We haven't had any significant snow fall, but winter has more or less arrived. Nights in the twenties and below. Day time temperatures in the thirties. I keep repeating the following mantra:


Ultimately, I guess I like the cold. One of the things I strive for in life is to not sweat. And I get to wear a variety of clothes inthe winter and fall. Summer is just t-shirt and jeans, t-shirt and jeans, t-shirt and jeans. My main complaint is that it takes forever to go anywhere in the winter: gather up your gloves, scarf, sweater, jacket, hat, etc.

My significantly better half has a tooth anxiety. She has Teeth Dreams, where she'll bite a carrot and then all of her teeth will spill onto the floor. Or she'll look into the mirror and one of her incisors is a mushroom. She also worries about her teeth while she's awake. She'll ask me if I'll still love her if her teeth fall out. I always say, of course not. Today I was reading the introduction to Roberto Bolano's The Savage Detectives, and the writer mentions that Bolano had bad health and lost most of his teeth. I read her this short passage, which she found encouraging. You don't need teeth to live your dream.

There was a freezing rain most of the afternoon, and the sidewalks and road were slippery. On the way to the PO, there was a tow truck that had smashed into a brick wall in front of the housing towers on 31st Street. I was half-mad from working on grad school applications, and as I approached the PO, a woman told me the PO was closed. I yelled, "Why?" as if she were culpable. But she had walked away, and didn't hear me. I pulled on the handle anyway, and looked for any activity in the lobby. It was completely dark inside. My cheeks were cold, and I didn't feel like walking all the way back home without warming up first. On my way home I picked up the Bolano book I mentioned earlier, and that helped raise my spirits.

Cokemachineglow.com does an interview with a Madison, WI band:

Pale Young Gentelmen. It's good to see that there's more to the music scene in Mad Town than just reggae jam bands and Schizophrenic singer/songwriters.

Lazarus Project

The Best 10 books of 2008? I can narrow it down to one:
Aleksander Hemon's Lazarus Project.
It was recently nominated for the National Book Award. And Amazon.com just sent me an email of the top ten books, with Lazarus Project at number 8. I also think it's going to be one of the New York Times top ten books of the year. Just a hunch. If I end up moving to Chicago someday, it will be to try and meet this guy. The two independent bookstores in my neighborhood had never heard of this book, and I had to place a special order. What's the point of an Independent bookstore, if it can't present the best stuff that may have be overlooked? (Also, neither bookstore has Flaubert's Salammbo, a stupid book I've been looking for since the middle of the summer.) No one needs to be reminded that Tom Friedman has a new book.
Anyway, Hemon's got a story in the September issue of the NYer.

It's getting to be that time of year when people start making Best of Albums of the Year Lists. Madison's best CD store, B-Sides, always has a good list. And I like to see the lists that the people at the Current put together. Usually, a best of the year list gives me a chance to see what CDs I missed. Here's my list:

JWOOD's 10 Favorite Albums of 2008:
Jennifer O'Conner's Here With Me
Shearwater's Rook
Bun B's II Trill
Beach House's Devotion
Black Milk's Tronic
War on Drug's Wagonwheel Blues
Chad VanGaalen's Soft Airplane
Department of Eagles's In Ear Park
Black Mountain's In the Future
And though I haven't heard it yet, GNR's Chinese Democracy

I still can't figure out Minneapolis. Last night's showing of JUNO at the Uptown Theater was packed. The ten o'clock show started thirty minutes late because people kept streaming in. Of course, there was only one cashier, which created a bit of a bottleneck. A busy movie theater on an otherwise quiet night is a peculiar feature of Minneapolis. It's dark out, cold, most businesses are closed up, the streets and sidewalks are empty. It seems like there is nothing going on anywhere. But then you walk into some random restaurant, movie house, or music club, to discover that it's hoppin'. The energy level is up. You could be in New York. Minneapolis is a generally barren city full of small, disparate, pockets of activity.

The New Green Buses

On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, on my way out of town, I noticed one of Minneapolis's new electric hybrid buses. It was hard to miss. The largest bright green vehicle on the road. The side of the bus was adorned with the possibly redundant slogan: Go Greener. I was really excited, I said, "Wow, look at that bus. I can't wait to ride in one." But when I was in Madison, Wis. for the holiday I noticed hybrid buses going up and down State Street. And then I remembered that NYC had hybrid buses everywhere. This isn't actually cutting-edge technology. So, are these really the first hybrid buses in Minneapolis, or is this just a new publicity campaign?

Some basic rules to consider when using a Minneapolis bus.
1. It's impossible to run after a bus with grace and confidence. There will always be another bus. Running after a bus that has already shut its doors and begun to pull away from the curb will only erode your self-esteem.
2. Just because you enter the bus by the front door doesn't mean you have to leave by the front door. When I watch some one walk all the way from the back of the bus to the front of the bus to get off, I think, there has got to be some insane primal instinct kicking in. There should be signs on the bus that say: Leave Out The Back Door, Already.