Off topic – Nick Bergus

You, Too, Can Own a Nick Bergus Original

For the longest time, my dream was to move to a cabin in the woods that was big enough for a comfortable bed, a simple kitchen, a reasonable bathroom and a studio for letterpress printing.

Not that I knew how to set type or print with a letterpress, but the hands-on monotony was appealing.

The fantasy also presupposed the cabin had clean running water, electricity, internet and was accessible all year round.

Flash forward, and I discover Public Space One and the Iowa City Press Co-op offer workshops, including letterpress and found a joy of making art.

And now you can buy some of my prints on Etsy. All proceeds will go to Iowa City Mutual Aid.

It’s not a hermit cabin in the woods, but it’ll do.

Shop on Etsy

Reminder for Pride

If you’re making a sign or chalking on the sidewalk or spray painting 500 South Clinton Street to remind the community that the elected Johnson County Attorney chose to prosecute seven trans people for protesting an anti-trans speaker and shouldn’t be at pride, a quick reminder:

It’s Rachel Zimmermann Smith with two Ns and no hyphen.

Zuri

The dog we’d come to adopt was already spoken for, but we got a better one.

Zuri was athletic: a jumper of fences, a chaser of squirrels, and an eater of rabbits. Once she chased a herd of deer through Iowa City’s alphabet streets, collapsing in ecstatic exhaustion when she got home.

She escaped from the yard, from the house, and, once, her latched kennel. She loved running and diving into the snow after voles and cricking her neck at impossible angles to rest her head against chair legs and wall edges.

One time she ate rat poison at an Airbnb. Another time she surreptitiously ate a large gingerbread house in the middle of the night until she was surprised by a sleepy, suspicious human. Once she ate her own bed. And in her final days, she ate ice cream, a peanut butter and banana sandwich, a bacon cheeseburger, and cake.

When she first moved in, Zuri wasn’t supposed to get on the brand-new dog-fur-free couches, but we let her curl up there after a single day.

Zuri loved walks and could hike for miles. She loved car rides. She hated thunderstorms, fireworks, and going through the car wash.

She was a looker. Kids loved her one brown eye and one clear blue eye. She also shed a lot of fur.

When she started to limp, we guessed she was getting old and had maybe pulled a muscle. When it didn’t go away, the vet thought maybe it was arthritis. A scan revealed it was cancer and inoperable.

As the cancer progressed, she didn’t let it faze her. She was almost as good on three legs as four, and, even as she continued to atrophy through the late spring, Zuri caught a rabbit in the backyard.

All good things come to an end, and Zuri was a good dog.

We Are All We Have

Like any sane person, I’m distressed and overwhelmed living in a world that is a whirlwind of terrible things: rising fascism, the dismantling of democracy, our neighbors being stripped of their civil rights, the social safety net being sold for parts, hostility towards science, etc.

As we look around for help, it’s increasingly clear: there is no one but ourselves.

In this swirl of a grim reality moving at breakneck speed from bad to worse, I have found taking a deep breath, overlapping my sphere of concern with my sphere of influence and focusing on the people around me has been empowering and calming. As our federal, state and local governments continue to let people slip through cracks or be increasingly unable or unwilling to address ongoing crises, others are continuing to organize.

Iowa City Mutual Aid is one such collective working to meet the survival needs of the people whom our systems continuously fail. They work to support the most vulnerable: supporting unhoused people, writing letters to incarcerated queer folks, a community garden, emergency needs as they arise and more.

If you’re angry and looking for a way to help, please consider giving — and consider making it monthly to empower their work to help people and build community. (Des Moines Mutual Aid is their fiscal sponsor and donations are tax deductible.) Funds go to keep people in their homes, support international students getting their visas pulled and needs across our community.

Everyone Wants Something for Free

Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, a Republican from Wilton and son of Iowa GOP chair Jeff Kaufmann, according to Tom Barton in The Gazette:

“With assessment letters coming out, Iowans have been louder than ever with their concerns about property taxes. Iowans have expressed their concern, rage, and fear about unpredictable increases and their ability to afford staying in their homes. We are working to provide real relief to Iowans and their families, make Iowa a competitive state to live, and deliver a property tax overhaul that focuses on property taxpayers.”

First about those letters: they are required to be sent around the same time as the propaganda about tax rates despite not having any impact on a property owner’s tax liability until 18 months from now. Shocker everyone is mad about their largest asset appreciating in value. Wait. What?

Look, everyone dislikes taxes, but they sure do love parks, libraries, roads, sidewalks, safe buildings, emergency medical attention and their homes not being on fire. The GOP plan might fix the former, but it will absolutely not have a positive impact on the latter.

I Assure You

You have met someone who is transgender, and they were a person who deserves to live authentically and be loved just like you.

Iowa City Man Sentenced for Police Parody Account

Emma Jane writing for The Daily Iowan:

Kauble’s initial charges — one count of third-degree harassment, one count of identity theft under $1,500, and one count of tampering with a witness or juror — stemmed from an account he created on Feb. 8, 2024, one day after [University of Iowa Detective Ian] Mallory testified as a witness in a criminal trial.

That criminal trial was one where Mallory and Johnson County Attorney Rachel Zimmermann Smith targeted trans and non-binary people who were among the 100 or so protesting an anti-trans speaker (the protester in this trial, Tara McGovern, was acquitted). Mallory was testifying because he surveilled the charged protesters, again all trans and non-binary folks, over months.

According to the criminal complaint, Kauble used Mallory’s personal information without his knowledge or consent to create the X account @IanMallory4Iowa. He created posts mocking Mallory and criticizing his handling of the case in which he had recently testified, the complaint states.

The State of Iowa prosecuted a private citizen for a satire account criticizing an officer of the state using public records.

I think of Dan Kauble as a performance artist whose uses mockery and absurdity to criticize those in power. His greatest hits, as I remember them, are:

Awarding Iowa City’s city manager a “Worst City Manager” trophy during public comment
Bringing a ladder and a sign to get into the Iowa City city manager’s Zoom background while meetings were being held remotely due to COVID
Handing the Johnson County Sheriff a remote control MRAP during discussions of its actual value beyond a toy. This episode is made better by Sheriff’s Brad Kunkel’s on-camera reaction.

To be clear: Kauble pleaded guilty, though we don’t know his reasons why, but this feels like the very reason the First Amendment (RIP) exists.

On Lying Low

Last week, the United States swore in a convicted felon to the Oval Office. I’ve halted a lot of news intake since November and am still aware of some unpresidented actions, nominations and proposals, of which no-one should be surprised.

Still, some leaders at all levels want to wait and see what happens and exercising their lawful powers, afraid it will put a target on their own back.

Fuck that.

If you’re a leader who thinks now — right now, facing this present and future threat — is the time to clutch pearls and do things as we’ve always done them, you’ve got your head up your ass.

History is counting on folks standing up. People right now are counting on folks standing up.

Bytes

Every week on WECI, my kid hosts a show of themed music in at least five genres (and inevitably includes an Avett Brothers tune). This week, I got to join them for a show themed on artists we’ve seen live.

I wanted to include more than I had space for — a short Godspeed You! Black Emperor song still would have eaten up a fifth of our time — but also wanted to offer the story behind each of my selections.

You can find the full playlist on Apple Music.

Fantastic Negrito, “About a Bird”

We saw Fantastic Negrito together backstage at Blues & BBQ at the end of a long, hot July day. Evelyn also reminded that, because of its title, it starts off practically every time my phone connects to the car.

Catharsis, “Sabbat”

A weird show in a conference room at the Des Moines Botanical Garden on the eve of the 2000 election. The band, a bunch of anarchist punks who seemed to have freed themselves from day jobs, assured the audience the election winner wouldn’t matter to us. There is nothing new under the sun.

Mitski, “I Bet on Losing Dogs”

I saw Mitski live kinda accidentally when we went to Mission Creek Festival in 2019. She gyrated while she sang in a table in the middle of the stage. Our kid learned — “holy shit, you’ve seen Mitski?!” — from a photo of the marquee showing up on the TV’s screensaver; she added this on my behalf.

Elizabeth Morn, “Songbird”

My kid’s pick and the only artist in the set that I don’t think I’ve seen play.

The Lonelyhearts, “Next Year Is Shaping up to be Real Awesome”

When I helped produce Java Blend for IPR, we saw a lot of different performers. This one stuck with me because it was one of the few CDs I had with me in my solo drive from Iowa City to Tampa for a summer gig.

Indigo De Sousa, “Cry/Die”

Another Mission Creek show, but this one with my kid. Honestly, this is a stand in for “Kill Me,” which is unplayable on actual terrestrial radio.

24thankyou, “Car Cold, I’m Veering”

Another show we saw together, at an Englert local showcase. Super fun. The kid picked this one, which was better than the one I had.

Melt-Banana, “Free the Bee”

I have no idea what the lyrics are, but the Japanese thrash band melted my face at Gabe’s in the early 2000s.

Tragedy, “Never Knowing Peace”

A loud, hot, packed Theta Beta Potato living room show that ended with a bit of a thud when the band blew a fuse to end their set.

The Avett Brothers, “Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise”

The first time I saw them required a road Wisc., trip to the High Noon Saloon in Madison, but I saw them three more times, the last at what I thought was a terrible, new, glitzy venue down the street from the High Noon Saloon in Madison, Wisc. get off my lawn.

William Elliot Whitmore, “Hell or High Water”

Another show I saw with my kid at the Englert. Catchy. Fun. Bluesy. Hipster.

John McCutcheon, “Barnyard Dance”

I saw McCutcheon at my elementary school in Alaska, listened to his kid’s albums on tapes in our family car, and just went to see him again with my dad.

St. Paul & the Broken Bones, “Half the City”

Horns, energy and catchy as hell, their performance marked the start of Blues & BBQ’s move to nationally and internationally turning bands and I still can’t believe we pulled them off.

Kevin Burt, “Elenor Rigby”

A staple in Iowa City who I’ve seen countless times — including immediately before his International Blues Challenge win at my 15th wedding anniversary party.

The number of these bands also makes me realize what a treasure The Englert Theater in Iowa City is.

La Traversée de Charlevoix

We did the thing.

Backpacking is a weird pastime. Walks in nature? Everyone agrees they’re great. Long walks in nature, day after day, regardless of the weather, carrying your food, bedding, clothes and all the other things you need while forgoing basic hygiene? Through hiking? Weird.

But weird is where challenge is. And where challenge lies, there lies the chance for growth and transformation. Yes, there’s basking in the majesty of the natural world. Eating lunch by a creek or on top of a mountain and discovering moose prints and new fungi, but there’s also pushing through the mental slog of hours of rain and mud and the miles of rocks and roots. And then there’s spending 24 hours a day with your partner, unbathed and unvarnished. And in there is a serious metaphor for relationships and life.

We did the thing.