Crime Map

I've been catching up on my local news since moving back to my hometown for a few weeks and the local paper [The Leader-Telegram] has a new feature called "The Crime Map." Here is June's map which makes Eau Claire look like murder's row because someone setting up the Google Earth map doesn't know how to use different colored icons for different types of crimes...


The Decemberists -- The Perfect Crime No. 2
From The Crane Wife album.

The Austin of Wisconsin

As a self described music fanatic I am ashamed to admit that my home town [Eau Claire, WI] is home to one of the largest country music festivals in the world [Country Jam] and I've never been...never wanted to go...in fact, "Country Jam weekend" is one of the weekend that the people of Eau Claire dread as we are inundated with people with cowboy hats looking for beer and ice...always more ice...

I can only imagine what it is like for the people of Austin, TX who have to cope with the South By Southwest festival and the Austin City Limits Festival.

Reflection

I'm sitting here in Wisconsin today watching the first real thunderstorm I have been through in 4 years arrive from the west [there typically aren't any t-storms in Seattle] after taking a long adventure from Seattle to Lawrence to Wisconsin in 6 days and I am thinking to myself "it is so quite here." No loud buses, no screaming students, no planes flying overhead...and then my silence is broken by a loud crack of thunder that puts the sound of the #48 bus at 5:00am to shame.

Bon Iver

I am going to be the biggest Bon Iver fan in the world.

Bon Iver's brainchild Justin Vernon and myself both grew up in Eau Claire, Wisconsin and although we've never met directly I don't think I have been at Vernon's previous band's [Mount Vernon and DeYarmond Edison] concerts. His latest group is Bon Iver which has their debut album For Emma, Forever Ago coming out February 19th.

Bon Iver call themselves "neo-soul" on their MySpace page...on the song "Skinny Love" I am hearing TV on the Radio-like vocals minus the beats. Great stuff and I can't wait for the March 26th show in Seattle.

Bon Iver -- Skinny Love
From the For Emma, Forever Ago album.