Above left: This breathtaking cathedral adorns the east side of the Antiguan central city square. Above right: Steph journeys into the R. Dalton Filadelfia Estate coffee plantation.

Trip to Guatemala

Sloth's sister Rachel and her husband Manuel were married at Casa Santo Domingo in Antigua, Guatemala. This was Sloth's first visit to Central America, and he and Steph took full advantage of the situation to learn a bit of Spanish, tour the southern Guatemalan countryside, and visit a commercial coffee plantation.

Antigua is one of the most tourist-oriented locations in Guatemala. Its history is rich and lavish, seeped in both ancient Mayan traditions and the culture of the Spanish colonial empire. The heavily tourism and several Spanish immersion schools there have brought a slight bohemian flavor to the city.

Check out photos and footnotes on our photo gallery website:

[Unpublished Website; Email For Link]

Jimmy Buffett LIVE

Jimmy kicked off one of his last shows on his 2006 "Party at the End of the World" Tour in Chicago on Saturday, August 5th - the same weekend as several other major events (including Lollapalooza in Grant Park!). Sloth and Steph were undeterred by the traffic back-ups and construction as they traveled with several family and friends down to Chicago to witness their first Jimmy Buffett live experience. Sloth, who has never been more than a cursory fan of Jimmy's music, was impressed by the covers of Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl" and Crosby Stills & Nash's "Southern Cross", amongst others. Much fun was had with fellow parrotheads as pre- and post- parties abounded; footage and photos of these even appeared in a short film shown during the concert itself. Similar to the Grateful Dead, the Jimmy Buffett experience is one of those things that one should partake in at least once... just to say that you did.

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Xenarthra.Org / Sloth.Biz Development

Development of our new websites on sloths and tropical rainforests continued this year into April. Sloth learned more than he ever thought he would about rainforests, Central America, and geology as he worked with university professors and field experts to correct mis-information on the websites. Sloth.Biz even features an audio interview with the John Ball Zoo and several cute videos with the "Sleepy Sloth" puppet. Check 'em out and spread the word!

http://www.sloth.biz/
http://www.xenarthra.org/

Newsletter EXCLUSIVE! Check out "Sleepy Sloth" as he is abruptly visited by James and Heather during a film shoot for his website! (Video is Mpeg-1, playable in the QuickTime or Windows Media players. Broadband connection required.) http://www.sloth.biz/multimedia/slothkids.mpg

BrickWars!

I was a HUGE fan of LEGO bricks when I was younger - I particularly fell in love with the castle LEGO sets that were developed in the early 80's (a vast improvement on the blockish yellow castle sets that were released earlier). Little did I know that a gentleman with enormous amounts of time on his hands created battle rules for LEGO bricks in the same vein as the popular Warhammer game. Long afternoons and evenings were spent pouring over the freely-available rulebooks and constructing battle arenas for mindless mayhem. There's nothing like taking toys and applying them to adult battle games... but, as the author aptly points out, the rulebook is merely a construct meant to pacify the adult mind's natural lack of ability to have fun.

"Rules are for the small-minded and weak. Let a little kid loose among your collection of bricks sometime, and watch the way he plays. In his hands there'll be all the drama and explosions you could ever want, and the whole time that kid won't have to crack open the rulebook even once. How is it that he's so much smarter than we are? Wait until he's eighteen; he'll have become just as slack-jawed and dull-eyed as the rest of us."

It takes a certain sense of humor to appreciate the website, so enter it with a Monty Python / Terry Pratchett / Neil Gaiman sort of mentality.

http://www.brikwars.com/

James Turns 13!

Ace Reporter Sloth Silius has been hot on the heels of James Veenstra since 2000, when he interviewed the young lad after a trip to Washington state. James dropped in at the Underground for a follow-up interview on December 1st, 2006.

SLOTH SILIUS: You have just recently turned 13. Do you feel changed? Do you feel imbued with cosmic energy due to this change that has occurred today?

JAMES: Yes, because I'm big now.

Continued on page four...

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Continued from page three...

SLOTH SILIUS: This is your first year of middle school. What is the biggest difference between elementary and secondary education on a personal level?

JAMES: There's a lot more work to it. It's not like there's 5 minutes of homework - you get homework in each different subject every day. It's harder, but it's also fun... I get to see a lot more friends, since there are different kids in each class.

SLOTH SILIUS: What is interesting to a 13 year-old rather than, say, an 8 year old?

JAMES: We'd probably like movies and music more than toys. We'd also hang out with friends in "older people ways" - like, instead of going somewhere with our parents and staying with them, we might go somewhere and hang out without them. We're getting more independent and not relying on them for everything anymore.

SLOTH SILIUS: Back in 1973, a band called Tower of Power tried to figure out "What is Hip". It is now 2006. As a super-cool kid, what is hip these days?

JAMES: Probably different kinds of music... the top ones being punk and rap. A lot of people might say that scary movies or horror movies are cool. With clothes, I know that a lot of my friends at school who are skaters wear Vans, which is a kind of skateboarding shoe. Converse All-Stars and Chuck Taylor Hi-Tops have been making different styles and different designs; almost everyone at my school has Chuck Taylor Hi-Tops.

SLOTH SILIUS: You mentioned movies and music; name five bands that are hip and two movies that are cool.

JAMES: Okay. Artists... Panic at the Disco, definitely; Chris Brown, Breaking Benjamin, Fall Out Boy, The Fray, and maybe Hoobastank. But I know that one band I think is big is The Killers.

SLOTH SILIUS: And two movies.

JAMES: Well, this one is a little older, but The House of Wax. And the newest Spiderman that is going to be coming out [Spiderman 3]; even people who aren't really into superheroes are going to see Spiderman. And one movie that some of my friends are excited about is Nightmare Before Christmas in 3D.

SLOTH SILIUS: That sounds like something that people my age would like. Are old people hip?

JAMES: No, they're old and wrinkly.

Listen to the full interview on SlothWerks.Com.

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Heather Tackles First Year of School

Our daughter turned 4 in May and qualified to attend Mulick Park Elementary's pre-school program with her good buddy Olivia. Her teachers, Mrs. Helen and Mrs. Terri, are a pleasure to work with, and the kids have an impressive array of activities that blend fun, learning, motor skill development, and social interaction. The little ones even had a chance to visit the "big kids" computer lab in the main part of the school where they can play themed games and access the internet. They do grow up fast, don't they?

Hear Heather talk about her pre-school experience on SlothWerks.Com.

Sloth Reviews The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor

What if Lewis Carroll got it all wrong? In this brilliantly crafted novel, Frank Beddor reverse-engineers "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and points out that reality falls short of the children's story published in 1865. Not only is Wonderland real, it is also in peril... and its only hope is Princess Alyss.

The good news is that Mr. Beddor's book is not a simple re-telling of the classic tale. In fact, the universe of Wonderland takes on a completely different feel, flavor, and scope; whimsical absurdities (talking flowers) are paired with the concrete (mechanical pseudo-cybernetic card-soldiers), and old characters are repainted in a completely different light (the "Mad Hatter", alias Hatter Madigan). Even the concept of the looking glass is revisited as a sci-fi other-dimensional transportation system. The result is a novel which whirls the reader along in a very believable universe - and within that context, Beddor lays the groundwork for a bloody, grim, and epic battle between good and evil. The best news? It's the first book in a trilogy. Three and a half out of four stars.

NEW MUSIC NEW MUSIC NEW MUSIC

The Pet Shop Boys Fundamental - The painfully perfectionist genius Trevor Horn (Seal, Simple Minds) re-teams with the Pets on this 2006 offering, which increases the tempo from the lush and rather understated Release from 2002. We find singer Neil Tennant in a different mindset - he's watching a world moving into chaos, and he's certainly not happy. "I'm With Stupid" is a brutally direct attack on the relationship between British Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Bush; the piano-laden "Numb" describes a mental shutdown from pain; the cold and calculating "Integral" describes a paranoid global state that would make Phillip K. Dick proud. Luckily, these numbers are offset by Tennant's outrageously sarcastic "Sodom and Gomorrah Show" and the wonderfully club-oriented "Psychological". The real gem on this album, however, is "Minimal", a dance tune worthy of the upper echelon of classic Pet Shop Boys material. The latter cut combines infectious beats, lush orchestral backdrops, and a grandness for which Tennant and Lowe have been famous going on twenty years now. Gay clubs rejoice! Three out of four stars.

New Music continues on page six...

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New Music, continued from page five...

Fall Out Boy From Under the Cork Tree - Fall Out Boy's 2005 offering from Island Records starts out strong with four memorable tracks, including two radio singles: "Dance Dance" and "Sugar We're Goin' Down". After that, though, the cuts are less memorable to the casual listener, but each song grows on you. Fall Out Boy combines strange lyrics with catchy infectious punk music, resulting in tunes that get stuck in your head while you mumble phrases such as "The way your make-up stains my pillowcase / Like I'll never be the same." This big-label debut is slickly produced, with some tracks mixed by pop music producer Tom Lord-Alge (Oasis, Hanson, U2, Sarah McLachlan). But now the band has a larger audience, and we will most likely see more of this darkly sarcastic pop-punk group in the future. Four out of four stars. (Review by James Veenstra and Sloth)

Frou Frou Details - Breathy female vocalist and musician Imogen Heap teams with producer / engineer Guy Sigsworth (Seal, Madonna, Bjork) to produce an exquisite album of electronic ear candy. Guy's production skills shine as he brings indian percussion, Kraftwerkian electronica, and even New Order-esque guitar licks to eleven highly individualistic cuts. The album calls to mind Dido, Beth Orton, and (unsurprisingly) Bjork in equal measure as Imogen sings about the bright and dark sides of love and relationships. Many reviewers file this album under "trip-hop", and I've seen comparisons to Portishead, but this is misleading (and probably based soley on the single "Let Go"). Details is brilliant art-pop that is poppy enough to become immediately accessible, yet with an artistic depth which begs for deeper exploration. For the truly brave, we also recommend the solo efforts of Imogen Heap, especially her recently released Speak For Yourself. Guy also works with Imogen on her 1998 release I Megaphone. Three and a half out of four stars.

Over the Rhine Films For Radio - The husband-and-wife duo of Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist captured critical acclaim for their muted Good Dog, Bad Dog album in 1996, which presented their dark music in a more acoustic light. On Films For Radio, Over the Rhine completely flips the coin, enlisting musician / producer Pascal Gabriel (Dido, Kylie Minogue, Bomb the Bass) to assist with mixing duties. The result is similar to what happened to Everything But the Girl between Amplified Heart and Walking Wounded - suddenly, Over the Rhine's music has gone from "intimate" to "epic". The best example is the soaring "Give Me Strength", with its throbbing dance beats, electric guitar, and Karin's powerful vocals. Beyond this, Films for Radio delivers an impressive array of styles: the Portishead-like opener "The World Can Wait", the whimsical "Fairpoint Diary", the piano-driven laziness of "Little Blue River / In the Garden", and the Billy Holiday trip-hop of "The Body is a Stairway". If anything, Films For Radio is impressive in scope and ambition, and for those who haven't yet been drawn into Over the Rhine's brooding landscapes, this album may be an excellent starting point. Three out of four stars.

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