01.26.10

Trifecta of Awesome

Posted in Awesome, Intersectionym, Pix, Seen at 2:18 am by thatbob

I just discovered the El Mont Liquors and Tap, at the corner of Elston and Montrose, which has three qualities that I have always found compelling in an establishment:

1. It’s an Intersectionym, named after the intersection of Elston and Montrose.

2. It’s an acute “flatiron” retail space built right up to the vertex and out to the sidewalk . You don’t see much of that.

3. It’s a classic Chicago liquor store/tap room. You see fewer of these every year. You walk in, it’s a liquor store; in the back of the joint is a bar – an air conditioned bar. I’m not sure if it’s the same as having the “Packaged Goods” license, which I think applies only to bars who are allowed to sell you booze to go; I think it’s more likely a special license or a combination of two others.

Bonus Awesome: Did you see the phone number? Do you know what that is? Oh yes it is! It’s an old telephone exchange name.

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10.06.09

Irresponsibility in Oatmeal Packaging

Posted in Found, Pix at 8:55 pm by thatbob

irresponsibility1

Can I get a “Kids don’t try this at home!”?

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10.05.09

Grinch out

Posted in New Words at 10:46 pm by thatbob

To pass a holiday without participating in traditional celebrations due to indifference, disdain, or the availability of superior alternatives.

“If you’re going to be in town for Thanksgiving, you should come grinch out with me and Deb – there’s like 3 shows at the Bottle we’re going to see.”

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09.02.09

Outgooglerank

Posted in New Words at 8:35 pm by thatbob

To place higher than something else in the results of a Google search.

“Wow, I’m surprised that Wikipedia and YouTube outgooglerank UrbanDictionary on the meaning of ‘gleeking.’”

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01.15.09

The Face in the Frost

Posted in Seen at 2:00 am by mytbob

I just finished The Face in the Frost, John Bellairs’s third book, though (from what I can gather) his first full-fledged novel, a blend of fantasy, whimsy, and horror, in which two wizards gather that a third wizard is up to no good, and go off to confront him. It was also his last book to be published for the adult market, before The House with a Clock in its Walls was asked to be re-written for young readers, launching the career writing juvenile horror novels for which he is better known.

I want to say it’s unlike anything I’ve ever read – but it isn’t. It’s very much like two things I’ve read: in it’s crotchety, whimsical use of the fantasy setting for the pleasurable unwinding of a long yarn, it reminds me very much of the Terry Pratchett “Discworld” novels I’ve read, the earliest of which it precedes by some dozen years. And in its eerie flow of haunting and horrifying scenarios and images, some of which are going to return to me with a shiver on some autumn night, it reminds me of the John Bellairs juvenile horror novels I read in 4th and 5th grade, which had the the power to scare the crap out of me all night long back then.

If you liked reading those books back then (and I know you did) you might like reading this book right now – or better yet, in October, when you start looking for ghost stories to blog about. It’s a little like catching up with a funny, scary old friend.

“At that point I woke up. The room was bright with moonlight, but of course there were no words on the window and, as far as I could tell, there was no one in the room. So I went back to sleep again, and I’m not sure how long I slept, but I was awakened by the sound of someone tapping on my window. It was a sharp, metallic sound, not like someone rapping with his knuckles, and I sat up with a start. When I looked out the window, which is not very far from my bed, I saw that there was a large bird outside on the sill. And a second later I saw that it was not an ordinary bird. It was skeletal. The gray light was shining through its rib cage and its eyeholes; it was pecking at the pane and clattering its horrible black wings against my window, I was suddenly seized with the fear that it would break through the glass at any minute and get in, and I jumped out on the opposite side of the bed. I got hold of my staff, and I muttered some kind of charm, I forget what. It didn’t work, but a minute or two later, the bird gave an awful scraping cry and fell over backward, off the sill.”

Roger opened his mouth to say something, but Prospero raised his hand.

“I know what you’re going to say. But the bird was not in a dream.”

-John Bellairs, The Face in the Frost (1969, Macmillan Co.)

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01.12.09

My dream about Grease II

Posted in Seen at 11:20 am by mytbob

Often I’m not in my dreams – I often dream entire movies or TV shows, where me watching them may or may not even be part of the dream.

Last night I dreamed that Grease II (which I’ve never seen, but which has an inferior reputation to Grease) was made in the style of an experimental new wave german art video. The music was all appropriately Grease-like but the hair, makeup, staging, and effects were all otherwise from an early 80s krautrock video. Frenchie was making out with Kenickie and her whole lower jaw as well as her tongue were coated in glitter makeup. As if her tongue was wearing Michael Jackson’s glove. The “plot” was that they were all, coincidentally, on vacation in Europe at the same time – but also looking for jobs. Much of it was set in formal gardens, where Kenickie’s motorcycle and Rizzo’s chevy did not seem to belong. Rizzo had this terrifying huge blonde wig and a denim or leather jacket – I think she had been crossed with the lady who used to be on the Rough Rider condom package for 20 years until the late 90s. I had a strong critical reaction to the movie – that if the songs had been better, if the scenes had changed more often between songs, and that if Danny and Sandy would show up, it could have been really good. The weird makeup, hair, and lighting would have won crowds over (in my dream).

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12.31.08

New Year’s Wish

Posted in Awesome at 6:33 pm by thatbob

As we welcome 2009, my greatest HOPE is that America, the nation I love, will find the political will to turn itself around and become again the nation that recognizes, opposes, and prosecutes the practice of torture, instead of the one that systematically uses torture as a matter of foreign policy.

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