Stuff to do: The Mountain Goats
Spare indie rockers who sound like they have something important to say play tonight at the 400 Bar at 9 p.m. 21+. Get tickets here.
Here’s the Mountain Goats’ video for “This Year”
Halloween greetings from JibJab
The longtime makers of political satire flash vids is branching into the commercial market with Sendables, and this Psycho-quoting pumpkin-slasher short is their first breakout hit.
Halloween greetings from JibJab
The longtime makers of political satire flash vids is branching into the commercial market with Sendables, and this Psycho-quoting pumpkin-slasher short is their first breakout hit.
Minnesota Monitor: Larry Craig spoiled anonymous airport sex
Great post by Andy Birkey at MinnMon: “Why I Gave Up Public Sex at the MSP Airport,” featuring an interview with “Jeremy,” a man who has cruised for sex there in the past but says no mas.
Beta note: a quick progress update
Beta note: a quick DM progress update
Caught in a Hollywood cul de sac: In our latest audio Molecast, local music historian Alan Leeds talks about the snags hitting the Spike Lee-directed James Brown film Leeds is consulting on.
Sheet-smokin’ man: Catch Dutch’s Halloween Dude Weather forecast.
Beta note: Mr. Mole, tear down that mast!
A number of local sites have published items noting the start of our public beta. They have been kind and encouraging and patient on the whole, and we very much appreciate that. But let’s talk about the status of some of the things we haven’t done yet, or need to do better:- Early reaction has not been so kind where it comes to questions of color and design. “Hire a graphic designer, please!” writes My Pronto Pop. “Those colors are making me nauseous.” A commenter at Metroblogging Minneapolis adds, “That is one of the worst ‘pro’ site designs/color schemes i’ve seen in a long long while… the yellow everywhere is searing my retinas.” Ours too. Truly, it was not our intention to top the page with something that more closely resembled a coercive interrogation device than a masthead. We were working on the fly, and still are, but we’ll be replacing the Yellow Curtain of Death with something more minimalist in the near term, and something more, you know, design-y a little later on.
- The forthcoming Submit an Original Post to the Daily Mole tool needs some further tweaking to resolve site-software compatibility issues. Likewise our photo-posting tools.
- Several people have asked for time stamps on our posts to make it easier to scan the site for new stuff. It shall be so! Toward the same end, Zen-project-master Chuck plans to integrate a Most Recent Posts widget at the site very soon.
- As I mentioned before, we’re also working on a new version of the home page that will offer a more compact, concise summary of new and recent content.
- God and this version of Wordpress willing, we’ll soon be broadcasting Dude Weather from a fixed position on the home page, too. When? Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow–but soon, and for the rest of our lives.
Dutch hits big time: world’s first Dude Weather Halloween costume
It’s Rett Martin, who works at Clockwork Active Media Systems (the Mole’s IT partner) and runs the Bus Tales blog. Click on the image to see faux-Dutch being seen.
Forbes: Dead celebrities live on, cash in
1. Elvis ($49m); 2. John Lennon; 3. Charles Schulz; 4. George Harrison; 5. Albert Einstein; 6. Andy Warhol; 7. Dr. Suess; 8. Tupac; 9. Marilyn Monroe; 10. Steve McQueen; 11. James Brown; 12. Bob Marley; 13. James Dean ($3.5m).
Story, gallery.
Google’s new social-networking development site opens tomorrow
The game plan for “OpenSocial,” as TechCrunch reports [emphasis added]: “As more and more [social network] platforms launch, developers have difficult choices to make. There are costs associated with writing and maintaining applications for these social networks. Most developers will choose one or two platforms and ignore the rest, based on a simple cost/benefit analysis. Google wants to create an easy way for developers to create an application that works on all social networks. And if they pull it off, they’ll be in the center, controlling the network.”
“Stairway to Heaven” coming to a cell phone near you
Last week’s deal to put the Led Zeppelin catalog on iTunes will mean Jimmy Page riffs will likewise be available as Verizon ringtones. (Copyfight)
Obama pledges to push for net-neutrality laws
If he’s elected president, that is, and he won’t be. But how shocking is it even to hear a candidate address the issue?
Not familiar with the net neutrality issue? Check these backgrounders from Common Cause and How Stuff Works.
Dia de los Muertos: three videos
After Anglos are done with Halloween, the interesting holiday happens. The Mole is presently compiling a list of upcoming events related to local Day of the Dead festivities (and so far finding little about local public celebrations in Latino communities, so please drop us a comment about any that you’re aware of), but meantime here are three videos to get us started: an animated short about the holiday, plus sights and sounds from Dia de los Muertos parades last year in Albuquerque and on Olvera Street in Los Angeles.
Read more
Gossip Morning
Roberto Cavalli, the designer who created Jennifer Lopez’s flowy tour costumes, confirms she’s pregnant. Personally, I kind of like these stars who don’t bother to make any announcement. In other Lopez news, her next movie, Bordertown, got booed at the Berlin Film Festival and is going straight to video, er dvd.
Hugh Laurie is depressed. He doesn’t like being the center of attention.
Britney Spears can only see her sons three times a week, supervised; gets poor parenting grades from court-appointed coach.
Christina Applegate’s pretty charming Samantha Who (Mondays, ABC) is the number 1 comedy in the country today.
Local movie consultant tells all: Alan Leeds on Spike Lee’s on-again, off-again James Brown biopic
Before his days as Prince’s tour manager and, later, the head of Paisley Park Records, Alan Leeds (pictured above–he’s the white guy with the giant ‘fro–with James Brown and a cadre of Black Panthers, in 1970) served for a number of years as tour manager to the hardest-working man in show business. He’s also contributed liner notes to many a Brown re-issue, winning a Grammy for his Star Time notes and more recently writing the booklets that accompany the online-only Hip-O label’s series of James Brown singles.
Almost a year ago, Leeds hired on as a consultant to Spike Lee’s much-anticipated film biography of Brown. But Hollywood’s enthusiasm for Brown’s story–and for the epic treatment Lee apparently intends to give it–has waned since the project was put on the fast track around the time of Brown’s death. As Leeds explains in our latest Molecast, the project has run into issues of script, casting, and most of all cost, and now finds itself in “turnaround,” which is movie-speak for purgatory.
Molecast: Steve Perry talks to Alan Leeds about the Lee project and Brown’s legacy. (17:36) (And yes, we know the track information is listed incorrectly. Working on that.)
Below the jump: excerpts
Bus Tales: I’m better now, thanks
From the Mole’s partner site, Bus Tales, a recent yarn concerning good gastrointestinal citizenship:
His face was ashen
I was sitting just behind the rear exit door on a southbound 84 when I noticed a man, mid 30’s, sitting on the left side of the bus a few rows up who was not looking very well. He was belching and swallowing and obviously doing everything possible to keep from puking up all over the floor. His face was ashen. I felt for the guy.
He reaches up and signals for the next stop. The bus stops and he bolts out the rear door and immediately pukes up all over the sidewalk. Several times.
There happened to be a couple of folks waiting to board the bus at this stop. So, the man wipes his mouth, notices the line, and re-boards the bus!! He uses his transfer and sits down where he had been sitting previously, obviously feeling a great deal better than he did seconds before.
I am just so very grateful he had the presence of mind to throw up OUTSIDE the bus!
Tale by whj, posted on October 30, 2007
Got a story from the bus? Submit it to Bus Tales here.
(Belated) TiVO Alert: the PBS Charles Schulz documentary
I hadn’t planned to write anything about the Charlie-mania that’s been lavishly covered in local media for the past week. But I started watching the PBS American Masters documentary on Schulz the other night by pure chance, and it’s really remarkable: poignant, complex, and beautifully assembled. The cumulative picture of Schulz–driven mainly by the recollections of early-life friends and his two wives–made his story utterly compelling even to a Peanuts agnostic like me. Also makes great use of excerpts from the strip itself.
Two more chances to record it this week: Tomorrow morning at 8 a.m. and Sunday morning at 1 a.m., both on TPT Digital (Comcast Channel 440).
More: Pete Scholtes at City Pages is my favorite local Peanuts fan; here’s a tribute and a links post, both from 2004. (And that 2004 Halloween party he mentions at the end of the latter? He’s still not having a 2004 Halloween party.)
TC Morning Roundup: Michael John Anderson–thrill killer?
A day after Michael Anderson (pictured) was charged in the murder of Katherine Olson, details about the alleged killer lead this morning’s papers and newscasts. The Strib’s team report (with a PDF of the criminal complaint) is by far the best work from the pack. Anderson, a shy 19-year-old paintball fanatic who worked at MSP Airport as a plane-fueler, allegedly shot Olson in the back, bound her feet in twine, and watched her die. Police say she was not sexually assaulted. Early signs would seem to indicate that Katherine Olson was killed just to see what it would feel like. The most chilling detail from a story filled with chilling details: Anderson admitted being present at the killing, but claimed the murderer was a friend who “thought it would be funny.”
Jim Oberstar’s bill to create additional funding for bridge repair and maintenance has been pared to the point of meaninglessness owing to the exclusion of a gas tax hike. As Kevin Diaz writes, the changes to the legislation have reduced the potential revenues from $25 billion to $2 billion… Jason DeRusha of WCCO-TV reports that three African-American students living on the St. Thomas campus received threatening, racially charged notes early Tuesday morning… How bad is the state’s administration of its five veterans’ homes? Bad enough that turning them back over to the VA seems preferable…
Finally: City Hall Scoop notes that St. Paul developer and incorrigible dreamer Jerry Trooien may be gearing up for another push on behalf of his already-rejected mega-project The Bridges, if his generous contributions to the St. Paul police union PAC are any indication… And Perry Wohnoutka, the mayor of tiny Spicer, Minnesota, is taking the town’s drunk-and-disorderly statutes for a test-drive.
Hate crimes Jerry Trooien Katherine Olson Michael Anderson Perry Wohnoutka TC Morning Roundup The Bridges University of St. Thomas Talk: Grading Minneapolis’s city wifi service
Talk: Grading Minneapolis’s city wifi service
Mole member Geoff Garton of south Minneapolis writes that provider US Internet still has lots of work to do. How’s your experience been?
One sheet to the wind: Dutch has your Halloween Dude Weather forecast.
LOL Polz: Two new contributions from Jillybee72 today. Send us yours!
Minneapolis wi-fi service so far: a gentleman’s C-
Site member Geoff Garton writes: Boy was I eager to be the first one on my block to sign up for US Internet’s Wifi service. Boy am I starting to feel dumb. I selectively tuned out those voices of reason trying to explain that residential wifi was going to be a tricky proposition; that wifi is an inherently dodgy technology; that it’d be wise to sit back and watch how Minneapolis Wifi shakes out before subscribing. Well I’d been tethered to the dial-up for about ten years and I just couldn’t wait a minute longer.
A little over a month into my two-year contract (yeah, I was really excited), I’m giving the service a C-. My first week of service: several hours of access followed by 5 days of no service. “Node is down” was the daily explanation. Node went back “up” at some point and service resumed, but service of a distinctly intermittent nature. I probably get bounced, on average, twice an hour. Which is especially lovely after composing a long, important email that didn’t get saved.
Speeds are another issue. I’m paying for “up to 3 Mb/s” download speeds. I understand the “up to” qualifier, but my average speedtest.net download speed is around 1.5 Mb/s. I’ve recently heard that the “up to 3 Mb/s” is actually calculated as the sum of download and upload speeds, e.g., if max upload is 1 Mb/s, your “up to” download speed is actually only 2 Mb/s. I’ve yet to have this “officially” confirmed, but it came from a USI employee, and this is not what the sales and pricing information says.
The techs have all been courteous, patient, and well-intentioned, but I don’t think they have the tools to make wifi a dependable residential broadband option. Not now anyway. So, my experience in a nutshell: wifi is less dependable than dial-up, not a heck of a lot faster, and about three times as expensive. If the system was not ready to go live, it shouldn’t have been marketed as such. If the technology is inherently less dependable then other internet connections, this should be explained and subscription rates should reflect that fact. It seems to me a free “beta-testing” period should have been implemented citywide so that consumers could experience the technology first hand while USI worked on the kinks and managed expectations.
All that said, I’d love to see the service be successful, for the benefit of all concerned parties. I hope USI can come through with some fixes or they’re going to see some very disappointing subscription rates.
Dude Weather 10/31
keep looking »
