Why Do All The World Cup Coaches Look Like Villains From Action Movies?

I had positively no intention of following sports of any kind this summer. In fact, I had no idea this year was a World Cup year until school ended in early June. Then, after passively logging onto ESPN3.com one morning to see who was playing, I somehow got sucked in. I researched everything I could about FIFA online and started making it a ritual to have the games on in the background while I was doing other things. But quickly that wasn't enough. I would miss killer header goals or ridiculous fouls. These kinds of things only happened every 35-40 minutes or so per 90-minute game, but that's what made me fall in love with the World Cup. That and the vuvuzelas of course. Another thing that has had me curious since the beginning of my obsession: the coaches. Simply put, they all look like villains from action movies. So as a tribute now that this whole thing is over, here are the coaches from the four ranked teams from the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, with some info on what their action movie might be about...

Óscar Tabárez
Team Uruguay (4th place)
Prospective Action Movie Title: A Chance To Die
Antagonist to: Keanu Reeves as Randy Jensen
Catch Phrase: "Well excuuuse me, Oscar."
Poster Tag Line: How many chances will he get?

Plot Synopsis: Set in 2004, a crazed financial mogul will stop at nothing to get former Navy SEAL, now rookie hedge fund manager, Randy Jensen killed before he leaks the news about his latest cutthroat (literally) lending operation.

Joachim Loew
Team Germany (3rd place)
Prospective Action Movie Title: The Last Injustice
Antagonist to: Will Smith as Bryce James
Catch Phrase: "Now you got me ALL worked up!"
Poster Tag Line: When justice isn't served, don't tip.

Plot Synopsis: A mild-mannered and overworked attorney sent overseas for a much-needed vacation with his family is thrust into the role of hunter and savior when his wife and son are kidnapped by the son of the man he convicted and sent to prison exactly ten years ago that day.

Bert Van Marwijk
Team Netherlands (2nd place)
Prospective Action Movie Title: Fallen Devils
Antagonist to: Nicolas Cage as Nathan Hunter
Catch Phrase: "You're going down...deep down."
Poster Tag Line: A devil's work is never done.

Plot Synopsis: A brilliant mathematician, but also a slightly schizophrenic hermit, Nathan Hunter hasn't stepped foot into the public eye since he narrowly escaped a manslaughter charge for the death of his wife over twenty years ago. Today, he's called in by baby-faced lead FBI detective Lee Donaldson (played by Freddie Prinze, Jr.), who thinks he's the only one who can help shed some light on a pattern he's seen in the stock market, circled in red amongst hundred of newspapers at a crime scene.

Vicente del Bosque
Team Spain (1st place)
Prospective Action Movie Title: War And Pieces
Antagonist to: Bruce Willis as Dock Grimes
Catch Phrase: "Don't call me Doctor!"
Poster Tag Line: What is it good for? Absolutely everything.

Plot Synopsis: On retirement day, 5th grade schoolteacher Dock Grimes just has one wish when he blows out the candles on his apple-shaped cake - that his kids loved him the way his students do. He might get that wish if he's able to fend off a team of mercenaries that surround and invade Hawkeye Elementary, looking to kidnap the son of the leader that recently led a coup in their home country. Good thing Dock's been working out all these years, because now, after 35 years of Roald Dahl and long division, he's ready for combat.

Hypester Alert: The Greatest Hype in Sport

As we all know, we as pop culture mavens are not immune to the powers of Hype. Hype happens, folks. Sometimes, hype works in good ways, sometimes it works in ways that make us see The Da Vinci Code on opening night(*). What our job is as connoisseurs of pop culture is discern what elements are worthy of the eternal Hype Machine, and what elements need to be Sw-hyped Outta Here. This month, I bring you three extraordinarily hyped pop culture touchstones of recent days. (*)Yes, hype really did cause Chris, Lady Amy and I to see The Da Vinci Code on opening night. We are not all perfect, nor should we have to strive for perfection, but it was not a great choice.

Lady Gaga, "Alejandro"
While I generally don't feel as strongly against the actual song as Chris does, it's safe to say that this is the first Gaga video that's just left me feeling neither shocked nor entertained, just bored. At this point, it's gotten predictable -- Gaga waits a few months, then unleashes a brand new, high concept, nine-minute long video, that features her in clothes that make her look like she might actually be totally naked. Yeah, been there done that. Yawn. I think it is hard to top the "Let's Make a Sandwich" section of "Telephone" in terms of WTFness, so it's understandable.

To top it all, she's made news this weekend by "not" being banned at Yankee Stadium after showing up in the New York Yankees clubhouse wearing only a Yankee jersey, bra, and bikini bottoms. Snooze. Get back to me in six months to see if I'm interested. And it's not as if I now dislike Gaga. I still really enjoy her persona, and have really enjoyed her music. I even like how popular she is. I really, really do. I forsee great things for her in her career. But, I'm just, I dunno, bored. This whole "controversy" just makes me hate the Yankees more than I already do. Instead, I'll listen to Ke$ha's Animal over and over for a while. Then I'll check back with the Gagster.
Hypester alert status: Hyped on Reputation.



The World Cup
I'm gonna be honest here. When the World Cup started, I was not excited. In fact, I was downright apathetic. Then something crazy happened. Chris texted me, asking if I was going to watch the USA vs. England match. I wasn't planning on it, but I figured I'll never turn down watching a sporting event with another dude, let alone a dude like Chris who is usually not the first one to volunteer to watch a sporting event. So, Chris came over, and we watched the wackiness that was the USA vs. England match.



And it was totally exciting! Now, all kinds of crazy stuff is happening, like Team France imploding upon itself, and Denmark finally winning (Team Denmark is my second fave team behind the US of A), and people are blowing on those vuvuzelas. In fact, the word vuvuzela has been a Trending Topic on Twitter since the World Cup started, an excellent measure of the level of hype the World Cup has gotten. Finally, though, this is a sporting event worthy of the massive amounts of hype, if only because the usually British announcers say words like "massive" and it rubs off on my vocabulary. If more NFL or MLB or NBA announcers said things like "reveling in their supremacy" the way Martin Tyler does, the world would be a better place.
Hypester Alert Status: Worthy of Hype.

Red Dead Redemption
Where has being a virtual badass cowboy been my whole life? Rockstar Games has done it again -- they've again made me feel okay with simulating acting like a complete and utter sociopath in its newest video game Red Dead Redemption. This time around, it's different. When I play Red Dead Redemption, I am not a sociopathic dude running around in a modern urban sprawl; rather, I am a sociopathic dude in the wild west. That means most of my sociopathic urges are fulfilled by hunting animals in the wild, Oregon Trail style. Which is great! Because it lets me hunt in a video game, Oregon Trail style! I love Oregon Trail!



Granted, I'm slightly overstating the sociopathic part of the game, because it helps that the landscapes designed are beyond gorgeous, the voice acting is pretty decent given how horrible voice acting usually is, and one doesn't need to act like a total sociopath to have fun. In fact, the most fun I had in the game was an off-mission task where I followed a dog around at night at the local ranch, scaring off criminals who were causing harm. And I didn't even kill either of the criminals. In turn, the game gave me extra "fame" points and "honor" points.



And the most fun I had playing this game was over Memorial Day weekend in Minneapolis, when the temperature stayed above 90 and I had just spent time on the beach, feeling sunburned. Feeling the sensation of burned skin while riding around on my virtual horse and shooting criminals had to be the most badass video game feeling I've felt since I beat the crap out of those jerk Detroit Red Wings as Pavel Bure and the Vancouver Canucks on NHL '94 on Sega Genesis. Yes, it's that cool. (Side note -- why would the YouTuber below put Bure at Center? Everybody knows, you put him at Left Wing, win the faceoff by passing it to him, have him loop around, shoot, and get a guaranteed goal. Pretty sure that move netted me a lot more than 5 goals in 85 seconds when I did that.)


Hypester Alert Status: Worthy of Hype.

Cable Television Rundown: Margene Recovers The Fumble

As a Vikings fan, last night's particularly soul-crushing loss to the New Orleans Saints in the NFC Championship game was, well, particularly soul-crushing. Soul-crushing because of the valiant play of their defense, holding the high-powered Saints offense to under 300 yards, stifling their play when they needed to the most (i.e. most of the second half), then consistently fumbling and/or throwing interceptions on offense (and, on one occasion, fumbling right after I said something to the effect of "Adrian Peterson has already fumbled twice...he couldn't possibly fumble again, could he" *cue Adrian putting the ball on the ground, again.*)

But, the most soul-crushing part was when I started to really think the Vikings were going to win, when they got the ball back with the game tied 28-28 with less than 2 minutes to play, and all they really needed to do was get into field goal range, line up a field goal, run the clock down, then kick it in to get the Vikings to their first Super Bowl in my lifetime. (And I've had 27 years of lifetime anticipating that moment; watch my home videos of my fifth birthday party to confirm.) So when they had the ball in pretty deece field goal position, and then turned the ball over so they wouldn't even get a chance to try for that win...well, in a lifetime of pretty damn soul-crushing losses while following this particular NFL team, this one takes the cake.

Thankfully, I was able to catch Big Love after the game with my friends, and, while my overall feelings toward this fourth season are somewhat mixed (more on that next Monday), I cannot begin to express how much Margene from Big Love lifted my spirits in this episode.

Margene has truly blossomed as a character since the beginning of the show, starting mainly as Bill's total hottie-but-kinda-ditzy wife and slowly turning into an independent woman of her own. And then she did her Home Shopping Network thing, and then totally kissed her not-by-blood-but-sister-wife-Barb's-actual-son for comfort / as an extension of her slowly realizing that Bill treating her like a little girl is totally degrading for a learning-to-be-a-totally-strong-person person like Margene.

All I can really say is, after feeling about as crushed as one can feel from an athletic event that ultimately has no meaning in my personal well-being, Margene from Big Love lifted my spirits immensely. Margene, I salute you.

Read her personal blog here.

Cable Television Rundown, October: Dramas, Laff Factories, and Baseball

NOTE: Be sure to check out great posts from Saturday and Sunday by Nicole and new blogger writer, OHD!


We're already into October, and my DVR is filling up faster than a Sarah Palin wink! Yes, the Fall season is in full swing, with all of my faves having started. How do I keep up with all that TV watching, you ask? One show at a time. It also helps to block Sunday evenings off for shows. This past September has brought many a new Sunday television show to our viewing box, and also brought us many a other show on other nights, too. It gets exhausting, though, especially when the "real life" activities push the TV / blogging activities to the late hours of the day. So, the easiest way to judge how good a show is for me is how easily I stay awake while watching. Yes. like my scale of judging movies (i.e. how many minutes do I sleep away in the movie theaters? Ex. Flash of Genius which we watched last night was pretty snoozetastic -- I slept through approximately 30 minutes of it. Somehow, though, I really didn't miss anything, but that's for another blog post), I will rate new / returning Cable TV on the basis of sleep.

*Mild spoilers ahead*

Dexter Season Three
The new season premiered the previous Sunday, and last night's episode brought us a little deeper into the new season. While the supposedly shocking episode one twist was a page torn out of a soap opera (Rita's pregnant! With Dexter's baby! Shocker? Um, no.), this is undeniably the most "watchable" show of the Fall season. Adding Jimmy Smits to the cast is a yet-to-be-determined addition, and it will be hard for the new season to top the over-the-top awesomeness of season two, but the entire vibe of the show, from Michael C. Hall's absorbing performance, to the understated, creepy score that rivals Twin Peaks' magnificent music, is more than enough to keep this show in the top of my heart. Sleep rating: No sleeping whatsoever, watch it live (not on DVR), and invite other Dexter-loving people over for theme dinners.

True Blood Season Two
I'm not gonna sugarcoat this -- I feel extremely conflicted about this show. Now five eps deep into the first season, I can't tell if this show is going to get "genuinely" good or if it will stay in this weird watch-this-out-of-obligation limbo. On the plus side, episode four started to give a few answers to what seemed like totally unbelievable questions ("Why is Tara totally in love with Sookie's brother Jason, who's the biggest tool this side of Dane Cook?" "Oh, cuz when she was a kid, he helped her from her drunk mom, okay. Alright. Snooze...") And, Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer's Sookie Stackhouse and Vampire Bill Compton are generally interesting characters and good actors (despite Anna Paquin's totally distracting gap tooth! Please fix it, Anna!) But, the tone needs to be more consistent before I start telling everyone I know to start watching this show. Until that happens... Sleep rating: Brigitte and I turn it on at 10:30 as a "I'd rather stay awake longer to put off the inevitable work week and watch this than go to bed right now" type of show, fall asleep within 20 minutes, wake up to see Jason Stackhouse trying to cure his vampire-blood-induced erection, then re-watch it another evening later in the week.

Mad Men Season Two
Crap! What am I gonna do when this season ends near the end of October? After last night's ep, we only have three more before this season tragically ends. The promise that season one built has slowly, gradually grown to something even more tragi-beautiful in season two. Most intriguingly, the sexual office politics (and I'm only partially talking about gettin' laid, early '60s style) has given the ladies of Sterling Cooper even more depth of character. As Brigitte aptly pointed out, the three ladies who are most focused upon embody the three ways a woman could get ahead in society in the '60s (and today? Eh?) -- by being a Peggy -- hard-working and asexual, being a Joan -- sexy and disrespected, or being a Betty -- perfect hostess and emotionally shut down by those around her. And we STILL haven't really gotten too deep into Don Draper. Stephen King, in his Entertainment Weekly column, obviously isn't seeing the same show as I'm seeing. Sleep rating: Super excited to watch it at 9:30 via DVR on Sunday, drift off to sleep a little near the end of the episode because I'm tired, but then have Brigitte fill me in, rewind it, and re-watch those scenes that I slept through.

Laff Factory! It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The Life & Times of Tim, Little Britain USA, Californication and The Soup
Throughout the week, many funny shows air, too, which I try to get through as well, with varying levels of success. Sunny is probably the best sitcom of this group, with its inspired wackiness and madcap pace as probably the best sitcom on this side of 30 Rock, like the twisted, bizarro version of Friends. Tim, the new animated HBO awkward-situations comedy, has some laugh-out-loud moments but needs to show some more consistency in the next few weeks before I deem it to be "the best new comedy on HBO other than Flight of the Conchords". Britain is also LOL-funny in spurts, but leaves me feeling about 50 steps dumber than I was before I watched it. Californication just makes me feel a little dirty but it is eminently more tolerable than the new season of Entourage which is, despite some funny performances, flat-out unwatchable for more than five minutes at a time. Thank goodness, then, for Fridays, when Joel McHale and The Soup help us restore some of the sanity we all lost by watching crap all week. Sleep rating: Watch these in bed on weekends while barely awake on Sunday mornings, then get up and make some breakfast burritos and hot chocolate. Yummy!

October Baseball on TBS

Somehow, having all the first-round playoff games on one channel is comforting, similar to the feeling I get when CBS carries all of the NCAA Mens' Basketball games on one channel. The thing is, baseball is beautiful, majestic, tense, dramatic, funny, and dark all at once. (In other words, it's just like watching Mad Men!) The only downside to having it all on TBS is the incessant Frank TV commercials. Still, incessant pimping of Frank TV is better than the non-stop self-generating hype machine that is ESPN. By the way, I feel for you, Brewers' fans who read this blog. Next year, we will surely see the epic Twins vs. Brewers World Series that we've all dreamed about. Sleep rating: Nice to fall asleep to after just barely making it through another engrossing DVR'd episode of Deadwood.

October Baseblog

I was planning on writing a more elaborate blog post here, but post-postseason depression has sunken in as my beloved Twins ended their season last night. But some day...my dream will come true...and I, like the boy in Little Big League, will be the manager of the Minnesota Twins!

What's your favorite baseball-related pop culture matchup?

The nominees are:

Little Big League vs. Rookie of the Year
Angels in the Outfield vs. Not Crying
Fever Pitch vs. Using Two Hours of Your Life Wisely
Mr. 3000 vs. DoktorPeace and Administrator Dave (they were extras in the movie!)
"Berenstein Bears Go Out for the Team" vs. Any Other Berenstein Bears book

Buy Me Some Lobster and Cracker Jacks...

Well, readers, you may have noticed my absence on Tuesday morning. Monday being such a momentous day, I wasn't about to be the first to blog after the Blogulator's 300th post! That, and I was mid-flight back to the Twin Cities from my weekend getaway with Jerksica to a feminist conference on politics and media. Having spent the whole weekend walking around Boston in the rain, eating nothing but lobster and learning how to beat the "good old boys club," I didn't have much time to absorb pop culture - which I learned is all just a bunch of misogynistic crap that I shouldn't consume anyway. I also haven't much to report on my factual analysis of HBO's miniseries, John Adams, which I had hoped a trip to Mr. Adam's hometown might shed some light on. Other than walking around random cobblestone streets and annoying Jerksica by guessing whether or not John Adams had been there, we didn't see any evidence of our founding father at all. Sam Adams, on the other hand, was readily available at every local pub.

Since I didn't consume much pop culture over the weekend, I thought about live-blogging the Minnesota Twins baseball game Wednesday evening, but I got nervous that security wouldn't let me bring my computer into the Metrodome. So I'll recap the game now. Wednesday was student night at the Dome, and thank blog I still look like I could be a freshman in college! $4 tickets and $1 dogs (as in hot dogs, not puppies - which is I what I thought when Nicole asked how the dogs were)! With those great deals, we really couldn't afford NOT to go to the game. My only "beef" with the Twins game is that it's silly that they limit you to two $1 hot dogs. Not that I can really eat more than two hot dogs in one sitting, but it seems like hot dogs are fairly cheap to purchase and easy to make - and they almost alway run out of them before the 2nd inning. Why don't they just order more? What's even more ridiculous is that they limit you to two beers. Probably because it will make you want more hot dogs, which they will have run out of - but still. If I'm willing to pay $6.50 a glass, let me drink all the beer I can handle! After all, it is almost a three-hour game.

The Twins lost both Tuesday and Wednesday night to the Angels, making their record 1-2 at this point. I need to show off that I actually know their record, because it may be the only time this season I can say that. There were a lot of new faces on the field since the team has recently undergone some pretty big changes. We've still got Michael Cuddyer, Joe Mauer, and Justin Morneau, but we lost everybody's favorite pitcher, Johan Santana, and the most adorable center fielder in all of baseball, Torii Hunter. Much to my relief, Hunter, who now plays for L.A., received a much warmer welcome playing for the opposing team at the Dome Wednesday evening than did Chuck Knoblauch back in 2001. But look at him. How could you stay mad at that face anyway? He's always smiling! Gotta love Torii.

The Oscars of the Sports World

Well, tonight was one of the biggest nights in history. A huge upset was pulled off -- all of America was shocked, as the odds were against this event happening that ended up happening. Yes, that's right -- lizards did, indeed, dance to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" in a commercial.

I know, I goofed you all -- you thought I was going to talk about the New York Little Giants defeating the New England Patriots. Maybe I was going to make a reference to the movie Little Giants starring Rick Moranis and Ed O'Neill. Maybe I was going to somehow work in an obscure reference to the fact that there are now two 3-D concert movies in theaters, starring U2 and Hannah Montana and maybe tie in a joke about how old Tom Petty is. It would be topical because Tom Petty played at the Super Bowl halftime show. But tonight, the night of the Super Bowl, the Oscars of the Sports World, we witnessed a truly epic group of commercials. We laughed, we cried, we reveled in all of the obscure, antiquated references. And because we at the Blogulator care, I gave awards. That's right -- you won't need to consult your USA Today guide to the Winners and Losers of Super Bowl advertising today -- we break it all out for you right here.

Best Commercial Featuring Anthropomorphic Animals: There were, as far as we counted, three anthropomorphic animal-themed commercials. Bridgestone Tires tackled the always hilarious combination of a screaming squirrel and a screaming person; Budweiser tackled horses training for work as a Clydesdale horse like Rocky III; and, of course, lizards danced about LifeWater to Michael Jackson's "Thriller". Frankly, I was expecting a little more from the anthropomorphic animal category -- none of the animals in these commercials talked. So, the winner will have to go to one of the two antiqued references -- Budweiser's Clydesdale Horses training like Rocky in Rocky III takes home this year's award.

Best Example of Sexy/Sexist Advertising: Bud Light, a constant purveyor in the legitimacy of sexism in America, in a category frequently tested in Super Bowl advertising, tastelessly as ever tackled the subject of wine and cheese parties. I mean, dudes hate wine and cheese, especially when chicks bring the dudes to the parties and force them to be all fancy and stuff. But, dudes do love BEER! They had beer hidden in their fake cheese, you see. Frankly, I would choose a different beer to sneak in, were I to feel the need to sneak beer into a wine and cheese party hosted by chicks. But most dudes feeling the need to sneak in beer to a chick wine and cheese party would probably bring Bud Light. Other ads in this category included GoDaddy.com's tease of Indy Car racer Danica Miller taking off her clothes (because a female athlete isn't worthwhile unless she takes off her clothes!), CareerBuilding.com, in which a heart popped out of a woman's shirt that kind of looked like a breast, and an ugly woman (yeah she was ugly, she had a unibrow) who guys liked because she rubbed Planters peanuts on herself. The other three nominees either completely lacked humanity (Planters; GoDaddy.com) or were vague enough to hand the Sexy/Sexist advertisement title to Bud Light.

Most Racist Commercial: This category had to be invented to satisfy two different advertisements that didn't fit into any other categories. Bud Light -- again, a master of offensive advertising, pulled in Carlos Mencia teaching other stereotypes on how to get with hot women. The sexist angle wasn't quite as strong as the racist angle, showing how people with Indian accents generally have trouble with hot women. SalesGenie.com, however, was more straight-up racist with its advertising, showing a man with a silly Indian accent being successful in his job by using SalesGenie.com, undoubtedly another dot-com that will go out of business in the next six months. The title for the inaugural Racist category goes to SalesGenie.com.

Best Antiquated Reference: This year's major category of Super Bowl advertising had to be antiquated references. There was a surprisingly large number of antiquated pop culture references this year -- the aforementioned Budweiser horses training to Rocky III; a PepsiMax commercial that referenced A Night at the Roxbury (and ALSO featured Chris Kattan); the dancing lizard "Thriller" commercial; Audi spoofing on the murdered horse scene in The Godfather; and, Charles Barkley (with the Miami Heat's Dwayne Wade) as Charles Barkely. Budweiser's Rocky III felt like its been done before, lizards dancing to "Thriller" was soooo 1998 "Ally McBeal"; referencing A Night at the Roxbury is actually worse than referencing Austin Powers; and as much as referencing The Godfather is alright, I do not like luxury vehicles that murder other luxury vehicles-- it makes me feel icky, not cool like "Dexter" does. Charles Barkley, however, is a classic, and thus wins his own award as an antiquated reference.

See all of these ads and more at www.myspace.com/superbowlads.

School's Out For Summer!

If you're like me and sick of what this "real world" has to offer -- 40+ hours inside, monotonous work, stuffy clothes, a lack of any form of excitement outside of "What's for lunch?" -- you probably are wishing for some summer vacation. But you know what? Summer vacation is for LOSERS. Just ask Chris, who will be teaching summer school this year -- not just to the Minneapolis-area children, but to POP CULTURE BLOGULATORS. Now, here are a few lessons that I learned while hangin' in the Twin Cities last night:

Minnesota Twins Baseball in the "Cheap Seats"

You might not think that baseball has anything to do with pop culture. You would be thinking wrong. It has EVERYTHING to do with pop culture. For example, I was explaining to my co-horts (Unspar, Christine, Chris, and other people who are not connected to the real world, i.e. have a blog) that, as a 10 year old, I pitched for the home town "C" level team. We were a little bit like one of those misfit teams you see in the movies -- a team full of scrappy, yet unathletic stereotypes of people, rising above the wealthier, more snobby city team to win the championship, while learning a little about ourselves in the process. The difference was, of course, that we didn't win any games and our manager quit midway through the season because he had a "real job" (i.e. he couldn't take all the losing anymore.) As my friends aptly pointed out, though, my reference comparing our team to The Bad News Bears was not apt, as the Bad News Bears also did not win a championship. My friends then all stared at me and booed loudly. Others in the stands looked at me with jeering eyes.

Lesson -- KNOW YOUR POP CULTURE AT BASEBALL GAMES, OR YOU WILL BE THE TARGET OF JEERS.

Walking From the East Side of Downtown Minneapolis to the Warehouse District.

Walking, surprisingly, also has pop culture ramifications. Case in point: the young woman walking behind us, trying to see if anybody remembers the show "Benson". As Chris and I snobbily conversed to ourselves, we realized that she was MIXING UP the show "Becker" with the actor in the title role, TED DANSON. DUH!! And what self-respecting person would admit to watching "Becker"?!

Lesson -- DON'T WATCH BECKER.

!!!, Live, In Concert, Fo' Realz, Yo (at the Fine Line Music Cafe)

We witnessed a fine show at the Fine Line Music Cafe, where !!! performed. (Sadly we missed friend of The Blogulator Peter "Soviet Panda" Lansky DJ before, but I DID run into him in the bathroom, which is almost as good as a celebrity sighting.) As the show started, !!! eased into their full-throttle dance-punk-mish-mash-whatever-you-want-to-call-it (Chris I need a genre name STAT!) and I eased into the dancing by bobbing my head. As they dug headfirst into "Me and Giulianni..." my confidence in my zero dancing abilities grew. As they got deeper and deeper into the setlist, the band had the entire room gettin' their groove thang's on. Turns out, dancing is fun. And !!! is one of the best live acts I've seen in a long time. Yes, even better than the hilariously snobbily nicknamed Snorah Jones by the Star Tribune. I think we can all agree, though -- we'd much rather see a picture of Canada's finest (see left) than a bunch of sweaty, dancing hipsters.

Lesson -- DANCE HIPSTER DANCE

the last baseball post of the season...

Congrats to the Chicago White Sox for winning it all, as well as, well, um, you be the judge...

no seriously, baseball is part of pop culture.

I just had to post this, because this picture is too hilarious to pass up. That's Scot Shields of the LA Angels, celebrating a good inning in game one of the ALCS, in which the Angels have played three games in the past three days, one in New York, the other in Anaheim, and this one in Chicago. Apparently he was dozing off in the 3rd inning. Ah, baseball + being tired = genius pictures.