Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Daily horror-scope...

Interesting horoscope for me today from the Toronto Star....
Libra (Sept. 23 — Oct. 23)

It has been a long time since you last looked deeply into your true feelings concerning a relationship. Inspecting them could open up a Pandora's Box and bring on a storm. Be not afraid. Something crucial has changed

Given my current situation I'll say no more....

Asshat of the Month = driver of silver Dodge 300 Lic# BEEH 228...

To the female driver of a silver Dodge 300 license number BEEH 228 on Highway 9 near Jane St this morning:

You are a freakin' selfish asshole.

Trying to cut me off instead of pulling in ahead of the car ahead of me or behind me where there was at least 14 car lengths of space. No, you had to try and squeeze your big assed boat into a spot that was at least 3/4 length too small for you, cutting me off in the process.

Fuck you. I'm glad I didn't let you in. I'm even more glad that you got pissed off.

I hope you have a single car accident and die a slow, painful, firey death.

Douchebag.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Worms for dinner...

While playing with my new camera & zoom lens in my backyard I managed to get a shot of this bird bringing home some take out dinner for the kids....
(Click image for larger picture)


Photo taken by me in my backyard.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Got rid of "The Wife"...

No, not my wife, "The Wife". I'm referring to my heavily modified, beloved 1974 Fender Precision Bass that I have owned for nearly 30 years.

After more than a few years of non-playing and having no desire to ever get back into a band situation, I decided that rather than have it stored in it's case in the basement I'd see if I could sell it or trade it for a digital SLR camera. After less than 24 hours on craigslist.org I received numerous offers of cash or trade. Tonight I met with one of those people and swapped "The Wife" for the following: a mint condition Nikon D70 DSLR body with a 35-70mm lens, a 70-210mm lens, battery charger and 2 memory cards. Here's the camera:



I couldn't be happier. Been playing with the new toy all evening. Can't wait to try it out at the
Nine Inch Nails / Jane's Addiction concert in a few weeks....

Thursday, April 30, 2009

World Super Hero Registry...

My kids and I are shaking our collective heads after watching this report on real life "Super Heros". There is even a World Super Hero Registry website with pix and bio info on real life "Super Heros" around the world. Complete with costumes.

I have nothing further to add other than watch the video. Especially the big green guy. Strikes fear into evil doers everywhere.....NOT!

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Asshat of the Month = Billy Bob Thornton...

Listened to Billy Bob Thornton being interviewed yesterday on CBC's Q with Jian Ghomeshi. Seems BBT was there with his band the Boxmasters to promote their new CD. Jian's producers were apparently told not to ask any questions about BBT's acting, writing, Hollywood shite - only music. Jian made a contextual reference to BBT's history/acting, etc. in his introduction - but asked no Hollywood related questions - and BBT acted liked a spoiled, fucked-up, retarted, rich kid.



What a dick. Here's a tip Billy Bob - the ONLY reason your shit-ass band was on a high quality show like Q (with the very professional Ghomeshi) is because of your acting/Hollywood background. Suck it up Princess.

Cudos to Jian for handling the ignorant dickhead so well.

Now everyone go out and steal Billy Bob Thornton's band the Boxmasters music. Steal it all. And then delete the shit.

Good riddance ASSHAT!!!

Note: BBT does have a website related to his musical endeavors but it sucks like his ego so I didn't bother putting a link to it.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Life: A medical condition...

Great article from the BBC entitled Life: A medical condition. The opening quote sums it up nicely:
Restless leg syndrome, social anxiety disorder, female sexual dysfunction, celebrity worship syndrome - it seems that a new illness is invented every week, covering every potential quirk in human behaviour.
I know a few people, well one specifically, who should read and then re-read this article. And then print it out and tape it to their office wall, bedroom wall, kitchen wall, bathroom wall, forehead, etc....

Some other money quotes:
"If you look at the American Psychiatric Association 'bible', you'll see almost every piece of human behaviour can be classified as being in some way aberrant."

Dr Kendall sees dangers in a "tendency for new categories to be invented, often at the behest of drug companies looking for a new drug".

In 1997 the US fully legalised the advertising of prescription medicines.

Since then television ad breaks and popular magazines have been packed with explicit claims for the effectiveness of anti-depressants, behaviour modifying drugs and pre-menstrual tension treatments.

Prescriptions for the most heavily-advertised drugs have risen significantly.

'The Medicalisation of Normality' is broadcast on BBC Radio Four at 2100 BST on Monday 30 March and repeated on Wednesday 1 April at 1630 BST.

Juvenile humour...

For some reason a couple of silly little things popped into my mind today. Both deal with silly humour that made my chuckle and I'd thought I'd share....

When I was around 10 years old I used to get dragged out grocery shopping with my mom. Keep in mind this was nearly 40 years ago (pre Tylenol poisonings in Chicago) so there was no extra security seals on any of the packaging. Well, being a young, bored kid I would go to the cooler section where the Cool Whip was stored. I would open one of the round Cool Whip containers and using my finger I would spell out: Hi ! in big letters in the Cool Whip. I still giggle to myself thinking about people opening those containers when they got home....

And in more recent years.... I read somewhere about someone who started signing the Gideon's bibles left in hotel rooms. I thought that was brilliant so I started doing the same. Every hotel that I have stayed at in the last decade has a bible that is signed on the title something along the lines of:

All the Best,
God

Totally silly but both of these things still make me smile to myself....

You only grow up once in life but you can be immature forever....

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

NINJA2009 tickets in hand...



NINJA2009 - Amazing summer amphitheatre tour featuring the 2 groups that kick started alternative rock in the late 80's and early 90s; Nine Inch Nails & Jane's Addiction (original members) along with the new band from RATM's Tom Morello; Street Sweeper.

Can't wait for June 2nd down at the Molson Amphitheatre. Seeing NIN again is worth it by itself but to have Jane's Addiction on the bill is incredible. I remember getting JA's first album 'Nothing's Shocking' - and yes by album I mean as in vinyl. I wore that disc out. Several of them. Never got a chance to see them live and now the original members have reunited to tour with NIN....

Last year it was NIN with RATM at Lollapalooza and this year NIN with JA....

Life is good....

Monday, March 9, 2009

Watchmen...


Wow! What a fantastic movie. Trailers available here.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

TILTHW...

Great ongoing series I've been reading this week entitled TILTHW - Things I Learned The Hard Way. Highly recommend it to all freelancing tech people. 

Thanks to Daring Fireball for the heads up..

Friday, January 23, 2009

Hunter S. Thompson quotes...

Some great quotes from an American icon:
I feel the same way about disco as I do about herpes.
~
In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity.
~
I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours.
~
The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side.
~
For every moment of triumph, for every instance of beauty, many souls must be trampled.
~
Fear is just another word for ignorance.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Harper’s Retrospective of the Bush Era...

Interesting retrospective article from Harpers Magazine with obscure bits of numbers & stats from the bleak period in American history known as the George W. Bush era. Interesting in the same obscene way a bad traffic accident is to gawk at... Full article available here.
Money quotes:
Days since the federal government first placed the nation under an “elevated terror alert” that the level has been relaxed: 0

Minimum number of laws that Bush signing statements have exempted his administration from following: 1,069

Portion of his presidency he has spent at or en route to vacation spots: 1/3
So what we have is an administration who kept their citizens in a state of fear, broke their own laws and spent 33% of 8 years (approximately 963 days) on vacation.

Unfuckingbelievable...    Good riddance. 

Thursday, January 8, 2009

400GB of raw HD Lights In The Sky NIN concert footage...

Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails once again gives a big fuck-you to his former record company. Seems that Trent & co. wanted to film and release a blue ray/dvd of their most recent Lights In The Sky tour that was nothing short of a musical/visual masterpiece every night - I know first hand having seen 3 shows on this tour. But his former record company holds the rights to some of the songs and wouldn't give him permission to use them, effectively killing the project.

So Trent relaxed the security at 3 shows towards the end of the tour and allowed fans (and his own film crew) to film all they wanted. He has now released via torrent files over 400GB of raw HD footage of the 3 complete shows pre-organized in Final Cut Pro sequences for fans to edit and assemble into their own blue ray/dvd discs. From a band of this stature this kind of fan respect and interaction is unheard of in the record industry. Makes me very happy to be a NIN fan....

Here is the blurb from Trent on nin.com:
The internet is full of surprises these days.
I was contacted by a mysterious, shadowy group of subversives who SOMEHOW managed to film a substantial amount (over 400 GB!) of raw, unedited HD footage from three separate complete shows of our Lights in the Sky tour. Security must have been lacking at these shows because the quality of the footage is excellent.

If any of you could find a LINK to that footage I'll bet some enterprising fans could assemble something pretty cool.

Oh yeah, you didn't hear this from me.
Wow, now I need to go out and buy an external 1TB drive to hold the files...

Huge thanks to Trent & co..

Ontario family courts biased against males...

Just read an article in The Star about a guy proven NOT to be the biological father of 16 year old twins but ordered to continue paying child support, as he had been willingly doing since 1998 under the assumption that the twins were his children. Seems the mom had an affair she can't remember. Yeah, uh huh. Not surprising that a female judge made this asinine ruling.

Read the article here.

I've long thought that Ontario family courts are skewed towards women. But what do I know, I'm a male.

Monday, January 5, 2009

Ghosts I-IV Amazon's 2008 best selling album...

Nice to see that even though Nine Inch Nails released all 4 Ghosts albums under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike license, meaning NIN fans (and non-NIN fans) could legally share & download free versions of the album, Ghosts I-IV actually went on to become the best-selling album of 2008 on Amazon's MP3 store. 

Also good to see fans paying for quality independent releases.... Personally I opted for the Deluxe $75.00 box set (CDs, DVD, BlueRay disc & artwork) bought directly from nin.com. Also nice to note that the Limited Edition $300.00 box set (CDs, DVD, Blue Ray disc, vinyl & artwork) sold out in 24 hours.


Tuesday, December 23, 2008

"Judaism, Christianity and Islam have mythical origins..."

Interesting article in today's Toronto Star about a Muslim scholar who says that according to his research all 3 of the big religions have mythical origins - including Moses, Jesus & Muhammad.... (and don't forget the Holy Trinity of the Toothfairy, Easterbunny & Santa Claus).

(God) Money quotes from the article:
"God doesn't write books. All the various sacred books are the product of human minds and experiences."

"Religion should never contradict reason," he says. "I could never accept any doctrine or belief that goes against my rational mind."
Amen to that brother... Should be good fodder for some riots and death threats somewhere....

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Photopalooza 1...









All photos taken by me.

Photopalooza 2...

Shot of the moon from my driveway....


Some old abandoned docks up the road from my house....




Bricks.... I like this shot for some reason....


Photo taken through pay-per-view binoculars on the observation deck of the CN Tower....


All photos taken by me.

Photopalooza 3...

Sunsets from the end of my street....









All photos taken by me on walks by the lake.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

2,700 year old Shaman pot...

Interesting article in today's Toronto Star about the oldest known dope stash found in a Chinese tomb.

Some chronic quotes:
Stash seems to have been intended for buried shaman to use in the afterlife

Researchers say they have located the world's oldest stash of marijuana, in a tomb in a remote part of China. The cache of cannabis is about 2,700 years old and was clearly "cultivated for psychoactive purposes," rather than as fibre for clothing or as food, says a research paper in the Journal of Experimental Botany.
The entire article is here.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Bad animals...

Heard a great interview on CBC Radio One's The Sunday Edition with Farley Mowat a couple of Sundays ago. He referred to humans as bad animals in that we treat other species and the environment so horribly. Very engaging, humourous, in-your-face interview. Also read a piece on him the Toronto Star where he touches on that subject again with the following quote:
"I am absolutely sure that the human species has not very far to go, in terms of lifetime on Earth...And I couldn't care less. Life will continue on after we're gone. There have been lots of evolutionary mistakes. What's one more?"
I'm looking forward to reading his latest book Otherwise.

I hope I'm as ornery as him at aged 87....

Sunday, November 23, 2008

The Macallan...

...Nothing like a Sunday night drunk on Macallan.... 

Thanks Gabriele....

Thursday, November 20, 2008

NIN again...


Forgot to mention here that last Friday night in Hamilton at Copps Coliseum, for the 3rd time on their  "Lights In The Sky" North American tour, I saw
Nine Inch Nails live. Took my daughter, her girl friend and my youngest son. It was a spectacular show. Huge crowd that was totally into the band. And the band was really on. NIN is such a great band to see live. 2+ hours of pure intensity. 

So this marks the 5th time I've seen them live, the 4th time my daughter has seen them and the 2nd time my son has seen them. 

We're one big happy NIN family....

Sunday, November 16, 2008

No, this is not photoshopped...



Amazing architecture in Sopot, Poland. It's called The Crooked House. Imagine seeing this when drunk or high... First picture in a series from the
Village of Joy blog entry entitled 50 Strange Buildings of the World.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Monday, November 10, 2008

Would that make us kin?...

Two good ole boys in Keswick were sitting around talking one afternoon over a cold beer. After a while the 1st guy says to 2nd:
"If'n I was to sneak over to your place Saturday & make love to your wife while you was off huntin' and she got pregnant and had a baby, would that make us kin?"
The 2nd guy crooked his head sideways for a minute, scratched his head, and squinted his eyes thinking real hard about the question. Finally, he says:
"Well, I don't know about kin, but it sure would make us even."

Friday, November 7, 2008

Proverb...

Marriage.... Once is a mistake. Twice you're a masocist.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

California fires...

Amazing photo once again from the BBC's In Pictures - (#5 of 8 photos)....


In Sylmar Vallery, the flames sent people fleeing by car from their hillside homes. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in two of California's counties.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

400 > 150,000,000?!?! WTF???...

Interesting, in an obscene kind of way, letter from Michael Moore about the US bail out:
The richest 400 Americans -- that's right, just four hundred people -- own MORE than the bottom 150 million Americans combined. 400 rich Americans have got more stashed away than half the entire country! Their combined net worth is $1.6 trillion. During the eight years of the Bush Administration, their wealth has increased by nearly $700 billion -- the same amount that they are now demanding we give to them for the "bailout." Why don't they just spend the money they made under Bush to bail themselves out? They'd still have nearly a trillion dollars left over to spread amongst themselves!

Friday, September 26, 2008

A political conversation...

A recent conversation between me and my 15 year old son:
Son: Dad, who are you and mom voting for in the upcoming election?
Me: Not really sure yet. Haven't thought about it much.
Son: In other elections who did you vote for?
Me: Hmmm... Probably either NDP or Green Party.
Son: Fricken' hippies....

Friday, September 5, 2008

My favourite t-shirt...

I first saw this t-shirt at Lollapalooza and instantly wanted one. My all time favourite t-shirt design....

Thursday, September 4, 2008

BBC Day In Pictures...

Striking image of Hindu woman praying from the BBC's Day In Pictures (image #1)....


From the BBC text:
Hindu women pray before taking a ritual bath in the Bagmati River in Kathmandu at the end of the Teej festival, in which women fast and pray for the good health of their husbands.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Open letter from Michael Moore to Caroline Kennedy...

Interesting open letter from Michael Moore to Caroline Kennedy asking her to be Obama's running mate in the upcoming U.S. elections. I actually think that Moore may be on to something. The supposed short list of 3 candidates are either all old school U.S. politcians or nobodies. Good luck on getting her to agree though....

Monday, August 18, 2008

The Future...

No one today can make better use of the English language than Mr. Leonard Cohen. I am just taken away when I hear his songs. Especially The Future....

The Future

Give me back my broken night
my mirrored room, my secret life
it's lonely here,
there's no one left to torture
Give me absolute control
over every living soul
And lie beside me, baby,
that's an order!
Give me crack and anal sex
Take the only tree that's left
and stuff it up the hole
in your culture
Give me back the Berlin wall
give me Stalin and St Paul
I've seen the future, brother:
it is murder.

Things are going to slide, slide in all directions
Won't be nothing
Nothing you can measure anymore
The blizzard, the blizzard of the world
has crossed the threshold
and it has overturned
the order of the soul
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant

You don't know me from the wind
you never will, you never did
I'm the little jew
who wrote the Bible
I've seen the nations rise and fall
I've heard their stories, heard them all
but love's the only engine of survival
Your servant here, he has been told
to say it clear, to say it cold:
It's over, it ain't going
any further
And now the wheels of heaven stop
you feel the devil's riding crop
Get ready for the future:
it is murder

Things are going to slide ...

There'll be the breaking of the ancient
western code
Your private life will suddenly explode
There'll be phantoms
There'll be fires on the road
and the white man dancing
You'll see a woman
hanging upside down
her features covered by her fallen gown
and all the lousy little poets
coming round
tryin' to sound like Charlie Manson
and the white man dancin'

Give me back the Berlin wall
Give me Stalin and St Paul
Give me Christ
or give me Hiroshima
Destroy another fetus now
We don't like children anyhow
I've seen the future, baby:
it is murder

Things are going to slide ...

When they said REPENT REPENT ...

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Sharkwater...

Sharkwater is an absolute must see movie. The majestic beauty of these misunderstood animals is awe inspiring. The way and numbers in which we kill them for their fins is sickening. In the time it took to watch the movie more than 15,000 sharks were slaughtered worldwide. Makes me ashamed to be human to see what we have done to decimate sharks and countless other species of marine and wildlife in the name of profit. 

We are definitely "primates out of control"....

Sharkwater is also affiliated with the web site savingsharks.com. Go there and become informed.


SHARKWATER

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

27 days, 14 hours...

My main computer is my nearly 4 year old Apple 12" G4 PowerBook laptop. It has been an absolute workhorse for me and still runs all the current software I require (OS X 10.5.4, Adobe CS3 Design Suite Premium, Office 2008, etc.). Apple pushed out a system software/security update for it last week that required a reboot after install. Prior to rebooting the machine had been up and running problem free for 27 days, 14 hours...

Pretty impressive in a geek kind of way...

UPDATE: Nov. 24, 2008, I must have jinxed myself with this post. In the first week of November my beloved 12" PowerBook's on board video card died; needing an entire system board replacement. Apple charges more than the computer is worth for a new system board so I opted for one of the new all aluminum 13" MacBooks. And so far I'm completely impressed in every way with the new computer. I really like being able to use Parallels - I have XP & Ubuntu virtual machines up and running. Hopefully this is the beginning of another long run with this laptop. As of this writing the new MacBook has been running for 5 days, 1 hour and 13 minutes....  

Rural living...

One of the things about living in the country is wildlife. And I don't mean the people. I forgot to close my garage door last night so around 11:00pm I went around locking up the house and went into the garage through the house. Staring at me as I walked into the garage was a skunk chowing down on the remains in a pizza box the kids threw out. I backed away slowly and flicked the lights on and off a few times. The skunk gave me a dirty look and slowly waddled away. I closed the door and was thankful not to be sporting a new cologne....

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Hurry up and wait update...

Well, after making an appointment to see the Doctor about the lymph nodes flaring up again they subsided on their own. By the time I saw the the Doc everything was normal again. His take on it is that whatever it is that causing these flares up is not serious. If it was serious it wouldn't go away on it's own like it did. He gave me another prescription incase they flare up again. Since the last time though everything has been good. Even my blood pressure is back to normal.... Strange....

Nine Inch Nails in Toronto...

Two days ago.... Here I was back in Toronto with less than 3 hours sleep as our buses from Chicago & Detroit were somewhat late and crowded but never mind all that - NIN was playing at the Air Canada Centre Tuesday night and I was taking my youngest son for his 12th birthday. No camera with me this time as I wanted to just watch, listen and totally enjoy the show.

The show was much that same set list as at Lollapalooza but with the addition of the song God Given, which just rocked the place. My son was completely blown away but the sounds, lights and just sheer magnitude of the performance. He repeatedly told me that it was "sick". We were on the floor about 50-60 feet from the stage. I watched him sing and clap along and throw his fist in the air. I love being able to share these kind of moments with my kids.... Not to mention helping foster what I consider to be excellent taste in music....

Personally, I'd go see NIN on every stop of thier tour if I could. Since the early 90's I just haven't been able to get enough of the band. This show was my 4th time seeing them live. Their music just touches something deep inside me and allows me to believe that everything will be alright....

Highlights of the night for me were Letting You, Piggies, Gave Up, the Ghosts material and In This Twilight. Songs from every NIN cd were played and the band was really into the show.

Thanks NIN!!!


Lollapalooza day 3...

This was a slow day for us as we really only wanted to see Saul Williams and Nine Inch Nails in the evening. First up was Saul Williams in the afternoon.


Saul Williams.


Saul Williams.

Saul is a spoken word/poet/metal guy whose latest album was produced by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. While watching Saul play a smoking set I noticed that 20 feet away from me to my right, behind a fence, was Trent himself. I waved and smiled and he smiled and nodded back to me. I snapped a few pix. My daughter and I were both pleased at that little encounter....


Trent Reznor.


Trent Reznor.

Nine Inch Nails, my favourite group since about 1992, put on a spectacular show. Musically and visually is was nothing short of stunning. Just before the show started I somewhat reluctantly agreed to let my daughter disappear in the throngs on NIN fans as she really wanted to get up close. After the show we met at the pre-arranged meeting spot and man, she looked like a drowned rat. She was beaming happy though as she made it to front row.


Nine Inch Nails.


Nine Inch Nails.


Nine Inch Nails.


Nine Inch Nails.


Nine Inch Nails.


Nine Inch Nails.

Over all it was one fantastic trip. Several times my daughter told me it was the best weekend of her life. As a parent I guess you can't get much better than that. And then after a good night's sleep at the hotel we headed out to the bus terminal for our trip back to Toronto. And I was already getting psyched up for seeing NIN at the next show on their tour in Toronto at the Air Canada Centre with my just turned 12 year old son. It's his first time to see NIN and his birthday present. The Toronto show will be my 4th time catching NIN live and each time it gets better. More on the Toronto show in another post....

After both my daughter and I having such a great time it left us wondering who's going to be on the stages for next year's Lollapalooza....


Photos taken by me in Chicago.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Lollapalooza day 2...

This is the day we were waiting for. Rage Against The Machine tonight!! Long time favourite band of mine and my daughter's. The band only plays one or two festivals a year now so getting an opportunity to see them is pretty rare. And they were the main reason we traveled to Chicago. The fact that Nine Inch Nails was playing there as well was just the icing on the cake....

Before heading to the park though we stopped by another Chicago park - Millennium Park, to the see The Bean - also know by it's official name Cloud Gate.



Cloud Gate - "The Bean"

We spent most of the afternoon checking out different bands. My daughter went to see an emo band she likes - Brand New while I went to see an incredible Canadian talent Serena Ryder. I managed to be front row against the stage and got lots of photos and videos of her playing. She played a 45 minute set and she rocked!!


Serena Ryder.

Another band I saw but didn't take any pix of was a New Jersey based group called Steel Train. They were really, really good. Sounded like an updated Bruce Sprinsteen on steroids. Great set.


Waiting for Rage Against The Machine.

Rage Against The Machine was without a doubt the most intense, crowed, wild show I have ever attended. Lollapalooza boasted a complete sell out this year - first time in its' history. 75,000 per day. Well, on Saturday night more than 50,000 of those people went to see Rage. It was pretty scary at one point as all movement was at the mercy of the crowd. The band even stopped the show midway through the 3rd song, People Of The Sun, imploring people to move back 10 steps as people were passing out and getting injured up front. There were 2 or 3 more stoppages during the set as the crowd was fucking nuts for these guys. Even the head of security for the whole event came on stage to talk to the band and audience. He said if we didn't move back and stop pushing they would have no choice but to end the show.

Below is a crowd shot of Rage courtesy of the Lollapalooza web site. I added a small red x to the left of the sound tent to show where my daughter and I were in the crowd.



Official Lollapalooza Photo by Dave Mead.


Rage Against The Machine.


Rage Against The Machine.

In the end it was all good and my daughter and I were both just over the moon that we finally got to see Rage in concert. After the show the crowd spilled out on the streets of Chicago taking over completely. It was amazing. And in the most crowed subway car I've ever been in the entire car spontaneously broke out singing a bunch of old R&B songs. It was a total blast....


RATM fans taking over the streets of Chicago.

Photos taken by me in Chicago unless otherwise noted.

Chicago, Lollapalooza day 1...

Got to Chicago way early, 4:00am, as the bus changed routes last minute and didn't stop at a couple Cities. Hung around the bus terminal until places were open and then went out and explored downtown Chicago. Had a great breakfast at Lou Mitchell's - advertising the world's best coffee - I don't know about that but it was damn good. Then wandered around some more and went up the Sears Tower to the 103rd floor observation deck. Took lots of photos and just enjoyed exploring somewhere new to us. Man, Chicago is one big ass city....






Sculpture inside the Sears Tower honouring Engineers who designed the building.

After checking into our hotel and catching a shower and a nap we headed back into town and to Lollapalooza. Grant Park is great place. Huge park nearly 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) from end to end. In the afternoon we caught a bit of the Racontours but quite honestly, we found them to be boring. We walked around the park just checking the place out and people watching. Radiohead was playing in the evening so we chilled out on the grass and listened & watched the show. Great light show they put on. Fairly mellow almost ambient music.






The Racontours.

Met some funny drunk guys from Quebec and instantly got into a Leafs versus Canadiens hockey discussion - much to the chagrin of the two American girls with the guys. It was all good though. We were all laughing and found that we were all there mainly to see Rage Against The Machine on the next night. Must be a Canadian thing as we met another couple from Toronto in the Rage crowd who came just for Rage as well. Good musical taste north of the border I guess....




Radiohead.

Photos taken by me in Chicago.