forth as they approach me from the opposite direction. They pay no mind as they begin to creep into my own lane. I've learned in my biking days that you really have to watch people's eyes. You have to make sure that people see you! This goes for people in cars too. Many an accident has been avoided when I realized that although a drivers head is turned my way they still haven't seen me. So to deal with these inattentive bikers I usually end up making a lot of noise. There's much yelling and the waving of the arms. Then, slack biker's head comes out of clouds, they realize they have wandered off, they over-correct much too fast and wobble uncontrollably for a rotation or two. It's pretty funny and sometimes I do chuckle a bit but I would rather avoid these mishaps altogether. Let's be careful out there.

Safely through the Minnehaha Gauntlet, I arrived at the house, met Dusty the cat for the first time and then we all took the train down to First Avenue (Dusty didn't go, just the humans). S.K. rocked very well. The cover of Danzig's 'Mother' was unexpected but very appreciated. It's funny, but now that First Avenue has removed most of the glass barriers from the second floor, I got to ask, why didn't they do that like 15 years ago?

All that rocking left everyone with an insatiable hunger so we went over to the 112 Eatery. This was a great choice as they have incredible food and they serve it until one in the morning. Everyone proceeded to get carried away with the sparkling wine. Spirits were high.

Also, a great collection of Minneapolis and Saint Paul graffiti from the late 1990's.

June 14, 2005

37 Cent Masterworks
Just got back from the post office where ten little kids danced in glee as they received their "I visited the post office today" stickers. I kinda wanted to ask for one too but chickened out. Instead I bought a cool new stamp set, the Masterworks of Modern American Architecture. The post office is ona roll these days.

Also, Pitchfork is reporting that Bob Mould has teamed up with master drummer Brendan Canty (fugazi) for upcoming tour dates. And Sleater Kinney tomorrow night with Dead Meadow!

Cool Sushi cozy from morning craft. They also offer a Hello card which sports a more whimsical afrojet like plane and trail.

June 13, 2005

Crash | Walker | Maple Seed | Malkmus
The embroidered rock pants were pulled from the closet last night in preparation for Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks freeform jazz odyssey that rocked First Avenue. Sunday night's always a tuff night to rally for a show, especially when the show doesn't even start till 11:45pm. You basically have to write off a large portion of your Monday morning. But I feel good this morning, here, back at the controls. Thus is the power of the Rock; it re-energizes while keeping you up way past your bed time on a school night. Sonic Gatorade.

Reflecting on the show, I had the feeling that Malkmus was holding back a bit. I felt that he really wanted to bust forth with a blazing metal-tinged 20-minute rock jam opus but something was keeping him from this destiny.

About a month ago, the giant maple tree that takes up room in the back yard bombed the neighborhood with it's whirlybird helicopter seeds. 'Operation Seed Drop' was impressive enough to make Donald Rumsfeld blush. Now, after heavy rains those seeds have begun to germinate at unprecedented numbers. This weekend I was an ecological destroyer as I deforested my entire yard of hundreds of new Maple Trees. They are resilient little guys. They even took up residence in the rain gutters. In fact the gutters didn't look so much like gutters as they did planters boxes. If I didn't have to worry about rain not draining off the roof properly it would have been cool to just let them grow.

Saturday, the misses and I finally got over to the re-vamped Walker Art Center. I wish I could say that I was blown away but I wasn't. I wish I could pin-point exactly what I was expecting and didn't find in the new Walker but I can't. It just kind of left me with an 'ehn' feeling. Personally, I feel the whole idea of a physical museum is almost antiquated. Even if it's got bleeding edge architecture and 'mutli-media' displays it just seems old. The best part of the Walker will continue to be the performances, music, and lecture series, but the museum part of it seems like an after thought. Part of my problem is tactile. I want to touch everything! I'm like a five year old. You hang a heavy oil painting with thick globs in relief, and dammit, I don't just want to look at it - I want to touch it. That metallic statue over there? I want to run my hands all over it! How can anyone have an opinion about a piece of art until they've been intimate with it? This is probably why, if given the option of going to a museum or an antique shop, I'll choose the antique shop every time. At least at the antique shops when I pick something up alarms don't go off and security doesn't tackle me to the ground.

Also, I saw the movie Crash this weekend. Paul Haggis is 2-0. Great film. Don Cheadle was brilliant as always, Ludacris was hilarious. Amazing narrative. More movies like this please.

June 09, 2005

Blaavanshuk, Jylland
Strange happiness found in these delightful Scandinavian postcards that I've been picking up at random antique shops. I like how, in the first image, the little boy gets to wear those sharp stylish shorts on what looks to be a beautiful warm day up in the alps, and the little girl looks like she's in a mountain of pain; no doubt due to the oppressive ensemble she's rocking. And, ah, like what's up with the giant green oil funnel that kids sucking on?

If somebody pressed me to develop a men's clothing line quickly for winter '05, I would base the entire thing on what the fellows are wearing in the bottom triptych. The rubber waiters, the wool sweaters, the ever-present smoking pipe, pure style.

Also, nice stationary being put out by Pantone.

June 06, 2005

We Came To Party
A whirlwind weekend! Team Skelton would like to extend a big thank you to everyone who came out to the big party this last Friday at Solera. We had a great time and we hope you did too. The whole evening is almost one insane blur of activity. I remember some family showing up early for some photographs and then *bang* just like that it was three in the morning. Somewhere in between, lots of people showed up and there was much fun. I know I didn't get to eat anything the whole night except for one bit of cake that the wife ceremoniously fed to me. Luckily, kind people made sure I was always with beverage. Unfortunately, I remembered to take only a handful of pictures (see above). Team Skelton became separated early in the evening and were not able to come together again until much, much, later in the evening. Special thanks goes out to the University of Minnesota for honoring J.W. with "Dissertation of the Year", and for flying him up from Chiapas Mexico on the date of our party.

Saturday morning, downtown, at the Marriott. I woke up surprisingly early with an insatiable hunger. Slightly dented from Friday evenings activities, I arose and went to the bathroom to fetch some water. I reached for a glass and filled it. Drained it. Then realized in horror that I had just drank my wife's contact lenses. Gulp! I clearly forgot the late night exchange where she mentioned something about how she hadn't brought her lens case and was placing them in a glass instead. Damn.

After only a few hours sleep I was out the hotel door and on my way back home to fetch some new lenses. But first things first. I was starving. I pulled into the wonderful mexican restaurant just near our house and ordered two orders of huevos rancheros. It began to rain hard outside. I was the only one in the restaurant. I sat there for over an hour shoveling eggs and tortillas and beans and coffee into my system.

Refueled and with fresh new contacts, we made our way over to my mother's house for a very nice post party with all our families in attendance. Huge thanks again to everyone who helped make the Saturday affair a very memorable one. Team Skelton feels very loved. Thanks to all!!

More photos were taken by people who know what they're doing with a camera and when I get those I'll share them.

June 01, 2005

What A Difference A Day Makes
Oh man! How excited was I, when, sitting out on the back porch drinking my morning coffee, I look out over the yard and discover that overnight the Irises have all come to bloom. Just like that. Could there be a better way to start the day? Was it that last round of late night watering (like they need any more), or yesterday's mid-day weeding that did it? I don't know, but I appreciate the early morning 'thank you' all the same. Jesus, I think I'm getting old.

Elsewhere, Star Tribune web designer, Jaime Chismar, has started her own blog on being a novice gardener. Check out her progress at GreenGirl.

Also from the Star Tribune, Minnesota Governor hates poetry (thanks mom).