Sears photo studio

I just received a link to the Sears baby photos my sister and brother-in-law had taken last week. Since I never came through with Baptism photos, I shall post some of them.

The embarrassing thing is, I still am not 100% sure which twin is which. As you can see from the photos, I don't really think they're identical - it's just that they do look an awful lot alike. I can tell within the group of photos which babies are which .. I'm just not positive which one is Lo and which one is No. I need to visit them this weekend. I will learn!







You can still see the birthmarks on their foreheads. That second one of them together, and the last photo, are my favorites. Especially the last one. I think that's Logan, and it looks like he's trying out pickup lines.

Voice guitar and fan bells

Just so you know, the title of this entry was very nearly "I love Nels Cline" - because I do. Anyway! Sunday night was Glenn Kotche and Nels Cline's last show on their brief "Alone/Together" tour, at the Black Orchid in Chicago. It also served as Glenn's sort-of-official album release show, since he said it was the first proper hometown show he'd played since Mobile came out. Apparently the album had sold so well on tour that this album release show had a whopping four available for sale.

Although we were the fourth or fifth group seated, Lou and I were led to a two-seat table up against the stage. We were practically in Nels and Glenn's (collective?) lap. I'm not complaining, but it was a bit startling at first. When Nels broke a string during his set and it hung down from the guitar, I could have reached up from my chair and grabbed it. (I didn't.)

Sunday's show was very similar to the first show Nels and Glenn played together in Milwaukee, although nobody shaved onstage this time. Nels played a fascinating set to open, though it seemed a little on the short side. His playing ranged from melodic to shrieking and crashing, screaming into the guitar, manipulating pedals, coaxing an AC/DC-esque riff without actually touching the guitar. Glenn was up next, playing his standard(ly awesome) solo set - no "Taisho" this time, but the Monkey Chant was played along with a short Monkey Chant film for, Glenn said, only the third time. Nels came back out to join Glenn for "Karen Koltrane" and a Nels original, "Caved-in Heart Blues". I can't wait for that song to be released on something I can own.

Glad and sorry

Glad I got to go; sorry it's over. Tuesday night was the long-awaited return of Golden Smog to Chicago. I'd been looking forward to another Golden Smog show since this was announced, and bought my ticket when they went on sale - but recent intelligence reports that Jeff Tweedy would indeed be joining the band this time were certainly very tasty icing on the Smog cake. (Ew.) My second Golden Smog show in Minneapolis was a lot of fun, but I had been determined that someday I would see the full band together. That someday turned out to be September 19th, 2006.

Doors were fairly early; we were let into the Vic a little before 7:00. XRT was set up to tape the show, something I'm definitely looking forward to hearing. Tim O'Reagan opened the show with his band, including Jim Boquist, Peter Anderson on drums, and another guy whose name escapes me, but Tim first introduced as "a young Robert Redford". Sandy got her first of many shout-outs that night from Tim. The band played a nice variety of songs, ranging between tracks from his recent album, the Jayhawks' "Tampa to Tulsa", a Stealers Wheel cover, and an Everly Brothers tune.

And then it was time for Golden Smog. Any questions about whether Jeff would be brought out later as a "surprise" or just play throughout the night were put to rest when he walked onstage with everyone else to open the show. He is an full-fledged band member, after all. They launched into "Looking Forward to Seeing You", and we were off.

I enjoyed the night immensely. Plenty of old favorites, including songs I'd never heard played with a full band - "Lost Love", "Can't Keep From Talking" - and some I've heard plenty, like "If I Only Had a Car". The new songs were well-represented as well, and Jeff kind of took a backseat for many of those, sometimes leaving the stage or just jamming on a tambourine in the background. Several songs were helped out by a three-man horn section in the back, cleverly dubbed "The Chi-Town Horns" by Kraig. They played a couple of songs that I'd never seen live at all, like "Listen Joe" and "Long Time Ago". (Soundchecks don't count.) "Listen Joe" was particularly gorgeous, with Jeff really outdoing himself at the end on guitar. Gary reminded us that Golden Smog started out as a cover band, and accordingly we were treated to "Glad and Sorry", "Easy to be Hard", "Starman", a wonderful rendition of "Dang Me" - dedicated to Sandy - with Kraig on lead vocals, and a blistering "Revolution Blues". The final song was "Until You Came Along," and everyone from both bands piled onstage ... and then some. Blake joined in one one chorus, sharing a microphone with Gary and Kraig. Peter Anderson shook an orange like a maraca. Jeff sat on a stool in the keyboard nook and harmonized. I strongly believe that all concerts should end with a singalong like that. If they must end.

Lost at Sea (and other tales)

Every so often, I get the urge to hunt for "do-it-yourself" type things on the internet. This time the fruits of that search include the Einstein chalkboard message generator, and some mad libs from pbs.org. So, here you go:

Lost at Sea
Brianne and Maureen were taking a ship from New York City to Eurasia for their summer vacation. While they were playing cards one night, a(n) fucking storm rocked the boat for hours. Brianne hit his/her head and fell overboard! "Mazel tov!" cried Maureen . But Brianne was sinking! How ever would he/she survive? Brianne woke up suddenly and saw water and orcas all around. "How breathless!" he/she thought. Brianne needed to breathe, but was too far from the surface. His/her ear was caught in seaweed! Just then, a gazelle quickly came to the rescue! The gazelle took Brianne in its mouth and pulled him/her up for air. It made a(n) sizzling sound and swam away. "That amazing creature saved your life!" shouted Maureen as 3.14 sailors threw Brianne a life saving bass guitar .

Encounter!
Heidi and Kraig were camping by Mt. Michelle last summer when it began to snow like lemmings and dachshunds . Their tent fell down and there wasn't much food left. Kraig had only some powdered mini donuts , and that was all! There was no one for miles! So they had to set out on their way to safety with only their backpacks and some Jesuits . After hours of hiking, Heidi spotted a(n) midnight blue great white whale high in a tree, watching them! "Don't worry," said Kraig "The great white whale is not interested in humans if you leave it alone. But that unicorn over there sure seems angry about something!" The unicorn was coming right at them growling and with what looked like savory teeth! The two climbed up a tree, and the unicorn came ever closer. Kraig and Heidi were so scared! But when they looked again, it was only a baby unicorn that wanted to eat their yummy powdered mini donuts !

Conundrums

I'd been intently searching for the perfect bookshelf for a couple of weeks now, and I have found it. It's an Ikea model. The problems, however, are threefold. First, it's 75 inches tall, and there's no way it would fit in my little car. Second, the cost to have it delivered is more than the cost of bookshelf itself. Finally, I live 128 miles from the nearest Ikea. Advice?

Speaking of conundrums, can someone tell me the correct way to pronounce Myanmar? I've seen "mean mar" suggested, as well as "mmm yan mar". I liked the name Myanmar (vs. Burma) much more back when I thought "myan" was pronounced as one syllable, exactly how it looks. Try it! It's fun. Now put it together with "-mar." MYANmar. It sounds like what a cat would name a country. If that truly were the correct pronunciation, it would make me very happy.

Why is it that some people can read the same book over and over again, but others can't stand to read the same thing twice? I've always been an "over and over" person. Not so much for books that I've really truly adored as an adult. Nearly all of the books I've read and loved deeply over the past ten years or so, I'm almost afraid to read again because I don't want to spoil them. But L.M. Montgomery, Stephen King, Madeleine L' Engle, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Beverly Cleary, Carolyn Haywood - the authors I loved in my youth - I could read their books a million times. (And yes, Stephen King belongs in that group. I read my first Stephen King book, The Eyes of the Dragon, in second grade. My dad used to read me excerpts from It and The Tommyknockers and Misery and Pet Sematary before my naps and before bed when I was even younger. Yeah, I know.) I suppose those of us who can read the same book many times are really the weird ones. I understand how you wouldn't be able to - I would feel the same if I finished a book and then immediately started over - but yet, given the proper waiting period, I totally can.

Hmm.

Best Spam Names

Inspired by the McSweeney's humor collection (I think; I just know this isn't an original idea), here are the 10 best account names to send me spam at work, as culled by the spam filters:

• Lucifer Tuten
  
• Frang Dame
  
• Walker Crocker
  
• Peterkin Fore
  
• Dag Lyon
  
• Tutankhamon Suriel
  
• Lazarus Delaney
  
• Miss Bacon
  
• Santos Falcon
  
• Butts

Farewell, Thax

Monday evening was Thax's "final" Chicago goodbye show, at none other than the illustrious Hotel SnS. Thax even composed a Hotel SnS poem for the occasion, which he performed accompanied by Sam on the omnichord as seen above. It was inspired in part by Sam's room.

(A word about my photos - this was the first time I used my new phone for picture-taking, and with my settings combined with the low light and absence of flash they wound up looking more like bad screen grabs. I hope to fare better next time.) Adam also read a poem he wrote - Thax Douglas #1.

The musical guests on Monday were all acts that Thax loves, including Recent Photo, Rich Experience (leather pants, metal boots, keytar and all), and one or two others I kind of missed while eating delicious Chinese food - though a group whose name I can't remember ... Bitter Tears? ... did an awesome rendition of Jesse's Girl. The "headliners" were Detholz! who were quite entertaining. Highlights included a cover of Celebration, their own song Spectacula, and a Phil Collins duo of Invisible Touch and Thax's request of Sussudio. The venue was packed, and most everyone was dancing. Sam stuffed a brownie into my bra at one point. It was a good night.

Thax has been a fixture at so many Chicago-area shows I've attended, for as long as I've been attending shows. I will definitely miss his presence on the scene. (Unless, of course, he comes back...)

California Love

I have much to report, but let us backtrack to the rest of my Cali trip/vacation. Friday night I could scarcely have been happier to leave work - my last supershift, and I still had a glorious weekend in front of me. Plus, U and I ditched Baldwin Park in favor of the downtown Omni. Just steps from the MOCA and all manner of water fixtures, and only $4 more than Baldwin Park's Courtyard Marriott. Thank you, Hotwire. (Plus Friday night was covered anyway.) Friday and Saturday included dinners at Roy's and a diner with a great vintage menu font, brunch at Hugo's (at last, I am a Hugo's alum!) a stop at the Hollywood Amoeba where I made one purchase (Madonna's Immaculate Collection - and I refuse to apologize!), Venice Beach (kelp! dogs!), and the Upright Citizens Brigade doing improv based on people's descriptions of their crappy jobs. Typically, everyone interviewed really wanted to work in film or television. Oh, and we stopped at a used bookstore where I was psyched to find a Kyoko Mori adult novel. I had no idea! On Sunday, I flew home. In a little less than two years' time, I have gone from having visited California once when I was four to having been there about six times. The constant through most of them, of course, has been U - the official Best LA Companion Evar. Really, I think it's in a book somewhere.

How do you lose a room?

Wednesday night was my first non-Friday Largo experience, which was quite different, to say the least, from a typical Jon evening. Uyen and Evonne and I checked out the Greg Proops chat show, and a good time was had by all. Greg's guests included Ngaio Bealum, Grant Lee Phillips, Drew Carey doing a 3/4-assed Lindsey Lohan impersonation, and Margaret Cho. Everyone was hilarious (well, Grant Lee Phillips just sang pretty). I couldn't begin to detail the random turns the evening took, but politics, the TSA, LA traffic, and marijuana played a large part throughout. The night ended with Margaret performing a sultry burlesque dance with pasties on all six of her nipples as Grant Lee Phillips played. You kind of had to see it.

Tonight U & I followed up my second day of 12-hour shifts by stuffing our faces with Korean BBQ. I'd eaten salads for my previous three non-breakfast meals in preparation, which turned out to be a good move - I was actually able to walk out of the BBQ joint under my own power. We wound up the evening at Cup o' Joy, where I tasted my first boba. It's tea! It's chewy! It's chewy tea!