I ventured out to the Mall of America on Thursday night to spend a gift card I had got for Christmas. During the course of roaming the mall looking for good deals I got hungry. I decided to go to Johnny Rockets. If you have never been to Johnny’s I would recommend it. It is a fifties style diner with pretty darn good burgers. If you are a vegetarian, they even have a Boca burger on the menu. There best feature though, is the soda fountain. You can get a wide variety of shakes and malts. They always have a shake/malt of the month and they are almost always good. This month was an orange dreamsicle shake. So I had to have one. Holy cow, I thought I was in heaven. You must go try one!! It will be completely worth your time.

As resident radio geek on Mpls metblog I’ve awakened from my winter blogging slumber to joyfully shriek about 89.3 The Current.

The Current features a variety of genres from indie and rock to roots rock to country brought to you by some of the finest in Twin Cities radio from the MPR studios in downtown St. Paul.

The passing of REV105 in March of 1997 coincided with my withdrawl from a career in commercial radio. It was a time marked with a lot of turmoil in radio both nationally and in the Twin Cities. KFAI and Radio K have kept the local music torch burning all these years, but there has still been a gaping hole in local music exposure on-air. Mark Wheat(KFAI/Local Sound Department, Zone 105, Radio K), Thorn Skroch(Radio K, REV105, Zone 105, MNN, MPR), Mary Lucia(REV 105, Zone 105, 1500 KSTP), among others should bring back a lot of what’s been missing for quite some time in music radio here in the TC.

Admittedly, with the arrival of 89.3 KCMP, we lose a decent classical station (WCAL). While I personally feel like we’ve made an important addition to the world of radio in the Twin Cities, I truly hope that the void left by WCAL will be filled.

Today was the very first day on air and I was wholly impressed. Give them a listen on the good ol’ radio or on the web. (The quality of the web streams are phenomenal.)

Yesterday I spent the afternoon at Afton Alps. I normally would frequent such an establishment with my skis or a snowboard in hand. Mysteriously, I showed up to the mountain sans these items. This time I ventured out to the hills in the southeastern metro area for a little downhill tubing action. That’s right, for $12 you can stand on a moving walkway that takes you up to the top of a small hill with six tubing chute choices. You get a really fast tube and everything. Much good times had by all involved.

I found out that I am the densest person in the group. Not thick headed, but thick in body. I always won when we had races. Of course I had the whole speed tubing scenario down to a science. By the end of the day, people were coming up to me and asking if they could go with me. I had the stuff the ladies…and gents wanted, I guess. I would gladly go again. It was a highly rewarding experience. I recommend it to everyone…

I think I can say that we have finally reached what winter in Minnesota is like. Friday night brought us a great amount of snow to skid around in. It must have hit the plows by surprize because it took them FOREVER to plow the streets.

I know some of you out in this land of cold hate the snow. It is a pain that our house had to shovel three times to keep up with the storm. On the other hand, no one can look outside and say that that much snow isn’t pretty. And if you can’t say that, then you have to agree it looks better than the brown grass and mud that was covering our state.

I’m taking advantage of the new snow by going snow tubing today. I will let you all know how that turns out…

I’m enjoying the snow through the window of Spyhouse, one of the local wi-fi enabled coffeehouses in the south Minneapolis. It’s located at 25th and Nicollet, right in the heart of “Eat Street”, our now-fashionable dining district. A few blocks away is MCAD, so there are tons of art students, drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes and typing away on laptops. It’s a place where I expect deep thoughts to take place, due to the influx of caffeine, nicotine and artificial sweeteners, coalescing into a mind-altering experience. Could a brand new philosophy be born here amongst the faux Bohemians? Our own version of the French salon, bringing to life flights of fancy and serious dissertations.

Spyhouse itself is a mixed crowd, mostly urban, gay and straight and inbetween. Comfortable chairs, quirky art (like the Nehi clock and the big-eyed waifs) and college station music. Blips of conversation float by, crashing against arguments and romantic odes. Casualness and intensity vie for equal time. And the coffee is reasonably priced, too.

The Gear Daddies are reuniting for two shows at the Fine Line on January 28th and 29th. I absolutely love these guys, but I have out-of-town guests that weekend. So the rest of you should go!

Randy Moss had lots to say about his game-ending performance in Washington on Sunday. Leaving aside the fact that he

City Pages has a couple of more sneak previews listed on their promotions page today, and when you go to pick them up, you can fill up your tumtum at the same time. Manny’s Tortas on East Lake is host to tickets for the Woodsman, starring Kevin Bacon (just think, a whole new slew of people for the game), and you can get In Good Company tix at Betty’s Bikes and Buns, a place near and dear to the heart of a few of our fellow Metrobloggers. I have yet to go myself, but this is a pretty good reason to head on up there. That and Lex has raved about it a couple of times.