The Ghost Pepper Infiltrates North Minneapolis

Post and photos by the Hawthorne Hawkman, second photo contributed.

Two years ago, I was the first (crazy) person in the area to blog about the bhut jolokia, the hottest pepper on the planet.  Since then, another pepper, the Trinidad Scorpion, has on occasion been measured as hotter than the more commonly known ghost pepper.  While I have yet to try the latter, the former has made its way into our daily lives.  Okay, not daily; the human digestive system is not made to handle regular ghost pepper consumption.  But more and more places are including the spice as an option in their meals.

The top two photos are from Papa's Pizza.  After Dan Hylton's CD release concert, I stopped by Papa's for a quick bite.  As the cook saw me pouring the red chili pepper flakes on my slider, he said, "If you like the hot stuff, I've got something REALLY hot for you.  That is, if you can handle it."

"You don't mean...the ghost pepper?"  I inquired.  Sure enough, he brought out a small container for me to add to my food.  when he saw me take down most of that container while only having a few sips of water, he gave me a bag of five or six peppers to take home.  In a nice community touch, these were grown at The Warren, which hosted Dan Hylton's concert that evening.

So I took home the peppers and made...

Northside Troubadour Dan Hylton Performs at FLOW, Set to Release New Album!

Post and photo by the Hawthorne Hawkman.

I've had the pleasure of seeing fellow northsider Dan Hylton perform at quite a few events, from the Camden Farmers Market to last year's FLOW, and he even provided ambient background music at the Hawthorne Neighborhood Council's annual dinner last year.  Dan's a great guy, a fellow housing geek, and a darned good musician to boot.  So I jumped at the chance to review his upcoming album, "The Secret of Him," before its August 4 release concert at The Warren.

I had the CD on loop while working on my own FLOW presentation, and it made for great accompanying music.  This by itself is high praise, as I usually write and do other projects in silence.  But since I was focused on other things while giving the album a spin, my first impression wasn't about any particular song but instead about the album's tone.  "Music to listen to while curled up under a blanket on a rainy day" was what kept coming up in the back of my mind.  I thought specifically of two of my favorite such albums, Jonathan Rundman's "Wherever" and Nick Drake's "Pink Moon."  Interestingly enough, both of those albums employ a green/white/gray color scheme.  Rundman, by the way, is a former northsider himself and has done concerts at Papa's Pizza with the Camden School of Music.

The other nice touch is that Hylton chose to include the lyrics.  For someone like me, who is deaf in one ear, lyrics are a tremendous help.  My final play through of the album prior to review was done with the lyrics in front of me as I scribbled impressions of each song.  That started with...