Public Criminology

i got up early to take my class to a youth correctional facility today. we drove through grant hart-land and ended up by greg norton’s restaurant. feeling nostalgic over my favorite band’s breakup, i stumbled on a blog tribute and mp3 to 2541, mr. hart’s ode to love and the band’s old address.

pretty obscure, i know, but well worth the search for me.

well, they gave us a number,
they gave us a place to stay,
and billy got hold of a van, and man,
we moved in the very next day.

twenty-five forty-one — big windows to let in the sun. 2541…

well, we put down the money,
and i picked up the keys,
we had to keep the stove on all night long so the pipes wouldn’t freeze.

we put our names on the mailbox,
and I put everything else in the past,
it was the first place we had to ourselves — we didn’t know it would be the last.

2541, big windows to let in the sun. 2541…

now everything is over,
everything is done,
everything in my head,
has 2541.

well things are so much different now,
i’d say the situation’s reversed,
and it’ll probably not be the last time i have to be out by the first.

2541, big windows to let in the sun…

a city pages blogger just popped me between the eyes with this lively photo of block e in ’73, guaranteed to bring sweet and sour memories for old minnesotans. back then, it was seedy, sexy, scary, showy, and skeezy. today? not so much.*

as a west st. paul kid, i recall wide-eyed and wonderful trips to this part of hennepin avenue. then, as an intern investigator with the public defender, i spent more time with the area’s crime. though i saw too much trouble there to really romanticize the place, moby’s big electric sign still brings a li’l electric charge.

tom waits wrote the block’s official soundtrack in r-rated tributes such as ninth and hennepin and christmas card from a hooker in minneapolis. if i squint hard enough through today’s spring snow, i can almost see the drunks, punks, and hustlers of old hennepin from my office window.

waits is great, but the scene puts me in mind of atmosphere’s contemporary tales of junkie redemption and minneapolis pride.

*for further study, james lileks offers a fine historical photo essay.