Lew Perk.ns and Local Hipsters Consider The Sports Brawl! / Pitchfork Considers the Monsters of Folk Album / The Boys Consider the New Love Garden

Although it's now been a week since the various "fracases" or "duels" or "brawls" between the men's football and basketball teams, Larryville is still dealing with the fallout.

In a twenty-minute speech prior to Saturday's football game, KU athletic director Lew Perk.ns called the event "the most complicated thing I've ever dealt with in my whole life" and a "black eye on our university and the state of Kansas" (LJ-World), Perhaps a more appropriate metaphor would have been something like "This event has dislocated the thumb of Kansas," but we get his point. Even respected veteran basketball star Sherron Collins stepped forward last week with an inspiring speech about how players must avoid "stupid" things (although we must assume Collins' definition of "stupid" is rather loose and doesn't extend to the waving around of one's dick on public elevators).

Even Lawrence.com, normally content to ignore all local sports-related stories aside from kickball, has weighed in with an interview with two random hipsters.

Jed, disagreeing with Perk.ns' assessment, says: "It's nowhere near as bad as Chalupa-gate, Moonbar-gate, or CJ Giles-gate."

But at least there's been some good news for KU athletics this week. The owner of Joe College has now been ordered to pay $667,507 to cover the legal fees accrued by the university during their copyright infringement trials, which will likely lead to the demise of the downtown souvenir shop. Stock up on those "Reesing is a hilf" shirts now, readers, while you still can, before another fucking corporate noodle shop moves into that location.

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Over the years, the work of Coner Oberst (Bright Eyes), Jim James (My Morning Jacket), and M. Ward (solo and with She and Him...oh, Zooey), has brought much joy to hipsters across the land. And now these three have teamed up to create...Monsters of Folk. It's like drinking three PBR's at once! But what does Pitchfork think of their debut album?

They give it a 6.5, writing that one of Oberst's songs "fumbles through a listless decoupage of pagan and Spanish images and lands more than once on maudlin lyrics that seem like Facebook status updates."

Chip: "Take that, Oberst!"

Richard: "I prefer the work of Jim James when he calls himself 'Yim Yames' and records EP's of George Harrison covers."

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The new Love Garden, in the former home of Olde World Pottery, is now officially open for business, albeit housing only some of the former merchandise at this time (the former location will remain open for some time yet and still serves as home to the kitties!). Judging from his recent visit there, Richard gives a pass to the new location. Although there was a definite appeal in climbing the long staircase to the old joint, as if ascending into some mysterious hipster heaven, the new locale is certainly more spacious and Nanda, behind the counter, is still very pretty.

Yesterday's LJ-World contained a good piece on the importance of the store, which included this amusing anecdote we present here in full:

"So, in walks this kid with the perfect name for an optimistic college student — Will Pass.

Really. That’s his name. And he comes flying through the door of the Love Garden, a borderline iconic record shop that has called downtown Lawrence home for nearly 20 years now. He’s obviously in a hurry and obviously a man on the move.

“I’m about to go on a five- to six-hour road trip,” he says by way of an introduction as he blocks the view of a beautiful Gordon Lightfoot album jacket that is getting primo space on the shelf. “And I need a good CD.”

These are the types of moments the guys working the Love Garden counter live for. Somebody comes in and throws them a ball of clay and tells them to mold. Not even two seconds go by before Kelly Corcoran, the store’s owner and operator, provides the answer.

“You’re going to buy this,” he says pointing to the CD that he’d just stuck into the store’s player a few moments earlier. “Relatively Clean Rivers. You don’t know it, and it rules.”

Richard: "I'm totally going to look this album up this afternoon."

Chip: "Recently I rushed in needing some Jason Mraz on vinyl and the employees all did a simultaneous spit-take with their take-out Chipotle burritos."