https://CRZ.net/
CRZ is Christopher Robin Zimmerman













































































this page generated 23.4.24 16:04 CDT
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11.7.17 12:42 
Temporarily changed my profile photo
30.5.17 15:56 
Changed my profile photo
18.1.17 20:48 
Changed my profile photo to a Meitu creation
8.12.16 14:35 
#tbt I can't find 2006 pictures, so here's one from 1996 from my first work Connectix Colour QuickCam. I am likely working graveyard shift and very bored. Also, still kinda mulleted. (circa September 11, 1996 21:03 PDT)
27.10.16 09:30 
Temporarily changed my cover photo
18.10.16 11:48 
Sure, one of my finer moments was when I stuck the neck label from the Schlitz bottle to my forehead - I can see why Facebook wants me to share this with you - nice eyes, tho
(8 years ago)
17.8.16 08:34 
I do miss this guy sometimes but have you seen my CALVES lately?
17.4.16 14:07 
Changed my profile photo
27.3.16 22:23 
Show selfie, part 201603272222:
Using light and shadow to look thinner
18.12.15 23:49 
Turns out today is my Facebook birthday! I joined FB Monday, December 18, 2006 at 2:16pm CST, using my UCR email address. Three minutes later, I posted my first status, which read in its entirety: "sleeping" I didn't touch my Wall for almost a year after that, although it appears I at least Friended some other folks in 2007.
11.11.15 00:42 
Maybe I AM 14 again...I've been on a pretty good run of seeing artists I have known at least that long and the most recent one was tonight when Howard Jones presented a stripped down concert subtitled "The Songs, The Piano, The Stories" to MAYBE 300 people at the Fine Line. On one hand, it's almost criminal that an artist of his stature is limited to such a small crowd, but on the other hand, how fortunate were we to have been able to watch such an intimate performance....and it's not like they didn't make money on it with some pretty inflated ticket prices they knew we'd pay for, and we sure did. I opted for the "reserved seating" which I had thought would put me in the balcony, but instead put me three tables from the stage along the side wall. The folks at the table ahead of me picked up their "reserved" sign and went looking for balcony space to stake a claim to...which meant I moved up one table and they ended up at mine. Nobody complained. For some reason, they put me down for 2, which must have been pity as I guess I was the only person to fly solo in the upper tier (I did see some tables for 3 amongst the couples). None of THAT mattered, either. One of the big reasons Howard Jones resonated with me and endured with me was the fact that Kelli Frankman was a super fan way before I even knew who he was, and I'm pretty sure she infected me, and I mean that in the best possible way because it's always given me a chance to think about her every time I hear him or use him as my "go to" artist at karaoke. I am now going on three years and change that I have promised her an email, so tagging her in this post will PROBABLY not balance the scales, but we have all the time in the world to fix that, right? So where was I? Ah yes. Kim and I went to see Howard perform his first two albums in their entirety back in 2012 at the Varsity Theatre and for a variety of reasons I wouldn't be able to pick a favourite between that night and this night, not the least of which is that 2012 me and 2015 me are obviously in entirely different headspaces and I [the remainder of this sentence has been redacted, buy me a beer and I'll tell it to you]. Funny thing is some of the stories, obviously well rehearsed, were similar to some of the stories I heard three years ago...which is totally fine as it makes them much more believable. Sometimes, like with Joe Jackson last week, you can lose yourself in how good a "piano" player they still are and how well-suited their songs are for such a sparse arrangement, but unlike Joe, Howard's voice sounds EXACTLY the same as it did as if I pulled out one of my four "Things Can Only Get Better" 12 inch singles and put it on the turntable I still haven't hooked up. No pitch-shifting key changes, no problem. It's extraordinary. Maybe there's something to the vegetarian lifestyle...naaaah. Anyway, I'm ALSO sure that part of my enjoyment of the night was Fine Line including a $20 bar tab as part of my "reserved" ticket, because I don't often have three Surly Furious pints at a show (especially a Tuesday show), but I'm sure it helped me summon the courage to stand in line, get a photo, get an autograph AND blurt out "thankyoufortheshowtonight, thankyoufortheshowthreeyearsago, thankyouforputtingyoursheetmusicuponyourwebsite, thankyouforbasicallythirtyyearsofmusic - whew, I'll be MUCH more relaxed if I see you after the NEXT time you come back here" which I think got a larf. In my mind, it will always have gotten a laugh. And I shook his hand, and he called me Chris, and oh and when he was singing he'd encourage us to sing along with him so I SANG WITH HOWARD JONES and really, what a great way to set $75 on fire. I do wish you were there sharing it with me....which is probably why I ended up immediately sitting down to try to share it with you HERE, now. And finally, the Wolves lost at home, AGAIN, so I guess I didn't miss much there...but I suppose I'm lucky I bought this ticket before the schedule came out, because I might have missed this show using the Wolves game as an excuse... Oh and FINALLY finally, while walking the 0.8 miles back to my customary parking spot alongside 333 7th St, passing by one of the open patios, a comely lass said "man, you have some great hair," to which I naturally replied "hey, thanks! Yours....is also nice." Swing and a miss. But at least I didn't break my stride. THANKS FOR READING - GOOD NIGHT, MOM
4.11.15 01:05 
I'm just loopy enough to let the truth slip out: My life, this CRZ life, is a very carefully choreographed series of unintended consequences. G'night Facebook
1.11.15 13:41 
STALK CRZ TWIN CITIES TOUR NOVEMBER 1-7:
Tonight: Whale in the Thames, Icehouse
Monday: Timberwolves vs. Blazers, Target Center, possibly followed by CLAPS, 7th St. Entry
Tuesday: Triviasco!, Clubhouse Jäger
Wednesday: Joe Jackson, Fitzgerald Theater (St. Paul)
Thursday: Timberwolves vs. Heat, Target Center, possibly followed by Infernal Singalong Machine, Grumpy's DT
Friday: RuDeGiRL, Triple Rock
Saturday: coma
23.10.15 11:44 
Changed my profile photo
15.10.15 12:38 
#tbt By my senior year, the braces were finally off, the contact lenses were in, a massive tetracycline prescription was given to downgrade my terrible, terrible acne to just average acne, I got my first real job at Pizza Hut, caught mono and dropped to 110 pounds, so needless to say I took a lot of fabulous photos. Or at least I think I did. This was definitely not one of them; it looks like I just came in from PE (and may have!). Principal "Fles" was busy putting his mark all over the high school including this terrible refreshed logo. We got out just in time. 1988 (6th in a series of 6 - thanks for living through all six of these with me)
10.10.15 00:22 
Gather round, kids, and try hard not to roll your eyes as I share with you yet another example of how it's all interconnected with karma fueling all that bullshit and so forth.

I had debated all week whether or not I really wanted to go to First Ave to catch FFS but I think I was finally swung by the very visible anticipation by several folks whose opinions I greatly admire here on Thefacebook (you know who you are; you probably won't read this status update unless I trick you by tagging you; I am not tagging you this time) - it read a lot like how *I* felt earlier this week for That Other Show I Attended (CALLBACK!), so I felt like I should probably do that thing.

What I hadn't anticipated was how into this WNBA Final I'd been getting, thanks in part to the free tickets I kept scoring, to the point where now I really NEED the Lynx to win this Championship and will feel pretty crushed if they don't. Game 3 was tonight, somewhere in Indiana (I think), and on ESPN2, and I ended up watching all of it. (Catch the last 1.7 seconds if you can. It was all over the Internet by the time I left the house.) So I was pretty much missing Jake (no big loss) and opening act The Intelligence (were they good? I will have to look them up later), but that was fine because all I was really interested in was the Main Event.

THEN I found that it was going to be streamed live via Yahoo! and AGAIN questioned if I should go, given that I could stay home and see it for free, probably on TV thanks to Roku magic...but that sounded like a different kind of pain to set up, and I wasn't swayed from the potential thrill of Being There.

What FINALLY came to pass was, around 9:15 as I was ready to jet, I figured out that I'd left my phone at work. Again, in my highly regimented, routine-filled life, the thought of attending a show without it was unfathomable - would I really have been there if I hadn't checked in and posted a photo? - SO I detoured to Roseville back to the office to grab it. I then hustled down 35W and parked in my usual spot on 7th because, even as I was running late, I still felt compelled to park half a mile away so I would get another mile of walking in tonight. Routine.

I'm getting somewhere with all this, and it's First Avenue. I made it into line at 9:57, knowing that a Yahoo! stream meant they were probably going to be pretty prompt with their 10PM start. In line for the box office, the man in front of me casually asked "hey, you need a ticket?" In fact, I DID need a ticket. It turns out he was on the list with a +1 but had come alone, but he wanted to help a brother out. So I got in gratis, thanks to ending up in the right place at the right time. If the game had gone to overtime, if I hadn't left my phone at work, if I hadn't parked as far off as I had...well, now maybe you're starting to see what I'm trying to explain about how it all works out, and how it happens a lot more than you'd think....or maybe just for me? You tell me.

(I didn't want to burn ALL my karma tonight, so I did buy him the largest bottle of beer I saw in the First Avenue cooler, and got myself a Stag tallboy - that + the tip still ended up, like, less than half the price of a ticket. The first notes hit as I put in my order.)

I made it to the upper level with a prime spot to gawk at Ron Mael for the entire set. It was a good show! More importantly, everyone I ran into there seemed to also really enjoy the show. Also more importantly, I knew I'd be typing this thing later...for YOU! And ME!

AND I got home before midnight! Now, if I can just go to bed early so I can drag my ass out of bed in time for the charity walk...

(Oh, I busted my budget with a FFS T-shirt. No regrets!)
8.10.15 12:38 
#tbt By this time in my high school career, I was in the Key Club so I got into all the dances for free (for "moving tables" in the forum) and I was also manager/stats for the Varsity basketball team (demoted from the scorebook to tracking assists and/or rebounds - I didn't know how good I had it with the sophomore team!), where I ended up earing an honorary letter...which no doubt thrilled all the real athletes who cared about that stuff. It also got me into basketball games for free, so I'm pretty sure that's why there's no sticker on THIS one. I know several of you are keeping track of this stuff on my behalf. ;-) Basically, my high school career seems to boil down to "hair, glasses and braces." 1987 (5th in a series of 6)
5.10.15 13:40 
Saturday I walked to cure Parkinson's Disease! YOUR five bucks will make the difference between success and failure (maybe)! Please consider clicking on this text to make a donation!
1.10.15 10:33 
#tbt This was another replacement in front of the office crepe paper flag after I lost my wallet - very fortunately, the last one I've lost to this day (although I've tried very hard to lose my entire man purse several times in Florida this week). 1986 (4th in a series of 6)
24.9.15 11:02 
#tbt and damn, did this kid have some spectacular hair or WHAT? 1985 (3rd in a series of 6)
17.9.15 16:42 
I may be in an airport but I can still bring the #tbt - I'm still trying to figure out what I used for an ID the other two quarters this school year... 1984 (2nd in a series of 6)
10.9.15 10:31 
I never throw anything away. Recently I found a cache of student ID so guess what my #tbt photos are gonna be for the next few weeks? Here's baby (well, tween) Chris as a Somerset Tiger...my love of rugby shirts already established, but not yet having learned the magic of the lapel pin. 1983 (1st in a series of 6 - watch me grow)
3.9.15 02:16 
Please indulge me as I write out a rather longish yet COMPLETELY TRUE story which will add to the ways I have tried to explain to you outsiders just how my life works.

If you've paid me any attention at all today (yesterday) on the most social of media, you know that about 24 hours ago I allowed Timehop to inspire me to wear the same shirt I originally shared back four years ago, so today I grabbed a vintage 1999-ish "WCW Monday Jericho"/"Jericholics Anonymous" from the closet and wore it publicly all day.

It ALSO happened to be good and cloudy most of the day which set the temperature about 10 degrees cooler than was forecasted which further inspired me to go ahead and walk to Acadia for Joel's Infernal Singalong Machine (pushing me over 100 lifetime miles on MapMyWalk!), where the crowd dissipated much more quickly than normal and allowed me to select five songs instead of my normal two or three - you didn't ask, but you didn't really ask for ANY of this, so they were: "It Doesn't Have to Be" by Erasure, "The Boys of Summer" by Don Henley, "Steam" by Peter Gabriel, "Sail On" by The Commodores, "Old and Wise" by The Alan Parsons Project and "Bring the Noise" by Anthrax & Public Enemy - holy crap, that's SIX songs! What a night!

But that's not why I'm here. What FINALLY happened was a guy walked across the Acadia to not only compliment me on my karaoke style but more importantly for my awesome vintage pro rasslin' shirt. At this point, I noticed HIS shirt - a Bullet Club T-shirt - and remarked that I had seen a dude in a Bullet Club shirt in the Acadia before AND made a point to tweet about it to the hundreds of my Twitter followers who still expect occasional wrestling content from me there. He said that it was probably him and I had to agree - how many people would you expect to see in the Acadia in a Bullet Club shirt? But because I saw an opportunity to blow a mind - okay, impress only slightly - I offered that in one web search I could find the very tweet...and proceeed to do so. (I mean, I have only tweeted "Bullet Club" once in my life as far as I know. For those of you who DON'T follow me for the wrestling, the Bullet Club is a faction in New Japan Pro Wrestling.)

Here's what I tweeted, which turns out was back on June 17: "I'm proud I didn't mark out in front of the guy in the Bullet Club T at the Acadia, yet regret not learning how he obtained a Bullet Club T" - and, wouldn't you know it, here was the same guy and now I COULD ask him if he had gone to prowrestlingtees.com or not? I actually didn't remember the website name - but he did! But he actually purchased it at a Ring of Honor event in Hopkins - he's been to the last three ROH shows in Hopkins, making him at least the second person I'm aware of to actually go out to Hopkins to catch ROH. I told him about how I'd seen ROH at the St. Paul armory eons ago.

He's actually at the Acadia often as he does videography next door at KFAI for - let's see if I remember this right - "Live from Studio 5!" (I did need to check the Internet to confirm the name). He doesn't sing, though. I did coax him onto stage to help in the "all hands" version of (ugh) "Don't Stop Believin'" which closed out the night (after one last additional song which I've already forgotten). It's also an intersection with Mason which places me half a step closer to volunteering some time to KFAI, which I really need to do and haven't and To Be Continued, I'm sure...

Somewhere in here he thought we should probably commemorate the moment where his T-shirt and mine were in close proximity, resulting in a photo I tweeted and a promise that "this was way more momentous than 140 characters - it demands a FACEBOOK STATUS" and... you know, here we are at 670 words and counting.

I think it was Amy who once challenged me on how I believed there wasn't really such a thing as coincidence. I hope this is the sort of story that helps demonstrate how a seed I planted four years ago and another seed I planted back in June bore the kind of strange fruit of interconnectedness that I seem to experience way more regularly than most - or maybe, just happen to notice way more regularly than most.

So the bottom line is now that photographic evidence exists that we have occupied close space, I've followed Ryan Pollard on Twitter, where he doesn't tweet much, and asked for his Facebook friendship here, where I'm sure he'll accept, and I hope experiencing all this in real life has been even half as cool for him as it has been for me tonight. Also, we'll probably NEVER see each other again...which is ALSO a crazy way my life works! (Just kidding...I think.)

(Footnotes to follow - 888 words, including these - and those - says TextWrangler)

PS Sorry I didn't Periscope "Sail On" as I had planned
15.8.15 00:39 
So I KNEW that there were almost 400 RSVP'd to the Bad Bad Hats/The Awful Truth show, according to their Facebook Event page. I also knew that it was over 3.7 miles on foot, according to Google Maps. Finally, I knew that it was almost 80º and almost 70%!h(MISSING)umidity, according to The Weather Channel. Even knowing ALL this, I decided, what the hell, it's an 11PM show, let's walk to Icehouse. How bad could it be?

As I waited in an incredibly long line, trying not to be really obvious about how badly I was sweating, it almost came as a relief when, single digits of people from reaching to the threshold, a voice announced "WE ARE AT CAPACITY: IF YOU DID NOT BUY A TICKET, WE ARE SOLD OUT." I could have left the house 10 minutes earlier, or I could have walked faster, or I could have taken the car and probably found a parking spot that would have still required a good amount of exercise, and I could have been inside, but I didn't do any of that. I took a different path home instead.

That's actually not the point of this story, although it does get us closer to it - mostly I wanted to make sure I got out that I walked over 7½ miles - or is it more impressive to say 12 kilometres? - but beyond that, the fact that I was seriously questioning my sanity about three miles into my walk TO Icehouse ended up swiftly erased as the universe, as it often does, dropped a huge sign that I was doing the right thing with the placement of a $20 bill on th sidewalk of Franklin Ave between Clinton and 3rd with no other human beings within a block of me as I collected it.

So, the point! NOW I have this $20. What was the intent of this good fortune?

• Should I have taken it as a sign that I should have paid for a cab home instead of walking back? (This was the mostly likely message, but I have ignored it.)

• Should I have offered one of the people who paid $8 + inconvenience fee the twenty bucks to take their place inside? (I barely wanted to pay ten bucks of my own money at the door for this show. By the way, let me tell you all about inconvenience fees and what a scam they are--I'm digressing)

• Should I buy all the Domino's I can eat, and balance out the caloric deficit I'm currently running from all this exercise? (I'm not hungry, so I guess not.)

• Should I remind myself I have already incurred a $15 late fee paying my car insurance so perhaps this is just a balancing out of thst? (I don't feel like reminding myself I was three days late on a payment I should have made weeks ago, so let's forget it and move on)

I don't know, but it DID give me this story to tell you about why I ended up at home at midnight on a Friday night instead of subjecting you to two more barely legible Instagrams.

Everything DOES happen for a reason; it just takes me a while to figure it out sometimes. Balance!
30.6.15 14:02 
So I made one of these yesterday. RT @crz_ebooks: That sound you're hearing is my birthday!
16.6.15 10:11 
I identify as CRZ
17.5.15 20:43 
Oh hey, Twitter says THIS is my 20,000th tweet! Thanks for following me. I love you all.
3.12.14 10:10 
Check out my rogue eyebrow hairs (and eye appt-dilated pupils)
26.6.14 15:34 
Segue to #tbt; me in Philly at the r.s.p-w Con (1995) during my brief reign as one half of the ECW tag team champions http://pic.twitter.com/vmpWNk8mDv
5.6.14 02:09 
Doin' my small part: I gave NameCheap $1.99 to hook me up with a Comodo PositiveSSL certificate for a year, so now you can visit https://CRZ.net/ with an "s" and everything! #ResetTheNet

(Sure hope I did everything correctly)
6.2.14 20:25  Send me Dogecoin: DPDxE6o5cjbhnHXvXT4gKAJwgNEazUG2We (QR code)
6.2.14 20:25  Send me Bitcoin: 16ANYR1EsaqW7sQE4BR3YfthYQH5zswgQe (QR code)
6.1.14 14:17 
I don't do Facebook during work, but Mom (who is NOT on Facebook, so I have to tag Dad: Attn Gary Zimmerman) asked me for photographic proof (1) I defied the governor and went to work (2) I'd shaved. I have no idea what's up with my collar. Also, I doubt Gov. Dayton REALLY told me to stay home...if he did, he was probably engaging in hyperbole. (photo)
4.7.13 21:39 
Got my hair cut
6.6.13 15:53 
#tbt Seven years ago tonight - birthday Staraoke (also, I believe this was my first MySpace profile photo): http://pic.twitter.com/6kC8gmoWsk
27.4.13 18:45 
Going, going, gone!
11.4.13 18:03 
CRZ HERE: Currently not dead at the moment - but the day ain't over yet
2.3.13 16:52 
Whoa! I'm up to 700 followers! THANK YOU SPAM BOTS AND RANDOM MIDDLE EAST FOLKS WHO NEVER ENGAGE ME!
31.12.12 18:02 
Past few years I've tried to share a Grooveshark playlist of stuff I listened to from the previous year but in 2012 I was really awful about listening to stuff from 2012, so sorry I have nothin' to share this time. We'll see if this is an aberration or a trend - or if I finally hit that age where I give up on playing "future DJ" and just listen to mostly 1970s and 1980s stuff for the rest of my natural life.
13.10.12 04:05 
It's one of those things I always feel like I should say every time I come home from a fantastic night out with brilliant, fascinating people (and I'm PRETTY sure that's not the alcohol talking) but...well, I'm privileged to know a lot of super cool, interesting, amazing people - who, in turn, know ANOTHER group of super cool, interesting, amazing people - and I'm lucky to get the occasional chance to leave the house and spend some quality time with all of them. Thanks dudes.
20.7.12 16:20 
Shuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuup
19.6.12 15:13 
CRZ circa 1995 with beam from the eyes (courtesy 目からビーム画像ジェネレーター - eyebeam.herokuapp.com (h/t @WFMU) (photo)
31.5.12 15:59 
Hey look! It's my new (old) space!
1.2.12 12:10 Note to self: make Mixcloud badge
8.12.11 00:24 
Probably an indication that I'm older: my totally forgetting until just now that yesterday was ALSO my half birthday
2.12.11 14:53 
Wow, I can "shorten" http://CRZ.net to http://CRZ.se/1314 - only 4 chars more! (Of course, Twitter will further munge both of 'em)
11.9.11 13:34 
That'll wrap up today's installment of "CRZ tweets about stuff nobody cares about except maybe himself." Thanks for continuing to follow me!
23.6.11 13:35 
Looking at SECONDARY tags, there are thirteen over 20: iTunes is #1 (2301) followed by "no tag" (1529), VW (368), Grooveshark (366), WWE (268), Symantec (263), Minneapolis (125), NASCAR (123), San Jose Sharks (122), Minnesota Timberwolves (74), Craig Ferguson (64), Minneapolis/St Paul weather (54) and YouTube (28).
23.6.11 13:31 
Quick analytics: of the 6000+ "events" logged, more than half (3095) have a primary tag for last.fm - Twitter is second with 1123. Rounding out the top 10: GetGlue (888), Foursquare (291), Dr Pepper (101), VYou (96), The W (78), SYMC daily quote (76), coffee (67) and Qik (53). Tumblr (50) is the only other primary tag with over 20 events.
6.6.11 20:35 
Oh, crap! I've only got 80 years left!
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