Chicago MMXII

I was kidding about judging. And I was thinking about Jeff's advice to someone on ILX, "Dance like everybody's judging you." (who was that?)

Corey, there will be new Archer episodes soon!

So guess what? I started a thread on ILM last night and it was not a disaster. Worst Pixies song

xp it was my first time watching it. i think i like it more than sealab, but i'd need to see more eps to tell

Archer v. Sealab is very much apples an oranges IMO.

they share some writers don't they?

Marduk commands you to reconsider your opinion.

Oh I don't know.

I just meant that the styles are very different, though thinking about it now I can see some intersections. The characters are all kind of jerky and the jokes are often somewhat blue. But Sealab is more about absurdism and non-sequitirs. Archer eps stick w/ their story and characters rather than veer off into stuff like the 5:00 long "UH OH!" bit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjkdMQzNbt4

ha! i'd always wondered where "we have uh-oh" came from

The only thing to judge was that a Daily Show guy was doing stand-up beforehand and decided to try out an extra half-hour of new material.

Wyatt Cenac? I know he was in town this week.

Yeah, we even saw him walk around the building when they wouldn't let us in. He stayed for the dance party too, but was not dancing.

Btw he was cute, smaller than I expected, and had a beard. Lotsa dull jokes though, including lol buying condoms is embarrassing.

Wow. That's really bad.

tres leches, i used some of that dried mango powder. my stir-fry is now deliciously tangy.

awesome!!! i hope you sang "lemme tang it" while you were cooking :)

Hey sorry I didn't check in. Hope the coffee table transportation went OK <3

Yeah, I think Wyatt Cenac was on a live episode of WTF not too long ago and I was kinda ~shrug~ about him. Not that that's the best venue to judge someone as a performer, but it seemed like he was mostly coasting on charm.

Be careful, karaokers!

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-cops-man-hits-bar-owner-with-bmw-then-tosses-150-cash-at-him-20120116,0,3630305.story

Weekly check-in to see who might be up for pub quiz tonight.

1) Odd Mint Saucepans 14 pts
2) A Witch Liver 10 pts
3) Finish the Lyrics 12 pts
4) Chemical States Round 16 pts
5) Dead Or Canadian 11 pts
6) Pictures 15 pts
7) General Knowledge 22 pts

1 = Stand-Up Comedians
2 = The Civil War (or possibly "Welch Trivia": questions about Jack and/or Raquel Welch)

can't do tonight as per empty bottle show as previously discussed. seems like it's going to be pretty poorly attended (tuesday night plus snow in the forecast). i'm now playing bass on three songs and keyboards on two songs, instead of just autoharp all the time, plus singing backups on a couple of songs, which is fun.
too bad, "stand-up comedians" is a good category.

Oh riiiight. Sorry.

it is cold

how was your show?

Gaahahdsafwh Nick, I wanted to go to your stupid show and I only remembered it last night at about 9:30. I need a social secretary.

i've been playing in my friend's band for about a year, most of the time i play autoharp. last night we're playing a show, we're a fairly quiet band, and a drunk guy decides that the middle of a song is a good time to wander up and ask what the instrument i'm playing is called. i try to just stare him down, he says "you don't know what it's called? ok" and wanders away. kinda put me in an odd funk for the rest of the set.

― congratulations (n/a), Wednesday, January 18, 2012 10:28 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

the club also arbitrarily pushed back the start of the music by an hour, literally minutes after we were talking about how we liked playing there because they're so professional

― congratulations (n/a), Wednesday, January 18, 2012 11:04 AM (48 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i think it was fine but i was in a weird mood after having to wait around with nothing to do for the four hours between sound check and our set, plus the drunk guy, plus an annoying opening band. there were a surprising number of people there though, i guess because free show.

should've kicked drunk guy in the forehead imo

four hours is a long time, geez
i'd be antsy
at least there were people there, even though one of them was drunk guy?

Empty Bottle is only good for rock. The rest gets drowned out by yayhoos.

i've seen some great loud jazz shows there, and folk stuff too but there were as many times that the singer had to yell STFU.

one of my favorites was seeing alasdair roberts with like 20 other people including the bartender
i remember there being a LOT of problems when we went to see lavender diamond though. that was a long time ago, eh?

Yeah, and I tried seeing Azita there a time or two, to no avail.

bert jansch was great though, and no one bothered him because everyone was there to see him

i've definitely seen quiet bands get overwhelmed by crowd noise there (whoever opened for bill callahan/smog that time i went with jeff), or sometimes they try to make quiet bands LOUD to compensate and lose the dynamics, which i think was more what happened with us - they had the bass pumped, which isn't really appropriate for our songs.

sorry for the bitching. it wasn't that bad.

anyone know anyone looking for editorial work?

New CTA Stations

I was hoping this was about the proposed new stop on the Yellow Line that would be blocks from my house. That would be great.

if I lived on the far south side I'd be pretty pissed about some of this happening instead of extending the red line

Yeah, I'm not sure that fancy new platforms should be first on the list. I think extending services would be a priority, but lets not expect CTA to exhibit logic.

But then I'm furious with the CTA because the goddamn 97 bus I mentioned earlier has driven past me at the stop three times in the last week and a half now and my complaints seem to be doing no good.

i don't even want to know what the cta has planned for my stop

Bus tracker has developed an annoying glitch for the westbound Diversey stop in front of my apartment. It will say Approaching when it absolutely is NOT but it will say that for several minutes. Then it will either switch to an accurate estimate or get stuck on 6 or 7 minutes.

At eastbound Belmont bus stop by Courtney's house (Belmont Blue Line) Bus Tracker consistently predicts 5 minutes when it is 2 stops away. That's pretty fucking exasperating. Those 2 stops = 2 minutes MAX. >:[

I've been enjoying the electronic trackers on select bus stops.

I'd be happy of they just put new metal caps on the stairs at Wilson. The ones there now are worn smooth and slick and one of these wet and ice days, I know I'm going ass over elbow down those stairs.

the steps are all really scary
i often get this terrible OH GOD I'M GOING TO FALL sensation and it's awful

The steps on the stations they are remodeling are bad, too. Hate those steps. Hate that gonna fall feeling.

every time it's like having a heart attack!

all of a sudden the phrase "heart attack" sounded really weird

Heart attack-ack-ack-ack-ack-ack
You oughta know by now

PRESSURE