Well, yet another visit (#2 that I’m aware of) by Gabriel & Dresden to the Windy City that I was not able to attend.  This DJ’ing duo has had quite a few hits over the past years, including “Tracking the Treasure Down”, and “Dangerous Power”.  They’ve also done many remixes, including Dido, Jewel and Britney with additional tracks that have been produced under the names Motorcycle (“As The Rush Comes”) and Andain (“Beautiful Things”).  My currently favorite track under their long list of progressive trance hits is a remix of The Killers, “Read My Mind”.  Here’s a couple of good articles about the boys:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_%26_Dresden

http://www.gabrielanddresden.com/

In other news, yet another bar in Chicago has been visited this last Friday.  Ta’Too in Lincoln Park was given a try with Greg & his friend Damon.  Nice place, pretty cute chicks were showing up and I got a good pic!  A trip to Sound-Bar ended the night, but no one special was spinning.

Saturday consisted of a visit to our living space by Dave’s parental units, whom we showed some of the city to upon bicycles.  Nothing much exciting after that.

Sunday was lazzzzzy daze.  Nada, other than Greg crashing for the evening to go to another assignment here in Chicago tomorrow.

How was I not made aware of THIS:

*sigh* Well, I guess there goes my Saturday… and Sunday.  Lets not kid ourselves.  The last time I attended an evening morning show at Vision with a big-name DJ, it was Above & Beyond.  They started at 2 a.m. and finished at 5 a.m. (yeah, they HAD to close at 5).  Talk about after-hours.  However, it was one of the coolest indoor shows I’ve ever seen and people were just hoppin’.  I knew some people that even ended up at after-hours for that one till NOON.  Ahhh… I miss you, afties.

Wish me luck.  This one might hurt.

Is that kinda like catch & release, where they put some form of RFID…??? nevermind.

So, I guess I have to write a blog with 10 weird, random things, facts or habits about myself. Now I’m not one to usually post such daft shite, but it’s for a pretty good cause (yes, she’s cute)…

1. I am a 31 year old male that grew up in a small-ish Iowa farming community (population 3,500), who REALLY likes house/trance/ambient music and HIGHLY dislikes country music. How odd is that?
2. I was born in Fayetteville, Arkansas (Go Razorbacks!), lived there until I was 3 or 4 years old, then lived in North Carolina, Mississippi and Wisconsin for brief stints until I moved to Iowa at 8 years old.
3. I like grape jelly on grilled cheese. TRY IT before you diss it.
4. I enjoy a yearly rowdy trip that spans the wondrous state of Iowa and I attempt to ride a bicycle for most some of it. RAGBRAI = (Des Moines) Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa <-click that link, then click this one for our team, too:

5. I’m not a fan of heavy metal and most hard rock, but I can’t get enough Nine Inch Nails.
6. I always felt like I had a fairly solid knowledge of the Great American Past-time (Baseball), but I found out a couple weekends ago that my 87 year-old Grandmother probably knows more player facts than I do!
7. I worked at Victoria’s Secret for approximately 12-13 months at the age of 20 in Cedar Falls, Iowa. No lie/joke/funny story. It was pretty money.
8. I do not own a car. Screw it. Why should I own one and spend another 700-800 a month (car payment, insurance, maintenance, gas, parking, city sticker, registration, etc.) on a car that I wouldn’t drive more than once a month at most? That being said… I’ll probably end up buying/leasing one soon *sigh*
9. I was the fastest kid in my grade… in 2nd grade. hahaha [Kids: don’t drink soda pop]
10. My dream vacation would be to spend 10-14 days basking in the sun on the white sand beaches of Ibiza, a small island off the south-east coast of Spain and just living up the culture & nightlife of the world’s centre for club music. One time I would like to see the sunset while sitting at Cafe del Mar…

 

<sarcasm>First off, I want to be sure that everyone is aware that it is NOT alright to call an edited image “photoshopped”. Adobe makes strong claims to the authenticity of it’s trademarked name, so lets quit using it:</sarcasm>

http://www.adobe.com/misc//trade.html#photoshop

THIS PHOTO WAS EDITED WITH Adobe® Photoshop®, perhaps.

*sigh* Do they really think people are going to stop saying “that looks photoshopped” because they said so??? Freakin’ idiots…Anyway… you may be itching to ask, “So, what transpired this weekend, my charming/handsome friend Drew?” Well, let me tell ya what happened:
– Friday night [warning: ultra-lameness]: I was entirely chill and cleaned the apartment, along with completion of laundry duties, including ++wall hangings. The place looks much better, I promise.
– Saturday: Erin, Stephanie, Erin’s sister + boyfriend & I attended the always-exciting Cardinal’s visit to the Wrigley confines. It ’twas a most excellent showing by Mr. Marquis yesterday, but it appears that the Cards have taken the series lead today (Sunday) after a 10th inning smash by Sir Albert. After the Saturday game, I made a short trek north on Sheffield to Irving Park & Broadway to Matt (co-worker) & Ashley’s pad for a grill-out. AWESOME pork tenderloins, steak, chicken, brats & shrimp/mussel kabobs. It was a great assortment and it was all grilled to perfection. Great grill control, Matt!
-Sunday: Chill. Recovery. Water. Spaghetti. Readiness for a new ^work week^.

In finality, our local Chicago news reported that the newly-planned lakeside 150-story monstrosity gained steam towards being an actuality this last Friday:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/20/tallest.building.ap/index.html

It seems this upstanding_official pegged it, dead-on:

“This is a wonderful project, and everyone is very enthused,” said Constance Buscemi, spokeswoman for Chicago’s planning department.

Rightly worded, Ms. Buscemi! I couldn’t have expressed it better.

Windows::open. It’s warm… and it sounds like some mutha trucka down on the street level is kicking their poochy. Time to go shout some expletives in that general direction. Talk atcha laterzzzzzzz!

Well, I’ve read a lot today and I’ve included a many new RSS feeds to my Google Reader… should I share? Of course, I should:

* Spartans (mushroom_style): http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=231
* A couple friends are now up and running, solo-blog&pic-gallery-in-hand:
http://www.erink.org/
http://www.jendafab.com/
http://www.jlitral.com/
* Will Farrell “The Landlord” short clip:* And the icing on the cake from hometown, Iowa:
http://www.wcfcourier.com/articles/2007/04/18/news/regional/
I believe my friend from high school is on that staff now… eh…

Anyway… these should give you wasted minutes. If you need more, CLICK HERE.

Yep. We’ve achieved yet another step in the evolutionary chain of Flat-Consumption. Dave and I have brought into our realm of existence new patio furnishings:

And no, it’s not a bit femme just because it all matches. We were trying NOT to make it match, but it somehow backfired on us. [Insert: shuuuuddduuuup, Roly] Smokers: you’ll be glad to know you now have a place to sit on our balcony.

In other week-beginning features and highlights:
– The image of the John Deere bike receiving a side car in which others could ride received ongoing laughs this weekend. Brilliant humor.
– Chris (Roly’s friend) will be departing the states to return to the British Isles at half-five this sunny day.
– The newest Bond flick hath been incorporated into the library of motion pictures yesterday. I think the new production turned out quite nicely.
– Everyone’s still “kickin” after yet another 3-day stint into the expedition of hardcore_liquor_intake. GOOD JORB, ALL!

Watch out, folks, we’ve already kicked off another weekend!

It’s been a scorcher so far… hung out with the Irish and Dave and company at Dave & Buster’s for a good while, then over to Frankie J’s and Boss Bar.

Today: Cubs game. In the bleachers. Wish us luck, it looks like split-pea soup out there. Ugh. More to come on this foray shortly. I’ll probably be home by 6 to pass out. Probably not. Anyway…

More shall be posted post-this-event. <3

The state of cows and cheese hath been dominated yet again by yours truly.

Last weekend was my foray into the Land o’ Cheese. It was a wonderful meeting of the cousins. Plenty of booze consumed on Saturday night for the Sunday morning hangover. My aunt asked me why my eyes were glassy. hahahah However, I did get to go out to the cemeteries around Brodhead & Albany to see my long-past relatives’ tombs. Many cool things I’ve learned about my ancestry over the past week after doing some further work online. One of my (great³) uncles was a counterfeiter. Hahahah! Many also served in the Civil War, WWI, WWII and other various “scuffles” over the years. Very interesting stuff.

Check out the two picture albums below:

              
Anyway… check ya later! Get ready for a new WeekEnder coming up next…

Well, my weekend shan’t be anything of massive excitement or unbridled glee, as I will be nestled into a small white house in a town of about 2,000 in south-central CheezCountry, but that doesn’t mean YOU can’t have some fun n’ games. Check out my Events page above for the scoop!

I’m sure there shall be pictures after this family outing, so stay tuned for that one… it’ll be a scorcher! hahahah

Many thanks to Dave for supplying the following linkage:

http://yearzero.nin.com/

You’ll want to click the link above to launch the flash-player to listen to the new album.

Believe you me, I’m going to need about 15 more rounds of audible input on this one before I even start to form an opinion. Mr. Reznor’s idea, regarding a “soundtrack for a movie that hasn’t been created yet”, which was somehow borne within 6 months time, leaves a lot to ponder. Here are a couple of links I know you’ll appreciate:

http://www.rollingstone.com/year-zero-project-way-cooler-than-lost/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Zero_(album)

Will I be purchasing this disc? Pretty much guaranteed after just purchasing the new live Nine Inch Nails DVD. Check it out via the link at the top, let me know what you think. I’ll give a better run-down within 24 hours, most likely. Now: SleepyTime.