Chicago MMXII

Flights up there twice/day if you don't feel like driving, but the drive was surprisingly easy (note: Jesse drove the crazy urban expressway part of the trip, and I drove the mostly two-lane, slow down to 25 mph through small town part of the trip).

In other words, you should go.

This is what the sunset looked like from K8's reception:

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/539215_780993116437_1281406344_n.jpg

Also I love that carl is now stanning for the Yoop. Soon we will assimilate you all.

haha I would be a bigger stan if I could transport up there a la Star Trek since a seven hour drive, however easy and scenic, isn't something that I want to do very often. BUT I definitely feel like I have a better understanding of the Yooper diaspora and why you love your homeland so much.

I Get Yoopers. Ask me how!

Yeah, the drive sucks. We were about 3 hours behind you guys yesterday, as far as I could tell from your twitter posts. There was a big accident just north of Green Bay that had the whole road at a standstill for miles, probably at least a 45 min delay. I felt bad for being annoyed b/c I'm sure the people involved didn't have a very good day.

Jesse will have to confirm or deny, but somewhere around that area (I think) we ran into traffic that was related to an accident. From what I could tell from my back seat rubber necking, somebody had put at least one car in the ditch. I saw two firefighters casually strolling down the slope with a crowbar and the jaws of life.

Really nice neighborhood by neighborhood visualization of crime data in Chicago: http://crime.chicagotribune.com/chicago/

A coworker drove up to the U.P. last week as well -- kinda made me want to do a big road trip sometime soon. Not with the A/C-less car I have, though. Kr and I have occasionally talked about flying to Boston and then renting a car and driving up to Maine.

Ha, yeah, no road trips in that car. Driving to Bridgeport was bad enough. ;)

Have we discussed Lillie's BBQ? Went there tonight and was blown away.

I was just reading about BBQ places looking for a new one. That was a consideration. It's so easy to be disappointed though. I really don't care for the places that bring out the BBQ mostly dry and then have the regional sauces at the table.

Lillie Q? In Wicker Park? Pretty solid. Tri-tip sandwich is awesome. Best BBQ remain Uncle John's on the south side, though. Take out only, though. Smoque is great but is the most overrated. Most underrated: Whole Foods smokehouse BBQ. Big Lincoln Park WF and WF in the south loop both have smokehouses, and their brisket is ace.

Coworker brought in guava pasteles this morning. I <3 u coworker!

mmmm my favorite

i love bocadillo, those little cubes of guava paste. Good snack!

http://www.bocadillo.net/ImagenM/boc10.jpg

does anyone have any interest in going to quenchers on saturday to see bellini, bottomless pit (ex-silkworm), and coffin pricks (ex-monorchid, skull control, red-eyed legends, circus lupus, etc.)? bottomless pit are very good live.

I would totally be into seeing Bottomless Pit, but that day is also my son's first birthday party and I think my wife may kill me if I make other plans that night since her parents will be in town.

i'm not sure any of that means anything to me
would i like it?

i was wondering if anyone wanted to see swans with me in october, but that's p far away and i'm not 100% on it myself

i'm working on a rolling best of 2012 spotify playlist if anyone else wants to subscribe to it: http://open.spotify.com/user/naamme/playlist/3K5QFXimWUlhrtqZWfIies

you might like bottomless pit, they have transcendental guitar solos (but are not psychedelic). don't think you'd like coffin pricks, and i don't really know much about bellini other than they used to be on touch & go and had an album with damon che (from don caballero) on drums

i would love to see swans but am not sure about that show, it's on a weeknight and kind of $$$ iirc, but i am definitely thinking about it

hmm. i'll think about it! transcendental guitar solos yes pls, always. will check them out today and let you know. i could drive if you want.

swans is $$ and on a very unfortunate day, but holy shit would i love to hear some of the new album live (again, since I think they played the apostate at our show last year? iirc?)
will be huge

there's a good number of live bottomless pit videos on youtube but not many with solos for some reason. andy cohen from silkworm/bottomless pit is one of my most influential guitarists, like half of my guitar style is trying to sound like him and failing. and tim midgett plays an awesome aluminum baritone guitar. anyways i don't know if it'll be your thing but i'm pretty sure i'm going so just let me know.

aight

Amanda, ask Jesse about The Swans.

carl you might appreciate the cover of the new swans album if you have not yet admired it
http://factmag-images.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/fayv_SwansTheSeercvr.jpg

That is pretty creepy!

And unsettling!

Took me way longer than it should have for me to realize just why it was so creepy.

carl -- did you see the student i posted for you?

jvc -- teeth!!

exactly! i don't know why i didn't notice them the first time i saw the cover.

LL, I did! I looked at him on the train this morning. It's funny because I posted (yet another) Robert Plant wang pic on the thread about seeing the outline of a dong through pants, which has led to a string of Led Zeppelin dick jokes on the excelsior thread, and then you sent me the Robert Plant student so really, I'm having a pretty good day so far.

good! i seriously had been saving that for a day when you might possibly need/enjoy it. i've had him in the queue forever!

<3

I think I'm going to name my prog band Robert Plant Wang Outline.

That's a good name for a band.

Too bad "Plant Outline Wang" doesn't make sense because then the abbreviation for your band could be "PlOW".

That is an L not an I.

Plow.

lol

is this the bottomless pit you're talking about?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cz47Y7d3QhY

that's them

I'd like to go to that show but we have such a full weekend already. If it happens it'll probably be kind of last minute.

a lot more singing than i expected! it's really...normal! dunno why i expected it to be weirder.

sorry. they aren't weird. just gradually building subtle guitar music.

no harm done, not sure why i expected it to be weird
maybe i assume all bottomless pits are full of noisy wordless despair or sthg

Maybe you just think n/a is weird.

We ended up stopping in Lena, WI for lunch on the way back to Chicago and I can enthusiastically encourage people making the trip to eat lunch at Verna's whenever possible.

Seriously. I had the bluegill + fries which was somehow way awesomer than the sum of its parts, and the butterscotch milkshake which was aja THE best milkshake I've ever had. Their tartar sauce was somehow different in a good way.

Jesse will have to confirm or deny, but somewhere around that area (I think) we ran into traffic that was related to an accident. From what I could tell from my back seat rubber necking, somebody had put at least one car in the ditch. I saw two firefighters casually strolling down the slope with a crowbar and the jaws of life.

Yes, just north of Green Bay.

LL: I will go to Swans w/ you!! Or I'll go without you. But I'd prefer to go with you.

Plow.

― carl agatha, Wednesday, September 5, 2012 10:18 AM (12 hours ago) Bookmark

You used this verb all weekend! I can't remember in what sense or context, but you are def. hung up on plowing of some kind.

je55e, you will be pleased to know ph1l and i now have a furminator in our possession. that is all.