This article made me TOL (Think Out Loud). As much I love “Kids,” I think I agree with this writer’s beskeeviment re: MGMT:

I completely understand the desire for escapism these days, but there’s something about the very essence of MGMT that irritates me to no end…. Most tunes I tend to play are devoid of the kind of narcissistic consumerism (more so as in to consume above any concept of capitalism) that MGMT propagates in their music. The fact that this band is somehow representative of an alternative to mainstream rock music is as ludicrous as the existence of AIG employee bonuses and the potential $23 billion in bonuses for folks at Goldman Sachs.

I’m down in Chapel Hill for a V.I.B. (Very Important Birthday) … anyway, look for me at the club with a bottle of bub tomorrow night … Polvo at the Cat’s Cradle* … make it rain on ’em … I’ll be shortening URLs for FREE all night!

(*Decided to suspend my boycott of non-Eddie-Watkins Polvo for 48 hours.)

Super-deep Chapel Hill-indie-rock trivia: Anybody know if Polvo is playing “Teen Dream” on this tour? That was always my jam.

Super-double-deep trivia: Any truth to the rumors that K-Ci and JoJo of Jodeci are joining Polvo tomorrow night for a “Cry For You/Thermal Treasure” medley? North Carolina supergroup, could this be happening???

Blog reader (and younger brother) PR asks a prickly question:

How do you feel about your employers at the wine store using tinyurl for their Twitter links and not urlshorteningservice…?

Yes, it’s true … my wine-store-owner friends aren’t using my amazing URL shortening service, even though the idea for it came to me while I WAS DRINKING WINE.

Looks like I’ll have to stage a URL-shortening-service intervention. These can be painful … but necessary.

(By the way, it’s going buck-wild at the shop right now. Thursday nights are off the chain! GET THAT WINE, PEOPLE!)

One of the shop owners knows about my love of twitter and my love of wine … he just forwarded me a hot rumor … twitter is coming out with their own wine … DEVELOPING …

Hi everyone … not to blow your minds, but I’m back at the wine shop!

Yes, it seems the owners won an award and must go cook food for an exclusive party to celebrate their wine-and-cooking-related expertise, and they have entrusted me with the store. And why not? After all, I am a great salesman: I treat each customer like they are my own flesh and bood; I know the main difference between red and white wine; I can press the right computer buttons to make the cash drawer open.

So come on down and let’s enjoy some wine-related financial transactions!!!

Just carded my first customer … the rush was incredible … just think, I might have prevented a CRIME FROM HAPPENING.

Fortunately for the wheels of justice, which, ever-turning, bend the flaming chariot of history towards Valhalla, the customer was old enough to buy wine. And so guess what I did? LOL, that’s right, I sold the ’em some wine!

“Virtue is its own reward … but wine doesn’t hurt either.” (New motto for the police? I will call and find out.)

Come and get that wine … three back-to-back sales … my fingers are burning up the cash register buttons … “Bottle of Chardonnay? You got it. Take this one. BUY IT.” “Your wish is my command, Mr. Wine-Store Helper.” And bingo-bango, another sale for the history books!

Urlshorteningervicefortwitter.com is on the hunt, and the bodies are piling up. Reader JKK alerts us to the demise of another URL shortening service:

I think you just crushed one of your url shortening service competitors. Cli.gs is shutting down its service.

But is there really any question as to why they couldn’t make the cut? WTF is a “cli.gs”? As if that doesn’t make anyone but the most elite software architects spin in their seats. I don’t know what an RSS feed is yet I’m also supposed what a cli.gs is? …

Keep up the fight.

One down, hundreds to go! Bit.ly, you better start sleeping with one eye open …

LET’S GET SHORT.

Guess who’s back in the wine store? Yes, it’s true, I’m here.

Reds and whites, come and get ’em. I’ll sell any wine in the store, that’s my promise to you. I’ve been working on my customer-service skills … I even saved an in-flight magazine from Delta (yes, I flew on a plane last week, I’m that rich) that had an article about different wine regions of the world. Did you know they grow wine in Australia? Crazy times.

Anyway, good morning to one and all! “It’s time for wine.”

I got carried away with “live-blog fever” last night. I apologize. From a reader:

whoa – I think yr supposed to say ‘spoiler alert’ before you get that detailed in yr live blogging …

You’re right and I hope I didn’t spoil last night’s episode (or was it a rerun? Couldn’t tell, there was too much food everywhere) for anyone.