Contact us
Back to All Posts

Fore: What for? Some killer shades:

— It’s amazing what some younger people know about pop culture from back before they were born. A server friend of mine, Brooke, who works at Green Mill, strolled in the door wearing some amped up sunglasses, and I joked about them looking like Foster Grants. She knew all about the brand, back to when the pitch person was a very young Rachel Welch! The other day, she ventured over and said that while watching the tube, she saw that the new spokesmodel was another Brooke, that being Shields, and not from her Blue Lagoon Days, but currently.
— The golf season is well underway, and the Golf Network is often being shown at sports bars. One of the up-and-comers who is getting some fine finishes, Steve Stricker, got part of his start right here in the Hudson area. The Nationwide Tour was in full force as a stepping stone to the PGA, and there was a regular stop at Troy Burne south of town. As a sports reporter, I photographed Stricker winning one of those tournaments, years before his current glory days. During one of those other meets, I was directed to follow around a young man from Fargo and take photo after photo for virtually the entire tournament. The man was related to one of the head honchos at Forum Communications in Fargo, and he pulled rank to persuade the local paper, the Star-Observer, to free up a reporter for the better part of a week. The Star-Observer is owned by Forum Communications. So if you didn’t see a shot of little Johnnie hitting a home run that week …
— I’ve reported before on this web page that that a bartender friend, Michelle, has a (not so) secret crush on Ryan Braun of the Milwaukee Brewers. So I had to tease her that as part of a marketing promotion, a lucky fan would be invited to “spend a night in Braun’s suite.” She gave a disappointed little pout when I informed her that (1) that suite was a luxury box at the ballpark, not a room elsewhere, and (2) the offer is being rescinded since the suite is now given as a perk to the administrator who will decide on the latest round of his steroid allegations. (OK I made that last sentence up).
— Speaking of Michelle, she engaged myself and an out-of-town visitor in fantastic conversation just the other day. It came up that a favorite cartoon character is a creature called Sharkopus, and we think that he just might reside in the St. Croix River. (Does regular patron “Bones,” who insists that Hudson has tree leaches and other mysterious quasi-marine animals, know about this?) The visitor also said that he works for a railroad company and was sent up here from Kansas City for the sole business purpose of attending a pair of meetings, both of which only went ten minutes. So he had some time to kill talking about Sharkopus. (Revoke this man’s expense account!)
— It is now what we hope will be an extended summer, which means music festivals, and a recent one in River Falls that featured folk tunes filled most of the venues that entire weekend. One twist I didn’t expect was an offering at the West Wind supper club, which is more known for their food than having bands. The West Wind was the only place in town to have a music offering that Sunday night, and a packed house watched them play.

Share the Post:

Related Posts

  • Full metal jacket? Hey, I wasn’t exactly to the point of going Rob Halford. But tastes aside, there must be some reason why after 26 years I was shunned, like going Bob Daisley by Ozzy at his reunion? OK, I know, my style may not have fit with the packed crowd. And the last couple of times for this, I tried to do too much with ad-libbing. So yeah, I get that this time around, I was the somewhat unusual choice to be the one left off the set list, with singers clamoring to get up there. But seriously, just being analytical of strengths and weaknesses as a singer here, no hard feelings. I’m not Dio. (Or Traveling Wilburys, an inside joke.)
It was clear to me at the most recent Jeff Loven music show in Hudson, for Memorial Day weekend, that there has been a changing of the guard. The sword has been passed. New blood, like Yungblud, has been brought in. And, I must say, loyalty — amongst the devotees who travel frequently and all across the two-state area to virtually all of Jeff’s shows — has been rewarded. They are the royalty, in what just makes good business sense that I can appreciate. In a significant but not unprecedented altering of course, I was not one of those asked...
Read More
  • Songs by Napalm Death? A fire swept down my very street today, where the babies were burned. (But alas, a new A/C unit is on its way up the freeway.) The Stones did not leave these themes unturned, either, or should I say unrolled. Oh wait, this all was my cooker of an apartment, and we are not talking the kitchen. But all these matters will become more pressing, a pressure point, as the new normal especially in southern climes is temp well into the triple digits. It is these people, the third world, and their heat stroke not mine, that most concern me. (Another example of hellfire temps just added. Sin after Sin.)
Trial by fire. My broiling heart in my efficiency flat still beats a bit, in concern over those boiling over in worse apartments in a Chicago tenancy, or on an ocean island instantly-burn-your-feet beach or dessert, or forced to endure ice baths just to keep cool — or simply be offered no way to maintain an ice-dripping body other than also read a non-cookbook at the library, or select not a big steak you can’t afford but a 73/27 burger from a freezer and slap it on your forehead. Just not too hard. All these things are ones where you especially today either burn or...
Read More
  • I had a dream … And out of it (re)sprouted an ancient spring fertility rite to save the world, or at least my apartment building, or at least my second story window, from a giant lizard peering in, out at T-Rex days of yore. This ritual requires copious amounts of consumption and goes from there to hobbits and lords who are not yet a-leaping, for reasons to be retold in this fanciful, twisted tale (of fiction?) Just watch the use of Why! The letter, that is. And try to catch on to the inside jokes. (Psst. Another tale inside. Or two.)
This is a truly awfuI, twisted tale of villains and heroes, powerful ale if used carefully, giant beasties and smaller hobbyts, but also renewal and redemption. I will ascrybe to an ancient rytual, back to when the tyme gyant lyzyrds peered into second story wyndows of apartment byldings and no amount of walls could keep them out of such urban non-placated places, save this practice that annually, about this tyme of three-day holiday, would save humanity for another year.  So in this spryng fertility ryte, go consume copious quantities of hunhy grhym cr’krz and jinjer biyr, deprived of its alcohol as worshippers need to be sober-headed...
Read More
  • And musings moreover —– A full list of the trios of triumph. The power of threes. A full dozen of these triads, oh make that 13 as we linger, that you will see listed as shopping promptings in three long blocks of store windows of downtown Hudson. Three’s company? Get it? Third time’s the charm. And this is a truism, the words, some of them three letters, chosen to depict their offerings show the diversity of, dare I say it, a Super WalMart.
Here goes the ultimate list of lingo, even if it languishes, in no particular long order, as we go at length into the different kinds of businesses you will find in this locale, starting the list and at its last, two of the many art galleries in our downtown: — Feminist power, love and generosity, and to double your fun, framing, art tchotchkes and earrings, all at the biggest little art and collectables gallery you will see mid-block. — Community, commerce and tourism, touted at the Hudson Area Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Bureau, in a blatant suck up to...
Read More
  • And musings moreover —– To skate or not to skate? Not on most Hudson streets and sidewalks, you don’t. Even though most users I’ve encountered have been courteous and safe — saying ‘on right’ as they go by on a fairly busy sidewalk, and not just barely edging past you — the city council in essance banned the usage last fall. I think this goes too far in what amounts to dare I say it, big brother-type stringency. I prefer a more ‘urban’ style ambiance, with a Twin Cities type of bustle. (For what of that is to be found, come Friday, ‘jump’ inside. That post now updated, for more weekend options.) I now start with a joke.
As far as, for starters, the old announcement, “passing on the right,” this was said to me just now by a beautifully tanked woman in a bikini, owning the downtown sidewalk. She was slightly gasping and moaning as she almost carressed my side going by. I ABSOLUTELY REFUSE to read anything into that … Spring has past sprung, we’ve finally had some really hotter weather, and a young man’s heart turns to thoughts of … e-cycling and skateboarders going past. In the last couple of weeks, you can see them again all around our sidewalks and byways, busy and not...
Read More
  • And musings moreover —– Shoes and shirt are welcome, to be purchased along with other keepsakes at a new shop or worn in. At least soon while dining at new downtown Hudson eating opps. You don’t need an app, read on, as doors are flipped open … There are still other options and opportunities, after the Wild opted out as flipping goalies, with Filip, only worked for so long. (Not so big shoes to fill. Just flip-flops. See below and under The Headliner for posts on such sports bar shenanigans.) So for now, in a new post, we Rally In The Valley, with eight bands.
A door on the side of a downtown conglomerate of stores, the front not back door, has a sign telling delivery drivers to deposit items in back — but the sign is flipped upside down since the tape slipped. A blipped language I don’t speak. But that’s not the only thing that’s flipped in the downtown. Lots of stores are either open as we speak, or will be soon. We’re talking still in May, maybe, and mostly earlier than later. While we wait with baited breath for the full opening of Max’s Social House. And a pub or another hub...
Read More
Scroll to Top