A living, breathing thing

Yes, yes, I really do.

I’ve found a new outlet for my passionate sharing of music. Every month before and after Books & Bars, I have a captive theater audience upon which to foist my latest mixtape CD. Feedback is immediate. It reminds me of performing live comedy. You get the reaction right away. No more giving someone a mix and waiting to hear back. A couple weeks I played The Bird and the Bee’s Hall and Oates covers record. Last night a waitress at Bryant Lake Bowl told me that the A/V guy has been playing it before shows all week now. I think he burned a copy of my mix. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. So, if you want to hear my the monthly mixtapes with a live audience, come to Books & Bars between 6-7p and 8:30-10p. Sure the discussion is from 7-8:30p, so you could stick around for that, too.

If you’d like a copy of last night’s mix, request it in the comments section here.

March Mix
Real Life – Tanlines
Crimson and Clover – Joan Jett and The Blackhearts
Don’t Want to Miss a Thing – Pomplamoose
Mother Russia – We Became Actors
In The Street (Alternative Single Mix) – Big Star
Minneapolis – That Dog
Light Love – Free Energy
Hurricane J – The Hold Steady
Baby f. Ludacris – Justin Bieber
piano fire – sparklehorse
I Wanna Life – Goldfrapp
My Life On The Crazy Train Sucks (So What?) (Kelly Clarkson vs. Ozzy Osbourne vs. Pink vs. Daft Punk) – Dan Mei & Marc Johnce
Svaatzi Uutsi – Pomegranates
Digital Love – Daft Punk
Single Ladies – Pomplamoose Covering Beyonce
Animal Arithmetic – Jónsi
All My Friends – Franz Ferdinand
Swim – Surfer Blood
Just Stop Believin’ (Lady Gaga vs. Journey) – DJ Tripp
I Just Want To See Your Face – Serena Maneesh
Saddest Summer – The Drums
Don’t Look Back – She & Him

Hope to see you tapping your toes on April 13th.

The Road

Pablo, Doodles and I have been dressing down and playing Post-Apocalyptic Scavenger in the neighborhood. It’s so fun. But the ashes have been making the 3 year old cough a lot.

I did read The Road as a book about parenthood, especially fatherhood and what you pass down to your sons.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy is our Books & Bars pick for next Tuesday, Jan 12th.
Plan ahead and read along with us. If you can’t make it to our meetings, then discuss the book on our forum at http://booksandbars.com/forum
Books & Bars 2010:
2nd and 4th Tuesdays / Winter 2010 / Bryant Lake Bowl
Jan 12
The Road – Cormac McCarthy
Jan 26
The History of Love – Nicole Krauss
Feb 9 (Celebrating 6 years of your book club)
Ender’s Game – Orson Scott Card
Feb 23
Ray of the Star – Laird Hunt
Mar 9
The White Tiger – Aravind Adiga
Mar 23
City of Thieves – David Benioff
Apr 13
Let the Great World Spin – Colum McCann

Reinventing the book club tonight.

Books & Bars meets tonight. We’re back in the theater at Bryant Lake Bowl to discuss a bubbly romp through 50s Paris, The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy.

Check out what Metro Magazine had to say about us today:
http://www.metromag.com/0p178a3447/the-dud-avocado-books-bars/

It’s been a long time since I had a business card. Work-at-home dad just didn’t seem to warrant a printed card. I certainly wasn’t looking for more work – like other people’s kids to watch. And my freelance work was so sporadic based on the time I had. Anyway, now that Books & Bars has really taken off and I’m doing a radio show, I asked my favorite artist friend, Roxie Speth, to design some sharp looking new cards. They’re on the way. One side is B&B and the other Mustache Robots. I’m excited. You want one? Just ask.

But for now, check out Roxie’s sites and see what she can do for you:
Roxie on Etsy
and on MNArtists.org

A word from our sponsor

Cool Ideas of the Day: Spicing Up Authorless Events
Jay D. Peterson of Magers and Quinn Booksellers, Minneapolis, Minn., shared his thoughts on authorless events at the ABA Emerging Leaders blog.

“This month we’re doing two big off site events in conjunction with an exhibit at the Soap Factory gallery (yes, it’s in an old Soap Factory!) called Common Room,” he wrote. “Common Room will be a temporary curated gathering space within the Soap Factory designed to facilitate interactivity and the blurring of the boundaries between curators, performers and audience, all within in a casual, living room-esque environment. We were invited to curate some community gatherings around the subject of books.”

Regarding upcoming events, Peterson noted: “During our book club discussion of Time Traveler’s Wife, we’re having our attendees (circa 100 people) each create a paper sculpture (Clare’s profession/hobby in the book). And, in honor of Henry the time-traveling librarian, we’re building a card catalog of information on the reading habits of our book club regulars.

“Afterwards, once the beer and wine have been flowing for a while, we’ll do: Competitive one-on-one writing contests (sort of like Balderdash, but trying to write a cover blurb for a book you’ve never read) and Giant Mad Libs on a 1970s projection screen that looks a little like Wall-E.”

On the Radio

Hey, if you’re a parent or a fan of Books & Bars or just like me a little bit, listen on Sunday to Good Enough Moms on 107.1 FM

I’ll be co-hosting with Erin Erickson. We’ll have Lenore Moritz of Mom Culture as a guest, too. One of the topics we may cover involves raising children who care in times that need it.

Got any interesting questions? Call in and say hi, as I promote our special event for Books & Bars.

Jeff & Erin at kickball

Thanks for listening,
Jeff

Have Fun

Thanks to my newly married friend, Liz, honeymooning in Argentina, for this “mustache robots” t-shirt. Transformers: robots in disguise. Also happens to be Pablo and Doodles fave show right now. They love the new version of the series on Cartoon Network.

Books & Bars met for our 63rd time last night. It was really fun for being a lesser-liked book. I’ll discuss it in a separate post as I compile my notes and research.

You know what’s coming up? My high school reunion. The next big thing to prep for. But how? Read your old yearbooks? Find pictures and videos? Get fit? Get a better job? It’s been years since I’ve been back to my hometown. And this is our first reunion. I expect greatness…or at least extreme awkwardness.

More sweet indie rock from Canada: Stars.

“Reunion”

In the year of my decline
Sucking freezies in the rain
Driving twisted in the suburbs
And then driving back again
Seventeen and half alive
Headlights illuminate the school
Inhale the powder from the science class, yeah nearly dying felt so cool
Your face is all that hasnt changed
Youre reassembled just like me
But when i reach to touch your hand
You stroke mine gently

All i want is one more chance to be young and wild and free
All i want is one more chance to show you,
You were right for me
You were right for me

Im back in gym and its the same
As my name tag floats away
I had 6 too many drinks last night yes
And thats why i made you stay
Plus i always wanted you
You liked to rock it in your car
You said you didnt understand me
Because i always tried to see too far
Well Tainted Love’s too fast to dance to
So lets leave them all behind
They hated us with everything they had
And we hated them in kind

All i want is one more chance
To be young and wild and free
All i want is one more chance to show you,
You were right for me
Reunion, reunion..reunion, reunion…

What’re you doing tomorrow night?

Join these happy faces at Books & Bars:

You’ll find us in the theater at Bryant Lake Bowl, 810 W. Lake St, MPLS, anytime after 6pm. We’ll discuss the book Atmospheric Disturbances at 7.
Cool, see you then.

Books & Bars: BONK 6.9

118 people were in attendance as Books & Bars covered Mary Roach’s Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex on 6.9. With twenty people over fire code capacity we had our largest crowd (sneaking in) according to the Bryant Lake-Bowl servers.

In discussing Bonk, I allowed (encouraged) double entendres and sexual innuendos but warned you could get a shouted “BONK!” from the audience if you used one in your comments. It was a lot of fun with a seemingly still taboo topic for some people. A majority of the conversation was devoted to masturbation, perhaps not surprisingly, in our group of mostly singles.

Overall we enjoyed Bonk, though we felt it a little unfocused and slight on some of its topics. It may be hard to believe but we were ready for a more in-depth and serious take on the subject matters of sexuality and science. We usually do only one non-fiction book a year in our club. Non-fiction serves as a jumping off point for discussions, which end up being less about the book/author and more about the topics presented. Not always a bad thing, in fact they’re usually heated and informative debates, but after an informal poll we’ll continue reading mainly fiction.

Take a few minutes to see the video for the funny payoffs toward the end.

Next month we discuss Atmospheric Disturbances by Rivka Galchen.
Thanks for reading.

Jeff Kamin, moderator/director/writer
Booksandbars.com
Mustacherobots.wordpress.com

For B&B attendees only:
Vanoosh?

Uptown Kickball: Let them eat cake

Uptown Kickball – Game 1 – May 27, 2009

A cloudy 50 degrees set the tone for a fun, but offensively subdued opener with over 20 people playing and at least 5 more jeering us from the peanut gallery.

Team names were Cake Eaters vs. Birthday Suits. (In honor of Captains Jim and Laura’s birthdays. Laura’s from Edina, but no one else admitted to that if they were.)

Birthday Suits won 3-1 after an extended 9 innings. Everyone was well-stretched, but the 10 players in the field rule, including a catcher, should help improve scoring next time.

Jefe tried to slide under Morgan at 3rd base and was later reminded by Mama that he shouldn’t hurt himself trying so hard. He took what was deemed to be an intended slide by his teammates, Cake Eaters, or a fall trying to dodge the ball by the opposing team. (It was a slide, really, I’m fine, just dusty.)

The Jackal’s new shoes proved sadly in need of practice without Jess there to cheer him on to victory.

Jim Schloemer (Co-President/Overly Competitive Jackass)* proclaimed
“Game MVP: Laura Hovi – because she pitched 8 straight no-run innings, and also it’s her f’in birthday!”

Cedric, the 11-year-old neighbor groupie, nicknamed newbie Erin “Old School” and Sarah B. “New School” and wanted to play doctor with both of them after getting past “Old Man” MacGillis. We welcome all three, new to Uptown Kickball this season. Another new recruit, Peter “Don’t call it a comeback, been on the list for years” was stellar in his first showing. Also Erin shared a story with a fake happy ending and her fear of balls. And don’t expect Sarah to play, but she’s happy to cheer.

We forgot to take the group photo, but now have two video cameras shooting with Jefe adding to Stensby’s stellar production values. The team went to Country Bar for karaoke after lingering in the cool park and discussing the last party mishaps.

We’re just warming up for what promises to be a really fun season. I’m going to need a better camera.

*self-described on Uptown Kickball’s Facebook page

Not Your Mother’s Jane Austen

Seth Grahame-Smith chatted with Books & Bars via Skype video. It was our first video chat with an author and a rousing success we hope to repeat soon. A movie screen on stage held his image while we sat in the theater with a couple microphones to ask him questions. He could see us as though he was sitting towards the back of the theater and also see his own image the movie screen. We discussed his smash hit Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which pokes broader fun at the social changes taking place in Jane Austen’s classic, and his other projects for about 45 minutes. Then had time to have our regular discussion without him (another 45 min), making for a good balance. Seth was thoroughly engaging and entertaining, even breaking some secret scoops for us. Topics included the process of writing a mash-up, late night humor, how anything + ninjas = awesome, the drunken washwoman defense, zombies as a metaphor (marriage, etc.), and much more. I’ll let you see for yourselves from the two 8-minute video clips. If you had a particular question you were wondering about, ask me, we may’ve gotten an answer.

Part 1

Part 2

Next month join us for non-fiction (!): June 9th we cover Bonk: the Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach.
at Bryant-Lake Bowl