Gators don't sweat.

Anyone here?

2008-04-03T10:32:00.002-05:00

If so, follow me to silverfuture.tumblr.com. I'm going to play over there for a bit.

The September Third Conspiracy

2006-06-28T18:27:00.000-05:00

This morning as I flipped through the Reader's section 3. I hadn't checked it out in a couple weeks, so I took a good look at the Early Warnings section to check out what's on the agenda for the next few months aside from festival mania. There were a few shows that caught my eye (Oneida on 7/15, Peeping Tom on 7/27, and Justice at Smart Bar in Nov. No Intonation appearance, but at least they'll be out here).

A strange thing happened with a couple other shows I wanted to see, though. As I looked through the listings, I noticed a common thread. First I noticed that Jamie Lidell is playing the Metro on Sept. 3. The last time he played here, at the Bottle, I waited until the last minute to go, and it was sold out. I certainly wouldn't mind seeing him. Then I saw that Comets on Fire are playing at the Empty Bottle. On Sept. 3rd. And here I thought my agonizing decisions were all going to be at Lollapalooza.

That wasn't all though. Moments later I'd discover that there is in fact a third competing show that very night when the Double Door plays host to...wait for it...Pig Destroyer and Brutal Truth! Whaaa?? Since when is Brutal Truth back together? I Googled , and there it was: Brutal Truth schedule Reunion show in Chicago. Damn, man. At least my decision has been made for me. According to the article, Brutal Truth reformed to record a song for the tribute album to raise money for Eyehategod, who lost everything in Hurricane Katrina. After recording the song, they figured they might as well play at least one live show. I guess Chicago won because Kevin Sharp lives here. I saw him play at Venomous Concept's first (and only?) show a while back, but I never suspected I'd get another chance to see Brutal Truth! If you don't know, Brutal Truth was probably the finest grindcore band of the '90s, at least in my opinion. Their video for Collateral Damage is in the Guinness Book of Records for Shortest music video. This is Godplayer off of the excellent Need to Control.

Um, I think I'll go get my ticket right now. This is a great summer for music in general, and it keeps getting better.

Intonation Hangover

2006-06-26T14:39:00.000-05:00

Yeeeeah!

This weekend was the long awaited (for me, at any rate) Intonation Fest in Chicago's Union Park. It was a beautiful weekend filled with tons of fantastic music. I wrote a quickie recap on the first day for Stereogum, so check that out. Honestly, the bands that I was most looking forward to were High On Fire and The Boredoms. I've seen them both at the Logan Square Auditorium in the past year or so, but both of their sets on Saturday achieved "best ever" status. I'm sure the festival setting helped, but both bands were on. The energy was there and they were tight. There wasn't a whole lot the two had in common other than that (and maybe a good scream or two), but really, what more do you need?

New Yorkers were supposed to witness Eye's 77 Drum installation, featuring 77 drum sets, later this summer, but I guess that show was cancelled. Too bad, that.

There's a bunch of pics up on my flickr. Day One/Day Two More later (probably.)

Lollapalooza & The Lincoln:You're killin' me today!

2006-06-22T14:51:00.000-05:00

Well, even though I've had Intonation on the brain this week, there's other news in the Chicago summer music festival world today as Lollapalooza announces a couple more acts and, perhaps more importantly, the schedule of events. I think we all know going in that scheduling conflicts are pretty much inevitable for any large multi-stage festival. I remember having to choose between Ice Cube & Jim Rose's Circus sideshow at the second Lollapalooza many, many moons ago, but this year they're killing me.

There's a few choices that are somewhat easy to make with only a wee bit of regret (Ween vs. Death Cab? Sorry, Ben.), and a few that are mildly difficult (Be Your Own Pet or Sa-Ra? Fiest or The Go! Team? Coheed & Cambria or Built to Spill?) , but the head to head match-up that's really got my knickers in a twist is Gnarls vs. Sonic Youth. I mean, Gnarls will probably win out in the end, but why must I choose? It also seems like all the hometown heroes have been lined up against other heavy hitters as well (Queens of the Stone Age vs Wilco, Flaming Lips vs. Common, and Manu Chao vs. Kanye.) While I'm not too torn up to miss Common, I think Wilco & Kanye are gonna have to get kicked to the curb. That is, unless the sun is so bright that I need to take cover in the shade of Kayne's ego.

One decision you can avoid if you're free tonight is Calexico vs. Lyrics Born. Intonation isn't the only game in town this weekend. We've also got Pride (Irene Cara, y'all!), the Cans Anniversary Party featuring Tone Loc and Flock of Seagulls, and MOBfest which kicks off tonight at the Abbey Pub with a show featuring Lyrics Born, Verbal Kent, Earatik Statik, Skitzophonic, and DJ LA*Jesus. If you see DJ LAJC, tell him you think he's sacrilegious, he loves that!

The other bad news today is that Chicagoist is reporting that the "Big Head" Lincoln restaurant has been shut down for health code violations of the ratty kind. It's a shame, but much like the esteemed staff over at Chicagoist, I doubt that I'll stop eating there once they're back in business. I loves me some O'Brien Potatoes with my Stonewall Jackson. Besides, recent studies prove that dirty filthy rats are actually healthier that the domestic variety since their immune system gets a better workout. There's your excuse to go back to The Lincoln right there!

Misty patch-bay colored memories

2006-06-22T07:59:00.000-05:00

The other night I watched "Moog", the documentary on, duh, Bob Moog. While the film isn't exactly compelling from a cinematic or storytelling point of view, it is an interesting piece of oral history for music nerds. While watching it, I was stuck by a random memory from my youth.

Back in 1984, I spent a good part of the summer with family in Sacramento , CA. I say it was 1984, because that was the summer I was rocking the awesome Teen Titans painter's cap seen on this page. My aunt and uncle had a bunch of albums in their front room and I loved listening to their collection of Bill Cosby's comedy albums. But there was one album that really caught my attention. I couldn't tell you exactly what album it was, but I remember being transfixed by the image of a man at a keyboard who was being dwarfed by a huge patch bay with cables hanging out every which way.

My parent's LP collection mostly consisted of Peter, Paul & Mary style folk music and showtunes, so this slice of burbly electronic keyboard music flipped my little wig. I hadn't thought of that in years until the sight of a similar patch bay in the documentary jogged my memory. I guess my aunt & uncle are responsible for sparking my love of electronic music. Weird. I think that was also the summer that my cousin told me that "rap music will never last". heh.

Speaking of electronic music...

Looks like we're gonna get a few Intonation pre-parties this week in addition to the big fest. On Friday night MSTRKRFT and Chromeo will be DJing at SmartBar. I missed Chromeo a couple years back when they played Sonotheque, and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing them at Intonation on Sat. (even if I am getting sick of seeing that damn Heineken commercial featuring "You're So Gangsta" every time I try to watch a Cubs or Sox game.) I'd also love to Check out MSTRKRFT, but I think I might need to turn in a bit early of Friday in order to be well-rested for a weekend of baking and rocking out in the sun.

If you're looking to get your Friday night Intonation pre-party on with a little less vocodor and a bit more H-town hip-hop, head over to Zentra where Rapid Ric, D Double, Fader Pilot, & Ruki will be spinning and Devin tha Dude will be making a special appearance.

Also, have you seen the video for Peeping Tom's "Mojo" yet? Have you heard the new Portishead track? (more info at thier myspace) Alright then, carry on...

The world according to Pretty Toney

2006-06-10T11:58:00.000-05:00

Two weeks from today Ghostface will be rocking the stage at Intonation. So let's take a look inside the mind of Pretty Tone. (via sneakmove)

Patton & a Parrot

2006-05-31T20:46:00.000-05:00

Did you see Peeping Tom on Conan? The Peeping Tom Media blitz is go! SuicideGirls has a great interview with Patton that spells out some of the process behind Patton's approach to writing music and writing for the different projects. I've heard this album called accessible and even "Patton's pop album", but in this interview he tells us where that comes from and I follow where he's coming from a bit more. I always looked at Tomahawk as more or a direct descendant of Faith No More than anything else, but until reading that interview I forgot that Patton's not really the main writer there. Anyway, you can stream the whole Peeping Tom album at their myspace. I like it, but coming on the heels of the Gorillaz's and Lovage's, & Handsome Boy Modeling Companies of the world, it's not all that much of a departure.

About two years ago or so, T-Bone gave me a CD-R, no case, labeled simply in sharpie ink, Jud Jud. I listened to it a few times and then lost it. Now I have a little context to go with all of it.

Also hot off the wire, I totally knew I was forgetting something the last time I updated. Thanks to The Old Dog for reading my mind and e-mailing to remind me - June 6th, 2006: National Day of Slayer!!! Oh, hell yeah! Plus, while I'm being all metal, go check out Hatebeak.

If you're looking for a good read or two, I can recommend an article about Sunn0))) and a very interesting article about sober hipsters. I read this just minutes after snarkily posting a comment about Dave Mustaine's music going downhill since he got sober, and it almost made me feel a bit bad about posting that, but not really.

Highway to hell (we're on the)

2006-05-23T20:33:00.000-05:00

Wow!

*This is a scary article. Be careful where you dispose of your boarding pass.
*More scary ish.
*1 in 136 US Residents behind bars.
*The army's recruiting Autistic kids?
*Heh, yesterday I walked past the Haunted Hooters and the marquee read "Welcome NRA". I just shook my head and chuckled, but it was probably actually aimed at the National Restaurant Association. The President addressed them here yesterday.
*Condeleeza's top ten. (and a mixtape with a song about Condeleeza on it!)
*Make a distortion pedal out of a walkman.
*Os Mutantes are back (and headed to Chicago!)
*Sly and the Family Stone. Sweet!

*uh, wow!

*that clip recommended by the always entertaining Dan Gleason. Hit up his spot for more goodie goodie gumdrops.

oh yeah...

2006-05-22T19:18:00.000-05:00

Status ain't Hood has a review up of the NYC show of the Thrones/Growing tour. Which reminds me, they're playing the Bottle on Sunday. Sunn O)))/Boris is Friday night at the Logan Square Auditorium, too. Anyone want to go? I already have a ticket for the Sunn O))) show, but I'd love to end the weekend with even more noise.While I'm at it, I'm headed to see the Liars/Apes show at LSA on June 18th, anyone down for that?

While I got you...

If you want to step up your shirt game check out these bad boys. The Donkey King one is pretty sweet.

And, uh, this is very fascinating and disturbing...

The Wonderful World of Marvel Comics folks! I think this is why they went bankrupt in the 90s...

Albums I love

2006-04-08T16:10:00.000-05:00

Stolen from Liza

Create your own Music List @ HotFreeLayouts!

Summer love...

2006-03-23T17:52:00.000-06:00

Been a while, I know, but with summer festival season making noise lately, you know I'm gonna come out swinging.

The past few weeks have been a ball of stress, travel, confusion, and power naps. The one thing that has managed to keep my spirits up (aside form a few genuinely beautiful spring days) has been the announcement and ticket sales of a bunch of crazy Chicago music festivals.

Today, I went to the Intonation site mostly out of boredom, and discovered that they had again announced some new acts. Boy, does this fest look like a doozy! Vice is curating the Intonation fest this year since Pitchfork is doing their own shindig, and the acts announced before today weren't all that surprising considering that most of them were Signed to Vice Records (where's Justice? I need me some Justice!!). Of course it doesn't hurt that most of the acts on Vice are top notch, and to be fair, if you tell me the Boredoms are playing somewhere, I'll be there.

So today, in addition to the previously announced goodness of The Streets, The Stills, Bloc Party, Lady Sov, Jose Gonzalez, Chromeo (who have a downloadable mixtape available at the Vice records site), Bloc Party, Jon Brion, and Panthers, now we also get Devin the Dude, High on Fire, Kano, 90 Day Men, Dead Prez, Annie, The Constantines, and Tyrades. Damn. Now that's what I call a solid lineup.

Pitchfork has many more bands to announce, but while I hope they have a lineup as diverse, interesting, and solid as this, the acts they've announced so far tend to lead me to believe that the Pitchfork fest will likely be filled with the type of indie rock they champion online. Of course who knows, maybe they'll book Cam'ron and/or Juelz and get some street cred. In fact I dare them to book some Dipset. The guantlet has been thrown!

Intonation would get my money just for the Boredoms, High on Fire, Chromeo, and Bloc Party, but I love that we also get to see Dead Prez, Annie, and the guy who took Kanye's Late Registration from being "just-OK" to "somewhat-interesting", Jon Brion.

Plus, Intonation is happening June 24 & 25, the weekend that immediately precedes my birthday, so not only will we hopefully get a break from the late July heat provided by the other festivals, but I'll have a reason to be particularly celebratory!

Now the hard part is waiting until June...

Meet the Boredoms

2006-02-11T11:32:00.000-06:00

Oh, hell yeah. As much as I enjoyed seeing the Boredoms rock out their current all-drum Sun-worshipping incarnation last year, it would have been much cooler if it had been the old school Boredoms of back in the day. Here's a live performance of thiers:

Shirt folding is all the rave in Japan

2006-01-29T12:35:00.000-06:00

I am completly transfixed and mesmerized by this video. In general, I've been really amused by both google video and youtube and the like the past couple weeks. so while I'm here I suppose I can point you to a few good uns.

SPIDER-MAN Nipón !!!!!!!!
Shatner's Rocket Man
Stewie's Rocket Man
Shooter - Lil Wayne & Robyn Thicke live on Leno
Elmo Controversy
The trailer for the new Batman Legos
And Stereogum has the full federline round up. K-fed in the studio, the instant parody, and James Lipton.

Here's a couple great reads for the video haters. Gilberto Gil is awesome and Sly Stone might be coming out of hiding for the Grammys?

These videos are SO 2005...

2005-12-31T11:34:00.000-06:00

I stumbled across a couple wonderful videos online this morning, that I wanted to share with all my SilverFutureHolics so tune your computer TV over here for a bit of fun.

First of all, Stereogum posted the videos for both Saul Williams' "List of Demands (reparations)" and the cover by sweet Swedes Jenny Wilson and Robyn Carlsson. I had never seen either and they're both quite entertaining in their own ways. I recommend watching them both.

Whatever you do though, don't miss Terry Brown: Slow Playing Tape Deck. This is what Google Video was invented for! "We're not gonna need a tweeter for what we're doing today." (via GetLoFi)

While we're at it, check out DoCopenhagen's Top 50 Music Videos of 2005. (via Gapersblock)

Oprah begins the coverup...

2005-12-23T11:54:00.000-06:00

Well, I did say that it would make for a great episode of "Chappelle's Show". Apparently, The Chappelle Theory, was just put together to promote a short film by Charlie Murphy and Dave's writing partner, Neal Brennan. Or is that just what the Dark Crusaders want us to think?

Related: The Cosby Theory

Not related but awesome: Worst Rap Battle

And in the spirit of Christmas, a new movie trailer mash-up: The Passion of the Christ meets Yakety Sax.

What have you done for me lately, Bill Cosby?

2005-12-17T18:16:00.000-06:00

This is interesting, Dave Chappelle conspiracy theory. Here's a website that spells out exactly why Dave broke down and pulled the plug on his show. It seems a little far fetched, but if it's true, it's totally kickass, I want woken up in the middle of the night to be threatened by Oprah! If nothing else, Dave probably could have gotten an episode out of it. (via Defamer)

Bonus theory: Stephen King Killed John Lennon!

They're just saying what everyone's thinking

2005-12-16T19:00:00.000-06:00

Finally someone is taking a stand against Satan and his Sinister Secret Santa Ceremonies. Check out the video on Karkis's myspace page.

It was sponsored? paid for? conceptualized? masterminded? by some ad agency. I think it's just some nice holiday fluff, but you can't really trust an ad agency now, can ya? Whatevs. It's still better than CoqRoq, the band aping Slipknot, who were themselves just aping Figora. It's a vicious circle and it's just too far removed to make me want to rebel. Or buy chicken fries. (via Adland)

Bonus video. (also via Adland)

Hey! I have a blog, don't I?

2005-12-10T09:21:00.000-06:00

Here's some Mcnuggs for my thugz:

"Then you get into issues of the truth and stuff" (via Sploid)

“Stop throwing the Constitution in my face,” Bush screamed back. “It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!” (via Sploid)

The Earth's magnetic poles might be starting to flip say researchers who have seen strange anomalies in our planet's magnetic field. (via Sploid) (possibly supporting this Lost theory?)

Zulkey speaks with David Garrard Lowe, Author of Lost Chicago (via Gapers Block)

Wrestling with Bam Bam (via catchdubs)

Earthquake' John Tenta has revealed that he is facing yet another type of cancer, this time in his lungs. (via catchdubs)

Video roundup:

How Electricity is made. (via Make)

Alchemists of Sound BBC Special Video (via GetLoFi)

Spike Jonez Destroys the Gap (via goldenfiddle)

The Grabowski shuffle! (via 815)

Cam'ron - Get 'Em Daddy Remix (via Fader, probably)

Goblin Cock - Stumped (via WFMU)

We want the funk!

2005-10-14T14:22:00.000-05:00

Hey, did anyone else catch the cool P-funk documentary on PBS this week? It was a great film. I must admit that after Scorsese's Massive four hour Bob Dylan doc that aired a couple weeks back, an hour seemed to be too little time to properly tell the epic tale of Geroge Clinton and Parliment/Funkadelic, but nevertheless, it was an entertaining film with several new bits of history that I hadn't ever heard before. If you did miss it it appears to be airing again in Chicago on Sunday morning at 3AM on WTTW. Set you VCRs (or DVRs if you'r a fancy pants.)

I still remember the first time I heard Parliment. Delancey's mom was gone, and he had a New Year's party at his house. I remember sitting in his room at the back of the house in low light and listening to a couple CDs (cassettes, maybe even) that Dan Bass had brought over; Pretty Hate Machine and The Mothership Connection. After that our high school parties had a bit more funking going on and a bit less Smashes, Trashes, and Hits. The funk has been with me ever since...

It is on.

2005-10-14T13:51:00.000-05:00

I've been really lucky the past few months. There's been such great music coming through the city, and I've seen some fantastic shows. Last night was no exception.

USE was playing at Schuba's last night and while I do love me some USE, I hadn't really been planning on going to the show until reading a couple reviews of the New York show. Factor in the fact that it was only $8, and the fact that I'd been laying pretty low the past couple weeks, I figured this it it. It is on.

When we got there Tha 446 was on stage. We only caught the last couple songs but it seemed like fun. Tha 446 were rolling deep. There were at least 15 people onstage. Several were passing the mic while the ladies danced and a guy in an owl mask stood in the corner. They didn't do anything particularly groundbreaking, but they were high energy and fun. Apparently they're opening for the Go! Team on the 29th, but like you, I'll be at Otto's rocking to Figora.

We had missed the first "band" Pleaseeasaur. I had seen Pleaseeasaur open up for Neil Hamburger at Schuba's sometime in the past year, and all I really remember is a yellow plush costume, puppets, and watching the show for the car wreck spectacle of it. They weren't good. Seeing as how they were here at Schuba's again opening a show, I figured he was just a wacky local, so you can imagine my surprise when I heard that he was from Seattle like the two headliners.

As the third band was setting up, I noticed that several people were drinking Sparks. While I know that the hipster New York bars serve Sparks, I hadn't seen it outside of a liquor store, convience store or my apartment here in the Chill. With a high energy show from USE on the way and a yawning Girlfriend on my arm, the choice was clear.

After being told that we could only get Sparks at the bar upstairs, we headed up, ordered a couple, and stood there as the bartendress ignored the $20 we had slapped on the bar. After a few quizzical looks at each other and the bartendress, we realized that the Sparks was free!! I mean, Free Sparks and a cover of less than $10? How can you beat that?

By the by, our first round was actually Sparks Light. It was free and it helped me on the road to tipsy, but aside from that, I can't recommend Sparks light. It tasted way to artificial sweetener-y to me. I made sure the next one was as sugary as could be.

So the third band to rock was The Divorce, also from Seattle. They were good, solid, upbeat, power poppy Indie rock with just a dash of keyboard, and although it took a few songs (and/or a few swigs of Sparks) for me to warm up to them, by the end of their set I was really digging them.

Then it was time for USE. Wow! I haven't pogo-ed, bounced, or fist banged so much at a show in a long time. You'd kind of expect a band called United State of Electronica to be made up of nerdy laptop peoples, but in fact we had full band action- two guitars, bass, drums, keys/vocorder, and a couple rockin' babes. They brought the house down the whole time with their upbeat dance rock stylings. Plus, these guys could give Chromeo a run for the money on Vocorder overload.

All in all a fantastic, happy, upbeat, and yes, totally joycore show. If you haven't checked out their album, let alone their live show, I highly recommend it! Even if they didn't play "La Discoteca".

What did Clinton Know?

2005-10-01T11:11:00.000-05:00

Bill Clinton was interviewed in Hong Kong a couple weeks back:

From president to president, do you pass along a list of secrets - you know like where's Jimmy Hoffa? What really happened at Roswell? Without giving away any state secrets, is there something that we can all look forward to in the future to read about that you know that we don't know that will make reading the National Enquirer required reading?

(Laughing and blushing) Well I don't know if you all heard this, but, there was actually, when I was president in my second term, there was an anniversary observance of Roswell. Remember that? People came to Roswell, New Mexico from all over the world. And there was also a site in Nevada where people were convinced that the government had buried a UFO and perhaps an alien deep underground because we wouldn't allow anybody to go there. And uhm… I can say now, 'cause it's now been released into the public domain. I had so many people in my own administration that were convinced that Roswell was a fraud but this place in Nevada was really serious, that there was an alien artefact there. So I actually sent somebody there to figure it out. And it was actually just a secret defence installation, alas, doing boring work that we didn't want anybody to else see.

So let me give you a serious thing, though. In 2000, I was able to participate with Tony Blair and representatives of the French, German and Japanese and Canadian governments in announcing that we had succeeded in sequencing the human genome. Perhaps some of you have investments in all these bio-development companies and now you know that we cloned Dolly the sheep and apparently they may have cloned a dog. And my own view is that assuming we don't do something stupid like burn ourselves up with the global warming or blow ourselves up with a military conflict that we could have just as easily avoid, I think a lot of these bio-technology issues will be the dominant sort of intellectual and ethical challenges of the lives of those of you who are 10, 20, 30 years younger than I am.

Because I think that we are going to be able to save peoples' lives that, you know, in my generation couldn't be saved. And we are going to come up against the limits of our own mortality in a way we never could before. And a lot of the things that happen - good and bad - will be stranger than anything ever written in science fiction. But I don't know the answers, which is one reason I would like to live to be 100 just to see what happens. (Laughter)

So that means there's a list? Or no list? (More laughter - that drowns out his question.)

What? What did you say? I don't know what you said, but you should have said, 'There's absolutely no risk of that. Given my misspent youth, I'm lucky to be here now.'

What I did say was, is there really no list? Or is there a list?

If there is one, I don't know it. The Roswell thing, I think, really was an illusion. I don't think it happened. I mean I think there are rational explanations and I did attempt to find out if there were any secret government documents that revealed things. If there were, they were concealed from me too. And if there were, well I wouldn't be the first American president that underlings have lied to, or that career bureaucrats have waited out. But there may be some career person sitting around somewhere, hiding these dark secrets, even from elected presidents. But if so, they successfully eluded me…and I'm almost embarrassed to tell you I did (chuckling) try to find out.

(Laughter and applause.)

I do believe, by the way - one more flaky thing - you can also be flaky when you're out of office. I believe that now that we know that there are not hundreds, not millions but billions of other solar systems out there, thanks to the Hubble telescope and what we know about black holes of the universe, and all of that, the dimensions of physics are such that I would be quite surprised if in the lifetimes of people that are no older than 30 years old, we don't discover some form of life in another universe.

It's pretty clear that there was something approaching elemental life on Mars at one time in the past, based on what we discovered there. So I say that, only to say this: I hope all of you, wherever you live, will continue to support space exploration, whether manned or unmanned, it's not so important, but that we keep doing it. And I'm afraid that there will be a waning interest in it, in the future. I think that's a great mistake. I think we should continue to explore the boundaries of our existence, both into the earth and beyond the skies.

When I was president we discovered in the bottom of the Amazon River, (we were just a small part of this, but we discovered) two previously undiscovered forms of marine life so deep in the Amazon that they had never been found, in all the efforts of marine biologists.

So I think that there are a lot of interesting discoveries - biological, on earth and other discoveries in the heavens that those of you who are younger will get to see unfold. You'll have all kinds of problems with them, but on balance it'll be a plus. And it'll make life much more interesting.

From Finance Asia, via Sploid

"It didn't think what we think"

2005-10-01T10:45:00.000-05:00

Oooh. This is a good read. A comic book retelling The Religious Experience of Philip K. DIck. It's a little bit eye straining to read, but totally worth it. (via)

Parker Posey, The Dragon Bowl, and the Tao of Substitution

2005-09-29T21:37:00.000-05:00

A funny interesting Parker Posey sighting here. (via Defamer, I think)

You all everybody....

2005-09-28T14:27:00.000-05:00

Charlie
You scored 41% kindness, 30% courage, 52% seedy past, and 48% secretiveness!

"Hmm. I have this dream. I'm driving a bus. And my teeth start falling out. My mum is in the back. Eating biscuits. Everything smells of bacon. It's weird. 'Course then I wake up screaming."

You are Charlie. More specifically, you are Charlie when he was still dealing with his heroin addiction. You're a kind person, but your seedy past and intense secretiveness are hurting you. You're not one of the bravest guys on the island, but you will defend what is closest to you without fail. You'll be okay in the end because let's not forget, you're a bloody rock god!

Your polar opposite is: Michael. You are similar to: Claire and Kate.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 7% on kindness

You scored higher than 9% on courage

You scored higher than 83% on seedy past

You scored higher than 45% on secretiveness

Link: The Which Lost Character Are You Test written by ack_attack on Ok Cupid

A trip to the glazing pan...

2005-09-21T19:13:00.000-05:00

So cool! How Atomic Fireballs are made!

I have the strangest feeling I'm being turned into a puppet.

2005-09-13T13:25:00.000-05:00

Recent news explained with comic book covers.

Don't let her touch your wand, Jim!

2005-09-13T13:09:00.000-05:00

Perverts love the Star Trek.

Rollin' my way to freedom (or at least a free show)

2005-09-12T13:44:00.000-05:00

Nebula is playing a FREE show at the Empty Bottle tonight. Sure, it's Monday, but you need the rock. Trust me.

Press record and say "do it again"

2005-09-12T13:20:00.000-05:00

Go Fuck a Flagpole posted a quick interview with Mike Patton. Nothing too earthshaking here, but a good read nonetheless. I'm glad those Faith No More guys don't all hate each other. In related news, it appears that Caca Volante is running a blog now.

Japanes porno curiosities

2005-09-09T19:47:00.000-05:00

Thought I'd share a really amusing post I stumbled on today. Here is a tale of one man's porn buying adventures in Japan with a hilarious story from his youth thrown in for good measure. Check it.

Grant Morrison won't shut up!

2005-09-09T11:21:00.000-05:00

This week several excellent interviews with Grant Morrison have popped up online. For those of you that are unfamiliar with Morrison and his work, he's a comic book writer, a magician, a musician, and a damn interesting dude. He's probably best known for his run on The Invisibles, a semi autobiographical adventure/conspiracy tale that is still being dissected and studied by those with much more time on their hands than I.

The first interview goes into his writing process and although the interviewer does seem a bit fanboyish, it's a great read. In the second interview, he outlines his ideas for Hypertime, a concept he has come up with to help explain the tangled continuity of the DC Comics universe, but it goes much further than that...

'Hypertime' was the name Mark Waid gave to a concept of cosmic geometry I'd come up with, one bleary night in San Diego - given that the DCU has a Time LINE, the idea started as a consideration of what might exist beyond the Time Line, on the Time PLANE, or even in the mysterious Time CUBE . The theory allowed every comic story you ever read to be part of a larger-scale mega-continuity, which also includes other comic book 'universes' as well as the 'real world' we live in and dimensions beyond our own. It was also about how the world of fiction relates literally and geometrically to the world of 'reality'. Some of its basic features have even been echoed in current cosmological ideas emerging from the field of superstring research and M-Theory. Skip the rest of this answer if you can't be bothered with crazy talk.

We all live in Hypertime - in our 3-Dimensional level of Hypertime, which can be seen as CUBE TIME in relation to the DCU's LINE TIME, we can pick up comics and leaf through them, flipping in any direction - 'time traveling' back and forward through the 'continuity' like some new Doctor Who! I have a suspicion, based upon experience, that in HYPERCUBE TIME, there exist intelligences who stand in relation to our 3-D universe as we stand in relation to the 2-D universe of our comic book, film or TV heroes and who can leaf through our lives and times with the same ease we can leaf through SupermanÂs history but that's just me.

Heady stuff, that.

If you want more there's an interview about his current mega-opus Seven Soldiers here. The New York Times, even did a story on the architecture in Seven Soldiers, which is no longer available from them for free. Luckily, the text of the article is here.

Sadness all around

2005-09-09T10:58:00.000-05:00

Well, we've had no shortage of sadness in the news recently with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and the passing of musical lumiaries like R.L. Burnside & Bob Moog recently. There has been one recent passing that I haven't read too much about and I wanted to share it here. On Aug. 26th, Voivod guitarist Denis "Piggy" D'amour passed away due to complications stemming from colon cancer.

When I got my first CD player for Christmas in 1990, the first CD I purchased was Voivod's Nothingface. I even met Piggy outside of the Thirsty Whale when the were touring with Clutch. Recently Voivod was laying down the tracks for their 14th album, and Piggy had also done the art for Dave Grohl's Probot album which featured Voivod Singer Denis "Snake" Belanger among others.

My thoughts go out to Piggy's friends and family. Hopefully, he now knows what the unknown knows.

Biking for Burritos

2005-08-19T14:21:00.000-05:00

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?

2005-08-11T21:35:00.000-05:00

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

2005-08-10T11:41:00.000-05:00

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?

2005-08-09T15:23:00.000-05:00

How about dancing on Reagan's grave?

No free coffee makes Pettus go crazy!

2005-08-09T10:41:00.000-05:00

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

2005-08-09T10:34:00.000-05:00

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

2005-08-09T10:18:00.000-05:00

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"

2005-08-09T10:12:00.000-05:00

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

2005-08-08T23:37:00.000-05:00

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

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

2005-08-08T22:24:00.000-05:00

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

A conversation with Stephen O'Malley

2005-08-04T13:07:00.000-05:00

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...

2005-08-02T15:51:00.000-05:00

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...

2005-08-02T12:23:00.000-05:00

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...

2005-08-02T12:02:00.000-05:00

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...

2005-08-02T11:55:00.000-05:00

Russia Legalizes Medical LSD?

Bonus link:
What not to do...

Oh my god, a Ruuuubber!

2005-08-02T11:46:00.000-05:00

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?

2005-08-02T11:43:00.000-05:00

Find out how Legos are made! (via Make)

Pimp My Ride

2005-08-02T11:36:00.000-05:00

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!

Can't stop won't stop...

2005-07-27T18:55:00.000-05:00

Double barreled festival news from Pitchfork:

First of all, last week ArthurFest added a few new acts, and I'm impressed. Merzbow, Sonic Youth, Sleater-Kinney, The Juan Mclean, Sunn 0))), & Earth not enough? How about Brad Laner of Electric Company and Medicine "fame"? No, well how about Yoko F'in Ono?!? That's what I'm talking about. A festival with both Merzbow & Yoko. Damn, just damn.

So, Looking at the last entry I made about this fest. I realized I went on and on about Masonna, when in fact it's Merzbow playing at Arthurfest. I knew that, but something must have short circuited when I wrote that post. It's Merzbow, dammit!

Earth is also playing a bit closer to home, though. This September, The Empty Bottle and The Wire Magazine will be playing host to the Adventures in Modern Music Festival. It looks like another solid group of performers. My favorites among them are spread out among all the evenings, making my attendance mandatory for the whole weekend. Who am I most looking forward to? Isolee, Khanate, Earth, Four Tet, and Acid Mother's Temple, plus the rest looks damn intriguing as well. Go Chicago!

OOH! And checking the Empty Bottle's calendar for Sept. I noticed something else amazing. Merzbow is playing the Open End Gallery on 9/7. I guess I don't have to go to Arthurfest afterall. Am I really going to see Merzbow the same year as I saw the Boredoms? Damn.

Keep on rockin' in the cornfield!

2005-07-27T18:14:00.000-05:00

For the Dekalb people...

I see there'll be a cool show at The House tomorrow night. I'm not familiar with the headliners, Fear Before the March of Flames, but they apparently just came off the Sounds of the Underground tour with Clutch, Opeth, High on Fire, and a ton of other cool bands (also , you can and should download Clutch's new video for Burning Beard at the SOTU site). If you can judge a band by the company they keep, well these guys will prolly rock your sox off, bub. At any rate, the name that caught my eye on this bill was Bear vs. Shark. After reading about them recently, on Pitchfork most likely, I decided to check out their album Terrorhawk. There's definitely a few things about the album that rub me the wrong way, for example, I'm not completely sold on the singer when he's in "tormented screaming" mode, but these guys definitely rock. I don't think I'll be able to make it out to the cornfields, although I may have to try. Who'd have imagined a day that I'd be driving from Chicago to DeKalb to see a show? When did the House start booking crazy RAWK shows?

America's Next Top Motto

2005-07-25T18:36:00.000-05:00

It's strange the things you stumble across while Googling the phrase "Show them my motto", but I found an interesting article that went in a direction I wasn't expecting after the Dazed & Confused shout-out in the intro (and I love how he mentions McDonald's new catchphrase, "we're loving it!").

Don't you think you need a motto? I haven't decided what my motto is yet (make them pay?), but I'll certainly update you when I figure it out. In the meantime, what's your motto? Leave me a comment and give the world your fighting words of wisdom, you could have America's Next Top Motto!

Sub Sonic Massage

2005-07-13T11:29:00.000-05:00

That was weird. I don't know where the text for this post went off to...
Here's take 2:

Bog has a website. It ain't pretty to look at, but there's MP3s of their CD, as well as two live shows. The show from two weeks back doesn't features just Alex and T-bone with no Van, but still rocks quite hard. If you love your rock with extra bass, check 'em out.

For some reason Blooger doesn't like the link and keeps giving me trouble. Let's try it this way: http://www.tbc.net/~bog

How to:

2005-07-13T11:09:00.000-05:00

From Make:
Modify electronics
Cold press coffee
Save nearly any multimedia to your hard drive

From Lifehacker:
Make Pizza (Finally, someone else that's anti-pizza stone!)
Start using Bit Torrent
Be a more productive blogger
Get rich slow

And from Chicagoist:
How to make Baklava

Don't blame me, I voted for Judge Judy.

2005-07-12T13:27:00.000-05:00

I've been very disappointed with the current term of the Supreme Court. In the past few months, they've decided that police need neither a warrant nor probable cause to let a dog sniff you or your vehicle, that eminent domain can be exercised if a private company wants to develop an area that could be used to boost tax revenue, that medical marijuana is illegal (regardless of the fact that until recently, this court has been extremely outspoken about protecting states' rights) and they kicked the Grokster case back into a lower court.

Once they headed out for the fun & sun of their summer recess, Sandra Day O'Connor resigned, and Chief Justice William Rehnquist is expected to resign at any moment. This isn't going to be an easy road for the President as the Christian right does not approve of his prime candidate, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales as he might not be onboard to overturn Roe V. Wade.

The most interesting analysis I've read so far comes from Richard Cohen of the Washington Post who wrote a column advocating the nomination of Judge Judy. Yesterday, Kurt Vonnegut came out to lend his support to Judge Judy as well(second item). I have to agree.

Back when I was working in Master Control, I had to watch Judge Judy everyday, and I grew to respect her. I don't always agree with her, and sometimes I think she's a little quick to condemn some of the more harmless litigants in her courtroom, but I respect her, her heart is in the right place, and I think her straightforward, no nonsense attitude is just what we need on the Supreme Court. Judge Judy has my vote.

Son of the Attack of the Music Festivals

2005-07-07T12:03:00.000-05:00

I actually got a phone call last night when I was typing the last entry and it totally derailed my train of thought. I caught you up and filled you in on the events that are right on the horizon, but I didn't really touch on anything outside of July. Of course, the music festivals don't stop just because the summer starts to fade.

Case in point, The Voodoo Music Festival in New Orleans. Happening over the last weekend in October, this year's lineup features Nine Inch Nails, The Flaming Lips, Queens of the Stone Age, LCD Soundsystem, The Handsome Boy Modeling School (AND individual sets from both Prince Paul and The Automator), plus oh so many more. Tickets go on sale tomorrow and are $50 for the weekend. That's a freakin' steal! They're also offering camping facilities for (apparently) the first time, and I'm a bit intrigued by that option as well. Anyone else up for Halloween in the Nolia?

Then there's the Arthur Fest. Really this is just another music fest with a cool lineup of bands taking place somewhere I don't live (L.A.). I wouldn't even give it a second thought if not for the fact that Masonna is performing there. He's definitely the godfather of a certain subset of extreme Japanese noise sonics, and the thought of seeing a Masonna show live is enough to moisten my pantaloons. Throw in some Sonic Youth, Earth, Sunn O))), and the rest and we're talking crotchpot cooking! I probably won't hit this one, but if you're in LA, bootleg it for me, bitches!

Attack of the music festivals

2005-07-06T20:44:00.000-05:00

Wow. I took a breath to recover from my whirlwind June and all of the sudden I've realized July is booked solid as well. Holy crap. But first, the old news...

First of all, I should mention that my wonderful girlfriend got tickets for us to go see Modest Mouse at the new Northerly Island Pavilion (formerly Meigs Field). It was such a great show, the band was on, it was a beautiful night and the venue is really quite amazing. Look to the right of the Isaac's face on the Jumbotron, there's the Sears Tower.

It was really quite similar to seeing a show at Summerfest in Milwaukee. There's seating around the edges bleacher style, and the center is left open for the general admission folk to mill around. Really, there wasn't a bad view in the house from what I could tell, and the sound was great too. I might have to go hit the beach outside and drink a 40 when Kelly Clarkson comes to town.

So I got my rock on with Modest Mouse, I went to Summerfest this past weekend and got some rock action from The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, and Pat McCurdy, not to mention stunts (!) performed at different times during the day by BMXers, and strange men on watercraft. Good times. And looking ahead on my calendar the hits just keep coming!

This weekend is The Old Town School's Folk & Roots Fest in Welles Park. This one's always a good time. Lots of great music from around the world, dance lessons, and all the assorted food on a stick found at such festivals. Every year I've seen fantastic music and this year they have a lineup that got me pretty excited.

On Saturday, there's a ton of good music including Otis Clay and Alejandro Escovedo but it's Sunday's lineup that has me breaking out the sunscreen. First of all you got your Tinariwen, for your African desert blues rock from the real desert, Sahara style. I saw these guys play at the Cultural Center this winter and they were great. They also screened Festival in the Desert which was a fantastic look at the music festival they have in the middle of the desert every year. Everyone shows up with their camels and their generators and sets up in the desert for a weekend to rock out. That's the real Desert Sessions.

After Tinariwen plays, Ozomatli step up and throw down. They're such a good live band. They just plain rock. Picture Los Lobos, with a horn section, tabla player, DJ and MC. They're better than that makes them sound for sure.. They played Chicago about a month back for some Columbia festival and I had to miss them, so I'm glad they're rolling through again.

The following weekend is Intonation, and on Monday we decided that Trent's gonna have a party the last weekend in July. You hear that Trent!?! We're coming for your cattle!

Yeah, yeah...

2005-07-06T11:36:00.000-05:00

I know I haven't been posting. Sorry. I still have to work this whole thing into my daily routine. I have a few things to post if I make myself some time, but until then let me give a mini Mega Mall update. It looks like work is being done. Signs are up all over that they will be reopening soon. Hopefully they're getting their act together. Now, not knowing if the Mega Mall was going to be demolished, developed, or destroyed, I went out and took a few pics, just in case...

TV alert

2005-06-21T16:23:00.000-05:00

If you're around tonight, make sure that you check out Trading Spouses on Fox. When Trading Spouses and Wife Swap were originally airing, I was SO into them . I think a lot of the appeal is seeing how many different types of successful (and not so successful) relationships are possible and watching what happens when someone is put into a radically different environment and have to give up a bit of control.

Both of these shows have had some truly enjoyable episodes, but tonight's episode of Trading spouses in the second part of what is probably my favorite of them all. Barbara, the up tight control-freak vegan with the awkward, extremely sheltered home schooled kids and seemingly beat down husband trades places with Diana, a laid back, practical, gator farmer with a sweet but simple husband and a willful, stubborn, and hilarious son, ZeZe.

In the first episode, while dining in some charming Bayou eatery surrounded by turtle soup, crayfish, frog legs, and gumbo, Barbara explains, in a very condescending manner, that she's a vegan. You can't ever tell with these shows if a reaction actually comes from what's being said or is just edited to look that way, but who ever edited this scene did a great job. As she explains she's a vegan, they cut to ZeZe who exclaims how great his oysters are. When she says "So long as we have a choice, we're going to choose compassion over killing, the cut to ZeZe, mouth full, chuckling at her. When she tries to discipline him later, he gives her a halfhearted apology to get her off his back and when she keeps talking he tells her "you're fired".

Tune in tonight to see it all go off the rails. It's on Fox at 7P CDT.

The reason the internet was invented: Cat Pictures.

2005-06-21T12:55:00.000-05:00

Stuff on my cat (Via Ultra)

A missed opportunity on so many levels

2005-06-21T09:52:00.000-05:00

This morning as I descended down into the Logan Square El Station, I noticed that the platform was a bit more crowded than usual. Bunched up at the bottom of the stairs, was a group of about 40 or fifty people, mostly sporting white T-shirts. As I wandered to my train awaiting spot, I read the back of the shirt something about families losing jobs, but then I read closer. The back of the shirts read, "1000 FAMILIES LOOSING THERE JOBS". I literally did a double take.

Then I remembered that I had left my camera at home! Arrrgh!

I noticed several things in rapid succession. First of all, The front of their shirts read "OPEN THE MEGAMALL" and underneath, in smaller print, "Remember Election Day". Then I realized that at least half of the gathered crowd was Asian, it was certainly an atypical site in mostly Hispanic Logan Square. As the Blue Line will take you right down to City Hall, I figured they were protesting the closing of the Mega Mall.

Anyone that knows me knows that I have much love for the Super Discount Mega Mall. I want to see it open, and I want to be able to buy baseball hats, batteries, shoes, belts, churros, and rims, but couldn't help but wondering if they were doing more harm then good. The Mega Mall was shut down for building code violations. Frankly, that doesn't surprise me all that much, it is after all, about three-five buildings opened up and connected together, and it does appear to be a bit run down.

If you have 1000 families who's jobs hinge on this, wouldn't "there" time be better spent trying to bring the building up to code, than protesting? I mean, bless 'em, cuz their hearts are in the right place, but I hope this doesn't just make things worse...

Needless to say, if you see a one of these shirts in the Thrift store (thriftnlove I'm looking at you), get me a big 'un.

June 24th is the new July 3rd...

2005-06-20T11:33:00.000-05:00

From the Tribune:

"Don't get stuck in the traffic mayhem expected to choke the Grant Park and
lakefront areas on Friday, warns veteran broadcast traffic reporter Dan
Fields."The afternoon and evening will feature Cubs vs. Sox at U.S. Cellular
Field, opening day of Taste of Chicago with a concert by LL Cool J at the
Petrillo Music Shell and the first concert at the new facility on Northerly
Island--a double bill featuring the bands Chicago and Earth, Wind & Fire,"
Fields told Getting Around in an e-mail, adding that he plans to jump on a train
and head home after work."This year, June 24th is the new July 3rd," he said."

Plus this Friday is also Critical Mass. Seems like a great day for traffic.

On a related note, I was puzzled when I first heard that Lauren Hill had been
scheduled to play at the Taste. She hasn't put out any music in quite a few
years, and the appearances she has made, most recently last
weekend, are most notable for her erratic performances. I saw her at the
Chicago Theatre when she was touring for The Miseducation of Lauren Hill, and
while it was a good show, it was fairly unremarkable (expect for openers
OutKast), but I was looking forward to seeing if we got some freakout action at
the taste.

Last week, it was announced that she would be replaced on the Taste lineup by LL Cool J, I realized that we wouldn't get a freakout, but which would you rather have, possible freakout with lame tunes, or a solid 20 year veteran bringing the hits? I saw LL perform at a B96 Halloween Bash a few years ago. I was really there to see Missy, and *hangs head* Christina Aguilera. The show gave us four songs by each artist and technical difficulties (Christina's track kept skipping), artists hoping to cruise by with bad backing tracks and mediocre dancers (Missy) and the just plain unremarkable ( the girl from Destiny's Child that's not Beyonce or the gospel one), LL stole the show. He came out, ripped off his shirt, and proceeded to unleash two decades worth of hits. He did them ALL. Plus, despite the fact that the qwhole show had taken place in the round, he was the only one to work the audience for all sides, walking across the stage like a panther (with a hat like a shark's fin, natch). If you're going to be downtown on Friday at 5:30 and you don't mind fighting the crowds at the Taste, check it out. After all, LL Cool J is Hard as Hell.

Me? I'll probably be riding my bike.

8 shopping days until my birthday...

2005-06-19T19:27:00.000-05:00

And if you're wondering what to get me, you can't go wrong with a squirrel flask or a musical porch swing. (via Gizmodo)

Dead Vegas

2005-06-18T19:16:00.000-05:00

Where neon goes to die.

Get it on

2005-06-18T16:49:00.000-05:00

Adrants points me to these banner ads apparently for an internet provider in Brazil.

Let's get high

2005-06-17T18:49:00.000-05:00

On Wed. The New York Times ran a piece on the High Lin e, New York's future elevated park located on a former freight railroad right-of-way. Chicago has it's own plans for a similar project on the abandoned Bloomingdale Line which runs east from the Logan Square YMCA through Wicker Park and down the way to Ashland. I've been following the progress of the High Line since I first heard of the Bloomingdale Trail project and watching as it slowly gets permits and works it's way through the system, and it just makes me realize that it's gonna be a long time before I can bike to work on the Bloomingdale trail, which totally sucks, because it would be a better route than any of the streets I currently ride (at least for part of the trip). Until then, I suppose I'll have to settle for these artist's renderings of the High Line and this guy's pictures of the Bloomingdale Trail as it looks today. At least until I get back up there for a hike...

A real American

2005-06-13T21:34:00.000-05:00

Hulkamania is running wild!

Those kids and their crazy interfaces....

2005-06-13T21:31:00.000-05:00

Data Tiles.

Audio Pad.

LCD, OCD. OCD, LCD.

2005-06-13T19:59:00.000-05:00

Wow-zers! Banana Nutrament has transcribed the lyrics to LCD Soundsystem's Losing my Edge, complete with MP3 downloads. You down with OCD? It's awesome!

edit: Liza points out in the comments that all the MP3s included here are just snippets. Bummer. I downloaded them, but hadn't listened yet. Ah, well.

Keep Rock N Roll "Weird"!!!

2005-06-13T19:17:00.000-05:00

Okay, now for the serious shizz. DO YOUR PART! Help get "Weird Al" Yankovic inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!! Of course nothing "Weird Al" related can be simple. There's a map, and certain states are supposed to send letters on certain dates and it's really all too much for me to figure out. But Illinois is set to, I don't know, march on Cleveland or something, on the Sunday. You have been warned.

Some Rah-rah ish

2005-06-13T18:26:00.000-05:00

I just read a couple more things I wanted to share here. These can be filed under Business and Rah-rah-rah, Go, Team, Go.

How to Make a Million Dollars is a gussied up Power Point presentation on the best way for you to make a million dollars - by starting your own business. It's an interesting read which suggests many valuable resources. As I was taken in by the piece, I hit the part which advocates throwing out all of the music on you ipod, and loading it up with nothing but books on starting a business. Immersed in the article, I suddenly realized the power of immersion as I watch it happening on some sort of bizarre meta-level. By immersing yourself completely in your desired reality tunnel, it's fairly easy, with practice, to guide your focus and start the energies rolling in the right direction. Immersion isn't a new idea, and it's fairly common sensical, but I hadn't really thought about it in such a way in quite a while. (via Lifehacker)

I also read a couple posts over at Slacker Manager that really hit home with me as well. A post on Micromanagement led to a discussion of the book Fierce Conversations, and Slacker Manager's review of a keynote speech by the author. It's an interesting concept that I can get on board with pretty easily. Our relationships are all conversation based. Relationships happen one conversation at a time. Every conversation we have elevates, deteriorates, or has no effect on our relationships with each other. One of the reasons this hits home for me is because that while I feel I'm blessed to have known some wonderful people in my life, I don't always have the Time or persistence to keep the conversations going.

That's one of the reasons I wanted to put this here shingle up on the interweb. I'm trying to keep the conversation going. Maybe we just stopped talking, or maybe I keep meaning to call, maybe I'm uneasy abaft the way we left it, or maybe your cellphone got stolen or disconnected (Buzz, Holla at a blogga!) but this is for all of us. Let me know what you think. Leave me a comment, or drop me line, and we can build from here. One conversation at a time.

(Told ya we were venturing into Cheerleader-land....)

Mega Mall Shut down!

2005-06-10T15:11:00.000-05:00

The Sun-Times is reporting that the Super Discount Mega Mall has been shut down due to building code violations! Apparently there were over 100 violations, and they hadn't been fixed since the previous visit from the city. I don't want to see a propane tank explode and take out the whole dang thing, but here's hoping that the folks at the Mega Mall get their acts together so that they can reopen and we can once again enjoy airbrushing, Churros, Jewelry, and clothing at the flea market that's open every day (except when the city shuts them down.)

New York, NY it's a helluva town

2005-06-09T16:04:00.000-05:00

Stereogum pointed out this list of free shows in NYC this summer. I don't know if I'm going to have any New York readers here aside from my lovely cousin, Elizabeth, but just in case I'm going to post a list of some of my picks I sent her this morning. Anyone want to road trip to NY to see the MC5 and the Sun Ra Arkestra?

I saw the link [above] last night and immediately started drooling. There's so much good stuff happening in your fine city I may have to road trip out to hit at least one ofthese shows...

Some of my picks (followed by my commentary):

Friday, June 17: Will Calhoun presents AZA, featuring Pharaoh Sanders, Graham Haynes, Buster Williams and Orrin Evans with Burnt Sugar and Greg Tate. Central Park Summerstage, 7 p.m. - Pharaoh Sanders was one of John Coltrane's sidemen, also playing (usually Tenor) Sax back in the day, when Trane was signed to Impulse and doing some of the most interesting jazz music out there. Pharoah is a bit older now, and I've seen him do standards as well as some of the more pshycedelic-type jazz he helped bring to the fore in the '60s. Should be great.

Friday, June 24: Soulive and Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra, Prospect Park Bandshell, Park Slope, Brooklyn, 7:30 p.m. $3 suggested donation. Celebratebrooklyn.org - Solive is a SF funk outfit. I haven't really heard too much of their stuff, but I know some folks who really dig it. Antibalas on the other hand, rocks my world. They're a big band playing funky afropop that I really think many folks would appreciate. Highly Reccomended.

Friday, July 8: Missy Elliot. Bryant Park, 6-9 a.m. It's Missy. Nuff said.

Thursday, July 14: Ozomatli and Pacha. Prospect Park Bandshell, Park Slope,
Brooklyn, 7:30 p.m. $3 suggested donation. - Ozomatli is basically a socially conciouss latin funk/rock group with a DJ and a rapper. I've seen them live afew times, and they're playing the Folk & Roots festival here in ChiIL this summer, and I'm quite looking forward to it. They like to come out into the crowd and jam on their horns for a bit as an encore. Great fun!

Sunday, July 17: Femi Kuti and Brazilian Girls. Central Park Summerstage, 3 p.m.- I've been really into Fela Kuti lately. Fela was a huge name in African Music, he pioneered the "afropop" sound of funky African rhythms merged with american funk and pop. Many of his albums have been re-released in the past few years since his death and are well worth seeking (or soulseeking) out. His son Femi has also been touring with his father's band and keeping the legacy alive. The Brazilian Girls are not Brazilian and only 25%female, but they crank out the chilled out bossa and lounge sounds for hipsters. I dig the album, but Femi is the real draw here. Again, Highly recommended!

Saturday, July 30: MC5, The Sun Ra Arkestra, Suphala and DJ Spooky. Central Park Summerstage, 3 p.m. - This is such a cool bill. This is one of those shows thattempts me to get out there. MC5 is a legendary Detroit (post-? proto-?) Punk band. Sun Ra died a few years back, but he was without a doubt the greatest "Space Jazz" character and band leader ever, and the Arkestra doesn't really play that often anymore. For me this would be the highlight. DJ Spooky's pretty cool as well. This is the big one!

Sunday, August 7: M.I.A. with Diplo and special guests and DJ Rekha. Central Park Summerstage, 3 p.m. - I just saw M.I.A. play Chicago. She's a Sri Lankan rapper (I suppose) with all kinds of great beats. Her album Arular is one of my favorite of the year so far. She's just too cool, and I think she's gonna be huge! I love this woman and this show will probably be quite bananas!

And all that's without mentioning Kanye, Out Hud, Son Volt, Northern State, or Calexico. So much cool free music. I mean, There's aton of stuff in chicago this summer (Lollapalooza, Intonation, Summerdance (starting in just less than two weeks. Yay!), the aforementioned Folk & Roots Festival, and so much more, but I still feel like we're always gonna be the second city.

The future of media

2005-06-09T14:43:00.000-05:00

This flash movie is what ultimately made me decide to start a blog. It's an exploration of what the future of our mediasphere might look like. Quite frankly I was impressed by the presentation and a little intimidated by the content. I read newspapers, and I had never before dabbled in RSS feeds, Blogging, or Social Networks like Flickr, Friendster, or MySpace. After I watched EPIC 2014, I really felt like I was gonna have to try a bit harder to stay up on my technology. I started reading my blogs using Bloglines, signed up for a Flickr account (which I haven't really used yet), and started this here blog. Care to join me on the internets?

Can you say "Batshit crazy?"

2005-06-09T14:39:00.000-05:00

I love reality TV. I love seeing celebrities at their worst. So, of course, I'm quite looking forward to the new Bobby & Whitney show. These two are even crazier than Anna Nicole and I think there show is going to be hella entertaining. Check out a quick preview here. (via Defamer)

"That's cool. I like Fischerspooner too,"

2005-06-08T22:56:00.000-05:00

I really like the new Fischerspooner album, Odyssey. I just keep coming back to it and I'm still digging it muchly. Thighs points me to their video for "Never Win". Lovely. [Win or Real or Quicktime]

Stanley Kubrick's Chicago

2005-06-08T22:40:00.000-05:00

Gaper's Block pointed me towards a story from the Trib about a young Stanley Kubrick coming to Chicago to photograph a Kup-penned story for LOOK Magazine. The photos that the Trib posts are pretty cool and while I haven't dug through too many of the images available here, it certainly looks promising.

Hmm. I just look around in the Library of Congress's archive site and I couldn't find any of Stanley's pictures that had been digitized. Let me know if you have better luck.

A quick shout-out!

2005-06-08T22:38:00.000-05:00

All of the links that I've posted so far have come direct from Lifehacker. I must admit that I'm quite enamored of this site. In a very short time it's popped to the top of my must-read list and I just wanted to give additional credit where credit is due...

I heart content driven searching

2005-06-08T21:55:00.000-05:00

This is too cool. Yahoo Mindset, currently in Beta, in a search engine which allows you to sort your results on a sliding bar scale with research on one end and shopping on the other. As you drag the slider along the bar, you weight the list of results to the side of the bat your closer too. Very fun to play with. (via Lifehacker)

Stop smoking with your cell phone

2005-06-08T21:41:00.000-05:00

Not too much to say about this one but, it's an interesting idea. Can text messaging help you quit smoking?

Gleaming the cubicle

2005-06-08T21:18:00.000-05:00

I'm a big guy. I don't eat very well, but I'm convinced that with the proper exercise, I should be able to eat whatever I want, in moderation, of course. This year I haven't been riding my bike as much as last, relying instead on the good ole CTA. At work, I sit at a desk and stare at a computer all day. To make matters worse, there's a slight tilt to the floor under my desk, and I find chair rolling me right into my desk. Once I'm wedged in there, I slowly start sliding lower & lower towards the ground. It wouldn't be bad if not for the incline in the floor, really. Plus, all of this craziness, not to mention standing on the CTA, occasionally does a number on my back.

Why do I tell you all of this? Well it looks like someone's created a desk where you can get all your work done on the computer while standing and walking ever so slowly on a treadmill. To me, it sounds ideal. Off the slope, on my feet, and moving, moving. Maybe I need to build one myself. Hmmm.

Disobey & live

2005-06-08T21:05:00.000-05:00

I was always a rebellious kid. I always wanted to do all of the things my parents didn't want me to do. To this day I have a knee jerk distaste for anyone who tries to tell me what to do. That's why I enjoyed and want to share this article (via Lifehacker). Apparently, research has shown that thousands of people's lives were saved on 9/11 by ignoring the advice of 911 operators to stay put. It sounds pretty much like common sense to me, but I'm also not really one to panic usually.

OK. Here we go!

2005-06-08T21:03:00.000-05:00

I got an e-mail from my buddy pylbug today. He was directing me to his new blog. He had been "sitting on it" for a while, and of course, it just made me think about what a neglectful blogger I've been. Delancey told me that the way to start is just to get going, and I thought that's what I was doing ranting about Nexium, but I didn't keep up the momentum, obviously. We were all talking big about starting blogs and when I made my lone previous post, I figured I'd beat 'em all to the punch, but pylbug threw down the gauntlet. Now? I have a few free hours, so what the hell!

I was out of the city for four days last week/end and I'm just now getting caught up on my blog reading. I didn't really envision myself being one of those linkbloggers that just post links and commentary, but I'm just getting started so you'll have to bear with me while I find my style. Personal journal? Photoblog? Musicblog? Pop culture analysis? Comic book criticism? I'm hoping to get my hands dirty in a bit of each playground, but tonight, the links...

It all comes crashing down...

2005-05-24T19:14:00.000-05:00

What is going on? Not only do I hear that the Osbournes are moving back to England and selling their house, but I also just read that it's finally offical. Nick & Jessica file for divorce! What is happening to the former glory of the MTV reality stars? I don't know if I can take it.

UPDATE: It didn't take any longer than the time it took for me to write that, and the story is pulled! Gawker's on it, though. Maybe there is hope...

Take another pill...

2005-05-15T22:15:00.000-05:00

So, I just saw a Nexium commercial. A lovely older couple was sitting on there couch discussing the fact that until recently they never realized that taking the same pain medicine everyday, especially if you're older, can lead to STOMACH ULCERS! Luckily, Nexium has come to the resuce. All these kindly older folks need is another pill, and they'll be fine. Take a pill to protect you from the other pill you just took. Seriously folks, if you think you're at risk for something, take another pill and keep watching Survivor, OK?

So am I a blogger now?