This couldn’t come at a worse time: one video to do, two columns on top of everything, a radio commentary, a piece for Mpls / St. Paul mag and the buzz.mn topper, and I’m either getting sick or I just overdid it yesterday. Nothing makes you feel worse than the knowledge that you cannot feel worse. On the other hand, I am ignoring the signals sent to me by my very own site: can’t log in to buzz.mn. Everyone else can, but I can’t. The IT people can log in as me, but I can’t. It has something to do with the migration from one server to another, but they’ll be switched if they can find out what happened. So if there’s nothing tomorrow morn for a while, that’s why. I’ll post en route to the convention center to shoot the Auto Show, unless I feel as achy and hot as I do now.

The downside of adding two columns a week, obviously, is that something will have to give, or I will expire in a heap of smoking guts.

Here’s a lovely image of decay:

It’s an outtake from the all-new Armory site. And by “all-new” I just realized I mean exactly as it was before, but I’ve rescanned the pictures and resized everything. (The picture above was too blurry for inclusion.) I had no idea Aerosmith filmed a video in the joint in 1998, and, having learned it, I couldn’t care less. I think I liked them in high school, but you were supposed to like them. I remember explaining to a peer that “Dream On” was their “Stairway to Heaven.” He didn’t get it. See, every band has to have a Stairway. It’s “Dream On” for Aerosmith. It’s “Ridin’ the Storm Out” for REO Speedwagon.  The lights flickered on; he got it. Oh! Long pieces that were about weather and wizards and stuff and started slow and got pumped up. Yes, my friend. It is the way of Rock.

Here’s another ad I’ve been meaning to post. I don’t know why. Perhaps it’s because I rarely associate the concept of a “Feast” with precooked mac-and-cheese sealed in a can; that stuff is probably so uber al dente it dissolves if you yell at it.

I like the way the Heinz logo is used, though – makes you realize that Heinz appropriated the Pennsylvania state symbol for its own purposes. It was also the logo for the Pennsylvania Railroad, but they lacked the national power of ketchup. I’d be surprised if less than half the shopping public knew why the Heinz label looks the way it does. The half that does not might well wonder why I care. They would have a point, I suppose.

This is amusing, in that Clockwork Orange sort of way: San Francisco youth are culture-jamming the transportation system. They’re making a stand against a capitalistic structure that gives people the illusion of security by subsidizing their journeys to and from their jobs. I understand the underlying idea: once the ease of the journey is complicated, then people might actually question why they’re going to their job, and question the entire nature of this serf-based economy. So I salute the teens!

Oddly enough, not many people do. You read the comments, and it’s as if they don’t appreciate direct action. Well, I have a higher goal in mind, so that gives me the right to snark at anyone else’s “inconvenience” and define the motives in accordance with my preexisting ideological template.

Oh, I don't know why I got off on that. Looking at pages I shouldn't be looking at - for heaven's sake, I have four pieces of work to finish before 10 AM tomorrow. Here's the Armory: 17 pages of Moderne glory, with urban spelunking pictures. See you at buzz.mn - providing I can get into the site. Argh. At least I know I don't have (G)Nat's long-lasting stomach flu; the thought of Heinz mac-in-a can is a guaranteed gorge-lifter if you're queasy. I'm just frazzled. Friday will be well-earned this week. Have a grand day!