Chicago: More Bars in More Places

80 degrees today. Oh yeah.

Dunlays ain't bad at all.

Many people see it as a symbol of gentrification on the square, and choose to ignore tasty wild rice pilaf.

I'm not as excited about the weather in the second picture as I am the first.

I'm eating oatmeal! I'm going to the dentist today! I'm wearing beige underwear! There's a Digiorno Pizza truck and a Dr. Pepper truck in the Jewel parking lot!

Three things about music:

I. This new Vic Chesnutt album is gooooood, especially if you are in the mood for sad bastard countryish music.
II. Doesn't it seem like every time Pfork reviews an album by a Chicago band that isn't superfamous, they give it a score from 6.5 to 7? I understand why, they're probably reviewing it as a favor or because they know the band, so they can't give it a bad review, but since the band isn't usually well known, they can't give it a great review. It's just funny.
III. My Q3 2007 mix is up on the blog: http://chilxorz.blogspot.com.

Tracklisting, in case you're too lazy to click on the link:

1. Magik Markers - "Axis Mundi" (BOSS)
2. The Black Lips - "Veni Vidi Vici" (Good Bad Not Evil)
3. Witchcraft - "Leva" (The Alchemist)
4. Les Savy Fav - "The Equestrian" (Let's Stay Friends)
5. Future of the Left - "Manchasm" (Curses)
6. Kanye West - "Can't Tell Me Nothing" (Graduation)
7. Prinzhorn Dance School - "Worker" (s/t)
8. Stars - "Take Me to the Riot" (In Our Bedroom After the War)
9. Spoon - "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb" (Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga)
10. Thurston Moore - "Honest James" (Trees Outside the Academy)
11. Los Campesinos - "You! Me! Dancing!" (Sticking Fingers Into Sockets)
12. Jens Lekman - "Kanske Ar Jag Kar I Dig" (Night Falls Over Kortedala)
13. Dirty Projectors - "Gimme Gimme Gimme" (Rise Above)
14. Skeletons and the Kings of All Cities - "Sickness" (Lucas)
15. September Collective - "Spaetes Licht" (All the Birds Were Anarchists)
16. Harlan T. Bobo - "Pragmatic Woman" (I'm Your Man)

^basically the only way I hear new rock music. thx nick.

awesome. Thanks!

I have been drinking a lot of beer at home lately b/c I still have a bunch (Two-Hearted, Spotted Cow, Leine's Red, Negro Modelo, High Life) from my pseudo-housewarming party to get rid of.

We still have most of two bottles of vodka in our freezer, including the fancy vodka that dan brought. I need to get some mixers.

We have orange sherbet. I could get some ginger ale and make a Dreamsicle coctail.

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o232/plannedproperty/430diverseystudio.jpg

This photo was part of an apartment ad. Close to the 7-11 and the pawn shop!

OOPS.

I meant to cut out just that little photo of the 7-11 and the pawn shop. Good morning.

I would drink this cocktail.

Would it be gross to use juice from a regular jar of Goya green olives to make a dirty martini?

Nick, the first three songs of your mix make me think of the Doors. Esp. the Witchcraft one.

Yeah, this quarter's mix is a little darker and mellower overall. Witchcraft is kinda Doors-y, though I mainly hear early Black Sabbath. They make a big deal about using '70s-era equipment, so I'm sure the resemblance is intentional.

My newest coworker won the LZ lottery, so she and her sister are going to London to see Led Zep in concert at Thanksgiving. John Bonham's son will be on drums.

JEALOUS!

Thats a great looking tracklisting Nick, I'll have to download it when I get home tonight. I've been hoping to check out that Dirty Projectors disc.

xpost Jesse I am sorry I cut off our chat, but you knew that I was past the first bottle of wine and working on taking care of our beer supply. Suddenly home improvement became very important to me and I went into my room to hang lamps. The chat was sacrificed. There's a rather large hole in my bedroom ceiling now, and no lamp. Lots of drywall dust, too.

http://windowmanager.blogspot.com/2006/01/dreamsicle-martini.html

Would it be gross to use juice from a regular jar of Goya green olives to make a dirty martini?

Nope. That's how you make a dirty martini!

Pretty much the only martinis I can stomach are dirty ones.

I wish there was a killfile where you could block out certain threads instead of certain users. I keep opening The Office thread and getting pissed off at all the whiners on there.

That was the first Stars song I've heard, I know nothing about them except that you people seem to like them. I like how it goes into 5 at the end.

That's what I thought, Jenny. Just checkin' with my fact checkers.

I don't like a lot of Stars songs, they can get really adult contemporary at times. But that one song is good.

I'm here for all your booze-related fact checking needs.

I just got a craving for Chef Boyardee ravioli. That's... kind of gross.

Chef Boyardee-tini

OK, I just read everything since I unplugged my computer on Sunday, and all I have to say is SARAH MET CECE PENISTON?!?!?!?!?

otm tell story

http://g-ec2.images-amazon.com/images/I/41DNSD8864L._AA240_.jpg

Also, Kenan, I know you have bitched about Comcast in the past, but I need to get Internet at home, so can you quickly summarize your complaints?

They don't let you seed torrents any more.

I think Julia just underwent a Comcast nightmare, so she might have some input.

My beefs with them are that they are CRAZY expensive and their customer service sucks. It's also cheaper to have cable TV with your internet than it is to just have internet, which bothers me because even though I am very content with the DVR technology and would probably miss LA Ink and Dirty Jobs, I was also very content to not have cable TV.

But what are the alternatives? RCN? DSL? They are all problematic in their own ways.

Yeah, I use RCN, and they've been cool so far. Crazy high-speed internet and lots of channels. What more can you want?

If it matters, I prefer RCN's channel selection, too. You get the Travel Channel (yay Anthony Bourdain!) and TCM standard.

Ha ha. My ultra-rural high school won a radio contest sponsored by Toys for Tots so she came to our school dance. It was a huge deal for us. There was alot of screaming involved when they announced it. I stood in line to get an autographed promo shot. I remember thinking it must have been weird for her, being such a huge star in this teeny tiny, countrified h.s. cafeteria.

I don't remember standing around for a long time watching a concert, but I do remember hearing the big hit, Finally. And I feel like Shanice came too - a.k.a. "I like your smile..." - as a supporting act, but my memory is fuzzy.

1991, ya'll

Yeah, Kr is adamant about not having cable TV.

RCN has a good deal, I think. $19.99 for a year and then "retail price" after that. I'm trying to figure out what "retail price" is, though. (This was on a coupon that the US Postal Service sent me along with my change-of-address confirmation.)

Also, I know absolutely jack about cable Internet or cable anything, so tell me this: How does installation work? I have a cable coming out of my wall -- what exactly gets hooked up? And if the previous tenants used Comcast (as my landlady explained), does that make it harder for me to switch to RCN?

xpost WAHT, CECE AND SHANICE? I WOULD'VE DIED.

I don't think you can have cable internet w/out cable tv? Or at least without paying for it. Or at least that's how it works with Charter.

GOOD TIMES.

I don't have cable. I mostly want it when I'm home sick.

I want cable Internet because a) I never use my landline, so it seems pointless to pay for it, and b) it seems like it is faster than DSL? i.e. maybe I could finally watch YouTube videos without the video getting all choppy?

you don't have to pay for landlines any more

w/ AT&T

WHUT?

I guess our AT&T bill includes internet and long distance though...

We have DSL, and I have no problem watching videos at home. Maybe your computer is just getting ooooooold.

^^^yeah this is true for me also

Hmmm, really, do you think that's it? It's 5 years old.