Chicago MMXII

Ha, one time in C@n@st@, we couldn't remember how someone's part went, and so we called A@d@m to acquire the recording from when we played it live the month before.

http://imagine2050.newcomm.org/2012/04/16/chicago-fire-fans-unveil-banner-in-support-of-gay-community/

well, i really wanted to organise some kind of FAP with you chilxors, and ytth particularly wanted to meet kenan, but too much family stuff/too tired so didn't - next time, guys! can also recommend swissotel if you have guests wanting accommodation in downtown: we had a beautiful room with a great view on the 38th floor, comfy bed, and it was significantly cheaper than any other hotel (if you pay up front).

also: weather was just perfect - greatest lightning storm/s i've ever seen, including FORKED lightning, which has always been my dream to see.

Dan, that's cool. I started a thread about pro sports players' and teams' support for gay fans and It Gets Better, etc. I was going to post that story there, but wanted to check w/ you first.

J, I'm glad you had a good visit. Sorry we missed you. 38th floor sounds great. I bet the view was amazing. I'm jealous of all the jerks who work with such a view every day. I'm surprised by the number of ordinary schmoes who get that kind of view. (Though I'm sure it stops being remarkable after a while.)

Is forked lighting rare? Or does it just not happen where you live or where you grew up?

Oh! Did you get to see the lighting from the 38th floor?? THAT is something I've always wanted to experience. Like, how awesome would a thunderstorm on the 90th floor of the Sears Tower be?? (Who knows? It might be very awesoe or not be very awesome at all.)

post away xp

thunderstorms aren't all that common in the part of nz i'm from (maybe a couple every winter, but you're lucky if you get 5 or 6 good flashes of sheet lightning), and it's about the same here in the bay area. i ALMOST missed the first storm - we had the curtains closed, watching a movie, when we heard a really loud crack of thunder, and i then spent about the next 30 mins perched on a chair in front of our window. the next night i saw one flash of forked lightning (super rare in my experience - i've only ever seen it once in my life, and that was more than 20 years ago), and just about peed my pants in excitement. my in-laws have recently moved into a condo on the 12th floor of a building that looks out over the lake (on randolph), and they were telling me they see forked lightning ALL THE TIME. so jealous.

Willis Tower.

Gah. I don't even write "Sears" on purpose. It effectively has two names now. The rest if the country probably has no idea that it's name has changed and lots of locals lapse into "Sears".

Someone corrected me to "Willis" the other day. I said "I know what I meant to say."

I'm no stan for Sears Roebuck & Co., but it's an iconic name. Over time people will start calling it "Willis." A friend who works there says that he calls it Willis or "Willis Tower, which used to be called the Sears Tower."

I'm going to call it Scooby Tower.

I approve.

Millennium park summer concert schedule announced, discus

Downtown Sound, Mondays, 6:30 PM

5/28: Kelly Hogan, Scott Lucas & the Married Men

6/4: Jonathan Richman, Joel Paterson & the Modern Sounds

6/11: The Eternals, Wild Belle

6/18: Cloud Cult, Judson Claiborne

6/25: Occidental Brothers Dance Band International, Chico Trujillo

7/2: Joan of Arc, Daniel Knox

7/9: The Sadies, James Vincent McMorrow

7/16: Charles Bradley & his Extraordinaires, Abigail Washburn

7/23: Ana Tijoux, Sidi Touré

7/30: SMOD, M.A.K.U. Soundsystem

Loops and Variations, Thursdays, 6:30 PM

6/7: Chris Clark, Jan Jelinek & Andrew Pekler, Casino Versus Japan

6/14: Deerhoof and Ensemble Dal Niente

6/28: Eighth Blackbird

7/5: A Winged Victory for the Sullen and ACME (American Contemporary Music Ensemble)

7/12: Third Coast Percussion

Sun 8/26: John Luther Adams's Inuksuit, at 5:30 PM

Made in Chicago: World Class Jazz, Thursdays, 6:30 PM

7/19: Blowing in From Chicago, with Edward Wilkerson Jr. and Ari Brown

7/26: Erwin Helfer: A Life in Boogie and Blues

8/2: Roots of Routes: Makaya McCraven's Global Unit

8/16: By a Little Light: Matt Ulery's Loom with special guests

8/23: Frank Rosaly's ¡Todos de Pie! (Everyone Stand Up!)

8/30: Exquisitely for Ella: A Songbook Tribute to Ella Fitzgerald, with Jeff Lindberg's Chicago Jazz Orchestra (opening night of the 34th annual Chicago Jazz Festival)

nothing i'm superpumped for but i'd be down to see eighth blackbird again

I like Ana Tijoux and Frank Rosaly, but I'm not sure I care about any of the others? Do I?

I just prefer to call things by their proper name. Like I say Metta World Peace now instead of Ron Artest.

the tom waits cover band is playing in welles park in july

deerhoof might be cool, but otherwise not a whole lot that gets me excited

actually i want to see jonathan richman

Definitely want to try and see A Winged Victory for the Sullen

whoa joan of arc is still a band

would see j richman too

starting to follow this thread since I'll be bouncing through in a little over a month and want to check out lodging/fap ideas

On a related note, I think I've stayed at the Super 8 around the corner from La Lechera, assuming it's the one in Rogers Park!

None of those performances are particularly appealing to me, which is too bad as there's usually at least two bands/performers that I am excited to see.

Hello mh. Apparently the Sofitel in the Loop is really nice!

PS: I am showing my students The Interrupters this Saturday and next Saturday.

I am prob most interested in Occidental Brothers (they do Afro-pop, right?) and Eighth Blackbird, depending on what the latter's program is.

Also, a friend from high school (whom I haven't seen in 10+ years) plays with Ensemble dal Niente, which I keep meaning to check out.

The John Luther Adams performance might be cool -- it's apparently a piece for "9 to 99 percussionists."

A review of a NYC show last year said:

Listeners walking through the park before 5 p.m. found small arrays of unattended drums, cymbals, xylophones and other instruments stationed along the park’s stairs and walkways, and conch shells, paper cones and rubber tubes scattered around the lawn where the performance was to begin. At 5, the 99 percussionists filed into the field, retrieved the smaller instruments and started the performance with gentle windlike sounds. They added graceful, eerie tones and harmonies by swinging the rubber tubes at various velocities; and they used sandpaper blocks and frame drums filled with bottle caps to create texture.

Hi mh. Keep us abreast of your visits and we'll fap w/ you.

Where do you chicago kids usually fap, anyway?

several of us live in the north center/lincoln square/ravenswood area so that tends to be a pretty common meetup region. or do you mean specific bars?

eh, either way, that gives me a general idea.

On a related note, I think I've stayed at the Super 8 around the corner from La Lechera, assuming it's the one in Rogers Park!

OMG!! We can totally hang out! Sisters! You are also right by the lake with only a 4 lane street to cross before you get to a lakeside basketball court, tennis courts, a walking path, a huge beach, and much much more! Also around the corner from me.

This is how excited I get when someone is in my neighborhood ^^

hah, my friends lived on estes for a number of years but have since moved to mundelein, unfortunately.

If you're really lucky you can get D (mr lechera) to talk about his freaky Iowa hometown.

Don't walk 3 wide on the walking path.

My parents are visiting in May and staying at the Days Inn on Diversey. I suspect it's a pretty crappy hotel, but otherwise they would have picked somewhere super inconvenient like out by O'Hare.

I don't think it's that crappy. It's nothing special, but probably not a dump. They'll be a block from my house. That'll be nice.

we're gonna come to your apartment and stand three wide in your doorway to maximize our chances of getting in your way

have you guys heard about the comptroller of dixon, il, who managed to embezzle more than $30 million over six years from the city, which has an annual budget of about $9 million - she basically stole more than half of the town's budget every year, without being caught in annual audits

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-dixon-comptroller-charges-20120419,0,1379858.story

i didn't see this in the few articles i looked at, but the guy from my office who was telling me about it said she only got caught because she took a four-month leave of absence, and the person who was covering for her saw that the numbers didn't add up

sorry, she was CFO, not comptroller

That's amazing.

will read!

How do people think they'll get away with this shit? They might for a while but there are *always* paper trails.

I heard that story this morning on the radio, and the announcer said she stole all that money "without being caught"... my immediate thought was "Yes she did get caught, that's why you're talking about it!"

People be self destructive!

also we only know about the people who get caught - we have no idea how many people have gotten away with similar crimes

...or are currently getting away with highway robbery

this shit is why i have a hard time reading fiction

i gasped really loudly last night when i discovered that this person http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_G._Schmitz and this person http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Kay_Letourneau were blood relatives.

OMG

maybe that was big-revealed at some point during her many years in the spotlight, but if i ever knew that factoid i had completely forgotten it. that is a pretty good factoid!

Nick, I'm sure there are plenty of people have gotten away with their embezzlement, but it seems to me like eventually the work of your average thief will show. This is all my speculation about shit I'm no expert about, but still. How many of the people who are never caught get away with their crimes b/c of bad oversight rather than because they made sure they wouldn't get caught.