Blogumentary [chuck olsen]

2008.... "whoa"

I honestly can't yet wrap my head around 2008. I spent the year so deeply immersed in politics that a thousand showers will not wash off the smell. But oh, what an exciting musk it is! My man Mike McIntee has a 2008 recap from The UpTake that comes pretty close to summing it up. "We Need God in our Governments" is one video I produced that still generates a lot of conversation.

Meanwhile, in case you didn't notice because I haven't overtly told you, MN Stories is back in business. [UPDATE: MN Stories had to be taken offline because the site kept getting hacked, due to ClipShare being an unsecure platform.] I'm pretty excited about it. I decided to go live as soon as it was more or less functional and looked good, but there are many tweaks and improvements planned. Most of all, I just want the site to make it easy for anyone to upload and watch Minnesota-themed videos. It also means I'm back in the saddle making those MNstories-style vids, which is probably what I'm most excited about for 2009. Please check it out and keep giving me feedback. I want MN Stories to kick ass.

Before we get to 2009, here's a flashback to New Year's Eve 2007. Enjoy the shit out of it!

One Year in 40 seconds

One year in 40 seconds from Eirik Solheim on Vimeo.

Take Back the Midtown Greenway

There have been numerous attacks on bikers along the Midtown Greenway in November and December, as detailed in the The Bridge, Star Tribune and the Midtown Greenway Coalition. On Dec. 13, a group of cyclists decided to ride down the greenway after dark to raise awareness about the attacks and promote continued use of the greenway.

Blago-style is for me

Don't get me wrong: Blago is a giant fucking douchebag. He is a taint on public service. Holding Obama's senate seat for ransom was bad enough, but a Children's Hospital? If only people worried half as much about what politicans do as opposed to, say, what religion they are... okay, I won't go there. I'm here to talk fashion.

We must step back from the cesspool that is Rod Blagojevich and applaud the solitary orchid of purity that is Blago-style. Paul Schmelzer writes "A courtroom sketch this week by Cheryl Cook captures Blagojevich, apparently on his way to modeling sportswear in the 1983 JC Penney catalogue." What Schmelzer fails to note is how fucking cool that is. Blago is rocking that cornflower blue Nike windbreaker. Great for the tennis court, even better for the courtroom. Williamsburg douche-hunters, in all their vaped-up 80's slumming, are still eluded by the carefree cool of 80's tennis sportswear. Or maybe they were into it for 5 minutes, and it was tossed aside and forgotten, rather than savoured and appreciated.

There's one notable exception here, and that's Luke WIlson as Richie Tenenbaum. More Fila jackets, please!

We haven't talked about the most important part. The turtled-neck. The man wears turtlenecks under a Nike tracksuit to court. That says to me, "I'm not just any douchebag. I'm a classy douchebag and I love pussy."  You know who else wore turtlenecks under a jacket? Fucking Steve McQueen in Bullitt.

Granted, McQueen wore a tweed jacket, because that's what a cool pussy-hunting badass motherfucker did in 1968. Make McQueen's hair about 10 times bigger, put him in a windbreaker, shrink his balls about 30%... BAM! You've got Blago-style.

Blago-style is soulless, and always on the make. Blago-style cares not a fuck what you think. There are deals to make, legs to break, cocktails to shake and oh yeah – shitloads of pussy. (No need to rhyme that one.)

But those days are over for Blago. The flourish of Ocean Pacific-esque aqua marine jogging suits must now give way to the mid-80's cop drama funeral. Black turtleneck, flipped-up collar on a black leather jacket. Sweet move, Blago. Sweet move. Douchebag.

One of these guys looks like Mark Wheat

One of these guys looks like Mark Wheat
Originally uploaded by Chuckumentary

I haven't updated my blog anymore - you know, because of the Twitters and flickrs have replaced it, you know? So here's WHEAT.

I've known Mark since KFAI/Radio K days but haven't hung out in a long time. He showed me around The Current studio and library, pretty damn nice digs at MPR. Hoping we can work together more in the future.