Happy Post Labor Day
I took a break from house/duplex hunting long enough yesterday to go over to Harriet Island for the AFL/CIO labor picnic. Veggie burgers and Miller Genuine Draft in the hot sun. On the main stage Jim Hightower said some inspiration words while noting that his new book, Thieves in High Places is for sale and will be on the New York Times best seller list next week. On the riverboat there was good discussion on the creation of a domestic fair trade project. Many people were getting excited about bringing the idea down to the fair trade expo that will be taking place in the shadow of the WTO talks in Cancun in two weeks. For some reason the idea of a Seattle style WTO protest in the streets of Cancun brings a funny smile to my face. I’m very bummed that I wont be able to be down there to see all the Black Anarchists getting funky at Senior Frogs or Cats. As for fair trade domestically, peacecoffee seemed to be the great success story and people are obviously watching them with a curious eye. The big question seems to be supply and volume and what it would take to get fair trade products into the mass market retail shops like Target. Or should small producer/worker run co-ops even be thinking about playing with the big boys. It’s a fascinating question. I was trying to find other fair trade places online where one could order some things. The White Earth Land Recovery Project has items for sale and Equal Exchange has set up a yahoo store.
Banner Day
I’m getting my mobile today from Amazon, I installed F10 Launch Studio on the Mac Machine and I’ve read that Johnny Depp is the frontrunner for playing Willy Wonka in a Tim Burton remix of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
As for the mobile, I did decide to go with T-mobile, after some good reports about reception in the Twin Cities. I know this means that Catherine Zeta-Jones may now call me up at anytime, but hey, it beats Jamie Lee Curtis. When researching phones I found that the europeans and practically everyone else on the planet has damn cooler phones then us folks in the states. Again I think this is a direct reflection on the leadership of this country and their horrible design sensibilities.
As for T10 Launch Studio. . . I’m still experimenting but so far I love the keyboard controls for switching apps and docs. It’s also very fast.
This morning I’m going over to Saint Paul to get first picks on a record collection that is going up on the block very soon. What treasures await? Truly a banner day.
The Great Twin Cities B.U.G. Out
While chomping on yummy home cut fries the other night at the Edina Grill, I noticed the large advertisement on the back of The Rake Magazine for an upcoming event being organized by the design institute called B.U.G – or – Big Urban Game. Naturally, I checked out the website. Now, perhaps I haven’t had enough coffee yet this morning, but I swear I’ve read the thing like three times now and I have no clue as to what it’s all about. It looks to me like a bad reality television show disguised as community event disguised as. . .uh, design? A Road Rules Minneapolis meets Philippe Starck masquerading as a community organizer? Curious. Maybe the whole thing is mysterious and ambiguous for a reason. Maybe Chris Rock will be MC’ing the race. I may have to check it out.
Mosaics and Millions
Yesterday morning I went down to the River Center in Saint Paul to try and pay our president and leader a visit. I’ve had a few things on my mind lately about the course he’s taking my country. So I thought, since he’s coming to Minnesota with greater frequency these days, that I might have a shot at giving him a little sound advice. Unfortunately for me and some other folks that turned out with similar hopes, we were turned away. Seems we lacked the $2,000 clams necessary to bend the ear of the man we affectionately call Dubya. Oh well, at least we got to laugh and joke around with the mounted police while he was inside raising 1.4 million for his campaign. The only scary moments of the protest came from a female officer that did not know how to control her horse. Every so often the horse would launch into these manic spasms and everyone would scatter trying not to get stomped. Also some vans drove through our gathering at top speed, interrupting the ‘Soccer Moms’ game of soccer and destroying their goal posts that were made from bags of food. We wondered if the president was in those vans.
On the bright side, I stopped in at an antique store in Saint Paul and discovered boxes and boxes of old Wood Type along with several cases of metal type. I didn’t have time to fully explore or purchase, but I will return this weekend to see what I can get.
Oh yeah, the above photos all come from the West Side of Saint Paul. Monday night I had a half hour to kill before an event over there, so I walked around and took some snaps of some great murals and mosaics. The picture of the chickens is one of the more unhealthy sings in all of the land. The camera doesn’t capture accurately the horrible green hues that the sign had turned after exposure to the sun. Very unappetizing to say the least.
In other news. . . today I am breaking down and buying a cell phone. It’s been over two and half years since I threw my last phone over the Hennepin Avenue bridge and into the mighty Mississippi, (I know, bad for the environment, but it was in a moment of weakness and serious fed-up-ed-ness). But it seems that the cell phone thing has come to a head and if I don’t get one soon than people will continue to be displeased with me, especially when I disappear into antique stores for hours on end in the middle of a friggin’ work day.
So I’ve done my research and compared all plans, phones and rates, etc, etc. Right now the winner seems to be T-mobile and their 1000 anywhere plan for $39.99. If you get the phone from Amazon, T-mobile or one of these other third party venders, it looks like any phone you’re going to buy has some hefty rebates that bring the price either to zero or in some cases you actually make money. To good to be true? I’m not a big believer in mail-in rebates as I still have two outstanding with Best Buy and I really don’t believe they have any intention of ever paying me, even after I jumped through the million and one hoops just to mail the darn things in. I digress. If anyone has any reasons why I should or should not go with T-mobile, now is the time to let me know. I’m sure this phone will eventually be polluting one of Minnesota’s great waterways soon enough, but the phone should at least go to its watery grave with the right plan.
My Charity Lost Out to Desire
Confession time. Lately I’ve been having to spend more time on the road, in my car, dashing around to meetings, to the printers, to different events, etc, etc. My car, bless it’s big ol’ heart is not equipped with your finer high-end stereo products. My car was born way before the new VW Beetle was even a twinkle in the designers eye and it sure didn’t come ipod ready as part of its standard package. Nope. My choices are much more duo-tone. You basically got your AM and then you got your FM and that really completes the package. So the simple equation is, more driving around time means that more and more of my listening choices are being dictated by other people or companies; most of which is so intolerable and excruciatingly depressing that I’m convinced the musical stewardship of these stations is the work of aliens, mice, or worse yet, gearhead politicians that seek to drive us into complacency and bitter alcoholism.
Now, having said all that, my horrible confession is. . . that I really enjoy the new Smooth Jazz station here in town. Which mean that either I’ve lost and the politicians have me exactly where they want me or there are deeply embedded radical messages coming forth from David Sanborn’s saxophone that awaken my inner revolution. Damn, that’s a stretch. I know. But I have to believe something. Me listening to a smooth jazz station and enjoying it is the equivalent of me considering for one heartbeat that Schwarzenegger might actually make a good governor of California. The more likely explanation for appreciating the pleasant sounds of Richard Elliot is the competition that’s barking from the other stations. Sure, if I’m lucky and in the car at the right time, I can hit up a little Democracy Now on Fresh Air Radio. Although the signal is pretty bad. And I do enjoy a good CCR, Boston, Stix, or Neil Young double shot every now and again on the classic rock station. I’ll stay locked on a station for a minute if they’re playing a Foo Fighters tune. Catch a little Justin Timberlake or some Missy E, on another station and it’s all good. But generally all the Clear Channel stations are horribly inconsistent and way to commercial heavy. Unfortunately the local college radio station isn’t much better. They may have much better musical taste and they sure come correct with ample diversity, but for a man like me on the move and in the car, they play all the wrong songs at all the wrong times. I’m a huge fan of Low and I enjoy the entire spectrum of the icelandic minimalist movement. But that stuff is way better, at say one in the moring after I’ve downed a fifth or two. It’s just not good music for Tuesday at 1pm, when the sun is out and your cruising. Why does this happen? Why do they play such music at the oddest times? As a recovering college DJ in my own time, I can tell you the answer. It all stems form the fact that the ‘college kid’ keeps odd hours that are usually contrary to the working mans schedule. And when stuck in a windowless DJ booth, it’s always midnight. Thus bands like Low always seem appropriate and bands like Burning Airlines never seem to make the light of day.
So take all that and my attention span for listing to MPR for more than five minutes and you’ve basically got my reasoning for keeping the dial locked on the Smooth Jazz station. Clear Channel owned to boot.
Joe Sample, Grover Washington Jr., Euge Groove (great name), I’ll take ’em all. Just like the old days at the dentist. Lean back and listen to the sound as the drill pierces the enamel and sparks a nerve.
Minneapolis Tax Payers Off Duty
Yesterday it was a ripe 99 degrees here in sunny Minneapolis. The humidity kept climbing all day long. I could actually see my neighbor’s lawn progressively turn a lighter shade of brown. A good samaritan was trying to rescue thirsty and dying trees along Lyndale Avenue, armed with a hose he had borrowed from Pizza Luce. It was truly uncomfortable yesterday. The situation was made even worse by the news that Minneapolis Parks and Recreation was forced to close all area beaches due to the budget cuts passed earlier this year. So unless you belonged to some swanky suburban private pool club your shit was out of luck and you were stuck with a six dollar plastic pool from Wal-Mart and some cold hard ciders.
Today the budget cuts take down another treasured institution of summer. All Minneapolis Public Libraries will be closed until September 3rd. That’s just no good.
I’d like to think that this is one big evil plot put forth by Target Stores and other local retailers, who have pressured the government to take away free community options for kids and their parents in order to drive more consumers to their air conditioned stores and movie theaters in this last week of back-to-school grabbing and shoving. But there’s no one to blame for this mess but ourselves. For it was we (but not me) that elected a Governor who ran on a campaign of ‘no new taxes’ and now it is we who must endure the reality of that wonderful promise. I for one, welcome mo’ taxes. Where can I send my money? My tax dollars are paying for President Bush to fly in tomorrow for a $2,000 dollar a plate re-election campaign fundraiser on the private property of the Saint Paul River Center. Can I request that some of those tax dollars be used to keep open Public beaches and libraries? How about the library hold it’s own fundraiser? I can’t do the $2000 a plate deal but I could certainly attend, say, a $100 a plate fundraiser. Especially, if they serve vegetarians. Perhaps a Pot Luck benefit might be a better idea. Attendees could bring their favorite recipe that they got from a library cook book.
The Last Pottery Sale
World famous potter, avid cribbage board collector, sometimes political agitator, and my step-father, Peter Leach will be having the last pottery sale of his professional career tomorrow. When Peter announced at a packed pavilion of close friends earlier this year that he would be closing his studio and effectively retiring from the pottery wheel, audible gasps were heard. I got a sneak peak at the results of the firing last night just as the kiln was being emptied of its contents. It’s good stuff folks. If you’ve got nothing better to do tomorrow morning, then come check out the sale. I’ll be the guy handing out Krispy Kreme’s. More information and directions to the sale.
Last Stop on the Lost Days of Summer
My poison ivy is starting to fade away, it finally rained last night, and I can officially declare that August has been my busiest month of work yet this year. What gives? I’m thinking that everyone put off a lot of work at the beginning of the year and are finding themselves in the crunch right now. To exacerbate the problem even more, in the last few weeks I have developed a funny habit of getting myself lost going to almost any meeting I am supposed to attend. Whether I walk, bike, or drive, something always goes awry between the time I step out my door (Mary-Tyler Moore style) to the time I land at wherever prearranged destination a client has asked me to meet. It’s gotten so bad that Monday I ended up at Mystic Lake Casino after taking a wrong turn on Highway 169. It’s gotten so bad that I actually got lost trying to walk to a meeting that was a slim five blocks away from my HQ. It’s gotten so bad that I now plan for an extra 10 to 15 minutes of ‘lost time’ before the scheduled time of a meeting. That’s horrible. On any given day I could loose up to an hour becasue of my navigational dyslexia. I will admit that I am at my worst when i drive – a constant reminder that the bike is always the best mode of transportation. When driving, I catch myself in odd Zen-Zombie-Zones. These are trouble. When I awake from these catatonic driving blackouts, I’m half surprised I’m not in South Dakota or Banff Canada. I like to think that I’m actually a good driver in these zombie states, something of a total and complete auto-pilot, but damn if I can remember anything about the time period that just slipped by. So if you see me out there, slap me across the cheek a time or two and then give me accurate directions to wherever I need to go. Please.
Mystery Pee Girl Strikes Again
And this time I saw her do it! What the hell is going on? It all happened just as the misses had described it last week, except this time I was there to see it. The freaky thing is, the mystery pee girl did her deed at almost the exact same time and sure as pee-shoutin’, she did it in the exact same spot.
Now the singular occurrence of a random pee event, although still a bit weird, is almost understandable. Perhaps she just really had to go or she was locked out of her apartment, etc, etc. But the fact that it has now turned into a serial nightly event – a show if you will. . . well that just isn’t right. Where is Encyclopedia Brown when you need him most? I mean with all apologizes to stereotypes and all that, you wouldn’t guess from looking at this girl that she enjoys a good free-spirit public peeing now and again.
I followed mystery pee girl last night for about half a block trying to get up the courage to ask her, “um, excuse me miss, but why do you keep peeing behind my apartment?” But I couldn’t do it.
The Haunted Mansion
When going to see Pirates of the Caribbean, I knew I would probably have to sit through a gaggle of Disney movie previews. I can’t say I was too excited to sit through previews of movies about dogs who could talk (didn’t Benji and Chevy Chase close that chapter in American cinema when they created the vastly underrated, Oh Heavenly Dog). But I was blown away by the preview for another movie based on a popular Disney theme-park ride – The Haunted Mansion. Beyond the movie being a vehicle for Eddie Murphy to make jokes about moving his unsuspecting family into a possessed house, the movie looks like a production designers fantasy land. Indeed, as you see on the movie’s site the costume designs are amazing. Also if you catch the movie’s trailer you can see that The Haunted Mansion features some amazing typography in it’s introductory titles. Wow. Can’t wait to see it.