As the rain pours, I rest.

Another long week of overtime ends just in time for school to begin. And after working a Saturday and having a late night last night at a stange club called Valentinos, I get to stay home, nurse an ailing wife, and finally have a good chunk of time to write - the cost being that we are no longer going camping today, due to rain.

I am happy to say that my brother, Erik, (the in-Iowa one, not the in-China one) and his wife just became parents to another little one. Another boy, carrying on what seems to be a trend in my family. My grandparents' children on my pop's side are all male. And in all but one case, all of their kids are either all boys or all girls. Greg can confirm this, but of our generation I know one of my cousins has all daughters, though I am not sure about the others. One of my brothers has a daughter and the other, again, now has all boys. And considering Emily and I have talked about not having any more than one kid of our own (we may adopt another - we have time to figure all of that out) we could not help but to uphold the trend, you know, being that we aren't Catholic.

Anyway, so now I am four times, an uncle...

Time is so incomprehensible.






This Lisa Germano lady is haunting me. I heard her name a few weeks ago somewhere and thought I would check her stuff out. Then I was reading a Charles deLint short story collection published in '95 this week and her name was mentioned. I thought it was stange, but it reminded me to check out her stuff. Then as I checked KCRW later this week to see who they had recorded in-studio... there she is. Listen to the recording. She is awesome... but in a different way than simply that her music is interesting and different. The interview/performance is somewhat... hmm... not amateurish... but not like most. She shows her quirks and idiosyncrasies freely - at one point talking about how her cat wrote one of the songs (one of the better ones, actually) without any hint of sarcasm. The music is odd(?) but from the lyrics that I heard and her apparent personality, I can easily see why deLint referenced her work. But regardless of how in tune I am with the music, I think I'd enjoy hanging out with her and her cat. I may have the chance - she is playing the Turf in October. Funny fact: she used to play with John "Cougar" Mellencamp's band.

The Get Up Johns are also proving to be haunting me in the form of a nagging at the back of my head. I keep thinking about the show and decided to check in on what they are doing. I found that they played in the NPR studios (linked) and after listening have changed my mind and might actually buy the album... we'll see. I am really impressed with their level of sophistication and professionalism from the quality of almost every aspect of their performance (the only downside being that at the Folk festival Josh seemed to be a tad arrogant), to the quality of their music production, to their extremely accessible website. All of it makes them seem to know how to succeed and well.

Has anyone else noticed this Folk and Gospel movement is really, really blowing up here in Minnesota. There are a ton of bands, especially in Duluth coming out with rootsy Americana music and may just put a little God in a couple of people... in a good way. One of the guys from this group is a pastor at a St. Paul Baptist church. Now don't go thinking I am going to find Jesus. I have already pretty much given up on that search. But if you are looking, rumor has it that he is a white guy with blue eyes and a beard, and tends to hang out with hookers, thieves, and backstabbers. (In all seriousness, the latter part about the company he kept is something I joke about, but find the most compelling about the story).


I decided to start posting the books I am reading in case anyone is looking for something to read.

Right now I am most of the way through "The Ivory and the Horn" by Charles deLint (1995). It is another collection of stories based in his North American fusion city of Newford and carries on a a few characters stories begun in "Dreams Underfoot" as well as a few new ones. It is clear that he felt a little more comfortable in his writing and is OK with being a good deal more graphic in his descriptions and language, which is good. Though the stories have fantastical elements and obvious moral lessons, they are not children's tales and would lose their punch Iif written as such.

I am also reading "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell. Follow the link above to read about it and get some excerpts. The concepts and theories are fascinating to me and, so far, seem to reinforce and add to some of my beliefs about trends, marketing, and business strategy. I am pretty sure that in one form or another, I will have a business someday and any preparation I have will be good. I found this book linked at the Okay Player records (home of the Roots, Erika Badu, india.arie, Jill Scott, Common, Leela James, etc.) site as the Book of the Month a while back. It isn't a crazy assumption, then, that the book is the inspiration for the Roots' album title.



Speaking of which, I am finalizing my design for my first real solo landscaping job and should be putting it into place in the coming weeks. I have a good budget and I think I will be able to do something really nice with it, including irrigation, retaining wall, and plants of all sizes and forms. After a lackluster summer which seemed so full of promise (I will get into that later) I really needed to find my pilot-star and this is it. I will post pictures of before/after later.

Well, I hope all is well with all of everyone.