Space Car Driver will be playing a special early set
Saturday July 26th, 2008
at O’Gara’s Garage: 164 Snelling Avenue North, St. Paul MN
One-hour set starting at 9pm sharp

Space Car Driver’s entire debut album is currently available for FREE listening at spacecardriver.com. The album is also available for download at eMusic, iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, Lala, Napster, and more.

Album: Space Car Driver
Release Date: May 09, 2008
Genre: Alternative
Copyright 2008 Space Car Driver

Space Car Driver recently released their first album.

I attended their CD Release show [May 9, 2008]. Excellent show — solid grooves, interesting arrangements, wide range of dynamics, good chemistry between the musicians.

• Home page: spacecardriver.com
• Space Car Driver @ iTunes - (download iTunes)
• Space Car Driver @ MySpace
• Space Car Driver @ Minniwiki: “Dancy, improvisational jam-rock”
• MP3’s available by request

Special Bonus Download — I got permission from bassist Adam Lutz to sponsor an MP3 download here at karljones.com:

• Minus Ten by Space Car Driver

Enjoy!

Big tragedy in my home town:

“On August 1, 2007 during the weekday evening rush hour at 6:01:38 PM CDT the entire bridge collapsed from abutment to abutment, falling into the river and onto its banks. On August 3, officials confirmed five deaths and eight people missing, while hospitals reported 79 injured.” Link.

Bridge collapse blog roundup @ Boing Boing.

Stephan Orsak is a professional violinist, and has performed under Leonard Bernstein, Kurt Masur and Seiji Ozawa.

He is about to go to trial on six counts, including a Gross Misdemeanor of Obstructing Legal Process ‘with force or violence or threat thereof,’ after he was tased by a police officer who stopped him for riding a bike out of the airport.

What happened?
I was rudely accosted, assaulted with battery, and tased at Minneapolis St Paul USA international airport by Airport Police, simply for choosing to leave the airport by bicycle. I had broken no laws. I use a bicycle as a significant part of my daily mode of travel. I have legally cycled to and from airports internationally including 3 of the 4 major London airports, with no problems. I was using my bicycle completely in accord with MN Statutes and Metropolitan Airport Commission Ordinances.

When did this happen?
Sept 7 2006, approx 6:10pm

Where did this happen?
On the Outbound Roadway (also called Glumack Drive), just east of the post office and west of the highway.

Who would have witnessed it?
Many people. It was full daylight, and in view of the “A” concourse. Anyone leaving the airport would have passed the scene of the incident. The extensive 800+ CCTV video camera system at the airport, fully updated since 9-11, must have recorded everything, and with multiple viewpoints.

[greencycles]

Via Boing Boing.

Roland is a fine singer, songwriter, guitarist, dancer, and more.

He’s recently posted some of his music online, along with schedule of upcoming shows, etc.

Check it out:

Link to Roland’s MySpace page.

PS, I took Swing dance lessons from Roland, back in the day; and we’ve been known to jam at the occasional party. (Memo to Roland, when’s the next barbeque?)

The new Minneapolis Central Library is now open!

Statement from Katherine G. Hadley, Director, Minneapolis Public Library:

Every part of last Thursday’s Teen Leadership and Media Day, Friday’s benefit gala, and Saturday’s grand opening was moving. Just like the reopening of Pierre Bottineau, Sumner, and Franklin but on a bigger scale, it was so emotional welcoming the public back to the Central Library. Everyone worked so hard – and with such heart - to get ready and to help patrons on Saturday.

Many, many people were genuinely awestruck by the beauty and grandeur of the Library. But for me, the images of people using the Library are the ones replaying since we closed on Saturday. A mom and her son lying on the floor reading together in the Children’s Library. Teens filling every inch of the walls in the Teen Zone with comments. Patrons signing up for conversation circles in the New American Center and being greeted in their own language. Heads bent together as friends poured over maps or sheet music or pictures or material in Special Collections. People oohing and aahing over the gallery exhibition. Lines of patrons excited – and, mostly, patient – about checking out books and A/V material.

I was outside the Library when the doors opened and patrons started in. But the reports – and the photo in the paper - of the staff and volunteers clapping as the patrons poured into the Library are unbelievably moving. There were tears all around then and throughout the day.
[via email]

About my home state of Minnesota:

Minnesota (help·info) (pronounced /ˌmɪnɨˈsoʊtə/)[2] is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. The 12th-largest state by area in the U.S., it is the 21st most populous, with just over five million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the 32nd state on May 11, 1858. The state is known as the “Land of 10,000 Lakes”, and those lakes and the other waters for which the state is named, together with state and national forests and parks, offer residents and tourists a variety of outdoor recreational opportunities.

Nearly 60% of Minnesota’s residents live in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area known as the Twin Cities, the center of transportation, business, and industry, and home to an internationally known arts community. The remainder of the state, often referred to as “Greater Minnesota” or “Outstate Minnesota”, consists of western prairies now given over to intensive agriculture; eastern deciduous forests, also heavily farmed and settled; and the less populated northern boreal forest. The state’s image of being populated by whites of Nordic and German descent has some truth, but diversity is increasing; substantial influxes of African, Asian, and Latin American immigrants have joined the descendants of European immigrants and of the original Native American inhabitants.

The extremes of the climate contrast with the moderation of Minnesota’s people. The state is known for its moderate-to- progressive politics and social policies, its civic involvement, and high voter turnout. It ranks among the healthiest states by a number of measures, and has one of the most highly educated and literate populations.

- Wikipedia: Link.