The Wake

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 …

Read more →

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 …

Read more →

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, …

Read more →

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 …

Read more →

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 …

Read more →

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 …

Read more →

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 …

Read more →

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 …

Read more →

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 …

Read more →

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 …

Read more →

I realized something in my poly. sci. class today. I realized how close we were to a nuclear holocaust twice. In Nov. 1983, the Soviets were so trigger happy that after NATO performed a training exercise that simulated a nuclear attack called “Able Archer“, the reds believed the US was preparing to attack the USSR for reals, and the tension mirrored that of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

We also learned about “Mutual Assured Destruction,” where if either the US or the Soviets attacked one another, each had enough of a stockpile of nukes to retaliate and blow each other to smithereens. That might sound insane, but you know what? After attending the Republican Caucus on Tuesday, I wish this crazy scenario would have come to fruition.

The insanity of Super Tuesday …

Read more →

****DISCLAIMER*****: I am not calling Mitt Romney a homosexual. Nor do I have anything against homosexuals or fellatio in general. Romney just did terrible on Super Pooper Tuesday and I like shitty puns. Please do not send hate mail, or do.

It’s 1:00 a.m. and I feel like celebrating Romney dropping out of the race!!!!! WOOOOO!!!!!! Why am I awake writing this early?

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, whose real name is Willard by the way, “suspended” his bid for the White House Thursday after a terrible showing on Super Duper Tuesday’s caucuses and primaries. In a speech he said he’s suspending his campaign because of his love for America. Wow, this guy will say anything to kiss conservatives’ ass! Dropping out for the love of his party?? BAHHHH!!

I am …

Read more →

Sometime last week I went and practiced with the Imperial College Medical Basketball team. Imperial’s actual team had already held tryouts, but the medical team was willing to give me a shot. The team was comprised primarily of Asians, Indians, a Swede named Ole, polish kid named Demitri, a British kid named Alvin, and a Portuguese coach. They all had British accents, except for the coach, and they all played the most unorthodox style of ball I’ve ever seen in my life. No fundamentals, but they could all score in some way or another. The gym was old and cluttered with badminton nets and mini soccer goals, a major safety issue given the mere foot of out of bounds separating the court and the brick wall surroundings. The Portuguese coach wore his long hair back …

Read more →

On my way home from downtown late one weekend night, I stepped off the bus near my flat to the sound of frighteningly serious chanting around the corner. I opted to investigate, and was astounded at the return. The organized chaos was coming from the Islamic Cultural Center of London, which was evidently a few blocks from my place. The large courtyard in-front of the building was filled with ceremoniously garbed Muslims, arms around shoulders, shouting in unison. I entered the yard and enquired about the cause of such excitement. It was none other than the annual holiday of Ashura. The meaning of this was explained to me but, unfortunately, I can’t recite it to you now, as it was over a week ago by now and I was well drunk at the time. I …

Read more →

I’m a little behind in my blog posting, as it’s been a whirlwind second week here in London. I’ll start with last Saturday. I went to a small basement club in the Tottenham area of Central London. I was initially denied at the door with the explanation of, “No football or rubgy shirts allowed.” I attempted a response but the pony tailed ogre was in no mood. He took a brisk step forward, placed his nose an inch from mine, and repeated, “NO FOOTBALL OR RUBGY SHIRTS ALLOWED,” this time with the full force of his baritone behind it. Unfortunately, I was the last in my group at the door, so I was on my own to hatch a solution. I went around the block asking strangers on their way in if I could temporarily …

Read more →