Chicago: More Bars in More Places

I would NEVER email you!!

i know. that's why i thought it was weird. ;)

have any of you seen this movie yet? i won't say too much, i posted to spoiler thread instead. but WHOA.

I would totally email you, Amanda!

Hey wanna hear about how I'm falling apart? I over-wore my contacts. My right eye is in bad, bad shape. And I have hives on my stomach and shoulder. Unrelated to my eye, I would imagine.

oh no - HIVES! i used to get hives when i got really nervous, when i was a kid. it was always a great feeling to be really nervous AND have a huge itchy red blob on my cheek. ahhhhhhhhhhh. one time i spent an entire vacation in the bathtub because i had full-body hives.

hives.

Please no Eastern Promises spoilers.

i wouldn't dream of it.

The Russian Debutante's Handbook is good and has stuff about Russian mobsters but is probably more comedic in tone than what you are looking for.

elements i'm looking for (and i don't think this is spoiling anything)

1 international intrigue of a criminal nature
2 combination of humanity/brutality
3 plot
4 characters

usually books that have 1 and 3 are lacking 2 and 4, in my experience.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n0/n1219.jpg

keep going...i'm writing these down

Have you ever read any James Ellroy? He's kind of a love-him-or-hate-him author, and even though I think he's a great writer, a little bit goes a long way (ie all of his books are basically exactly the same). The unfinished "American Underworld" trilogy is probably the best, starts with American Tabloid and continues in The Cold Six Thousand.

Nope. But I'll check it out.

Is he hardboiled? It's difficult to find someone who writes fully satisfying crime novels that also have sufficiently rounded characters. (Richard Price does a good job, I think.) The closest I can think of is narrative nonfiction like The Executioner's Song or Down by the River (Charles Bowden).

Yeah, he's very hardboiled. His characters probably won't be sufficiently rounded enough for you, they do tend to blur together. He's mainly about style, honestly.

I suppose Graham Greene is pretty good at combining international intrigue with actual human characters. I've read maybe 3? 4? of his novels...maybe I should read more.

Brighton Rock is really good though it has no international intrigue.

Oooh, that's probably my favorite. I've even thought of reading it again recently.

I will listen to Kate Bush on Youtube for the next hour or so.

I want to report that we went to Kuma's on Sat. evening and had a meaty, delicious time. I got the Dark Throne burger (chipotle peppers, goat cheese, pico de gallo) and D got the Kumaburger (bacon, cheddar, egg). The fries were a little soggy, but I got the salad instead so I didn't really have to deal with the fries. I am already planning my next trip.

So I don't know how much I actually care about a new Radiohead album, but them managing to keep the fact that they're releasing a new album secret until 10 days before the release date is pretty impressive in this day and age. Plus they are apparently selling the download for whatever price you want to pay.

Welcome to the Nick and Amanda Discussion Hour.

Hey, I tried to change the subject.

For some reason I thought Radiohead wasn't a band anymore, like they were a person and they died.

Graham Greene? I've never seen Gunsmoke.

Lorne Greene
http://www.nndb.com/people/767/000023698/lornegreene1a.jpg

doot dootle doot dootle doot dootle doot bo-nan-ZA

(That was a reference to Donnie Darko, btw, but I think I got it wrong?)

oh. whoops.

Guess what? I wasn't the only one with a raccoon run-in this weekend. L|bby (H*bb*rd) also met one up close and personal. What is really odd is that it was on her patio (remember those pics I posted?) at Grand and Orleans!

She hung out with it and fed it dog food and water.

JEFF-- Jott is the best thing that has ever happened in my life.

I love this: early 2000's R&B singer Maxwell covering "A Woman's Work" by Kate Bush.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vxu-i8on15Q

I want more Kate Bush covers. That's the only one I know aside from the Futureheads' "Hounds of Love" cover.

Apparently Patrick Wolf has covered multiple Kate Bush songs, and Placebo covered "Running Up That Hill."

None of those are very good.

Jott looks pretty cool, yo! I'm only recently arriving at a level of awareness of my schedule that I can even remember to REMIND myself of things, much less accomplish them. I'll put Jott on my "for serious consideration" list.

xpost Patrick Wolf can eat my butthole.

Jott is super fucking easy. It took less than 5 minutes to set up, and sending a message (or multiple messages) take no time at all.

I used to have a Brazilian power metal cover of "Wuthering Heights".

I forgot to set my alarm last night so I didn't get into work until a little before 10. I stood in my living room for like 5 minutes debating if I was going to call in sick rather than just go in embarassingly late, but luckily my boss has a class all morning so I made the right choice.

Also, I got a $30 parking ticket for being on the wrong side of the street between 8 - 12 am on a Monday during May - November. :(

Amanda, have you read No Country for Old Men?

Jordan, do you care about a new Radiohead album?

Yes, Jordan, I do.

No, I haven't. Should I?

Yanno, I was really sort of casual about the fact that I threw away the only paper with a copy of my bar examinee number on it and thus have to wait for my results to arrive in the mail. Really casual, that is, until the results went up on the internet and now everybody knows but me and the other handful of idiots who were so dazed after the exam was over that they threw out everything that was even remotely related to the stupid test.

NOW I WANT TO KNOW SO I CAN CELEBRATE WITH MY COMRADES.

I keep looking at the page that lists all the numbers (hxxps://www.ibaby.org/testresults.php) to see if I recognize mine but I don't.

I'm telling ya, Gorky Park is where it's at for that a+b+c+d.

Amanda, yes, it is great and I thought of it when I read your criteria above. It's basically a Southwestern noir novel about hitmen and drug-running on the Texas/Mexico border in the 80s, and for Cormac McCarthy it's super-readable. And the movie is coming out soon.

I CARE ABOUT RADIOHEAD ALBUM!!!!

Jenny, I heard that you passed.

Shut up. You will feel so bad if I failed.

Not as bad as I will feel, though.

:(