Rhubarb!

Via Forkful of News, courtesy of Heavy Table
I actually have all the ingredients to make this tomorrow:

Rhubarb Apple Crunch
Makes 1 14-inch oval dish.

3 cups rhubarb, diced (about 12 ounces)
1 Gala apple, cored and diced
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup plus 3 tablespoons flour, divided
1 tablespoon wheat germ (optional)
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter (8 tablespoons), melted
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup rolled oats

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Toss the rhubarb and apple with the white sugar and 3 tablespoons of flour. Pour into a small baking dish (9″ cake pan would work).

Combine 1 cup flour, wheat germ, brown sugar, butter, cinnamon and oats in a separate bowl and mix until crumbly. Top the rhubarb mixture with this crumbly stuff and bake for 40 minutes.

Serve hot or cold, with or without generous scoops of ice cream.

Gil Scott-Heron

I'm so sad! Gil Scott-Heron has left us so many amazing songs, so many true words. Another soul stolen from us by his demons, our demons.

"The Bottle"


"Home is where the hatred is"


"Winter in America"


"Rivers of our Fathers"


"And I Think I'll Call it Morning"

Now, more than ever
All the family must be together

Peace go with you brother
Don’t make no sense for us to be arguing now
Time is right up on us now brother
Don’t make no sense for us to be arguing now
All of your children and all of my children are gonna have to pay for our mistakes someday
Yes - and until then may peace guide your way
Peace go with you brother; wherever you go
Peace go with you brother

"Perform this way": Weird Al does Gaga

The parody

The original (which works just fine as a self-parody, if you ask me).
Yes, the lyrics are laughable in some spots, but have you listened to Beyoncé's new song "Rock the World (Girl)"? It's grotesque, but not it a good way.

How to tie your shoes so they stay tied.

DIY is big these days, but a lot of things that would require me to take a class are things my mother learned to do when she was young or taught herself to do when she was older. She can do anything Martha Stewart can do, but without a staff.
  I learned enough about knitting to be able to make a scarf, but my attempts to make a sweater were pretty much a failure.  I can cook fine, but unlike my mother and sister, I can't bake a pie from scratch without looking at a recipe. This is what the internet is for: all the wiki-how and YouTube videos that helpful people have shared so that we can learn just about anything. Like how to tie your shoes "correctly":

Thinking about things I "should" know how to do, but don't, the first that came to mind:

I should know how to thread the sewing machine a friend gave me before she moved away, but I can't figure it out without a manual. You would be surprised at how many videos there are on YouTube that "show" you how to do this, but don't actually SHOW or explain the important bits. I have tried for hours to figure it out on my own, but  I would make a lousy engineer; I just can't figure out a machine by dinking around with it, so I may have to take it to the store where they reconditioned it to have someone show me how to do it right.

I should know how to make a good pie-crust. My mother and sister are the pie queens (and my sister was a professional baker) but I never learned from them while we were living in the same state. I suppose I could have my mother explain it to me on the phone.

I DO know how to file my own taxes, balance a check-book, and live within my means, but don't ask me to explain how to invest in the stock market. But do I really want to know? it's so depressing, seeing how much of it is a big con, even though I have a pension plan.
I DO know how to drive a car with manual transmission, and I should know how to change a tire or change my oil, but frankly, I'm glad I can afford to pay someone else to do it, and I love AAA.

I DO know how to use a drill and a screwdriver, but the thought of painting a room just makes me tired, and my fibromyalgia goes crazy when I have to do the kind of repetitive motions involved in painting something above my head.

What are some things you think you should know how to do, but don't?

Tornado strikes North Minneapolis

Dear friends and readers, we are safe and fine!



A big tornado touched down in North Minneapolis this afternoon. They are saying that it's the worst tornado to strike the city in 30 years. Yesterday, I saw some cloud rotation as we left the Art-A-Whirl event in Northeast Minneapolis (across the Mississippi from North) so we knew that there was a chance of severe weather this weekend.
My daughter and I live in South Minneapolis, and we are safe and sound. We had to take cover during the storm while we were out shopping and the tornado sirens sounded, but nothing bad happened in our neighborhood. I was able to follow the news on Twitter in the moment, but the full extent of the damage is just beginning to become apparent.

I am heartsick for our neighbors in northern Minneapolis and the suburbs, whose homes or businesses have been affected.  Huge trees have fallen on almost every block, on cars and powerlines; houses and buildings are damaged, cars crushed, windows blown out. As is often the case, the damage skips around and one house might be leveled while another is untouched right next door. On TV, I can see pictures of homes with missing roofs (they are estimating one in five) and others with substantial damage. The trees did not snap and fall straight down, but were uprooted completely and fell over causing greater damage.
This video compiles some of the immediate TV coverage:



The City of Minneapolis is asking people to stay away to emergency services can get in and go door to door to check on people. There are a few gas leaks and evacuations. The police, the firefighters, Park and Rec employees, inspectors, traffic control agents, are have been deployed to the area.

A Family Assistance Center has been set up at the Armory on Broadway and Central. A shuttle will take people from 1926 Plymouth Ave. N. to take people to the shelter.

So far, one person is dead, but mostly minor injuries are being reported. It will take time to clear away the fallen trees, and many homes are without power. People are already out with their chainsaws, cutting up fallen limbs and trees.

Light rail coming to the UMN campus

Because I grew up in San Franciso riding buses and streetcars, I'm really excited that light rail is being extended in the Twin Cities with the Central Corridor line, under construction now, to connect downtown Minneapolis and Saint Paul. The current existing Hiawatha line that runs from downtown Minneapolis to the Mall of America and the airport, with stops along the way, has been a resounding success, especially for working people with no cars, folks coming to the new Twins Stadium, and commuters who don't want to deal with the high parking rates and horrible traffic of working downtown.
This animation shows what the reconfigured University of Minnesota campus route will look like. I can't wait for the busy, dangerous street that currently cuts the campus in two to be replaced with a more pedestrian and bike-friendly zone. Students will be well-served by having public transportation options increased.

Some people are concerned about how the LRT will fit on University avenue, where there are currently four lanes of traffic. In fact, there used to be streetcars there, and their right-of-way corridor still exists. The LRT will be routed along that existing slot, and not displace current traffic.

The history of steam and then electric streetcars in the Twin Cities,  and how the system was dismantled and plundered by embezzlers after WWII is an instructive one.

David Byrne's birthday today

Today is David Byrne's birthday. He is 59.

This is a film set to a recent collaboration between Byrne and Brian Eno "Strange Overtones."
I was an ardent fan of Talking Heads. I saw them in concert first in 1978 at the club The Boarding House in San Francisco, whose name I forget but that was a very famous venue. They were very young, hardly talked to the audience at all, but ripped through their set with complete intensity. I would see them again in their various incarnations: still a foursome on Lower Sproul Plaza the day Moscone and Milk were murdered; as a grooving expanded ensemble (Adrian Belew! Nona Hendryx!) during their "Burning down the House" phase at the Greek Theater; in Jonathan Demme's documentary movie Stop Making Sense when it debuted at the Castro Theater.
Brian Eno and David Byrne's 1981 collaboration My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, with its analog sampling, was formative for me, shaping my aural palate. The music he produced and shared through his label Luaka Bop, especially the earlier Cuban and Brazilian compilations are also etched in my cranial music library. His curiosity, sense of exploration and collaboration inspire me still.
Here's an interview with George Stroumboulopolous that highlights many of his accomplishments and captures that combination of complete freedom and social awkwardness that infuses his work.

Here is the band talking about their early days on the road:

I'm know the band broke up and there was bad blood between Byrne and the other members, but I prefer to remember seeing them do this:

Goshawk flying in slow motion

From a BBC show about animals, this amazing footage showing how a goshawk can fly through narrow spaces, as it does when it flies through dense woods.

May Day 2011 videos

I love the the parade to Powderhorn park. A band warmed up the crowd before the parade started. Kids drew on the street with chalk; bikers rolled up and down the street; folks staked out their spots with blankets.

When the parade begins, there is music all the way through.

"Songbird," by my idol Christine McVie

Eva Cassidy's version is also wonderful