By ANDY VIHSTADT
Expect a few freebies from Del in the upcoming months. The Hieroglyphics MC had this to say in an interview with HipHopDx.
"We make so much music that sometimes waiting for album to be released for folks to peep is too long. We may be on to something completely different by then and those tracks may not get used. So it's good to leak 'em out so they get heard and people can have something in between projects."
Download Del’s four-track Leak Pack Vol. 1 here via sendspace.
BY OWEN MORRIS
On a recent Friday night, in a house on the edge of suburbia, a group of young professionals gathered in a cavernous kitchen, eying suspiciously the mixture of fruits, vegetables, spices and alcohol laid out before them. Some were nervous, others skeptical and a couple openly questioned the legality of what they were about to do. It was a miracle fruit party.
Miracle fruit is a small, South-Asian berry that for the most part lives up to its name. Due to a special protein, it is able to rewire the tongue's tastebuds and make acidic foods taste sweet. Really, really sweet. Lemons taste like lemonade, vinegar tastes like juice and Guinness tastes like chocolate milk.
At this point though, none of the guests were buying it. Instead of a berry, I was asking them to take miracle fruit in tablet form and by my own admission, the tablets, from China, were sketchy. I had no choice. The fruit is nearly impossible to get in America (the FDA has no ban on miracle fruit itself but has denied approval of using miraculin, the wonder protein in miracle fruit, as a sweetener, thus the defacto ban.) It does not travel well and starts to go bad after a couple of days, meaning shipment from other countries is fruitless. The few vendors who grow it in the U.S. have waiting lists. In tablet form, though, the effects are the same. Several Web sites sell the tablets, but eBay is usually the cheapest source.
No matter how you get it, miracle fruit still surprises.
BY OWEN MORRIS
What is it about this town that makes it so hard to leave? Maybe it's the fact that there's so many reasons not to. (Venus in the Kitchen)
A long profile on the family and people behind the Liberty Fruit Company. Like so many good local businesses, there's several generations involved in running it. (KC Biz Journal)
If you suffer from stomach problems then doctors have some good news for you. Nuts and popcorn are may be okay for the stomach. Let the empty calories commence. (Time)
The best part of this article about a St. Paul bar trying to obtain an elephant for the Republican Convention is this quote from a health inspector, "Nothing good can come from an elephant in a bar." (Twin Cities)
Finally, a happy belated 88th birthday to our good friend Walt Bodine. Here's to a Fox's Drugstore Malt on us!
By ERIC BARTON
I got a text message last night at 8:58 from a friend with some pretty big breaking news. The Royals, he reported, have dropped the Kiss Cam for a more Disney-style version called the Hug Cam. "Dunno for sure but if so that is too creepy conservative," he wrote.
Admittedly, I haven't been to the 'K in a couple months, so I called someone who had been to a recent game. Yep, on Monday night, he saw the Hug Cam but no Kiss Cam.
These sources did enjoy the beverage selections at the 'K. That, of course, leads to the need to visit the concourse facilities. So both of them could've missed the Kiss Cam while headed to the can. So I called the Royals to find out if they had, in fact, turned the Kiss Cam conservative.
Each Thursday, your Crap Archivist brings you the finest in forgotten and bewildering crap culled from area basements, thrift stores, estate sales and flea markets. I do this for one reason: Knowledge is power.
Wacky Summer Mad Libs
Author: Roger Price, Leonard Stern and deeply bored, anonymous children
Publisher: Scholastic
Date: 1988
Discovered at: Second Chance Thrift, 1229 E. 63rd Street
Representative Quote:
page 13: “If none of these smell activities appeal to you, take up a/an fat hobby such as saving dogs or learning how to cook Chinese dinosaurs.”
The Week That Was
The Week That Was
(Memphis Industries)
If there's a sibling rivalry brewing in Britain's Field Music camp, it's good news for fans of the Brewis brothers' oblique pop collective. David Brewis' early 2008 release as School of Language found him performing most of the instruments and adding a heavier sheen of distortion to Field Music's futuristic chamber pop. Peter Brewis, by contrast, pursues a more collaborative and pensive route on his solo detour as The Week That Was. His supporting cast includes his brother David, Field Music keyboardist Andrew Moore and various performers on vibraphone, cello, flute and cornet.
By CRYSTAL K. WIEBE
Click on the photo for a slide show from the doggie auditions.
Yesterday, the Lyric Opera held doggie auditions for a role in its production of La Boheme. Although the French script specifically calls for a poodle, the Lyric opened tryouts to any "beautiful toy dog." As the owner of a miniature pinscher named Scooby, I sensed an opportunity.
But considering that Scooby -- The Pitch newsroom’s unofficial mascot -- is a smelly old grump who knows few commands, I figured the opportunity would be for humor.
The audition forms called for dogs that knew basic obedience. Scooby’s a leader-of-the-pack kind of guy. He runs out to the end of his leash on walks, and he’ll only sit if he’s certain there’s a snack involved.
He does know one sentence pretty well. Ask him, "Scooby, are you hungry?" and he turns into a maniac, jumping and huffing and gnawing at your arm. He even once ate a chunk of ham as big as your fist. But I was pretty sure the Opera wouldn’t be impressed by this trick.
Click on the photo above for a photographic tour of Waylon Jennings' mid-1970s tour bus, owned by a local man and featured in this week's Pitch.
Read the article by C.J. Janovy here.
Photos by Camille Brecht.
By JEN CHEN
Every time I go to Dave’s Stagecoach on Westport Road, I have to take a peek into the window of Bon Bon Atelier. This cool boutique, which is next door to one of my favorite bars, is a little jewel-box of a shop; it’s always tantalizing me with its cute displays of purses, shoes and other girly things. When I stopped in yesterday to check out an interesting-looking nautical-inspired purse, I finally got to meet the stylish Betsy Blodgett, who owns the store with her sister, Emily Blodgett-Panos.
By ANDY VIHSTADT
Portastatic is cleaning out its closets on September 9 with Some Small History. Along with a career’s worth of rarities, the double-disc comp boasts several covers including Hot Chip’s “A Boy from School” and Galaxie 500’s “Tugboat.” Grab the title track below thanks to Stereogum.
MP3: Portastatic, “Some Small History,” Some Small History (Merge)
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Cody Rhodes keeps his family's tradition alive on WWE's Monday Night Raw
KC Pride Festival 2013? Yes, it's still on
Indios Carbonsitos and the Hangover III and other weekend possibilities
The Humdinger: Stand in line to get in, baby
Jim Gaffigan, Dad Is Fat author, on his way to our fat town
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Big Rip Brewing Co. opens to the world Sunday
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