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ateolfso, if i can remember, Mary Beth, Ryan, and i drove up to Chicago three thursdays ago...we screwed up and missed the exit and so we ended up taking the slightly longer way going by St. Louis...but we made it there...the first night we stayed in the same hotel we'd stayed in a few months ago...we got in with just enough time to go to myopic...as it was only open til 1 am on a weekday we only had like an hour and a half so i only made it through up to like the letter 'k' but this is what i got that night: Portrait of an Eye by Kathy Acker, The Silver Dove by Andrey Biely, The Doctor Is Sick by Anthony Burgess, The Mustache by Emmanuel Carrère, The Fear of Losing Eurydice by Julieta Campos, Crossing Over by Richard Currey, Blue Bamboo by Osamu Dazai, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse, Billy and Girl by Deborah Levy, Geometric Regional Novel by Gert Jonke, and Thousand Cranes by Yasunari Kawabata...
the next day our first stop was at restless...there was some show there that day, which was pretty lame...when we got there the crowd was just starting to form...much of the store was accessible but in the regular rock section at least the letter 'a' maybe 'b' were blocked off by the amassing people...i looked around half-assedly in the regular rock section, mostly at the other end...i looking through a few genres...mostly through the new arrivals of jazz and experimental which were right next to each other and by this point about the only haven as the crowd was thickening very quickly...actually at this point i belive the band had started playing and they were terrible...i think they were called Fuck Off, just generic hardcore...so i quickly realized i was already holding quite a few items and purchased and left as soon as possible...here's what i got: Wolf Eyes: Human Animal, Sun Ra: Concert for the Comet Kohoutek, Miles Davis: Black Beauty, Cluster: II, Coil: Black Light District...
i was also under the impression i had gotten John Coltrane: My Favorite Things...then when i get back i realize the cover/insert is for that album but the back and the cd are some bootleg compilation (at least partially mastered from vinyl with pops/scratches on at least a couple songs) named after the same song as the album i thought i was getting except misspelled "My FavoUrite Things"...so that was a little distressing...i called 'em and yesterday i mailed off the cd for a refund...
so after the rock'n'roll and throngs of jerks became too unbearable i made my way back over to myopic to continue the expedition: Cities of the Plain by Cormac McCarthy, At the Wall of the Almighty by Farnoosh Moshiri, Broad Sworder by Ma Ning, Palinuro of Mexico by Fernando del Paso, A Visit from the Footbinder by Emily Prager, Two Novels by Alain Robbe-Grillet, The Key by Junichiro Tanizaki, The Tenants of Moonbloom by Edward Lewis Wallant, and J R by William Gaddis...
i got to meet Rob for the first time...he briefly joined our team as we went off in search of Hot Doug's...when we finally found it there was a line around the side of the building and we didn't have that much time so we ended up having to drop him off at the el and went and found the ukranian buffet from before (Old Lviv i believe)...it was once again wonderful...and then off to find the festival...street parking was actually easy to find and free and close so that was something of a shock...
the shows were good...the lame thing was Slint played on the second stage and then after that GZA and Sonic Youth (in that order) played the main stage...so in order to get a decent spot for Slint i had of course to be at that stage and miss the opportunity to get to the other stage for a good spot for Sonic Youth, in which i would have been across a field from Slint and really wouldn't be able to experience the show at all...and since i'd already seen Sonic Youth at least 15? times (i THINK this was my 16th show of theirs) i opted to actually SEE Slint and get a decent spot for them...it was a good show...i was surprisingly enthralled especially by "Don, Aman"...it was so quiet and the crowd was actually quiet something i'd never experienced at an actual show...at one point an el drove by the park behind the stage off in the background and you could just hear this mild background noise over the music and over the crowd...it was weird, the other acts definitely would not have received the quiet as the crowd were acting like their usual jerky selves for most of the time...i hadn't known anything about the way Slint's lineup worked and it was really weird to see...the way the guy who sings most of the songs mostly only sang and sometimes not really even that and in "Nosferatu Man" would sit off behind the stage and then run up to sing the few yelled lines...anyway, GZA was okay...most of his set was me working my way slowly through the crowd in order to get a decent spot for Sonic Youth...my position ended up being mediocre...being right up at the stage versus way in the back of a crowd really affects the appreciation of a show...ah, well...Sonic Youth were good...of course, the drawback to seeing a band play a whole album front to back is you know exactly what songs they're going to play in what order...and Spiderland and Daydream Nation are both great albums, obviously, it does lack that little something of seeing a band just play a set without knowing what you're about to hear next...oh, i should also add that Slint played a new song after Spiderland and it was really good...Sonic Youth played a few songs from Rather Ripped after the Daydream Nation set (from their best to their worst...ah...) but they were good shows, definitely worth the trip if the rest of the trip weren't worth it also...oh yeah, and of course i got t-shirts for the two bands i came to see...
after the show we all made efforts to find each other and Ryan's friend Tyler who guided us to a friend of his who we stayed with that night...we slept on uncomfortable couches etc but i was so fucking tired that it didn't matter it was quite the awesome sleep...(of course the night before the drive i didn't get much sleep at all as is usual for me, and then the next night we had to wake up to check out of the hotel and had been out in the city, etc...) our dining experience that night was too much food (chicago style pizza, yikes!) from a place called chicago's to boot...then the next morning was pretty lazy...over a few hours we got up and sat around, etc...we finally made it (Mary Beth, Ryan, and i) to Hot Doug's...they close at 4 which is crazy and we barely made it...the line was still there but we were making time for Hot Doug's! it was pretty fuckin' awesome i must say...i got a t-shirt there too...one of my new favorite places to eat...too bad it's 10 hours away...then we tried to make it to the museum of contemporary art but it was already closed by then...so we drove around...kept passing Humbolt Park so we eventually got out and just wandered around there for a while...i must say, since i've neglected to mention arleady, how fucking AWESOME summer in Chicago seems to be...i mean, winter and seasons adjacent are pretty fucking wretched there...i mean, horrible...but there is some payoff in the summer! the weather was just amazing the whole time we were there...anyway...then some more driving...we went to some bar that had been recommended...we walked around in circles talking...it was pretty neat...Slint played again this next night but when we found out it was $25 we figured that was pretty expensive and didn't go...kind of regret it now...Tyler went and told Ryan it was pretty great...i knew it'd be better seeing them play a real set in a setting better than that of a festival...but having just seen them to pay $25 seemed a little much at the moment...but yeah, and they played "Glenn" and "Rhoda" and when i heard that they had my thoughts were "doh!"...ah well...it was still fun wandering around doing nothing...oh yeah, and i also forgot to mention that sometime during that day in the early evening i believe we were once again in the wicker park area and i briefly went back into myopic 'cuz i had to take a dump really bad so i did but on their new arrivals rack they had Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco so i got that...anyway...
this night Mary Beth and i as we didn't wanna keep imposing on strangers went and found a hotel...the one we'd stayed in the other night was full...so were two others nearby...the end of the line was Travelers' Inn...by this time it's almost 3 am so we're just happy to be anywhere...though the room we rented did smell bad...not overpowering but it was there...the next morning was our return back...in the nearby area was a Philippine restaurant and we ate there and it was amazing! it was like a cross between polynesian and thai with tangential relations to mexican or south american or something...i dunno, it was amazing...we had these mindblowing empenadas...mango juice...Mary Beth had goat and it was fucking awesome...it was kind of barbecued and the way that tasted reminded me of ethiopian...we don't have anything like that in memphis so we didn't know what to expect and it was fuckin' great...anyway, that was like almost a two hour detour but it was worth it...i don't think anything remarkable happened on the trip back...uh, i guess that's all...it was a really fun and awesome trip...oh and the driving in the city was unusually easygoing...go figure...
the next day our first stop was at restless...there was some show there that day, which was pretty lame...when we got there the crowd was just starting to form...much of the store was accessible but in the regular rock section at least the letter 'a' maybe 'b' were blocked off by the amassing people...i looked around half-assedly in the regular rock section, mostly at the other end...i looking through a few genres...mostly through the new arrivals of jazz and experimental which were right next to each other and by this point about the only haven as the crowd was thickening very quickly...actually at this point i belive the band had started playing and they were terrible...i think they were called Fuck Off, just generic hardcore...so i quickly realized i was already holding quite a few items and purchased and left as soon as possible...here's what i got: Wolf Eyes: Human Animal, Sun Ra: Concert for the Comet Kohoutek, Miles Davis: Black Beauty, Cluster: II, Coil: Black Light District...
i was also under the impression i had gotten John Coltrane: My Favorite Things...then when i get back i realize the cover/insert is for that album but the back and the cd are some bootleg compilation (at least partially mastered from vinyl with pops/scratches on at least a couple songs) named after the same song as the album i thought i was getting except misspelled "My FavoUrite Things"...so that was a little distressing...i called 'em and yesterday i mailed off the cd for a refund...
so after the rock'n'roll and throngs of jerks became too unbearable i made my way back over to myopic to continue the expedition: Cities of the Plain by Cormac McCarthy, At the Wall of the Almighty by Farnoosh Moshiri, Broad Sworder by Ma Ning, Palinuro of Mexico by Fernando del Paso, A Visit from the Footbinder by Emily Prager, Two Novels by Alain Robbe-Grillet, The Key by Junichiro Tanizaki, The Tenants of Moonbloom by Edward Lewis Wallant, and J R by William Gaddis...
i got to meet Rob for the first time...he briefly joined our team as we went off in search of Hot Doug's...when we finally found it there was a line around the side of the building and we didn't have that much time so we ended up having to drop him off at the el and went and found the ukranian buffet from before (Old Lviv i believe)...it was once again wonderful...and then off to find the festival...street parking was actually easy to find and free and close so that was something of a shock...
the shows were good...the lame thing was Slint played on the second stage and then after that GZA and Sonic Youth (in that order) played the main stage...so in order to get a decent spot for Slint i had of course to be at that stage and miss the opportunity to get to the other stage for a good spot for Sonic Youth, in which i would have been across a field from Slint and really wouldn't be able to experience the show at all...and since i'd already seen Sonic Youth at least 15? times (i THINK this was my 16th show of theirs) i opted to actually SEE Slint and get a decent spot for them...it was a good show...i was surprisingly enthralled especially by "Don, Aman"...it was so quiet and the crowd was actually quiet something i'd never experienced at an actual show...at one point an el drove by the park behind the stage off in the background and you could just hear this mild background noise over the music and over the crowd...it was weird, the other acts definitely would not have received the quiet as the crowd were acting like their usual jerky selves for most of the time...i hadn't known anything about the way Slint's lineup worked and it was really weird to see...the way the guy who sings most of the songs mostly only sang and sometimes not really even that and in "Nosferatu Man" would sit off behind the stage and then run up to sing the few yelled lines...anyway, GZA was okay...most of his set was me working my way slowly through the crowd in order to get a decent spot for Sonic Youth...my position ended up being mediocre...being right up at the stage versus way in the back of a crowd really affects the appreciation of a show...ah, well...Sonic Youth were good...of course, the drawback to seeing a band play a whole album front to back is you know exactly what songs they're going to play in what order...and Spiderland and Daydream Nation are both great albums, obviously, it does lack that little something of seeing a band just play a set without knowing what you're about to hear next...oh, i should also add that Slint played a new song after Spiderland and it was really good...Sonic Youth played a few songs from Rather Ripped after the Daydream Nation set (from their best to their worst...ah...) but they were good shows, definitely worth the trip if the rest of the trip weren't worth it also...oh yeah, and of course i got t-shirts for the two bands i came to see...
after the show we all made efforts to find each other and Ryan's friend Tyler who guided us to a friend of his who we stayed with that night...we slept on uncomfortable couches etc but i was so fucking tired that it didn't matter it was quite the awesome sleep...(of course the night before the drive i didn't get much sleep at all as is usual for me, and then the next night we had to wake up to check out of the hotel and had been out in the city, etc...) our dining experience that night was too much food (chicago style pizza, yikes!) from a place called chicago's to boot...then the next morning was pretty lazy...over a few hours we got up and sat around, etc...we finally made it (Mary Beth, Ryan, and i) to Hot Doug's...they close at 4 which is crazy and we barely made it...the line was still there but we were making time for Hot Doug's! it was pretty fuckin' awesome i must say...i got a t-shirt there too...one of my new favorite places to eat...too bad it's 10 hours away...then we tried to make it to the museum of contemporary art but it was already closed by then...so we drove around...kept passing Humbolt Park so we eventually got out and just wandered around there for a while...i must say, since i've neglected to mention arleady, how fucking AWESOME summer in Chicago seems to be...i mean, winter and seasons adjacent are pretty fucking wretched there...i mean, horrible...but there is some payoff in the summer! the weather was just amazing the whole time we were there...anyway...then some more driving...we went to some bar that had been recommended...we walked around in circles talking...it was pretty neat...Slint played again this next night but when we found out it was $25 we figured that was pretty expensive and didn't go...kind of regret it now...Tyler went and told Ryan it was pretty great...i knew it'd be better seeing them play a real set in a setting better than that of a festival...but having just seen them to pay $25 seemed a little much at the moment...but yeah, and they played "Glenn" and "Rhoda" and when i heard that they had my thoughts were "doh!"...ah well...it was still fun wandering around doing nothing...oh yeah, and i also forgot to mention that sometime during that day in the early evening i believe we were once again in the wicker park area and i briefly went back into myopic 'cuz i had to take a dump really bad so i did but on their new arrivals rack they had Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco so i got that...anyway...
this night Mary Beth and i as we didn't wanna keep imposing on strangers went and found a hotel...the one we'd stayed in the other night was full...so were two others nearby...the end of the line was Travelers' Inn...by this time it's almost 3 am so we're just happy to be anywhere...though the room we rented did smell bad...not overpowering but it was there...the next morning was our return back...in the nearby area was a Philippine restaurant and we ate there and it was amazing! it was like a cross between polynesian and thai with tangential relations to mexican or south american or something...i dunno, it was amazing...we had these mindblowing empenadas...mango juice...Mary Beth had goat and it was fucking awesome...it was kind of barbecued and the way that tasted reminded me of ethiopian...we don't have anything like that in memphis so we didn't know what to expect and it was fuckin' great...anyway, that was like almost a two hour detour but it was worth it...i don't think anything remarkable happened on the trip back...uh, i guess that's all...it was a really fun and awesome trip...oh and the driving in the city was unusually easygoing...go figure...
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Date: 2007-07-30 04:22 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2007-08-01 12:32 am (UTC)