No, I am not being held in Guantanamo Bay without trial. In fact quite the opposite... I have somehow been registered for selective service, which means Uncle Sam can call on me in the nation's hour of need. Thanks for your concern Tom, orange isn't my favourite colour.

First of all. Jaf congratulations on getting married. I hope the wedding went well and everyone got pissed.

Second. May I offer my insincerest apologies for not updating the blog for more than 2 months. There's no excuse except laziness and I happen to think that's a good excuse. Anyway I'll try to fill you in on what happened in March...

Here's a picture of a relatively small truck in Wisconsin. Americans fulfil their need for emblematic expression by decorating their vehicles and houses with flags. I'm not sure what would inspire someone to fly a flag from the roof of their car but it's actually quite common.

This is the crowning achievement of 20th century food manufacturing. According to the Krispy Kreme website each one of these doughnuts is 200 calories, a superb energy source. That works out at 0.25c per calorie which is bloody good value and that's why I'm now a donut fiend.

Here's me back at Savannah Ridge... feeling pretty happy with myself after eating 5 Krispy Kreme donuts.

This is the Chicago Blackhawks vs. Vancouver Canucks game. Ice hockey is to field hockey what destruction derby is to F1 racing. There are no rules except that the game is stopped every so often probably so the TV networks can run ad breaks. The referees adopt a laissez-faire philosophy towards violence on the rink. They are only supposed to intervene when a player has lost his footing and fallen on the ice. The fights are shown on the big screen so that the bloodthirsty fans can more closely observe this tragic mockery of sport.

For St. Pat's day they dyed the Chicago River green. The environmental impact is minimal because Chicago River has no ecosystem to speak of. On this day there was a parade, the streets were packed with people wearing green, and the bars were packed with people wearing green pretending they like guinness. Tis Irish, to be sure to be sure... That big white building is the Sheraton hotel where we stayed a little while ago.

Here is one of the stunning views of Chicago from the John Hancock observatory. To the east is Lake Michigan. Just below is one of Chicago's two beaches.

Here's me I think I just spoiled a nice sunset picture.

What a magnificent view of a beautiful city. It's a tribute to the glory of capitalism and the genius of humanity. However this picture fills me with melancholy because it can't last. One day the oil will run out (almost half is already gone and there's no more) and the cars will stop and the lights will dim and the planes won't take off. The energy shortage will cause those who own capital to more vigorously conquer the remaining resources so that they can continue the destructive business of production, which is the basis for their existence, and further subjugate those who don't hold capital power. This will begin the decline of the empire, which has now extended itself to wherever there is a market... blah blah blah I think I'd like to eat a donut now.

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World News. As reported on AM, a Japanese TV network are making a new series of Monkey.

Weather. It's sunny, -10°C, no snow. Not too windy.

Weekend. Boring weekends make boring blog entries. Tomorrow is Presidents Day.

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I went to see Less Than Jake on Monday night. They were playing in Perth at the Rosemount the weekend before I left but I didn't see them. If you don't know, Less Than Jake are a 5-piece ska punk band. A tenor sax and trombone are added to the normal guitar, bass, & drums, and their songs often use a reggae style rhythm (though at about 140bpm).

I arrived just as the first support act, Rock n Roll Soldiers were dismantling their drumkit, and destroying it piecemeal. So I got a beer and waited for the next act to come on. A Wilhelm Scream were pretty standard punk rock except their songs incorporated the nu-metal style tempo changes which sort of annoy me. I don't really remember the final support act, Damone, except that it was quite soothing to listen to after the stresses of my day.

Less Than Jake were awesome. They played some songs which I know... All My Best Friends Are Metalheads, Johnny Quest Thinks We're Sellouts, Automatic, a little bit of Dopeman, some older stuff, and some of their new(ish) material which I haven't listened to before. They played a song which will be on their new album, In With The Out Crowd. It's called Overrated. It sort of sounds like some well-known pop song, but not quite. That's poor songwriting in my opinion. That one failed to get everyone excited. But it was still a great set and by the time LTJ came back for their encore the crowd (mostly teenagers by the way) had gone stupid.

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Last Saturday we went skiing at Crystal Ridge, a small hill about 1.5 hours drive from Libertyville.

I was terrified about the idea of skiing. Every time I got to the top of the hill I was nervous. But surprisingly it's not too hard to learn. I was better at turning right than left. It's a wonderful feeling cruising down the slope and knowing that the only two possibilities are to keep going straight and pick up more speed, or to crash violently and roll down the hill.

A beer is needed to calm the nerves.

I hereby nominate Caryn for the David Hookes Memorial Trophy for Misfortune and Misjudgement for failing to navigate around some trees during her descent. Caryn showed the some of exceptional qualities needed to win an award of this nature by skillfully manouvering neither right nor left, then ploughing over a safety fence, before finally coming to rest in some evergreen shrubbery. Well done Caryn, you have represented Australia well!

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Faineant Friday. I think I hate ten pin bowling because I'm so shit at it. Anyway it's a good excuse to get pissed on buddweiser.

Smooth Jazz Saturday. On Saturday we went out for dinner then took a taxi to the Green Mill. Unfortunately there was a line to get in and it was bloody cold. So we took another taxi to Rush St and found somewhere called the Back Room, sat down and listened to some jazz. It was some quartet playing but I never got their name. The performance was really enjoyable, if you like Smooth Jazz, you would have liked these guys. They played some classics like Say Yeah and Never Too Much. The guy on the keyboards was an ace; his solos were definitely the highlight for me. He had a micromoog synth, which was totally awesome! The dude on electric guitar was a great performer, very funny. They were going through this cheesy song called That's The Way Love Is. It was almost too romantic... until he stomped on a previously unseen distortion pedal and broke into a medley of rock songs including You Shook Me All Night Long, Foxy Lady, Smoke On The Water, etc. Then they returned to the love song. I wish I bought their CD.

Superbowl Sunday. The only reason NFL exists is to serve as a platform to deliver advertising to the American public. The people who watched the superbowl for its sporting content would probably also watch Big Brother for its value as psychological research and social commentary... Hey that was me!

This dude hangs around the bridges near Michigan Ave and busks with his sax. On Saturday, when I took that photo, the temperature was below zero, and it was fairly windy. What a champ!

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Today I bought a camera because I've just received my new credit card. It lacks a few features but it's really tiny so I can fit it in my pocket and take it drinking with me.

Tomorrow night we're going ten pin bowling. I despise ten pin bowling. Never mind! On Saturday we're renting a hotel room in Chicago and I think going to the Awesome 80's Prom. On Sunday, the John Hancock Tower, if the weather's clear.

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The lord giveth, and he taketh away.

On Monday lunch time I went out to Waukegen to apply for a social security card. On the way back to work I cruised through a speed trap on Washington Ave. The officer caught up and pulled me over. I stayed in my car because I was told that sometimes the police here are nervous and pull their gun if you open the door.

He asked for my licence, but I didn't have anything because I lost my wallet downtown. All I could give him was my passport, which luckily I had on me because I was visiting the social security office. He asked me to get out and hop into the back of his unmarked police car. His name was Officer Harvey. He then started writing out tickets for travelling 45 in a 30 mph zone, and operating a vehicle with no valid driver's licence. We chatted for a little while and then the tow truck arrived to take away my car. At the same time a taxi arrived to take me back to work.

In the taxi I read all the papers he had given me. First was a card which said my car has been siezed by The City of Waukegan, and $500 would be required to obtain its release. Additionally, towing fees are $170 + $35/day in storage. If my car is not picked up in 30 days, it is forfeited to the towing company. The other tickets were $75 for speeding and $75 for driving without a license. Then there was a personal recognizance record which says I must appear in court at 10:30AM on the 24th of February for the case of People Of The State Of Illinois vs. Rodney V Lorrimar.

The fare to back to Libertyville was more than $30 but all I could give the taxi driver was my last $22.37.

Anyway... after a lot of phone calls and faxes I got my car back on Wednesday. The DPI sounded helpful but they didn't send the fax about my WA driver's licence quick enough. However I think the hire company said the right things to the Waukegan Police Department Traffic Division because after they called Avis, I didn't need to pay the $500 release, or the towing fee. In court I will be able to plead not guilty and show my documentation (which is coming in the mail), so the total damage is only the $75 speeding fine + $22.37 taxi fare.

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On Friday night we received 10 inches of snow in Libertyville. I was still at work at about 7 and it was falling down really thick. Apparently it was falling as heavy as it gets. I had to go home or else I my car would get stuck in the snow. Driving in the snow happens in slow motion. You can't go more than about 20 mph because it's so slippery. Normally as soon as it starts snowing an army of snow ploughs appear and start plowing and pouring salt on the road. However that night they were pretty slow to arrive. When you're driving it's hard to know whether you're travelling on the right side of the road.

Hong and I went for a walk down to Gages Lake. Everyone was getting their vehicles bogged in the snow; it was hilarious! The locals were all out mowing the snow with their little machines, or shovelling it off their driveways. I got a chance to see the neighbourhood. Every fourth house has an American flag, which is quite disturbing.

The branches of the pine trees were weighed down with snow. When we pulled the branches, they sprung upwards and snow showered down everywhere. It was really fun. On Sunday we made snow men. It's quite easy, because all you need to do is roll the snow and it all sticks together. You can make a snow ball as big as you like, providing you're strong enough to roll it (1m diameter would be about the max). Ferdi, Jason and I had a snow fight. Ferdi hit me right in the ear. While he was celebrating a hit to Jason I ditched one at his head and hit him in the eye. What a great shot!!!

Without snow, this place is quite ugly. The trees are leafless, the houses all look exactly the same, there is grass everywhere but it's dying from the cold. However a fall of snow transforms everything and it's really beautiful. I wish I took some photos, sorry.

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I spent a bit longer than two hours looking out of the Sears Tower observatory. After coming down I found a pizza place on Adams St and ate some Chicago stuffed pizza. I couldn't fully eat the smallest possible serving for one person. It looked more like a quiche than a pizza. In general the pizza here is quite good, but also expensive. The thin crusts are lighter and sweeter than in Australia. All have been less oily than Broadway Pizza. On the way out I gave one of the homeless dudes a dollar then caught the CTA uptown.

Patricia Barber and her quartet were playing that night at The Green Mill. Patricia usually plays there on Monday nights when she's not touring. This was her last show before leaving to perform in France. She has quite a few devoted fans in Chicago, going by the people I talked to. The Green Mill is a jazz lounge where Al Capone used to hang out. Nowadays it's for serious music fans - everyone sits down, there's no food served, and we were asked to not talk during the performance. It's a pleasant, intimate atmosphere.

I would call Patricia's style contemporary pop jazz. A lot of it is instrumental and her sparse lyrics were pretty simple. I think she sung just to complement the music, which is a shame because she had a very seductive voice. Her piano solos were very cool. She writes all of the songs and obviously led the group well. Often she would communicate to the drummer by drumming with her hands on the top of the piano. Sometimes when playing she would let out a strange howl. I'm not sure whether this was because she was unhappy that someone made a mistake, or whether it was just a howl of satisfaction with the awesome music (often pianists sing da da da be de da while they're soloing). She made a funny stuff-up with one of her songs. The song began with her playing the piano and singing, "one and one is two; two and two is four," continuing with the sequence 2ⁱ. However she sung, "one and one is two; two and two is four; four and four is six." They had to start the song again which was quite amusing.

She also had a folder stuffed full of loose pages of music which she sat on the top of the piano. I'm not sure why she brought it with her given that she knew all her songs off by heart or made it up on the spot... perhaps there was a set list in there or she needed it to jog her memory. Anyway, when they came back from a break there was a buzzing sound coming from the piano mic. Patricia was asking the sound guy like WTF is going on??? It took them about 5 minutes to find that a paperclip had fallen out of her folder onto one of the low piano strings.

It was a really enjoyable show. My disappointments were that Patricia didn't sing enough and didn't solo enough. Also I think there were opportunities for a change to a faster tempo in some of her songs, to make them more interesting. Most were slow paced and quite chilled out. The drummer's solo's were pretty amazing though. Sometimes drummers can overdo their solos and leave the audience wondering about whether the rhythm is 7/5, or 13/8, or whether it has rhythm at all!? But this bloke kept it together, and kept it interesting. I recommend checking out their website and downloading the MP3s.

Posted by Rodney L. at 09:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

On Monday evening I went up Sears Tower. Obviously it was great views once I got to the top. However the bullshit before was hard to deal with. First step was a security screening where I had to remove all wallets, keys, mobile phones, etc, before passing through the gate. Then I had to buy a ticket ($12, twice as much as the art museum entry) before heading into a holding pen where we waited for about 5 minutes. Precious daylight was fading away. Then we were led into a darkened room and forced to watch a pointless tourism video complete with cheesy jazz background music. It lasted about 10 minutes. Our journey up and down in the lift was narrated by two dreadful cartoon characters on a video screen. Even up in the observatory we were not left in peace. While a two song jazz track was looped on the speakers, around the centre of the room were bland panels describing the history of Chicago. The panels were lighted so their reflections on the windows spoiled some of my photos.

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On Monday arvo I cruised over to the very impressive sounding Art Institute of Chicago. Unfortunately I only had about 2.5 hours to see it because I needed to be at Sears Tower for sunset. So for that visit I concentrated on the American art collection and left the rest for another day. On the way to the American art section there was a crazy medieval armour display. The suits looked like they weighed 30kg.

I had expectations for the American art collection and unfortunately they weren't met. A lot of the pieces were furniture owned by rich people and portraits of the rich people from the 18th and 19th century. The furniture was tolerable, and I could see for example how the form of a couch drew attention to the fine pattern on of its upholstery (designed by a French immigrant). But the portraits were unpalatable. I can't really explain why. Perhaps because this was Martin Luther King Jr Day and we the museum visitors, all white, were looking at the portaits of rich white old dead people... While the gallery was attended by a gang of security guards, all black, who appeared to be very bored and slightly resentful of their guests.

So how does it compare to the Perth Art Gallery? Well I think it's a lot bigger. There were no classic Aussie landscape pictures. But there were nice paintings of water reflections, etc, in the Impressionist style. Perth Art Gallery has a decent area for indigenous painting (not just line & dot pictures either). But here there were only a few little drawings of Indian chiefs amongst the "Wild West" gallery. The rest were violent exhibits depicting the frontier battles. There were some really exciting bronze statues of American horsemen fighting the Indians. Back in Perth there are quite a few installation art pieces. In the contemporary American art section here there are none. However I haven't yet visited the entire museum.

This pianoforte was made in 1812. Poor bastards... it looks like a terrible instrument to play!

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Sunday was the Chicago Bears vs. Carolina Panthers NFL playoff. "Playoffs" are like finals but in the NFL the teams are divided into pools of four teams each. The pool winners meet in the playoffs, which is sort of like World Cup soccer I guess.

I went with Zillah, Brett, and Mary-Beth to Mickey Finn's to watch it on the big screen. Brett is an expat who has embraced the American lifestyle. Not only does he possess an impressive knowledge of beer brewing, beer appreciation, and beer in general, he also has a sound understanding of the rules of NFL, which he passed onto me.

The game was pretty boring. Chicago was failing to successfully distribute the ball forward and as such most of their play was buggerizing around within the 10 yards. The highlight of the game for me was when a Carolina forward received a perfectly placed throw from their quarterback, dummied the last defender, stepped around him and scored a touchdown. However displays of skill and flair like this are routine in an AFL game. I don't know how the Americans stay interested.

As for who to blame for Chicago's defeat... The Bears quarterback, Grossman, was conspicuous in not hitting his targets. Apparently this was his first game after a while of not playing NFL matches. However I think the main problem was their forwards not providing good leads for him to throw at. Additionally, if the quarterback is not well defended, he doesn't have enough time to make a good throw. Urlacher for Chicago was solid and a few times ran some yards in the right direction. Smith for Carolina was devastating and tore holes in the Bear's defense. Whoever was marking him just couldn't get close enough.

Although the Bears at one point managed to narrow the score gap, given their infrequent and limited attacking plays, I never seriously thought they were close to winning. Final score 29-21.

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On Saturday night my Aussie workmate Caryn and I decided to check out the Cabaret Cocktail Boutique downtown. It's a new venue in Chicago, about 2 months old. We were expecting to see a cabaret show however it turned out to be a cabaret-themed lounge (lounge is American for nightclub). The waitresses were dressed in the proper attire but don't dance... instead we had to do the dancing. Outside there was a huge glitzy sign which said "Cabaret." The interior was immaculate and the furnishings were sufficiently decadent. Drinks were expensive! It's also the first time I've been to a toilet with an attendant. His name was William I think and after I tipped him $2 for the privilege I made a note to myself to not go for a piss for the rest of the night. By 12:30 when we left the place was packed with a fairly well-presented crowd. I think I would go back there only if I can afford it, and of course only if the bouncer would let us in. Earlier that night he did the old "not in those shoes" routine but let me off "just this once" because we arrived early and no-one was there yet.

Funny disturbing story... we actually arrived too early and they hadn't opened yet so we decided to find a bar and have a quick drink. The bar we found was Andy's Piano Bar, which is a gay piano bar. I was like what the hell maybe they will be playing piano, but alas it was too early for that. When we got in Caryn went off to the washroom and I went and sat on a stool and got the drinks. That was a few very nervous minutes. I sort of just passed the time tapping my feet to the song (Blondie - Heart of Glass) and sipping on my cranberry & grey goose vodka, all too aware of the hungry stares of lonely men spaced evenly around the bar. Caryn was the only girl in there and I was very relieved when she got back. We chilled out for a while then some bloke ordered us a drink. Score! We're still not sure who it was for, so we shared it.

Posted by Rodney L. at 11:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

After another hard week on the giant hamster wheel I was feeling ready to sip a well-earned drink from the water tube, nibble on some bird seed, and then go out and have some fun chewing through newspaper.

This weekend was a long weekend courtesy of Dr Martin Luther King Jr who worked his life to liberate white-collar employees like myself from the inconvenience of turning up on Monday. Thanks dude!

On Friday the Aussie crew from work went out for dinner at Firkin. I'm not sure whether it was a bar or restaurant and on that night it was pretty busy so neither aspect was great. The food wasn't too bad but we waited ages to get a table. Here's some trivia... here they call the main course "entree." And an entree is an "appetizer." Then checked out Mickey Finn's for one drink. I wasn't too impressed but this place is going to be the local so I'll need to get used to it.

Next day we made a pilgrimage to the First McDonalds Store replica in Des Plains, birthplace of the Big Mac. From this googie shrine restaurants sprouted across the globe. However the store was surprisingly modest: just a fenced off little shack, fandangled with neon tubes, and attended by uniformed mannequins. There was an operational McDonalds restaurant over the road but we decided to get Chinese for lunch instead.

From that kitsch fast food mecca we moved to an equally significant building: the Bahá'í Temple in Wilmette. The temple seemed to serve two purposes. Obviously it is chiefly a place of worship for Bahá'ís. Then it is also a way of attracting newcomers to the faith. Godless tourists who were visiting just to take pictures seemed to be more tolerated than welcomed. I found it challenging to invent an appropriately sincere expression of deference before entering the holy building. We were greeted in the visitors area by two representatives of the faith. I'm wary of those earnest religious types. First you listen to their spiel; then you ask a few questions; and next thing you know you're sitting in a bible study group going over the main stories of the Old Testament. It's happened to me before. But they were cool enough and not too pushy. One of them was disowned by his Muslim family in Pakistan because he became a Bahá'í. The faith is based on the message from Bahá'u'lláh (1817-1892) who is the messiah, the second coming, the manifestation of God, etc. and the writings of the various prophets: Krishna, Zoroaster, Abraham, Moses, Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad, and the Bab. Apparently all of these people are all in basic agreement with eachother. There are minor differences in the details. The example our guide gave us was that under Islamic law it is OK to kill non-Muslims. The Bahá'í however just don't use the nasty bits of the various religions and instead concentrate on what the prophets said. I'm not too sure what their position is on the big Catholic issues like abortion and gay rights, perhaps they just don't care. Anyway, after the introduction we checked out the main temple. While in there I took the opportunity to make a quick prayer for snow. None of the 9 prophets have delivered yet.

Posted by Rodney L. at 10:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

My cat was sick today... nah just joking I'm not going to write shit like that in here. I'm going to talk about the weather instead!!

Today was an awesome sunny winter's day; it probably reached about 8 degrees around lunch. I needed to escape from work for a bit so I went for a cruise around the Libertyville town centre and basically it's all car dealerships and churches, no bull!. I spotted Mickey's, and have put it on my agenda.

A gaggle of geese have also come back to visit the technology park storm water lake. They stand on the road and leave goose poo everywhere. These birds are a little more mellowed out than the Lake Michigan geese I think the city life gets to them. Apparently there are also squirrels when it gets warmer. I can't tell you much yet about these little beasts except that I have briefly seen them and they are very small, very noisy, and very stupid.

As for the snow outlook, things are looking bad. If there's no improvement by Sunday I will need to formalize my request for divine intervention, and take it to the Lord almighty at a local place of worship.

I'm not sure what's happening this weekend but hopefully opportunities to behave badly will present themselves to me. As soon as my credit card is reactivated I'm buying a camera so I can write less words and put in more pictures. I never expected America to be so American and hopefully some photos will illustrate what I mean.

Cheerio!

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Yesterday I slept half the day since I was so buggered from work last week. Then I spent about 2 hours trying to cash a Western Union cheque so I could buy food and put fuel in my car. If you've ever seen the Western Union pizza boy ads on TV, I assure you it's a complete lie. After that I was bored so I went to say hello to Ferdi and we played AOE2. Elephants, camels, and trebuchets conquered all!

By late evening, it seemed like this was going to be a quiet weekend. Then I came to my senses and realized that just because I have eaten a burrito at Taco Bell does not mean I've experienced all of American culture, and I owe it to my hosts to learn as much as I can about Chicago. So I went to Rosa's Lounge to see Melvin Taylor and The Slack Band play the blues.

Melvin Taylor I was told is one of the best blues guitarists in the world. From where I was sitting it looked pretty easy. Some of his songs were more jazz than blues and it was very relaxing to see him effortlessly traverse the scales in his solos. Of course other songs were very much the blues. They were fun to listen to and every time I hear the V IV I V7 chord progression I want to smile. I think the Slack Band drummer gets the same because he was grinning all night (he was also wearing a big black and white headband which added to the effect). Melvin even told a joke with the wah-wah pedal... at least it seemed that way to me. Anyway, he had an impressive mastery of his instrument which held my interest for all three sets. That's pretty hard considering it was just him, a drummer, and a bass player with rare singing.

The manager Tony got up and told the story of Rosa's in between the sets. I wasn't really listening but I heard him say it all started when Junior Wells was visiting Italy and he met the young Tony there. Junior said "Come to Chicago... I'll be responsible for you." So Tony ended up migrating to Chicago and starting a blues club there. He then asked everyone to thank Mama Rosa for all the hard work she'd put into the bar because it was coming up to her 23rd anniversary working there. Old Rosa, Tony's mum, was behind the bar serving drinks and having a smoke. After 23 years working in a blues club I think she was pretty deaf but she got the idea that everyone was clapping for her.

Everyone I talked to was pleased that after only 3 weeks in Chicago I'd found the right place. I have to agree... Rosa's is a real gem and I plan to return there. I'd like to say I have a nose for finding the best scene but really it's all about clicking the right links on centerstagechicago.com.

After Melvin finished and Rosa's closed, I headed north-east to The Oasis with Sarah, her husband (damn damn damn I forgot his name), Pauly, and Andrea. Sarah, Pauly, and Andrea all work for a tour boat company. They were at Rosa's to celebrate the birthday of Dave, who is the tour boat captain. Since the company doesn't own an ice breaking tour boat, during the winter months they can just sort of stay home and chill out. Sarah's husband works for Microsoft! He has been there for 8 years and is an expert on their .NET platform. His job is to consult with other companies and advise them of the best way to use Microsoft technologies. I had to come clean with him and say "look sorry mate, I'm actually more of Linux person myself." But he didn't care, probably because people have said that to him so much before. I also asked "so do you own MSFT options?" My guess is that would be the most frequent question he receives from people he meets. Luckily I didn't ask whether he had met Bill Gates; that would be way too predictable.

The "O" as it's called was a bit of a dive but we were there because it had a 5AM liquor trading license. It looked every bit the typical American bar as you would see on TV. We had a beer there and then it closed so we went to this 24-hour Mexican restaurant for tacos. The tacos were OK. There was a jukebox there with all Spanish songs. I was actually looking for some ACDC and had already inserted my quarters when I realized this, so a Mexican bloke chose the songs for me. The first one I think was the Latino answer to Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On... terrible. The second was a horrible little jig that could inspire violence. The guy escaped the restaurant shortly after starting the songs. He probably thought that was quite funny.

Posted by Rodney L. at 11:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

My regular reader (hi Mum) might have noticed that I've been backdating entries. I'm actually writing this entry on Sunday the 8th. Some might think this is a scandalous lack of blogalistic integrity caused by my inability to come to terms with the past. May I justify this dishonesty by saying that blogs are a personal account of one's experiences and are by their nature inaccurate. I am bringing to you my truth, but not the One Truth, and to do this I may need to sacrifice the facts.

Anyway, this was what I was thinking on Thursday the 5th.

The weather here is hot now, temperatures are usually 3 to 6 degrees. It snowed a little on the 30th but since then bugger-all. God, please provide us with snow, as you have provided us well with bread and shelter. I will continue to be virtuous when convenient. Please forgive my sins can I not go into details about them right now. Amen.

Posted by Rodney L. at 06:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

When it comes to making good investment decisions I'm not exactly Alan Kohler but the last few days have been particularly bad for me... in fact I think I have had a little economic meltdown. So here's two tips for the would-be Chicago investor who doesn't like financial ruin: 1. avoid cloak rooms; and 2. don't park downtown.

Cloak room stocks downgraded.
I have always considered the cloak room to be a relatively sensible investment and the $2 Metro were charging on Wednesday night seemed like a steal. However I'm downgrading the rating from buy to hold because sometime after I received my coat in that crowded room, my wallet was stolen. Whether it was filched from my pocket or not handed to the cloak room attendant after I dropped it doesn't really matter. I lost about 150 clams and all of my cards which was a big bummer.

Downtown parking underperforming significantly.
Finding street parking downtown is like winning lotto and new year's eve was the night of the bonus draw. So I thought I would make a smart buy and go for one of those parking lots outside the Wrigley Field stadium operated by men wearing red jackets. The fee was a little steep at $15 but I didn't want to walk 10 blocks and arrive at the party only to find out that it was already 2006. So after I was directed into my parking spot I asked the parking man how long can I park here. He said until 12 o'clock which I said was fine because I assumed he meant noon the next day and not midnight!

I imagine on that night there was a driver waiting in his truck next to the home of the Cubs with his in-vehicle TV tuned to the countdown. When the he saw the ball drop in times square and the fireworks starting, he lit a Camel cigarette, stepped out of the cabin, and began loading my car onto the back of his tow truck. My Pontiac was going to the big house.

So anyway another year passed by and the next morning I stepped out of Al's house onto the beautiful Chicago street and strolled through the town back to Wrigley field trying to memorise the names of people I'd met and contemplating with a wry smile all the rather silly things I'd done that night. I was feeling 1,000,000 AUD. Then when I saw the empty car park -- save one police car -- my heart sank. I asked the police officer where my car might be and he said to ring the phone number written on the "Private Property No Parking" sign. He then helpfully added that my car might not be impounded; it could instead just be stolen.

Aussie mates: long term buy.
My market advice to you is that equity in Aussie mates is still a top pick. I gave Jason a call and he kindly drove all the way from Wildwood, delivered me to car jail, and financed my car's $150 bail fee. All this after he had just come back from Michigan. While I was waiting I hung out with Ron at Maccas, ate some fries (they are just the same as Australian fries unfortunately), and read the Chicago Sun-Times. There was an interesting article about the word "only", and another one about blogging which I will write about later.

So that's the market wrap for today the 2nd of January 2006. If you are wondering who is the bloke with sad look, then I will tell you he is Seneca, a Roman philosopher. A while back I saw a fascinating show about happiness and philosophy on our ABC, and Seneca was mentioned. He is part of a group of philosophers called the stoics, who argue that the world is essentially good because it exists and is created by God. His logic was that it is impossible to substantially change the world around you, so the only way you can be happy is to change your own mind, which you have complete control over. Seneca's way of dealing with my situation might have been to hope the wallet thief bought some good crack and then maybe just shrug his shoulders when his car got towed. It happened, therefore it is good. If you're wondering how Seneca died, well the emperor Nero thought Seneca was plotting against him, and so ordered his execution. Upon hearing this news (from the soldiers that arrived at his house), Seneca happily drank poison.

I prefer a more modern philosophy, one drawn from the new doctrine of marketing and consumerism. It preaches that (with a few small exceptions) the more money you expend, the happier you become. That is, "There are some things money can't buy. For everything else there's MasterCard."

Posted by Rodney L. at 09:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I made my return to the Underground Lounge for new year's eve. It was a $60 entry, open bar event so I could sample all the drinks, all night long. There was even Jameson on tap... maybe downtown's equivalent to bundy & coke on tab at the OBH. Red Stripe beer (from Jamaica!) is pretty nice, Newcastle Brown Ale is good (it's probably on sale in Oz but I've never had it), and PBR is what you drink if you have no money (and price is a very important attribute of beer). In fact I don't think there was one I didn't like-- even Buddweiser is good enough for me and no-one likes that!

OK now I've done the paragraph about booze. May I just say now that NYE isn't all about drinking and I don't rely on alcohol to have a good time? And also since I've started going to the meetings I've stopped drinking at work.

The crew I met on Wednesday night were all there, except for T: I think he was going to another party on Michigan Ave with friends from art school. I met some more of the underground regulars... Hello to Aarons roommate the teacher (sorry forgot your name), Al, Alex, Brad, Clay, Jeff, John, Nate. All are very nice, interesting and easy-going people. Since I was basically saying g'day to anyone who would listen, I met many other varied and random characters including Dave the ever-reliable barman who kept the drinks coming; Don, who made lots of badges inscribed with the text "I SURVIVED 2005" (sorry the picture of the badge is crap); and this other bloke who knew "And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda." That was pretty cool... after they kicked everyone out we were milling around outside deciding what to do and I was chatting to this dude who said he learnt it while staying in Ireland. He even sang it! Not quite John Williamson but very moving nonetheless.

A bunch crashed at Al's apartment which was nearby. The girls had planned ahead and bought fruit, bagels and pringles for new year's day. The bagels were interesting... I'm not sure my sense of taste had fully returned at that point so I will have to buy some more bagels and try them out. For me multigrain is a way-out-there cool bread experience so maybe I should expand my doughy horizons.

Posted by Rodney L. at 07:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I was introduced to ska music in high school by my friend Ramana who was a mad punk/ska fan. For those of you who are, like myself, uncool enough to not really know what the ska musical genre is or what it sounds like, I will direct you to the alt.music.ska FAQ. According to the FAQ, the Jamaican ska style is 40 years old but recently punk bands have recycled the sound and used it in their songs. Examples being Area 7, Less Than Jake, and Mustard Plug.

Mustard Plug were headlining the show on Wednesday called Midwest Skafest 2005, so I went downtown to Metro to check it out. Unfortunately I was talking and not paying very much attention while they played. Perhaps the Buddweisers had something to do with it also, but all I remember is that their songs were catchy, and at least equal in awesomeness to Already Gone. Mustard Plug were noticably more energetic and exciting than the supporting bands and really made the place come alive. If you're reading this Vinnie I'm sorry I didn't make the most of it but hopefully they will visit Oz soon. And to my other readers, I'm sorry if you were looking forward to a pretentious and irrelevant Pitchforkesque review of Mustard Plug. I really didn't see enough of them to make a fair comment, but I have tried to put some big words into this article to give you the Pitchfork vibe.

Due to work, driving 40 miles, and finding parking downtown, I arrived at the Metro a little late and missed Manic Sewing Circle. The support acts that I saw were Skapone, Lord Mike's Dirty Calypsonians, and Deals Gone Bad. Skapone weren't bad (can't really remember them), Deals Gone Bad likewise, and being from Chicago they were a crowd favourite.

The Calypsonians however were a magnificent spectacle and brilliantly stood apart from the other support acts. The members were outfitted in matching red shirts and straw hats, and there were ELEVEN of them crammed onto the stage, PLUS two dancers (pretty girls not on stage for their dancing abilities). There was a drummer on the kit, percussionist, bass, two rhythm guitars, organist, three saxophonists, trumpet player, and Lord Mike himself singing. Before the first song began they all warmed up with what looked like a rather generous shot of tequilla and most of the blokes were chugging beers and smoking all through the set. I hope the saxophonists and trumpet player cleaned their instruments out well after playing because with all that beer they would get quite smelly and maybe corroded. The audacious on-stage circus didn't overshadow their music though, for it was equally sublime. The style was calypso obviously so it was happy cool groovy music and I think it was quite well played considering that there were 11 tipsy musicians to keep together. I'm not sure whether they played any original songs, but the only one I knew was Jump In The Line. (Harry Belafonte has sung it)

Yet again I fell into the trap of taking a picture at a concert with my phone. Everyone knows it's a waste of time. But anyway here's my photo of the Calypsonians:

Metro was a decent enough venue, except for the beers being $5 and having to wear an orange wristband in order to be served (like the Jewish armbands in WW2). There were so many kids running around, a lot of them being probably 15 years old, which was really strange. I guess because the drinking age is so old here venues need to do more all-ages gigs or else they wouldn't make any money. Anyway, since kids are so light they make excellent crowd surfers.

Another highlight of the evening was meeting Aaron at the bar. We talked a bit and enjoyed the music then he invited me to drink beers with him and his mates at the Underground Lounge. The Underground Lounge has a little bit of history. In the 30's it used to be a speak-easy (establishment engaged in the illegal sale of liquor during prohibition) operated by the mob. I was reading on the web that it was a gay bar at one point. Nowadays it's a cool little lounge (and only half gay-bar) with cheap drinks on Wednesdays, and independent music played often. Here I met Stacy, Charles, Colleen, Anna, Paul, maybe others but I forget. We played some pool then sat at the bar and chatted. We met a bloke who asked to be called T because his first name is too difficult. He's just graduated from arts school and is back in Chicago. Stacy and I swapped blog URLs, which was an exhilaratingly nerdy experience for me. By that time I think we were all pretty pissed. I have about 5 serviettes with a syllabus for my cultural education scribbled all over them... American movies to see, great songs to listen to, and good American beers to drink.

So yeah that was an exciting night. I definitely got more out it than I expected and it's really good to find a new crew.

Posted by Rodney L. at 06:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

On Saturday night I went downtown to check out the Velvet Lounge. Jabari Liu, a six-piece jazz ensemble, were playing that night. Here is a picture I stole from the web:

The bloke playing sax on the right wasn't there but the other two were. The fellow in the white shirt introduced all the members but I couldn't really hear their names. All up there was a trumpet, a bigger trumpet (maybe it was a cornet?), sax, electric guitar, double bass, and drums.

The songs were great and really energetic and there were plenty of wailing crescendos and harmonies which split apart into cacophonic improvised melodies which then merged together again. After a little while a second guitarist arrived and played a solo. He was young but quite good and the band members were giving him lots of encouragement. There was one song where the two guitarists improvised against each other while the wind players took a break at the bar. Also later on the drummer played a mesmerising solo. The saxophonist in the white shirt then came on to play some jazzy Christmas song which I really liked. However he didn't seem to rate his performance and the drummer called out "if you don't know it, then don't play it." They finished off the session with a loud and bold piece with everybody playing, but I can't remember what it was.

I decided not to stay for the second session since hardly anyone was there (maybe because it was Xmas eve). In fact by that time I think it was just myself, the band, the barman, and the manager.

So this I think was a successful first stop on my musical tour of Chicago. Unfortunately it's a solo tour because I can't find anyone interested in going out. Nonetheless, tomorrow I am going to see Mustard Plug at the MIDWEST SKAFEST 2005.

Posted by Rodney L. at 11:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I thought I'd add to the web's blog pollution problem by creating one of my own. The reason for this diary is so that I can keep everyone up to date with the many exciting and very important things that happen around me every day. Some of my immediate intentions are to document the idiosyncrasies of American plumbing and review the truly fascinating Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows.

I am staying for two months in a village called Libertyville. It's next to a big lake and has a big road, and a big shopping mall.

More later... Happy Holidays as they are saying over here.

Posted by Rodney L. at 10:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)