The weekend was nice...after walking through 50+ houses, we found an awesome one and have an accepted offer on it. If the inspection is ok, we'll close at the end of August. Yeeeee.

One thing I learned while looking at other peoples' houses...they love pictures of themselves. Especially newlyweds. More than one couple had entire walls of photos dedicated to their wedding. Like 15 framed photos on one wall. I understand celebrating your love, but jeez...put that crap in an album and take it out when you want to look at it...don't subject every guest to a huge tribute to yourselves. Weirdos!

Also, sit the fuck down Jamie Foxx. Not only is your general attempt at music embarassing, so is your attempt to pay "tribute" to Michael Jackson by dancing horribly and promoting yourself...ugh.

Milwaukeeans, check out this excellent series of FREE movies on the lakefront this summer. Brats...Lake...Night of the Living Dead...ahhhhh...

And JUDAS PRIEST at Summerfest on Thursday!!

SOLSTORM - Auroras in Norway from Terje Nesthus on Vimeo.

Life aint so bad at all

Under the circumstances, I love that I got to work this morning and everyone was talking about the music of Michael Jackson. I expected a certain amount of shittyness, because it seems like the default setting for some people when talking about others, but there was none of it. Just a bunch of people who grew up in different decades talking about their experiences with his music, and it was such a testament to the timelessness of it all. Everyone had their stories, and I remembered when the Thriller video was huge, and my brother taking advantage of the fact that I was scared shitless of it. He would call me into the living room, telling me it was over, only to put it back on and have me run out of the room. I can picture it like it was yesterday. But of course, I watched it when no one was looking, and still remember how I felt when the zombies started breaking into the house. Not to mention the song.

I think once he became more reclusive, people kind of forgot all the ways he affected their lives, maybe because it was such a given, and it’s neat to see those moments being relived. The sheer amount of quality material he produced is ridiculous. These days, if I’m ever feeling tired or bummed, there is absolutely nothing better than putting on Off The Wall. That album will never be topped as far as dance-y pop is concerned. So damn good.

I came home last night, laid in bed, and listened to Human Nature, one of my favorites. I remember hearing it for the first time and thinking it was one of the most beautiful and open songs I’d ever heard. Russ asked if I was having my own little memorial and I’m not sure if it was the beauty of the song or the loss of such an icon, but I got verklempt…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pjzer9dUWmg

As usual, fourfour sums it up nicely...

Bob and David in Chicago - 6/19/09

Comedy dorks were out in full force in Chicago over the weekend for the inaugural Just for Laughs fest. These dorks included us and a large group of other people packed under the Lakeshore Theater’s marquee on Friday night anxiously awaiting the Bob and David reunion. It was mostly young people (and their companions). The show started with Bob and David bumping into one another with boxes in their arms, each heading to their one man shows. David didn’t quite remember Bob. They called up local “judges” from the audience for a one man show-off. Bob’s was a heartfelt performance art piece including lipstick and yelling and Vietnam, while David danced in a Blues Brothers outfit singing “Sweet Home Chicago”. Of course David won. From there, the night consisted of mostly sketches and a few short sets from young comedians. The “friends” and comedians, including Nick Thune and John Mulaney, didn’t include any Mr. Show alum, but they were all solid.

The show was a lot looser than I would have thought, just because Mr. Show was so well-rehearsed, thanks to the meticulous Bob, who seemed pretty annoyed when lighting and sound cues were missed, but it wasn’t enough to affect the quality of the material. The highlight for me was an appearance by Senator Tankerbell in a sketch about torture at “Abu Grawby”, including a slideshow of Tankerbell in various positions with a dominatrix, and a play on Deal or No Deal called “Cash or Check”, in which Bob uses “help angels” to decide in which form he wants his prize money. Bob read a great letter from his recently deceased cousin which evolved into a sad remembrance of eating light ice cream all those years, and lamenting all the kinds of ice cream he should have been eating. Every time he said “ice cream” it became funnier. The weakest point was probably a sketch about a polite family confronting a killer in court, because I’ve seen the premise before (in The State’s “Tenement” - going off without swearing), and it just kind of fell flat. To close, they sang a song about laughter being the “final solution”…Bob became the voice of Satan and said this was all a setup and he was going to forever speak to us through the voices of dogs. Awesome. Bob commented that it was “a night of scenes without endings” and you could tell they were still working things out, but overall their chemistry and style was there, and it was absolutely great to see it again. I was gay all night and super thankful that I got to see them live.

Oh, and they played this great short:

Sunday afternoon videos

I had a romantic dream about Norm MacDonald last night. Whoa.

Another 90's Mix

I don't recommend this unless you have an interest in 90's hip hop/new jack swing/etc. or are a female in your mid-to-late 20's. These are the kind of songs I waited by the radio to tape (before I started listening to metal). I still love these genres, and since I only knew the radio hits when I first got into them, there's so much out there to find. I meant for all the tracks to involve ladies somehow, but I just realized that Positive K altered his voice in the studio for the "female" voice. But like that Nu Shooz song, which is technically from the 80's, I like it too much to take it off...

http://www.mediafire.com/?zyowmjzz4yt

Mom Jams

I've been bringing my iPod to work lately, and few mom-aged people have been asking me about my music. At work I mostly listen to 80's new wave stuff and 90's hip hop/R&B, and I really didn't want to explain the rest of the stuff on my iPod (Dead Congregation?), so I decided to make one all-encompassing mom workout/party mix and hand it over. Here's the tracklist:

Nu Shooz - I Can't Wait
DeeLite - Groove is in the Heart
Janet Jackson - Escapade
Michael Jackson - Wanna Be Starting Something
Timbaland - The Way I Are
Robin S - Show Me Love
Stacey Q - Two of Hearts
Captain Hollywood Project - More and More
Cece Peniston - Finally
Justin Timberlake - Signs
Mariah Carey - Someday
Howard Jones - Things Can Only Get Better
De La Soul - Me Myself & I
Zapp & Roger - Cutie Pie
Zhane - Groove Thing
Mary J Blige - Real Love

More Mr. Show

My prayers have been answered. Thanks to a kind soul over at aspecialthing.com, I got a call yesterday afternoon from the Lakeshore Theater informing me that they were adding a June 19th Bob & David show, and I could buy two tickets before they went on sale. THANK YOU. I got off the phone and literally yelped in my house. Tickets are still available – buy them up if you’re within a million miles of Chicago:

http://www.lakeshoretheater.com/ShowDetail.aspx?ShowID=254

Also, I had a conversation with Maynard James Keenan last night. Ok, maybe it wasn’t really a conversation, but an exchange. He has a vineyard now and was doing a wine signing, so Monica and I got off work early, drank a bit, waited in line with some very nice people, bought a couple bottles and here it went:

Me: Thanks for being here, I’ve been a fan for 15 years (true, Opiate was my jam in 7th grade)

Maynard: 50?! You don’t look 50.

Me: No! 15…since I was like 12.

Him: Well thank you, enjoy the wine.

Me: Thanks, we’ll be having some tonight. (gay smile)

I was going to tell him I liked his work on Mr. Show (heh), but I was all nervous because some doucher in line told me that his “friend” who works at Whole Foods said that the staff wasn’t allowed to make eye contact with him. Come on. He was very cordial, and his co-wine guy was nice, too, although I felt a little bad for him since everyone was clearly there because of Tool. The main thing I noticed is that Maynard is surprisingly handsome once you get the tits and everything off him. Very nice.

Louis CK in Milwaukee - 4/18/09

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to see Louis CK perform at The Pabst. I was beyond excited. Like, probably annoying to those who cared less excited. Plus he was filming a special so I was especially gay. He had an 8:00 show and a 10:30 show, and when we arrived around 10:15, he was still on stage from the first show. Damn! But I could hear the crowd laughing from outside and I was all "He's in there! They're recording it right now!" and Monica was like "Yeah...we know. That's why we're here." So we grabbed a drink and waited about an hour for the first show to end and the crowd to clear out. When we got inside there were at least 5 massive cameras set up...including one on a huge crane that swooped around our heads. It was neat. The opener was good, but kept it short, probably due to the fact that it was past 11:00.

Then I got a little nervous for Louis (like I was nervous for Conan last night). What if he fucks up? What if some dipshit from my city yells some dumb shit out? And then, or course, he absolutely killed. There are many, many reasons why I love Louis CK's comedy, but the biggest reason is that even when he's talking about blowjobs or punching children, he always seems to be speaking from his very kind heart. I mean fuck…he takes pictures of his daughters and baby ducklings and posts them on his website.

His material on Saturday was no different...it basically focused on his divorce/kids/body and peoples' stupidity. My face hurt afterward. So good. I don’t even want to ruin it with my half assed explanations. If you're a fan, his new material is better than Chewed Up but not quite as good as Shameless, but that's probably because I've watched Shameless so many damn times. I sent him a thank you email a few days later. How gay.

I'm really glad he's getting more exposure due to his awesome spot on Conan (which he extended and dirtied up for the show). Check out a little piece about it here:

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/culture/2009/03/02/louis-ck-starvation-can-be-character-building.html

In other comedy news, “Bob and David and friends” are coming to the Just For Laughs festival in Chicago in a few weeks. It’s sold out and my heart is breaking. I read about a possible additional show, but no news yet. If all else fails I can get tickets to Bob and Best of Sketchfest, or catch Louis CK again while he’s there. So yeah, it’s worth checking out…

http://www.justforlaughschicago.com/