My desk, my God

As I found it before switching on the computinator.

The shadow city

My pal and NYC tour guide Moses made the New York Times today for explorations of that city, subterranean or otherwise. Apparently it only appeared in the paper's city edition, but the story is available online. Moe's bit can be found toward the end of the story.

The Nonpareils: It's all part of my indie rock fantasy

(Or: If I stand and holler, will I stand alone?)


"Exit" "perfectly timed siren courtesy of providence fire dept."

Does anyone know The Nonpareils? Know how I can get in touch with them?

I've only heard two of their songs, making them my favorite 2-song band of all time. But I'd like to hear more of their gorgeous minimalist pop melodies and girl/guy vocals of The Nonpareils.

I learned about them in the summer of 1996 (cue strings) when some of their members played in the Godrays' (former Small Factory) touring band.

Lo and behold, I put the Godrays up for a few nights that summer and they paid me back in 7" records, two of which held the wonderful Nonpareils singles "Exit" and "Inside." I believe Alex and Phoebe of Small Factory/Godrays recorded these songs. I also recall them playing me several more track that I loved and I would love to hear them now.

I've tried Craigslist and a listing on Twee.net, but no luck.


"Inside"

Anyone out there in the ether able to get me in touch with Ted, Lisa, Frank or Sean of The Nonpareils?

If so, I would be eternally grateful.

The 7" have some ancient and undoubtedly expired mailing info. I just might try reaching them via Ben Franklin's mails.

Here’s what I know:

The Nonpareils split 7” w/ Difference Engine
“Exit” and “Flex Lavender” on OTC Load records.

The Nonpareils “Inside” appeared on the 7” Papercut Records comp with Belmonde, Incredible Force of Junior, and Wimp Factor XIV.


Oscar checks out The Nonpareils

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Since we're here. lemme give you a Best of The Small Factory Universe!

From Small Factory's The Industrial Evolution

• If You Hurt Me (If you hurt me, I'll be angry, and I'll grow up way too fast....)

From Small Factory's I do not love you (1993)

• I'm not giving up
• What angels say
• Valentine (a too-good-to-be-true Sarah Dougher cover)
• Pretending it's sunny
• All your reasons
• Junky on a good day (It's a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful day, I wish the sun would, sun would go away...)

From Small Factory's For If You Cannot Fly (1995)

• The Last Time That We Talked
• Hi Howard I'm Back (I was right there with them, little kid among men...)
• Sensible
• Versus Tape (I'm not full of love and I'm not full of hate I'm just blank. Yeah, I drew a blank.)
• Sun Goes Ahh
• For When You Cannot Land
• Sixteen Years (No I haven't yet, haven't yet, haven't yet, reach all the things I want to reach out and touch...)

From Songs for T.V. Stars by The Godrays (1996)

• Comforting Joe
• Songs For T.V. Stars
• Vampires Suck (Now that I'm awake, I want to be the dream you have sometime, later on...)
• Darling (...they're gonna eat us alive...)
• Crummy (a favorite of the Miniboss)
• Crack You Up
• Crazy (Versus cover)

From Well Composed Death Notice by The Godrays (1998)

• Hope This Makes Sheryl Crow Happy (a cover, obviously)
• Shark Shaped Ship (Am I gonna die?)

----------------------

I hope everyone gets to love a band the way me and the Miniboss love Small Factory. And Bobby Dylan and The Beatles don't count!

Well done J.K. Rowling

(this story contains no spoilers)

After valiantly declaring my intentions to ward off unwanted media spoilers by purposely ruining Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, I found myself at a crossroads Saturday night as I held the book in my hands.

It was a now or never moment. I knew once I cracked the binding I needed to read the final chapter immediately lest I turn to page one and fall under Rowling's spell one last time.

Fortunately I turned to page one.

I started reading Harry Potter seven years ago, as suggested by my younger brother and sister. My memories of reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone during a harsh Boston winter are vague, but I was immediately hooked.

Considering the tremendous pressure Rowling faced in delivering her finale, I think I would have been happy with a good book. That she delivered a great book is all the more incredible. And as I read The Deathly Hallows I savored the little things - Rowling's descriptions of the Weasley brood and Luna Lovegood's weirdness, the author's wit and humor, and above all the banter among Harry, Hermione and Ron. All the while I recalled my experiences reading the entire series.

Not long after reading The Sorcerer’s Stone I ordered the second and third books. We still lived in Beacon Hill, and one afternoon I came home from work to find a UPS note waiting for me. A moment later the big brown truck turned down my street, roared down my street and turned the corner. I raced down the narrow brick sidewalks to catch the truck, and I did, and the delivery man fished through the back of the truck to hand over my new-found treasure. One of these books traveled with me on a daytrip to Providence, Rhode Island, the other accompanied me on a train trip to Washington D.C.

A few months later we unexpectedly moved to Seattle. I had never been further west than the Twin Cities. Seattle was a foreign city to me. The first book I bought was Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire. Reading the Goblet of Fire was like having a local greet me, and it remains my favorite book of the series.

Flash forward a few years and I picked up Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in Madison. I recall waiting for the midnight release party at Canterbury Books to begin at the Terrace with my wife and sister. We ran into an elementary school friend of mine, a good omen.

And then two summers ago in Fort Collins, I picked up Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince at another midnight party not long before we moved to Denver. Which is where I picked up The Deathly Hallows at the Tattered Cover, and the final secrets of the Harry Potter universe were revealed to me.

It's fitting that as my wife and I crossed the country and back on our odyssey that Harry went with us. And as a fan - not a fanatic - I can only congratulate J.K. Rowling for creating such a wonderful universe and reading experience.

In the very near future Barry Bonds will break Henry Aaron's home run record. I don't like it. But just like my receding hairline or car payment, I won’t lose any sleep over it.

I will pay attention, though, when Bonds and the Giants play the Brewers in Milwaukee this weekend. I'll be curious to see if Commissioner Bud Selig snubs Bonds in Bud's hometown. I'm sure Bud dislikes the situation more than almost anyone - save, perhaps, his friend Henry Aaron - but unlike anyone else, Selig had years to do something about it and did not

In a way I hope Bonds breaks the record in Brew City, but I doubt the Giants brass will allow that to happen. Like Barry, they want him to hit it in San Francisco.

But imagine for a moment if he did break it in Milwaukee, where Aaron became a legend. At the moment of his greatest triumph Bonds would have to answer to Aaron's hometown fans. And if not there, then Atlanta, where the Giants play next, Aaron's other hometown.

Ultimately, no matter how many homers Bonds hits, he cannot diminish Henry Aaron's achievements. And this will be no truer than in the Cream City because Aaron is the heart of Milwaukee baseball. You can rattle off all the great names - Matthews, Spahn, Fingers, Yount, Molitor - but none of them outshine Aaron, the best player on the only team to win the World Series for Milwaukee.

That's a joy that Bonds – in San Francisco or anywhere – seems destined to never enjoy.

Committing Harry-kari

This weekend the final chapter of the Harry Potter saga, The Deathly Hallows, reveals itself to the world.

I've got a voucher for my copy at the Tattered Cover, and my only question besides 'how will it all end?' is 'will I survive all the unwanted spoilers' floating in the ether like so many death eaters?' (Link is not a spoiler by the way.)

To that end I am going to spoil Harry for myself.

If the world is set on ruining the surprise for me as it did in the build up for The Sopranos denouement - thanks CNN - then I am going to beat it to the punch and ruin it for myself.

I have Friday off and plan a self-imposed media blackout. That night I am going to a concert. Saturday morning I am picking up my copy of The Deathly Hallows.

And then, I will immediately read the final chapter first and then turn to the book's beginning to read it start to finish.

Nyah-nyah.

How do you say Milwaukee in Japanese?

A friend sent me the following picture. Apparantly the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles have nothing against the brew, the baseball, or, aliens.



Danke schön!

Congratulations Philadelphia Phillies!

On your 10,000 losses. And thank you, thank you so much for making us all feel a little better about the teams we root for.

Kwik E Mart comes to Denver!

As a kid, my parents always made sure that my sister and I were exposed to our cultural heritage. Trips to Old World Wisconsin, Boston's Freedom Trail, and the Civil War battlefields of Mississippi are among my favorite childhood memories.

Today I passed the torch on to my daughter as we visited the Kwik E Mart. Denver is lucky enough to have one of twelve 7-11 stores in the world to get the Kwik E Mart makeover. And while the Krusty-O's were sold out, we had plenty of fun rubbing elbows with Comic Book Store Guy, Homer, and Apu, and the Squishee wasn't half bad.


Let's do Denver - Broadway style!


Ooh! Can I have some Krusty-o's?


Nice to see you, Apu.


Mmm...hot dogs...


...mmm...donuts.


"Choo-choo-choose me?" "Noooooo!"


Brrrrrrr...buy 3 for the price of 3!


Stay away from the egg salad.

Mmm...Squishee...

Can I get mine all syrup?

Vote 4 Quimby!

Worst movie promo ever!

Thank you! Come again!

A shout in the street (Independence Day)

Last night as I lay in bed, I listened to the shrieks and giggles of several children in the street. Their voices mingled and rose as one into the summer sky. Like many of the children in my neighborhood, they spoke Spanish and hushed only when one of the adults with them lit off another round from their cache of fireworks.

I did not get up to watch the scene, but kept listening and smiled each time the light from one of their sidewalk-crawling fireworks lit up my ceiling, as it undoubtedly lit up the street.

Coolhand Band

My poor pal, the mini-boss sent a shout out to me re: Coolhand Band, our rock-n-roll mentors, and I failed to respond.

So, better late than never, here's a hastily compiled album (of sorts), of our favorite Coolhand hits. I don't think any of this ever happened, but if it did, I know mini-boss was holding my hand.



1. Learning to spell
2. She sees by degrees
3. 33
4. Turning down
5. Cocktail walk
6. Chocolate box
7. Would
8. Lightn'ng fence
9. Halby learns guitar (what's with all the learning?)
10. Out'tha freaks
11. Wired & ready
12. Save me bravely

Did I really overlook Acetate?

-----------------
Caveat:

"Never happened" - or something like that - comes from some pre-show banter of an REM bootleg I have circa 1983/84. Someone shouts "Athens Georgia." Mike Mills deadpans into the mic "Never exsisted." Never thought it meant a thing until tonight.

Caveat too:

I've been accused of not posting enough pictures of my daughter. Blame me, I'm overprotective (Kitt, these are for you). You can't have her, you can't have her, no, not for free.

One giant leap for Western Civilization

Behold: The Beer Shirt!

Available from the wonderful BREW CITY.

What more needs to be said?

For further explanation - sigh - click here.

Tough part of town

A squirrel sat near a dumpster at 10th & Lincoln this morning with a cigarette butt dangling from its mouth.

Apparently city squirrels grow up fast, forsaking eternal salvation for earthly pleasures.

The people in your neighborhood II

The heat finally wavered as the sun went down, so I headed out for a walk through Cheesman Park before it got too dark.

No sooner had I entered the park and started down its tree lined paths than a bum shouted at me from a bench. I had my headphones on and kept walking, but something caught my eye. His face was bloodied and his hands were drenched in blood. I do not know how this happened.

I stopped and pulled my earplugs out and he asked for a cell phone. His hands were drenched in blood. I told him I did not have one. (I lied.)

Within shouting distance you could hear children shrieking on the playground and beyond them the laughter from folks wrapping up their weekend picnics.

"Could you use a few bucks?" I asked. He laughed, as he should have. Then he nodded his head. Yes, he could use a few bucks. I gave him whatever I had in my wallet, which wasn't much, and continued on my way.

A moment later the sirens of a fire truck interrupted my music and I turned back. The City of Denver came out in full force. I watched as they patched him up. He was joking with the EMTs as they led him to the ambulance.

The people in your neighborhood

This afternoon I walked back from my lunch break on the 16th Street Mall where they were setting up for an evening concert. I happened to pass two police officers who animatedly discussed something or other.

Not far off, a saggy fellow of indeterminate middle age watched on. He wore a volunteer fire department cap. He looked as though he'd just dropped his ice cream.

I think he just wanted to go up to the officers and ask if they'd be his buddy.

Woah-ho I'm Excited Now

If you haven't noticed, Prince Fielder is having one of the great seasons in Milwaukee Baseball History.





Prince hit his 26th ding of the year tonight, he had 28 all of last year. And the Brewers currently enjoy a 7 game lead in the NL Central.

Cure for the Summertime Blues

With summer fast upon us it was time for Oscar the Cat's summer shearing. Though you couldn't tell it from his expression, this always makes him very happy.

Before

After

The Case of the Missing Books

The Case of the Missing Books: A Mobile Library Mystery
by Ian Sansom

Israel Armstrong is your other-than-average man about Londontown; at least he'd like to think so. He knows a great cappuccino when he encounters one, loves art house flicks and can speak at length on Dostoevsky.

But can he run a small, Northern Ireland public library? Especially when that library happens to have been shuttered for years, is now on wheels, and, most distressingly, all the books have disappeared? It'll take more than a bibliophile's knowledge of Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot to recapture the missing library in a hilarious whotook'em that relies more heavily on Sansom's memorable characters than the mystery that envelopes them.

At a time when the literary anti-hero is most often a leather-clad, drinking and smoking, but ultimately big-hearted rebel, the passive aggressive, less than gifted Israel Armstrong is truly enjoyable precisely because he is so utterly unlikable.

Sansom also succeeds in depicting modern Northern Ireland without succumbing to the specter of the Troubles. His junk food munching bureaucrats, small town bullies, knowing baristas and seductress journalists humanize the region in a way that a more overwrought narrative might not. The effects of the Troubles exist in these characters, but they do not dominate their quotidian lives.

Thankfully, my sister passed The Case of the Missing Books on to me, which, after a slow start, I delightedly sunk my teeth into. With a baby at home my recent fiction reading experiences have been filled with false starts, frustration and boredom. For some reason nonfiction has been easier to hang with while sleep-deprived and listening for the tiniest sounds emanating from the nursery. Fortunately, book two of the Mobile Library Mysteries, Mr. Dixon Disappears, is available in the States next month.

On the web:
Ian Sansom for your information
Ballykissangel

Caveat to Pepper

This weekend witnesses the 40th anniversary of the release of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Last month saw the 40th anniversary of a more subtle, but no less gorgeous pop moment, the release of the Kinks "Waterloo Sunset."

If the Beatles "got by with a little help from their friends," then Ray Davies seems almost bemused to admit "but I don't need no friends."

No disrespect to the Beatles, but I think I'll hang around North London with Terry and Julie. I don't think Lovely Rita Meter Maid will miss us.

On the web:

Sanctuary Records 40th Anniversary Waterloo Sunset release.

Should we talk about the weather?

When we moved to Colorado from Wisconsin somewhat unexpectedly nearly three years ago, I turned to the literature of the West to help me understand just where it was we now called home. In the ensuing years I have read several Wallace Stegner novels, reread My Antonia and tried to delve into Katherine Ann Porter. Contemporary novels Augusta Locke by William Haywood Henderson and The Willow Field by William Kittredge, along with the wonderful Fort Collins journal Matter, have also helped me get my bearings.

One quote that resonated with this transplant in particular comes from Stegner, who bluntly informs us that when living in the West:

"You have to get over the color green; you have to quit associating beauty with gardens and lawns; you have to get used to an inhuman scale; you have to understand geological time."

For the most part I agree with his assessment, it is a far different environment in Denver and Colorado than the upper-Midwest I grew up in. Unfortunately I have not gotten over the green, not yet, and I do not expect to any time soon. And so, with Denver in bloom it seemed natural that I would pull my rarely used copy of Aldo Leopold's Sand County Almanac to read up on Wisconsin in March.

Writing in the 1940s, Leopold's March entry is a love letter to geese. He opens by telling us:

"One swallow does not make a summer, but one skein of geese, cleaving the murk of a March thaw, is the spring."

Though Leopold's writing is like home cooking for me, I couldn't help but wonder how much the state's climate and environment has changed since he wrote those words, and since our awakening to the effects of global warming.

Oddly enough, my former hometown rag, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published a story this weekend that answered my question. The Journal Sentinel reports that Leopold's daughter, Nina Leopold Bradley, has taken up her father's mantle in chronicling the natural events of her father's old stomping grounds. The article reports:

But spring's advance has been so dramatic that if Leopold were alive today, he'd have to rewrite parts of his seminal book, "A Sand County Almanac."

Take, for example, the Canada geese. Leopold wrote that they "tumbled out of the sky like maple leaves" in March.

But records by his daughter show that migratory geese are returning home more than a month sooner - now arriving about Feb. 19.

The article can be read in its entirety here.

Obviously this is a grim prognosis. I am not comfortable preaching about the consequences of global warming - I need to get my own house in order - but I can say that when you encounter its effects in an individually familiar setting, the reality becomes all the more stark.

...

Whatever the future holds, today we witnessed a beautiful spring day in Denver. The view from here:

Have we grown complacent?

"Every fury on earth has been absorbed in time, as art, or as religion, or as authority in one form or another. The deadliest blow the enemy of the human soul can strike is to do fury honor. Swift, Blake, Beethoven, Christ, Joyce, Kafka, name me a one who has not been thus castrated. Official acceptance is the one unmistakable symptom that salvation is beaten again, and is the one surest sign of fatal misunderstanding, and is the kiss of Judas." - James Agee, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men

Martin Luther King Jr.'s I have a dream speech.

Robert Kennedy's comments on the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.