KC Ryan's Word Balloons

More What's Happening With Me

2010-06-14T14:57:00.005-05:00

Ah.

The doctor recommends I not leave on a plane. Can't believe I made it out here on a plane, but that's beside the point. I was stuck, without having the chance even to say goodbye to my friends in the Chicago area or even my job.

I was, to put it mildly, pissed.

I was convinced that this had been the plan all along, to get me out to my mother's so she could take care of me, to transfer my care to Stanford.

When I had calmed down a little bit, a cooler head told me that yes, I was in a far better place than I had been so far as recovery went, and no one had planned this, but by heaven I should just go with the flow and enjoy the time spent with the family.

I'm out in the pool house, along with my caregiver (I need someone with me 24 hours a day). It's pretty nice, especialy on those days that coincide a good day out and a day where I feel good (which doesn't happen too often).

My stuff has been put into storage by my sister and her sons, who drove up from Atlanta, bless them. My apartment had been surrendered, my car sold... I'm basically living out of the pool house.

I have had good days and bad days - mostly having to do with extreme nausea in my stomach. Some days I think I've never felt such pain. And when I, pardon the expression, throw up, somehow a lot more comes out than went in.

I have been getting chemo once every two weeks, having to wear the darn pump for 72 hours each time. I have a port, sort of a reclosable entrance into my heart, which reduces the number of pin-sticks I have to get.

I have another medicine injected, sub Q, into my stomach morning and night, and seven or eight others morning noon and night, but at least it's not as much as I've seen my father has to take.

So, in summary, I think I'm doing OK.

At least, OK as can be given the circumstances.

Where I've Been, Recently

2010-06-14T14:57:00.002-05:00

Hi everyone. Just got my computer this past weekend and boy, did I miss having online access!

So you know what's been going on here...

I have cancer. The big C. Fourth stage. In my rectum, my liver, and my stomach - it's spread too far to operate on, according to doctors.

I found this out in Chicago. Went to Northwestern Hospital's Cancer Center and was the only one without gray hair. Had a couple of MRIs that confirmed the cancer, then they found I had a "mild" stroke and kept me aound until Easter night.

Then my grandmother passed away - 97 years old. Or was it 98? Anyway, she was out in California and the rest of my family was going and Sean had an airline ticket for me (which he announced at one in the morning of the day we'd have to leave - thanks Sean). I decided I'd have to go, to say goodbye to Clair (my grandmother) and perhaps see the family over a quick two day visit.

It was only when we were on the plane that Sean revealed the return ticket wasn't until Sunday night - and it was only Tuesday.

Sigh.

I had only brought clothes and such for two days.

It was a nice service, though, with a lot of our priest-friends in attendance, including the Bishop of San Jose and Father Ken, who came from retirement in Florida. I could barely stand the pain, though, and went home to sleep it off.

See, the stroke had left me unable to use the right side of my body - thank heavens that's over! And I had grown weaker with the chemotherapy I had been given. Actually, I felt just plain lousy - but happy knowing I'd be heading home to Chicago.

This is what's been happening!

2010-04-13T21:34:00.002-05:00

Anyway...

i've moved into my brother's house for now, and at Maggie's in a few days.

I'm taking 13 different medicines at all times of the day or night.

Mom and sister Shannon flew out on the weekend to see me, which was immensely fun.

Well, as fun as you can get, I guess.

I have recently been able to move, going on two walks in my Chicago Cubs sweats.

Sean has been taking very good care of me.

So many friends have phoned and written, I'm sorry for the lack of personal reply.

But writing this much has been exhausting.

So. Just thought I;d play catch up.

Anyone wants to write me,

444 S Lincoln
Arlington Heights IL 60004

And thanks for your prayers! Much appreciated, not to say needed.

KC

so! What's been going on?

2010-04-13T21:16:00.002-05:00

Very simply, I have evidently missed it while my body developed cancer.
Some weeks ago, I went to the doctor for some stomach pain. He felt around and said my liver was inflamed and sent me for an MRI. I went and he had me come back in the next Wednesday to tell me I likely had cancer and needed additionalMRIs to comfirm.

I then went downtown to the cancer center at Northwestern Hospital, mainly because they are the best in the business but also because my brother sean was already familiar with the Center, his wife having had her colon cancer cured there last year.

Well, they put me in the hospital that night, with nary a chance to go home for clothes or anything, and started dripping chemo into me immediately. This was the first clue as to how bad it was.

Then, the MRIs (I had four) came back and confirmed the first doctor'ss diagnosis, cancer. It had spread from my rectum to my liver to my lymph nodes. There would be no cure, only containment.

Then I was supposed to return home after 4 days of chemo... but each day they found another reason to keep me. A stroke I had recently. A possible blood clot. And on and on.

I have no call to complain. They treated me very well in the hospital, which was only 2 years old (that section) and had a very nice room. Even the foo was good - you could order off a menu up to 4 grams of carbs.

Next post

Let it...

2009-12-09T12:07:00.002-06:00

Ahh.

Finally, the first snowfall of the season.

Coating trees and bushes and lampposts as well as the ground, sidewalks and streets the same as automobiles.

Everything is beautiful, at least for a while.

And best of all, Christmas is coming!

Not for the presents and all the packages, boxes and bags - but for the gathering together of friends and families in joviality. That's what I look forward to.

Just saying.

Things are Different in Wisconsin

2009-08-18T10:07:00.002-05:00

This past weekend I spent the weekend in the Milwaukee area, first at Irish Fest and then at the Wisconsin State Fair.

Irish Fest, I have been to several times. It's held at this HUGE waterfront park that has something like eleven stages from one end to the other, a large number of permanent souvenir and tchotke stands, and beer.

LOTS of beer.

Beer sponsors three of the largest stages, with big signs and bigger bars. I suppose it's no more than one would expect at a festival grounds, where there is one Fest after the other... oh, and the fourth huge stage? Sponsored by Harley Davidson. Motorcycles suspended from the ceiling, that sort of thing. Harleys and beer.

And music, of course. Lots and lots of music. I saw several good bands - Whiskey of the Damned, Reilly, Red Hot Chili Pipers and even Tommy Sands. All in all, a great day.

Stayed overnight in a HECK of a deal via Hotwire. Man, what a nice room and a nice hotel and free breakfast and - OK, so it was seven miles away. You can't have everything. :)

Next day I went to the Wisconsin State Fair.

This... was different.

I've been to the California (not so good) and New York (great!) State Fairs several times. I have been to the Erie County fair a few times, too, and several others. I htought I had pretty much seen anything in fairs.

Not. Close.

The Wisconsin Fair has a TON of restaurant/pubs, pretty much all at one end of the fair, serving virtually anything you can think of for fair food and plenty of stuff you probably never considered. Some of these operations are huge - Cousins Subs has an entire section, as do Budweiser and Miller Lite and Leinenkugel (great, more beer).

I mean, HUGE sections. Seating perhaps a thousand or more? At pretty nice wooden bars and tables?

Oh, yeah, besides the beer - which was being offered EVERYWHERE (hey, look at this stand - Popcorn, Corn Dogs, beer!) ...

An aside, here - I LIKE beer. Really. And they had some of my favorites - Red Hook, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale - that you really don't find too often in the Chicago area. nothing like a cold frosty beer on a really hot day at the ballpark.

But good grief - there were bars that were blocks long - several of them! Beer signs everywhere. It was just a bit much.

OK, so we've established that Wisconsinites really like their beer. What's the second thing?

Music!

Each of these bars/restaurants seemed to have its own band playing songs ranging from a smaller joint's 70s disco songs to the huge Budweiser place's rock-ola. I mean, you couldn't sit down or walk around without hearing a band. I counted thirteen bands before I just gave up and said the hell with it.

Music and beer. There are a lot of worse ways to spend a Sunday afternoon, let me tell you.

Oh, they had the usual stuff as well... pig races and sham-wow demos and roast corn (yumm, I had three ears during the course of the day!). They had animals galore (okay, I admit it, I am one of those guys who goes and looks at the ducks and chickens and bunnies and cows and horses and goats and... enjoys it). They had mini-donuts and camel rides and these barrel-shaped rootbeer stands.

And they had rides, of course. I didn't go on anything, but I wandered around to see what was new. They had things there that I had never seen and would never go up in if I was paid to. Besides the usual Kamikaze and Tornado and all, they had a ride which you started standing up, then rotate around. Pretty standard. But then the arm to which this wheel is attached starts to move around in a circle! Wild! THEN the ARM ITSELF rotates and turns the whole contraption UPSIDE DOWN. Picture it - you're standing with your feet pointing toward the sky, rotating around sideways, while the whole contraption moves around in a circle and the arm moves in its own rotation! In-freaking-credible.

Anyway, the state fair has been in the same grounds since something like 1870 or so, but a few of the buildings have been rebuilt since then. It's nice, a big comfortable fair with milk for 25c a glass, and I'm glad I went.

The Doctor is In

2009-08-03T13:28:00.003-05:00

Last night, I didn't get to sleep on time because I was up watching "Doctor Who".

For those uninitiated and those who are currently looking down their nose and sniffing, allow me to elucidate. Doctor Who is the longest running (starting the weekend Kennedy got shot), perhaps the most successful, science-fiction television program.

It has accomplished this by readily changing with the times. When it began, it was seen as a children's TV program, sort of "You are there" with some fantasy elements (it could hardly be called science fiction). Then when the actor either died or left, I'm not sure which, some genius decided to continue with a different actor - a WAY different actor.

With the explanation that a Time Lord regenerates, this unleashed a terrific wave of Doctors. From Jon Pertwee's elegant Earth-bound Doctor to Tom Baker - yes, "the guy with scarf", to the cricket-jacketed Peter Davison, all the Doctors brought their own very different takes and attitudes to the series.

For awhile, the Doctor went away. He had been cancelled, because, even though the special effects on the show were pretty laughable, it was too expensive to produce.

The show returned a few years ago, and has really taken off, with David Tennant the umpteenth Doctor providing the right blend of heroics, flappability and humor.

Last night's episode was the beginning of his third season (he did four), and I thought I'd tune in just to hear the theme music again - oh, the memories that brought back! Memories of myself, alone in my room with a tiny black and white tv, watching Dave Allen At Large and then Doctor Who for who knew how long. See, the Doctor back then starred in as many half-hour episodes as needed to tell a particular story - some were l-o-n-g. Of course, then they strted showing the edited episodes, to make them movie-lenghth - but again, they could run just an hour, or three or four, you never knew.

Oh. Edited.

More than once did I watch Doctor Who, saw the end credits, and went to bed. When I came back the next week, however, they had on an entirely different show! It seemed they ran the programs one after the other, end-credit-PBS blurb-startng credit. All night.

This trick was pointed out to me by one of my friends down at the station. You see, during pledge breaks a BIG contingent of Dr. Who fans would make our way out on the levee to the PBS station, and do pledge breaks. We had a full-sized TARDIS replica that we would all walk out from (the gag being it's bigger inside than outside) to take our seats, a real working robotic K-9 (Tom Baker's Doctor's robotic dog), great costumes for virtually everyone, and most importantly a whole helluva lot of fun.

We'd have Doctor Who quizzes on the air, see upcoming episodes, raise reading awareness, and just have a wonderful time! Ahh, good times.

Anyway, last night.

The Doctor is surprised when a bride teleports aboard the TARDIS in midflight - and she doesn't know how. Add to that robotic Santa Clauses (a vaguely Christmas-themed episodes) with weapons disguised as trumpets and trombones, a wicked spider-lady (body of a huge frickin' spider with a devilish woman's torso stuck on) villain, her husband to be in cahoots with said villain, the resurrection of spider-lady's brood, the destruction of spider-lady's brood by the Doctor, the destruction of spider-lady by the British Army (who evidently is a good deal mroe reliable than the Japanese army fighting Rodan), the Doctor chasing down the kidnapped bride's cab by FLYING the TARDIS down the highway, finding Torchwood's HQ, using the Sonic Screwdriver in several interesting ways, the Doctor ducking out on Christmas dinner...

And everything gets resolved, in an hour!

What a GREAT ride! MAG-nificent.

And boy, did that bring back great memories!

Er, of the show, not of giant spider-ladies in British secret agency HQ armed with Robots disquised as Santa.

I don't think.

To be a Den-tist! Think Steve Martin!

2009-07-30T18:56:00.002-05:00

Hi. I'm in the dentist's office, waiting.
What for?
To have some teeth extracted. Some teeth that broke due to my diabetes.
I just can't help but think of Steve Martin's dentist in "Little Shop of Horrors".
This is actually a nice office with nice people in a nice suburb.
But I still don't have to like it.
And I really don't.

A TRULY perfect game

2009-07-24T16:00:00.002-05:00

In baseball, there are those rarified events that make the game so much fun. Triple plays, shutout games. They don't occur all that frequently, which makes them more fun.
Perfect games... are very infrequent. Since the National League was founded in 1876, there have been only 18 games where a pitcher did not allow anyone on the opposing team to reach first base. Not on a wild pitch, not a walk, not a hit... nothing.
Number 18 came yesterday, when White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle hurled one for the ages against Tampa Bay.
I'm not saying no one hit the ball - that isn't true. Matter of fact, the first hitter in the ninth nearly ruined Buehrle's effort by smacking a home run - which was caught by one of the most amazing efforts I have ever seen. Dewayne Wise runs up the wall, catches the ball and pulls it back into the park, loses the ball from his glove, and catches it with his free hand! Awesome!
This from a guy who had previously run into the wall and injured himself. This from a guy who was not about to let his teammate's perfect game be spoiled in the ninth!
That's what makes baseball a team sport, after all. Buehrle's a great pitcher, but he had eight more guys behind him.
I'm not even a Sox fan.
But I am a fan of good - nay, great baseball.
And you gotta admit - that was a game for the ages.
Out of the thousands of games that have been played, there are just 18 perfect ones.
Congratulations, Mark Buehrle.

Four in a row!

2009-07-20T15:15:00.002-05:00

Heck, it was only the Nationals, but the Cubbies won four in a row and are now in sole possession of second place.
Of course, now they have to play the Phillies for three in a row.
Worst to first.
I'm betting that they'll take only one, possibly two, from Philly.

A Con Game

2009-07-16T16:21:00.002-05:00

This year, it seems, the hype about the San Diego Comic Con is in full swing no matter where you ook. TV, magazines, the Internet - especially the Internet!
And this year I really, really wish I was going.
I know the Con is sold out, even if I wanted to go, and I really hate - well, maybe that's too strong - how about truly do not enjoy? - what's turned into Hollywood South, with the movies and the wrestling and the Crapanimation and furverts and a . My friends are skipping this year, so I wou1dn't even get to see them. There are no big comic events I am remote1y interested in, no persona1ities I want to see (perhaps no one a1ive).
What, then, is the big attraction? Why go?
I think it's basica11y that I get to wander around for a few days in some superhero T-shirts and just enjoy being a fan of comics.
I just turned 47 a week ago. Forty. Seven.
Seems a little bit old to be reading comic books.
And I don't so much anymore. Reading very few of them now... I went into the store Wednesday And they had nothing in my saver save the weekly Wednesday Comics.
But the ones I do get? I read them probab1y five times, at east, before they get fi1ed away.
I enjoy a 1ot of obscure comics. Knights of the Dinner Tab1e a1ways has me ro11ing. Frank1in Richards, Son of a Genius? Darn funny. There's a Comic Book History comic I like, infrequent as it is.
I just enjoy comics. War comics like Sgt Rock and B1ackhawk. Superhero comics 1ike Batman and Robin. Oddba11 comics that can't be c1assified, 1ike the aforementioned Comic Book History. Comedy comics 1ike Knights of the Dinner Table and Franklinl Richards and Ambush Bug.
and I like the opportunity to wander around a city and see 120,000 other dorks who don't mind letting the world know they like comics too.
I SO want to go.
Next year, though, my friends will be there, and that's the best part of a11. Can't wait!
And by that time maybe I'll have my L key fixed.

The Perfect Game

2009-07-16T14:01:00.003-05:00

You know, it's really amazing when I think about it, but the modern ballfield is the most perfect setup one could devise.
Ninety feet between the bases, and the throws usually arrive about the same time the runner does. If it was farther, say, 100 feet, the batter would be out much more often than not. If it was eighty, he'd get to first base almost a the time. But ninety? Perfect.
Similarly, the distance from the pitcher to the hitter. That pitcher is throwing a ball that sometimes reaches 100 mph! That doesn't give the batter much time to see where the ball is going and to try to take a swing at it (This also explains why curve balls and sliders and the ike are so effective - the batter has to commit to swing long before the ball actually arrives, and if the ball's not where he thought it was gonna be he's outta luck.).
The pitcher is just far enough to make things interesting. Farther out, and he'd lose speed and more importantly, the batter would gain time. Any closer and no batter other than the Flash would have enough time to decide whether to swing.
The nine players on defense are spread out around the diamond just enough so that it's possible to catch nearly every hit, and it's also possible to hit into areas where the fielder can't make the play. Again, any change in the number of fielders and you wouldn't have this balance.
On any day, any team stands a chance to beat another team - or be beaten.
It's truly the perfect summer game.

The Break

2009-07-15T09:52:00.002-05:00

It's the All-Star break in baseball, a time midway through the season when everyone stops battling each other for a while and takes some time off for the All-Star game.

I like the All-Star break. Sometimes it falls on my birthday, sometimes not, but it's a good place to stop and look at your life.

I also like the All-Star game, where baseball's favorites (I hate to say best in this case!) get together and the American League wins. (Heh - only half-kidding). I thinkit's fun to watch all these guys play in a game together.

Independence!

2009-07-03T20:19:00.001-05:00

Happy Fourth of July, everyone!

Fly the flag proudly, pay attention where you light those fireworks, and have a wonderful day!

KC

More than meets the ears

2009-06-25T09:14:00.002-05:00

I "met" someone on Facebook who said he had six tickets left for the midnight showing of Transformers 2: Assault on Your Ears... and in IMAX at Navy Pier's six-story tall screen!
In a moment of weakness, I decided to go.

Now, the IMAX at Navy Pier is definitely Chicago's hottest showplace. The tickets all come with your seat number already assigned (hmm, not sure if I like that or not) and you sit in fron tof what has to be the tallest screen (so much bigger than the local theater's IMAX - sure, it's a big screen, but it really isn't IMAX, you know?).

Navy Pier was, surprise! closed.
All of it.
Dark, closed. All the restaurants, all the stores, the stages. Closed.
Weird. I mean, I was there at 10:30, and kind of expected some restaurants or something to be open. It is summer, after all.

So I waited around for about an hour, (from the popcorn girl I learned the last Batman movie played for 72 hours straight, every three hours -who needs popcorn at three in the morning?!)
and then...

The movie began.

Now, I've read some reviews that suggest it was kind of like watching a bag of rocks in a dryer. I will admit, it was LOUD. NOISY loud!
Robots slugging each other, robots blasting each other, things exploding all over!
And that's just in the first five minutes.

They seemed to crank up the noise factor on this film every time a robot appeared - LOUD!

And, well, the robots did appear a lot.

Nominally, the story features Shai laBeef heading off to college (after robots destroy his home, natch). whose name I did not catch because of all the NOISE! Whatever school it was, it was very nice looking, and filled with pouty supermodels (at least, those are no school girls I ever saw in real life) who dress provocatively and snigger at Shia's mom, who ingested some marijuana and is now acting goofy. As opposed to po'd, which she was just minutes ago.

One such pouty aggressive supermodel type is actually a robot in disguise (that's some robot!) who attacks Le Beef and starts the whole two hour chase scene of kids versus robots going.

Actually, Megan Fox, who's introduced in the most blatantly sexy (?) way of having her short-shorted butt up in the air (yeah, it takes work to do that, I know), spends all her time in this picture running from the robots, too.

So LeBeef and LesBoobs run around the country trying to stop the evil robots from extinguishing the sun. Uh, by saving Optimus Prime, the only robot who can possibly stand a skinny rat's ass chance of stopping the Fallen (boo!) (seems to me the US Military and a few dozen Transformers could blow him up just fine, but hey...) by taking a semi-mystic doohickey that's since turned to sand (hey, magic fairy dust!) and sticking in Optimus' chest cavity.

Oh, what's wrong with Optimus? He got the crap kicked out of him by the Fallen (I think, in battle all these robots look alike, you know?) while saving LeBoef (ibid!) from being attacked by a whole bunch of robots because they wanted (snicker) his brains!

Oh, there's a whole bunch more crap in this movie. There's LeBeefcake's college roommate, who runs an Internet site claiming there are aliens among us (ree-diculous!). There's a leering astronomy professor (can't tell this movie's made for teen boys, can you?). There's a US Military Strike Team named the NEST (E-i-Oooo!) that's coopted the good guy Transformers, put upon by an Obama-admininstration pain-in-the-ass guy who's out to get the robots to leave! Yeah, that'll show 'em!

There's that NEST team that instinctively trusts the kid LeBiftecetdesfrites and flies the dead Megatron around (you have any idea how much fuel it would take to carry a giant robot halfway around the world!!?) to the Middle East, because they TRUST him!

There's the sun-eating device that's hidden in one of the pyramids (like no one would notice THAT huge thing there before!). There's flashbacks to the first time the Transformers came to earth, looking for Energon (makes Exxon-Mobil look green and sane!)

And you know what?

Maybe it was because I was seeing in in IMAX, at midnight, in a theater packed with geeks (come on - who else is going to be watching Transformers at midnight?) --

I rather enjoyed it.

Yes, it was too LOUD. Yes, I could hardly tell who was fighting whom. Yes, parts of the movie were totally stupid(the public doesn't believe the alien threat is real - haven't they seen all those robots walking all over in the last movie?). Some of the characters, such as they are, are mind-blowingly stupid and/or insulting (an old robot that acts like a grumpy old man, complete with cane; little Suzuki-cars that transform into two gangsta-talking robots).

But it was also highly entertaining in parts. Mainly in those parts where robots were either chasing someone or blowing stuff up. In other words, about two hours of the two-and-a-half-hour movie.

Heaven help me, I actually enjoyed this picture. Despite the goofy plot, despite LesBoobs and LeBeef, despite marijauna Mom and a too-trusting US Military - I actually enjoyed seeing big ol' robots smack other big ol' robots around.

I am still trying to figure out why, though.

Heaven Can Wait

2009-06-23T13:57:00.012-05:00

This is a series of real life church signs. There is a Catholic and a Presbyterian one. I get the feeling that the Catholics have a sense of humor.

Up yers!

2009-06-18T13:47:00.002-05:00

Actually, UP mine, too!
I went to see UP last night, a delightful movie that, despite what some might perceive as flaws, really shines as a HINLAMW movie (that's "hey, I never looked at my watch!" - a sure sign of a movie's ability to engross me!)
I apologize if there are some SPOILERS in here, but it's rather hard to discuss the movie without spoiling SOMEthing.
There's a pretty long sequence where we see Mr. F and Elly living their lives together. I know some critics maintain that it slows the movie a bit or is too realiztic for kids or some such, but it does a nice job of showing two people deeply in love - and explaining just why Mr. F. would go to such lengths as flying his house to South America.
There are some bits involving talking dogs that are a little much, and having Mr. F and a Wilderness Scout haul his house around, even attached to balloons, beggars belief. But by and large it's one enjoyable road trip.
I own't spoil it by telling you about it more - just go see it. You'll enjoy it, AT WORST, and love it at best. It's a very neat summer movie.

l'm not bad..

2009-06-10T11:05:00.010-05:00

I'm just badly drawn.

I was thinking the other day, about how much appearance can affect one's likeability,

especially if you're a cartoon character.

I mean, certain styles of art I just can't get by. I'm sure Flapjack, Chowder, and the X-men are all fine cartoons, but I just don't like the way they look, you know? They don't appeal to me.

Even Spider-Man, until the recent "Spectacular" version, was drawn far too realisticly and with far too muted a color pallette for my tastes. Spectacular, while still a little stiff, and with some unnatural movements to the characters, is by far my favorite version of Spidey yet.

I guess I am drawn to "Classic" interpretations of the characters. Batman TAS, Superman's most recent foray, Ben 10. Not that I actually watch Ben 10, mind you, but I do like the style in which the characters are drawn.

There are some series out there that just jump out at me, I love the character designs so much. Note I haven't actually seen more than one or two of the shows in question (excepting TDI) but I do love their character design and would gladly watch them sitting around playing pinochle.

First up is: Bionic Six.

Look at those guys! So clean, so boldly designed!

Believe it or don't, they're supposed to be a family (guess adoption's taken place) who've been given bionic superpowers! Woo - the eighties were just bursting with good ideas, weren't they?

That's Rock-One, Bionic-One, IQ the smart one, Karate-One, Mother-One, and Sport-One.

Okay, so the names are pretty lame. And as for powers... umm, I guess they're all bionic, strong and fast. Mother-One is sort-of telepathic and Bionic One has super-senses... Sport-One carries a baseball bat...

Okay, so they're not exactly well-designed as heroes, but man, they are good looking!

Next up we have one of my favorite cartoons, Total Drama Island (think Survivor).

TDI is so crazy, mixed-up and occasionally rude-but-funny that they're coming out with a sequel next week, Total Drama Action.

I just like the way the characters look. Simply designed, you get an idea of what each is like just by looking at them, and the show is consistently funny besides.

Last in my list of cartoons I just like to look at if not neccesarily to watch, is 6teen.

Just a fun bunch to look at. You can tell what the characters are like (sort of) by glancing at the picture, the lines are clean, bright colors - just overall a nice drawing. I actually look forward to watching an episode all the way through one of these days.

Heck, I keep trying to come up with a reason I'm so drawn to these cartoons, why they strike me so right - but I really can't. They're just the sort of cartoons I'd be watching, along with Batman, Superman, Spider-Man and Ben-10. Just really well designed cartoons.

May's over.

2009-06-02T09:50:00.002-05:00

Wow. Here we are in June, already. It's raining and 48 out (yeah, I know, all you in California).

and the Cubs are in fourth place after a disastrous May.

What's wrong? How about no one could hit the furshlugginer ball?! I mean, three hits a game?! What the heck's up with that? It's darn hard to win a game on three hits, come on!

The Cubbies are massively underperforming right now (well, for the past 101 years they've been underperforming).

Good joke the priest at Mary Seat of Wisdom said Sunday. What did Jesus tell the Cubs right before the Ascention into heaven? "Don't do anything until I get back."

Well, he had a better delivery.

The priest, not the Lord. Though I'm sure Jesus could be funny, too.

You don't think God has a sense of humor? Why start all the major religions of the world within a hundred miles of each other? Couldn't Jesus have appeared in, say, Philadelphia?

Okay, I'm really losing it. Bye.

Close, But No Cigar

2009-05-28T16:17:00.002-05:00

Today I was driving to Taco Hell for lunch (they're cheap, and the Fresca option's pretty good) and I noticed that the hardware store behind the Bell was closing.
It's been there for many a year, certainly longer than I've been in Chicago and possibly longer than I've been alive - a True Value hardware store. You know (or maybe you don't) - the kind of store about three times as big as a 7-11 and packed to the gills with everything from key-cut machines to flowerbed materials, fishing lures and lines to barbecue grills and light fixtures, all arranged heaven-knows-how so you have to ask someone (invariably an older gentleman named Earl) who will instantly know what you're talking about, no matter how obscure.
That kind of store.
And it's closing.
The store that lasted through wars and recessions couldn't handle this one.
I liked that hardware store - was the only place that made keys that worked the first time (ever send your parents keys to your place, so they could use it when you're gone, and NOT have the keys work? I have - thanks a lot, Home frickin' Depot!).
When I needed some little plugs to hold up my stereo table... they had 'em. Monofilament fishing line? Had that, too.
Sadly, I guess I only went in when I needed something pretty obscure or pretty cheap or both. Kind of hard to make a living off of people like me, I suppose.
I noticed, yesterday, that the Cardsmart store in downtown Des Plaines closed. Something like overnight - I stopped in just a little while ago (when you have 14 nieces and nephews and four brothers and sisters you're constantly buying cards for birthdays, anniversaries, first communions, etc) and it's right across the street from where I occasionally go to lunch, so I was a bit surprised.
And today, I noticed that Kaffecino, a coffeeshop downtown across from the train station, was gone, too. As in, vanished, cleaned out, gone kaput... and I had just stopped off there in February and March! It had always been there, ever since I moved here... had great sandwiches, good coffee...
Gone.
Add in the local Boston Market store, the steakhouse I never went to, the Max and Erma's restaurant that I did and always, always regretted visiting, the furniture store and the Circuit City store just down the street...
That's quite a few places, all standing empty. And the only things that have opened in the past few years are a Goodwill Store and the Salvation Army store.
Not the best of times, I know.
It surprises me, I guess, how many places were living hand to mouth, month by month. If things are moving along, hey, fine, but the minute things go south... wham!
Some, like that Max and Erma's, should have closed long ago. But others, like Kaffecino, the furniture store where I got my kitchen table and chairs, and even the Cardsmart... what the heck? Are things that bad that they couldn't hang on a few more months?
Evidently, yes.
Yes they are.
I'm going to miss that old hardware store. I'm going to miss it whenever I have to go into the Home Depot or Menard's and find some piddly-ass little thing in those monster stores (well, Menard's just closed their store too, and built a new one several miles out. Thanks a lot, Menard's!), or try to. You know, where you have to go over 14 aisles for a door latch or something.
I know, I know... it's progress. The way of the world.
But I don't have to like it.

State of Play

2009-05-25T12:49:00.002-05:00

Maggie and I went to see State of Play las tnight - and it turned ot to be a very good movie, with plenty of twists and turns.
Russell Crowe plays a reporter who's out to help a friend of his, a Congressman who ju-u-u-ust made a little mistake (affair) and now the affair-gal's dead and his wife won't talk to him - oh, and the wife is kind of engaged in some hanky panky with the reporter...
There's a lot more to it than that, but it's too good to ruin with giveaways. See this movie - it's a good antedote for the summer-blockbuster-kaBOOM! movies out there, and there's plenty of suspense and even a little action and gunplay, just to make it interesting. Good film!

Happy Memorial Day!

2009-05-22T17:09:00.004-05:00

Happy Memorial Day, everyone!

Be sure and get out Monday and shop -

NO! Get out Monday and go to a cemetary or parade or some kind of service. Just remember who the day is truly for - those brave men and women who gave their lives so we and others could live in peace.

I'm marching in the Arlington Heights parade as a graduate of Arlington Heights Police Academy training program. And I'm going to see my nephew and niece play trumpet in their school bands!

Happy Memorial Day!

2009-05-22T17:09:00.001-05:00

Ghosts of Girlfriends....

2009-05-22T17:02:00.002-05:00

Hey,I went and saw "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past", the movie that just sounds like a chick flick but is actually very funny.

The lead is playing a guy who's kind of tearing up the female population by having sex with them then treating them like dirt. Turns out he's an orphan,emulating his (now dead) uncle.

He goes to his brother's house for a wedding and surprise! His uncle confronts him in the bathroom, where he's gone to sober up a bit. Read Jacob Marley - he's going to be visited by three ghosts!

Don't particularly think I'm spoiling anything by stating that it's his girlfriends Past, Present and Future! His Past girlfriend was the first girl he had sex with, the present is AT the same wedding he is, and the future doesn't talk much.

Anyway, you can see where this is all going. You could see it by the sive minute mark, actually. But you know, the guy does actually have some good points - they're just really buried. And it tales his love for his brother to bring him back to reality.

I laughed all through this movie. It's genuinely funny and well worth the ten bucks.

Hey, lookit all these discs!

2009-05-21T15:14:00.002-05:00

One thing about moving, you have to pretty much take everything. Or sell it. Or give it away.

But you do end up finding a lot of things that perhaps you just put aside or forgot about - like DVDs.

Man, I don't remember owning so many darn DVD movies. I must have forty or fifty of them! (VHS, I have a couple hundred tapes, many of them unmarked (!). Sorry, I don't really have time to go through them all). So many I've simply... forgotten.

So many I never viewed. I think once I met Maggie my personal taste in videos/DVDs no longer seemed to matter that much - no! Maggie's not a witch, or control-hog over the remote! I'd just rather spend time with her than watch a movie!

But going through the pile - where did I GET some of this stuff?!

Evidently I hit up a Blockbuster sale at one time or another - many of them are marked "pre-viewed" (though not by me!?) Odd titles, like Rustler's Rhapsody (a musical Western, I guess), Punch (a girl who fights?), Phantom of the Opera (I loved that film, and play!), Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (yep, I bought it - somewhere), Cinematic Titanic presents Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (the MST3K guys' latest version - funny!), MST3K presents Santa Claus (evidently he wasn't conquering any Martians this time).

Evidently a whole lot of movies featuring cars, trucks, motorcycles and for all I know unicycles that were secretly fighting machines - I recall some rocket firing out of one a big rig's exhaust pipes, and the front of a car folding down to reveal guns!

Evidently a whole lot of movies featuring superheroes. The Phantom (Slam Evil!). The Black Scorpion (What if Adam West were a girl?). Nyoka, Queen of the Tiger Men! (Nyoka! Duck! Wha- ugh!) Captain Marvel and the Return of the Scorpion! (Where was he returning from? Vacation in Aruba?) The Spirit! (With the guy from Flash Gordon, Sam Jones!) Superman Villains! (Rats! My Elecrto-thanusia Ray is useless against him!) Fleisher Superman Cartoons, Remastered! (Gosh, Superman, that Bullet Car the villains are using is a lot sharper now!) The Justice League - Final Frontier! (Say, how come everyone's drawn by Darwin Cooke?)

And, no, I've never seen any of them. At least, not my copies. I do get out to movies and watch TV on occasion.

The point is, I have hundreds of hours of video I've never watched. I really should sit down and watch some of this stuff, sometime.

Sometime.

This is why I quit buying stuff years ago - because I never got around to watching the things I had. There's always something interesting on, or a cool new movie, or just spending time with people you care about. There are not enough hours in a day to do everything we want to, or should. (I know I should exercise - trouble is, it takes too much time - away from everything else I want to do).

I guess I really do have a lot of catching up to do.

Oaky, tonight it's Panther Woman of the Congo night!

Terminate this.

2009-05-21T14:59:00.003-05:00

Hey, the big Terminator movie opens today! Who's going?!
...
Yeah, that's what I thought.

Coming from someone who's seen all three previous Terminator pics, and for the most part enjoyed them, I just gotta say this -

Sometimes it's best to let a story END.

Not from a movie company's point of view, of course. The "pre-sold" audience is often good enough to make back whatever it cost in a week or two. The source doesn't even have to be that good in the first place - Beverly Hillbillies and Dukes of Hazard were fine TV shows, but did we really need a film version?

Now, I'm sure this movie has all the kick-ass metal robots you could want, fighting to destroy the evil forces of the Decepticons. But how many times do we have to see An Indestructible Man-Robot shrug off anti-tank weapons?

Then again, take Star Trek. Possibly a better film than the TV series, certainly more action-oriented... should they have not made Trek #13 or whatever it was?

After all, we're still reading comics starring hcaracters from the 1940's, you realize that? Even Marvel's main characters are pushing forty, at least.

I don't know... should they have re-made Batman - again? Or Sherlock Holmes - again? Or John Dillinger - again? Or -

Well, you get the idea.

Sigh, I suppose I'll be going to see the Terminator. Sometime.

Just not on opening weekend.

After all, I still have my pride. :)

And if THAT doesn't attract comments...

2009-05-17T20:10:00.001-05:00

I might as well throw in the towel.

Obama at Notre Dame

2009-05-17T19:45:00.002-05:00

A number of people keep askig my opinion, mostly because I'm the only guy that went to Notre Dame they know, I suppose.

Frankly, I would have prefered if they didn't ask him. But once they did, I would prefer that the protests be a lot less... noisy.

See, I remember when they protested President Reagan there, too. Equal opportunity, I suppose.

It does strike me as wrong for the nation's leading Catholic university to honor a man who is pretty much against two big issues in the church - stem cells and abortion. Frankly, I don't care whether you agree or not. The point being, if you are going to stand for something, then by God stand for something! If the Church is against abortion, then stand up for that position! (Heck, if the Church were FOR abortion, I'd feel the same way - at least remain consistent!)

I forget her name right now, but the recipient of Laetare Medal, a high honor from ND, turned down the award because she'd have to appear and give legitimacy to Barack Obama, which she didn't want to do. Again, whether or not you agree is not the issue. It's that a woman chose to quietly make a stand, and for the first time since 1880-something there will not be a Medal awarded this year. That's standing up for your beliefs.

But, you say, aren't the protestors standing up for their beliefs? That abortion is murder?

Well, yes - and I have no problem with people quietly protesting, or deciding to simply not attend (as did the local bishop and 88 other bishops). I think people should be reasonable and not out to wave signs with aborted babies on them or some such - that does their cause more harm than good, IMHO.

Of course, if people were reasonable - there's a very big if.

Course, that kind of ruins the idea behind the protesting, which I get, but... I still wish people could be a little more reasonable about such things.

Frankly, I believe ND blew it when they extended the invitation. What on earth were they thinking? to "score' a big commencement speaker?

Well, they did get him to come and speak, but they also honored him with a degree.

I maintain that the "preeminent Catholic university in the land" ought to at least try to stick to promoting Catholic doctrine. It's a Catholic university - one of only a relative few. There are plenty of schools which could give a degree to President Obama (note - he spoke at Arizona State, and THEY didn't give him a degree!).

In short ( a tad late, I know) I'm not quite ashamed of ND, but I do question their judgement.

OK - so I saw Star Trek last night...

2009-05-16T17:10:00.002-05:00

I really enjoyed the new Star Trek movie, presented in IMAX.
Truth to tell, I couldn't really tell, other than it was one helluva big screen, what made it IMAX, but that's just quibbling I suppose. It was worth the fourteen (!) bucks.

All the time travel -alternate universe stuff was a little difficult to follow - I'm glad (for once) that I had read someone's review and they mentioned that time travel was involved.

I also wasn't clear on whether Uhura had a Super Power of mind-blowing Telepathy and Super-Hearing, or just was plugged into the right channels.

And I wasn't too clear on why lil' Kirk was out driving a Corvette in the desert, in Iowa (Idaho?). I mean, did we really need to see that to know he's a bit irresponsible?

Seriously,those are my only three quibbles about the film. The rest - 98.99999%! - I enjoyed immensely.

SPOILERS TO FOLLOW

(As if I haven't already ruined the film somewhat)

Boy, just so many good scenes. Bones and Kirk being such good friends, Spock and Kirk being such not-good friends (he puts him on a pod and rockets him to nowheresville? That I'd call "not-good"). Scotty's fun-loving attitude. Uhuru's take-charge I'm on the Enterprise talk. Heck, Uhuru kissing Spock. Several times.

The guys space-diving onto the drill. The rescue of Captain Pike (as opposed to, say, Captain Carp or Captain Sunfish). Spock and Kirk teleporting in to the "deserted" landing bay (and subsequent poom poom shooting gallery!). Vulcan biting the big one! The difficulty of transporting people - you have to lock on to them and they can't be moving around!

The spaceship battles! The sword-fighting battle! Kirk getting repeatedly pasted, over and over! (Waitaminute...)

At first, I admit, each time a character appeared it was kind of a shock, seeing someone else play the roles. But then, it only lasted a couple of minutes, tops. This guy IS James T. Kirk, that guy IS Spock, that other guy IS Scotty...

Frankly, the entire cast really was excellent. Even Chekov's funny pronounciations were funny! The movie was funny where it had to be, serious where it had to be... overall, a great time!

And Leonard Nimoy, who, I admit, I never really cared for that much (actually, I never really cared much for any of them except for Bones and Scotty, and that was probably because I had met them once or thrice and was really impressed... ah, let's face it, I never really cared that much for Star Trek at all, in any incarnation. Sure, I watched Next Gen on occasion, but I never really CARED about them the way I did for, say, Star Wars' original cast.)

Well, consider that problem solved.

I really enjoyed Spock as a kind of rebellious bad-ass, Scotty as kind of a drunk (though not actually so) fun loving Scotsman, Kirk as the kind of smart-aleck that you'd want to punch real hard if he'd just stop backing it up!, Uhuru as a take-charge kind of gal... I just loved the whole movie!

I even liked the updates to the uniforms - kind of grew on me after awhile.

And I SO want there to be more adventures!

Star Trekkin', Across the Universe....

2009-05-16T17:08:00.001-05:00

On the Starship Enterprise
Under Captain Kirk.
Star Trekkin'
Across the Universe,
Boldly going forward
'Cause we can't find reverse!

I moved this past weekend

2009-05-04T15:59:00.002-05:00

Yes, you read that right. I moved.

Ten miles down the road.

Why?

Well, long story short, I could not afford to stay in the townhouse any longer.

I'm now in a two bedroom apartment, which admittedly isn't so bad (it's actually rather nice, and I DO have a place, which is also nice) but it's a far cry from having a townhome with a garage and relatively speaking, a lot more space.

This becomes important when you have to, say, put the dining room in storage, or look for someplace to store your comic collection, or just put away your Christmas decorations.

Admittedly, this has been coming awhile. My paycheck has been squeezed just at the same time taxes andbills keep going up, including the condo fees. I figure it was costing me something like nine hundred fifty a month just in taxes and fees, which is pretty high for a townhome.

I'm feeling... well, humiliation. Loss. And many more less than charitable, less than pleasant thoughts.

Truth to tell, I should have done something years ago, but you just get in that kind of situation where you hope things get better tomorrow. Well, tomorrow came.

On the one hand, it's a nice apartment complex I moved into - one of those that's set up with individual entrances and nice views of the lake (neccessary for flood control, but still...). I'm in a townhome unit, with two bedrooms upstairs and a living room and dining area downstairs. Pretty nice all things considered.

But also much, much smaller, which means I'll have to be getting rid of a lot of stuff. Some of which I don't mind getting rid of, other stuff of which I do mind very much.

I mean, I realize that having a roof over my head and all is great, and I really could have been a lot worse off, but still, moving when you don't really want to is not fun, let's put it that way.

OK, this is kind of weird, but...

2009-04-23T15:30:00.002-05:00

I'll just come right out and say it.

I can't get the wrapping off of soda straws anymore.

Seriously. Did they suddenly make the paper stronger, or what?

Every time I get a straw from McDonald's or Eros or Speedway, I can't seem to open the straws anymore. You know how you just whip the wrapping off? Can't do it.

I usually end up having to tear a path all the way around the straw, then shove both pieces off but that only works about one in three. The other times I have to literally peel the paper or plastic off the straw all the way down.

I don't know why - I'm certainly not too weak (I can carry a good sized suitcase all the way through the airport, no problem). I should be able to handle a straw.

This just happened to me, over the past four or five weeks. But I've been unable to simply open up a soda straw.

Very odd. And very frustrating. It's like my brain just won't let me open one.

Sigh.

Still bitterly cold here...

2009-04-07T14:25:00.002-05:00

Just walked back a mile from Just Tires (hit a pothole - meh) and with the wind and all, it's about 36 degrees out (though bright and sunny - go figure).

And I passed a water-filled hole in a parking lot that was surrounded by bits of broken asphalt and mud. It reminded me a lot of my childhood, for some reason. I guess we used to have water-filled holes like that around the neighborhood, where the driveways hit the road. Funny how things remind you of the past.

Ah, spring. when the trees and lawns green up, and winter's bite is stilled in favor of cool winds.

I kind of feel sorry for you who live in areas where there are no change of seasons - not really. California definately does not benefit from the change, even though it can be claimed they have a winter. You just miss so much.

When I lived in Buffalo, I noticed that they made the most of the good weather, EVERY DAY. There were concerts on the M&T Bank steps, every day. Countless festivals and church picnics and outdoor concerts and fairs and... EVERY frickin' week! One summer I ate exclusively at church picnics on the weekends (Chabetta's chicken - mmm!) and often during the week.

People there really enjoyed summer - because they knew it was not to last long at all. In California it seemed people took the good weather a little for granted.

Even with the economy biting on our throats and all that, try this summer to get out to all those free festivals and National Parks and stuff that doesn't cost much, but really livens up a day. Maggie and I are planning to hit a couple parks this summer that are within driving distance, just to enjoy the day. And Arlington Racetrack is always fun.

Because although summer's not even here yet, it will soon be gone :)

It's Opening Day!

2009-04-06T08:37:00.002-05:00

... and it's snowing in Chicago, causing postponement of the Sox' opener until tomorrow. Cubs are still playing at Houston tonight!

And...

An Ode to Opening Day

Ah, April in Chicago
Oh, the thrill of op'ning day!
(Let's overlook the weather
And the White Sox snow delay.)
It's April in Chicago
And the season starts anew
So what if we've got wind and sleet
Instead of springtime dew?
It's baseball, not just daffodils,
That tells us spring is here
It's Guillen and Piniella
It's the peanuts and the beer.
From Wrigley to Comiskey—
Oops, I mean to say The Cell—
Our hopes will come to life again
We'll shed our winter shell.
Yes, baseball's back, at last, at last
To bat away the blues
The games arrive like sunshine
Blagojevich indicted!
The economy's a mess!
Plus parking, potholes, crooks and crimes!
We need some anti-stress!
And so we turn to baseball
Seeking solace from the team
Yeah, yeah, they blew it last time
But it's April, we can dream.
Konerko's gonna kill this year
And Cub fans, please take note:
In April there's no need to think
About the bleepin' goat.
Obama's in the White House
He's Chicago's biggest fan
A trip to the World Series?
Si se puede! Yes we can!
If history tells our fortune
We will feel like fools by fall
But never mind the future, folks,
It's April. Let's play ball.

-Mary Schmich, Chicago Tribune

Is anyone out there?

2009-03-31T09:45:00.002-05:00

Just curious - am I blogging to myself or does someone actually read these things?

I have to ask because I haven't had a comment in ages (okay, weeks). I have to ask because I saw a Tshirt that said something like "more people have read this than your blog". I have to ask because maybe I'm just not posting anything interesting here and am boring you to death.

Give me a hint. Please. If you are reading this would you just let me know if I'm boring or uninteresting or perhaps increadibly interesting ( :) ) ?

I'd really like to know.

Ther's no business like snow business like no...

2009-03-30T08:25:00.002-05:00

It snowed here overnight. About two inches of snow, heavy and white, clinging to trees and sidewalks and rooftops and lawns.

It's nearly April. Will we get more snow in April?

This really isn't bad, considering what they're going through in Fargo and other places.

But it IS rather annoying - and I like snow. Seriously. I wish we had a full winter of a foot on the ground - at least - rather than this rather pathetic two inches at a time crapola.

Sigh.

It'll be melted by this afternoon, I'm sure. But it sure did look nice.

KC

Riverdance, ya scrod!

2009-03-24T16:41:00.002-05:00

No I have no idea what that means, it just sounds kind of Irish.

Maggie and I went to see Riverdance this weekend, our third time, but first at the Rosemont Theatre. It's really more of an auditorium than a theatre - big, wide space. Of which we found ourselves sitting way way over to the right.

Oh, well, we'd see the show from an angle, that was okay.

Then an usher comes up and shoos us out of our seats. We weren't quite sure what was up.

She took us down to the VERY middle in the VERY front row. Best seats in the house, bar none!

What had we done to deserve this, I'll never know. She did fill in the whole row with other people, but we were in the exact center.

It was a good show, with a few minor tweaks from past performances. The men seemed to have hang time as they flew across the stage, with prodigious leaps (see the vocab you pick up from reading The Incredible Hulk?). The gals were fleet of feet as well.

All in all, a lovely night, made all the better because an usher decided we had "lousy seats" (her term) and she gave us better ones.

Thanks, Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are tonight!

A fine day... if you don't count...

2009-03-24T16:25:00.004-05:00

It's about fifty degrees outside, grey clouds overhead, rain beginning to fall...

Beautiful day.

See, I'm kind of looking at it as half-full, or maybe three-quarters. I'm still employed, I have a roof over my head, I have enough food to eat.

This Sunday, like every Sunday, I headed over to Maggie's for a family-watching of The Amazing Race. Couples engage in a race around the world, and you get to see them at their worst and at their best. Mainly their best, because in this go-round, there's really no one you WANT to see eliminated (the lawyers, maybe, but they're by and large nice people like everyone else in this race).

This last Sunday they travelled from a rather nice, normally-industrialized place (Siberia) to, well, frankly, the dung hole of the world, that part of India. Children ran naked in the streets, cows and bison and oxen and monkeys wandered about, the place made "Slumdog Millionaire" look like Times Square.

It must have been "bad" - several of the teams... cried. Genuinely moved to tears, upset that they were travelling in cars when it was obvious that many of these folks never had.

No, I'm not one to fall for any old stunt by a "reality" show team, but these folks were genuinely upset. They didn't make a big deal out of it, but occasionally the camera caught them crying.

Which, I'm sad to say, I probably wouldn't have done. Oh, sure, I'd feel bad and all, but moved to tears? No matter how bad it got? Probably not.

Believe me, I'm not bragging.

It did make me evaluate life a little more. Yeah, I'm not rich - so what? Compared to these people I'm butt-kicking rich. I have family - I'll bet a lot of those kids were orphans. It just...
made me think, that's all.

And as the drizzle starts to fall, here, I look out over clean, open skies and thank God for what I do have.

A home. Food. Maggie.

Couldn't get much better if I tried for a hundred years.

First Day of Spring

2009-03-20T09:27:00.001-05:00

Spring is sprung

The grass is riz

I wonder where

Da birdies is?

Green over red - Ireland forever!

2009-03-17T15:05:00.002-05:00

Ah, the traffic light - red over yellow over green.

Not always.

There is one traffic light in all the land where the green supercedes the red. To see it you'd have to go to the center of New York State, to Syracuse. There, in the neighborhood known as Tipperary Hill, a light hangs proudly over the corner of Tompkins Street and Milton Avenue - green over the red.
When the Irish fled their homeland in the early part of this century, they came to Syracuse in droves. Hundreds of immigrant families huddled together could not stomach the British red over the Irish green, even if it was only a traffic light. Tired of replacing the light, the city fathers gave in to the "stonethrowers" and installed a light with the green on top - where it still hands today.
At the northeast corner of the intersection is the Tipperary Hill Memorial Park, paved with hundreds of commemorative bricks engraved with names of financial contributors or their loved ones.
The central feature of the park is the Tipperary Hill Heritage Memorial, bronze, life-size sculpted figures of a 1930s immigrant family. The scene includes a mother, father, daughter, and son. The father is shown pointing to the famous traffic light, as his family listens to the history of the hill. The son has a sling shot in his back pocket, hinting that he might know a little bit of the history of the light.

The sculpture, created by Dexter Benedict, integrates perfectly with the neighborhood and the light, giving one the feeling that the figures are as much ghosts as bronze.
My grandparents immigrated to the Hill and stayed their all their lives; my father was raised mere blocks from the famed light. When I was younger my father took us to see the light, and probably pointed to it in much the same way as that statuary does today.
Over the years our family has spread across the United States, but with the large number of relations and friends in Syracuse we all seem to come back quite frequently. On many of those occasions you can find us gathered at Coleman's Authentic Irish Pub, just a block down the street.
And after we've caught up with everyone and listened to some music and had a drink or two, we always take that short walk up the block and look at the light - green over the red.

Irish Eyes

2009-03-17T14:59:00.003-05:00

This song has always meant a great deal to me.
Of all the many Irish songs, this is one that speaks to true, heartfelt joy. I heard it a lot growing up, and over the years it became my grandfather's theme song of sorts.
I saw a lot of my grandfather when I was younger, living in the same city. Even after we moved away, I still got back to Syracuse several times a year. He lived quite a few years after seeing see me graduate from Notre Dame, but when his time finally came it grieved me terribly.
I've always thought of funeral Masses as some of the darkest hours on Earth, especially those said for loved ones - and in most ways that held true for my grandfather's.
Until, that is, the time came to carry my grandfather from the church - and they began playing this song.
Such a sprightly tune at such a dark moment was more than an affirmation of heritage - it was an affirmation of faith, that he truly was headed for a better place.
For me. to this day, he and this song are indelibly linked.

I even have a green stuffed bear with a leprechaun hat, perched on my nightstand. It "sings" this song...

When Irish eyes are smiling
Sure it's like a morning spring.
In the lilt of Irish laughter,
You can hear the angels sing.
When Irish hearts are happy,
All the world seems bright and gay.
And when Irish eyes are smiling,
Sure, they steal your heart away.

There's a tear in your eye,
and I'm wondering why,
For it never should be there at all.
With such power in your smile,
sure a stone you'd beguile,
So there's never a teardrop should fall.
When your sweet lilting laughter's like some fairy song,
And your eyes twinkle bright as can be,
You should laugh all the while and all other times smile,
And now smile a smile for me.

Chorus:
When Irish eyes are smiling
Sure it's like a morning spring.
In the lilt of Irish laughter,
You can hear the angels sing.
When Irish hearts are happy,
All the world seems bright and gay.
And when Irish eyes are smiling,
Sure, they steal your heart away.

Happy St Patrick's Day, everyone!

Who's this St. Patrick guy, anyway?

2009-03-17T14:58:00.000-05:00

Ah, yes, March 17th - when the Irish (and reasonable facsimilies) get together to celebrate and honor St. Patrick, who... uh...
Just who is this Saint Patrick fellow, anyway?
Well, almost fifteen centuries ago, a Gaelic family relocated to Britain, then part of the Holy Roman Empire. Their child was baptized Patricius, which meant "noble".
Patricius seems to have lived fairly comfortably until he was sixteen - when he was kidnapped. He worked as a slave until he was 22, herding sheep (which, as slavery goes, could have been worse...).
Having had enough of sheep, apparently, Patricius (ohhhh, let's just call him Patrick and get it over with) escaped, and eventually returned to Ireland to do missionary work for the Church. For the next forty years he traveled the countryside, preaching the faith and establishing churches and schools.
Legend has it that Patrick used the lowly shamrock to demonstrate the mystery of the Holy Trinity to the Irish. As God is three persons but one God, so then does the shamrock have three stems in one plant.
The word shamrock, by the by, is derived from the Irish seamrog, which means "summer plant" in Gaelic.
Another legend has it that Patrick drove the venomous snakes out of Ireland by beating on his drum (I've heard Irish bands that bad, myself). To this day there are no vipers on the Emerald Isle.
Patrick is alleged to have died on March 17, 493. He was later canonized upon confirmation of two miracles attributed to him, and became the patron saint of Ireland. To this day St. Patrick is a national hero to the Irish, who have embraced him and his symbol, the shamrock.

Oh, and lest I forget...

2009-03-08T17:29:00.001-05:00

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/485797

Saturday Morning Watchmen.

There're a number of cute bits in here (like who saves the Comedian from a fall). Check it out.

Who watches the Watchmen? Well... me, for one.

2009-03-08T16:55:00.003-05:00

Well, looks like we've all seen the Watchmen movie now, judging from the different blogs out there.

I apologize for the late post, considering that I saw it Friday night at 7. didn't have access to the Internet before now...

I showed up pretty early before the show, a good twenty-five minutes, and went into Theater 15 at South Barrington. Now, I like South Barrington AMC - mainly because it's 30 theaters and that's it. No arcades, restaurants, or other distractions to cause the kids to hang out. If you go out to South Barrington, there's NOTHING there but movie theaters (yes, Brass the bar/restaurant is closed). It just attracts a different sort of crowd - the kind that comes out to see MOVIES, dammit! :)

So. I've been out here a lot in the past several years, but I never had the opportunity to go into Theater 15. It was freaking HUGE. Took up most of the middle part of the building, probably.I got into the front row of the "angled" seats (there were still eight rows in front of me, but they were "flat" on the ground - I was up high right in the middle, and happily waited with my F&%$#! expensive popcorn and drink combo (the ONLY thing I don't like about the AMC) for the movie to begin.

Wow.

Just... wow.

The opening sequence alone was worth it (kinda makes you wonder why Rorshach was all over the Comedian's murder, but Silhouette gets killed and nobody seems to care?).

I loved the movie. Never felt the time drag (except when Dr. Manhattan was talking :) ). I had been a little nervous, considering the Chicago Tribune gave it only 1 1/2 stars - and for the reasons the critic had offered. Bad martial arts in the fight scenes (really?! I thought they were terrificly brutal and had a style all their own!), Silk Spectre's lack of acting skills (didn't notice, but that might have been the latex costume), "confusing" timeline (What? I followed it, and hadn't read the graphic novel for twenty years! Give us some credit!) and constant references to the novel (supposed to be too confusing for normals, seeing as they didn't know what to look for, but hey, I followed it just fine!).

All in all, I found it to be a brutal (oh, I am SO sorry for those kids the grown-ups dragged to the movie in Jim McClain's report - didn't notice any in South Barrington) and honest film, with its own internal logic that it seemed always to follow. I found the story pretty much straightforward and even a little predictable (since I am a fan after all) but they really pulled it off - from the Gunga Diner to the newstand to the Comedian's weapons locker to Mars to Veidt's Antarctic hangout, the sets were absolutely spot on. PER-fection.

The actors were pretty good. Manhattan was New-Age-Pontificatingly-Annoying, Rorshach was a genuinely frightening sociopath (but I loved his apology to Nightowl!), Nightowl was sufficiently nerdy but could get the job done, Silk Spectre was sexy and a badass fighter too... Comedian was perfect, just the big jerk I had expected but with some heroism behind his attitude.

No one's going to win an Oscar for this thing (I don't think Rorshach was THAT much of a stretch or THAT good of an acting job - sorry, Jimbo). But then again, no one HAS to.

To play off what Jim McClain wrote yesterday, we saw the Watchmen and it was good. It would be nice to have everyone ooh and ahh about it, but probably not with that amount of blood and sex (people seem to be funny about blood and sex and making it with a superhero in their super-vehicle).

Still.

WELL done, sirs! WELL done!

KC

Happy Casimir Pulaski Day!

2009-03-02T10:07:00.002-06:00

No, I am not kidding.

Today Chicago celebrates one of the American Revolution's heroes, calvary General Casimir Pulaski.

True, he's celebrated in towns with large Polish communities (he was Polish, by the by) - Chicago, Buffalo, Grand Rapids (which celebrates with a week in October), the state of Kentucky.

Then, too, there's the Pulaski Brige in New York City, the Pulaski Skyway in New Jersey, the Pulaski Bridge on I-65 in Indiana, and even a village in Wisconsin.

So doff your cap to one of America's heroes, without whom General Washington wouldn't have had a calvary (or at least, a very poor one) - General Pulaski!

Good Morning, Americans...

2009-03-01T15:49:00.002-06:00

Paul Harvey passed away yesterday.

Granted, he was 90.

And his wife and partner had passed on last July.

But Paul Harvey was known as the voice of middle America, for good reason.

Based out of Chicago but wintering in Pheonix, he had long been the one to whom millions of Americans turned for his 15 minute takes on the news. His delivery, use of pauses, and friendly demeanor won people over.

I am really going to miss Paul Harvey...

Good day.

Batter Up!

2009-02-23T15:34:00.004-06:00

Baseball season is here again!
Yaaaaayyyy!
Arizona is filling up with major leaguers, ready to get out and play ball! I understand that within about a twenty minute drive there are several ballparks, allowing one to truly enjoy the game if one so wished.
Ahh, it's springtime in Arizona (still bitterly cold here!). Couldn't be better.
I like football, and enjoy the occasional hockey game (go Sabres!) but I LOVE baseball.
Might even get out to a few Cubs games this year...

KC

Winners... and...

2009-01-29T12:21:00.002-06:00

Last night while clicking around I passed the Chicago Bulls on television.
Remember when the Bulls used to be good? I mean, they dominated the league at one time, didn't they?
Same with my Dad's favorite football team, the San Francisco 49ers. It wasn't all that long ago when they were on top of the world. Now?

Feh.

Just sort of slipped into a pattern of... I don't know, mediocrity.

It's not just sports teams. Circuit City, big store on the block, gone for good. Bombay Company, Bennegin's.

Not just retail - banks like Washington Mutual. National City. Big, strong names. Kaput.

Sometimes... it seems like someone pulled the drain plug on life, and all the things we've always had, are going down that drain.

Ford, GM, Chrysler - no matter what some people say, they didn't build bad cars. I've had Chryslers for nigh on 20 years and would be very happy to buy another - if they're going to be around, that is. Some people come down on them for building trucks and SUVs but let's face it, it's what we bought. What we wanted.

The car companies' problem was that they thought and acted like the good times were going to go on forever.

As did I. As did many of us, I expect.

I still recall when Grant's went out of business. Grant's was kind of like a smaller-scale KMart type store, but it had always been there, in Camillus Plaza... until one day it wasn't.

I had bought fish for my aquarioum there, I had bought 45 records (tells you how long ago this was). But I still felt... I don't know, abandoned?

I know a couple of dozen people who've lost their jobs recently, at some pretty big name places. Seems like everyone's cutting back.

I don't know, exactly, what I'm getting at, here. Just commenting on a very sad state of affairs.

Back... to the Future!

2008-12-20T14:57:00.004-06:00

Well, at least back to something.
Last night I went to a sold-out performance of a show that's been off the air for ten years.
"In the not-so-distant future, next Sunday A.D. ... "
Recognize it?
It's the starting line of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (or MST3K)!
That's right, the whole MST3K cast was in town to do 3 different live shows, Thursday, Friday and Saturday! People came down from Michigan, Wisconsin, and Indiana to see the show - and judging from Friday's first show (they did repeats on Friday and Saturday nights) it was totally worth it!
Calling themselves Cinematic Titanic now, and ditching the robots from MST3K, the six MST3K alumni ripped a film called "House of Vampires!", a Filipino movie thankfully free of copyright. The film was set in Mexico, and it really isn't that important what the plot involved (a House of Vampires?) but the comments came fast and funny.
It's quite different seeing an MST3K show "live" and in a theater (The Lakeshore Theater - hoo hah!) than on tape or CD. The whole audience is laughing at the jokes, making it easy to enjoy the craziness.
I got everyone to autograph "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" for me - you may recall that MST3K did a takeoff on "SCCTM" already, THAT version meade me roll on the floor in hysterics, so this version should be good.
Afte that, I went to a chili restaurant called Chili Macs (whose specialty was.... chili mac!) for some chili (sans mac) and walked up and down Broadway, enjoying the pulse of that part of the city. It was so... alive! So... New York City! Stores were open and video shops and theaters and Chili Macs!
Needless to say, the MST3K - Cinematic Titanic bunch left me in a great mood, and so too many of the other audience members, who I got to talk with while waiting in line to get my car out of the garage.

All in all, an excellent night!

October ball

2008-10-24T09:12:00.003-05:00

Well, I can't help but stare at the television and wonder "what if".

If we hadn't won a record number of games, for our team at least, I probably would have given up long ago.

You see, I believe it's much less painful to come in fourth or fifth... than second. In virtually anything.

Second means you had a chance. Second means you were this close. Second means you can taste it.

No one really remembers who came in second, anyway. Or third or fourth or fifth. We remember the winners.

It's good baseball. I guess I'm rooting for the Phillies but either team's got a good story.

Sigh.

It's gonna take me some time to get over this one.

Well... that certainly sucks.

2008-10-10T09:11:00.003-05:00

Oh, really? ;)

The National League playoffs have begun, and it's the Dodgers versus the Phillies.

Not a Cub in the bunch.

Maybe the Cubs shouldn't have rested after clinching so early. Maybe they shouldn't have rested their pitchers. Maybe the Dodgers were that good.

Maybes aside, it's all for naught.

Why did they discombobulate right when it mattered most?

I guess we'll never know.

I guess we'll just have to say it, like we've said it again and again and again.

Wait til next year.

Stroke... what an ugly word

2008-10-02T09:44:00.002-05:00

It figures.

I had my total physical (EKG, blood work, tetnus shot included) and came out fine. Diabetes under control, blood pressure under control, weight under control. I'm feeling pretty darn good.

Cubs are due to start playing their first game in what hopefully will be a long series - wow, I'm feeling pretty darn good!

I get to my cell phone - and have eight messages.

I NEVER have eight messages.

Turns out, my father had a stroke and is in the hospital.

Coming back from San Francisco, he started driving erraticly - swerving in and out of lanes. My mom thought he just was a little under with his diabetes, and they stopped and he ate something...

But later that night, he started talking goobledegook and it went downhill from there. Luckily my brother-in-law was there to flag down the ambulance (my parents live far back off the street and it's DARK there) and my sister was visiting from Atlanta so she got to take care of my grandmother while my mom and other sister followed the ambulance...

Sigh.

I mean, we had seen this coming, kind of... but not so soon. My Dad hasn't reached seventy yet.

He doesn't take care of himself. Doesn't go to sleep until early morning and then sleeps in until noon or so. Just sits and watches TV. What happened to my Dad?

Look, I know bad stuff happens.

To a lot of good people.

Heck, I caught up with my sister at the pulmonologists for a three year old, just got out of the hopsital - again. Breathing problems, collapsed lung - you know, the usual.

It's just... well, until fairly recently, my Dad was a big, bold man who lived life heartily and all, and now he's... old. Rapidly growing older.

Who knows, it maybe a transient ischemia - that means it just goes away.

But it never goes away entirely. Life is going to be changing in big ways for not only my parents, but for Shannon and Ben and their three kids (live only eight miles away) and my grandmother, who's got her own set of problems but hey, she's 95 :) .

I know there's really no sense complaining about it - although I hope I'm venting, not actually complaining. You deal with what life deals you and go on, I know that.

You can't do much else, really.

It's just, well... he's my Dad.

2008-09-26T10:38:00.005-05:00

Aw, heck, it's probably too early to post this, but there's a little tune that everyone's been singing after a Cubs win (literally - the whole stadium gets into it)... and I've been humming it all morning, so here goes...

Go, Cubs, go!
Go, Cubs, go-o-o!
Hey, Chicago, what do you say?
The Cubs are gonna win today!
They got the power, they got the speed
To be the best in the National League.
Well this is the year and the Cubs are real
So come on down to Wrigley Field!
We're singing now
Go, Cubs, go!
Go, Cubs, go-o-o!
Hey, Chicago, what do you say?
The Cubs are gonna win today!
Baseball time is here again.
You can catch it all on WGN.
So stamp you feet and clap your hands -
Chicago Cubs got the greatest fans.
You're singing now
Go, Cubs, go!
Go, Cubs, go-o-o!
Hey, Chicago, what do you say?
The Cubs are gonna win today!

Oh, you just knew I'd have to mention it...

2008-09-22T13:56:00.002-05:00

Cubs clinched.

And Maggie and I went up to Cedarburg, WI, for their Wine and Harvest festival.

Cedarburg is one of those small cities that you don't think really exists anymore. Downtown is eight blocks ong, anchored on one end by a church and the other by an old mill winery. In between is full of little restaurants (I do mean little) and gift stores and florists and meat markets (home of the damn BEST apple brats you ever tasted!) and ice cream stores (where you can still get an apple dumpling with ice cream for two bucks. Can't get a cone for that around here!).
It has more than a downtown - it has many neighborhoods and an ice rink and even a McDonald's and a Dairy Queen (so it's a reasonable sized city, I guess).
You have to understand something here - even though I always lived in the suburbs, it's always been in the suburbs of a reasonably large city. I guess South Bend was the smallest city I've lived aside, and even that was reasonably large. San Jose, Sacramento, Buffalo, Chicago? Definitely large!
Maybe there are a lot of those towns out there - just sitting in the middle of nowhere, still operating and not slowly dying... but color me pleasantly surprised that Cedarburg, the Smallville of Wisconsin, is still there and still kicking.
Nice to know.

Oh, and the night the Cubs clinched we went to the play Damn Yankees. Not only was it baseball oriented? It starred -

The Washington Senators!

Americana would approve.

Oh-h-h-hh, man!

2008-09-19T08:12:00.001-05:00

Cubs were down four runs, bottom of the ninth, two outs, nobody on.

They won.

They won?

Four runs down, one out left and they won?

It's never over until it's over.

This is the year!

Funerals and Moving

2008-09-18T13:44:00.003-05:00

Well, just got back from the funeral for Maggie's cousin Richard.

He had been sick for quite some time, and when he went to the hospital Maggie and I visited on two occasions, including the night before he passed away.

Last night was the wake, and though his family is Polish, not Irish, the feeling was one of more joy than sadness. His sons and daughters came in from New Hampshire and Carolina and Ohio, and there were plenty of Maggie's local relations there as well (her entire family lives within seven miles of my house. Literally.).

Mass today was a little sadder, but then, I always choke up a little at funerals. Must be the music or something. :)

Seriously, every time my family gets together it seems it's at a funeral. And now Maggie's family.

I think I will be planning a multi-family get -together soon, not on a holiday or anything but just to get together. You never know when, you know?

I've moved a lot - I've lived in Albany, Boston, Syracuse, Buffalo, San Jose, Sacramento, Buffalo (again!) and Chicago, with school in South Bend thrown in there for good measure.

Maggie has moved - um, never.

Her family has moved around but generally stayed within Arlington Heights or close to it.

So have a lot of my relations - they've never left the Syracuse area, even though they may have moved around a bit.

It's a different experience, a different lifestyle - but I think I'd like to see my brothers and sisters more often.

Of course, they live in Atlanta, Washington DC, and San Jose, so that kind of makes it difficult.

I don't know... it's just good to have family near. And when they're not, to make the time to see them/

Cubbies Magic Number is still 4

2008-09-18T13:44:00.000-05:00

We're going to the play-y-y-y-y-y-offs. Some time. :)

Carlos Zambrano Rides Again!

2008-09-15T16:55:00.000-05:00

Last night the Cubs-Astros game got moved to Milwaukee, since Houston is kind of a mess right now. Milwaukee has long been known as Wrigley North, by the way.

Carlos Zambrano came back after several weeks off and we wondered about his injured shoulder.

It must have gotten better.

He pitched a no-hitter, the first for the Cubs in 32 years.

The first ever in a "neutral" ballpark.

The Cubs won again today too.

Maybe.

Just maybe.

This is the year.

Floods

2008-09-15T16:43:00.000-05:00

First, the floods.

Chicago has been hit with the most rain ever recorded. Up to 11" in some places, more like nine out where I live.

Do you really know how much 9" of rain is? Consider the ground is sopped and can't absorb anymore, and the cement and buildings and tar parking lots certainly can't absorb it, and that it's all gotta go somewhere...

A soccer field near us had 25 feet of water on it. Granted, it's lower as a retention area just for such emergencies, but 25 feet of water is still damn impressive.

Maggie got stuck coming home from driving a guy over to the dialysis center (wotta gal!) - all the roads coming from there to here were impassible. In Des Plaines only two north south streets remained open and only three east west. That's for the whole dang town.

We had a lot of water.

The retention ponds in my development overflowed, which is pretty impressive since a few days ago they were ten feet down, at least. Now they extend clear to the street.

But the skies cleared, cloudy but no rain today, and we're not due for any more until Saturday. So. looks like my neighborhood dodged a big bullet (since all our lower floors are halfway into the ground - half-basement, half-room!). Unfortunately, many of my neighbors did not dodge the bullet and streets are still pretty much impassible in many areas. Took several of us three hours into work today, trying to find a dry route in. Normally takes 20, 30 minutes.

Still, I couldn't help thinking as I watched Ray Kroc's #1 and #1000 MCDonalds go under water , and the Interstates closed and O'Hare airport cut off - what power the water has! Nothing to do but get out of the way - no amount of sandbags could stop it. Just sort of a reminder that for all man's great works and cool buildings and well-engineered roads, heaven and nature still can wipe it away with a shrug.

Just kind of makes you think of your own mortality, is all.

I'm not sick... yet.

2008-09-10T08:29:00.000-05:00

Bad news: The Cubbies have lost 7 out of their last 8 games.

Good news: Milwaukee and the others in pursuit have played badly too. Cubbies still lead by four and a half.

Bad news: The Cubbies still have to play St Louis (our archenemies) and worse, six games against Milwaukee!

Good news: The Cubbies usually kick Milwaukee's butt.

Bad news: But that means that we're playing for the pennant directly against our number 2 rival.

Good news: You'd rather play Arizona? Maybe we're better off coming in second, at that.

Good news: The Cubs are definately in the playoffs.

Bad News: They've gotta get their swing back, their winning ways back! They've just gotta!

Good news: They will.

Let's go Cubs!

They're at the Post!

2008-09-09T14:43:00.000-05:00

One of the things I enjoy about this area is that there is a racetrack nearby.

Not one of those dingy, dirty little tracks with horses pulling buggies and spiderweb-strewn betting windows. No, I'm talking about a mammoth operation with gleaming white spires and acres of horsebarns and areas to watch the horses.

I'm talking Arlington Park.

Arlington is quite the place - huge, yet divvied up so nicely you never feel crowded or lost. I've felt crowded and lost at a dog track (WAY smaller!).

They have nice self-service betting machines and you can get whatever you want to eat there, and the track is very nicely kept and they have huge viewscreens so you can see what's going on...

But primarily, there are the horses.

Thoroughbreds, some of which go on to the Kentucky Derby (same owners of the tracks) and some of which, well, are a bit out of their league. All of which are very handsome animals which you can go down to the barns and down to the track and see pretty up close.

Then you go bet on them.

I have no idea how to bet, really. Sure, I can read all the tips and figure out that Glue Boy hasn't won in fifteen starts and I can see the odds posted, but to be honest I go mostly for names and colors.

Dynareign ran Sunday, so I had to bet that one because of Aaron's Dynagirl. Similarly, Windjammer - how can I turn down that horse!?

Then there are the Irish names with two Irish parents wearing green - ho, you bet I'm going for that one!

Sexyblueeyes ran Sunday. Maggie bet on that one because of me. I bet on BrownEyedGirl because of her.

OK, ok, I do have some guides in the odds department. I'll usually choose horses that are 4-1 to 7-1. Far enough out there that they aren't favorites, not so far that a good run is impossible, high enough so the payout is worth getting is you win.

Oh, I'm a big better. $2. That's it.

So, if I lose, no big deal.

I usually hit about 3 winners out of the 8 or 9 races we get there for, which actually is pretty good - the Chicago Tribune and the Sun-Times usually only hit one or two. I'm not sure that's particularly good.

Of course, I lose the other 5 or 6, so I usually don't walk away any richer than I came in. Often a few bucks less.

But you know what? On a clear, sunny day, with white clouds gently rolling overhead, and Maggie and her neices and nephews there (yeah, I get talked into babysitting) and some diet Cokes,man, you can't get any better way to waste a Sunday.

Er, except a ballgame.

Or gaming with my friends.

But it's a nice third :)

Take Me Out To A Ballgame... Again!

2008-08-20T09:58:00.000-05:00

That was this weekend.

Monday I went to the White Sox game with my company.

I didn't realize that the boss had paid for really good tickets, up in the skyboxes. We rode the elevator up, walked down the hall and into the box. It was only five seats wide, but that was enough because half the guys just munched down on hot dogs and the dessert cart - man, was that fancy!

I enjoyed myself, really. It was quite the gesture from a boss who won't pay to have our name on the sign out front.

But one, it was the White Sox. Crosstown rivals to my team, the Cubs.

Actually, the Cubs are our team. You just can't get fifteen tickets to a Cubs game, even if you had an open checkbook. There are certainly no skyboxes!

And two, the Sox are leading the division, just like the Cubs, but there were plenty of seats available that night. Look, guys, your team is WINNING and you can't sell tickets? The Sox are continually advertising tickets for sale. The Cubs sold everything out in hours, months ago.

Truth to tell, I kind of wish the Cubs had some extra tickets available, so you could just go down to the game. Just can't do that, and that's a shame.

Kind of funny. The Sox have this big new stadium with lights and sports boxes and fireworks with every home run and spinning lights on the scoreboard and TVs and really good food and it's right off the freeway.
The Cubs have an ancient hole of a stadium with no special boxes and ballpark food and it's in the middle of a neighborhood (NO parking!) and the score is kept by hand - it's not even an electronic sign!
And guess who attracts more fans?

Be it Miller Park in Milwaukee (just up the road - hey, they serve Leinenkugel, can't be all bad ;) ) the Sox or the Cubs, there's no place in the summer like a ballpark.

Take Me Out To A Ballgame... Please!

2008-08-20T09:42:00.000-05:00

Aaron Storck dropped by this week, in town for a meeting. We went out to pizza with Maggie, out to the local racetrack (where Aaron showed me a thing or two with his consarned fancy betting - Exacta? Didn't he used to fight Combatra in Shogun Warriors?) and up to the Yolo Auto Museum before he had to head home.

The Yolo Auto Museum is quite a place - six large buildings filled with finely-shined cars from all different eras, all for sale. But wait! There's the Batmobile, Black Beauty, the Scooby-Doo van, Fred Flintstone's car, the Back to the Future DeLorean, a Hagar the Horrible viking boat car (?!), Herman Munster's dragster, Grandpa Munster's coffin car, and cars from XXX, Fast and the Furious, and quite a few other movies.

There's also a military sort-of museum, which I call GI Joe Museum, because the displays are based on what they could get - you see a Soviet group with a machine gun next to an Italian display next to an American display of a tiny snowmobile-like vehicle. Cool, stuff I haven't seen elsewhere, but the diaramas get kind of cheesy after awhile.

Oh, and six more buildings filled with antiques. And a General Store. And a candy store. And...

Well, we just did the military and cars.

That night Maggie and I went to a Kane County Cougars game, intending to meet up with her cousin, who had written a book on baseball's Hall of Famers and was signing the book at the game (seems he got his start in sports with the Cougars and was paying them back, so to speak).

Well, we made the mistake of going to Mass before the game, and got there at 6:15. We kept getting idrected farther andfarther from the stadium and at 1/2 mile away I asked a parking lot guy whether there were any tickets - and he said just lawn seats. We actualy did not go in,figuring by the time we walked to the stadium there wouldn't even be that.

It was Single A ball!

What the heck? I mean, the Schaumburg Flyers never sell out!

Of course, the Cougars advertise like hell, have fireworks on every weekend game, and promote the team incessantly. Guess it works.

Thunder and Lightning

2008-08-05T13:46:00.000-05:00

Last night we had a thunderstorm - or rather, several.

And they weren't the normal nice thunderstorms, but the kind where you literally can't see out the windows because the rain is coming that hard and it's blowing sideways, besides.

Oh, and it's white, because the lightning is literally coming every second, right over your house. (Seriously, a map of lightning strikes was just one big blur, on the news.)

But for all the storm's ferocity over those couple of hours... I actually enjoyed it.

I mean, we were inside the house. No broken windows. We had power, but it wouldn't have mattered much if we hadn't - the place was quite well-lit from those bolts and I had candles besides.

It was strangely... I hesitate to say peaceful, but maybe peace-bringing?

I'm not sure how to explain it, but being safe inside while the fury of the storm raged around, just watching out the windows as the neighborhood was lit up lie a Christmas tree, jumping as the occassional bolt hit the driveway... well, Maggie and I just sort of relaxed and took it all in.

I know it was a ferocious storm, tearing the roofs off of houses, gusts to 95 mph, tornado sirens screaming at Wrigley, buildings blown flat, trees down, power out for days, probably.

But it was still beautiful, awesome in its power.

Just a little reminder from above, I guess. :)

Well... MAYBE...

2008-08-05T13:41:00.000-05:00

I went down and saw Lisa after he surgery, and initial reports are pretty good. They may have gotten all of the cancer out. Then again, they may not.

But the fire in her eyes is back, and they actually let her eat a Popsicle (well, she ate about a quarter of it) - her first food in three days. '

Over the past couple of days, she's had her parents, her sisters, myself, my mom and dad, Sean, the kids - even her cousins who stopped in. Considering we all live very far away, that meant a lot to her, I think.

She may need chemo - likely, truth to tell - and she's going to be in the hospital for another week and she can't eat dairy for at least three months... but she's a heckuva lot better than the doctors cautioned us.

For now.

Nice. I'm feeling pretty good about now.

Not one of my favorite weeks...

2008-07-24T11:00:00.000-05:00

Sometimes it does seem like the bad news comes all at once.

And surprisingly, it's when that bad news affects people close to you, that you have to watch them go through it, is somehow worse, much worse actually, than things that happen to you personally.

My Dad, as I've written, did swing pretty close to death but he's now being watched by cardiologists and endocrinologists and other-ologists and if he pays attention and doesn't act too stupid he'll come through this pretty much intact. Still call every night, but (crossing fingers)the danger has pretty much passed.

My sister Shannon's baby was hospitalized because a) he lost almost half his birth weight in a week and b) couldn't breathe, besides. He's still in there, getting his blood transfused and all, but Shannon's been through this at least six times before with her other kids (seriously, is it cool or just odd that you know the nighttime emergency room lineup by name? Hey, Dr. Bob!). Concerned, yes, but we know the drill by now.

Well, last night my brother left three messages on my phone to call him. He barely calls me at all, let alone three times.

Well, it turns out his wife Lisa has a huge malignant tumor growing in her colon and totally blocking one of the other lower pipes, I forget which. It's serious - real serious. She goes in for surgery next Friday.

Lisa's pretty young, about forty, I think. She's got five kids, ranging from almost one to eleven.

Her parents are coming out Monday, and my parents are coming Tuesday and staying at my house (which is six miles from Sean and Lisa's) and possibly my brother's coming out Friday, so she'll have plenty of support.

This isn't really supposed to be one of those "poor me" posts. Anything that happens to me is pretty much nada compared to what's happening to others - I know that.

But to have three people who are very close to you come that close to death in the space of a week, well, it makes you think.

There are those people who claim that if God wants you, he's going to take you and there's not a whole lot you can do about it when your time comes.

I understand their point, but I also have one of my own (point, the joke is old):

A man was trapped by the flooding Mississippi, and a boat came to get him from his doorstep. "God will help me," he said, refusing the aid. The water came higher, so he went to the upper story. Another boat came by, but he refused to get in, saying "God will help me!" The waters really rose, so he had to go the roof, and a helicopter came by. Once again, he refused - "God will help me!" So the copter left, the waters rose further, and he drowned.
The man gets to heaven and sees God. "Uh, God? Why didn't you help me?"
God looks at him and says "What do mean? I sent two boats and a helicopter!"

Live while you can. No one ever died wishing they could have attended just one more meeting.

Anyway, if you get a chance, say a prayer for my sister-in-law.

Aand since I'm her only relative outside of California, say one for me too - I have a feeling I'm gonna need it. ;)

Music of the Night

2008-07-22T08:52:00.000-05:00

I went to a concert last night, a little cabaret act with a fellow name of Michael Ingersoll.

Never heard of him? That's okay - neither had I.

Maggie remembered late Sunday that she had bought tickets for this guy. He's in a little show called Jersey Boys (not exactly little - sarcasm there).

He was outstanding - sang everything from the Tin Man song in Wizard of Oz to jazz classics, interspersed with interesting talk on his rise in theater and his life and his wife - who lo and behold, also showed up.

It was his first solo concert - ever - but he had chosen the Metropolis because he had appeared in a show there two years ago, before hitting it big (we had seen him in that show, too).

And the place went nuts when the other Jersey Boys showed up and sang along.

I did not go nuts. I had never heard these guys sing. It was all the white haired people (my dad included - he had seen Jersey Boys) who went nuts.

After hearing them sing - well, Maggie and I are buying tickets for his other show in August. The exact same show, probably. It was THAT good.

So that got me to thinking - of all the musicians I really like. Put my money where my mouth is. As in, have paid to see them at least twice. I've seen plenty of other singers and shows, but these are the people I have seen at least twice and that I really love - over the past twenty five years or so. Needless to say, i have multiple albums from each.

Ron Hawking
If you've never heard this guy, he is amazing. Sings Frank Sinatra and Rat Pack songs in his own inimitable style. Does Vegas quite a bit but also comes through Chicago semi-annually in all sorts of venues. Always top notch cabaret shows. Have seen him four or five times.

Billy Joel
Only the good die young, only Billy Joel can put on such a fantastic show, either alone or with Elton John. Seen him three times.

Jack Daniels Silver Cornet Band
Yes, the whiskey company has their own promotional band of, well, silver cornets. They each play characters from 1849 or so. Wonderful performers, great Christmas shows. Three times.

They Might Be Giants
Particle Man, Particle Man, does anything that a particle can.... just fun. Twice.

Barry Manilow
Say what you want, the man can put on a show that NO ONE can resist stomping their feet. If you only know him from records you've never seen the real Barry Manilow. Three times.

Harry Connick Jr.
Come on, the guys plays everything from Bear Neccessities to his own compositions, in a really cool jazzy style. Seen him twice and would love to see more of him.

Elton John
Can Corkidile rock still resonate forty years later? You damn well better believe it! Three times.

The Irish Rovers
My all time favorite Irish band. Just awesome! They're a bit older now but they still can sing the Unicorn! Wasn't that a party? At least ten times.

The Chieftains
Almost as good as the Rovers, a little less on the humor though. Still darn good. Six times.

Seamus Kennedy
My favorite entertainer of all time. Seen him at least a dozen and a half times and would see him more if he came to the Chicago area anytime. He's an Irish singer of incomparable quality and humor, and always gets me singing! He's absolutely terrific! Eighteen times, probably more.

Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson
Admittedly, this pair comes from twenty five, thirty years ago, but when I saw them I knew the words to every song. Highwaymen is still a classic. Ghost Riders in the Sky ! Two times.

Michael Crawford
Con-DOR-maaaaaaaannn! Yes, I knew of him before he was famous. He was a comedian, for cripes sake. Who knew the man had such a voice!? His Phantom is still standard, but he does so many other great songs too! Three times.

Reba McIntyre
Long before Reba had her own TV show, she toured a lot more, and she used to come to Buffalo every time. Why? Because we loved her. When she sang Fancy atop a stage that lifted into the air and whirled her around the Aud so she was on a level with the balcony (hey, they paid their money too!) - man, I still get excited. Twice.

Garth Brooks
The only thing I don't like about Garth Brooks is his habit of making every seat the same price. Every seat pays the same. I never got a good seat. Didn't matter much - the man plays to everyone in the house. Everyone knows every song. I mean, every word to every song. Again, like Manilow, if you've only heard the records you haven't heard or seen Garth. Awesome performer. Twice.

Beach Boys
I am such a sucker for surf music sometimes, though I prefer Jan and Dean a little more. Saw them a long, long time ago and their voices were going south. Know what? Nobody cared. :) Three times.

Prince
This is kind of a cheat, because I've only seen him once and don't have any of his records or anything. But I enjoyed his concert.

Well, those are the ones I can think of now. this doesn't include things like the Notre Dame band or the Sacramento/Buffalo/Chicago Philharmonics or jazz festival bands or Radio City Christmas that I've all seen multiple times. Just kind of gives you a little insight into my world...

Just a few More Hours...

2008-07-21T13:02:00.000-05:00

Yesterday morning I was feeling low. Worries seemed to pile on and I just felt... bad.

By the afternoon I was feeling wonderful.

It's amazing what a Sunday afternoon outside can do for you.

Maggie and I went up to Lake Geneva, just across the border in Wisconsin. We walked around the town and the lake, visited a couple of our favorite stores, and had dinner on the waterfront with a nice view of the boats and the main dockhouse.

We went over afterward but the last boat tour wouldn't leave for almost an hour, but we did discover there's now a KC's Cones stand in the main dockhouse (Maggie kidded me that now she knew my secret source of cash, and I countered that it couldn't be me because it served Pepsi and I'm more of a Coke person).

Walked by the old arcade due to close for good at the end of the summer, and played a game of Ms PacMan (she kicked my tail - geez, she was good at that game. Hidden story there somewhere!) and then we walked a bit more and went home.

Oh, we stopped at the old Dog n Suds drive in, in Richmond. Supposedly there are only eleven of the places left, and only three within driving distance. We just got some diet root beer.

It's like going to an actual A&W, same effect. The root beer is just that much better, that much creamier, than much smoother than anything available in a store. It is so damn good you can't believe it's legal. The perfect ending to a perfect day.

There's something about the water, and boats, and root beer for that matter, that gets me in the summer time mood, that brings back memories of long ago. That just makes me happy.

I can't explain it, really. But if you've ever heard those michigan.org ads, where the man talks laconically about how refreshing it is to play golf, or boat, or swim... well, it was Wisconsin, but it sure felt like heaven.

Remarkable what a Sunday afternoon can do.

My dad is old

2008-07-14T14:39:00.001-05:00

Yeah, I know, how original.

I just got word, like half an hour ago, that my dad started bleeding profusely and ... well, long story short, he's hospitalized in Lake Tahoe. Or was, overnight, they're driving home right now.

I cannot begin to say how much I hate the way my father takes care of his health. He doesn't. He goes off to the dentist, keeps it secret from my mother as to when he goes and what they do, he takes Advil even though he takes a blood thinner (news to me!)... aaaaagh!

According to my sister my mom awoke to Dad out of bed and a huge pool of blood on the bed, he's in the bathroom because he doesn't want to wake her - WAKE her? He's spouting blood like a turnip! They go to the hospital and he gets a transfusion and a blood thickener and it still doesn't stop and they're wondering whether to give him more would make clogs or give him a heart attack -

My dad is only 67!

Yes, I suppose that's old, but not these days! He's not supposed to have a club foot and arthritis and diabetes and he's supposed to TAKE CARE of them, not eat Jack in the Box milkshakes and chocolate cake! JEEZ!

He was bleeding like crazy Wednesday, so Thursday they go to TAHOE? HEL-LOOOOO!

I'm... so flustered I can't think straight. I am so mad! DAMN, he's getting worse - LOTS worse - and there doesn't seem to be anything we can do to get him to take it seriously! My brother's a DOCTOR, for crissakes!

And now they're saying there might be Alheimer's, because that's the only explanation? No, he's stubborn. Stupidly stubborn, just like his father. I just find it damn ironic that a man who could probably afford the best doctors around
WILL.
NOT.
GO.

Sigh

Superhero on Tap

2008-07-14T09:33:00.000-05:00

Let me state, right now, I am not a particularly big fan of dance. It's okay on occassion, I suppose, but there's about thirty things I can list off the top of my head that I'd rather spend the time on than attending a dance performance.

There's always an exception, and that exception is The Hourglass and the Poisoned Pen.

It's a superhero comic book done in tap.

I know, weird.

It's a big improvement over last year's show (yes, I dragged Maggie to that one), with a better set (a giant comic book whose pages are turned to form the backgrounds, and with projected captions!), better villains, better fight sequences (they've gone from tap dancing at each other to a mildly-inventive way of actually fighting while tap dancing) and even better costumes (for the sidekick, at least - I think the Hourglass' outfit was the same last year).

Before the show, we were warned that if we had seen last year's show, to forget it. You got it - it's a Hulk-style reboot! :)

So we got a different origin for our heroine (much quicker, allowed the story to move to the action faster), the sidekick had a costume right off, and the story went pretty much like a superhero comic book. You know, sidekick is knocked out, used as bait for hero - the usual.

What made it so enjoyable was the villainous Poisoned Pen, who's actor was terrific - both in secret and villain ID. The Conductor was kept from the previous show, and instead of just doing a little dance and raising an eyebrow got to beat the tar out of the heroines this time around. And the heroine herself, the Hourglass, acted far more like a comic book heroine (kind of in an Adam West vein) than the reluctant wimp she was in the first episode.

The play is actually going to a NY festival in September, given a chance to perform off-Broadway, which is darn good for a show that plays in an old 70-person theater.

So if you get the chance to ever catch the show, I'd recommend it. It's fun, fast-paced, and interesting to a comic book guy.

Making a Point

2008-07-10T08:58:00.000-05:00

Well, Maggie and I went out to Cedar Point, Ohio this past Fourth of July weekend.

As did nearly everyone else in five states, apparently.

We went out there because her sister had insisted that on Fourth of July people stayed with their families and didn't go to the park. I had my doubts, but Cedar Point is located pretty far from any city of real size, so maybe...

(On our last night there, we went to Friendly's (a more or less New England based chain of ice cream and sandwich shops - great!) and our waiter told us he had worked at Cedar Point for five years and NEVER to even go in July, let alone the Fourth weekend - what were we, nuts?)

BUT - I had pre-purchased two-day tickets, just in case. We really hadn't planned on using them on the same weekend, but they were a lifesaver. The park was open until midnight and we just walked around and took in the coasters - anything with too long a line we skipped until the next day.

For thos eof you who aren't too familiar with Cedar Point, it bills itself as America's Roller Coast. It's no idle boast. There's something like 17 roller coasters. Yeah, no kidding. Even if two or three could be considered junior versions, that still leaves 14 full-size coasters.

And some are way bigger than full sized. Millenium Force stands over 300 feet tall and is nearly 7000 feet long. Top Thrill Dragster goes 120 mph, 420 feet straight UP. The Magnum is considered a steel coaster classic. And on and on.

Suprisingly, people lined up for hours for the newest rides - but left the Magnum, the Mean Streak, and the Gemini twin coaster relatively abandoned. The Gemini is my new favorite ride - racing twin wooden coasters, what's not to like?

Maggie even talked me into going on the Ripcord. That's where you get pulled 15 stories into the air with a cord attached to your back (through a steel hitch), in an arc; you pull the ripcord, and fly/fall 15 stories to within 6 feet of the ground, then swing up again, then swing back and forth for awhile. It was fun, but I don't think I'll tempt that again. It's like skydiving - all you need is one thing to go wrong and WHAM.

I DID hold out my arms like Superman and shout "Daht dah dahhh!" or something similar as I flew. Figure if I might die I might as well enjoy myself.

Anyway, the fireworks were terrific and literally fifty yards in front of our faces (were they SUPPOSED to be that close?) and they even played the music I'd chosen for Americana's theme song (which I'll post up soon's I can make a good recording) which considering it's not a true patriotic music thing I rather enjoyed.

In the end we got on almost all the coasters we wanted (exception - Maverick and Top Fuel Dragster, though we did them last year) and had a wonderful, wonderful time.

And having a Friendly's across the street from the hotel CERTAINLY didn't hurt. :)

(How small town is it? They had a Rally's Hamburgers, but it closed at 8. And those are summer hours. Eight o'clock?!)

KC BBQ, RIP

2008-07-02T13:28:00.001-05:00

No, I did not choke to death on my own cooking, though you could read it that way (likely, if you've had my Margareta Chicken).

The Kansas City BBQ restaurant, down in San Diego, burned down last week, and this sad event has been talked about a lot by the people who went there.

Am I correct in saying that everyone I know who went to the San Diego Comic Con at one time or another has eaten there? The list is long, people...

The KC BBQ was located right next to the Embassy Suites, or close enough. That alone would have made it good, as it was a prime location for dinner after the Con closed (back when they had it at the old convention center) and even better, for lunch when the new center opened.

The food was delicious. Really. Either we don't have good BBQ in Chicagoland or the atmosphere just made it all the better.

It had to. Inside the restaurant was a veritable mess, with tables crowded together and all sorts of junk hanging from every post, all thanks to the movie Top Gun. What did the sign say? "Top Gun Cheesy Bar Scene Filmed Here"? "Cheap Bar"? Whatever it said, it was far worse.

Which made it better. :)

I always ate on the patio - even when it rained (which admittedly was not that much). The patio had just the right flavor, the nice outside views... damn, I'm going to miss that place.

Hopefully, by next year they'll have rebuilt - and I'm looking forward to digging in once again to a true classic.

Three Hours at Wizard

2008-06-30T13:05:00.000-05:00

Saturday, I had to go into work for a couple of hours. When I got done it was a little past one, and Maggie was at work until six. So I drove the two miles up the road - literally - to the Wizard World Chicago convention.

I had gone to Wizard once before, a few years ago, and hadn't really enjoyed it. But one of my artists had said she was going to be in Artists' Alley at a con (Kitty from Kitty's Tavern) and I was going to miss San Diego this year... so I thought I'd give it a try.

Let me state, unequivacally, that this is not San Diego. At all.

By the time I arrived most everyone had already gone inside - and quite a few were leaving already, which didn't give me much hope. The registration tables were buried under mounds of junk - literally - so I just went up to the registration booth and got a badge and a bag.

With one set of Magic cards. No program book, no guide. They were out.

And they still had Saturday and all of Sunday to go. Brrr.

I decided that if I only had a few hours, I'd like to meet Kitty at her booth and say hello. This was complicated bythe fact that I had no idea what she looked like, and more importantly her name isn't really Kitty. No more than mine is KC, I guess.

This would have been good to know. :)

Now, the one advantage I think Wizard has over San Diego? That I could see, any way?

Artists' Alley is HUGE. Takes up about a third of the convention hall. There must have been two, three hundred artists there. I mean, I was shocked. Maybe they couldn't get a lot of dealers or something, or maybe they hold the artists a little higher than San Diego, or maybe they just put them on the main floor without thinking, but MAN, there were a lot of artists!

Me, being Captain Observant, didn't know this at first so I started in the back of the room. I moved pretty swiftly, stopping to say hi to artists I knew from Ebay (about five of them, I'd used) and wondering why all these talented folks were NOT on Ebay (there were a number of really good artists there - had I planned better I could have gotten Americana pics) and a lot of concepts that never made it to my store.

I finally found Kitty up near the front, found out her name wasn't even remotely Kitty in the first place, got a copy of the comics she had illustrated (that were kind of bleah but she just illustrated them), chatted a little bit about a 3-D Americana she's doing for me (okay, that she's hinted at wanting to do for me for so long I finally said yes) and -

I had about an hour left. I decided I wasn't going to go back to some of the places I passed (looking at all the name badges on the floor - yes, on the floor - to see if maybe one of them was the gal I was looking for) but I had seen about five other guys I'd used and several more I recognized and it was fun to see what they looked like (normal, every one of them! :) ) and I got some nice complements on the new site (so they ARE looking at it - cool!).

I walked around and looked at some of the booths and got some lightsabres for my nephews and some comic art boards for me to draw on... and then got out of there.

Yeah, there were Alex Ross Art and DC and Marvel and Image booths, but there didn't really seem to be much going on there. I assume they had some rooms for panels but they had to have been really small because I walked through half the convention center without seeing a soul.

The actual convention was nicely crowded, though I never had a problem moving through aisles or anything, and the retail booths were kind of... sporadic, I guess. I didn't see any guests, the autograph tables were empty... in the middle of Saturday afternoon?

I enjoyed checking it out and meeting people, but having paid twenty five for admission and eleven for parking, that's a lot for three hours of basically buying stuff. A couple people I spoke with said it was pretty slow, bad for them, good for me.

So, no, it wasn't San Diego, not even approaching San Diego. Maybe the old, old San Diego, when the hotels were ancient and sometimes not air-conditioned, the tattoo parlors open, the con was at the old Convention Center and you stayed up all night playing games.

There was no sense of excitement, really. No Transformers tractor trailers, or Image rocketships, or DC big booth gatherings.

Okay, so there were no five dollar hot dogs and long lines, either, so I guess it's a wash.

It's a nice local con, maybe a bit bigger than most, but with most of the same stuff (just more of it!). A very VERY nice Artists' Alley, though - if I return in the future I'm going to get some drawings done.

And above all, very nice people to strike up conversations with... which is what I enjoy most at cons, now, anyway. I met a half-dozen people who I had only known through email, got lightsabres for five bucks each (NO, they're not authentic - think the kids will care? :) ) and had a fun couple of hours.

I guess the convention bug never really leaves you.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but...

2008-06-26T12:05:00.000-05:00

I have come to the realization that I just don't like most superhero movies.

No matter how good they are (Superman I and II) or how pathetic (Daredevil, Catwoman) they can never measure up to what's inside my head.

Don't get me wrong - I'm certainly not saying that my ideas are any better than anyone else's. They're not.

But when I read comics, those characters exist in their own little comic book worlds and interact with comic book physics (Reality is, Batman can NOT kick someone in an arc clear across a room, Spider-Man should have some place to attach his web to before swinging).

In old Marvel comics, people would talk for several paragraphs while they were in the middle of a fight. Heck, if a panel captures a moment in time, they should be limited to a few words, at most!

But not only do I accept that, I enjoy it. I'm not conscious of it, but as I read from panel to panel I just take it all in and fill in the spots in between panels. Not to some ludicrous extreme (Batman eats breakfast, Batman shaves, Batman reads the paper, Batman uses the john...) but enough so that I get the feeling that the writer and/or artist is trying to convey.

Comic book heroes in movies... well, they kind of miss the point.

Costumed heroes work best in their own worlds. No matter if you build the world's best supersuit (Iron Man, Batman) or sort of sexiest costume (Elektra) or just do it like the comics (Superman, Spider-Man) you either have to make the city the darkest city ever (don't they know about lights or moonlight even?!) or change the characters so much (Wanted) that most people don't realize they're comic book characters.

Often they change characters' costumes to look more "realistic". In Batman that's a necessity, but the characters were still identifable (though Catwoman didn't need all the stitches - any idiot can get a spandex suit with no stitches, why can't Catwoman?)

In Mortal Kombat, they threw a lot of the outfits out the window. Why not let us see those goofs in their spandex? Sure, no one goes around wearing leotards, but at least then we'd know we're in a comic book movie!

Ever notice how most of the really "good" comic book movies are origin stories? Why can't anyone come up with a story that isn't an origin? (OK, so there's The Dark Knight).

Virtually every comic book movie has its goofball points - some more than others. Spider-Man - not only can't I believe a guy can move like that (fake!), the swinging bit proved the movie makers needed more physics lessons. Superman Returns - and does what, fights normal guy Lex Luthor again?! Hulk - big cartoonie CGI guy with a too-small head.

And I can like these movies for what they are, I suppose. I liked Iron Man, Batman, Superman, Superman II, Batman Begins, well enough. Even Flash Gordon, I suppose.

But the vast majority are el stinko. Supergirl. Masters of the Universe. Daredevil. Elektra. Catwoman. Street Fighter. The Phantom. Buck Rogers. ANY of which you could make a great movie out of, if only you weren't so afraid of offending the public or offputting a segment of the moviegoers or some such crap.

If you are going to make a comic book movie, for gosh sakes why not make it like the comics?

The Rocketeer. Geez, I love the Rocketeer. Not that there was all that much story to adapt but they did a great job, made a fun movie and that was semi-realistic to boot.

Batman, with Michael Keaton. Sure, there are a few goofball things (like the Joker's gun) but that was pretty much a good comic-book movie.

Of course, I do realize that my dislike of most of these movies could come from the point that I'm just getting old.

Don't buy it.

It isn't particularly hard in coming up with a comic book story. It is a little harder when you actually have to think it through and write the ending first (otherwise, how do you know when you're on track? basic!). So I do have sympathy for the movie writers who have to put up with constant changes and all that.

It's not their fault that, even with CGI, their movies will often fall short to what my imagination says they could have been.

But come on.

I certainly don't have a unique grasp on imagination. You all do - you're part of a comic book roleplaying game group, sometimes more than one at once! Your various stories and tales betray that you too have an immense imagination!

And I have no doubt you could write a better comic book movie - because it would BE a comic book movie.

I guess I am becoming... well, not cynical, but for ten dollars I want something resembling the comic books the characters were taken from (like Iron Man having SHIELD agents with unidirectional explosives ((I remember Jasper Sitwell using that on Iron Man in the comics!)) and that big comic-booky energy source! Cool!).

And of course, some movies I will see just because they feature Batman, or the Spirit, regardless of how good they are.

I don't want there to be an Avengers or a JLA movie... because the chances of them messing it up become just too high.

Sigh.

Maybe I am just getting too old to expect much.

But while they can improve the costumes, the machines, the CGI, the fights... is it too much to ask that they improve the story too?

daht dah dahhhhhh DAH....

2008-06-24T14:25:00.000-05:00

I arrived in San Jose in the middle of a slight heat wave - about 104, give or take. I really wasn't bothered by it but the neices and nephews were, and were already planning to go to a movie.

They had already seen Kung Fu Panda, which seemed to be a good film for ten kids aged 3-16 (many more toward the lower end of the scale) to see.

They had also seen Iron Man, which though I liked it is in no WAY a movie for kids. Covering up their eyes was one parent's action, another wisely walked out (come on , three and five year olds seeing the first part of that movie? Unh, uh.)

So, this time they all decided to see Get Smart.

Sigh.

It's not a movie for kids, either - though mostly because of language and a few off-color references.

Which is funny, in a way, because the kids were laughing and giggling the whole way through the film. I found most of the jokes were sophomoric and the movie rather juvenile.

But you know what? By the second half of the movie, with most of the dumber jokes out of the way, it turned into a fairly decent movie. Pretty good action sequences. For a Get Smart movie.

I think that it's a movie based on a 1960s TV show that was made so people born in the 90s can enjoy it. Those of us who are older?

Welllllllll....

May I recommend Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day.

Seriously. I hadn't even heard of this film but went on friends' recommendations, and found it every bit as delightful and entertaining as they had.

Set in London on the eve of WWII, unemployable Miss Pettigrew intercepts an agency request for a housekeeper and is drawn into a web of clever relationships, always on the outside looking in. Poignant.

It's rentable (my definition for movies that don't require scope - like Indiana Jones - to make their point, and can be watched comfortably on television), and is much, MUCH better than I make it sound.

If you liked Thank You For Smoking, you'll like this one too.

On Lacrosse...

2008-06-19T12:14:00.001-05:00

Seriously.

This will be short.

Lacrosse is basically ice hockey on land, without the speedy skating.

You throw the ball from netted stick to netted stick, then toss it in the goal. The ball can be hurled with wicked speed, allowing for some interesting plays.

I've watched a few Buffalo Bandits and Chicago Shamrox games. One of my brother in laws was captain at Holy Cross. A number of my relatives' kids play the game.

Y'know, it's just... missing something. Looks too much like a club sport at a local college. Fun and all, but plays like something a bunch of kids made up after one too many drinks.

I kind of admire the way these athletes run and throw and catch. I do.

And when I'm in the mood to go to a game, every other year or so, I guess it is kind of fun.

But no matter how many times my nephews try to get me interested in their games, I have to pass.

To me the game is like soccer - I don't get it and probably never will.

On Soccer...

2008-06-19T12:03:00.000-05:00

Really.

Don't have all that much to say on soccer.

The rest of the world seems to be really engrossed in soccer.

Can't really see why.

I mean, lacrosse is more interesting than soccer, and I can only take so much lacrosse.

Proponents of soccer will point out how popular it is among children.

I will point out that that's because the coordination to kick a ball is just a few steps past walking, and is nothing compared to just about any sport you can name, including ping pong.

I suppose it does get tougher as you get older - people run into you that much harder, at any rate.

Look at how many saves goalies make. That is one huge ball.

Look at the scores - one, two goals for all that running around?

Oh, I know why soccer's so popular overseas. It's that everyone knows that practically anyone can kick a ball. They know they could play the game, if they just got in shape and ran a few miles. I can do that. It's a popular thought.

Maybe not an accurate thought, but popular...

On baseball teams - my favorites

2008-06-18T13:47:00.000-05:00

Ah, the more observant among you have certainly noticed the plural in that heading... and are probably thinking, what gives?

Truth to tell, my favorite baseball team of all time has to be the Chicago Cubs.

But there have been others.

My first ballgame was a double header at Fenway, only I was far too young to remember it (2 months). It would be thirty years before I returned to that park but I've always felt a little soemthing for my first team (and first ballcap, and first piggy bank). I'll root for the Red Sox if they are not playing one of my other favorites.

In Syracuse, where I grew up, we only had a minor league team, the Chiefs, who were a farm team of the Yankees. For some reason I liked the Reds instead, who were about as far away as New York City was and they had Johnny Bench. I loved Johnny Bench.

When we moved to Buffalo, I continued liking the Reds, but the new cable company brought the Cubs into my life, and I always rooted for the Cubs. Even against the Reds.

Next we moved to California, in the last part of 11th grade for me. I took to the hometown Giants, but not really. I still liked the Cubs, and still could watch them on cable. They often sucked, but they were my Cubbies.

Moved to Sacramento, rode in the bus convoy to the Bay to press for a team of our own. Still have the shirt - Sacramento's March on Baseball!

Didn't work.

Off to Buffalo again, where I fell in love with our ballpark and our team. the park had been built almost across the street from my office, and was designed to be expandable if we got a ball team (they went to Toronto instead). It was a terrific park, well-designed, without a bad seat in the house. We'd often go over and watch a few innings at lunch, have a fried bologna and a Labatt's , then head back to work. I'd go over about once a week during the summer, and saw many games. They won often, too, conquering the International League and then another league season after season.

Then, of course, I moved to Chicago, home of the Cubs!

Unlike a lot of my fellow fans, I don't have any hatred for the White Sox (though when they won the Series, I couldn't get up for that any more than if they had been, say, Tampa). I've even been to a few games, and will gladly root them on so long as they're not playing the Cubs.

Truth to tell, there are a lot of teams I'll choose over others, for what may seem the oddest of reasons.

Pittsburgh Pirates, because of Roberto Clemente. Died in a plane crash flying relief to earthquake victims in Nicaraqua. Made quite an impression on me as a kid.

Cincinnati Reds, because of Johnny Bench, Pete Rose and the Big Red Machine. Just... cool.

Boston Red Sox, because of Carl Yastrzemski. My Dad went to school with Yaz at Notre Dame for a year, and that's good enough for me. :)

Cleveland Indians, because they were the prent team for the Bisons and I saw a lot of guys get called up. Not so much anymore because I don't follow the Bisons anymore.

Chicago Cubs - my all-time favorite bunch of loveable losers who actually are having a pretty good game this year. Waiting for the eventual breakdown, but it's fun while it lasts.

I don't really have any teams I hate - or even much dislike. I root against the Cardinals, even though they're a good team, because of the threat to the Cubs' standings, but I kind of like those guys... who couldn't like Dizzy Dean and the Gashouse Gang?

I root FOR teams, not against them - in baseball, at any rate.

Who knows? It's the nature of the game.

On Baseball - and thinking

2008-06-18T13:07:00.001-05:00

Baseball is...

Well, it's magnificent, really.

It's a game I grew up playing (not very well because my eyesight was TERRIBLE) in Camillus NY, in a league where we had different color hats. No logos, just hats.

Everyone in my neighborhood played on teams, and we didn't divvy them up by age. Twelve year olds pitched to seven year olds. Which is tougher than it sounds.

We played down behind the Sylvania Electric building, on an uneven field our fathers got together to mow (and occasionally plow the rocks out of). Our backstop was logs, inserted more or less straight up in the ground, with chicken wire draped between them.

The field was on the flat part of a hill, and I still recall my father driving the entire team down the hill on his Maverick (and later, Gremlin). The entire team.

Um, yeah, a little dangerous.

Then after each game we'd take a long drive up, up into the hills to the Model T Market, where they sold Pennsylvania Dutch brand birch beer in cold cans, and then cruise down the hill with the motor off to save on gas.

We'd play catch in the front yard and have ballgames in Al Lynch's backyard (which had the only flat stretch for ten blocks - Syracuse had BIG hills). We'd collect baseball cards - hundreds upon hundreds of cards - and put the duplicates in our bike wheels.

We'd watch the games on television - I distinctly remember stringing together power cords so we could watch Johnny Bench and the Reds out in our backyard tent.

And I remember my Dad driving half the team to Cooperstown. The Baseball Hall of Fame. Heaven. (We got our pictures taken and published in the Maryknoll magazine - still have a copy, actually. Though what the Maryknoll Fathers had to do with the Hall of Fame I'm still not clear on).

We'd occasionally go to Syracuse Chiefs games out at the old and rickety P&C Park (named for a grocery chain) and watch the fireworks afterwards. We even went on July 4th one time and I remember they had spinners and pictures outlined in fireworks on the outfield walls.

This was baseball to me.

A grand and glorious game, where failure to shift left could prove disastrous, where you remembered who could hit your pitcher's curveball and who couldn't, where the placement of lefties in the order could spell victory or defeat.

Watching my young soon-to-be-nephew's team play, is both charming and annoying. annoying, mainly because they are getting a little too old to be playing just hit and run. They don't think, which is pretty easy to do in the heat of the game, I guess.

You field differently if there is only one out, or two. You field differently if there are men on base and no outs, or no one on and one out. You don't always throw to first base, in other words.

You have to know whether to bunt up third or up first (again, depending upon whether you are sacrificing to move a runner and what base he's on) or hit left of center or to right field.

If you are on base, and someone hits a pop fly, depending upon where it is and who's going after it, you either prepare to run or stay on base. And that depends a lot on what base you are standing on, if your team is losing or winning...

Baseball, my father drilled into us, is a thinking man's game.

Sure. Now, I know where the throw's going - or supposed to go - the minute the ball is hit. But surprisingly, not only do kids not know these things but adults. I played in the Ad League in Buffalo, and you wouldn't believe the goofball decisions some people made - not because they were stupid but because they treated the game as simply hitting the ball and running.

That isn't it. Not by a long shot.

I think the beauty of baseball is that, given you understand the rules and logic behind the game, it's fairly easy to pick up on a lot of the game just by watching for awhile. If there are runners on first and second and only one out, and the ball is hit toward third, you aren't gonna see too many throws to first.

Baseball rewards thinkers. A team that plays to the top of their game will beat a "better" team eight times out of ten.

That said, you still have to hit a tiny sphere coming at you at 90 mph with a thin bat while the crowd yells, then run ninety feet while the fielder has to run to the ball, grab it and throw it without error to the same base.

Seeing how close the runner and the ball usually arrive, I am amazed at the perfection of the field. Think of it. If the runner only had to go, say, eighty feet, he'd beat the throw nearly all the time. If 100 feet, the throw would beat him.

Same with the pitching distance. Shorten it, and the batter couldn't react in time and would have to resort to guessing where the pitch would be. Lengthen it, and more batters would hit more often.

And the fields are similar, yet have their own differences and charms. Not the stadiums, the fields. Playing at Wrigley is a lot different than playing at Yankee Stdium or Fenway or Tiger Stadium.

In what other sport do they change the dimensions of the fields from stadium to stadium?
Can't think of one.

Grab a hot dog and a beer - they're better at the ballpark.

So. Baseball is...

Just a magnificent way to spend an afternoon.

Okay, so long as we're on sports... hockey!

2008-06-18T09:37:00.000-05:00

OK, so long as we're on sports, I thought I'd say a few words about one of my favorites - ice hockey.

I suppose I first caught hockey fever in Buffalo. I lived there during my impressionable teen years and there was nothing bigger in town than the Buffalo Sabres.

First day of school, teachers and students wore SabreJaks (special blue and gold jackets from Penney's with the Sabres emblem on them) and had hockey-stick pens at the ready. I remember seeing Mrs. Levine, my-formerly-ancient math teacher, down at one of the games and instantly she changed in my eyes to pretty-darn-cool math teacher. Mr Kohler, my science teacher, wore a Sabres sweater after every win.

And I had won an autographed hockey stick from the new cable company in town, with signatures by Robert, Martin, Pierre and others! (Though I never had a SabreJak or hockey stick pens - we were a little tight on money in those days)

Buffalo was a hockey town - and Memorial Auditorium was our home.

And I grew to really really dislike the Philadelphia Flyers (hate being too strong a word).

Then, we moved.

To California. Just outside San Jose.

There were no San Jose Sharks in those days. There was no hockey within several hundred miles. And watching hockey on TV, even when you could get it, was just not that much fun anymore.

So, I kind of fell away.

Twenty odd years later, I was back in Buffalo. Working just down the street from the brand spanking new Marine Midland Arena. I mean, three blocks down the street, the Buffalo Sabres skated - and two blocks in another direction, the Buffalo Bisons played baseball. Two blocks the other way, was Canada.

Wonderful times.

The best was when I got to have first row seats behind the glass. Let me tell you, it's a whole different game. Man, that was awesome!

Then I moved to Chicago.

And fell away again.

Wait a minute, you say. Don't you have the Chicago Blackhawks? The Chicago Wolves?

Well, yes... but the owner of the Hawks had decided that no games would be seen on TV, to avoid killing attendance (as opposed to the Sabres, whose every game was on TV).

Well, having had that little rule in place for the last twenty years killed hockey in this town. Seating prices went up, attendance fell to pathetic levels. The Chicago Wolves appeared (minor league hockey) and even won a couple of championships (like this year! Yay!) but for the most part hockey was dead.

Then, this year, the owner died.

His son took over the team operations. We had little hope.

Oh, ye of little hope - rejoice!

The new owner went to town. He brought in fresh young players, he lowered ticket prices, he brought in hockey men to run the team itself, he put all 84 games ON TELEVISION! He brought back the Hawks' 25 year announcer, who the last regime had fired, and brought back former stars into the fold and showered them with respect and actually LET THEM MAKE DECISIONS HE HAD NO BUSINESS MAKING.

AND he signed on the biggest station in town, WGN, to carry all the games on radio! The station's been going nuts, playing the old "Here come the Hawks" songs and hockey goal horn sounds before announcements -

This town is hockey crazy again!

A year and a half after it was practically dead in the water, this city is looking forward to hockey like it looks forward to football! Unbelievable! Even I'm looking to get tickets to some games!

It's not just me getting excited. It's the whole city.

Amazing what one man can do, isn't it?

Oh, I almost forgot. New Year's Day, Maggie and I curled up on the couch and watched the Buffalo Sabres play OUTDOORS - in a snowstorm, in twenty degree weather. Over 82,000 people showed up to watch.

See, in Buffalo, we actually go out in the winter. :) Friggin' Chicago wimps complain if there's more than a few inches on the ground. Constantly. Learn what real snowfall is, ya wusses. :)

And next season? The second NHL outdoor game is gonna be held -

In Chicago.

You bet I'm going to go!

On Basketball and the Celtics

2008-06-17T17:38:00.000-05:00

The NBA Finals are on tonight.

And part of me wants the Celtics to win.

After all, I suppose I have been a Celtics fan since I lived in Boston. I have the nice Celtics ski sweater, the hat...

But I'm really not a fan.

I don't particularly like basketball.

It's too easy to score, and let's face it, teams don't even start playing until there's 2 minutes on the clock. Whcih means half an hour in real time.

Two minute games - now there would be something to watch. Plus the entire season could be done in about two weeks, three tops.

I suppose my ambivalence about the game stems from not really understanding it.

Football, I understand enough to get by. Baseball, I'm a student of the game. Heck, even ice hockey, I get the rules for.

Basketball? Not so much. I mean, travelling, that should be a simple call, right? So why don't they call it?

If you aren't going to call a penalty, fine... but take it out of the rules.

When is it charging, when is it obstruction? When do they tip off and when do they just get the ball?

It seems to change every darn time.

I can enjoy it, live. I do enjoy it live - Sacramento, Syracuse, St Bonneventure, Niagara, Buffalo (college and Braves), Chicago, Northwestern. I've tried them all. I just can't get the hang of basketball, I guess.

But I still am pulling for the Celtics.

I can't stand LA anything :)

Er... except Disney. Maybe Universal. That's about it. :)

Guess I'm Going to Get Started

2008-06-17T13:01:00.000-05:00

Hi.

Well, as my title says, I guess I'm going to get started with this "blog" business.

Truth to tell I'm not entirely certain I have anything to say just yet - at least, anything reasonably interesting.

I did go to Milwaukee last weekend for a baseball game. Miller Park is nice, really, a great spot to watch a game.

Yet it's also too... I don't know, too "newish", I guess.

The dome overhead just does not belong for baseball - baseball is a game that's played outdoors. Period. With the dome open, well...

All the windows - windows at a ballpark? The ten foot strip of electronic ads? The slide in left field for the guy with the baseball head? Uhh, no.

What's funny is that it's a big league park that acts like a minor league park. Guys dress up in sausage costumes and race around the field, kids take the field before the game, four different people throw out the first pitches, there's the Roadrunner on a sign in center. And that goofy guy with a baseball for a head who slides down the slide in left for no good reason that I can tell.

Don't get me wrong - I love minor league parks. I happen to think that the Buffalo Bisons had one of the best parks in the country (baseball mags agree) but we have the Schaumburg Flyers and the Kane County Cougars and the Joliet Jackhammers around here, and I like their games just fine. I grew up on the Syracuse Chiefs (now SkyChiefs, whatever that means).

It's just that those are small parks - perfectly proportioned to hold a few oddball elements (like Buster Bison - odd mascot!). But Milwaukee's park is FULL of these weird oddities (there are many many more). It's just another world from Wrigley or Commiskey or Shea.

Odd.

Milwaukee beat the Twins, by the way.