The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet. - R. W. Emerson
Dormancy
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
The final leaves are dropping from the trees and the metaphor has not been lost on me. The landscape project is wrapped up for the season. I do regret to let it sit undone, but the winter is a good time to learn and ponder before taking more action. At least that is the lesson I see in the tree. I tidied up at the site on Saturday and took home some of the extra cash that the project brought. Given that I am kind of proud of the job and the experience, the cash is a large and welcome bonus (much like your ma').
Here are some pics in order from untouched to the present state of undone-ness.
As you can see, there are no plants. I still have yet to add a few more courses, or layers of stone, around much of the wall, bring in some more soil, sculpt a swale, put down fabric, add stone to the swale, then plant it, then mulch, then watch it grow. Kind of nice to be doing all of the stages of the work.
The Winter-rest is also time for other projects. Living in Minnesota (until we heed the Call of the West), my design work will be very light in the winter, so I will need other things to occupy my time. For now, given that I have a "real" job, I am able to focus on whatever fanciful nonsense I'd like. So I am volunteering at KFAI starting Monday. I am pretty excited, really. From what I understand, first you put in 9 hours of standard intern-style work such as data entry and fund-raising, then you choose other jobs such as working in the music library or "on-air" duties. Emily is convinced that through my life I am going to work in radio to some degree and given my esteem for music, community radio and KFAI overall, this is a good place to start... as a hobby.
Oh the Places You'll Go (a.k.a links)
Music: Speaking of KFAI, they posted a streaming version of the Vasen show that I went to a few weeks ago. If you want, I can make you an edited copy and throw it on disk. There was a lot chatting in between the music which may not be interesting to those who aren't into the group.
Website: I will be posting a political statement here in a couple of days, but regarding thinking to the future, check out the Unity 08 website for a concept they are developing. It is still Democrats and Republicans, but at least they are trying something different.
In Pictures: See Spot run. See Mittens purr. See Mittens kick Spot with a roundhouse (A fake picture, but funny nonetheless).
and The Place: This is the Glockenspiel. I have said it before and will again that if you are looking for a chill atmosphere with the best bartender in the cities, go to the Glock. The music isn't loud, the lights aren't turned down too low, the beer selection is better than most, and again, Brian is awesome. Not a place to find love, likely, but there is a whole lot of like between friends.
Make sure that you go to First Avenue, damn it! It appears to be an 18+ party this year which is both good and bad.
Regardless, you should come because I may just enter the costume contest this year and I could use your support. The costume isn't the most intense in construction or design, but I am counting on the nostalgic subculture vote.
If you do come, look for Bob Ross, a Geisha, Wolverine, and Medusa, all hanging out, likely upstairs.
In the meantime, here's a photo from this weekend.
Emily always likes to do two costumes. She had me singing the Dead Milkmen until...
well, its back in my head again now, so...
Anyway, plenty of links and such coming, just as soon as I can.
I have been trying to get back to this bloody blog for a week now, but always find myself distracted.
Much of my time is being pulled from me by this or that. Some things good, some bad, but regardless, such is life.
There are only a few updates there but they are very worthy of mention.
The music is an old friend and bandmate from over a decade ago. She has progressed well beyond what we were doing back in the day and has produced some great music- a sort of downtempo electro-pop music... She has a CD release party this weekend at the Acadia. Go check her out - $5, come on!
The place is The Chatterbox pub where we ended up on Thursday. It is a strange place which seems like a place we may have dreamed up a few years ago as a place we might create - a bar with interesting food and old crappy video games you can play whilst hanging out on cheap couches - but seemed to be lacking a lot somehow. The wait staff all seemed to have visited our table to check on us and take our orders. And though they were all genuinely employed there, it gave us an idea for a funny scheme in which we could pose as staff, take an order at some strangers' table, then go sit down and laugh as their food never arrives. Mean? - yes. Comical? - yes. Bad karma? - definitely. Will we go back? - probably, but not my first choice, despite some very tasty home-made ginger ale.
The website is something I found whilst researching how to build a dry stone wall. It is some collection of Canadian instructional brochures that are pretty awesome... and you don't even have to be Canadian to benefit from them. Luckily, they are written in English and not Canadian.
And the book is related. It is one that I bought used a couple of years ago that teaches you everything from how to set your house on a piece of land, to how to can food, build a split rail fence, and I think even has crappy old folk tunes in there somewhere. Good stuff. Definitely useful come Armageddon.
For next Thursday, Jim had a good idea. Friggin' bowling! And diphtheria risk aside, I think that whipping heavy objests at skinny white metaphors of our individual frustrations seems like a good old time. So again, if anyone else is interested, let me know and come with us. More details later.
I don't intend for all of the Thursdays to be like this necessarily, but something told me we should be downtown St. Paul for the first. There is something about this little cold spell and downtown St. Paul that want to hang out together in my mind. It may be that it reminds me of one of the gatherings back there somewhere in which we all decided to walk off our intoxications from the Glock down to the-park-with-the-gazebo-whose-name-I-cannot-recall. It was good times and seems to be a fitting place to start.
So in looking at downtown's places-to-go, I remembered that the Minnesota Museum of American Art frequently has live music in the gallery and found that this festival is starting tomorrow and lasts through the weekend. Listen here for a sample of one of the musicians playing (click on Instinct Gregaire).
I will warn you that it is jazz, but part of a new style of jazz that is a variant on old avant-garde stuff, but much more palatable - think Mr. Bungle without the metal. Oh.. .and the tickets are $7 a pop, which in the scheme of things is not a lot. But regardless, I think we should be stepping out of our elements to try something different. We never know what we might find we appreciate. I know nearly all of you are artistic types, so the art museum might possibly appeal to you if the music does not and I haven't heard of any of us going to this museum before. Anyway, this all starts at 7:30, and I theoretically have class until 8:15, so those going may have to go there before me.
After (or instead of) that, we can head to The Liffey (no live music on Thursdays unfortunately), McGoverns (no live music ever to my knowledge), or wander downtown St. Paul until we find something we can all dig on. I am sure there is something.
In short, I want this to be an experience - mildly contrived, yes, but then we'll see how it goes. If it isn't that exactly, at least we are getting together... which is the important part.
So...?
You game?
*** Added later: Also, Arnelia's in Frogtown has Karaoke!!! That would be awesome if people are up for something completely different. Then we can mosey downtown for a wander.
Last night I saw The Bad Plus at Ted Mann; last Thursday was Vasen at the Cedar Cultural Center; and we just got our pre-sale tickets to Ray LaMontagne at the Orpheum - 5th Row, albeit side aisle.
I am finally getting to see all of these bands that I have been wanting to check out since I first heard them: the Pixies a couple years ago; Alice In Chains and the Black Crowes this summer.
After the Ray La Montagne show, there will only be a few left.
Give me Iron and Wine, and somehow ressurect John Bonham so I can see Zeppelin, Shannon Hoon so I can see Blind Melon, and Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane and I will die musically fulfilled. Until then, I have to keep on listening.
Luckily this week there have been a ton of new releases I am looking forward to listening to: Beck you know Beck The Decemberists Portland-area whale-ship dreamers Amos Lee soulful singer-songwriter The Album Leaf quiet spacy intrumental and check out this band, Rodrigo y Gabriela. They are, as the links states, former thrashers doing modern flamenco.
Just yesterday, though, I decided it is time for me to be more familiar with older (and I mean oleder) music, so I am going to start listeing to "classical" in hopes that I will be able to separate the greats in my head.
After that, the Bad Plus has inspired me to learn more about jazz, an area in which my knowledge is severely lacking. I know the names, but with only a few of them do I really know the music. And I needto know who played bass on Ole Coltrane - still my favorite jazz piece so far.
