Last Wednesday, I walked with a buddy towards the 7th Street Entry to see the KatJonBand, north on Hennepin.
The streets were pretty empty for 9:30. Then I started noticing the restaurants and bars that we were passing.
They were largely empty. Staff sat at the bars watching television in some places. Some noticed us walking by and looked at us hopefully. I nudged my friend, who was lost in his thoughts, and pointed out the empty tables and barstools. We walked some more.
He finally turned to me and said, "Oh shit, it's started." I asked what.
"The depression."
The Entry was empty too, and finally about 15 or 16 people saw the show. That probably had less to do with the new depression and more to do with bad promotion, but it made me think all night about what our new life will look like.
Great musical acts like the KatJonBand--an amalgamation of Jon Langford of Mekons and Waco Brothers fame and Kat Ex, power drummer for the dutch anarcho-punk band The Ex--and Dollar Store, the opening act, that night in a drummer and guitar/vocal configuration (the "Brown Stripes" laughed leader Dean Schlabowske, one of the best songwriters you have never heard of) will still be out plying the trade, but it will be harder for them, and for all of us to get by.
To all the musicians and to the tiny crowd that night, music still mattered, and the performers put out for those few of us there to see them. And for awhile, maybe just for fleeting moments, you could get lost in the passion of it.
Friday night, I was at the liquor store, and the place was packed. As I checked out, I remarked that economic crisis didn't seem to be hurting business. The clerk said that economic hard times historically help the sales of booze. He said that at least now he had some semblance of job security.
Perhaps a better tip than what you'll get from Suzie Orman, who gets more and more frantic with each appearance on CNN, virtually screaming last night at the unwashed masses who failed to recognize what a great deal that the $700 billion transfer from the public coffers was.
Myself, I bought a lottery ticket on Friday as my own personal hedge fund. I suppose I should check to see if I won.
--Loosestrife
The streets were pretty empty for 9:30. Then I started noticing the restaurants and bars that we were passing.
They were largely empty. Staff sat at the bars watching television in some places. Some noticed us walking by and looked at us hopefully. I nudged my friend, who was lost in his thoughts, and pointed out the empty tables and barstools. We walked some more.
He finally turned to me and said, "Oh shit, it's started." I asked what.
"The depression."
The Entry was empty too, and finally about 15 or 16 people saw the show. That probably had less to do with the new depression and more to do with bad promotion, but it made me think all night about what our new life will look like.
Great musical acts like the KatJonBand--an amalgamation of Jon Langford of Mekons and Waco Brothers fame and Kat Ex, power drummer for the dutch anarcho-punk band The Ex--and Dollar Store, the opening act, that night in a drummer and guitar/vocal configuration (the "Brown Stripes" laughed leader Dean Schlabowske, one of the best songwriters you have never heard of) will still be out plying the trade, but it will be harder for them, and for all of us to get by.
To all the musicians and to the tiny crowd that night, music still mattered, and the performers put out for those few of us there to see them. And for awhile, maybe just for fleeting moments, you could get lost in the passion of it.
Friday night, I was at the liquor store, and the place was packed. As I checked out, I remarked that economic crisis didn't seem to be hurting business. The clerk said that economic hard times historically help the sales of booze. He said that at least now he had some semblance of job security.
Perhaps a better tip than what you'll get from Suzie Orman, who gets more and more frantic with each appearance on CNN, virtually screaming last night at the unwashed masses who failed to recognize what a great deal that the $700 billion transfer from the public coffers was.
Myself, I bought a lottery ticket on Friday as my own personal hedge fund. I suppose I should check to see if I won.
--Loosestrife
You know, this blogging thing seems pointless sometimes. It began as a mistake.
As I try to keep up and keep a full time gig, which pays the bills, and this vanity press thing going, I just get bored.
Oh yeah, I was going to try to do the unpaid citizen journalist thing. Problem, it doesn't pay.
********
Sarah fucking Palin.
There is still the beauty of the world, dying though it may be. And sorry Sarah, here's at least one boy who doesn't find you attractive in the least.
Russian vodka and Letterman's vendetta against McCain, good enough for tonight.
The blog is back, perhaps. The question, as always, is whether the act of creation is enough, or does an audience matter. It is the great mystery. Henry Darger anybody?
Certainly better than Mitch Berg, who has an audience of Neanderthals and a trash house. It's truly amazing, that a bastard so far off base continues to be so self righteous.
"why scream, when you can lose yourself inside the wide-screen
let life be a bowl of melted ice cream
or be the deer that's caught in my high beams
i'm rollin' with the lights on, scared stiff
reality is just too much to bear with"
They call me mellow yellow.
--Loosetrife
As I try to keep up and keep a full time gig, which pays the bills, and this vanity press thing going, I just get bored.
Oh yeah, I was going to try to do the unpaid citizen journalist thing. Problem, it doesn't pay.
********
Sarah fucking Palin.
There is still the beauty of the world, dying though it may be. And sorry Sarah, here's at least one boy who doesn't find you attractive in the least.
Russian vodka and Letterman's vendetta against McCain, good enough for tonight.
The blog is back, perhaps. The question, as always, is whether the act of creation is enough, or does an audience matter. It is the great mystery. Henry Darger anybody?
Certainly better than Mitch Berg, who has an audience of Neanderthals and a trash house. It's truly amazing, that a bastard so far off base continues to be so self righteous.
"why scream, when you can lose yourself inside the wide-screen
let life be a bowl of melted ice cream
or be the deer that's caught in my high beams
i'm rollin' with the lights on, scared stiff
reality is just too much to bear with"
They call me mellow yellow.
--Loosetrife
Oh What A Week It Was, Part 1: Bulls on Parade
0 Comments Published by Loosestrife on Monday, September 08, 2008 at 6:29 PM.
I thought I'd blog the week of the RNC, but it quickly became apparent that there was no way to keep up with the shit going down. Besides, there were more important web sources running with real news that mattered: I'd just have gotten in the way. If anybody would have read my words when their city was under attack.
Now that that the occupation is underground, it's my time to try to understand it all.
This is an angry fragmented post. I've got to get it out of my system.
We have witnessed what others have already witnessed across the globe, some every fucking day of their short lives. We saw the total militarization of our cities, while smiling fucks like R. T. Rybak and Bob Fletcher puts the shiny political coins in their pockets.
The veil was lifted. What is revealed is hideous.
"Anti-war" politicians brought the war to our streets and into our homes, maybe out of ignorance, and once it was here, they were silent and complicit. Some even celebrated it.
While R.T. Rybak was predictably cheery about the police state, I was a bit surprised by Chris Coleman's willingness to play the patsy for the neo-fascist spectacle of the emergence of the Republican Party as a fundamentalist Christian vehicle to cleanse the planet.
But, as my cousin once said Minnesotans are easy marks.
Except, for this. A toast to Rage. This footage will live on.
A more coherent chapter to come.
--Loosestrife
Now that that the occupation is underground, it's my time to try to understand it all.
This is an angry fragmented post. I've got to get it out of my system.
We have witnessed what others have already witnessed across the globe, some every fucking day of their short lives. We saw the total militarization of our cities, while smiling fucks like R. T. Rybak and Bob Fletcher puts the shiny political coins in their pockets.
The veil was lifted. What is revealed is hideous.
"Anti-war" politicians brought the war to our streets and into our homes, maybe out of ignorance, and once it was here, they were silent and complicit. Some even celebrated it.
While R.T. Rybak was predictably cheery about the police state, I was a bit surprised by Chris Coleman's willingness to play the patsy for the neo-fascist spectacle of the emergence of the Republican Party as a fundamentalist Christian vehicle to cleanse the planet.
But, as my cousin once said Minnesotans are easy marks.
Except, for this. A toast to Rage. This footage will live on.
A more coherent chapter to come.
--Loosestrife
Last day of the Republican occupation.
Fuck you very much Chris Coleman and R.T. Rybak, and each and every member of the St. Paul and Minneapolis city councils, with the possible exception of Dave Thune, Elizabeth Glidden, and Cam Gordon. Double that for our local toy soldiers Bob Fletcher and Tim Dolan.
I'll be looking at our convention week in the Twin Cities, after we finally get through it.
In the meantime, putting Palin in perspective. Plus, who is Barack Obama?
--Loosestrife
Fuck you very much Chris Coleman and R.T. Rybak, and each and every member of the St. Paul and Minneapolis city councils, with the possible exception of Dave Thune, Elizabeth Glidden, and Cam Gordon. Double that for our local toy soldiers Bob Fletcher and Tim Dolan.
I'll be looking at our convention week in the Twin Cities, after we finally get through it.
In the meantime, putting Palin in perspective. Plus, who is Barack Obama?
--Loosestrife
