December 30, 2005
Harvard Avenue's Best Music of 2005
It's obligatory at the end of the year to have 'Best Of' list on your site or publication. Not wanting to break any long standing traditions, I submit my list of the best music of 2005. It's a long list, so let's get to it.
Here's Harvard Avenue's Best Music of 2005.
The albums are listed in no particular order.
Emiliana Torrini- 'The Fisheman's Woman
Saint Germain des Pres Cafe - 'Volume Six and Seven'
The Decemberists - 'Picaresque'
Louis XIV - 'The Best Little Secrets are Kept'
The New Pornographers - 'Twin Cinema'
The Hellacopters - 'Rock and Roll Is Dead'
Daddy G - 'D.J. Kicks'
Thievery Corporation - 'The Cosmic Game'
...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead - 'Worlds Apart'
December 29, 2005
Happy Holidays!
December 27, 2005
Arlington Heights Lowe's To Open January 13th
We're all curious and now we know. The Lowe's that is going up in Arlington Heights in the Surry Ridge Shopping Center on Algonquin Road near Golf Road, is opening on January 13th.
Posted by JB at 2:54 PM | Permalink | TrackBack (0)December 26, 2005
Christmas Hawk Visit
I'm taking this as a good holiday/new year omen that one of the Cooper Hawks in the hood graced us with a visit in our front tree. It was a little on the small side, so I'm guessing it is one of the kids that hatched this summer. Bad thing was that my 'serious - big gun - mega pixel/zoom' camera was not loaded with batteries, so I grabbed my compact camera. The hawk shared the holiday spirit by letting my get close enough to snap a few pics.
December 25, 2005
Prison Break Courtroom Set / Balloons
Inga and I went downtown last Tuesday and stopped by the Chicago Cultural Center. Through a conversation struck up with a security guard, we learned that a courtroom scene for the upcoming season of 'Prison Break' was being filmed in one of the rooms upstairs. We didn't see any actors, but we did see some of the crew filling these balloons (photos below) just outside the courtroom set. When we passed through later, the balloons were completely round like a weather balloon and had a metal cylinder at the base. I don't know if the balloons are some sort of aerial microphone set-up or to bounce the lights off for effect. Interesting...
December 22, 2005
Village Website Redesign
Not that it matters much, but the Village of Arlington Heights website has had an overhaul. The old site was fine, but the new site has gone from utilitarian to classy.
Posted by JB at 11:27 PM | Permalink | TrackBack (0)December 20, 2005
New Pixies Live Album - Download Only
A heads-up to all fellow Pixies fans. There is a new Pixies live album available for download. Presently, ''Hey - Live Pixies' is only available on e-music, but will be available on I-Tunes and other music download sites on January 3rd. The double album is a collection of singles from last year 'Pixies Sell Out' tour. Unfortunately none of the Chicago shows made the cut, but I did buy one of the live CDs from the show I attended.
Posted by JB at 9:15 PM | Permalink | TrackBack (0)December 18, 2005
Superman Is Super-Macho
Is Superman popping Super-Macho vitamins? Movie execs say that the bulge in Superman's red tights in the upcoming film, Superman Returns is too macho. Superman actor Brandon Routh's package will be digitally reduced in the film.
Sorry ladies. We don't want the nerds to get uncomfortable with their manhood.
December 17, 2005
Super Macho!
Mmmm...Bovine Glandular Concentrate.
Oh, the wonders you can find at Wal-mart. I had to put the bottle back on the shelf as this body cannot handle more macho.
December 15, 2005
September in Chinatown
December 14, 2005
1957 Plymouth Time Capsule
In 1957, to celebrate 'Tulsarama' the city of Tulsa sealed a 1957 Plymouth Belvedere in a time capsule. The Plymouth, along with other 1957 artifacts, will be unearthed from under the courthouse lawn in 2007. The car will be given to the person or next-of-kin of a contest back in '57 who correctly guessed the population of Tulsa in 2007.
I believe there is a similar contest in New Jersey where the winner gets an unearthed Chrysler Imperial with Jimmy Hoffa in the trunk.
Source: Jalopnik
December 6, 2005
Lost Faulty Towers Episode!
The timing of this is odd as I had just received the Faulty Towers DVD set a few days ago as a gift. According to a post on the blog Faulty Towers Revisited, in the book Fawlty Towers - A Worshipper's Companion there is information and a script for a never aired 13th episode called 'The Robbers'. The book sounds as it might be a hoot as it also looks into the occult and historical references in the Faulty Towers series.
Source: BoingBoing
Posted by JB at 1:09 PM | Permalink | TrackBack (0)December 5, 2005
Enforsaken
Not only do we have anarchists in Arlington Heights, we also have our own death metal band, Enforsaken. A PR piece in Blabbermouth.net announced that Enforsaken are working on their second album, 'Sinner's Intuition' on the Crash Music label. Checking out the information on their site, they seem to be pretty well established and this second album will be better distributed in major outlets. If you like death metal you can give them a listen on the Enforsaken MySpace page.
Arlington Heights Five
As a result of the Minuteman protests in October, we now have the 'Arlington Heights Five'. According to a piece in the 'Anarchists In Trouble' section of Infoshop News, the Arlington Heights Five had their day in court on December 1st. Unfortunately, three of the Five were late for their hearing and the judge ordered them arrested. When they did show up, they were taken to 26th and California. I think the Chicago Seven were more prompt. Lets work on that. You don't want to come across as slackers.
Posted by JB at 5:15 PM | Permalink | TrackBack (0)December 4, 2005
ze frank Films On Amazon
The very cool, ze frank, has done two short films for Amazon.com's Wish List feature. A nice diversion to take during your holiday shopping. The two films are "History" and "Use". A long time ago on the old site I posted a link to his brilliant reading of a Nigerian scam email. Doesn't hurt to revisit that gem too as well as the classic "How To Dance Properly".
Posted by JB at 10:13 PM | Permalink | TrackBack (0)December 1, 2005
Boston Gallery Posted
All of the pictures from Boston have been posted, except for the morbid amount of tombstone pictures that I took. Those are going in separate set as there may turn out to be more of those than actual Boston photos. Doesn't seem right does it.
Shave The Bear
If you have been watching the red hot Chicago Bears, you have no doubt noticed quarterback Kyle Orton's mangy beard that has sprouted in the past few weeks. I can understand why he is growing the beard. As Inga says everytime she sees him, he looks like he's 16. Well, the beard doesn't help. Now he looks like a high school quarterback that is trying to grow a beard. The weird thing is that most of the hair is sprouting on his neck. Bottom line, it looks bad.
Now we can help our quarterback. An online petition has started to get Kyle Orton to shave his neck beard. Love the quarterback, hate the beard. Sign the petition...for Kyle's sake.
Source:Deadspin
Posted by JB at 9:06 PM | Permalink | TrackBack (0)