Mundis flew into Chicago and met up with me for what’s quickly becoming our semi-annual, spend-more-money-that-you-have vacation to see something Pearl Jam related. Where seeing Pearl Jam has sort of become more habit than anything for me, the opportunity to see Eddie Vedder solo brought up feelings of both excitement and apprehension. I was excited for the chance to see Eddie play, not just because of the rarity of such an intimate gig with a rock “legend”, but also because I really wanted to hear some of the Into the Wild soundtrack – which happens to be excellent.

Of course, I wasn’t sure how well Ed would carry a show alone. Would he be able to captivate me for two-plus hours, or would I get tired of the singer-songwriter vibe? Would the setlist be interesting, or would I have spent money only to hear Betterman, Last Kiss, and Corduroy on acoustic? There was also the question of Ed’s voice. The guy has pipes, but years of touring, smoking, and drinking have definitely worn on his baritone and his ability to hold the high notes he so easily reached 10 years ago. Could he actually sing for two-plus hours over two consecutive nights?

Well, after two nights in Vedder’s semi-hometown of Chicago, any reservations I might’ve had coming into the shows were completely gone. I actually think that Ed was better alone than he is with Pearl Jam. That’s not to say that I’d see Ed 20+ times because Pearl Jam shows are awesome, but the whole experience was so damn good that I was left with a better impression of Ed and his talent from his solo shows than I ever was from seeing a Pearl Jam show.

First, the voice. Vedder’s voice is ridiculously good, and in an intimate setting like The Auditorium Theater, the subtleties and range are impossible to overlook. No longer was there a rockin’ band mixed in to support and/or drown out his voice. When the accompaniment is limited to one guitar, the voice needs to take control…and control it did. No longer did Ed have to scream and growl in the prototypical rock style. He could simply croon and let the songs live on their own. He sang with clarity that really undermined the mumbling reputation he’s often mocked for.

The setlists were ridiculous and held many surprises. In two nights we heard many songs from Into the Wild and various Pearl Jam tunes, but some of my favorites were the cover songs. Hurt was covered in more of the Johnny Cash version and is one of those songs I wish I could have to listen to over and over. There were random covers like Pete Townshend’s Let My Love Open the Door, Trouble by Cat Stevens, Blackbird by The Beatles, The Who’s Can’t Explain, and Dylan’s Masters of War. The covers just added such a surprising twist to the show. While I’ve heard Trouble and Masters of War live a handful of times, songs like Blackbird and Can’t Explain came totally out of left field and blew me away with their looseness and Ed’s willingness to try new material. Some were better than others, but for me, the fact that I got to hear something new, albeit a cover song, come out of Ed’s mouth was refreshing. I’m sure Mundis would agree.

My other two favorites, and I mean clear-cut favorites, were the performances of Arc and Society. Arc was a song from Riot Act that Ed had only sung a few times before, and was dedicated to the 9 fans who had died at the Roskilde Festival a few years back. Using a loop machine, Vedder laid down various layers of chants (9, I think) – all free flowing and full of dynamics starting with a very low chant and growing in pitch. Once the layers are looped it’s just this huge, beautiful sound. It was amazing. I had only seen him do it once before in Boston, but to see him do it two nights in a row was incredible and seriously blew me away. I’m not sure if another song even came close to affecting me like that one. Society is my favorite song of the the Into the Wild soundtrack, and it was performed both nights with Liam Finn doing backup vocals. Combined, their voices took that song to a new level.

Speaking of Liam Finn…I have no idea how I felt about his opening act, but I will say that A) his voice is really, really good and similar to his father’s, and B) Liam is a really talented musician. His solo show involved drums, loop machines, noise, and a backup singer/percussionist. I still haven’t picked up his solo album, but I plan on doing that at some point. He’s a hell of a musician and I think there’s a lot more to come from him. It was also cool to see him join Ed on drums for Hard Sun, as well.

As if a great show wasn’t good enough, I got to see the Stanley Cup thanks to Brett Lebda and Chris Chelios bringing it to the show, and we got to see Sean Penn come out for the second night’s performance of Hard Sun. The real treat, though was listening to Vedder’s banter between songs and his exchanges with the crowd. When people were still calling out unsolicited requests and Vedder said something along the lines of, “hey, can you give me a break from being a human jukebox and stop trying to shove quarters into my ass”, I had to laugh. He also went on a mini rant about how he has a setlist and he wasn’t going to take requests from “amateurs” after he’s been making setlists for “some band you might’ve heard of” for the past 17 or 18 years. It was great. You could tell that after 10 shows or whatever it was, that he had grown tired of the loudmouthed, self-important fans who couldn’t sit down and shut up during the show. He often asked the crowd to stop talking during the storytelling parts for the sake of the people who paid to sit in the gallery seats, making it a point to tell a story of how his very first concert ever was at The Auditorium in the very last row of the gallery, and how those seats are “really uncomfortable”. He also told the crowd this whole story about how he met Cubs legend Ernie Banks, and Ernie asked him to write a song for the Cubs before busting out the song All the Way, a really decent song that could work for just about any perpetually failing team with some slight lyric modifications. Mundis and I were sort of annoyed that even when Ed writes a stupid song for the Cubs, it’s really good. I’m sure it’ll be playing around Wrigleyville for the next 100 years of failure.

Anyway, Ed’s ability to engage the crowd with great storytelling and witty remarks made the experience a memorable one. For the first time, it felt like we were really getting to know who Eddie Vedder was, and it sort of took him down from that invisible pedestal that many people put him on and made you think he was just like the rest of us…just with more talent…and money. It was excellent and I would recommend seeing him to anyone I know, fan or not. The show was well set up, Ed didn’t drink at all so he didn’t screw up very much, and the banter was excellent…as well as the surprising setlists. While I hated spending money on the tickets, the experience was definitely worth it, and I’d go again in a heartbeat.

The ONLY bummer about the whole two nights was the crowd (well, and the 3 posters at $35 each). It was a typical, drunken moron PJ crowd, despite the intimate venue and show offering. Most of the people seemed more interested in getting their next beer, talking to their friends, and screaming out requests and the typical, “I love you, Eddie”. I guess these are the fans who were disappointed that Ed didn’t play everything off of the greatest hits album. The only thing that made the girl spilling beer on Mundis’ head a forgettable moment was the girl who threw her phone up on stage. She hopped up on stage to get it, and instead of grabbing it and running back to the crowd, she tried to run up to Ed. That security guard removed her insanely fast. So fast, in fact, that Ed didn’t even see it happen. The whole crowd thing was just so obnoxious, but thankfully, the show trumped the idiocy surrounding us. Thanks, Ed.

As tends to be the norm for me – whether intentional or not – I ended eating at mostly chain restaurants during my trip. It’s one of the most frustrating realities of my travels, but oh well. We had some Chicago-style pizza delivered to the hotel which was good, I had a wicked-good burger at the hotel, and downed a quick meal at The Berghoff, but none of that stuff truly kicked my taste buds into complete happiness. My favorite nighttime meal was probably at Maggiano’s, but I found out later that it, too, was a chain. Oh well. All in all, my trip gave me nothing exciting food-wise to write home about, except for that one place that truly insists on making me feel like an obese man in a skinny body nearly every time I go there – The Bongo Room!

All of my friends have heard me rave about this damn place for the last couple of years, but I just couldn’t get enough of it this time when I was staying a few blocks away. Whenever I thought to myself that it was time to try somewhere new, I decided that there was definitely something more delicious to consume for breakfast. I literally ate at The Bongo Room every single morning that I was in Chicago. Which reminds me…I forgot to give Aaron money for the last day. Damn. Mental note for the next time I’m around.

Regardless of the realization of yet another debt that I need to pay in this fabulous economy that’s supposedly only in my mental space, The Bongo Room is my ultra anti-depressant. Maybe it’s the sugary goodness…or maybe it’s the high sodium, but it’s so delicious that you can’t walk away without saying, “damn, I need to come back again!”. It’s such an American restaurant – over-the-top, highly-caloric, and destined to leave its trendy restaurant goers addicted to all things that cause button popping on their designer jeans.

I only ate three meals in all of my trips to The Bongo Room during my latest trip, and all three were awesome. While the basil and feta omelet was pretty ordinary and delicious, my other two meals were quality selections. I ate the breakfast burrito twice. It’s really a simple burrito with egg and guacamole, but it’s great. If they don’t make their own guac, they sure as hell have an amazing guac supplier. The thought of eggs and guac together on a plate sort made me nauseous, but it was surprisingly excellent in every way. I wasn’t into the sour creamy stuff on top, or whatever it was, but once I removed that, it was super. Most people will probably like that topping, though. Oh, and naturally, it had to be covered in cheese!

Of course, the meal that real champions would eat isn’t Wheaties, it’s the white chocolate & caramel covered pretzel pancakes from The Bongo Room. Yeah. They exist, and yes, they are disgustingly good as their descriptive name would lead you to believe. Salty, sugary, and guaranteed to give you a sugar rush that you actually won’t regret. I mean, if you’re on the Atkins Diet, you’re not going to be thrilled with yourself, but I can’t imagine too many people not enjoying them. Surprisingly, I couldn’t finish a full order, but the half order was perfect.

My only complaints are the same ones that come with any hip, trendy place, that actually has good food – waiting for a table, and the cramped feeling. Of course, the waiting thing wasn’t much of a problem for us most of the week. We usually went closer to 11am, and we only had to wait about 30 minutes the one Saturday morning for a table for 6. Not bad, and the grub was definitely worth it. See you there next time I’m in Chicago!

I absolutely love Chicago. Granted, it wasn’t winter – where the cold and snow would probably make life pretty annoying – but spending 6 days in the city with essentially no plans made the trip a lot of fun.

I had been to Chitown a few times before, but I had never really spent that much time in the downtown area without any semblance of a plan. The first time I went, we were going to Lollapalooza, so there was very limited time to explore. The second time, the trip revolved around going to a game at Wrigley and chillin’ with Silvers, so I didn’t explore that much then, either. I must’ve walked the majority of the city during my time there this trip, though. Mundis and I even walked from Wrigley back to downtown by taking the scenic route and walking along Lake Short Drive, which I have to say was awesome, and made me wish I was sporting some running gear…or even swimming stuff. All of the walking reminded me of the time Aaron and I spent in San Francisco – albeit without the geeky Flash conference interrupting my tour of the city. I walked so much that I actually had to pick up a new set of sneakers, which are mighty sweet.

I went to the White Sox game, where we got to see Ken Griffey Jr. hit his first homer for the Sox…and where I found the team I would cheer for if I lived in Chicago. Sorry to any Cubs fans I might know. The ballpark, although nowhere near as nostalgic as Wrigley, is just simply nicer and reminds me slightly of Camden Yards, just not as nice. Mundis made me get all touristy and go to the Sears Towers, which was pretty cool…except for the amount of tourists. The most exciting part for me was trying to figure out how a spider could climb to the top of the Sears Tower, and whether or not it really thought it would have more success catching food in a web 1,353 feet in the air. What do you think?

Anyway…there are more posts coming on this trip, but I’m going to be breaking them out into their own entries, so be patient. Next up…The Bongo Room…

Last night was absolutely brutal…for our opponents. Our kickball team simply dominated like I’ve never seen. Offensively, we played extremely well, but defense was solid for the second consecutive week. We gave up hits, but with our new lineup (moving a guy from short to 2nd), it seems like we’ve got both sides of the infield covered much better. Thus, not allowing too many extra bases. With solid fielding all-around, and Meadows throwing the heat, it was just a matter of putting up runs.

Which is exactly what we did.

We won our first game 7-3. While my 3 homeruns accounted for all seven runs, our team was able to get runners on base all game. To have two 3-run homers shows a solid team effort through the batting order. It also reminds me why Armstrong is my favorite field ever, and exemplifies how important it was to get home field at that particular diamond. I finished game one with 3 runs and 4 RBIs on 3 homeruns. After the second homerun, the following was told to the pitcher: “Just walk him next time”.

The pitcher didn’t listen.

With game one ending very quickly, we hung around awaiting the winners from the other playoff game to arrive. During this time, Ryan decided to lace up and join us for the final. Had work obligations not kept him from making it to game one, I imagine we would¹ve seen some more homeruns in game 1, as his practice swings between the games were heading over the fence consistently…while kicking left-footed!

We were hardly surprised to see the light blue team arrive as our opponents - as they were the number 2 seed – and we expected a true battle. What was surprising, though, was the fact that the game was called on the mercy rule in the bottom of the 5th inning after we drove in our 14th run for a 14-4 victory. The final runs came on a two-run homer by Matt which happened when the center fielder misjudged the line drive, and in the process of trying to quickly stop and backpedal, fell to the ground. Matt never had to cross the plate since the first run ended the game, but it was a hell of a moment for our team.

I had a second 3-for-3 game, but failed to match my success from game one, by only hitting for a single, double, and one homerun (3 rbis, 2 runs). The real hero of the final, was Ryan, who’s fresh LEFT leg was able to crank out two homeruns, one being a grand slam.

While I’m highlighting only the most obvious highlights, I have to say that the entire team pulled it out. We don’t win either game if our entire team doesn’t find a way to get on base, our fielding gives up too many mistakes, or we don’t have good pitching. Speaking of pitching, Meadows – who pitched the final 3 games of the season (3 complete games with a 2.33 ERA!), was on-point, leaving most of the other teams big legs frustrated. The whole season was awesome, and the ending results have a lot of us pumped for this weekend’s Kickball for Hope tournament. While we’re losing some people for this weekend, our team’s going to be in good shape going into our Fall league.

I hope to keep track of everyone’s stats in the fall…mainly because I’m OCD like that, but since I didn’t I can only offer up my own stats – which are about 500x better than last season.

AE sponsored it’s first music festival this past weekend, and I have to say it was pretty cool. While, personally, I didn’t have a huge desire to see most of the bands, the concept was great and the crowds showed up 10,000 strong.

Friday night was pretty decent, as I was able to catch NASA, The Black Keys, and The Roots. NASA was a decent duo of DJs, but I just can’t get into people spinning in the daylight. They had some random stuff going on during their set – like a dude dancing around in an ape suit, and two chicks covered in green paint with silver dresses go-go dancing the whole time. Why? I have no idea. Vibe-wise, I just didn’t get into it, but they’re probably awesome…if that’s your thing.

The Black Keys drew a pretty big crowd, and the people that I had gone to the show with were big fans, so I gave them a try. Later, after I picked up their latest CD, I decided they were pretty decent, but seeing them live left a lot to be desired…for me, at least. Granted, it’s just two guys – a guitarist/vocalist and a drummer – but they were sloppy. I could barely hear the vocals, and in the end, I think I’m just over the whole lo-fi garage rock for the time being. Their latest CD, though, is really tight (the first half, at least). It’s probably Danger Mouse’s production that I like the most, but the fact that it’s not sloppy and I can hear vocals makes the CD way better than seeing them live. You wouldn’t even think the singer could sing if you only saw them in a live setting.

The Roots – in their self-proclaimed “legendary” way – absolutely rocked. Of course, I’m a pretty big fan, but I can’t count the number of times that I heard people talking up The Roots performance. Whether you love or hate hip-hop, The Roots will earn nearly anyone’s respect. There was more talent in that band than nearly every band combined for the festival, and it shows. From the seemingly endless, yet ingeniously extended, “You Got Me”, to the random cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song”, The Roots owned NAMU.

Day two was okay, but I spent the morning volunteering as staff for the festival. That part was pretty fun as I met numerous people from AE who I had never met before (all of which were really cool people), while I also had a view of the free college band stage. After over 4 hours of listening to college bands, I wasn’t very inspired, but I thought that AE’s idea of giving these young bands an opportunity to get in on the festival while gaining some decent exposure was pretty cool. Hopefully some of the bands make it somewhere with their stuff. Some of the bands, I’d prefer to never hear again.

After working until about 3, I basically roamed the festival, drank a bit, and hung out with friends. The only performances that I was interested in seeing the rest of the night was Bob Dylan – solely for the sake of being able to say, “I saw Bob Dylan” – and Gnarls Barkley. I came back to the festival to watch Gnarls and it wasn’t bad. The sound quality was great, the band was phenomenal, and Cee-Lo is a really good singer in his own way. To see Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo on the stage together is such a strange marriage of musical characters, but it works…very well. I still give the edge to The Roots, though.

After Gnarls, I met up with Joe and Megan at Steph’s house, which was conveniently located right next to the festival. There, we were able to avoid paying $7 for a beer, take a break from standing in the hot sun surrounded my thousands of people, and enjoy the music quite clearly from inside the apartment. I had very little interest in seeing the other bands live, so listening in a cozy environment was perfect. Although, I do wonder if I’ll ever get my water bottle back from Steph. Ha.

We then all took a stroll down to catch the old amazing songwriting, awful-voiced, Bob Dylan and he didn’t disappoint or surprise me at all. As you would expect, I couldn’t understand more than about 10 words he said the whole time, and the nostalgia I should’ve felt never really caught on. Dylan essentially didn’t move the whole time, and I’ll never know if he was even a real person on stage since no one was allowed to take photos or video of the legend himself. All-in-all, I felt pretty let down by the whole Dylan experience, but oh well. I saw Bob Dylan!

The festival was a pretty big success, and I loved being able to take part in the first of what should be many NAMU festivals (AE plans on doing this thing every year). I’m definitely excited for the potential of this thing. For the time being, you can relive it at the 77E website.

We clinched the number one seed going into the playoffs with a 8-0 victory last night!

With Brett making some fielding changes, we were able to watch Meadows’ first pitching performance – a shutout that also consisted of Meadows being told to slow his pitches down. Ryan also moved to second, which helped balance out the infield and allowed us to control the game a lot better from the outset.

Again, I was involved in an interesting situation. Interesting for kickball, at least. It helps to outline the scenario, though. I had struggled to make quality contact off of the other team’s pitcher in my first at-bat (pop-fly for an out), but I still wanted to swing for the fence – a habit created by my success at the Armstrong field this year. Unfortunately, her pitches were fast, bouncy, and had a lot of top spin. Add her technique to the fact that the kicking area was chopped up from mud, and it made for a pretty difficult time. The only way to really get a decent kick was to take the ball off of the bounce, which isn’t too easy if you’re going for more than a simple single to third.

The other factor in this situation was that in warm-ups we tried both balls that the ump had brought. Usually, we play with a red Heinz ball, but for whatever reason, we were left with the choice of a Dora the Explorer ball, or a Spiderman ball. We tried both before the game, and it was obvious that we couldn’t use the Spidey ball. It was over-inflated for a kickball, making it entirely too bouncy to field, and too stiff to hold for pitching or throwing. To keep the game less frustrating, we played the game with Dora, but on my first attempt during my second at-bat, I hit Dora off of the side of my foot causing it to go foul over the fence to the right of the field. With no one chasing the ball quick enough, the ump asked if we just wanted to continue with the other ball. I knew this was going to be interesting. Even with the opposing pitcher’s difficult pitches, I knew I could crank one if I just got decent contact – and that’s exactly what happened. On the first pitch with Spidey, I smacked a ball deep over the center fielder’s head. The over-inflation gave the center fielder difficulty in grabbing the ball off of the bounce, and it ended up in the far opposite corner of the field. Knowing that I had all day to run the bases, I started walking from third to home, but decided not to be too mean and jogged the last 15 feet.

The other team immediately switched back to Dora.

The only other notable moment was when Joel ran over the girl at first. His infield grounder gave the pitcher a chance to throw him out, but in the madness of avoiding the ball thrown at him, and the girl at first – who was about 6′ 2″ and bigger than Joel – standing completely on the bag in the base path, disaster was unavoidable. He essentially tackled her, and after a minute of gathering herself, she decided to leave the game. I think she was fine, but that should be a lessen to people who stand in the base runner’s path.

Again, this was a solid team effort, and the victory left us tied at 7-1 for the season with the light blue team, who we defeated last week. With the head-to-head victory, we’re now the number one seed, and we go into next week facing the white team, which is the team we almost lost to when we gave up 5 runs in one inning thanks to fielding errors. With us seemingly finding the ideal positions for everyone in the field, the errors should be limited now, and we should give them a more honest game. AND, if Meadows gets a shot at the mound again, I imagine the other team will find it difficult to make quality contact. Fingers crossed…

I went 2-for-3, with a homerun and a double. It was an RBI-less week, but I did account for two runs…and no errors! Now where’s my cookie?

So I’m coming up the hill to my house and notice that the pine tree/shrubby thing out front is looking a little…oh I don’t know…dead. Not thinking much of it, I get out of the car and start walking into the house when I see this on the railing:

Now, anyone who knows me, knows that I can’t stand bugs and the like. I understand that they’re important parts of our ecosystem and all, but these things – which brief research tells me are bagworm moth larvae – are absolutely nasty looking. I’ve never seen anything like it before, and frankly, I wish I never had. I hope my landlord returns my call before they destroy all of his trees.

Get more acquainted, if you’d like:

You might have bagworms if…