It's Butters!

The St. Louis Park Bennigan's closed abruptly this morning I guess. Unfortunately, the one in Coon Rapids will still stay open. I bet Butters is mad pissed. Where else is he going to go for his parents anniversary and eat mozzarella sticks? And where else am I going to get shit service and have a stoner broad try to upsell me a twice baked potato?

The truth is, chain restaurants haven't been as much fun since you couldn't light up in them. I remember going to TGI Fridays in Brooklyn Center and Applebee's in Brooklyn Park and taking major advantage of their two for ones at Applebees and the 2 dollar well drinks at Fridays. I also remember putting cigs out in Nate's nachos, taking pictures of Milla puking after his power hour (which are now also illegal) and seeing Oliver Miller after a Wolves game. Ah, memories.

Girl Talk

For those not in the know, a little of Americas innocence died last night. It was callously murdered when the Detroit Shock and the L.A. Sparks got into a girl fight at the Palace last night.

Such a shame that the great spectator sport that is the WNBA would have to suffer such a horrible event, one that consisted of light pushing, Rick Mahorn, and The Mailman's daughter tearing her ACL trying to avoid the light shoving. I feel bad for the fan in attendance who had to see this tragedy.

(The only bonus of seeing coverage of this farce was glancing up at ESPN and seeing Rachel Nichols head shot. My god, does that woman look like she has a frisky side or what? I'm pretty sure that if a Rachel Nichols sex scandal breaks, I'm following it with more intensity than I did the Bill O'Riley one for sure).

In other, non WNBA related news, I went and saw The Dark Knight today. Easily one of the best movies I've seen in the last couple of years. I got the same feeling watching it that I got when I saw The Departed. Heath Ledger is straight up scary as hell and the movie overall was a 2 1/2 hour roller coaster that didn't let up once. I know that it may be odd for the Academy to nominate a "comic book" movie for best picture, but I really cannot see how they couldn't give a nod to "The Dark Knight".

Excuses and Half-Truths and Fortified Wine

I am totally feeling "Stay Positive" by The Hold Steady with every inch of my being. This is a damn near perfect classic rock album. All the usual Hold Steady musical touchstones are there, the piano, the solos, the anthemic choruses. What is new is the addition of more horns, and a talkbox at the end of "Joke About Jamaica". None of the new tricks take away from the overall power of the album, which seems a bit more downbeat than the previous three. My only gripe when I first picked it up was that Holly, Gideon and Charlemagne were not referenced but once. But then I read an interview with Craig Finn, who claimed that he deliberately left out names to make the songs more ambiguous. I thought that was a very interesting way of writing, seeing as how the Steady's songs play more like mini novels than conventional pop songs.

After multiple spins "Stay Positive" is probably going to be album of the year when my rundown comes out in December (the only major competition so far being the new My Morning Jacket). We still have Kings of Leon in September, so who knows? It may be a repeat of 2005 when "Separation Sunday" and "Aha Shake Heartbreak" topped the list.

As for other new discs, I am feeling the new Beck after the second listen. After listen number 1, I didn't get into it. My reasoning was that I listened to it on my iPod, and Danger Mouse's overwhelming Space Invaders meets Hanna Barbera production killed the thing for me. Listening to it on the old Hi-Fi allowed the bloops and blips to blend into the songs, and it was overall a better experience. "Gamma Ray" and "Youthless" are the tracks that I feel the most.

Endless Nights

Another holiday has come and gone, and I celebrated my nations independence by rockin with the Money Man at the Taste of Minnesota. Eddie Money kicked ass last night, rockin the oldies and the ironic hipsters in the crowd in equal measure. Coming off as a bit like Rodney Dangerfield (the best one liner of the night: This song is by Ray Charles, a great man who beat me by 3 strokes at golf!) Mister Money only played one new song and stuck to the anthems of the 80s like "Shakin," "Gimmie Some Water," and "Take Me Home Tonight." He also busted out "Endless Nights" which I hadn't heard since I was like 5. It was cool to see a crowd of dudes chanting "Eddie, Eddie" all night in the pit (yes, Eddie Money had a fucking pit). Oh, and he also plugged Ashley Furniture for some reason, even though there was not an Ashley ad to be found.

Remember After The Fire I Will Be The Flame

I think my brain has finally given out due to lack of sleep and constant rolls on Wikipedia. For I have been fixated on nonsense for the last week.

For the life of me, I cannot get snippets of things out of my head. Over and over, I hear Justin Morneau saying "lay somethin' in there, meat." I also hear the chorus of the new Roots song "I Will Not Apologize," most of "The Flame" by Cheap Trick, and the current #1 hit "I Kissed A Girl" by Katy Perry...IN ITS ENTIRETY. Frankly, I'm a little scared. I used to not get like this, I was in the drivers seat when it came to my pop culture consumption. My brain has overruled my heart, I guess.

After tonight's softball drubbing, I have decided to call everyone on my softball team by their softball number, along with the affectionate names kid, pal, and sticks, in honor of the douchetards who we played. For example, Jeff Hill is #0, so tonight it was, "good job null value" or "good job single zero". Chris Howe will be "nines" for #99, and Jordan Eickholt III will be "single 8" or "el ocho".

I think that this trend may take on in the work place. For example, if Andy in shipping kicks some ass in getting my POS system out early, its gonna be, "Nice ship, Wand T-Shirt." Or if one of the CSR reps satisfies a customer on a hardware issue, I think I will say, "Way to pick me up, green dress shirt and blue striped tie." Yep, I think this is going to be big shit...