Chicago MMXII

Fountainhead burgers are actually pretty good, but "best in chicago" seems a bit far-fetched. As we all know, owen and engine's burge takes that honor.

Now that we can agree on.

God damn those are good burgers.

I did not know they had a separate kitchen up top, too. As a server who used to work in a restaurant with a roof top patio, I am very happy for the servers that they needn't mess with stairs. That was brutal.

i really like the portobello and goat cheese sandwich at bad apple

I had both a v good burger and a v good beer last night at Burger Bar (North/Clybourn). They were trying a bit too hard to push a milkshake on me (to go with my half-pound burger and beer), but everyjng was really tasty.

Chicago Fire <3s Equality: http://gay4soccer.com/2012/07/09/chicago-fire-begins-a-formal-partnership-with-equality-illinois/

I've been to Burger Bar once. It was okay. Honestly if I'm going to deal with that part of town (I have an aggressive dislike for that intersection and the shopping district around it) I would rather go to Goose Island Cybourne.

xp hey cool!!!

The bugs are insane and won't stay out of my eyes but this place rules. That's all. Dinnertime.

On my way to an o&e burger RIGHT NOW.

So good. I've had a burger every time I've been there. I think that's five burgers. I can never order anything else.

I hate beer in cans. Everything tastes better in a bottle. Though I guess cans are better for the environment? And not just in the no-smashed-bottles-in-the-street sense, though when was the last time you saw some shattered microbrew bottle on the ground?

O&E has a good brunch, too. Most underrated burger in Chicago for a while was at Hot Chocolate, I'd say.

I like Daisy Cutter better in cans, for some reason. The can taste kind of works with it, I guess? I also like cans because then I can do cool things like put a couple of cans of beer in my purse and go to a party. (Note: I've only actually done that once but I felt really cool.)

I've never had brunch at O&E but I'm finna.

This looks pretty cool. Right before we leave for vacation too.
http://www.lincolnsquare.org/pages/SummerBrew

beer in cans is dope.

I thought about summer brew, but I was disappointed in winter brew, so decided not to pursue.

All Chicago beer fests have paled in comparison to FOBAB.

Hmmm..that doesn't bode well. But I guess summer brew is only a few blocks away, so I guess we'll go. They'll have that great fountainhead food we've all been talking about!

Prob not going to bother with Summer Brew, but I'm going to hit up Square Roots that weekend. C@n@st@ is playing on Sun., there's a promising-sounding Malian dude on Sat., and I like the novelty of drinking craft beer that's not Goose Island at a street fest.

I think everyone should go see Better Than Ezra at the zoo.

If that were free or for a street fair standard donation, I would go. But it's $28!!!! The only 90s alternative rock radio one hit wonder that I would pay money to see is The Toadies, and that would be like $10, $15 tops.

Weirdly, I have had "Possum Kingdom" in my head for the last few days.

I also wanted to say:

1. I've been to Owen & Engine once, but I was disappointed in their fish and chips and haven't been too eager to return. (It's a pretty meat-heavy menu, alas.)

2. I pour most beer into glasses, so the argument that beer tastes better in bottles than in cans doesn't carry much weight with me. Plus, aren't the new cans that breweries use supposed to be better-tasting?

The metal affects the taste before you actually drink it.

I thought craft beer cans were routinely lined to protect flavor, but I could be wrong. I know some are.

Yeah, I think it's some sort of polymer lining.

I'm so happy to be back in a place with buildings for miles and miles and miles. This bus ride to work is washing away the anxiety.

i think we've already talked about this, but who's going to pitchfork? sarah and i are going sat. and sun.

I am not.

However I will reiterate my advice re: Pitchfork from last year when I took tickets for four hours: put your drugs in your underpants. Security is arbitrary and capricious and sometimes wants to search your pockets. Also they will take your food and eat it do I guess put your food in your underpants, too.

huh security always seemed pretty light in years past, just a cursory glance in purses and bags at the front gate

From my observations, it depends on when you go through and who the security person is. I mean, I saw people get their pockets thoroughly searched so that they lost all matter of drugs and paraphernalia, bags searched to the point that the guy went into somebody's spare pairs of socks to confiscate granola bars, all the way through security guys finding pot and letting the people keep it and security guys not looking in bags at all. Also last year there was this really arbitrary rule about no "professional" cameras, which meant cameras with removable lenses, sometimes, depending on who was working that entry line. Like, I can't stress enough how o_O and random the whole endeavor was.

The very very worst was when people would show up with those camel pack water backpacks with the tube on them all full of ice and water, just deliciously cold and wonderful (I had minor heat stroke by this point) and security would make them dump it onto the ground, and then hand them a warm bottle of free water on the way in as a "don't sue us if you are hospitalized for dehydration" consolation prize.

security is the same the world over ime, the dudes at fire games are very similarly behaved

Also a lot of the security people were late teens working a summer job as an event-variable security team, like the security version of the catering people in Party Down, but younger, which is a recipe for randomness. Plus sometimes the security people would get caught up unrolling somebody's socks looking for trail mix or ecstasy, and meanwhile ticket takers like me are just waving people through with their bottles of water and cameras and Flaming Hot Cheetos because who gives a shit, really.

Yeah, I had ~something~ confiscated at Pitchfork last year. I realized too late that the security person for my line was a middle-aged woman who was checking every last zippered compartment of people's bags, while the guy working the line next to me was just waving people through.

For the first time ever, I'm not going to a single day of the festival. Was sort of interested in Saturday, but my mom is getting married that day.

At the risk of opening myself up for a whole lot of hectoring, I went to a Phish show a couple weekends ago and it was pretty lol at how lax security was. I guess they figured they didn't even want to start to go down that path.

HAHAHA YOU LIKE PHISH

j/k guess what I was listening to most of the day on Friday?

John, I remember you telling me about that. I remain really frustrated on your behalf! Also congrats to your mom!

Spin Doctors? :p

It was sort of a "let's relive our wayward college years" thing. My cousin from Denver was there for a bachelor party weekend thing, it was pretty fun.

Haha NO (although I've admitted here that I have seen Spin Doctors a lot, thanks to their early involvement with Phish on the Horde Tour.)

Let's relive college was why I was listening to them on Friday! I woke up Friday morning with "Bouncing Around the Room" in my head so I decided it was time to revisit one of the musical obsessions of my late teens/early 20s and grabbed Junta, Lawn Boy, Picture of Nectar and a 1995 live album from Spotify. (Phish started losing me with Rift and "Fast Enough for You," which is a TERRIBLE song so I stuck with releases I knew well and liked.) It was okay! I still like a lot of the instrumental stuff, and the live stuff. I struggle now with some of the lyrics, which are just too goofy. But mostly I absolved younger self for nearly flunking out of college to go on Phish tour, twice, because that was pretty fun and I can see why I enjoyed the music.

I told Jeff what I was up to and he got a kind of panicked look on his face like I was going to start wearing patchwork home-sewn pants and let my hair dread up again before leaving him to live in a van with a dude who goes by the name of Wilson. But that's pretty unlikely.

The music is way easier to take in a live setting, thats for sure. I think it helped that the show I saw was really light on their "silly" songs. They've taken to doing a cover of TV on the Radio's "Golden Age" that was pretty good. But, to get all old man here, the crowd at Phish shows has changed A TON since the 90s. There was huge percentage of 18-20 year old kids wearing hip-hop gear, clearly only there for the drugs.

If you like to jam for hours
just go ahead now

I saw Phish and took e once back in like 2000. I put the drugs in my underwear.

Damn right. Dan knows where to put his drugs.

There was a def contingent of similarly styled (sort of a skater/hip hop hybrid) kids on tour when I was out there, too. I had a lot of very commerce minded friends who looked at Dead/Phish and the Rat Dog/Further shows as jobs* as much as leisure activities.

*Selling grilled cheese sandwiches or cigarettes or bootleg shirts or whatever but mostly drugs.

i have never heard a full phish song. the clips on the "analyze phish" podcast i was telling jenny about are probably the most exposure i've had to their music.

Speaking of revisiting college, I'm in the midst of making a "Songs of 1997" playlist in the vein of the 1994 one I made.

i have a playlist of indie rock from my high school and college years that i'm always adding to as i remember stuff.
http://open.spotify.com/user/naamme/playlist/5pqGJJB6FTmfKZGwLw6Zrx

I know a couple of Phish songs: "Chalkdust Torture" b/c someone once put it on a mixtape for me, and "Bouncing Around the Room" b/c, I dunno, that's like their most famous song, right?

Kr knows more.

Bouncing Around the Room was the closest to a hit they had when I was into them. I have no idea what's transpired between 1995 and now, however.

They had a few songs from Farmhouse played on XRT and adult alternative stations around 2000 or so, "Heavy Things" was one I remember hearing a lot.

Farmhouse is the only album I know any songs from. That and the Oh To Be Prince Caspian song.

Yeah, I think I've heard "Bouncing Around the Room" on, like, WXRT. When Farmhouse came out, I was studiously avoiding commercial radio of any kind. (That's the era when Kr was listening to Phish, though.)

Billy Breathes must be their biggest-selling album, though, no?

I think I've only seen their a cappella Star-Spangled Banner, frim an NBA game, which was good. My brother's a big fan.