: broadcast :

yes, his shirt does have a real word on it, underneath all the tricky design. Hint: look at the negative space. And hers? Well it's no magic-eye dress, but it is pretty sweet.

: countrytown basement blues :

Friday night. Planet Supply. St. Croix Falls, WI.
These are local boys Juggernaut. As they were playing, tornado sirens sounded and continued for 20 minutes. Since Planet Supply is a basement, we snuggled in and the show continued.

Above is Sabyre Rae Daniels. She grew up in SCF but lives in Minneapolis now, and she brought some friends from the big city with her.

Gabe Barnett and Co.

: more from the frontlines :
{{hot kids at the gogol bordello show}}

.sizzle sizzle.

: Mowed In :

This is the second piece in the aforementioned Lawn Mower Series.

: Homeless in Cedar Rapids :

Courageous citizens of the MidWest that they are, my little sis and her friend used a couple of vacation days to help with flood recovery in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Even though I don't have a job I refused to go. They ended up abducting me and bringing me with them anyway, so I figured I would take a couple photos. . . .

As you can see, Tina has a shiner and is wearing her most forlorn expression. She got the black eye when she crashed her bike recently, the sad face is a sign of solidarity for all of the Iowans who have had their homes ruined. This photo was taken in the ladies' room at the makeshift animal shelter where we were helping to care for the homeless pets. We were packed in there with about 20 other volunteers because -- as we were petting cats and changing their cages -- the tornado sirens started going off. Lucky for us (and any future volunteer career I may pursue) it didn't blow us or our car away.

This is near downtown, where you can see standing water, trash everywhere, street signs pushed sideways and general post-flood nastiness.

Here is an attempt to pump the watery mess out of a downtown building.



This is the house we gutted. All this family's belongings, appliances, and even the interior walls had to go.

: reclaiming patriotism is OK :

Face it: you're American.
Now make this country the place you want it to be.