Recently I rediscovered a tape, of the cassette variety, that an old friend had made for me. A friend who moved to Seattle years ago, and one I haven’t kept in touch with very well. But the tape brings back all kinds of memories of him. On it are classics from old faves like Texas is the Reason, Lifetime, Cap’n'Jazz, and Propagandhi. The songs so vividly recall a very different stage of my life and listening to them is, well, more than a little bittersweet.

Speaking of getting older…last night the husband made me a third birthday cake (this is getting ridiculous). This time it’s a chocolate almond midnight cake, from The Millennium Cookbook, and to be eaten after a family dinner tonight at Everest. My birthday celebrations started on June 8th this year, with the Neko Case show, and will likely wrap up this Friday night, when Zophia and I finally get together to exchange gifts.

Bonus: Haven’t posted about the show yet (I’m getting to that, honest) but I’ll post about the Andrew Bird posters, by illustrator extraordinaire Jay Ryan. I was tempted to buy ‘tables and chairs‘ (the only one they had available that night), but thought artwork depicting fuzzy farm animals on fire might not be the most little man-friendly. So I bought a t-shirt instead.
Plus: And Nike admits to making a “poor judgment call” with a full apology to Dischord Records and Minor Threat.
And: Below, the little man’s first lost tooth. It’s so twee.

Meant to post this bit Sunday night…
And we’re back. And tired. Overall, it was a lovely little trip. Even though a weekend spent in chlorine-filled pool water and drenched in torrential downpours was not good to my hair it was worth it. And things worked out such that the little man’s loose tooth did come out…but not until we were safely home. Also upon our return, I checked my email before doing anything else, naturally (those five or six hours offline were oh so hard on me), and was greeted by a gem from Devo’s webmaster. Apparently they’d seen a photo of my friend April’s tattoo (either on my site, or on flickr) and wanted her contact info…so they could add it to their gallery. She’s stoked, of course. This is even better than the post post modern man who wrote to me, saying that she’d popped up after some (devo)googling and he would like to marry her.
Still to come, a review of the Andrew Bird show…and some baby tooth pix. Selected photos from Madison below, or view the whole shebang here.
Bonus: If all stories were written like science fiction stories
Plus: Bitching and Moaning
And: Thursday night is the Mid-Summer RollerGirl Bash at the Nomad Pub. This weekend is CONVergence, and VloggerCue Midwest is right around the corner. Any other geeky goings on going on locally? Shoot me an email. It’s for a good cause, I promise.

Today is my Dad’s birthday. And mine as well. This morning I called to wish him the best, but I couldn’t help wishing he were here…with my little fam, in Madison. The best birthdays I’ve had were ones we celebrated together. And my Dad would have gone with me to The House on the Rock in a heartbeat. Unlike certain husbands who can be sticks in the mud. Ahem. But we are having a good time, even if we aren’t doing exactly what I want, and I had an excellent birthday dinner at Lao Laan Xang. Photographic evidence to be posted upon our return (we brought the laptop, but forgot the USB cable). For now I’m leaving the boys behind at the hotel, and heading to the Andrew Bird show. Be still my heart.

My current 5-minute crush…the national StoryCorps project. I’ve already posted a blurb about it over at TechEvangelists (a community weblog) so rather than repeating myself here, I’ll send yawl over there. But allow me to add…this is a project Receptionista really needs to contribute to, what with her fabulous voice and her previous public radio experience (the MobileBooth will be parked in Seattle in September).

Continuing on ‘the power in ordinary life’ theme…I know I often extoll the virtues of flickr, but I love how truly global it is, and how widespread its users are. One person favorited a photo of mine last night. I looked at her profile to find she lives in Ljubljana, Slovenija…and is looking forward to her vacation, soon, on the exotic-sounding Island of Hvar (that would be in Croatia), a place I had never before heard of, but now wouldn’t mind visiting. Neat. And way more interesting to find out about it this roundabout way, than having traditional media present me with their take on this place. And also more efficient than finding out through a pen pal (though I do have a soft spot for snail mail).

Bonus: One generally doesn’t associate radio with visuals, but I very much would like to see This American Life’s DVD, Lost Buildings, and the accompanying booklet. It’s not for sale yet (it was a pledge drive premium)…but hopefully soon. Looks like maybe this Fall.
Plus: It gets hot around here, and violence ensues. Just simmer down folks.
And: I won’t be going to that Serenity screening tonight (I know, how many times can I mention this) but I will be celebrating my birthday with some of my favorite people at one of my favorite restaurants. So there.
And another thing: Before bed last night I noticed something about my flickr photostream, and how many times it had been viewed. It has since rolled past 20,000. Madness.

The little man’s loose tooth, it hasn’t come out yet. I fear it’ll pop out whilst on our trip this weekend (not in the waterpark, please), and we’ll have to secure it for its safe return home. Or does the tooth fairy do road trips?

I’m on a few email lists for local movie theaters, mostly for the freebies. Today I skimmed an announcement that came in from Crown Theaters. The way my brain initially parsed it…Herbie Fully Loaded contains partial nudity. Whoops, wrong film. Weirder still, that was actually in reference to the update/remake of Bewitched. Samantha must be a bit saucier this time around.

In local-ish movie news…The Replacements’ Paul Westerberg has a few film scores under his belt already, but now he’s slated to do one of the voices…in Open Season, a full-length feature being made by Sony Pictures Animation. How odd.

Some neat movie news, via MNSpeak…

Cultural detritus and found object fans, you probably already know about Search and Rescue — screened selections from MN Film Arts’ 6500 title archive of 16mm films. City Pages has the story behind the collection in their profile of archivist Matt Bakkom. I hope these goodies end up online alongside the Prelinger archive someday. Until then, the next screening is June 28.

In movie news I meant to post yesterday…the McLibel documentary is showing at the Bell Auditorium, and local advocacy group Compassionate Action for Animals marked the occasion by supplying vegan cheesecake (from Muddy Paws). That may have been one night only, but the film is still showing tonight and tomorrow night. A little background…”McLibel documents the long-standing trial in the 1990’s between McDonald’s and two British activists who exposed, among other things, the cruelty to animals caused by McDonald’s practices.”

Bonus: Today the lovely Zophia returns to us from her sojourn in the Virgin Islands and it’s her birthday. Happy Birthday my dear!
Plus: And plus-sized. This article (from the New Yorker) is fabulous for two reasons. One, Leonard Nimoy, of all people, takes on Kirstie Alley’s abysmal Fat Actress show. And two, it clued me in to the fact that the man has been exhibiting his fine-art photography since the early seventies (who knew?) and his most recent models, in his “Maximum Beauty” exhibition, are what he refers to as “full-bodied people.” Fascinating, but not necessarily work-safe.
And: One week after opening day, and I still haven’t seen Batman Begins. So I guess it hasn’t begun for me yet, dammit.

Today might just feel like the longest day of the year…to the poor husband. Rather than a power outage, this time it’s another utility. We didn’t get the heads up until after I got home from work last night, and would have been completely oblivious…if the husband hadn’t run out to the hardware store last night, and spotted the hangtag on our door upon his return. The gist of it is the St. Paul Water Utility folks gave us less than 12 hours notice…that our water would be shut off all day, starting at 7:30am this morning. It makes little difference to me, as I’m generally up and showered before then, but the husband works from home, and rarely leaves home. He does have a shiny new laptop, paid for by his employer, but the nearest coffeeshop with Wi-Fi is 1.3 miles away, and he’s not a coffeeshop kinda guy. Oh well.
In better solstice news, at least it’s sunny here today, after yesterday’s rock ‘em sock ‘em storms. And it’s sunny in Seattle, which isn’t the best news for Defective Yeti, who has self-diagnosed himself with ’some kind of reverse photosynthesis’ (which he’s dubbed Heliophobia Photodissolution). But it looks like the festivities at Stonehenge went off without a hitch this year.
Bonus: Chuck’s sliding down a big hill. Aren’t we all? Sigh.
Plus: when i was young it seemed life was so beautiful
And: Wow. I sound kinda cranky today, but I’m not really. Honest. Maybe I’m just a little sad…that I finished reading Sunshine yesterday. For the uh, third time. I love Robin McKinley so.

It was another overly active weekend, much of it spent at multiple locations with various family members. But the big news is…the little man has a loose tooth. Really loose. Last night he really started wiggling it and worrying at it. This morning he asked to be taken to the dentist. I tried to explain that this wasn’t like the tooth troubles he had earlier in the Spring (when a cavity-filled baby tooth had to be removed before its time)…that this was a normal thing, that as he gets bigger his baby teeth will come out and be replaced by new, bigger teeth. And I gave examples of some of the slightly older kids he knows, who currently have gap-filled grins. But he’s not having it. He’s also not having any terribly solid foods. Last night he tried to eat corn on the cob with his side teeth before giving up. This morning he stuck with applesauce. And, as I was leaving the house, he had his finger firmly in his mouth, wiggling away at the little guy that’s giving him grief. The time has come for this tooth. I’m just afraid it’s going to come out when he’s at daycare…and he’ll lose it. Or swallow it.

In not so breaking news, I’m a bad influence…on myself. Last Thursday evening the little man and I headed to Sister Fun (a favorite store, which, as I previously mentioned, is going out of business) ostensibly to buy birthday presents for others. Which I did. But I also bought myself some Astroboy stationery, among other things.

And speaking of birthdays…mine is this coming Saturday already. For weird. If anyone’s taking note, I wouldn’t mind a big bunny t-shirt, in girly large, please. Or one of Loobyly’s lovely prints. Or a digital video camera, with a quick tutorial in the use of some decent video editing software. Or an advanced copy of Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys. Or a ticket to this Thursday night’s preview screening of Serenity at Southdale. Ok, I’ll stop now. Ahem.
(Please note that I don’t expect any of these things…I’m just saying.)

Bonus: When I think of works of art, aprons don’t generally come to mind. But I’d say Hilary’s handiwork definitely qualifies.
Plus: We’ll be out of town this coming weekend, but not in the right town, apparently. David Byrne is playing with The Arcade Fire Sunday night, at the Hollywood Bowl. But seeing Andrew Bird on my birthday will be enough of a consolation prize for me.

Jonathan has a wonderful rundown of stuff to see and hear. But let’s add a couple of things to that list. Like tonight’s Punk rock reading, at Arise! bookstore and resource center. And, after a winterlong hiatus, my friend’s band, Signal to Trust, will be playing a whirlwind weekend of shows with their new drummer. I plan to catch them Sunday night, at The Dinkytowner. Also worth listening to…last week Defective Yeti posted this bit of pure genius, Business Time, as performed by Flight of the Conchords…who describe themselves as “New Zealand’s 4th most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo.” Brilliant.
Bonus: Something I could see if I didn’t have such exquisitely crappy timing…there’s another advance screening of Serenity happening next week, but I missed the boat. Again. Hopefully there’s something to the rumors…that it might be released before September 30th after all.
Plus: Say it ain’t so…in sad news, I hear that the fabulous Sister Fun is closing. This came on the heels of Let it Be Records closing its doors yesterday. I hope this isn’t a sign of the viability of independent businesses in the Twin Cities.

Last night I was feeling a little tired and low, as I headed out to the Ted Leo show on my own. I needn’t have worried. The energetic performance would have been awesome enough, even by myself, but as soon as I secured my usual spot, at stage right, a gaggle of likewise aging hardcore kids converged on my location. So I got to rock out with the old gang, as we admired the indefatigable Mr. Leo (the guy should put out a rock and roll aerobics video, seriously). And at the end of the show we were all groaning about how achey and tired we were. It was funny…and sorta sad. Encore selections were entertaining too. First off, Bruce Springsteen’s Dancing in the Dark, which brought back memories of watching the world premiere of that video on MTV when I was eleven. Followed by another fabulous cover, of Stiff Little Fingers’ Suspect Device…though I will always associate that song with Naked Raygun. If the show had ended, oh, about a half hour earlier I may have been tempted to mosey across the street to Block E…for the midnight showing of Batman Begins. It’s all for the best. I’m tired enough as it is, and I’ll wait until the weekend to see it, when I’ve properly recuperated. Ah, the plight of the poorly aging hipster.
Bonus: In other movie news…the film Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean have been working on together, MirrorMask, now has a trailer online. For some reason it’s available exclusively through Yahoo, here. To be released stateside on September 30th.
Plus: Loobylu’s been working her tail off, getting her goods ready for a show. The pics look fabulous, but I wish I could see the display in person.
And: Ted Leo’s in-studio performance from yesterday. Mary Lucia was practially giddy and just gushing, but I don’t blame her.

Yesterday I was saddened to see that Joyland, an amusement park located in Wichita, Kansas, has closed…and is for sale on ebay. Though I’d never been there, I featured it in the novel I wrote last Fall for NaNo. Now if I ever get around to editing said novel I’ll have to figure out what to do about that particular setting. Hmmm….

For the second week in a row I am going out, on a Tuesday night, to First Avenue…to get my rock on. I’ll no doubt be paying the price tomorrow morning, but Ted Leo is totally worth it. Then the weekend after next I’ll be seeing Andrew Bird (in Madison). Why, three shows in June…it’s my month of music! Though there was a time when just three shows in one month would have seemed a sadly small number.

Last night the little man proclaimed that he is a blue fox, I am a red sloth, and the husband is a gray moose. Such apt animal associations, but the color coding…some sort of synaesthesia perhaps?

Bonus: A week from this Thursday, my neighborhood’s summer music and movies series starts. It might not be quite on par with the Walker’s series in Loring Park, but it is closer to home, and it kicks off with the little man-friendly Muppet Movie. What more could I ask for?
Plus: In other music news, Sigur Ros will be performing locally, at the State Theater, on September 24th.