Chicago: The Eponymous Thread

jenny, i meant the tipping the velvet BBC series. so entertaining.

between my silliness and short story reading, i'm reading a novel that's good but kind of slow at times. for my ridic attn span, anyway. red on red--crime fiction that isn't so genre-y, more character based and less actiony. i keep checking out the ebook again and again because i'm too scrambled to read much of it at times but want to keep reading.

I and/or Sara will probably be up for some fountainhead, especially since it's across the street. However, I'm working on Saturday so I might end up getting there a bit later on...

Can Taco come?

Where is Terehsa staying?

R and I went to a beer tasting/beer talk gathering for a charity she's involved with last night at Hopleaf. Besides the tasty beerz and interesting factz we learned that Hopleaf is expanding, basically doubling in size, taking over the space adjacent to them to the south.

Interesting. I may be going to H'leaf on Sunday.

I'm reading Andrew Earles' book on Husker Du, which is like terribly disappointing. For one thing, he couldn't get Mould to take part (which, can't fault Earles for that since Mould was writing a book of his own), so there's a whole lot of "blah blah said that Bob said" stuff that makes me uncomfortable. Additionally, its just really awkward reading in general. Each and every time he talks about a peripheral person, he describes them by full name every time, like "tour soundman John Smith" and three paragraphs later, "so thought tour soundman John Smith". And there have been more than a couple places where nearly word-for-word paragraphs have been repeated at various points.

Anyway, I'm disappointed because I've really been wanting to learn more about Husker Du and there seems be a lot of interesting things to say about them, this book just isn't cutting it.

you should just listen to tons of husker du!!

did you read the grunge oral history? you should read that instead, it's fun.

listening to a shit ton of husker du will be way more entertaining than reading that book, promise

I am listening to tons of them! This week has been full of pre-Zen Arcade stuff, which is the era I always kinda ignored.

That grunge oral history is on my list, probably get to it after Electric Eden which is currently on deck.

would you guys agree that husker du is "humorless"?

no

Bob Mould seems to be so from all his interviews from the band's heyday, but I don't think the band as a whole was humorless. I mean, they used to cover the Gilligan's Island and Mary Tyler Moore themes live! If anything, we can shift some blame of the ubiquitous "ironic" cover song to them, but I don't think they were devoid of humor.

how to skin a cat is funny

the baby song is terrible, and not very funny, but an attempt at humor?

Electric Eden will take you like 100 years to read, prepare :)

I thought the Replacements "invented" the "ironic" cover song with their cover of Kiss's "Black Diamond."

psssshhh, which band covered Steely Dan, Van Halen and Creedence Clearwater Revival?

on the same album?

Minutemen

It was "in the air," I guess.

speaking of covers, what do y'all think of this one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpBs382Z5PA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BnGQ31YOYM

i can't listen to that right now but i only found out this morning from ned's this mortal coil review on pitchfork that they made a cover of "you and your sister" by chris bell (ex-big star) featuring vocals by kim deal and tanya donnelley, which is total sarah-bait

it's a pretty lullaby btw

i like that chris bell song but it's not "speed of sound" (my favorite chris bell song)

still sounds good though! anything with kim deal is good.

it's a pretty straight cover but it's a great song and i like kim deal singing anything

did chris bell or alex chilton write "thirteen"? because "you and your sister" is pretty similar to "thirteen" to my ears

i thought it was chilton but you're right
huh

I've never heard Chris Bell's "Speed of Sound," but I'm going to go ahead and assert that Coldplay's "Speed of Sound" is better.

Actually, I recently learned that Coldplay's "Speed of Sound" was musically inspired by Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill"!

baaaaaaaah
assert this, buster

Well hello. I stink at ilxing when I'm on work trips, but i am up for wherever you guys want to go. To the person upthread whose identity I am not quite clear on, I an staying downtown(?) near the gleacher center.

Oops I just reread I know who jesse is! It was another id I was confused about.

You're staying not far from where jaymc and I work (we work in different places, but close to each other).

Idk gleacher center. Huh.

Surprising bus bunching this morning: 4 Halsted buses together ~1 mile from the start of the line.

I've heard of the Gleacher Center, but I couldn't tell you where it is.

(I mean, I just looked it up, so now I know.)

the trains were all bunched up too, there was some problem in the loop again

Y'know first light dusting of snow of the year.

I know!

I heard on the radio that Brown, Purple, and Orange lines were rerouted through the State St. subway due to a problem at Clark & Lake.

Huh. I guess they fixed it by the time I got here.

apparently the holidays have already started because this place is a GHOST TOWN

my work is going to start adding QR codes that connect to our website on all of our business cards. this seems like a terrible idea and i hate it.

Huh, I never knew the name for those.

I'm convinced people only use those 1. in Japan 2. when they are going to get something for free

BECAUSE NO ONE USES THEM
xpost

also they're going to make our business cards look really really ugly

and our website is short and easy to remember! i could just tell them the website and they would remember it!

How do they work, anyway? A smartphone scans them? Idgi.

yeah i think you need an app on your smartphone to scan them and they take you to a website.