I haven’t posted in the past week or two so I’m going to try to play catch-up.  I had some friends in town a couple of weekends ago.  Actually, they were two married couple I’m friends with, and they decided to have a little weekend getaway.  We somehow managed to find a way to squeeze four people into my living room, and I spent the weekend showing them around the city, taking them out to some great KC restaurants (Oklahoma Joe’s was a hit, as expected), and showing them some of the nightlife. 

Josh and Leslie came into town a day early to go to Oceans of Fun.  That night, I took them to The Cigar Box, one of my favorite places in the city.  The other couple, Ryan and Sam, had already gotten the Al Latta experience so I figured it’d be a good place to take them.  A table opened up by the bar and I noticed that the guy sitting at the bar next to our table was Neil Smith, the former six-time All-Pro defensive end for the Chiefs. He was in there by himself watching the Chiefs/Dolphins preseason game.  Why he was there by himself instead of at the game was beyond me.  The bar is located next to a strip club called Temptations yet I had never really noticed an influx of strippers in the bar before.  This time was completely different, though.  There were strippers that kept coming in to drink and do shots before their shift at the strip club next door.  It was kind of funny to watch as the owner of the club would open the door to the Cigar Box, call out the girl’s name, and the girl would then scramble to finish her beer and head out the door.  Not surprisingly, the strippers really loved Neil Smith.  They all knew him by name.  Two women were particularly fond of the man and kept hanging all over him to try to distract him from the game.  He acted completely uninterested, though, even when one of the girls literally climbed on top of him while he was sitting at the bar, straddled him, and proceeded to simulate sex with the former NFL star.  It was a completely classless scene, and the girls didn’t seem to car. Being that this was all happening literally right next to us, Josh and I had a hard time not looking at what was unfolding.  We couldn’t NOT look away yet couldn’t make it obvious that we were watching it.  The girls started spanking each other, and one lifted up the other girl’s skirt to reveal her neon green thong for all of the bar to see.  They should have been kicked out because they were being completely inappropriate.  I know people reading thing would think it would be awesome to see that stuff, but it was pretty annoying with how obnoxious and loud they were.  Despite seeming uninterested the whole time, Neil Smith still got one of the girl’s phone numbers and said he’d call her later.  Good to see he’s still getting fringe benefits of his glory days on the gridiron.

As I mentioned before, the rest of the weekend was spent doing it up on the town.  We even managed to go see Superbad on Sunday.  I thought the movie was just okay.  The main reason I went was to see Michael Cera (I admit, I have a mild man-crush on the guy since his Arrested Development days) and I figured it would be good since it was another Judd Apatow project.  It wasn’t as good as his other projects, I don’t think, but it was entertaining. 

Anyway, it was a fun time having them in town, and I’m glad they were able to make the trip.

There was a column written in the NY Times recently asking, “If you were a terrorist, how would you attack?”  There are really a lot of things that could cause massive amount of casualties and panic around the country that no one even thinks about.  Everyone immediately thinks of airplanes, bridges, and seaports, but I find myself thinking about how easy it would be for someone to do other things.  I mean, it would take nothing for someone to check into multiple hotels on any given night in a highly populated area (i.e. Times Square, Las Vegas, etc.) and have explosives in their suitcase.  There are no metal detectors in hotels, and it would take nothing to carry out such an attack.  It’s scary to think about.

Nevermind all of the obvious ways to carry out an attack, though.  If I were a terrorist, I would first find some sort of solution or powder that caused warts.  I would then organize a team in every metropolitan area to cover the ground by the airport security area.  Since 9/11 occurred, everyone has to take their shoes off even if they’re wearing sandals so I would make sure it took place in the summer so everyone would have to go barefoot while walking through the metal detector.  Every person traveling on that day would get warts on their feet, and they would go home to their kids and spouses and would infect them, too.  A nationwide epidemic would follow, and there wouldn’t be enough wart remover stuff to go around. It would be pure terror.  Everyone would have to ration their supply of it (except government officials, of course, who would take care of themselves first), and I would make money because I would have invested in stock relating to wart treatment.  I know, I know, I’m a genius.  This country better hope they don’t mess with me because I am a mastermind.

It’s kind of funny to me how big of a baseball fan I’ve become over the years.  It seems like I’ve gotten into it every year more and more since high school.  As strange as it may sound, I attribute a lot of my renewed interested in the game to fantasy baseball.  Since I travel every week, I try to see as many ballparks as I can and blog about them.  I’ve failed to do so for much of the summer so I am going to provide a recap of several parks I’ve been to thus far.  The great thing about visiting a new park is that each experience is unique.  Here are some of them.

Camden Yards — Baltimore

I went to this game on a whim with my friend Bronk at the beginning of the summer.  Camden Yards was one of the few parks on my “to-see” list that I was looking forward to seeing.  It always looked so cool on t.v. with the building in right field.  In person, the park was much smaller than I had pictured in my mind, and I would definitely rank it in my top 5 places to watch a game.  The only negative thing I can think of with the park is the lack of enthusiasm from the fan base.  Granted, the Orioles really aren’t too great of a team so the crowd gets about as pumped up there as KC fans do during Royals games.  One funny quirk is that during the national anthem the crowd yells “O!” (for Orioles, get it?) during the line, “O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave.” I got a kick out of that.  Overall, it’s a great park and a lot of fun to see a game here.

Shea Stadium — New York City (Queens)

I went to this game with the usual group of cronies I hang out with when I’m in NYC.  I was able to visit Yankee Stadium last year and had wanted to check out Shea for a while.  I kind of find myself liking the Mets because their offense just seems so well-rounded.  Here’s a shot I took outside the stadium:

Both the Yankees and Mets are going to be playing in new stadiums in 2009, and you can see that construction is well under way next door.

The inside of the place is alright.  It’s pretty old (hence the need for a new park) and our seats were pretty high up.  I was just happy to see a game there. I’m interested to know how they are going to set up the new stadium. The view from Shea leaves a lot to be desired.  If they were able to pretty much reverse the stadium you’d have the skyline to Manhattan a backdrop.  I don’t know what the rules are about building parks in relation to where the sun is, but it would look pretty cool in comparison to how it is now.

My friends laughed when I told them I was really looking forward to seeing a Met hit a homerun because the big apple in the outfield would pop up.  As luck would have it, I was able to see my first back-to-back-to-back homeruns.  The place went crazy because they were playing the rival Phillies.and they have been fighting for the playoffs all year.  The Mets were playing the last of a three game series with the Phillies and were desperately trying to avoid being swept.  The Mets fans were starting to get awfully cocky about their lead, too.  I’ve always heard that New York and Philly fans were loud, obnoxious, and crude, but I really have no idea how anyone could come up with such things.  Here’s a video I took of the people behind us that shows just how well-behaved the fans are:

 The smack-talking got increasingly more intense, too.  Little by little, more Philly fans would walk up to the area behind us.  Then, another Met fan would come up to add to the mix.  The funny thing was, though, there wasn’t even the slightest feeling that a fight would break out.  Lo and behold, Pat Burrell hit a homerun to put the Phillies up and secure a sweep of the Mets.  The Philly fans dished it back, and the Mets fans wouldn’t let themselves be kicked while they were down.

It was definitely an amusing day at the park.  I’m supposed to be back in Philly when they host the Mets in a couple of weeks, and I’m looking forward to seeing how obnoxious they get when the roles are reversed.

PNC Park — Pittsburgh

I don’t get out to Pittsburgh much but wanted to take advantage of catching the Pirates while they were in town when I was.  I was able to get a pretty amazing seat off of a scalper for $20 and made my way into the park.  The first thing I noticed was how nice the place was with it’s view overlooking the bridge and downtown.

The second thing I noticed was that each usher not only escorts you to your seat but they take out a towel and wipe down your seat before you sit down.  I thought this was a great idea because it ensures people are sitting where they’re supposed to while also making sure no one ends up with a wet or dirty booty.  I looked around and noticed ushers were even doing it to patrons in the cheap seats, as well. 

The game was against the Rangers and it was my first time seeing Sammy Sosa play since back in the day when he was a Cub.  Back then, the crowd cheered like crazy for him as he sprinted out in the field each inning.  This time things were completely different for the alleged cheater and bat corker.  Each time he took to the plate he was showered with boos.

The entertainment between innings was pretty good here, I must say.  For starters, instead of having a condiment race like in Kansas City they have a pierogi race.  The crowd cheered like crazy for their favorite Slavic dumpling.  The Pittsburgh Parrot was also pretty funny as he boogied all the time on top of the dugout.  He came by my section a couple of times, and I was really, seriously considering getting a picture with him.  I figured it’d be kind of strange, though, to ask a stranger to take a picture of a grown man in dress clothes with a mascot.

The Pirates park is a fun park, and it’s one (unlike Shea) that is very family-friendly.  I’m glad I went even if I was by myself for it.

Citizens Bank Park - Philadelphia

I have two good friends who live in Philly – Melissa and Bird.  Bird wasn’t able to make it to the game so I went with Melissa and a couple people she knew.  I stopped over to her new place before heading over to the game and couldn’t believe where it was located.  Her place is literally right next door to the Betsy Ross House.  Things like that are what I love about the east coast. 

We headed to the park, paid $27 for a seat up in the outfield, and ended up only being able to watch a few innings before it started storming.  The ticket price made me laugh because, for just $5 more in Kansas City, you could seats so good you could set your beer on top of the dugout.  I was happy to go, though, because the park is pretty nice.

I was also happy to be seated in right field because I, for the first time, got to see Ken Griffey Jr. play.  Amidst all of the negativity surrounded steroids in baseball, he is the one that has emerged clean and respectable.  For that, I can’t help but think of him in high regard.  It’s a shame that injuries have prevented him from breaking all the records Bonds is breaking right now.  He’s the one who deserves it.

Afterwards, we went out for a couple of drinks and, as always, were laughing almost the entire time. 

The third and final day called for showers during the majority of the day and evening.  Being that everyone in our group was really excited to see Pearl Jam again, we were hoping it’d rain enough to make the fairweather fans go home.  Since the weather reports everywhere said it was going to be rainy and cloudy all day, I opted to ditch the sunblock so I could stuff my poncho in my pockets.  This ended up being a bad idea because it ended up being hot and sunny all day.  I ended up getting a slight sunburn as a result.

Heartless Bastards

I saw this band at the Record Bar in Kansas City a few months back (I just now realized I forgot to post about it), and really enjoyed them.  In fact, the singer’s voice just might be one of my favorite female voices in rock.  It’s powerful yet channels a sort of bluesy soul really well.  The others I was with hadn’t heard of them before, and they ended up liking them quite a bit.  It was strange seeing them on a big stage at Lollapalooza after having seen them in a small bar that held only 200 people, but I thought they did a fine job.

At the end of their set, my friend Nic decided he wanted to cool off and take his shirt off.  Here’s the before and after of how he felt.

Before:

After:

Amy Winehouse

I don’t believe there was a bigger day crowd during all of Lollapalooza than there was for Amy Winehouse.  The crowd was so packed that we had a hard time getting very close to the stage.  The woman has a great voice and is immensely talented, and the festival-goers clearly wanted to see the rising star perform.  I have been told by a couple friends who have seen her in NYC that she is very shy onstage but gets loosened up after having a few drinks.  Unfortunately, there were no drinks to be had for her and she pretty much stood in the same spot for the entire hour.  She did shake her hips a little, though.  Her lack of stage presence didn’t affect her singing, though, as she belted out her tunes that were, sadly, a little too downbeat for a festival environment.  I’m still glad I got to see her, though, because, as I told my friends, I have a feeling Mrs. Winehouse will end up being a talent that ends up dying young from drugs.  Her drug use is notorious, and reports came out just today that just overdosed just a couple of weeks ago.  Hopefully she can get her act together because she’s got a bright future ahead of her. 

Kings of Leon

One of the acts I was most excited to see was Iggy Pop and the Stooges.  They played on the opposite side of the festival at this time, though, and our group decided to camp out at the AT&T stage so we could get a good spot for MMJ and Pearl Jam.  Even though I was bummed not to see Iggy (I heard he and the Stooges put on a really good show), I was really impressed with the show Kings of Leon put on.  I’ve never really given these guys enough of a chance before and will definitely be checking them out soon.  The crowd was really into them.  The highlight of the show was during their closing song, “Slow Night, So Long”.  They, like Ben Harper during the first night, announced that they had a special guest they wanted to introduce.  Next thing we knew, Eddie Vedder walked out.  The crowd, again, went ballistic (including my friends and I), and they ended the sit with a rockin’ performance with Eddie destroying two tambourines while trading off vocal duties.

My Morning Jacket

If I had to rank my favorite live acts I’ve ever seen, I’d rank My Morning Jacket in the top 5.  Keeping this in mind, I was beyond pumped when I read that they were going to include the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra in their Lollapalooza performance.  The inclusion sounded great even though the orchestra could have probably been mixed better with the sound of the band (they were quiet by comparison).  Their set was loud and rockin’ as they donned their purple tuxedos.  This would likely rank among my favorite shows of the weekend.  These guys are just on fire when they play live.

When they introduced the orchestra, we were all encouraged to take a video of them playing “Gideon” and to upload it onto their website afterwards.  They were going to take all the flimed footage from the performance, edit it, and compile it for a video.  Here’s what I shot:

Pearl Jam

I honestly don’t think I’ve ever experienced a more anticipated event in my life.  The throngs of die-hard PJ fans we saw throughout the weekend coupled with the Vedder cameos during Ben Harper and Kings of Leon had the masses crazed.  Luckily, we were able to inch ourselves closer and closer throughout the afternoon to end up with a pretty great spot for the show.  For close to two hours, they played the most aggressive set I have heard from them either in person or on recording.  I read that they estimated the crowd for the show to be upwards of 150,000 and being a part of everyone singing and pumping their fists in the air was one of the coolest concert experiences of my life. 

During “Daughter”, they broke it down and went into “Another Brick in the Wall” by Pink Floyd which was cool because they did the same thing at Soldier Field back in ‘96 (yes, I’m a total geek for Pearl Jam).  They also included lines during the “We don’t need no education” part that went, “George Bush, leave this world alone” and “George Bush, find yourself another home.” 

The politics didn’t stop there, though.  Eddie also talked with the crowd about BP/Amoco dumping waste into Lake Michigan.  He encouraged everyone go somewhere else when buying their gas to send a message to them.  Following the speech, the band dove into a punky song where they repeated the words, “Don’t go/BP Amoco”. 

He also walked onstage at the start of their last set to introduce an injured Iraq soldier in a wheelchair.  He went on to talk about the war and how we all can do our part to end it.  He also let the veteran talk about how it needs to end, as well.  Then, Eddie brought Ben Harper on stage and the two of them sang a song called “No More”.

The rest of the band walked out on stage and started playing “Keep on Rockin’ in the Free World”.  Everyone started jumping up and down while singing the words (my voice was completely shot by the end of the night).  Before long, Eddie called other people on the stage to join them and the place got packed full of people dancing around.  At one point, a tall figure emerged from the crowd on stage and, upon looking closer, we saw it was Dennis Rodman!  Eddie then got on his shoulders and they started jumping around.  Pretty awesome.  Apparently Lance Armstrong was one of the people onstage, too.  I didn’t realize it until I saw the professional video recording of it on YouTube. I couldn’t get much video or pictures during the show because the crowd was going so crazy and I couldn’t get very good shots.  Here’s the video of them closing out the show and the festival.  The only negative thing about the video is you can’t see or hear the crowd during it.

Pearl Jam proved to everyone just how relevant they still are after all these year, and they no doubt managed to gain several thousand new fans in the process.  My cousins who are in high school watched the show with me.  They only knew a handful of songs between the two of them.  By the end of the show, one of them turned to me and said, “This is the greatest night of my life.”  It was a great show to close out another fantastic festival.

I began the day meeting my aunt and second cousins out in downtown Chicago at The Original Pancake House for brunch.  I was really glad to have the opportunity to see them while I was in town amidst the hectic schedule during the festival.  I then took a cab to Grant Park.  The second day of Lollapalooza was a relatively cloudy one and remained that way for most of the day.

On my way to see my first band of the day, I was greeted by a small group of media and cameramen following around a short guy.  He was walking with what looked to be his manager, and the manager was telling off someone for not giving “his client” enough space.  I asked some nearby people who the guy was, and they replied that that person was Thom Yorke.  My heart immediately began to beat faster as the mob moved closer to me.  I got out my camera to take a picture of him when the manager asked if I’d want a photo with Mr. Yorke.  The manager yelled for Thom to come over and once I caught a look at the guy I busted out laughing.  It was clearly an elaborate prank setup by some Chicago group similar to the Improv Everywhere folks in NYC.  The guy looked nothing like the Radiohead frontman.  Pretty funny.

Tokyo Police Club

I opted to not meet up with my other friends who were across the park to watch I’m From Barcelona at this time slot.  Tokyo Police Club has gathered a ton of buzz despite only having a seven song EP to their name.  I was torn about which band to see because I like I’m From Barcelona, too, but I wanted to see what all the hype was about.  Unfortunately, I was left completely bored after only a couple of songs.  I would imagine the band would be decent in a small club environment, but their dance rock just didn’t do it for me on a big stage.  I immediately regretted not joining my other friends, but I was told later on that I’m From Barcelona got pretty old, as well.

Tapes ‘n Tapes

This is a band that was thrust into the indie limelight thanks to a solid review from hipster know-it-alls at Pitchfork.  I only really listened to their album once, decided I didn’t know if I liked it much, and never really gave them another listen. Some guys I was with were looking forward to seeing them, though, so I went with them to check them out and see how they were live.  I’m really glad I did because they completely rocked it.  We were able to work our way up to the front row on the side and found that they were probably the loudest band we’d see at the festival (this is largely due to us being by the speakers).  They were fun to watch, though, and I’m going to definitely give them another try when I get back to KC.

I had been trying to meet up with my friend Bird who flew in from Philly for the festival.  We’d been unable to run into each other so far but somehow ended up right by each other during the Tapes ‘n Tapes show.  It was great to see the guy.

Silverchair

I, for one, could not believe that Silverchair (yes, THAT Silverchair) was playing at Lollapalooza.  They’re still making music which is strange considering they’ve been around for a dozen years yet are still my age.  It was kind of fun, though, to hear them play some of their old songs, and it was crazy to see how much the guys have grown up.

Cold War Kids

I saw these guys in Lawrence awhile back, and they were poorly located on a random side stage.  The festival coordinators must have seriously underestimated how many fans the band has because there was a ridiculous mob of people packed together trying to see them.  People were even climbing trees in hopes of getting a glimpse of the band.

We stayed for a few songs and decided that we should just move on to a less-crowded place.  I also decided that I don’t think I care for the Cold War Kids all that much.  Their music just lacks a punch that is needed when performed live. 

Patti Smith

Patti Smith was scheduled to perform at a different stage while Spoon performed later in the evening, but my friend Nick found out that she was going to play a short set at the KIDZ Stage in the afternoon.  We hung out for a little bit to see her just to see who some would consider to be a living legend.  Perry Ferrell came out first to talk to the kids about how to help the environment, and two things became clear 1) Perry Ferrell is a real weirdo and 2) the intent of the KIDZ stage was to mold America’s youth into being hippies.

Patti Smith soon came onto the stage, and I was convinced Ian McKellen had dressed up in a witch costume.  We stayed to listen to her sing a song about ghosts and dying — perfect topics for kids!

The Roots

I couldn’t wait to see The Roots live.  I’ve heard rave reviews from anyone who has seen them, and I’m happy to report that they lived up to every bit of the hype.

They played for their entire hour set without stopping once, and the crowd was completely into them the whole time.  It didn’t hurt that each member of the band is an incredible musician, as well.  Here’s a video I took of them playing a medley during their set: 

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

I have wanted to see this band for a long time and have read a ton about how engaging Karen O is live.  Even knowing how great she would be live, she still managed to exceed my expectations.  Karen O first walked out with her band wearing what looked to be a Cruela Deville outfit.

She is easily the most eccentric frontwoman I’ve seen.  I think she also seems a tad crazy.  In fact, she would break out laughing in the middle of her singing.  Regardless, I couldn’t take my eyes off of her because you never knew what you were going to see next.  If you were to hear an audio recording you probably wouldn’t think it would be that great of a performance because she goes from singing to screeching to laughing in no time.  Below is a video I took of them performing “Cheated Hearts”:

She closed her set with “Date With the Night” off of their debut, Fever to Tell.  I’ve rarely seen anyone, male or female, own a stage the way she does.  She’s a true rockstar.

Spoon

The new Spoon album may very well be my favorite album of the year, and I was looking forward to hear some of the songs live off of it.  I saw them at Austin City Limits a couple of years ago and was left a little less than impressed.  They just seemed like they were going through the motions.  This time, though, I thought they seemed really into it and rocked out at times.  Spoon has definitely become one of my favorite bands as of late, and I was glad to be able to see them at Lolla because they are playing the same time as Queens of the Stoneage at ACL this year.

Muse

Muse was scheduled to play at the same time as Interpol so most people were left pretty torn about who to see.  I saw Muse play last year at Austin City Limits and was blown away at how good they were, and I have never cared for music that sounds too “80s” like Interpol.  I told my friends about how good Muse was, and they decided to stay around to watch them play.  By the end of the show they had thanked me. 

Muse managed to top their performance over last year which was no small feat.  They somehow made their show even more grand and over the top with lasers, lights, and fog.

Unfortunately, it began to rain and I had to break out the $8 poncho I bought earlier in the day.  Upon putting it on, I found that the thing was enormous.  I made a comment to my friend that I could probably fit three people in it.  Of course, Nick and his girlfriend, Biata, rose to the challenge.  They got underneath it and put their heads through the arm holes.  Sure enough, we all fit comfortably inside it.

After Muse was finished, we decided it would be wise to go to a nearby bar to have a drink and wait for the masses to die down before attempting to grab a cab.  It was a good way to just unwind after a long day and hang out with everyone.  We weren’t out long, though, because we were all exhausted. 

The last day will continue tomorrow…

Lollapalooza was, once again, an amazing time.  I’ve learned that it seems like it takes me longer to recover from a three day festival than in the years past.  My voice is still horse and my skin slightly sunburned from the whole event.  It’s all worth it, though, to be with friends and watch amazing music in the beautiful Grant Park in Chicago.  I’m going to try to recap the weekend the best I can by each day, including pictures and video that I (or my friends) took throughout the festival.

Polyphonic Spree

These guys were definitely one of the bands I was most excited to see.  In fact, even though I was out late in NYC the night before, I made a point to take an early flight into Chicago so I’d make it in time to see them.  I had tickets to see them in Lawrence three or four years ago, but I ended up being admitted to the hospital to get my appendix taken out instead.  I’ve been wanting to see them ever since.  I believe I counted 22 members in the band when they played Friday afternoon, and my group of friends who were there all agreed they were one of the best performances of the festival.

They came out dressed in black uniforms and ripped through several songs, never once letting up on energy.  They immediately reminded me of a cross between The Flaming Lips and Arcade Fire.

About halfway through their set they said they’d be back, and they all walked off the stage.  A few minutes later, the band appeared in their trademark white robes as they walked through the crowd holding hands.

They high-fived people as they walked through, and I was able to high-five lead singer Tom DeLaughter.  It was pretty cool.  They then jumped on stage after making their way through the crowd and rocked out a little bit.  Next, the piano started playing the intro to “Lithium” by Nirvana, and it totally took everyone by surprise. I took a video of it, and you can see how the crowd got during it.  As dorky as it sounds, at one point when I filmed it I looked at my arm and I had goosebumps.  All things not involving Eddie Vedder, this was the performance of the festival.

M.I.A.

This is one performer who has been hyped like crazy, and I was interested to see if she lived up to it.  Sadly, she came across as someone who was really just all hype.  We watched her for maybe two songs and left to sit down in the shade instead.  We could still see and watch everything on stage, though, and it didn’t do anything for me at all.  It was definitely the least exciting act of the first day for me.

Blonde Redhead

I own all of Blonde Redhead’s albums but never really think of them whenever I think of bands I’m a big fan of for some reason.  I thought they did an excellent job even though we only stayed for half of their set.  They are playing at Austin City Limits this year so I’m going to make sure to catch their full set then. 

The Black Keys

I love me some Black Keys.  I believe I was the only person in the group I was with who had heard The Black Keys before, much less seen them live a couple of times.  By the end of their first song, my friends were hooked.  These guys absolutely rock, and it’s amazing such a powerful, soulful sound can come from just two white guys from Akron, Ohio.  They blistered through old and new material in their one hour set without letting up once.

Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals

It hit me while waiting for the band to come on that this was going to be my 5th time seeing Mr. Harper.  He never fails to put on a fantastic show.  He closed out the first night of Lollapalooza, and I couldn’t believe that just 6 or 7 years ago I was able to see him (with an unknown guy at the time named Jack Johnson opening) perform in a small gymnasium in Decorah, Iowa.  His following has grown exponentially since then, and the crowd for him was massive.  Across the park, Daft Punk played, and I was told that they put on an amazing show, as well. 

The highlight of the show was when Ben Harper told the crowd he wanted to introduce a close friend of his to the stage.  Next, Eddie Vedder walked out on stage.  The crowd, including me, went ballistic.   They went on to play a cover of “Masters of War” by Bob Dylan.  Actually, it was more of a cover of Pearl Jam’s cover of “Masters of War” by Bob Dylan. 

After Eddie left, the band closed out the set with “My Own Two Hands”.  I took a video of it.  Unfortunately, the video gets blurry in some parts.  You can get the gist of it, though.

As we left the park, we couldn’t believe how great of an opening day it was.  Normally, it seems like Friday is more or less a warmup to the final two days.  This time, though, the performances were pretty top notch.  We all went to a bar close by to unwind, have a drink, and talk about the day’s events. 

Days two and three will be posted tomorrow…

Back in the day, I was a big fan of the show The State, a brilliant sketch comedy show that used to be on MTV.  Since then, I’ve tried to do my best to follow its former members in whatever projects they are involved in.  While I don’t really care for some of them (Reno 911), others have continued that similar style of comedy (Stella).  Six year ago, a lot of those people got together to make the movie Wet Hot American Summer, and it ended up becoming an instant favorite with me and several of my friends.  Much of the same cast from Wet Hot have recently come together to film a new movie titled The Ten, a film loosely centered around the Ten Commandments.  The movie opens in cities this weekend, and I was able to go with some friends last night to the release party for the movie featuring entertainment from people who have had ties to the comedy team.  We didn’t get to see the movie (the reviews have been pretty mixed), but being that I’m such a fan, seeing them in person had me pretty giddy.

The show started with a DJ playing music and then introducing David Wain.  Of all of the former members of The State, he, Michael Showalter, and Michael Ian Black have remained my favorites, and I was pretty pumped to see him in person.  He definitely didn’t disappoint.  When he walked on stage, the DJ started playing “What I Want” by The Spice Girls, and Wain started rapping.  Pretty funny (sadly, many of the pictures I took tonight ended up turning out pretty blurry).

He then went into a very generic, intentional comedy bit that had me cracking up.  He would say things like, “So, my girlfriend the other night said to give her 5 more minutes getting ready and, of course, it took her, like, 15!”  That would be the joke, and that kind of sarcastic way of making fun of comedians is exactly why I like Mr. Wain.  He then introduced Ken Marino, another State alum (he did the infamous “I’m gonna dip my balls in it!” sketch) who is also known as the guy who wore the cut-off jean shorts in WHAS.  The two of them come on the stage throughout the night and served as the emcees for the event.

Next, they introduced a band who provided most of the score for the movie.  They played about four songs, and we noticed that Rashida Jones, the actress best known as Karen from The Office, was one of the backup singers.  There was a debate among most viewers of the show as to whether or not you were a “Pam guy” or a “Karen guy”.  After seeing her sing, dance, and smile all night in her black dress, I can safely say I’m a Karen guy.  Hands down.  In fact, I may have to ask her dad, Quincy Jones, if I could date her. 

Next, David Wain and Ken Marino introduced a guest that none of us thought would be there –  Amy Poehler.  Like pretty much everyone I know, I think she is one of the funniest people on SNL, and she has worked with a lot of those people before.  She practically stole the show even though she was only on stage for about five minutes.  The girl cracks me up. 

Next up, David Wain introduced Michael Showalter and Zak Orth, and they performed a song.  Zak played guitar with the backing band and Michael sang a song, not about the Ten Commandments, but of the Ten Commandments of how to make a sandwich.  I captured the first couple of them on video from my camera.  The whole song lasted about 15 minutes.  Yes, 15 minutes about the rules of how to make a sandwich (warning: the video has some swearing).

Next up was Janeane Garofalo who was probably the biggest name in the lineup.  She spoke/did standup for the longest of the guests.  While some people like her style of humor, I’ve never really cared for her all that much.  She just comes across as a depressed, joyless person.  Of course, she threw in a few jabs at Republicans, as well.  For me, it was cool to see her, but I don’t think I laughed at anything she said.  She also has a surprising amount of tattoos covering both of her arms which is something I didn’t know about.

The band came on to play a little bit more and then the whole crew came out to dance to the song “Higher and Higher” from WHAS.  It was pretty great to see Michael Showalter, Ken Marino, Amy Poehler, Rashida Jones, and David Wain dancing to one of the main songs from their last movie. 

She whole thing lasted a couple of hours and was definitely worth attending.  Even my friends, half of whom had never seen anything associated with the some of the entertainers, said they had a lot of fun, as well.  I even got to shake Michael Showalter’s hand at the end of it which was a major highlight for me.  All in all, an awesome time.

I’m now sitting in Laguardia airport waiting to board a flight to Chicago.  I’ll be at Lollapalooza all weekend and will resume posting on Monday with a recap.

Most people who know me know that I absolutely can’t stand cats.  My hatred for them runs so deep that I have been known to actually not date girls because they own one.  Shallow?  Possibly, but sometimes you just have to draw a line in the sand litter. 

Well, there is a cat in my neighborhood that I can’t seem to get rid of.  The cat first greeted me in front of my house when I began moving into the place a month ago.  I have since seen the feline on a regular basis whenever I’m in town.  It (I say “it” because, in my book, if you are an animal and I don’t know your sex you immediately take on similar pronouns to that of a stapler) always comes up to me, meows a bunch, and rubs all up on my legs and my arms.  Yes, as much as I hate to admit it, I have started to warm up to the little furball and will occasionally squat down to pet the thing.  As for the meowing, it’s hard for me to tell what exactly it’s trying to tell me.  With dogs, they pant and wag their tail if they’re excited or if they want something.  If they’re upset or are trying to get your attention they bark.  If they feel threatened or are tense, they growl.  This is because dogs have personality.  Cats, on the other hand, have no personality.  In fact, if you could transform a cat into a human I’m pretty sure they would magically turn into Paris Hilton without the sex drive (this, of course, is assuming that you get your cat spayed which, despite my lack of cat knowledge, I know you definitely should).  Cats meow for pretty much any mood or expression regardless of if they’re happy, excited, mad, or sick.  Lame.

The thing I can’t figure out about this cat, though, is if it has an owner.  It has no tags around its neck, and it frequently shows up looking disheveled and dirty.  On the other hand, it doesn’t look malnourished and sometimes even looks somewhat clean.  The dilemma I’m in, though, is that I don’t know what to do about the cat.  Should I just let it be and assume it has an owner and run the risk of it possibly dying homeless?  Should I call the Humane Society or some other shelter and have them pick it up?  I worry about that because I don’t want to take it away from a potential owner, and I don’t want to have it killed if someone doesn’t adopt it after a week.  Should I set out a bowl to feed it every once in a while?  That’s the last thing I’d want because then I’ll have a stray cat hanging around my place.  Any help would be appreciated. 

I did something this weekend that I had always wanted to do.  Did I parachute? Ride a motorcycle? Run a marathon? Not even close. I went to the weiner dog races.  Actually, they it wasn’t just a weiner dog race.  It was apparently the National Weiner Dog Races.  My sister’s boss had been trying for almost a decade to get her dog entered into the race and was finally able to get in this year.  It was the perfect excuse to watch the funny little dogs run around on a track.

We got to The Woodlands Sunday afternoon and were greeted with a massive amount of people.  Since it was an open entry race, it wasn’t too surprising that so many people had come to cheer on their family canines.  While it was good to see so many people love their pets, it prevented us from getting a seat to actually see the track.  Instead, we had to sit at a table away from the action and watch a live feed of it on t.v.

The agenda was set up so that you’d have to sit through a few greyhound races to watch each weinerdog race.  I really didn’t care much at all to see greyhounds because a) they’re pretty ugly dogs and b) I have a feeling that the ones who don’t perform well could possibly end up with the Michael Vick treatment.  Granted, I’m no expert on dog racing, but I have to wonder how humanely those animals are treated.  Anyway, the weiners definitely didn’t fail to entertain (man, there are so many opportunities for puns in this post it’s ridiculous).  Instead of letting the weiners loose out of the gates to chase a rabbit or whatnot, the owners of the dogs had to coax the little guys down to the other end of the track.  For some, this method worked great.  There was one guy who won by being in a dead sprint with his weiner the whole way (again, the play on words is just too easy).  Others, though, had some serious problems.  My sister’s boss was a perfect example.  Her dog ran the opposite direction just as much as it ran forward.  The thing probably ended up taking three minutes to run 100 meters.  I’m not sure the owners knew that they were supposed to run with the dogs, though, because one old lady with giant boobs clearly forgot to wear a bra for the event.  Her knockers were rapidly bouncing back and forth from her thighs to her chin.  Regardless, it was one entertaining day at the races.