Odd Obsession

I'm very behind with my movie mini-reviews. Here's the ones for September.

THE MISFITS RULE, THE HOLD STEADY DROOLS I'm reading the excellent book American Hardcore , the basis for the film of the same name, when it suddenly dawns on me why the Hold Steady annoy me so much: they are the evil antithesis of the Misfits! If Craig Finn and Glenn Danzig were put in a room together, the world as we know it would end. The Misfits played loud, hard and fast, with an singer of unusual range and power in an Elvis/Jim Morrison mold, plus they could write a damn catchy tune. The Hold Steady plays middle-of-the-road Springsteeny roots-rock with a singer whose toneless hectoring would only work nearly drowned out by loud, fast guitars. If there's a catchy tune in there somewhere, I haven't heard it yet. Oh, but their lyrics are brilliant, you say? Well, Craig Finn can write a book, then. I like music for the MUSIC, that's why it's called MUSIC. If I wanted clever lyrics with half-assed musical accompaniment, I'd . . . wait, I never want that.

deuce7show1 Originally uploaded by ash966 . Dr. S. and I went to a cool show for the graffiti artist Deuce Seven at the Soo Vac gallery. It was crowded with hipsters, so I may have to go back another time to look at the art in depth.

flickr people Originally uploaded by LinderRox . Last weekend Dr. S. and I went on a photowalk with the Twin Cities Flickr group. We got a lot of good shots of Lowertown , the river , and Cathedral Hill . Good times!

PUNK ROCK READING LIST My friend Kathy and I just saw the excellent American Hardcore and we were talking about good books on the subject of punk rock. Here are some of my favorites: And God Created Punk Our Band Could Be Your Life Please Kill Me I, Shithead Drugs Are Nice We Owe You Nothing I also need to see Decline of Western Civilization, Part 1 again, but it's not on DVD yet. For shame!

So, there's this group called the Red Hat Society , and they are all about women over 50 getting together and having fun. I'm all for that, but most of the things they do don't interest me. So when I get that age, I plan to start my own Red Beret Anarchist Knitting Society with my friends. Here are some things we might do: 1) Go to Balls or some other cabaret or open-mic night, and do some weird performance art thing. I'll wear a really bizarre outfit, too. 2) Go to a punk rock show and stand at the very front. Moshers wouldn't dare slam into a bunch of old ladies, would they? It'd have to be early evening, though, I already have trouble staying up 'till one AM. 3) Karaoke of New Wave hits of the '80s. 4) Do some graffiti. No one would arrest a bunch of old ladies for expressing themselves with spray paint and stickers. Or, we could combine street art and knitting like the gals of Knitta , thus avoiding accusations of permanently damaging public prop...

radgeezinsane Originally uploaded by ash966 . I have an irrational desire to win one of the photo contests that this Twin Cities Flickr group I'm in has. This month's topic was fall foliage, which I'm not really into, but it was nice last Sunday, so Dr. S. and I took a walk and I was able to combine the topic of fall with my interest in street art.

bearded monkey Originally uploaded by ash966 . It was a lovely Indian summer day in St. Paul, so we went to the Como Zoo.

oxbreakfast Originally uploaded by ash966 . Dr S. and I had a lovely day walking down Nicollet Avenue and having brunch at the Bad Waitress with our new friend, Black Ox .

The movies of the month for August are finally up. Sorry for the delay, folks.

Sorry for the delay in posts, Jfro fans, I did a number on my back and couldn't even stand to sit at a computer for several days. I do plan to get to the August mini movie reviews eventually. Until then please enjoy this not-safe-for-work video that explores Spock and Kirk's pent-up desire for each other to the strains of "Closer" by Nine Inch Nails. Pure genius! PS. Tetris is now available for the iPod. Yay!

Too few rock bands provide us with medieval-barbarian-related entertainment these days. The Sword is bent on remedying this lack.

sleepinglemurs Originally uploaded by ash966 . Dr. S. and I had a lovely day at the Minnesota Zoo last week.

andreasnoticboard Originally uploaded by ash966 . Andrea's Notice Board. Thanks to this web site , I generated my own personal "On Notice Board" of things that chap my ass. Thanks to Michael Stephens for the heads-up .

Magazines Oh, how I love magazines. I get excited when they come in the mail. There's just something about flipping through a big pile of magazines that makes me happy (I always make an initial run-through to see what I have in store for me before getting into the articles). They are great for riding the bus, for reading in bed, for long hot baths, for during the commercials, and forwhen you are too tired or sick to concentrate on a novel. I don't drive and I prefer to listen to music in the morning or when doing chores around the house, so magazines serve the purpose that NPR does for other people (No, I don't listen to NPR unless I'm in someone else's car. Don't tell anyone, or my Masters of Library Science degree might be revoked). I was starting to feel like my subscriptions were getting out of hand, though, and that I might have to join Maga-holics Anonymous and admit my powerlessness over my addiction to magazines, so I bit the bullet and cancelled my subs...

Here's the movies of the month for July.

Nancy Pearl vs. the Sea Monster Well, I've starting taking a few toy photos for the Secret Life of Toys Flickr Pool , but I never thought of using my Librarian Action Figure . The creator says she was inspired by my Read Posters Pool to create her own group . Cool! Maybe I can get everyone at work to bring in their Librarian Action Figures and we can have a photo shoot.

Art Weekend It was a busy weekend. Me and Dr. S. and our friend Wee Ninja went to Mr. Aimes-One's show at J. Hunter, then the Art Car Parade and a brief visit to the B-Girl Be show at Intermedia. Oh, and I caught Wee Ninja lurking in the bushes near my house. I'm sure you're all watching Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo after reading my review , but if not, part five has giant robots !

Check out Dr. Somneblex' blog for his post on technology and artistic expression , plus my comment.

Last weekend my sweetie and I did a photo-crawl for street art by the railway tracks near 94 and 280 and between the Lake and Hiawatha and 38th and Hiawatha light rail station s , with a stop at one of my favorite local stores, Ax-Man . Here are some of the photos I took. Next project: some toy photos for The Secret Life of Toys Photo Pool .