Thursday, May 21, 2009

All your sanity and wits, they will all vanish, I promise

Music for this morning: Gogol Bordello – “Start Wearing Purple”



I love this band. We see them religiously when they pass through town, and it’s always a giant party. People riding the crowd on drums, girls wearing washboards being played by other members of the band, it’s fantastic.

The lead singer, Eugene Hutz is also a really cool guy that I’ve had the pleasure to meet and to interview before. If you saw Everything is Illuminated, you might recognize him from that – he starred opposite Elijah Wood.

A clip:



Anyway, the reason I’m all up on them right now is they’re in town next week, and we’ll be catching them.

As excited as I am about that, though, I’m more excited about the cabin.

TFN and I have reserved a cabin on the shores of Lake Michigan for four days. It’s right on the water; open the back door, step onto the beach, crack a beer, have a fire. That’s how I’m planning on spending four days.

With the way things are rapidly descending into chaos in these parts, it will be good to not be thinking about it all for a few days.

Plus, Shane Dog gets to go. He’ll like that.

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

"Miss Mina"


mitchell and miss mina
Originally uploaded by alpharat
It was April 19, 1995. I remember that day because it was also the day that 168 people were killed and over 800 people were injured in the Oklahoma City bombing - the largest terrorist attack on American soil in history before September 11, and the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in American history.

It was a warm spring day, and people were coming over to TFN’s apartment. Along with some of our friends walked in Ms. Mina, the cat who would be a part of our lives for the next… forever.

Over the years, we’ve been through a lot with this cat. She was diagnosed with diabetes a while back, and has kept up with daily shots like a trooper.

She started getting sick a little while back, and this morning I dropped her off at the vet’s for some tests.

The vet just called back; her test results are inconclusive – we’ll know more tomorrow. It could be a thyroid or kidney condition; it could be a lot of things. Once we have the test results, we’ll move forward with what we need to do to treat her.

The thing I was not prepared to hear is that Ms. Mina is not a Ms. at all.

She’s a Mr.

Over the past 14 years, four other vets have missed this.

We’re going to have to sit down with “her” and have a talk tonight, and figure out what “she” wants to do.

Friday, May 01, 2009

Happy Birthday, Amanda Palmer!

I got an email from the lovely, talented Amand Palmer. Yesterday was her birthday. She said that all she wants for her birthday is for me to share a video with you. Any video. As I have shared many with you already, the next one I should post here is the wonderful, controversial video for "Oasis." This one has actually been banned in the UK. It's funny, if a little lacking in the taste department.



I was even going one-up that and tell you all to go out and place graffiti in her honor for her birthday, to, wherever you could, write the following words:

If you see Amanda Palmer on the street, kill her.
That way she'll live forever.

Then take a photo and send it to me. But that's not a legal tribute, so I won't.

Happy Birthday, Ms. Palmer.



Photo © TFN