Fighting The Suburbs

Air Show Hangover

One nice thing about being in the city is getting to see things like the Blue Angels fly over your head, in your own parking spot. Courtney got to see a few planes fly overhead on Friday and on Sunday we stayed around the house to check out what we could see from Bucktown. Turns out plenty. From the roof, which we stayed on briefly, there was a great view of everything, but we needed to stay closer to the baby.

We still saw plenty as my guess would be that the pilots used St. Mary's as a landmark to make their turns back to the beach. So everybody basically flew over our heads many times. I got lots of video, of course can't get the darn dvds on to the computer, and I can't really tell why. Oh well. It was still fun.

Take Out Weekend: Papajin, Goddess and The Grocer

We don't normally do a lot of takeout. In fact, our meals are usually planned out for the entire week. But on a Friday night sometimes we'll give in to the ease and conveience. So, since the Olympics were starting Friday we thought Chinese would be fitting. We used to do takeout from Friendship in Logan Square but they've let us down a few times lately and it always seems pretty fattening. We decided to try Papijin over on Milwaukee. I had eaten there once a long time ago and liked it. It's a bizarre menu because they have Chinese and sushi. That usually spells a sub-par place but our Chinese was excellent.

Courtney ordered a chicken dish with veggies and peanuts. It was excellent. Very light and with good flavor. Unfortunatley, I made a mistake and got a beef dish. It was my fault for ordering it. The flavor was fine but the beef were in huge pieces which were a bit tough. We got shrimp fried rice which was also really good, and not too heavy. It had interesting veggies like diced zucchini in it as well as quite a few large shrimp, not the tiny canned kind. We also had two egg rolls which were about average. Overall, we were really impressed and if we splurge again we'll order there.

Sunday, we stopped by Goddess and the Grocer for an early breakfast with baby and dog after perusing the green market at Wicker Park. I had a bagel and lox plate and Courtney got Veggie Scramble wrap which was huge and quite tasty. Anyway, that was the weekend of eating out. Saturday, I cooked filets from Costco with sweet potatoe fries. Tonight we're having eggplant parmegian with homemade tomato sauce I whipped up this morning, which tastes pretty good so far.

Tornado Winds Hit Bucktown

We were not immune to the heavy winds and lightning last night. Check the flicker set above for major damage to some poor schmuck's car.

Courtney gets an iPhone

Here's the first post from Courtney's iPhone. I'm not loving the keyboard with my fat thumbs. Otherwise, it's very cool. We'll probably do more food blogging with it...if we go eat out...

Bell’s Is Back Sans Two-Hearted IPA

The big beer news today is that Bell’s is retuning to Chicago. However, I’m disappointed that my favorite Bell’s (actually the only one I ever bought at a store to bring home versus at a bar) Two-Hearted IPA will not be available as soon as all the others, which is supposed to be right…now!

I’m happy and bummed all at once.

Cuil 'Google Fighter' Can't Find Fighting The Suburbs!

There’s been a lot of hype about the massive launch and immediate failure of new search engine Cuil. TV stations talked about it taking on Google and you couldn’t escape it for about 24 hours. But now TechCrunch and other technocelebs are taking it to task for, well, for sucking.

I did a simple test. I typed in “Fighting The Suburbs” to see what would happen. I own the url and this blog is hosted by typepad and it gets indexed by all the right places etc. Cuil did not bring up this site in the first page of returns. Nope. All Ben Folds references. I will now admit for the first time that I was subliminally influenced by "Rockin’ The Suburbs" when coming up with the name of the blog. When I first mentioned the blog name to my wife she said “Like the Ben Folds’ song?” and I then went “Doh!”

Anyway, FTS only emerges on Cuil on page 2 with an image of…Ben Folds!!! See above pop-up.

Awesome.

If you type “Fighting The Suburbs” into Google we’re the first response. And the second and third.

On Searchme, another new search start up trying to emulate iTunes scrolling album artwork effect, we’re also first. So a startup search engine can do it right. Just not Cuil.

Pearl Jam: Love Reign O'er Me Video

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If anyone missed it on Thursday Pearl Jam made a lot of folks look bad at the VH1 Rock Honors for The Who. I'm glad the band took on two songs they haven't done for years, although Love Reign O'er Me has become more of a staple since they did it for the movie.

I think what the performance really highlights is, for a band that has NEVER done the string arrangement, over the top production, etc. boy they nail it. Eddie is a little "screamy" but man, the band is amazing. Oh, and watching the crowd throughout the show was pitiful. You could tell it was all schmucks who paid thousands to "be" there and not move. The cameramen had a hard time finding any movement in the seats. I've embedded Pearl Jam doing "The Real Me" below as well.

Freshii Update

I'm waiting for a flight but I thought it might be a good idea to update my take on Freshii the healthy lunch spot that opened recently next to my office.

I've been back about six or so times and if you get there before noon the lines aren't too bad. By far my favorite item is the buffalo chicken wrap. Same with coworker Amanda.

I also like the fiesta salad and cobb wrap. The salads are expensive but have plenty of good stuff in them. They're definitely an upgrade over Potbelly or Soprafina. Anyway, I thought I should update since the first post was so negative. I think this place will do a great business and I'm more excited to have another lunch take-out spot.

The Joker Stalks Cars.com

One of the coolest things to happen around work last year was the filming of the Batman sequel, The Dark Knight. Every day I would park in our garage and there would be signs for where the crew needed to go. I would walk by burnt out helicopters. I would see the Joker’s flipped over semi truck.

It was very neat as I was/am a comic book geek and loved the first movie. One of my coworkers today forwarded me the above promotional still of the Joker walking down Van Buren towards our office building. It’s a strange photo for many reasons. 1. I’m on this street every day. I pull into that garage right there on the left. 2. It’s a bright and sunny day unlike the nighttime scenes portrayed in most of the ads and trailers for the movie.

Check out more of my Dark Knight shenanigans from last year here.

Update: Click below of a picture of the same corner today. Taken with my Blackberry so no comments on quality please.

Eddie Vedder Playing 2 Nights at Auditorium Theater

Update: "I scored Ten Club tickets to night one but got shut out of night two. Courtney says I'm on my own for the second night anyway so I'll try and hunt down a single on Craigslist or TM."

As a few readers may or may not know I'm a Pearl Jam freak. Seen 'em 30 or so times in many, many states and two countries. The band just wrapped up an east coast tour which I did not attend. Having a baby sort of negates road trips to see Pearl Jam. But hey, Eddie playing two solo gigs in Chicago isn't a bad second choice.

He plays Aug. 21 and 22 at the Auditorium Theater. Tickets go on sale to the public next week with a Ten Club pre-sale Monday. I didn't get pre-sale tickets for the Vic Show last summer and was devestated, so Courtney says not to get my hopes up. But I'd have to think I could secure tickets to at least one show if not both. And if not, I'll just have to go the Craigslist or Stubhub route.

I've seen Eddie play with C Average, but not completely solo. It's a much looser show than with Pearl Jam obviously. I really thought he did a good job with the Into The Wild soundtrack and am looking forward to hearing that stuff live. 

I've been on a bit of a Pearl Jam kick following the recent tour and downloading a bunch of new boots from the 2006 tour that are now tradeable. Good stuff.