Norae Bang Shanty, originally uploaded by Aaron Landry.

After really enjoying the Art Shanty Projects in 2008, Ann and I ventured out to Medicine Lake to see the Art Shanty Projects now that the weather has been more tolerable for wandering around on a lake.

We mailed a few post cards from the post office on ice, sang karaoke, helped knit, danced a bit, went in a sauna and got confused by the USS Walter Mondale. It's a fun diversion and a good excuse to get out in the cold. If you haven't been, go. They're out there through Valentine's Day.

The adventure is best told through photos: [photo set, slideshow] ...and video.

Fresh Breath, originally uploaded by Aaron Landry.

Recently showing up on my coffee table is Marie Martin's new collection of poetry, Fresh Breath. She is a neighbor of mine as well as a local blogger and food writer.

In the 32 pages of Fresh Breath, Martin moves from her (welcome) warning about her style in "The Ink Slinger" to moments such as these from "Tenderness:

The great intimidator rarely receives that which so many think is all wrapped up in her silky linens: intelligible intentions from parted lips. It's not what you'll dish out to me, but how you're gonna yield it. It's not what I have coming, but how much I'm willing to wager.

Martin's words, which many times include proper nouns, modern abbreviations and technology slang give surprising, descriptive beauty to small moments such as in "We Entrain" which ends with:

And I actually noted the synchrony of the wind, our smiles, and sunburn. Harmonized in beads of sweat, entrained in laughter, as we brushed the dog.

Each poem is a short snippet that's painted into a full moment of love, introspection, pain or a realization on life and nature. She sums up by saying "poems are your goofy, lovely, your crappy, fruitful, and ugly solutions for lost memories." Fresh Breath is a good book full of them.

Doug Johnson's Studio, originally uploaded by Aaron Landry.

This last weekend, Brian and I took a little trip to catch half of the Western Wisconsin Pottery Tour. Ceramic artists open up their studios and we visited Wendy Olson, Jay Jensen, Doug Johnson, Bayard Morgan and Jane Hart G. Morgan. We came home with a bunch of new mugs and bowls.

Photos speak better than words for this one. (slideshow)

The Daily Show Set, originally uploaded by Aaron Landry.

If you were as lucky as I was, on May 1st, 2008 you got to reserve tickets to one of the nights The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is taping at the History Theatre in Saint Paul this week. I was there today and got a lot of questions. Here are the answers:

Q: If I don't have tickets, what are the chances of me getting in? A: Almost nil. I'm not sure if it's even worth trying. Q: I have tickets; what time should I show up? A: I got there at 2:00 and my group, Ann Friedrich, Rex Sorgatz and Ana Marie Cox got decent seats. My friend and coworker Ian Davis got there about 2:50 and he was seated in the balcony. Ed Kohler got there at 3:20 and got seated in the "simulcast theater." Jeremy Gibbens, Angie Dezelske, Max Sparber and Courtney Mault arrived before I did and got great seating. Get there around two. Update: Angie Dezelske states that for Wednesday's show, there was a line of 100 people not long after 2:00. Q: How do I get to the History Theatre? A: The History Theatre is at 30 10th St E. I was surprised I found a place to park. There's a lot at Jackson and 7th that was only four dollars and there were a number of open spaces. Make sure you have exact change. There's another lot nearby that's ten bucks. Metro Transit has rerouted buses and many drop you off a block away from the theater. Here's a map PDF. Q: I heard there are riots in Saint Paul. Is it safe? A: I'd say yes, for the most part. As you've likely seen in photos and video, there are forces in riot gear and an incredible police presence in Saint Paul. The Daily Show blog even calls Saint Paul a "police state". It sure seems true at times. It's unnerving, but the law enforcement outnumber the rioters by an enormous margin. Unfortunately, the History Theatre is humorously smack dab in the middle of the approved protest route. After the taping on Tuesday we were told we were on "lockdown" due to protestors outside that had the potential of getting violent. We had to remain in our seats. After most of it passed, we were given the option to leave at our own risk. Walking back to the car we had to wait to get permission from police in riot gear to cross an intersection. Q: How strongly do they enforce the no-food, no-phone, and no-camera rules? A: Ann took a photo and got her camera taken away. Ana was told to turn off her iPhone. It's enforced. I snuck the above photo before taping started and turned off my phone. I don't recommend trying it because everyone's watching. Q: When and how do we get in? A: While in line, you're asked for your name and you're given plastic tickets with handwritten numbers on them. You are given one ticket per person that you are with, up to the amount of tickets you reserved. The email tickets imply this happens at 3:31 but it happened a bit later for us. If there are more people in your party that are not present yet, I do not believe they will get tickets. By 4:30 or so they started letting people in to the theater lobby where you go through metal detectors. Around 5:15 we were seated by the numbers on the plastic tickets. Q: When is the actual taping? The opener (for us it was Paul Mecurio), started just after 6:00. Jon Stewart came up and continued to warm up the crowd, mostly by taking questions from the audience. Taping then began and it was done around 7:15. Q: Is it fun? A: It's seriously hilarious. More from David Brauer, Jeremy Gibbens, Rex Sorgatz, KARE 11, The Daily Show's Indecision 2008 blog, Bob Collins and photos of us waiting in line.

3:AM, originally uploaded by Aaron Landry.

In the late 1990s, my coworker and now friend Troy became a master at the art of the mix CD: he'd develop elaborate cover art to go along with his eclectic and rare mixes ranging from hot summer songs to Christmas mixes, from truckin' songs to classics made famous in Vegas, from obscure celebrity covers to road trip music. He'd make tons of copies and design the whole package from scratch. Almost ten years later he still creates mix albums and I literally have a shelf dedicated to them. (Troy also now rocks out at Check The Cool Wax, The Total Recall and a number of other sites)

Anyway, in the 1998 and 1999, trying to follow in his footsteps perhaps, I ended up making three mix CDs. While playing with putting songs up against each other I started getting some of my first real experience with Photoshop and Illustrator. I distributed about ten copies of each. It was a fun little project back then. My friend Melissa messaged me yesterday asking if I still had a copy of "3:AM," my third one, as she lent her copy to someone and never got it back. Sure enough, I did, but for whatever reason, the aged CD-R I had didn't work anymore. I decided I'd revive the mix in MP3 form. For "3:AM," I wanted to make one of those "last mixes of the night" chill-out albums. In February 1999, this is what I thought that would be: 3:AM

1. Transglobal Underground - Sky Giant
2. Tricky - Hell Is Around The Corner
3. Portishead - It Could Be Sweet
4. Faithless - The Garden
5. The Cardigans - Paralyzed
6. Massive Attack - Risingson
7. Everything But The Girl - Single
8. Hooverphonic - Dictionary
9. Mono - The Outsider
10. The Starseeds - Parallel Life
11. Björk - Come To Me
12. Black Tape For A Blue Girl - Given
13. Alpha - Firefly (Receiver Mix)
14. Spiritualized - Broken Heart
15. Air (with Françoise Hardy) - Jeanne

[MP3 player removed, sorry] P.S. Yes, I would have used Muxtape if it supported more than 12 tracks at a time.

UPDATE 2011: I put this up on Spotify.

The Minnesota International Piano-e-Competition runs their e-Piano Junior competition from July 4th through the 11th. In January and February of this year, young pianists meeting the repertoire requirements from all over the world were recorded using Yamaha's Disklavier technology, recording every aspect of how the pianos are played. The files get played back on the same type of piano so they can be judged together. What a great idea to have a truly international piano competition. The finalists fly to Minnesota to compete in person at Sundin Music Hall at Hamline University this weekend and throughout the week. The final rounds are at Orchestra Hall on Friday, July, 11. All performances are open and free to the public. Minnesota Public Radio also has a live stream of the event. What I've watched so far today has been fantastic. I'll likely go see some of this competition in person.

Sunnyside Center Cinema, originally uploaded by Aaron Landry.

There's something appealing about going to a theater that's been repeatedly received horrible reviews online. Complaints of sticky floors, needing plastic bags for seats and poor service -- you have to admit it's worth checking out.

Courtney, her mother and I decided to see a matinee showing of Sex and the City at the Sunnyside Center Cinema in Queens.

The theater is run down and dirty and most all of the staff was busy playing with their Sidekicks to notice us. Various cardboard boxes littered the floors and hallways containing concession items and un-popped popcorn. The video games in the tight corridors seemed gummed up and gross. Our film was in the basement where the floors were littered with stuck gum and candy and the size was almost comparable to an expensive home theater. The seats in front of us had major holes in them but to be honest, the popcorn was good and they didn't screw up the film. Not that it needed it.

Rex joked with me that if it is the worst cinema in Queens, it must be the worst cinema in New York (then possibly the worst cinema in the U.S.). It wasn't horrible.

42-17 Queens Blvd
Sunnyside, NY 11104
718-361-6867

Walker on the Green, originally uploaded by Aaron Landry.

Walker on the Green starts this weekend at the Walker Art Center. It's some of the most creative and insightful mini golf I've played.

For this, photos speak louder than words (slideshow, photo set).

I scored 18 on the pink course and 24 on the blue course. Go out there and beat my scores. It runs through September 7th and is open Wednesdays though Sundays, 10 am to 8 pm. It's a lot of fun.

Walker Art Center
1750 Hennepin Ave
Minneapolis, MN 55403

As my pal Chris quoted in his review, when I first spun My Morning Jacket's latest album, Evil Urges, I said that "it’s almost like MMJ thinks they can do whatever they want now." After the first few tracks I had to start over again and ask myself, "is this really My Morning Jacket?" I was expecting an opener like "Mahgeeta" from It Still Moves or "Wordless Chorus" from Z (which by the way, is one of my favorite songs of all time). I was setting myself up for more of the same and I didn't get it.

Evil Urges starts out poppy with the fun "Evil Urges" but didn't excite me like I was expecting. "Touch Me I'm Going to Scream (Part 1)" is catchy but for me at the time, very uncharacteristically My Morning Jacket. I couldn't put my finger on exactly what I liked about it but Sean in Culture Bully's comments pointed out: "...it’s just so Roxy Music. Don’t get me wrong I love the rest of the album, but as people talk about the strange-funk of 'Highly Suspicious' this very casual throwback to intricate late-70’s, early-80’s synthpop isn’t given the attention it deserves." I agree. Which brings us to track three, "Highly Suspicious." At first it almost reminded me of Enon's "Rubber Car" due to the juxtaposition of monstrously deep vocals almost shouting "highly suspicious / highly suspicious of you" with the verses sung in an almost obnoxious high falsetto. "What the heck is this?" I kept thinking.

This is the point where I wondered if I was really listening to the new My Morning Jacket and started over.

Now that I've listened to the album twenty times, it has grown on me to become one of my favorite albums of the year so far. It bounces around a lot and defies a lot of classification but it works now that I've put aside my expectations of what I wanted out of an MMJ album. I feel rather naïve in my initial impressions because it looking back, it isn't actually that much of a departure for My Morning Jacket as it is growth. As said in a promotional video for Evil Urges, it's "the next stage of the evolution of the band." It's true.

In fact, I'm finding the tracks I was humming and hawing on before are now some of my favorites. The rest of the album has a number of comparable throwbacks to previous MMJ material but overall this album is certainly something new. I love it front to back.

I keep finding myself going back to "Librarian," a story lead by an acoustic guitar about a crush on a "simple little bookworm buried underneath the sexiest librarian" where he dreams she'd "take off those glasses and let down [her] hair," spying through a bookcase fantasizing about her. The song swells with strings where he asks "what is it inside our heads / that makes us do the opposite / makes us do the opposite of what's right for us? / Because everything would be great / everything would be good / if everybody gave / like everybody could." I can't put it down.

My Morning Jacket's Evil Urges comes out on June 10th. They are performing live at the Orpheum Theater in Minneapolis on October 2nd. Tickets go on sale today at 5:00. I can't wait. My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges (MP3) My Morning Jacket Official Site

CD Shelf, originally uploaded by Aaron Landry.

I just finished my review of Atmosphere's new album "When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold." It's in stores tomorrow. Check it out: Review: Atmosphere - "When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold"

Atmosphere “Shoulda Known” (MP3)
Atmosphere at Rhymesayers Entertainment
Video: Atmosphere - Guarantees: