Lolla-love you.

This is typically one of my most insane weeks of the year. Yes, it's time for Lollapalooza to descend upon Chicago. It is a week of lots of stress. It's a lot of fun, but it's also a lot of stress. Right now I'm struggling to write a couple pieces related to the fest by tomorrow night and there seriously are not enough hours in the day.

As far as covering the fest itself for Chicagoist, this year I'm not taking pictures for the first time since 2005 so at least I won't be running from one end of Grant Park to the other every 25 minutes. That's about a mile, and I can make it quickly, but thank god I don't have to this time around. In addition, I have a couple great writers handling the recaps with me so hopefully some of the burden will be off me there as well. In previous years it was usually me shooting and then writing with only one other person contributing, so this is going to be bliss in that respect.

Don't worry though, I have plenty of time carved out for the fun stuff too. I plan on checking out a few of the day lounges, our friend Dana Dynamite has offered to take us to see The Afghan Whigs' show at Metro and of course there's the annual Do312 Lollapalooza Celebrity Kickball Game!

And, of course, I took Monday off work to recuperate.

Is Tom Waits the Joker?

Kottke posted this amazing video from 1979 of an interview with Tom Waits on an Australian television show. Once you hear his delivery and watch his mannerisms I think it's more than fair to wonder if Heath Ledger stumbled across this same clip in his preparation to play the Joker in The Dark Knight.


Has anyone out there read anything that might corroborate this or is it just a really eerie coincidence?

Play ball!

Clearly, I needed this today. Yay!

A quick word about The Dark Knight RIses.

With a big summer movie like The Dark Knight Rises I feel that one week from the initial release is an appropriate window to expect not to have the film spoiled for you. So I won't. What I will say is that despite some of the mixed reviews I enjoyed it greatly and think it's a wholly satisfying conclusion to Christopher Nolan's trilogy.

So go see it.

Shut Up And Watch This Movie

Monday night we saw Shut Up And Play The Hits, the documentary covering LCD Soundsystem's last show in Madison Square Garden. And let me tell you, now I really regret missing that show. I didn't go because my memory of them playing Metro on the This Is Happening tour was so 100% perfect and awesome and I didn't want to risk marring it with what could have been a bloated overdone send-off. Instead what I missed was an incredibly emotional, 100% cathartic, once in a lifetime send-off. So I'm dumb.

The movie's done by the same team that did Blur's No Distance Left To Run doc and their M.O. is basically the same here; intersperse video of the run-up (and in this case aftermath) of the show amongst concert footage. It's a pretty standard approach but Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace have an incredible eye for capturing rare moments of both explosive and quiet intensity. My favorite shot in the entire film of a couple you can only see in silhouette clearly losing their mind and dancing with rapture. When you see them you see the deep and irresistible power LCD Soundsystem's music can have on people.

At the moment it's only screening occasionally in theaters but if it plays anywhere near you then I HIGHLY recommend seeing it on a big screen with a LOUD sound system. And I think theaters should be fully endorsing people to dance in the aisles during the musical numbers. It took all my effort to stay in my seat!

The DVD is out on October 9.

Two movies in two theaters in two nights? Unheard of!

Tonight I'm finally going to see The Dark Knight Rises. I had bought tickets to an 8:30 a.m. showing Sunday monring but that proved a little, um, overly ambitious. I can't wait!

Just finished an excellent documentary.

Photo by some guy named Jim Kopeny

I'll tell you all about it later.

At a concert right now.

Kids are dancing to a rock band. There's hope for the future!

My buddy Brent put out a new album.

I've decided I like it.

How did I miss celebrating the 10th anniversary of my blog?!

Friday, May 24, 2002. That was the day of my first entry on this website. It was a reprint of one of my Tankboy emails, a series that had been running since 1995 and was a precursor to what would become known as blogging, but it marked the beginning of what I still consider the epicenter of my ramblings.

Jeez, without this little outpost I might not have continued the music writing I started in 1989. And maybe I wouldn't have written for a number of online publications, the main two being donewaiting and Chicagoist. Oh who am I kidding, I'd still be writing, but without the opportunities this place opened for me maybe YOU wouldn't be reading what I write.

Thankfully you, and a whole lot of other people, are. And hopefully I've had an honest effect on you, because that is the highest praise I could hope for.

It's true times change. While I still write here regularly most blogs I've read that didn't go pro or get subsumed by larger media properties are long gone. And if you want a true pulse of where I'm st you probably follow my Twitter or Tumblr or Chicagoist.

Times change. And often I change with them. And even more often, professionally I'm ahead of the curve. But through it all I haven't abandoned this little corner of the Internet.

And since you're reading this, let me sincerely thank you for not abandoning it either.

I'll try not to miss this place's 20th anniversary.

And again, thank you. So very, very much.

Marc Maron + Fiona Apple = awesome smashing of public preconceived notions.

The title basically says it all. Listen for yourself. Once you hear Fiona Apple giggling and talking and embracing just being Fiona Apple with anything BUT despair or melancholy or the kee-razy that everyone wrongfully assumes Apples operates from under, you will reel with wonder.

It's been busy around these parts.

Today has been the first day I've been able to relax after an insane run of events. It's been nice. Hilariously I planned on this Friday and Monday as a mini-vacation book-ending this year's Pitchfork Music Festival. I should have remembered just how draining a three-day festival is, even when I take it as relatively easy as I did this year. Although it should be telling I consider getting a tattoo at a Sailor Jerry afterparty as "taking it easy."

Anyway, if you're interested you can read our daily recaps below.

Pitchfork Music Festival: Day One
Pitchfork Music Festival: Day Two
Pitchfork Music Festival: Day Three

And now, back to my Mad Men marathon, because I have zero problem with binge watching TV!

P4K Music Fest 2012!

I've barely been home a second and now I'm on the run all weekend! Long. Check out our preview of hoped for highlights.

Home again!

I'm so ready to sleep in my own bed. Know the feeling?

Closing down the shoot.

It's been GOGOGOGOGO since early Sunday but we wrap our shoot today and can finally stumble back to our respective homes. It's been exhausting but totally worth it. I've met some amazing people, lost count of the number of states I've been in (four, five, six?) and the team has worked together to get some terrific interviews and eye-popping images. I can't wait to share the end result with you in a couple of months!

Disconnected and it feels so WEIRD.

Now I know what it's like to unplug from the world when you don't want to! Obviously when I'm on vacation I don't find it to be that much of a problem if I can't get online, but right now I'm in Crete, Nebraska and am learning what it's like to be in a town that has zero service for AT&T phones, including tankPHONE. At first I thought it was just me but then another member of the film crew I'm with reported the same problem. And it's freaking me out. It's not like Crete is teensy tiny--it has at least two large manufacturing facilities, a college and a high school from what I can see in my drive around town trying to find a cell signal--so now I know what it's like to actually be somewhere your carrier doesn't cover. On the bright side I definitely got a chance to get the lay of the land as I drove around looking for that elusive (at that time I was unaware it was nonexistent) signal!

Luckily for me I have a Sprint card for my laptop so I can at least get back online to type this, prep for this evening's shoot and get some other work done.

Regardless this is WEIRD.

Today's post powered by David Bowie.

I'm out galavanting about with an amazing film crew so I'm a tad pressed for time today. However, luckily for all of us, the fine folks at Flavorwire have put together a bunch of photos of David Bowie engaging in the mundane and David Bowie at his most, erm, inventive. Thanks to Ms. Lisa White for introducing me to this slice of wonderful. And now I must bid you adieu for the day and drive off in my fantabulous motor vehicle.

Remember that time I bought a single from iTunes the hour it came out and something in it corrupted my iPhone's music so I had to restore it and THEN got the same single for free from that band's label but still didn't regret buying said single, not one single bit?

Yeah, it was earlier this week. And I purchased the song from the middle of a wheat field. And it's absolutely lovely.


The flip side is pretty wicked too. I think you can see why Blur is my favorite musical group of my generation.

Meanwhile, elsewhere.

It was one of those days. One of the ones where you end up addressing an email (non-critical, don't worry) sent at 10 a.m. around 5:30 p.m. because you've been so busy it literally took you that long to get to it. So I have had no time to write. So check out some stuff of mine from elsewhere on the interwebs!

• I reviewed the new album from Fiona Apple.
• I submitted a few reasons why tickets to concerts at the Taste Of Chicago might not be selling so well.
• I discovered a new kitchen appliance.

Enjoy!

It's gonna get HOT!

All weather reports should read like this, and I'm jealous of the folks on the coast getting a tidal wave to bring things down to a manageable 102 degrees Fahrenheit.

Things I am not ready to do.

1. Grow old.
2. Act old
3. Judge people (any more).

A humble thank you.

I have LITERALLY had no time to give the proper thanks to EVERYONE who took time out to wish me a happy birthday in any number of places or came out to my party on Saturday. A super huge smooch to GalPal, Keep, Rudy and JB for planning and executing said party. And hugs abound for Archie Powell & The Exports, Sunken Ships, The Dead On, Ivan and Tim Pogo for providing music, DJ skillz and one hell of an all around soundtrack to an amazing evening. I had the absolute best day. I still can't quite believe it was such a good time. I am amazed every day at the awesomeness of the people in my life and I wish I could hug and thank each and every one of you. Now that's out of the way and I can start grousing and grumbling and acting like an old man!

A new dawn.

The first forty years were really quite remarkable. I feel like the next forty are the start of something new and even more exciting.