One more Dweeb doesn’t quite make a dozen, but they still rock the party, and The GasLite too before Green Bay, like you’ll see, men who wear hats (and they’ve been doing this as long and as well as such an old ’80s band). And tis the season for editorial grab bags, prior to stocking stuffers.

The Dweebs have added a new and highly skilled nerd (savant?) or two, with different musicians sharing the limelight, and you might even see a somewhat newer face amongst the now bigger band to their adaptive and interactive sets, at turns, shaded by a big green sparkling top-hat. So then Gene Simmons height, and also on guitar? That’s a gas, and the Dweebs have cornered the market on such a show, and refined their craft by doing it for decades. And their newest gig is Saturday night at The GasLite in Ellsworth, fresh off a show at Not Justa Bar in Somerset, and the last time to see them in western Wisconsin this year. Thus their “tour” has a swing to performances in Green Bay. And includes stops as far afield as North Dakota and Nebraska. So they have range, and not just vocally.
There are other locales that hail with the Dweebs stopping in, early and often, but none more than at the Wild Badger, where they were earlier in the month. That’s where I saw the mad hatter(s).
But on the latest Wednesday, the Badger showed a huge few-hours-back-from-college, have-a-beer-and-mingle crowd, based on their dress and looks and overall manner, but that should be no surprise in this growing city as it was the eve before Thanksgiving. The Wild Badger had, befitting its name, a glow-stick rager going on and it was shoulder to shoulder, back to old New Richmond stomping grounds. It was striking that despite the masses, there were few if any cars traveling to and fro from the downtown areas, on their streets broadly, although that could obviously be seen as a good thing.
What you would likely see at other cities to the south, although in River Falls where there is a big college, at least some students found they were one and the same, give or take a few blocks or miles.
One had this T-shirt, which stood out, and I give thanks for such humor, although I can’t tell if its fully wisdom or self-deprication: “Too dumb for NY. Too ugly for LA.” I might add too much in the middle for the Midwest, but hey he’s here?
So I have to say it, full quality disclaimer, that there’s more coming that’s just the time of the season for slotting it in. By milking various themes.
All around, houses with various size party decks, front and back and side yard, were taking them down, sometimes leaving behind the stout sticks that are Hawaii type torches — and making Hawaian noises as in Dire Straits — and sometimes not. In their place are Christmas lights, spreading their twinkling spheres around the wide lots to cover a bigger area and edging toward the sidewalks.
Raking between the sidewalks had been made unnecessary in a big yard by use of huge equipment bigger than a golf cart, to head off a battle with snowfall. It was the biggest damn leaf and lawn mover and blower I’ve ever seen — and that worker was in a T-shirt. Twice seen. Under construction?
More timely is a New Richmond company that has the power at this time of year, Powers be the name, pros for years said the old man at The Shamrock, although out of season, at turning your deer into actual venison — business no doubt is good with recent days of tracking snow.
On Thanksgiving Day come noon, my street was largely bare of people arriving for turkey dinner. I thought at the time, I thought the pandemic bias against house parties had ebbed. Low and behold, a half hour passed and people started making their way into driveways and then curbside street parking.
We also have come to the end of seasons for some of the jogger and walker tricks, at times walking this way much faster because of the weather, round the block and come past again, then back the reverse direction. With a walker who was just ambling on in-between. Now there are boots made for walking, and I promise, I wasn’t trying to oogle. And a single winter glove stuck onto one of those Hawaian type poles, I think it was, making it lean over at a low angle across again, the sidewalk. Lastly on another three sidewalks, you can carry on with your walking and not get stuck in the eye, since its much easier on them, even as their Maple leaves have fallen, every one.