doodledee

These guys are the real deal. This show convinced me of that. Polyphonic Arcade Cloud Firespree. Go go go. They're tight and polished and variable and spatial and they don't overplay and I'm a sucker for the painting stuff but seriously, when the screen goes up and the whole stage is shrouded in darkness and they're playing some droney riff and then it erupts and the painters throw color and people start yelling it's a pretty cool moment even if you are a jaded corporate stooge who works in a gray fabric box. I was yelling. The girl in front of me was yelling. Only the scensters weren't yelling. (And there were a surprising number of them, white leather jackets and all.) It didn't really let up from the first note. In intensity, sure, but not in any way that you'd say was a let down.

Nutshell: it was an unexpectedly great show. I expected good, but it really was great. Future club shows should be considered a must see. Make a note.

Cloud Cult [cloudcult]
My Advice From The Happy Hippopotamus release party review (2005) [doodledee]
Breaking Artist: Cloud Cult - includes new video [rollingstone]

Breaking news: The killergreat pond hockey movie my buddy Nick has been working on for years is finally finished. It's premiering at the MPLS International Film Fest this week. It is going to be so boss. Everyone should go. Literally everyone. This means you. Go go go.

I sent him a few questions. He sent back answers. It went like this:

Remind me again who you guys are and what this movie is all about?

My name is Nick Deutsch. Some friends and I from the Minneapolis area have been making independent films for about 7 years. We are all hockey players/fans and we were interested in making a documentary, so, back in 2006, we set out to capture the greatness of playing outdoor hockey. We started by filming the inaugural US Pond Hockey championships and the next thing we knew we were talking to Wayne Gretzky and Neal Broten. The stories and themes emerged and we cut them up into 80 minutes of hockey bliss.

A pond hockey movie? That sounds awesome! Exactly how much ass does it kick?

It kicks enough ass to actually move pond hockey fanatics to tears and the non-hockey fan will certainly be intrigued by us crazy northerners.

What don't I know about the pond hockey scene?

You, being a Minnesota hockey fan, probably know most of it... which means you also know how sweet it is. One of the big things we discovered is fewer people are playing outside these days. That surprised us, so we explore that angle a bit.

How much of what you shot is local? Where's the rest from?

The majority of the filming is done in the Twin Cities area and up on the Iron Range. The crew also made trips the Chicago, out east to NY and NJ, and to Canada, specifically Nova Scotia the birth place of hockey as we know it.

Loft or no loft? Goalies or no goalies?

That's the beauty of the pond, you make up your own rules.

Where can we see it? Or better yet, how can I buy it?

It's showing 3 times at the Minneapolis/St Paul International Film Festival: April 24th, 25th, and 30th. We plan to take it on the road to other film festivals and possibly do a regional theatrical release early next winter. The DVDs are on sale now on our website. However, we won't be shipping them until Nov 1st.

-----------------------------------

Pond Hockey Movie [pondhockeymovie]
Minneapolis/St Paul International Film Festival [mspfilmfest]

GO GO GO

Haven't done one of these in a while. 4 bullets from the weekend bang bang.

• Saturday was my first soccer game after a 4 week between-season hiatus and it went about like you'd expect. Which is to say we lost, but we still managed to qualify for what we losers like to call a 'moral victory'. And to those of you who say "there are no moral victories" I say "stfu, this league is insanely competitive". Seriously, we play in the B-division or whatever, and the team we played on Saturday was wall to wall 25-year old former DII college player types. A couple of them ran track at the U. And I'm supposed to compete with that how, exactly? Speed? Moves? (My best move is to distract them with jokey smalltalk during their corner kicks. It works amazingly well. This week I was all up in one of their girls business about how tan she was and how she must have been in Cancun for spring break and she was all "I was in Florida!!" and the ball went sailing past WHOOPS!) So moral victory? You damn right.
• Dim Sum at Jun Bo on Sunday morning. (Pictured above.) I like this place, especially when you go with a mob of people and you order a ton of different stuff and you get to try a lot different things. (As opposed to when you go with one other person and you get 3 things and you share them and then you go home and you ask yourself what the big deal is.) My main regret after dim sum - and it happens every time - is that I don't learn anything. I go, I pig out, I leave, I have no idea what I ate and/or if I should have eaten something different. But it's fun and it's good so maybe it doesn't matter. Feels like it should, though.
• Minivan shopping. Went to two places: Honda and Chrysler/Dodge. Both very excited to offer me hot chocolate from one of those loud whirring gas station hot chocolate machines. I don't really get that. Like I'm gonna base my buy decision on which dealer has the better hot chocolate? Um, no. Nor will I be basing it on which salesman had more Axe body spray on. Though if I were, it would totally be the Dodge guy. In other news: they are basically giving away minivans these days. Thank you shitty economy!
• Stupid Wild. I went over and bellied-up to the bar at Bunny's and watched because they have cable and beer and my house only offers half of that package. There was quite a bit of cursing when COL scored that early shorthanded goal, but I said I was sorry and they let me stay if I promised to settle down. I still left before the 2nd ended. Maybe next year.

This is Matt. Matt is the barista at Ambrosia Coffee's downtown Minneapolis location over in the lobby of the Kickernick Building in the Warehouse District. For my money, Matt makes the best latte in town. He also does that latte art stuff. I have no idea how it works - other than it has something to do with a substance called 'microfoam' - but it sure looks cool. And I guess it's way harder than I think it is. Though after watching like 45 hours worth of youtube latte art videos, I'm starting to feel I've got the hang of it.

The Ambrosia space has turned over and changed names a bunch of times but Matt has hung around. The new owners seem to do a pretty nice job. Stop by if you're in the neighborhood.

Ambrosia Coffee [ambrosiaexpresso]

Everybody, this is Pat. Pat, this is everybody.

Pat was working in the parking lot outside of Jimmy John's in Plymouth out on Hwy55 and Whateverthehellitis Ave. He was there to fill in a monster pothole we had taken to calling The Widowmaker. Or maybe it was The Intimidator? The Iron Sheik? I forget, but that's not the point. The point is it was a huge pothole and Pat was there to kick asphalt and take names.

I talked to Pat for a few minutes. He said it was the third time he'd patched up ol' Widowmaker this season. Lots of freeze/thaw issues, I guess. He was also taking care of some smaller holes in the lot. As many as he had cones for. He had some choice words for some of the "lower quality" repairs he was cleaning up after. I sympathized. Then I went over to Jimmy's and got my #1 to go.

Thanks, Pat!

Photos by hoffmaldo.

Ah yes, the Tapes. Earlier this week Grossie - yes that Grossie - pings me and says he has an extra for Tapes N' Tapes and he's wondering if I want to go. I'm not a huge fan or anything, but they're so local and so very in the moment and it's an excuse to go to a show and honestly, who turns that down? Certainly not me. So I said sure.

Let's break it down in order.

Openeropener was local 2-piece punk/thrash outfit 'Birthday Suits'. Totally not my style, but it certainly seemed cathartic for them what with all the jumping and sweating and screaming and stuff. We had a couple beers and watched from upstairs behind the glass.

Then buzzhot 'White Denim' hit the stage. They're a little less noisy and it's worth going down and checking it out. Then ZOUCH! the guitar player guy breaks a string on like the second song and pretty much has a meltdown. Way off his game. Finally borrows a guitar from the Suits and manages to finish, but you could tell they were just hanging-on and hoping to get through it in once piece. The atmosphere did not escape unscathed.

Longish break. Curtain going up. Here come the Tapes. They open with a short instrumental number. And it was inspiring. And the energy was up. And it was time to rock. And from there it went about like I expected. Ebbing and flowing and some songs were really hooking people (esp 'Hang Them All', duh) and others were just muddy and flat and I'd kind of bob my head and think about work. But that's just me. (Though I doubt it's just me.) Then the last 2 or 3 songs were great and the encore was 'oh hell yes'-ey all over again, so the night definitely ended on a high note.

In related news, Minneapolis-based Florafauna did the poster for this show and it was quite fresh. I really like these guys.

Tapes N Tapes [myspace]
Pitchfork Murders Tapes 'n Tapes [mfr]
White Denim [myspace]
Birthday Suits [myspace]

A new twist!

I was out on a run tonight when I found this American made beauty propped up against a road sign. It's a Buick. It looked proud and strong and not the slightest bit worried that it would end up orphaned forever. I didn't have the heart to stop and break down the [horrible] statistics that show how much of a long shot that dream really is.

Good luck little fella.

Saturday was the big 5k Timberwolves Fun Run thing down at Lake Harriet. I'm sure you heard all about it, right? The one that was for charity? The one with the Wolves dance team and Crunch and free tickets to a game and all that? Anyway, I ran it with JoePa and Hoffmaldo. Here's the afterblog.

Got up early enough to debate about what to eat before a run. Went with a bowl of cheerios and no coffee. Which is odd, seeing as my normal breakfast is exactly the opposite. I was mostly concerned about cramping. Should I be drinking a ton of water? Honestly no idea how this works. Finally compromise and have a small glass of grape juice. Figure the sugar will help.

Ride the scooter down to Harriet. Nice morning. Sun is raging and it's cool but not too cold. Notice immediately that this is a very low key event. I've seen some other races down at the lake and they can be quite a spectacle: tons of people, balloons, sponsors, music, the whole bit. Not this one. A couple hundred people milling around, a tent, a basketball hoop... I think that was it. Upside: no issues at all finding Hoffmaldo and JoePa. All that work setting up a carefully chosen rendezvous point is suddenly rendered profoundly unnecessary. (No offense to their Project Manager tendencies, obviously, I'm sure they couldn't help themselves.)

People start stretching and stuff. Lots of ironmen looking dudes in fancy running gear - like those shirts made of 'technical fabric' that help wick away the pretense that you're not athletic. They work, btw: Hoffman is now officially flipping out that he's gonna finish last. Meanwhile, I'm taking solace in the fact that my new [clearance] running shoes are totally the whitest in the area. And by 'area' I mean 'greater metropolitan area'. Seriously, they're white. So at least I'll win something. (Isn't that a Dundie? I'd like to thank my keds.)

The festival atmosphere clearly didn't get the memo. 15 minutes until the start and it's dead. Crunch is walking around, some dudes are bombing 3 pointers on the hoop, and my dance team girls are nowhere to be seen. We kill time hiding our free shirts in the bushes and sorting thru our goodie bags. Verdict: ugliest 5k shirts in memory, and the best thing in the goodie bag was a 20% off coupon for Champps. I am not making this up. It's like the twilight zone up in here. And then it clicks: this whole event is a perfect microcosm of the Wolves 07/08 season. We're actually a part of something special. I can't wait to tell my grandkids.

We make our way over to the starting line. Crunch climbs up on a ladder with an air horn. JoePa says "this is just weird" loud enough for everyone to hear. Lots of head nodding ensues. MMMMMRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. And we're off!

I get my run on. I hang with the boys for a while. Long enough to make sure the leader has an insurmountable lead. That's called "building an excuse". Round we go. A few people are standing on the side clapping. The whole thing feels silly, but it's a great morning and it's fun enough and I passed a couple of people and that's all pretty cool, right? Exactly. Now I'm rounding the final hill, looking ahead for pompoms and Crunch. Nothing. One 'race official' dude is standing on the sidelines maybe 200yds from the finish going all HAMMER DOWN BODE MILLER on me. Superweird. Aaaand I'm in. Whew.

Wander around. Find the family. Head over to the snack table. Figure I'll get a banana and some water and um, they have a grill going?! And they're grilling chicken burgers?! And heating huge steaming cauldrons of chowder? CHOWDER?!? It's 10am, you just ran a couple of miles, here, have some chowder. Seriously the biggest WTF I will encounter in 2008. Pack it up, it's over. Also: didn't have any chowder. The chicken burger - which somehow felt normal sitting next to chowder - was about like you'd expect: weird, but oddly satisfying.

Crunch is gone. No dance liners showed*. My ticket is at will-call and will go unclaimed. (I'd have gone if I could have used 'Maldo's ticket to bring junior, but you had to have photo ID to pick it up LAME.)

Up the hill to the park for an hour or two of playtime. All in all a pretty nice morning.

Wolves 5k Fun Run [raceberryjam]
Results - 19th overall holla! [andersonraces]

* - If this is because I tried to LinkIn all of them, I want to be clear (again) that I was only interested in 'reference requests'.