August 2007

August 29, 2007

Fruits of thy labors

You earned it, dude. This gig's for you. For your last long weekend before Thanksgiving there are plenty of ways to spend your hard-earned cash. I had my first taste of deep-fried candy bar on a stick at the State Fair last week, for instance, and it's totally worth it if you can get past the idea of shedding a day of your life with every bite (and the unnerving sensation of thinking you're biting into a corn dog only to taste Snickers).

Since this is an arts blog, not a health service, however, I'll steer you to the underrated arts pavilion at the fair, as well.... Read more »

Posted on Wednesday, August 29, 2007 in Front & Center | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 22, 2007

The Fairest of Them All

Did anyone else catch Conway Twitty's not-so-live appearances on Family Guy this year? Almost makes you glad for today's country cheeseballs. These are the things you think about at State Fair time. If only it had a different tradition, like reggae, but we're stuck with it--big-name country and formerly big-name rock. Get out the muscle shirt and get over it. That said, several of the free... Read more »

Posted on Wednesday, August 22, 2007 in Front & Center | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 17, 2007

Fair warning

Uh, howdy. Been awhile. Yeah, it's me not you. Really. You know how it is, you get swamped, you retreat into your shell, you got no time for sharing. And, well, here's the thing about blogs: increasingly, they seem to me like the province of moderately pithy people who, because they offer moderately personal observations in a very. short. snappy. way. imagine that they are contributing a unique insight in the time it would take to tie your shoe. They're not. They're the contemporary equivalent of the old SNL movie review skit--two snaps up!--as though snark were criticism and confession was the highest calling of literature. So let's just keep that in mind and have some fun, shall we?

Who's going to see Def Leppard at the State Fair Grandstand, for instance? Back in my grade... Read more »

Posted on Friday, August 17, 2007 in Front & Center | Permalink | Comments (1)

August 1, 2007

Rybak on Leno, life on the Fringe

Well, I'm assuming Jay Leno had the good taste last night not to run Mo Rocca's footage from Minneapolis, filmed earlier, of R.T. Rybak commuting to work on a two-man bike and Chris Coleman playing bagpipes, but I couldn't see the show last night given the bridge coverage and haven't been able to confirm yet. In any case, I'll let my comments from yesterday stand, no matter what deeper implications a broken bridge may or may not say about us. Namely, that I believe our progressive mayors "are redefining the good life we were last... Read more »

Posted on Wednesday, August 1, 2007 in Front & Center | Permalink | Comments (0)