Turkey Bowl Trailer

Turkey Bowl Trailer, courtesy of Jeff Halbleib.

Turkey Bowl Trailer

Popeye's Fried Chicken Fracas

What else can a person say about the following video, other than are we POSITIVE this is not a lost Dave Chappelle show skit? I mean, REALLY? This is what constitutes news these days? And how much of a tool is Tom Lynden? Enjoy.

Popeye's Fried Chicken Fracas

Baseball

I'd be remiss if I didn't quick throw up my thoughts regarding Opening Day/Week in baseball. Although as an adult I am now a lover of all sports, for me it began with baseball. Some of my fondest memories growing up is playing catch in the backyard with my dad. He used to always find time to get some practice in, no matter what the day or whatever was going on. I used to love nothing more than a lazy Saturday afternoon just tossing a ball back and forth. It's amazing how such a simple thing can mean so much. Although I always hated it when we practiced fielding grounders and he really just whipped them at me. Can't say it didnt help me improve though, which in the end is a good thing.

I guess this would be a great time, since this blog is so new, to bring up the fact that my wife Nicki and I are expecting our first child at the end of June. We found out in February we are having a boy, and we both couldn't be more excited and anxious thinking about the times ahead. It's days like Opening Day in Major League Baseball that serve as reminder to me that it's going to be ME as the dad soon, playing catch with MY son and teaching him all the intricices of the beautiful sport. It boggles my mind think that this time has come. Even though I am now 29 and well into my adulthood (at least in theory), I still feel so youthful that it doesn't seem real that I am going to be the teacher in the equation.

All I do know for sure is that I could not be looking forward more to imparting whatever wisdom I might have onto a child I call my own. Especially important pieces of information like, "Alway's protect the plate with 2 strikes", "It's ok to take walks, just get on base", and "Baseball is MEANT to be played outdoors". This last piece of wisdom is especially meaningful this week, as the Twins played their LAST opening day in the dreadful Metrodome. The world is going to be a better place next year when they open the season in beautiful Target Field.

I am elated that my son will grow up with a local MLB team that plays the sport as it was meant to, under the open sky. Everyone who moans about the fact that it might be cold on opening day or late in the season needs to toughen up. This is MINNESOTA...this is the MIDWEST! We are supposed to be unaffected by the weather. As far I am concerned, an open air stadium can weed out the die-hard fans from the band wagoners. That way my son will grow up knowing what a real baseball experience feels like and when he catches his first foul ball under blue skies, I can smile knowing he never knew any worse.

Baseball

Lisa Hannigan

While listening to a little Grooveshark today at work, I stumbled across the song "I Don't Know" by Lisa Hannigan. I really loved it so I looked up her story. Turns out she used to collaborate with Damien Rice for 7 years until he recently dropped her by saying their collaboration had "run its course". Nice of him.

Anyway, she struck out on her own, creating her first solo album entitled "Sea Sew". Sales really took off when she appeared on The Colbert Report last month and got what is now dubbed "The Colbert Bounce", moving up the Billboard, Itunes, and Amazon charts. To get a taste of her music, check out her Colbert performance here.

Lisa Hannigan

Grooveshark

So I discovered this website this past week, Grooveshark. The site allows you to stream music on your computer for Free, much like Pandora or last.fm. Unlike Pandora however, there are NO ads and you can play any music you want at any time. There are no restrictions. It just plays whatever song you want and can find on the site. You don't even have to create an account if you don't want to to listen. If you do create an account, you can save your favorite songs and playlists for easy retrieval later. Awesome.

Oh, and it also has a great "autoplay" feature which will play songs for you automatically that it thinks you might like. You can then give the songs a thumbs up or down, helping it decide for you the next song. It works really well and I've already found one new band out of this that I absolutely love. They are called "The Maine", and I've attached some of their music thanks to Grooveshark below. Give it a listen and get yourself a Grooveshark account!

Grooveshark

Bon Iver

Bon Iver, aka: Justin Vernon originally of my hometown Eau Claire, Wisconsin, sings Lump Sum from his upcoming album "For Emma, Forever Ago". It's being released on Jagjaguwar records and is the best album I've heard in years. Take a listen to "Skinny Love" on his myspace page here, as well as be sure to check out the video below.

Bon Iver