We're On A HPB Tour, With Jacob My Man

The second annual HPBT was held last Saturday all around the MPLS metro. The HPBT stands for Half Price Books Tour and it consisted of me and a few friends going to every conceivable Half Price Books location and shopping for entertainment media. You can get quite a haul for the price of a 12 banger of Pabst, and being cheap and broke, that is the only way I roll these days. Anyways, here is the breakdown of my purchases (with reviews) from this last weekend...

Adam and the Ants-"Dirk Wears White Sox"
I've been on a huge New Wave kick lately, and I have always appreciated ridiculous British Pop Music. Plus, I bought "Friend or Foe" on vinyl and found it respectable recently. I wasn't prepared for this one, though. DWWS sounds kind of like a bastard combo of Joy Division and the Cars. Really dark and murky, with songs about the Kennedy Assassination and decay. And it has "Physical" (which I came to love and know via NIN). B+

Bob Dylan-"New Morning"
I love Dylan, especially when he's playing it straight, so New Morning is right up my alley. "If Not For You" is strikingly beautiful, and "Went To See the Gypsy" is the only Dylan I can think of that references the home state directly. Plus, "The Man in Me" (the song I bought it for and which was featured in "The Big Lebowski") is really happy which makes me smile for Ol' Bobby.
A

Whiskeytown-"Pneumonia"
Good album for the $3 I paid for it, but it suffers from what I like to call Ryan Adam syndrome. This occurs when I hear a Ryan Adams song, love it, and forget everything about it 10 minutes later. Don't get me wrong, I really like the works of Misseur Adams. I just pull a Michael McDonald every time I listen to him and keep forgettin' (with the exception of "Gold", "Rock N Roll" and parts of "Love Is Hell" that don't involve political scientists). I also have RAS when I listen to Bright Eyes, Galaxie 500 and some indie rap. B-

Steve Forbert-"Jackrabbit Slim"
I fiddy cented this bastardo for the awesome "Romeo's Tune" and ended up liking the whole thing. Forbert had kind of a Dylan crossed with a more bad assed, throaty Jackson Browne thing going on. B

John Lennon and Yoko Ono-"Double Fantasy"
Another fiddy cent find. This album makes me pretty sad. I mean, if you get down to it, the concept (an album of love songs between a rejuvenated couple) is pretty interesting. Plus, the John songs are REALLY life affirming. The Yoko songs are even pretty good, not what I was expecting (think a pretty cool post punk band fronted by a crazy Japanese lady). Still, the fact that Lennon was shot as this album was on the charts will always haunt it. B

The Very Best of Hank Williams
I really only bought this for the cool cover. I already have the Hank anthology on CD. I know whats on it, and even though it doesn't have "Move It On Over" (call it Pre-Pre-Punk or maybe "woodshed rock") its still got "Your Cheatin Heart" and "Jambalaya". A

I also purchased "Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung" by Lester Bangs. I'm about 80 pages in, and its a mindfuck of a read.

The Sweetness Will Not Be Concerned With Me

Came across this on Rick Riley's column on ESPN.com...

In 2004, when Mike Ditka considered running against him for Senate, Obama—remembering how Ditka let William Perry score a Super Bowl TD instead of Walter Payton—said that "anybody who would give the ball to Refrigerator Perry instead of Sweetness doesn't have very good judgment."

I totally agree. This is the biggest blemish on Mike Ditkas professional record (besides co-starring in Kicking and Screaming) and Obama is totally right in criticizing it.

God, football in the 1980s was awesome. The Giants, Bears, Skins and Niners were all so badass, even the Vikings had Tommy Kramer's drunk ass along with a killer D. You just don't get the feeling of bad assedness from the NFL these days (except from Ray Lewis, which I ain't gonna touch).

But really, Ditka as a senator? Really?

You're A Real Tough Cookie With A Long History

Some men head to the bar to check out dime pieces, some go to the gym. Still, some go to the local Dairy Queen after 9PM on summer night (sadly, those men are probably in jail). Me, I hit up none of these haunts of perversion. I scope the aisles of my local Super Target.

As I have documented many times before, I would marry Target if she were a flesh and blood woman. But now I actually see women at Target (instead of meth heads and those with the food stamps, like in Fridley). Not like I would approach any of them, I just like to check out the chicas while I buy my generic pizzas and canned pasta stuffs.

Series Prediction: Phillies in 6 (or 7). Both teams are just too evenly matched, but the Phils will pull it off because they are the more veteran team. But the fact that the Rays may be good for the next five to ten years.

Oh, and fire Childress.

Double oh, look for recently purchased music reviews on Thursday.

Tiger Tiger Woods, Y'all

I haven't played video games much lately. I don't know, it seems like Wikipediaing Danish foodstuffs seems more fun most days. But, since all the consoles (360, PS3 and Wii) in my house are hooked up to one of the big TVs now, I figured I should give games a chance again. So, being the broke ass I am, I picked up Tiger Woods Golf for $15 at my local Blockbuster.

So far, I've only played for a couple of hours, but it seems really good. I picked John Daly and went like 14 over par (which is 6 better than I did the last time I went real people golf). The most interesting part was the create-a-player mode that the game features. I created someone who looked almost exactly like me, right down to the bags under the eyes and the ever so handsome stubbled face. It was creepy, it was beautiful, it was somehow life affirming.

It did get me to thinking what a 16 year old Jake would have done with this feature though. I am pretty sure I would have made the sexiest she-golfer ever. Or, I would have done what I did in WWF Attitude (the first game I played with C-A-P) and created Jose Tarronoski and Paul Tulay, two of the Earle Brown Crew Chief greats.

Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah

I fell in love today with a sandwich shop. It took me in, kept me sheltered from the storm much like Bobby Dylan and fed me well. That shop was Pastrami Jack's in Minnetonka.

I enjoyed the three sandwich sampler platter (a pastrami, a corned beef and chopped liver) which came with a huge potato pancake and all you can eat pickles and slaw. Holy shit was it amazing. The beef was just the right kind of fatty, and the bread perfect. I honestly had never had chopped liver before, and it wasn't mind blowing, but it was good (kind of sweet, kind of salty).

Oh, on a non processed Jewish Delicatessen front, I am almost completely moved into the house in Crystal. It has blown coming home from work every night and trying to straighten my room up, but it is almost done. Too bad I have to spend 16 bones on pegs for my CD shelves (I lost the other ones in the move).

Boy Versus Girl In The World Series Of Love

The Twins broke my fucking heart last night. I will maintain and be ready to come crawling back to them next Spring though...

Here are my picks for the Playoffs:

Phillies over Brewers in 5
Cubs over Dodgers in 4

Rays over Sox in 3
Angels over Sox in 5

Cubs over Phillies in 5
Angels over Rays in 7

Cubs over Angels in 7

I did these this morning around 7:30 (before the Cubbies got trounced). I still stand by them, but I haven't been right in ten years, so hey!