I need one. Really, really need one.

If only for the “toy camera app.”

I could then add the iPhone to my collection of unused tech baubles, like a reconditioned PXL 2000 camera, a cheap-o Aiptek videorecorder, a Flip Mino, a pair of cameras bought during an Office Depot going-out-of-business sale and an unused Holga. There must be more, let me go look…

The video’s just a video, but there’s some trenchant social commentary in the feedback section, as you’d expect. (Having filled an entire trash bag this morning with a half-block’s litter, I’m not sure I wouldn’t mind a little lebensraum between houses on the Sou’Side.) View and read and weep.

Coincidences, Big Muddy Records: Tomorrow, I’m putting up a piece on creativesaintlouis.com from a former student at Webster, Chris Barisevic. He’s writing about his label, Big Muddy Records. The piece features Pokey Lafarge, sitting five-feet away from me at Mangia, and Bob Reuter, who’s about 20-feet to the left. Small town, indeed.

Dinners, Deluxe: Beatle Bob sends a fair bit of e-mail, often about the St. Louis Hawks. An interesting topic, but not something I need to read about on a weekly basis. Today, though, he’s kicked the sad word (if true) that Deluxe is closing. The place has one of the best veggie burgers in town and I plan to pour out a little soy in memory. Right after downing at least one more before Friday.

Energy drinks, Red Bull Cola: Just say “no.” Nas-tee!

Underrated animals, tapirs: Wish they had a natural habitat on the South Side.

Open mics, Atomic Cowboy: They’re a strange thing, no? On one evening, you run into one and enjoy every heartfelt set. On another, there’s no end to the misery. Strangest is the evening that alternates severe high- and low-points. Have the feeling that Atomic’s open mic is a mixed bag, indeed, every Monday after 10 p.m. Last week’s was an exercise in curiosity.

Programs, Lost: Plunging through season five this week, via Netflix streaming. Meanwhile, dust bunnies congregate in corners. Books lie unread. Relationships suffer. Thankfully, only seven episodes remain in the queue. Goodness sake.

Silver Tray live sets, The Incurables: Kinda digging these weekly sessions. This Friday, The Incurables, in the form of Jimmy Griffin and Bryan Hoskins, all-acoustic, from 12:15-12:30.

Products, theremins: Had my PXL cameras fixed by a guy in Wichita known for being the premiere Pixelvision repairman in the US. He also builds and sell theremins. For cheap! Who wants one?

Obsessions, Fairmount Park: No word yet on the new season, according to FP’s unusually lame site. Starting to sweat.

Obsessions II, Apop Records: Have noted this before, but it’s impossible to go into this store and not emerge with something. The best thing is that it could be a book, an album, a camera, a magazine, etc. and so on. What an amazing stock! Most recent pick-up was the fifth edition of the Rubble Series, “The Electric Crayon Set,” a tasty set of late ’60s psych. Always pays to comb the stacks at Apop.

Obsessions III, Detroit Tigers baseball cap: Best place online to find a size 8? Yes, size 8. Thanks.

Self-invites, neighborhood events: On New Year’s Eve, I took a walk through the neighborhood, hitting a couple house parties and then drifting into Eric Hall’s mash-up spin at Mangia Italiano. On the way, I noticed a pair of neighbors burning their Christmas tree, in what could only be described as a conflagration. After seeing photos on Facebook, I hereby invited myself to the next round of gas-on-tree burns. Please?

Overdue viewings, “Athens, GA Inside/Out”: Have to dig up the VHS copy after coming across some YouTube clips.

To this point in life, I’ve not taken part in the procreation of another human being. But, today, I feel something akin to what that blessed, first day must be like.

Inspired by Joe Thebeau’s simple Facebook status update (“i’m thinking thai soup might be the answer”), I’ve just now completed my greatest experiment of 2010. Armed with only onions, turnips, snow peas, garlic, a tin of tomato paste, honey and a host of herbs, spices and love, I’ve created something that can only be described as Miracle Soup.

To what do I credit this moment? A heightened sense of goforit’veness? Joe’s typing fingers? Curry powder? Can’t really be sure.

But I can be sure that I’ve never felt more closely-knit to my friends who are parents. We share something deeper now. The next time you start in on a story about Little Johnny or Jill, I plan on sharing My Own Story.

Gosh, things really are different now.

An important programming message from, well, me: On Monday, January 4, 2010, Thomas Crone will unveil, through this site and a series of personal annoyances, a handful of major endeavors for the coming New Year, with the first edition of this rush of activity going live on Monday, January 11. These moves will likely make Thomas Crone come off as:

* A real dope, or
* A particularly clever fellow

‘Til then, a secular Happy New Year to you and yours.

========

Update: to the six of you reading this, we’ll roll it out tomorrow at noon. Bugs in the system. Thanks.

It’s been long enough that I’m not really sure if the year was 1999 or 2000. But on January 1 of one of those years, I started a radio show on KDHX, called Radio Free St. Louis. I was blissfully unaware that WGNU had nicknamed itself that, which wasn’t known to me until RFSL went off the air a year later. Oops. That show was a talkie focusing on local music; it was a mix of recorded music, live sets and conversations with musicians, or affiliates. If memory serves correct, the first guest was Jordan Oakes, then publishing the power-pop fanzine Yellow Pills. It was a nasty evening, very icy. That I remember quite clearly.

After RFSL’s year, the show morphed into The Wire, a gig that would have its title grabbed by a popular cable show a bit later. (Really had a way with naming back then!) The show would be dedicated to local talk topics, on any subject of regional interest. After laboring through a run of doing it solo, I asked my frequent Metropolis colleague Amanda Doyle to come on as co-host. Luckily, she accepted and we ran the hour format for a time, until the combined efforts of Metropolis, the emerging The Commonspace and other projects suggested that we give up the show.

Which we did. For a short while.

Soon, though, Collateral Damage, our replacement show, would be split from an hour show to half that, with The Wire coming back on at 30-minutes. It worked that way for some years, before Amanda and I decided to change things up conceptually, with a new title: Topic A. With this format, we’d be able to talk to anybody, under the banner of monthly themes. We got to chat with some awesome folks (Hentoff, Zinn, etc.) and feedback seemed stronger than the previous gig.

In time, I was granted the show Silver Tray and I shifted from on-mic duties to purely running the board for Topic A. I think the show worked better with Amanda asking all the questions. My opinion is exactly that and it won’t change.

But with the station’s talk plans changing after the new year – and with volunteer hosts and producers long waiting for exactly what those changes will be, even a few weeks prior to rollover – our tenure on KDHX ends tonight. And the kicker is that I won’t be there and neither will Amanda. She’s pre-taped the show and is on vacation; and I’m loading records into the Halo Bar for a DJ set, so it’s a reather unfortunate bit of timing, a seriously unsentimental way to end a project of such length.

Over time, we segued to-and-out-of our show with a variety of great hosts. Early on, Paul Stark and Art Dwyer, when featured on Friday nights. On Mondays, we bumped up on Tom “Papa” Ray, DJ Wilson and Fred Hessel, Jeff “Kopper” Kopp, DJ Needles and G-Wiz and, of late, Annie Zaleski. And then the Barroom Bob segments! What a treat to listen to those over time.

It’s been fun to share a microphone with Amanda these many years, most of all. Probably, I enjoyed the set, weekly download of pre-show gossip as much as the show, itself. Thinking that Amanda’s choice of letting it go now is a good one. We weren’t burned out, but the gig wasn’t kicking the way it used to. With the permutations of the new talk block looking to add, rather than subtract, from responsibilities, it’s time to bounce.

It’s been a helluva lot of fun and hopefully has added something to the greater, overall, local conversation.

Thanks to anyone who listened, which is exactly what I’ll be doing tonight.

There’s never been a better day to listen to Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66, while emptying a box of junk. But not just any box of junk. One that contains these gems:

1. A collection of all my clips from the 1984-85 Webster Groves High School Echo newspaper, including all known examples of my painfully-unfunny “humor” piece, “From the Dark Side,” a playful knock on another writer’s “From the Light Side” column. Geesh.

2. A press photo of NYC folkie Brenda Kahn. Not autographed.

3. Tax returns from 1990-96.

4. My high school commencement program from WGHS. The guy listed just before me married our German teacher, who, herself, would die of cancer a couple years later. Notable graduates included rockstars Karl Grable and Anne Tkach. The bulk of the rest of the names? Um…? Nope, can’t recall ’em.

5. A 1994-95 St. Louis Blues media pass, issued to Thomas Cron of the Riverfront Times. Who wore for the photo, inexplicably, a weathered Colorado Rockies ballcap.

6. A photo of a college crush playing ping-pong. Ah, Ruth S.!

7. Photos of myself finishing a St. Louis Marathon in 4:05:42. Glad to have evidence of such a thing, ’cause it ain’t gonna happen again.

8. A letter from Cliff Froehlich, turning me down for a job at the Riverfront Times in 1989. The gig would go to Daniel Durchholz. This one gets framed.

9. Contact sheets (and negatives, hmm) of photos taken at Mangia Italiano in the earliest ’90s, featuring wrestlers Wayne St. Wayne, Paul “Mr. Wonderful” Orndorff and one of the Von Erich brothers. Damn. That was a great, great day.

10. An “Enormous Richard Distinguished Service Award,” signed by the six members of the group: Chris King, Chris Bess, Joe Esser, Rich Skubish, Karl Mueller and Matt Fuller. This artifact is a keeper, as it entitles me to “impose upon” the group’s members anytime I’m in St. Louis… where I am right now!

11. A list of books read in 1992, including, but not limited to: “The Student as Nigger,” “Rebellion in Newark,” “The SDS,” “Malcolm X Speaks,” “The Year of Young Rebels,” “The Racial Crisis in American Higher Education” and “Death at an Early Age.” And this version of Thomas Crone wasn’t arrested/jailed ever… why? Oh, yeah, for fun, there was also a reading of Douglas Coupland’s “Shampoo Planet.” Balance is very important in life. Was then, is now.

12. A German passport, issued in 1980 and ceasing validity in 1985. Somebody combed their hair back then.

13. And, with 1985 on the brain, a season preview of that year’s Webster University Gorlok soccer team. That squad would go on to win the program’s first game (season one was winless) in a heart-stopping match at Parks College. The team’s 16-year-old keeper was seen in the photo, but was nowhere to be found in the article, probably owing to no coach wanting to actually entrust a 16-year-old to that job.

Good times with a box of junk, friends!

Yet it’s time to get out of the house, for fear of nostalgia poisoning.

Blessed Boxing Day to you and yours.

Due to America’s economic downturn, coupled with a distinct sense of holiday-less spirit, Christmas and affiliated traditions have been suspended for this year. Don’t give nothin’, don’t expect nothin’. We’re still cool and next year we’ll have a really sweet treat, affiliated with it, thanks to an idea from Brandyn Jones.

Do, however, expect big news late next week. SO big. Truly.

In the meantime, Happy Festivus, for those of you keeping track of such things.

This video by Tyler DePerro and Brandon Bischoff was created for the two Intro to Media Writing courses I taught this semester, with each student in one of the sections.