MSU loses again. I had multiple people try to offer me tickets. Glad I didn't go sit out in the cold, wet weather for this clunker. Gah. Now all that's left to do is go lose at Penn State. Yippee!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

I told you this would happen:

Perles, the former coach and athletic director, still wields tremendous influence among the "Old Greens" who still contribute plenty of "old green" to the university coffers. He told me he wanted input in the candidate dragnet, but he only would provide counsel at the request of president Lou Anna Simon.

And, right now, that offer appears unlikely.

Perles' candidacy for the Board of Trustees added another layer of melodrama to the soap opera that historically becomes an MSU coaching search. Would he steer one of his own choices -- maybe someone like Eagles quarterback coach Pat Shurmur, a former Spartan -- to the top of the short list?

"I don't take my seat on the board until January," Perles said, "so there isn't really much that I can do right now. But I definitely have some thoughts as to what I think we should be looking for in the next Michigan State coach."

Honest to f-ing God, why hasn't the MSU Chemistry department come up with some sort of George Perles kryptonite yet? Can't somebody distract him with a bucket full of Whoppers until we pick a new coach? This is still the same guy who sued MSU and Peter McPherson after he got fired. I don't give a damn who he thinks the next coach should be, keep him the hell away from campus for the time being.

Grrrrrroan. God help Michigan State.

I'll admit, I actually enjoy watching Sex and the City, but few people are as obsessed with this show as Stefy. I guess it's like the girl equivalent of Star Trek. Anyway, I just ran across this today, and thought any SATC fans might get a kick out of it:

Although this project has been up in the air for the longest time, the girls of New York seem to have gotten everything squared away and are finally on track for a film. OK! Magazine exclusively reported that, as of now, things were a go. It's just a matter of ironing out contract issues and finding the perfect timing. So get ready. And as Carrie would say -- "Can you handle it?"

To be honest, I don't know how the hell they would make a feature film out of this show. I mean, they pretty much tied up all the loose ends with the characters when it went off the air a few years ago, so I don't know where they could go from there. Whatever they come up with for a story though, I'm sure Kim Cattrall's tits will make at least a few cameos in the movie.

This whole thing got me thinking though. Are there any TV shows that are no longer on the air, that you think deserve a feature-length film? A few ideas come to mind...

First off, I think a Sopranos movie would be amazing. The show is basically just a series of hour-long movies anyway, so it wouldn't be hard to do. Granted, I still haven't seen the fifth or sixth seasons so I'm not up-to-date with everything that's been happening on the show, but I think it's doable. David Chase is supposedly going to wrap up the storylines in this last mini-season, but this is a powerful franchise that could go off in a dozen different directions, if they wanted to keep it going.

I really enjoyed the X-Files movie when it came out in the late 90s, but it basically killed the last few years of the series. Still, I think it's possible that another film could be made without totally sucking. I mean, what the hell are David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson doing these days anyway?

There's obviously a soft spot in my heart for Star Trek, and now that there aren't any spinoffs on TV for the first time in about 20 years, I think it could be time for another movie (or at least a new show). "Nemesis" was supposedly going to be the final Next Generation movie, but it was probably the worst ST film ever made. They can't leave us hanging like that... Capt. Picard and the crew of the Enterprise deserve a better sendoff!

Mission: Impossible was a great idea for a TV to movie conversion, but after a great start this franchise just kept turning out bigger and bigger clunkers. If Tom Cruise could ever de-crazy himself -- or hand this off to an entirely different creative team -- I still think Mission: Impossible has some life left.

The only TV comedy that I could ever see being made into a feature film is Arrested Development. Just think about all the movies that have been made in the last five years about wacky, dysfunctional families: Royal Tenenbaums, The Squid and the Whale, Running With Scissors, to name a few. The Bluth family could easily fill two hours of film, and since Fox pulled the plug on this Emmy-winning show way too early, I definitely think there's a lot to work with here.

Am I forgetting anything? Are there any shows you miss that you wish they would turn into a movie?

What's up, you ask? For once, not much. It's a pretty typical Friday work day, and then after that I plan to spend the afternoon at home doing nothing. Yep, Stef's at home for the day, and I have ab-so-lutely nothing planned for today. It'll be nice. This week has been so freakin' busy, and I can't wait to just turn by brain off for a while and watch some movies and eat junk food all day. Well, maybe I should actually go to the store and buy some junk food first, since I'm kind of out of everything. But if I do that, then that's something, not nothing, which is what I was going for today. Gah. Life's tough, lemmie tell ya.

So yeah, I guess that's it for now. Have a good weekend.

R.E.M.? Who are they? Well, this Slate article got me thinking about the band again for the first time in forever. I grew up in the 90s, so I do actually remember R.E.M. at the tail end of their "good" years, but let's be honest... it's been a while since they really mattered.

It's been said that you're either a U2 person or an R.E.M. person. Well, the boys from Dublin are obviously my favorite band, but I don't really have anything against R.E.M., per se. They made a lot of great music over the years, and come on, no could ever really replicate the oddly intriguing personality of Michael Stipe. Guys like him just don't come around that often. Is R.E.M. one of my favorites? No, not really. But I can admit that they're a great band; I never really understood this pseudo-rivalry between R.E.M. and U2.

Of course, I don't think it's a stretch to say that R.E.M. fans have a certain disdain for U2's latter-day resurgence. I can understand them feeling nostalgic for the days when R.E.M. was just as big as U2, but come on, that was a long time ago. It's fair to say that both bands had rough patches during the 90s and released a handful of "blah" albums, but the difference to me is that U2 eventually realized they were slipping into irrelevance. Before making "All That You Can't Leave Behind" in 2000, they made a conscious decision to get back to their roots, and start making the kind of music that made them so popular in the first place. R.E.M. never really had a moment like that. As a result, U2 is bigger than ever, and their only real competition for the title of "biggest band in the world" is also the oldest, The Rolling Stones.

So what about R.E.M.? Well, they're releasing a collection of songs from 1982 to 1987. Like their fans, R.E.M. seems nostalgic for the days when they were still making important music, instead of actually making... important music. That's the difference. That's why R.E.M. will never be as big as they were in the 80s again. And like it or not, that's why U2 is still the biggest band in the world.

I'm a fan of complaining, but even though it's been a hectic week, things have actually been pretty good. News of the democrats taking Congress for the first time in twelve years has put me in a pretty jolly mood. So, here are the top five things that aren't annoying me anymore this week. Enjoy!

1. Dick DeVos: Ding-dong, DeVos is gone!
2. Leslie Mortimer: her ugly mug was burning into my TV
3. Mike Bouchard: Mike who?
4. John L. Smith: now he can ride off into the sunset
5. Terry Hanks: political ads bumped him, but he'll be back

It never ends. First the election. Now our big dinner at work. I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off all week. Hopefully things will settle down next week, but then Thanksgiving is just around the corner too. Yikes! Next thing you know it'll be Christmas, then New Year's, then it'll be spring, summer, then Halloween. Where does the time go?

This one was a request from my girl. I'm not a huge Alanis fan by any stretch of the imagination, but I will admit that (1) she is talented and (2) I have a couple of her CDs in my iTunes library. But, since she's covering one of my favorite Police songs, "King of Pain," in this video, I feel like it's worth sharing. Enjoy!

Pop Quiz, hot shot: What can $35+ million buy you?

Answer: Not the governor's race.



Wah wah wooey! The Gal Governor did it! And guess what? She'll have a friendly State House to play with for the next two years too! Hooray!

As expected, Debbie Stabenow blew Mike "The Super Sheriff" Bouchard completely out of the water. This thing was never close, so it also makes me feel good to know that the RNC flushed a million bucks down the toilet in the closing days of the election by sending their money to Bouchard. Gee, don't you think a million dollars might've come in handy in, oh I don't know, Virginia or Montana? Hell, you could give a dollar to every citizen in Montana and still have money left over. Thanks, Ken Mehlman! Maybe Debbie can snag a gavel in the new Senate now. Mike, well, I guess we'll see you on Oakland County C.O.P.S. next week.

Ahhh. It feels good to win. The last six months were a lot of fun, but I'm sure as hell glad it's all over. No more political ads! Yay! I don't have to see Leslie Mortimer's ugly mug on TV anymore! Double YAY!!

Now... how long until 2008?

NOTE: Keep in mind that I wrote this last night.

I made it to the Democratic Coordinated Campaign HQ on Michigan Ave. in Lansing this morning at about 7:30. It was still kinda dead when I first arrived, but it didn't take long for things to perk up. A few of the volunteers who were there when I first arrived had been up almost the whole night doing stuff to get ready for the election, so I felt like a relief pitcher coming in to make sure the rest of the team got a chance to rest.

The atmosphere at the Coordinated Campaign office was a lot different from what I've experienced at Granholm's headquarters. It was always pretty calm over at Boji Tower, and even before it got really busy this morning, I could tell the mood was just a bit more hectic than I was used to. Of course, it didn't take long for me to settle in and get a groove going.

The woman who was running the show, Debby, put me to work greeting canvassers as they arrived, and that's pretty much what I stuck with all day. It was my job to explain what the volunteers needed to do as they went door-to-door among the Lansing precincts, but since the instructions were pretty straightforward, it went by really fast.

The traffic came in waves all day long; I would have a solid hour where I never stopped moving, followede by an hour where no one ever came through the door. I'll admit though, it was nice to get some little breaks in there so I could catch my breath and regroup before the next wave of volunteers arrived. I was fully prepared to do my part and hit the streets myself, but I pretty much spent the whole day coralling the canvassers.

I gotta take a sec here to give these folks their props -- these people deserve all the credit in the world. Dick DeVos was paying his canvassers for his get out the vote operation today, but our people went out there in the pouring rain and did the dirty work for free. And they kept coming back to get more packets. That's dedication, my friends. The 5:00 PM news said turnout had been much higher in the Lansing precincts than in previous midterm elections, and we definitely owe it to the tremendous work of our volunteers. So, big blogapplause to them. Anyway, at a little after 6PM I decided to cash in for the day so I could come home and relax a little bit before the results started coming in. I was hoping to hang in there a little longer, but after not sleeping well last night, I'm basically running on fumes at this point. It could be a late night, and I want to stick it out as long as I can.

It's just after 7 PM now. I still don't know how these races will shake out, but I'm feeling confident. I keep hearing that voter turnout was unusually high all across the country, and that bodes well for the democrats. But again, it's still early, so who knows. Like Matt said, I think I'm finally at peace with this election too. I'm proud of the work I've done during this cycle, and even if the outcomes aren't the ones I want, I still have a great feeling of accomplishment for all the work I've done.

Thanks again to all the folks in the Michigan blogosphere who have supported me throughout this campaign. Regardless of what happens tonight, I'm not going anywhere, and I hope you won't either.

On the one hand it was a very busy and productive weekend. On the other, it was a pretty lazy and relaxing weekend. Actually, it was both. Lazy, productive, and fun, all at the same time. Ahhh, it's a rough life.

Friday afternoon Stef and I went to NCG to see Borat. Yes, it's just as good as everyone says, and yes, you should go see it. This is definitely the funniest movie since The 40 Year-Old-Virgin (which I thought was the best movie of 2005), and will probably go down as one of the funniest films of the decade. Of course, those of you who don't enjoy naked man-on-man wrestling (or at least have the stomach to sit through about three minutes of it) might want to steer clear. What amazed me was that the theater was completely sold out... at a 2 PM screening. Borat was only showing on 800 screens this weekend, and it totally mopped the floor with The Santa Clause 3, which was on about three times as many screens. It's nice to know that quality does trump crap every once in a while.

Anyway, after the movie Stef and I hopped over to Kroger to do a little grocery shopping for my apartment. We wanted to make a nice dinner together that night, so we took our time and traversed the store several times as we picked up ingredients for our menu. It's amazing how much real food they actually have in grocery stores; it's not very often that I venture outside the frozen food isle. Anyway, we got a bunch of yummy (and healthy!) ingredients to make arugula salads and a salmon filet. Mmmm. The dinner turned out really well... and I helped (honest)! The whole thing was a lot of fun, and I think it would be cute if Stefy and I could make something of a tradition out of it and do this at least once a week.

Well, Saturday morning was definitely part of the lazy portion of the weekend. I slept in until about 10:30 after cashing in ridiculously early the night before at 10:30, so if I'm doing the math correctly, that makes for 12 hours in bed. Yep, ya gotta love that. I didn't drag around too much once I was up. Stef and I decided on the spur of the moment to drive up to Birch Run and Frankenmuth for the day. This is usually a trip I make with my mom and Dan after Thanksgiving, but since we'll be down in Ohio for the Holiday and since the weather was so gorgeous on Saturday, we decided to go a little early. Birch Run was a freakin' zoo. We hit the usual spots, but I managed to find a couple gems that I never knew were there. J. Crew was a big success, since they had all their guy stuff on sale. I picked up a couple groovy new ties for about $17 a pop (they were originally $40-50), so I was pretty pleased with those. Then a couple stores later we stumbled upon Banana Republic, where I found this really nice corduroy sport coat for $60 (it used to be a hundred). I thought a couple ties and a new jacket were a pretty fair deal for $100, so that made my day.

After our little jaunt through the outlet mall, Stef and I made our way into Frankenmuth. It was only about 5 PM by the time we made it to town, but we were already getting hungry for dinner by then. The line at the Bavarian Inn went really quickly, and we had a seat in less than an hour. Our dinner was wonderful, or should I say, wundervoll. I love my chain restaurants like PF Chang's, but it's amazing how much freakin' food you get for the same amount of money at a place like the Bavarian Inn. Our table was covered with all sorts of side dishes and salads and whatnot that come standard with the chicken dinners, and we barely even touched half of them. So yeah, it was a whole bunch'a yum in my tum at Bavarian Inn.

Once we were finished with our gut-busting chicken feast, we took some time to walk it off as we strolled through town. There were a few local stores that caught our eye, but neither of us bought anything. We eventually made it back to the car about 45 minutes later, and then decided to head home. Yes, without a trip to Bronner's. I think we just figured that neither of us ever buy stuff there anyway, so what's the point?

Stef and I made it home by about 8, and since I took a little snooze in the car, I had enough left in the tank to watch a movie when we got back to my place. We popped in The Virgin Suicides, which I had never seen before. It definitely has that Sofia Coppola feel to it (this was her first film), and on the whole I thought it was really good, if not a little depressing. I'm glad I finally saw it though. After the movie we flipped around the channels a bit and watched some TV, but that was basically it for Saturday.

My Sunday morning sleep-in wasn't quite as ridiculous as the day before. I got up by about 9:30 this time, and lounged around for a couple hours before finally getting cleaned up for the day. Stef and I took off for my dad's house at around 1 to spend the afternoon over there watching the Lions game. It was fun to hang out with the girls and watch some (mediocre) football. Heck, the Lions even won -- against a good team, to boot!

We came back to my place and just sort of lounged around and watched more TV after the game. It was a pretty low-key evening, but that was the perfect way to round out this busy/lazy/productive weekend. I hope everyone had a good one!

The good news is that I'm taking tomorrow off from work to volunteer with Gov. Granholm's campaign all day. Right now I still don't know what they'll have me doing -- probably making nonstop phone calls bugging folks to get out and vote, maybe even going out door-to-door to pester people, who knows.

The bad news is that I won't be able to blog tomorrow. Like, at all. I know, I know, dry your eyes. It'll be okay. I'll make sure the site is up-and-running, but my sincere hope is that there won't be many people (other than maybe Matt) blogging tomorrow. I want everyone out in the field doing whatever they can to help put Gov. Granholm, Sen. Stabenow, Amos Williams, Carmella Sabaugh, and all the other dems running for office over the top. Heck, you don't even have to take the whole day off. Just a few hours would be helpful. If you're even remotely interested in volunteering tomorrow, check out this page on the MDP's website to get in touch with the Coordinated Campaign HQ in your area. Every little bit helps.

Look, I'm a realist and understand that some folks won't be able to volunteer tomorrow because they have to work, or have other commitments (which is why our elections need to be a national holiday, but don't get me started). Just remember to call all your family, friends, colleagues, neighbors, and basically everyone else in the rolodex (except the known republicans) and remind them to vote. If you know that specific people are still "on the fence," give them one last nudge and ask them to vote a straight democratic ticket. It sounds trivial, but we need every vote we can get. Right now the polls are looking good for Granholm and Stabenow, but we can't take anything for granted. The more people we can get to vote a straight ticket, the more likely it'll be that we'll pull out upsets in the AG, SoS, and legislative races.

Tomorrow is the biggest midterm election in twelve years. In one day we have the power to make George Bush a lame duck, take back both chambers of Congress, and plot a progressive turnaround for Michigan by reelecting Gov. Granholm. Have you had enough of the republicans screwing up our country and this great state of ours?

To quote Bill Murray, "Kitten, I think what I'm saying, is that sometimes, shit happens, someone has to deal with it, and who ya gonna call?"

The Democrats.

It's going to be a craaaaaaaaaazy week. I'm taking tomorrow off from work to volunteer with the gal governor's final get out the vote push. Thursday is my work's big fundraising dinner in Detroit, so there's lots of planning involved with that between now and then. Basically I'll be running around with my head cut off for the next couple days. Expect blogging to be erratic until the dust settles.