1.21.2009

emac FAIL!

So my home computer is dead. Sniff. I'd be a lot more pissed if it didn't run a lot longer than I had expected... and if I had paid anything for it in the first place. Then again, nearly three years with a lousy boyfriend might be payment enough. Ba-zing!

Oh, I kid. But what does this mean for my site? Could this be the end of my blogging career?! Tune in tomorrow. Same bat-time, same bat-channel!

1.16.2009

more queen.

There's something really comforting about catching the end of We Will Rock You on the radio knowing that We Are The Champions will follow. When did that start? What DJ decided that those two go hand it hand, and how did it become tradition?

I guess I could just wikipedia it.

But I digress... it really makes me wish that iTunes had that feature. Like, if I put my library on random, it wouldn't know to put those songs together. But it should.

1.14.2009

holy hilarious!

Hot off the craigslist presses.....

1000 dollar karaoke! If you're willing to make the trek to McHenry, that is...

1.13.2009

escape velocity!

By now you all know my love for Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer. Below is a video from another smarty-pants type that I admire, Neil deGrasse Tyson:

i flipping hate that don mclean song.

This coming February marks the fiftieth year of The Day The Music Died. For you uncultured types, this was the day that Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper died tragically in a plane crash. To mark this anniversary, there are a slew of events going on in the midwest, some even at the original venues they played for the Winter Dance Party tour.

Buddy impersonator John Mueller is heading the Winter Dance Party tribute tour, along with Ritchie impersonator Ray Anthony and Jay Richardson, The Big Bopper's son. Tour dates can be found here, but I would act quickly because they're selling fast.


Fifty years... it really makes you wonder how things would be different if they had survived. If the weather wasn't so treacherous, if they'd had a more experienced pilot. I really believe Buddy Holly would have had a great career and an extensive catalog of work. Ritchie too (No offense JP). I don't doubt that Holly would have continued in music, and continued making hits. But maybe that's just the fangirl in me.

1.12.2009

"You're welcome!"

Last night I was fortunate enough to catch the live premiere of sketch comedy duo Sausage. Playing to a sold out crowd at the Theatre Building Chicago, Sausage managed to blend pop culture snarkishness and self-deprecating humor, with a dash of ridiculousness.

Highlights? The shooting of Pete Wentz bit was pretty goddamn hilarious.

Also, unbeknownst to me, I was featured in one of their sketches, via old footage from an audition tape. Huzzah!

1.11.2009

wouldn't it be nice?

From jezebel, this great question is sure to make you think: What was the album that made you love music? Says blogger Hortense:

This is Paul McCartney's favorite album," my father would say before putting the record on, as if Beatle-street cred would keep me in the room long enough to hear every song. It wasn't necessary: as soon as Brian Wilson's songs started playing, it was all over. This was not a dumb Beach Boys surf album. This was something beautiful and sad and sweet; a strange and lovely album that showed me a side of my somewhat emotionally distant father that I'd never seen. Some fathers like to give lectures, some like to give hugs, some like to play catch. My father liked to listen to Pet Sounds, and he wanted me to like listening to it, too.


While Pet Sounds IS amazing, it seems to be one of those generic hipster answers.. If you read the comments in the post, you'll find a plethora of even more hipster-ish responses. Cat Power? Really? I doubt you were listening to Cat Power ten years ago. Were you shopping at Urban Outfitters then too?

But I'm not knocking this chick at all. Pet Sounds is truly a great record. And I was raised the same way as a child, only my mother was the one obsessed with music.



But if you really want to know what record totally opened my eyes and made me "love" music (as if I didn't love it before), I'd have to say it was Devo's Freedom of Choice. Sure, I loved my mother's fifties and sixties gems, as well as my brother's bad eighties metal/early hip hop, but Freedom of Choice was the first record that I found, that I discovered on my own.

I bought it at a very early age... I must have been ten or eleven. I was digging through the discount bins at the old Rose Records on Schaumburg Road... and I found it for something like a couple bucks, which I'm sure was a fortune to me at the time. Something about the cover just made me want to check them out. The red dome hats and silver suits, the nerdish glasses...

...anyway, I put the record on and loved it from side a to side b. They may be dismissed as a one-hit wonder, a novelty eighties group, but it really was a great album. It made me buy their other records, and in turn it made me want to check out other bands.



And that, actually, is what I think makes a record like that so important. When it makes you want to track down similar artists, similar genres; when it makes you branch out and check out the artists that influenced them, and the artists that they influenced themselves, that's when a record really makes an impression.

So thanks, Devo.

1.07.2009

cheap cologne and that damn song too.

Something about seeing/hearing Naked Raygun on a jukebox makes me ridiculously happy. Sunday I was at Schuba's for an open mic, and not once, but TWICE, I heard the sweet sounds of Raygun. I was so giddy about it, I not only expressed my squealy girly excitement to my long-suffering boyfriend, who barely batted an eye, but I also explained it to his brother, who had no idea what I was talking about.

It's gotta be the Chicago pride thing. It's the same reason I have the Wax Trax! power lines tattooed on my arm. At any rate, here's a couple of the local bars with halfway decent jukeboxes:

● Inner Town Pub: 1935 W Thomas Street

If I remember correctly, they have Throb Throb and All Rise on the jukebox, which is my favorite album anyway. It's a little bit hipster, but the bar is neat and old. They've got Iggy and The Dolls on the box too, and pool tables. Overall, it's a cute little place.

● The Gingerman Tavern? 3740 N. Clark

Well, considering I was drunk the last time I was here, I could be completely wrong on the name and location. BUT, I know it's right next to the Metro, and it has a really great jukebox. As far as the Raygun goes, it only has Understand? on it, but that has the classics Treason and Wonder Beer, so that's good enough for me.

I'll post more when I remember.



Next week: A list of the best Mexican restaurants in the area that still have the game Burgertime.

oh lenny.

1.05.2009

just because.




I'm pretty sure that if heaven were to exist, Freddie would be playing sold out shows every night.

1.04.2009

Whee 2009!

Unfortunately, I didn't know that we could smuggle our cameras into the Metro on NYE, otherwise I would've posted some really gnarly Dandy Warhols photos.

Best part of the entire night though was buying bottles of champagne from the bar... and walking around the venue, dressed to the nines, swigging from bottles of bubbly.

Oh, and the band... I'm sure the band was good too.



I'm stoked about oh nine though. Got some ideas a'cookin... or something to that extent.