Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Vino

Been having some really good wine lately, in particular three.

Company: Altos Las Hormigas
Vintage: 2004
Type: Malbec
Country: Argentina
Region: Mendoza
Price: 10-13




Company: Nobul Red
Vintage: 2003
Type: Temprinillo
Country: Spain
Region: Madrid
Price: 8-10




Company: Rainoldi
Vintage: 1998
Type: Nebbiolo
Country: Italy
Region: Valtellina Superiore D.O.C.G.
Price: In a restaurant $36, so it's much cheaper, but dont know

Monday, January 30, 2006

Fiore's Italian Deli

Found a new great Italian Deli slash grocery store In Ukranian Village. It is a very small little shop with great sandwiches and ready to go pastas. you can pick up a cannoli, a slice of pizza or a single serving plate of lasagna to go. It also has a great and wide variety of sauces and sides to choose from out of their little grocer section. The sandwiches though are the reason to go, they have all the usually subs and more, they even make breakfast sandwiches.


Fiore's Italian Deli
2258 W. Erie St.
312-942-9419

Friday, January 27, 2006

New Table



Click to Enlarge the Photo

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Great Beer Greater Idea

Wednesday, January 25th 8pm-?
Celebrate great stouts and your abitlity to grow facial hair!
11th Annual Bell's Stout Tasting, 2nd Annual Sheffield's Mustache Party!
$3.50 pints and $1 tasters
Best Mustache to be awarded! (this contest has no bias, if you can't grow one, one will be provided)

Sheffield's
3258 N. Sheffield
(773) 281-4989

I dont think there is anything better
Thanks Martin

Friday, January 20, 2006

Globetrotters

The one and only Harlem Globetrotters are coming to the United Center. They will be playing on the 21st at 1pm and 7pm. The tickets range in price from $14 in the nose bleeds to $125, which is kind of ridiculous. The Globtrotters with be playing and beating the Nationals, obviously. Man I can not wait to see this.

Thursday, January 19, 2006

The Jigawatt Trio

They are playing at Wise Fools Pub tomorrow the 20th. Everyone has to go check this band out. They play a jazz funk rock mix and do it well. They start at 9pm. The bar is great the band is excellent and the cover is cheap. I highly recommend it.

The Jerry Springer Show

This is not for Kids or people easily offended, this is my experience at the Jerry Springer show and therefore more than a little obscene.

Here is the Ridiculous story of one mans trip to the Jerry Springer show.

We get there wait in a small line to go through the metal detectors, then are taken up to a waiting room through a 10' X 10' elevator with 15 ft ceilings. In the waiting room, obviously, we waited for about an hour and a half. People were all crowded and bored so jokes were told by the others around me. People laughed at others trying to use the "Vegas" style vending machines. Meaning there was a good chance you were loosing your money, it was possible to get chips but "the house" usually won.

Then someone walked in looking to tell us some news, that news being...."As you may or may not know, this is not an ordinary episode of Jerry. Tonight it is the Uncensored Jerry Springer Episode. This means there will be excessive language and nudity, if this offends anyone let me know now!" After the laughter stopped we were filed onto the stage. The magic was about to begin.

The MC slash main behind-the-scenes guy comes out tells us the run down, "Hey everyone as you know this is an uncensored show and therefore you guys can be as raunchy and foul mouthed as you want to be, but only when I tell you to. "This show is going to be all about you the audience the questions you ask are what make the show so be as filthy and disgusting as you can be when asking questions, but be funny, don’t just stand up there and say the F word a bunch of times be creative." "Oh and the louder and more you cheer the more there clothes come off."

So then Jerry comes out and does a little warming up of the crowd. He tells some jokes does a little Q & A Jerry then tells us to have fun.

The MC comes out again and this time tells us the show is about to begin and then gives us some final rules and guidelines. He finishes by saying "if you don't know what to do look at me and I will tell you what to do." (That is exactly what I did for the entire first segment.)

Then the ridiculousness of Jerry Springer Uncensored began. Out came two strippers, who for the rest of the time would be dancing around a poll just off to the side of the stage.

The first guest is a girl who thinks her boyfriend is cheating on her with another girl, turns out she is right and in fact Jerry has that girl back stage. Ding Ding Ding the girl from back stage comes out and immediately that start trying to kill each other. After a couple of minutes of fighting, for no apparent, reason they take off there clothes and decide to fight naked. As the crowed is yelling "F*ck her up F*ck her up", they roll on the ground pulling each others hair and punch each other all while Jerry just stands in the crowd and smiles at the insanity that he has created.

The boyfriend then comes out and the crowd just yells "F*ck you f*gg*t", over and over again. This is then where Jerry goes into the crowd to gets people, much braver than I, to say something to the boyfriend about how there d*ck is bigger than his, which always resulted in a "Then show us yours then" cheer by the crowd. There were great insults people calling people R Kelly or A white Carlton, from Fresh Prince, your moma jokes, all the staples. This would go on until no one had anything more to say and then...back to naked fighting.

Similar story lines and acts happened two more times girls come out naked fight. Girls stripped on a poll just of stage and the crowd made fun of everyone including if someone in the crowd said something dumb they to were then torn apart by the crowd yelling something like' "suck my d*ck you f*gg*t" or some other completely out-of-control chant. This was truly the most insane yet greatest thing that has ever happened to me.

It was funny yet wrong all at the same time, but then for the end it just got that much more ridiculous.

The same story line for the last segment except that the women in the first parts were cute, white trash, but good-looking, these ladies in the last segment were GINORMOUS. I mean huge. This was not as fun to watch. It also took a turn for the worst when the crowd was chanting, "F*ck you, you fat f*ck." My mouth was wide open and if you could see my face at the time you would no exactly what a dumbfounded expression should look like. I was in shock.

The show ended shortly after with Jerry's somewhat final thoughts and then clapping until done. We were thanked and then on are ways.
I will be trying again very soon to get another set of those tickets.

Monday, January 16, 2006

James Brown

The Godfather of Soul, The Hardest Working Man in Showbuisness, Mr. Dynamite, Soul Brother Number One, The Hit Man, The Creator, The Minister of the New New Super Heavy Funk, The Original Disco Man... James Brown. Thanks to my Cousin Carmel I was able to see him live last week at the House of Blues.

The show was amazing. We were hearing stories about him being old and not that good to see live, but the show was really good and he, I thought, was performing well. He is about a hundred years old so he obviously did not do the splits and when he went down on one knee and got his cape put on him he did not pop back up like you would have expected. He did however put on a great show and still had some of his old moves. He plays with a huge band behind him and they were really good also. The band is called the J&B's and they all would play little solos throughout the show which were all really good. The show is all a huge production and is more Vegas style than anything else, but that is exactly what I expected going to see someone called Soul Brother Number One.

The show was amazing and I am so glad that I was able to see the Godfather of Soul in my lifetime.

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Munich

Went and saw Munich last night in the theatres. It was good, defiantly worth watching on the big screen. The movie was long, 2 hours and 44 min, my butt fell asleep and I still had an hour to go. The movie though had to be that long otherwise they would not have been able to tell any of the story.

The movie is not about the Munich Olympics entirely, which I thought it was going to be, instead it is more about what Israel tries do do because of what happened at the Olympics and really that the group Black September was able to get away with so much while the world watched and yet nothing was being done about it by the world community. The movie is obviously biased but does try and give you the other sides point of view, it doesget shot down quickly thhough.

The movie does leave some questions unanswered, thank god they were not all answered, but does a good job of making you think. The movie can be confusing at times, but keeps your interest throughout and tries to show the struggles that the Israelis and a little of what the Palestinians are going through.

Overall good movie lots of info and action and worth the admission price.

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Water Towers


I have been thinking about water towers a lot, not the Water Tower, but water towers. They are on top of every old building over 6 stories high. If you are looking for them in the city you cannot miss them they are every where. I had heard about a project going on in the arcitectual world that involved making those old water towers useful in some way. I like this idea because they would not be tearing these great pieces of history down but instead modernizing them.

I was then told just the other day that the Chicago Cultural Museum was going to have an exhibit showing all of the projects that were entered. This includeds almost 100 proposals. Thanks Reilly for that find.

I am really looking forward to checking this exhibit out. The museum is in a great location right across the street from millenium park and down the block from the Art Institute, so there is plenty to do before or after you check out the water tanks.

It takes place at:
The Chicago Cultural Center
78 East Washington St.
Chicago, IL 60602

The exhibit goes until the 29th of January. Info

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Coast

This may be one of the best sushi places in Chicago if not straight up the best, period. I have eaten from Coast before and always been blown away by there food, but this weekend I was able to actually go to the restaurant. We did not have a reservation, luckily though they had an opening early in the night. I was also there with a great crew so I knew the night would all go well.

Like I said I was aware going in that there food was good, I have had some of there take out, but still did not know what to expect. My real fear was the price. Walking into the restaurant did not ease my tension. This place is very stylish. A low lit restaurant with the sushi bar along one wall and booths along the other. It was very "sharp" and "clean", with great artwork along the walls. We were then escorted into a second room with a similar theme except just booths along both walls. I was later told that this second room had just been added.

The great thing about Coast is that it is BYOB, so we brought a couple of bottles of wine with us. We started of the night with Edamame, which is just boiled soybeans. They were delicious once I was told how to actually eat them by Blair. After a laugh at the fact that I had no idea what I was doing we started to order.
First an Unagi, which is fresh water eel laid over rice, for everyone. Also an order of coast crab, a volcano, a couple of white dragons, the Alaskan, and a spicy tuna, the reason for naming them all is because we still got more after all this and the price was still reasonable in the end.

This restaurant from atmosphere to service; to especially the food was amazing. I will definitely be going there again and can't wait.

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

The Green Door

This is a great place to get some food at. I have always been impressed with there food and drink selection. The Green Door is a really old building in the River North area and has actually been around since right after the Chicago fire. This makes it unique in its own way because it is made out of wood, which they did not allow at that time so close to the loop. The original door is still used and you can tell that it is so old because of the slant that it is on.

This restaurant slash bar is great because of the people who work there's attitudes. Its not like Ed Debevicks, always yelling at you, but instead they are just really relaxed and nonchalant.

The Green Door has really good "bar" food and also great little side meals. They also have a very healthy beer selection with some interesting beers that I have only seen at this bar.

So if in that part of the city I suggest giving it a try, after work seems like a good time to get food there along with a pint.

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

New Years Eve

New Years this year was really fun, which does not normally happen. New Years eve is overrated. This year though I had a little pre party at my apartment along with the dudes upstairs, the usually 1610 gala. After that I went to a show featuring The Chicago Afrobeat Project and Bad News Jones.

These bands were really good and Impressed me a lot. The CABP was a jazzy funky type of band with what seemed like a million people on stage, including African tribal dancers (they were not really from Africa, but look as thought they were). They had all sorts of great instruments going on to the sax, djembe, drums, guitar, keyboards, it went on.

The second band was a more hip hop band, but with some true roots in jazz. I actually got to talk with one of the singers and they seemed like cool guys. This band came on second though meaning I could not truly appreciate the band at 2 in the morning on New Years, I'll catch them again sometime.

The Note had all the bells and whistles going on with the countdown and everything was done well. It was a good time and I am glad I went.

A finally got a picture


This is in my kitchen, but I have not been able to get a picture of it till now.