Nerf Herder

According to the Chicago Tribune, beards are what's "Hot in 2008."

That's right world.  I take lead, you follow.

Featured Flava

Mike Doughty - The Book of Love

A Magnetic Fields song that Doughty plays only at live shows.

Not Like You Noticed

With the combination of the holidays, a business trip and overall laziness my blogging has been nonexistant.  Let's do a quick summary shall we?

• Went to California for work for a development training "camp" for 9-days.
  
• Went to the suburbs for holiday stuff where I re-chipped my front tooth.
  
• Got said tooth fixed and found out I probably need a root canal.  Awesome.
  
• Blue corn pancakes are fascinating, but I still prefer the good ol' normal kind.
  
• Wilco and Charlie are coming to Chicago for 5 days in February.  Tickets are needed.
  
• Went to the Star Wars exhibit at the museum Friday and it was awesome.  Took some good pictures.
  
• Got a big Christmas tree that has shed pine needles all over the place.
  
• I drink tea all the time these days.

That was the past month in a nutshell.

Doughty Video

A scene from the Mike Doughty Question Jar Show.  Mike answers a couple of questions from the Question Jar and then plays "Ossining."  Video recorded by yours truly.

But She Sho' Like The Bone

Leaving the Red Line some grilled cheese eatin' - phish listenin' - patchouli smellin' - tie dyin' hippie gave me a pamphlet on animal cruelty.  It contained photos and information on animal farms and stressed the importance of the vegan way of life.  Just past the building I saw someone reading this pamphlet while eating a Big Mac.

Visual Irony

Doughtyed

Went to the Mike Doughty show tonight at Schubas.  The simple (comforting even) set up of Mike on acoustic guitar and Scrap on chello was fantastic.  On this tour they've brought along a "question jar" to each show where people are allowed to write down and put questions into said question jar.  I threw a couple in there and they actually answered one of them.  I asked, "On Grey Ghost what do you picture the person listening to on the 'boombox nodding out?"  Mike quickly answered "Highway Stars" by Deep Purple.  Upon coming home and looking up the song right away I'm suspecting that his answer was fubar, nonetheless awesome.

One person asked how much money he made.  He was very hesitant to say, but eventually told us how much he made last year.  Even later he said not to go home and blog about it, so this is me not blogging the actual amount.  It's the least I can do for him putting on a great show.

The photo is of me with my promotional poster in front of Doughty's rental car.  I also have a video of a couple questions being answered followed by "Ossining."

Return of the Boy Bander

While at Borders the other day purusing the music section I noticed a long line of people quickly forming throughout the store.  From where I could see there wasn't anything that obviously showed what the line was for.  I asked one guy working there about it and he said that Lance Bass was in the store doing a book signing for his new book.  I said, "Lance Bass? Hah. That's funny."  The employee replied with a simple "Yeah" that contained a hint of embarassment and disgust in his voice.

On my way out they had arrows made on the floor with duct tape to show everyone where the exit was.  One had "exit" written on it with black marker, another had "Bye Bye Bye."  Clever.

Cuntry Music

I was purusing the music selection at Borders when I came across the latest Toby Keith album.  I sure do hope this guy doesn't expect people to respect him as a musician when he names his album, "Big Dog Daddy."  Man, he sucks.

Monkey Trap?

I saw a homeless guy walking around with a thin piece of rope wrapped around a banana.  Your guess is as good as mine.

Some cool visitors are coming into town this weekend.  Word.

Never Hear It On The Radio

Everyone seems to have a quirk about them that nobody, not even they themselves can explain.  Jill told me about a thing she has with her calf, and my other friend Shannon can only walk on the left side of people.  It got me to thinking what my quirks were.  I approach life in a very logical, much less emotional or spiritual manner, so my strange quirks are limited.  I did think of one however.  In regards to popular music, my initial reaction is to hate, and immediately pass it off as crap.  I don't trust the general public's taste in music (see Fergie) so I can only assume what they like, I hate.  I almost need to be told by a trusted source (music snob friends or cool radio stations) that a song is good.  There's a good possibility I have an insecurity with picking out "good" music.

Bonsai!

Here's my movie review of "Letters from Iwo Jima"...Boring.

Couldn't stay awake both times I tried watching it.  If you want a dose of WWII action I will always recommend the Band of Brothers mini-series.

You Got It Dude!

If blogging was like parenting, I'd be the Britney Spears of bloggers.  However, I am making a comeback and maybe someday will become the Danny Tanner of bloggers.

NLDS Game #3

What can I say?  It was still a hell of a year.

It was a great experience to be at a Cubs playoff game, but unfortunately the result was anything but.  The lineup couldn't manufacture a run worth a damn, thus my Cubs were swept by the Diamondbacks in the NLDS.

After the game ended I sat there solemnly for 10 minutes, getting up only because I had to pee.  After I did my business I actually went back to my seat to continue to watch the rest of the crowd clear out of the ballpark.  After another 5-10 minutes I went down to the first row and loitered there with 30 or so of my fellow mourners.  We stood around soaking in the last of Wrigley Field we could in 2007.  It wasn't until the ushers told us "time to go home folks" that we finally cleared out, a good 30 minutes after the game was over.

On my way out the gate I told the gentlemen watching people out, "See you in April."  He replied with "I'll be here."

So ends another season.  I believe Rogers Hornsby said it best when he exclaimed, "People ask me what I do in the winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring."

Sell My Soul For a Win

With the Diamondbacks taking the first 2 games of the series the Cubs are in a win now or go home situation.  They play today at 5:00 here at Wrigley after playing the first two in Arizona. Thinking of how this may be my only window of opportunity to see a Cubs playoff game, I decided to bite the bullet and buy a ticket from a ticket broker.  I'm in one of the cheapest sections, but that certainly doesn't mean it actually was cheap.  I'm not going to say how much it was, but let's just say I've bought cheaper airline tickets.

Go Cubs Go!

Highway to Hell

Naming this post was just too easy.  Thanks to Jessica for the pic.

Steve Goodman Said It All

Tonight is Game 1 of Cubs vs. Diamondbacks in the NLDS.  You can bet your ass I'll be glued to the TV with my fingers crossed hoping for black cats, billy goats, and Steve Bartmans to stay far far away.

The highly emotional, inconsistent, yet often dominating Carlos Zambrano starts tonight against the very talented Brandon Webb who, earlier this season, destroyed the Cubs lineup.  I'm looking for Soriano to continue his power streak, Derek Lee to drive in runs with some well-placed doubles and Ryan Theriot to leap out of the batter's box regardless of where he hits the ball.  In the 8th inning Carlos Marmol will then help hold the Diamdbacks with his 1.43 ERA and Dempster will then close the game.   Simple as that.

One of my new favorite Cubs Ryan Theriot had a comment on this year's playoffs.

"We can't control what happened the last 100 years, or maybe the past five years. To win here and move on to the next round and win there would put us right where we want to be. The 100 years before that, that's for the fans. We want to win for the city of Chicago. We want that for them. I'm not that old, but I know there are people out there who have been Cub fans for awhile, and they deserve a championship club. Hopefully we can give it to them.€" - Ryan Theriot

It Gets Worse and Worse

Today I learned 2 things about our nation's Senators.  One once wore an "Incredible Hulk" tie (Ted Stevens R-Alaska) and another was once a leader of the Ku Klux Klan (Robert Byrd D-WV).  God bless America?  No, probably not.

Oh, and no I'm not going to play off the fact I went on a 2 month blog coma.  I recognize this, and will hopefully reemerge from the ashes.

Pennant Fever

So when the blog template got messed up I lost a bit of motivation.  However, I'm going to try and be better with posting and hopefully fixing up the template.  Moving on now...

Tonight the Cubs beat the Phillies in the bottom of the ninth with a stolen home plate to win the game 5-4.  Nearly just as important the Mets beat the Brewers 8-5.  This puts the Cubs tied for the division with the Brewers, and gives millions of Cubs fans something we often never have in August.  Hope.

 After the game a lot of people, myself included stood inside the ballpark waiting for them to raise the "W" flag and change the pennants to put the Cubs at the top of the NL Central.  That's it on the left, except now the blue Cubs pennant sits at the peak.  Let's do it again tomorrow!

The Hell?

My blog template got all screwed up somehow.  Unfortunately its gonna have to look like this for a few days until I find the motivation to fix it.

Motivation has been pretty scarce for me lately for a lot of things.

Let's Go Crazy

There's this dude in my neighborhood whom I have now seen twice walking down the street, get this...backwards.  The first time I saw him he had a bicycle tire hanging from his left elbow and in his right hand was a smooth gray stone that had written on it the roman numeral 3.  I have no idea what his story is, but I'm incredible curious.  As a bonus to his crazy creditials, he looked suspiciously like Prince.