And the winner of the Katotainment rebrand is ...

Don't worry, you're in the right place. This is the former Katotainment blog, where I wrote about all the same things I plan to write about now. But I switched jobs at the paper, focusing now on writing about K-college education. So writing an entertainment blog for The Free Press didn't jive very well. The solution? A new name and a rebranding. Hence, the lovely new background of spring-like greens and blues that you see before you.

You'll also notice the new name, above. I wasn't clever enough to come up with something on my own, so I opened it up to my readers and promised a $10 coffee card to the guy or gal who came up with the best new name that encompassed my impulsive personality. The name had to include a variety of interests, from fitness to local entertainment, and it had to represent my personality, which is sort of bubbly and crazy and weird and all over the place.

As you can see, Ryan Gehrke, the manager of Blockbuster Video, by the way, came up with the winning name. My last name is Dyslin, hence the "Dys," and "disjointed" pretty much sums up the rest. So you put it all together, and you've got one hell of a blog title.

So, Mr. Gehrke, you are the winner of $10 in free coffee, as well as the incredible bragging rights of having rebranded Katotainment. Well done, sir. Well done.

So thanks, everyone, for reading Katotainment the past couple of years, and I hope you'll all stick with me through many more years of "Dys-jointed" blogging.

Campaign Green Day hits the radio

Be sure and tune into KTOE Radio at 1 p.m. today. The station has been kind enough to invite Eric Jones of the Alltel Center and me to talk about Campaign Green Day. Don't make fun of me if I sound stupid, though. I'm scared to be on the radio. I'm better in print.

And this just in ... KEYC TV is coming down this afternoon to do a spot on the campaign for the 6 p.m. news. Channel 10, peeps! (The no making fun of me applies here, too.)

Adrienne and Green Day story promo

So the big story on Adrienne Nesser and Green Day and Mankato punk comes out Thursday. It's massive. 75 inches, the full Currents cover page, massive runover -- lots of good stuff to read about. And it was fun to write, too. There will be a sidebar on just submitted stories from former friends/acquaintances of Adrienne's that will run just on the Web below the link to the main story, so be sure to check that out. Also, embedded in the story online will be the YouTube video of Green Day's St. Peter concert, so check that out, too. It's grainy and dark and jittery -- totally raw and cool looking. The perfect memento for those 200 attendees.

I plan to cut out a bunch of copies of the story and send them everywhere. First of all, I'll send them to all of Adrienne's businesses in Oakland. Then, I'll give one to Cheryl Rueda to send to the last address she has for Adrienne in California (Adrienne babysat for the Rueda kids when she worked at Pagliai's with Cheryl). Then, on the publicity front, I'll send them to area radio stations to see if they want to help promote our little cause here.

Be sure and tell me what you think!

Free Press Sneak Peek

Here is a sneak peek at the story to run Thursday in Currents on Green Day's presence in Mankato, the lovely Adrienne (Nesser) Armstrong, with lots of stories from people who knew her here, and the Mankato punk scene in the early 1990s.

Preface:
A campaign has been launched to contact Adrienne (Nesser) Armstrong, the first lady of Green Day, who attended Minnesota State University in the early 1990s. Her presence here, as far as we can tell, is what lured in Billie Joe Armstrong, her now husband, and his band Green Day to play a couple of shows here. Despite the fact that the band is now at the global fame level, we're trying to appeal to their sense of nostalgia and get them to play a show in K-Town. And we'd love to talk with Adrienne, who is our own little local punk icon from the past, about her time in Mankato. For details, visit www.katotainment.blogspot.com.


Campaign Green Day Area fans reflect on the early '90s, when a small punk scene thrived and Green Day was part of it
By Amanda Dyslin
adyslin@mankatofreepress.com

It was dark in the middle of the southern Minnesota countryside, somewhere by St. Peter in the summer of 1992.
On a farm with a barn and not much else, there was one light pole casting a shallow light on three guys standing atop 6-foot wide, 5-foot tall wire spools -- a makeshift stage to gain high ground over 200 or so people watching. Next to them was a big, old, beat-up beast of a car pulled up by the owner so 15 or so people could stand on top and gain a better view. One of them had a video camera.
Ben Gruber, then a sophomore at Loyola High School, was there. In fact, he and a buddy had helped haul equipment for the band, and even gave the drummer, Tré Cool, a ride before the show in Mankato. The music was good, he said. A lot more polished than other punk bands he'd seen in Mankato.
He was aware of the five-year-old band, born in Berkeley, Calif., he said. They'd put out a couple of smaller recordings, including their full-length debut "39/Smooth" on Lookout! Records. But they were two years from their breakthrough record, "Dookie," which would have pretty much everyone at the show that night in awe of what they had experienced -- maybe one of the last stripped down, small-scale punk shows Green Day would ever perform.