It's been a decent run on this blog, but I really am not motivated to write much of anything that I want to be public view lately. If it's personal, I write it in a journal or tell those who need to know. I'm burned out on politics and I post random things I find amusing or interesting on facebook now.

I'll leave it at this: I'm happy now, for the first time in I can't remember how long. I'm happy with myself and with most aspects of my life. Some things are beyond my control or are things I simply have to deal with - and I do so the best I can. But I have so many people in my life right now that make me happy and I don't need a whole lot more than that.

I am grateful for all those who I have "met" via this blog - you know who you are (several of you are on my facebook friends list also). It's strange that two people who have never met can be friends - but that's the beauty of the internet. With all its cautions and trivial brainfarts, and misinformation, if used properly, digital media can be used to bring people who may never have had the chance to interact together.

So thanks for reading and I'll still see most of you who are left reading this, either on facebook or in real life.

Peace

Facebook really has usurped this as my primary method of sharing ideas, but I still will post here from time to time when something strikes me.

Like, maybe this:

Roger Waters kicked off The Wall tour in Toronto and I read a review. I cannot wait until Monday. This will be the third time I've seen him live. Once in 1999 on a purely solo tour, at a small 5,000 seat venue - which was brilliant. Once in 2007 for Dark Side of the Moon, which was amazing. And now for The Wall. No, it's not my favorite Floyd album, but it is the one with, I think, the broadest and most poignant social & political commentary that still holds today.

From Spinner.com

It's unlikely that any rock 'n' roll roadie works as hard as Roger Waters' roadies. Last night in Toronto -- on the first of three dates kicking off the former Pink Floyd singer's globe-spanning, 30th anniversary 'The Wall Live' tour -- they slowly and steadily constructed a massive, non-metaphorical wall across the Air Canada Centre stadium stage until, by intermission, the band was now completely hidden behind it. And after repleting up the rafters with crashing fighter planes, flying pigs and grotesque three-story tall animatronic puppets, they eventually send that wall a-tumblin' down at the climax of Waters' triumphant return performance.

Several generations have now grown up with Pink Floyd's 1979 magnum opus, chanting that they don't need no education, attending laser light shows, crowding Midnight Madness screenings of the Alan Parker film and listening to the prog-rock double-album epic in their bedrooms with the lights off. Needless to say, for all the many acts who have taken to playing full album concerts in recent years, few have boasted full albums quite as impactful as 'The Wall.'

Waters may not be Pink Floyd, but given the '70s legends ongoing irreconcilable differences, there's somewhat more enjoyment in watching a black hoodie-clad Waters front an anonymous Floyd cover band than, say, seeing David Gilmour play Pink Floyd karaoke. Though to be fair, it did take a full four players to replace Gilmour's contributions onstage, including uneven vocalist Robbie Wyckoff who often faltered on Gilmour's lines, though the crowd often helpfully out-sang him.

What made Waters' state-of-the-art 'The Wall Live' resurrection work so well was that it was ultimately about the album, not the man who wrote it or the men who performed it. But the big question that surrounded the tour lead-up was, Does 'The Wall' still matter?

Its core story of youthful alienation -- sparked by the band's dissociation from its fanbase once it reached stadium-size -- certainly continues to reach out to new and old listeners alike.

As for the album's additional themes of nationalism, fascism, corporatism and war, they may not ring quite as powerfully as when Waters last performed it on the collapsed husk of the Berlin Wall itself. But the new images from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and other global hotspots that Waters added to the familiar ones from the album art and cult film make clear that wars certainly haven't stopped being fought, revolutions haven't stopped being quashed and soldiers and civilians haven't stopped dying. This was emphasized by the crowd's roar of support that accompanied the slogan "Bring the Boys Back Home" during 'Vera.'

Waters also made sure to mix old-school sloganeering (Big Brother is Watching You) with new ones (iProfit) and the animated planes dropped bombs made up of Shell Gas and Mercedes-Benz logos alongside the old communist, capitalist and Christian and Jewish symbols.

The other question was, How well does Waters hold up? Almost creepily well, actually. At 67, his vocals are shockingly similar to those on the album as they mourn and marvel at the mysteries and inequities of life.

'The Wall' is really purpose-built for this kind of performance -- the double-album is perfect concert length and the songs are confident enough to take their time to set scenes and establish moods as with more traditional theatrical productions.

It was also conceived as a complete piece, so while the Toronto crowds certainly sang along loudest to the album's breakout hits -- 'Another Brick in the Wall (Part II),' which included a chorus of lip-syncing schoolchildren and giant professor puppet; 'Mother,' featuring a sky-high maternal puppet glowering down as Waters sang the acoustic number (marred by an early microphone flub); and 'Comfortably Numb,' performed high atop the now-constructed wall -- there was no feeling of impatience through the lower-key songs.

That was equally due, of course, to the unceasing spectacle of the concert, which also involved mind-blowing digital animation projected upon the wall itself, beloved scenes from the movie (marching hammers, anal judge, fornicating flowers) and astounding use of surround sound.

By the end, the crowd, ecstatic that the performance had actually met their sky-high expectations, began chanting "Tear down the wall," until the wall did collapse upon the stage as if it, and the album itself, were alongside Waters taking their own well-deserved bows.

I know, I've been back over a week and haven't written about my trip. I've been so busy and haven't wanted to sit in front of the screen for very long. Those of you on Facebook have seen some of the photos (which I will link to here), but in an effort to prevent my brain from only thinking in 140 characters at a time, I decided I'm going to do a series of posts over the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned for the following


Portland trip: Waterfalls, Beer, Rose Gardens, Beer, Beer Fests, Beer, Saturday Market, Beer, A cool local band, Beer, Donuts, Beer.

Photography updates: I just finished a weekend long seminar/class with a professional photographer (Kyle Cassidy) who is a friend of a friend. I have some good ideas now and am going to try and keep up with it.

Boys: Yes, something may actually come from that whole dating for nerds thing. Too early to say much, but there's promise.

Lollapalooza: This coming weekend is Lollapalooza and I'm a team lead for the volunteer program this year, so I'll have all sorts of shenanigans to report.

I have joined the hoarde: I now have an android phone. Yes, hell froze over after the pig flew by.

Twitter: I've found my use for twitter. I think of it more as an electronic notebook of sorts. I used it in Portland as a way to keep track of the different beers I was trying and various other things of note so that I could go back and actually write about it later. It's much easier (and more environmentally friendly) than pulling out a pencil & paper.

I will be going on my first REAL vacation since New Years 2007/08 - that's over 2 years ago and way overdue. I've gone places in between, but mostly for Work. I've been to Portland & Seattle and Atlanta for work conferences in the interim - but those don't count. Granted, pretty much all of 2009 was a hiccup year for my life, working to get back on track and figure out what the hell I'm doing with myself.

So I'm going to Portland, OR to visit & stay with one of my oldest (and dearest) friends & his family. Hang on to a handful of the people who knew you when you were young, seriously. I'll also be visiting one evening with a couple friends from college who live in Oregon (one in Portland, one is taking the bus up from Southern Oregon) who I haven't seen since a mutual friends' wedding in Boston almost 10 years ago (has it been that long???)

Needless to say, I'm jazzed about this trip. I only got to spend a very short time in Portland a few years ago when I made a stop on my way to Seattle. I'm looking forward to seeing more of the city this time. I'll have a couple of days for just random whatever and then two days will be the Oregon Brewer's Festival. Saturday, Brett & Jessie are having a BBQ and hand-craft brew party, then I go home.

On the must see list are Voodoo Doughnut, a couple of parks/gardesn, the riverfront (which I believe the brewfest is a part), and just chilling out and relaxing.

Annie will be staying with my sister & my folks on her own little vacation and my neighbor will be watching the kitties. So I'll be incommunicado for a while. I am going to completely detox myself from all online anything except checking my personal email once or twice, checking my flight status information, and that's it.

Oh, and for those wondering from the last post how nerd dating went: relatively well. It was interesting, I'm glad I did it but I'm glad I had a friend go with me. It was organized so everyone was in groups at tables and then teams rotated after each round of trivia (music, movies, literature, history, comic books, and general science stuff). I didn't do as well as I thought I would in any round - they really dug deep for real nerddom. But that's OK because I met some interesting people - it's good to get out and actually talk to new people - but it was good that it was in a structured context so you're not falling all over yourself trying to think of something to say. I talked to one guy for a good hour & a half after the trivia thing ended. We'll see where that goes when I get back. He seemed nice and was a music nerd - always a plus for me.

I'm going to try and be more active here again. I think I may be able to succeed once my week-long hiatus from all electronic communication in a couple of weeks is over. I'm going to visit a friend in Portland, OR and have decided that while I am there, I will not check email, facebook, or twitter. For a whole week - rapid detox on social media. I am taking wagers on how well I will succeed. Of course, knowing Brett & Jessie, if I tell them "do not let me use the computer for anything other than maps, transit and flight updates" I'm sure they'll oblige. If someone needs to find me during that time, they can text or {gasp} call me.

As much as I do LOVE facebook - it allows me to interact with a lot of people that I otherwise wouldn't be able to on a fairly regular basis - I am on it way too much. And my recent experiment with twitter confirmed the same - it was just far too distracting. I need to limit myself, which is difficult because I sit in front of a computer all day and it's so easy to just log onto facebook when I'm bored, or can't concentrate, or need a break. But then it turns into an obsession of sorts - so-and-so commented on this-or-that - oooh, I have to check that, and maybe reply! It has allowed me to get into contact with a lot of people I lost touch with, for various reasons. I am not the type of person who "friends" people I don't actually know or want to know. I don't understand that at all.

That was part of my conflict with Twitter. Aside from following various celebrities or news outlets or businesses, all it is, is pushing my brainfarts into cyberspace. I didn't have a lot of "followers" so, therefore, I was pushing those thoughts to a subset of people already on Facebook - so why not just use that? And it seemed oddly anti-social to me - a facade of interaction. I was discussing with with someone who said "Yeah, but actual conversation requires more time and effort. A quick tweet doesn't interrupt anything". Exactly: The absence of time and effort. I'm not interested in "tweeting" with perfect strangers, and all those with whom I want to be friends, I require a certain level of effort and time for them. If my only interaction with someone is through 140 character snippets - that's not a friendship. And right now, I really am craving more interpersonal connections.

I've found that now that the dust has settled, I've reached the "OK, now what" phase of this stage of my life. I want to get out and meet new people, foster relationships (new, old, and newly-rediscovered) but I often don't have the time (or money) to do that as often as I want. Socializing often costs money, especially the kind of socialization I enjoy (the ethanol kind). I'm at a crossroads. How do you meet new people (friends or 'more')? I'm going to a little singles event next week called "Nerds at Heart" --

- OK you done laughing? -

Seriously - it looks like fun. It's not a corporate/yuppie speed-dating thing. I couldn't handle that. There's no way I could "present" myself to a guy in 2 minutes or less. This is a laid back, social event where people who are other self-identified nerds (i.e., they actually LIKE smart women) get together for trivia and party games, a few drinks, and yes, to maybe meet someone they click with. The games are natural ice-breakers - no pressure in trying to think of something witty to say, or the right "getting to know you" question to ask. I'm going with a new friend I just met through some old friends for moral support. I'm both excited and terrified.

Speaking of old friends... I've recently re-connected with a whole group of people with whom I lost touch many years ago. Most of them are high school friends, and a few who I met in college (the two groups kind of merged). Part of the reason I went AWOL is that I had a falling out with one "core" person of the group - or so I thought. Turns out after all these years of thinking he hated me, he actually missed me. I can't even remember what the argument was about. Another reason was that they all moved out to the burbs and I was left in the city, with no car, and everyone stopped coming to the city. Not that I minded taking public transit to certain places, but I was always the one going out of my way and busting my ass to get places when they were all much more mobile. It seemed unbalanced and like my participation was expendable. I felt hurt and a bit abandoned by that. (Ironically, after reconnecting with this group, the exact same phenomenon appears to be happening with my current group of friends. Life is oddly cyclical sometimes).

Now, quite a few of these folks work downtown and we've been getting together occasionally for a happy hour, plus many of them come into the city for various things or choose locations that are accessible to CTA so it's much easier. And, of course, now we have facebook and such to keep in contact between those times. Last weekend, I went to a BBQ with a few of them, and some of the newer faces in the crowd and met some really great people. I'm truly glad to be "home" so to speak.

I've started knitting again. I finished a skirt for myself and now I have to move on to something else that I can bring with me on the plane to Portland.

OK, that's all I have time to write for now. And actually, I wrote more than I thought I would. I guess I really am starved for expression.

I have always enjoyed hockey more than any other sport. I don't like watching sports on TV, but I love going to hockey games.

Needless to say, Chicago has been overrun with Blackhawks mania. I'm happy for the team, it's cool and fun. But it has gone too far.

The city has this habit of doing little things in public spaces to celebrate various things - like dyeing rivers and fountains green for St. Pat's day, or something.

This is the fountain in Daley Plaza:



Can someone tell me WHO thought this was a good idea? Pretty soon Daley Plaza will be overrun with crazy "Left Behind" rapture fanatics keeping watch for the plague of locusts.

Last night I went with a friend to see Flogging Molly at the Aragon Brawlroom. For those who aren't familiar, Flogging Molly is Irish Punk - with a bit more Celtic influence than the Dropkick Murphy's who are more Punk-Irish, I guess. We found our place on the right side of the house, sort of close to the bar, but on the outskirts enough to not get pulled into the chaos in the middle of the floor. Three words: Irish Mosh Pit.

A few guys came into our little area and we were all talking & joking around. They were pretty big dudes and they promised to provide a block to prevent people from pushing us around during the show. They all turned out to be either Chicago cops or Chicago firemen and they were the nicest guys. We were all buyin each other beer - my beer glass kept magically refilling itself as one of them would pour some of theirs into my cup. (I've never had to pee so bad after a show as I did last night, lemme tell ya). There's no better place to stand at a general admission show than in the company of friendly Chicago's Finest...


Gotta love the internets. I remember back in the day when you had to write the setlist on your arm if you wanted to remember what was played.

SetList
1. (No More) Paddy's Lament
2. The Likes of You Again
3. Swagger
4. Requiem for a Dying Song
5. Every Dog Has Its Day
6. The Worst Day Since Yesterday
7. Drunken Lullabies
8. You Won't Make a Fool Out of Me
9. Man With No Country
10. The Wanderlust (Acoustic)
11. Us of Lesser Gods
12. Factory Girls
13. Float
14. Punch Drunk Grinning Soul
15. Tobacco Island
16. Rebels of the Sacred Heart
17. Devil's Dance Floor
18. If I Ever Leave This World Alive
19. Salty Dog
20. The Lightning Storm
21. What's Left of the Flag

Encore:
22. The Wrong Company
23. Black Friday Rule
24. Seven Deadly Sins