Biking for Burritos

OK. I must admit that I've never had a burrito from Chipotle before. Not because I have anything against them necessarily, but when there's at least four or five stellar burrito joints within spitting distance of your house, there's really no need to truck out somewhere and eat a burrito made by someone who's paycheck is signed by the McDonalds Corp.

That being said, this is really cool. Dan Korman, the director of the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation, a fine, fine organization dedicated to furthering Chicago's reputation as the best Bicycling city in the USofA posted a heads up for Chipotle's Bicycle Appreciation Days to the Chicago Critical Mass Listserv.

Check it:

Burritos are 100% off (that's right, free) to all bike riders who visit Chipotle Mexican Grill, 1166 N. State St., Chicago, on Aug. 20 and 21. All you have to do is ride your bike to the restaurant and show Chipotle staffers your helmet or a photo of your two-wheeler and receive a free burrito, bowl or taco.

Whoo! Free burritos!

Wanna hear something that's gonna kick your balls off?

Wow! The always excellent WFMU's Beware of the Blog has posted the best MP3 I've heard in a while. The whole story (or as much of it as is known, at any rate) is in their entry, but apparently Venom, the original inventors and founders of black metal (it says so right on their website) and the Rollins-era Black Flag played a show together in Trenton, NJ circa 1986 and someone recorded the show, and edited out the music from Venom's set leaving only the guitar intros/outros and between song chatter from Venom frontman Cronos. It's damn amusing.

While you're there it's also worth checking out this entry about remixing music by adding mold to a CD, this one featuring a video of the Iggy & The Stooges circa 1970, and this entry cataloging sites that feature pictures of abandoned amusement parks. I'm really digging on the pictures from the Japanese site they link to. (1 2 3)

“massively multiplayer online photo sharing”: A history

I know there a a few readers of this site that are a bit obsessed with Flickr. Y'all might appreciate this interview with Eric Costello, one of the lead developers. He goes into themethodology ofFlickr's development, a bit of history and it's quite an interesting read. (via Lifehacker)

What could be better than Dancing with the Stars?

How about dancing on Reagan's grave?

No free coffee makes Pettus go crazy!

One of my favorite Chicago bloggers is Jason Pettus. Reading his blog is a bit like watching a train wreck in slow motion, but the comparison only holds if, in this case, the train doesn't realize it's careening off the tracks. Jason is an unemployed former poet and aspiring arts center founder/entrepreneur/monarch. Apparently, he's been learning about business by sitting in Borders, drinking coffee, and reading all of thier books. You know, so he doesn't have to actually buy them.

At any rate, here's the crazy letter he wrote to Borders when they almost refused to take his free coffee punch card. It's hilarious. A couple folks have commented on this already and the comments in those entries are pretty entertaining as well. My favorite was the commenter that pointed to an entry in which Pettus explains why he deosn't like to go to the library. It's communist, creepy, and there aren't enough androgynous hipster girls & boys to flirt with.

The wish power are together with you

This one's for pylbug. Check out the Engrish subtitles for Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. I particularly love that "jedi council" is translated as "presbetyrian church".

R Kelly explained

If you're having trouble figuring out R Kelly's Trapped in the Closet, check out the Cliff's Notes. (via Stereogum)

Also you can check out Jimmy Kimmel's (lame) parodies or the bizarre Sims version. To me though, it seems like no one can out-funny the original...

A look back called "Don't look back"

From Stereogum:

Check out the Uncut/ATP "Don't Look Back" series coming to London this fall. Bands will be revisiting their biggest albums live in concert:
8/30: The Stooges play Fun House at Hammersmith Apollo
8/31: Dinosaur Jr play You're Living All Over Me at Koko
9/14: The Lemonheads play It's A Shame About Ray at Shepherd's Bush Empire
9/15: The Lemonheads play It's A Shame About Ray at Shepherd's Bush Empire
9/16: Mudhoney play Superfuzz Bigmuff plus early singles at Koko
9/17: Mudhoney play Superfuzz Bigmuff plus early singles at Koko
9/18: Múm and Cat Power play Yesterday Was Dramatic - Today Is OK and The Covers Album at The Barbican
9/21: The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion play Orange at Koko
9/24: Gang Of Four play Entertainment! at The Barbican
9/25: Belle And Sebastian play If You're Feeling Sinister at The Barbican
10/4: The Melvins play Houdini at Koko
10/5: Dirty Three and Sophia play Ocean Songs and The Infinite Circle at The Barbican

Wow. Not a bad lineup, and even The Melvins are getting involved although Houdini probably wouldn't be my first choice for the album to perform.

With arms wide open all night

So did you hear about Creed singer Scott Stapp getting punked at Dennys? heh.

We promised the world we'd tame it...

Check out the cool animated video for Bloc Party's Pioneers here.

A conversation with Stephen O'Malley

While trying to see if my Silverfuture turned up in any Icerocket searches I stumbled across the very interesting Livejournal of Stiches who points us towards an interview with Sunn O))) & Khanate's Stephen O'Malley. It's an interesting read, touching on a Sunn O)))/Merzbow live collaboration that was foiled at every attempt by shady promoters and the London Bombings. Most interestingly, the blurb at the end of the article says that Sunn O))) will be touring once the Khanate tour ends. More & more it seems like most of the artist playing Arthurfest will be rolling through Chicago at some point. Obviously I'm most excited for the bands that rarely tour like Sunn O))) and Merzbow, now all we need is Yoko in Chicago!

Start saving now...

Sometimes I go weeks without opening Section 3 of the Chicago Reader. There's been way too many times I've opened it up and seen way too many excellent upcoming shows to even think about being able to attend, and this week was no exception. It's probably been since the beginning of June that I've given the upcoming concert calendar a good look, as I've been booked for most of the summer. Well, I hope you've saved up because there's a lot of great stuff coming through. In addition to the Adventures in Modern Music festival, and the Merzbow show I previously mentioned we also have:

Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra - HotHouse 9/8 & 9/9
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Metro 9/20
Bloc Party - Congress Theatre 9/14
Breakestra - Abbey Pub 9/9
Broadcast - Abbey Pub 11/4 (11/4!??! 11/4? Why are they selling tickets this early??)
Built to Spill - Metro 10/8
Cut Copy - Subterranean 9/24
High on Fire - Double Door 9/4
Lyrics Born - Abbey Pub 9/30
Moistboyz - Double Door 9/16
Nine Inch Nails & Queens of the Stone Age - Allstate Arena 10/7
Oneida - Empty Bottle 8/17
Pelican - Metro 8/20
Sleater Kinney - Metro 10/6
System of a Down & The Mars Volta - Allstate Arena 9/30 (oh, if only this show was somewhere else...)

What a great group of bands. Looks like Sept. is gonna be BUSY...

I LOVE this song...

GFAFP points me to the video for Dungen's Panda. I heard this song right as I was walking into Intonation on Sunday and thought about how much I dig this little ditty. I'm glad they made a video and posted it for us all to enjoy!

Stan Lee's Power Rings...

This weekend is the big Chicago Comic Convention. Should be a blast and I intend to do quite a bit of freak watching. To get in the mood, here's a wacky story for you. Stan Lee, the creator of Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four, and the man behind early Marvel comics has launched a new venture in which he'll be peddling interactive power rings that can unlock new powers when they interact with the website. Plus they'll get secret missions wired to them by Stan the Man himself. And there's a podcast. Excelsior!

International Drug News...

Russia Legalizes Medical LSD?

Bonus link:
What not to do...

Oh my god, a Ruuuubber!

OK, so I must admit that I'm a fan of R Kelly's music. I read once where someone (Flux, maybe) Compared R Kelly to Wesley Willis with better tracks. I can see that comparison easily especially while watching his latest opus, Trapped in the Closet. This has been floating around for a bit, but after sharing it this week, I figured I should probably make sure y'all are down with this. So get over to R's site, Click on video, and watch this fantastically compelling train wreck.

Mommy- where do Legos come from?

Find out how Legos are made! (via Make)

Pimp My Ride

I hear that over in Europe, MTV's Pimp My Ride goes out and pimps people's bicycles instead of their auto-mobiles. Here's a few suggestions for you if you're looking to pimp your own ride. I don't know if these would work together, but if you're just rocking boring old spokes in y our wheel, you need to get with the program, hipster!

Get spinners!
Write messages and draw pictures on your wheels!
Or just build your own Rat bike!