In Concert: Great Lake Swimmers

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I’ve been waiting a long long time to see this band. As I may have mentioned.

What can I say, a month later when I realize I never wrote this up? They’re Canadian. They’re in that whole current vein of mountain-y lookin’ men (Sea Wolf, Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver); except that unlike those bands most of the singing is done by just the one dude. (And they have more albums out, been around a bit longer.) Their songs are lush and dark and deep and layered. And lovely. Did I mention lovely? 🙂

I thought the crowd was a bit more idiotic than normal; I would make such a great bouncer as I would escort people out for yelling stupid things and being morons and talking too fucking loud during quiet songs. Perhaps that shall be my next career (if you haven’t heard, I may be on the lookout for one).

They sounded gorgeous. I’d go see them again in a heartbeat.

Beers I Have Had Tonight

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  • Unibroue Ephemere – My #2 beer of Summer 2008.* Tastes like apple. Yum.
  • Triple Karmeliet – My favorite Belgian beer. From my trip last summer. As you may know.
  • Allagash Dubbel – From Portland, Maine. It’s OK. Interesting Enough.
  • Shiner Spezial Light – The “light” version of Shiner “Bock.” I prefer Bock, but this is what’s in the fridge.

Beers I May Have Later Tonight**

  • Cantillon Gueze – Belgian. Sour.
  • Orval – Belgian. Trappist.
  • Bells Amber Ale – I don’t love this. But I’ve had four beers already, I’m sure it’ll taste fine.
  • Pilsner Urquel – Yum.

*My #1 beer of summer 2008 was Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy. As you may know.
**Because that’s what’s in the fridge to choose from.

Big Screen: Tropic Thunder

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So hilarious. Brilliantly satirical.

Two things alone are worth the price of admission:
1) The fake previews, ESPECIALLY the RDJ/Tobey Maguire one; and
2) Tom Cruise’s performance. He deserves a fucking Oscar for that. I thought I was going to start crying, I was laughing so hard watching him during the closing credits. The boy may be totally and completely insane, but you’ve got to give someone credit who’s willing to put it all out there like that.

If you need to know more, you can re-read the DadReaction to this flick.

Dinner’s on me!

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Change turned into real money at Coinstar this morning = $177.09. Woot.

Change rejected by the machine:

  • Three perfectly good unblemished dimes.
  • One shiny shiny penny.

Fewest rejects ever. But also oddest rejects ever. (There were some mighty moldy pennies accepted!)

À la Super Eggplant, currently, I am…

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Eating: Complete crap. If it has a gajillion calories and absolutely no nutritional value, then I’m eatin it.

Making: Nothing really. Not right this second anyway.

Reading: “Sway” by Robert Lazar, a fictionalized account of the convergence of the Rolling Stones and Charles Manson. Just started today. Good so far. Kinda dreamy/druggy.

Watching: Just a few days into the week and I’m way behind (I was out of town! Get off my back, man!). Have only watched this week’s episodes of Gossip Girl (I love Vanessa and Nate together!!) and Fringe (I like this show more than anyone else. But it’s pure Pacey love); DVR also has latest eps of Terminator, The Closer, two eps of The Cleaner, and I think there was something else also to catch up on. Uh oh. Really need to go see Tropic Thunder THIS WEEK. Can I manage it?

Listening to: Band of Horses. I hadn’t listened to them in awhile and they were SO FUCKING GOOD at Monolith this weekend. Ethereal and spooky and yet rocking.

Things to Look Forward to Next Week:

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  • Finding out if I am still employed! Chances look about 80/20 I won’t be.
  • Reviews of the two AWESOME concerts I went to (semi) recently: Sea WolfGreat Lake Swimmers [I mean. Why do I keep doing that? I’m an idiot.] and Sam Phillips.
  • An update on Dad’s and my reading challenge through July and August.
  • Fresh TV so far! Yay! or Nay! Depending. 🙂

Things to Look at While I’m Gone:

  • I finally split my Flickr into two accounts (although sadly that meant losing all the comments on the crafty ones. ah well. bygones!) so I could upload a bunch of Chicago Quilt Show shots I had been holding out on. There you go! Someday all my stash shots will be up but that day is not today.
  • I wrote up a long ass cynical post about what I plan to be watching on TV this fall. Turns out “almost nothing new” would be the right answer.
  • Now that iTunes and NBC are holding hands again, hey you can rewatch all of BStarG Season 4 so far. Yay! 🙂

Later, dudes.

Pondering the Monolith Lineup

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Here’s what I’m interested in seeing this weekend, and obviously I am going to have some tough time-slot decisions to make! Uh oh! You KNOW how I am about making decisions!

Saturday
2 – Port O’Brien
2 – Foals
2:30 – The Morning Benders
2:45 – KaiserCartel
4:30 – Cut Copy
5:10 – Liam Finn (going to him in Oct, could skip)
5:45 – The Fratellis (I’ve seen them, could skip)
7:15 – Vampire Weekend
8:45 – Silversun Pickups
9:45 – Atmosphere

Sunday
4:15 – The Avett Brothers (!!!)
6:30 – Chester French (!!!)
6:30 – The Kills (just saw them at Lolla, will probly skip)
7:15 – Band of Horses
8:00 – Akron/Family
8:30 – Dan le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip (since I’ve seen them at a great venue already, maybe I’ll just go late?)

There are lots of other bands playing that I could technically have on my ‘try to see’ list (CSS, TV on the Radio, Sharon Jones, etc.) but I’m trying to remember that I am old and tired and be a bit less ambitious.

DadReaction: Tropic Thunder

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So many laugh out loud moments. Total Monty Python-type comedy. Robert Downey was awesome. Tom Cruise was great also, Tobey Maguire. The mock previews at the beginning were HILARIOUS, you just can’t help but laugh. But there was a lot of grossness too, your mom was put off by the gross bits. I didn’t think she was going to make it through the fake previews of Jack Black’s fart movies; thought she might walk out!

There are some really good parodies and some real black humor jolts where you think to yourself “I can’t believe they just did that” but at the same time you’re overwhelmed with laughter. They kept surprising you, some fun stuff with subtitles, some good slams.

However, I would say I thought it was kind of a cheap shot at Platoon, which was maybe over the top at times, but was a really moving movie. On the other hand, a great slam of Apocalypse Now.
It was kinda fun, I didn’t think it was too long. But you can get tired of the guy humor/gross joke stuff. Partly because the rest of it was so clever, it was like those jokes dragged it down to a lower level.

At times you would think “I can’t believe they’re going so far with that handicapped joke; I’ve never seen anybody do that so blatantly.” They just wouldn’t let it go. It’s so funny, but at the same time, you’re looking around thinking, “I hope there’s nobody handicapped sitting next to me.” [i.e., being offended by my laughing at this.]

[He kept telling me this was a “mixed” review. Finally I said: “So what about this is mixed? Sounds pretty positive to me!” He laughed and said “Yeah, I guess maybe I just feel like it SHOULD be more mixed. I really enjoyed it!!” This is definitely tops on my list to see…I mean except for the fact that I have just been slacking slacking slacking on going to movies lately. I suck.]