Tuesday Mus-Day (On Thursday): Bruff's Summer Playlist, Part I

Craig Finn of the Hold Steady. Huge Twins fan.

June of 2009 was a time of gorgeous weather and great expectations. I had just graduated from Gustavus Adolphus (along with fellow contributors Tony and SilkyJ), I was all set to start a Masters program at the University of Minnesota in the fall, and I aced an interview for a summer position at a market research company in the meantime. To celebrate, I went shopping for some work clothes and put together two 15-song playlists that amplified my optimistic mood and just screamed "summertime" out of every track.

A Journey of Mullets and Jorts: An Afternoon at the Indy 500

Ron and Joel in their Indy 500 attire. Sadly, I lost my camera at the track, and this is the sole surviving picture from the trip.

More than 400,000 people can attend a race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It's the largest sports stadium in the world. On May 26, two friends and I joined the 300,000-plus fans in attendance and the 100,000-plus partiers in the infield of the track at the 96th running of the great American race. Roughly half of those folks--including the three of us--wore jorts.

Silky on Soccer and Real-Time Fandom

Alessandro Del Piero waves to the fans after his last home game in the black and white stripes.

 

May has been an incredible month for soccer. The seasons of the major leagues around Europe have concluded. Each country’s respective Cup competition has been decided. The Champions League final has come and gone. This past month has been great not just for fans of particular teams, but for fans of the beautiful game as a whole. Below the jump, I’ll recount some of the major happenings in the footballing world, and examine how my loyalties as a fan shifted during the course of some of these matches.

The Week in Review: Preakness Stakes Edition

As we amble into the long summer months, the nights containing multiple Minnesota sports contests have dwindled to near nil due to the ineptitude of our winter franchises. A night with no Twins game and no Lynx contest, then, seemed like the perfect period for reflection on recent exploits of the field and court. Our barometer this week involves the equines who made the 137th Preakness Stakes the most thrilling two minutes of the weekend. Annnnnd they're off...

Did I Miss Anything? A Retrospective: Red Sox 11, Twins 2

I'm really glad that my friend Silky had such a great time at the Twins-Angels game last week. He got to see a Twins victory, which must have been a lot of fun. I dunderheadedly decided that this would be the season I would become (part of) a (group of friends who went in on a 20-game pack and, subsequently and fractionally became a) Twins season ticket holder. What great luck. In honor of the Twins second 2-game winning streak of the year (Tigers SUCK!), here is a retrospective of the events that took place around Target Field while my dad and I sort of paid attention to a Twins blowout loss on April 24.

I Was There: Twins Win!

Twins win! as you may or may not be able to tell from the crummy cell-phone pic.

The Twins took on the California Angels of Los Angeles via Anaheim™ Tuesday night, and our good friend n00b was kind enough to offer me a ticket to the game. I couldn’t refuse n00b’s generosity, but my hopes were low, as the forecast called for rain, and the Twins’ play of late has been...less than stellar. Let’s just say that, on both accounts, I was pleasantly surprised.

NFL Draft Recap 2012: The MSE Vikings' Draft Grades

Coming into this draft as a 3-13 team, we had a lot of holes to fill, which was a given (and, coincidentally, what she said). But Vikings General Manager Rick Spielman crafted a masterful first day of the draft to remedy two of our largest problem spots. Below the jump, you’ll find the individual grades and commentary from each of your three humble correspondents as we recap and relive all the twists and turns of the Vikings’ 2012 draft.