Girl Friday

Farewell, Aardvark

It's only so often that I will happily endorse a product here, and it's usually of the cosmetics variety.  However, today I wish to sing the praises of Peels.  Not only is Peels a delicious, refreshing malt beverage made with real fruit juices, but it's also extremely effective in making the movie Snakes on a Plane appear far more entertaining than it actually is.

Ohmygod, that is the worst movie.  I saw it at the drive-in theater last night and would've gone home quite disappointed had it not been for Final Destination 3, which I not-so-quietly enjoyed.  I don't dig horror movies, and I barely tolerate teen movies, so why have I loved the entire Final Destination trilogy?  Who knows.

I've been the grateful recipient of four CDs in the past two weeks.  First, my friend Ryan made me a totally awesome funk mix that's got me sliding around in the Stratus like I was James Brown.  Then, I convinced STNNNG to hand over the deftones' B-sides and Rarities discs from their prize pack after they suspiciously placed above my empty-handed team in the Sound Unseen Rock 'N Bowl tournament.  Then, I stopped by Aardvark Records and Vince gave me a copy of Ani DiFranco's latest, Reprieve, as well as all of the mp3s from Lucero's forthcoming album, Rebels, Rogues, and Sworn Brothers.

Lucero will be back at The Triple Rock September 29th and 30th, probably selling it out again (despite playing two shows this time).  Friday's the 18+ show, Saturday's the 21+.  I might just go to both because I'm crazy like that.

A bittersweet weekend at the end of September: the Lucero shows coincide with the closing of Aardvark Records.  Proprietor Vince Murray introduced me to Lucero, and I'm sure a few hundred other people can say the same.  Vince has hosted three in-store performances for the band since 2004, and has been largely responsible for their popularity here in Minneapolis long before they were selling out venues in NYC.

Stop by Aardvark Records (on Lowry and Central Avenues in Northeast) before September 30th and show Vince some love for being the coolest record shop owner in town.  While you're at it, hit up Lucero on Myspace and tell them how much you want to see an in-store performance/farewell bash at Aardvark that weekend.

I'll personally guarantee copious amounts of whiskey and PBR.

Three Quickies

- So, who's making the SAVE STEVE MARSH tee shirts?

- My Omahan friend Jaime put his Sound Unseen photos up.  His videos from the festival are here.

- Taylor's on Totally Scrabble Tuesdays this week.  He warmed up against Janelle and me tonight, so make sure your game is on if you call in.

I've got at least one good Reader Mailbag coming this week, I promise.

Weekend at the Fair

Two days in a row at the Fair and I am exhausted. 

Yesterday, I sat in the booth with Andrew and Jen for the second hour of Chowhounds.  In between commenting on interesting clothing choices of fairgoers and trash talking some of the new food items this year, I was able to enlighten the audience with some fun facts about sheep.  Did you know they don't have upper teeth?  Well, now you do.

Today, I met up with my family at the Fair.  Having a four-year-old nephew means getting to do fun things like driving go-carts and getting soaked on the river raft ride.  Taylor caught up with us in the afternoon, and he and I went head-to-head in a heated skeeball match.  One of us walked away with a giant stuffed dalmation.  (Hint: it wasn't Taylor.)  No Fair Hair this year, but I did get to watch my sister accidentally dump an entire beer on a stranger.  So that was fun.

I'm finally getting back into my groove after feeling slightly burned out from all the Sound Unseen stuff.  I volunteered my concierge services to the festival this year by entertaining director Gregg Gibbs while he was in town for the screenings of his film, The Treasures of Long Gone John.  Gregg absolutely loved Minneapolis, so thank you to everyone who came out and made him feel welcome. 

For those of you that didn't get to see the film, hang tight until next year when it's in wide release.  It's fun, full of great music, and very informative for those of us who previously had no idea what in the hell all those things are at Robot Love.

That Can't Feel Good

I think this is my favorite photo so far from the Sound Unseen 2006 gallery:

Doesn't that look painful?

You'd think my favorite moment of the entire festival would've been seeing Atmosphere play a surprise show to a half-full Entry crowd last night, but it wasn't.  I mean, that was cool and all, and I'd never seen Atmosphere before, but it still takes second place to finding out that the band STNNNG has a collective little crush on me.

Did I say The Alarmists were my favorite local band?  Yeah, I actually meant STNNNG.

Wasn't Me

To all the ladies out there looking for a nice, working-class man: seek a mason.  I met with three stonework contractors today for bids on a client's patio, and my, my, my.  Each one was cuter than the last, with the final appointment of the evening ranking at a perfect ten.

Oh, how I do look forward to supervising this project, every step of the way.

Hey look, now I'm cool like Aaron Landry:

The frog keeps close watch over my new coozie, just in case Taylor tries to steal it. 

I actually acquired two new kitchen accessories this weekend.  Behold my new refrigerator magnet from Heavenly Soles:

Isn't it lovely?

CUH8N

To the baller rolling in the Lincoln with the license plate CUH8N:

You're awesome.

Name That Bar

If you haven't figured it our already, this week's gonna be a light posting week.  I've got a couple of not-so-fun work tasks to do (ordering business cards and logging expenses), and then I have to plow into my laundry pile and clean my apartment before my esteemed houseguest arrives on Friday.

You could say it's my ducks-in-a-row week.

I brought my car to the Columbia Heights Midas yesterday because my brakes were going SCREEEEECH.  I handed over my keys and trotted across the street to Hangar 45, Tasty Pizza's bar, where smoking is permitted (Anoka County, represent) and bottles of Bud are always $2.50.  After two beers, I braced myself and made the call to Midas to inquire about the damage I'd done by driving the Stratus for two weeks since noticing the grinding noise.

Well, good news.  My brakes were fine, I just had a bunch of brake dust gunk up in there causing the trouble.  My pals cleaned it out for me (no charge) and I went on my way. 

That was a good start to a pretty cake day yesterday.  But today's a new day, and it's crunch time with work stuff, so I apologize in advance for not posting much this week.  In the meantime, let's play a fun little game I like to call "Name That Bar".

Clell Tickle: Indie Marketing Guru

Thanks to Jaime for dropping this in the comments of my Tapes N' Tapes post.

Absolutely hilarious.  How the band really made it:

Retaliation

Taylor spilled red wine on my little green shoes last night.  Do I:

A) Sever one of his toes
2) Steal all of his socks
D) Make out with his dad
VII)  Buy him a kitten

It's gonna be a great weekend with perfect weather.  I'll be drinking beer and eating garlic mashed potato slices while listening to awesome bands on Saturday at the Pizza Luce Block Party.

Tonight, however, belongs to Enterprise.  I never got a chance to watch it on TV, so I have the whole series queued up on Netflix.  That Brannon Braga is a genius.  I can't seem to make it past the first 4 bars of the theme song, though, without skipping to the next scene.  Gag.

Two Singles Are Better Than One Double

IMPORTANT: Be sure to pick up a copy of this week's City Pages for the 8-page Sound Unseen 2006 insert.  The program includes a complete schedule of all the films, music, and parties for this year's festival.

SEMI-IMPORTANT: Esquire's Things A Man Should Know About Drinking.  Not just for men, there are actually a few great etiquette reminders here in amidst the tongue-in-cheek humor.

SORT OF IMPORTANT: I picked up a copy of Imbibe Magazine on a whim the other night while shopping at Ho Foods with Janelle.  I'm so hooked.  I just ordered a subscription.