Chicago: This Will Be Our Year

So what are you guys doing for New Years? Who will be kissed, and by whom?

I am paying $133 to get my guitar fixed but I think it might be worth it just to not break a string at every single show.

We're going to Crew right now to watch sports and drink delicious alcoholic beverages and can probably be persuaded to go to other bars, too, if anyone is kicking around looking for some first of the year fun.

Maddie and I are playing hooky tooday!

ihttp://www.hilltopstudios.net/images/newyear/the%20fake%20fictions.jpg

this is an article i've been reading from the new yorker online, about the guy who wrote the 'his dark materials' books. haven't read them, but i kinda wonder if i should.

from it:

"Indeed, he once caused a scene in a restaurant when he was retelling the Odyssey to his son Tom, then about five years old. “Every time we went out to dinner, I’d tell it to him in serialized form while we waited for our food to come,” he said. “I’d just gotten to the part where Odysseus has come back home in disguise as an old beggar. Penelope has taken Odysseus’s old bow down and told the suitors that she’ll marry whoever can string it. They all try, but none of them can do it. Then Odysseus picks it up, and he feels it all over—to make sure it’s still good, which it is—and then in one move he strings it. Of course, we know what’s going to happen next—he’s going to use it to kill the suitors—but just before that he plucks it just once, to hear the tone. Tom was so taken with the tension of the moment that he bit a piece out of his water glass. The waitress, who was coming toward us with our food, saw him do it, and she was so startled that she dropped her tray. There was food everywhere! It was chaos.”"

Maybe I'll take that article w/ me to lunch now, Julia - I've got the mag but haven't read it yet...

I had a great NYE. We went to Mpls, ate seafood gumbo at a friend's house, did a second-line parade around the block at midnight, and then had an 80's r&b dance party until passing out. Then on Sunday morning we made omelettes and ice cream sundaes w/eggnog whipped cream.

I have a new cell phone. I think I just emailed my new number to all of you, but if you didn't get it and want it then let me know.

That doesn't mean I won't call you ever though! I will!

Playing hooky yesterday was great, though. We cleaned, made a potato/eggs/salami/brie scramble, watched the He-Man & She-Ra Xmas Special, etc.

I overslept. I hate work, and don't want to be there, but I feel like a total asshole for calling in sick.

...which I haven't even done yet, because I am scared.

Fer pete's sake, Jib, just pick up the phone!

xpost -- it has swords.

*Note- Initially, I quit because my dance teacher was institutionalized. Then I found a new teacher and she made us (me and my two classmates) dance to "Bad Boys" by Gloria Estefan and the shame made me quit again.

But that's not really work since nobody makes me go in there. Well, nobody by my strong comitment to WORKER JUSTICE.

Speaking of things, I am reading Female Chauvanist Pig by Ariel Levy and it's so good and I am almost done with it, so it's a really quick read and if anybody wants to borrow it so I can talk about it with someone, I will totally lend it to you (even mail it to you!).

My school friend was on the fast track to professional ballet dancing for realz (not in the way that people say they were serious but weren't really, but actually danced with companies that were all famous and shit) until she was hospitalized for anorexia. Whoops!

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend. Mine was really nice, for the most part (even in the shadow of annoying things). Leaf's around through this next weekend (& I got my *sexy* New Year's kiss!!!), my computer is broken, John gave me a NYE kiss (maybe I'll get sick now!) & I learned that of the two friends of mine that stayed over this weekend, one of them is an ideal houseguest & the other one I never want to stay with me again.

Anywho . . .

Amanda, join a country or Highland/step class in your, YES YOUR area!
http://rscds-chicago.org/

Now is the time of year where I start obsessively checking to see if my grades have been posted while internally berating myself for caring so much.

Laurel - thanks for the info! As a present to myself after graduation in May I'm either going to take a dance class or guitar class. Something tells me that since I stink at guitar playing, I might choose dance.

The mind boggles! The heart melts!

I accidentally played hooky yesterday. As in, I got in today and my boss said, "You know yesterday wasn't a holiday, right?" Oops. Apparently the holiday was on Friday instead. I wondered why no one was here when I was working.

This sort of underscores how uninvested in this job I am, I guess.

YES PLEASE.

(1) Today is a beautiful day!
(2) Yesterday was, too!
(3) I have tomorrow off!
(4) ...because it's my birthday!
(5) I finally broke the dry spell last night! And, even though it may have been a bad idea in the long run, I'm still feeling pretty kickass!
(6) Panthers!

1) Happy birthday, G.

2) I finally heard Sufjan yesterday (Maddie got the cd). I like the zombie song a whole lot. I also got Roots Manuva's last album, which is great.

3) I got a wedding ring yesterday! Crazy. Maddie has pictures on her flickr account, I think.

Clark's on Clark is on Clark and Carmen, which is about 15 or so blocks south of HoC motel. It's very nondescript looking from the outside. It's not until you get in and see the hardcore porn on the TVs that you realize what you've gotten yourself into.

http://giganticmag.com/images/ilx/Chicago2.jpg

You can see the red roof of the Pizza Hut!

Wooden Wand is playing tomorrow at the Empty Bottle. I'm thinking about going. Et tu?

btw -- Wooden Wand is sexyDancer over on the Noize Board.

just search for Wooden Wand.

8PM
Rempis/Daisy/McBride (aka Engines) at the Morseland -- just east of the Morse red line stop, near Sheridan. Dan and I will be there, they have a nice stage and strong drinks.

That's tonight, if anyone cares to join us.

Nick and I watched Serenity last night. It was entertaining, though I've never seen the Firefly show. I was particularly surprised that they didn't sexualize the main character. She's 17 and pretty, but wears kind of hippyesque dresses the whole time.

We watched some Hollywood-ass movies this weekend, Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Sky High. They're both pretty fun for what they are, actually.

Maddie got mine from the same local workshop that I got hers from. I didn't expect that we would walk out with one on Saturday, but that ring was the sort of thing we had in mind and it already fit perfectly, so she snapped it up. I wore it for a day (it was weird) and gave it back to her. I presume it's safely in an underwear drawer now.

Nothing makes me happier than to be not at you.

Sour grapes,

gbx

(not me)

Or do you mean people not on the thread?

I don't care about the length of these threads either. I have last 50 posts and that's all I need. I pity the fool who reads these threads for a variety of reasons, the least of which is their length.

With the total dismissal of the music to razz on the lyrics, it read like a bad parody of a "rock critic" doling out tough love. Country music isn't allowed to be maudlin? Since when?

Ever since switching to "last 100 posts only", I don't care.

Ditto.

Me too!

...I've thought about switching to "last 100," but I'm not even that diligent.

1. the reviewer seems too caught up in his own interpretation of the lyrics to really talk much about the music. mostly he uses the space to publicly degrade & judge edith. the only time he really talks about the music is when he mentions how her voice conflicts with the subject matter. he is so unable to step away from his feelings about her being co-dependant & needy that he can't really talk about much else.

2. if edith were a man, would we talk about how he was co-dependant? or would we call him "raw" and "brave?" or would we complain about emo boys? somehow i don't think manedith would be judged as harshly, so dickwit can fuck off as far as i'm concerned.

bonus track:
since he's waiting for edith to emerge from her songs a fresh woman who has learned new lessons on love & herself & how we don't need men to be happy, why can't he just be okay with once in a while people (men and women) sometimes feel that way? argh.

Chicago. Wow.

2. I have it on "show last 50 posts only," as well.

3. I am at work but trying to finish my proposal to the pop-music conference.

4. The PFM review does kind of suck, I agree. Whatever happened to the idea of thematic unity? Howe seems to think that it's one song after another of co-dependency because she's incapable of looking beyond her own emotional failure, rather than giving her credit for capturing a cohesive mood.