Minnesota Reads

I was interviewed by Minnesota Reads, (from their site) "a blog that publishes book reviews by Minnesota Readers and talks to Minnesotans about what they’re reading."

The blog is a noble and fine effort, we need more info out there about books and authors and local readings.

And I'm glad to state that my attorney did not at any time stop the questioning.

Geez Louise: Suddenly I Live In The Rube Capital Of The World

Today in the Twin Cities area:

1) A crazy old lady at a McCain rally in Lakeville (it's some exurb south of Burnsmell) called Obama an "Arab," forcing McCain to take back the mic and then defend Obama.

2) On KTLK, (something called) Chris Baker and (something called) Langdon Perry asserted that Magic Johnson faked his AIDS.

Poster Offensive IV, My Soundtrack (Kinda)

I deejayed at the Frank Stone Gallery Friday night for the opening there of the fourth Poster Offensive show. Go check it out (it's there until October 12th) as there are some brilliant and beautiful posters to view and also purchase. The goal was to play political/topical/social commentary songs and highlights/lowlights for me included:

Def Jeff setting the deejays up with a stash of gin and tonic ingredients. Bombay Sapphire? Freakin' good!

Emotional reunion with my now-in-NYC (except this weekend, natch) deejay buddies. All the same stupid inside jokes work!

Wanting to play both the Yardbirds' "You're A Better Man Than I" and "Shapes of Things" and figuring out that I could loophole it by playing the Jeff Beck Group's version of "Shapes of Things."

Playing Brownsville Station's "Smokin' in the Boys Room" (protest music, get it?), expecting all the over-forty crowd to come up and slap me high-fives ... and having the song only be acknowledged by somebody who was born years after it hit #1.

Getting thumbs-up on Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Saturday Night Special" from the same man who once shook his head in amazement that I grew in North Dakota. He had then proceeded to describe winters there as "a cold sunovabitch."

Telling a rather attractive older woman that "this is just a hobby" when she asked if I could deejay an event for her. Then saying to myself: "Who the hell are you? Bo Jackson?"

Spotting a Finnish word on a poster. (Remarkable as I only know a dozen or so Suomalainen words.)

Winding up my night of spinning by playing Metallica's "Master of Puppets." Legend (if legends can be only twenty-four hours old) has it that I started the Metallica and then walked away, but in reality the Met brought Ben in a hurry from the floor so that he could take over and play Slayer. I walked away after he showed up as it had been quite a while deejaying without a bathroom break and concurrently quite a while with folks bringing me drinks as I deejayed, leading to a bladder inbalance.

Ben, Def Jeff, and I singing along with the chorus of Big Country's "In a Big Country." Beautiful, man.

Yelling "Don't take the brown acid!" after Def Jeff got done with his good night and good luck announcement.

Best Time Of The Year?

You know it's fall when metal becomes the preferred soundtrack while writing. This afternoon it was AC/DC's Powerage, tonight it was Def Leppard's High 'N' Dry.

Now it's off to headphones and vinyl and a Heineken and some proto-metal, Truth by the Jeff Beck Group.

Turns Out The New Deal Still Works

Is my money safe? My bank is a member of the FDIC so money there is insured up to $100K. Oh yeah, I think my money is safe.

Good thing conservatives didn't break up the FDIC in an effort to save me from big government. Anybody wanna google and see if those goofs tried?

Tomorrow's Sports Headline

DANKS FOR NOTHING

"You know what I do at the Yankees, when one of these old guys is breathing down my neck?"

Sure John McCain was condescending, petulant, sneering, sighing, and kinda pissed-off in tonight's debate. Give him a break. George Constanza explained why years ago:

These old guys, they're up at four a.m., by two-thirty they're wiped.

Find A Comfortable Chair And Fire Up Some Popcorn

On TV the next couple of days:

Friday

7:00 Royals at Twins
8:00 McCain vs. Obama

Saturday

2:30 Colorado at Florida State
2:55 Royals at Twins
6:00 Indians at White Sox
6:45 Alabama at Georgia

And then there's NFL games on Sunday but I should really go for a walk or a bike ride and/or get some reading done.

Update: The Twins are folding, the CU/FSU game wasn't on HD, couldn't watch Cleveland/ChiSox (also folding, "I'm not gonna try it, you try it ... I'm not gonna try it ... Let's get Mikey!") in standard definition when the Twins were in HD today, and the 'Bama/Georgia game was a blowout. After geeking out on the debate and hours of analysis afterwards, I should have caught up on my reading and Netflix today. At least I got an episode of Homicide in when the football turned bad tonight.

A Little Help?

In a season six episode of Homicide, Lt. Al Giardello proclaims to the squadroom: "I'm surrounded by fools and assassins!"

It's obvious that he wasn't being literal and probably pulled this quote from another source. Shakespeare maybe? Anybody know?

(A google search by the Silver Surfer only pulls up ... references to Giardello.)

Death Of The Compact Disc, Continued

I had Sirius satellite radio installed in my new car today. Said car also has iPod-playing capabilities.

Just five years ago I was excited to have a CD player installed in my car (hey I was driving a five-year-old GM cheapo, a CD player was a big deal for me), now CDs are likely the third option for music while driving. I think I'm only carrying three discs in the car right now instead of the usual ten.

Little Steven, Kid Leo, and Handsome Dick Manitoba deejaying in my car? And that's just one station? Awesome, totally awesome.

Duck Duck Goose??

On Pardon the Interruption today they showed a CFL team celebrating a touchdown by playing so-called "Duck Duck Goose." It was bizarre for so many reasons, then Mike Wilbon confounded me by saying he had never heard of this children's game.

And of course, everybody knows that the one true way to play the game is "Duck Duck Gray Duck"!!

Gophers Suck! (Special "McCain Is A Clown On Economics" Edition)

In case you need yet another reason to hate the Gopher hockey team, Don Lucia warmed up the crowd at a McCain rally in Blaine today:

Head Gophers hockey coach Don Lucia was one of the speakers who addressed the crowd prior to McCain’s arrival.

“It sounds like John McCain and Sarah Palin have a power play going on in Minnesota,” he told the crowd.

Great stuff, Don, really. Further proof you tend to fall flat lately in the big time when you're in a building that's not Mariucci Arena.

Whenever John McCain Opens His Mouth ...

... to talk about the economy, this is all I can hear in my mind.

John McCain Wouldn't Deliver So Much As A Pizza For The American Worker, Further Reading At AFLCIO.org

Almost everybody knows that the Republicans' M.O. is to screw the little guy, make the rich richer, and then hope that regular folks are gullible enough to believe that wealth will trickle down to them.

So isn't John McCain's sudden embrace of the American worker kinda awkward? Who actually believes he'll do anything helpful for the middle and working classes?

Truth

Little Steven was just on his radio show, expounding on the greatness of early Rod Stewart and also his work with the Jeff Beck Group. He was brought back in time to 1969 and said the bass player in one of his teenager bands walked into their practice space/basement/garage with a magazine such as 16 Magazine and said:

"Check it out - Rod Stewart is white."