More from the Johannsen family -- another death trip.

Above: brother-sister indie-pop duo and globetrotting vigilantes Willy & Safire.

Boy, I'll tell you, a tragedy is a tragedy, but I don't know it is about the Johannsen family that breaks this neighborhood out into a total case of the loonies. Marla Manda dies last year, and all of a sudden it's a great idea to build a giant statue of a handgun in the middle of Armitage Square. Then her fool son goes and dies and suddenly every Republican in the 3rd Ward is threatening to prosecute me and Sherman Larson and anyone else that ever had an unkind word to say about the Johannsen clan. And now, I get this loony "press release" sent to me by Barry's two kids, Willy Bennett Johannsen and Safire Strauss Johannsen, who I guess play in a rock band of some kind. That assistant Marisha -- the really sharp one -- tells me that they're fairly well-known around town for playing something she called "twee pop revival," which means absolutely nothing to me. "Instead of songs about having crushes on librarians, though," she tells me, by means of explanation, "they sing about having crushes on University of Chicago economics professors."

Anyway, here is is. It was sent not by regular mail, but via the My Space.

dear friends:

as you know, it has been a great year for willy & safire -- we've just returned from a triumphant showcase at sxsw, and finally released our latest ep, god and man at yale. but imagine our shock when we return from austin only to find that our dear father, who taught has so much, has passed away in a tragedy, only one year after our grandmother passed as well. the fact that both were taken too soon in pursuit of the contemptible old communist bastard dr. thomas jefferson harding only makes it harder to bear.

so are announcing our first-ever asian tour this spring. we will be doing a tour of laos, cambodia and vietnam, and focusing on vietnam. we will bring our music to the people of southeast asia, and also use our free time to hunt down dr. harding and bring him to justice to answer for his many crimes against armitage heights, and his role in the death of our father and grandmother. it's what they both would have wanted, and we'll put our skills as musicians and handgun aficionados towards that goal.

see you in hanoi!

remember, you can read our blog about the trip, get tour info and hear our new songs right here at www.myspace.com/willyandsafire.

love,

willy and safire

What the hell is it about these people? Don't they have better things to do than run off to Viet Nam and chase down a senile old Marxist?

I thought when I took over the internet diary from Sherman I'd be able to write about stuff around town once in awhile, and not just accounts of a bunch of crazy vigilante death trips on behalf of the local right-wing plutocracy. I see that's not going to be the case.