What’s better than good old fashioned crappy american chinese food that probably has zero in common with real chinese food?...Nothing!...as far as i’m concerned. How many foods can you say were your favorite when you were a kid and they still are your favorite? Besides mac & cheese there aren’t many i can think of...but chinese food is one. when i start eating this stuff (chicken subgum, pork fried rice and egg foo young being my favorites) i can’t stop until i’ve eaten myself into a coma.

Gotta love diner’s in things that look like houses. How cool is that? Even if this place didn’t have HUGE sentimental value to me i’d still dig it. My grandparents used to live right across the street and when i would stay over at their place my grandfather would wake me up at 4:30 in the morning and we’d head over to Our Kitchen for big stacks of pancakes before

we hit the road to go fishing on his boat he had parked on the St. Croix River. I never really cared much for the fishing part, but hanging out with my grandfather was very cool. We’d

always stop at this kickass tackle shop on the way and he’d buy me what he thought would be the “secret weapon” fishing lure to finally nail that “lunker” that always seemed to allude

us every time we went. It didn’t really matter that we never really caught many fish...it was all about hanging out, peeing in a coffee can, eating room temperture balogna sandwiches,

listening to his war stories, getting the boat stuck, unstuck, and stuck again, buying fancy new fishing lures that never really did anything, and the smell of gasoline. That’s living.

And it all started with a big ass breakfast at Our Kitchen. I’m glad the place is still around...i wish my grandfather was too.

I hate to see these disappear, but they are. Thanks to soulless places like Great Clips and Super Cuts and guys just going full-on pussy and going to their wives salon’s instead (what the hell are they thinking?!?!). I guess i think a lot about these old barbershops because of Spike’s and how much we’re borrowing from these cool old places.

Buck’s Liquor Store.

Somewhere in the old section of Bloomington, Minnesota.

The Jug Liquor Store. Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Can’t say i care much for the church or religion, but i sure do dig the buildings they made.

Let’s just say we’ve been on a roast beef sandwich kick big time since we got back from L.A. and our outing to quite possibly the best roast beef sandwich ever. We don’t have any grand illusions of finding a better roast beef sandwich than Philippe’s here in Minnesota, but we have to have something to hold us over until we can get back out to L.A. Someone mentioned Wally’s to us and we’d never heard of the place before...and it’s been around since since 1969 so i don’t know how that one got under the radar. I had my doubts given it’s location in some shitty strip mall in Bloomington. At least it’s an old school strip mall, must have been one of the first. The interior was interesting, with hints of an old school diner probably because they didn’t know what else to make it look like in 1969. The sandwich was amazing. On our first pass through they ran out of roast beef and were making more. They told us to check back in a half hour. Good sign. At least it will be fresh. And it was. It was worth the wait, though i wish i would have found the place years ago. It’s the kind of place the world needs more of: a place with soul that does one thing and they do it well. I’m not really a “meat eater”, but i will reserve whatever meat I’m going to eat for Wally’s that’s for sure.

The interior of Wally’s is nothing fancy, and it doesn’t need to be when a make a roast beef sandwich that good.

Old dude at Wally’s eating roast

beef sandwiches, reading the paper and probably just getting away from his wife. Maybe she doesn’t even though he’s there?

On break at wally’s

A sign of any good restaurant is when you see an employee take their break and eat at the place they’re working. If the food gets his vote of confidence it sure as hell gets mine.

My favorite mexican food in town. When i crave real mexican food and want to get sickly full, we go here.

Patrick turned us on to this record collection on the walls at an art gallery at the UofM so we went to check it out. Very cool shit. The artwork on those old records is amazing. Tons of cool drawings which i wish i’d see more of in todays stuff. Most of the cool albums are from jazz artists, not really sure why...maybe it was the time, or the music or whatever, but the stuff is way cool. The place was packed and all the stuff was on the walls in one little room so i had to go in, check stuff out and come out for air. The place was full of poser art types standing around drinking free wine and beer and looking for someone they would know...i can do without that whole scene, just give me the art.

Patrick and Kelly had never been to the Artist Quarter before so we went to check out the Eric Gravatt and Sourcecode show. Great shit. That dude is smooth and cool as hell and kicks serious butt on the drums. Pam and i first saw him play at Rossi’s Blue Star room with James Moody and he kicked butt. The Artist Quarter had a seriously good vibe happenin’...the place was full but we found a table back in the corner. Every time i go there i dig the place so much i wonder why i don’t go more often. The place is dark, the walls are painted black, it’s in the basement of a cool old building and the people that play music there are as passionate about what they’re doing as anything i’ve ever seen. Amazing.

waiting for the solo to end.

eric gravatt on drums.i know it’s him by that funny turned sideways cymbal i’ve never seen anyone else do before.

Some people don’t let their dogs on the furniture.

(We’re not one of those people.)

Buster likes to smile more than any dog i’ve ever seen.

Got some time to kill and want to see a ton of drawings from the past year? You’ve come to the right place. Sit back and enjoy January 2005 thru September 2005.