Why I Bleed Blue!

The Blues have always been the team of the people. A real working man’s team. Besides the days of Brett Hull and the brief Wayne Gretzky stint, we’ve always had some of the lower paid players, but the players with the most heart. People come and stay in St. Louis because they know even in the worst seasons, the fans don’t turn their back on the team.

I went to a few games at the end of the season last year when playoff hopes were gone, and the crowds still came out to drink over priced beer and scream until their voices were gone. That’s dedication. Hell, the Phoenix Coyotes were doing great last year, and they could barely keep the place open.

It’s not a one way street either.

Buy a ticket to a Blues game and include your phone number on the ticket site. I’m telling you, it’s worth it.

For months after I purchased tickets, the Blues would have a PR guy call me every few weeks just to talk hockey. He didn’t pressure me into getting more tickets or trying to recruit other people. He literally just called to talk hockey. Then at the end of the conversation he’d ask if I were going to any games soon, and if I said no, he would give me his personal phone number and say if I wanted to go to a game, call him and he would get me a deal on tickets. That’s real PR.

It’s not just the back office either that’s accessible.

I follow several Blues players on Twitter.

@DP_57 – David Perron

@bradwinchester – Brad Winchester

@pberglund21 – Patrik Berglund

@erikjohnson6 – Erik Johnson

They update pretty regularly and you get a great insight into their non-hockey activities. Not only do you get to see that these guys are just normal people, but they use their celebrity. At least once a week there’s some charity event or skate with the fans that the boys in blue attend or run. They are constantly giving back to St. Louis somehow.

There’s a lot of talk this year about how the St. Louis Blues really don’t have a strong offense and there’s no way we’re making it to the playoffs again, but I tend to disagree.

See, last year we had a fairly competent offense. We didn’t have giant scorers, but we had heart. If not for the rocky start of the season, the Blues would’ve been a force to reckon with. I know, there’s a lot of excuses you can make when your team doesn’t make the playoffs. Oh, if it wasn’t for that one injury, or damn if the Blackhawks didn’t sweep us in December we would’ve made it. But it’s true. The Blues had one of the best records in the NHL during the last half of the season. (This is also a curse, because its been true for two or three seasons now.)

If you look at the bottom two or three teams that made the playoffs from the Eastern conference, you’ll notice that the Blues had more wins and points than them.

A lot of people complained about the home record last year too. I must say, it was a very rare and very odd occurrence for a team to lose that much at home. The thing is, I happen to be lucky. Of the four games I went to last year, the Blues won all of them.

So, tactic one for the Blues to win the cup this year. Buy me season tickets. I’m obviously good luck. Before the season even starts we have 41 wins in the bag, and if the Blues play as well on the road as they did last year, we’re looking at something like 63-64 wins for the season. The Sharks didn’t even come close to that many wins last year.

Now there’s another reason I think the Blues are going to do great this year, and that’s the playoff beard.

Most the young guys on the Blues can’t grow the facial hair so well, which is why I think they’ve struggled so much in the past. I’m sure TJ Oshie and Brad Winchester try their hardest to get that facial hair going, but from what I’ve seen in pictures, it’s not a strong enough hockey beard.

I started growing my beard as a “Get Well Sallie” playoff beard, but I’ve decided that I will officially dedicate my beard to the Blues. I will only trim it up and keep it clean enough for corporate America. By the time the Blues are hoisting Lord Stanley’s Cup above their heads next spring, I’ll be able to braid my beard like a Reggae artist.

Blues fans, you can thank me next spring.

Against Me!

This weekend was the Against Me! show downtown. It was like a personal birthday present to me.

Nick and I showed up as early as we could, probably about thirty minutes before gates opened and it was 170 degrees. For real, 170 ridiculous degrees.

The irony was not lost on us. Against Me!, a largely anti-war punk band, was playing a free show at the Soldiers Memorial.

Anyway, we filed into the show, anticipating fighting our way up to the stage and having a great time in the mosh pit only to find this.



That's right, 400 empty VIP seats for a punk/hipster show. The only thing we could think was... once the beer started flowing and the music playing, those chairs are going to be anti-hippy weapons.

Well the first band started and the 800 or so people standing behind these empty chairs continually looked around for a reason why we weren't in there. Henry Clay People were surprisingly good. I'd never heard of them before (Probably because this was their first trip to St. Louis.)

Then there was this. It was like he wanted to show off for his first date sooooo much that he bought up all the VIP seats. Seriously, this guy and his girl sat alone in these seats for the last half of Henry Clay People and a large portion of the in between time.



Then Against Me! came out and they start letting us common folk fill the empty VIP seats with one rule... you had to sit in a seat. Nick and I opted to rock out in hte lawn still.

Tom, the singer from Against Me! made a comment that we should know our role, and that role is not in VIP.




Against Me! played most their set from their new Album "White Crosses" which is a great album, but since they didn't come to St. Louis to tour for their last record, Nick and I were hoping to see a bit more of a spread. For some reason they also added a keyboardist and their bassist was MIA. Overall though, they killed it.

Below is a live performance video, just so you could picture yourself there.

The Man Cave

The Man Cave

Its every man’s god given dream to have a cave of his own. It goes back to the prehistoric days when we spent all day, surviving, and just wanted to come home to hang out in our own cave. I think it’s a similar sensation to when women feel the need to have a kid. Maybe? No?

I want to set up a Man Cave in our basement in that back room where currently Christmas decorations are stored. My biological clock is going off and this is my child.

There are certain rules to setting up a proper man cave.

1) There can be little light. This is why often the basement or a den are the most ideal places for the man cave.

2) Often times the walls are lined with wood paneling. This is an observation Sallie discovered a few weeks ago while hopped up on pain medicine while we were launching into another movie marathon. Almost every Hollywood man cave has wood paneling. I’ll settle for the concrete/drywall mixture I have going now, but someday, something will have to be done about it.

3) There must be an older television, preferably with an antennae on it, possibly with either a VCR, Sega Genesis, or Nintendo 64 hooked up to it. I think I’m going to be able to pull off the TV and Sega Genesis once my brother leaves for college. I might want to also get a cheap DVD player down there, just to bring it up to par.

4) An old ratty couch. We’ve actually got two couches. One of which is turning color from over use, the other we found in an alleyway.

5) Beat up coffee table. It has to be made out of wood that doesn’t match anything else with scratches and condensation rings all over it. Must also meet the correct height requirement for resting feet up on from couch.

6) A rug. It’s always an eye sore, probably a rug made in the 70s. You know the ones. They had like seven different shades of brown woven into it. Looks like it was stored outside for most of its life. A shag rug is bonus.

7) Some reference to billiards. The best man caves have the old pool table in them. Others have the billiard, stained glass, light fixture hanging down from the ceiling. I don’t have room for either of those. My best bet is bumper pool, a cheap Foosball table, or a few pool cues mounted like crossed swords on the wall.

8) Ash trays galore. Even if you don’t smoke. Even if none of your friends smoke. There must always be ashtrays filled with stale, chalky ashes.

Now in my man cave I also want to put in a home brewing kit with a minifridge. The dream is to create my own beer. Then when the man cave is in full force, reach over to the minifridge and pull out my own delicious lager.

Anyone that wants to make this dream a reality by giving up old items listed above, please do. This is officially called the Dan’s Dream Charity 2010.

Cause damn it, I have a house, I should have a man cave.

Weeds - Satan's Little Garden

Why are weeds the only plant that doesn't have to follow natures rules for plants?

Seriously, that are 5,000 laws of nature that make botany truly a fine are.

For instance, someone gives you a bunch of flowers. To transfer those flower to a vase you must cut them at a 45 degree angle, under luke-warm running water, and immediately get them into that vase. Even then, I rarely can keep those flowers alive. Two days later there's a vase filled with dying, rotting, smelly former flowers that are losing petals all over the kitchen table.

Or trees, earths mightiest of plants. You don't want to cut into them or just remove a few branches because inevitably they'll get a disease and you get a termite infested, dying tree.

Even grass, which is a weed, but a weed everyone loves. If you cut it too short, or on a particularly hot day, or you water with when the sun is out, that thing is going to turn into a brown, patchy yard carpet.

Yet every week I go outside, pull, prune, and spray weeds. The little bastards keep coming back. They're the zombies of botany. Unless you shoot them right in the brain, the bastards are coming back and look... they probably bit your neighbor. Now there's two of them.

Often times they put you into a sticky situation where something you love eating, like lettuce, all of a sudden has a few weeds in between the leaves. They break all laws of gravity, physics and life science. They almost appear to be living in the air sometimes, just to remain protected by the wanted plant. You stare at it like a surgeon, wondering if you can remove it delicately enough. Someimtes you can, sometimes you uproot the lettuce.

I recently started chemical warfare.

I spray the bastards, go out the next day to remove the dried out carcass, only to find I must have missed some minuscule amount of root, because three days later its back, larger, seemingly immune to chemicals, mocking me as I get on the scooter and ride to work, only to wage war again the next weekend.

Attention All Shoppers - Less than 20 days to shop

It's that time of year again. Time to celebrate the birth of one of those characters that only comes along once a century. The sort of person people like to shower with gifts as often as possible. On July 26th, we will celebrate my 26th birthday. More than a quarter of a century of you all benefiting mostly for free.

I've included links to what the product is for your reference. Have at fans of mine.

Birthday list 2010

Games:
Starcraft 2 - PC

Blu-ray:
Gangs of New York
Lord of the Rings
Life

Gift Cards
New Egg (For computer parts)
PSN (Playstation store)
Borders (Books)
Target

Comics
Metal Gear Solid
Resident Evil Fire and Ice

Books
Shooting the Shit with Kevin Smith
Not a Star -Nick Hornby
Juliet Naked – Nick Hornby
An Education – Nick Hornby
DND – Monster Manual 3
IV – Chuck Klosterman
My Life as an Experiment – A J Jacobs
Harry Potter – Books 1-6 Hardcovers

Vinyl
-Against Me! – White Crosses
-The Clash – London Calling
-David Bowie – Ziggy Stardust
- Generation X – Generation X
-The Beatles – The Beatles (White Album)

Other
-Computer desk- Just needs to have a keyboard tray and enough desk space for multiple monitors.
- Computer hard drive – Needs to be at least 7200 RPMS and 750 GBs
-Amazon Kindle - Ebook reader
-Resident Evil 4 poster