GRIZZLY HUNTING IN FARGO

This past weekend my wife and I along with a couple of friends packed into a car and headed down to the wonderful metropolis that is Fargo ND. After spending time checking out the Sheels department store (which has a both a ferris wheel AND a shooting range), hearing some man talk about his latest Grizzly Bear hunting experience and eating at Grandma's Bar and Grill (which felt like one of those 'American' restaurants that you can go to in Asia or Europe), we took in the Grizzly Bear and TV on the Radio show.

If I could choose one word to describe this it would have to be surreal. I mean why the hell did two bands who have released two of the best records of the year end up in Fargo? We walked into the venue, which seemed way to swank for Fargo, just as Grizzly Bear began playing. Their first reaction upon seeing the crowd was probably something along the lines of 'what the? How come there's only 50 people here?' The crowd was quite small and about half of it was fellow Peggers. But really, should we have expected anything else? Not to slight Fargo, but does it really seem like a indie hot-spot?

Inspite of this Grizzly Bear managed to put on a mesmerizing show consisting of interesting renditions of stuff from 2004's Horn of Plenty along with a good selection of material from this years Yellow House. Their set suited the small crowd well as they were able to instantly create a intimate bond simply through their stunning harmonies and captivating and upredictable song structures. The highlight of which was their epic Lullabye which both lulls you to sleep and forces you up at the same time. Of all the Yellow House material this was the one song that translated best into a live setting, with nice vocal interplay between all members of the band, interesting guitar, and a clarinet played through a pitch shifter to give deep and dark base tones. Through this set Grizzly Bear confirmed that they are actually living up to the hype they are currently receiving.

If Grizzly Bear's set came across as intimate than TV on the Radio's came off as a brutal sonic punishment. I mean this in a positive sense. Their show completly knocked me off my feet as I was struck with pounding guitars, bass that was driven to destroy my inner ear, drums that forced me into a tribal dance, and vocals that gave new meaning to the word 'intense.' In short, this show was awesome in a very different way then the Grizzly Bear show, and yet still seemed consistent with the mood Grizzly Bear had established with their set.

One of my favorite aspects of the TV on the Radio show was their lead singers subversive relationship with the crowd. You got the sense right a way that he felt that it was a bit rediculous that they were currently playing in Fargo ND. He started off by talking about just how 'exquisite' the Arby's he had for supper was, and then continued to thank Fargo throughout the set in a very 'thank you Cleveland' kind of way. Again, I felt this only added to the show as it gave us a common bond as we all tried to figure out why the hell we were here.

So the show was a resounding success and only confirmed the brilliance of both of these bands.

HOCKEY PICKS

So, for myself at least, the first thing I tend to think about when October rolls around is not 'crap it's almost winter' or 'how the hell am I going to pull off my costume for Halloween' but more about the upcoming Hockey season. For sports fans (which I have to say that I am most definately one) October has to be one of the best months of the year. Baseball is at its only point of interest, NFL and CFL are both well on their way and then to top it all off, Hockey starts.

Unfoprtunately, with the begining of Hockey so too comes that awfully self-indulgent tradition of Hockey predictions. This year especially, with almost every major media publication offering up some form of a Fantasy Hockey Pool, it seems that we are being bombarded with pundit after pundit displaying their self-proclaimed expertise by giving their predictions. Most of the time they are absolutely rediculous as all the so-called 'expert' does is basically look at the rosters see how many names they recognise and then order the teams based on that (this is even worse for Western Conference predictions as the East-biased hockey media has little to no knowledge of what is going on west of Toronto). Usually the predictions go something like this

EASTERN CONFERENCE
1.)Buffalo
2.)Philadelphia
3.)Carolina
4.)Ottawa
5.)New Jersey
6.)New York Rangers
7.)Boston
8.)Montreal

9.)Tampa Bay
10.)Toronto
11.)Washington
12.)Florida
13.)Pittsburgh
14.) Atlanta
15.)NY Islanders

WESTERN CONFERENEC
1.)Nashville
2.)Anaheim
3.)Calagary
4.)San Jose
5.)Detroit
6.)Minnesota
7.)Colorado
8.)Edmonton

9.) Phoenix
10.)Dallas
11.)Vancouver
12.) Chicago
13.)Columbus
14.) Los Angeles
15.) St. Louis

This is absolutely rediculous. Why is it that we have to be bombarded by these lame-ass pundits telling us the most predictable outcomes for the coming year. Can't we do that ourselves? How hard is it to look at Anaheim see the names Pronger, Neidemeyer, Selanne and say 'wow, I pick them!' Why can't any of these people go out on a limb ever?

Anyways, these are some frustrations I have. And for interest sake, if I were a so-called Hockey expert my picks would go something like this (keep in mind my biases as a ravid Oiler fans, especially when talking about the Flames and the Lafs, and the fact that I have little to no knowledge about the East).

EASRTERN CONFRENCE
1.) Buffalo
2.) New Jersey
3.) Carolina
4.) Boston
5.) Ottawa
6.) Philadelphia
7.) Pittsburgh
8.) Florida

9.) Montreal
10.) NY Rangers
11.) Tampa Bay
12.) Atlanta
13.)Washington
14.) Toronto
15.) NY Islanders

WESTERN CONF
1.) San Jose
2.) Nashville
3.) Minnesota
4.) Edmonton
5.) Detroit
6.) Chicago
7.) Dallas
8.) Columbus

9.) Anaheim (Anaheim adds another d-man to an already solid defence and lose one of their best scorers = No playoffs. Oh yeah and Prongers leaves town half-way through season for so-called 'personal' reasons. Afterwhich no team decides to pick him up and he spends the rest of his life wallowing in his own self-pity)
10.) Calgary (Kipper gets injured and the team realises how one dimensional they really are)
11.) Colorado
12.) Vancouver
13.) Phoenix
14.) Los Angeles
15.) St. Louis
* 6-13 are separated by less than 10 pts
Of course this won't probably happen, but these are my 'predictions'.