6.30.2007

Summerfest '07: Day 1

... This morning, our friend Tiffany asked me if I would be watching the game this afternoon. Dumbfounded, I stuttered and said I wasn't sure. Then Kates reminded me this weekend was the Brewers-Cubs series. Oh Yeah! Kates followed with the story of phone conversation with her parents last night, during which her father -- a big Brewers fan -- asked about my thoughts on the series. "He's in Summerfest mode," she told him.

Pretty much!

Yep. Summerfest. Yesterday. Ready set go ...

I was on my way out of the office yesterday a little after 3 p.m. Went home to grab all my gear. Made a pit stop for gas ($3.06!) and I was on my way to the Ryan Road shuttle stop within the hour ...

I had arrived early enough that I had no trouble finding a parking space. But, I had forgotten to grab some one dollar bills on my trip up -- fare is $6 round trip, and all I had was a twenty. That meant I had to take a walk to the McDonald’s one block over on a quest for change … Apparently the older gentleman walking in front of me had the same idea because when I got to the McDonald’s counter and asked for change, the cashier rolled her eyes and motioned to her manager, “This guy needs change too.” Annoyed, they did oblige the other man and me by exchanging our large bills for ones and fives. And then they promptly put up a sign telling other would-be Flyer riders that the restaurant was not giving out cash.

Note to self: Don’t forget small bills for remaining Summerfest Flyer rides. Note to developers: Build a bank next to that McDonald’s.

Back at the shuttle station, a line of people waiting to board the bus stretched about 60 feet into the parking lot. Mostly middle-aged adults, guys in Pink Floyd and Grateful Dead T-shirts. Joining the line behind me were a trio of high school-aged boys -- two Asians and a white boy wearing a stocking cap and sporting a fuzzy goatee. I’ll bet they’re going to see O.A.R. tonight, I thought. Almost on cue, one of the boys says, “I can’t wait to rock out to some O.A.R.” Yep, they’re going to O.A.R. … Then as an attendant at the stop was assuring us he would try his best to get everyone on the next shuttle, the Trio is waffling over whether they should wait for the bus or hop back in their car and try to find some parking close to the Summerfest grounds. I tried to assure them Park N' Ride was the way to go if they wanted a stress-free trip. And that must’ve been good enough for them, because they stayed.

When the bus did arrive, the line started pouring onto the bus; the passengers packed on shoulder to shoulder, toe to toe. Then, a group of three guys in front of me stepped on and it appeared the bus was filled to capacity. Fortunately coming to Summerfest alone tonight paid off for me -- the attendant allowed me to be the last person on the crowded bus. I inserted my fare, and then there I stood at the front of the bus, just behind the driver, and the yellow line, of course, with a front, center and standing view through the giant windshield as we headed to the grounds ...

And as we pulled away, I wondered if I should wave good-bye to the Trio, wondering if I’d see them again. I didn’t wave good-bye, but they did get to the grounds because I saw them at the O.A.R. show later in the night.

During the ride our bus driver said nothing and did nothing but look straight ahead as he drove ... until we exited the interstate and he began navigating downtown Milwaukee, and a large, middle-aged man bellowed to the driver, “Hey, we almost there yet? I ate some chilli before this and it’s not sitting with me too well.” The bus driver laughs and tells the man “Five more minutes, man.” Says the man, “Any chance we can make it three?” The bus driver chuckles and responds, “C’mon just two more minutes, man.”

We all made it just fine.

* * *
Like a rite of passage, a smile covered my face as I got off that bus approached the Summerfest entrance ... And then, once inside, I accepted a program from one of greeters and paused for a few moments, sighed a happy sigh and thought, Here we are again old friend ... Summerfest's motto is Smile On, and I definitely was wearing mine as I started to take in all the happy people flowing all around ...

The plan for this night was to catch Headlights and Shiny Toy Guns at the U.S. Cellular stage and then wrap it up with O.A.R at the Miller Lite Oasis...

First, I settled in for awhile at the Miller Lite Oasis stage to gauge the crowd ... At 5:44 I had my first insanely drunk girl sighting for this year’s Summerfest. The girl, in her early 20s, was attempting to dance, but instead bounced off the benches and people around her like a pinball. She couldn’t stand straight and she hardly noticed her T-shirt was coming off. The sight drew a good laugh from a pair of 50-something men sitting behind me and prompted one of them to shout at the girl, “Hey, it’s only 5:30!”

…For supper, I figured I was going to try honoring my friend Brian who every year raves about Saz’s Sampler Platter. Then I got to the counter and saw that it consisted of mozzarella sticks, cheese curds and French fries. Hello heart attack city! … I decided Joey Buona’s pizza sounded a little more appetizing, so I grabbed a big slice of greasy cheese and pepperoni and my ritual Summerfest giant cup of Mountain Dew. Which probably wasn’t any healthier than that sampler platter ...

Back at the Miller Lite stage, the hardcore O.A.R fans -- and O.A.R. definitely has some of those -- were already staking out their seats, and a Los Angeles band, Nikhil Korula Band was just getting started ...

I doubt any other band could’ve offered such a perfect warm-up to O.A.R.

“We’re going to win you over one song at a time,” Nikhil Korula old the crowd as the band finished their first song and started in on “Love Will Make Your Day.”

The six-man band, which consisted of Korula on acoustic guitar and vocals, an electric guitarist, bass, percussion, bongos and a saxophone, had the crowd on its feet and dancing in a way that few of the early bands do. The band jammed for about 45 minutes, serving up a feel-good sound that blended calypso, reggae and rock.

Sort of like if O.A.R. performed Paul Simon’s “Graceland,” but without Ladysmith Black Mambazo. It was the kind of music fit for a big backyard barbecue, complete with straw-huts and tiki torches ... I’d suggest checking them out.

* * *

After Nikhil Korula's set, I went with a local columnist's advice and ventured over to the U.S. Cellular stage to check out Headlights. And I got even more interested when a local radio DJ who introduced the band went so far as to tell the crowd they could expect to see Headlights being inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in about 25 years ...

The verdict? Um, yeah. They’re good …

For fans of poppy indie rock, the Champaign, Ill., band has got it. Simple keyboard melodies, dreamy vocals, bursts of energy and a charming stage presence. They were clearly having fun, they were exciting to watch and that exuberance brought smiles to the crowd, whose applause seemed to grow thicker and louder with each song.

The band -- consisting of Tristan Wraight on vocals and guitar, Erin Fein on vocals and keyboards in addition to drums, another guitar and a bass -- barely acknowledged the crowd, and that wasn’t such a bad thing, as they moved effortlessly from song to song to song.

But it wasn't until about halfway through their set that it hit me like a brick -- I'd heard these guys before. Fein started playing the piano intro of “Everybody Needs a Fence To Lean On.” My jaw dropped and let out an "Ah!" so loud that the band probably heard it on stage. “Everybody Needs a Fence” happened to be one of my favorites from the Grey's Anatomy playlist and I had recognized it instantly. Of course!! Headlights!!

When it was all said and done, they’d crammed 11 songs into a 45-minute set that charmed the crowd of a couple hundred lucky audience members.

* * *

During the intermission, I took a stroll along the lakefront, made a quick call back home to Kates and watched a group of hippie kids playing with a haki sack -- and they were really good at it!!

I also decided to head back over to the Miller Stage to check the crowd again and make a final decision on whether I would be safe catching Shiny Toy Guns at the Cellular stage and still get a decent seat for O.A.R. at the Miller Lite stage ... On the way however, I happened to stop at the Journal-Sentinel booth and noticed a posting that the Shiny Toy Guns show had been canceled. Aw man!

On to the Miller Lite stage for a permanent seat ... By 7:30 p.m., the crowd was bulging, as expected, with teens and twenty-somethings dressed like Summerfest was a pit stop between Greekfest and their club runs. Guys were dressed in Adidas T-shirts and polos, backward baseball caps, colored beads, bandannas and headbands while they puffed on thick cigars and more potent things that they wouldn't do if their parents were watching. Giggly, skinny girls held cell phones in one hand and plastic cups of beer in the other. Many of them sported the oversized sunglasses, even after the sun had ducked behind the trees. They flashed gang signs and stuck out tongues as the posed for pictures. And a beach ball was being swatted above the crowd.

... A couple guys behind me yelled at their friend Chris, who was standing several rows in front of me. Once they got his attention, they told him to come back and join them for a few minutes. “I’m not moving,” he yelled back, waving his hands …

Forget all the talk of the U.S. Cellular Stage being the center for up-and-coming rock acts aimed at young adults. Clearly, the Miller Lite Oasis was where the cool kids were last night.

* * *

A little before 8:30 p.m., the Dublin-band, Mr. North, strapped on their guitars for the last performance before O.A.R. took the stage ...

The band produced some deft guitar riffs here and there -- which actually, if you can believe this, had me thinking of Van Halen or maybe Santana at times -- and they turned their second song into a sweet jam that made me forget for a few minutes how badly I needed to use the bathroom …

But in my mind, Mr. North didn’t sound any different than the alternative rock that filled radio during the ‘90s -- as a whole here, I’ll liken them to Collective Soul -- and by the fourth or the fifth song, the mostly young adult crowd clearly appeared bored.

There was one brief, amusing moment toward the end of Mr. North's set, however, when the band's bassist apparently broke his guitar over his knee and began limping around the stage in pain as the rest of the band continued jamming. Next thing the crowd knew, a couple stagehands were hauling off the guitar, strings dangling from it and front man Colin Smith was telling the crowd, “Tell him how much you love him right now!” The band continued to improvise, while the bassist was set back up with a spare, supposedly from O.A.R. Then as he quickly tuned it up and jumped back in line, the crowd briefly came alive and applauded.

... At 9:20 p.m., Mr. North had finished their set and I continued to survey the crowd some more. For a few moments I started thinking, this may be a crowd, but among the notorious young Summerfest crowds I've been around, this one might be the more respectful and patient crowds. Usually there's always a few nitwits that are shoving their way into tiny bench spots, or spilling beer on their neighbors or whatever else they do ...

Satisfied, I put my arm around a nice kid beside me and asked him if he could hold my seat while I took a bathroom break. He said he would and I headed out. It was then that I realized just how big the crowd at the Miller Lite stage had grown -- it was so gigantic that I contemplated forgetting the bathroom and just going back to my seat, but I pressed on. I did my thing and then dove back into the crowd in search of my bench ...

When I finally found my bench mate again, I noticed some frat boy and his sorority sisters had invaded the spot that when I left was big enough to hold me. This is the point where my earlier thoughts about the crowd were dismissed. Seeing me behind him, the kid charged with saving my seat apologized and said he couldn't fend off the invaders. I believed him ... After a couple minutes, I did manage to squeak back into my seat, and then endured several minutes of standing next to this rooster-calling, tobacco-spitting, inebriated doofus. Thankfully, they took off just a couple songs into O.A.R.'s set, and never returned ...

* * *

O.A.R. appeared on stage about five minutes ahead of their 10 p.m. scheduled start time to a roar from the crowd. And they wasted little time getting into a mellowed “City On Down,” as the crowd sang with them on every word. Then lead singer Marc Roberge divulged that their show would be a special one and dedicated the performance to a close friend named Jordan, whom the band lost a couple days ago.

From there, the band rolled into “Lay Down,” “52-50,” “Risen,” and “Anyway.” They pulled out all the fan favorites, and the crowd was thankful, drowning out Roberge on most of the songs.

But the quintet that’s made a name for itself on high-energy shows seemed to lack some of its punch during the hour and 45-minute set Friday night. As usual saxophone player Jerry Depizzo drove the majority of the songs, but for the better part of O.A.R.‘s set the boys stood straight-faced, subdued and detached and going through the motions. At times, it seemed as though they were deaf to the crowd’s claps and cheers.

Their set continued with “Untitled,” “Heard the Word,” and a new song, “Living In The End,” from their “Live From Madison Square Garden” disc. Then, “Here's To You,” which produced a funny moment of the show: Just for a second, the picture screens on both sides of the stage flashed in large white letters “CHANGE THE BATTERY PACK.” The moment drew a quick burst of laughter from those in the crowd who caught it.

Next up, “The Stranger,” a mellow, heartfelt song that ranks as one of my favorites from O.A.R. It was a song that might have seemed out of place at what I expected to be an energizing O.A.R. show, but last night it worked during what was turning into a toned-down set. And it was one of my personal highlights.

They played “Patiently,” and then, finally, pulled out “Love And Memories,” their biggest mainstream hit to date. The song drew the loudest cheers of the night to that point, and the group followed that one with “Hey Girl,” which drew cheers and singing that might have been loud enough to drown out the Def Leppard show all the way over at the Marcus. Finally, a smile leaked out of Roberge's face, Depizzo turned in a riveting sax solo and, finally, O.A.R. was the band I'd anticipated seeing.

After a brief break from the stage, the band came back on for a two-song encore and Roberge mentioned their friend’s passing once more; clearly he was on their minds last night. O.A.R. mellowed again for “I Feel Home,” before capping the night with the eight-minute crowd-pleaser “That Was a Crazy Game of Poker,” which came close but fell just short to “Hey Girl” in terms of crowd energy ...

At 11:46 p.m., I was on my way back to catch the shuttle. I pulled in our driveway around 1 a.m. Was in bed around 2. And was back up at 6:30 this morning to do some writing. By 9, I was at baseball practice. And by 4 this afternoon, I will be back on my way back to Summerfest, this time with Kates ...

I'll let you know how it goes.

6.28.2007

It's Summerfest baby!

Tonight I may be sitting at home, eating leftover Chinese, watching Office reruns and listening to music ...

But tomorrow night, baby ... Tomorrow night, I return to Summerfest ...

The Big Gig. The World's Largest Musical Festival. The carnival of people watching. The widest food buffet you've ever tasted. The mecca of music ...

The party I've come to live for every summer ... and this year there will be cake. It's the 40th anniversary bash ...

All that waiting through the cold, snowy winters. The anticipation of watching the stage lineups and performers unveiled one at a time each spring ... It all comes to this ...

I've got my tickets in hand and my mind is overflowing with thoughts, plans, strategies ...

Around this time tomorrow night, I should be settling in for O.A.R., and hopefully I'll have finished catching Shiny Toy Guns ... An interesting find, I've had their We Are Pilots disc sitting, still wrapped in its packaging, on my stereo shelf for months. Earlier this week, I finally opened it and slipped it into my CD player, not knowing what to expect ...

I loved it. Some songs seem to channel The Killers ("You Are the One") and classic '80s punk/pop; others seem to channel Fergie ("Le Disko") or even ABBA ("We Are Pilots"). The combination of male and female vocals is bliss. The music is catchy and soothing ... and it's right up my alley ...

So yeah. I'm going to be trying my darndest to catch the Shiny Toy Guns show at 8 tomorrow night ... Still, O.A.R. plays at 10 on a different stage, and this is where the strategy comes in -- Surely O.A.R.'s crowd is going to be building long before 8, and I won't be a happy camper if I'm stuck toward the back of the crowd. It could be one and out at Shiny Toy Guns, or I could get lucky and catch most, even all of that show before I hunt for a seat in front of O.A.R. I'm cautiously optimistic ...

For Saturday night, I'm all about Lindsey Buckingham ... The Goo Goo Dolls are playing at another stage at the same time, and they might have drawn me in had I not seen them last year. Plus, there's my fascination with Fleetwood Mac. "Oh, well then you should totally go see Lindsey Buckingham," my colleague Laura told me the other day after I explained my situation to her ... everything I've heard about Buckingham points to Saturday night being a great show. I'm just hoping I'm not setting my expectations to high ...

On Sunday, I've dropped the idea of seeing Sister Hazel at Summerfest ... Instead, I'm staying in town to catch a show featuring Barry Williams and Peter Noone. Think I'm crazy? Deal with it ... I've seen Sister Hazel twice before, and I'm figuring the chance to see a star from an American television phenomenon and the frontman of one of my favorite bands of all-time up close is too powerful to pass up ... During a meeting earlier this week, one my editors non-chalantly asked if anyone around our table planned to attend the event. No one said a word. The editor proceeded to make some belittling remarks about the people who might go to the show. Always secure in my music tastes, I spoke up and said, "I'm excited to go ... to see both of them!" To his credit, he pointed out Noone is a great performer (I know that), but he went on, implying the types of people who will be at Sunday's festival lead sad lives. I shook my head in disgust.

Monday night I'll be playing baseball ... But Tuesday night Kates and I will be back at Summerfest for Ben Folds and John Mayer. Enough said.

I think I'll end up at Augustana on Friday, July 6, after all. But with a family gathering on Sunday the 8th, Blue October is still up in the air …

Still, the big one -- besides Ben Folds & John Mayer, of course -- remains on Saturday, July 7. Guster.

Good reads ...
a Summerfest: Still smilin' after 40 years
a Summerfest king's reign nears 100 days

6.27.2007

Noodle game!

Check out this game from Noodle & Co.!!

My record is 27 seconds.

Happy birthday.

It's my birthday today.

... Kind of a bummer actually. This birthday's got me thinking and analyzing what things I have yet to accomplish in my life; all the things that others who are my age and surround me are doing and I'm not. Starting families. Traveling ... and there's that other silver screen dream that haunts me, too ...

... So my mood wasn't right this morning from the start. I was stressing about some projects and deadlines at work. And once I was in the office, I only seemed to be butting heads with people ...

Added to that, Kates is deep in classes this week and her nights are taken by homework. We're feeling strapped enough these days that tonight we decided to rule out a special dinner or a night at the movies ...

Instead, we ordered Chinese and chose to watch one of the DVDs stacked on our entertainment center ...

"Good Night and Good Luck"

eh.

... Now, I was pretty excited to watch this one, what with all the Oscar buzz that surrounded it and a storyline centered on CBS, Ed Murrow and Sen. Joseph McCarthy's crusade against communists ...

But the film was sort of a let down. I say 2 1/2 out of five stars ...



David Strathairn, George Clooney and the cast were wonderful. And there were a few hilarious comic bits ...

But the film seemed disconnected, disjointed ... With so much actual film footage of McCarthy and the Senate hearings, it almost overtook the artistic integrity of the film. At times, I felt like I was watching a documentary ... And I'm still trying to figure out exactly what roles Robert Downey Jr.'s and Patricia Clarkson's characters played in the whole story. Their marriage played an interesting side story, but it felt out-of-place. And beyond that, I never got a sense that they were major players in CBS's reporting on the McCarthy story. It wouldn't have made a difference whether they were in the film or not ...

Sigh.

It's a fascinating and bold story about how Murrow and CBS went after McCarthy. But it failed to translate on film ...

6.24.2007

Sunday reading

Some of the headlines and stories that caught my eyes this week ...

Politics ...
a A Run, or the Runaround? Bloomberg, Other Non-Candidates Master Art of Being Vague

TV & movies ...
a FAME? PRICELESS: 'If celebrity is a credit card, then I'm using it,' George Clooney says of his Darfur campaign.
a Paying $1 million for Hilton interviews alarms journalist ethicists, rankles NBC employees
a Harry Potter book could spoil movie surprise, ticket sales
a Burnett remains powerful despite flops
a 'Sopranos' fans are either happy or angry about the show's lack of closure
a On 'Lil' Bush,' It's the Laughs That Are Tiny ... Yeah, so it's not great TV. But it's George Bush, and that makes it hard not to look away ...
a Steve Carell's course is to build an ark in 'Evan Almighty,' but he feels blessed to have a career that, he says, has no plan ... two of the highlights of my week were watching Carell yak it up with Jon Stewart and Conan O'Brien ...HA-larious.
a Bad guys on TV are just too good to miss

Baseball...
a Wood working: Gantner helps son, players hone their skills
a BARRY BONDS: A jerk? Maybe, but a great hitter for sure
a Hitting the ballparks: Annual trip to baseball stadiums goes far beyond watching the games ... a good read I got this weekend from my pops...
a Start of something good: Verlander's no-no may foreshadow future greatness

The Internet ...
a On 'fatblogs,' heavy people weigh in
a Ogled By Google: Is America's Favorite Search Engine Chugging Into Cyber Privacy?
a Web site devoted to gratitude keeps users focused on positive
a Conservapedia: online reference that's read from right to right

Music ...
a 'Live From Abbey Road' on Sundance Channel
a After an early peak, singer-songwriter Paula Cole walked away from it all. Now she's back.
a Here's to You, Paul Simon!
a Country's honky-tonk men live in a changing world

The rest of the stories ...
a Baby monitor picks up video from NASA
a Marking Time: Americans Gobble Up Anniversaries - Sad, Glad And Bad
a In Small Spaces, Big Challenges
a Calling all hippies: Summer of Love turns the big 4-0

Game #6

We lost another one today. Plain and simple.

... The highlight was having Mom and Pops there to see me play today. (... the pics are compliments of pops ... )

Our defense was as tight as it had been all season ... Still, take away a couple misplayed balls in the first couple innings -- and perhaps if we were a little more aggressive on the basepaths -- we might have squeaked out a win. Instead we lost, 5-4.

I started in left field again today, but I only touched the ball once, catching a deep fly ball ...

I’m settling in at the top of the lineup, too, which is where I batted today for the third straight game ...

We were the visiting team today, which meant I led off the game today ... I worked the count and grounded to the left side for a single. I moved to second when the next batter took a walk, but I was deleted from the basepaths a couple pitches later when the third batter lined out to the shortstop, the shortstop threw to second as I dove back to the base, took a face full of dirt and was called out.

In my second at-bat, I grounded into a fielder’s choice -- the runner on second was taken out as he headed to third while I reached first base safely.

... In my third at-bat, I worked the count full before the pitcher threw one high and toward the inner part of the plate -- I felt like it was coming in on my knuckles, but I had to protect the plate. I swung, hit it off a dead spot of the bat and the ball dipped in front of the pitcher ... I was thrown out at first base, and my right hand is still ringing from the at-bat.

I could barely grip the ball when we went back into the field. And when I stepped to the plate for my fourth at-bat, it hurt just to hold the bat. A couple pitches in and I flied out to left. Though I can’t keep from thinking I might have fared better had I any feeling in my hand.

Plain and simple.

As for the other games ...
Game one: We lost, 16-4
Game two: We lost, 13-2
Game three: We lost, I was off for the weekend
Game four: We lost, 5-4
Game five: We lost, 20-9

My line so far ...
.307 avg., four hits, three walks, .438 ob%, one strikeout, three runs scored and an RBI.

6.21.2007

Onion read

The Onion

Report: Another Baseball Team Almost Does Something As Interesting As Yankees, Red Sox

NOT BOSTON OR NEW YORK—Something nearly worth reporting occurred either Saturday or Sunday—although no written records of the event...

Seen and heard

... Kates has had a lot of homework all week. Which leaves me downstairs in my cave watching baseball (except for tonight. The Cubs played earlier today and no one else is on tonight. So I'm blowing through some good music) ...

The best nights, of course, are when there's multiple games on and I can flip to my hearts content. Last night, I caught a little of the replay of the afternoon's Brewers-Giants game, then flipped over to ESPN for the Red Sox-Braves game, and finally settled on the Cubs-Rangers game ...

The best part: Catching Sammy Sosa's 600th homerun. Watching him connect with the ball, the hop, the blown kisses ... Forgetting for a few moments how it all ended in Chicago and how much we loved cheering him on for a few of those summers, it was hard not to let a smile leak out while he rounded the bases and took repeated curtain calls ...


* * *

Just days ago, I was watching with a certain interest and marveling at an interview featuring Brian Williams with New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and the speculation that he could be a strong candidate for the presidency ...

Then word comes today that he's backing away from the Republican party. Now that makes that interview even more interesting ... A breath of fresh air indeed.

Though I'm skeptical that he could give the already so-established candidates a good run for 2008. Somebody, a few of them, would have to take a hard fall ... 2012 perhaps?

* * *

On the radio the other day I heard that NBC is courting Jon Stewart as a possible replacement to Jay Leno on the Tonight Show ...

My ears immediately perked up. As the story I heard was reported: NBC is having second thoughts about Leno handing over the reigns to Conan, and the network is trying to lure Stewart to NBC to either replace Leno, when he supposedly leaves the Tonight Show in 2009, or NBC could convince Leno to stay and Stewart would take the post-Leno slot currently held by Conan ... Either way, it sounds like NBC wants to say bye-bye Conan ...

Initally, I'm thinking this is a smart move for NBC ... Maybe it's just me getting older, but I've grown increasingly annoyed with Conan during the last couple years. Much of his material is unoriginal, juvenile and well, not funny (Really, how many more nights can he spend morphing celebrity mugs together to show us what their kids might look like ... I hate those segments.) His interviews don't flow, and too often he interrupts his guests and turns the focus on himself ... A few years ago, I was in the camp who thought Conan was the next best thing on late night TV. Now, I'm only tuning in if he's got a guest I really want to see, and then I'm fast-forwarding through the rest of the show ...

On the other hand, I'm thinking, and hoping John Stewart doesn't take the bait and remains true to The Daily Show I've come to loooooooove over the last couple years (thanks DVR!)

* * *

On the news the other night, I caught a report that the Vatican had come up with its own set of the Ten Commandments ...

For driving ...

I love it! ... especially No. 5: Cars shall not be for you an expression of power and domination, and an occasion of sin.

* * *

A conversation at work this week, as Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop" played through the small speakers of our corner's iPod ...

"I hate Fleetwood Mac."

Me: "You hate Fleetwood Mac?"

"Well, I don't hate Fleetwood Mac. I just don't like this album."

Me: "Really! Not a big fan of the Rumours album, huh? ... It's one of my favorite albums of all time!"

"No. I mean, I had it, and I listened to it like 4 billion times --"

Me: "Which I'm in the process of doing right now."

"Yeah, so I just can't stand to listen to it anymore."

I'm hoping I never get to that point.

6.18.2007

Game #5

Played another baseball game tonight.

I’m getting really sick of telling people how talented of a team we have and then having to admit we lost another game and that we’ve yet to win one this season …

We took on the best team in the league tonight, our second meeting with them this summer. The first time around, they beat us pretty handily … Tonight’score, however, a 20-9 loss, hardly represents how closely-fought this game was … well, how closely-fought two-thirds of the game was.

Playing as the home team tonight, we gave up two runs in the top of the first, and came right back with two of our own in the bottom half. Then we gave up three runs in the top of the second and came right back with two more in the bottom of the inning …

Offensively, we’d jumped out to one of our best starts of the season. We were playing good defense, guys were upbeat and we had a sense we were going to get our first win, while handing these guys their first loss …

Then we fell apart.

One of our team leaders and best pitchers twisted his knee rounding second base; he’ll be out for at least a couple weeks. Our middle infielders were botching just about every ball hit to them. And before we knew it the other guys had put up a six-run inning, and then followed that with an eight-run inning …

We did mount a minor comeback in our final at-bats, though. We put up five runs in the final inning before one of our runners was picked off of first base for the final out -- with me at the plate.

Grrrrrr.

I led off the lineup again and started in left field tonight. I had been seeing the ball pretty well all night, in addition to wearing out the opposing pitcher … In my first at-bat I worked the count to 2-2 and fouled off a couple pitches before slapping a line drive single to right field. I had a similar at-bat in the second inning, fouling off pitches and getting the count full before taking a walk. In my third at bat, I worked the count full again, fouled off some pitches and then grounded out to short when the pitcher tried to get me on an off-speed pitch. And finally that fourth at-bat -- runners on first and third, I fouled off the first pitch and was brimming with confidence that I could knock in another run for us …

But it wasn’t meant to be …

Kind of like a lot of things about tonight’s game …

At least we played. The threat of severe storms hung over the city all afternoon. Then at about 4:30, about an hour before game time, the sky let loose. Still, we prepped the field, took it on time and played through a steady, soft rain for much of the game …

By the final innings, we were on our fourth-string pitcher and had made several defensive switches to try to stop the bleeding in the infield. I took over at second base with the bases loaded. The rain continued to fall, but the sun started to shine, and a rainbow appeared in the sky parallel to first base.

“You see the rainbow?” the runner on second base asked me between pitches.

“Yeah,” I said. “Maybe it’s a sign … A sign for us to quit for the night and go home. A sign that there‘ll be better days.”

As for the other games ...
Game one: We lost, 16-4
Game two: We lost, 13-2
Game three: We lost, I was off for the weekend
Game four: We lost, 5-4

My line so far ...
.333 avg., three hits, three walks, .500 ob%, one strikeout, three runs scored and an RBI.

6.17.2007

Sunday reading

It's been a gorgeous Father's Day. Kates and I slept in this morning. I worked the yard. We spent the latter half of the afternoon drinking some tasty meads at a get-together with friends and co-workers. We came home tonight and called our dads ...

Now I've got my Sunday night baseball on the TV ...

In the meantime, are some of the stories and headlines that caught my eyes recently ...

TV & movies ...
a Movie studios fear the sequel to iPod
a HERE'S THE STORY: TV theme music plays a vital role

Sports ...
a Aaron's greatest hits: Man's sports collection includes famous bats
a The Stanley Cup champions belong in a city (and a country) that isn't pro-hockey illiterate

Politics ...
a The first lady’s $12,000 ‘pin money’ disclosure
a Giuliani's Ties to Black New York Troubled

Other stuff ...
a Reader's Digest Probes at Normal Folks' Nutty Center
a Hawking goes zero-G: ‘Space, here I come’
a Getting rattled on 'the Rock'

6.16.2007

The odd brawl game

… Kates and I met up with a pair of old high school friends, Ali and Andy, and headed to the Cubs game today

It was a gorgeous day. Sunny and breezy. Wrigleyville -- America’s greatest block party -- was in perfect form. We took our usual walk around the park, taking in the festivities and sights of the neighborhood. We downed some Old Styles at the Cubby Bear, and then decided to head inside the ballpark for the 12:05 start.

We settled into our seats along the third base side, under the overhang. We couldn’t have asked for a better view …

Got to see Julia Louis-Dreyfus throw out the first pitch. A high school choir sang a beautiful National Anthem. And then it was game time -- The Cubs had been on a roll and with Carlos Zambrano on the mound for the Cubs and Chris Young for the Padres, it had all the makings of a good one …

Through the first four innings, neither team could do anything offensively. Zambrano gave up one walk in the first, and Young walked Cubs batters in the first and second, but that would be it. The game was flying …

Then came the fireworks in the fourth. Derrek Lee was the first batter in the bottom of the fourth; Chris Young threw at his head … The home plate umpire immediately stepped in front of the catcher as the two began an exchange while Lee just kind of stood at the plate… Then, after a few seconds passed, with the crowd starting to come alive, Lee slowly started moving toward first, but kept his eyes on Young who was starting to approach Lee …

Now, I’ve never seen a live, in-person baseball brawl before. In fact, I can’t recall ever seeing one live on television. I think Sportscenter highlights are my only references. But as I’m watching this one fester, I certainly wasn’t expecting Lee to boil over. C’mon, it’s D-Lee. He’s one of the good guys in the game, right!?

But Lee and Young kept talking, and before anyone knew it, Lee was throwing a punch at Young, the two were wrestling, the benches were clearing and the crowd was on its feet, roaring and popping flashbulbs all over the stadium …

Both teams ended up in a ball of white and navy blue around home plate, and it was several minutes before they could be separated. After awhile, both teams backed up to their respective baselines, and several more minutes passed as the umpires tried to sort out the situation.

Zambrano, whose uniform was all out of sorts, was escorted toward the dugout, as was Lee. Lou Piniella paced around home plate and one of the coaches was still trying to hold back Jacque Jones who hadn’t been in the lineup, but appeared more fired up about the fiasco than anyone on the field …

Unbelievable.

Being at Wrigley, we didn’t have the advantages of a jumbotron or a modern scoreboard to tell us what the umpires had decided. And we weren’t listening to the radio (but, man, I would’ve loved to hear how Pat and Ron called the whole darn thing!), so we could only assume Lee was done for the day. And it took a few minutes, but the umpires eventually tossed Young, too, with a little encouragement from the crowd. Reading the game summary tonight, we learned that Jake Peavy and Gerald Perry, the Cubs hitting coach had been thrown out too. And for awhile we wondered if perhaps Zambrano had been tossed, until he came out and took the mound again for the fifth …

Afterward, Zambrano appeared to be throwing better and harder. He was throwing a no-hitter after all! … albeit an ugly one. Hiram Bocachica got on for the Padres in the fifth when Ryan Theriot let a routine ground ball get through his legs, and Mark DeRosa booted a ball in the sixth. Add to those two errors, three more walks thrown by Zambrano …

But the Cubs somehow held the Padres scoreless with a couple bang-bang-bang double plays to end both the fifth and sixth innings. And in the seventh, Bocachica hit a dribbler just off the mound to Zambrano’s right; it looked like a sure infield single, but somehow Zambrano barehanded it and made a weak, off-balance throw that had DeRosa stretching and gloving the ball in just the nick of time! Big wow!! It was the play of the game …

By the end of the seventh inning and into the eighth, the crowd was on its feet and cheering for every out. For a little bit, I was pretty sure I was going to be watching my second no-hitter of the week

But it was not to be. Marcus Giles singled with one out in the eighth for the first Padres hit. And oh, by the way, the score was still 0-0. The Cubs had only notched two hits -- a double by DeRosa in the fifth and a double by Theriot in the sixth.

Finally, in the top of the ninth, the Padres got on the board with a solo homerun to left by Russell Branyan. It was one of those no-doubters …

And then! As if this game couldn’t get any odder, after Branyan’s homerun, it started pouring rain! And the sun was still shining! … We laughed as the fans not sitting under the overhang ducked for cover and the Padres made the last out in the top of the ninth. And then the rain stopped as fast as it started in the bottom of the ninth …

And the Cubs were done too. Starting with Soriano, who had a horrible day (0-4, two strikeouts), the Cubs went one-two-three in the ninth ...

Cubs lose 1-0. UN-forgettable ...

Now we wait to see how long Lee will be suspended ...

6.14.2007

Taking in the 'Mountain'

... The DVDs sitting on our mantel have begun to stack up, and with no Cubs or Brewers games tonight, I was a perfect night to start watching ...

We popped in 'Brokeback Mountain.'

... I'd never been very excited to watch this movie. Yeah, it was highly-acclaimed, and yeah, it was nominated for a host of Oscars. But gay cowboys or not, for some reason it just didn't appeal to me. Still, I kept thinking at some point I was going to have to see it simply because it became such a talked-about, culturally-relevant film ...

One thing I'd heard over and over again about the film was how beautifully it was shot ... Um, yeah. That was evident just minutes into the film. Whether you like the film or not, at least it gives you two solid hours of amazing scenery ...

But it turned out I did like the film. Quite a bit actually (aside from that repetitive guitar strum theme music ...) ... Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger, even more so, and everyone involved for that matter, turned in the performances of their careers. The characters mature in front of your eyes on the screen, while pulling you deeper and deeper into their relationships. And their stories tug at your heart strings every step of the way ...

That said, I still think Crash is the better film ... but, I have a better understanding of why Brokeback finished a close second ...

* * *

On a lighter note ...

When Kates and I turned off the DVD, the TV switched to the local PBS station where, lo and behold, an episode of Soundstage was featuring Rob Thomas ...

I gasped, seeing that there as only 10 minutes left ...

Catching my breath, I looked at the DVR and saw it had been recording the show the whole time ...

My face lit up. Be still my heart. We started it at the beginning and we're watching it now ...

I've always loved Matchbox Twenty and held a lot of admiration for Rob Thomas's music. The dude's a genius ...

On this particular show, he's appearing at the famed Red Rocks amid a roaring crowd. He's playing a wonderful mix of his new stuff and, in my opinion, his more superior Matchbox Twenty stuff. Mellow arrangements of Bent, If You're Gone, 3 a.m. and Smooth ...

Awesome.

6.13.2007

Love it, hate it, don't get it

... Everywhere I turn this week people are talking about the 'Sopranos' finale ...

There was a segment about it on just about every newscast I've watched. Even Sportscenter worked in a mention and showed that now infamous final scene with Tony and the fam in a diner as that Journey song and then that sudden fade to black. And of course, it's made all of the late night shows ...

Yeah, yeah, so I watched all of it with a slight bit of interest (and I did read this guy's take, after all ... ) ...

But ...

In my lifetime, I've seen one episode. It was summer 2001. That summer, I was living with a college friend whose family loved the Sopranos. One night that summer (somehow I didn't find anything better to do that night ...), I ended up gathered around the TV with them to watch the season finale, or the season premiere, I'm not sure which one. We had food, drinks; it was like a Super Bowl party. This much of the show I remember: Someone got whacked, and it was some of the most boring, uninteresting, uninspiring TV I've ever seen. And I've never had any urge to see an episode of the show since ...

So it was nice to know I wasn't alone the other night when I saw a news poll that had about 60 percent of people saying they didn't watch or didn't care about the 'Sopranos' finale ...

Cagle's has some great Sopranos cartoons; these two are my favorites ...


6.12.2007

Sweet stuff

I'd never had an opportunity to watch a no-hitter ...

Until tonight.

Kates and I had the Brewers-Tigers game on the TV while we ate supper. But it wasn't until we finished eating around the fifth inning, saw the line score and realized the classic that was unfolding ... At that point the score was just 1-0. Jeff Suppan had given up just two hits for the Brewers, including the Brandon Inge homerun and for the Tigers, Justin Verlander was holding the Brewers hitless ...

We watched as the Tigers made it 3-0 in the sixth and then added a fourth run in the seventh to knock Suppan from the game ...

In the top of the seventh, we watched as Corey Hart hit a liner to right field. Maglio Ordonez made a sliding catch, and at that point I knew. This is his night, I said to Kates. When guys are making plays like that, you know this is something special ...

And in the eighth, there was that play that everyone's talking about -- A hot ground ball up the middle, but Neifi Perez gloved it, tossed the ball to Placido Polanco at second base to get Bill Hall, who had walked, and Polanco fired to first for the inning-ending double play. Nice.

In the ninth, the game was over before the inning began. The crowd was roaring. Verlander was throwing in the triple digits and could not be stopped. 1-2-3 went the Brewers and the celebration began ...

I was all smiles as I watched it. Sure, I would've liked to see the Brewers win the game, but I do have that soft spot for the resurgent Tigers ...

And now here we are watching the Cubs take the Mariners into extra innings (in a game that should be over. C'mon! Bases loaded with no outs in the eighth inning and they couldn't get the go-ahead run in ... )

With the Brewers loss tonight and a Cubs win, Chicago moves another game closer to the Brewers in the standings in the wacky central. It's only June and we're already scoreboard watching ...

Update 12:14 a.m. ... That thing I said about the Cubs gaining a game on the Brewers tonight? Yeah. Not happening. Botched play at homeplate and the Mariners take the game in the 13th.

6.10.2007

Game #4

... We lost a heart breaker today.

We played near flawlessly today, flawlessly! Our starting pitcher was on; we were fielding everything ... But in the end we just didn't have enough runs on the board.

... Coach put me in the leadoff spot today and started me at second. Yeah, that wasn't nerve-racking (can you sense the sarcasm?) ... I didn't have much time to deal with the butterflies. We were the visiting team, I had to lead off the game ...

In my first at-bat I worked the count to 2-2 count before grounding out to second. I fared better the next time, poking an 0-1 pitch for an RBI single between the third baseman and the shortstop.

In my third at-bat, I led off the inning with a walk. Then, a couple pitches later, I stole second and took third when the ball got past the shortstop and went into the outfield. I later scored on a base hit.

During my last at-bat, I led off the inning again and the opponent had inserted a new pitcher who was throwing harder than the previous two pitchers. I watched the first pitch for a strike, swung late at the second pitch and then connected on the third pitch, but grounded out to the shortstop …

In the field, I started the game at second base and made a three putouts there, including a tough fly ball that was hit a mile into the air.

One of the few blemishes of the day came in the bottom of the first, when an opposing batter hit a fly ball to shallow center field. Seeing it off the bat immediately, I broke for the outfield and kept my eye on it all the way. Hearing no one calling for the ball, I stayed on it, and then heard the shortstop calling my name, making me think I was going to have the best chance at it ... I was just about to make an over-the-shoulder catch when the center fielder slammed into my left side and the next thing I knew I was flat on my stomach. The center fielder had made the catch.

In the fifth inning, I moved over to shortstop and played there the rest of the game, making a couple more putouts.

In the meantime, the opponent was starting to show some fight. They got within one run in the sixth inning and then tied it in the bottom of the eighth on a sac fly. We failed to score in the top of the ninth, and they came right back again ...

Our pitcher had thrown the entire game and he'd shown no signs of slowing down. But he walked the first batter, and then gave up two straight singles to load the bases with no one out in the bottom of the ninth. We had a quick meeting on the mound, pulled the infield in, but it wouldn't matter -- the next batter hit a solid liner up the middle. That was it. Game over. We lost 5-4 ...

Looking back on the game, it's easy to second guess. What if we had changed pitchers in the ninth? What if we had been a little more aggressive on the base paths ... Then again, we could not have played any better than we played today -- OK, we could have hit a little better ...

The other team simply beat us with a few good solid hits. There was nothing we could have done to stop them ...

We'll get that first win soon. We're a good team, really. And hey, we're still having fun.

As for the other games ...
Game one: We lost
Game two: We lost
Game three: We lost, I was off for the weekend

Sunday reading

Some of the stories and headlines that caught my eyes this week ...

TV ...
a Marriage on TV is a rocky proposition
a Emmy entrants get 250 words to make their case. But expect more lengthy discourse after the fact

Movies ...
a Universal sees rebirth of box-office prospects
a 'Hostel' ads test the squirm factor
a Screenwriters Laura Kightlinger, Mike White fight like cats and dogs over script
a Elliott Gould, Born a Rambling Man
a Danny Ocean's 'Oprah' moment? They lived it

Sports ...
a Donovan will be bigger than ever in Gainesville
a Baseball's only salvation lies in amnesty

The other stuff ...
a Man amputates own leg to get free of fallen tree

We love the drive-in!

Ah, the drive-in. “My Boyfriend's Back” and other '60s fare pouring out of the loud speakers. The smell of popcorn wafting through the air. Children laughing and running all over the place while their parents set up mini-living rooms in the back seats of their vans and SUVs ...

And experiencing all of it has become a rite of summer for Kates and I since we've lived here ...

After spending much of the day at our city's downtown festival -- sampling the cuisine of some of the eateries, getting some good deals at a few of the shops, touring the city's decrepit old theater (which was fascinating and oh so sad at the same time ...) and taking in a new state-of-the-art gym -- Kates and I talked about wanting to see “Ocean's 13.” But when we opened the newspaper for movie times, we noticed the lineup at the drive-in and couldn't pass it up. “Ocean's 13” and “Shrek the Third.” Nice!

We packed the cooler, headed to the Pig for some chicken, deli foods and sodas and we were off. We got the drive-in just as the gates were opening and claimed a spot just a couple rows back from the screen, slightly to the right of the center aisle. Perfect.

We picnicked in our little green machine, listened to the Cubs game on the radio and read our respective periodicals. (I had this week's EW. Great interview with George Clooney and Brad Pitt.)

Then, just before 9, the screen was illuminated and we settled in for “Shrek.”
... I can see why the critics noted this one was geared more toward adults.

In this third installment, Shrek and Princess Fiona are preparing for a little one (obvious by the title, right?) but the meat of the story centers on Prince Charming who's bitter about his lowly place in the fairytale society, and he gathers all of the fairytale villains -- Captain Hook, witches, those apple-throwing trees from Wizard of Oz, the evil step-mother, Rumpelstiltskin -- and hatches a plan to take over the kingdom. But, as usual, Shrek, Donkey, and his fairytale friends are too smart and wholesome to let that happen. And an unlikely heir joins them in the crusade ...

No, it won't go down as my favorite of the trilogy, but it holds its own. And it's still good for some healthy belly rolls. And much of them in this one, I thought, came by way of Antonio Banderas' Puss; he was easily my favorite character of the film ...

After a short intermission, George Clooney and the boys were taking the screen for “Ocean's 13.” Going in, it was hard to know what to expect: The film was getting good reviews, but “Ocean's 12” was so inexplicably awful, it was easy to imagine “13” being another failure. And “Ocean's 11” was so snap happy good, I couldn't imagine 13 topping it ...

But when the credits started rolling, I decided “Ocean's 13” had fallen somewhere in the middle. In “13,” we have Ocean and his rat pack back in Las Vegas with a plan to rob another glitzy casino, owned by Willy Bank (Al Pacino) on its opening night. And this time, when their plan hit’s a snag, they call on nemesis casino owner Terry Benedict to help them …

Like “11,” the film gives you a front row seat to the heist plans from start to finish, with come good comic relief mixed in throughout. But I never got the feeling that the stakes were very high ... That, and Ellen Barkin is no Julia Roberts ...

If “11” was a 10, I'd give “13” about a seven ... “Ocean's 12”? A two.

6.08.2007

Draft TV

From this morning's SI newsletter ...

So what was it like at baseball's first televised draft, which saw the Devils Rays take Vanderbilt lefty David Price No. 1? Well, it lacked the frenzy of the NFL or NBA drafts but it did have some elements of entertainment. "The draft was a show complete with ESPN's Peter Gammons, the commissioner, a room sprinkled with Hall of Fame players and a curious, sometimes slightly raucous crowd of maybe 300 of what we can only assume were the most die-hard of baseball fans," writes SI.com's John Donovan, on-site at Disney World. (more)

... Whatever. I didn't watch. For the same reasons. I don't watch the NFL or NBA drafts. I'm simply not interested ...

Frenzy!? Seriously. How about bor-ing? How about waste of time?

I don't and will never try to understand the people who have huge draft day parties to watch a bunch of so-called experts spout the wildest speculation they can dream. I don't care how many homeruns the guy hit his sophomore year. He hasn't even seen a Major League fastball yet. And I'm not going to hear his name for another five years when he breaks into the majors, if I ever hear his name again. At all.

And don't even get me started on the 30-minute -- or whatever it is -- wait between picks ...

I'm a die-hard baseball fan. But not that die-hard ... I'd rather read about it on a blog or in the paper the next morning, and move on with my day.

Thanks, but no thanks.

Paris Hilton

Brian Williams called it a colossal failure. Uh, ya think!?

And from Letterman last night ...

... Our long national nightmare is over. Paris Hilton is out of prison …
... She was in prison for five days. Hell she wasn’t in there long enough to sober up ...
... Five days in a celebrity prison. Not exactly the
Shawshank Redemption ...
... She was released for medical reasons and she gave the warden several notes from doctors. Dr. Jackson. Dr. Grant. Dr. Franklin ...
... It’s not a free ride from here on out. She’s on house arrest and by God that’ll teach her. Her world has now been reduced to a four-acre estate in Bel Air ...
Good grief ... My jaw dropped yesterday afternoon when the news broke -- and man did it break; suddenly nothing, nothing else mattered in the world -- that Paris had been released from jail and allowed to spend the rest of her sentence at home ... Home!?! At her billion-dollar, 400-room carnival of a house. Riiiiiiiiiiight. And for health reasons. Riiiiiiiiiiight.

Then, hearing this afternoon that she had been sent back to jail, and seeing the clips of insane news camera people and paparazzi chasing after her ride. And the shots of her crying like baby... Priceless.

A few of my favorite cartoons from the week ...




6.06.2007

The rivalry continues

Never mind another frustrating day at the office. My mood was lifted the moment I set foot in my car tonight and started driving home ...

Kates and I were heading to the Brewers-Cubs game.

This one was about two months in the making since Kates came home in early April with the news that her school staff was planning an outing to the game. We wasted no time buying our tickets and tonight was the night ...

When the Cubs and Brewers get together at Miller Park, it's always raucous. The Cubs fans come up to Milwaukee in droves -- Wrigley Field North, they call it -- and the Brewers are almost guaranteed a sellout every time Chicago comes to town. The fans for both teams get into it. It's like the Red Sox-Yankees -- although a tad friendler. Take the Brewers strong start and the Cubs high-powered offense, this week's series could not have been more intriguing ...

For once Kates and I were on schedule tonight. Both of us got out of work in plenty of time and we were leaving for the stadium a little after 5. We dodged the rush hour traffic on the I, made a short pit stop at Cousin's Subs (where we decided that yes, even expensive ballpark food is more appetizing than a Cousin's sandwich), stayed patient in a slow-moving parking line and were walking to our seats shortly after 6. Plenty of time to chow our pizza slices and take in the last minutes of the Cubs batting practice. Soon enough her "schoolmates" started filtering in and good conversation would be paired with great baseball ...

On this night, to Kates' and her colleagues' amazement, I had decided to leave my Cubs allegiance at home and wear my Brewers gear. I had to side with the home team, I told 'em. Besides, dare I say it, I'm finding my heart more with the Brewers this year. And it's telling me this really could be their year ...

The Brew Crew proved me right, tonight at least. Add to that, we got our money's worth ...

Alfonso Soriano led off the game with a double, but that was all the Cubs would get for awhile. In the meantime, the Cubs scored in each of the first three innings, thanks to solo homeruns by Tony Graffanino and Corey Hart in the second, and then doubles by Prince Fielder and Kevin Mench in the third. Then the Brewers added another one in the fifth and went up 6-1 on a homerun by recent addition Ryan Braun ...

Still, at one point in the middle of all of this, Kates actually muttered: This game is boring. I looked at her, laughed and noted the scoreboard. In her defense, the first five innings were moving pretty slowly, offense or not.

Then the Cubs started coming back! ... In the sixth, Cliff Floyd launched a homerun and Michael Barrett scored after he singled and Ryan Theriot put up a double.

In the eighth inning, it only got better. The Brewers tried to get by with Derrick Turnbow, but he failed them again -- with Aramis Ramirez already on, Turnbow walked Barrett, and both of those guys scored on singles by Theriot and Mark DeRosa. The crowd was roaring -- Chicago fans for the Cubs to keep scoring runs; Milwaukee fans for the Brewers to shut the door.

... I had joined the thousands of fans who were on their feet, and yeah, I might have given a slight impression that I was suddenly cheering for the Cubs. "Hey, who are you cheering for!?" Kates sneered ... "Hey, I'm just cheering for good baseball!" I said. My typical answer in such a situation ...

Alas, the Brewers did shut the door. Ned Yost brought in closer Francisco Cordero to face Soriano with two outs and two on in the eighth and Soriano struck out on four pitches ... In the ninth, Ramirez singled with two outs, but that was it. Brewers win 7-5.

And we went home happy.

A couple other notes: Sitting a few rows in front of us were a quartet of fraternizing Cubs fans, three beer-bellied guys and their hot female sidekick, actually. Throughout the game, no matter what the Cubs were doing, the three boys were repeatedly compelled to take off their shirts, stand on their seats and swing their shirts over their heads in mocking the Brewers fans behind them. But these guys were acting so drunk and retarded, even the Cubs fans sitting around us were rolling their eyes ... By the eigth, the foursome had moved to some vacant seats at the front of the section. And not only after that we noticed a cup of beer go flying over the railing and the foursome standing over the railing yelling at the victims below. A couple minutes later, security was escorting the foursome out of the stadium to everyone's cheers ...

... On a lighter note, also sitting a few rows in front of us was an elderly woman who was wearing a large bucket cap that looked almost like a sombrero and was laced with Brewers garb. The hat was royal blue and dotted with white baseballs that said "Go Brewers." Hanging from the brim of the hat like keychains were a series of small baseballs and bats. Throughout the game, I caught several people sneeking down the aisle with cameras and cell phones to snap pictures of the illustrious hat, but the woman never flinched and watched the game intently all night long.

6.04.2007

Our town

A colleague sent me a list this week of about 50 signs you know you're from the town where we live ...

Reprinting all of them would do no good, because a majority of them could be said for every place I've lived. But here are some of my favorites from the list that truly define the quirks of our town (with my commentary and background in parentheses) ...

... your last name is Tenuta, Ruffolo, DeBartolo or some other overly-Italian name ... (They're everywhere!)

... you've seen the Food Network special on Frank's every time it has aired ... (Frank's is an infamous rail car diner downtown, and you're not a citizen here until you've eaten there. The Food Network aired a special on the place a couple weeks ago, and Kates and I are saving it on our DVR ...)

... you remember when George Bush came to town, and the entire city shut down ... (Oh yeah, I remember it! Schools and businesses closed for the day. Streets were blocked off. The entire population congregated on one of the city's main arteries just to watch his motorcade pass through and a lucky few got to see the President when he stopped at Tenuta's Deli. My view of him was blocked, however, by his fat campaign bus ...)

... you've always rooted for the Bulls because the Bucks have never been very good ... (Pretty much.)

... you watch the Milwaukee news at 5 and the Chicago news at 6. (I much prefer the Chicago news over the sensational junk Milwaukee stations try to pass off as news. Yet I watch both because I have to know what's going on ... )

... you're shocked when you visit other places, and you find there are more cable companies than just Time Warner. (That's true too. Around here, you would think Time Warner Cable covered the whole country.)

... you can't believe how bad other student musicians your own age are. (Yep. The music programs around here are for serious musicians only ... )

... you've spent an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out how they connected Simmons Island to the mainland. (Kates and I were just discussing this while taking a drive on the "island" last weekend. Technically, it's a peninsula.)

... you're shocked to realize nobody else in the state knows the Empire Carpet jingle. (Pretty much. It's a Chicago thing. Watch this clip from Conan's Chicago show last year.)

... you hate it when people drive down by the lighthouse for 10 seconds and leave, but you do it too. (I do kinda laugh when I see other people do it. Ok. Yeah. I do it too ... )

... you never understood why we have a 1 1/2 mile trolley system that goes absolutely nowhere. (Yep. It just goes in an oval around downtown. But it's still pretty cool to watch it pass by. And it makes for great postcard pictures ...)

...you've experienced 90 degrees and humid at 60th Street & 22nd Avenue and 65 degrees and chilly at 60th Street & Seventh Avenue in the three minutes it took you to drive the distance. (Ah, the effects Lake Michigan has on the weather ...)

... you don't understand why there's 75 elementary schools (most of which you've never heard of) and only three high schools (... high schools that, my colleague jokingly pointed out, have student populations of like 40,000 kids each because residents refuse to put up the money for new schools ...)

...White Caps was the place where the "rich" people lived until you realized the houses there sucked too. (Also true.)

... Big Star is better than The Spot, or The Spot is better than Big Star. (Our town is fraught with drive-ins and these are two of the most popular. It depends on which side of town you live in, I guess. Kates and I prefer The Spot.)