Christmas is more than egg nog, as it hits River Falls $1 beer, even though Rudolph might steer far enough off course from the north pole, when negotiating his way through Canada, to only hit Colorado:
— And just where might these places be, like the closely guarded secret that is the location (locally?) of Santa’s workshop? And created is all kinds of art, but sorry exclusions at the upcoming low price include egg nog. But leading the way, for a meager $1.50 you get Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Cherry Pepsi, Sprite, Root Beer, Crush or Mountain Dew, and also coffee, iced tea or lemonade. And don’t forget a nearby haunt up past the Hill, where many such items on this kind of list are below a dollar and can fuel your artistic endeavors, too. Might be enough to make you go back to the drawing board, and take in that very place, Cheers Pablo. Or fuel other endeavors that have nothing to do with a brush, unless you’ve just gotten a couple of those River Falls, college town, $1 beers bought for you, and are working on your hair as well as getting that guy to take you home for non-holiday-related cheerfulness.
— Last time, I reported that a copies of the Cat in the Hat, latter part of the name, may have been beheaded, setting in the highway median, and you know how long construction crews take to move non-working-man-stuff on out? Did ISIS do it, well no, these were merely oddly colored and striped pylons. But would the lingering holiday effect make the Fat Cat headstrong, like almost all kitties are? Or quite religious (OK that’s a stretch). But the Lutherans have their Reformation Day right at Halloween. I swear that a lyric from my childhood was, “He lives my ever living head.” Bone in?
— Two are one in busy North Hudson businesses in their mens bathrooms. First was a sign above the toilet saying to please be gentle, the flush lever is working hard; isn’t that what she said? And speaking of flush, perhaps it would be appropriate for the man — sorry men — showing the more-then-mustache drawing on a sign at the Village, namely a big bad eyebrow extending up the right side of his forehead, and blips all over an ad for work as a — guess what — bartender.
— The three and one are singing their swan songs, involving cars. Recent deaths have been Rick O’Kasic of The Cars, Gary Numan who sings about cars, or a bigger ticket, Eddie Money, or always gets his thrill ride behind the wheel. Then U of M Coach Doug Woog wrestled with death and eventually succumbed. My connection with this scene, such as it is, is that when barely legal, I kissed all the girls at a house party to start the ’80s, as they were sitting on couches in an informal line. And listening to The Cars.
And with that printed here is my admonishment to get singing now, for you never know, the coming forces of Halloween evil (who work well into Xmas) might bring you ‘shorter of breath and one day closer to death’
It became Quick Six, not quite times ten, but for several others celebrating with a quick fix on the same otherwise slow night, it was also time to get singing You Say Its Your Birthday, and the traditional song is always a part of it (hopefully there won’t be that unfortunate soul who feels an obsessive need to harmonize, “and many more.”)
— As these things go, at least I’m just the other side of 60. And a bartender friend said that rather than my just turned 58 years of age, I look 56. (Some have said more like 40, when I have my literal grayish beard — or is it white — shaved off). Be that as it may, I ran into old friend Stacy on my birthday weekend — as an aside she looks just like Kate Hudson, really, but a younger version as Kate has had more than a few additional birthdays. Stacy said it was not only her birthday that day, but that of three of her friends who also were celebrating there, not to mention a fifth birthday girl at the other end of the bar. They made up a full half of the patronage that night. Stacy wanted to make this an announcement, so she stood up and clinked her glass, (but make no mistake about it, not for a birthday kiss, I’m too old). But there’s more. The next night it was Jeff Loven’s birthday, so he had a sub musician come in, and there was even one more birthday girl who ended up getting thrown in the mix. The antithesis to all this celebrating is Matt, who is a very good and valued friend of Hudsonwinightlife, who has proclaimed that now turning 40, he is done forever with birthdays, even if there is a party involved.
Ditto with my dad, who whom I made some tentative plans to swoop up mom (who is more into music and loved a past karaoke night with me, and even wanted to stay in the crowd when I was ready to call it a night) and celebrate his birthday with a downtown band. It fell short because everyone needed to get to bed early, and mom said, if you had made this offer 10 years ago … But she is well versed in Bruce Springsteen, for example, whereby dad has never even heard of Ozzy Osbourne and for a long time considered all this Devil’s Music — he particularly didn’t like Revelation (Mother Earth) even though being a Bible Thumper — and mom, being the stereotypical German, felt obliged to follow suit when voicing her opinions. So when they come for MY birthday, its usually just stay home and foresake the local festivals as everyone took a nap, there was no going to any kind of harvest fest. An end note: When the noted local musician, the late Jeff Johnson, who even got a lot of mainstream national airplay over decades, said he wanted local celebritities to sing on his concept album and I was asked, and I told my dad I was flattered by the invite, and he shot back that they’re probably just a bunch of potheads. I said I didn’t know these musicians that well, just sing or song or two with them, and I don’t know what they do backstage! But I told dad, I didn’t respond about what I was going to do going forward with this possibility, just considered it nice to be in the same company as, say, my old friend Rebecca Kolls. And even though Jeff said he had written a song especially for me to sing, I wasn’t quite comfortable as being characterized as a “local celebrity,” although I’ve heard that term used many times since.
— And the new, sorta, car shows go on, and will surely be put on substantial display at one of the latest organized gatherings. There was the bumblebee with a flair of black flame, another car where the exact color ratio was a bit checkered, and then one more where yes, the base color was yellow, but there were literally hundreds of small decals decorating it up. And lastly, there was seen a bright neon car that could without winter coming be one of those environmental thingees not much bigger than a golf cart — even though that was often seen — that also had a burst of flame on the side door. And among others, would they be at the recent Willow River Car Club show in the town of Hudson? That recent Saturday had showers but only scattered, and a rain date was listed for the following day. Hopefully between the two …
— The Surly brew production area is open 24 hours, it was announced. They say that they’d prefer to be open 25, and would use that time to brew more beer. I think the Wisconsin drinkers made that a given — as they love their Surly without hopefully getting surly — or for sure the fact that there is a dark beer patterned after First Avenue in Minneapolis, touted at Darkness Days in Somerset, that is available even in the Badger State (insert geography references).
— Again about that eye-sore one-room wreck of a house on Monroe Street in North Hudson. Workers finally appear to be working overtime to put a finish to it getting rehabbed. Hence the big concrete pouring truck that blocked the entire street. If you wanted to make your late-night run from Season’s Tavern over to Starr’s Bar, as that would be the logical route, as if you’d be sober enough to micro-manage such details, you’d be screwed, to make another construction reference.
It is again, the time of year for all things pumpkin, but that’s old hat, like the deer hunting hats being seen, yes 24/7, all over while they are still in a current mode. More timely is the fact that Kwik Trip just opened their North Hudson store, the most important thing of consequence to the north of the existing local shops, after several days of somewhat glaring, yes orange, bold lighting to announce their likely to be primo local presence that is spilling over all the turn-lane instructure that was installed in large part to benefit their sure-to-change-the-local-scene-presence as far as a player in the market. So back to pumpkins. If you hurry north, as there are still many remnants of their killer grand opening remaining, you can still get on special a fantastic cup of pumpkin spiced brew, also with cinammon, brown sugar and vanilla. And many kinds of brew for free, again for a limited time, although even after its less than a buck. These things are highlighted by the fact that there are many, many bottles of sweetner to add to the experience, even though what we’re assuming was an added pumpkin mix seemed to be sold out at times. Must be good. And also a free coupon, among many, for milk, (I think the cow is still available, but she may only be on-call to provide certified freshness — just kidding!) Don’t forget to factor in the Kwik Trip special of bananas, potatoes and onions for only 39 cents per pound, it was 28, and being offered as an added incentive is a free first pound of some of those things, although of the three, the banana part was the latest to be a freebie. You could you dip that banana in the pumpkin coffee for one more, quasi-tropical flavor in our northwoods. Just don’t try the same with onion. Potato? Eh, maybe.
What do you have when, eh maybe, you are putting on a church meal to cook and honor all nationalities in a universal way? Hot dish, of course, being the area’s Scandinavian ethnicity. But what about all the other worldwide ethnic groups.
— Slaving away on Thanksgiving Eve and well beyond, you’ve know doubt heard of turducken, with the three layers of three kinds of fowl. What you may not know is there are so many layers to fight/dig through that kitchen utensils sometimes break off and are lost inside the chicken, and this is no rubber chicken.
— This idea about a breakout gone wrong. Bring in a fruitcake to give to an inmate, that’s been regifted a few times, and the crust was so hard they could not get out the hack saw. Also bantied about is a (great? As in Linus’s pumpkin?) trick or treating gift that keeps on giving, as began being marketed early, although its not fully candy, and even is somewhat nutrional. It also might need one of those Scaaary little plastic containers, or possibly a shot glass. I’m referencing the Halloween plug, as it is portrayed at County Market, for on-special Kemp’s chocolate milk. Take it out now, much later but still OK like fruitcake, and make it into egg nog? And for when they bring it home, the adults can mix and match with the candy and make the equivalent of a hot toddy meets Blizzard, and join in on the fun with the youngsters.