Jerry Moore v. John Hoff a/k/a Johnny Northside Trial Will Be Monday, March 7, 9 a.m., Room 655C, The Honorable Judge Denise Reilly...

Stock photo and blog post by John Hoff


Instead of the trial I was expecting a week ago, today was merely a hearing in the defamation lawsuit filed by former JACC Executive Director Jerry Moore over an article published on this blog June 21, 2009. The issues at the hearing were threefold, as follows:

1. Is Moore a limited purpose public figure? If so, the standard for defamation is extraordinarily high and difficult to reach. Defamation would require actual malice and reckless disregard of the truth.

2. Will the plaintiff be allowed to ask questions about the identity of...

...confidential sources who this blog asserts are protected under the Minnesota Free Flow Of Information Act? For the record, this blog will not give up its sources under any circumstances, no matter how trying.

3. Will the plaintiff be allowed to sue for remarks made in "comments" posted by readers? This blog asserts the publication of such comments are protected under the Federal Communication Decency Act.

Individuals who were at the hearing today included...

1. Fifth Ward City Council Member Don Samuels--who also testified in regard to Jerry Moore's various public controversies.

2. Jordan Super Citizen Megan Goodmundson, who has been instrumental in putting together exhibits such as the numerous news articles which make mention of Jerry Moore in association with issues in North Minneapolis.

3. Melony Michaels, who was one of the victims of the identity-theft based mortgage fraud at 1564 Hillside Ave. N., the controversy at the heart of this case. Melony was accompanied by her friend Jan, a real estate agent who helped in the initial do-it-yourself criminal investigation. Their amateur investigation ultimately was taken up by the authorities, becoming a criminal indictment which put Larry Maxwell in prison for 16 1/2 years.

4. A Star Tribune reporter and columnist.

5. PJ Hubbard, the board member Jerry Moore hit in the face after the tumultuous Jordan Area Community Council election of January 12, 2009.

6. Naturally, the Mpls Mirror lady was there, hanging on the periphery of upbeat socialization and looking bitter.

7. Jerry Moore. His attorney, Jill Clark. Their paralegal Peggy Katch.

8. A young brunette female, late 20's to early 30s, who appeared to be either a journalist or law student based on her note taking, who sat in the back.

Both Jerry Moore and myself testified.

Due to the nature of being sued, (even frivolously) only so much should be said. A more colorful, detailed accounting will take place when that is possible. Some kind of ruling is expected tomorrow on the three main issues to come out of this hearing: public figure, are sources off limits, are comments protected under Communication Decency Act? Right now the most important piece of information I can relate is this: the blogosphere trial of the century (click for musical homage) will take place Monday, March 7, 9 a.m, Room 655C, the court of the Honorable Judge Denise Reilly.

Frivolous Litigant Peter "Spanky Pete" Rickmyer Defies Judge Robert A. Blaeser, Serves Purported Lawsuit On Johnny Northside Blog...

Photo and blog post by John Hoff

At about 2 p.m. yesterday, while I waited outside Room 655C in the Hennepin County Government Building to deal with a hearing in the Jerry Moore defamation lawsuit (see previous story) a bearded young "bike messenger" type dude was present wearing a tan stocking cap and black motorcycle jacket. He asked if I was John Hoff (I was) and then handed me papers.

It was a lawsuit. Sort of.

As anybody who reads this blog or City Pages is aware, last year notorious Level Three Sex Offender Peter "Spanky Pete" Rickmyer attempted to sue me and a host of other individuals (including prominent public officials like the Commander of the Fourth Precinct) with a nonsensical, rambling "midnight manifesto" of complaints which purported to be some kind of lawsuit alleging a "smear campaign." The lawsuit-like document was filed pro se, in forma pauperis and, incredibly, this Level Three Sex Offender actually had sheriff's deputies running around serving his worthless legal paper, including one who...

...waited outside the Chamber of the City Council but refused to enter and disrupt the hearing on the reappointment of Police Chief Dolan. This situation led to the infamous "John Hoff's Great Escape" as I went out a side door through council chambers and then left town for a good long while on other business. Indeed, Peter Rickmyer never managed to serve me with the lawsuit (until yesterday) and was declared a frivolous litigant by the judge, which means he is no longer allowed to file lawsuits on his own behalf. If Rickmyer is going to file a lawsuit, some lawyer (a real one) needs to do it for him. Click here for the judge's order.

But just as being sent away to the sexual deviant funny farm at Moose Lake didn't keep Spanky Pete from molesting minors once he got released, so did a judge's order not prevent him from defiantly serving his worthless legal paper. The document thrust into my hand by the reasonably polite young process server was the very lawsuit Peter Rickmyer had been trying to serve upon me last year, updated with some kind of statement dated February 24, 2011.

Well, it was a good long run--just over a year--but my dodging service days came to an end there at Room 655C. (Click here for a musical tribute)

After the hearing on the Jerry Moore matter I was busy with other matters pertaining to the defamation lawsuit so my girlfriend Megan Goodmundson called Peter's zoo keeper, Will McDonald, who came within a short while to the Hennepin County Law Library and obtained a copy of the crap Peter Rickmyer had served upon me.

(Spanky Pete touched the document I myself touched. Shudder)

According to Goodmundson, McDonald appeared to almost have smoke coming out of his ears and was stating something about how he would contact a judge about Pete's latest escapade. Furthermore, McDonald was quite interested in knowing if we had any idea who was the anonymous commenter using the moniker "DOC" and leaving remarks on this blog about Peter Rickmyer. The answer was no. We don't have a way to trace the identity of anonymous commenters. Oh, one can guess or speculate as to their identities, (we certainly did) but we don't know.

Somehow, I don't think this situation will work out so well for Spanky Pete, but I don't think he's alone in this little legal misadventure. I think somebody is putting him up to things, encouraging his self-destructive madness.

Anyway...

The photo above was taken a few hours ago at Farview Park, where I attended a meeting of the Hawthorne Neighborhood Council Housing Committee. It shows all or most of the L3SOs in North Minneapolis. Ask yourself if children who play in parks in Edina see a display like this?

Peter Rickmyer is in the lower right hand corner, front and side view.

For another picture of Rickmyer, click here. For an image of me, um, doing an imitation of Rickmyer, click here.

Trial Delayed In Jerry Moore v. John Hoff a/k/a Johnny Northside...

Photo and blog post by John Hoff

It was expected that a trial would begin Thursday, March 3 in the Jerry Moore defamation lawsuit. Moore is suing this blog over a story published in June of 2009, click here. This blog is represented by Paul Godfread, a local lawyer found through the Citizen Media Law Project at Harvard Law School. The network describes this lawsuit as a threat to free speech. Godfread does intellectual property law cases and has been known to defend, for example, people accused of improper file sharing. Godfread jumped into the Moore v. Hoff lawsuit on short notice and was ready for a trial tomorrow. (Dramatic musical homage, click here)

However, during a pretrial hearing today (March 2) the Honorable Judge Denise Reilly delayed trial and set a hearing for tomorrow at 10 a.m., room 655C of the Hennepin County Government Building. The hearing will focus on matters such as...

...whether questions can be asked about the identity of confidential sources and whether it is allowed under federal law to sue a blog for publishing comments.

Some defense witnesses may take the stand to testify on these matters. Individuals who are intensely interested in the trial and the allegations still swirling around the mortgage fraud at 1564 Hillside Ave. N. are urged to attend, as well as various media who have been contacting Johnny Northside Dot Com.

Blog readers are urged to keep an eye on the Star Tribune, something might hit soon.

Oh, in regard to the photo above...a citizen on Hillside Ave. N. saved a souvenir for me of the infamous 1564 Hillside Ave. N.

Pretty cool, huh?

Tialian (Sic) Beef Available At The Chicago Grill, Lowry Avenue

Photos and blog post by John Hoff

This has been a pet peeve of mine for a several months, now, and some days ago I decided to finally write about it the same way I write about, for example, the unsightly Plexiglass windows at Friedman's Shoes on West Broadway. You see, there's a little place called the Chicago Grill on Lowry Ave. N. which serves the usual stomach-churning assortment of greasy meat-based foods widely available in North Minneapolis, and the window of the store advertises TIALIAN BEEF.

That's right. Tialian.

I can understand somebody making a mistake when the sign was manufactured. Hey, mistakes happen. What I can't understand is why they...

...went ahead and installed it like that. Was there nobody at all--from the person who ordered the sign to the person who installed it to the person who paid for it--NOBODY AT ALL WHO CARED WHETHER THE SIGN WAS SPELLED CORRECTLY AND CARED TO IMPOSE SOME KIND OF CIVILIZED STANDARDS? We're not talking about a misplaced apostrophe, here, or the wrong use of they/their/they're but rather a spelling error which is pretty much inexcusable butchery of the English language.

Now here's the crazy part. After I took this picture but BEFORE I managed to blog about it, the misspelled sign which had remained for, lo, many months...is gone. It's covered over with some kind of brown paper or cardboard. I think somebody saw me taking the photo from inside the store so maybe they decided to fix the issue before I could blog about it. Or it's a coincidence.

But if only I could get such quick progress with Friedman's Shoe Stores.

Already, I'm starting to miss the misspelled sign and grow sentimental. When I would drive by it with my girlfriend Megan Goodmundson, we always chuckled even as we gritted our teeth.

Lately, I was pioneering some experimental communication in "Chicago Grill Pig Latin," like so:

It's a tsereotype to say all Tialians have afmily members who are in the amfia.

With our neighborhood changing so rapidly, it's hard to cover the BIG STORIES let alone something this minor. But on a day that saw both a court hearing on the Jerry Moore v. John Hoff defamation suit, as well as a new attempt at a lawsuit by Peter "Spanky Pete" Rickmyer, somehow this little story got documented for posterity.

Tialian beef! Uymmy!

JNS BLOG EDITORIAL: Dubious $15,000 Don Allen Contract Causes Closer Scrutiny of Minneapolis Public Schools Expenditures (Dig, Corey, Dig!)

Photo and blog post by John Hoff

The story which this blog exclusively broke some weeks ago--a dubious $15,000 contract with the notorious blogger Don Allen of IBNN to promote the struggling Minneapolis Public School system--has been picked up by other media entities including The Deets blog, Twin Cities Daily Planet and, most significantly, the Star Tribune. (Pictured above)

Chris Stewart, former Minneapolis School board director, has publicly called Don Allen's blog "the equivalent of black on black crime." While often crying out about perceived racism, the vast majority of people Don Allen attacks on his grandiosely titled IBNN blog are black community leaders, including frequent attacks on President Obama and Fifth Ward City Council Member Don Samuels.

I should be clear that when I say Don Allen is "notorious," I am referring to Don Allen's lazy fact checking, his well-documented tendency to just make things up, (Poopgate! cough cough) his terrible spelling, grammar, punctuation, capitalization and also the fact Don Allen operates a kind of "shakedown" blog, leveling scathing accusations or THREATENING to level scathing accusations while, at the same time, offering solutions to the "problems" he has pointed out. Somehow these "solutions" often seem to involve paying money to Don Allen, such as his proposed "con man contract" which involved the Minneapolis Public School District posting (OMG!) a $25 million dollar bond as part of a "community benefits agreement."

But that's all background. In some sense, that's YESTERDAY'S news. What's new, interesting, and exciting is that once the Star Tribune started digging into Don Allen's contract, they didn't stop with Don Allen. The latest problematic MPS contract to come to the attention of the Star Tribune is a $97,000 contract with Schoolwires, Inc. to deliver website services.

Corey Mitchell, the same reporter who did the story on Don Allen, delivered a great story about the Schoolwires fiasco, click here for Star Tribune article.

I only hope Mitchell keeps digging and gets to the bottom of the financial mismanagement at MPS, especially the rumors which just won't die of $100k that went through the Minneapolis Urban League, with some of the money allegedly ending up in the hands of notorious loon-at-large Al Flowers.

Dig, Corey, Dig!

If I was the Minneapolis Public School system, right about now I'd be really, really unhappy that doing business with Don Allen has caused a Star Tribune reporter to take such an interest in mismanaged money. In fact, I'd be trying to figure out how to get out of the Don Allen contract just to get some of the egg off my face.

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(Do Not Click "Read More")

Father/Son Moments In North Minneapolis: The Crystal Growing Experiment...

Photos and blog post by John Hoff

Without the ultra-affordable housing deals in North Minneapolis, I don't know how I would manage to be near my 13-year-old son and a meaningful part of his life. I keep trying to put out the word to single fathers: get up here and join our struggle to fix these houses and make our neighborhood a safe and livable urban utopia.

When I have visitation with my son, I usually try to have a few things planned for weekend activities or (like most kids his age) my son will revert to video games like it's his default setting.

Recently, I obtained a not-very-expensive crystal growing experiment kit. The beauty of the experiment is the crystals take roughly seven days to grow and--due to some kind of "makeup weekend" situation--my weekends doubled up. So Alex was able to put the experiment to bed on a Saturday night and have it pretty much completed the following Friday.

As you can see by the photos above...

...we grew some perfect "rock candy" sugar crystals, which Alex consumed shortly after this photo was taken. Yes, that was a lot of sugar but...well, it was for science.

We tried to re-use the kit and grow more crystals with our own sugar, but all we managed to produce was a jar of gooey sugar syrup. I also wondered if it would be possible to add food color to the original experiment and produce colored crystals. That would be cool.

The crystal growing experiment was fun, but kind of a one-time thing. Now my son and I have a new, long-term hobby: watching our 377,977 shares of China Nuvo Solar Energy.

Chicken Egg Embryo Food Experiment Goes So, So Wrong...

Photos and blog post by John Hoff

Readers of this blog know all-too-well about how willing I am to try almost any food, whether it's eating crickets to entertain kids at a NoMi birthday party, or sampling delicious buttery silkworm pupae (not so bad, but definitely not destined to become one of my faves) or checking out the legendary durian fruit, which is stinky in a fruit-i-licious way.

But some culinary adventures (like my recent attempt to chow down on gigantic African snails) don't go so well. It's not that I get physically ill (I can't recall ANY food that has made me physically ill, ever, with the exception of watermelon pickles circa 1974) but some foods are just a real letdown and simply don't taste good at all. So it was with boiled chicken embryos...

I had heard the culinary legend of "balut." This food, which consists of duck or chicken embryos, is a popular bar snack in Thailand and other parts of Asia, and is known by different names depending on the country.

When I noticed "baby egg(s)" being sold at Bangkok Market (so often the locus of my culinary forays) I inquired excitedly about how to prepare this food.

Boil it, I was told. Then dip it in fish sauce and hot sauce, mixed together.

Three Crabs Brand is considered by many to be the best fish sauce for this sort of thing. The clerk showed me precisely where in the store to find a bottle of Three Crabs which was about three bucks. A buck a crab.

That first day when I noticed "baby eggs" (note the disturbing use of Easter clip art) I was tied up in some other activity (a frivolous lawsuit would be one example) and I didn't feel like I had time to deal with the eggs. I thought, well, I will get the eggs another day. That's when the snowstorm hit and, day after day, there were no eggs. I was told the truck with the eggs couldn't get through. I actually bought the bottle of Three Crabs Brand fish sauce, just to be ready.

"It's a sign," my girlfriend Megan told me. "God doesn't want you to eat a baby chick."

And then one weekend--it was a weekend I had my son Alex along with, so he could be freaked out by what his father is willing to eat--God finally made the "baby eggs" available. I only bought two of them, which was a whole buck. When I boiled the eggs over at Megan's house, I didn't have the fish sauce, so I used Hoisin sauce. I don't think the sauce would have made any difference, though, no matter how high-quality it might be.

Let me tell you a thing or two about eating chicken embryos.




The egg is an odd shape. There is a cavity at the top of the egg, so it's flat on top. It's hard to make out the various chicken parts, but I know I saw half-formed feathers which looked like tufts of hair, but were soft and slimy. That's why some Chinese call this food a "haired egg" I guess.

There is a big difference between the part of the balut which is chicken embryo and the part which is still egg yolk, which hovers down at the bottom. The embryo tastes like, well, nothing much. It doesn't have a lot of flavor. It doesn't taste like egg, or meat. There's not much texture there. I expected, I don't know, the crunch of cartilage but it's just a ball of soft protein.

The yolk part is entirely different. It's not like egg yolk anymore, it's more firm, almost rubbery or leathery.



If I was on a desert island and had to survive 14-day-old embryonic eggs, I could get by just fine. And that's kind of a comfort. But now with the mystery of balut behind me, I realize my expectations of something exotic and flavorful were more pleasurable than what balut actually delivered. In fact, I could only eat one of the eggs. Megan told me to throw the other one in the vacant lot next door. Don't let the dog eat it. She doesn't want him to get a taste for baby chicks.

Maybe I will have more luck with the lamb brains at Saffron Restaurant.

The Valley Of The Shadow Of Petro Stop...

Photo and blog post by John Hoff

Unlike some Northside projects which seem to take forever, the Gateway Lofts project at the former W. Broadway Petro Stop location is speeding right along. An impressive valley has been dug and foundations are being built in the valley. I have dubbed it "The Valley Of The Shadow of Petro Stop" but I guess "Gasoline Valley" has a nice ring, too. Hopefully, this "urban grand canyon" won't be part of our scenery for too long because, well, it's a big and ugly and made out of snirt.

Residents who live in the area continue to express worries that the multi-unit housing will turn into yet another crappy "project," but also express a cautious optimism that decent management and new buildings might produce something which is relatively nice instead of awful.

We shall see.

(Do Not Click Read More)

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Jerry Moore v. John Hoff a/k/a Johnny Northside (The Blogosphere On Trial! Da Da Da Dummmmm!)

Cell phone photo by Megan Goodmundson, blog post by John Hoff


Regular readers of this blog who run into me in the real world are usually surprised to hear former JACC Executive Director Jerry Moore’s defamation lawsuit against this blog is still in existence. Having not heard about it for a while, they figure it must have gone away, died, or been dismissed. Click here for an article that summarizes the issues wonderfully.

In fact, the lawsuit has dragged on and is currently on the Hennepin County trial court calendar for Thursday March 3, at 9:30 AM, the court of Judge Denise Reilly, Room 655C. The trial may go beyond March 3 to Friday, March 4. It’s not currently scheduled for the following Monday but, well, sometimes things take longer than planned and we have to consider the lessons of history and other trials involving issues in the Jordan Neighborhood.

Attempts to obtain another continuance on the basis of being tied up doing much more important things did not meet with success at a pretrial hearing on Thursday, February 10, but the trial date of March 3...



...appears to have been kindly picked by Her Honor to avoid interfering with my work schedule, so that was helpful and I’m grateful for that.

With Don Allen of IBNN now dropped as a co-defendant due to settling out of court, it appears the case is now captioned Jerry Moore vs. John Hoff a/k/a Johnny Northside, which is a fine title for the history books and possibly case law.

The February 10 hearing was attended by Jill Clark and Jerry Moore. I attended with my new lawyer, Paul Godfread, who was introduced to me through a media law project at Harvard, click here for a link to their website describing my case as a threat to free speech.

Godfread--who is not a graduate of Harvard, but part of their media law network--normally handles intellectual property law cases (stuff about copyrights, for example) but he has a passion for the First Amendment. He is, quite possibly, one of the tallest lawyers practicing in Hennepin County and (for those readers familiar with North Minneapolis personalities) bears a physical and personality resemblance to “shoe patrol hero” Peter Teachout, who is now an officer in the United States Army.

Also present in court was Don Allen of IBNN. At a hearing on Monday, in which Don Allen sat on the defendant’s side of the table long enough to say he’d been dismissed from the lawsuit, Allen announced he was filing a “harassment restraining order” against me. Not long after that, he apparently articulated the same threat to Sheila Regan at Twin Cities Daily Planet, click here and read the “sidebar story” to the article.

However—and this is so often the case with anything Don Allen says—there has been no sign of any harassment or restraining order filed against me or this blog. Rather than being stalked or harassed, Allen is simply unhappy about First Amendment public discourse: articles on various blogs (and now the Star Tribune) seriously questioning the wisdom of giving him $15,000 of scarce public schools tax dollars to produce commercials for the Minneapolis Public School system which, one can’t help but worry, may be not much better than his “talking baby” video posted on YouTube before it disappeared recently.

Also present in court was Terry Yzaguirre of the Mpls Mirror and notorious Level Three sex offender Peter “Spanky Pete” Rickmyer, who also attempted to sue the Johnny Northside blog and was declared a frivolous litigant, unable to file lawsuits pro se. In the corridor outside of court, Rickmyer was overheard speaking to Jill Clark about something “Puh-Puh-Peggy” told him to relate.

Clark is known to have a paralegal named Peggy. Rickmyer was also observed to fiddle with what appeared to be a cell phone during court proceedings.

Jordan Neighborhood super citizen Megan Goodmundson was also present in the court room.

With little time to prepare for the big show, Godfread has jumped into trial preparations with both feet.

Readers and media are urged to come one, come all to watch the live show:

THE BLOGOSPHERE ON TRIAL! (Click here for dramatic musical effects)

$$$

Alex Hoff, 13, Buys His First Penny Stock, Instantly Doubles His Money With China Nuvo Solar Energy! (CNUV)

Photo and blog post by John Hoff

First of all, since my son Alex, 13, is a minor, he doesn't "own" any stock except through his parents. But a couple of weeks ago Alex took his "North Minneapolis savings"--about $80 in a bank account--and instead of spending the money on video games he bought 40,000 shares of penny stock in a company called China Nuvo Energy. (CNUV)

The company owns a patent-pending invention for a solar cell which is both more efficient than other solar cells and, it appears, can be manufactured cheaply. (For example, the lens is glued on) The devastating Chinese earthquake knocked this company's value into the basement, but they are making moves lately, trying to claw their way upward and produce value for their stockholders.

In that way I feel an affinity with the stock. I say to myself, "This stock is like my neighborhood. Right now, you can buy in for pennies on the dollar but we have unlimited potential."

When Alex bought the stock, with a little help from his dad, it was priced at about .0020 but not very long after that, the stock rocketed up to .0066. Currently, it is holding at around .0040 which means Alex has doubled his investment, turning $80 into $160. Rumors are flying about a pending "reverse merger" and suddenly millions of shares are changing hands. Word is high volume is usually an indication of something big in the works.

Not having any money which doesn't need to go toward bills, I still found a way to invest so I could be in the venture with my son...



I had an old 403(b) account from back in the day when I worked for a non-profit psychiatric facility in Seattle. I haven't added so much as a buck to that 403(b) since I left Seattle in early 2000 for a difficult, uncertain existence trying to be near my child and part of his life. There was about $1,700 in the 403(b) but I can't get at that money until I am 59 and a half.

No, I couldn't get at the money. But I could convert the 403(b) into a Roth IRA and put all the money--every blessed penny--into China Nuvo Solar Energy. And that's exactly what I did. Currently, I own 377,977 shares (including my son's 40,000 shares) and win, lose or draw I don't plan to sell those shares for a long, long time. (Of course, Alex can do what he likes with his 40,000 shares when he turns 18; I put them in an account separate from my Roth IRA)

What I especially like about this stock is that it's 100 percent alternative energy. As an environmentalist, I prefer to have my investment money (what little there is!) in alternative energy stock rather than, for example, earth-raping stocks. (Weyerhauser...cough cough)

One reason I am writing about this is to explain why readers may see links to China Nuvo Solar Energy appearing at the end of blog posts. My recent experiment with Amazon Dot Com advertising has been a failure, producing not even a penny of revenue. If anybody asked me about putting Amazon Dot Com ads on their site I would say "Forget it. Don't even bother."

My Google ads produce about a hundred bucks every six months--not a big deal, but it beats a poke in the eye with a sharp stick--and I think advertising gives any blog a more "official news source" appearance.

But here's what I'm going to do for a little while. I'm going to promote China Nuvo Solar Energy. And I've been up front about the reason why: I own stock in the company. In fact, it's the only kind of stock I own.

Well, actually, I think I have some soup stock in my cupboard.

But beyond that I believe in the company, in the idea of making a better solar cell and getting solar power to catch on and replace fossil fuels. Maybe this won't be the ultimate and perfect solar cell for all time, but it sounds like a pretty good solar cell for the next few decades.

Or maybe I just love bragging about my son and the fun we have in North Minneapolis. We sat in Broadway Pizza as the toy train went around, got on the internet, talked about the stock idea and then said...

Let's do it. Let's put money in China Nuvo Solar Energy.

Blogging Burns Up Yet Another Pawn Shop Camera...

Self-portrait by unknown, blog post by John Hoff

There's no doubt about it, I am rough on cameras.

I crawl over fences with my camera, cross a treacherous frozen lake, throw my camera in my black leather duffel bag--the same one I took to Army Basic Training in 1990, only now it has more patches--in short, I treat my cameras about as rough as I treat my clothes and my cars. That's why (just like with my clothes and cars) I buy cheap, dinged-up stuff and run it into the ground. With cameras, I prefer the ones from pawn shops with a memory card full of "gangster pics," so I can put 'em on my blog.

Recently, I went through yet another camera. Toward the end, the latch on the battery compartment was being held together with a paperclip. And I'm mighty grateful to my buddy who made that temporary fix, using his self-taught watch repair skills to rig up my piece-of-junk digital camera and get...

...several more months of life out of it. But toward the end, something was wrong with the memory and it just wouldn't retain pictures so today off it goes to the Graveyard of Cameras. Today a friend with a pawn shop credit kicked the credit my way so I could get another camera, and so I obtained a sweet little HP digital in Robbinsdale.

This camera came with no memory card, but three similar images were in the internal memory, here's one below.

Is that a tattoo of the outline of Minnesota on his left cheek? How civic-minded! (Sarcasm font)
My old camera had an image burned into the memory which appeared each time I hit the "on" button. I dubbed her "Imogene." The image of Imogene won't download, so I tried to take a picture of the picture but, well, I couldn't get a very good result.

What did I tell you? Held together with a paperclip. Too bad I can't trick the Minneapolis public school system into giving me money and get the big bucks like Don Allen.

Let's hope this new camera lasts a while. Heck, it cost a whole $79!

Slumlord Mahmood Khan's Answer To "The Curtains Of Dispair" Is "The Pizza Box Of Desperation"

Photo and blog post by John Hoff

What happened here at 2501 Golden Valley Road? Was slumlord Mahmood Khan jealous of all the attention this blog paid to "The Curtains of Dispair" at Bashir Moghul's run down property, and so Khan needed to grab center stage?

Check out what's going on with this broken plate glass window. Somebody has stuffed a take-out pizza box and a bubble gum pink blanket behind the hole in the window. Please note that whoever did this has a finely-tuned sense of aesthetics: they faced the greasy side of the pizza box away from the outside.

Careful, you might accidentally set off a wave of gentrification like that! Here's the most bitter irony of all: this building is directly across from a glass repair business.

Obviously, about ten seconds after I get done with this blog post...

...I will be sending an email to 311.

But it's pretty hard to keep up with Mahmood Khan, no matter how many 311 calls and emails are made. This man's capacity to create slummy conditions are on a par with the super powers of cartoon villains. We in North Minneapolis can only cry out to a higher power, in this case the city: please revoke this man's rental license and save us from his tidal wave of slum!

NoMi Bus Stop Bouquet Is Now Complete!

Photo and blog post by John Hoff

This blog previously reported the installation of some spectacular bus stop art near the Five Points Building, but at that time not all the metal blooms were in place. In the midst of today's snow storm, I drove by and noticed the final flowers have been put in place and the installation appears complete.

This distinctive bus stop seems destined to become a NoMi landmark. To those who find it too gaudy, too busy, too SOMETHING I say:

Give it time. You'll find it grows on you.

(Do Not Click "Read More")