Em’s Neighborhood

Nine hundred dollars, (I know, only?) gets you the worlds cleanest keyboard.  Great for popular coffee shops I guess, or ultra clean electronic rooms (chip makers).  But $900?  I'd be okay with just running it through the dishwasher at the end of the day.  Yes you can do that, no soap though.

I have to leave soon to bring my ailing Ruby to Ben's to see if he can't figure out what is wrong with her. But before I go, I had to wish a heartfelt congratulations to Dabysan and CarrieNation, who are getting married today. 

Har Mar Superstar - Game Night Har Mar Superstar Tour Dates 11/08/09 Aquarium* Fargo, ND 11/09/09 Waiting Room* Omaha, NE 11/11/09 Brick Kansas City, MO 11/29/09 Oxford O2 Academy 3, UK 11/30/09 Relentless Garage London 12/01/09 Thekla Bristol, UK 12/02/09 Wedgewood Portsmouth, UK 12/03/09 Cabaret Voltaire Edinburgh 12/04/09 Bodega Nottingham, UK 12/05/09 Brickyard Carlisle, UK 12/06/09 King Tut’s Wah Wah Glasgow 12/07/09 Ruby Lounge Manchester, UK 12/08/09 Plug Sheffield, UK 12/09/09 Academy 2 Dublin, Ireland 12/10/09 Stiff Kitten Belfast, Ireland 12/12/09 Concorde 2 Brighton, UK 12/13/09 Barfly Cardiff, UK * with Bang Bang Eche Read More Har Mar Superstar http://weheartmus... Har Mar Mall - I mean Superstar - is back, after five years of absent since 2004's The Handler......

Parking in the college area known as "Dinkytown" in Minneapolis can be kind of hard, especially when the meters on 4^th Street runs until 10pm. I didn't mind walking a few blocks to the beautiful Varsity Theater as the weather was nothing less than perfect that Friday evening.

Opening up for Har Mar Superstar are three very different genre and acts. Starting with Koo Koo Kangeroo (official / myspace), whose music styling is that of hip hop - for toddlers. Their songs are dead simple, like "AOA" (sample lyrics: "aye oh aye oh aye") and "Cheh Cheh Chi" and "LMNOP", but they're catchy and easy to sing along. The highlight of their set was when they threw down a white tarp-like covering and the audience was dancing under it like a party fort.

Wow, Bang Bang Eche (myspace) are young. Someone told me that they're about 18 years old, but they certainly look much younger. Their music is very punk high-energy and reminds me a bit of Arctic Monkeys influenced. My easily favorite song from their set is "Fist Full of Dollars", perhaps a reference to Sergio Leone classic film? They ended their setlist with "Die Hippy Scum". Oh, also, it's worth noting that bassist T'Nealle sported a three keyboard cat moon t-shirt. Adorable.

The odd group on the bill was two-person group, Lookbook (myspace). The band is basically guitarist Grant Cutler, who plays guitars and handles the pre-recordings, with vocalist Maggie Morrison. Their music sounds like 80s pop, not exactly the "body-moving" type of music that you'd think Har Mar's audience would demand. Not really much to say, except I think Maggie looks really cute and I will be talking about them in further detail on my "book"-theme news on Sunday.

Har Mar Superstar ♥ Varsity Theater, Minneapolis (11/06/09)

Compared to the last time I saw Har Mar Superstar, which was basically a man and his undies and boombox - he now has a full band, all dressed in white with a red cross on the back. Also, the last time I saw him, he basically stripped down after the first few songs - this time, he started off very heavily dressed with an African cover, hat, etc.

After the first song, he took off his hat. After "DUI", he took off the overall to reveal a Prince "Purple Rain" shirt. He kept taking off articles of clothing as the night went on. From "EZ Pass", to "Girls Only", to "Creative Juices"... the audience was loving it all.

Har Mar and Melinda Park singing "Powerline"

By the time "Brothers & Sisters" was played, he inevitably took off his shirt. The pants disappeared with "Apple Sauce", followed by "Turn it Around". The finale song was "Tall Boy", which Zach, from Bang Bang, and some woman called Melinda Park (or was it Mindy Park?) joined on stage to help sing the song. Park would later turn up again to help sing one of the encore, "Powerline".

The very last song, Har Mar sang an a cappella version of Boyz II Men's "It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday". He would pretend the song ended and everyone would clap... only he would continue to sing the refrain. After the third false ending and after he said "goodnight", he came back and sang some more.

Har Mar's latest album is Dark Touches, available from Dilettante Recordings. Read Andrew's review of the album, pick up a copy at amazon

 11/07/2009 04:22:06 ♥ vu () ♥ harmarsuperstar.com ♥ myspace.com/harmarsuperstar ♥ twitter.com 

If you could only drink one beverage for the rest of your life (not including water), which one would you choose?

Is it me or have all of the “questions of the day” started sounding more like market research questions from some mega tween advertising agency and not from actual VOX users? Did VOX make a deal with the devil in order to pay the bills? HMMmmmm.

OK, here goes another liberry rant.

There are signs ALL over the library stating no food or drinks allowed yet every day I see stupid people with drinks and snacks chomping away right next to one of these 50 or so signs. I guess they are all in the library to brush up on their “how to read a sign and follow directions” skills. Anyway, none of them are as bad as the girl that either sits at the table across the isle from me or behind me every day. She eats SO much food while she’s doing her home work that I’ll call her “Chester the Horse” because she sounds like a horse chewing grass behind me; a horse that is eating grass that is wrapped in cellophane packages. I swear it looks like she has a whole friggin 7-Eleven crammed in her bag. I am surprised she isn’t carrying one of those slushy machines on her back so she can get a frosty beverage when the need arises. Every day she eats the same thing too. The list is as follows:

1- Apple

1 – Package of cheese crackers

1 – Cookie

1 – Small bag of carrots

1 – Bottle of water - which you would think had a nipple on the end of it because she doesn’t just drink from her bottle, she sucks the water out and makes loud slurping noises while she does it. Every time I get distracted by the slurping and look, I get a dirty look in return like “what I’m just trying to make a vacuum, what’s the problem”.

I know it looks like I pay way too much attention to this breaker of the rules but how can I not? She makes so many chomping, crackling, slurping, gurgling, smacking, burping, dripping and sucking noises I can’t believe the rest of the people around me aren’t watching the spectacle as well. She reminds me of a granola version of the orange chicken massacre I saw back at De Anza. They both had the same eating habits accept this one makes a lot more noise and is currently chewing her cud right under a no food or drink sign. Am I the only one who makes these observations? Why am I so fascinated with the quirks of others? Yes, some people irritate me right off the bat but the rest I have to just stop and watch for a bit. Some times I feel like the world is just a big aquarium and I am following the big school of fish in the middle called the general public…..and occasionally tapping on the glass.  

OK, here goes another liberry rant.

There are signs ALL over the library stating no food or drinks allowed yet every day I see stupid people with drinks and snacks chomping away right next to one of these 50 or so signs. I guess they are all in the library to brush up on their “how to read a sign and follow directions” skills. Anyway, none of them are as bad as the girl that sits either sits at the table across the isle from me or behind me every day. She eats SO much food while she’s doing her home work that I’ll call her “Chester the Horse” because she sounds like a horse chewing grass behind me; a horse that is eating grass that is wrapped in cellophane packages. I swear it looks like she has a whole friggin 7-Eleven crammed in her bag. I am surprised she isn’t carrying one of those slushy machines on her back so she can get a frosty beverage when the need arises. Every day she eats the same thing too. The list is as follows:

1- Apple

1 – Package of cheese crackers

1 – Cookie

1 – Small bag of carrots

1 – Bottle of water - which you would think had a nipple on the end of it because she doesn’t just drink from her bottle, she sucks the water out and makes loud slurping noises while she does it. Every time I get distracted by the slurping and look, I get a dirty look in return like “what I’m just trying to make a vacuum, what’s the problem”.

I know it looks like I pay way too much attention to this breaker of the rules but how can I not? She makes so many chomping, crackling, slurping, gurgling, smacking, burping, dripping and sucking noises I can’t believe the rest of the people around me aren’t watching the spectacle as well. She reminds me of a granola version of the orange chicken massacre I saw back at De Anza. They both had the same eating habits accept this one makes a lot more noise and is currently chewing her cud right under a no food or drink sign. Am I the only one who makes these observations? Why am I so fascinated with the quirks of others? Yes, some people irritate me right off the bat but the rest I have to just stop and watch for a bit. Some times I feel like the world is just a big aquarium and I am following the big school of fish in the middle called the general public…..and occasionally tapping on the glass.  

etc etc etc

Possibly one of the best movie series of all time.  It still is great today as it keeps the attention of my kids, ages 13 and 7.  They both love the series and I don't blame them, the movies are awesome.

My phone has the temperament of an eight year old. When ever I have to kill time I like to play Bejeweled but it seems to get irritated with me when I can’t see any moves. I swear I haven’t completed any more than one and a half levels in about 100 games. The screen is only 1 inch by 1 inch so I think it should cut me some slack but no, if it has to show me more than two moves per game I instantly get shut down.  I guess my phone thinks I am too stupid to play Bejeweled and tries to save me the headache and embarrassment by ending the game early. I don’t like mean phones.