OK. Let’s go.
hello, old server. old friend.
I’m painting! I’m going to have to open a window soon. It smells like paint in here.
Paint Smells of Paint, Makes Room Smell of Paint
I dreamed of Philadelphia last night. Courtney Love overdosed in a University City subway stop and it was on TV. They were hosing down the whole station and the anchorman said that this was the kind of shock that this already fragile part of South Philly could hardly bear.
hi folks. thanks for coming over last night, it was lots of fun!
I love u john and kr.
Did J/J go? What did you guys do?
Manpile. The usual.
I am losing my mind! I’m not even done painting this one wall, and already I’m thinking about doing the living room. In burnt orange. UT colors.
You don’t get a lot of that color, eh? I like it. It’s daring. And it will go well with my chocolate brown sofa.
Advance is on Immer 2.
And I figured out why it’s on my computer: my brother put it on a mix CD for me.
Btw, I assume it was you, Jeff, that sent me the Sendspace stuff? Thx.
THANK YOU that was driving me nuts last night for about 5 minutes.
I just came back from the laundromat where a normal looking man, tall, brown cords, sneakers, navy blue sweater, gray hair with a somewhat professorial look about him, started shouting about Jesus. And George Bush. And how the signifying characteristic of the minions of the antichrist will be that they wear black shoes and white socks.
The attendant asked him to please keep his voice down because he was disturbing other customers, to which the man shouted, “YOU ARE DISTURBING ME.” He did tone it down a little, and sat down for awhile until he started shouting the Lord’s Prayer. Then he bought a Pepsi and watched TV. Right before I left he did a little more shouting and then crooned, “Halleloooooooooooooooooo” for a few minutes.
The attendant asked him to please keep his voice down because he was disturbing other customers, to which the man shouted, “YOU ARE DISTURBING ME.”
I feel for the attendant, but this is awesome.
I saw the same sort of thing not too long ago, except at the Damen Blue Line stop. The guy was on the opposite platform from me, and I can only imagine he kept shouting about Jesus and George W. Bush when his train came and he went away.
Was this guy actually doing laundry?
What genre would you put xiu xiu under?
indie-creep
“warbly”
Yes, he was actually doing laundry.
I’m sure most of you are aware of my interest in normal looking people who act completely nuts. There were a couple of these folks this weekend, most recently a few minutes ago I passed a guy in front of my house who fit this bill. He was late-30s, very blond, neatly cut hair, decently dressed, with expensive looking brown shoes. Pretty sure he was gay. He stood near my gate talking about watermelons and saying over and over something that sounded like either “Yes and no” or “Yes’m, no.”
Jesse, you sure know how to pick ’em.
In other news, my boss will be out all this week. Somehow I have to do my fair share of work in her absence.
Man, this weather sucks, and I have to drive to Milwaukee for a casino gig tonight.
And the TSA fucking stole my screwdriver out of my bass drum case, so I have to buy a new one today.
They TOOK yr screwdriver?? Even though it was packed in the baggage compartment? That whole system is fucked, maaan.
They busted up my last case, so I guess I should be counting my blessings.
Jordan’s next solo track: “Welcome to the TerrorDrum”
more likely the airline baggage handlers took your screwdriver.
Shouldn’t they have their own screwdrivers?
This weather does suck a bit, but I’d rather it were warmer and snowy than the cold we’ve had for the last couple weeks. And no matter how snowy and slushy it gets, it’s not that city in New York. 151 inches, I read? That’s too much snow.
Observations on food: 1) instant oatmeal is a little yucky, but it is oatmeal, and that’s better than no oatmeal. 2) if I thought I could get by with it, I would eat mozzarella sticks morning, noon, and night.
Buffalo? (XP)
Parish.
mexico, ny?
Freshman year, dorms, I got fat on mozzarella sticks.
Mozz sticks > fried cheese curds
Ugh, I was woken up at 7 AM by what sounded like someone pressing the buzzer to the apartment next door for an absurdly long time. When I finally got out of bed to investigate, the high-pitched whine was coming from my system (not as loud as an ordinary buzz, but plenty annoying) and in the stairwell, too. Suffice it to say, there was no one at the door. I called the maintenance man, and he had it fixed pretty quickly, but I missed out an hour’s worth of sleep. :(
Observations on food: 1) instant oatmeal is a little yucky, but it is oatmeal, and that’s better than no oatmeal. 2) if I thought I could get by with it, I would eat mozzarella sticks morning, noon, and night.
— there to preserve disorder (fluxion2...), February 12th, 2007. (kenan) (later) (link)
Buffalo? (XP)
— Laurel (sininspac...), February 12th, 2007. (Laurel) (later) (link)
This is an awesome xpost.
We’re having a potluck today at work. I was going to make a salad with avocado, oranges, jicama, spinach, and radishes, but the jicama I bought was severely underripe, so I threw some mango in there instead. Then I dressed it with lime juice and salt. I hope it’s good.
WTF? This winter is wearing out its fucking welcome!
Why do the neighbors keep CRANKING, then turning down their reggaeton (sp?) music repeatedly?
It briefly occurred to me that the buzzer was Jesse wanting his credit card back.
This winter is wearing out its fucking welcome!
It does that every year, though. Chicago winter is a rude guest indeed.
That sounds good, John.
On Saturday I went over to M4ddie’s and experimented with tomato bisque recipes. Then yesterday I finally worked on music stuff all day, then put on pants around 10 pm to have some beers with a friend who’s in town. That’s how Sunday is done, yo.
i dl’ed ‘new york groove’ from iTunes yesterday and i haven’t stopped listening to it since then. i heard it with the earphones on this morning on my way to work and it’s is hilariously addictive. between the cheeseball ’70s overblown rock production (most of it trying to mask the fact that ace frehley really couldn’t sing and had a horrible new york accent), the disco chicken-scratch guitar, and the inane lyrics (“a wicked lady sittin’ by my side sayin’ where are we/stop at 3rd and forty-three, exit to the night/it’s gonna be ectasy”) i should hate this song. but i don’t, i love it. i don’t know if it’s the hand claps or the stomping 4/4 beat or what but much like the sweet it’s rediculous and awesome at the same time.
ysi?
sorry, dl’d it from iTunes so it won’t work on a computer that isn’t “authorized” by my iTunes account.
but i’m sure you can find it for free somewhere.
CONFESSION
When people say that babies OMG look like one of their parents or like someone else (heh), I can almost never see it. They just look like babies.
babies look scary
i’m almost sure i know what i think about babies but i’m waiting to hear back from tep for confirmation on that.
I must have missed something.
Oh, I see.
Sometimes I can see a resemblance to a specific grownup in a baby. What really weirds me out are little babies who look like tiny adults.
I want to hear NY Groove real bad now.
And I agree—I am much more content with warm slush than the freezingness, at least for now. And while winter is getting old, I would rather all this winter than a similar amount of summer.
Kevin: LAWLZ
I’m cool with babies as long as they don’t excrete anything on me. If I ever become a parent I’ll probably have to get over this.
What really weirds me out are little babies who look like tiny adults.
xpost OMG LITTLE MAN!!!!
jenny, you don’t want to hear it. trust me. it will ruin you, it’s digitally encoded crack.
but you’ll have to ask tep if that’s what i really think.
What really weirds me out are little babies who look like tiny adults
do you ever see kids and know what they’ll look like when they’re like 40 or 20 or 80 or whatever? cause sometimes i think i do.
vs.
The Wayans must be stopped.
do you ever see kids and know what they’ll look like when they’re like 40 or 20 or 80 or whatever?
Yeah, sometimes. Or I’ll look at friends and think I can see them when they are in their 60s.
All of Worker Justice, Inc. went to New Jersey but nobody told me. Good thing the director of the org was here to let me in.
I hope I don’t look creepy in my 60’s.
Apparently it all started with The Unholy Three, a film that Tod Browning did prior to Dracula and Freaks:
A great film...period. Lon Chaney heads a group of three thieves/carnival performers as they masquerade as an old woman, a man, and a baby in a pet shop where they sell birds that talk only by ventriloquism. Once the owners get home they see the birds no longer talk and the thieves are invited into their opulent homes. Tod Browning, the director of Dracula, does a marvelous job with this film. There are scenes that are just fantastic, the best of which for me is the courtroom scene. Browning gets a lot of help, however, by some real good performances. Chaney turns in a complex performance of a ventriloquist in love, yet evil, yet with some slight conscience. The scene in the courtroom where he deliberates helping Hector is acting at its best. Throw in a great job by Mae Busch and little Harry Earles as a cigar-smoking midget disguised as a baby. The silent film is a lost art only in that we no longer view it, talk about it, review it like it should. This film and the performances within should be seen not heard.
I think the problem with Chicago winters is that psychologically, people expect winter to last from the end of Nov. to maybe the end of Jan./beginning of February, and then for it to start to warm up. But in my experience, it doesn’t really start to get cold in Chicago until January, which then lasts until March-ish.
Cute cat pic from last night.
And from Entertainment Weekly:
It was the central idea of a 1954 Bugs Bunny cartoon called ’Baby Buggy Bunny,‘ directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese. Remember the burly, barrel-chested ex-con Finster, shaving and smoking a cigar while hiding out in Bugs’ rabbit hole till Bugs got hip? Some online posters have cried plagiarism, but before you go yelling at Little Man director Keenen Ivory Wayans and his younger-brother cowriters Marlon and Shawn, remember, they freely cop to cribbing the idea. Plus, this concept was a golden oldie way before the Bugs Bunny version. It goes back at least to the 1925 Tod Browning silent movie The Unholy Three, wherein a children-hating little man poses as a baby to steal from the wealthy. (The film got remade in sound in 1930). The same conceit also shows up in a 1939 Little Rascals short called ’Tiny Troubles,‘ in which a cowlicked, squeaky-voiced Alfalfa trades in his crying little brother for another infant who turns out to be a little man up to no good.
Didn’t I mention the Little Rascals short the other night?
who expects winter to be over by the end of january? i expect it to start getting cold around thanksgiving and then stop being bone-rattling cold about 2 weeks after pitchers and catchers report to spring training.
I think the problem with Chicago winters is that psychologically, people expect winter to last from the end of Nov. to maybe the end of Jan./beginning of February, and then for it to start to warm up
This is sort of weird, though, because each season is by definition three months. I expect it to be cold/snowy from the beginning of December to the end of February. Why should February be exempt?
What gets me, though, is when it’s still cold in mid-to-late March. I think it snowed on my birthday once.
I tell myself it’ll be freezing until April just to have lowered expectations.
i think kevin is right.
snow in october this year: weird. 40’s for most of january: weird. the weather right now: typical, i’d guess. and will still be typical at the end of march.
maybe it’s because i spent the first quarter century of my life someplace where it started snowing in october and didn’t stop until april or may but i don’t find chicago winters to be long. they’re brutal but at least they’re over by march usually.
I think the problem with Chicago winters is that psychologically, people expect winter to last from the end of Nov. to maybe the end of Jan./beginning of February, and then for it to start to warm up
I would agree, but ammend it to read “People who are not from cold climates.” It’s already warming up in the US south, for example.
Nerdiest thing ever?
This winter has been brutal, yes. Just for the sub-zeroness of it all.
Try snow and winter from September until May blah blah blah I’m from the UP.
We talk about weather too much sometimes.
LINUX IS NOT FAT NOR DOES IT HAVE A TERRIBLE MOUSTACHE. Linux is stylish. But quiet and intense.
dan, i’ve had snow and 80 degree temps in the same week in may.
xp to Kenan: Oh please.
Have I professed my love for those Mac/PC commercials? They get better and better. I love the latest one with the PC’s security. It’s so true! And I feel so bad for the sweet little PC! It’s not his fault, it’s really not.
And yes, I laughed hard when I saw that photoshop. The Tron guy is one of my internets favorites.
Kenan, how many serious Linux nerds have you met? “Stylish” is not an adjective I’d use for them.
how many serious Linux nerds have you met?
Around... zero. Roughly zero.
Same here, Kev. Well, maybe 70, not 80. OMG WEATHR CRED LOST!!!
xpost: I can introduce you to some, they’ll blow your MIIIIIIND maaan.
god i hate those pc/mac commercials. i want something bad to happen to both of those dudes and if it were to happen on pay-per-view i would purchase it.
xpost Seriously. Nerds. BIG nerds.
I find the Mac guy pretty irritating, but how can not love PC?
the mac pc ads have the opposite of the desired effect, i think.
Actually, despite being a Mac user, I hate the Mac guy too. Especially when he says shit like: “I manage my digital photos, and connect to my blog and the iTunes store.” WELL, I USE IT TO D/L MAD T0RRENTZ AND HACK THE GIBSON OMGWTFLOL
(bonus points for naming “hack the Gibson” reference — I bet... jaymc gets it)
I hear he loves cyberpunk.
Hahaha
That phrase is too easily googleable.
I love the actor who plays PC, but I find the Mac guy a little insincere in his supposed niceness. His smug superiority still oozes through and I resent that and, frankly, don’t want to be his friend at all.
Also, the Mac guy stars in some baaaaaaaad movies, while the PC guy is on the Daily Show.
and I, too, have a preference for Macs as my home computing platform of choice.
so i saw on the weather channel it’s snowing up there. i kinda wish it would snow some down here. we’ve had snow only 2 days so far, and that’s actually more than normal. it’s 46 degrees right now and high of 58. i guess i should be happy i’ll be moving in the summer, but then that will probably spoil me and then come november/december it’ll be extra brutal!
one of my bosses didn’t feel like shoveling his driveway so he stayed home today. prick.
WAHT
There is like 2 inches?!
yes, i guess his FOUR WHEEL DRIVE TRUCK would have a problem in such conditions.
I think our boss just gave us off on Friday!!!
Merry Christmas!
Haha yeah! I love Jesus now!
we get out at 3 on friday which is cool except i’m flying out of ohare at 8 and was planning to go straight from work to the airport. i don’t want to come home because it’s more awkward to get to ohare from my house. so i guess i’ll go to a museum or a movie or wander around wicker park for a little bit.
i feel surprisingly good this morning, aside from a little tired. i went to the diner near my house this morning and had an omelet and potatoes, which i think helped.
I was tired and headachey this morning, but I drank some coffee and that helped. Now I just want to go home. Also I’m annoyed at how obscenely productive I’m being today. I have churned out more work this morning than I sometimes finish in two days.
I made it through without a trace of a hangover. I could go for a nap, but that’s no different from any day.
I think the plan for the rest of the day is:
Shower
Take shirts to cleaners
Haircut
Sit at the neat little locally-owned tea shop and organize my Firefox bookmarks.
i’m eating a chipotle burrito. i decided that i will go straight to o’hare when i get out at 3 and gamble on trying to get put on an earlier flight. it’s too cold outside to wander around.
I’m bored. Who is in town this weekend? I want to do some shit. I want to see people and I want to see life.
Jesse: me too! We could do that kind of thing together, if you would have any part of that.
Heaven help, my parents gave my grandmother a laptop and set up an email account for her for Christmas.
I’m at Ohare and through security 3.5 hours before my departure time. My flight doesnt even have a gate yet. But there’s a semi competent lite jazz band playing Xmas carols.
And directly across from the band, seats with electrical outlets!
This band is not very good.
Oh shit they’re doing a seriously awful blues jam now. I guess they didn’t learn enough Christmas songs.
Ask if you can sit in and then
AND THEN STEAL THEIR BANDWIDTH
Haha, it took a minute for me to figure out that the image had been replaced. V. funny with the wrong one. What was the image supposed to be?
Kenan, what are you up for? I may not want to drink? Email me.
It was Michael J Fox totally shredding in the prom scene from Back to the Future.
My mother sent us six pounds of scrapple for Christmas.
BAND WITH THEFT
hey if any of you dingalings want to go with me to ikea tomorrow around 11 (date and time not negotiable) lemme know
i’m driving there anyway, might as well have some company
We are at Maria’s in Bridgeport and it is everything I hoped for and more. Also I might be drunk.
Amanda how was Ikea? Normally I’d be on that invitation but we were just there not too long ago.
Oh hey I added TWO SONGS to the spread sheet.
It was fine! Not too busy, no traffic, and I got exactly what I wanted. Now my records have a slightly more dignified home.
Expedit?
yup, what other options do i have? it’s tons better than what i was using before.
We have two! It’s a delightfully versatile and cheap piece of furniture.
And we don’t have any records.
i have one of your records and i cherish it
before today we were using this “coffee table” i made for dan for his 25th birthday to hold the stereo — and knowing me, you know that tables/precision work/carpentry is not my strong suit. it was ridiculously conceived, painted red and aqua, and covered in superman comics and that lacquer people use to make decoupage or cover the wood on a bar. still, we’ve been using this monstrosity to hold the stereo for all this time.
today, on this very day, we have graduated to expedit.
i realize that the superman table is an object of love, but i’m tired of looking at it and wondering if it’s ever going to collapse. still, not going to pitch it, don’t worry.
Wow, Kr is throwing up tons of pictures of us from the wedding. My nap was interrupted by a fury of iPhone alerts of being tagged.
guys my sister is going to be in chicago for a few days later this week, with old college pals: what should she do???
Dance like no one is watching and judging her clothing choices.
Maria’s in Bridgeport
xp lolollllll
lol
rw, what is she into, where is she staying, etc?
Also, you know the town, so I guess you’re asking for special events, new discoveries?
well i was pretty terrible at doing chicago-stuff while i lived there, i just hung with pals and went to bars, so i dunno??
Wow, Kr is throwing up tons of pictures of us from the wedding. My nap was interrupted by a fury of iPhone alerts of being tagged.
Argh — sorry about that. It was actually me. I had no idea it would sent multiple notifications to each taggee.
I will think about what I would do. Is she going to be on her own?
A cop in front of Water Tower Place just remarked to another cop “it’s like fuckin Ford City out here tonight.” I can’t think what that might mean besides that there were large numbers of black people pouring out the doors at closing time.
Xp its fine, I just wondered where all the pictures went.
rw i don’t know what your sister should do — i would probably just send her to time out or the reader and look for things that are interesting to her. if she’s hanging out with gal pals, she probably isn’t like TOURISM, so they will have the resources to figure out how much or little they want to do while they’re here.
also guys? totally going to this tonight, pls join if you feel you would enjoy it
Free with admission, takes place in MCA theater
J.R. Robinson is a Chicago-based sound artist who works under the name Wrekmeister Harmonies. He has exhibited his videos in numerous museums. Robinson screens his video, “You’ve Always Meant So Much To Me,” and conducts a live score that is sonically similar to ambient black metal. Several renowned artists participating in this performance include Jef Whitehead (Leviathan), Jaime Fennelly (Mind Over Mirrors), Bruce Lamont, Sanford Parker (Twilight), Stavros Giannopolous (Atlas Moth) and Mark Solotroff (Bloodyminded) as well as a string section and harpist.
I remember seeing bloodyminded back at the wire fest several years ago. All of his songs were really short.
Hey, I’m back in DC now but I meant to say thank you to everyone who came out last Thursday! It was a lot of fun, and Delilah’s was a great choice. Hopefully I’ll land some sort of job and move out there soon.
<3
now his songs are really long! or at least the band he has been singing with. i think this is going to be a pretty great show, and also FREE and AT 6PM and AT AN ART MUSEUM.
Hi ZS—it was really good to meet you. Good luck with the job. I assume no word yet?
likewise, Jesse. Officially, I find out on January 9th. So I have to wait a few weeks. But I’m hoping that I’ll get unofficial word a little sooner? I’m not really sure what to expect.
sorry i missed you ZS — i was all over the place last week, lotsa miles logged
i have yet to be present when someone gets the malort treatment. how is that possible?
double malort treatment. i was so malorted that i was coerced into buying a second round of malort. stockholm syndrome!
You INSISTED on the second Malort!
Also, you tried to be a hero for the first round, so the second one taught you what’s what.
TBF, the first round was not nearly as gross as I remembered.
wait, how did i try to be a hero for the first round? as i remember, i accepted the malort with cautious humility and downed it in an appropriate fashion.
You weren’t duly fazed by it.
then i wasn’t trying to be a hero, it’s just who i am
^to be read in the voice of Sawyer from LOST
I could really go for a burger + fries from the Billy Goat. It’s too far to walk today.
Hello. My #8 bus is lost. We are goin north on Lasalle. Just passed Oak St.
We are loooooosssssttttter than fuck.
Now we are out of space and time.
There’s a reroute for the #8 but that doesn’t seem quite right...
Has anyone alerted the driver?
The reroute(in effect since December 2010 (are you Jensplaining??)) is supposed to leave Halsted by going west on North Branch, across Goose Island, East on Division, then back on route.
There might have been A re-reroute, bc the driver said we were going east on Chicago, on Larrabee, etc, but she couldn’t fun Larrabee and now we are
OH GOD WHAT HAPPENED???!?!?!?
Poop, I thought the reroute would be over this December. I was looking forward to the treat of a slightly shorter commute, but instead they have just re-rerouted.
Temporary Reroute
Route(s):
#8 Halsted
Length:
Friday, December 23, 2011—5:00 AM
to Monday, April 30, 2012—6:00 PM
Why is service being changed?
Buses are rerouted due to reconstruction of the Halsted Street Bridge over the North Branch of the Chicago River (847 N. Halsted).
I JUST WANT MY LIFE BACK
That metal thing at the art museum was so great! I only wish the video had been as interesting as the music but guess what—you can’t have it all, especially not at that price.
bump
lovely lady bump
Oh hey, there’s a new pizza place next door on Diversey. It’s called Pizza Persona, and I don’t recommend it.
I considered biking across the new bridge yesterday. Is it open to Chicago Ave now?
a. The pizza is really not good. It’s all quasi-personal-sized (10“ I think) thin crust pizzas, which is fine. But the crust is not good, and the toppings were sparse and not great. It’s cheap though, so I guess if you need calories but are short on cash—well no, if that’s the case, just go to McDonald’s.
xp—No, I don’t think so! I was going to mention that—a while back a cabbie told me that they were going to be repairing/replacing *all* of the bridges and viaducts on Halsted, and that’s what they’re doing. The one that goes over the south branch is now under construction. :(
I saw a car driving down it the other day and was thus confused. The bike lanes look nice.
I went to the planetarium yesterday and saw Jupiter through a giant telescope. It ruled.
(D and I went for our <3 anniversary <3)
ha—I sneezed while reading LL and Corey’s posts and it looked like “I saw a car and Jupiter driving down it the other day.”
Pizza persona looks annoying. I will never eat there.
“discover your pizzanality”
I ordered The Hipster by name and it didn’t feel good to do so.
Courtney and I ate there. Her opinion was that it was actually the worst pizza she’d ever eaten.
It was bad enough that we went and ate a second lunch at Noodles & Co., which has yet to let anyone down.
what do you guys think about this dramatic caveman illustration?
(it’s from a book about ancient humans)
i think i want that book about ancient humans
i’ve always really loved the artwork in this book and i finally got around to scanning it
this is one of my favorite images
this is the cover
is all of the text on that burnt sienna background? that’s awesome, if so. very primordial.
yep. it’s all red, white, and black. for an otherwise purely informative series nonfiction book about cavepeople, it’s remarkably arty!
marek, our protagonist caveman, is wearing a bear pelt/corpse in that illustration btw
Very nice.
I’m on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
I’m on the Brown line.
writing a dress code policy woo-hoo
10 minutes left until we close woo-hoo
Make it so everyone must wear a clever hat on Tuesdays.
“Socks must match, except on alternating Thursdays, when socks are prohibited.”
T-shirts strictly forbidden, unless they bear the logo of 1) the library or 2) Big Johnson.
It would be wonderful to make the policy extremely convoluted and absurd. Though I guess technically it’s not a policy but a clarification of a policy.
loljenny
things i need to do, but cannot manage to do so far yet today:
— laundry
— produce market shopping
— washing the dog
— changing out of my head-to-toe green loungewear outfit
— going outside
— combing my hair
I did manage to take a shower and eat lunch.
i look like a tired snowpea.
I haven’t combed my hair today either. Or gone outside or done laundry but tbf I didn’t have very high aspirations today re: activity.
Fixing to make a roast chicken, sweet potatoes, and collards, though.
Yo, real ilx is back.
It’s not loading.
never mind, it finally loaded.