weapons of massdistraction

Last weekend was a fabulous whirlwind. Highlights? Friday’s Art-A-Whirl happenings in NE Minneapolis, including dinner at Brasa before a friend’s art opening at Fox Tax Gallery. Followed by The Slow Mirror & The Metronome with Zak Sally on a boat and STNNNG on a raft on the river. Saturday afternoon was a hectic one spent running around - photo assisting at a wedding - but that evening was enjoyably mellow. Stopped by a going away to-do at The Muddy Pig (I’d never been inside!) before going on to see Dark Dark Dark at the Turf Club with friends. It was just the thing. And Sunday was perfectly lovely. A grown-up brunch, eating outdoors at Seward Cafe before engaging in child retrieval mode. Then it was on to MCBA’s SpringCon 2010 where we were all overstimulated to the point of exhaustion. But in a most excellent way. And this entire week and weekend promise to be just as busy. Actually, we are in GO-GO-GO mode for the forseeable future. BIG things are happening.

Five good distractions from the busy-busy-ness:

• I’ve been waiting for this movie for a while now…Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead. Squeee! In other movie news, seems I have free passes to see a screening of Ken Loach’s Looking For Eric. Could be good. And further into the future…a geek peek at Tarsem Singh’s Immortals. Yesss.
• A bittersweet remembrance, Lars Ulrich on Ronnie James Dio. I am planning my own memorial at home - finally watching the documentary Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey. And also Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny, just for the heck of it.
• A friend pointed out that King Diamond was in a band, before Mercyful Fate - Denmark’s Brats were fantastic! But Punk Not Profit describes their 1980 lp as: “a great lesson in sound and attitude;; hi energy-hard rock–punk-metal original vagina bifocals in scented influence not opium.” Umm, k. I just like it.
• Over the years I’ve seen cameras on various animals to produce interesting results. Like the CatCams and a variety at the Museum of Animal Perspectives. But I didn’t realize aerial photography with pigeons had been done so very long ago. Neat.
• Oh, the silliness: World’s Best Relationship Tips from Hyperbole and a Half

There was a particularly pitiful moment in my Monday where I was sooooooo swamped (after an action-packed workday, while making dinner, before racing off to a summer camp orientation for the kid) I actually entertained a crazy astronaut thought, ever so briefly, thinking “I wish someone else could go to the bathroom for me.” Umm, no. That ain’t right. Chaos will have to be better managed to avoid such low points in the future. Thankfully I had some quiet time to myself in the late evening, spent with a book (Dead in the Family, the latest in the Sookie Stackhouse series). And in this way my precarious balance will be maintained.

Celebrity is a fascinating construct. And one I’m largely unaffected by. Sure, I respect and admire talent. And I’ll admit to a certain giddiness when faced with people whose work I enjoy - like when I met Kevin Shields and Bilinda Butcher of My Bloody Valentine at All Tomorrows Parties. Or when I’ve interacted with Neil Gaiman or Bruce Campbell. But that has less to do with their fame and more to do with me (and a whole lot of other people) truly connecting with what they actually do. So recently, when I was invited to sit in on a conference call with the entertainer known as Common, I was a little unsure about it. I’m not incredibly familiar with his work (though I took my Dad to see Wanted, which he appears in). I quickly realized the others in on this are more focused music/entertainment bloggers. This blog is and always has been about any and everything that strikes my fancy. But I have my audience. And heck, sometimes it’s good to do something a little out of your element.

On Tuesday there were about a dozen of us on the line with Common and his PR person. We were each instructed to submit three questions ahead of time and were allowed to ask one each. Mine was about what kind of music - old or new - he’s been listening to lately. Sounds like they made a lot of feel-good mix tapes on the set of this latest movie (he’s currently promoting Just Wright, which got a favorable review from Ebert). Common listed an assortment of artists like Jamiroquai, Lil Rain, Shuggie Otis, Bjork, Lauryn Hill, Radiohead, Drake, D’Angelo, and Kanye West. Not entirely surprising selections (except for the Bjork maybe). Other bloggers had questions focusing on the ties between basketball and rap/hip-hop and yes, Common acknowledged that he still has some not-so-serious hoop dreams. More interesting to me - he admitted his dream role would be to portray Marvin Gaye. Another blogger was in fashionista mode. Sounds like Common is in on the Summer of Dapper plan, into looking gentlemanly while wearing ascots and tailored Marc Jacobs clothing. But he scored points with me for saying he doesn’t pay attention to brand names but is just into wearing what looks/feels right.

There was much talk all around about Queen Latifah’s influence, about how she understood where he was coming from as a musician and actor. And the sage advice she gave him about getting to the next step in his career while growing as an artist and person. In that way he sounded just like any of the other artists/musicians/actors I’ve known in my life. Focusing on doing good work now, and building onto it for the next big project.

On a much MUCH smaller scale in terms of “celebrity”…yesterday I was but a little tiny blip in a small corner of the interwebs while being twitterviewed on yes, twitter, by Joel E. Carlson. This meant I had more and different eyeballs on my output than I usually do. But I came out unscathed. And hopefully not sounding like too much of a dork. And if you are here, reading this now because of it, well, welcome friend.

Though I had a pretty stellar weekend this gloomy, non-Spring-like Monday leads me down the rabbit hole to darker thoughts.

• A depressing yet fascinating photo project: The Places We Live. According to the United Nations urban slums are the world’s fastest growing form of housing. More than one billion people live in urban slums and that number will double in the next 25 years.
• Troubled Bridge Over Water: translated excerpts from Mr. Chen Si’s blog (in Chinese) The Bridge Diaries, where he documents his experience trying to stop people from jumping off the Yangtze River Bridge in Nanjing, China.
• Fantasy illustrator Frank Frazetta has died. I grew up staring at his otherwordly scenarios, sword-wielding men and barely clad yet buff women. Sad.
• Also dead? R.I.P. Lena Horne. What an incredible - and incredibly frustrating - career:
  

  “I was unique in that I was a kind of black that white people could accept,” she once said. “I was their daydream. I had the worst kind of acceptance because it was never for how great I was or what I contributed. It was because of the way I looked.”

• File this next bit under equally horrifying and hilarious. I was unaware that “reveal cakes” for baby showers had become a thing. The best part? In the comments of that article someone linked to what may just be the worst Cake Wrecks yet: Womb With a View - cakes with sonograms! “Thank you, edible image printing and 3D ultrasound imaging! Who knew two technologies could come together to create something so deliciously horrifying?” NOOOOO! It could easily be some sort of bad B movie gimmick.
• I’m not the only one who gets hit by bouts of wanderlust when hearing about happenings in NYC and LA (at least Rogue Taxidermy is close to home). Speaking of LaLaLand, my son now has his first biological cousin, a relatively new addition to the clan, who we have not yet met. I plan to get us to LA/Pasadena sometime at the end of August to visit with his relations, if possible.

Despite some expected sadness my Mother’s Day wound up being pretty darned fabulous, thanks to friends and family. Now if we could just get this ghastly weather situation turned around…

Yesterday’s day trip to Duluth was a resounding success, despite some minor setbacks. Upon arrival we discovered the big used bookstore we’d been looking forward to pillaging is now out of commission. And Obscuriosities Retro also seems to be closed for business (but still taunts and tantalizes with a storefront that makes it appear as though they’re open). A promising looking vintage store on Superior is still in business…just not open Mondays or Tuesdays (when we were there). But still, we forged ahead and had a fabulous day. One that went by far too quickly. My companion and I both had good luck at the Ragstock. An enjoyable lunch was had at Sara’s Table followed by a stop at the Duluth co-op. Then it was back into the thick of things at a couple more thrift stores. One was the crappiest ever run by the world’s crabbiest and most unhelpful people - amusingly so - and at another I was tempted to purchase a most ridiculous 80s era padded shoulder jacket. After a stop at the Electric Fetus we nearly lost ourselves in a cavernous antiques mall. But we extricated ourselves and on the way out I ran into my old friend Barrett Chase on the street (while he was on a quest to attain manhood). And then it was all over in a flash. Didn’t end up having time to grab drinks with some other friends but instead stopped by a Goodwill on the way out of town. And on return drive we enjoyed mix CDs along with some quality Iraqi heavy metal from the band Acrassicauda. I still need to see the documentary featuring them.

Today has not been quite so fabulous. My hump day has been pretty bumpy. It’s been CRANKY O’CLOCK pretty much ALL DAY LONG. So here’s a bunch of grumpy-battling gems:

• John Waters narrates the tiny world of big time murder. Here’s a clip from OF DOLLS AND MURDER, a documentary by Susan Marks and John Kurtis Dehn. They’ve “almost finished this feature documentary that explores a haunting collection of dollhouse crime scenes and our universal fascination with murder. From CSI and real-life forensics, to the Body Farm and a crime fighting granny.” More here: Art of Murder.
• In other documentary news…it’s just been announced that Strange Powers: Stephin Merritt and the Magnetic Fields will open Wednesday, Oct. 27, at New York’s Film Forum with a limited release around the U.S. and Canada TBA.
• My love for Roger Ebert has just grown exponentially.
  

  This, for the benefit of future rock historians, is the transscript of a screenplay I wrote in the summer of 1977. It was tailored for the historic punk rock band the Sex Pistols, and was to be directed by Russ Meyer and produced by the impresario Malcolm McLaren. Who Killed Bambi?

• Enjoy the strangely titled Poems for Melting Children from this always interesting blog. And a bonus blog: stumbled across Feral Eyes.
• Since I recently posted an interview with Lightning Bolt’s bass player, how about one with the other half? Fort Thunder artist on art, music and Providence’s mill scene
• I would love to see Mark Ryden’s Olde Tyme Art Show in NYC but will have to make due with this time lapse video of him painting one of the main pieces.
• I should just unsubscribe from the All Tomorrows Parties related mailings to spare myself the aggravation. What I don’t know can’t hurt me, right? Unfortunately I do know that one of my all time favorite bands, The Clean, will be performing in the UK two weeks from today. And I won’t be there to bear witness to it. Unless someone comes up with wormhole technology right quick.
• Now for a shout-out to some locals: “MPLS.TV spotlights the unique culture of Minneapolis by featuring local artists, musicians and businesses in an entertaining and insightful way. MPLS.TV aims to foster a sustainable community of creativity and growth”
• The trailer for Robert Rodriguez’s upcoming movie Machete, with bonus Cinco de Mayo message to Arizona. Amazing. And just what I needed today.
• And lastly, what the fuck should I make for dinner? Actually has some decent suggestions (but not actual recipes) for omnivores and vegetarians alike.

Now to continue fighting off this crappy migraine. And comforting my kid, who took a nasty spill down the stairs after school. What a day. Oy vey.

Earlier I was crying while making dinner. I hadn’t planned to. Or expected to. I’d been happily listening to a re-broadcast on MPR of a recent Neil Gaiman talk. He is my favorite storyteller and I have seen/heard him give many such talks in the past, covering much of the same material. But it struck a chord when he spoke of his father’s sudden death. And there I was, getting weepy at the kitchen sink, thinking about my brother and the date one week from now. (Sure, I may be extra hormonal right now - gee, thanks PMS! - but I’m not about to sign up for mymonthlycycles.com.) Why on earth does Mother’s Day have to coincide with the anniversary of my brother’s death? Either annual event is painful enough on its own but the combo really packs a wallop. I’ve been estranged from my biological mother for nearly half of my life and have maintained an overly complicated relationship with my step-mother for nearly 3/4 of my life. Because of such tenuous bonds I never planned to become a mother myself. But when I first learned I was pregnant with the now not-so-little man…part of me felt that by bringing a new member of the Morrow clan into the world I would be, in some strange way, replacing my brother. In hindsight I fully admit I was lonely at the time. Though it has worked out as (un)planned. In my son I do have a creative, artistic companion who shares many of my interests…and my father’s dominant genes. But I am still his mother more than a friend, with all the responsibility that entails. And as a mostly single mother for the long haul, there really isn’t anyone to celebrate me on this odd holiday. But I wouldn’t want there to be. I’ll be too preoccupied with remembering my brother.

In more upbeat news, our weekend was fairly pleasant. Battles were waged against entropy and bureaucracy with many small victories to be claimed. And we enjoyed our Free Comic Book Day at The Source and had a creative dinner guest who drew an amusingly angry, homicidal teapot for us. This morning I snapped a self-portrait for the “Moment in Time” NY Times mosaic. And this afternoon we ventured forth to the Heart of the Beast May Day celebrations, as we often do, but held back a bit. Admiring the event from atop a hill rather than getting down into the thick of things was a-ok. We needed a slightly mellow weekend as the week ahead promises to be delightfully action-packed.