Chicago: More Bars in More Places

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.

its $24/month with no added taxes, you have to call and haggle for the change; there's a hotline to switch to straight DSL and they won't tell you it exists on the regular customer service line

888-800-4095

That's pretty old. Mine is ~4 years old and it cannot handle youtube etc.

I don't know, our laptop is about 4.5 years old, but I think is more powerful than your iMac.

Oooh, thanks, deej.

I just called RCN, btw, and they said they don't provide service to my building. So it's either go with Comcast or stick with DSL and save up for a new computer.

xpost Eff you, Nick.

Dirty Projectors sound pretty interesting.

That Dirty Projectors album is ... interesting. It's a cover of almost all of the Black Flag album of the same name, but the main dude supposedly wrote all the arrangements without relistening to the original album, which I guess he hadn't heard since he was a teenager. Some of the weirdness seems a little forced but it is intriguing listening, at least in small doses.

but the main dude supposedly wrote all the arrangements without relistening to the original album

This reminds me of Nicholson Baker's U&I, in which he writes a whole book about John Updike (and his relationship with Updike's books) without going back and rereading Updike, so the book is full of misattributed and error-ridden quotes.

I thought John was being sarcastic--as in "Old? YA *THINK*? It's 5 years old!"

To me that's pretty damn old for a computer.

Unless when you got it you pulled out all the stops and made it Future Machine.

Yeah, I guess it is. I still think of it as a sleek shiny iMac, though, in contrast to the clunky, enormous, multi-component 1995 PC that I just dumped off at Staples the other day.

Yeah, the iMac itself will last a lot longer than that, but the requirements of the OS might start to strain it soon. There's Mac Classics from 1990 still running out there, but they're running OS 7 or some such.

Nick -- I noticed from the WDYLL that you were at the MCA. Did you see the exhibit about rock music? My dad wants me to give a lecture to his students about it, or about something thematically related, but I kind of want to know what it's all about before committing to it. I'll probably still go see the exhibit regardless.

xpost I upgraded my OS a couple years ago, from Jaguar to Panther, but that's still a few years old, it looks like.

MCA is free for the next month, so little risk involved.

There's a full afternoon of bands playing at the MCA this...Sunday?

Also, do you guys know about the free day of music at Symphony Center next weekend, with Brandford Marsalis with the CSO during the day and Tortise playing along with a silent movie at night?

That Dirty Projectors album is ... interesting

It's a cool concept, but I assume he's not even trying to replicate the music in anyway, just some of the lyrics?

I would like to reinterpret a Metallica album in this fashion.

I meant before committing to the lecture.

Oh, I hope you do it; that's be something.

Yeah, it sounds fun and you'd do a good job. DO IT FOR THE CHILDREN! THEY ARE OUR FUTURE! TEACH THEM NOW AND LET THEM LEAD THE WAY!

That exhibit was pretty fun AND we got free mini cupcakes, but the Tropicalia exhibit was the WIN.

The exhibit is interesting but it mainly seems focused on artists or collectives that straddle the boundaries between rock and roll and "art," so lots of Throbbing Gristle, Destroy All Monsters, Andy Warhol-type stuff, plus some rock musicians who also are visual artists, like dude from Black Dice. Not so much famous album covers or rock iconography. Pretty interesting, but I wish there had been more actual music somehow, because the connection to the music wasn't always clear with only the visual aspect presented. Also I think maybe they were trying to take too wide of a view, could have been more focused on a certain era or style. Still fun though.

could have been more focused on a certain era or style

like the Tropicalia exhibit, exactly

ooh... tropicalia! That could be educational for me. I only know Caetano Veloso and stuff off of that Soul Jazz comp from a year or so ago (which is ace).

Sorry, the tropicalia exhibit was like a year ago.

I will have to reread some parts of Simon Reynolds's post-punk book.

Re: focus: next to that Rita Ackerman piece I am standing in front of in the WDYLL pics, there's this description of her and her work, and then it's like "she also did some art for this Royal Trux album" and that seems to be it as far as her connection to rock and roll? I mean, I guess her style is kinda rock and roll but the connection could have been made more explicit. I felt that way about the whole thread of the exhibit: the connections and the relevance were not always clear.

and it's free??? fuck, I'll go today. maybe.

i went to the tropicalia exhibit.

Ooh, I'm getting a new computer at work! It's about damn time.

hay john did u get my email last week?

Katie, I'm using your idea for the flier. Thanks.