Screamo, Emo and Hardcore

I guess after the second show in a week I should post my reviews.

Sunday we went to the UIC Pavilion and saw our FAVORITE BAND OF ALL TIME Alkaline Trio, along with Reggie and the Full Effect and My Chemical Romance. We had never been to the UIC Pavilion, but had heard some pretty bad things about it. After arriving early and pregaming in the parking lot (no alcohol served) we decided to enter the ARENA. Yeah, its a Basketball/Hockey/All purpose arena on the campus of University of Illinois at Chicago. I don't really like big rock shows, but it was our FAVORITE BAND OF ALL TIME, so we couldn't pass up the chance to see them in Chicago. Very similar to Assembly Hall (Although it seemed much smaller), although the show we saw at UofI was Bush/Moby and the stage was actually on the side of the court, instead of at one end.

Reggie and the Full Effect played a short set, mostly new songs, which seemed more on the hardcore side. In the large arena, the sound was a little hollow and echo-y, plus many people didn't really care to see Reggie, so many seats were empty and the floor was about 1/4 full.

Next up, Alkaline Trio. With the explosion of popularity of MCR on MTV, Alkaline Trio was actually supporting MCR's tour. Very weird, considering the Trio have been headlining their shows pretty much since they started. Their sound was very full, the vocal were excellent and they played an amazing set. I love when bands just get up there and play, one song after another, no uneasy silences, or trying to get audience participation. Either you rock and the crowd gets into it, or they don't. Fortunately, being in their hometown, most people were into it. After playing a few new songs from Crimson (latest album) they played a few songs from just about every release they've had. It was really cool to hear some classics from "Goddamnit", easily my favorite album. Definitely worth the price of admission, their sound and set was excellent.

Finally, My Chemical Romance took the stage. You could tell that many of the teenage audience had come just for them. The piercingly high screams from many of the females in attendance was enough to make you deaf. MCR had a pretty cool stage backdrop and stage presence, but it seemed like they tried harder on their image than on the music. The singer took too much time to get the audience waving their hands, lighters and cell phones (although that was kind of cool to see) than to concentrate on his vocals. Most of his screams and higher notes were lost in the excessively loud guitars. The feeling of the larger arena really took away from the music. I think they would have been a lot better in a smaller venue, although the stage antics and preaching to the audience did nothing for me. We eventually left early, to get a beat on traffic, and to keep from falling asleep. I thought it was strange that Alkaline Trio had such a full sound, and the headliner couldn't match it. Still well worth the ticket, but unless its a must see band, I don't think we'll be back to UIC Pavilion anytime soon.

Next Post: Duvall rocks out with John Davis...

Waj

First Day of Autumn

Well, summer has officially ended! The title link on my post is to a band called Screeching Weasel, for those of you that don't know, the band has written a song for the first day of Summer, Autumn and Winter. They broke up a long time ago, but have been rumored to reunite for a tour, and most of their old albums have been re released recently. The have been a very influential band for many local and national punk rock bands. I like them, although they are very rough, so they definitely aren't for everyone. Their release on Fat Wreck Chords, "Bark Like a Dog" would have to be their most "Pop-Punk" release, which incidentally was their most popular cd. I would recommend that one for the non-punk people out there. First Day of Summer is on that release and probably my favorite. Set Phasers on Kill is a funny one, with references to Star Trek and Capt Kirk. I just checked Fat Wreck Chords website and they are releasing all 3 Weasel records on one disc in October, called Weasel Mania. Sweet.

Anyway, I had the 3rd round of scratch testing this week. And as forecasted, Ragweed is definitely not my friend. Today, 3 days after testing, my arm is almost looking normal. The swelling and redness that usually goes away the night of testing, was actually worse Tuesday and even bothered me yesterday. Its pretty amazing that a little drop of the allergen can cause that much of a reaction on my arm. Sure does explain where all that mucus came from, and the itchyness of the eyes. I usually do a pretty good job of not "itching" my itches, but I would wake up in the night and start "massaging" my arm (not ITCHING OR SCRATCHING IT, PROMISE!) because of the tremendous joy that scratching that itch would bring. I'm not sure how that works, but that relief you get from scratching an itch is mind boggling. Although with my arm, it would only last 2 seconds before the stinging itch feeling would come back, only with 5 times the feeling to urge to scratch again. Doh!

A lot of season/series premieres of show have taken place the past few weeks. I've stopped recording shows that end up taking too much space on my DVR (daily show, Simpsons and family guy daily reruns) to make room. Already though I think I have watched more TV the last 2 nights that I have in the past month (besides sporting events). Prison Break is a pretty good show, but I'm not sure how they can make the show more than 1 season. Although they did a good job with 24 (from what I hear - never watched the show), so I'm sure they'll find a way, if its popular enough. Head Cases wasn't too bad, kinda weird seeing Chris O'Donnell in a TV series, but Adam Goldberg fits nicely into his "weird guy" typecast role he seems to have been in. While "The War at Home" isn't as good as "Arrested Development" in the Sunday night lineup, it does have its good parts. "My Name is Earl" was a funny show, with one of my favorite comedy actors Jason Lee. Anyway, just a rundown of the new shows that will keep my DVR busy this season, along with the old favorites: Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad, Arrested Development, Scrubs, The Office, That 70's Show, Will and Grace, Joey, Malcom in the Middle, etc. Anyway, better wrap this up. Until next time. Lunch break over!

Waj

A puppy is just a puppy, but Nintendo, now that was a Revolution

Nintendo was the company that brought video games to the mainstream back in the 80's (OK Atari did it first, but Nintendo did it better!). Now they are trying to do something that hasn't been done since. They want to change the way we play video games. Check out the link to an article about the new controller setup if your interested, its actually pretty amazing. The controller basically is a modified "remote" control that we use for basically all of our normal audio and video electronic devices. Sounds like it actually might work. Who knows, maybe in a couple years I'll look back at this post and remember that video games actually had their "own" style controller.

Reading about this new style controller reminds me of being 8 years old, opening up that present with the famous Nintendo Logo. And the HUGE 19" color TV that we also received so that we could play video games while the parents watched "Thirtysomething", or whatever crappy show that they watched that year. For those that don't know me, Nintendo really changed/shaped my life. I spent way too much time playing video games growing up, it even cut into school so bad I had to be limited to my playing time. Even though I played a lot of video games, I still did a lot of other things, like read books, play sports, etc. What it mostly cut into was studying and sleeping. Have a homework or a test, oh well, I'll just play one more game. Time for bed? OK 1 more game. I really don't think I could count the times I played video games until the sun came up. But then again, I've been playing video games for almost 20 years now, so I guess its not...that....many.

Wow, I could go on for hours, but I'm at work, I'll keep this one short. HA.

Waj

Fox Fantasy Football

Wow, its already here. Fantasy Football season has started. It has been a crazy few weeks for me. I've spent most of my spare Internet time trying to win a couple Fantasy Baseball leagues (made the playoffs in both - lost in the first round of one) and getting started for Fantasy Football. I really didn't do any research this year for football. Normally my baseball team is pretty much destroyed by now, and I'm just barely making the playoffs with no really Championship in site. This year, I had 2 decent teams, 1st place in one league, 3rd in the other. Just trying to stay ahead of injuries and worn out plaers, how was I to study for the football season? Well one way was to join one Football league, not 2 or 3. Also, no money involved this year, which helps ease the mind before draft day.

This year the league I joined decided to try out Fox's new fantasy football format. Promising a few extras for free that Yahoo! usually charges extra for (live scoring) and powered by MSN, it looked like it might be worth a shot. Boy were we wrong. Signing up for the league worked out pretty well. We got all 12 teams joined into the league and the draft date was set. A few weeks away so we had enough time to get ready for the draft. All of a sudden the date was quickly arriving and we noticed a few bugs in the Fox system. I guess they weren't ready for all the last minute leagues getting set up the week before the draft. Timeouts while logging in, pages not loading, randomly getting booted to the main Fox Sports site, were just a few issues we were dealing with. The day (or 2?) before the draft we get a nice reminder from Fox with our draft time and reminding us that the draft was going to happen, although the time had changed, one hour later. 9:30 instead of 8:30. Wow getting late I thought, but then I realized we only had 30 seconds to make a pick. Should go pretty fast, 12 rounds of 15 players, 180 picks, 90 minutes. OK, guess I'll be in bed by 11.

Draft day arrives, and it appears that the site is running better than most days, and everyone (that remembered) the draft was able to get into the draft room. Soon the draft starts and right away number 1 pick loses connection. Then the picks start rolling along. Fast, really really fast. 30 seconds isn't long, especially trying to track who has been picked, what positions you need, bye weeks, other teams, etc. Then, if a manager fails to make a pick (or isn't drafting) they get set to auto pick, which makes their pick in 5 seconds. I think we only had 6 people drafting live, so 5 second picks coming ahead of you weren't good. I think we went halfway trhough the draft in 20 minutes. Sure enough, 15 rounds in 40 minutes is where we ended up. So fast and so not prepared.

So the draft was over and we notice that one of the players that couldn't make it somehow received 8 running back and 7 wide receivers! I'm not sure if he changed his predraft rankings, but if he didn't, he really got screwed. My first natural instinct is to check the waiver wire, see who didn't get drafted. Of course, I ended up drafting 3 Vikings and 3 Washinton Redskins, although one is the kicker and the other is defense. Both expendable if needed for a bye week. OK so the site is displaying teams drafted, but the free agent listing isn't quite working. OK, time for bed, tomorrow will be better (or so I had hoped).

Well its been 2 weeks since draft day, and one week of football has been played. The Fox Fantasy site is still having major problems. The transactions aren't being displayed, and now no roster adds/drops are being allowed. Insane. Also no message board to trash talk or communicate with the other teams, which takes away from some of the competive nature of Fantasy Football. I'm hoping they get everything cleared up in the next week, otherwise this may be all we can take and give up on the league. MSN and/or FOX really screwed this up big time. I'm sure they are going to miss out on a lot of would-be returning fantasy football registrations next year.

On a side note, my first round draft pick scored me 0 points this week, while my backup score 24 points. Yes I lost by less than that. That really hurts, worse than my stinging itchy eyes.

Waj

/* EDIT - Had a spam comment as soon as I published, wonder if it could be a bot checking all new blogger blogs? May have to add word verification... We'll see */

End of Summer update

Hey, 3 weeks between posts. Not bad. I'm sure everyone is wondering - Where did he go? Well for the past 3-4 weeks I've been struggling with Allergies. I've never believed I had allergies, let alone get tested for them. Sure I would sneeze and have a runny nose, but it would last a day or two and be gone, just the common cold. Or so I thought.

I have now had 2 stages of testing for allergies. And the results aren't pretty. (Phase 1 - Indoor Allergies, Phase 2 - Spring Allergies, Phase 3 - Late Summer/Fall Allergies, and finally Phase 4 - Food Allergies). Results from Phase 1 - Indoor: Dust!? Is that even possible? I know I've heard of people being allergic to dust, but dust is everywhere! How can your body decide - you know what this dust isn't working out, I need to produce vast amounts of mucus, swell my nasal passages to where I can barely breathe through one nostril at a time, and finally make me sneeze at least 3 times every 10 minutes. OK, so on with the testing - surely dust can not be causing all these miserable symptoms. Luckily the mold tests was negative, along with dog (although a little reaction did appear, but not enough for concern), but the biggie. Yeah, if you've read this blog you know, CAT... POSITIVE. And not just positive, but 5 times worse than anything else on the indoor allergy test.

I love Cats, especially my cute, cuddly, LONG HAIR domestic, Estrella. Allergic to cat? I had a few cats growing up, and my step father was allergic to them, but no way I was. Cats are great, they are so independent you can leave them for a day or two and they are fine. They clean themselves, use a litter box, and don't eat a lot. OK so once in a while you have to clean up a hairball, or comb out a mat in the fur. No way am I allergic to cat, nor getting rid of mine. They suggest keeping the cat out of the bedroom right away if you can't part with your pet. Its hard to kick someone out of the bedroom, especially when they sit right outside the door and cry non-stop until you let them in. But I guess its worth a try. Or deny it... Yeah there is something else out there that is causing this, not my beautiful cat. That's it.

Phase 2 - Spring Pollens, grasses and trees that bloom in the spring. OK so a few more positives - Birch, Oak and Hickory. And Birch was worse than Cat. Even all the grasses were slightly positive. As you have read, I like to mow the lawn. Allergic to grass and trees? WOW.

So next week, Fall Allergies - Ragweed, corn and other late summer/fall pollen. These must be what are bothering me so bad right now. Can't wait to see how this turns out. Even the nurse is excited, kind of sick, but she likes to see the reaction and even cheers when its big. Weird lady, but I guess you have to have something to get excited about working in a doctors office.

So yeah, I'm still alive, but struggling. OH yeah, I can't take anti-histamines during the testing process. Although when I had taken them, they didn't seem to help much anyway.

Waj

New Busch Stadium

Here is a view of the 1st base/right field corner of the new field during construction while we were there. The current stadium is pretty much in dead center field. Looks like it will be a nice stadium, just hope it isn't dubbed "The Hottest Stadium in Major League Baseball."

St Louis Day 2

Edit: OK so its a little late - some people only get to sit at a computer while working and don't have fancy mobile phones where they can type blogs while listening to concerts (I haven't spent a lot of "free" time on the PC). WARNING: Extremely long post ahead, after typing every exquisite detail, I thought about shortening it. Then I thought "since I spent so much time on it, I might as well leave it." So for those of you with a short attention span, try reading one paragraph every hour.

Edit: So my edit is basically a post in itself, I just had one more update (can I update a post before I publish it?), in honor of the Cubs vs Cards series in Chicago with a victory for the Cubs ending a skid of 8 losses in a row, I will publish this post!


Sunday we had all day to waste, since the game was changed from 1:15 to 7:05. We had to be out of the hotel by noon, so we got up with enough time to sit by the pool for an hour or so. It was hot by 10AM, and sunny so we decided to catch some rays and dip in the pool (barely big enough to swim). After checkout we went to Galleria (shopping mall) - it was a half mile from our hotel, and there was plenty of AC. We had about 6 hours to kill, might as well make a day of it. We ended up going to the Cinema and watched "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." It won by 1 vote over "The Wedding Crashers". The movie was a little darker than the original, but I wouldn't say it was any better or worse. This version had a little less of a "musical" feel to it, and the oompa loompa songs weren't done nearly as well as the original. I would have to say I liked the original a smidgen more, more so because of the nostalgia than anything else (countless pop culture references - Family Guy).

After the movie we did a little more shopping and decided to head to Union Station. This one time, in college, we drove to St Louis one night and went to the Arch and Union Station and drove back home. It was kind of a daze, we spend an hour or so at the Arch and a few hours at Union Station, then we drove home. It was about 5 hours in St Louis and 10 hours in the car. We were smart. Anyway, getting back to this trip, Union Station was very different. The layout was generally the same, but I remember different restaurants and stores. Also my head was a little more clear this time around. We didn't really shop, just kind of took in the experience and "tried" to find a place to eat. Of the 10 choices we had, we narrowed it down to 3. After an hour of checking out the menus, walking back and forth between the 3, we decided on the cheapest one that had a table available. I guess there is a reason this place was cheap and had a table... it was a "Jimmy Buffett" style cafe with a VERY LOUD jukebox and very bad service. Oh well, at least it was cheaper (<$8 for our sandwiches). My BBQ tuna was pretty good though.

After our wonderful dining experience, it was time to head to Busch Stadium. We didn't want to get there early because of the heat - but we still wanted to get into the parking garage close to the stadium (same price as our 4 block walk the previous day, but getting out was a little tougher). We brought 2 coolers full of water for the game. I never knew you could bring water - good call by my bro - so we saved a ton of money. We got a couple of pre-game beers down in the garage, after a big party foul by yours truly. Unpacking the van, there were 6 beers in a six pack, which happened to be soaked from condensation. While I erroneously grabbed them by the handle, each one (separately) fell through the bottom of the pack, bouncing off the bumper and falling onto my bare feet (flip flops). Strangely only 3 of them broke after hitting the concrete and/or bumper. The damage was done, one of the bottles landed squarely on my big toe, giving me a nice deep cut. Nothing a few high quality Band-Aid brand adhesive bandages couldn't fix. Luckily, or coincedentally, my bro had blisters on his feet from the previous day wearing his sandals, he had the bandages on hand.

Now for the final game of the series (which is my 2nd and last game at Old Busch Stadium). This time we were up in the upper deck, right in the sun. A skycraper in the distance teased us with the shade it could provide, had it been 30 yards to the left. The game started off bad for the Cubs, as Prior gave up 3 solo home runs in the 1st inning. This seemed to happen just as 4 ladies (3 off them had to be 70+ years of age). The all had matching shirts, visors, and the hand-held fans with spray bottles. It definitely was one of the coolest things I have witnessed at a baseball game. Too bad they were Cardinals' fans, but you could tell this wasn't the only game they've been to this season. Unlike many fans, they toughed out the heat, and came to a good ball game. I was suprised at how many empty seats there were for the Cubs/Cardinals matchup for both games. When the announced the attendence, they announced "paid" and not actual, so I'm guessing either the scalpers bought many tickets they weren't able to sell becuase of the heat, or many people had tickets but couldn't bear the heat. So after the disasterous first inning, Cubs are down 3 runs. Prior settled down after that and the Cubs chipped away at the lead over the next few innings to make it 3-2. Not much happened over the next few innings, pretty good pitching dual until the 8th inning. After walking DLee for the 3rd time in the game (and what seemed like 10th in the series) Aramis Ramirez smashed a homerun to take the lead 4-3! Our section (mostly Cubs fans - except for the lovely ladies in front of us) went crazy! By this time is was getting late - very late. Most of us had to work at 8 or 8:30AM the next morning, so we were hoping for a quick inning and a half and get on our way home with a couple wins for the Cubbies! For the most part, we got our wish... until 2 outs in the bottom of the ninth inning. Suprisingly many fans left before the ninth inning (yes even the 4 ladies in front of us). Ryan Dempster went through the first two batters, bottom of the order, with no problem. Two outs and my friend Tim sends me a text message "Get On Your Feet!" Of course I didn't need the instruction, everybody was one their feet, Cubs fans hoping for the final out, Cards fans hoping it wasn't the final out. Dempster then gave up a walk to a pinch hitter. This is where things went bad. After putting a pinch runner in, who then "stole" second (from the replay, it looked as though the throw and tag, he was out. Unfortunately, instead of being game over, lets go, it was, OH NO! Not this, not with the top of the lineup coming... Next batter Eckstein singles in the tying run. Ouch - now all we could hope for was extra innings (what time is it? who cares, we're not leaving this game!). Dempster gives up another hit to Nunez, bringing up slugger Albert Pujols with 2 outs, runners on First and Third. BIG TROUBLE! I had all but given up on this game - surely Pujols was going to win this one for the Cardinals. Dempster then got Pujols to ground out to second base for the final out! So we make it extra innings! You could really feel a momemtum change though, after the Cubs lost the lead. Luckily we had the higher part of the order coming up - Walker, Lee and Burnitz. The inning started off good - Walker cranked a double, followed up by another walk for DLee (4th this game). Burnitz actually sacrafice bunts (whah?) in order to avoid the double play and move the runners up to 2nd and 3rd. Looking good, we have 2nd and 3rd, one out, and here comes Aramis Ramirez. With the pitcher spot on deck, the cards actually load the bases, intentionally walking Ramirez. The Cubs bring in Barrett to pinch hit (Blanco was cathing). After a couple of swings, Barrett strikes out swinging! 2 outs, bases loaded, and its up to Neifi Perez. with a .265 batting average, I wasn't expecting much. A hit would be great, score a couple runs, gets some up on the board and hope that we can hold them for one more inning. Lo and behold, Perez rifles the ball into right field, barely fair, into the Cardinals Bullpen. A GRAND SLAM! It had to be one the most exciting moment I've ever felt at a baseball game. Our entire section went crazy, my heart was beating so fast! All the Cubs fans high fiving everyone within 5 rows of you, screaming and celebrating! During which, many Cardinal fans walked silently toward the exits with their heads down. With a 4 run lead, you definitely felt safe, it was just a matter of getting the game over with. We decided to stay, even though the time was nearing midnight, and there was work in the morning. The bottom of the tenth finished without much excitement and we could finally head back to the Burbs!

Luckily I slept most of the way home (thanks bro!), so I got about 3 hours there and 2 more after getting home at 4:30 before waking up for work the next day. I don't really remember that day of work - just that I didn't feel like working. I think Tuesday was a little harder to wake up than Monday though, probably after the excitement wore off.

Hope you enjoyed my extremely long post. WHEW!

Waj