Word.

This morning I was driving to the Ypsilanti office; the sun was shining, the trees were green and blowing in the breeze, and I found myself yearning for that elusive and yet so enjoyable rite of summer: The perfect pop song. Something catchy with great drums that makes you want to drive the long way to the lake.

For me, “Young Folks” by Peter Bjorn & John was the song of summer 2007. The year before that it was Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s “Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth.”

So what’s it going to be this year? I’ll admit that I’m really out of the loop. Suggestions?

The latest installment in the WHOis: profile series is in the paper today.

Doing these videos has become my favorite part of work. I get to meet interesting people, videotape their lives, and create something (hopefully) cool to watch. It’s one of those “I can’t believe I get paid to do this” type things. Which cancels out all the stories that I have to write about people’s pets. Or the weather.

Shooting this video was really fun. I spent the better part of a day traipsing around Ypsilanti with a girl in a leotard and tutu. I shot her hooping on the median in the middle of Michigan Ave. while cars slowed down and honked (interestingly, it was mainly women doing the shouting), an abandoned firing range, and in the Frog Island Park amphitheater.

The music is off of the Ypsisongs CD, courtesy of my friend Brandon.

It’s my favorite video that I’ve done so far. I hope you like it too.

You can read the full interview on mlive.com.

Since Roger LeLievre was out yesterday, I had to do the weekend entertainment video by myself.

It got really, really weird.

I admit that I have never seen “Dancing With the Stars,” so I have no basis for what I’m about to say other than the headline I read in yesterday’s paper:

Yamaguchi wins ‘Dancing with the Stars’

Well… Ummm… Duh.

It’s like a headline that says Agassi wins ‘Badminton with the Stars.’

I think, from what I’ve gleaned, that the purpose of the show is to pair otherwise unqualified celebrities with professional dancers and see who can dance better or something like that. Somehow a professional figure skater seems pretty qualified to me.

I will now get back to trying to track down Drew Barrymore. I will let you in on this confidential newsroom tidbit: I have just obtained a cell phone photo from a woman who met Drew on the streets of Ypsilanti on Tuesday.

Rumor also has it that Drew dined at the Wolverine, but those ladies ain’t talkin’.

Soon we’ll all be rich!

So I know that I’ve ragged on them before for churning out the same-old-same-old, so I have to give props (excited props, actually) to the folks at The Bang!, who are taking their show on the road.

Here it is, straight from the mouth – well, keyboard – of Bang! priestess Dru:

this thursday may 22. your number one mixtape sex-plosion dance party the Bang! boxing ! wrestling! sexual dance power like never before! believe it.

the bang! detroit. boxing. wrestling. blood on the dance floor.

the bang! comes to the Detroit’s DIA and brings you the biggest & wildest night of your life. Dance madness. real boxing. men in tights.
the bang!

I think it sounds AWESOME. Because boxing is sweet. And I’m pissed that I can’t go. But rest assured, I’m sure, that in addition to the carnage, there will still be plenty of drunk, dancing people with cool hair.

Oh my. First let me tell you how this happened.

I was writing my weekly Ypsi nightlife column, and I needed to check out one of the artists coming to the Dreamland Theater next weekend (a week from this coming weekend… I work WAY in advance).

I typed in her link.

And I found this.

I was so excited I had to stop what I was doing just to open a new window and tell you about it.

Then I went to youtube and found this:

And she’s coming to OUR LITTLE TOWN! Well, I live in Ann Arbor, so Ypsi’s not really MY little town. But it’s close enough. And I used to work there. And some of my best friends live in Ypsi. Well, at least they used to.

Laura Barrett is at the Dreamland Theater, 26 N. Washington, in Ypsi on Saturday, May 31 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $8 in advance, $10 at the door. For advance tickets: www.menomenology.com.

Roger LeLievre and I had been wondering about Andrews Bar in Ypsi for a little while. We heard rumors that it was closed, we heard nothing about new events there (although already scheduled events are still popping up on calendars), and Roger’s attempts to contact the owner went unanswered. We drove by there last week and it looked pretty abandoned.

Today I checked their myspace, which has been changed to Andrew’s Bar Memorial Pancake Breakfast.

The bar is no more. Closed. Done.

I would try to bring you more in-depth commentary, but no one’s talkin’.

BUT, on a lighter note, an mlive.com commenter called Roger and me “two dorks” in a comment today. To which Roger replied, “hey! at least someone watched our video!”

(Anyone who makes an I-scream-you-scream joke gets one in the face)

It’s free cone day from noon ’till 8 p.m. at Ben and Jerry’s. FREE ICE CREAM! Although I still feel ire at the two bearded Vermonters for moving in RIGHT NEXT TO a local ice cream shop, I do like free stuff.

And, frankly, my personal campaign to support the little guy has run aground with Stucchi’s, which is really, really dirty. Somehow I don’t think Ben and Jerry’s would’ve made it next to Kilwin’s or Washtenaw Dairy.

Tickets went on sale today for Flight of the Conchords at the Michigan Theater.

(Another swearing warning, but this is my FAVORITE song)

There is nothing to say beyond this simple fact: I actually got down on my knees to ask the entertainment editor if I could cover this concert.

You can read the details on the A2 News entertainment blog HERE

A few weeks ago, I stopped in at the new Plum Market to buy some sandwich stuff. At the meat counter, I ordered a quarter pound of thinly sliced rare roast beef. This is my mom’s favorite, so I’ve ordered it in a wide variety of delis and grocery stores over the years.

The young lady behind the counter held up the meat so that I could see it, and it only took an instant for me to register the look that I saw in this girl’s eyes: The look of too much food knowledge.

“Just so you know,” she started, and then went on to explain some crap to me about the grain of the meat, and what roast beef looks like when it’s thinly sliced, something something something, I don’t know because I tuned out, trying to decide if I wanted the rosemary ham, waiting for her to be done so I could get on with buying the same thing I have bought for years and never before needed a primer on.

“Umm, yeah,” I said when I sensed that she was finished. “I want it thinly sliced.”

Here’s the word that I have come up with for all of you who don’t care that your turkey was massaged daily to prevent feather clumping or that someone whispered gently into the ground where your carrots were grown:

Zingermanification.

When I told this to a friend of mine who works for Zingerman’s (and, a disclaimer here, I did work there off and on from 1995-1998), at first he was offended that I used his employer’s name. But he then admitted to having just discussed with some friends the annoying tendency in the “duhness” that people have about their food knowledge. Like, ” I can’t believe you don’t know what romesco is,” when you just learned that yesterday. Like we’re all supposed to be born knowing the difference between beef that comes from Montana and beef that comes from Japan.

As far as I’m concerned, I just want the one that tastes good and doesn’t cost $30 a pound.

I don’t care how much you know about the food, and I don’t care what your opinion is about the fact that I don’t. I appreciate the good stuff as much as the next person, and it’s what I tend to eat. But you know what? I like American cheese. It’s good on burgers and grilled cheese sandwiches. And I mean the Kraft stuff. I also like diet coke and smushy bread.

And I’m grateful that, when I go to Meijer’s, the lady at the register with the six-inch fingernails doesn’t feel like she has to inform me as to the origins of my broccoli.