What We Learned In Last Friday's MPR Senatorial Candidates Debate

Audio is here.

Klobuchar - One tough cookie. She killed. The line about repealing Dubya's tax cuts on the wealthiest one percent would only result in the loss of the purchase of some yacht sails was genius. As was the line about Kennedy's plans being "all foam and no beer."

Fitzgerald - This guy knows his stuff. He also killed. His lack of 'Mats or Huskers references is totally forgiven as there were time restrictions on speaking time. (Full disclosure: only candidate to comment on this blog - here and here.)

Kennedy - He wuvs his Mommy and Daddy. His Mommy and Daddy wuv him also. Isn't it sweet? But does Marky still wuv our president?

Mind Running In Circles (Again)

So last night I was in my car running errands and Manfred Mann's version of "The Mighty Quinn" came on that great oldies station (they play the stuff that KOOL 108 used to play before they made the move towards later-sixties and seventies tunes to appease baby boomers) that is now on 740 AM. I had one of those epiphanies where I said: "Why have I never paid attention to this tune before - it's fucking great!" And then I proceeded to sing along; grinning the whole time and thinking of my pal David, who when told that Dylan wrote this golden oldie said (in complimentary terms): "Dylan. This sounds like the weird stuff he typically comes up with."

I came home and downloaded it and have played it a million or so times in the past 24 hours. Then I read up on it: the lead singer in Manfred Mann's band at the time was Mike d'Abo. Not only is he the father of Olivia d'Abo, the actress who portrayed Kevin Arnold's ultra-hotttt sister in The Wonder Years; but he also wrote "Handbags and Gladrags." That tune was a gem on Rod Stewart's first album and decades later (in a version that is not Stewart's) became the theme song for the original UK version of The Office - one of the few great sitcoms that makes you cringe in familiar embarrassment while you watch, just like The Wonder Years did.

I Want To Drink Beer With Lester Freamon

My guy Bruce has a link to a great column about HBO's show "The Wire." I don't have HBO, but got hooked on this show in the last year via Netflix. I'm currently tearing my way through season three - watched four hours of it yesterday in one sitting - and am mildly depressed that I won't be able to finish season three until after Labor Day. "The Wire" is easily the second-best thing I've seen on TV the past five years or so (Band of Brothers is the greatest thing I've EVER seen on TV) and is arguably the greatest law/crime drama ever made. Check it out!

Speaking of Music Books ...

I thought that the Da Capo Best Music Writing 2003 being sold at amazon.com used for ten cents totally put me in my place, but my ego swells when I see it listed on ebay.com for the "Buy It Now" price of thirty-eight cents!

What Happens When Your Love Of Reading Collides With Your Rock 'n' Roll Infatuation

A couple of months ago, Guardian's Observer Music Monthly named their 50 Greatest Music Books Ever.

Confirming my status as a true rock book geek, I see that I have read twelve of the books ... numbers 1,2,4,7,10,12,14,15,20,26,29, and 44. Not only that, but I own nine of them ... numbers 1,7,10,12,14,15,20,26, and 29.

Love the words on my fave writer ever, Lester Bangs: "It's certainly true that in any fairly judged heavyweight bout between Bangs's finest sentence and, say, Philip Roth's, there can only be one winner. And the man holding the champion's belt isn't 86 and hasn't recently had a baby."

Poster Offensive 3 - Opening Reception September 15th

Details here.

I Love It When "Punk" Is Used In Old-School Fashion

On Pardon the Interruption today, Michael Wilbon correctly called Sergio Garcia a "snivelling punk" and suggested that Garcia should eat his meals while on all fours because of the way he chokes when around the incomparable Tiger Woods.

And apparently having this year's PGA Championship held near Chicago led Garcia to channel Jeff Dubay's sorry excuses for why the Chicago Bears had such a great season last year and apply them to Tiger Woods. Here he is, explaining Tiger's success, using a variation typical Purple fan's "the other (i.e. better) team got all the breaks."

"Everything went his way, too. The bad shots he hit all week long, he got away with them."

Face it, Sergio: you're a never-was on that long road to has-been. Cute outfits, though.

At the Lake

I'm at my parents' cabin now enjoying an ice-cold Premium. I'll be up here for the next nine days, so no more blogging after tonight until I get back to the bunker.

Chris Riemenschneider in today's Strib has a great anecdote about how the Hold Steady's Craig Finn was taunting White Sox fans during their set at Lollapalooza in Chicago. It reminds me about the Replacements' last show ever, also in Chicago. It was 1991 and the Twins had recently reeled off 15 straight wins. Paul Westerberg changed some of the words in "Within Your Reach" to something like "never seen the White Sox go fifteen and oh."

I have no links on any of the above as the combo here of: 1) Windows, 2) dial-up, and 3) AOL make me feel like I'm dealing with Soviet-era technology so I better quit while I'm ahead. See all y'all later.

Why Isn't The Wonder Years Out On DVD Yet? (My Guess Is The Music Licensing Issue)

The Wonder Years 25 Best Moments

The Wonder Years finale

When Bart tries to be Kevin Arnold:
Bart: [Daniel Stern's voice, a la Wonder Years] Me? Get a job? Were they serious? I didn't realize it at the time, but a little piece of my childhood had slipped away, forever.
Homer: Bart! What are you staring at?
Bart: Uh, nothing. [Daniel Stern continues] He didn't say it, and neither did I, but at that moment, my dad and I were closer than we...
Homer: Bart! Stop it!
Bart: Sorry.

Fan site dedicated to Julie Condra. It hasn't been updated in five years. She's the actress who played Madeline Adams, the temptress who tried to woo Kevin away from Winnie. (And who was nineteen years old in real life when this episode was made, so now I don't feel quite so creepy about the way I - at age twenty-five - felt about her while watching it!)

Winnie Cooper. All. Grown. Up.

Now I Have To Get Some New Material To Beat Into The Ground

Sioux hockey associate head coach Brad Berry is leaving the team for a coaching position with the Manitoba Moose of the AHL. Sad news for Sioux fans as Berry did a great job with the defense while on the job. Bummer for me personally also. I went to high school with Berry's wife and enjoyed my oh-so-slight two degrees of separation from the team. At our twenty-year reunion a few years back, she hugged me and I quipped later to friends that "it was like the whole Sioux team was hugging me, but she smelled much much better." I also spotted Berry the first night of the reunion ... I had joked to friends here in Minneapolis earlier that week that I was going to accost him and draw up some forechecks on bar napkins for the team to use in the upcoming season.

For some reason, the fact that he coached defense and wouldn't be in charge of the forechecking didn't enter into my wacky imaginary scheme.

Something I Typed After Hooking Up My New Turntable, Not Even Sure If It Makes Sense (Thank You Misters Leinenkugel and Smirnoff)

This week I started reading Steve Erickson's Our Ecstatic Days but didn't get too far into it before returning it to the library. I'm sure it's my fault and not Erickson's - he did after all write two of my all-time favorite books: Amnesiascope and American Nomad. I should tackle a book like Our Ecstatic Days in the non-summer months when my reading (and writing and listening and observing and ... etc.) abilities are in better form. Oh, and hey - Twin Cities wussies who are convinced that our winters are "harsh": I'll take the coldest day in winter over this heat wave bullshit we're dealing with this month. I guess that makes me a summer wussy, but I'll take the mild winters in Minneapolis over the oppressive summers hands down. Summer sucks, winter is great!

Anyway, I hope to look into the latest Erickson novel again in the non-summer. Summer is best reserved for so-called guilty pleasures. Though like the Cosmic Slop guys, I don't buy into the Guilty Pleasure Concept. Either you like something or you don't - why feel guilty about it? (Can't remember if that's the reasoning that Chuck and Joel used, but I'm going with it.) So this summer for me book-wise it's for the most part been 'Salem's Lot by Stephen King and crime novels by James Ellroy and George V. Higgins. (Higgins, RIP, could write circles around just about any writer you can care to name. Check him out, especially if you dig great dialogue writing.)

Oh, and back to the Erickson novel and why I originally sat down to type this post ... the book starts off with an amazing quote by Rilke:

... for beauty is nothing
but the beginning of terror
           we can just barely endure

I haven't read any Rilke, but if anybody has any recommendations please comment or email me.

"Mission Accomplished"

They're moving more American troops into Baghdad to try to quell the escalating violence there. Maybe we can look forward to another staged "tear down a Saddam statue" photo-op event.

How do you say: "Damn, it's two a.m. and that dog across the lake is still barking" or "You don't like Canadian Bacon? Hit the road, Jack!" or "I only had several" or "Nail it!" in Arabic?

Concordia Language Villages now has a summer camp that teaches Arabic language and culture. It's on Leek Lake - near Vergas, Minnesota. Vergas is home of the world's largest loon. As for Leek Lake, it's the home of none other than ... Ma and Pa Tuomala.

New Podcast Up

The latest edition of Exiled Radio is now available.

I have had some inquiries (okay, an inquiry) about subscribing to the podcast via iTunes. I submitted the podcast a year ago, but have been too lazy to figure out the iTunes technical specs so I don't have a link for direct subscription. However, you can subscribe in iTunes if you click the "Advanced" menu, then "Subscribe to Podcast", and then type in this URL: http://www.readexiled.com/exiledradio.rss

I talked way too much in the latest show and promise will try to tighten it up (or at least keep the show around an hour or so in length) in the future. Thanks for listening!

Note to Self

Watch more of the LPGA on television.