A Day In The Life

If you like MinnPics, kindly oppose SOPA

2012-01-18T09:15:00.000-06:00

It is my understanding that websites which aggregate content would definitely be in a grey area when it comes to supposed piracy under the SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect Intelectual Property Act) bills proposed by congress. MinnPics is one of those websites. None of the content posted to MinnPics is mine. While it is all linked back to its original owner and is all user-contributed content openly available on the popular Yahoo-owned photo sharing website Flickr, the company which I use to host MinnPics could pull down the website in order to protect themselves in fear of further retribution under SOPA and PIPA.
While I highly doubt that it would actually come to a consequence so dire that MinnPics would cease to exist, imagine your favorite website going away because of either fear of lawsuits or actual lawsuits from people wielding far too much power under new and unjust legislation.

There definitely is a problem with piracy in America but such broad and generalized legislation like SOPA and PIPA is not the solution. With two major lobbyist groups (The Motion Picture Association of America - MPAA and Recording Industry Association of America - RIAA) fighting tooth and nail against the technological advances in the world since the late 1990s instead of embracing those advances and finding alternative business models maybe not entirely centered on those models but using them to their power they have instead sued the largest consumers of their products (music and movies) and obviously lobbied extremely hard to have the result be the SOPA and PIPA legislation being seriously considered by congress.

Instead of fighting change, it's time for the RIAA and MPAA to embrace the changes of the past decade and reinvent themselves or vanish enitrely. Maybe those two associations will go the way of Sears, KMart and numerous other retailers who failed to act swiftly in our increasingly online-centered world.

Call or write your U.S. senators and representatives and find out if they support or oppose SOPA and PIPA. If they support it and you oppose it, express your displeasure to them or leave a message expressing your displeasure. In the end, its passage in its current form could mean the end of many websites as well as the possibility that websites could vanish without due process under the fear of stiff penalties. I love curating MinnPics and don't make a single cent from it but would hate to have it vanish. Say no to SOPA and PIPA.

Who is Khloe Kardashian's daddy?

2012-01-12T21:31:00.001-06:00

I hate the Kardashians. They are annoying. Their voices and mannerisms grind on my every nerve. They are the picture of everything that is wrong with television in AMerica. However, they are also stupid famous because of being on TV. It's a vicious circle. But because of their fame, they also find themselves thrown into scandals. I like scandals because a good scandal is better than anything that can be dreamed up by a "reality" television producer.

Unfortunately, the scandal surrounding the supposed doubt about just who Khloe Kardashian's daddy is has me bored. Yeah, she's totally amazonian compared to her two smaller and annoying sisters featured on the endless string of shows on E! entertainment television. But she's really not much taller than her mother. You can't judge their heredity based on looks because, hell, they are the privileged few living in Beverly Hills or whatever exclusive suburb of Los Angeles and I highly doubt that there's anyone in that family who hasn't had some sort of plastic surgery done. It's painfully obvious that their step-dad, Bruce Jenner, had his done in the back of a windowless pedophile van.

So maybe Khloe has had her lips plumped with some ass far. Maybe her two prominent sisters have had their noses slimmed and re-shaped. Or maybe, and this is a big stretch, she just looks different from her siblings. I've seen how different people in large families can look and it's questionable if they all shared the same dad. So while a good scandal is interesting, this one pertaining to who Khloe Kardashian's real father is has no legs. Khloe Kardashian's father is -- wait for it -- most likely who she has always believed her father was, Robert Kardashian. But until the E! television channel vanishes as a whole our sad little country will be plagued with garbage about the paternity of celebrities.

Vikings football stadium in Shakopee - sounds good to me!

2012-01-11T10:06:00.000-06:00

Go-getter Mayor Brad Tabke of Shakopee -- after just a week or so on the job -- today heads to the Minnesota state capitol in St. Paul to make a pitch to legislators for a Minnesota Vikings football stadium in the southwest Twin Cities suburb of Shakopee. To me it fits well with Tabke's assertion in a newspaper column last week that Shakopee should embrace and expand upon its title of an entertainment capitol of sorts. For many years the city has hung its hat on seasonal venues such as Valleyfair, Canterbury Park and the Renaissance Festival as well as nearby Mystic Lake Casino but, as I hear a morning radio personality say today, a Vikings stadium in Shakopee makes the southwest suburb a weekend-long entertainment destination.

I like the idea of it but for plenty it's going to be a hard to pill to swallow. The area would need little in the way of infrastructure improvements and it might even serve to hasten improvements such as an elevated Minnesota River crossing at Highway 101. It could also serve to speed up the construction of a new Highway 41 in/around nearby Chaska. Extending the third southbound lane on U.S. Highway 169 for a few miles has to be a cheaper traffic solution than fixing the mess in and around Arden Hills. The best part of a Shakopee VIkings stadium is that it supposedly requires no taxpayer funding. All of the necessary funding (outside of the Wilfs contributions) would come from gaming revenue which is a logical fit with Canterbury Park virtually next door.

To this guy, 4 PM today can't come soon enough because Shakopee's Mayor Tabke is definitely a visionary and securing a Vikings stadium and building out the infrastructure improvements properly would keep Shakopee as a destination on a year-round basis. The city is well-situated from a location standpoint as a majority of Viking season ticketholders reside in the southwest metro making the drive to games far shorter than even to a downtown Minneapolis stadium. Throw in the city's rather progressive stance (for an outer ring suburb) on transit with the BlueXpress line and two sizeable transit stations and the pieces start to come together. Let's face it, a statium overlooking the Minnesota River along Highway 101 in Shakopee would be much nicer than the lack of scenery on the barren Army munitions plant grounds in Arden Hills.

So yeah, I'm all for a Vikings stadium in Shakopee.

New radio stations - thoughts on 96.3 KTWIN and Buz'n 102.9

2012-01-04T10:35:00.001-06:00

So far, 2012 has been a year of change. Locally speaking the Twin Cities have two new radio stations. But when I say new, that doesn't mean shit when it comes to radio stations because everything has already been done. That is painfully obvious when it comes to Buz'n 102.9. It's a horrible nickname for the new CBS-owned country music station which replaced the equally horrible Lite-FM on Christmas day. I guess it's all about choice for the country music fans in the cities but now with two big country stations to choose from it seems like people being able to choose from two Walmart stores. They both offer the same crap, the only differences being the employees and location. Maybe one Walmart has a more pleasant person working the deli counter so you choose that one but in the end you can get the same offerings either place so maybe you shop both of them. That's how exciting it is having two country station in the Twin Cities.

The second new radio offering is actually different. Gone is 96.3 Now (formerly hip-hop/R&B as B96) and their slightly more danceable mix of KDWB music and in its place is 96.3 K-TWIN. I first checked out the K-TWIN stream as I did some web design work Sunday evening and was intrigued. The station definitely has a bit of a rock and alternative lean to it but tends to lose me when they throw in an 80s track from Bon Jovi. K-TWIN definitely seems to favor artists like Adele, Kings of Leon and Foster the People while I've also heard Lily Allen, Foo Fighters and Red Hot Chili Peppers more than a few times.

Today (Wednesday) is the first day with live talent on 96.3 K-TWIN and I have been pleasantly surprised with the new morning show featuring KARE-11's Eric Perkins and Tony Fly with the future addition of Danni Starr. Fly and Starr, of course, were both on the previous incarnations of 96.3 and come with that baggage of a more "urban" lean and I've never been a fan of Tony Fly's performance on 96.3. He was terrible in trying to hold down a morning show when it was B96 and even worse in afternoons when the station became 96.3 Now. I'm not sure it was his grating voice or the schtick he tried to pass off.

Perkins, though, feels genuine right off the bat in his first day as a morning drive personality. Maybe it's because he's a personality people can relate to from his current gig on KARE-11 or maybe it's because Fly and Perkins actually work together well on the radio. I'm not sure when their morning show acually ends but they did recycle the two big interviews (Twins manager Ron Gardenhire and St. Paul mayor Chris Coleman) from earlier in the morning in the 9 o'clock hour which doesn't bode well for the first day. Go big right out of the gate, don't mail it in, guys.

Another thing I'm curious about is the involvement if Rick Kupchella's BringMeTheNews.com. Kupchella was in the studio with Fly and Perkins this morning, BMTN provides the twice an hour news segments during the 96.3 K-TWIN morning show and Eric Perkins is also employed by BMTN as a sports reporter. I smell some sort of deeper involvement beyond the purchasing of BMTN newscasts.

Overall, 96.3 KTWN-FM needs a little polishing (get your website up and running) but it should be able to carve out a niche as it refines its music format somewhat. It's different enough from Cities 97 (because it's actually energetic) and features the more upbeat tracks and artists from 89.3 The Current and it avoids the majority of the music played on KS95 and has, to this point, actually managed to hold true to its statement of playing music not found on the majority of stations in the Twin Cities. Add in Blink-182 playing as I finish writing this and I'll keep listening. 96.3 K-TWIN has the familiar music for me and 89.3 The Current covers the new music. Hopefully they can co-exist.

Annie Stensrud of KEYC-TV in Mankato nabbed for DWI

2011-12-22T14:03:00.000-06:00

Annie Stensrud -- Mankato, Minnesota's favorite nationally-known newscaster -- is back in the news again. After her early-December slurred speech newscast, the KEYC-TV weekend anchor has been off the air. But this morning she made headlines again in Mankato by being arrested for a probable cause DWI near her North Mankato home by Nicollet County authorities.

When, just weeks after a newscast that went viral due to her apparent drunk performance, you land yourself in the pages of the local newspaper for doing something (drinking and driving) which you adamantly denied in a statement released by your employer (being drunk at work), there is the makings of a pattern.

Annie Stensrud obviously has a problem. Maybe she has had a relationship turn sour and is using alcohol as a coping mechanism. Maybe there has been a death in the family which has hit her particularly hard.

Whatever the case, her original excuse of a reaction to cold medication doesn't seem to hold up given today's DWI arrest.

Maybe there's something more to the story. Check out her reporting reel/resume below and witness just how strong of a reporter she was in her days working for KAAL-TV in Austin, MN

Meat Nativity Scene - We Wish You a Meaty Christmas

2011-12-09T11:44:00.002-06:00

Being that I'm a red-blooded American and that I fall into stereotypes easily, I'll just admit that I am a fan of both Christmas and meat. It was only a matter of time until some brilliant bastard combined the birth of Jesus and meat products so that's what makes this meat nativity scene both awesome and expected.

Personally, I'm hankering for a large slice, slab or square of this meat nativity scene. The manger -- made of tasty cured bacon -- looks particularly appetizing.

Annie Stensrud of KEYC-Mankato drunk on air 12/4/11

2011-12-07T09:20:00.002-06:00

(KEYC's parent company -- United Communications -- has apparently scrubbed YouTube of the original newscast clips but this David Letterman clip showcases Annie Stensrud at her best.)

Wow. It boggles my mind how someone could show up to work obviously impaired and her co-workers let Annie Stensrud of KEYC-TV in Mankato go on the air. Whether she was drunk, on powerful cold medication or high as a kite from smoking a fat joint doesn't really matter.

This isn't the 1970s or even the 1980s. She isn't new at the job either as her bio details a series of TV stations she has been employed at. Don Shelby of WCCO-TV showed up for work very obviously drunk once early in his career in Minneapolis but went on to have a storied career. He made reparations and turned his life around and used his battle with alcohol to bring awareness to the subject. I highly doubt that Annie Stensrud -- anchoring weekends in Mankato -- is destined for greatness but I could be wrong. I do know that an impaired performance like this gets at least a few people talking and will be hard to explain down the road to future employers. I hope that this was a one-time deal and that she had simply taken too much cold medication but I have my doubts.

Since you're obviously interested in Minnesota happenings, check out MinnPics. It's the best of the best of photos from all over Minnesota! (even some from Mankato)

Gone is November, one project is good enough to debut

2011-12-06T13:08:00.000-06:00

This year has simply flown by and I'm not quite sure where the time has gone. Maybe it's because I've been off doing all sorts of time-consuming projects (three of which I'm almost finished with, only 33 to go!). Or maybe the time has flown because I'm getting older.

This isn't going to be me lamenting over tedious parts of my life that I have no business sharing with anyone outside of a doctor's examination room (don't worry, folks, no erectile dysfunction here...) but I'm starting to feel old.

Oh sure, most of the world's population (okay, maybe it's more like 65%) is older than me but the whole age thing comes creeping up. It's getting harder to hide the fact that I eat like shit and drink like a horse like a horse who had just galloped through the entirety of the Mojave Desert. (Busted, I don't even drink that much). Weight has never been an issue for me but now I find myself standing in front of the mirror jiggling my slowly expanding gut. Hell, I just ate 3/4 lb. of smoked pork while I've been writing this so maybe I need to begin with portion control. I totally blew off my burgeoning jogging routine this year because we were busy most night pitching in watching our four young nephews a few nights each week while their mother worked nights and their dad worked 12-15 hour days. A few nights of that left me wanting to do nothing more than relax. Couple that with the sweltering summer we had here in Minnesota and outdoor time wasn't exactly in the cards -- especially for extraneous physical activity.

See, I have an excuse for everything.

Once August rolled around, we began working on some pretty exciting online ventures. Those have sucked up more time than I ever thought possible. I spent early weekend mornings and plenty of nights getting three of the intended four ventures off the ground and, in the process, taught myself the basics of Wordpress, some rudimentary PHP skills and learned still more about CSS. Yep, pretty nerdy stuff and those projects are nowhere near perfect yet but like plenty of things I do they are a work in progress.

I took some vacation time (four days to be exact) to catch up on household work. My yard was totally clean as the first snow fell back before Thanksgiving. I manufactured and installed some new exterior trim which was terribly deteriorated after only 40-some years and built my old lady a walk-in closet. Sure, it doesn't have a door installed yet or any texture on the drywall but that son of a bitch is built!

And because our plan for a new two stall garage is a distant dream, I sprung instead for a garage door opener on Black Friday and, pending a missing part thanks to the monkeys who can't package shit at Chamberlain's Chinese manufacturing headquarters, I am stuck with an inoperable garage door opener for the time being. (See, that one is actually out of my control)

All told, the past few month's work is all leading up to a plan to supplement our income. It's all part of that American spirit. Entrepreneurship at its finest. We both rather enjoy what we do and are, for the most part, happy with our lot in life but we also want to restore our grand old home to its former glory and give it some much-needed curb appeal which all begins with a facelift to the old three-season porch spanning its width. It's the biggest project (even compared to the bathroom we gutted and rebuilt) we plan on tackling and it requires a lot of things to fall into place. But with some luck and a lot of extra effort it's going to happen. So help us to make it happen.

So spread the word about Minnesota Recipes. In short, it's an always growing collection of, for lack of a better word, heirloom recipes. They've been dug out of dusty drawers, book cases and out of print and decades old homemakers and church cookbooks. We've been busy typing recipes from old recipe cards tagged with the names of people I faintly recall from my years growing up on the family farm. We've also been busy trying some of these crazy sounding recipes for the sole purpose of photographing them and giving them our own stamp of approval in the process. It's all a lofty order when both are saddled with full-time day jobs and a now three year-old who is as loud and curious as she is cute.

Sure, Minnesota Recipes is far from perfect but I've learned a ton along the way. I learned the quirks of certain Wordpress plugins. I learned that SEO is a real bitch to crack sometimes. I learned that it's easy as hell to get frustrated when the results of your hard work are slow to turn in to something more substantial. Beware that when you visit Minnesota Recipes that I am scraping up bits of time here and there to fill out the missing bits of information. Descriptions of many of the recipes are missing when viewed in search engines due to my learning on the fly. Photos are slow to come because there's only so much food a family of three can afford to cook and eat.

All told, though, I'm becoming happier with the fruits of my labor. This is my first full Wordpress website. Creating it, though, has secured a future for myself at my job because I have that skillset ready to use at a moment's notice.

Hey, if anyone reading this knows more about CSS than I do, maybe you can lend a hand as you'll probably notice a couple elements still somewhat out of place on the main page of Minnesota Recipes. Feel free to drop me a line, I would greatly appreciate a few minutes of your amazing skills!

Thanks, though, for following my projects and to a certain extent my life. Hopefully Minnesota Recipes grows as quickly as MinnPics did -- or even faster! And don't think for a moment that I'll forget about MinnPics. That website is my little baby. I love photography and I love seeing and sharing what other photographers across Minnesota are up to. Curating MinnPics has taught me more than I could ever dream of and has spurred both me and my wife to become better photographers and find the hidden photographic gems in our own little corner of Minnesota.

Now that's some hot chili

2011-11-14T09:51:00.000-06:00

While I'm guessing that plenty of people around the world have had this e-mail forwarded to them, I though I'd share it with everyone. No, it's not the first time I've read this likely made-up account of a judge's report during a New Mexico chili cookoff but it's worth reading it again. Plus it gives me a goal for my own chili.

*******

New Mexico Chili Cookoff

If you can read this whole story without laughing, then there's no hope for you. I was crying by the end. This is an actual account as relayed to paramedics at a chili cook-off in New Mexico .

For those of you who have lived in New Mexico , you know how true this is. They actually have a Chili Cook-off about the time Halloween comes around. It takes up a major portion of a parking lot at the Santa Fe Plaza . Judge #3 was an inexperienced Chile taster named Frank, who was visiting from Smithton , Missouri . Frank: “Recently, I was honored to be selected as a judge at a chili cook-off.. The original person called in sick at the last moment and I happened to be standing there at the judge's table, asking for directions to the Coors Light truck, when the call came in. I was assured by the other two judges (Native New Mexicans) that the chili wouldn't be all that spicy; and, besides, they told me I could have free beer during the tasting, so I accepted and became Judge #3..”

-Here are the scorecard notes from the event:

CHILI # 1 - MIKE'S MANIAC MONSTER CHILI

Judge # 1 -- A little too heavy on the tomato. Amusing kick.

Judge # 2 -- Nice, smooth tomato flavor. Very mild.

Judge # 3 (Frank) -- Holy crap, what the hell is this stuff? You could remove dried paint from your driveway. Took me two beers to put the flames out. I hope that's the worst one. These New Mexicans are crazy.

CHILI # 2 - EL RANCHO'S AFTERBURNER CHILI

Judge # 1 -- Smoky, with a hint of pork. Slight jalapeno tang.

Judge # 2 -- Exciting BBQ flavor, needs more peppers to be taken seriously.

Judge # 3 -- Keep this out of the reach of children. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to taste besides pain. I had to wave off two people who wanted to give me the Heimlich maneuver. They had to rush in more beer when they saw the look on my face.

CHILI # 3 - ALFREDO'S FAMOUS BURN DOWN THE BARN CHILI

Judge # 1 -- Excellent firehouse chili. Great kick.

Judge # 2 -- A bit salty, good use of peppers.

Judge # 3 -- Call the EPA. I've located a uranium spill. My nose feels like I have been snorting Drano. Everyone knows the routine by now. Get me more beer before I ignite. Barmaid pounded me on the back, now my backbone is in the front part of my chest. I'm getting sh*t-faced from all of the beer.

CHILI # 4=2 0- BUBBA'S BLACK MAGIC

Judge # 1 -- Black bean chili with almost no spice. Disappointing.

Judge # 2 -- Hint of lime in the black beans. Good side dish for fish or other mild foods, not much of a chili.

Judge # 3 -- I felt something scraping across my tongue, but was unable to taste it. Is it possible to burn out taste buds? Sally, the beer maid, was standing behind me with fresh refills. This 300 lb. Woman is starting to look HOT ... Just like this nuclear waste I'm eating! Is chili an aphrodisiac?

CHILI # 5 - LISA'S LEGAL LIP REMOVER

Judge # 1 -- Meaty, strong chili. Jalapeno peppers freshly ground, adding considerable kick. Very impressive.

Judge # 2 -- Chili using shredded beef, could use more tomato. Must admit the jalapeno peppers make a strong statement.

Judge # 3 -- My ears are ringing, sweat is pouring off my forehead and I can no longer focus my eyes. I farted, and four people behind me needed paramedics. The contestant seemed offended when I told her that her chili had given me brain damage. Sally saved my tongue from bleeding by pouring beer directly on it from the pitcher. I wonder if I'm burning my lips off. It really ticks me off that the other judges asked me to stop screaming. Screw them.

CHILI # 6 - VARGA'S VERY VEGETARIAN VARIETY

Judge # 1 -- Thin yet bold vegetarian variety chili.. Good balance of spices and peppers.

Judge # 2 -- The best yet. Aggressive use of peppers, onions, garlic. Superb.

Judge # 3 -- My intestines are now a straight pipe filled with gaseous, sulfuric flames. I crapped on myself when I farted, and I'm worried it will eat through the chair. No one seems inclined to stand behind me except that Sally. Can't feel my lips anymore. I need to wipe my butt with a snow cone.

CHILI # 7 - SUSAN'S SCREAMING SENSATION CHILI

Judge # 1 -- A mediocre chili with too much reliance on canned peppers.

Judge # 2 -- Ho hum, tastes as if the chef literally threw in a can of chili peppers at the last moment. **I should take note that I am worried about Judge #3. He appears to be in a bit of distress as he is cursing uncontrollably.

Judge # 3 -- You could put a grenade in my mouth, pull the pin, and I wouldn't feel a thing. I've lost sight in one eye, and the world sounds like it is made of rushing water. My shirt is covered with chili, which slid unnoticed out of my mouth. My pants are full of lava to match my shirt. At least during the autopsy, they'll know what killed me. I've decided to stop breathing. It's too painful. Screw it; I'm not getting any oxygen anyway. If I need air, I'll just suck it in through the 4-inch hole in my stomach.

CHILI # 8 - BIG TOM'S TOENAIL CURLING CHILI

Judge # 1 -- The perfect ending, this is a nice blend chili. Not too bold but spicy enough to declare its existence.

Judge # 2 -- This final entry is a good, balanced chili. Neither mild nor hot. Sorry to see that most of it was lost when Judge #3 farted, passed out, fell over and pulled the chili pot down on top of himself. Not sure if he's going to make it. Poor fella, wonder how he'd have reacted to really hot chili?

Judge # 3 -- No report.

It's time to fix our crumbling country

2011-11-03T16:37:00.000-05:00

I don't have the skills to patch a street. I definitely don't have the equipment or money in my usually barren checking account to repair a street but with the steadily crumbling state of our country's infrastructure it isn't exactly a far off nightmare that soon residents will be responsible for maintaining and improving our roadways -- and that doesn't mean paying money to have a big time construction company to do the work. It means that we'll be dragging a shovel and a bucket out in front of our respective houses and fixing our roads, highways and streets the old school way.

But why is that?

It's mainly because states have less funding available to maintain and improve our infrastructure.

But why do the states have less money to pay for upkeep and improvements to our highways and other infrastructure items?

Because the states along with certain local governments are busy trying to scrape together funding for billion dollar stadiums used ten days per year (think Minnesota Vikings and billionaire owner Zygi Wilf) and they have been given less funding by the federal government.

But why doesn't the federal government have enough money to provide money to the states to distribute to individual cities to maintain local infrastructure?

Skyrocketing unemployment. A decade fighting two wars. Wasteful military spending. Money shipped overseas to save aspects of other countries who may not exactly deserve saving. Take your pick.

I'm not advocating that we cut off all foreign aide. Natural disasters happen and those people are merely victims of their surroundings. Nobody deserves to die after their country has deen decimated by a tsunami, earthquake or drought but, while it seems selfish to say, it may be time to take a second look at how we are spending money overseas. It is definitely time to examine military spending. Shut down top-secret programs because if I don't know what the money is being spent on it probably isn't necessary spending. Yeah, we still need to defend our country against real or perceived evils which may threaten our friends and neighbors either directly or indirectly. However, it needs to be done on a budget. Shit, I'd like to have new siding on my house but a coat of paint will give the exterior a nice facelift. I'm choosing that route because it saves money and I have to live within my means. I'd like a Mac Mini to set up as a home media center but, again, I have a budget. Money is not infinite. And the money that our country can spend is not infinite either.

It's time to look inward and start taking care of the country that took over 200 years to build up to its current point. It's either that or let it go to shit and sell it to China. There are ways to get these jobs done. There's always prison labor...

How I justify my hatred for "Whitney"

2011-10-14T10:33:00.001-05:00

Some thing are more frustrating than others. For instance, I have a love/hate relationship with television. I ponied up an additional $1.99/month for HD channels on my main TV but I hate the bulk of what is shown. There are entire blocks of channels which I would never consider watching. (Bravo and A&E, I'm looking at you) But yet I continue to pay an exorbitant rate per month to my cable company for this drivel. But then there's the Disney Channel, it helps me get ready for work in the morning because I can plop the little one down in front of The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and for the most part she stays entertained.

But there are certain nights when nothing is the least bit compelling. I catch up on the somewhat imposing stack of past issues of Rolling Stone, do some website design and pay some bills. It beats watching garbage but last night it all came to a head for me.

8:30 PM rolled around, bring with it the conclusion of that particular episode of The Office. With that came Whitney. The first thing that irritates me about that show is the obvious, excessive and annoying laughtrack. Nobody, even threatened with death, would laugh at the lines which are punctuated by far too much laughter. The second thing that grinds my gears is her mouth. Whitney Cummings has an excessively wide mouth. As we commented in the office yesterday, it's specially designed for placing certain objects in it (think large sandwiches, zuchinnis, multiple penises, etc.). The writing of the show is one gigantic stereotype. If I were the boyfriend in that particular relationship I'd probably just have one last vigorous roll in the hay with her and kick her to the curb because she is annoying, grating, coarse, vulgar and maybe a bit low on the intelligence scale.

The disappointing part is that due to this dreadful, lowest common denominator shitfest being on NBC (America's lowest-rated real network -- the CW doesn't count) it has already been given a full season pickup. That means that the few who still watch that particular portion of NBC's Thursday night schedule will be subjected to a full 22 episodes of Whitney, the worst sitcom to land on NBC in the past five years.

I know I'm not alone in loathing Whitney because it tends to lose about 40% of the ratings its lead-in, The Office. But I'm just one guy but I know I'm not alone in hoping for 30 Rock to make its triumphant return to its rightful Thursday night spot on the NBC schedule.

The pathetic state of pro/collegiate sports in Minnesota

2011-10-05T13:23:00.000-05:00

Just how bad is the sports landscape in Minnesota right now? Our baseball team, the Minnesota Twins, just wrapped up a season in which more than a few people were rooting for the Twins to lose 100 games. Hey, I was rooting for that too because if you're going to have a wretched season, go big!
Then there's the Minnesota Vikings. They are an embarrassment to football teams. The 0-4 Vikings, though, think their shit doesn't stink and are still lobbying for a brand new nearly $1 billion stadium built in north bumfuck nowhere (Arden Hills). Clearly, owner Zygi Wilf needs to pony up the majority of the cash needed for his playground for millionaires because if this stadium would be put to a vote, my thinking is that it would fail. If the Vikings want to make something out of this year, either pull dreadful quarterback Donovan McNabb and replace him with Christian Ponder or shoot for a winless, 0-16 season. Once again, go big.

The Minnesota Timberwolves, probably the worst NBA team in the league, won't be missed when the NBA season, in its entirety, is canceled in a few weeks because the greedy players can't concede a few million dollars to the greedy owners. If time machines worked, I'd get in one and go back to 1992 or 1994 or whenever it was and applaud the team's impending sale to an owner in New Orleans. At least then the team would be Louisiana's problem.

The Minnesota Wild are, at best, a mediocre hockey team. They had that amazing playoff run in 2002 or 2003 but that was a fluke. Every other team simply fell apart at the perfect moment for the Wild and the team came together and won when they needed to. That doesn't happen any more. The Wild are perpetual cellar dwellers in the NHL's northwest division and no longer draw sellout crowds. They better improve or they could very well go the way of the Minnesota Northstars.

Then there's the Minnesota Gophers football team. They are the joke of the Big Ten conference. If the Big Ten had their way, maybe they would trade the U of M for North Dakota State University because the Fighting Sioux have shown that they are capable of beating the Golden Gophers. If I were a betting man I'd say that the Gophers football team wins a mere one more game - either beating Northwestern or Illinois - but coach Jerry Kill gets to keep his job because he's a legitimate coach and simply inherited a total mess of a team.

But the one bright spot in Minnesota sports are the Minnesota Lynx. They play tonight in the second game of the WNBA finals against Atlanta. The Lynx are for real and I have faith that they will provide the only national championship this year and definitely the only winning season in Minnesota sports this year. Go Lynx!

Avoid The X Factor at all costs

2011-09-21T10:19:00.002-05:00

Yippee. Tonight is the debut of some singing show called The X Factor. I hear that it features some British guy named SImon Cowell. He apparently used to be at the front of some other singing show entitled American Idol. Apparently both of these singing shows are on some American television network named FOX and center around people's dreams coming true or being crushed when it comes to their vocal prowess.

Alright. I can't actually pretend not to know what either if these shows are but I can honestly say I only watched the very first season of American Idol which produced the only true pop star from the series (Kelly Clarkson) but The X Factor is different. Simon Cowell will let his dickish self shine through. He is free to be an utter prick to kids as young as twelve. He can sport his black tees from Baby Gap in front of the same fucking mindless drones who watch the incessant drivel that is American Idol except now people can get their weekly dose of public belittling of people who have no business singing for about nine straight months.

In short, I know that tens of millions of brain dead Americans will watch the lowest common denominator programming which The X Factor certainly is. It's a cruel program but it's also somewhat real. Sure, the producers are scouring the lines of potential contestants looking for those who are sure to embarrass themselves. They are desperate to find the person who is so oblivious to their own lack of talent that they will eagerly belt out two or three horrendously off-key lines to an already horrid pop song that Simon Cowell will be chomping at the bit to belittle this contestant who needs to be belittled but should probably be belittled in a more private setting.

Hey, I have no problem with cruel. I'm a rather cruel person but The X Factor is a semi-scripted attempt at reality competition television. If they have to show this drivel, show it uncut. That would be true reality. Show it without the producers coaching potential contestants. Show it unedited and unfiltered. It will always be edited in a way that's flattering to the judges -- particularly Simon Cowell who overflows with pretentiousness -- but I hope and pray that Americans will return to scripted television and this year is the year to do just that.

NBC actually has a solid hour of comedy tonight with Up All Night and Free Agents starting off the night and ABC has an hour both of The Middle and Modern Family tonight so ditch the shitty "reality" singing contests and appreciate the fact that creative and sharp writing teamed with legitimate actors is a superior alternative to a TV landscape littered with mindless drones looking for their fifteen minutes of fame.

Fall TV season is here already?!?

2011-09-14T07:14:00.000-05:00

Last night seemed to be the unofficial start of the fall television season. Rather than watch the repeated, mindless drivel offered up on basic cable, I flipped to The CW and caught the series premier of The Ringer featuring the return of Sarah Michelle Gellar to network television. I always head into anything on The CW with low expectations and while The Ringer featured some downright shitty green screen work early in the pilot episode, the overall plot was full of mystery and intrigue and wrapped up with some terrific action. I am fairly confident that the series can sustain its intriguing plot of identical twins where one seems determined to have the other killed while the more affluent has staged her own death and is plotting to off her troubled and estranged twin who has assumed the other's identity.

Starting tonight, though, NBC is rolling out its new Wednesday night comedy offerings. While I'm not exactly shouting from the rooftops about Up All Night or Free Agents there is beginning to be some buzz around Up All Night and even one article I saw stating that it's the first good show about a baby. On the flip side, Free Agents is just dreadful looking. It's a cheap retread of a British sitcom of the same name and it stars Hank Azaria, otherwise known as strike one. The second strike is that it's on NBC. The third strike, well watch for yourself as NBC's new Wednesday night comedies debut tonight at 9 PM C/T and find out for yourself just how dreadful Free Agents is.

Reflection, layoffs and a dumb video

2011-09-12T22:03:00.000-05:00

The past two weeks have been a time of reflection for me. Maybe it's because a girl I worked with in high school began a class of 90-whatever group page. It's sort of cool to see how infrequently most of my former classmates make it back to the city we grew up in. Hey, I've been back three or four times this year and it's about a 90 minute drive so I'm no better than any of them. It's also interesting to see what became of them. It seems like the general rule is that most of my former classmates have two kids, are married and are gainfully employed. Ten years ago I never would have imagined that most of these people were capable of holding down a job and being parents. Hell, I can barely make it through some days but it seems like I am working two or three jobs some days. Not that I'm complaining.

And that leads me to my second area of reflection. A co-worker of eight years (he had been with our employer for 13 years) was laid off on Friday. I knew nothing good was going to come of us being called in to the conference room and I already had it figured out when I walked past my co-worker's cubicle. It's the second layoff in my department in two months. Layoffs are always brutal. This guy has a family. He has a house. He has financial responsibilities. He has a pre-teen daughter. He has a house. His wife owns her own business and was hit particularly hard during this depression (let's fucking face it, this isn't a recession, recessions end). I don't know how he's handling things. I plan on calling him at some point this week just because I'm quickly beginning to realize that my job could very well be the next and it never hurts to have a strong network.

It sounds bleak to say that and as much as I joked in a text to my old lady late Friday about running my family farm being closer than I had ever imagined, it's always our plan D. And plan D is close because we don't exactly have a plan B or plan C.

I could probably get more reflective but instead I'll give you an insanely annoying but addictive video professing one's love for farm equipment... weird.

New Minnesota license plates not worth the hassle

2011-09-01T10:53:00.000-05:00

On Monday I finally made the journey to the DMV (or whatever it's currently called) to pay for my 2012 license tabs. Yes, I was about a month late buying these and no I don't care that I'm a reckless scofflaw. Come and get me coppers!

But the official 2012 license tab renewal meant not only the little yellow 2012 stickers but new license plates. Normally I like most anything new but when I saw the new plates I expressed my displeasure regarding them. Why did I need new license plates? My current license plates were more than legible and looked like new even on my 9 year old car. I like the very real look of the raised letters and numbers and they're even reflective. Sure, the new computer generated license plates are cheaper to manufacture but what about their longevity. Will the computer generated letters and numbers outlast the machine-stamped reflective letters and number which the State of Minnesota is phasing out?

That's another discussion fro another day, though. My real beef ended up being with installing the new license plates. Around 7 PM I ventured out into my driveway with a screwdriver and my new fake-looking license plates. I figured I'd spend about five minutes on this seemingly pointless task and be able to move on to other, more important tasks. I firmly dug my old screwdriver into the rusty phillips head screw and began turning. The only problem being that the screwdriver turned and the screw failed to do so. Apparently Toyota hadn't realized the value of zinc coated screws nine years ago.

So I sprayed some trusty WD-40 on the rusty screws and waited. Again I applied far more pressure than should be needed to budge a screw and failed once again to loosen either screw. Then one of the screws sort of pulled through the old license plate leaving it dangling by one rusty screw. Getting angry now, I twisted and pulled and the license plate -- eventually snapping it off leaving the rusty screws still anchored through the plastic "bumper" and through the rusty metal u-clamp which holds the license plate to the car.

I tried a vise grip and failed. I tried my cordless drill/screwdriver and failed and eventually, after almost an hour, I got one screw out. I don't remember how it came free but I do remember some stupid girl trying to sell books door to door being on the receiving end of my frustration. Couldn't she tell by my almost constant grunting and cursing that I was busy? In the end the second u-clamp pulled through the plastic "bumper" and I have the State of Minnesota to blame for this ordeal. Should I send them a bill for wasting 90 minutes of my time I could have spent on freelance work? After all, they felt that I needed these new, fake-looking license plates. Oh, and they do absolutely nothing to improve the aesthetics of my black car.

3 things to remember when you get older

2011-08-23T11:28:00.000-05:00

Every day we probably all think of things that we should remember down the road a stretch. But how many of us actually remember those bits of information for a later date? In lieu of taking actual notes, I though I'd put those wise bits of information right here for all to see.

You can never tell your children something too many times.
SUre, you're going to come off as a broken record when you tell them, for the twentieth time, that it's not safe to hitch a ride with a stranger unless they have a sharp knife or can of mace close at hand but beating some words of wisdom into a child's brain is better than finding out that they've spent four long months in the bottom of Buffalo Bill's well in his creepy sex dungeon. It's just common sense. Oh, and don't take candy from strangers.

Your kid(s) will have premarital sex.
You did it too so don't think you're better than everyone else. If you think that your teenager isn't already fooling around in their car, in the local cemetery, in a deserted barn or underneath the bleachers at their high school's football field you are fooling yourself. Talk to your kid about sex. Yeah, it's gonna be hella awkward and you'll probably find yourself alluding to bumble bees or bananas but it sure beats that excruciating weekend you had back in 11th grade when you waited for your girlfriend's Aunt Flow to come-a-knocking.

It's never too early to think about your own death.
Get a plan together. Your own death is nothing fun to plan for and yes, you have to pay even to die but it's part of the circle of life (or death in this case) so at least have a list of who gets what. I know that everyone in your family will be fighting over the rights to take home that killer collector plate that says you did in fact tackle the biggest burger in the west and won.

Nobody will miss George Lopez

2011-08-11T11:38:00.000-05:00

In the suddenly cluttered world of late-night talk shows, there isn't much of an audience. Of course there are the regular viewers such as college students, second-shift workers, prostitutes with time between tricks, insomniacs, drug addicts and senior citizens who get up REALLY early but in the grand scheme of things those aren't truly huge numbers. And none of those segments of the population are going to sit through two or more hours of late-night talk shows. Especially when you factor in all of the late-night talk show choices. There's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Conan O'Brien, The Colbert Report, David Letterman, Nightline, Jay Leno, Chelsea Handler's Chelsea Lately, Jay Leno's Tonight Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Jimmy Fallon, Craig Ferguson and Last Call with Carson Daly.

Throw George Lopez in the mix and that adds up to a whopping 14 late-night talk/comedy show options. Even for a couch potato with a drug habit and insomnia that's overload. Most working-class folks are in bed, at the latest, by 11 PM (here in the central time zone, at least) and that leaves, at the mmost, an hour of late-night viewing potential. The simple fact is that people are still hard-wired to think that only the big three networks have late-night talk show options. Yeah, Conan's departure from NBC at least helped a few people to remember that the little cable outlet TBS has late-night talk as well but habits are hard to change.

I, for one, love Conan's style of entertainment but I almost always forget he's even an option. Out of habit, I flip my TV to WCCO and start getting ready for bed. I can count the number of times on one hand that I've remembered that Conan is on at 10 PM also. That fact alone said that, unless TBS was willing to lose money to keep an original program on the air, George Lopez's Lopez Tonight was destined for cancellation.

With tonight being the final episode of Lopez Tonight, I truly doubt that even a sliver of the population will miss his show in a month. Nobody will miss George Lopez beause nobody knew he was even on TV. Sadly, I can see Conan meeting the same fate in a year or two unless either Letterman or Leno retires. There just ins't enough audience at 10 PM or 10:30 PM who are willing to stick around for a complete hour of talk and comedy.

How much do you pee in a year?

2011-08-03T13:06:00.001-05:00

I have a ton of random thoughts in the course of a day and I know I could easily Google the answer for this question but reading as I break down the variables which lead to an answer is much, much more fun.

I figure I pee about 7 times each day. On weekends it's less, maybe 6. Chalk that up to not being within walking distance of a cold water dispenser. Sure, if I'm home I'm probably closer to my drinking water spigot but I like water from my Brita water pitcher and that requires filling it so I probably end up a bit under-hydrated on the weekends. The total number of times I estimate that I pee in the course of a week is 47. That's a lot of flushes.

But the quantity of pee from those 47 trips to ye olde piss trough is still missing. If I had to guess I'd estimate that I piss out about 1.5 ounces each trip (1 1/2 tablespoons). If you extrapolate that out over 52 weeks the end result is a whopping 229.125 GALLONS of pee in the course of a year.

The number I had in my head before I set out to write this was approximately 50 gallons. To give you a visual of what approximately 50 gallons is, envision a steel barrel. Those are commonly referred to (by my dad) as 55 gallon drums. He uses them to store used motor oil and burn trash in. But can you imagine, if you're freaky enough, saving your pee in those very same barrels and having 4 completely full barrels full of urine. To say that's alot of piss is an understatement.

And I haven't even figured in the occasional beer bash, St. Patrick's Day, Cinco De Mayo, Fourth of July, $3 dollar pitcher night and tailgating during football season. Factor the multitude of times each year that you drink in excess and seem to have to pee every 45 minutes and you are only increasing that yearly urine volume. It's disgusting but I have a feeling that my figures are eerily accurate.

What's going on here?

2011-08-03T11:17:00.000-05:00

In an effort of full disclosure, I thought I'd give anyone out there reading who gives a damn about the multitude of projects I have launched in the past an update on some of the cool things I'm currently working on.
Anyone who has followed me for a while knows that I'm a huge fan of photos -- especially those taken in Minnesota because that's where I live. If you're doubting me, just take a look at MinnPics and you'll see over three years of daily photo aggregation from a whole host of amazing photographers from all over Minnesota.

I've also dabbled with showcasing some of my own work on a couple Tumblr projects -- Minnesota River Flood and Minnesota River Valley. The first was a short-term project capturing photos of the 2011 spring flood along the Minnesota River and opining about the lack of response in the area where I live. The Minnesota River Valley photo project was much happier in tone and, while posting has been sporadic, I plan on holding on to both of these Tumblr blogs because it's part of who I am. Nothing is going to be going away right away but depending on what works and what doesn't, something might have to be sunsetted out of necessity. It's the sad reality but don't get down because the coolest things are yet to come.

But like everyone else, I am diversifying and playing on my strengths. In the next month (give or take a few weeks) I will be making a pretty cool addition to MinnPics. I'm also cooking up some more in-depth ideas for MinnPics too but those have additional hurdles which I am not ready to bite off quite yet.

My second project, and by far the most labor-intensive, is breathing life into something that foodies will particularly enjoy and probably non-foodies too. Without divulging too much, I'll simply state that this project, like my others, will have a uniquely Minnesotan flare to it.

The final project is reviving one which I haphazardly launched a few years ago but let shrivel up and dry. The difference now is that I have an actual plan for this new website and its reach will be broader and its purpose much more refined. It's all about something most everyone has used and I am rushing to get this one done. So much so that it's consuming the bulk of my free time at home.

Realistically I'm planning on having each of these three websites/website additions launched by October but some will debut later, others earlier. Rarely do I get hugely excited over the mere potential for my online projects because I'm a realist but I'm going to be hugely proud -- regardless of the level of success -- of this MinnPics addition. I should have done it a year ago but was finally prodded by my wife to make it a reality. The food-related project was hatched out of my own sense of humor but refined into something more logical and I'm already proud of the accomplishments being made. It's huge in the truest sense of the word. Think mountains of content.

But that's about all I'm willing to say. I'll have full details when the first website is launched but until then I'll be busy working behind the scenes making sure everything is functional. These are my newest babies and they're about to be born into an already crowded household and even more crowded online planet. I hope that they thrive.

Donovan McNabb to bring Campbell's Chunky to Minnesota

2011-07-27T10:45:00.000-05:00

For whatever reason, there is plenty of talk centering around whether or not Washington Redskins quarterback and Campbell's Chunky soup spokesman Donovan McNabb will land the starting QB spot with the floundering Minnesota Vikings football team.

While it would be great for the Minnesota Vikings to land a journeyman player of Donovan McNabb's caliber, it is typical. Think about the recent history regarding the Minnesota Vikings quarterback position: Brett Favre, Warren Moon, Rich Gannon, Brad Johnson, Randall Cunningham...

These are all names who were in the final throes of their NFL careers. Sure, Brett Favre thinks he can return to the National Football League but that concussion on the cement-like turf at the University of Minnesota's TCF Bank Stadium last December was probably the final on-filed action that Mr. Penis Photo Texter will see.

Donovan McNabb might have two or three years left in him but the big problem with bringing in a veteran quarterback is that the up-and-comer (in this case Christian Ponder and to a lesser extent Joe Webb) isn't going to see much in the way of playing time. The entire purpose of the NFL season is to win games and if Donovan McNabb puts the Minnesota Vikings within reach of a win during any game he will stay in the game because he's a proven player and a proven player always wins out over an unproven prospect.

That the way of the Minnesota Vikings. They are 100% unable to groom a rookie quarterback because they are always chasing some old-timer graybush quarterback in hopes of making yet another failed Superbowl run.

To make this arrangement work, Christian Ponder needs to play approximately 75% of the time during the pre-season and play at least 15 minutes of each regular season game. Let's face it, the Minnesota Vikings are not a Superbowl caliber football team and have absolutely nothing to lose.

Oh, and everybody can shut the fuck up about the Minnesota Vikings stadium debate because someway, somehow, yet another stadium will get built. It will fuck over taxpayers somewhere and the state legislature will be dumb enough to fuck over their constituents yet again but it will happen because the drunken mouthbreathers among us think that football is the be-all, end-all and supporting millionaires and billionaires is totally acceptable.

So bring on the Campbell's Chunky soup and get ready for the Minnesota Vikings to run up a 9-7 record and miss the playoffs again this year.

Amy Winehouse: the ticking time bomb

2011-07-25T12:23:00.000-05:00

When I heard via a friend's smart phone late Saturday evening that Amy Winehouse had been found dead, I made some off-color remark about her death. You'd have to be an idiot if you didn't see her death coming from a mile away. Hell, I'm surprised that she held on this long. I had her in my death pool as far back as 2008.

But nobody at 27 years old deserves to die. It's sad to think that she peaked years earlier after winning a couple of Grammys for "Rehab" which was both catchy and an ode to her defiant, booze- and drug-fueled lifestyle. She had a ton of potential as an artist. Unfortunately she was surrounded with enablers.

To see that former druggie Russell Brand referred to Amy Winehouse as a "Fucking genius" may very well be true. It's just that, outside of her Grammy-winning "Rehab", we never saw that genius. Instead, we were treated to photos of her looking like death's sick cousin. Winehouse was often photographed wearing lingerie in public -- looking like she had no idea where she even was. She sported a tattoo in script that read "Blake" which was like a love note for her on-again off-again boyfriend Blake Fielder Civil. Sadly, their love of drugs was far stronger than their love for each other but when you're both fucked out of your minds on heroin you only care about your next fix and surpassing the high of the last one. Hell, it was pretty obvious that drugs were what kept them together and tore them apart and it is a decent guess that she died of a heroin overdose. I'll be shocked if the cause of death is something else.

It seems to me that, at least in part, Amy Winehouse didn't want to be helped. Maybe she was one of those types that felt that the heroin brought her creativity. Maybe Winehouse felt that the world would be better without her -- a sort of inferiority complex. Maybe she simply liked to tempt fate as reckless rock stars sometimes do. Whatever the case, she joined the 27 club this weekend along with the likes of Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix.

As one writer put it this weekend, "Why couldn't it have been Pete Doherty who died instead?"

Alison Brie of Community rocks some cleavage-bearing lingerie for GQ

2011-07-15T08:55:00.000-05:00

I'm a huge fan of the NBC comedy Community. Sure, Joel McHale's Jeff Winger character is the definitive star of the series which enters its third season in September but the ensemble cast has others of star quality.

Take, for example, Donald Glover who plays Troy and his counterpart and weird friend Abed, played by Danny Pudi. Their running gag of a fictional show entitled Troy and Abed in the Morning is pure genius but the real underrated players in the ensemble cast are the neurotic Annie played by the sexy Alison Brie and the too-cool-for-the-room hipster Brita played by Gillian Jacobs.

Those two are so outstanding in their second fiddle roles that they landed a photo shoot for GQ magazine in which the dripping with sexuality duo dressed up in some seductive lingerie for a pin-up style photo. No, there were no nipples peeking through in the photos and there was no visible Alison Brie camel toe that I noticed but you have to appreciate pin-up photography. It's seductive but classy

I say that if you like good comedy check out Community Thursdays at 7 PM C/T on NBC and if you like good looking ladies who are funny as hell, still check out Community because it's definitely better than its comedy competition of The Big Bang Theory.

The Office adds James Spader

2011-07-07T11:45:00.000-05:00

I don't know how I feel about James Spader joining the cast of NBC's The Office. All reports have Spader, who showed up in the season finale of The Office as a very self-assured salesman named Ricky California, beginning in an unnamed position at the Scranton, PA branch of Sabre/Dunder-Mifflin but quickly, nearly overnight, climbing the ladder to become CEO of Sabre and replacing Kathy Bates' "Jo" character. It makes sense to replace Bates who stars in the NBC drama Harry's Law but Spader is supposedly joining the cast as a regular, not in a recurring role like the one played by Kathy Bates.

What does that mean for the upcoming 8th season of the Steve Carell-less Office? My best guess is that James Spader's Ricky California will have more of a hands-on role in the goings-ons of the Scranton branch of Sabre/Dunder-Mifflin. Spader's character would definitely add a new twist in the strange dynamic that is The Office. It would be heartbreaking for Rainn Wilson's Dwight Schrute character to have a maniacal boss like Ricky California who would probably spend plenty of time womanizing and in general being a creeper.

While I don't expect The Office to last beyond an additional two seasons, maybe the addition of James Spader will add a new type of viewers to the NBC workplace sitcom. After all, The Practice and Boston Legal were successful on ABC during their run and if James Spader can create a kind of darkly comedic character on The Office then the series may have more life than I give it credit for. If the core cast members, mainly Ed Helms, Jenna Fischer and John Krasinski, stick it out on the small screen this workplace comedy could go on for another half decade.

The music of the 1990s is making a comeback

2011-07-06T22:22:00.000-05:00

It's hard to believe that we are a whole ten years removed from the last No Doubt album (Rock Steady) which some people say is a normal evolution for what was once a ska-based band but I felt that Rock Steady was the final step in the band changing their sound to appeal to a far wider swath of the population. Sure, that move led to huge sales numbers and radio play (not to mention launching Gwen Stefani's short-lived pop career) but the typical fans of pop music consume that music in heavy doses but do so for only a short time before quickly moving on to the next new thing.

Hopefully No Doubt will return to the pop/ska roots with their sixth album due out in mere weeks. Maybe the sounds of the 90s which I came of age during are bound for a comeback.

I keep hoping that's true as one of my favorite bands, Blink 182, are supposedly releasing a new album this year. I'm not holding my breath on it. They originally announced their reformation during the 2009 Grammy Awards and had already been writing at that point in time. Two-plus years to produce a new album is an insanely long time but I truly loved their final album, the self-titled effort which yielded their most mature songwriting to date and possibly my favorite Blink 182 song, Always.

Blink is on tour this summer and the album's first single is due to be released sometime this month. I'll believe it when I hear it (because I'm forever a skeptic) but this is one of t hose rare songs I am eager to hear.

Then there's The Red Hot Chili Peppers. They began as a band in the early 1980s but didn't become widely popular in the wide world of rock music until the late 1980s with the release of Mother's Milk and achieved what many call "superstardom" in the early 1990s with the release of Blood Sugar Sex Magik. From that point -- even with members leaving and rejoining -- RHCP were hugely popular. I really latched on to them as a band with 1999's Californication and 2002's By The Way.

I'm throwing The Red Hot Chili Peppers in, even though they have spanned three decades already, because the band reached their pinnacle of popularity and refined their sound in the 1990s. They are one of those bands who I also can't wait to hear what they come up with next. 2006's Stadium Arcadium was a decent effort but, due to the demise of many alternative-rock radio stations and the further fragmentation of musical genres, the album never reached a wide audience and it's a shame because it did spawn three or four spectacular tracks which live on my iPod.

Their new album, I'm With You, is supposed to be released on August 30th.

Maybe the 1990s are making a comeback. Oh, sure, three bands whose popularity peaked in the 1990s releasing new work ten-plus years later doesn't make a trend but to me it does. If you were to look at my CD collection you'd notice that the bulk of the 500 or so CDs were released in the 90s. I padded my collection into the early 2000s but a couple years in to the decade I had made the move to digital tracks and had slowed my spending on music. That's probably fairly typical as people's priorities change but I am welcoming the return of some of the band which I sort of grew up with.

Welcome back 90s, welcome back.