Chicago: They paved a fetid swamp/and put up a parking lot

Ooo. That looks good.

I saw Common at Macy's yesterday.

hi

ho

hi

ho

i just got a silly lol from a promotional email touting a show by "Sam Prek0p, of The Sean and Cake"

that's a Cibo Matto tribute band

hi ho
hi ho
this email touts a show

^^ a good way to start your next promotional email

students totally animated today talking about hoarders (the show). it was weird.

Je55e, this is opening near you soon. Looks fancy: http://www.2sparrowschicago.com/

has anyone been to "marmalade," that new place that opened where the gross diner used to be at damen and montrose? it looks like a fancy brunch place.

also does anyone else have any interest in seeing moneyball? i'll probably go see it sometime this week while sarah and e. are in france, since i know sarah won't want to watch it.

we're going to go see "drive" tonight and i'm pumped about that.

Jeff, I've seen the signs up. The menu looks great.

I don't want to see Moneyball.

Swans were great. We got home at 1:20 or something. I'm really drowsy now. It was fun for a couple hours this morning feeling all buzzy and weird, but now I just feel sleepy and weird.

Gmail is down.

Or at least not entirely up.

hmm...gmail seems fine to me.

Swans were fantastic and I was able to sleep until 10, so all is well.

We've been to marmalade a couple of times and it's pretty good. Sort of halfway between a diner and a fancy brunch place. Not as good as like m henry or whatever.

and I know john and kr went to marmalade too but I don't know what they thought of it

Gmail is running smoothly again right now. It was glitchy for a while. Server errors.

Thank you for that information.

Eat my toenails.

Swans were like a megavolcano of sound and I slept til 9:30 after zonking out on the couch around 2:??

Gmail has been ok but I can't get lastfm to work, which has annoyed me.

Eat my toenails.

Which I say as a curse to you and to Dr. AJ b/c I had to wake up at 7:15. I didn't get to sleep till well after two.

Eh that's not so bad. How was yr donut?

there's a very sad small straggly protest going on outside the federal reserve bank next door to my office building. when i left for lunch it was maybe 20 people walking around and chanting, when i got back it was about 10 forlorn people just sitting outside the bank and holding unobtrusive signs with four or five policemen watching. apparently they don't like capitalism.

Hey, went to Next and it's def worth it.

What'd you have? Was this the childhood theme?

Re Gmail: See? Toldya so

http://i.imgur.com/jBWAW.png

I knew gmail was down, because I was using it when it happened, but in the time it would have taken me to log into some public internet forum and post about it, it was back up.

Theme was Thailand. My only concern going in is that there are great Thai dinners in Chicago for $8, but this was completely different.

i'm going to see the rapture on weds. at the metro if anyone else wants to go - advance base (0wen-only lineup) is opening and so i'm on the guest list (brag brag)

also i'm playing with advance base at ultra lounge in logan square on oct. 8 - giving an early heads up for this show because i'm playing keyboards on three songs so there's an increased chance that i will obviously and hilariously fuck up in the middle of a song

Wow, you guys were quiet while I was gone.

Since you're married, there is really nothing else to post for.

A coworker of mine got a copt of the book Outlander (http://www.amazon.com/Outlander-Diana-Gabaldon/dp/0440212561/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top) for free somewhere and gave it to me because the cover is a non-stop promotional tool ("HISTORICAL FICTION WARFARE ROMANCE EVERYTHING IS IN HERE READ IT DO IT DO IT" - Diana Gabaldon) and she thought I'd like it.

This is the first book I have ever literally thrown away. Like, I got a little less than halfway through and threw it in the recycling. Amazon one-star reviews OTM but if you don't feel like checking them out, let me just tell you: Gabaldon wrote this book in 1991 and yet the main dude, the guy we are supposed to be hot for as readers and be in love with, beats his wife (the character we are supposed to identify with) "half to death" and "within an inch of (her) life" with a belt because she disobeyed him and two pages later, she's all "Yeah, I deserved it. I love you!" and then he rapes her.

o_O

Kind of sad that it still has 74% 5-star reviews though.

it's like you opened the book and it was crawling with ants
how disgusting!

Misogynistic ants no less.

have you guys ever bitten into an apple and actually found a worm?
i did once

it looked kind of like this
http://www.altweeklies.com/imager/mayor-union-buster/b/main/4948767/2684/st110922152508.jpg

lol

SPOILER: do not read this post if you are still eating or planning to eat soon, but this is totally on topic.

When I was about ten my mom was earing a candy bar, a 3 Musketeers bar iirc, and peeled the wrapper halfway down the bar, took a big bite, then peeled the rest of the wrapper off to reveal maggots all over the other end. She has not eaten a candy bar since.

wow, that's disgusting. i'm impressed.

Rahm-apple is much funnier for a Monday morning though.

I seriously loled when I saw that illustration in the paper.

I had to read outlander in library school for a popular fiction class because it was ranked the #1 romance novel of all time by somebody somewhere. It was truly awful and I think it still has my only 1 star rating on goodreads. And yet the plot description makes it sound pretty good!

I have bitten into an apple and found a worm when my family had an apple tree in the yard in Oregon.

Courtney was telling a current coworker about a former coworker whose husband beat the daylights out of her. He said, "Holy shit! Why? What did she do?" Courtney, his girlfriend, and I had to take advantage of a "teachable moment." (he said that obviously he didn't mean literally what did she do to earn a beating, but "tell me more, did he do that a lot?" etc. )

nick, i'm reading china mieville's embassytown and i think you might like it? conceptually solid sci-fi about language, more or less.

it's a little slow to start since it does a lot of world-building upfront, but gets pretty engrossing once the terms are set.

On Saturday Jenny and Courtney said they had never noticed the Y symbol on buildings around Chicago so I wondered if it was something that wasn't that well-known. Anybody else aware of it? Since Saturday I have seen it EVERYWHERE, including on the front of a fire truck this morning and on the front of a gyros place by my work. Examples:

http://i.imgur.com/qqaTz.jpg http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-i_6pynJVoT4/Tf3gYXkqJwI/AAAAAAAAg5c/Am6RMd3EIuM/s1600/LI--Y-symbol-201b.jpg

Subtler:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-a9mkRGx8eaE/TWT-YseJ2mI/AAAAAAAAb0w/ihEw1UZLthk/s1600/LI-sculp-GP-703b.jpg

It is apparently called The Municipal Device.

Interesting: 1-8-070 Municipal device-City vehicle identification.
The municipal device, for use by the varied unofficial interests of the city and its people, shall show a Y-shaped figure in a circle, colored and designed to suit individual tastes and needs. All automobiles and other vehicles which are owned by the city, except those used by the commissioner of police, and the detective bureau of the department of police, shall be distinctly marked as the property of the city by painting or placing thereon in a conspicuous place, in such a manner that the same cannot be removed, the municipal device, together with the words "City of Chicago," and the name of the department operating the said automobile or other vehicle. (Prior code 2-7)

I've never noticed that either! Now I'll be on the lookout though.

jordan, i read embassytown and thought it was good - i have "issues" with sci fi but it did have lots of interesting ideas and concepts. i've been working through "the count of monte cristo" which is good but like all old-school serialized novels is too long and has annoying digressions. i started "the art of fielding" but can't decide if i'm going to stick with it. i also downloaded the new neal stephenson but don't want to start another 1,000-page book until i finish or decide to give up on count of monte cristo.

It's hidden in plain sight

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_5yT-HGxp5uo/TPBqYIwjVkI/AAAAAAAAD_g/qO6Aq5PDaLE/s1600/ChicagoSign%2B%25281%2Bof%2B1%2529.jpg

xp

I guess that's not the actual Chicago Theatre Marquis, but it's an accurate facsimile.