afrojet – Page 53 – Afrojet is the weblog of John Skelton

Early Morning Sports
Let’s just say that my favorite time for watching sports is between the hours of 6AM and 9AM. I wish all sporto events took place during this perfect time of the day. Last year I had the World Cup bright and early, now it’s the French Open. If every day could start with some coffee, a bowl of Incredible Hulk cereal and some great clay court tennis on the tube, I’d be one contented hombre. Right now I’m watching the last bit of the Serena Williams v. Jusitne Henin-Hardenne match. I thought Justine had what it takes to beat Serena but she’s losing it now in the final set. (Update: Justine did it! She beat Serena. Wow.)

The Idealist
I just got the latest snap book of Glen E. Friedman’s. It’s called The Idealist: Twenty Years in My Eyes and it is so damn nice. And beautiful. I could stare at is all day long. Poking around a bit, I found a page of Glenn’s called Recent Rolls, which displays some massive snaps of his classic subjects (Fugazi, Russell Simmons) along with newer material. The images of Femi Kuti, Sharpton, Nader, and Cornel West are great new additions. The one of Cornel West and Al Sharpton looks like they could be arguing or singing. Some of GEF’s photo sets are being auctioned off by sixspace. Here is a good one of HR from Bad Brains that ends in a couple hours.

Minnesota Resources
It’s been over two long months since the last trimming of the locks. I’m beginning to look like a bad extra from That 70’s Show. It’s time to go in again. This time I went online to find the right spot. I ended up at the Hair Police. Where I could actually browse through stylists and make the right choice. Like online dating with less consequences…I hope. Everything should be that easy.

If you’re looking for free stuff or just want to unload some things and you live in Minnesota, then check out Twin Cities Free Market. You can pick up old Macintosh SE computers, Trees(!?), Beer Coolers, just about anything goes.

OK. It’s 1:30 AM you’re coming home from the rock show, your cruising around wireless and your looking for a good vegan meal, or perhaps just some really yummy vegetarian Tai food. Who’s still open? Where can a rock star like yourself go? Hit up RegVeg.org and browse through their growing listing of vegetarian and vegan restaurants by region. Check out the comments and reviews and get fast access to restaurant hours and menu’s. A great resource that grows with the every user. Add a location or just add your favorite veggie restaurant. The Twin Cities location is the heaviest populated right now.

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.

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. god hates 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.

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!]

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.

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.

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.

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