No. He'll be an engineer.

Date night?

· 03/25/2009 04:07 PM by Steve Gigl

Assuming we can arrange babysitting, we’re hoping to be there:

We are having a benefit for our niece, Halley Anderson, who received a life-saving liver transplant in November. Halley lived in the hospital from August through November, and the financial difficulties due to Halley’s condition have been very hard on her family. She has an account set up at TCF called the Halley Anderson Benefit Fund. We will be doing a concert at the VFW on Osborne Road in Fridley to raise money for this fund. Please come help us and enjoy an evening of fun and music!! Tickets $20.00 and can be purchased in advance or at the door. Silent auction starts at 6, show is from 7-9PM.

Category: Music
Scope: Local

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Mistakes

· 12/07/2008 05:16 PM by Steve Gigl

The only bigger mistake AM1500 could make than putting Mischke on early afternoons would be… to let him go. Way to go, guys.

UPDATE: Mischke apparently liked the daytime hours better, which I can understand. But I still miss the nighttime vibe that only he could provide (and I don’t mean the weird shows that got all the press, just the nightly calm talk and great callers).

UPDATE the 2nd: More, better, and more immediate from Mitch.

Update III: The Final Frontier: As much as we make fun of local blogs attempting to take over newspapers, there is a reason that they keep cropping up while the newspapers die. They actually follow and report local stories sometimes, like David Brauer has been doing with the Mischke firing. I love physical newspapers more than most, but when is the last time they’ve followed a local story—not related to sports—even close to when it happened?

Category: Media & Entertainment
Scope: Local

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Shocking

· 10/04/2008 08:14 AM by Steve Gigl

Well, actually not:

That’s because UW’s marching band has been banned and won’t be allowed to perform tonight.

[...]

Nope, the band was suspended indefinitely Friday while allegations of hazing, alcohol abuse and sexual misconduct are investigated.

Although only a small number of band members were involved, longtime director Mike Leckrone told the Associated Press the behavior was significant enough to warrant the suspension.

Not that I’m biased, but… BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…

Category: Humor
Scope: Local

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A respite

· 08/06/2008 09:31 AM by Steve Gigl

Good news on the local radio front: for at least one week, it looks like we’ll escape the clutches of Michael “Trojan Horse” Savage on our radio dials. NARN will be broadcasting from the RNC, saving us from the usual bad ranting with good bumper music.

Category: Media & Entertainment
Scope: Local

Rantback [1]

I'm Oscar-worthy?

· 08/04/2008 03:28 PM by Steve Gigl

Who knew?

[Yeah, I know, he meant this. Even people who have never heard of me have made that exact same typo. I’d feel bad about Google bringing them here, but just think about what typing it correctly would lead them to…!]

Category: Humor
Scope: Local

Rantback

Date night?

· 03/25/2009 04:07 PM by Steve Gigl

Assuming we can arrange babysitting, we’re hoping to be there:

We are having a benefit for our niece, Halley Anderson, who received a life-saving liver transplant in November. Halley lived in the hospital from August through November, and the financial difficulties due to Halley’s condition have been very hard on her family. She has an account set up at TCF called the Halley Anderson Benefit Fund. We will be doing a concert at the VFW on Osborne Road in Fridley to raise money for this fund. Please come help us and enjoy an evening of fun and music!! Tickets $20.00 and can be purchased in advance or at the door. Silent auction starts at 6, show is from 7-9PM.

Category: Music
Scope: Local

Rantback

Mistakes

· 12/07/2008 05:16 PM by Steve Gigl

The only bigger mistake AM1500 could make than putting Mischke on early afternoons would be… to let him go. Way to go, guys.

UPDATE: Mischke apparently liked the daytime hours better, which I can understand. But I still miss the nighttime vibe that only he could provide (and I don’t mean the weird shows that got all the press, just the nightly calm talk and great callers).

UPDATE the 2nd: More, better, and more immediate from Mitch.

Update III: The Final Frontier: As much as we make fun of local blogs attempting to take over newspapers, there is a reason that they keep cropping up while the newspapers die. They actually follow and report local stories sometimes, like David Brauer has been doing with the Mischke firing. I love physical newspapers more than most, but when is the last time they’ve followed a local story—not related to sports—even close to when it happened?

Category: Media & Entertainment
Scope: Local

Rantback

Shocking

· 10/04/2008 08:14 AM by Steve Gigl

Well, actually not:

That’s because UW’s marching band has been banned and won’t be allowed to perform tonight.

[...]

Nope, the band was suspended indefinitely Friday while allegations of hazing, alcohol abuse and sexual misconduct are investigated.

Although only a small number of band members were involved, longtime director Mike Leckrone told the Associated Press the behavior was significant enough to warrant the suspension.

Not that I’m biased, but… BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…

Category: Humor
Scope: Local

Rantback

A respite

· 08/06/2008 09:31 AM by Steve Gigl

Good news on the local radio front: for at least one week, it looks like we’ll escape the clutches of Michael “Trojan Horse” Savage on our radio dials. NARN will be broadcasting from the RNC, saving us from the usual bad ranting with good bumper music.

Category: Media & Entertainment
Scope: Local

Rantback [1]

I'm Oscar-worthy?

· 08/04/2008 03:28 PM by Steve Gigl

Who knew?

[Yeah, I know, he meant this. Even people who have never heard of me have made that exact same typo. I’d feel bad about Google bringing them here, but just think about what typing it correctly would lead them to…!]

Category: Humor
Scope: Local

Rantback

Well holy crap

· 07/07/2008 07:22 AM by Steve Gigl

The Brewers are making a playoff push.

How long has it been since you could say that? 15 years? It’s been 26 years since they actually made it that far. It’s nice to think they’ve got a chance, and even nicer that the club is actually making the attempt.

Having seen Sabathia pitch against the Twins over the last few years, I think it’s a good acquisition, but he’s definitely not the type of guy to be a neutral clubhouse presence. Hopefully everybody gets along.

UPDATE: the Twins radio announcer mentioned this morning that Sabathia is regarded as a good guy to have in a clubhouse, so apparently he’s only a tough SoB on the mound (which is pretty common). As an aside, does this mean that the Brewers now have the two most talented REALLY BIG guys in the league (Fielder and Sabathia)?

Category: Sports
Scope: Local

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Noted

· 06/30/2008 11:57 AM by Steve Gigl

Chad the Elder, who also lives in District 281, almost seems surprised that the district has brought the massive levy referendum back for this fall.

But he has some good advice:

...residents of District 281 should get their pitchforks and torches ready. The beast is back.

(He’s being metaphorical, of course…)

Category: Education
Scope: Local

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State Rep Sandra Peterson Lied to Her Constituents

· 06/28/2008 12:14 PM by Steve Gigl

We had paper spam hand-delivered to our front porch today from “our” state rep, Sandy Peterson. Yippee.

Of course she’s tooting her own horn on it, but under the “legislative accomplishments” [SNORT] on the card was one interesting bullet point:

Balanced the state budget without raising taxes.

Really. Ooooooookay…

Sure about that, Sandy?

...the DFL-controlled Legislature passed a sweeping set of tax increases…

I’m pretty sure that increasing taxes, even if it was in a different set of bills to provide funding for “transportation” (read: general fund slush money), is, er, well… raising taxes.

Hard to imagine that this could be a simple mistake, so I think she earned that subject line.

UPDATE: Changed the subject line a bit because it wasn’t quite accurate the way I first worded it (I don’t know that she’s a liar in general, just that she lied to her constituents in this instance).

Category: Politics
Scope: Local

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And so it begins

· 06/05/2008 08:06 AM by Steve Gigl

University Ave. to become an unreachable ghost-town?

It’s not decided yet, but there aren’t all that many choices here. If I owned a business that relies on traffic along University being able to reach you, I’d get the hell out of there ASAP. Oh, there might be some foot traffic from the train, but I wouldn’t rely on people who are commuting between the downtowns to stop along the way.

Category: Politics
Scope: Local

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Decompression radio: an open plea to Twin Cities radio

· 05/23/2008 10:42 PM by Steve Gigl

AM1280 and AM1500, please listen up:

I love local talk radio. And I’m a big fan of both of your stations. But ever since the Twins moved to KSTP, I’ve been missing something: nighttime talk radio.

I got addicted to decompressing with a nighttime radio host in college, when James Lileks was doing the Diner. To me, the Diner was a near-perfect “decompressing” radio show: about everything and nothing all at once, and hosted by a polymath with a good voice who instantly puts you in a relaxed, thoughtful mood (even if the topic itself isn’t relaxed). I’m talking about radio that makes you want to sit on your deck at night with a beer and just listen. [Yeah, I know, it sounds like a beer commercial. Stifle.]

After hours and hours of politics on the radio, you’d think more people would want to hear that sort of thing. And for a while, it seemed like KSTP agreed, putting Mischke and Lileks on at night. Later, Bob Davis fit very well into the late night slot, and Dave Thompson has actually grown on me quite a bit in that role, too. Problem is, he’s just not on enough any more because of the Twins (who I like to listen to, but hours of pregame and postgame coverage for every one of 162 games pretty much keeps him off the air from April to October [Not to mention being completely ridiculous…])

AM1280 never really has gotten it, because they put the execrable Savage show on at 8PM. The less said about that, the better. (Hugh Hewitt, to his credit, realizes the need for decompression and has his movie hour every Friday.)

So, my plea: for the love of my sanity, somebody please put a nighttime talk host on the air every night (or at least on Friday nights) who doesn’t obsess about politics, can talk about anything to anyone and be interesting about it, and understands the need to decompress at the end of the day.

Who? Well, I’d love to have Lileks back on the air, but adding that to his workload might kill him (or, at least, kill Lileks.com). Plus, he just got his column back, so I don’t imagine he’s terribly interested in taking another run at radio just yet. Mitch Berg would be fun to listen to, although again the added workload might not be healthy. [I’d be thrilled to be wrong and have either of them on the air.] They would both do a great job, but I’m sure there are a bunch of others out there who could at least do a decent job. I just wish one of the stations out there would give it a shot.

Category: Media & Entertainment
Scope: Local

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