Arts Devo
Heavy metal Tuesday night on Highway 32.
Heavy Metal Tuesday Night on Highway 32
And then came the sheepsfoot The walls were shaking, the dog was quaking, and we were awaken as you shook me all night long, Franklin Construction.
Arts DEVO lives on Eighth Street, aka Highway 32, and my side of the road is getting prepped for sidewalks. And since it’s a state highway, Caltrans has scheduled the work to happen throughout the night. It was cool at first, when the backhoes and dump trucks came through on Tuesday, chopping up blacktop and dirt clods and carting it all away as the poodle and I, and neighbor Fera, watched from the lawn. But then came the sheepsfoot roller, only a quarter of the size of the backhoe, yet way more metal. It ironed the exposed earth into submission and its vibrating felt like hundreds of tiny earthquakes, rattling the pictures on the wall and the plates in the cupboard well into early Wednesday morning.
Sleep deprivation aside, I’m grateful for the project. The other side of the road has already been completed and it looks pretty good. Plus, it’s going to make the road much safer for pedestrians, which was the whole point. The reason for the federally funded State Route 32 ADA Compliance Project is to make the sidewalks, crosswalks, curb ramps and driveways in the often dangerous section of highway accessible for pedestrians and those with disabilities. That’s worth making the poodle nervous for a night.
Summer tease As I gingerly dip my toes in the weather forecast’s promise of sunshine and temperatures in the 80s, I’m tempted to dive right into preliminary work on a summer jam mix to accompany living well in the outdoors. A few candidates have already bubbled to the surface, but I need a lot more input. Poke your head out the window and send me your tracks for kicking open screen doors and belly-flopping into the world. Here are a few tunes with summer-mix potential to put you in the mood:
Log Lady
• “Julie’s Place” - Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, a perfect (perfect!) hyperactive toe-tapping slice of noise-pop.
• “Feel It Still” - Portugal. The Man, as CN&R Calendar Editor Howard Hardee predicts, this smooth dance track from PTM’s upcoming summertime album, Woodstock, might just become the jam of the summer.
• “The Bus Song” - Jay Som, lush dream-pop from Oakland.
• “Metal Mirror” - Donald Beaman & The Spirit Molecules, the Chico four-piece has a fantastic new album out (Duration) and the twangy, weird “Metal Mirror” is ready for its lead-off spot on your next headphones mix. www.donaldbeaman.bandcamp.com
Vintage Twin Peaks (Just 3 1/2 weeks to season three premiere!):
Log Lady: A drunken man walks in a way that is quite impossible for a sober man to imitate, and vice versa. An evil man has a way, no matter how clever—to the trained eye, his way will show itself. Am I being too secretive? No. One can never answer questions at the wrong moment. Life, like music, has a rhythm. This particular song will end with three sharp notes, like deathly drumbeats.
