I went to the West-side Best Buy in Madison yesterday to pick up a movie, and I felt like I needed to check out the new “Musical Instruments” section. The plan was to find the movie, check out the new section, and get out. I found the movie, but I couldn’t bring myself to just stroll into the Musical Instruments section. It just felt wrong. Anway, nobody was looking, so I made a break for it. As I entered the showroom, I saw someone trying out an Epiphone Les Paul. The guy couldn’t play a note. He just pressed down all of his fingers on his left hand, as if he was playing Guitar Hero, and tapped at the strings with his right hand. Oh yeah, he was plugged into an amp with tons of distortion. I worked in a music store for almost five years, and we just wouldn’t let that happen. We would have said something subtle like, “Hey dumbass! Put the guitar down before you hurt yourself.”

So, I did my loop to check out the merchandise, and just as I was almost out the door, an over-energetic sales person asked if I needed help. “No thanks!”, and I was gone! Never again! No musician in the right mind would waste their time looking at instruments at Best Buy. If you’re going to take the time to walk into a music store, make sure it’s a local music store. FYI: Guitar Center is NOT local, and is commonly known as the evil empire.

Yesterday I had my first, and hopefully last, MRI. I’ve been having problems with my neck for about four or five years. I dove into a lake and my angle was bad when I hit the water, and it snapped my neck back. I’ve grown tired of my neck being stiff, and sometimes very sore, so I’ve decided to see if someone can fix it.

Anyway, the MRI was pretty painless. You basically lay on this table which goes into a big tube. If you don’t like tight places, it might not be such a pleasant experience, but I just closed my eyes and tried to relax. The only thing about the MRI is it’s REALLY LOUD! They actually gave me ear plugs.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Every year my uncle gives me a big bag of morels. Thanks Denny!!!

Cooking them is simple. First, soak them in salt water for at least 30 minutes to get rid of all of the little critters, and then cook them in butter. I also took a portion of them and rolled them in flour with a little salt and pepper, and then cooked them in butter. If you don’t want to use butter, I also use some olive oil. Awwww….yeah!

The picture looks a little gross, but they are sooooo good, especially with a nice steak.

Kelly Nolan. Joel Marino. Brittany Zimmerman.

That’s three murders just off the top of my head that have gone unsolved. All three of them young people with bright futures, and it’s starting to make me wonder if Madison might have a serial killer and whether it’s a safe place to live anymore. I personally don’t feel scared of being murdered, but I don’t know how I’d feel about sending my children to college in the Madison area right now.

The Madison Police have given the public very little reason to believe any of those three murders cases will ever be solved, and it leads me to believe the investigators are just incompetent. That’s three murder cases with very few leads, at least that the public knows about, and probably no chance of them getting solved. Maybe I watch too much CSI, but I find that hard to believe. I do realize the police must keep certain information confidential as to not hurt their case, but the public deserves more.

There has been a man living in a red Isuzu Trooper just south of Elver Park, where S. Gammon comes to a dead-end, right next to the garbage cans. I believe he’s been living there since sometime last Summer, which means he toughed out a nasty Winter living in his vehicle. Yikes! The cops must know about him since they frequent that street, but I’m not sure there’s much they can do about it. It’s not like the guy is breaking the law.

I have two issues with this:

1. There is trash on the ground around the area that he parks, but I’ve never seen him actually litter. Regardless, he lives there, so he should pick up around the home.
2. He’s a big guy and it makes me nervous when my girlfriend goes for walks by herself. He more or less keeps to himself, but you never know.

Yesterday, I was walking my dog, and he was laying on his side with his shirt off inside of a sleeping bag. Another time, I saw him washing his hair with a jug of water. It’s not exactly what you want to see on the street you live on.

I went to RollingStone.com last night and I noticed they’re doing a cover story on the MTV show, “The Hills“. RS is clearly selling out to a younger demographic, because this show just flat out sucks ass. First of all, I don’t think anyone really knows whether this show is a reality show, or a scripted show with awful acting. My guess is the latter. RS describes it as…

the real-ish MTV reality drama about L.A. twentysomethings praised as “the most influential show we’ve ever had” by MTV president of entertainment Brian Graden

Real-ish? The only thing that’s half-way real is that MTV got some attractive young girls with zero talent and had them pretend to be on a terribly scripted so-called reality show. Also, if this is the most influential show MTV has ever had, they should hang their heads in embarrassment. Music Television? I think not. Softcore porn? Maybe.

I guess what really burns me is RS is featuring a pile of dung on the cover of their magazine, not because it’s newsworthy, but because it appeals to a particular demographic; which is young girls who are too young to know the show sucks, and young men who are in need of some eye-candy.

The good news is the careers of these actresses will be short-lived, their 15 minutes of fame is just about up. But for now, we have Heidi Montag creating terrible music, her own line of slutty clothing, and doing whatever she can so people don’t forget she exists. Laura Conrad has also put out her own line of clothes. I get the sense these girls are doing whatever they can with their short-lived fame, because once “The Hills” is over, so are their acting careers.

Finally, RS should be a magazine that’s on the cutting edge of what’s hot in the entertainment industry without selling their souls to what might be popular in the teenie bopper world. I’d have no problem with RS featuring “The Hills” if it were a good show, or even Britney Spears, if she could actually sing, and didn’t lip sync, was a responsible parent, stopped taking drugs, wasn’t a complete psycho…..hell, that list goes on forever. Bad example, except how many times has she been on the cover of Rolling Stone?

Please Rolling Stone, grow some cojones, ditch the mainstream crap, and show us you have an ounce of integrity left in that rag of magazine.

Related:

The Top 6 “Celebrities”who shouldn’t be famous

 
YouTube

YouTube

This doesn’t surprise me in the least. Hillary Clinton has run a dirty campaign since the very beginning, so the mud slinging just goes to show Hillary is a) desperate to win votes, and 2) very immature. Obama and McCain, for the most part, have both run very clean and respectful campaigns. Let’s hope Obama wins both Texas and Ohio so we don’t have to listen this awful woman anymore….

YouTube Hillary Clinton

I realize this has been a bad Winter, but what is the deal with the roads being so awful? I feel like the last month or so the snow removal folks have given up. I’m not knocking the workers that have been busting their ass all Winter, but we had a storm Sunday, I couldn’t get into to work yesterday, and barely made it today. I don’t even think they’ve plowed, salted, or put gravel down in my area. I tried to get up the S. Gammon hill that goes up to Raymond Road and had to back down it…two days after the storm! Midtown Road doesn’t even seem like it’s been plowed and looks excellent for ice skating. Another good ice skating rink is the intersection of Raymond Road and Whitney Way. It took me an HOUR to get to work today!

Also, when it was raining Sunday morning, why weren’t there salt/gravel trucks out being a little more proactive? Instead, Madison roads turned into pure ice. You can argue that it’s too cold for salt, but my place of employment put down salt in their parking lot and it’s melting. Again, I realize the Madison snow removal crew has had one hell of a Winter, but come on, step it up!!!

<Sigh> Is Winter ever going to end?

A few months ago we had officer Joey Williams, now we’ve got officer Salvatore Rivieri. He handled this so poorly, I don’t even have words for it. He was definitely on some type of power trip. Salvatore not only disrespected the police force, he disrespected the city. Salvatore was right about one thing, he’s not a “dude”, but he’s also not a “man”. He is what I like to call a “douche bag”. Also, why is this “douche” getting paid time off? Seriously, why do police departments have to take months to investigate? You watch the tape, and then you fire the “douche”.

YouTube Officer Salvatore Rivieri is a douche

Inner Harbor incident hits Internet

Skateboard-Hating Baltimore Cop at it Again