The big event

December 23, 2009


South Dakota doesn’t have much in terms of professional sports. We have semi-professional sports, which can often be difficult to follow, thanks to the vagabond nature of minor league athletes. But we don’t have anything that can fill up a sports page, creating trends in conversation, a common ground among everyone.

Instead, we have the weather.

Which explains the local news’ insistence on covering an upcoming winter storm with the same pomp and gusto as a team of ex-athletes hyping the Super Bowl or the Olympics.

Our most popular local celebrity is a weatherperson, after all.

Willard Scott would be so proud.

Tags: Sioux Falls, Sports |

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On replacement

November 28, 2009


When I used to work at the mall, we were always assured that, no matter what, great coffee could be found just down the wing at Great Plains Coffee. This was a decade ago, and though I didn’t drink coffee at the time, I still appreciated it being there - right between Orange Julius and DEB, out in the seemingly abandoned Sears wing, where high rents didn’t quite live up to their promised traffic flow.

It was an oasis of local business amid a great sea of chains; a respite for the weary shopper, almost like a mirage. Even when a Caribou Coffee showed up, Great Plains Coffee continued strong.

But, it couldn’t last forever. Whether it was because rents reached a tipping point, or traffic slowed to a crawl, or the owners simply stopped feeling at home inside the expanses of The Empire Mall, Great Plains Coffee moved to a location further down the road. It’s since been replaced with a DirectTV retailer, the stall’s once warm interior swapped for the cold comfort of pegboard and molded plastic.

Frankly, I can’t think of anything else that better sums up the state of what malls have become.

Tags: On..., Sioux Falls |

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The frustratingly meager state of local publishing

October 1, 2009


There’s a vicious circle that plagues a handful of local publications.

The circle: You start a new publication with little money and few supporters. First, you ask for free or donated content. The free or donated content is placed under the publication’s name. The publication uses this free or donated content to sell advertising space.

(Full disclosure. I was once one of these free/donated content providers; I wrote a book column for a new defunct men’s magazine.)

The problem: the advertising space is hard to sell because the free or donated content isn’t the same quality you’d find in a publication that pays for its content. You get a lot of first-time columnists. You get a lot of basement designers. You get a laxness of deadlines, and editors who aren’t paying attention to details.

It looks rough. And more advertisers hold back.

Simply put, the better writers will hold out for the paycheck. And until a magazine can pay for quality content, they won’t get the better writers. But they can’t afford the better writers without – you guessed it! – the advertising dollars.

Maybe you can find people who are willing to help out – who are willing to offer services at a reduced rate, or a rate based on publication numbers. Maybe you can find a collective who are more focused on putting out great content, regardless of the advertising costs involved. Maybe you have to take out a loan in the beginning and pay quality writers in the beginning, hoping you’ll break even eventually.

Until then, though, you have a handful of publications, sitting on racks across the city, that pale when looked at critically. They’re frustratingly meager, living down to their promise.

How do you get good content without breaking the bank? Good question. I’ve got no idea, which is why I’m not a publisher.

But someone’s got to have the answer. I mean, content’s still king, people.

Or did I miss the memo that said otherwise?

Tags: Journalism, Sioux Falls, Writers, Writing |

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Weather or not

June 8, 2009


Weather, by nature, changes. It is constantly changing. Even in areas where the weather seems stable and constant, it’s not – it’s simply in a range that is more comfortable, staying clear of the extremes that we can’t help but notice.

Weather, by nature, is also unpredictable – especially in a city like Sioux Falls, where we experience nose-hair freezing lows and egg-boiling highs. It’s not uncommon to see snow in early May, or to be hit with a sudden heat wave in November.

Which brings me to wonder how, after a week of beautiful days, the collective mind of Sioux Falls can explode over the idea of rain.

It’s enough to send Kerrie into a frantic search for earmuffs. She hears it doubly – as the average age of a workplace grows, I suspect the percentage of weather-based conversation grows proportionately.

It works like this. When there’s space to fill, you talk about the weather. And when the weather is anything less than perfect – which is always, despite everyone’s understanding that weather is fluid and constantly changing – you complain about the weather.

Today, even though the rain has gone, people still complain.

From my window, I can tell it’s not a bright sunny day. I know it’s not 80 degrees.

But it’s not raining anymore. It’s actually kind of a nice day.

We don’t live in Siberia, or the deserts of Africa. Hell, we don’t even live in St. Cloud, where winter lasts 8 months. We get the best of both worlds, with the understanding that we also get the worst of both.

So can we stop complaining about the weather?

Please?

Tags: Annoyances, Sioux Falls |

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At 5:30 am

April 24, 2009


At 5:30 in the morning, even the biggest city seems like a ghost town.

It’s dark enough that, through the blurred vision of early morning sleepiness, you could mistake it for evening. Traffic lights blink red and yellow. Buildings continue to sleep, their internal lights barely making enough light to illuminate the offerings inside. Every intersection is a graveyard, your vehicle the only remaining entity left as you patiently look both ways and proceed.

It’s not completely abandoned, though. Other people like me – still half-asleep, trudging into work to make up time or clock in for an early day – slowly cruise the streets, their headlights creeping along the pavement.

They, like me, are experiencing the new day before most others. By the time Kerrie wakes up, today being her day off, the morning will have been touched by thousands, a seemingly fresh awakening already feeling the effect of civilization’s restlessness.

Because last night was warm, I roll down the windows. I turn up my radio. I turn onto Minnesota Avenue and continue on my way, wondering what the day will bring, enjoying a band I had long forgotten, excited to be alive and, for the moment, alone in a ghost town.

Tags: On..., Sioux Falls |

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Peter F’n Frampton

April 2, 2009


[ ROB GORDON walks up to a bar. From the entrance he can hear MARIE DE SALLE singing “Baby I Love Your Way.”]

ROB: [Pauses, incredulously] “Is that Peter fucking Frampton?!”

Far be it from me to comment on boring local news – I’ll leave that to the dude who runs SD Watch – but Kerrie pointed out that the Sioux Empire Fair will be featuring Alice Cooper, Big and Rich and some cowboy rapper. All acts that I’m sure will sell out.

Oh. And Peter Frampton.

Which gives the two of us ample reason to live out one of the best lines in movie history. Or, at least, one of the best lines in High Fidelity.

That’s all. I’ll end the Hornby/Cusack lovefest now.

(P.S. My favorite line of the article: “The fair said it still is negotiating for a hot rock act.”

I can’t wait to see who THAT’S going to be. What, is Hoobastank still around?

Oh, god. They are.)

Tags: Movies, Music, Sioux Falls |

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School spirit

March 23, 2009


I didn’t give a damn about school sports when I was in high school.

There wasn’t much of a reason to in the first place. I went to Lincoln High School here in Sioux Falls. We were a smart kid school. We won debate tournaments, not football championships. We slaughtered in band, not basketball.

In fact, we seemed to only one game per year in football, and aside from a blip in 1995 we were pretty mediocre in basketball.

But now, whether it’s through some force of aging or a reminiscence for easier days or some other rah rah alma mater bullshit, I find myself caring again. I don’t follow the sports - I mean, come on, I have no connection outside of a diploma; it’s not like Sierra’s on the team or anything - but I find myself genuinely excited when the school does well.

Call it a common thread that we all have - all of us that graduated from Lincoln High, whether we were connected at the time or mortal enemies - but it’s as if we feel the same rush of electricity when our high school is mentioned. Not because of anything important, but just because it’s an item of identity. It’s part of who we are, regardless of whether we liked it at the time. It helps define us.

Part of me is there in that school. Even still today.

What I’m trying to say is that, against all odds, with the claws of irony threatening to tear away my genuine joy, I’m proud of Lincoln High School - my high school, my alma mater, my identifiable location for 9-12 grades - for doing something we all thought impossible.

On top of the sports world - not once, but twice. 2008 State 11AA Football Champions. And now, undefeated 2009 State AA Basketball Champions.

Congrats, guys. From all of us who still feel a part of it somehow.

Tags: Basketball, Football, Sioux Falls, Sports, Vilhauer |

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