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@fightwithknives
I’ve been playing around with the camera in the kitchen when I make elaborate meals on Sundays. I’ve also (always) had a lot on my mind. This week’s Sunday Dinner gifset is Eggplant Parmesan served with sentences from Business Insider posts this past Monday. Enjoy!
New Project: On the Docket. Weekend to-do list videos posted bi-weekly
I'm barely tumblring anymore (find me on instagram, mostly, or Twitter, sometimes), but I'm still doing a few things. More information here.
hennepin and franklin, kitty
Heyyyyy Tumblr. I missed you, but I'm back. And I like you.
On Seeing Pretty In Pink for Probably the 40th Time (2-3 times a year since I was 13)
Pretty in Pink is an excellent movie about loss and a good movie about teenagers. It is not a good movie about class, but that doesn't matter.
I get way more emotional while watching now than I did when I was younger.
It is an excellent love triangle as well, since none of those relationships will work out. Duckie wouldn't work out with Andi, and neither will Blaine. Iona and Terence might work out, though.
Iona deserved a spin-off TV series.
The scene when Iona transports herself back to the prom is the best scene in the movie.
I realize, finally, that the dress is kindof great. Fashions change, and now that dress seems great again.
The scene with Kristy Swanson and Jon Crier is the second best scene in the movie, especially the proto-Ferris Bueller breaking of the fourth wall.
1986 was a good year for John Hughes.
I’m not really sure what my passion is. Sentences? Stories? Publishing? Paragraphs? Web content? I would say it’s writing things that people want to read, but that’s not it because I like the artistic side of creation just as much as I like the functional side.
I was super stoked to be featured as the Lady Geek of the Week on Being Geek Chic. Even though I spent the majority of my week felled by illness, at least I got to do this rad interview, where I talk about the 1970s, making content happen, and my scattershot career in publishing and digital creation.
What I've Been Reading Lately:
Today in Tabs is pretty essential, and it keeps me from spending too much time dinking around looking at mindless conflicts.
I am excited for Model View Culture because we need smart collections of writing about diversity in tech, all the time.
Al Jazeera America is, for the most part, doing it right.
The Ozy Daily Dose isn't perfect, but it's a few steps in the right direction. The content is a little on the brief side, but it adopts a wide breadth of topics without being manipulative, contrarian, or silly. I appreciate the diversity of the staff and the fact that it feels distinctly un-NYC. The site's design is quite lovely. I just wish the articles could be a little richer, but maybe one day.
What am I reading locally? Not much publication-wise because there's little that's exciting me right now. The same old same public-style MPR and MinnPost with some local papers thrown in, but nothing good on the magazine front. When will I get my local pub with smart but critical tech, business, arts, and food reporting? With a little something special on the side? And a sustainable business model? When?
The official bracket of Cage Match 2014
I am incredibly honored to have been a judge at Round 1 of the Cage Match and can't wait for the semifinal bout.
(Bob and Courtney made a badass event series for their friends, even if they will probably never want to watch a Nicolas Cage movie again at the end of it.)
Disrobed Customers at the Electric Fetus, Minneapolis, 1972 (above); The Electric Fetus at Its Original Cedar Riverside Location, 1972 (below)
The building that was nearly destroyed today in an explosion and fire in south Minneapolis’s Cedar-Riverside neighborhood was the original location of the iconic Electric Fetus record shop. In memoriam, here’s an earlier MN70s post regarding one of the more infamous moments in Fetus history:
Facing eviction from their original location at 514 Cedar Avenue, and looking to unload excess inventory, the owners of the Electric Fetus record shop hit on an idea sure to appeal to early 1970s Cedar-Riverside “freakos”—a “Naked Sale.” The promotion, which took place on Saturday, March 25, 1972, attracted about 50 uninhibited customers who were more than happy to shed their clothes in exchange for a free album (regularly $3.99) and stash pipe. Legend has it that public outcry over the “Naked Sale” led to the Fetus’s eviction, but the decision to boot the store had come much earlier. The Fetus moved into its current location at the corner of 4th Avenue and Franklin later that year.
Photos via Minnesota Daily (above) and Minnesota Historical Society (below)
Resolutions.
2013 In Review
Some years I wind up listening to "This Year" by the Mountain Goats a lot; this year was not one of them. It was quite lovely, and not at all hard to get through.
Will and I got engaged in January and moved in together in May. It has been absolutely lovely.
I did not do much in the way of freelance writing. What I wrote, however, wound up on a year-end listicle. It's about local women's choirs, and I'm pretty proud of it. Getting published on the main page of the Walker website is not too shabby.
I wrote some things that I did not publish. I will continue working on them next year.
I became a good cook. I am an intermediate cook and doubt I will ever be particularly advanced, but I can cook and spice things and fix them when they go wrong.
I visited the Bay Area twice, once for work and once for pleasure. I went to Philadelphia twice, once for work and once for a brief trip around the holidays. I visited my sister's new house. I went back to Las Vegas for work. I went to the National Restaurant Show in Chicago for the second and last time. I visited New York for one day.
In September, I changed jobs rather abruptly. I quit the job with the toxic work environment and moved to an agency job, where I'm quite happy. I get to work on digital strategy all day, and my coworkers are bright, hardworking, and kind. I'm very pleased with this situation, and I'm able to sleep at night.
Because of the new job, I learned to work in a new medium: the powerpoint presentation. I know.
I read some books; the ones I liked most were Arcadia, Minnesota in the 70s, and Sons & Lovers.
I used some extra frequent flyer miles to subscribe to a bunch of print magazines. My favorites are still Real Simple and Fast Company.
Around Christmas, I saw a college acquaintance profiled in Inc. magazine. Within 48 hours, I heard that another acquaintance had committed suicide. I thought a lot about where I am and felt happy for the former and felt a deep pit in my stomach for the latter, and his family.
A few weeks after I finished The Sopranos, James Gandolfini passed away. I got numerous texts and emails from friends who said "they thought of me," mostly because I had been talking about The Sopranos for six months straight. "It's like your uncle died," Will said. I was sad, but sadder for his family.
I listened to the same songs that the rest of the year enders did, and somehow my favorite became "Instant Crush" by Daft Punk and Julian Casablancas. "Diane Young" still makes me happy, too.
Frances Ha and In a World were my favorite movies, but I really didn't see that many this year.
I had two very good dance nights.
I thought long and hard about how I treat people. I am working on treating people with kindness more often.I thought about ten years ago a lot, and how I was a constant rocket of intense feelings, and how I could have slept with Julian Casablancas if I had really tried. At the time, I never saw myself settled, enjoying the fact that it is below zero outside, I can be in a house with a yard, looking out on the snow, not getting dressed up at all for New Year's Eve.
I spray-painted a lot of vases white.
Some Great Things I Discovered and Loved in 2013 That Other People Already Knew About
Creamed corn
Harry Nilsson
Sons and Lovers
The glory of wrangling web content so people can use it
The Sopranos finale
Bok choy
The Omnivore's Dilemma
The overwhelming benefits of a positive work culture
Sharp knives
John Grant's Queen of Denmark
Eels
Graham Greene
Marianne Faithfull
Gremlins
Raise High The Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction
Cohabitation
Aping Einstein
A Hypothesis on Comfort and Art Consumption
Will and I were talking about how he sold more comics at Chicago shows -- CAKE and Zinefest -- than he did at the big MPLS comic/art extravaganza this year, Autoptic. It was a great show, we both agreed, but, he says, "There are the local people who go to every show, and they're very supportive. But casual attendees in Minneapolis look and don't buy anything."
Hypothesis: Having a cramped, expensive urban living space correlates positively with strong support of a more experimental, transient arts scene, i.e., zine/punk/counterculture that is not rooted in more mainstream glossy publications.
Corollary: The nicer apartment we live in, the fewer punks we know. Also, we know fewer and fewer people with that peripheral experience of counterculture.
Secondary corollary: I can't stay up late for punk shows anymore, so I go on the internet.
Tertiary corollary: I am rarely surprised by what I find on the internet anymore, so I should buy more art, even if it's weird and ephemeral.
Obtuse Lyrics of Christmas Pop Songs
"Christmas comes this time each year."
"There won't be snow in Africa this Christmastime."
"War is over if you want it."
"From now on our troubles will be miles away."
"Tonight thank god it's them instead of you."
Nina Hale, Inc. looks into popular search terms surrounding: "Who Killed JFK?"
I wrote this blog at my new job. I haven't been feeling like personal blogging lately, but there might be some more job-bish blogging in the near future. (Am I a traitor if I post on Medium?)
Several weeks ago I was researching piping for work (yes, this is what I do at work, I research piping), and I found this photo. I don’t remember where it’s from.
But it’s perfect.
Wondering what I've been up to? Here's a representative rev log reblog.
The Oz, St. Paul, Minnesota, 1979
Downtown St. Paul’s Oz nightclub opened on Valentine’s Day 1979, making it something of a latecomer to the disco craze. It was located in the basement of the old Lowry Hotel building at Fourth and Wabasha. Little known fact: this is where producer Steven Greenberg and sound engineer David Rivkin tested the mix for the smash single, “Funkytown,” by Lipps Inc.
More at Minnesota in the 70s
Photo via Minnesota Historical Society
One of the things I thought about this week was "Whoa those disco babes in the new David O. Russell movie look pretty cool, but how come nobody makes movies about the amazing progressive women in the 70s? You know, like Bella Abzug and Gloria Steinem and MTM and Billie Jean King and Judy Chicago?"
In any case, the MN 70s book is really fantastic, and I'm only halfway through. You should buy it. And then get to work on your Judy Chicago biopic.
