Through the Port Hole
Lately it’s become clear that Ez has been leaning too heavily on her colleague to research and publish: Major responsibilities for any scientific endeavor. Course, Hz remains as cheerful and supportive as always, but after Hz ate alone, Ez really took a hard look and realized she had been eating without documenting and simply was not the medium-functioning what-have-you of prouder days. She began to search for the cause. Please accept the following, perhaps sketch, account as one explanation, though no excuse.
Oh Her God! It was time again for Rock the Garden and Ez had very few fragmented and fond memories of the event from the summer before. This year Solid Gold was playing and the MDz have made their love embarrassingly plain in past posts and unanswered emails. But because Hz loves her family, she couldn’t attend this year- went to some kinda wedding or something instead and Ez had to mix that sorrow with her spazzing excitement. Ez did have the awesomest street force, so things were shaping up fine. Kt, Nz, Lz and newest recruit to the force, Kathryn showed up at Ez’ and out they went.
ohwowohwowohwow
We Know! And there were attractives EVERYWHERE!
There were so many people, Ez couldn't even find her boyfriend!
And you guessed it, HTDGZ! And guess what else, SO MUCH BEER!
Only the beginning!
There were no standard htdgz in this garden, but there was no intimidating this street force!
That's a bg dg!
Ez and Nz dig in!
Nz and Lz eat dgz.
Like we said, Kathryn was new and she offered a fresh perspective: the crndg!
Kathryn, what IS that?
We ate and drank a little. Everything made sense for a good long while, but from Solid Gold to The Decemberists, things can get blurry, people can become confused.
It's okay.
Hi, you guys!
PD was there, too!
When things get funny like that, you keep on- it’s not that deep, you just get that crndg! Ez did get that mammoth crndg and with profesh zeal she endeavored to capture this magnificent specimen for the blg.
My, you're pretty.
See how this Rock the Garden dog was so huge? Ez couldn’t get the whole thing in the shot!
Ez asked Kt to hold it for a photo.
But then Ez wanted to be in the picture with the bgcrndg!
Nevermind that sleeve mustard.
And then it seemed genius to get some shots of the crndg with Ez AND Kt. Ez insisted! And Kt was super sport!
See? Genius!
Again!
Kt, what's the prob?
Meanwhile…Kt was hearing the comments of some boys standing near. Seems these boys saw something beyond foodstuff in that long crndg. The reader may assume by now that Ez was hearing nothing.
C'mon Kt, would it KILL you to smile?
Since something was obvs up with Kt and we just could not get a pleasing shot, Ez asked Nz to step in!
Nz, happy to oblige
The camera loves Nz!
No big whoop!
Not a sec too soon, the Decemberists broke through Ez’ haze with a supreme Heart cover and she eased off the photo shoot tyranny. Geeze, it was good! And man, it was finally summer! And wow, we’d been in that big art-beer garden a long time! So, when a stranger approached our party and offered to take us through a “port hole” to a hidden and beautiful portion of our city, we said yes, please show us this port hole!
So, that's a port hole...
Nz! Are you going through?!
Ez going through the change
it's...so...beautiful..
It really was uncommon on the other side! It was loud and bright with dark corners, plush benches, sparkles, potions and powders! There were very large drinking glasses and very tiny spoons. There were eighteen-year-old smiley boys on bikes wearing dress shoes and exchanging meaningful looking hand signals. Goodness, they were friendly!
But maybe we stayed too long…
New friends!
And this is where the memories end. Ez knows that since that momentous night she has been shirking her duties. Until now she’d been unable to describe the world beyond that p-hole, even. Was something shook loose? Maybe. Is she back to normal? Maybe. Will she try harder? Maybe.
Through the port hole! Fan us on Facebook.
Ez gets a porno mag in the mail
For the past couple of weeks Ez has been getting multi reminders that she’s lucky in life, and since the beginning of June the evidence has been staggering. We list for you now the month’s early elements of awesomeness:
- Dnz called and left this message “Ez, I got an extra ticket to Jenny Lewis on Wednesday. Joe loves her, so I got tickets for his birthday, but now he has to work. Do you want to go? I don’t know if you even like Jenny Lewis. I don’t.”
- Ez received lab results by mail from her recent visit to a MD specializing in humans and their health. She learned that her good cholesterol is high and her bad cholesterol is very low. This is tres fortunate and must be due to her Swedishness, because we all know how she eats.
- In the same mail batch she received her June cooking mag script that our darling Kt perscribed for her last birthday. The covergirl for this issue is BBQ ribs! And the centerfold….hold up, all wankers, let’s let this last.
oh, you pretty things
This is an obvs sign that Ez should eat BBQ everyday. So she carefully followed the magazine’s directions and invited Hz, Dnz and Kt over for some ribs offa George Forman’s grill.
it looks exactly the same
Kt can’t make it because she’s still out of town, but Hz and Dnz showed up and were ubz impressed. This Cambodian version of BBQ ribs is sincerely swell with a side sauce that everyone mixed up herself.
Turns out Hz and Dnz also enjoy a favorable lipid profile despite their impressive htdg experience. We celebrate!
Dnz
gets
down
Hz is pure instinct and mixed her sauce perfectly without a recipe. Even though she totally knows what she’s doing and does not need a manual, Hz paged through the mag a little anyway and HELLO, SAILOR…..
what's your name?
Have mercy, already! Ours is a beautiful world.
my blood runs cold!
So clearly, all’s awes and Hz even brought a gourmet desert made with dark chocolate.
c'mere cup!
Exceptional luck, right?
Ez, pleased and proud
Maybe all that perfection was too much to bear, and maybe that’s what started to erode our happy party’s goodwill. Whatever the cause, Hz’ admiration of Jenny Lewis‘ fashions really started to vex Dnz! For a sec it seemed they might come to blows! Luckily, Hz dropped Ez and Dnz off at First Avenue without event.
Dnz and Ez talked about miniskirts and Dnz’ boyfriend Joe’s musical taste on the way to the bar for some cherry bombs.
and things got nicer
and nicer
to miniskirtz!
Then The Sadies started playing and they were great! They played gunslinger-style music and two of ’em are brothers and their last name is Good. One brother seemed to be wearing a Caucasian-flesh-tone suit with sequined figures (sperm or mushroom?) up the lapels.
one of the Good brothers
And they played a song of the God-loving, hard-living Louvin Brothers, but not this one:
And they did this incredibly awesome and gay move where each brother frets the other’s guitar. Sad city, we didn’t get a photo, but please believe! And they put records out on that Bloodshot label that induces pants-wetting in certain circles. It was so fun!
And then Jenny Lewis played!
Hooray, Hooray.
Lessons:
- Cambodian ribs are great! Eat them every day if you have low cholesterol!
- Always check your magazines for centerfolds, but please do it in private, and wash your hands afterwards.
- Yay, Louvin Brothers! Also, The Brothers Good = CUTE CENTRAL!
- Boys say they like Jenny Lewis’ music and Rilo Kiley because she’s hot.
- Girls say that Jenny Lewis is stupid because they’re jealous of her hotness.
- Jenny Lewis‘ music really is stupid, regardless of her hotness.
- The jury is still out on whether Jenny Lewis‘ outfits are good or bad.
Jenny Lewis can suck it. Fan us on Facebook!
Yo, Twins Homo-pener, Sprtz Fnz!
Ever since Hz’ friend Sexy Freddy suggested going to the Twins Homo-pener, the Hot dog Doctors were practically vibrating with excitement. If there’s one thing that a Hot Dog Doctor likes, it’s going to a game that some people call, “A Thinkin’ Man’s Game.” That’s SO us! We rallied a Street Force and ordered some tickets for the cheap seats online, and when the tickets came in the mail, Hz called everybody freaking out because the tickets all had different pictures on them! That was extremely rad. They’re like paper dolls for boys.
Twin in the white shirt: I'm trying my hardest! Twin in the blue shirt: Then try harder!
When the day finally came for the Twins Homo-pener, Paul D informed the doctors that all day the nice Metrodome people had been handing out hot dogs to Sprtz Fnz! What? How did we not get the press release? Haha, just kidding.
That evening, the Hot Dog Street force met at Ez’ house, and then everyone took the bus downtown and then the light rail to the Metrodome. It was way fun! While we were waiting at the platform near Dreamgirls (which is a super excellent stripper bar in case you didn’t know), Hz took this totally cute picture of Ez in front of a Hot Dog sign! Can you tell we were way stoked to go to the game for some quality dogs, or what? Oh, man!
No one can resist!
When we got on the train, we felt like everyone could tell we were amateurs, because we weren’t even wearing Joe Mauer jerseys or anything! Just normal clothes! Also, Hz was very proud of all the tickets, which may have signaled a lack of sophistication to which these so-called “Thinkin’ Men” are unaccustomed. Whatevz, dudez. Like we care. JK! We really do!
Meet Scott Baker, TC the mascot, and Joe Mauer.
Scott Baker is a starter, the mascot is a teddy bear, and Joe Mauer is from Saint Paul, and we cannot stress enough how so many people had Joe Mauer shirts on. He must be a way awes guy!
When our train pulled up to the Metrodome, it was like paradise! The very first thing that happened is this girl with a Red Bull Can-shaped backpack on came over and gave us all FREE Red Bull! Yeah! for FREE! And she said something like about how Red Bull gives you wings, and Paul D thought she said that Red Bull makes you wheeze.
So, you know how sometimes when you hear the word FREE you get a little thrill in your heart even though you don’t care about the FREE thing at all? But it’s like, if I can have it for FREE I would be stupid not to take it! That’s how we were with the Red Bull. Because no one on the Hot Dog Street Force likes Red Bull or ever drinks it, except Hz will drink it about once a year but only if she has a seriously miserable hangover. So anyway, we all took those FREE Red Bulls and stuck them in our purses. For later! Or for never! Or to give to a teen-aged girl or something! We didn’t even think about it, to be honest. It was FREE!
Then we started wandering around like amateurs again…
The "H" stands for "Hawesome!"
We finally figured out where we were supposed to be going, which was all the way around the back of the Metrodome, where all the poor people walk into the building with shame. When we got up to the doors, there was an important man there who wanted to make sure we didn’t have anything dangerous in our purses. And you know what he found? Yes, you do! Tons of FREE Red Bull! And you know what you’re not supposed to take inside? ANY Red Bull. Sorry, teen-aged girls, you won’t get any future possible Red Bull handouts from us! (That was a big “maybe” anyway.)
So, we got inside, and started wandering around like stupid people. We didn’t know where General Admission was, so we sat in someone’s seats that weren’t general admission. And while we were enjoying our incredible view of first base, the actual general admission section was SUPER filling up! So, by the time the people who paid for the seats we were sitting in got there, and stripped us of our dignity by making us leave, it was very, very, very, very hard to find a seat where we were supposed to be. We are beginners.
Here's us: My, these general admission seats are quite good.
Finally we found a few seats together, but we had to make some people move down one seat, and then we had to save one single seat in front of us for Kt, who was coming late, and one single seat behind us for Nz, who was coming late, too. And then we had to tell two people not to come. They weren’t going to be happy about that, but what could we do? That’s what you get for having a normal job.
Here’s what we could see from our seats: Banners of important baseball players! There is Jackie Robinson, the first guy to ever play baseball black; Harmon Killebrew, who had a shit-ton of home runs or something; Rod Carew: Jew! Black! Yesss!; Tony Oliva who was probably good or something but we’ve never heard of him; Kent Hrbeck: WEIRD LAST NAME; and Kirby Puckett who is known for having a big butt, and glaucoma, and is also dead. Super bummer. Ez always liked the way radio game announcers said Kirrrbeeeeeey PUCKETT!
Robinson, Killebrew, Carew, Oliva, Hrbeck, Puckett
This Mauer mister doesn’t have his picture up in the stands yet, but even if you were blind you could tell that he is very important because at these Twins games they work to get you totally mental by playing a tiny bit of an awesome song and Paul D noted that they reserved the awesomest one for Joe. Everytime he was going to be the batter they would play AC/DC, “TNT”, but only a tiny bit! Mental Making!
Now you try, too! Just stop this after a tiny bit!
Pretty soon Kt and Nz showed up…
Can you find Kt in this picture?
Find Nz, if you can!
After everyone arrived, we set out in search of some dogs.
It took forever, because we also wanted beers, and it was hard to find the kind that we wanted, even though it is normal old Summit beer that we wanted, and that is brewed in Saint Paul. And you’d think that if everyone is going mental over Joe Mauer, who is from Saint Paul, they would want to have Saint Paul beer all over the place. But they don’t. We settled for Schells. That’s okay, though. It’s from New Ulm.
Eventually, we found us some Dome Dogs, too. Feast your eyes!
Dome Dogs and Schells Beers
By the way, the Hot Dog Doctors aren’t sure that there is any difference between a Dome Dog hot dog and a regular hot dog that you can buy at the Dome. It’s just when you order a Dome Dog, you also get a bag of potato chips. We didn’t perform any tests to find out for sure.
So, here’s when things started going badly: Hz kind of was carrying more than a Doctor should. And she made it past the throngs of Sprtz Fnz for what seemed like miles through the hallway of the Dome, and up about a quarter-mile of stairs, and got all the way up to two rows in front of the Hot Dog Street Force when one of the dogs got loose! The top hot dog in the little paper basket that it came in slid from the stack of other little paper baskets she was carrying, and the dog tumbled into a fellow Sprtz Fn! And like any fired-up baseball zealot, he tried to catch it. But the wiener got loose and fell to the floor. Hz new friend caught the empty bun in his hands, and also caught some hot dog shrapnel (mustard and relish) in the thigh1. Hz almost cried.
HELP! LOST DOG!
But Paul D was super nice about it. Since she was carrying his dog in the dog pile, she was going to go dogless and let him eat. But Paul D insisted, saying that as a Hot Dog Doctor it was important that Hz sample a Dome Dog. Hz and Paul D decided to split the remaining dog. It was very profesh of them both.
Half-a-hotdog
Of course, a half-dog wasn’t enough. Eventually, a nice man with a special hotdog-warming box came up the stairs, and we could buy another one from him! So that’s what we did.
He came upstairs with a hotdog! What a nice guy!
Then we started eating some serious cotton candy…
Nz loves cotton candy so much, she wants to kiss it!
Kt + Ctn Cndy
Ez!
Like the hand of god in a pink cloud!
Okay so then there was lots of watching (and getting distracted), and there was some stuff with the game and people were cheering and then there was this SUPER HILARIOUS kiss cam, where the giant TV showed people and then if they saw themselves, they had to kiss! The Hot Dog Doctors were hoping hard that we’d see someone that we’d know, but we didn’t. How can there be a whole stadium sold out, with people making out on a kiss-cam, and we don’t know anybody? It seemed impossible, but it was true.
Kiss Cam!
More Kiss Cam! C'mon guy, kiss her!
Kiss Cam! Everyone wants to make out!
Hz hoped that the Kiss Cam would catch her during this romantic moment with her hot dog.
Okay, so THEN there was this weird thing where they totally humiliated this guy about Twins trivia. He got to be on the big TV, and wear a Twins outfit, and the name of this strange activity was, “Touch ’em all trivia.” We couldn’t see if it said “Joe Mauer” on the back of his outfit, but it probably did. As we’ve already mentioned, Twins fans lose their minds over Joe Mauer.
Dude got pwnd
Here’s what happens…
- Some fellow with a microphone asks this fan in a Twins costume on the big TV a question.
- Poser gets it wrong.
- They make him leave.
At another point in the Twins Homo-pener, some guy proposed to a lady on the giant TV! He’s got major baseballs to do something like that! We didn’t get our cameras out in time, so we can’t show you what it looked like, but it really looked exactly like this:
Pretend like this is the giant TV.
The whole time they were playing just enough of some seriously great songs to make your thighs start to tremble, but, oh wow, then they played “Crazy Train”! The whole “Crazy Train”! Ridiculously sick!
Okay, so the bad news is that the Twins lost the game. We took this majorly cute picture of the Hot Dog Street Force when we were lounging around afters.
The Hot Dog Doctors, surrounded by the Hot Dog disciples
Oh, okay, we almost forgot! This is really funny! When we were on our way out, we saw this guy who was dressed totally outrageously! We wanted to take a picture of him to show you SO BAD, so the Hot Dog Doctors told him that we were writing a fashion blog. That isn’t exactly a lie, because we did write about fashion in the First Avenue post, and we even gave fashion advice which about a million2 hipsters have taken to heart. Seriously totally. But the point is that this guy was super nice and he let us take a picture.
Fashion!
And then Hz gave him our business card, so he could check himself out! We sooo hope he does! We also hope he doesn’t sue the doctors for malpractice, since we totally lied to him. Oh, please don’t!
Sharpie business card, until we make it!
Afterwards, we walked to Grumpy’s and had some mini-tacos and more beers. Boy, they were good! And PS: Grumpy’s was PACKED! But we still didn’t know a single person. We need to start getting out more, obvs.
There's Kt! Ha ha! Hi tiny Kt!
And there's Nz! Like a little ant!
1. After reading this part, Lt. Brn-n-Srv said to Hz, “I’ll give you some hot dog shrapnel in the face!” Hz thought this was rather aggressive, and for a moment was offended, yet confused. Relish and mustard in her face? What? Then it dawned on her what he meant. Now she fears she’ll never reclaim her youthful naïveté. (That’s French for “doesn’t get the joke.”)
2. Actually, only one. It’s Lz. She wore skinny black pants and white shoes to Rogue Buddha last Saturday. But she looked so great! See, we were right. About the fashion.
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