Finn’s Motel mastermind/auteur Joe Thebeau gifted us in late 2006 with the amazing, out-of-nowhere Escape Velocity debut, a concept album about leaving behind the drudgery of cubicle life and suburban malaise for some greater, unknown existence. Even with the help (cough) of a January 2007 MAGNET profile, it took Thebeau nearly 11 years to finally follow it up with the outstanding new Jupiter Rex (Victory Over Gravity). Thebeau will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our new Finn’s Motel feature.
Thebeau: We had great success last year with the Brandywine tomatoes, but had a massive failure with a variety called Dester. Still not sure what caused them all to up and die (like Mister Bojangles’ dog, they just up and died). So, this year, I figured I should try something different. I’m experimenting with a variety chosen exclusively because its name is long enough to be a Robert Pollard or Scott Miller song title. “Wood’s Famous Brimmer” could easily be a bonus track on one of the Game Theory reissues, couldn’t it? I have to admit, that if someone asked me before I bought these seeds if I was familiar with “Wood’s Famous Brimmer,” I might have thought they were asking about a microbrew beer. We have a lot of those here in St. Louis. It could easily be the name of an Urban Chestnut or Civil Life brew. Also, the product description earned points for using the words “fetish” and “fantasies” in the same sentence. Lawd have mercy, bring me my fan, I feel faint!
I like to start my tomato plants indoors at the end of March or early April in small planters in the south window of our dining room. I started them a little too early this year. Rather than growing straight up, they had time to grow straight up and then start winding their way toward the window. That made moving them tricky, but unlike the Brandywines (we lost a couple of those), all the transplants were successful. And, they haven’t died, yet. I think the Desters were already dead by this time last year. Mother Nature will ultimately decide how the Wood’s Famous Brimmers will do, but the plants look healthy and happy, so far. My birthday is this month. With any luck we could be eating BLTs by then.
