We're heading to the Palace tonight to see a Barenaked Ladies concert. Like I said, I saw them a couple years ago during their Christmas tour, but this will be the first real concert I've gone to. BNL are one of those rare bands that hit it big during the 90s, but have somehow managed to stay relevant and make a smooth transition into the 21st century. I think a lot of music fans write them off based on ubiquitous hits like "One Week" and "It's All Been Done," but it's safe to say that their best tunes are the ones that you've never heard on the radio. Here are my five favorites:

1. Hello City
2. The Old Apartment
3. Call and Answer
4. If I had $1,000,000
5. Crazy

Okay, I've been pretty good about keeping the politics off this site, but this one deserves some exposure. If you haven't seen the Michael J. Fox ad about stem cell research for Claire McCaskill's senate campaign in Missouri, you really need to watch it:



It's hard for someone like me who grew up watching Michael J. Fox in all the Back to the Future movies see him like this. I won't delve into the whole Rush Limbaugh thing right now (other than to say that Rush just proved once again why he is perhaps the biggest asshole in America), but after you watch the ad, head over to Crooks and Liars and watch Fox's interview with Katie Couric from last night's CBS evening news.

I'm sorry, but anyone who can see how much Michael J. Fox has deteriorated and still oppose embryonic stem cell research is nuts. To think that we could be conducting research to prevent diseases like these and aren't -- even though the embryos that would be used are going to be disposed of anyway -- is totally insane. How can people claim to value life, yet fail to do everything humanly possible to save the lives of people who are already alive? Oh, what a world we live in...

Aside from the weird heat mishap on Monday and Tuesday, it's been a pretty normal week. Yesterday I went and volunteered for Granholm again, and Stefy had this gourmet meal waiting for us when I got home. She even had enough time to whip up a tasty pumpkin pie for dessert! Mmmmm. Tonight we're going out to my dad and Sherry's for dinner, and then tomorrow we're heading out to Stef's house because we're going to see Barenaked Ladies at the Palace!

The last time I saw BNL was during their Christmas tour in 2004. It was a great show and I'm really glad I got to hear some of their Christmas tunes, but I'm looking forward to seeing a real concert of theirs for the first time, especially since this new album is so good.

In theory, we should be going to game six of the World Series on Saturday night, but depending on what happens with games four and five (if they get played, who wins, etc.), it's possible that we might not be going after all. Of course, it's also not out of the realm of possibility that we could need to play a game seven this weekend, which would have us repeating what we did last Sunday, when we drove back to Lansing after the game, and got home at like 1:15. Yikes. A seventh game in the World Series would be really exciting, but I'm not sure if I have enough gumption for another late night drive like that.

Anyhoo, that's it for now. Have a good one.

From the Onion:

COLBERT, GA—Country vocalist Kenny Rogers repeatedly and vehemently denied rumors that he engaged in cheatin' behavior during Game 2 of the World Series Sunday night, which he maintains he watched on TV at his friend Randy's house across town despite anonymous eyewitnesses placing him at the Lincoln Park Motor Inn with an unknown red-haired woman. "C'mon, honey, you have to believe in me, here," Rogers said from the front lawn of his estate while dodging clothing and personal possessions thrown at him from the second-floor windows of his house by Wanda Miller, his wife of nine years. "I had a few beers and, you know, decided to take my time getting home, is all. Honey?" Suspicion initially settled on Rogers when a visual inspection seemed to reveal a "tacky" stain on the multiple-Grammy-award winner's hands.

Wait. I'm confused. You mean they're not the same dude?

Last night's game was painful to watch. That pitcher was good, but come on, our performance was pathetic. I think we'll need everyone on the team batting with Wonderboy tonight if we're going to have a shot at nabbing one of these games in St. Louis.

Come on, Tigs!

It's been about 25 years since my mom was asked to be a Godmother, so I think she was excited for another go-around. Dan's sister Rose had her second baby, Campbell, about a month ago, and this is my mom and Dan's brother Maynard (the Godfather) after the baptism in South Carolina on Sunday. Campbell Stuck is the 138th Schafer grandchild born in the last three years. What a cutie.

If you not watch diiis videoclip, I execute:

No more snow shoes. No more shivering at my desk. No more seeing my breath while I talk on the phone. Nope. We finally have heat again.

Woo Hooooo!

I haven't had my eyes checked since I was in 10th grade. That's about seven years ago. I'm pretty sure I lost my last pair of glasses sometime during my freshman year of college.

So yeah... an eye exam is probably in order.

I don't really have any trouble seeing, but since glaucoma runs in my family and my mom had that weird saga with her vision earlier this year, it's probably time to get my eyes checked. That's why I made an appointment with an optometrist at SEE over at Eastwood. For those who don't know about SEE, it's basically a spinoff of D.O.C, but they have even sexier specs.

Anyhoo, I was supposed to go in there on Monday night to have the doc check out my eyes, but when I arrived the girl behind the counter told me they don't take my type of health insurance. I was a little peeved since I gave them the insurance info over the phone when I made my appointment and the person I spoke with said everything was a-okay. It turns out they do take Blue Cross, but not the specific vision plan I'm enrolled in. Whatever. So basically they could just charge me and I would get partially reimbursed by BC/BS, but since I know there are other eye doctors in town who do take my insurance, I just decided to cancel my appointment at SEE.

What a pain. So here I am again back at square one, still in need of an appointment with an eye doctor. Grrrrroan.

Lay in a course for the World Series. Maximum Warp.

Need a sign that the Tigers are going to win the World Series? Patrick Stewart may be a harbinger of good things to come. Stewart, who’s in Ann Arbor to perform with the Royal Shakespeare Company Tuesday through Nov. 12, recalls the last time he was in Detroit.

“I was here with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Detroit at the Fisher Theatre for a season…It was 1968.”

Booya! Don't f#ck with Jean-Luc Picard!

Best known for playing Capt. Jean Luc Picard on “Star Trek The Next Generation,” Stewart was intrigued by the recent sale of “Star Trek” artificats.

“I knew it was coming up and I went online and looked at the catalogue and then I’d forgotten it had happened.

“Idly waiting to be driven over here” Sunday morning “from Detroit airport, I went online and looked up Sotheby’s..and got the result of all that sale…I think the entire sale made over $7 million..(laughs) for bits of stuff to do with a television series--bits of set, bits of costume, props…I’m particularly interested in what my costumes went for.”

Hey, don't laugh. I would sell a lung to own one of Captain Picard's uniforms. But wait, what's this?

One thing you may never have imagined you were missing is the sight of Stewart conducting the U-M marching band playing “Hail To The Victors.” That is scheduled to take place Nov. 4 during halftime at the U-M-Ball State game.

Stewart has been taking conducting lessons. “I didn’t want to make a complete fool of myself. I expect to make a modest fool of myself.”

Patrick, don't you get it? U of M is like the Borg! Capt. Picard got kidnapped by the Borg, and it totally screwed him up for the rest of his life. Resistance is NOT futile! Set phasers to stun and beam your ass the hell out of Ann Arbor. Energize!

Our heat hasn't been working at my office for well over a week now. They kept telling us that it would be up and running "by tomorrow," but it kept not happening. In fact, it was so cold in the building yesterday, that Christi let us all leave at noon so we could go work from home. I thought that would be the end of it, but when I arrived this morning, it was even colder than it had been yesterday! I was wearing my pea coat at my desk and shivering while I sat at my desk.

As Charlie Brown would say... OH BROTHER!

So, Christi sent us home again today. Since I use my laptop for most of my work at the office anyway, it's not a big deal to work from home, but the whole no heat thing has definitely gotten old.

Anyway, I guess the heat is finally up and running now, so things should be back to normal tomorrow. Let's just hope this doesn't happen again this winter, otherwise I'll be digging a fire pit in my cubicle to stay warm.

Okay, I'm happy for the players for our win on Saturday, but it's a shallow victory. The season isn't "saved" until we make a bowl game. This is a step in the right direction, but the guys need to learn not to count their eggs before they're hatched. From the State News:

Instead of rolling over, the Spartans fought back. And when freshman kicker Brett Swenson hit a 28-yard field goal with 13 seconds left in the game, the comeback was official.

But not just any comeback. MSU had engineered the biggest comeback in NCAA Division I-A history to beat Northwestern, 41-38, on Saturday in Evanston, Ill.

"We saved our season," senior center Kyle Cook said. "We really should've come out and done that right away. We shouldn't have let it get to what it was. But it showed a lot of character in our team."

"We really shouldn't have let it get to what it was." Gee, no shit.

Smith gets no credit for this win. None. Zero. Zilch. His ass is still on the line, as far as I'm concerned. Sorry, but even if we make a bowl at 6-6, it's still not good enough. This team still has a long way to go...

It was an epic weekend, to say the least. I'll try to break this down as succinctly as possible, but with so much stuff on my platter, it'll be tough to do. Here we go...

Stef and I went to see Marie Antoinette on Friday (see my review below) afternoon. The movie let out at six something, so the timing was perfect for us to head out and get some din-din at the Outback in Okemos. I hadn't been to this new one yet, and while it's basically like every other Outback in America, it's nice to finally have one on the East side of town after all these years.

After dinner we pretty much just came back to my place and spent the rest of the evening watching Charlie's Angels on TBS. It was pretty low-key, but it was nice to just take it easy for the night, since we knew the rest of the weekend was going to be so nuts.

Since I spent all of Friday with Stef, I never really had any time to go out and get stuff for Sweetest Day. So, I got up bright and early at 7:30 on Saturday morning to go pick up some stuff for my girl: a cute card, some flowers, some sweet treats for her to keep at my place, and her Us Weekly.

We did our little Sweetest Day exchange at my apartment later that morning before taking off for my Aunt Elaine's house for the Pohl Party. All the Pohls seem to be doing well, and it was nice to see some of the young'uns that I haven't seen in a while. My cousin Lisa's son Joey has to be one of the cutest kids on the face of the earth (behind my sisters, of course). In fact, Joey has his own blog, which you can read here. What was so cute was that, while we were watching the truly bizarre MSU-Northwestern football game, Stefy told Joey to tickle the players on TV since he was standing right there. The kid can barely say his own name -- he refers to himself as "Dewey" -- but he sure knew what "tickle" meant, because he started wiggling his fingers on the screen. I know it sounds silly, and it was, but at the time it was pretty much the highlight of the day.

After a few hours of catching up with the family and pigging out on all the amazing food, Stefy and I had to duck out to head off to her house for the World Series games. I know, boo hoo, right?

Well, we made it downtown about an hour before game time, and the atmosphere was already electric. There was just something in the air, and you could tell that everyone was ready to go nuts. Of course, as it turns out, the game didn't go so well for the Tigers on Saturday night, but we still had a great time. I give a lot of credit to the Cardinals for holding us in check, but it was nice to see our guys even things up on Sunday.

Anyway, we made it home by about midnight on Saturday, and pretty much crashed immediately. I slept in until about ten the next morning, which felt great. Stef and I had a somewhat lazy morning in an effort to save our energy for the long day ahead of us. We did venture out into Birmingham for lunch before going to an afternoon screening of The Departed (you can read my review of the film below too). The movie was pretty long -- although it went by quickly -- so we didn't make it back to Stef's house until after 5. By then we pretty much had to pack our things up and hit the road for downtown.

It pretty much rained the whole day in Detroit yesterday, and Stef and I were virtually certain that we would get to Comerica Park, just to find out that they'd cancelled the game. Fortunately, the baseball gods were smiling on us last night, and the rain let up enough for us to play the game. I'm so glad the weather cooperated, because Kenny Rogers was able to through the Cardinals' lineup for eight straight innings, and the Tigers managed to pull out a much-needed win to even the series with St. Louis.

So, after the very long/wet/cold/exciting game, we hit the road for Lansing. It was after 1AM by the time I got home, and it was about 1:30 by the time my head hit the pillow. I'm totally zonked this morning, but it was all worth it. Now I'm just hoping that our boys can snag at least one in St. Louis so we can head back to Detroit and do it all over again next weekend!

Elton John, The Captain and the Kid: I've only listened to it all the way through once, so it's hard to fully judge this album, but so far I am very impressed. Elton and Bernie Taupin are just so freakin' good together, it's ridiculous. I really enjoyed "Songs from the West Coast," which many people labeled as a sort of comeback for Elton, and I think a case could easily be made that this one-ups that CD. "The Captain and the Kid" has Grammy bait written all over it.

John Mayer, Continuum: John Mayer is one of those rare artists who seems to be getting better with age. Most of today's disposable pop musicians come on strong and then fade into oblivion after one album, but Mayer taps into a maturity here that isn't self-indulgent or sappy. It's cool to see him pay homage to Jimi Hendrix with his cover of "Bold as Love," but let's be honest... as good as Mayer has proven himself to be with the blues guitar, he ain't no Hendrix. Still, I'm really pleased with this release, and look forward to a long, entertaining career from Mr. Mayer.

Beck, The Information: You can't describe a Beck album, you just have to experience it. I gave this CD a listen on my way into work, and was really digging the first few tracks. I'll admit that I was a bit distracted when I listened to the rest of "The Information," but so far I like what I've heard. To me, one of the best things about an artist like Beck is that he's been willing to release a steady stream of material. Three albums in four years ain't bad. Oh, plus the sticker set and accompanying DVD of music videos are way cool too. If anyone can save the soulless, decaying music industry, it's innovators like Beck who will do it.

When I say quick, I mean quick. There's a lot to talk about this morning, so I'll keep these short.

Marie Antoinette: Lots of delicious cakes, not enough beheadings for my taste. It's very pretty and the contemporary music works better than I thought it would, but it seems a little pointless to make a movie about Marie Antoinette and not make some sort of explicit political commentary. VERDICT: If you're a fan of period pictures, French pastries, and beautiful shoes, you'll enjoy this movie.

The Departed: Scorsese's best film since Goodfellas. The best performances of Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio's careers. Alec Baldwin is the unsung hero here. Every major actor in the film deserves an Oscar nomination. If you like Reservoir Dogs style endings, you'll love the Departed. VERDICT: DROP EVERYTHING AND GO SEE THIS MOVIE.

Best Line from Alec Baldwin in The Departed:
"I'm gonna go have a smoke right now. You want a smoke? You don't smoke, do ya, right? What are ya, one of those fitness freaks, huh? Go fuck yourself." (he spits this line out in under 2 seconds)

PS: From the Onion: Martin Scorsese's Next Film To Be Three Hours Of Begging For Oscar. I tell ya, if he doesn't win for this, it'll never happen: "Scorsese has lost to almost every major American filmmaker in his career, including actor–director Kevin Costner, who went on to create Waterworld and The Postman."