The Wake

My days of running the point for the Imperial College Medical Basketball Team may be numbered. Team captain, Xu Wang, has grown weary of my months worth of excuses for not yet paying my dues. A hefty forty pounds, which I’ve been able to avoid through an intricate web of stories. However, he’s finally layed down the law, “pay at the game or you’re out.” We’ll see what a few carefully worded emails can’t do, but here’s a summary of our season so far.

We’ve lost four of the five games we’ve played since I’ve joined, but this is not to be taken as a poor showing. It’s a step up from last year’s zero win season. Coach Yanni (the one kneeling in the center dressed in all purple) , enjoys flashy/ stylish play, which …

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Last Sunday (or was this a few weeks ago…) I went down to Trafalgar Square for the Chinese New Year Celebration. They had a large stage with several Kung Fu and dance acts. I then went over to the China Town area for some authentic Chinese cuisine. The festivities concluded with the last of a series of hourly fire works displays in Leicester Square. I then separated from my friends, and went to go find a pub that was playing the Cameroon v. Egypt match before going to a concert in the area that night. It was the final of the African Cup of Nations. I went to four different pubs and they were all playing the Liverpool v. Chelsea, a regular season premiership match up.

Finally, I tired out the Basement Bar. I went …

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I finally attended my first premiership game, Fulham v Aston Villa at Fulham. Given the number of Americans on the Fulham team, we opted to support them. They hadn’t won in several months, and Aston Villa was towards the top of the league. We went down to a local pub before the match and took down a few with the faithful. We went to the Fulham store and bought scarves, and then headed down to the field. Down 1 goal early, the energy was momentarily stolen. American Clint Dempsey continued to play well, and Brian McBride made a dramatic return from injury late in the game, his first bit of action in months. He was the former captain of the club for several seasons. The Cottagers stormed back to a 2-1 victory, the winning goal …

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Let’s move to the local scene for this next post. For the first time since Gov. Tim Pawlenty has taken office in Minnesota, the state house and senate overrode one of his vetoes. Way to finally grow a pair state reps.

The bill that was vetoed and then overridden was a $6.6 billion transportation plan for the state which included the first gas tax increase in 20 years for Minnesota. All of the money will go to rebuilding and repairing roads and bridges in state. The gas tax will increase 5 1/2 cents by fall and go up to possibly 3 cents more. Those living in the seven-county Twins Cities area will also see a quarter-cent increase in their sales tax. Also, low-income families will receive a $25 …

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Reading an article over at MinnPost a few minutes ago reminded me of a disturbing trend in the brew business in the last few years that has gained some momentum recently. MinnPost’s Mark Neuzil covered the move of large multinationals buying out smaller “green” companies. In this case it was Clorox’s (nothing says natural like the fresh scent of Clorox Bleach) move to buyout Burt’s Bees. As Mark mentions later, many of these companies “forget” to mention who owns them. In one case “Anheuser Busch created a subsidiary, the Green Valley Brewing Co., to sell two organic beers, Stone Mill Organic Pale Ale and Wild Hop Organic Lager, that don’t mention the A-B name on the label but do at the websites.” Let me say that cooption isn’t the worst thing possible, …

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I’ve seem to have drifted off the news path on this so-called blog, and I’m sure the four of you who read this are pretty pretty pretty disappointed. So here’s some hardcore news from the past few days that will give some junkies a small fix.

Castros

First off, Fidel Castro resigned as president of Cuba last Tuesday 49 years after he obtained power in a revolution. This gives the UK and the US a chance to move Cuba toward democracy, though Washington said they will not lift the current trade embargo. That is exactly what the US should do. They should definitely invade another country that had an authoritarian government for years and try to enforce democracy there. That plan sounds like it will work for sure. After hearing the …

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Even though I did not watch any of the Oscars, nor did I see most of the best picture nominees, I feel like part of me won an Academy Award: Best state in the mother fucking union.

The Oscars winners were announced Sunday night and like usual ran way over time. The pomp and circumstance this year was hosted by Jon Stewart, who began the night, according to Reuters, by ripping on how depressing the plots of the best picture nominees were and how the writer’s strike almost caused the ceremony to be canceled, which would have made life much more tolerable this Sunday.

But the real story isn’t how Jon Stewart isn’t that funny without a writing staff, but that Minnesota kicked ass this year. Former City Pages blogger, Diablo Cody, won …

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Yesterday, after a friend talked me into it, I decided to see St. Vincent’s show at Cedar Cultural Center. St. Vincent is the stage name, or as she called it “superhero name,” of Annie Clark. Before her solo debut this past year she was member of The Polyphonic Spree and toured extensively with Sufjan Stevens. Whenever I hear a female indie artist who can shred I’m instantly reminded of Cat Power. The fact that they share awesome names is not the only thing they share, but also their quirky stage presences. In Chan “Cat Power” Marshall’s case it often turned into an awkward live show (until recently), but Annie’s head jerks and squalling guitar freak outs were part of a centered and dynamic performance. She opened the performance with the loopy “Now Now.” Again and …

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One of my four jobs and internships here in London is with a Media, Touring, and Management firm called Airmtm. They handle the careers of artists like Jamie Cullum, The Bad Plus, and Manchester’s I am Kloot, among hundreds of others. They also handle all the media work for the world famous jazz club, Ronnie Scotts. It served as a place for the Jazz obsessed Londoners in the 40’s and 50’s to see the greatest artists of the day. It still serves as the premier Jazz venue, and has been a popular hot spot for local artists and celebrities to take in a show. Read the bio here.

On this particular night, I decided to go down and see the award winning vocalist, Liane Carroll, and brought a date along with. As we walked …

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Late one evening, it was decided that we should head to a nightclub called Turnmills in Farringdon, near Kings Cross Station (of Harry Potter fame). The club was set to have over 20 DJ’s play throughout the night, including from members of Hot Chip and Macabees, and proper sets from The Metros and Fisherspooner. On top of that, there were gift bags at the door, and free Ice Cream and hair-cuts inside.

We arrived early and went to a local bar. There was a Spanish league game on, and struck up a convo with a fellow fan named Johan. He was a Kurd from Iraq who’d lived in London for over 5 years now. His perspective on the war was unlike anything I had heard. He explained that the kurds want independence. They’re spread throughout …

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You know that part in the beginning of The Matrix where that spermy-looking thing gets sucked out Neo’s body? Well, in about 20 years, that little guy could be inside all of us, according to a US inventor

I came across this scary story from the jolly old BBC that says “machines will achieve human-level artificial intelligence by 2029.” Leading US inventor Ray Kurzweil, the inventor of text-to-speech technology and the first keyboard synthesizer, told the BBC at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston, that humans will eventually have tiny robots in their brains to make them more intelligent. This made me wonder if the d-bags who constantly raise their hands in class, and show-off the fact they read the material, are actually robots …

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Though it would be nice to drink a beer at the movies, we all know that movie theaters are for popcorn and candy. Monstrous popcorn, with imitation butter, truly beautiful stuff. Any who, for those of you who didn’t know, I see myself as a sort of a film buff. This past week my little lady and I were watching the stupendous Badlands.

Photo by Colin Tuska

I had always heard good things about Terrence Malick’s 1973 masterpiece, but who knew it was so weird. A strange and wonderful film, something amazing showed up halfway through: Grain Belt’s Premium. I actually ended up drinking a few of these this weekend and I really think its one of the better …

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So I was looking around this here interweb and I decided to search for beer videos on YouTube. I thought that I was going to find some beer commercials, which I did, but this is far better. So we all like Legos, in fact some people love Legos. Others out there love beer. So this for all of you out there.

Lego Beer Song

In other news I drank a margarita tonight, which in The Blaggers world might be sacrilegious. It was seriously huge and seriously $7. Not bad for a boat load of liquor. The girlfriend and I decided to go out for the greatest holiday of the year, Valentines Day, and we ended up at a Tacos Morelos off of Eat …

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After two hardcore serious political blogs, I needed to decompress from pandering and caucuses. So here is a happy piece from La La land.

As I wind down from a long hard day of calling random people and making them take surveys they really don’t want any part of, I decide to watch re-runs of Family Guy on Adult Swim. Then I saw this Associated Press story about an end to the writer’s strike!!!! Oh my Flava Flav it’s finally over!

In the story, one of my favorite characters on my favorite show, Dwight from “The Office,” says that the cast will be back on the set on March 10 to shoot six more episodes!!! Hold on, I have to change my pants. In the meantime, enjoy this Dwight mixtape from season 2: …

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A nice Weisse

As my cat licks his tongue across a damp window, I’m reminded of the precious things in life and a simpler time. When was this time you ask?

My answer is sweet and simple: Miller Time™. Yes I am indeed a Milwaukee native, born in the Brew City and bred just outside the city borders. Yes, my hometown, Cudahy, enjoys drinking. And who wouldn’t when you are small industrial town on Lake Michigan. In fact at one point in time, it is said that Cudahy was renowned for having the most bars per capita in the entire world, an honor that put this little city on the map and into the hollowed pages of the Guinness Book of World Records …

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