One Moment, of Many (Blackhawks v Sharks, Game 4)

Rick, Internet Celebrity Baumer, and I were in standing room only at center ice yesterday. Of the many many incredible moments, one of my favorites:

The official review of Seabrook's goal and whether it crossed the line or not. While the official was checking the camera angles, the tvs or jumbotron took forever to show the first replay. Like, a good 25-30 seconds that seemed like minutes. Eventually the graphic for "play under review" gives way to the slo mo instant replays and anticipation washes over the crowd. We see 2 views that don't give us anything definitive. finally, on the 3rd angle, it's clear to us that the puck just barely crossed the line. The place cheers loudly, hoping the powers that be see the same things we saw. The UC is it's usual loud self.

The review goes on. There's a noisy buzz in the air.

The official backs away from the glass. The noisy buzz turns into hushed murmuring, however amplified by volume.

The official opens his mouth to speak; time stops in the united center. extreme suspended animation takes over and hearts stop beating. In movies there's that moment where things move in slow motion, the only sound is silence. If it's possible to register negative decibels, we achieved it. Nothing moves but one man's mouth. He is standing in the center of the arena, the intense focal point of 22,000+. The very definition of rapt. He tells us the entire puck crossed the line.

...

An eruption of emotion and 22,000 roars immediately follow. Cue the Dagger, however delayed it may have been. Delirium overtakes us. Commence with the dancing!

...

Many many hours later, I high-fived Niklas Hjalmarsson at a bar.

Yeah? Well Now This Is Happening.

30 years ago today, on May 18th, 1980, Mount Saint Helens erupted in Skamania County, Washington, killing 57 people, and Ian Curtis committed suicide in Macclesfield, England, killing, well, 1 person.

Of course, I don't recall either of these things. I turned 2 that day.

My fifteenth birthday is immortalized (probably not the correct word) by this bizarre song from Randan Discotheque released on August 31st (across the pond...I doubt it ever saw the light of day here in the states). It's pretty much an entire song recapping everything that was included in the Daily Record on May 18th, 1993. I suppose this technically makes the song about May 17th, 1993.


May 18th, 2010, LCD Soundsystem, led by Mixed Martial Artist James Murphy, releases their new album This Is Happening.

I'm sure the album, and the live show next Wednesday I'll be attending, will be fantastic. But in the meantime, all I can think about is, "yeah? well now this is happening."

Done With Fish

On Monday Rick and I ran the Boston Marathon. With considerably less conviction, and replacing "fish" with "marathons", John Laroche sums up our general feeling on marathons for the time being with this (vulgarity laced) clip from a truly great film, Adaptation.




Going into Boston I knew my training was somewhat lackluster compared to what I put together for Chicago in the fall. Ultimately, due to a crisis in confidence of my fitness pre-race, my goal became to finish the marathon without injuring myself. I went by the half in 1:40:00 and that felt perfectly fine. But the first half always does.

Running through Wellesley just prior to the halfway mark, I hugged and kissed about 15 Wellesley girls on the cheek. This was clearly where I first officially abandoned any time goal that was lingering in the back of my mind.

I pulled up my 5k splits post-race, and this offers a comprehensive recap:

24:51 (included a quick bathroom stop) – 8 min pace

23:15 – 7:30 pace

23:21 – 7:31 pace

23:39 – 7:37 pace

25:48 (a second, longer bathroom stop) – 8:19 pace

27:38 – 8:54 pace - probably when I first took some walking & stretching breaks, and around when I decided since I didn't have a time goal it was going to be difficult to push myself to the brink. so I started to slow down and enjoy things a bit more.

30:21 – 9:47 pace - included a walk up heartbreak hill

37:55 – 12:13 pace - where i sat down on a curb and had a few glasses of water while watching runners go by, did more walking & stretching, ate a pretzel stick and a reese's peanut butter cup. someone offered me a drink of their miller lite. had it been a better beer I might've taken a drink.

the last 1.4 was in 15:11, and this included me stopping to talk to my friends for a few minutes, including one of them going into the bar to get me a glass of water. I drank half of it and poured the rest over my head, which felt great.



I’ve definitely been more sore after a marathon, but based on training I was more unprepared for this one, so that’s taken its toll. I’ll estimate at least 15 to 20 minutes of my 3:51 wasn’t spent running (walking, standing, sitting, hugging). I cannot comprehend at all what it must be like to run an entire marathon in over 4 hours, those runners have my utmost respect. The amount of time they are on the marathon course wrangling back demons and fighting the good fight is unfathomable to me. Cheers to them.

I've had 2 very large cheeseburgers since the marathon (one of them the Plague Bringer from Kuma's). Both of my quads were very sore. My right hamstring was tight as well for the first 2 days, and from time to time I noticed my shins are sore and my lower back hurts a bit. None of this pain is out of the ordinary, and it's all muscle pain. My feet, ankles, knees & hips all feel fine.

I sent much of this to my dad and he replied, “I think you’re just getting old.”

By Thursday I felt well enough to play in a softball doubleheader, where (between game 1 last week and the top half of the back-to-backs) I may have set the Chicago Coed Rec Softball League Record for most batters struck out in the first 2 games of a season. Really, people, I'm not throwing Danny Almonte-level filth here, it's just softball. Put it in play already.

Elsewhere, Halljams also ran Boston on Monday and has a short recap. Our good friend Robert is running the London Marathon on Sunday (tomorrow if you're reading this as of this writing), and after spending much of the winter dealing with a stress fracture has put himself into a position to shoot for a 2:45 marathon. Except now he's had to deal with the eruption of that Volcano with all the vowels, and the heat in London is going to be quite a bit higher than what would be ideal. Best of luck, Robert!

The Weight

Okay, this is 20 minutes long but you should take some time out of your busy busy day to watch it anyway. I fully support the idea of educating our children (well, not ours, you & I don't have any kids. "ours", collectively) on diet, nutrition, and basic cooking skills. Why wouldn't anyone support this? I've read comments about people complaining he has some of his facts not completely accurate. Who cares? Kids are fat and unhealthy. Fix that.



While you're at it, go download the TED (technology, entertainment, design) app for your iPhone or whatever super-mobile device you're carrying around. Watch the videos. Be intrigued. Learn.

Unrelated: EBONY/The 907 survived New Orleans. Some might say New Orleans survived us. Half-marathon & bars in the French Quarter in the books. Next stop: Boston Marathon, 6 weeks from 2 days ago.

So Quiet...

So, we actually missed a bar in the recap...Elbo Room, #172. This was on a random wednesday or thursday night (I could look it up, but I don't care to right now).
Our plan was to eat fast food Mexican, hit up the Ole Lounge for a very quick drink (our 2nd attempt at going here), then head up the street to the Elbo Room to be entertained with Open Mic night.
Well, step 1 check. Tortas:

Rick and I then head over to the Ole Lounge. The door on Diversey is locked. The door on Lincoln is locked. Bollocks.
So we went across the street for our second ever visit to Patsy's Place, and we watched some of the Oregon Civil War college football game. Remember when that game was? That was forever ago. That's how long it has taken me to write these terrible recaps.
So after a couple of drinks at Patsy's we head back across the street to Elbo Room, finding the doors unlocked this time - it's probably 8:15...their website says they open at 7. Their website is wrong. Back to the story - the doors are unlocked and we walk in. A guy and a girl are there sitting at the bar together, and we approach as if to order drinks. The guy says, "You guys here for the interview?"
us: No.
him: Oh, you'll have to come back later, we're not open.

Screw this place.
We head on up to The Elbo Room, #172, a local music venue. They used to have the Grolsch pop-top bottles here. I order a couple. They don't have them any longer. The Elbo Room has a stage in the basement, the upstairs is fairly loungey and is advertising an "open mic night" starting at 9pm. The place is empty except for us and a few band members who will be playing later tonight entering and exiting the main room repeatedly. It's freezing outside, a good bar would be crowded right now with people seeking shelter from the cold.

While we wait for something to happen (nothing happens), we note that on the outside it's The Elbo Room, and on the inside it's The Elbow Room. Curious.



Back to waiting around for something to happen...
A handful of what must be close friends of the band about to play downstairs show up. Upstairs there's a tv feed of the band playing downstairs. If they gave out awards to bands who played to empty rooms, well this band would be on the list of bands eligible for those awards.
Upstairs a guy shows up and asks Rick and I if we're here to perform in the Open Mic night, and tells us there's a list to sign up by the microphone. An older man asks him when the open mic night starts. It's 9:05. The website said 9:00. The guy says, I don't know, 10:30?
We finish our beers and walk home. In the cold.

Coming very soon: Kyle and Craig discuss the inevitable downfall of Dubai due to their lack of a middle class. (Bars 177 through The End)

Aint Gonna Save Me

We're going to Quenchers on Sunday to kick-off the much less ambitious version of EBONY 2010 -- "Bars in Chicago outside of the Mile Radius We Want To Visit for One Reason or Another, and These Reasons Will Be Explain when We Post About Those Bars". (aka BICOOTMRWWTVFOROAATRWBEWWPATB)
Anyway, Quenchers is having a Stout-fest. We'll drink a lot of Stouts.

I promise before next Tuesday that I will write the final two bar recap entries, and by the end of next week you'll also have the final friends rankings posted, and possibly even the Quenchers recap.

Internet Diversions:
*Black & WTF - a fantastic photoblog featuring only old black and white photos that are incredibly WTF.

*Letters from a grown man pretending to be a child, writing letters to famous people (several of them incarcerated), asking for advice. Also following up on their responses many years later -- Charles Manson, Richard Rodriguez, Alan Greenspan, and my favorite response from Clarence Thomas

Lastly, "The flying V never looked more at home than in his hands" - Sly Larkin


RIP Jay Reatard

Political Coverage Take 1: Senate

My lack of posts recently is a pure mix of laziness and fatigue from our 2009 adventure. For many of the bars at the end, it was difficult enough to get my foot out the door, let alone writing a recap in the days to follow. I plan to pull my weight through 2010 in a different angle to 2009. We may see less writing on bars/drinking excursions (as we have an exclusive list of bars for 2010), than say current event commentary on my part.

This first installment will center on the upcoming elections for us Chicagoans. The expressed views are solely those of my own and do not necessarily reflect everyone associated with EBONY. The 2010 off-cycle primaries offer all the major political seats up for grabs. The most heated and important open positions are those for Senator, Governor, and President of Cook County. We also have other critical openings for Congress, Lt. Governor (thanks to our recent impeachment), Comptroller, Treasurer, along with the numerous less significant seats that I don’t have time to do any research for. Open your calendars as the primary vote is on February 2nd, while early voting begins on January 11th. I also recommend checking out the Chicago Tribunes coverage of each candidate.

SENATE

This is arguably the most important open position, so do your research kids. Thankfully the time for our embarrassment of a senator in Roland Burris is finally over, and we Illinoisans actually have a say in who represents us. Senate elections across the country have an added importance as the Democratic party currently has the magic number of 60 seats to block any filibuster. In my brief voting eligible years, I have voted Democratic more than Republican, but I do believe it is bad for one party to have a major control in the senate or hourse. The Republicans are looking at a strong likelihood to gain 1-3 seats after this whole election cycle is over, especially with the difficulty for the Democrats to keep North Dakota and Delaware, while Nevada, Colorado, Arkansas, and Pennsylvania can be complete toss-ups. A Republican takeover of the Illinois seat also has a decent likelihood. No matter what though, none of these seats will be officially filled until after the general election in November, so until then, the D’s are still holding the magic number for another year (unless of course Scott Brown pulls the upset in the Massachusetts special election, wouldn’t that put an interesting twist on the revised healthcare vote?).

As far as Illinois, everyone out there needs to tune in to ABC next Tuesday the 12th for the first televised debate. On the Democratic side it is a battle between Alexi Giannoulias, David Hoffman, and Cheryle Jackson. In recent polls (these need to be taken with a grain of salt, as primary polls, especially in off-cycle elections carry a large variability) Alexi is the favorite to get on the D ticket. I am very troubled and confused about his popularity. Through Alexi’s young life he has only held two jobs – taking over his family’s bank and being the current Illinois treasurer – and has failed/bankrupted both. I encourage every voter to read The Reader’s investigative reporting on Alexi’s albatross with Broadway Bank. And if that wasn’t bad enough, look at the economic shambles our state has recently suffered. Now yes, I realize that everyone has suffered the last 2 years with the economic landslide, so you can’t completely blame Alexi. But you can and should but blame on him for his lack of responsibility and transparency of his mismanagement of the Bright Star Program. This program allows families across the state to invest now and then use their future pot to pay for their children’s college education completely tax-free. Tens of thousands of families across Illinois take advantage of this program. It was Alexi’s responsibility to make sure these investments carried minimal risk (as we are looking at the long-term success) for the families involved. Unfortunately for the 65,000 families who invested in this program, they now only have 50 cents on the dollar of their investment. The Giannoulias campaign admitted a month ago that they made bad investments and lost over $85M, but reassured the people that they were suing Oppenheimer to recover $77M of that for a net loss of only $8M. The only problem was that the Giannoulias campaign lied about the $85M figure and recent research uncovered shows that they actually lost $150M! To top it off, Alexi is using his near limitless war chest to paint a positive picture of this fiasco in that he is standing up for Illinoisans by suing Oppenheimer. Somehow he forgot to mention that is was his responsibility to choose the risky investments and that the $77M coming back is not even half of what was put in. This was released 2 weeks ago, and the Giannoulias campaign has yet to say one peep about it. From a political standpoint, I don’t blame him. The only reason he is leading on polls is because of name recognition, so they feel it is easier to brush this under the rug and ignore it completely. I challenge anyone from Alexi’s campaign to apologize and explain this mishap. And yet, even with this giant black cloud over Alexi’s head, I still haven’t touched on his suspicious ties to those in the Daley Machine. The last thing we need right now is another financially irresponsible crooked politician.

Jackson and Hoffman are running neck-and-neck on the podium for second place. I personally endorse David Hoffman for senate. I have nothing against Jackson, but I honestly believe that Hoffman is the best candidate out there. I may not agree with all his policies, but I think he is the right man for the job (a la Obama). My personal belief with electing political officials is that I want the most intelligent person representing me. If you are going to hold one of the important jobs in politics, I want you to be in the 95th percentile. This includes IQ, but more importantly I want someone who has willingly showed that he/she will look at both sides of the debate in a fair manor before coming to a conclusion. I am sick of Democrats who only vote for liberal policies and Republicans who only vote on the conservative end of the spectrum. We need politicians down the middle. I believe David Hoffman best holds this criteria and that is why he has my support. I also strongly believe that we need a reformer in DC, and with Hoffman’s background as the Inspector General of Chicago (basically this means he is Daley’s public enemy #1), he is a perfect match. With him being the whistleblower on getting financially hosed in the parking meter privatization deal, he has earned a +1. Hoffman also has the endorsement of Paul Vallas, which may not have the political pull it did 4 years ago; it still is the biggest endorsement any of the candidates have received. The one redeeming factor in having Hoffman lose is that he would most likely be Daley’s biggest challenge in the mayoral election next year, with presumably increased name recognition after this run.

On the Republican side the only real candidate to speak of is Mark Kirk. As long as the recent low-blow and homophobic attacks by Andy Martin (if he hasn’t changed his name again) doesn’t coagulate the conservative base, Kirk should win in a landslide. When Kirk first made his intentions to run for senate, I had high hopes for the socially liberal centrist-republican from the very liberal congressional district in the North Shore. I find him to be a very intelligent individual who sometimes makes some really stupid decisions. He has also decided to take a page out of John McCain’s playbook and flip-flop on some of his liberal leaning objectives to get his base on his side. I’m not sure it makes a difference to the true conservatives in the state as Pat Brady, the Illinois Republican Party Chairmen isn’t even a fan of him. If the R party was smart, they would realize their only chance to win this election is if they pooled all their resources in to Kirk’s campaign. Yet somehow this eludes too many conservatives who refuse to vote for anyone who is pro choice. Being stubborn is not a virtue folks. If it comes down to an Alexi vs. Kirk in the finale, I have no qualms voting for the Republican ticket on this one.

This ended up being a longer post that I originally intended, so my thoughts and feelings on the Governor and Cook County Board President elections will have to come in the near future.