Merry Christma....What the....???

I'm still obsessed with buying CD's instead of digital music because I like the ritual of opening the jewel case, enjoying the disc art, reading the liner notes etc...

I could write another entry about that subject, but I just wanted to share this specific incident demonstrating the fun of being "surprised" when you open a CD which just occurred today:

I had been waiting with bated breath for my new arrival in the mail, "A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector." This little out of print gem has such great holiday music, my personal favorite being Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)- Darlene Love, and is worth any amount of money if you happen to come across it. This album was released in 1963, reissued in 1989, and features The Ronettes, The Crystals, Bob B. Soxx, and Darlene Love. Good Stuff, I promise you won't be disappointed, but I digress...

When I opened the CD insert to my surprise, horror, and amusement I found this lovely poster:


This brings to mind 3 questions:
Why Phil, WHY?
How come all the talented people are also loony???
And why is there a random top hat in the background?

Thank you Phil, for this lovely gift.

Happy Holidaze

Since it is officially December and there is a ton of snow on the ground I decided to put my tree up. I plugged her in and we had a little photo shoot. Here are a few of my faves:



Now that I have decorated I can finish (or should I say begin):
designing x-mas cards
printing cards
writing cards
addressing cards
buying stamps
mailing cards
compiling mega Christmas mix cd of favorite songs, so as to avoid listening to the bad ones on the radio
eating bad (good) things like cookies, fudge, and chocolates in mass quantities
oh yeah....and shopping.

Mom: Cue up the G N' R!

On my last trip to see my parents I found some of my old cassette tapes. In addition to the first tape I remember buying with my own money Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em and the late 80's classic Forever Your Girl I discovered a treasure trove of various mix tapes, some given to me by various friends, others carefully constructed by yours truly after tedious hours sitting in front of my Sony dual-deck boom box with the radio on and my finger on the record button. As my skills improved I made a few tapes with the actual recordings of songs from the albums that didn't cut off the beginning of the track or have an annoying radio dj in the background. Here are a few of the gems:

The Beatles 1967-1970 made with "love" by my grade school crush of all crushes Josh. As I recall, I saw him buying the tape after school, called him that night (thank you school directory for making his digits public knowledge) and asked if he could make me a copy. I didn't really know who the Beatles were, nor did I care....Josh was making me a tape! A tape that he TOUCHED and was going to GIVE to me! Swoon! Nothing ever happened with Josh, but I have him to thank for introducing me to the Beatles....except that he ran out of room to include Across the Universe and The Long and Winding Road so until late adolescence I had no clue these songs even existed.

Mushy Mix/Oldies contains a lovely arrangement of radio friendly tunes including, but not limited to:
Maybe I'm Amazed - Paul McCartney
Unchained Melody - The Righteous Brothers
Time Is On My Side - The Rolling Stones
I'll Make Love to You- Boyz II Men
I Can't Make You Love Me - Bonnie Rait
American Pie - Don McLean
This Magic Moment - The Drifters
I Know This Much Is True - Tears For Fears at least the first part of this song made it onto the tape...I was actually impressed my pre-teen self had the ability to enjoy a remotely cool song and deem it worthy of the Mushy Mix/Oldies tape, but my praiseworthiness was quickly fleeting as the song was cut off and replaced with...
(I am so embarrassed to admit this)
Angel - Jon Secada

Clearly I stood by the saying "You can never have too much of a good thing," because I found numerous tapes that had the same song on them several times. Who wouldn't love a cassette with this playlist:
Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison
Better Man - Pearl Jam
You Don't Know How It Feels - Tom Petty
American Pie - Don Mclean
My Name is Mud - Primus
Low Self Esteem - Offspring
You Don't Know How It Feels - Tom Petty
Stuck In the Middle - Steelers Wheel
Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison
You Don't Know How It Feels - Tom Petty
Thunderkiss '65 - White Zombie
Low Self Esteem - Offspring
Groove Is In the Heart - Dee-Lite
and drumroll please...
You Don't Know How It Feels - Tom Petty
Who could be bothered to push the rewind button to hear a song when 2 tracks later you can hear it again! Ironically, Tom Petty's Wildflowers cd wont play in my stereo, or computer...worn out perhaps???

Another great example of my obsessive nature can be found on Best of GNR Mix.
Side A:
November Rain

Side B:
Live and Let Die
Don't Cry
Estranged
Patience
Welcome to the Jungle
Paradise City
Sympathy for the Devil

I should mention that November Rain is recorded not once, not twice, but as many times as you can fit on one side of a Maxell 90 minute tape, 5.0279 times in a row to be exact. Laugh all you want, but I think this idea is genius. At ANYTIME while listening to Side B I could switch sides and hear November Rain! Brilliant! This was especially handy when being driven around by my parents while confined to the backseat. If left up to them and their fast forwarding and rewinding skills I could potentially arrive at my destination before hearing the key track. I was just making it easier on them, and I'm sure they loved every 8 minutes and 57 seconds of it. I was so ahead of my time.

Farewell to Fall

Fall was nice this year. I found myself enjoying things like spending time in the woods, carving pumpkins, sipping apple cider and brandy, welcoming the crunch of colorful leaves under my feet, and for once I wasn't freezing. Now that a few snowflakes have fallen I find myself looking back with fondness on a season that I'm usually not that into. I can't seem to embrace Autumn knowing that Winter is getting closer everyday, but something about this year was different. Enjoy this snippet of favorite photos of the season!

360 Degrees

After organizing a bunch of my photos this weekend I have discovered that I have a bit of an obsession with round things en masse. Who knew?! I have no clue what insight this gives to my psyche, but they are fun to look at aren't they? Circularity rules!

Drive-In Bingo

Dear Jens Lekman,

Friday night was great. It's no secret I have a major crush on you and your music. When I had to go outside to get some air I thought it was because it was so frickin hot in the Logan Square Auditorium, but now I'm thinking it was because you make me nervous. Do I make you nervous too? Is that why you just said "Thanks" when I told you that you were amazing instead of professing your love? Does that explain why you only signed my poster with your name instead of writing 'Sara!' like you wrote on the other posters you were signing? You seemed distracted, but I guess it's hard to chat with the girl of your dreams when a crazy mustached hipster in a bad fedora is trying to get you to play at his friend's apartment in Andersonville and wont SHUT UP LONG ENOUGH FOR OTHER PEOPLE TO TALK TO YOU EVEN THOUGH HE ALREADY HAD HIS POSTER SIGNED....TWICE! Sorry to yell Jens, it's really not my style. Next time you are back in town I'm sure we can catch up.

Until then...

You Break It, You Make It

If anyone out there needs help moving, I will gladly lend a hand. When your stuff arrives broken I will then feel guilty and make you something to replace your beloved object. Behold the new trivets that have risen from the ashes of the green bowl! They turned out well; however, I think this will be my first and last attempt at tile work. This mosaic stuff is tedious, and grout is pretty much sand with a thimble sized amount of water added...which makes it: (surprise!) SAND! Only it's sand that you aren't supposed to touch, breathe, eat, put down your drain, or let touch anything that you might touch, eat, or breathe. Grout is my new nemesis, but you wouldn't know it from looking at these cool trivets.

Shopping List: Drawers

I'm totally on the hunt for random drawers after seeing this amazing chest from Wis Design of Sweden. Seriously, what is in the water over there that makes these Swedes crank out such beautiful objects? Think of all the abandoned drawers in the world that will find a new home when I construct my very own chest! How many times have you passed an ugly desk or dresser on the street and thought it seemed like a perfectly good piece of furniture, but it just didn't go with your decor? Never? No? You aren't a picky furniture scavenger like me? Well for the sake of this blog just pretend! I would have been on my way to a new stylish cabinet years ago if only I had the idea to swipe the drawers from the countless pieces of furniture I walked by on the street. Better late than never I suppose. This project is going to be placed in the "very long term" category...after I finish all the other pending projects. Remember that chair I was going to finish a few months ago? It's going to go really well with this chest when they both get completed sometime around 2017...

Four-legged Friends

I've been on a quest for some time now to find a set of salt and pepper shakers that I am in love with. Everything that I've come across is unoriginal, too expensive, or completely adorable and already owned by a friend. Well I'm happy to report that I've finally settled on a pair by the amazing ceramics designer Lola Goldstein. I came across these in New York at the MoMA design store, and I knew I had to have them when I decided NOT to buy them on Friday, only to obsess about them the whole weekend. Good thing I was back in SoHo before heading back to Chicago on Sunday. Seriously, how cute are they??? It is impossible to look at them and not smile!

Stitch In My Side

My whole body hurts, and it's all The Go! Team's fault.
That's not a complaint, but rather the highest of compliments to be paid to a band that had me dancing my ass off on Saturday night. The last time I was that sweaty at a concert it was a 98 degree day in July with a heat index of a gazillion and the ceiling fan above my head at the Double Door was broken...but that is another great concert story for another day. The boys from The Hood Internet got the party started, and The Cool Kids kept the momentum going, and did not disappoint.


I could have gone home happy then, but I would have missed one of the best live shows I have been to in a long time. Take what you see in these photos, multiply it by 100, add a 70's car chase, some kool-aid, fireworks, a slip-n-slide, the feeling you have on the last day of school, pixi-stix, champagne, a rabid dog, a Michael Jordan slam-dunk, pop rocks, a trampoline, a lite-brite, kung-fu movies, 3-D glasses, and some glitter; mix well, condense, and eat like you would a package of fun-dip and there (in a nutshell) you have The Go! Team.
Observation: apparently words that are hyphenated = fun.

Rock*n*Roll Rebel

What Would Neil Young Do? asks the pile of posters in the installation by Jeremy Deller...
...I'll tell you what he would do: not listen to a sign that says "No photography permitted in the gallery." These naughty neon lights were too fun to not take a picture of!

Overall, the Sympathy for the Devil exhibit at the MCA was really great. The audio tour left much to be desired, but I just hummed a little When the Levee Breaks to myself and I was entertained (thank you Slater Bradley for your cool piece "The Year of the Doppelganger"). The MCA is free for 40 days people!!! Go see some rad art!

Later that night, after a sidewalk ticket ambush from a friend, I found myself at Yo La Tengo. I love randomly falling in love with a band I'm not too familiar with, and such was the case on Thursday night. My rebellious rock star photography continued where "No photography of any kind is allowed."

"Cameras will be confiscated," yeah right.
WWNYD?

Dear Cubs,

Way to go boys! Let's ride this wave as long as we can, er... I mean keep playing as well as you have been! Here's an idea: don't blow it like you did four years ago, sending me into a downward spiral of sports depression that I probably just got over! I'm not ready to deal with that again, so let's DO this already. Sheesh. A special thanks to the Padres for helping us out the other night, especially Khalil Greene, who just happens to remind me of a certain someone. Uncanny isn't it?

Soul Sister

Writing about new music that I've taken a liking to would be a pretty time consuming task, and would probably end up being the same drivel you could find in Rolling Stone, TimeOut, or pretty much any magazine these days. Who needs to read one more album review they don't agree with or wants to be told what they MUST purchase immediately? Not me. That being said, I feel like I am doing the world a disservice by not writing about the woman that has been in constant rotation in my life for the past few weeks: sassy soul sister #1, Marva Whitney. Marva got her big break singing with James Brown and his funky people in the 60's, and trust me when I say this woman has soul. I decided to get a solo album of hers a few weeks ago, and little did I know what a gem I would come across. When I saw the release date of I Am What I Am was 2007 I assumed I was coming across a nice remastered re-issue of some old Marva cuts, when the exact opposite proved to be true. This album is Marva's first solo effort in 36 years...this woman just turned 63 and she is cranking it out like she is back on the stage with James and the gang. Marva's voice could stand alone, but on this album she is accompanied by Osaka Monaurail, an amazing Japanese funk band. Yes you heard me correctly, a Japanese Funk Band. These guys perform with the same style and zeal as James and his band without coming off as a cheesy tribute group. Marva Whitney and Osaka Monaurail sound like the 60's were frozen in time and thawed out in 2007. They are truly a force to be reckoned with. If you want an album to bring the funk, this one with not disappoint. Take it to the bridge Marva!

It's love!

I hope someday when I look into the eyes of my newborn child it is half as amazing as looking at this:

Weighing in at 4.8 ounces and measuring 4 and a half inches, this little beauty is my new bundle of joy!

In other news, here is what I ate for dinner last night, and what I will be eating for every meal until my service plan expires:

Maybe I will mix it up with the beef or chicken flavor just to make things interesting.

I've Been Busy: a Photo Essay

The blog has been slacking for a bit due to the following:
Wilco @ The Pritzker Pavillion

Entertaining In Millenium Park



Hey Mercedes @ Metro

Office @ Metro

Assorted Sunrises

The Mystery Jets @ Schuba's

Jamie T @ Schuba's

The Cubs beating the Reds to win the series

Whew! What a week! More posts in the days to come. Stay tuned loyal reader(s)...

Hideout Block Party

The air was crisp, the beer was cold, and the music was rockin' at the Hideout this past weekend. Bloc Party closed on Friday night with an energy packed set. Seeing them play in a glorified parking lot turned concert venue was quite a treat considering these boys are busy playing huge festivals and arenas over in the U.K.


Saturday acts like Dan Deacon and Mucca Pazza got the crowd amped for the fun to be had later in the day, but the real must see in my book was Art Brut. I've heard this band be criticized for being too kitschy and not that musically inclined and I wondered: are they a buzz band because they can play well or because they have an amusing shtick? Who cares!? They were entertaining as hell, and I danced and laughed my way through their entire set. They also gave me some of the best photos of the weekend- thanks Art Brut!




The other highly anticipated set came from The Frames. They met and exceeded all of my expectations in every way, and I really don't think I have ever been so moved at a festival. Typically, I feel like artists give you a "best-of" set in their allotted 45 minutes of festival time, and while they are fun, they never really perform in the way you know they could if you were seeing them indoors, in a smaller venue, on their own tour. The raw, emotional, passionate songs that Glen Hansard sang were some of the best, and I will go on record saying he is one of the most underrated frontmen of our day. If anyone out there has yet to see Once (in which Glen stars and performs) stop reading right now and go watch this film.


Andrew Bird closed the block party on Saturday night. Yawn. Sorry man, love your music, but you bore me to death live.

Overall it was a great weekend, and I definitely got my $35 worth of music. Too bad the beer wasn't included in the ticket price.

Drool Worthy

I'm officially an Apple nerd. It pretty much snowballed after I bought my iMac a couple years ago, though I did have a rockin' 2GS setup that cranked out some sweet Print Shop banners back in the day. I'm proud to say that instead of being in bed asleep last night I was up watching good ol' Steve Jobs and his keynote address. After retiring for the night I spent the wee hours of the morning tossing and turning.... iPod Touch or cheaper iPhone? 4GB or 8GB? Phone/camera vs. no phone and no camera? Should I throw in a cute little Nano too? The only conclusion I came up with is: I want one. Any one. Every one. I have been holding out on this iPod purchase for a long time, partly due to my inability to make a decision (how many songs do I really want to carry around?), and because I always think a newer, cooler gadget will be introduced if I can just wait a little bit longer. The iPod touch seems like the way to go, but that little voice in the back of my head keeps making me think it is just the poor man's iPhone and I should go big, or go home. Looks like I'm in for more sleepless nights until this gets resolved.

Number 80

I love when the universe aligns and makes things happen.
Some people refer to these instances as coincidences, but I'm of the opinion that everything you do leads you to that certain moment of awesomeness. Maybe I have just seen the movie Sliding Doors one too many times...
I'm getting ahead of myself here, and should first mention that this moment of awesomeness involved seeing taxi cab #80. This is no big deal to most of you, but to a few people in the city cab spotting has turned into quite a pastime. One friend refers to it as urban bird watching, and if this is the case, cab #80 is the bald eagle in a city of pigeons. The cab spotter isn't me, but one my close friends, and she has roped us into her world. She thought she was alone until she came across this article detailing the quest for cabs numbered under 100, and more importantly, why the heck cab #80 has eluded so many people.

Sunday I planned to meet friends for brunch and I waited for the bus...and I waited...and I waited. After waiting forever and answering calls from impatient friends I decided to break down and take a cab. The story would be great if cab number 80 rolled up and whisked me away, but no cabs were in sight. More waiting ensued. A cab rounded the corner and I hailed it only to see the bus approaching. Being the thrifty gal I am I waved the cab on and got on the bus glad to finally be on my way. A couple blocks away from the restaurant I looked up and noticed a cab in front of my bus. Surely it is cab 280 or cab 805, I thought as I leaned to the left and the right, but I did not see any place holders, just a big 80 starring back at me. I whipped out my camera as we came to a stop sign, snapped a photo, and jumped off at my stop in the next block hoping to get some exterior photos. No such luck. Cab number 80 sped north on Sheridan and I was left with only a snapshot, and a great story. Thank goodness for that late bus.

Feeling Handy

The hand is feeling better today. That, and I'm feeling more motivated to be productive with the right one. Enter the x-ray montage for your viewing pleasure!

Breaking Ball

It's been said that there's no crying in baseball. I think the exception occurs when you break your finger at the game.


My lovely finger got to know a baseball quite intimately last night at Wrigley Field during the Brewer's batting practice. In hindsight, what the heck was I trying to do in attempting to catch a ball from our rivals???? I asked myself this question many times over the course of the evening: while trying to stop the cut from bleeding, while trying to eat a hotdog without crying, while receiving a splint in the first aid center, and while being x-rayed after we won the game 5-3. I'm even asking myself WHY as I sit here typing with one hand, and I will probably ask myself the same question when I'm waiting to see my orthopaedic doctor tomorrow. When you see a baseball hurling toward you it seems like a fun idea to catch it, until it ricochets off your finger and lands in the hands of some idiot man who then passes the ball to his idiot girlfriend and not the bleeding woman to his right.

I hope that man to the right is happy with his ball! Since I was having mobility issues I had to give him the finger for the remainder of the game, doctor's orders. They don't call it the friendly confines for nothing!