Minnesota State Fair Concerts

Every single year we go the "The Great Minnesota Get-Together". We see the cows and the pigs and the food that takes years off your life and have a great time. Personally I enjoy people watching, how many "Im with stupid" t-shirts I can count and how many people I can count that have a mouth full of teeefers. Its always fun!

:-)

This year, in addition to my little people watching games...I have a couple of great concerts to go to.

AUGUST 28th- Allman Brothers- w/robert randolph band .

I commented to some of my music buddies that this would be one show that I would have to see if they came to the Twin Cities. You all know about my Gov't Mule thing...and Warren Haynes does double duty for the Mule and the Allmans...so its the best of both worlds for me. Also, Derek Trucks is one of my fave. young guitarists. He is also in this band. They put on great shows at this stage in their career and they will have my rapt attention!

UPDATE: Purchased tickets this past weeked row 26 in front of Mr. Haynes!

AUGUST 30TH- B.B King, Al Green, Etta James

I love Al Green and have seen him once before in the late 80's and have yet to have the pleasure of seeing Etta and BB live. How can you go wrong with this lineup! 3 legends that can still deliver and not make you cringe. I am in the 15th row center for this one! Cant wait!

Agility Video. ( this one is less clinical)

Last video on syncronized dog chasing. I have to admit, this video makes this sport look kinda cool. It must be the White Stripes song Orchid ( one of my faves) and of course the sheltie. They do look like they love doing this.....that is why I enjoy it so much also.

Agility Video

For all of you that have wondered what I was talking about when I referred to my Agility Training with Reggie. Here is a video of a Sheltie doing it the right way, Reggie and I are not quite as smooth as this pair...but we are getting there!

MEMORIAL DAY

This photo was taken at the Vietnam War Memorial last year. Lets hope this war ends soon and all of the people that are putting their lives on the line for us return home.

The Jackson 5 - Who's Loving You

michael as I like to remember him.

Tired Of Being Alone - Al Green

One of my favorite Al songs...check out the suit!

Alice Cooper Elected

Alice at his peak!

alice eighteen- 1972

love this video. Alice is drunk ( duh) but captures the angst of the song very well! A classic... kiddies!

TOM JONES- WITH THESE HANDS 1965

I am a sap for a good love song. ( dont tell anyone!)

I have been listening to this song since I was a wee lad! Enjoy!

MORE COWBELL!

Love this! Yeah its been played to death, but still funny!

1st video post

Black Crowes Cursed Diamond

I posted lyrics to this a few months back. Removed them because they seemed a bit too heavy :-). Now you get the pleasure of getting to hear and see the song!

I am going to be posting more of my musical faves!

Hope you enjoy!

To All Mothers:

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!

A retraction

Please note:

In my last post I reported that Kyle Petty had not finished in the top 20 all year. After many phone calls and angry emails, I must print this retraction. Jeff, I am sorry. I was waaaaaaay out of line and must extend my most heartfelt apology.

Kyle Petty finished in the top 20 earlier this month. Today he finished 25th. But that is beside the point. :-)

Mike The Painter

Ok, I am not that kind of painter, ( Remember this guy from PBS???? ) but I did have a semi fro back in the day.

This weekend the weather was great, and I had a opportunity to get some much needed house improvements done. ( Hey, I am not just the talented writer and very entertaining guy that lures you here for stunning entertainment!) please laugh at that last statement!

I was able to ( with the handy help of my Wife) paint our faded front door and finish the majority of our weathered deck.

Its funny how these little projects make me feel "valuable". I am not one of those guys that you will see constantly building stuff. I can hold my own when it comes to fixing the usual stuff....but you wont see me building a 5 room treehouse for the kids to roam in. ( geez I can only imagine the carnage that would result from my handiwork!). It makes me feel good to improve my house feel like king caveman and sit back and enjoy the result.

I just love this time of the year. I feel like the dark cloud of winter ( Have I told you that I dont like winter!) is finally gone, and the sun is shining again in my little part of the universe.

Ps. Dropped cable tv over the weekend. I am now a Dish Network guy. More HD channels and DVR ( digital recording! more commonly known as TIVO) and cheaper than my cable bill. Love it so far....will write more about it soon!

Pss......I promise Maggie that I will post more often ( I have been spotty lately in my posts) I dont want you to stoop to American Idol websites for your entertainment!

Psss- Gopman....Will Kyle Petty ever finish in the top 20???? comeon maaaan....I am actually watching NASCAR and kinda rooting for the guy for ya! It brutal when he never close to the pack! ( but I am sure you get enough of this from others!) . Also....Moss traded to the Pats for a 4th rounder!!! Told ya he would break your heart! :-)

Pssss- That is all!

Its spring....its baseball!

http://www.ootpbaseball.net/index.php

I need to oil that door, because its creaking from the opening of the closet with the skeletons. I am about to share with you loyal readers one of my most geeky passions ( besides this blog thing). I like to play simulation baseball games. Ok I have admitted it to the public, its a good first step. The following paragraphs will expose the story behind the nerdyness ( is that a word?).

I have always loved baseball and the history behind the game. The statistical history going back to the late 1800's is fascinating to me. To compare a Ty Cobb with a Rickey Henderson, a Babe Ruth with a Hank Aaron, a Walter "Big Train" Johnson with a Tom Seaver, or even a Scooty Babbitt with a Mario Mendoza, occupied many a afternoon for me. One of the first gifts I received that was related to this passion was the 1977 Baseball Almanac. Yes, keeeeds this was pre-internet and you actually had to have reference books around to get this kind of info. I loved this book and wore the pages out thumbing through the long history of the game.

My first step into simulation baseball began with Strat-o-matic baseball when I was about 14. It was a game that had a card for each player in a certain season ( my first season was 1977) a board that had 3 dice and a stack of split cards. You would roll the dice, look at the white die for the collumn, and add the 2 red dice together to get your result on the card. If your result required a split card ( ie 1-15 hr 16-20 2b) you would draw a card. ARE YOU STILL WITH ME???

I loved this game. I spent hours and hours with pencil and paper and calculator keeping my own stats and running a solo league. It was great fun for me and made me a expert on players from that era of baseball. I played strat for about 8 years and used to mark my calendar for when each new season of cards would come out! It was geek heaven!

As the years passed and technology has evolved, I migrated to computer simulation baseball. Gone were the pencil and paper and the board and cards. Now there was stats kept on your hard drive and even the ability to run the financial part of baseball. Much more involved of a process. Its amazing how in depth these games have become, it has got to the point that I have to turn off some of the features because it gets so involved and intricate, that I dont have the time to do 45 adjustments to just play a game. That doesnt mean that I dont love the depth....but hey...I have a job to do and a kid to raise!!!

If you look at the link above...you will get a taste for what baseball sims have become....I love it...but I do miss the days spent waiting for the mail to get my geeky x-mas present of Strat cards!

New features, movie reviews, and old pics!

The above pics are of the 22 inch snow storm we recieved a couple of weeks ago. The creative measuring stick pic shows the 15 inches we recieved the first 6 hours of the storm.....and the other pic shows what my driveway looked like when I opened the garage door. ( I got to snow blow!!!! very fun !)

Blades of glory was very funny! Didnt let me down in the least! Check it out!

If you look to your right....you will see a new feature! A video bar! The videos are random....but the artists are not....I have chosen the artists! Hit refresh and be entertained or repulsed!!! :-)

Enjoy!

You gotta see this!!!!!!

I am a closet TOM JONES fan. Loved his show when I was a wee lad

Click on the link and see some wacky manic Tom Dance moves!!!!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=mVIJFptl0sg

Gotta love it! Maybe Will Ferrell can spoof this! :-)

Blades of Glory!

Ok.....I am exictied about this movie coming out. Yeah I know that Will Ferrel movies are not everyones cup of tea, but he always makes me laugh. What can I say, I like over the top humor ( Steve Martin, Jim Carrey) and movies that spoof topics that are ripe to be skewered!

This latest movie will be taking on Ice Skating. As a guy that appreciates the skill involved with a quality skater, I am also a guy that watches because he likes to see a good fall!!! In the past, Ferrel has messed with TV ( Anchorman) and Nascar ( sorry Jeff, Talladega Nights was hilarious!) and even Santa ( Elf!). I cant wait to see the results!

In other news, the sun has finally peeked out in Minnesota. We hit a balmy 60+ degrees today! You will never see a happier guy in the world than yours truly sweeping his dirty garage out on a bright sunny day!

Yeah, Minnesota will drive you insane like that! :-)

Till the next post!

Still out there!

Sorry for the break in writing. Just havent had the bug to write anything of late. Well, errrr thats not entirely true....plenty to write about....just lack of motivation.

The weekend is just about here....I plan on sitting down and crafting a "proper" blog entry.

Like I know what that is! :-)

For your enjoyment....here is a pic from Dog agilty! ( not reggie...but a stunning re-creation!)

Overated.

Last night can really be summed up by the word "Overated". Even the snow storm that was supposed to put my life into peril was overated. Now onto the review.

Icarus band/Wolfmother-

Lets start with the opening act. The Icarus Band was impressive for about 2 minutes. Very visual and barely musical, the lead singer had all the Steven Tyler moves and the lead guitarist had Keeef Richards down to a tee. Sadly, they had none of the music or personality of both of these rock legends. After the 2nd song....there were moments where I was actually laughing at some of the stuff I was watching on stage. And I know this was not supposed to be a comedy act.

After 35 minutes of the above act....it was time for the headliner Wolfmother. Although much better than the opening act, they suffer from similar problems. This band has raw talent and knows how to play to its core crowd ( male 18-to 30 somethings), it does not have a catalog of songs that can effectively change gears and show depth. I truly was getting bored by about the 4Th song. They really all sounded the same. The energy was there in excess, but the connection was not. This band needs to show it can play a song that isn't the same structure over and over and over. Maybe after a second CD and some seasoning....more depth will surface.

The night wasn't a total washout....I got to see the lead singer from wolfmother dodge a wayward cell phone bearing down at his head and see it smash into about 40 pieces!. Also, watch the meathead 18 year olds throwing elbows and drawing blood down in the first rows....( I avoided this section for some reason).

2 stars out of 5
(WHEN DID I ADOPT A STAR SYSTEM?????) :-)