the New Ides of March is on the 20th

Ok... like many of you out there, I look hella-forward to March
Madness (college Basketball) every year because I live for the
opportunity to let all my co-workers know how much more I know about
College Basketball than they do.

So lets flashback to Tuesday - the 18th of March. Co-Workers gather
at my desk and they start asking me who I think can go... so I
look up and I tell them. I'm going to wait until I hear what Bob
Ryan (of the Boston Globe) has to say.

Bob Ryan has a weekly call on the Tony Kornhiser show and as far as
I'm concerned - he's one of the best assessors of College Basketball
talent in the country.

www.thiswebsitestinks.com

- has been keeping tallies on Guest
brackets (on the TK show) so I decided to go there for his picks
instead of navigating through the Boston Globe site.

this was a mistake on my part.

I should know better than to go with what a Writer says on radio.
It's easy for these guys to go on radio and sound ballsy... but if
you don't check what they commit to in print - then it doesn't matter
what they say on a local radio show that gets podcasted to the net.

So... i decided to go with the radio picks and Mr. Bob "wanna be a
bad ass on radio" Ryan gets me 11 of 5 games right and I lost out on
a sweet sixteen team. (thank you very little OJ Mayo)

To make matters worse - I have a co-worker who went to the Boston
Globe website and he USED Bob Ryan's newspaper PICKS!!! Is there
no honor among thieves?

The new Ides of March is on the 20th.

Chimeracon (sp?)

Received an invite over the weekend to attend an event in town called Chimeracon. A comic-con of sorts but with a focus put on board games. Well... I should limit it to board games. There's a number of games at the event... video games, card games, board games and the games that require statues, little tanks, tables that have terrain like environments.

My friend Robert is really into board games and he told me about Indie games that are made available at these events. He picked one up that goes by the name of "Smugglers of the Galaxy"... a game we got to actually break out at the event and play with a few people who also attended the event.

The con was sorta small in comparison to the Comic Con's I've been to in Detroit - but it was fun nonetheless. I'd go to another one if it were guaranteed to be bigger.

back in texas.

Don't know what it is about not having time to post to the blog when
I'm at home. You'd think that I'd post with more frequency, with
being able to post from the comfort of home.

The past 3 days have been a bit of a blur. After touching down in
Texas on Friday night, my plans to attend SXSW were changed due to my
parents electing to stick around for a few extra days in San Antonio.

A decision I was more than welcome to accommodate. It gave me a
chance to stay in town and catch a show by the Aggrolites that I
wanted to attend with a friend here in San Antonio.

The show was nothing short of awesome. The turnout was great. The
mixture of people : skins, punks, indie kids really surprised me.
The bill sorta had something for everyone tho'. I showed up when
Channel One (SKA band from San Antonio) hopped on stage to start
their set. Their musicianship was quite high and they had a number
of songs I really enjoyed drinking brews to.

The second band was a Punk band that goes by Flatfoot 56. They
played with an insane amount of energy and a throng of supporters
danced throughout their entire set.

The Aggrolites delivered the goods at the end of the night. My
favorite moment came towards the end of the set where they teased the
crowd with some Motown songs by the Temptations.

I can't recall the last time I attended a show where almost everyone
in attendance danced their ass off. I think it may have been a
Dismemberment Plan show in Detroit.

Anyhoo... good times.

.alamo city rollie.

Twin Cities - Closing Thoughts

Entering my final day in the Twin Cities.... typing this entry at the Minni/St. Paul Int. Airport.

I opted to get here extra early so that I could enjoy a sit down lunch and wrap up some work on the laptop before I zone out for the weekend.

I can't believe how much fun I had in the Twin Cities. I really haven't had a chance to sit down and pen my thoughts on the city... so now seems like a good time as any.

My observations... The city of St. Paul and the city of Minneapolis are freakishly green, hip and healthy for the Midwest. The cities feel close knit in that the roads are narrow and a person can get around by foot or bike with ease. The city (in my opinion) would benefit from a mass-transit system like a railway/subway. I took a number of major/minor streets to go form one town to another with ease... a first time visitor needs to pay very close attention to St. Names tho'. Roads change names when you cross the Mississippi and streets have N/S/W/E identifications on them that will baffle the shit out of you.

Both cities subscribe to having their blocks ascend in numbers from the Mississippi -- out. Which is fine... you can sorta figure out where the hell your at by determining if you're ascending or descending by street numbers.

I found myself wanting to pull over a number of times but found it hard to find parking. A number of the streets still had large blocks of ice thawing so the narrow road ways were narrower and parking slots don't make it easy for those driving SUV's that aren't accustomed to driving SUV's.

Things to Do in the Twin Cities when you're not up for Looking for Records

So it may seem like I only took in record stores on my visit... I have a few more record store reviews to log in so quit your bitching.

I also had a chance to take in a number of the local sights. I have some friends who moved here by way of Detroit and they took me out one night to become more aquatinted with a part of town affectionately known as "uptown". I spent some time in this area on Thursday afternoon/evening... I didn't bust out my camera to take photos of everything I found interesting. I can tell you however that I would totally have a cab drop me off on Henniepin (sp?) and I'd walk up and down the fucking blvd. until I get shin splints.

I walked by countless bars, shops, book stores, green grocery stores, restaurants, design studios, coffee shops, pizza parlors, record stores and theaters I could spend hours at.

If you're into Coffee. Minneapolis is going to be a treat for you. There's indie/commercial coffee shops everywhere and its rare to every walk/drive by a shop at anytime and not see the place filled to the gills.

If you're into theater - Minneapolis has an obscene amount of theaters. I took two major roads and I drove by 8 visible marquees/performance spaces. I can only imagine how many are in both cities combined. If time permitted I would have really liked to have seen a performance.

If you're into music - this is a big passion of mine so I've been doing reviews of shops I've been to this week. I've really only scraped the surface... I saw a few record stores I didn't get to stop in because of my limited time in the "city". While I didn't go into a store that completely made me swoon I found myself content with having an obscene amount of store options. Anyone living in the Twin Cities should be really happy about having the amount of stores that dedicate themselves to music. Especially when record stores are closing everywhere throughout the states.

If you're into Art - I didn't get a chance to really visit the Walker museum, but its one of the most important contemporary art museums of the country. The building structure is amazing and I would have gone in but time never really permitted after I discovered where and what it was.

If you're in Bars and Eats - I didn't frequent that many bars but the ones I stopped into were really cool. I drove by a number of bars that have amazing praises. One of which is the Nye's Polonaise Room. My friend Harlo told me that the bar was voted by Esquire as the coolest bar in the US. I tried my best to squeeze in a visit Thursday evening - but I forgot quarters to pay for parking and the place was fucking crawling with cops. The twin cities (specifically the downtown) go out of their way to remind you that there is no free parking -ever or anywhere. A person could make a fortune if they installed coin machines next to ATM's.

I walked by a number of people offering to give them a dollar for one fucking quarter and people sorta shrugged and walked away without really helping me.

In their defense - I'm as big as Grape Ape so picture a shaved yeti asking to break a dollar in a parking lot.

If there's one thing I really regret... its not going into the Nye's Polonaise Room.... the place had free parking behind it but I couldn't fit the Murano into the tight spot.

Anyhoo... the twin cities rocks vicious wang. I look very forward to coming back one day.

for the last time this week,
.twin city rollie.

Stuff White People Like

Ran across this blog this evening while checking out the Rovers message board. I've gone through about 24 entries and they're all pretty spot on. ;)

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/

Extreme Noise

Ok... so the last record store I stopped into was "Extreme Noise" on 407 W. Lake St. in Minneapolis.

Extreme Noise is an all-volunteer punk rock store that puts all its profits into keeping the store open and keeping the punk rock scene going in the Twin Cities.

While the music offerings don't stray to far away from Punk Rock - the store is a must visit none-the-less.

While there I picked up a CD by the Exploding Hearts - Shattered (outtakes, b-sides and covers) I didn't even know that the CD existed so I was really thrilled to run across it at the store.

While there I checked out a number of books that were of some interest but many of the books that were offered were already on my bookshelf at home.

The store also has a large number of zines too.

.tCr.

Eclipse Records

One of the most elusive record stores in town was one called "Eclipse Records" on University Ave.

The store was minutes away from the place I was visiting but the place keeps hokey hours like 2pm to 11:00pm. So I never got to visit the place during my lunch breaks and I never wanted to put up with traffic after the work day to visit... so I sorta forced myself to check it out after work on Thursday.

I can't stress how glad I was to do that.

The first thing You'll notice when you walk in is that the store, the space I mean - is freakishly big. The store plans on making the back part of the building a proper staging area for in store performances - but they're in the works of getting all that figured out.

I don't have the skinny on the history of the store. It was open from 1999 to the 2002? It then closed its door and it moved over to its present location. They kept the doors closed for 3 or 4 years tho'... so the new location is about a year and 2 months old.

Truthfully... the music selection is kinda sparse. They're getting music in all the time and there were a number of good albums in the store... they didn't have anything I really wanted tho'.

The store has a number of amazing posters in it tho'. I talked to the store owner about Jay Ryan (Bird Machine) and Aesthetic Apparatus posts that were on the wall. I saw a number of other local show/artist posters also on the walls and I got a quick history lesson about some of the stuff on the walls.

Of all the places I went to, Eclipse felt the best to be in. Maybe it was Replacement posters circa 83 on the wall.. or maybe it was select used CD collection the store owners have agreed to keep on the shelves.

The place is just oozing with promise and I wish nothing but the best for the people down at Eclipse. If you're in the city - be a doll and spend a dollar there. The store is possibly the finest record store I've been to in 2008. Its just a notch behind End of an Ear in Austin TX.

Hymies Vintage Records

Playing a little catch up here... I should have posted this review yesterday but time didn't permit.

During my lunch break yesterday, I had an opportunity to visit Hymies Vintage Record store in Minneapolis - located on the corner of 33rd and E. Lake dr.

The store was recommended to me by a person I'm training in St. Paul. She'd never been to the store but she had heard that they had some pretty choice vinyl. I don't collect to much vinyl these days... but I'm always up for looking so I went out in hopes of possibly finding an illusive 7" or LP.

The exterior of the building is very different from any of the record stores I've been to in Minnesota so I took a number of shots. Come to think of it... a lot of the record stores I've been to in the twin cities have had some really interesting spaces.

After opening the front door, visitors make their way up sort staircase that turns slightly to the right into a 2nd floor that is filled to the gills with Vinyl. Walls are adorned with posters, records and music memorabilia.

I spent about 20 minutes inside and I couldn't absorb everything that was going on around me. 20 minutes wouldn't allow a first time visitor to appreciate the classic turn tables and technology in the store. A visitor needs a solid hour to properly go through a genre of music. I hit up the international/latin records in hopes of finding an album by Eduardo Davis - but I had no success. :(

Anyhoo - the store was ACE. Highly recommend it for those who like to pick up albums on vinyl. They don't cater very well to indie or imports. Lots of classic rock tho'. I was hoping to pick up a Replacement album for shits n' giggles but they didn't have any.

Go figure.

.twin city rollie.

Quality Programing before Bed

Why is it that when you really need to get some sleep... something worth while is on TV?

After picking up a bottle of water from the front desk I came back to my room to see an episode of Seinfeld on. Of all the fucking episodes... which one are they showing?

The Contest

I rarely watch Seinfeld on syndication. Its sorta on every channel and its a challenge sometimes to find something that isn't a Sienfeld rerun some nights.

Anyhoo... the Master of My Domain episodes is one of my faves. Its on and I desperately need to get some sleep.

ugh... in the Twin City.

Day 3 : Meeting Friends in Minnesota

Day 3 is about to come to a close for me... I don't have any time right now to post on the days events. I'll have to play catch up tomorrow.

In short : Day 2 of training went well, I went to a very cool Vintage Vinyl Record store, I had dinner with some good friends who moved from Detroit to the Twin Cities a little over a year ago and I was taken on a very cool trip about Minneapolis.

I really wish I could into chapter and verse about how awesome tonight was... but I really need to get some sleep.

.tCr.

Walk on the Wild Side

As many of you know... my body is a temple.

I start most of my days skipping out on lunch, in favor of sleeping in. I've been getting a lot more sleep in recent nights on account of not having to take Elliot on walks - so I've been getting up early and dorking around the hotel lobby in the morning - reading free papers.

One of the perks from staying at the Marriott (sp?) is getting your hands on some free breaky.

I've been hitting up cereals with some consistency, but ran across these Jimmy Dean's things today. They sorta work like popcorn bags. You throw em in the microwave for 45 seconds - then boom. They're done.

Mine popped in the microwave and I got a cheezy money shot all over the unit downstairs. My stomach has been upset all day and I'm blaming it squarely on this biscuit.

.tCr.

The Electric Fetus : Record Store Review

Forgot to mention this in my previous post... but the reason I drove into Minneapolis yesterday was to visit a record store that was voted as the best record store in the Twin Cities for 2007.

The record store I checked out today goes by the name of the Electric Fetus on the corner of 4th St. and Franklin Ave.

The store is surprisingly big and they carry a number of things I didn't expect to see there. Example : Clothes, glass blown one hitters, books, jewelry, and nicknacks.

Before I get into some of the music I purchased last night... I want to quickly show off some killer air fresheners I picked up. A number of months ago my sister got me a air freshener that said something to the affect of "I love cops" and it smelled of doughnuts. Since then, I've been picking up strange air fresheners when ever I run across them. I think I'm currently hanging a Nome taking a shit into a log... I'll make sure to take a photo of that before I take it down.

Anyhoo - the two I picked up tonight are seen in this picture. Pretty fierce huh?


Music

OK... so here's the skinny on The Electric Fetus. I've only been to 2 music stores so far, but this one is far better than Cheapo Records. The selection is pretty big and the staff is very knowledgeable. The store would possibly benefit from not having to sell things like - books, one hitters, jewelry and nicknacks - but they all became forgivable offenses after scoring some things I've been meaning to get on CD for some time.

Here are some of my purchases.

• A Place To Bury Strangers - S/T
• Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha
• Nada Surf - Lucky
• Nada Surf - the Proximity Effect (replacing a cassette I used to listen to a lot when I was in college)
• Beach House - Devotion

Along with the purchase I got a small bag with a number of CD/EP stuffers... the one that intrigues me the most is a Yep Roc Records music sampler.

All in all, the record store is pretty dope. I recommend it highly and unless I get a recommendation to check out another record shop - it may be the best place I'll get to visit while here.

.twin city rollie.

Day 2 : Trek to Minneapolis

My second day in the twin cities is coming to a close... not a whole lot to report on.
Today was my first day of training and that went exceptionally well. I'm getting to teach two very sharp people so we managed to move through the training very quickly.

After the work day completed - I made it back to the hotel to decompress and got some work related action items done.

Managed to squeeze in a solid nap... then headed into Minneapolis for a little visit.

The Twin City - isn't all that different from St. Paul... I drove over the Mississippi and walked around for a little bit.

Wish I kept better track of how many times I've "crossed the Mississippi" in my life time. I've crossed over it in a number of locations... this is the northernmost crossing and I've been to New Orleans so I've crossed it at its Southern most crossing also.

There's something very calming about that.

.twin city rollie.

Cheapo Records

Got a chance to visit a local record store today. It was kiddy corner to a White Castle I went to, so I decided to stop in.

The record store was pretty big and their offerings were freakishly good for a place that caters to those who bring in Used CD's, DVD's and Vinyl.

I'd describe it as the best CD EXCHANGE (San Antonio record store chain) I've ever set foot in. But wouldn't go out of my way to endorse it.

I didn't pick anything up while there... the "local music" bin was very expansive but I'm not familiar enough to the Twin City sound to just blindly pick something up.

I did pick up a copy of City Pages tho'. City Pages is the weekly reader here in the Twin Cities... I've flipped through a few times but need to really examine it to map out proper places to visit.

more tomorrow...

.twin city rollie.

Twin Cities

With photo uploads working again... I can finally post a proper entry on my first day in St. Paul MN.

The Cold

Ok... lets just get this out of the way. Yes. Its Cold here in Minnesota. It's not unbearably cold tho'. I think the highs are going to be in the 30's for a good part of the week so I may get a chance to see a lot of the snow around me melt away.



The Crave

I have a short list of things I want to take in on my personal time... one of things I got to cross off today : White Castle

I can't remember the last time I got White Castle... I didn't go out of my way to get some before I left Detroit. I occasionally get the crave however in Texas. It recently intensified when I caught Harold and Kumar on TBS the other day.

Did up a proper sack of sliders and fries with a big time coke. It was epic.



.tCr.

The Current

Blogger appears to be handling images a little better this evening... here comes the first of a number of posts I've been meaning to post all afternoon.

The Current

Ok... I need to seriously plug the fuck out of a local radio station here in the Twin Cities called : the Current. I stumbled onto it when I climbed into my rental car... and I haven't stopped listening since.

I seriously can't recall the last time I was this riveted to a radio station.

check out this playlist. this is what I've listened to since 10:00pm


10:16 Generation X - Your Generation
10:12 The Olivia Tremor Control - Define a Transparent Dream
10:07 Spoon - The Underdog
10:05 The Rumble Strips - My Oh My

.twin city rollie.

St. Paul / Minneapolis

Day 1

Arrived safely in St. Paul, Minnesota (work related trip) this morning...
As imagined - the weather is a little cooler than expected. I've taken a few photos already but I'm having some difficulties loading images up to blogger this afternoon.

gah.

because of it, I've already lost interest in posting a proper post.

more to come...

.twin city rollie.

9:00am but 7:00am in my heart and mind

Firstly... daylight savings, "spring forward" time sucks vicious wang. While the clock insists that its 9:00AM, its truly 7:00 in my heart and mind.

I can't believe its Sunday already.

The week has been a blur for the most part. We had the election here last Tuesday and I've been meaning to write up my experience for the local caucus but haven't had time to. In short - the experience wasn't exactly a pleasant one. I'm of the opinion that everyone around me, including the organizers were a little confused about how the fucking process works. Adding to the confusion was an extraordinary turnout by first time voters. Most of whom tried to make the most of having to wait 2 hours in line to caucus. Not vote... that was a separate process all together and I haven't the foggiest idea how long it took for them to get through that shit.

The most upsetting part, at least for me, was filling out an freakish questionnaire as I submitted my public vote. Here's a short list of things I was asked.• Name (understandable)
• Addy (understandable)
• Phone # (no thank you)
• email (fuck off)
• endorsement (Obama thank you)
• Are you mentally/physically handicapped (wtf? this was the first question of 5 that made no sense what so ever)
• Are you gay, lesbian or transgender....

At this point - i scratch out my entry and inform the volunteers that these were questions I was not willing to answer. Why the fuck do they have to upset you after waiting 3 hours to fucking do your part? Who the fuck approves this shit?


... Wednesday

So Wednesday turned out to be a blast. I recently made a new friend here in the Alamo City. His name is Robert and he's a fellow hardcore scooterist. We have a number of shared interests outside of scooting so we got together on Wednesday for eats and a ride around the city. I took him to a number of local hangs - including a killer record store called "Music Town" and we made it over to Madhatters, a tea house located in the historic King Williams district.

• photo credit : photo of scoots was taken by my friend Robert Kelley


... Thursday

Got around to catching up on some TV, watched LOST and recorded a podcast. A Ekobase podcast you can pick up here by the way. We're up to episode 36. This is possibly the best one we've done this season.



.... Friday

Friday turned out a little differently than planned. I planned on having dinner at home and making preparations for my parents to visit on Saturday. Those plans went out the window when i discovered that they were coming up a day early. Managed to make it out to First Friday and met up with some friends at Beethoven's. While the turnout was good - I didn't see many scooterists make the trek out to King Williams. Good times tho'.


... Saturday

Caught an interesting show last night. I got around to seeing a popular local act called Girl in a Coma (my second time) and a very promising SKA act by the name of "Kevin Goes 2 College". They played at a terrible venue on the NorthEast side of town - but made the trip out to meet up with Robert and his wife. I didn't stick around for the entire set. The show was plagued with sound issues and I was more interested in watching the Vampire Weekend performance on Saturday Nite live.

I was uber enthused to see them play M79. :)

34 & 35 of Ekobase

Episode 34 and 35 of Ekobase are up...

Weekend Wrap-up

Thanks to Jury Duty on Friday... my weekend sorta kicked off Thursday night.

A local scooter shop put together a scooter run Thursday evening that consisted of 3 ice cream shops and a bar. Attended that and made quick friends with a guy who just moved to town from Alabama.
He's really into scootering and he reminded me a lot of some friends I had back in Detroit.

When he asked if I was thinking about going up to Austin over the weekend (by way of scoot) - I justified the trip almost instantly.

I had some scooter friends in Austin that I hadn't had a chance to meet yet, so I had to chalk it up to being a win/win.

Friday : Jury Duty

I few weeks ago I made mention of being tapped for "Grand Jury" selection. A duty that I was a little fearful to take part of because of the required time of participation.

I got word that 14 people (12 for Jury, 2 for Alternate) would be selected from those who were in attendance.
10 people instantly volunteered, which left 4 slots and 8 people who possibly shared the same sentiment I had.
Happy to report that I lucked out and was not selected. Got my walking papers and made sure to vote early while down at the courthouse.

The morning was a real joy.... but that came to a screeching halt when I got word of a parking violation. As much as I would like to rant and rail about how I got totally fucked by the parking structure... I'm just going to say that construction crews should advise visitors into parking slots when they have tarps up over important signs that READ : DON'T PARK HERE.

Austin :
So the Trip to Austin was amazing. The scooter ride out there took a little over 2 hours... A Vespa Shop recently re-opened their doors so I headed out with some fellow San Antonio scooterists to attend the party.

While there I had an opportunity to meet up with a Rover who moved to Texas 4 years ago. I also had a chance to run into friends who moved to Austin from Boston Mass.

Good times. Goooood Times.