The masthead of Plastic Alto, a blog comprising 750 posts since 2010, pictures Mark Weiss bowling at Ran Ham Bowl in St. Paul. The photo is by Terry Acebo Davis. Mark’s cousin, Isaac Blumfield, had a gig in the adjoining room, The Souldiers — a band Mark wanted to manage on condition of the name being changed to the Mouldiers, in honor of Bob Mould. This was fall, 2009, an era that Mark recalls as during the first run of “A Serious Man” which he took in earlier that day; he also recalls wandering thru a Ted Leo / Dessa Doomtree show at Macalester College commons, about 1.4 miles away.

Mark says he doesn’t remember his score, but is fairly sure he did not sprain an ankle, aggravate a left inguinal pre-hernia, irritate L-4 to L-6 lumbar and discs, especially not on the right side, nor strain his tricep. He does recall, in 1981, squaring off against Jerry (brother of Danny) Scher in league action at Fiesta Lanes — and this was years before certainly Souldiers but also The Big Lebowski — rolling a 217 and “high handicap 279” to win a trophy in league action. Not a perfect game, but close enough for horse shoes.