rand on the new wolves uniforms [randball] (0)
they're not horrible, but they're certainly not classy or timeless or anything i'd ever want to wear. more from rand: "also of interest (perhaps more narrowly): the wolves invited several bloggers — including those who, unlike us, don’t work for the mainstream media — to participate on the conference call. that’s not unheard of, but it is interesting as we move forward."

the mndaily rss feed is my favorite feed right now [mndaily] (0)
only because of the "breaking news" stuff. today we get "[breaking news] university ranked 524th by forbes". last week my favorite was: "[breaking news] national night out expected to draw crowds tonight". unintentionally funny is the best funny, right? right. hooray for content management.



bon iver @ first avenue

august 18, 2008 @ 19:49

It was about like I expected. Sold to the walls. Half the crowd loving every note, singing along, talking about how they drove over from Wisconsin and that they have the shirts to prove they were there and that they heard of them first. The other half was scenesters. Which is fine, but maybe just a little bit weird at a downtempo show like Bon Iver. Like in front of me for a while were a couple of dudes out on the town, wearing silly fedoras and rocking an entire can of axe between them, downing Coronas and getting their game on, and then the music starts and it's slow and lonely and painful and AWKWARD! I was reminded (again) of why I don't always go to shows with other people. Unless you count that 85oz Fat Tire or whatever it was I was drinking as another person. Though I suppose it's heavier than my daughter, so maybe you'd have a point.

Show was solid, band was humble, crowd was into it. I think they're really more of a jammy band than people want to admit. Or maybe more than they're personally ready to admit. Or something like that. Either way, I'd like to see them really stretch some stuff out. They do some fun longish driving stuff, but they never really let go and see where it takes them. Maybe still a little early for that? A little young? What do I know. For sure I could see them going that way, though.

Opener was AA Bondy, who sounded fantastic, but more or less lost me with his silly lyrics and his drug obsessed between song banter. Bummer.

Also this: yet more kudos to Flora Fauna for the posterwork for this show. Lurved it.

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pabst to serve up schlitz beer on draft [bizj] (3)
what's next, old style? or can you already get that? and where's my old milwaukee comeback?

supergreat : italian motorcycle police display from the 50's [youtube] (1)
i'm going to whip out the 'fantastic' for this one. the bikes, the people, the stunts, the music. fantastic.



sports sport sports sports : beijing '08 edition

august 17, 2008 @ 20:29

Oh, I've got the fever bad. Olympic fever. Our povertybasic cable only gets the one Kare11 channel, but even with the limited primetime line-up I still manage to get sucked in most every night. And then on weekend mornings I fire-up the online stuff and stream things live for a while. (That site is amazingly well done, btw.) And then maybe during the workday I sneak into the breakroom and change the channel from Bloomberg to MSNBC and catch whatever happens to be on at the time. Last week we just up and moved the whole team in there for an afternoon. The collaboration (and innovation?) was arguably better, but yeah, I'm not sure we could get away with it every day. Guess there's only one way to find out.

Off the clock, I've been soaking up the gymnastics and the soccer and the rowing and some of the diving - but not that silly synchro stuff - and of course the cycling and then yesterday I got buried in like 2 and a half hours of marathon coverage and it was really really fun to watch and who knew, right? Right.

So now here's the part where I admit that the Phelps stuff didn't do much for me. I mean I most certainly watched it and I cheered and stuff, but other than the one insane hundredth of a second finish, none of the stuff was all that straight-up amazing to me. That's partly because he was supposed to win - and after like 2 days it became apparent that he was, in fact, better than everyone else ever in the history of the universe book it - and it's partly because he's all business and professional and "eat, sleep, swim" and all that. And there's this thing I figured out the other night: great champions make the stuff the do look both casual, easy and [most importantly?] stylish. Jordan, Gretzky, Ali? Exactly. Shaun White? Did I just say that? Anyway, Phelps certainly makes it look easy - and he's obviously a great champion - I'm just not sure he makes it look casual, and it's certainly not all that stylish. All that splashing and jumping and gasping for breath and you can't really see what's going on and then oh look, he's ahead by 2 body lengths. Again. Show his mom, play the anthem, same as it ever was.

Contrast that to Usain Bolt's victory the other night in the 100m. The 100 is all stare downs and head games and posturing and then the gun sounds and 10 guys run down a track faster than I can ride downhill on my bike. 30mph. Can robots even run that fast yet? I bet they can't. But Bolt can. And he dances before the race and he pulls up early and he throws out his hands and he thumps his chest and Tom Hammond yells "NEW WORLD RECORD, HOW EASY WAS THAT?!" and he's exactly right. Super easy. And so casual. And stylish. And I rewound it like 25 times. And I made the kids watch it the next morning. And Junior ran laps around the family room and insisted he was faster. He may have been right, but he has a long way to go in the style department. He gets that from his dad.

Another whole week to go. Nice.

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kristin armstrong won gold in china [reuters] (0)
remember when you saw her in stillwater last june? and how she dominated to a such a degree that when she rolled by you said to yourself, "man, she's gotta be the best on the planet." breaking news: totally is.

reasonably good interview with neil young [jambase] (0)
breaking news: neil young is still cooler than you. also: the new csny movie is out now, but i don't think it's playing anywhere around here. not that i'd go see it or anything, but maybe a cool rental? maybe.

are corporations coming to minneapolis parks? [swjournal] (0)
this issue is still maybe sorta under consideration and my initial reaction continues to maybe sorta be: pukebarf. but wait - "[some lady showed sample] images of café-style starbucks nestled in parks, public buildings with small inscriptions recognizing corporate donors and shops selling city-related merchandise. logos were all relatively small, while banners, advertising slogans and catch phrases were virtually non-existent." i don't want virtually, i want entirely. but then, sure, you can put up a plaque or something. also this: there totally needs to be better coffee infrastructure around the lakes. i am only 10% joking here.

geology : the 'wall arch' in utah collapsed last week (0)
what a bummer.



doodlelist : favorite spherical foods edition

august 11, 2008 @ 21:13

I was gonna say 'round', but I realized I was thinking of spherical. Away we go:

  1. Peaches- best food ever (when perfectly ripe, obvs)

  2. Donut holes - powdered sugar

  3. Meatballs - especially good ones, made with parmesan and oregano and maybe even the 'v' meat

  4. Gobstoppers - kidding! hard candy so worst

  5. Tapioca pearls - first choice: big as in boba; second choice: small as in pudding

  6. Cantaloupe - kidding! melons are gross

  7. Cherries - all time fav afternoon desk snack food

My apologies to those cheesy puff ball things that come in a can. You're fun at parties and stuff, but yeah, not something I'd want to hang out with day to day. No offense.

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todoodle : sun : night time model boat show at centennial lakes pk [clp] (0)
"at 7 p.m. [sunday], the edina model yaght club will put on a boat show. interior cockpit and cabinlights, exterior position and navication running lights, search lights and flood lights will shine bright on a variety of model boats. at 8:30, the john phillip sousa band will take the stage at the amphitheater and play for an hour. as a finale to their wonderful performance, a fireworks show will go off in the middle pond." oh hell yes i'm in for that. though we won't make the fireworks. too late for jr. but still: i'm. so. there.

nobody interested in blu-ray [techtree] (2)
because in an era where mp3's are "totally good enough!", people are are gonna jump at the chance to spend a bunch of money on a new fancy dancy format that provides incremental gains that - under most circumstances - are more or less undetectable? curious business plan there, bozos. hi huna!! [via slash]

tixalert : ben folds coming to the myth 10/17 [benfolds] (0)
libby and hoffmaldo already counting down the days. now here's the part where i say i'm super looking forward to the idiots behind me singing along with every sad, quiet song. folds is fun, but man are his fans dorks. tix on-sale this friday. pre-sale now if you buy the new album in crappy compressed mp3 trash format via itunes. suckas!

dunkin donuts coming [back] to twin cities (!!) [strib] (2)
omg blueberry cake happy dance! (in non-related news, wtf is up with those crazy new strib urls?)

how dylan's new bootleg series release will lead to more dylan piracy [medialoper] (0)
2 cd version: $18.99. 3 cd version: $129.99. yowza. $100 for an extra disc? those 12 songs better seriously be worth it. like they better have unusually profound lyrics or something. and they better sound like bob is standing in your living room. and they better get up early on sundays to make me breakfast and i swear to god if they screw up the hashbrows and they're not crispy i'm gonna be so pissed because hashbrowns are just something you don't mess around with. and make a few extra, please, sometimes i like to share.

sela roofing boss charged with tax fraud, embezzlement [bizj] (0)
everyone i've ever known who has used sela has had bad luck. this story doesn't surprise me. just sayin'.

zimmern: "jucy lucy most over-rated food item in the twin cities" [msp] (3)
doodle: zimmern most over-rated food ego in the twin cities. though i'm not sure they actually rank those, so maybe that's not fair. either way, if anyone needs me, i'll be over here eating a slice from luce, wondering what the big deal is.

olympic soccer tv/online summary [worldcupblog] (0)
first game for the men is tomorrow morning at like 4am mpls time. it's being shown on both msnbc and something called "nbc olympic soccer channel", which i have no idea if i get or not but wow does that sound like a great channel. olympicfever taking hold.

planet hollywood buys buca [bizjournals] (3)
and with that, everything that was once cool about buca is officially dead and buried. remember when the one down on harmon was the place you wanted to take your family when they came to visit you at college? because it was so crazy and boisterous and the huge portions and all the garlic and the wine and the genuine novelty and fun? i do. yeah, that whole vibe died a while ago, but this was totally the final nail, right? right.

wagner's drive in [twincitieseats] (0)
the veggie philly?! really?! don't get me wrong, i lurves me some wagner's, but their philly is a joke (chicken, veggie, whatever, it's a joke.) you go dogs or you go home. and malts and fries, zobvs. yay wagner's!

quick story on the first geothermal heat system in linden hills [swjournal] (0)
"the cost of the system is $30,000. this includes both heating and air-conditioning. the cost of heating and cooling for a year in a geothermal home is around $800. otto's company, mike otto construction inc., has calculated that the system pays off itself after 10 years." i'm not sure that math is right, but doesn't it seem so obvious? yes it does.

nice shot of the tall ships coming into duluth harbor [perfectduluthday] (0)
my folks went over to see the boats. i haven't gotten their breakdown yet, but this picture - and this one, too - make it look pretty fickin' sweet.

seifert tried to liveblog the packer's 8:15pm press conference [espn] (0)
and then it didn't happen. burn!!!



summer hiatus '08

july 26, 2008 @ 08:53

It looks like my annual summer hiatus hit a little early this year. Maybe it's the superb weather - have we had one of those cripplingly hot 100+ degree days yet? - or maybe it's the garden or the lake or the motorcycle or whatever, but something out there pulled me away from the net before my usual August break. Funny how that works.

It's good to get away though, right? Totally it is.

Back in a while. Have fun out there.

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ride and roar '08 at the zoo [mnzoo] (0)
special guest: dave "thunder" dahl!!! is this the type of thing i do now that i'm a motorcycle guy? probably not this year, but i totally could, right? right.

juettner built a y!pipe that maps the henncty jail roster by city [pipes] (0)
like all good inventions, this one was done to find out why the cops came to his neighbor's house the other day.

taylor reviews the red bull installation on the stone arch bridge [mediation] (0)
we were down on the bridge on saturday and there were red bull team members all over the place. i didn't notice the cubes, though. we only went out far enough to gawk at the falls. pretty.

2008 sommerfest day of music line-up [minnesotaorchestra] (0)
several worthy performances.

trey and mike share a stage at rothbury [mlive] (0)
"gordon hopped on stage for a handful of songs during anastasio's solo acoustic set, playing bass and singing backup vocals on 'alaska' and 'chalkdust torture,' among others." i have mixed feelings about the possibility of a reunion, but if it happens it goes without saying that i'm so there.