"We all have light and dark within us, what matters is the power we choose to act on" Part 1
So as you may have noticed, the internet and I are spending more time apart. Sort of. My writing burn out is pretty fierce. Writing feels more like something I did in another life that I used to be good at and threw away all my potential in. I’m never in the mood to write, I have pretty much no confidence in my ability to do it and realize any journal entries I write will be epic drivel that will be a chore to write. But enough of an epitaph for my writing ability…
On another note, my title is a quote from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, I believe now more than ever that every single human being is capable of the worst acts of atrocity and the greatest acts of compassion- and that one of the many reasons the world is so out of whack is that that is not a more common belief. Absolutism is mostly a sham to divide people and infuse them with self-righteousness, moral superiority and the Divine right to treat others like shit. Stump speech over for the moment…
If I could sum up what I’ve been up to over the past month and a half it would probably just be a sentence saying I’ve been reading books and going to Sox games as well as another sentence filled with vague references to things I can’t mention in a public medium. Of course, there’s been more interesting things here and there that I forget about. Which is what this entry is going to be about, I guess. It’s going to be another one of the desperate types- where I cling to the notion that I can write concisely and end up getting defeated by my own verbosity and the vain self belief that any of this shit really matters.
But for anyone who’s interested here’s the answer to “Whatever happened to Steve?” or an attempt to make sense of 6 weeks where I actually did go out and do things. Here’s they are in bullet points
- Went to Hollywood Casino in Aurora with Brendan C. (after a trip to Walter Payton’s Roundhouse) and won $105 playing roulette. ‘Nuff said.
- Had a pleasantly surprising weekend trip to Pittsburgh where Eli and his high school friends Kenny and Matt made me feel like one of the gang and like a Pittsburgh native. The city was probably the most underrated American city I’ve been to- green, hilly, neighborhood character and identity, good food, cheap booze and suspiciously cheap housing (in that it shouldn’t be that cheap to live anywhere other than East St. Louis). Frankly, it deserves an entry in and of itself, but I don’t have the energy.
- I chopped my hair, it’s practically shaved now again. Image means everything at most jobs and I’m just generally tired of shit about my appearance. I also like extremes in my hair- if it’s not long or shaggy, it’s gone. Apparently, the ladies (or one lady) seem(s) to like it (see below).
- I’m in danger of getting really into some girl (but she seems pretty into me too), but still trying to keep my head about me and keep my options open… so I’m not in Lolz teh relayshunships, yet and don’t plan to be unless it’s totally pointless to resist.
- Have gone to 8 Sox games (including two in Pittsburgh) in the last month and a half (including four in 8 days and 7 in two and half weeks), still love them to death (and always will) in spite of their struggles
- Read several books (including the new Harry Potter and a few books on various music scenes that were particularly inspiring)
- I’m probably going to go to England (not just London, but other cities as well) Thanksgiving week. I’m going to get all my shit together for library school by the end of 2007 (i.e. GRE and applications).
- I ran in the Freedom Four four mile race in downtown Glen Ellyn on July 4th. After not training at all- I finished in under 32 minutes and never stopped running. That’s shameful considering how I once was, but considering the circumstances I’m proud. (I finished 209th out of about 900 runners for those keeping score at home. Or for more hardcore nerds: http://www.drkomputing.com/results/2007/ffour07.htm) I finished about a minute behind Jeff and a couple minutes ahead of Brendan C. running bandit.
- I basically only go to local shows now and very few of them at that. Nonetheless, it seems every one I go to is somehow inspiring, life-affirming and reminds me why I bothered going out to it in the first place and what I love about music. Here’s where I give props to
auraxcore for rocking my face off in We Need To Talk.
- I got all international, by going to an international soccer tournament at Soldier Field (the Gold Cup… the championship for North and Central America and Carribbean national teams), playing a rudimentary form of cricket (thanks to my Mom’s English friend Neale… I’m an OK bowler- I’d be an OK batsman if I didn’t keep dropping the bat out of habit), decided (with Brendan C. and Jeff) to start following Canadian Football (I’m a Hamilton Tigercats fan) and said my good byes to the finest British citizen,
not_on_fire as he headed back to his homeland.
- Speaking of
not_on_fire we had a pretty dynamite weekend involving drunkenness, the Taste of Chicago, Office Space, hilarious thrift store books, a Fire match, a Sox game, Oak Street Beach, drinking at the Signature Lounge and various other shenanigans
- Played in Sever’s World Series of Bags (or as it’s actually called “cornhole” but yeah, around here it’s called bags) and lost 4 games by 1 point on my way to going 3-7 and finishing second to last.
- Had an otherwise decent night marred by getting stranded for a night at the La Fox train station.
- My sister had a graduation party, Lauren had a graduation/birthday party, Jeff had a graduation party… good times were had by all, I guess.
- I’ve given up on my goal of running a half-marathon and the novel isn’t looking too good either (due to aforementioned writing burnout…), I’ve accomplished a couple other personal goals, though, so all is not lost…
Frankly, I guess that’s about it. And who am I kidding? I’m going to write long anyway so more details behind the cut (yes, it ended up long enough that it has to be in 2 parts.... reader beware):
I think the girl thing is sort of working itself out, there’s one girl I’m a bit interested in (and who seems interested in me)- of course, I’m proceeding both with extreme caution and ridiculous recklessness in the right measures. I’m cynical enough (i.e. I’ve learned from my many, many mistakes) not to look at anything in terms of more than just potential and also to not totally focus on one girl until it’s absolutely necessary (i.e. not leaping into a relationship unless I really want it). But I don’t know, as Mike Skinner says “I could well be in…” Stay tuned, I guess.
I guess the only exciting thing I did (and by exciting thing, I mean “travel”) over the past month was go to Pittsburgh for a long weekend. Pittsburgh is easily (with little competition) my pick for the most underrated city in the US. I expected a dreary postindustrial wasteland and I got a green, hilly city full of very defined and very unique neighborhoods filled with neighborhood pride, where you can buy a house for less than six figures and rent for comically absurd prices. Eli came up that weekend and it was nice exploring with a native. It’s especially nice because Eli and I tend to be interested in doing the same things We hung out with two of his good friends from high school Kenny and Matt and it was striking how much I felt accepted and part of their group. There was good local Pittsburgh cuisine (Parmanti Bros. sandwiches topped with cole slaw and fries, sauce-less Mineo’s pizza, large fries at the O), lots of cruising, cheeky mischief (drunkenly romping through the woods of the King’s Estate well after Midnight, bonfire on the Allegheny River, rope swing above the Allegheny), cheap booze (and very weird booze laws), seeing a Motorhead cover band at a very cozy punk bar, the Warhol Museum, Mt. Washington, Sox-Pirates games and staying up late talking shit with the three of them and playing with Kenny’s adorable kittens. Pittsburgh= good food, cheap property, friendly locals, neighborhood character, nice scenery… it’s the first place I’ve been this year that I could maybe see myself living some day.
Funnily enough, I saw Eli two weekends in a row after not seeing him for 8 months (he and his girlfriend Aleisha came to Chicago to visit various friends the weekend before I went to Pittsburgh…. We mostly just drank, played Wii and laughed at ridiculous art galleries).
I’m starting to look at the future more- both in terms of what I’m going to do with my life and forming a concrete plan to get to library school by fall of ’08. And in terms of being carpe diem and going to England over Thanksgiving Break even though it doesn’t make great financial sense. I’ve got plenty of life left to care about all the things that will make me hate my life. My job security isn’t quite as great as I thought it was- so I’m just going carpe diem style, trying to work every day like it’s my last. Most of the time I can’t summon up that energy, sometimes I can… hopefully it looks like I’m trying harder, anyway.
I’ve seen the other side a bit, both in what I’ve been reading (see Our Band Could Be Your Life in the next part) and when Adam’s friend Kevin stayed with us for a few days around the 4th of July. Kevin is the closest embodiment to Dean from On the Road I’ve met. I’ve met drifters but most of them were anarcho-punks trying to stay off the radar for political reasons (you know actually living what Against Me! claimed to be about….), Kevin just travels seemingly aimlessly and seems to still love his life. There’s a great appeal to that type of life to me, but I like my creature comforts (even if they’re merely just regular internet access and a place to store my shit…) and I’ve got too much guilt over the life my parents have provided me and too much fear to really live it.
I’ve been to very few shows lately- but they’ve all been more or less local shows. But since I go to so few, I get to see all the people I like but never really get to see- my “show friends” who I’ve been hanging out with every punk or hardcore show I’ve gone to since high school, but rarely see outside shows.
In June, I saw
auraxcore’s band, We Need to Talk on tour from Louisiana. I guess I’d describe them as old school hardcore meets crusty grind (a la His Hero Is Gone) but frankly, I’m not nearly as versed in hardcore as I should be and I’m sure somewhat can come up with a more apt comparison. Nevertheless, they were non-stop energy and
auraxcore screaming out her heart and soul on stage. The venue itself was amazing- an unassuming storefront on Milwaukee just a little past Western called People Projects with a simple basement below. I loved it and hope to see more shows there- it combines the energy of a suburban basement show with the ease of public transit that Chicago provides. Anyway, We Need To Talk’s demo is pretty rad- I especially like the song “This is not a song about regret” about Dave Tayag ( http://peacesrevenge.livejournal.com/123107.html) which is an emotionally draining epic merely to listen to and musically is a pretty different step for them- it almost sounds like a Converge song at times. I was even more impressed by Black September though, an all out old school 80s thrash/doom metal band featuring no bass player, a former guitarist from Frontside and a throat-shredding female vocalist. It’s been a while since I’ve been this stoked about a local metal band. It was fun hanging out talking with everyone afterwards, I can’t remember the last time I spent that much time chatting to people at a show, partly because I hadn’t seen
auraxcore in forever, but also Hoffa and the other We Need to Talk dudes (Bilal and Miguel seemed super cool).
A few weeks later, I saw Angel Eyes at the Note and was pleasantly surprised to see Black September was opening and my old friend Aaron (of Don’t Worry About it fame) was there. Black September blew me away yet again. And Angel Eyes were Angel Eyes. Basically if Godspeed You ! Black Emperor and Mogwai grew up listening to hardcore they’d sound like this. I read a cheap shot that called them “local Isis worshippers” and certainly they don’t shy away from admitting Isis are a big influence (although personally I think they sound more like Neurosis if anything), but they’re so much more than that. It’s kind of funny considering how many bands they’ve cumulatively been in over the years (Toddd, Ryan, Brendan and Nader have been playing in the DuPage/Chicago scene since the mid-90s usually in bands together, usually in multiple bands at once) that they’ve stuck around and stayed focused on one project for this long. They almost never play shows (none of us assembled could remember the last time we saw them- I think it must’ve been mid 2006), yet it makes every show an event and what little they release has a habit of being consistently better than their last release. The new EP (“And For a Roof a sky full of stars”) isn’t as ambitious, heavy, creative, moody, or powerful their last full length (which featured a whole lot of sampling, frustrated screaming about politics and death- but in a more intellectual way), but I like it better. It’s a bit more stripped down, melodic and guitar-rock-ish maybe even more like Circle Takes the Square than Neurosis (*gasp*) but it has the most beautiful moments I’ve heard on an Angel Eyes album, there’s a two minute section of the second song that sounds like it could be on an Explosions in the Sky album… and that’s not a bad thing. The live show was just reproducing the EP and hence was a mildly disturbing half an hour long trance pretty much- but the energy and aggression on stage makes it work.
I saw an indie rock show at the South Union Arts Center- which was more of a fun time because I got to hang out with
nessie1013’s boyfriend Mike in forever, meet a random old friend of Joe Jaz and
rhapsodista’s (small world) and got to see a show in an old Church with a giant neon Jesus hanging above the stage rather than the bands that played- which were pleasant enough and of the indie pop variety but nothing to make me leap up and buy a CD. I was disappointed I didn’t get to stick around long enough to see Mike’s roommates’ band Spiller Whale- but conversations were had, booze was consumed, music was seen, neon Jesus represented so I can’t complain too much.
On a total aside, they tore down the DuPage Theatre- which went the way of Togetherwood Park an iconic landmark of Lombard; two great local landmarks that no longer exist and whose lack of existence moves Lombard further away from a unique town of its own and closer to the dreary, boring, manufactured suburbia that everyone seems to know everything about (see the film Radiant City if you want the only good commentary made about the suburbs of the last decade). Nearly as sad was the final demise of Punk Planet, relevant and well put together to the bitter end.
One of my favorite coffee houses, Filter, was also killed to make room for a bank on the clusterfuck corner of Milwaukee, North and Damen in Wicker Park.
rhapsodista declared this the death of Wicker Park and while I think that’s hyperbole (as long as there are still local punk shows at the Note and Double Door, a good selection at Reckless and yummy vegetarian food at Ear Wax, the dying embers of Wicker Park will remain) it is really down to its dying embers.
Gentrification is a pretty complicated issue and over and over again crust punks and artists are the canaries in the coal mines for developers to prove the neighborhood is safe for *AHEM* suburban refugees (because the majority of artists and crust punks didn’t live in the city until they were 18). Now let’s watch the process repeat in Pilsen, Humboldt Park, Uptown, Logan Square, Edgewater, Rogers Park, et al. This is why I should just hilariously move to Cicero. Choosing a completely fucked up place to live out of spite is pretty hilarious. But yeah, if the suburbs weren’t so narrow-minded and racist I probably wouldn’t even think of moving to the city because wherever I live will just eventually look like the yuppiest aspects of the suburbs anyway. There was kind of no point to attempting to seriously discuss this…
From my last entry until now, I’ve gone to 8 Sox games, during which they’ve gone 5-3 and led me to suffer my most crippling lows as a fan. June was a disastrous month and July’s only been a bit better- if nothing else, it has brought me back to my roots. I was born a Sox fan and I’ll die a Sox fan, for better or worse- as the saying goes “the sweet isn’t as sweet without the sour.” On July 2nd, the Sox blew a 6-2 8th inning lead and lost what appeared to be Mark Buehrle’s last start in Chicago and I’ve never been so depressed leaving a game. Watching the team throw away a game for my favorite player and a player who has meant the world to this organization and these fans almost made me break down. Fortunately, he got re-signed and the implications of the game changed, but I’ll always remember that sadness- which felt infinitely worse than any other loss by any other team I support.
Watching the Cubs beat us at our park on my sister’s birthday (and the night of a North Beach party) was no picnic either. Nonetheless, I saw them beat the Pirates 4-2 from fantastic seats (near the Pirates dugout) at PNC Park in Pittsburgh; took
not_on_fire to one of the best played games I’ve seen out of them all year (and just a great game for a baseball fan to attend- multiple home runs, a Javy Vazquez complete game and Nancy Faust on the organ, providing the traditional musical narration to it all) in a 6-3 win over the Twins and 3 other wins (high scoring affairs, mostly- one as memorable for the near riot by people desperately trying to conform to the worst stereotypes of Sox fans than for the action on the field).
I'll put up Part 2 in a couple days.... stay tuned... if you actually care (it's OK to say you don't).
On another note, my title is a quote from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, I believe now more than ever that every single human being is capable of the worst acts of atrocity and the greatest acts of compassion- and that one of the many reasons the world is so out of whack is that that is not a more common belief. Absolutism is mostly a sham to divide people and infuse them with self-righteousness, moral superiority and the Divine right to treat others like shit. Stump speech over for the moment…
If I could sum up what I’ve been up to over the past month and a half it would probably just be a sentence saying I’ve been reading books and going to Sox games as well as another sentence filled with vague references to things I can’t mention in a public medium. Of course, there’s been more interesting things here and there that I forget about. Which is what this entry is going to be about, I guess. It’s going to be another one of the desperate types- where I cling to the notion that I can write concisely and end up getting defeated by my own verbosity and the vain self belief that any of this shit really matters.
But for anyone who’s interested here’s the answer to “Whatever happened to Steve?” or an attempt to make sense of 6 weeks where I actually did go out and do things. Here’s they are in bullet points
- Went to Hollywood Casino in Aurora with Brendan C. (after a trip to Walter Payton’s Roundhouse) and won $105 playing roulette. ‘Nuff said.
- Had a pleasantly surprising weekend trip to Pittsburgh where Eli and his high school friends Kenny and Matt made me feel like one of the gang and like a Pittsburgh native. The city was probably the most underrated American city I’ve been to- green, hilly, neighborhood character and identity, good food, cheap booze and suspiciously cheap housing (in that it shouldn’t be that cheap to live anywhere other than East St. Louis). Frankly, it deserves an entry in and of itself, but I don’t have the energy.
- I chopped my hair, it’s practically shaved now again. Image means everything at most jobs and I’m just generally tired of shit about my appearance. I also like extremes in my hair- if it’s not long or shaggy, it’s gone. Apparently, the ladies (or one lady) seem(s) to like it (see below).
- I’m in danger of getting really into some girl (but she seems pretty into me too), but still trying to keep my head about me and keep my options open… so I’m not in Lolz teh relayshunships, yet and don’t plan to be unless it’s totally pointless to resist.
- Have gone to 8 Sox games (including two in Pittsburgh) in the last month and a half (including four in 8 days and 7 in two and half weeks), still love them to death (and always will) in spite of their struggles
- Read several books (including the new Harry Potter and a few books on various music scenes that were particularly inspiring)
- I’m probably going to go to England (not just London, but other cities as well) Thanksgiving week. I’m going to get all my shit together for library school by the end of 2007 (i.e. GRE and applications).
- I ran in the Freedom Four four mile race in downtown Glen Ellyn on July 4th. After not training at all- I finished in under 32 minutes and never stopped running. That’s shameful considering how I once was, but considering the circumstances I’m proud. (I finished 209th out of about 900 runners for those keeping score at home. Or for more hardcore nerds: http://www.drkomputing.com/results/2007/ffour07.htm) I finished about a minute behind Jeff and a couple minutes ahead of Brendan C. running bandit.
- I basically only go to local shows now and very few of them at that. Nonetheless, it seems every one I go to is somehow inspiring, life-affirming and reminds me why I bothered going out to it in the first place and what I love about music. Here’s where I give props to
auraxcore for rocking my face off in We Need To Talk.
- I got all international, by going to an international soccer tournament at Soldier Field (the Gold Cup… the championship for North and Central America and Carribbean national teams), playing a rudimentary form of cricket (thanks to my Mom’s English friend Neale… I’m an OK bowler- I’d be an OK batsman if I didn’t keep dropping the bat out of habit), decided (with Brendan C. and Jeff) to start following Canadian Football (I’m a Hamilton Tigercats fan) and said my good byes to the finest British citizen,
not_on_fire as he headed back to his homeland.
- Speaking of
not_on_fire we had a pretty dynamite weekend involving drunkenness, the Taste of Chicago, Office Space, hilarious thrift store books, a Fire match, a Sox game, Oak Street Beach, drinking at the Signature Lounge and various other shenanigans
- Played in Sever’s World Series of Bags (or as it’s actually called “cornhole” but yeah, around here it’s called bags) and lost 4 games by 1 point on my way to going 3-7 and finishing second to last.
- Had an otherwise decent night marred by getting stranded for a night at the La Fox train station.
- My sister had a graduation party, Lauren had a graduation/birthday party, Jeff had a graduation party… good times were had by all, I guess.
- I’ve given up on my goal of running a half-marathon and the novel isn’t looking too good either (due to aforementioned writing burnout…), I’ve accomplished a couple other personal goals, though, so all is not lost…
Frankly, I guess that’s about it. And who am I kidding? I’m going to write long anyway so more details behind the cut (yes, it ended up long enough that it has to be in 2 parts.... reader beware):
I think the girl thing is sort of working itself out, there’s one girl I’m a bit interested in (and who seems interested in me)- of course, I’m proceeding both with extreme caution and ridiculous recklessness in the right measures. I’m cynical enough (i.e. I’ve learned from my many, many mistakes) not to look at anything in terms of more than just potential and also to not totally focus on one girl until it’s absolutely necessary (i.e. not leaping into a relationship unless I really want it). But I don’t know, as Mike Skinner says “I could well be in…” Stay tuned, I guess.
I guess the only exciting thing I did (and by exciting thing, I mean “travel”) over the past month was go to Pittsburgh for a long weekend. Pittsburgh is easily (with little competition) my pick for the most underrated city in the US. I expected a dreary postindustrial wasteland and I got a green, hilly city full of very defined and very unique neighborhoods filled with neighborhood pride, where you can buy a house for less than six figures and rent for comically absurd prices. Eli came up that weekend and it was nice exploring with a native. It’s especially nice because Eli and I tend to be interested in doing the same things We hung out with two of his good friends from high school Kenny and Matt and it was striking how much I felt accepted and part of their group. There was good local Pittsburgh cuisine (Parmanti Bros. sandwiches topped with cole slaw and fries, sauce-less Mineo’s pizza, large fries at the O), lots of cruising, cheeky mischief (drunkenly romping through the woods of the King’s Estate well after Midnight, bonfire on the Allegheny River, rope swing above the Allegheny), cheap booze (and very weird booze laws), seeing a Motorhead cover band at a very cozy punk bar, the Warhol Museum, Mt. Washington, Sox-Pirates games and staying up late talking shit with the three of them and playing with Kenny’s adorable kittens. Pittsburgh= good food, cheap property, friendly locals, neighborhood character, nice scenery… it’s the first place I’ve been this year that I could maybe see myself living some day.
Funnily enough, I saw Eli two weekends in a row after not seeing him for 8 months (he and his girlfriend Aleisha came to Chicago to visit various friends the weekend before I went to Pittsburgh…. We mostly just drank, played Wii and laughed at ridiculous art galleries).
I’m starting to look at the future more- both in terms of what I’m going to do with my life and forming a concrete plan to get to library school by fall of ’08. And in terms of being carpe diem and going to England over Thanksgiving Break even though it doesn’t make great financial sense. I’ve got plenty of life left to care about all the things that will make me hate my life. My job security isn’t quite as great as I thought it was- so I’m just going carpe diem style, trying to work every day like it’s my last. Most of the time I can’t summon up that energy, sometimes I can… hopefully it looks like I’m trying harder, anyway.
I’ve seen the other side a bit, both in what I’ve been reading (see Our Band Could Be Your Life in the next part) and when Adam’s friend Kevin stayed with us for a few days around the 4th of July. Kevin is the closest embodiment to Dean from On the Road I’ve met. I’ve met drifters but most of them were anarcho-punks trying to stay off the radar for political reasons (you know actually living what Against Me! claimed to be about….), Kevin just travels seemingly aimlessly and seems to still love his life. There’s a great appeal to that type of life to me, but I like my creature comforts (even if they’re merely just regular internet access and a place to store my shit…) and I’ve got too much guilt over the life my parents have provided me and too much fear to really live it.
I’ve been to very few shows lately- but they’ve all been more or less local shows. But since I go to so few, I get to see all the people I like but never really get to see- my “show friends” who I’ve been hanging out with every punk or hardcore show I’ve gone to since high school, but rarely see outside shows.
In June, I saw
auraxcore’s band, We Need to Talk on tour from Louisiana. I guess I’d describe them as old school hardcore meets crusty grind (a la His Hero Is Gone) but frankly, I’m not nearly as versed in hardcore as I should be and I’m sure somewhat can come up with a more apt comparison. Nevertheless, they were non-stop energy and
auraxcore screaming out her heart and soul on stage. The venue itself was amazing- an unassuming storefront on Milwaukee just a little past Western called People Projects with a simple basement below. I loved it and hope to see more shows there- it combines the energy of a suburban basement show with the ease of public transit that Chicago provides. Anyway, We Need To Talk’s demo is pretty rad- I especially like the song “This is not a song about regret” about Dave Tayag ( http://peacesrevenge.livejournal.com/123107.html) which is an emotionally draining epic merely to listen to and musically is a pretty different step for them- it almost sounds like a Converge song at times. I was even more impressed by Black September though, an all out old school 80s thrash/doom metal band featuring no bass player, a former guitarist from Frontside and a throat-shredding female vocalist. It’s been a while since I’ve been this stoked about a local metal band. It was fun hanging out talking with everyone afterwards, I can’t remember the last time I spent that much time chatting to people at a show, partly because I hadn’t seen
auraxcore in forever, but also Hoffa and the other We Need to Talk dudes (Bilal and Miguel seemed super cool).
A few weeks later, I saw Angel Eyes at the Note and was pleasantly surprised to see Black September was opening and my old friend Aaron (of Don’t Worry About it fame) was there. Black September blew me away yet again. And Angel Eyes were Angel Eyes. Basically if Godspeed You ! Black Emperor and Mogwai grew up listening to hardcore they’d sound like this. I read a cheap shot that called them “local Isis worshippers” and certainly they don’t shy away from admitting Isis are a big influence (although personally I think they sound more like Neurosis if anything), but they’re so much more than that. It’s kind of funny considering how many bands they’ve cumulatively been in over the years (Toddd, Ryan, Brendan and Nader have been playing in the DuPage/Chicago scene since the mid-90s usually in bands together, usually in multiple bands at once) that they’ve stuck around and stayed focused on one project for this long. They almost never play shows (none of us assembled could remember the last time we saw them- I think it must’ve been mid 2006), yet it makes every show an event and what little they release has a habit of being consistently better than their last release. The new EP (“And For a Roof a sky full of stars”) isn’t as ambitious, heavy, creative, moody, or powerful their last full length (which featured a whole lot of sampling, frustrated screaming about politics and death- but in a more intellectual way), but I like it better. It’s a bit more stripped down, melodic and guitar-rock-ish maybe even more like Circle Takes the Square than Neurosis (*gasp*) but it has the most beautiful moments I’ve heard on an Angel Eyes album, there’s a two minute section of the second song that sounds like it could be on an Explosions in the Sky album… and that’s not a bad thing. The live show was just reproducing the EP and hence was a mildly disturbing half an hour long trance pretty much- but the energy and aggression on stage makes it work.
I saw an indie rock show at the South Union Arts Center- which was more of a fun time because I got to hang out with
nessie1013’s boyfriend Mike in forever, meet a random old friend of Joe Jaz and
rhapsodista’s (small world) and got to see a show in an old Church with a giant neon Jesus hanging above the stage rather than the bands that played- which were pleasant enough and of the indie pop variety but nothing to make me leap up and buy a CD. I was disappointed I didn’t get to stick around long enough to see Mike’s roommates’ band Spiller Whale- but conversations were had, booze was consumed, music was seen, neon Jesus represented so I can’t complain too much.
On a total aside, they tore down the DuPage Theatre- which went the way of Togetherwood Park an iconic landmark of Lombard; two great local landmarks that no longer exist and whose lack of existence moves Lombard further away from a unique town of its own and closer to the dreary, boring, manufactured suburbia that everyone seems to know everything about (see the film Radiant City if you want the only good commentary made about the suburbs of the last decade). Nearly as sad was the final demise of Punk Planet, relevant and well put together to the bitter end.
One of my favorite coffee houses, Filter, was also killed to make room for a bank on the clusterfuck corner of Milwaukee, North and Damen in Wicker Park.
rhapsodista declared this the death of Wicker Park and while I think that’s hyperbole (as long as there are still local punk shows at the Note and Double Door, a good selection at Reckless and yummy vegetarian food at Ear Wax, the dying embers of Wicker Park will remain) it is really down to its dying embers.
Gentrification is a pretty complicated issue and over and over again crust punks and artists are the canaries in the coal mines for developers to prove the neighborhood is safe for *AHEM* suburban refugees (because the majority of artists and crust punks didn’t live in the city until they were 18). Now let’s watch the process repeat in Pilsen, Humboldt Park, Uptown, Logan Square, Edgewater, Rogers Park, et al. This is why I should just hilariously move to Cicero. Choosing a completely fucked up place to live out of spite is pretty hilarious. But yeah, if the suburbs weren’t so narrow-minded and racist I probably wouldn’t even think of moving to the city because wherever I live will just eventually look like the yuppiest aspects of the suburbs anyway. There was kind of no point to attempting to seriously discuss this…
From my last entry until now, I’ve gone to 8 Sox games, during which they’ve gone 5-3 and led me to suffer my most crippling lows as a fan. June was a disastrous month and July’s only been a bit better- if nothing else, it has brought me back to my roots. I was born a Sox fan and I’ll die a Sox fan, for better or worse- as the saying goes “the sweet isn’t as sweet without the sour.” On July 2nd, the Sox blew a 6-2 8th inning lead and lost what appeared to be Mark Buehrle’s last start in Chicago and I’ve never been so depressed leaving a game. Watching the team throw away a game for my favorite player and a player who has meant the world to this organization and these fans almost made me break down. Fortunately, he got re-signed and the implications of the game changed, but I’ll always remember that sadness- which felt infinitely worse than any other loss by any other team I support.
Watching the Cubs beat us at our park on my sister’s birthday (and the night of a North Beach party) was no picnic either. Nonetheless, I saw them beat the Pirates 4-2 from fantastic seats (near the Pirates dugout) at PNC Park in Pittsburgh; took
not_on_fire to one of the best played games I’ve seen out of them all year (and just a great game for a baseball fan to attend- multiple home runs, a Javy Vazquez complete game and Nancy Faust on the organ, providing the traditional musical narration to it all) in a 6-3 win over the Twins and 3 other wins (high scoring affairs, mostly- one as memorable for the near riot by people desperately trying to conform to the worst stereotypes of Sox fans than for the action on the field).
I'll put up Part 2 in a couple days.... stay tuned... if you actually care (it's OK to say you don't).