Chicago MMXII

cool - i just logged into chipublib to see if they had the new david eggers book for kindle and they had four copies with no one in line - i guess i searched just when they added them to the system. anyways if anyone else wants to read it there should still be a few "copies" available if you hurry up

I have the afternoon off, but I'm using it to drive to Michigan.

Also I never taped anything off the radio, because by the time there was a radio station worth taping I was able to buy my own music.

Now, ripping off BMG et al for dozens of albums, that was my shit.

i didn't do much radio taping either because I LIVED OVERSEAS GUYS but i definitely had at least a couple of radio tapes from when i was back in florida for the summer. i remember one that had "sister" by juliana hatfield and "headache" by frank black. oh when "loser" by beck came out, at first i only had a version taped off the radio and it was missing a verse so when i finally bought the cassingle i was like woah there's another verse.

what i DID used to do a lot was: i had a stereo with two tape decks and i'd do that low-grade multitrack recording where i'd record one guitar part on the stereo, then record that to another tape while playing another guitar part over it, and so on until i'd have a song with multiple parts.

also my granddad would tape MTV and send me the video tapes and i'd watch those a lot. just like two hours of whatever was on MTV for those two hours. i was really into the "falling to pieces" video by faith no more.

definitely had some mtv videotapes, mostly beavis and butthead, headbangers ball, and 120 minutes

I have probably mentioned this before, but you know the song that hooked me on LOL ALT-ROCK? "Plush" by Stone Temple Pilots. I don't know where I heard it, but I found it strangely appealing. It was August 1993, right before my sophomore year of high school. I was already beginning to move away from the rap/R&B that dominated my taste the year before, but I hadn't settled on anything yet. Earlier that summer I was listening a lot to a Blue Note jazz comp and Stereo MCs and Digable Planets and then random adult-contempo stuff like Bruce Hornsby and Tina Turner. I read a couple of Douglas Coupland novels. Anyway, "Plush" came along ... somewhere ... and by the beginning of the school year I'd switched over to Q101. Anyway, I mention this because one of the first Q101 "Top 5 at 5" countdowns that I remember featured "My Sister" by Juliana Hatfield. Also "Soul to Squeeze" by RHCP.

OK now I really want to listen to Bruce Hornsby's Harbor Lights. I'm sure I haven't heard a single note of that album in more than 15 years.

So 1993.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/ba/Harbor_Hornsby.jpg

omg you guys
this is too much. i will always be 4 years older than you guys, i guess.

i had a vivid dream about bruce hornsby last year that i still haven't shook. we hot tubbed together!

!

Also you're only 4 yrs older than me and n/a and Jeff...

bruce hornsby is the no. 1 celebrity who lives in williamsburg, va. people would trade their hornsby sighting stories (i never saw him but also i don't know what he looks like).

the no. 2 celebrity who lives in williamsburg, va., is the guy who plays thomas jefferson in colonial williamsburg. one of sarah's friends saw him tooling around town in a red convertible.

You're not 4 years older than me. Are you even older than me at all? (here we go with this again)

I so wish I could take the afternoon off and go to the movies w/ you, n/a. Work is busy with things that I'm afraid will go wrong and I don't want to be here today.

But if I can sneak out, I definitely will. What time were you thinking of going?

2 pm

Oh. Yeh, that's probably not funna happen.

it's cool. gonna have some solo nick time. watching an nc-17 movie by myself in the theater.

Just don't pull a Fred Willard. By which I mean don't "pull" your "Fred Willard."

i am wearing a hoodie today

the highest predicted temperature for the weekend in Michigan is like 68 degrees, I can't wait

Killer joe was awesome! Have fun!

is this sweet or what
from 8+ years ago! (has to be almost 9)

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7264/7749753222_78971c0090_z.jpg

Oh man this Killer Joe showing is going to be a repeat of when I went to see Margot at the Wedding on a Friday afternoon in Evanston. Me and a bunch of senior citizens.

Oh I forgot: I saw a guy this afternoon, approx mid-40s, walking in the Loop wearing a Skrewdriver shirt. Seems like not the best time to be advertising your appreciation of white power punk.

uh yeah unless their top honchos decided that it's time they exercised their rights to free speech...
i'm scared of those people, honestly

http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2012/08/daniel-zemans-top-15-burgers-in-chicago.html

He refers to Owen and Engine as being located in the "hipster cesspool that is Logan Square" which considering where Owen and Engine is located is just absurd.

......wha????

I know right??

Anyone who thinks a list of the best burgers in town is necessary is kind of absurd by definition. Either that or he lives in the Square and is trying to frighten others away.

I like lists like that (I like lists in general), but that was a dumb thing to say b/c it was wrong and b/c it was irrelevant to the piece.

I would like to try Au Cheval's burger. It's on my commute and I've been curious about it, and their burger sounds interesting.

Travelled solo to Maxwell Street this morning, and got into some A+ nice stranger conversations. Which I guess will happen when it's basically 95% Mexicans and 5% gringo food explorers.

I was just thinking earlier today that I need to get back there. Had a great huitlacoche quesadilla last time.

Cool, Josh. I've only been there once, which is practically a sin, but I make the commute 5 days a week, so I tend to stay out of the Loop on weekends. Plus it's kind of a pain to get to on the CTA. It was great when I went, though - so much good, cheap produce including ENORMOUS papayas. Does it run during winter months?

Oh, Courtney and I went to the 2-hour comedy hour at the Gallery Cabaret on Saturday and it was awesome. I'm definitely going back. There were some really great comedians and I like the space and the bar staff. They should push harder to collect their $5 recommended donation, IMO. Instead of passing a bucket or collecting at the door, they mention it at the end of the show and the audience has to come to the bucket. Saw a funny comedian who I recognized from a K@t3 H@rd1ng blog post I read the night before, which was a cool coincidence.

i want to go to lincoln lodge more often and the chicago underground comedy show at beat kitchen (only $5)

i ate pizza every day this weekend. also saw two movies. don't know how i feel about "killer joe" but "the campaign" was really funny.

basically "killer joe" -

PROS strong acting, especially from mcconaughey, juno temple, and gina gershon
made me think of blood simple, mainly just it was a texas noir

CONS heavy emphasis on LOL white trash humor (especially re: emile hirsch and thomas haden church's characters), which feels played out to me - not really very edgy or interesting post-"my name is earl"

we went to owen & engine before seeing "the campaign" for cocktails. god, it's a teeming hipster cesspool over there. just like a buzzing, swarming infestation of hipsters.

When was this? We went there for dinner on Saturday. A guy at the table next to us had his wraparound sunglasses hanging on the back of his collared golf shirt. What a fucking hipster.

it was saturday around 8ish. one of the servers was kinda snooty to us because we just walked upstairs and took a table instead of stopping by the hostess table. also we got an "ice cream sandwich."

Huh. I think we just missed each other.

MUSING: I was looking up some music on Spotify last night and thinking about the social aspect of it, and how I think I have two, maybe three, Spotify friends or connections or whatever, and I had a total Andy Rooney moment about "Why does everything we do have to be social? Can't we just read a book? Do we have to log into GoodReads and post that we're reading it on Facebook?" We Live In Public, maaaaaan.

I would like to see both of those movies, eventually. Actually, I would just like to see a movie sometime. Movies.

Movies.

I'll only see a movie if I can add a social game layer.

i kind of like most social sharing but feel guilty about it because for me it's mostly just another way of seeking validation (in the form of feedback/comments). i don't do any sharing about my reading though. i was trying to do that open google spreadsheet of everything i read last year but i got tired of it pretty quickly.

I feel like almost every week Kr and I talk about going to see a movie, but it hardly ever happens.

everything has to be social because marketing/advertising is the way people make money on the internet

Well, yeah, which is part of why I smugly pat myself on the back a little bit for refusing to engage (for the most part - sometimes I tweet the song I'm listening to if I'm really rocking out).

I really think n/a is onto something about the validation. I used some social reading app when I was on Facebook because every time I reviewed a book, I would get positive feedback from people and no lie, I kind of live to be praised. But then I would read something really embarrassing or just kind of dull and not want to post about it and then I would feel dishonest, like if I'm going to post what I read, I need to post everything I read. Which is kind of a lot of stress about something that's really dumb and also totally optional.

It's the same thing with music and TV, where my true passions are really uncool.

I guess ultimately I find the social aspect of my personal taste really stressful, and I end up caring too much about the image of myself I'm presenting to people instead of just liking what I like.

But speaking of things I like, you all need to watch London Hospital aka Casualty 1907 and Casualty 1909, which is available streaming through Amazon Prime (but I don't know where else I am sorry) and is amazing.