I love the Christmas season, but not the hours associated with it. Thankfully, the worst is over; I put in fourteen hours on Black Friday and about ten on Saturday. I've done this for ten years now, so it is mostly routine, but one thing that never fails to amaze me every year is the volume of people who are willing to sit in the cold for hours on end just to save a few extra bucks on that television or other item they had their eyes on all year.

Now I'm no anti-consumerist; hell, I definitely own more than my fair share of shit, especially in electronics and DVDs. I even like to save money, so I look for deals whenever I can. But really, even 8 am on the day after Thanksgiving is a little early for me to think about buying Christmas gifts for people, let alone anything for myself. We opened at 5, and even then we weren't the first; Kohl's was open at 4 and Eden Prairie Center opened at fucking one o'clock in the morning. Outrageous. If there is any silver lining in this madness, these are the things that come to mind first: the extended hours I am required to work will 1) allow me extra funds for Christmas gifts and 2) allow me to watch Law and Order: SVU without the interruption of going home and cueing up the TiVo to the proper spot. Until then though, my free time will be in short supply (sorry, Alyssa) and I may be cranky during those times (sorry, everyone else).

Despite all this though, I still love Christmas. Preemptive happy holidays, everyone.

now playing on iPod: Chad Hollister "Spirit's Waters"

Labels: christmas, gdhu, GOTW, media, personal, work

Fine Line Music Café, October 7, 2007

I think that by now I've seen the Pat McGee Band somewhere around four billion times. The greatest thing though is that it's never the same show.

Labels: local, music, personal, review

Fine Line Music Café, September 27, 2007

I've been to a few live shows in my day. I had never been to one put on by a former pop princess though, and I'm not used to entering a venue before 6:00 on a weeknight. But there were a couple of extenuating circumstances here: first, I am a Mandy Moore devotee, and secondly I haven't yet seen a show at the Fine Line that disappointed me. Luckily, the fan in me won out over reason, and I made it out to see the show.

The official support act for the Midwest spate of shows was Ben Lee, a Twin Cities fave who will be headlining at the Varsity in mid-November. Equipped with only a tiny acoustic guitar and a keyboard player, he proceeded to wow the eclectic all-ages crowd with a mix of tunes from his new album Ripe and standards from his back catalog. Specific winners in his set were the light, whimsical "American Television," the frank "Sex Without Love" and his biggest U.S. hit "Catch My Disease."


Mandy appeared on stage for her set shortly before 8:00 and jumped right into "Slummin' in Paradise," wasting no time in getting into the music:

.... and so the set continued. The short-by-my-standards 50-minute set was made up mostly of songs from her new album Wild Hope, though she mixed in a couple of covers (the buzzed-about sendup of Rihanna's "Umbrella" and Cat Stevens' "Moonshadow" which she recorded for Coverage) and closed her set with the bubblegum anthem "Candy."


Overall, I was impressed with the show, though the forgettable Chris Stills could have easily been left off the bill, and while Mandy's set was short, the bonus of 45 minutes of Ben Lee made this show worth the price of admission. B+

Labels: local, music, personal, review

now playing on iTunes: PMB "Can't Miss What You Never Had"

Labels: GOTW, personal, site, tech