...on Dave Van Ronk, but the title and album cover bears rather more resemblance than that:

Inside Llewyn Davis

and

Inside Dave Van Ronk, complete with cat.

Sweet.

Awhile back, I was ever so delighted to hear the Coen Brothers were working on a script of a movie based on Dave Van Ronk's memoir, The Mayor of MacDougal Street.

Inside Llewyn Davis is the result. It is said to be loosely based on Dave's book. It's "the story of a singer-songwriter who navigates New York's folk music scene in the 1960s." It only covers a week of Llewyn Davis' life, so I'm not expecting to find a Lee Hoffman equivalent in the cast, but that won't stop me from looking for her. I certainly enjoyed reading about her in Dave's book.

T Bone Burnett and Marcus Mumford (lead singer of the English band Mumford and Sons) were involved with the music; I'll be listening to that, too. Come December, that is. But only because I'll be in Massachusetts this weekend and not in France.

Why France? Because Insider Llewyn Davis is screening this Sunday at the Cannes Film Festival, where it was invited to compete for the Palme d'Or. So cool.

The Telegraph has a brief article and the movie trailer.

37 Yay votes; 30 Nay.

HF 1054 passes. The Governor had said he'll gladly sign it into law.

I registered my business in Massachusetts the day same sex marriage became legal here. I wish cakmpls the added joy of her birthday being the day the Minnesota Senate passed HF 1054 there.

I'm watching the live feed from the Minnesota State Senate Chamber as it moves from voting down several proposed amendments to the bill to allow same sex marriage to the third reading of the bill. It hasn't always been good for my blood pressure, but it's well worth listening to, so I continue.

Anticipating the vote....

...and Commander Chris Hadfield is the best:

David Levine & Kate Yule, presenters.

More later; I'm going to video now.

Leroy Kettle, by acclaim.

Lucy is giving her GoH speech in Old Norse, translated by Ulrika O'Brian and ably acted by Jeanne Bowman, Tami Vining, David Levine, and Pat Virzi.

I've been back in the room for about 15 minutes. The 2:27am numbers are pretty much correct for the Corflu bheer tasting, hosted by yours truly, with fringefaan as the fabulous, genial bartender from start to finish, bheer tasting set-up and Saturday night consuite maintenance by carl juarez, Pat Virzi, Ruth Sachter. and vgqn, each a pleasure to work with. I knew that about Pat and KMS from decades of fun times together, and Ruth, too, though more like a dozen years and some. Bice to finally start getting to know carl after all this time. Had a great time shopping with John Lorenz and Ruth Sachter, followed by dinner at Podnah's Pit BBQ. I sent my leftover smoked prime rib home with John & Ruth; I made it through about two-thirds of it.

Party dropped from 9 to 6 Corfluvians sometime between 3 and 4am. Actually, we added 1 in there as Dan Steffan returned around 3 (or was it 4?) after spending the evening at home putting together FAAn Awards for tomorrow's presentation of them. Ah, fandom, it's so reassuring to see similar traditions of yore alive and doing so very well.

Anyway, 6 of us sat around the smaller of the two conference tables for a good long while stretching to 4:30, 4:45 or so, then Lynn, Dan, and I cleaned up for 15-20 minutes and talked a bit after that. Toddled downstairs to unwind a bit more, carrying the remains of the Klamath Basin's Vanilla Porter and Brouwerij Huyghe's Delirium Tremens. And here I thought I didn't like Belgian Ales....

Good times. Have many bheer photos and Post-Its. May even manage to publish at least some of them in some form, um, soon?

Corflu banquet starts at 11am. Must shower before then. Hmmm...how soon do I need to be back up? 'night, all.

7 open bottles; 1 unopened, but it was an accidental dupe. 1 of the empties previously reported reported was N/A.

15 empties, 14 open, 7 unopened. 6 fans around the bar, 3 others in the room. Age range: 47 (Victor Gonzales) to 96 (Art Widner).

6 empty bottles; 21 open bottles of 37 total. 1 empty n/a Ginger People lemon ginger beer; 5 open n/a. Good times.

19 of 36 bheers open & being tasted at Corflu XXX. 2 of 9 non-alcoholic root bheers & ginger bheers open & being tasted. Yum, fun, etc.

...when I was looking forward to Legal. Line there was too long. Bummer.

At least I have an internet connection for my laptop. Easier than typing on the phone.

Onward! Here's to good times ahead.

I'm sorry. Oh, so very sorry. That goes for everyone from Omaha to the SinTwitties, too.

National Weather Service Alerts for Minneapolis, MN

WINTER STORM WARNING
Now - Thursday, May 2, 7:00pm
...WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 7 PM CDT THURSDAY...
A WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 7 PM CDT THURSDAY.
* TIMING: A RAIN SNOW MIX WILL TRANSITION TO ALL SNOW THIS AFTERNOON. HEAVY SNOW WILL DEVELOP LATER THIS EVENING AND LAST THROUGH THE EARLY MORNING HOURS.
* SNOW ACCUMULATION: 6 TO 9 INCHES.
* MAIN IMPACT: RAPID SNOW ACCUMULATION MAY QUICKLY MAKE TRAVEL HAZARDOUS.
* OTHER IMPACTS: THE HEAVY WET SNOW WILL STICK TO TREES AND COULD CAUSE ISOLATED POWER OUTAGES.

And, for fans of the movie...

I am in awe of Brian Struble, design director at Boston Magazine; Liz Noftle, deputy design director; and the inspired photographer Mitch Feinberg. They created the cover of the May issue, and it's stunningly perfect and perfectly stunning in all good ways.

I caught a glimpse of a spread from "The Shoes We Wore" inside. Scott Lacey, Boston's photo editor shot each shoe individually and used the images from 15 pairs of shoes as graphics accompanying the owner's stories printed there. I love how the design ties in and reflects the cover, while also highlighting the individuals reflected in each pair of shoes. The rest of the individual shoe photos and the runner's stories that accompanied them will be online starting Tuesday, April 30th.

For a fascinating look at how Boston pulled it all together, visit Behind Our May Boston Marathon Cover. There are links to buy an individual copy of the magazine and to receive word when the planned poster is available.

Wow. Just look what design can do.

...please check your local news before leaving home this morning. There's a massive manhunt for one of the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing following the overnight killing of an MIT police officer. The other suspect is reported dead. There's a 20-block lockdown in the Watertown area, all MBTA service throughout is reported to be suspended, [edited] not just in Watertown; the whole system according to ABC and the Huffington Post. The Boston.com headline says "MBTA shuts down."

MIT, Harvard, and Emerson are all closed today.

In addition to the overnight shootings, there are reported to also be explosives involved.

This whole thing is utterly surreal. I hope it's resolved soon. From what I've seen on Reddit and Twitter, there are likely to be more WTF stories to follow, though how much of that is an artifact of life in the Internet Social Media Era is still TBD.

CNN International headline: Explosions Rock Boston

For more local coverage: Several explosions reported near Copley Square

Two explosions being reported at/near the Boston Marathon finish line. Not yet determined whether it's an accident of some kind, or a deliberate action.

US TV networks are covering it live. We're still in the first hour: lots of different numbers about the injured are being reported.

Progress. Now if I could only find the folder or whatever stack of paper has my Massachusetts 1099-HC and the other bits and bobs that seem to have gone walkabout.

Speaking of going walkabout, the adhesive on an entire box of 3M Nexcare Tattoo bandages appears to have done the same. To be fair, the box is old enough that I don't spot it in more than 350 images a Google image search turned up. So instead of a sporting a smiley face or peace symbol on the 4th finger tip of my right hand, I'm wearing one of those Band-Aid Advance Healing bandages. Boring to look at, mostly invisible, but still the most comfortable adhesive bandage I've ever worn. And no sign of the adhesive going walkabout even though they've been in the cupboard most of a couple years now.

Why, yes, manilla folder paper cuts pack quite a sting. Especially the deep ones. Hmmm...wonder if the bandage is deductible as a tax preparation fee. (S,AS) I'm glad to report that I don't come close to being able to include medical expenses on 1040 Schedule A. Long may it be so.

I'll follow in my sister's footsteps before the sun comes up. It's time get some sleep before slogging my way through the rest of the forms and instructions doing their best to confound me. But first, here's ( Sister Sue's Tax Vent, Part 2Collapse )

Onward!

Those who know me won't be in the least bit surprised that I'm spending this weekend doing my taxes. Heck, 15 years ago, Dave Langford had the dubious pleasure of spending the days after Minicon wandering around Toad Hall as I sat on the sofa, tax forms spread the length of fredcritter's coffee table. Well, it was once Fred's coffee table in warm storage at Toad Hall. It's long since mine, and is in the Toy Room here in the Zeppelin Hangar. Great table, but these days I work at my desk, taking full advantage of the screen real estate offered by two computers.

Our Dad never waited until the last minute, but it turns out that both my sister Sue and I are doing the same thing, separated by 800+ miles this mid-April weekend. She gave me permission to share the email she sent a handful of hours ago.

Subject line: Taxes ( Sister Sue's Tax Vent, Part 1Collapse )

A couple of hours later, Sue sent a another email with her answer to my permission to post request, but right now it's back to entering the last of PROmote's 2012 expenses for me. When that's done, I'll another break and post it. Or before I head to sleep, at least.

On Tuesday, I opened my office window for the first time this year. It's been warm enough to the sliding door to the deck for some fresh air a couple of times, but that's different from having a window open just a few feet from my desk and sitting there, working. Especially with the deck door open, too, as that's enough for a cross-breeze.

If that wasn't enough of a sign that spring may well be on its way at last, I also sat out on the back deck for a few minutes. Why don't I do that more? It's so very pleasant.

Rain started falling shortly after midnight, just like it did the moment This April showers month began. The forecast says to expect 3 days of the wet stuff, sometimes heavy. Maybe some thunder and lightning, too.

There better be lots of flowers come May.

(No, the skunk cabbage isn't up yet. But it's the earliest spring icon I have. Well, except for the ones with snow in them and what I hope is the last of that has finally melted.)

Onward.

Ken Fletcher is a fabulous fan artist, so you might be inclined to think this post little more than a fannish April Fool. But fredcritter has been scanning issues of RUNE that he edited, and I simply must commend to you Ken's "Whizzing and Pasting and Pooting" and its discussion of the native ceremonies of Crazy Mineapolis Fandom on pages 17–20 in RUNE 39. (Pages 19-22 of the pdf thanks to the cover and inside front cover at the beginning, but what's cool is that if you type in page 17, Acrobat takes you to the right page. In my browser, at least.)

The issue also features a good bit of Ken's artwork as well as art by Tom Foster, Jim Young, and others, a BYOBcon report by Dick Tatge (as Richard was known back then), Fred's first RUNE editorial, a lettercol with letters to the previous editors including one from Harry Warner, Jr. (of course).

Next, you can turn to Fred's fanzine page to read other issues of RUNE and related material he's posted. I just had a good revisit to Fred's last MINNEAPA zine, Beautiful Friend #104.

'Tis a trove, and it's filled with treasure...

skzbrust in my hero. One of 'em, anyway. For a multitude of reasons, over a multitude of years. Today it's for his newest filksong, "The Sidebar of Making Light."

You want to watch it on Steve's blog, where his fellow performers are credited and you'll find the lyrics and comments, too. There's also delight to be found on the sidebar of Making Light itself. Be sure to read the rollover.

But none of that is enough for me to resist embedding it here:

Pre-dawn Easter morn 32 years ago in the all-night music party at Minicon 17, Reed Waller pulled out a Michael Smith song I knew and loved from Josh White, Jr's performances of it back in East Lansing...and I knew I'd found home. Here's Michael performing it live halfway between then and now:



I came late to the Grateful Dead, so that same night when I joined the room of fans singing along with the chorus as fredcritter sang "Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo," the words seemed nonsensical and I struggled to remember whether "Half-Step" came before "Mississippi" or "Toodeloo" Sure did like the tune, and the sense of community and belonging Fred and the assembled created as he played it. And it tweaked my curiosity. There was clearly much to learn as well as beloved music I could anchor to.



Nate Bucklin broke a string, left the room to replace it, and came back with the announcement that he'd written a song while he was gone. He then played it.

An hour or so later, the same thing happened again. The crowd roared with laughter when Nate said he's written another song. I was new to the group and figured this was a long-established schtick. It took a few years for me to realize just how utterly credible and true it was that Nate wrote two songs that night while changing strings. Songs he didn't stumble over when then playing them for the audience minutes after creating them.

Steve Sullivan and I only stayed at the Downtown Raddish (with its marvelous consuite) for one night, Friday, at our first Minicon. He found the music party Friday night and came back to our room with the news that it was happening again Saturday night. We both went, and drove home as the sun was rising and church-goers were rushing to their own religious ceremonies that Easter morn.

We looked at each other and smiled, recognizing we were coming home from ours. Heck, we even said it.

That night was one of a handful of key events that brought me to fandom, that led to my becoming a fan at Chicon IV. There was a vitally important music party there, too. (L&K, dr_whuh & kaffyr.)

And now? These 32 years later? The morning's still "heavy, with one more beginning, here in Spoon River."

Love to Minicon, love to fandom. Then, now, and forevermore.