Kobayashi 1 - Johnsonville 0, aka Those Brats were Gone, Daddy, Gone

Ah, Sheboygan. Home of Brat Days. An entire weekend celebrating the bratwurst. There are parades, bands, carnival rides and brat eating contests. I am proud to call this my hometown. Born and raised.

This year the world champion hot dog eater, Kobayashi, came to participate in the brat eating contest. Sheboygan was very excited about this. ESPN was covering it. Wooooo. Ok, not really a big deal or at least I didn't think it was. My family watched it on television, instead of attempting to go down to the festival grounds (it was early in the day and we didn't feel like attempting to find parking and standing in a huge crowd).

Let's just say, watching it, made me hate bratwurst even more. Grossest thing I have ever seen on television. One participant was shaking while downing them. For 8,000 dollars Kobayashi ate 58 brats in 10 minutes (no buns included).

That last statement probably doesn't make sense to anyone that doesn't live in the US-Midwest area. You see...Here in Wisconsin, we eat our bratwurst with buns. Like a hot dog. I thought everyone did this, but when I met someone from the south, I found out otherwise.

This year's Brat Days featured performer was Violent Femmes. When I first got to my mom's house, I was sitting down with her in the living room. She was talking about how she didn't really want to go to Brat Days because there were no good bands playing this year. I asked who was playing and she said, "The Violent Femmes." And then I was all like, "THE VIOLENT FEMMES?!?!" Well, ok, I wasn't all that dramatic, but I thought it was funny that my mom said there were no good bands, and I think that is one of the only bands that would actually make me want to go down to Brat Days instead of avoid it like the plague.

Anyway, the fact that they were playing at Brat Days, makes me feel older. When I was younger, the performers were bands I didn't know that were popular because of one song that played on the radio when my parents were teenagers (at the latest). Now they have bands/performers that were popular when I was listening to music. Hmm, oh well. The Femmes were awesome however. It was funny to see the crowd react to their songs. They gave a polite applause after each song. When they finally played "Blister in the Sun" that is when the crowd went wild. Sheboygan is not too hip with the music, so they don't know many other songs by The Violent Femmes.