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Target has taken a lot of heat recently for their political donations. This isn’t a commentary on that debacle, but rather on the amazing spectacle they put on in NYC’s Meatpacking District on 8/18/2010.

It was part choreographed dance show, part light show, and part fashion show all combined into something never seen before. The soundtrack and corresponding choreography is broken into distinctive themes, from a grand sounding kick line number to upbeat techno. Perhaps the best part comes towards the end, when the lit up rooms turn into a dancing figure. (It’s important to remember that the light blocks are rooms in a building and not something on a screen; in some sense the video doesn’t do it justice).

You can watch the video here; the show doesn’t start until halfway in. If you watch closely you just might see me.
http://apps.facebook.com/targetspectacular

My first attempt at a fall garden. Let’s see how this goes…

Remove the old walls, ceiling, and floor with a pry bar. Secure or cap the electrical lines.

Bummer. Last season MLB.TV promised a sync feature that would allow users to listen to the radio feed while watching the TV feed. For example, I could listen to the AM620/Bob Uecker audio and it would sync up with the video. Pretty awesome, huh? Well, the feature never really got off the ground last year and this year it’s not even mentioned. I just hope they haven’t completely abandoned the idea. I’d rather listen to Uecker with no video so I guess I’ll just go with the MLB app on my iPhone.

I watched King Corn the other night. If you’ve watched Super Size Me or read Fast Food Nation or In Defense of Food you’ll get the idea. In short it’s about two college buddies from Boston who decide to raise an acre of corn in Iowa from seed to harvest to find out what happens to the corn. Some interesting takeaways:

- Many Americans are made out of corn! Seriously. They do an isotope analysis of the filmmakers’ hair.
- Most corn farmers today can’t eat what they grow. The corn is largely inedible and its ultimate purpose is to be turned into sugar.
- Beef cattle are not designed to eat corn, but that’s primarily what they’re fed. After six months on a corn diet a cow will die, which is why they’re shoved into packed feed lots where they can barely move and fed corn for five months before slaughter. Buy grass fed beef.
- 1 in 8 New Yorkers is diabetic. Sugar = Death. Think twice before reaching for that daily soda.
- Corn (usually as HFCS) is in nearly every processed food. Read the labels.

To better food.

It has been a pretty awesome past few weeks, folks. Last weekend we headed to Madison for our first visit to Camp Randall this season against San Diego State. Dan and Ryan were in town for the game so there was debauchery aplenty. State Street Brats, Wando’s, and the Stadium Bar lighted our path to the game. I did not make it into the game until halftime, which was a little disappointing, but the glass was half full is the way I will look at it. Yesterday we had a really fun “tailgate” for the Michigan game at Gabe’s by the Park in St. Paul. We rented out about half of the bar and had around 200 people show up. Alumnus of the Badger Band played all of our favorites throughout the game and Erasmus James even made an appearance. As for the football game, well, let us just try to forget about that. The Badgers were actually leading through a good part of the first half and the game was tied at 10 by halftime. The Badgers defense, while prolific, just could not keep up through the second half. They just wore us down. We had poor field position through the second half and the defense was time after time put into tough spots. If the Badgers could have scored first in the second half the momentum may have swung in our favor. I think this team still has a good shot at going 10-2. We played well enough against Michigan, in the first half at least, to beat Penn State and Iowa. Boy do I want a national championship for this program. I was curious as to how many NCAA championships we have as a school and it turns out it is 23. Not the highest by any means, but nothing to scoff at either. This Saturday we are at Indiana and I think I will attend the Michigan at Minnesota game later in the day. Oh, and the Packers picked up their first win of the season against the Lions. This time of the year is all about football for me.

8/19

Irish Fest (the largest Irish festival in the world) was August 19th so we made the trip home in order to attend. It was a lot of fun and I am glad I made it back to the Milwaukee lakefront at least once this summer. I really wanted Cindy to see what one of the ethnic festivals is like since she has only been to Summerfest. I took some pictures, which have been posted.

8/26

On the Wednesday the 23rd we headed to the cabin. The weather was not on our side, however, as we had severe storms the first two nights. We even lost power for twelve hours. The rain and clouds never really went away until Sunday afternoon when we had to head back to the Twin Cities. Laura T, Laura B, and Gina met us there over the weekend so at least we were in good company even though the weather was bad. We brought Bucky to the cabin with us and he really seemed to enjoy himself.

9/2

The first Badger game of the season! We headed over to Gabe’s by the Park to watch the Badgers take on Bowling Green. They won 35-14, which is not too much of a shock considering the opponent. I liked watching the game there and will definitely go back for other non-televised games. On Sunday I felt like doing some hiking so we went to Afton State Park. We have been having bad luck with weather lately because just as soon as we parked the car it started to pour. We sat in the car for a half hour before driving home.

9/9

Cindy’s friend Alysha was married on Saturday in Milwaukee so we had to miss the first home Badger game of the season. The wedding was at 1pm, but the reception was not until 5:30 so we met Garrett downtown to watch the game at Hooligan’s where I had one of the best burgers I have ever eaten. The Badgers beat Western Illinois 34-10, also not much of a surprise there as Western is a 1AA school. Seriously, could the Badgers have a more pathetic non-conference schedule? Anyway, the wedding reception was a lot of fun and I was able to socialize with some friends that I have not seen for a long time. The Packers started off their season with a 26-0 loss to Chicago at home. The Pack looked weak in just about every way. Let’s hope this young team can pull it together.

After a lot of work I finally have all of my old blog entries posted. Now you can check out what I was rambling about back in 2000. I need to tweak some of the formatting, but all of the content is there.

I posted some new pictures tonight. Have a good week people. Irish Fest is this weekend!

I am getting so excited for college football to start! The Badgers definitely have some holes to fill going into this season, but for me anything less than 10-2 will be a disappointment. I think people need to start expecting more out of this program if we are going to move up to the next level, which means being in the hunt for a national championship. It is great if we beat Michigan or Ohio State during a season, but it should not be something special. We should expect to beat those teams. Wisconsin football has cranked out more draft picks, 31, over the past six years than any other program. We have been to three Rose Bowls in the past fifteen years along with a lot of other bowls. Oh, and we did have a Heisman winning running back in 1999 who also happens to hold the NCAA record for career rushing. It is time to start expecting more from the Badgers if we are going to contend for BCS bowl games and a national championship.

This season is marred by question and uncertainty. A new head coach. Nearly all of the starting offense of last season missing. A largely untested and unknown running back named PJ Hill. Oh, and do not forget that John Stocco just had knee surgery this past week. Yes, this season does have the potential to turn ugly, but there is always a silver, I mean red, lining to be found. The first break the Badgers catch is with their schedule. No Ohio State and Penn is at home. We play at Michigan and Iowa, but the rest of the schedule should be cake. As I previously mentioned, there is no reason this team cannot go 10-2 if they stay healthy. Our defense is very solid, especially on the line. They will have to force more turnovers since our high-powered offense of last year is largely absent. Hopefully Coach Bielema will be able to do good things with the defense and since it is solid it should allow him to focus more on the offense. I hear good things about PJ Hill, but I have yet to see him play. Durability could be an issue as he broke his leg last year and had some neck problems during spring ball. Randle El has the potential to be a big playmaker and I do not mean to turn the pressure on, but he will have to be. The kicking game will be solid with DeBauche and Mehlhaff returning and let’s hope Randle El can light it up on kick returns.

I am really excited for next season since the Badgers have Josh Oglesby committed to the program. He is one of the top recruits from his class, a massive OT from the Milwaukee area. One of the top running backs from that class is also from Wisconsin. Racine’s John Clay has can run the 40 in 4.45 and weighs in at 220 pounds. Time in a college weight room would undoubtedly help him add on some muscle weight. Clay has a lot of schools interested in him, however, such as Ohio State and Tennessee. He could really excel with a running-focused program like Wisconsin especially with Oglesby on the offensive line. Wisconsin needs to retain instate talent like Clay and to let him slip away would be unbearable. After Stocco leaves this year we will be left without a quarterback that has started a college football game. Allan Evridge of Kansas State recently announced his intention to transfer to either Wisconsin or TCU. He saw a lot of playing time last year as a freshman, starting six games and throwing nearly 1,400 yards for six touchdowns. He would have to sit out this season, but could be ready to fill Stocco’s shoes for next year.

I have season tickets in the student section this season, which I am incredibly excited about as I did not get to be in the student section at all last year. I will probably have to miss two home games because of weddings, but I hope to make up for it by going to the Iowa game. Only twenty more days until kickoff! GO BADGERS!