On my way out to Chicago, I was thinking about how my excitement levels for going to Pearl Jam shows had fallen off a bit. I wasn’t looking forward to fighting my way through the merchandise lines to snag a poster, I wasn’t looking forward to dealing with all of the obnoxious super fans (yes, there are MUCH crazier fans than Mundis and I), and I hadn’t really been listening to too much PJ in the lead-up to the trip. I was feeling like going to the shows had become more of a tradition than something truly exciting. After night two, though, I was reminded of why we travel all over the place to see these guys play.

Night one was a really good show, albeit a bit shorter than usual (about 2 hours and 15 minutes). It was Megan’s first PJ show, and Mundis won the ticket lottery – landing him in the tenth row – so it was a pretty exciting night from the beginning. We even checked out the pre-party down the road from the United Center, which was a lot less irritating than we thought it would be. The setlist included some songs that I had never heard live before (Needle and the Damage Done, The Fixer, Got Some, The Real Me, Supersonic), which is one of those things we always hope for in going to the shows. I think their new songs, The Fixer and Got Some are awesome live. They’re so full of energy and the crowd really responded well to both. I’m reserving my judgment of Supersonic until I get to hear it on the album. It just didn’t sound tight live…or maybe I just need to hear it to get used to it. Other than that, the show was a nice reminder of why I’ve spent so much time and money going to see them. The experience is worth it. Jeff also had us sing happy birthday to a friend of his who had passed away, which provided a lot of insight into his poster design for that night. We weren’t thrilled about the design until we learned more about the meaning behind it…the appreciation is much deeper now. Regardless, night one was a really nice show, and it left me excited for night two.

Night two was destined to be better than night one. Why? Well…because on my way to grab food and do some shopping we ran into Jeff Ament. I typically don’t bother famous people when I see them, and I didn’t want to bother Jeff, but I had to at least say hi. With Jeff being essentially the only person that Mundis would want to meet (Mundis was being a tourist and visiting the Field Museum instead), it would’ve been rude to not say anything. Jeff was totally cool with us interrupting his shopping excursion and kindly let me get a photo with him. We thanked him for an awesome show the night before, and moved along. I was nervous as hell, so I didn’t really know what to say, but it was nice of him to be so chill.

Then the show ended up being one of the best, if not the best show I’ve seen them play in the 22 times I’ve seen them. The first set was hands down the best I can remember. It had a very vintage PJ feel, with nothing but raw energy carrying the band. You could see that the band was having a blast on stage. While they didn’t play anything that I hadn’t heard before, there were 21 different songs from night one. Even songs that we’re typically sick of hearing were really good…almost like a fresh start. Better Man and Daughter were finally exciting to hear again. I can only hope that when PJ puts the bootlegs on sale, that it sounds as good as the show we thought we experienced. It was amazing. It was also cool to get a poster by the same artist who designed the Backspacer album art – Tom Tomorrow.

On my way out of the United Center on Monday, all I could do was think about how floored I was and how much fun the shows were. Getting posters wasn’t a problem, the crowds were awesome, the set lists were great, and the performances were amazing. It’s exactly what I needed to get me pumped for Halloween…when I’ll be traveling to Philly to see Pearl Jam rock the Spectrum!

When I decided to stop using Davis’ old equipment – after the first night of my first non-PSL league a few years ago – I purchased my bowling balls from Bill’s Pro Shop at Mt. Lebanon’s AMF Lanes. I had been using those same balls since, improving steadily along the way, but heading into a new PSL session, I decided it was time for a fresh start. Unfortunately, Bill had left Mt. Lebanon lanes to open his own bowling alley, so I had to find him. Davis had told me before that it’s tough to find a good pro shop guy who can drill correctly, so I needed to stick with the same person. The brief search led me to Legacy Lanes – Bill’s brand new bowling alley.

Before we even made it down to the pro shop, we were amazed at the facilities. They had completely gutted and rebuilt every aspect of an old dilapidated bowling alley. New lanes, the most modern Brunswick displays and setters, a sweet bar, private lanes, laser tag, etc. It was ridiculous…especially after having only been in the most beat bowling alleys that Pittsburgh has to offer.

Our trip to the pro shop provided us with even more insight. Turns out that Bill typically keeps 4 of the lanes oiled up with one of the sport shots for some of the regulars that come in to practice for tournaments. He even said that you could call ahead, and with a days notice you can get any shot that you want laid down. For those of us not accustomed to such serious bowling accomodations, it was like a bowler heaven. Ha ha.

Bill is also an awesome pro shop guy. He was able to pin-point issues immediately with the drilling of Megan’s old ball just by watching her release. He drilled everyone on the Nine-Dash Heroes’ new balls, and everyone seems happy with the result. With Megan and Sam ditching the plastic for entry-level hook balls, and getting their new balls drilled fingertip, we’re looking to improve our team average by a lot once they get a hang of it.

Anyway, I plan on bowling at Legacy quite a bit now that I know of its existence. I might’ve worked my way up to being a 200+ bowler on Arsenal Lanes’ house shot, but I’m not even close to being able to claim that I’m a good bowler…as evidenced by the poor scores that I’ve put up when trying to roll on my first sport shots. I want to improve, and the only way to do it is to have access to the conditions that Legacy is willing to put out. With my new, more aggressive ball (Rogue Cell), I look forward to working my way back up!

A few days ago, American Eagle’s clothing concept, Martin + Osa, finally launched its e-commerce site. I know most people don’t know anything about the company let alone the web site, but I’ve been anxiously awaiting the arrival an AE brand that ditched the over-the-top, “yeah, I’m obviously too old for this shirt” branding, for a more subtle, “grown up” style. M+O is AE’s answer to its aging demographic who’s now walking into the 15-25-year-old sunset and looking to shop with a J.Crew-esque mentality.

As an AE employee, I was able to test the site by ordering some items at a nice discount…which is about the only way a poor ol’ web designer like myself could actually afford to shop there. Even thought the clothes are not in my ballpark of reasonably-priced threads, I have to say that I’m pretty impressed with my first arrivals.

I ordered them about a week ago with the free shipping option and they arrived in a decent amount of time. The packing standard was pretty high, with each item individually wrapped in dark blue tissue paper and sealed with a small M+O sticker. I’m not sure if every order comes like that, or if they were just doing random packing tests (I have two more boxes coming, so we’ll see), but if it’s a regular thing, it definitely qualifies as a nice touch.

The clothes themselves are really comfortable and seem well-made. The half-zip cardigan simply fits awesome – even if it may have arrived a few weeks late weather-wise. The jeans that I bought should break in really well as they fit surprisingly well for never trying them on beforehand. I just hope they hold up better than some of my AE jeans, which have seen better days.

I know most of you reading this won’t shop there any time soon, but if you know anyone with money to burn who shops the M+O style, send ‘em over to the site. So far it’s been well-received, but I’d like to see the brand succeed for my friends’ sake who worked on it (the shop by outfit pages are pretty cool).

M+O may cost about twice as much as AE, but from first wear, it’s twice the quality. With the way I wear clothes to death, that should provide me with a reason to go back…even without a discount. Time will tell…

P.S. – I’m not actually involved in the M+O aspect of AE…

Nice packaging

Half-zip goodness

Nice denim makes Pittsburgh winter a little more comfortable

I hate cars, and I hate debt, but I love me some R32! I happened to drive by Billco VW in Wexford on Sunday and saw a beautiful 2004 R32 sitting in the front of their lot. Oh a whim, I turned around and decided to take a quick, harmless look at the car. It was VW certified, in pristine condition, and only had 37,000 miles on it. Hmm. What to do…

The dealership was closed, but the wheels were already in motion. My 2003 Jetta GLI was almost paid off, but I really wanted this car. I had always wanted one but didn’t have the money when it came out, and had since reserved myself to never getting my hands on one of these cars for two reasons:

First, most of the people who bought one of these limited edition – only 5000 crossed the Atlantic – hot hatches have had about 4 years to modify the cars into something far from the near-perfection that the car originally possessed. From different wheels to bad paint jobs. From exhaust mods and chips to body kits, I figured I’d never find an R32 that was as stock as the day it arrived in 2004. Since that’s the only way that I’d really want to purchase a used one, I just wrote the idea off a long time ago.

Second, after four years, you’d also expect most of these cars to be run to the ground. High mileage for their age, destroyed clutches, worn interiors, etc. My Jetta was a great little car in really good condition, so I wasn’t going to downgrade in wear and tear, even if my car had just over 70,000 miles on it.

Fortunately, this R32 crushed those pessimistic thoughts with all 3,400 lbs. of its diminutive, yet awesome self. The leather is intact, the clutch is unaltered and car reacts just as smoothly as my GLI, albeit a bit faster…and with all wheel drive! Frankly, if the odometer didn’t say 37k on it, I would just think I had taken a time machine back to 2004 when the R first came out. I guess that’s what happens when a 60-year-old guy owned it before me. He took great care of it. Gotta love responsible adults!

Since the car has a ridiculous resale value, low miles, a clean record, a VW certification, and a 3-year warranty on top of the near mint condition of the vehicle, I just couldn’t pass it up…so I didn’t. Billco also did the 40,000 mile maintenance already. Not bad.

Also, we got a mini snow storm last night here in Pittsburgh, so I decided to test the car’s capabilities a little before the plows took to the roads. It was awesome! Simply awesome.

And, as a friendly plug, I’d also like to add that Billco Motors is a tight VW/Mazda dealership with a great staff, at least from my experiences there. I’ve been going there for service since moving to Pittsburgh. This process was flawless and they were very helpful in helping me get what I wanted. If you’re in the market for a new or used VW (or Mazda), go check them out and ask for Mike Dixon.

Here’s an email that I sent to NFLshop.com today. The basic rundown is that I purchased two authentic jerseys from their online store. Why? I wanted the real deal. I wanted the best quality, the comfort of knowing that I did “the right thing” even if it was wrong for my wallet. Okay? Okay. Ha ha. Please forward to your friends because NFLshop.com doesn’t deserve our hard-earned money until they improve their quality control…especially on $250 jerseys. Thanks for reading…and yes, I could’ve been a little nicer in the email, but whatever. I paid to be an asshole in it.

Hello,

I called customer service last night about the “customized” authentic Ravens jerseys that I ordered. Although the customer service representative was very nice and understanding, I was extremely unimpressed with the level of resolve I was left with after getting off of the phone – a 90% chance that I can’t return it, or in his precise words, “typically, 9 out of 10 times, we won’t allow a return on a customized jersey”. Wow. Thanks a lot.

My complaint was very simple. I had just paid nearly five hundred dollars for what I assumed was the best quality jerseys (2) that I could buy, and what do I get? Stitching that was worse than what I could’ve done in home economics class in 7th grade, and not even a hang tag to help assure that I had received the right product.

You can imagine the disappointment in waiting 8 days to get something you’ve been waiting to buy for years only to receive something that didn’t live up to the expectations. The simple fact that nflshop.com would even use a “vendor” who didn’t have an adequate quality assurance system in place is absurd. I happen to work for a very popular retail clothing company and even the stitching quality on our $15 t-shirts are better than what I received. Heck, the stitching on my Premier (EQT) jersey is 100 times better.

Then the icing on the cake is that I can’t return it because the jerseys are “customized”. So, I guess you’re saying that you’re allowed to use poor vendors, and if the quality sucks, us customers have to suck it up? Plus, on the site, I only had the option of choosing an Ed Reed alternate jersey. You know what? I already have that! Are you saying that because I wanted different options than the poor selection you offered that I have to pay the price in quality? Again, thanks for looking out for your customer!

If I drive down to Baltimore from Pittsburgh (my current residence), and walk into the team store at M&T Bank Stadium, am I going to get the same quality? Do you really think that they would hang such garbage on their jersey racks? That’s a serious question, by the way.

If you’re in the business of sending out poorly stitched products for $250+, I’m afraid to order anything else from you. What will I get if I buy a $20 hat, or a $60 sweatshirt? You have really dented my confidence in your store and products. I guess with the popularity of the NFL, you guys are just taking us fans and our money for granted. Not that you really care, but I will be posting this on my myspace page to let my friends know how nflshop.com has decided to run their business. What I’ve learned from my experience is this:

1) NFLshop.com’s limited selection of authentic jerseys (at least if you happen to be a Ravens fan) forces you to order a “customized” jersey (non-returnable!). That’s $250+ wasted, almost guaranteed.
2) According to the customer service representative that I spoke to last night, nflshop.com uses a vendor to customize their jerseys. Obviously, you put your trust in vendors that have no right touching “highest quality” products. It’s obvious that QA isn’t very important to nflshop.com. This vendor/nflshop.com relationship, or lack thereof actually makes me wonder if these are the same vendors selling authentic jerseys on eBay for 1/5 of the price. I could’ve saved a lot of money if I had known that nflshop.com didn’t watch their vendors closely.
3) You only have a whopping 10% chance to return the product once you’ve received it if it’s customized, regardless of your situation.
4) Customized authentic jerseys don’t come with hang tags, so I can’t even claim that I didn’t wear it when I try to return it or sell it for way less than I paid for on eBay, etc. I mean, how can I compete on eBay when my authentic that I purchased from nflshop.com has equivalent stitching to the so-called fakes (w/hang tags!)?

For as much money as you guys make on us fans, you would think that you would be better at using quality vendors and putting a more reasonable return/refund system in place. At the end of the day, I’ll probably just have to keep the jerseys because I don’t see the point in waiting for new ones to arrive knowing that they may have the same issues. I’ll forever have paid $500 for two jerseys for a team I love supporting and the experience of getting ripped off by nflshop.com. Live and learn. I guess you’re used to that complacency in us die-hard fans. Thanks for taking advantage of us.

I look forward to you guys completely ignoring this email.

Sincerely,
Will Hare