Here's the complete Wired CD download of MP3 songs... I found this link instead of hosting them all on my own. It's a pretty good CD, so I recommend downloading the whole set.

The Ashlee Simpson iPod.

If you've seen the movie "Donnie Darko" and are still wondering what it's about, read this. Here I thought it was about time-travel and tangent universes. Alas, it's just sex. (Spoiler warning! -- only read that if you've seen the movie).

This is going on Maddy's Christmas list -- a dog collar digital camera.

Our local news station, KSTP, has the video that proves that the explosives that went missing in Iraq did indeed occur AFTER the invasion. Can't wait for the GOP spin on this one.

I think I'll stay in and pass out candy for Halloween this year. My costume? I'm dressing up as an undecided voter.

Sweet. I made a special trip up to Barnes & Noble to get a copy of the November issue of Wired magazine which just hit the newstands today. I'd been waiting for it because they include a free CD with released under the Creative Commons license. What's that? Well, it means you can rip/burn/mix/mash to your hearts content -- all legally.

Progressive musicians "get it". The CD features the Beastie Boys, David Byrne, Chuck D, Gilberto Gil, Le Tigre, Zap Mama... oh, and lest I forget, Paul Westerberg. Here's a perfectly legal copy of Paul's "Looking Up In Heaven" track (also available on the Folker album).

Looking Up In Heaven.mp3

I'll perhaps put the whole album up here shortly because it's excellent. And, I won't get sued... Stay tuned for that.

Bush's debate notes.

And, the Hip-Hop Debate.

Dude, where's my vote? My arch-nemesis Ashton Kutcher rallied with John Edwards at the U of M yesterday. Okay, so you get ONE redemption point, but I'm still out to punk you. Don't know when. Don't know how. But trust me. Someday, boy, you're gonna get Punk'd!

Here's the Rock for Karl review from last Thursday. Great show. There wasn't a Replacements reunion, and Paul Westerberg's set was too short, but at least there was one unexpected surprise -- a Husker Du reunion. Bob Mould and Grant Hart hadn't played on stage together in 16 years (they still don't like each other), but it was a rare treat to have them on stage playing again. It was even ironic that they picked "Never Talking To You Again" as one of the 2 songs.

Q: What's the difference between the Vietnam War and the Iraq War?

A: George W. Bush had a plan to get out of the Vietnam War.

The GOP tries to threaten the Rock The Vote campaign because they are "scaring" kids with all this crazy talk about the draft. Read the letter and rebuttle. Like the GOP isn't try to scare everyone... right.

Listen to Real People who voted for George Bush in 2000, but will be voting for Kerry in 2004. Errol Morris campaign commercials.

If you've never seen an Errol Morris documentary, I strongly recommend his first two -- Vernon, Florida and Gates of Heaven. Both are sublimely surreal and quirky and filled with odd and eccentric characters. Yet, Morris has a way of making it all seem human.

Doh! Poor Ashlee Simpson. If you missed the SNL show where she was busted lip-syncing, you can re-live the moment here.

I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but... Go Packers!

Homestarrunner vs. a little girl.

I was just thinking. About a year ago, before I embarked on semi-retirement, I took my camcorder and recorded my "last walk" -- the walk from the parking garage to my desk to my first cup of coffee. It was a ritual that lasted for 7 years, so I thought it would be interesting just to capture it for nostalgic purposes. And, just to make it marginally more interesting, I set it to a couple of Paul Westerberg tracks. Here's the video.

Anyway, here's what I find interesting: The first song is called "Down the Alley", and it's cued up to the part where I'm walking through the alley to get to my building. In the video, the caption "Down the Alley" appears, and then I take a left to go to work. What's interesting about this is right at the end of this alley is the backstage entrance to the Quest. That's where the musicians enter, and that's where Paul will enter tonight.

So, no big deal? But, consider ALL of the alleys in Minneapolis. Consider that Paul Westerberg hasn't played a hometown club gig in many years. Consider that my little video just happens to pay homage to this ONE alley that leads to the ONE club where he'll be playing. Coincidence?

Okay. Yeah, I know. I need to lay off the cold medicine if I'm going to last through tonight's show. Still. I'm taking it as a sign.

I dropped off the pup with Mom yesterday, and got to visit the nephews and niece. The twins were fascinated with my camera phone. Guess they inherited our family's gadgetry gene.

What's more fun than playing Dungeons & Dragons? Watching 4 chicks play Dungeons & Dragons.

Query letters I love. Actual, honest to god query letters I've received in Hollywood. Updated daily. And hey, if one of these is your query, have a sense of humor, will ya? You're gonna need it in this town.

It's fuzzy math.

Slow week. By slow, I mean that I'm still taking Robotussin shots to start my morning, and then wandering around the kitchen going... "Mmmm... Tussin-ny..." But, the cold's almost gone. I hope to be back to my abnormal self shortly.

Westerberg just added a 3rd show. I've got some pretty crummy tickets for the first show, but hopefully I can score better tickets this time around. Tickets go on sale at noon today. Wish me luck.

Also check out a series of video interviews and live sessions Paul recently did with AOL sessions, especially the 'on the spot' questions.

John Stewart lays the smackdown on Tucker Carlson.

If anyone is wondering when I'll have a new episode of "scenes from my life..." ready, I'm not sure. I'm going back to real writing stuff, but I'll probably work on that again if I get stuck. In other words, very possibly later this week.

That's it. I'm all weirded out because I'm on some super-trippy cold medicine right now. And I've been staring at this for the last half hour. Help.

Political Bohemian Rhapsody.

Like School House Rock... but relevant for today's kids. Pirates and emperors.

It's googlicious! Try the new Google desktop. Very slick.

Lab-tested. Like Gizmodo, but for dogs.

Sounds like Karl Mueller is recovering okay, which is good. On his benefit on Thursday of next week: It is kind of unfathomable, but the sold-out shindig at the Quest on Thursday will probably be the largest amassing of our legendary local '80s rockers ever. Bands such as the Replacements, Husker Du, Soul Asylum and the Gear Daddies -- who will all be represented at the gig -- never really played on the same bills back in the day, mainly because they could fill First Avenue on their own.

If any of you ladies are wondering if this applies to me.

No, and by the way... They're real and they're fabulous!

The Onion: Older brother accused of cushion-fort prisoner abuse. In addition to farting in the fort's entrance and forcing Mark to remain inside, Keith allegedly gave his brother Indian burns, grundies, and a sustained wet willy. Keith also reportedly subjected Mark to Chinese Finger Torture, by restraining him and methodically tapping his forehead until he screamed "uncle." Chinese Finger Torture was specifically outlawed by the Nelson family in December 2003, during talks held at Grandma Keller's house.

McSweeneys: Music video ideas that unfortunately will never be filmed. And, my favorite one of the day, The Gettysburg Address, As Delivered By Rob Zombie.

Esquire: Brutally Honest Personals.

Sweet! Here's the official story behind yesterday's post on John Belushi and Elvis.

Who's your favorite novelist voting for? I checked out the 4 dimwits that picked Bush, and I'm not surprised. They sound pretty pulpy to me.

A Chemical Brothers remix (with Flash animation) of the Beatles' druggy classic Tomorrow Never Knows.

After listening to this, I just had to dust off my old Phil Collins Face Value CD, which has a cover of the same song as the last track. Call it blashemy if you will, but I'm a sucker for heavy drums and Phil handles that part much more adeptly (sorry Ringo), so Phil outscores the Beatles on this track. Oh, and I'm sure many of you out there will titter and giggle when you find out that I have Phil Collins in rotation. Laugh if you must, but early Phil was much different from the Disneyfied version you're probably familiar with. I STILL like Face Value and Hello, I Must Be Going. These were a couple of the CD's that got me through junior high. I Don't Care Anymore? C'mon, that's an awesome teen angst song...

On other music notes, can you throw any MORE concerts my way this time of year? Ryan Adams (the quintessential Westerberg-wannabe) is playing the State Theater on Nov. 15th. I've got most of Ryan's stuff, and even if he is a wannabe, at least he's wanna-bein' the right type of person. Also, there's a riff between him and Westerberg at the moment, so wouldn't it be cool if Paul showed up to jam with him? Um. Okay, so that's not going to happen, but I'm just saying, it still would be cool.

And on Saturday, Nov. 6th, in ADDITION to Paul Westerberg, my favorite riot grrrrls The Donnas are playing the Quest AND Le Tigre (check out the Deceptacon video) is playing First Ave. Close call, but advantage Le Tigre. If anybody wants to see these shows, let me know.

The orange tree below is the big maple in my backyard. It's so brilliant right now I can hardly believe it (due to its size and location, I can't get a full shot of it, so this will have to do). Anyway, while it's purty and all, guess who's going to have to deal with all of those leaves in about 2 weeks? Fun.

When does daylight savings end anyway? I'm normally an early riser, but that's getting increasingly difficult with the darkness lingering on later and later. This morning, for example, I had a really hard time dragging my butt out of bed, so I turned on the local news to see what was in store for the day. Weather, traffic, and then this 'breaking story' that was straight out of a Coen's brother movie. I couldn't find a link, but it went something like this:

A John Belushi and an Elvis impersonator are hanging out at an American Legion. [Note to self: this is a GREAT way to start almost any story.] They pick up a couple of women and decide to head over to the more upscale VFW, taking one of the women's cars. There, John Belushi and Elvis get into a fight, and the cops are called. All four leave, but then Elvis fakes a seizure and starts twitching around on the ground. This gives John Belushi time to steal a car, and since the cops are just arriving on the scene, he leads a high-speed chase (ala Blues Brothers) around the Crystal airport. When the cops try to detain Elvis, he jumps up on a table and starts singing "Viva Las Vegas" before being subdued. Both men are now in custody. Alcohol is suspected to be involved.

Yes. I swear, that's actually the breaking story on the morning news. It started me off on the right foot though. Who can lolligag around in bed when stuff like THIS is happening around you?

Just released today: Left of the Dial: Dispatches from the '80s Underground. This is the must-have compilation of the year. The track listing can be found here. (The title, "Left of the Dial", comes courtesy of The Replacements, 'natch)...

And finally, go check out my brother's moblog.

For those of you not in Minnesota, you're missing out big time. The leaves are turning, the temps are in the low 70's, and we've had a nice little stretch of Indian summer here for the past couple of days. Or, if that's not PC-enough, then a wonderful little stretch of Native American summer. The trend looks to continue through tomorrow (meaning, I'll be getting my hound on at the local parks), but as things are prone to do here in our fair state, reality sets in by Friday when the high temperature is expected to be in the low 40's.




So, until it gets cold, here's some links.

New Jibjab thingie about Bush and Kerry.

My name is Satan, and I approved this message.

Slap your favorite candidate.

Redneck Ouija board.

New Paul Westerberg interview.

Now that autumn is upon us, I'm still looking for ways to keep myself occupied for the upcoming months of cold and darkness. With that in mind, I signed up for an extension class called "The Art of Acting" -- figuring, if nothing else, it would give me plenty of opportunities to do weird stuff on a weekly basis. Alas, I just found out that the class was cancelled due to lack of interest, and now it's too late to sign up for the Portuguese class that was my alternate. Drats! What to do?

My fall-back at the moment is that I might take a comedy improv class through Comedy Sportz. They have a new series of classes staring in January, and that just might be the ticket to cure those wintertime blues. The final class is a "live" improv performance in front of an audience, which sounds terrifying. And, for precisely that reason, is probably why I should do it.

Stay tuned. Now, the dumb(er) stuff...

This leaves me absolutely speechless. (Whew! Just found out this was actually a parody that the creators did for their little "adults only" Christmas party; it was NOT broadcast to children... but, still pretty damn funny)

WWWD? What would Wellstone do? Well, something tells me that he would flapping his arms around like this guy -- meet Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) speaking on the floor of the house about the potential of a military draft. Well said.

Some cool stop-motion clips.

And finally, some snaps of Como Park.

Hey, you got border collie in my basset hound! Hey, you got basset hound in my border collie!



Two great breeds that breed well togeth... oh, who am I kidding? I saw this border collie/basset mix at the dog park today. I mean, talk about a cruel joke. Take a smart herding dog and shackle him short squatty legs, a massive barrel-shaped body, and no ability to grasp basic human commands. What's this thing supposed to herd, anyway? Turtles?

Ashton Kutcher majored in biochemical engineering? Dude, where's my deoxyribonucleic acid?

Oh, and I did shave my goatee off yesterday. Goodbye Joe Dirt! Hello Barney Rubble!

McSweeney's: Have you heard the one about President Bush?

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds have a new double album coming on Oct. 26th, but if you buy it now at Amazon, you can get a streaming copy to play on your computer until then.

I knew somebody would eventually get around to writing about this: What Dubya's excessive eye-blinking during the last debate really meant. "When someone is not sure of the truth, their eyes blink rapidly."

In other news, I'm planning to shave off my goatee later today. If anyone has strong feelings about it, you have a few hours to talk me out of it.

Friday was a difficult day. It rained all day, which meant a certain spaz of a dog was pretty wound up. I was working upstairs for most of the morning, and then I came down for another cup of joe when I caught her with a pen in her mouth. To be correct, I suppose I should say "the remnants of a pen"... Yes, she managed to demolish a roller-ball plastic pen that I'd left lying on the couch.

What a mess! On the floor, black ink pawprints. Her mouth was black. Her paws, even blacker. Her doggy bed -- covered in black ink. Black ink everywhere!

Anyway, I called the vet to make sure she wasn't going to be sick or anything. The vet laughed. So, yesterday I gave her a bath to remove her tattoos. Here's a small slice of Maddy's bath.

Oh, and calling all indie-rock bands looking for a name -- Nude Lit, Fish Farts.

A couple of thoughts on the faux debate last night.

1. Kerry won, hands down. Believe me, I'm no Kerry fan, but I thought he did a much better job than the Chimp. Bush looked awful fidgety and cranky, but Kerry actually looked somewhat confident and composed.
   
   
2. What was the deal with Bush blinking his eyes, man? That was freaky. I hope I'm the first to report this, but during his 2 minute closing statement, Bush blinked his eyes approximately 160+ times. I used my replay TV to go back and count, and that's the number I came up with. Here's some interesting facts on eye-blinking: Eye-blinking is another well-known primate movement. The moment you have the least little bit of stress, the eyelids blink, bang! bang! bang!" (Niko Tinbergen, in a 1974 Psychology Today interview).
   
   It's also a 'tell' that someone's lying.
   
   Do ya think?
   
   
3. During the debate, Bush said: "[Kerry] voted to authorize the use of force and now says it's the wrong war at the wrong time. What message does that send to our troops?". Mr. Kerry, please... Allow me to respond.
   
   Dear troops,
   
   Thank you. Seriously. You and your families are paying the biggest price for this war. You are shouldering the economic burden, you're away from your families, and you're getting shot at on a daily basis. Over 1,000 of you have died. Over 7,000 of you have been wounded. And sadly, over 15,000 Iraqi civilians (women, children, and non-combatants) have been killed thanks to the war Bush started. I'm sure that bothers you, too, because you might even have kids yourself.
   
   What Kerry was basically saying is that Bush did not go to war as a "last resort", which he promised he would do. He did not have a plan to win the peace, which seems pretty obvious now. He did not find any weapons of mass destruction, which he claimed we had proof of. He did not curtail the war on terror -- he inflamed it. He isolated the US from other nations of the world, but that's okay, because we still got the UK and Poland on our side. And, to top it all off, he's forcing you to serve extended duty even though most of you are in the Guard. Oh, and he really doesn't have a plan to get you guys out any time soon, so that's another bummer.
   
   So, if you really want to know what the message is, when Kerry said it was the "wrong war, at the wrong time, in the wrong place", what he really means is...
   
   YOUR CURRENT COMMANDER IN CHIEF IS A LYING, INCOMPETENT, AND ALTOGETHER COMPLETE FUCKING MORON!