you know you've had a good weekend when you're still cleaning on monday night. and when you sit on your couch and find an earring, a roll of toilet paper, a toolbox, and some kind of computer cord that nobody who actually lives here can recognize. in any case, this weekend was glam rock weekend. the pictures will be posted soon. real soon.

it seems as though nobody else i know is into tennis. at all. therefore, i'm swiping a bit from patrick hruby's recent article on espn.com's page two, entitled "why you should watch the open." tennis gets a bad rap for being mundane and boring and without the "behind the scenes drama" of other sports. well. you tell me which one did NOT actually happen in the last five years, and then we'll discuss.

a) damir dokic, father of player jelena dokic, was thrown out of the u.s. open after pitching a fit over the price of salmon in the player's lounge.

b) donald trump offered john mcenroe one million dollars to play against one of the williams sisters.

c) seven male players tested positive for steroids; the atp cleared them after determining its own trainers may have been giving athletes tainted supplements.

d) slapped with a paternity suit, boris becker argued his sperm was stolen as part of a russian mafia extortion plot (a claim he later retracted).

e) ivan ljubicic opened his locker to find a naked michael llorda inside. said llorda: "i'm trying to get positive energy from you. you're winning a lot of matches this year."

the answer is: THEY'RE ALL TRUE. that's right. tennis, boring? surely you're joking.

on to other things. a brief and late (again) sunday 5. this week's theme: artists from good ol' duluth, part one.
(i should probably state for copyright reasons that this music is for sampling purposes only. the title of the song will still take you to the download, but if you want to find out more, click on the other links. support local artists, y'dig?)

1. low - when i go deaf. (the great destroyer)
-everyone knows that low is my fucking favorite band from duluth. this song is another one of those songs that i can't put into words. i just love it so much. so will you. keep with it to the end.

2. the black eyed snakes - no grave gonna hold my body down/chicken-bone george/cornbread/bo diddley. (live; also featured on rise up!)
-everyone knows that the black eyed snakes are my other fucking favorite band from duluth. i love me some sparhawk. although this song is over fifteen minutes long (because i can't figure out my audio editing software), it is so unbelievably worth it. this makes me want to rock out so hard that i break things in my living room.

3. the little black books - wish away. (only one name in my little black book)
-wow, their website looks really really great. incidentally, i can't find a link to buy their album online, but i know you can get it at the electric fetus for sure. this is my favorite track, but it's nothing compared to their live show.

4. mary bue - love. (east to the sea)
-i had the pleasure of seeing mary bue on friday with her new trio (herself, matt mobley, and john dirke). it was really really excellent. i would highly recommend her music to anyone.

5. the lucky southerners - neutral. (live at beaners, 4/20/04)
-i gotta give it up for nostalgia. it's quality, i promise you that. (also features matt mobley. hm.)

i like this local theme. watch for another five next week.

and finally, today was the day that joel left duluth for good. yes, ladies and gentlemen, our favorite gay is gone. who's going to be there to make sure we lock our doors? who's going to scold us for not changing the batteries in our smoke detectors? who is going to bring the worse case scenerios to light? who's going to say, when you finally reveal your crush, "what if he likes anne??"



farewell, joel. duluth misses you already.