I'm a celebrity?

I'm a celebrity? Duh.

So, I'm doing this next weekend to take a break from shooting Lollapalooza:

I promised you last week more details for the Do312 Celebrity Kickball Game so here they are. On Saturday, August 7th, Do312 will be organizing a kickball game at Grant Park during Lollapalooza. Confirmed players so far are, Wolfmother, Foxy Shazam, Team Bayside High, Billy Dec, Ryan Manno, Johnny Radtke, Chris Holmes, Alia Shawkat, Clark Duke, Jim Kopeny and more keep rolling in daily. Keep an eye out to see who we add, and make sure to RSVP here, because 50 lucky people will win a spot to cheer the teams on.

All the guests haven't been announced but it's gonna be a lot of fun. RSVP now for your chance to see me be "athletic!"

Busy week, busier weekend!

Busy week, busier weekend!

It's been quite a week. Things at the 9-to-5 are poppin' (in the most excellent way) and Chicagoist has been keeping me busy in my off time so I'm really looking forward to unwinding over the weekend.

As if.

I'm DJing at The House of Blues Foundation Room tonight, so if you're a member this would be good evening to stop on by! I've never DJed there before but judging by the mix of music they requested it should be a good time, with lots of rock, some '80s and a little pop. Then tomorrow GalPal and I are heading up to Wisconsin with SuperBird and her man to attend the annual Burlington Good Times party; a weekend filled with friends, drinking, huge dinners, fireworks, and epic games of flip-cup. Your basic chance for a bunch of adults to just have the best time they possibly can. And then we hope to make it back in time Saturday to catch a few of the headliner acts at The Wicker Park Fest. And then Monday it's right back into the work week!

And did I mention Lollapalooza and the 72-hours of madness that accompanies that is next weekend? When am I going to find time to sleep?!

Soundgarden fans are WAY more aggro than your average Juggalo.

Soundgarden fans are WAY more aggro than your average Juggalo.

Man, right when I thought Smashing Pumpkins fans were the people who hated my music writing the most, along comes an army of Soundgarden fans that REALLY hate my writing. I wrote a piece about the band's pre-Lollapalooza show at The Vic gently dissing the latter period of their career -- and keep in mind I'm a fan of the ban myself -- and WHOA did these people come out of the woodwork to let me have it! In the end it was really amusing (and generated quite a healthy number of pageviews for Chicagoist) so I have no complants.

It's so funny when fans get so worked up over a single person's opinion. Does the fact I'm not excited about Soundgarden reuniting or Billy Corgan continuing to use the Smashing Pumpkins moniker really warrant someone getting angry? I think not.

The end of Sweet Treat Wednesdays...

The end of Sweet Treat Wednesdays...

Tonight marks the end of Sweet Treat Wednesdays, Gal Pal and our friend Lisa's weekly early evening DJ gig at Beauty Bar. The duo always plays sweet tunes, but Beauty Bar is doing away with the early shift DJs since it's proving a bit hard to build up traction in that time slot. I had noticed Sweet Treat Wednesdays was getting busier -- more of the girls' friends were dropping by and the evening $10 special for a martini and a manicure has been getting more popular -- but in the end the uphill battle just proved too difficult for the bar.

So let's see the duo's residency out with a bang tonight! They'll be spinning from 7 - 10 p.m. and I GUARANTEE you will dig the selections. Both DJs have excellent taste and their styles compliment each other well. This isn't the end of the Sweet Treat DJs -- I'm sure they'll find another monthly residency or two elsewhere -- but tonight is your last chance to see them where their partnership got started. See you at Beauty Bar!

Vintage (looking) beagle time!

Vintage (looking) beagle time!

Betty the Beagle can't help but look cute, can she? So deceiving! She's such an adorable little rascal...

My new phone.

My new phone.

So I drank the kool-aid and bought an iPhone 4 last week. I’ve been holding out for a model I thought would meet most of my cell phone demands and I decided this one was finally it. Luckily I know someone that works for Apple so I didn’t have to wait three weeks between my decision to buy and actual delivery. Instead it was more like a 15-minute wait in line and viola! iPhone!

So far I’m really happy with it. I bought a case right away so there are no antenna issues for me, an I spend so much time with it right now GalPal asked me if she had to worry about me leaving her for it.* I’ve used a first gen iTouch for years so the interface is the same but the phone is so much faster than I expected.** I kind of love it even though I just KNOW that Apple will announce something even cooler in a few months and I’ll be all like, “Grrrr, and now I’m stuck with this older model for the next two years.” Whatever.

One nice surprise was getting unlimited data grandfathered in since I’m an existing AT&T customer and am renewing before my contract would fully run out next month. Sweet!

Now the only thing I have to do is buy insurance for it in case I get all butterfingers on it and drop it and smash it’s beautiful little screen or, WORSE, it gets lost or stolen! Any recommendations?

*Which prompted ME to remind HER that when she got her iPhone she was just as wrapped up in it for the first week or so.
**Also, predictably, I have already been wrapped up in the Hipstamatic app to a ridiculous degree.

When it all started...

When it all started...


I met GalPal exactly two years ago tomorrow. Luckily Jessica Hopper was there to document that monumental initial meeting.* Two years. Wow. In that time I've done really great things and really dumb things. I've been both the best boyfriend I've ever been and the worst boyfriend I've ever been. We've had ups and downs but, amazingly, mostly ups. We've dealt with problems as a team and every single day we celebrate the fact that we found each other in the first place. We hug and we kiss and we hold hands and all that kind of stuff just as much as we did when we were giddily falling in love way at the beginning.

I am so lucky that two years ago she got out of a cab in pursuit of the tamale guy at the bar** she was dropping her friends off at instead of taking it home as she originally planned.

*It should be noted that I didn't even remember seeing Jessica until the next day when I was IMing Scott Smith and all like, "Whoa, crap! I saw Jessica last night and I was really drunk but I think we just talked about the Hold Steady so I should be O.K. and didn't say anything stupid and hold on a sec while I punch up her website to make sure and OH CRAP!" I should be thankful either GalPal OR Jessica ever spoke to my dumb ass again.
**Incidentally that bar was The Continental so imagine my surprise realizing I will be DJing there tomorrow ... exactly two years to the night after meeting GalPal. And who will be DJing with me? GalPal!

Photo by George Aye

Exposure.

Exposure.

The following things are true:

• I have an ability to make faces like an animated charachter causing some to dub me a living cartoon and then get ocular whiplash as I whip between frenzied faces and utter static dead stares.
• I now officially weigh less than I did in college, although I am not bulkier and more built, though certainly not musclebound.
• I age in reverse.
• I have a divot carved out under my left eye from a cyst dug out by a plastic surgeon that probably should have retired from his craft twenty years before. At the time I was annoyed by it, but now I think it's one of the few things that keeps me from looking like a freshman in college.
• I beat Kim Thayil in a danceoff and haven't seen anyone from Soundgarden since then, and I don't plan on seeing any of them ever again, especially at Lollapalooza.*
• I am DJing Saturday with Keep at The Continental.
• Two years ago, this coming Saturday, I met the love of my life at The Continental. No joke.**
• Not that I'm getting married, but I was thinking about the concept of the actual wedding ritual and realized that such a thing is so prohibitively expensive I a) literally don't know how people afford it and b) don't see how I could ever gather enough money to throw into the ether, never to be seen again, to actually get married.
• If you have tickets you want to sell me to this weekend's Cubs / Cards games I wold be eternally grateful, especially since GalPal is from St. Louis and guaranteeing her attendance would bring a smile to her face that would light me up.
  
• I need a haircut.
• I need a shave.
• I need, and am thankful, for your attention.

*This is a partial lie. I have since seen Matt Cameron since then, but he was a member of Pearl Jam at that time so I don't count it as a "Soundgarden sightning."
**More on that tomorrow.

Pitchfork pics.

Pitchfork pics.

Hey there, I totally forgot to let you know my pictures of the 2010 Pitchfork Music Festival are up! I took Monday off from the 9-to-5 to both decompress after the fest and actually get all my shots edited and out the door. There's a gallery on Chicagoist and then there are even more photos on my Flickr page. And if you missed it you can read our group recaps of Day One, Day Two and Day Three.

Photo: The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion by me ... one of my highlights of the weekend.

The one formspring.me question I am actually struggling to answer.

The one formspring.me question I am actually struggling to answer.

It is:

How do you balance work and play? You seem to do it quite well.

I do do it quite well and I've literally been struggling for months to explain how I do it without resorting to the simplistic but true response of "I just do." I'm still working on a response.

Anyway, if you have another question you're just dying to ask me go ahead and shoot.

Another shot of me in the wilds of P4K!

Another shot of me in the wilds of P4K!

Clayton Hauck caught me snapping the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion's set. Definitely one of my personal highlights of the weekend!

Proof I actually do work amidst the drinking and revelry at a music festival.

Proof I actually do work amidst the drinking and revelry at a music festival.

Thanks to Will Rice for sending me this shot he took that includes me enthusiastically photographing Free Energy at the ungodly weekend our of one o'clock in the afternoon!

Heading to Union Park this weekend? Say hi if you see me!

Heading to Union Park this weekend? Say hi if you see me!

I'll be running all over the Pitchfork Music Festival this weekend. Feel free to keep up with my tweets and @ message me if you want to meet up and say hi. Don't worry, I don't bite!

Ready? Set. Go!

Ready? Set. Go!

The Pitchfork Music Festival kicks off tomorrow and I can admit it is the one music fest this summer I am most looking forward to. The bill is the strongest one I've seen. The headliners do lean towards appeasing old fogies like me but there's plenty great up and coming bands on the bill to even that out. My biggest questions are whether Best Coast and Sleigh Bells will be able to pull of the magic their songs have on album in a live setting and if the Pavement that closes out the fest is the band whose live show I fell in love with in the early '90s or the band I saw limp sadly across the finish line in the late '90s. And a prediction! I will actually in fact have a beer for breakfast on Saturday to start amping me up for Free Energy hitting the stage at the godawful time of 1 p.m. This will also mark my first time being on festival grounds at that unholy hour … but I do love my Free Energy!

See you there?

iNdecision.

iNdecision.


So this week was to be THE week. The week I finally turn in my old phone and purchase a brand new iPhone. I've held out buying the iPhone for years, knowing full well Apple's history of creating something and then refining it. What began as a decent device would become an excellent device, if I could just hold out a few years years. So, time has passed and I've been tempted to dash my current phone against the wall countless times as friends and family happily typed away on their touchscreens. It grew into torture. But I knew if I just held out I would end up being the one with the nigh perfect iPhone while they jealously looked at me from behind their outdated technology!

And then the iPhone 4 was introduced and I knew it was exactly what I had been waiting for. My moment had arrived!

Or had it?

As the weeks have passed since its release I've heard more and more reports of defects in the phone, the antenna issue being the most vexing and perplexing since Apple seems unwilling to even address it, and doubts took seed. Then GalPal upgraded her own phone to iOS4 and suddenly her iPhone 3GS was acting up; apps were crashing, her email wasn't reliable, and everything in general was just running a lot slower. I started to wonder if the iPhone 4 would turn out to be the equivalent of Windows Vista. And even if Apple solves all the iPhone issues it's not like they're going to release new units with those fixes since it would trigger incredible consumer backlash and force them to recall and replace EVERYONE'S iPhone 4.

So where does that leave me?

I reckon my options are:

• I wait until next year, when the NEXT iPhone comes out.
• I wait a few more months just to see if any upgrades or fixes are offered to ease my mind.
• I say fuck it since I hate my current phone so much and just buy the damn iPhone 4 knowing that in 3-6 months I will feel that same sense of betrayal every Apple customer feels when the company rolls out something shinier and newer.

So what do you think? What should I do?

TankBird Tuesday +1!

TankBird Tuesday +1!

'Tis that time of the month so come on out to The Burlington for TankBird Tuesday tonight! We've got a guest DJ, Drew Fortune, in tow and are anxious to to play the platters that matter in the only bar in Chicago that will truly allow us to run wild with our tastes.

Yup yup!

The only thing worse than a Monday?

The only thing worse than a Monday?

A Monday when you have 1,879 things to do! Eep! More later...

DJ stuffs.

DJ stuffs.

Me! At Old Oak Tap! Tonight! That is all!

5 records you couldn’t live without?

5 records you couldn’t live without?

Man, I can't even begin to answer this one comprehensively since my tastes change from time to time, but the following are the albums that seem to find their way back into my life for extended periods of time.

The Who "Quadrophenia"
The Pixies "Doolittle"
Nirvana "Nevermind"
David Bowie "The Man Who Sold The World"
Jane's Addiction "Nothing's Shocking"
Public Enemy "It Takes A Nation Of Millions..."
Pink Floyd "Meddle"
Triple Fast Action "Cattlemen Don't"
The Wrens "Meadowlands"
Blur "Blur"
The Stone Roses "The Stone Roses"
Chia Pet "Chia Pet"
LCD Soundsystem "Sound Of Silver"
The Pursuit Of Happiness "The Pursuit Of Happiness"
Green Day "Dookie"
Huey Lewis and the News "Sports"
The Police "Outlandos d'Amour"
Sloan "Navy Blues"
Roger Waters "The Pros & Cons Of Hitch Hiking"
INXS "Listen Like Thieves"
Josie and the Pussycats
Ned's Atomic Dustbin "Godfodder"
Wilco "Being There"
Uncle Tupelo "Still Feel Gone"
Pavement "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain"
The Flaming Lips "In A Priest Driven Ambulance"
Radiohead "The Bends"
Jesus Christ Superstar

... oh hell, this is impossible, I haven't even touched on the more rhythmic stuff I like ...

So my new answer? I'd make 5 mix DVDs crammed full of my favorite songs. It's the only way I would be able to survive.

Go on folks, ask away.

Midsummer night's dreams.

Midsummer night's dreams.

Man, now that was kind of a lousy night sleep-wise. I was tempted to just get up an hour ago and start my day because I just couldn't seem to keep my eyes shut for more than a few minutes at a time! I reckon there are a few reasons behind it; I have a big deadline at the 9-to-5 and I kept running down the final checklist of what needs to be done on the project, yesterday was the end of an almost week long staycation and my system is probably still adjusting, and of course my birthday was last week so that event always carries a certain amount of self-reflection and the attendant consequences of judging where you are at the end of another year.*

It's also summer in Chicago and we're in the midst of the season that anchors most of us and allows us to put up with the long, miserable winter months. Last year summer kind of blew -- it was chillier and drearier than usual and I felt cheated by nature for most of it -- but this year has been pretty fabulous and full of sun, great weather, music, beaches, pools, sailing, and non-stop action. And we haven't even hit the big summer music festivals yet! Of course all of this means I'm stimulated about 98% of the time by the events around me and that doesn't really align with the chance of much mental downtime, so that could also explain why I'm so restless at this very second.

So, I guess all things considered, an evening of interrupted sleep is a reasonable price to pay for all the above, right? How's your summer going?

*In my case, other than a tendency to do the occasional boneheaded thing, I'm doing pretty well and am really pleased with what I've gained over the years both professionally and personally.

Seriously Geddy, how DOES your voice get that high?!

Seriously Geddy, how DOES your voice get that high?!

Hands-down my favorite photo from last night's show. Rush is in top-notch form this tour so if you have a chance to see them, GO! And if you're in Chicago, they're playing again tomorrow on Northerly Island in the surprisingly small and cozy (if a bit state fair feelin') Charter One Pavilion.


Look for my full photoset from the show on Chicagoist today or tomorrow.

Gone sailin'!

Gone sailin'!

Expect regular posting to resume tomorrow, until then, get outside and enjoy some sunshine!

Staycation!

Staycation!

Enjoying doing nothing far too much to actually want to write something.

Another year in the books...

Another year in the books...

Yup, I made it! Last night was incredibly fun and I realized just how lucky I am to have so many great friends. Thanks to all who made it out last night or took the time to send me birthday greetings this year. I'm still piecing together the shenanigans at The Corner -- for instance I completely forgot about the bottle of champagne the bar broke out! -- but I woke up with a big smile on my face so I know we all had a pretty dang good time!