Isn’t that how the saying goes? Tonight The Dials are playing The Modernist Society at Darkroom. As per usual, John Dugan and I will be playing records for dancing before and after the band’s performance. No cover before 10, $3 thereafter. The Dials hit the stage around 11.
Everyone has some good ideas what to do this weekend but I would like to humbly put forward an option that I think trumps the competition.
Woolworthy has been one of those bands that tirelessly put out great records, toured the States and Europe, broke hearts and basically embodied the work ethic that seems to make rock bands from Chicago stand head and shoulders above the competition.
Well, all good thing must end and Woolworthy has decided to pull the plug. Since they
If there wasn’t one before, there is now. Stalking, now with new and improved easiness! Amazon and A9 have released a hauntingly creepy yellow pages which links up photos with search results, great for looking at pictures of all the 96 Starbucks near your house.
Chicago is among the lucky pilot cities, which also include Boston, LA, and Portland to name a few. 20 million photographs! All new creepiness! Imagine when people anywhere can search for your address and see your house. That is not at all bone chilling.
I am pretty on the fence when it comes to parking spot squatter’s rights. Sure, the day after it shows, I understand. You spent all that time shoveling out YOUR spot and you should be able to keep it when you get back. We did it last Saturday while we ran to the grocery store. But if you are leaving all day to go to work? Is that fair?
What about a week after it snows? When does it just become selfish spot hogging? There are still plenty of spots being held, even though 90% of parking spots have been fully shoveled out by this point. As I drove to work this morning (a commute which takes me down residential streets for about 75% of the drive), I saw at least 30 spots being help by chairs and milk crates and chunks of wood. But there is hardly any snow on the streets. The 2 spots closest to my office are being held by giant spackle jugs. And this pisses me off.
I understand that the practice of holding spots is condoned by the mayor, but even he would be pissed about this. Take your chairs inside people. The snow is over, and now you just look like a greedy bastard.
An article in Salon today digs in its journalistic claws and does some real fact-hunting, coming up with information overfloweth. Turns out the Bush family is not super white bread New England first landed English. The family line is traced back to Chicago, and then on to Ireland.
“The U.S. president’s now apparent ancestor, Richard de Clare, earl of Pembroke — known as Strongbow for his arrow skills — is remembered as a desperate, land-grabbing warlord whose calamitous foreign adventure led to the suffering of generations.
But it seems that Strongbow is not the worst of Bush’s newfound ancestors. The genetic line can also be traced to Dermot MacMurrough, the Gaelic king of Leinster reviled in history books as the man who sold Ireland for personal gain.”
DOH! Ancestry can be such a pesky thing when you have such an impeccable record for NOT being a warlord (and by ‘not being a warlord’, I mean ‘being a warlord’).
Hey look – I’m posting! Sorry that this is probably going to be a stupid post. But, I wanted to say thank you to the person who sent me to the Friendship Chinese Restaurant when I asked about good Chinese food in my neighborhood. It was really awesome!
Turns out that we’ve been ordering delivery a lot lately because of the snow. God the snow!!!! Very pretty to look at but a pain in the butt to drive through.
Some pretty cool diagrams and write-up on something we’ve all be a part of (whether you participated or not.) coming out of the University of Chicago’s American Journal of Sociology.
From the summary:
“The surprising thing about the network at Jefferson High was the near absence of cycling — situations in which people have relationships with others close to them on the network, Moody said.
The lack of cycling seems traceable to rules that adolescents have about who they will not date. The teens will not date (from a female perspective) one’s old boyfriend’s current girlfriend’s old boyfriend. This would be considered taking “seconds” in a relationship.”
The full abstract via uchicago.edu requires subscription but I found a copy (pdf) through Google.
Some friends of mine did this for our circle of friends in college on the back of an old Einsturzende Neubauten poster or something. It was pretty amazing. I don’t think it ever dawned on them that they could of done it for ivy league credit.
Man, I love lake-effect weather patterns.
Competition is good for the soul. Competition improves us. It’s all about our competitive, Capitalist society, right?
Yeah, screw that. It’s time to fight rock with rock. No, not rocks; we’re not gonna be throwing stuff in this classroom. Play nice. I’m talking about the musical variety.
Do show up at the Empty Bottle this Friday if you like great music – Sybris is opening for The Life and Times (the website seems to be down) and have been gearing up for this show since 2004 with tons of new songs (look for a new album soon). You may remember my experience the last time I tried to take pictures of them at the Metro. Well, the Empty Bottle isn’t so restrictive.
No, they have nothing to do with the romantic getaway hotel, but a slight connection can sometimes be made when Angela greets her audience with, “Hello, lovers.” Admittedly, their music is often sensual and dare I say it, “sybaritic,” while hard and loud at the same time. Angela’s vocals will remind you a little of Edie Brickell, but the memory will soon fade as the Phil’s guitar and Shawn’s bass build to hard crashing crescendos that make you look around for the full orchestra. You’ll feel like you’re floating, but you’ll recover face down on the floor. In a good way. Don’t take my word for it, though, check out some of their mp3s for yourself.
I’ll make a deal with you, Lauren. I’ll go to yours if you go to mine.
The price is $9, and $1 will go to the American Red Cross for Tsunami Relief. Suffrajett (another down website) will open first at 9:30.
If you get in close enough, even in Chicago, even days after the snow falls, you can find untouched patches of snow. Square feet, even.
(As I write this, it’s snowing again, so soon everything will look like this again).
