"The first family of Minnesota Blogging" - Mitch Berg, Shot in the Dark

Illuminating fun, faith,
family and foolishness.

“Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.”

- Damon Runyon

Monday, July 16, 2007

MOB Action
The whole family made it over to Keegan's Saturday night for a lovely evening with many of our fellow bloggers from the Minnesota Organization of Bloggers. I didn't wear a Hawaiian shirt, despite Kevin and Ben's attempts at peer pressure which didn't work because, well, they'd have to be my peers. Anyway, since a picture is worth a thousand words, here's about a month's worth (at my recent pace) of blogging:


Surly Dave rode his new Moto Guzzi to the event and was "Kindly Dave" enough to let a long-time biker,
the Reverend Mother, take it for a spin
.



Mocha Momma and Kingdavid from The Far Wright joined the festivities. (That's Dan Stover, the Northern Alliance Wannabe in the background.)



Jennifer and Brad Carlson made their debut at one of our official MOB functions.



I think Learned Foot is beckoning the photographer to come closer. Either that or he's ordering a beer and a shot, hold the beer.



After two years of trying, Kevin finally snuck a beer past me to the Mall Diva. (Don't worry, Mr. Keegan, she gave it back.)



The Reverend Mother spent part of the evening eavesdropping on Mitch Berg. "He's really interesting," she said. "Is there anything he doesn't have an opinion on?" If so, we haven't found it. I do know he likes Springsteen and, along with Strommie, the Mall Diva.



Diamond Dog (Scott Brooks) from Freedom Dogs and King Banaian from SCSU Scholars.


While this post might give you the impression that all I did all evening was run around and take pictures, that would not be correct. I spent the evening talking with the folks shown above and many others, including John and his wife from Roosh Five and Jeff Kouba from Peace Like a River and Truth vs. the Machine. The photos were taken by Ben from Hammerswing with my camera, however. I've emailed a lot of the images to him for him to post so you might want to check over at his blog in the next couple of days to see what he has added.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Saturday night's the night I like
Tonight normally would have been my night for going to Keegan's for trivia, but I'm holding off on that (and the delicious cheeseburger and potato wedges) until Saturday night and the MOB's grand summer event.

I expect the entire Night Writer blogging consortium (Reverend Mother, Mall Diva and Tiger Lilly) to be there as well so I'll be easy to spot. Not because I'll be wearing a Hawaiian shirt, but because I'll be the guy surrounded by beautiful women. Unless, of course, I actually do wear a Hawaiian shirt, in which case my wife will come nowhere near me and the Mall Diva will likely just stay in the car. Tiger Lilly would probably come in, but mainly for the possibility of carrot cake.

See you there!

Thursday, July 5, 2007

Tag! I'm It!!! ...Wait
Kingdavid has tagged me with a meme:
"Songs that I've made a happy fool of myself singing along to."

This is going to be hard, because I pretty much sing along with any song I know the words to, and quite a few songs I don't really know the words to. How long can my list be? And where do I begin?

I'll start with a classic:

1~ "The Hampsterdance" by Hampton the Hampster
Yes, I spelled that right. This is one you really need to crank up, let loose and rock out to. Especially in public. It even instructs you on how to do the Hampsterdance! And by the time you're done with that, this song will come in really handy:

2~ "Dancing With Myself" by Billy Idol
Oh oh ohoh!! Need I say more?

Oh oh, I know!
3~ "Believe" by Cher
I confess I've always liked this song, though I thought it was sung by a dude until someone told me otherwise.

And now for something completely different!
4~ "Witness" by Nicole C. Mullen
Ooooh yeeeah. I betcha didn't know I could rap, didja?
Holla!

And speaking of rapping:
5~ Every song on my Group 1 Crew cd. They are brand spankin' new (pretty much) and absolutely kick butt. Even live! I saw them at Club 3 degrees with Princess Flickerfeather and her cousins.
Holla again!

6~ "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy" by Big and Rich
Yup, I've made a happy fool of myself singing along to this and the parody my sister made up. She likes to do that.

Speaking of parodies...
7~ "Oh! Gravity" by Switchfoot
This cd rocks, and both the original version and the Tiger Lilly version are fun to sing and head-bang to.

8~ "Man, I Feel Like A Woman" by Shania Twain
Of course.

9~ "Such Great Heights" by The Postal Service
One of my absolute favorite songs, along with:

10~ "Far Away" by Nickelback
So beautiful! *sniff*...

Here's one for my dad:
11~ "Lawyers, Guns, and Money" by Warren Zevon
Ha ha!

And here's one for my mom:
12~ "Nothing Compares 2 U" by Sinead O'Connor

Here's a fun one!
13~ "Beyond the Sea" by Bobby Darin

14~ "Flower Duet" by Charlotte Church
Almost everybody who tries to sing along with this will make a fool of themself.

15~ "Wordy Rappinghood" by Tom Tom Club
Yes...I've sung along to this.

Ok, just one more:
16~ "Sly" by the Cat Empire
Super fun!!!

Anyway, there's a list for ya. It's in no way an exhaustive list, but it's cool.

Peace out, homeslices!





Sunday, July 1, 2007

Context is everything
Via The Kool-Aid Report, I've been able to determine the Motion Picture Association of America rating for this blog:

Online Dating

This is kind of problematic, since a 13-year-old is a regular contributor to this site. Analysis provided by the evaluation tool indicates:

This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:

gay (7x) dead (6x) punch (2x) breast (1x)

Hmmm...most of those "gay" words probably came in a post I did a few weeks ago about certain cars now being perceived as "gay." Similarly, "dead" was no doubt prominent in my last post about cockroaches (Heavens - it's a good thing that word didn't appear on the "restricted" list). I have no idea where "punch" might have been used, but I know I used the word "breast" in a poem posted for Mother's Day — and it was used in its maternal sense. There can be no question of this fact, because I don't use the word "breast" here; I typically prefer terms such as "gazongas" or "ba-ZOOMS". (Just kidding, Mom).
Just to be safe I think I need to announce that no one can read this blog unless accompanied by a sense of humor.