Pop music does not tailgate. Dress Up. Line up. Maybe even pre-party. But there is no tailgating. This is very obvious to anyone who visited the parking lot of the Alerus Center in Grand Forks, North Dakota, by far the smallest venue of the second leg of Britney Spears' Circus tour. What is not so obvious is how this show nut-shells just about everything that's wrong with the concert industry, from Ticketmaster's monopoly and price gouging, to mildly corrupt, publicly-owned concert venues, to artists lip-syncing shows while they bleed their fans and pass the blame to us-the people who pay for such bullshit anyway. So, who wants to rock? READ MORE

Racism is hot. The media smells the blood in the water and is (finally) making some good cases about how anti-Obama sentiment is tied to racism. Some, not so good. Maureen Dowd pretty much called everyone opposed to Obama a racist. But race is a very small factor in what's going on. READ MORE

The Minnesota State Fair is America's most popular. Its daily attendance surpasses all others; this year it set a record of nearly 1.8 million paid visitors. It is called "The Great Minnesota Get Together." And like all get togethers, it's a great place to be reminded of all the things you hate about "get togethers." It's also more sprawling and expansive and rewarding than most visitors initially realize. During my visit, I entered through the swine barn. Would H1N1 have emptied it? (After all, the 1946 fair was canceled due to polio.) No. Still, during the event, a hundred 4-H kids were forced home early because of the flu, giving up their spots in the legendary fairground dorms, the "4-H Hilton." (From wars to fairs, why is it that hellhole quarters are always Hiltons?) READ MORE

Abnormally interesting town hall meetings have caused some in Congress to make their August events invitation-only. This tactic, a favorite of the Bush administration, has been bemoaned by the right as cowardice. Senator Byron Dorgan, who puts the D in the Red State of ND, went ahead and held meetings anyway. I went to a few to see what the fuss was all about. (Hint: It's not about health care.) READ MORE

Those who watched and mocked the national Tea Parties back in April would find a different bunch of tea partiers today. The truly lunatic fringe of opportunists is now largely gone. But owing to the froth kicked up months ago, the movement's name, "Tea Party," still has currency and momentum, so why not use it? It's a branding conundrum the United Negro College Fund surely appreciates. A day after one of North Dakota's largest-ever tea parties, at the courthouse in Grand Forks, the only thing I can say with certainty about the movement is that it's mostly about making funny signs and producing lots of unintentional irony. And anger. Plentiful, seething, soul-rooted and only vaguely-focused anger. And maybe racism. But not really that much racism! READ MORE

Borrowed Bucks Roadhouse in Grand Forks, North Dakota, has recently hosted the following events: Sexy Santa; Miss Hawaiian Tropic International; Springbreak Trip Giveaway; Pajama Party; Snowbunny Party (not the Craigslist "casual encounters" kind); Mr. Boxerball (not "Tyson" but "Joe"); and the Colgate® Country Showdown. Many of these events are sponsored by 97FM KYCK, "The Valley's Hit Country." Every week Bucks hosts "Bottomless Thursdays" where "$2 Chuck Norris and Jag Bombs" can be "enjoyed" between 11 p.m. and midnight. And yes, Bucks Twitters. And while all those events sound fun (really), I went to Bucks on Friday to watch the Micro Wrestling Federation. READ MORE

My first car was a 1980 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. And yes, I am as shocked as anyone when I see that these things are now pimped out and are considered, no kidding, "cool." I got the car with 160,000 miles in 1990. I paid a pittance, market price for such a piece of ssssss... uperb American engineering. Going by my friends, this was a perfectly average teenager car. Cheap. Old. Ugly. Unwanted. READ MORE