Quote of the Day
I found this on
IMDB - and it made me laugh.
Supposedly Paul Lynde was the inspiration for a line in Groundhog Day. After a high-speed chase through the Valley one night when he was driving recklessly while intoxicated, Lynde crashed his car into a mailbox. The police came to the car, guns drawn, and he lowered his window and told them "I'll have a cheeseburger, hold the onions, and a large Sprite."
Muttering and buttering
- Sleep:: A hobby
- Stats:: statistics... put me to sleep
- Portfolio:: A fancy word for folder
- Lipton:: James Lipton. He is deeeeeliiightful!
- Telly:: "Who loves ya baby?"
- Immigrate:: Look for a better life
- Viable:: Business wank speak
- Serene:: Purple Mountain Majesties
- Mountain:: Move any Mountain
- Natalie:: Tootie's best friend.
ech. so i've been incredibly slack about writing my stories based on my responses to these guys. though looking at this week's bunch, i thinkt he best I could do would be a
Facts of Life Fan Fiction story where Tootie and Natalie from
the Facts of Life meet James Lipton on
Inside the Actors Studio and talk about how Natalie writes Plays for Tootie to star in. Come to think of it, that's not a bad idea.
Catches CTA trains just like flies
So it's exciting that the apparent draught of movie filming in Illinois has concluded. I was pleasantly pleased that the runaway el scenes in
Spiderman 2 were filmed on Chicago's Loop. Clearly visible was the Washington/Wells station (over and over and over) and Madison/Wabash stations. I could tell the trains they were running were also clearly CTA trains (the ones used on the Blue line, thank you). It was quite exciting. I remember reading somewhere online that New Yorkers were agast that as a plot device the movie just sticks an elevated trainline in Manhattan. What I realized after reading the excellent
Chicago-L.org was that the trainline used to exist on 8th avenue until the 40s when the 9th Street subway was created. That's not really all
that blashphemous. It was an exhilerating ride, and besides, an all-out subway fight scene was done in
Hellboy. I found it a nice exit from the plentiful long thoughtful glances that every character in Spiderman 2 was required to make. Peter for MJ. Aunt May for Peter. MJ for Peter, but then not, but then again. Harry Osborne for his drink.
It just seemed to me, that the inter-relations were a little overplayed. If they weren't trying to set up a sequel with Harry Osborne becoming whatever goblin he is set to become, they probably could have just eliminated his character altogether. It's one thing for Willem Defoe to walk around brooding and being all wierd; but James Franco does not a movie psychopath make.
Personally I liked my Doc Ock costume more than Alfred Molina's, but maybe I'm biased - judge for yourself:
I mean, really... Where's his nuclear jumpsuit?
So do we get a Batcave, too?
Also exciting for the neighborhood: Gotham City meets Chitown. It's pretty well known that Chicago is going to host the location shooting for the latest
Batman Biopic, and I just found out that my old stomping ground of Waukegan will be hosting the highway chase scenes on none other than the Melvin E. Amstutz Expressway; aka the highway to nowhere.
Yahoo! News - Gotham City, a.k.a Waukegan
This particular stretch of road has been used for a few movies... Most notably that come to mind are
Groundhog Day and the
Blues Brothers. The Amstutz is a crazy stretch of road. Built in the '60s as a potential link from Milwaukee to Chicago, construction abruptly stopped when no other communities else ponied up to build highways to link to it. While I was growing up, it was a popular stretch for drag racing, and lots of high jinks. At current, it aids in allowing motorists to bypass most of Waukegan altogether when travelling Sheridan Road.
Apparently the people running the city are glad to have the production come to town, which is nice to bring in a little bit of business during the filming, but do they realize it's probably been chosen because the scenery looks bombed out and gothic?
Aye Guv'nor!
Author's note: Because it took multiple failed attempts at writing the next two blog entries, I simply settled for whatever I could get on the blog and saved; so thoughts might be partially complete, participles left dangling, and spelling attrocious. We endeavour to make your grammar experience pleasant and apologize in advance for any poor shows of grammar to follow in the next two blog entries. - the contrarian grammarian
So I was driving down what locals sarcastically call the Bowmanville Expressway Sunday morning, when in the distance I see someone running down the middle of the street.
"What's this idiot doing?" I think to myself. Bowmanville Ave got the "expressway" nickname because it's fairly common for people to speed through cutting from Lincoln Square to Andersonville.
As I approach, I notice that there's two bicyclists following around the runner. Crazy. I wonder if there's some kind of wacky triathalon or something.
As I get closer, I see the helmet of black hair. The chiseled smile. It hits me. I've seen this guy before.
It was my neighbor. Well, are they a neighbor if they're in the same zip code?
It was
Governor Rod.
I suppose as a politician, he
can run down the middle of the road.
Obligatory Millennium Park Blog
Right. So I think I'd lose my license to blog in Chicago if I didn't write even the slightest tidbit about the opening of Millennium Park. I think I've been a bit of a skeptic to start. I'm sure I could talk about the delay, or the cost, or whatever. It's all pretty well-worn territory now.
Brandy and I had talked of going down to the Harris pavilion to see Ira Glass & Chris Ware present the story of a boy who loved architecture. I saw the presentation last year at the
This American Life: Lost in America show at the Chicago Theatre.
I absolutely loved this feature. As a lover of Architecture, and Chicago's architecture specifically, the story touched me. The animation complimented the story beautifully. It was about a boy that loved looking at old buildings and got connected with a preservationist and made rounds throughout the city checking on the Louis Sullivan buildings.
The story is sad, Chris Ware's artwork is beautifully sublime. It was the perfect piece to christen a wonderfully new structure by laying remembrance to just some of the buildings we've lost.
Park Redux
I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about the new park altogether. It's a massive space, that has so many draws, so much so that it kinda feels like going to Las Vegas where everything competes for your attention. Peristyle, Gehry Bandshell, Cloudgate, Prairie Garden, Crown Fountain; it's all so much. The rest of Grant park is rather sedate, so maybe this is what the doctor ordered. I'd guess that Columbian Exposition landscape architect
Frederick Law Olmstead would have a coronary in response to millennium park, were he not already dead. I think a park really has to grow into itself. People have to find the nooks, the special places; not necessarily the places that are intentionally "special" like the cloudiest or Crown Fountain, but those places where life happens and the charm and beauty might be just a little hidden, but spectacular non the less.
Tubular Bells
So, there's that big shiny silvery thing in the park. It's official name is
Cloud Gate; apparently it's commonly called
the Bean. Frankly it makes me think of the cover of Mike Oldfield's
Tubular Bells. I suppose what butters my toast, is that I keep reading in the
Trib or the
Suntimes that "Well, whatever they call it, everyone is just going to call it 'the bean.'"
For whatever reason, this really gets up my nose. I'm kind of curious what other names people have for the sculpture. It does look like a bean, but it almost seems like the media have just dubbed it that from the get-go. I don't know why it bothers me, but it does. And for my purposes, I'd like to go out of my way and refer to it as anything else. Take that.
Fiddlesticks!
So I've tried writing an entry three times, three times I tell you, about my wacky weekend, and each of those times, I've been dunderheaded an accidentally deleted each iteration. Maybe I can do it today at lunch. There's everything: intrigue, excitement, travel, nefarious political ties. I think the Man doesn't want my story told.
The next great buddy movie: James Spader and Robin Wiliams...
I think any theatre that showed a movie with these two in a Buddy-Cop movie would simply implode, and time and space would collapse around it. That might explain why Schaumburg is so messed up.
Here's the unconcious mutterings for the week.
- Nostalgia:: The wont for times that weren't.
- Irreplaceable:: Very few things are.
- Odd:: Oddjob - Classic James Bond Hench
- James Spader:: "Low-grade piece of ass" I know that's crass, but that's his signature line from Pretty in Pink. His character is pretty vile and repuslive, but it's so wonderfully North Shore.
- Flamboyant:: Robin Williams
- Intense:: Robin Williams
- Simple::Don't be so sure. It might look simple, but is it really?
- Septic::Uhm, eew.
- Ton:: Hyperbole.
- Turkey:: Lurkey. Oh how the sky is falling.
Map of the Simpsons' Springfield
I think we all know what state this is in.
We're not hitchhiking anymore... WE'RE RIDING!
Today's responses are very Ren & Stimpy inspired. If I'm at a bar, and i start quoting Ren & Stimpy, I get cut off because the bartender thinks i'm to far gone... Let's hope that doesn't happen here.
- Crippling::Lack of necessary function
- Tough::Beef Jerky
- Slinky::Alternate universe toy: Log!
- Slogan::"It's big, it's heavy, it's Wood! It's Better than Bad, it's Good! Log Log Log!
- Stuffed::Chinchilla
- Instructions::Pictograms
- Expletive::Dick Cheney
- Cartoon::Ren & Stimpy "You coveteth mine ice cream bar!"
- Toddler::One that toddles
- Insinuation::Wasn't that one of Rod Stewart's horrible 80s songs?
Group Blogs a plenty.
So there's another Chicago group blog
Metroblogging which joins the fray of Chicago focused group blogs
Gapers Block and
Chicagoist.
For my money I have to say
Gapers Block is the definitive Chicago Blog. I really like their layout; out of the bunch it appears to me that they have the most diverse voice, and they have the lowest Hipster quotient.
I think the other thing that endears me to Gapers block is that it's inherently Chicago. People who really frickin' love the city. Chicagoist and Metroblog just seem to me to be the New York and LA extentions of their parent blogs in Chicago. Lots of pithy comments, name dropping, scenes, and attitude but not so much of the introspection of the ethos of our great city.
Though as a blogger myself, I'm sure I'm guilty of the pithy comments, namedropping, scenesterism, and my own special brand of attitude. So really, I'm probably just Pol Pot calling Ma Kettle black.
Anyhow, Gapersblock, my hat's off to you.
This nearly made me fall out of my chair.
Angst-ident Prone: hipster darwinism
Tuesday is the new Monday and my garbage has already been picked up.
This week's Unconcious Mutterings
- Resignation::Overdue
- Coupling::An example of the watering down of American television.
- Grounded::Growing up, I spent a good chunk of time being grounded
- Habit::Post-modern nuns
- Chainsaw::Mascara
- Rental::Property
- Deleted::_
- Online personals::Entertainment
- Penguin::Feathers McGraw: Master Criminal
- Offend::(sniff sniff) oh my... I didn't realize.
A belated elegy
So today has been odd for me. I haven't really done anything per se. I supposed to go up to my mom's house to help out moving some furniture, cutting some weeds, and to just be there for her.
July 3rd isn't any old day for us anymore; 8 years ago, on a beautiful day, just a half a mile from where I was working, my father was partaking in the Serbo-Croatian Golf outing (of note, because at the time, in Europe the two ethnic groups weren't the best of pals, but at least in Chicago they were taking the battle to the links). My father was neither Serbian nor Croatian but that didn't matter, he even garnered a spot on the board of the Northern Illinois Italian American Golf Association; clearly for him, golf knew no nationality. Anyhow, at the Marriott Lincolnshire resort, he was playing a round of golf, hit an eagle (that's 2 shots under par), walked back to the golf cart sat down, slumpped over, and had a massive heart attack.
I got a call just after taking a stroll around the building in Lincolnshire for lunch, and it was my mom. She was calling me from Condell Hospital telling me to come there immediately. It was my father she said; but she couldn't bring herself to say anything else, "Just get over here please."
The drive from Lincolnshire to Libertyville had never been that long before. I swear it took me an hour in slow motion to get there. Blades of grass grew faster than I was able to drive. I get to the Emergency room, and my mom is there. I can't even remember if Lisa was there yet. I just remember being in that room waiting and waiting. My mom was so incredibly strong. I was completely stunned; I felt as though I was taken out of my body, and was just watching everything from a monitor in a whole other room. My sister is there. We're all stricken with grief. We start making calls. We spend the next 3 days recounting the story of what happened ad infinitum.
Months before all this had happened one of the music teachers in Waukegan had passed away on the golf course. In the story about it in the News Sun, he had actually been known to have stated "When I go, I either want it to be playing the trumpet or a round of golf." When my dad read this, his response was a simple "That's how I want it to be for me."
It made sense. My dad bristled at being in the hospital. Once when being stung by a bee, and on experiencing an allergic reaction, he had to be taken to the emergency room and treated. He made a comment to my mom that he didn't know how she could handle being in and out of the hospital with all the doctors poking at her.
The weekend before my dad passed away, he wasn't feeling all that well. He was on the couch most of the day, he sent me out for aspirin, none of us really saw the warning signs. Lisa was getting ready to go on vacation, which was postponed when a friend of the family had died of a massive heart attack. She told my dad that if "he pulled a George" she'd never forgive him. We figure during the span of that weekend, he had to have had a small heart attack.
So there it was, the 3rd of July, beautiful day, I just came in from a stroll, and the world had changed so dramatically.
My father was a good man. In everything he did he tried to help people, he golfed a lot. He taught my sister and I a lot about business and more importantly how to deal with people; not as dollar signs or numbers, but as the people that they ultimately are. I know I didn't tell him enough how much I appreciated the things he taught me, but I do think in those last few years, he noticed I wasn't going to be the total screw-up I was nearly shaped up to be. My mom was doing well with her new heart. He sold his business, because it just wasn't possible to go up against the mega-corporations anymore. My sister had started out working with a new company and was already becoming the skilled wind merchant (read: salesperson) that he was. I sometimes believe that it really was his time. Everything was sorted out; we were all well on our way to being the people we would become. The future wasn't so uncertain.
Added 7/4
Anyhow, I didn't make it to my mom's house yesterday; my car didn't start. I've been feeling uncharactaristically moody. It stormed on and off, I road my bike from Jim's apartment to mine, and I got soaked... thoroughly. I'm feeling better today, but I just think that for whatever reason, the coming and going of that date, kind of wore on me more than it usually does, and I needed pause. I've been debating about whether or not to post this to the blog, as it's been sitting in draft mode for a while. Either way, I figure It's just best to get it out of my mind and somewhere more constructive.
This is the reason I created my website...
Or:
My Life with Morrissey 2.
Oddly yeah. I've had this picture floating around several hard drives, a multitude of zip disks, a bevy of floppy disks and a gaggle of CDs since 1994 or so. I'm about 2 months too late for the 10 year anniversary of the momentous occasion which is a shame; but clearly i can't get my junk together. But this isn't about me. In the course of the last ten years, I've schemed to get this picture online in some form (and John had it posted eons ago at the apparently now in communicado www.liveevil.com) and goshdarnit... there it is. My friend since the my gawky days of Jack Benny Junior High James (nee Jim) and the Mozzer himself. Please make up your own captions for the photo.
