My mom made this in 2003. Davenport, Iowa.

My pal Lisa visited for the weekend from Champaign-Urbana.

On Friday, we went to 2 shows. One was a birthday party/reunion show for my pal kylie who’s been a local punk/metal musician in Iowa City for many many years. This was a trippy experience, for me, because people came crawling out of the woodwork and from all over the midwest to play in and attend this show. I spent a lot of time slowly recognizing people I hadn’t thought about in years.

Another highlight of the show was seeing the Stiff Legged Sheep play. Most of these bands were active in Iowa City in the mid-80s, which is when I was in High School. I was never allowed to come to Iowa City to see shows but the boy I was dating came up here all the time, and he’d make me mixed tapes with songs from a lot of these bands on them. My favorite was always the Stiff Legged Sheep.

After that, Lisa and I galumphed over to The Picador (formerly Gabe’s for those of you who’ve moved away from IC), and saw Leslie and the LYs play. They’re a group from Ames, Iowa. This show was utterly astounding –in fact, if I were you, I’d just click on the image below, and check out Leslie’s web site — it’ll speak for itself way better than I can. It’s all about the gem sweaters. and gold pants. and zombies.

Anyways, for six hours, Iowa City had an awesome little glow to it. As an aside, what is it with this cat meme? I’ve seen house cats used in various music contexts a TON lately..what is that all about??

I’m still recovering — I cannot do late nights with coffee and live shows as spryly as I once could. Because of this sacrifice of a bit of my life’s essence, an exhibit we attended on Saturday, which under normal circumstances would have just been bad, became somewhat nightmarish. I have been consuming large quantities of medicinal tea ever since.

“a. slang (chiefly U.S.). [A humorous formation, the origin of which is lost: the first part of the word was perhaps suggested by catamount, or ? by words in Gr.]

Fierce, unsparing, destructive. Also, askew, awry. (A high-sounding word with no very definite meaning.)

Hence catawampus n., a bogy, a fierce imaginary animal; catawampously, catawamptiously adv., ‘fiercely, eagerly. To be catawamptiously chawed up is to be completely demolished, utterly defeated’ (Bartlett Dict. Amer.).”

This fellow is not fierce. He is, however, askew, awry, and eager. Very friendly. Has had far too much coffee, and is singeing his whiskers with that fire stick. Also, he’s a little oily, rather mangy, and some jerk spilled wax on him. It is a sad state. Still, there he is, ready to bring warmth, loyal to the end. And always willing to share a gold-flecked Americano with anyone who may care to join him.

a map of shifting proportions.

The high today was something like 43 degrees. Everything–all 4+ feet of the snow we’ve gotten this winter–is melting like crazy. The Pirate and I spent the afternoon chopping up the ice on the sidewalk in front of the house and shoveling away at the lake that appeared instead. If you stood still long enough, you’d hear the melt happening–it made the yard sound like a bowl of rice crispies.

There’s a thunderstorm happening tonight (in fact I can see lightning as I type this), and then supposedly more “snowsleet” after that. An accumulation of 2-3 more inches. This winter has been the 3rd most snowy in Iowa City’s history.

It was nice to be able to be outside in just shirtsleeves, and do some kind of actual physical activity. I felt like a pale slug stepping into the winter sun. Luckily it wasn’t too bright or I’d've been blinded.