July 24, 2004

More Fun Than A Human Being Should Be Allowed To Have

This afternoon, I had to mow the grass. This being America, I wanted to listen to the radio while I mowed. Instead of punishing my ears solely with the noise of the lawn tractor, I added in more noise, as loud as the radio would do pump it out.

Being where I live, it's very difficult to get a strong signal from am1280 The Patriot, host (Saturday's from 12p-3p) of The Northern Alliance Radio Network. This is a show done by Minnesota's, and some of the Country's finest bloggers: Mitch Berg of Shot In The Dark, The Elder, Saint Paul, Atomizer and JB Doubtless of Fraters Libertas, John "Rocket Man" Hinderaker and Scott "The Big Trunk" Johnson of PowerLine, Captain Ed Morrisey of Captain's Quarters, and (last but most certainly not least!) King Banaian of SCSU Scholars. Today, among other things, they interviewed James Taranto, he of Best Of The Web. Best of the Web is one of the best reasons to have email, arriving each afternoon in your inbox for your reading pleasure. Wish I could have heard it; instead I listened to 101.7, The Red House That Rocks, WHMH FM.

Tonight at Keegan's Pub in Minneapolis, The Northern Alliance hosted their first "get together" of bloggers in the Minnesota area, and your's truly attended. I had the pleasure and honor of meeting most of the above people, and putting a face to the website. Also in attendance was the Uber Scribe, James Lileks. The man with the most listenable radio show on the Twin Cities former talk radio powerhouse am1500 KSTP, Bob Davis also graced us with his presence. I had a most enjoyable conversation with Flash from Centrisity, who happens to be a member of the finest Senior Drum & Bugle Corps in the world, Minnesota Brass, Incorporated. While he is a little more left-of-center than I, he's in a drum corps, which is one of my favorite summer pasttimes: watching Drum & Bugle Corps as they take the field for competition. Jay Reding came up too, and it was great to meet him; his blog is another daily must read. And, of the local "big time" pundits (i.e., she gets paid for her opinions unlike the rest of us) Sarah Janecek of MN-Politics.com.

Those, and more, were there, and many likely still are. I have some commitments tomorrow, namely responsibilities at church in the morning, so I bailed out early. These people are all as genuinely nice (and smart) as they appear on the screen. Special Thanks to all of them for the great props that they gave this site and Sean. Next time He will have to make the trip to get the props himself. Me, I'm just lucky enough to get a guest slot here, and grateful for it.