reminds me of surfing, chickens, cartoons, van halen

This is why MLS is the best professional sports league in America. The RSL fans have a Thanksgiving Day pickup soccer game, and the league's leading scorer comes out and plays. Does that happen anywhere else?

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Deerhoof's (Deerhooves?) new album leaked a week or two ago. If you're not familiar with Deerhoof, think of the band in Kill Bill 1, but with more of a cartoonish, yet rockin' bend. And if you can handle a Tiny-Sounding Japaneseish Woman delivering your ROCK, check it out. The new album starts strongly, but tapers off at the end. Oh well. Still recommended, whenever that comes out.

In a previous life I would have offered up a song, but I've decided to keep my piracy a one-man effort.

As I sat in my living room last evening, it occured to me that I've still got some 400 or so cds in my cabinets. There was a time in my life when 75% of my money went to record stores and Best Buy, but these days I rarely visit either of those places. I am a music pirate, and I haven't paid for more than 3 cds in the past two years. And one of those was a gift.

But now I'm wondering if I should get rid of my old cds. I very rarely listen to them, they take up a ton of space, and perhaps someone else would enjoy them more than myself. I occasionaly go through moments where I consider purging everything I own, so maybe the feeling will pass. But you might want to keep an eye out for lists of cds I'm dumping.

Speaking of things I have too many of, let me tell you about my magazine addiction. I currently have subscriptions to Esquire, GQ, Harpers, The Atlantic, Men's Vogue, McSweeney's... and I'm sure I'm forgetting some others. On my recent trip to Vegas I purchased 6 magazines. For a 3 day trip.

I regularly buy Outside, Men's Health, Men's Journal Adventure Life, National Geographic Traveler, National Geographic Explorer, Bicycling... you get the idea. I picture myself as an adventurous traveler and sportsman, even though most my adventure comes through watching shows on the Travel Channel.

The main problem in having this many magazines is that in no way do I have the time to actually read them. I find myself scheduling time to finish a magazine... I can't bring myself to throw them away until I'm sure I've devoured everything I have any interest in whatsoever.

So yesterday I scheduled 5 hours of television-less reading time. I was only distracted twice; Once to visit Meijer to buy bread bowls (600 calories - didn't look at the label before I bought), and once to set the tivo to record Dwell - a television show about a magazine.

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Saturday my friend Brent was in town for a few hours (HELLO STALKERS) so we headed over to Brugge for lunch/dinner and a beer. Good food as usual; a truly masculine experience (EDIT). Perhaps I should find another place in town to eat, but where else can I get great beer, fried food that I'll happily (and without guilt) consume, and soccer on the television? If anyone knows of any other options, let me know.

Thanks to Jim (previously of 11am Air Raid and currently of Hoosier Beer Geek) for turning my attention toward Brugge. It has truly become one of my favorite things about living here.

So.. Yup. That's that. Planning another trip to Vegas in March... it's not that it's one of my favorite places to go, it's just that nowhere is as easy to visit with a group of guys. Anyone have any recommendations apart from girls, gambling, and gulping? The bicycling looked nice last time I was out. Or maybe you can recommend somewhere other than Vegas for a group of guys to visit? Somewhere that doesn't involve camping or hiking, although I'm quite fond of both.

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While I don't wish harm to anyone, this made me sort of smile, just a little bit. Think Hummer will be using that picture in their next ad?

The comments over at IndyStar are amazing.