Cyclysm’s Neighborhood

Parking in the college area known as "Dinkytown" in Minneapolis can be kind of hard, especially when the meters on 4^th Street runs until 10pm. I didn't mind walking a few blocks to the beautiful Varsity Theater as the weather was nothing less than perfect that Friday evening.

Opening up for Har Mar Superstar are three very different genre and acts. Starting with Koo Koo Kangeroo (official / myspace), whose music styling is that of hip hop - for toddlers. Their songs are dead simple, like "AOA" (sample lyrics: "aye oh aye oh aye") and "Cheh Cheh Chi" and "LMNOP", but they're catchy and easy to sing along. The highlight of their set was when they threw down a white tarp-like covering and the audience was dancing under it like a party fort.

Wow, Bang Bang Eche (myspace) are young. Someone told me that they're about 18 years old, but they certainly look much younger. Their music is very punk high-energy and reminds me a bit of Arctic Monkeys influenced. My easily favorite song from their set is "Fist Full of Dollars", perhaps a reference to Sergio Leone classic film? They ended their setlist with "Die Hippy Scum". Oh, also, it's worth noting that bassist T'Nealle sported a three keyboard cat moon t-shirt. Adorable.

The odd group on the bill was two-person group, Lookbook (myspace). The band is basically guitarist Grant Cutler, who plays guitars and handles the pre-recordings, with vocalist Maggie Morrison. Their music sounds like 80s pop, not exactly the "body-moving" type of music that you'd think Har Mar's audience would demand. Not really much to say, except I think Maggie looks really cute and I will be talking about them in further detail on my "book"-theme news on Sunday.

Har Mar Superstar ♥ Varsity Theater, Minneapolis (11/06/09)

Compared to the last time I saw Har Mar Superstar, which was basically a man and his undies and boombox - he now has a full band, all dressed in white with a red cross on the back. Also, the last time I saw him, he basically stripped down after the first few songs - this time, he started off very heavily dressed with an African cover, hat, etc.

After the first song, he took off his hat. After "DUI", he took off the overall to reveal a Prince "Purple Rain" shirt. He kept taking off articles of clothing as the night went on. From "EZ Pass", to "Girls Only", to "Creative Juices"... the audience was loving it all.

Har Mar and Melinda Park singing "Powerline"

By the time "Brothers & Sisters" was played, he inevitably took off his shirt. The pants disappeared with "Apple Sauce", followed by "Turn it Around". The finale song was "Tall Boy", which Zach, from Bang Bang, and some woman called Melinda Park (or was it Mindy Park?) joined on stage to help sing the song. Park would later turn up again to help sing one of the encore, "Powerline".

The very last song, Har Mar sang an a cappella version of Boyz II Men's "It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday". He would pretend the song ended and everyone would clap... only he would continue to sing the refrain. After the third false ending and after he said "goodnight", he came back and sang some more.

Har Mar's latest album is Dark Touches, available from Dilettante Recordings. Read Andrew's review of the album, pick up a copy at amazon

went on a bike ride to sweat a little and clear my head and think and it worked i am coherent again

So now I really am stuck and can go no further.

It's a nice little 4 inch vise that is perfect for bicycle work.  It will hold a wheel vise nicely as well as a truing stand if I needed it, though that is going to be attached to the other end of the bench.  I also realized that I should probably put all wheel tools on the right side of the board as this is where the truing stand is going to be.

OK that's it until some of my new tools start to arrive.

I arrived at the 400 Bar sometime after the doors opened, and the place was pretty dead. I thought there would only be a handful of people out that night, but thankfully as the night got longer, the place filled up.

Brazos ♥ 400 Bar, Minneapolis (11/04/09)

Brazos (official / myspace) warmed up the crowd around nine. What I liked about them is that they have a lot of lyrics in their song. The highlight of their set is the Adrienne Rich poem turned into song. I didn't recall the title, but I'm sure it had "Africa" in the lyrics.

Personally, I thought the best song on their setlist is "Feeding Frenzy", featuring these lyrics "We're interlocking, we're interlocking. It's a bitter conflict, this staring contest."

White Denim ♥ 400 Bar, Minneapolis (11/04/09)

In contrast to the lyrics-thing, White Denim are more like crazy pyschedelic, garagey, experimental rock 'n roll - with minimal lyrics. Whatever singer James Petralli spouted out, it didn't matter because you were so in awe of his amazing guitar-playing ability. You can just tell the guy is a rock god, the way his fingers frantically moved up and down the neck of the guitar.

I reckon these Austin lads don't care so much to slow down or stop, so all their songs are medleys - one song flow into the next, and pretty soon about six songs have passed before they have to take a breather.

If you like your music loud, loud, and loud, White Denim is the band for you. Be sure to bring earplugs.

White Denim's latest album is called Fits and is available now at their record label, Downtown Music, or amazon.

finally another lizard photo to add to my photos tagged lizard here at my free vox blog

That's a magnet strip in the middle that will be removable and currently has feeler gauges, small metric ruler and some scribing tools.  To the right is a small board that will hold screwdrivers and some 1/4 inch drive ratchet extensions.  Next to that is a set of three ratchets with 4,5,6 hex wrenches attached.  Above those are some regular allen wrenches and an allen Y wrench.  Then above that is a set of metric open end wrenches and to the right of those is an assortment of bottom bracket tools.  Over to the left is a chain whip, pedal wrench, 3rd and 4th hand brake tools a metal hammer and a rubber hammer.  Finally at the bottom is some pliers, a digital caliper and a few sharpies (one black and 2 silver, very important tools as BBI taught me)

So for the winter this board will be placed in the basement above a small workbench that I have down there.  One problem:

It's a bit of a mess!!!...:)

A few minutes of organizing though and it's much better.

Much better, now it's ready for a small vise.  I'm thinking a small vise on the left side of the workbench so that the truing stand can sit off the right end of the bench and be mostly out of the way when not in use.  Tune in tomorrow.

feeling the need to learn to survive without a car till we leave here i went on another rail fanning video escapade and heres one of those videos