Rock Haus

because I know y'all miss me

Sorry it's been so long.  Lots of show. none of note, with the exception of last night, Nickel Creek (Not to be confused in any way with Nickel *Back*) with the Ditty Bops opening. The Ditty Bops were fantastic, and Nickel Creek's cover of Brittney Spears' "Toxic" was AWESOME. It would appear if you add a fiddle and a banjo and a good dose of tounge in cheek, I too can love a Brittney song.  Tonight was Switchfoot. Christians. Yeah, good times. Nothing like spending the evening having jesus crammed in your face by incredibly misguided born again god botherers.  I only wish I'd had an old Black Sabbath shirt to wear tonight.

After work last night I went to Trader Todd's with Misses Sarah and Rikki, where I drank a Coconut Lime Riki, and saw the Sox win some game they were playing (and by *saw* I mean *couldn't avoid because they had a tv screen the size of my living room wall*). Rikki gave me a ride home and I spent the duration of my evening on my couch, which was *wonderful*. I've been spending a lot of time with my couch lately. I heart my couch.

Sigh

I'm sorry to be neglecting you all so much lately my precious ones. It's funny. A couple of months ago, I was horribly depressed and intensely dissatisfied with all aspects of my existence, and took steps to change it.  It actually worked. Things are changing and moving along.

As a result, I've been a busy girl. Lots of shows at work, the gig at RU continues to be cool and I'm finally acclimating (I think).  Today I'm off but shooting a picture for a brochure cover for work (for which they will pay me! So exciting to remember I actually *do* have a marketable skill beyond my firm grasp on the english language). Keeping busy on the homefront in my off time, got my apartment re-arranged, and fairly tidy, cooking myself decent meals, spending lots of quality time with my sofa and netflix.

Overall, save a few niggling issues, I'm stupidly happy lately. I can't remember the last time I could say that.

ugh

Dear Green Day Tribute Band
Dear Good Charlotte
Dear Mest,

You blow goats.

hugs and kisses,

Miss Lis

Boys Boys Baez

"So we need to find a man for Lis. She likes them tall and skinny with no chin and no ass."

This was thrown out on the table last night when I went to have drinks at Tiny Lounge with Miss A  and her new beau, and a friend of his.  This led to a rather lengthy and uncomfortable discussion to the effect of:

“what about that guy?”
- No.
“ What about him??”
- No.
“Well, if you HAD to pick one of the guys in here…”
- Is there a gun to my head?
“…yes”
- I guess I’m dead then….

I really am not the fussiest girl in the world, but either I find someone compelling, or I don’t – it’s an intangible quality that I could  never define. It’s why the LBEM makes me feel all twisty inside whenever I see him, but a guy who looks just like him but isn’t him would do nothing for me and beyond being 6ft4 would completely escape my notice.

Yesterday I got an email from this guy… I suppose I should really stop naming names when it comes to major crushes of my adolescence (since some time back I got an email from this guy also) we exchanged a brief series of emails.  He finished with “Well I hope you go for what you want now – I had no idea”. 

Words to live by? Not that simple. Anyone who knows me knows I  am shy and spineless, and  completely lacking in confidence when it comes to matters of the heart.  It made me think tho.

In other news:

Worked the Joan Baez show last night. I am not a fan.  I detest folk music, and found her whole cumbaya schtick a little tedious*. However, she was accompanied by none other than the brilliantly talented Graham Maby – Yes! THE Graham Maby, of the original Joe Jackson band.  I know you all know exactly who I’m talking about and are as excited as I am about it.

*Not to mention, maybe it’s just me but I found it somehow inappropriate for a rich old white lady to be singing “Swing Low Sweet Chariot”  - pumping her fist in the air, to an audience almost entirely comprised of rich old white people.

Vroom...

I had a nice weekend, an *actual* weekend, with 2 whole days off in a row - VERY exciting.

Saturday was Miss B's birthday, and it was agreed that the Hunnert Car Pileup was the place that we would be.  Since Mr. Chris flatly refuses to put two chicks on the back of his Bonneville (I've SEEN this done in Jeddah - I don't know what makes you think you're so bloody special that you can't do it too) I rode out to Morris with Silent Ron, on the back of his functional yet spectacularly unattractive Ninja (sorry Ron).  It was a long cold ride, about 60 miles out of Chicago.  It was worth the trip - hundreds of lovely old cars, some decent music, and the BEST CHEESE FRIES EVER MADE.  (Thanks to Miss Sarah, my latest unhealthy food fixation is Cheese fries.) I think Mr. Chris took pictures of the cheese fries, I would have, had I not been so busy inhaling them.   

I didn't take as many pictures as I'd planned to - I was so cold and my knee was killing me (and when photographing cars I tend to squat down) I'm quite pleased with the few I did take tho - I had decided to bring my nikon out for some exercise, so yesterday I just had the prints developed and the negatives scanned to CD. Much better than my digital, even with mediocre CVS quality (yeah, I know I should really go to go to a proper lab but there are none near me and I wanted my pictures NOW NOW NOW. For a pharmacy lab they actually didn't do a bad job)

After a couple of hours of wandering around, the time to go was drawing near and I was dreading the ride home, and then along came H. who agreed to give me a ride home, so I got to ride back into the city in a v. sexy 66 GTO.  H. is my hero.

Last night I met E. to see Gogol Bordello at the Logan Square Auditorium.  I mentioned Gogol Bordello some time back when they opened for Flogging Molly at work - I was pretty impressed by them so when the opportunity to see them, unfettered by concerns of underage drinkers and pot smokers, I took it.  I really enjoyed the show, v. high energy, and the Logan Square Auditorium is a great venue.

Nothing much else to report, after having what amounts to 3 days off in a row (I work tonight but only for 3.5 hours and it's B&V so it hardly counts as real *work*).  I've been getting up a lot earlier these days and it's nice to have the mornings to do stuff. For example, I've been here at the coffee shop arseing about in photoshop for 2 hours, and it's only just noon - I still have the whole day ahead of me - it's awesome.

Your earworm for the day...

Yesterday at work i was called upon to employ those sticky paper ring thingies that serve to reinforce sheets in a ring binder, so they don't rip and fall out.  My dad, being the eloquent poet that he is, has always referred to these items as 'paper arseholes"...Still now I have the Marie Osmond song "Paper Roses" caught in my head, but with a slightly different twist.

Whew..

Survived the weekend, although I'm not sure about my right knee, which was v. hurty when I woke up this morning. It is now wrapped with an ace bandage, hopefully it will sort itself out.

The Lucinda Williams show was okay, I was in a *far* better mood than I  was for Pete Yorn.  The opener, CC something or another wasn't bad at all, and I liked Lucinda, although she does go on...and on...and on...Lucinda gets an older crowd, and vomiting was an issue, in case you were wondering (and I know you were)  After the show I re-discovered my desire to drink, went out and drank entirely too much and stayed out too late, wrapped up the evening by giving the LBEM a sharp smack on the backside, so overall it was an evening well spent, although I'm not entirely sure it was worth the headache and laying around doing fuck all trying to feel better before a 4:30 call time for the Our Lady Peace show.

Our Lady Peace played with with Danko Jones, and some other opener who was entirely forgettable. Danko Jones played second. Have you heard Danko Jones? Danko Jones FUCKING ROCKSI  have no idea how it turned out that he should be *opening* for a band like OLP (and I'd like to note most of the cool kids in the crowd left after his set) OLP were crap. Pure and simple. Pity too, I  got a good look at them during the signing after the show, and they're a bunch of little hotties. Despite the fact that Danko was gonna be DJing over at Bottom Lounge after the show,  and Peter Hook was spinning at Smart Bar, I came home after the show and got to bed shortly before one. 

Up bright and early today with aspirations of productivity. We'll see how that works out.

So yesterday...

I thought I was gonna leave work early (since I didn't take lunch, not because I'm already slacking). This was gonna leave me ample time to go get my cheques, go to the bank, get dinner, and take a small but much needed power nap, before the 6:30 call time for the Pete Yorn show.

What actually happened:

Left work 15 minutes late, due to having to make last minute arrangements for a meeting on Monday morning.

Stood in line to put money on my card at the train platform for several minutes as only ONE of the FOUR machines was working.  When it was finally my turn, the machine repeatedly spit out my money, for no good reason. Finally abandoned money that was left on my card and purchased a new one.

Got on train, went to pick up my cheques, went back to train, stood on platform *marvelling* at the fact that even though I worked over 10 hours more than I usually do on the last pay period, *somehow* I only got paid about $20 more than I usually do.

Due to distraction of pay discrepancy, when the train came, I just got on, I didn't think to look to see if it was the PURPLE LINE. Guess what?

Had to travel all the way up to Howard stop. Transferred to Red line, traveled back down to Lawrence, where I waited for the bus amid literally HUNDREDS of Fall Out Boy fans, lined up outside the Aaragon.  Somehow resisted urge to travel the length of the line doling out kicks in the shin and bitch slaps...in particular, to the one with the fauxhawk wearing a Ramones shirt. Yeah, you could argue that they at least like ONE good band, but they were so self consciously styled and put together, and the shirt was so carefully fitted to look like it was stolen from a younger sibling that I'd be truly surprised if they know any Ramones song beyond "Rock and Roll High School" Or could even begin to understand what a truly great song "Teenage Lobotomy" is or that "I Want You Around" is a far more poignant and romantic ballad than any dirgy pile of shit ever produced by fallout Boy, Dashboard Confessional, Blink 182, Sum 41, Good Charlotte or any other one of the many Hot Topic brand *alt* boy bands that I would love so desperately to douse in gasoline and set on fire.

Made it home with enough time to change into my Docs, grab my security shirt, and leave again.

Get to work for Pete Yorn show. the *Free* Pete Yorn show.  The crowd is lined up around the block.  They open the doors half an hour early. For security we have me, Big A, his not so little Brother, and my boss. That's it. Usually we've got a house staff of at least 8.  So with Big A on stage door, his brother really not capable of doing much more than wristbanding (did I mention he weighs 500 lbs and is therefore less than *nimble*?) My boss running around doing his job, which left me, to run around looking for people drinking without wristbands, and smoking (Oh, did I mention it was one of those pain in the ass shows where they only allow smoking by the upstairs bar? Did I?? DID I????)   Fortunately, Boss was able to get a hold of Matt, who showed up about an hour in, have I mentioned how much I love Matt?

The saving grace of the show was that it was only Pete Yorn (incidentally, what is the big fucking deal about this guy? Does he do original material? Pardon me if I refuse to be impressed by some emo looking twit with a marginal voice doing Beatles and Smiths covers) No openers, and the show ended shortly after 10.  Hamstress tried to coax me out to the Bottom Lounge, since it is the last weekend for the Bottom Lounge before they are demolished to make way for CTA expansion (And don't get me started on how much it pisses me off that the City of Chicago is losing this great venue). Much as I would have liked to have gone, I knew it would be insanely crowded, and loud, and I would, inevitably, at least *try* to kill someone.  Instead I went to the clusterfuck that is Matilda on a Friday night, got wings and cheese fries, scarfed down the cheese fries with a PBR, took the wings to go, and was home in bed by 12:30.

I am feeling much better now that I am well rested. Channeling hatred and venom is EXHAUSTING.

So this show marked the kickoff off the slew of shows we have for the month of October. Tonight is Lucinda Williams, tomorrow night is Our Lady Peace.  I’ve heard good things about Lucinda Williams.  I’ve heard nothing about Our Lady Peace.  I really would prefer that we just have B&V. Unfortunately, nobody asked me.

In other news…

This morning before waking up I had this dream that Jen was coming to visit. She arrived in town atop a panel van performing parallel bar gymnastics.  She was wearing a black and white ballgown (think eighties Valentino) and Tommy Hilfiger socks.  The truly odd part of this dream however was that in the dream, this didn’t seem the least bit unusual.  The few of you out there who know my favourite Amazon in the real world however - wouldn’t you be inclined to agree that this is a little out of character??