Downtown Northampton Sunday Afternoon

 Buskers in transit.

He is one of the sweetest and kindest guys out there but his version of Yellow Submarine, often heard in front of Thorne's Market, is exactly the same song as his take on Bob Seger's "Turn The Page"....or anything else he plays. Only the lyrics change. It's remarkable that he has absolutely no sense of time signatures or song structure  and makes chord changes on a whim if at all. It is beautiful in an outsider art way, and yet he breaks my stride and   triggers my heart murmur and my fillings hurt and sometimes I feel a vein twitch on my forehead.

Stevie Ga Ga in his Sunday best. "Can you get bagpipes on Freecycle?"

Josh and Roger making the donuts at Turn It Up!

King Crimson fans pay attention. The 2011 Two Of A Perfect Trio tour comes to the Iron Horse on Saturday, October 1st. The tour marks Adrian Belew’s and Tony Levin’s 30-year anniversary with King Crimson. Here’s how it will play out: Stick Men; Tony Levin, Markus Rueter, and Pat Mastelotto will play a set of their music. Then the Adrian Belew Power Trio; Adrian, Julie Slick, Tobias Ralph will play a set. Then Tony, Pat, and Adrian will play a few King Crimson songs as a trio. Then both trios will take the stage for a glorious set of King Crimson music including pieces from the double trio era, two drummers, two stick players, a bassist, and a guitarist. Here's the link to the Iron Horse schedule. You can scroll down to the date.

   

 

For some, letting it be is just not enough. Perhaps she's into composting?

 

Trashy novels weren't the only books marketed in the campy exploitation style of the pulp fiction paperback.  Raven Books on Old South Street offers t-shirts sporting the pulp paperback covers of some classic novels.

 

But if you can't help being trashy, there's a sexuality section filled with intriguing titles including this spread from "The Art of Eric Stanton: For The Man Who Knows His Place." 

Corner of King and Main. Cross at the sound of the cuckoo.

"People tend to stick to their own size group because it's easier on the neck. Unless they are romantically involved, in which case the size difference is sexy. It means: I am willing to go the distance for you." --Miranda July

The Silver Lady  

(by Suzanne Vega 1974- when she was 14)

When I was a little girl
Younger than nine or ten
I once spoke to the Silver Lady
But I never saw her again.

To me she flew out of the sky
She was born riding on the water
Her hair blew all around her
She was the crazy man's only daughter.
 (Lyrics continued here) 

 

Spoleto's Independence Day window welcomes you to the restaurant with an explosion of patriotic lumber.

No Explanation 

by James Tate

(Copyright 1999 by James Tate. Published originally by Rain Taxi.)

Down the street they are pulverizing the old police station. They started by crushing it, then they beat it, and then they proceeded to grind it up. I walked by it just a few minutes ago. All that's left is a mountain of wood chips...."Where are the policemen?" I asked one of the workers. He pointed to the mountain of wood chips and said, "We never saw them." I walked on thinking about Officer Plotkin, how he'd arrested me when I was guilty, and he he'd come to my aid when I'd needed him. I stopped and looked back over my shoulder. I longed to be arrested, to be saved. 

The Basement Porch