the Damnwells - Soundtrack

"Soundtrack"




She said, 'You got nothing to prove,
but you've got something to lose,
and that something is me.
You got no reason to stay,
say you been running away.
But you run like a thief.'

She wants you, she needs you
A soundtrack to bleed to
But can you shut up long enough to fall in love?

She said, 'Come on, just let me breathe,
I'm tangling now that you leave, get me back to myself.
Tried a thousand and one times,
but the lines are undone,
why not believe what you felt?'

She wants you, she needs you
A hurricane to leave through
But can you shut up long enough to fall in love?

And didn't you hear?
There's a time
And a place that I won't be going
Time won't erase all you fear
Well, you ought to know by now

There is no reason to lie
No reason to lie
Yeah, you ought to know by now

She wants you, she needs you
The soundtrack to bleed to
But can you shut up long enough to fall in love?

the Damnwells return to Chicago

The Damnwells
Double Door in Chicago, IL
12/6/2008

It has been a long time coming for my favorite band to come back to Chicago. Come to think of it, the last time they were in Chicago was June 2007!
I've kept in contact with Alex Dezen over the past 18months and this lil surprise show popped up as Alex and Angela, the newest member of the Damnwells (Alex's wife) were visiting Chicago.

I was particularly thrilled to see Ted, the bassist with the band (founding member) and Jay Barclay, who previously toured with them.

I was nestled close at the front of the stage and knew the words to almost every song. To my credit, I did know most of the words to "55 pictures" which has not been released. The magical moment of the night was when Alex stepped away from the mic and the packed crowd sang "Kung Fu Grip Kiss."

I've seen these guys countless times live and I'm still never tired of seeing them. The Damnwells give it 100% everytime they hit the stage.



















































Alex & Angela Dezen


David & Ted


David with the guys in the band

Halloween

my 1st Halloween in Chicago was spectacular.
Even if you don't have a party to go to, just take a lawn chair and go to the Belmont stop and people watch. I did see fellow Ghostbusters out returned a smile and a wave to me.


Sunny fans will recognize


best costume evah.... seriously


my awesome co-workers

Fall TV Schedule

Getting excited about the new fall tv schedules shouldn't be a surprise to those who know me.
Schedules for the networks are announced back in May, but are subject to (and they do) change.

These are the shows that I watch regularly and try not to miss an episode.
I leave Friday and Saturday alone.
Not included are Sunday Night Football (NBC) and Monday Night Football (ESPN).

New schedule comes out in January with 24, Lost, and Scrubs.

To look at tv schedules to customize your own, I recommend Zap2it and a site that contacted me for my input, the Futon Critic.

Brooke Barrettsmith

On a Friday evening I found myself driving west on Rte 173 in Lake County searching feverishly for a small church off the road where this independent artist named Brooke Barrettsmith was gaining steam.

I have been following this girl's career for a little over two years now. She has overcome some personal family issues that are well documented and for the world to see on her website, but more importantly, created a stronger bond with them because of their journey together.

Brooke isn't any ordinary rocker - she can sing. She competed in American Idol and made it quite far. Getting cut from making the top 12 didn't derail her dreams, she soldiered on and eventually got signed.



Arriving at this small church, I can hear the loud pounding sound of music being played. As I walked in, I see a four-piece band on stage playing with such energy, you would think they thought they were playing in an arena. Armed with a small black t-shirt, a guitar, and her backing band, Brooke managed to electrify the room. To say she wore her heart on her sleeve would be an understatement. Brooke wore the whole room's heart on her sleeve. Her songs of hope, despair, and her faith created a connection with her audience giving everyone a front row seat to her life.



I first found about Brooke as I grew up with her guitarist and fiance, Billy Adams. I'm not sure if I would classify Billy as a musical prodigy, but he's pretty close. I recall being in Billy's basement with his brother over a decade ago watching him play guitar. He had a natural gift for music and it's great to see he's putting it to good use.

The concert was officially billed as her 'CD Release Party.' I picked up her album which she was gracious enough to sign for me.

Brooke's self-titled album is available on iTunes.
Check out the single "Farewell" streaming at www.brookerocks.com

Jim Gaffigan: the Sexy Tour

In the cozy, downtown district of Waukegan, IL lies a courthouse, train station, a few bars, and the Genesee Theatre, which happens to be conveniently less than 15 minutes from where I live. The theatre has been showcasing plays and bringing bigger acts for a few years now. I was particularly interested when comedian Jim Gaffigan was announced to show up.

On a whim, I decided to drive there and see if there were any extra tickets. Gaffigan originally sold out his 8pm show and an extra 10:30pm show was added. I took my friend Christine with me to see if we could find tickets. Before we made it inside, we were looking where to enter and Jim Gaffigan exited the car right next to us. A wave of applause erupted and he waved to the crowd and went in. I found where to enter inside for the box office. Before I could even reach the ticket window, a guy named Mike intervened. Mike approached me and asked if I had tickets. I told him I didn't and was looking to see if there were any. He said he had two openings next to him and his girlfriend and would sell them to me and a cheap price ($40) from what he paid. Its not common to meet a complete stranger who was this kind, but to my surprise, it was the real deal.

A bigger surprise was the location of our seats. We walked down the middle isle and found our seats were dead center 12 rows from the stage.

Gaffigan killed. He spent what seemed to be 30 minutes talking about his love of bacon. "Adding bacon makes everything better. Sprinkle some bacon on that salad and it becomes a game: find the bacon"

"if it wasn't for bacon, we wouldn't know what a water chesnut was"

Gaffigan didn't just repeat old material off his previous albums. He started off the show with a bit on bowling, followed by an ongoing joke of being lazy, and of course television. Gaffigan interrupted his talk of food for some religious jokes. "Abraham circumsized himself. I'd love to hear how that conversation with his wife went..."

Gaffigan closed the show with his signature material, Hot Pockets. As he started, the roar went thru the audience knowing what's coming next. Gaffigan did not disappoint and added some new lines to his infamous hot pocket bit. "Now they have breakfast hot pockets. Hot pocket for breakfast, hot pocket for lunch, dead by dinner!.... murder pockets!"

Incredible circumstances occurred for me to attend this show and it was awesome how it all came together. Even though my jaw hurt after laughing so hard, I would see Jim Gaffigan again in a heartbeat.

Helio Sequence - Keep Your Eyes Ahead

Delivered from the indie label Sub Pop, comes a duo from Portland Oregon: Helio Sequence. The band is new to me, but have quite a history spanning back ten years. Recently, their history involves a near tragic derailment of the band. Brandon Summers, frontman, damaged his vocal chords and nearly lost his voice after touring in support of their last album. Having to relearn to sing, Summers and his counterpart Benjamin Weikel managed to create the brilliant album "Keep Your Eyes Ahead."

Listening to the album from the beginning gives you a good indication of what to expect. "Lately" is by no means a minimalistic song. The sound of guitar notes chasing each other with a drumbeat multiplying throughout the progression of the track. "Can't Say No" keeps the album on pace as it feels more aggressive and blends the echoes of the vocals magically.

A few tracks down "Shed Your Love" find its place in the middle of the album slowing it down appropriately like a roller coaster. Summer's voice is much more stripped on this track, exposing his calmness and composure.

Near the end of the album, my favorite track "Hallelujah" makes its appearance. Summers truly shows the depth of his songwriting on this track, with deep lyrics surrounding its simple chorus repeated throughout the song: "we all said hallelujah, we all said hallelujah."

Who watches the Watchmen?

Finally got around to and finished Alan Moore's graphic novel The Watchmen (illustrated by Dave Gibbons). I was an avid reader of comics as a kid and did not stumble upon this until now. Which is completely fine as the Watchmen is serious literature as the book has won the Hugo award and was named one of Time's 100 best novels.

The Watchmen is a story of aging superheroes in 1985 who reflect on their crime fighting days while anticipating a possible nuclear war with Russia. The death of one of their own brings an investigation by the mysterious Rorschach who believes there is an attempt to wipe out all masked heroes.

Moore cleverly adds fictional material between the chapters such as the autobiography of Nite Owl, newspaper articles and anything else to help you better understand the characters.

the Sin in Wisconsin

Annually, the Wisconsin State Fair invades the Milwaukee area at the Wisconsin Fair Grounds, just a short distance from Miller Park.



Hundreds of thousands of people visit the week long celebration for music, miscellaneous attractions, and cream puffs. The long lines are astounding as it snakes inside the building and gives you a front row seat at them being made.


Personally, I could only handle one, but there are others who order them by the dozen. There are even different lines that you could just pick up an order of cream puffs.



My friend Nate, could not stop talking about a delicacy he tried the year before... Deep Fried S'mores. Several items are deep fried such as cheese, twinkies, candy, but the s'mores are something special.






The Deep Fried S'more is possibly the most delicious food I have ever tried. When you bite into the crust, there is a melty mixture of chocolate and marshmallow that tastes like heaven.

As you can probably tell, the Wisconsin State Fair isn't the finest low-calorie experience. Gluttony is the sin of choice, but at least it's a delicious choice!

Bears, Beets, Battlestar Galactica

The Office: Season 3 might be one of the best investments I have ever made in purchasing a dvd boxset. Reliving the pranks, the introduction of new characters such as Karen, Andy and the WaMu bank guy, the bat in the ceiling, and realizing how hilarious the minor character Creed can be.

Michael Scott: I love inside jokes. Love to be a part of one someday.

Dwight Schrute: When I die, I want to be frozen. And if they have to freeze me in pieces, so be it. I will wake up stronger than ever because I will have used that time to figure out exactly why I died, and what moves I could've used to defend myself better now that I know what hold he had me in.

Kevin: I had Martin explain to me three times what he got arrested for because it sounds an awful lot like what I do here everyday.

Jim Halpert: It's a bold move to photoshop yourself into a picture with your girlfriend and her kids on a ski trip with their real father. But then again, Michael is a bold guy. Is bold the right word?

Dwight Schrute: How would I describe myself? Three words: hard working, alpha male, jack hammer. Merciless. Insatiable.

Dwight Schrute: I saw Wedding Crashers, accidentally. I bought a ticket for Grizzly Man and went into the wrong theatre. After an hour I figured I was in the wrong theatre but I kept waiting. That's the thing about bear attacks, they come when you least expect it.

Toby: This may be the first time that a male subordinate has attempted to get a modest, scheduled raise by threatening to withhold sex from a female superior. It will be a groundbreaking case when it inevitably goes to trial.

Dwight Schrute: Yes. I have decided to shun Andy Bernard for the next three years. Which I'm looking forward to. It's an Amish technique. It's like slapping someone with silence. I was shunned from the age four until my sixth birthday for not saving the excess oil from a can of tuna.

Creed: The only difference between me and a homeless man is this job. I will do whatever it takes to survive. Like I did, when I was a homeless man.

Dwight Schrute: Once I am officially regional manager, my first order of business will be to demote Jim Halpert. So I will need a new number two. My ideal choice: Jack Bauer. But he is unavailable, fictional, and overqualified.

Creed: I remember. I blogged the whole thing. www.creedthoughts.gov.www/creedthoughts. Check it out.
Ryan: Last year, Creed asked me how to set up a blog. Wanting to protect the world from being exposed to Creed's brain, I opened a word document on his computer and put an address at the top. I've read some of it. Even for the intranet... it's pretty shocking.

Burn Notice: Season 2

Jeffrey Donovan returns tonight to continue his quest in finding who burned him and interrupted his life as a C.I.A. agent. The one factor that played a huge part in reeling me in was Donovan's best friend who rats him out to the feds, Bruce Campbell.

Now, this show won't be getting any award nominations in the future and that's quite alright. Burn Notice aims to provide an entertaining spy show that isn't too complicated, but doesn't lack the depth of an intelligent show.

Season 1 is out on DVD (13 episodes)

Taste of Chicago

Chicago, IL
Occurs annually at the end of June/beginning of July

Here's how it works. Entry is 100% free! You can even bring in your own beverages. Vendors are giving out stuff, people are playing music and the smell is in the air.
First place you visit is the ticket booth where you buy tickets (12 for $8)
Then you visit the booths and trade in tickets for food.
It's a lil pricey, but it's more of the experience and it's also just a once a year thing.

My friend Casey typically accompanies me on my visits, but he lives in North Carolina, so in memory of his Polish heritage I jumped on the pierogies immediately.


Available in 3 flavors: potato, cheese, and sauerkraut.
If you're new to pierogies or like variety (like me) order 3 and get one of each.

I also came across a place that had chicken and veggie spring rolls which were filling and quite delicious.

Pizza comes in so many varieties at the Taste and a different number of restaurants are present. I recommend to get filled up on a slice of deep dish. I got a lesser known brand, but this place is quite popular in Chicago.



Not to get too fancy, I got down to basics and enjoyed a steak burger with bleu cheese and mustard sauce.
To finish the taste, I upheld a tradition I created to end each visit to the Taste with a slice of Eli's Cheesecake. They come plain, strawberry topping, turtle, and the amazing Oreo cheesecake with ice cream.


Most vendors have representation each year at the taste, so get familiar with some of these names:

Wall-E

Wall-E is the ninth film from Pixar and possibly the best one ever. Wall-E is the story of trash compacting robot who was left on Earth to clean up the mess made by humans. He is forgotten, yet still does the job he is programmed to do, collecting artifacts along the way and befriending a cockroach he cares for.

Wall-E soon meets another robot Eve, who he shouts to as "Eve-Ahhh." He gives Eve his most prized possessions as a gift, a plant- which triggers an event that takes them both on a journey to space where humans currently reside.

Wall-E is quite risky in the beginning as there is little dialogue, but viewers get the point that Wall-E is a caring robot who yearns for love and affection like the rest of us. Wall-E touches the heart and makes you feel while still delivering laughter.

Wall-E had good timing as it was released on my birthday weekend and I had anticipated the film since I saw the teaser trailer months ago. The lengths Wall-E goes through to show his affection for Eve is incredibly touching. Hearing the robots cries of "Wall-EEEE" and Eve-ahhh" brought a smile to my face every time. A touching scene (and most memorable) is where the robots dance in space with each other completing the connection they share.