I know, maybe it seems kinda incongruous, but I love baseball. I love good pitching, pitcher meltdowns, gold glove winning plays, fielding errors, batter drama, home runs, foul balls, umpire-manager battles, people getting hit, players changing their facial hair, and the fan cam. I love when baseball season starts back up and I get to hear all those names again, names of players I hate (Jeter, A-Rod, Pudge, Rolen, Bonds, etc.), names of guys I like (Prior, Maddox, Lee, Manny, Big Poppy, etc.) or names of guys I don’t feel anything about but actually recognize. It’s like a bunch of your friends, some randoms you sort of know, and some guys you like to make fun of all just came back to town on the same day. (I know, I kinda sound mean, but baseball is pretty forgiving of ridicule in the name of a good time).
Maybe I am genetically programmed to like baseball: all the boys in my grandpa’s family played and/or coached baseball, one of my great-uncles actually making it to major league training. However, genetics does not rule all. My grandpa was a Cardinals fan, a fact I’m sure we could rib each other about, as I am a Cub fan, myself. Actually, I grew up as a nominal Red Sox fan, in a family that didn’t care too much, at a time when the Sox were still Cub-ish, always melting down and being gently or cruelly mocked in New England. So it’s not really too much of stretch for me to Cub fan status, although now my two teams just drift farther and farther apart in the universe of Major League Baseball. Alright, the Cubs just tied up Opening Day in the 9th inning, so I gotta go. Hooray for baseball season.

My plan for the Wilco shows this week included a daily posting to keep all interested and non-attending fans up-to-date. However, yesterday’s shocking development prevented me from posting at all, and also mightily pissed me off. Here we are, staying in a fancy four-star hotel with three restaurants, a bar, and a Starbucks, and no free wifi. Yep, I said NO FREE WIFI to access the internet. Huh? What? Is this the 21st century, a time when most cellphones can access the internet at any time? No free wifi in the lobby of a $200 a-night hotel (don’t worry, we went through hotwire for our reservation, but still)? I was shocked and appalled, even more so when I was politely informed that I could access the internet for $9.95 a day, or, if I just needed a few minutes, I could buy 15 minutes for $6.95. When further inquires about the possibility of other nearby spots for free wifi were raised, I was met with a gentle laugh, and the information that “downtown doesn’t do free access.” Correct me if I am wrong, but things cost money because they involve some type of labor or good or service, which is then exchanged for green pieces of paper. Free wifi, however, requires no one to do anything, really, except flip some little button that changes one’s ability to access the internet from code-based to open. I mean, the entire building is already wired for wireless service, it’s just that you have to provide your name and room number so the hotel can be sure you get charged. Since I refused to buy into the amazing racket that is downtown Chicago’s online policy, you, dear reader, must absorb all my further Wilco show information in blogs that are slightly temporally behind.

Don’t fret, loyal readers of “C-U at my blog,” I still exist, despite my lack of web presence this week. I have been having some technical difficulties with my blog. I know, I know, I have a freakin’ blog for God’s sake, so theoretically I should be a super-sophisticated computer whiz…but I am not, so deal with it. Don’t worry, I missed you too.

Ever seen a Shrek movie? You know that band that always has a song in those movies, a song that sounds very melodic but usually has sad lyrics? That band is called The Eels, and the mastermind is a man named Mark Oliver Everett (a man called “E”). Perhaps you have never seen a Shrek movie, but you remember that 90’s song called “Novocain for the Soul”? Well, that’s E too, and the Eels have released five studio albums and at least four live albums since that fleeting hit.

is that you, Freud? oh, it’s just E…

After a hiatus, E is busy once again, releasing a greatest hits album (a.k.a. best songs albums, since they have only had 1 official “hit”) called “Meet the Eels” and a rarities album, “Useless Trinkets,” and making a dvd, and embarking on tour, and writing a book, called Things the Grandchildren Should Know. If this title seems strange, than maybe you don’t know that E’s dad, the Grandad of any potential little Everetts, was a Nobel Prize winning physicist. So perhaps the grandchildren should know about parallel universes or something. Regardless of this hereditary “achievement,” the Eels make some totally amazing music, happy but depressing, strange but hypnotizing. If you are new to the Eels world, I would suggest the Daisies of the Galaxy album, which will perhaps someday be considered the definitive Eels. The most upbeat and cheerful melodies set to the some of the saddest lyrics in rock n roll. If you can handle Daisies, move on to Electroshock Blues, written after the death of E’s dad and the suicide of his older sister. Sound awful? It is, but the music is so beautifully melancholy that it puts Elliot Smith to shame.

is that you, Unabomber? oh wait, it’s E again…

So check out an Eels song or two, even if you have to rent Shrek I, II, or III to do so, and keep an eye out for the book, coming soon to the U.S. Then you will be ready and pumped to see them play the Park West in Chicago in early April…see you there!

This week’s sweet spot in the giant wrap-around couch at the 6th St. Espresso Royale. Be careful, this is the couch on the bottom floor! The one on the top floor is kinda icky, a little bit too squishy and right in the middle of everything.

ahhhh, relaxing

However, the one downstairs has perfect cushioniness, a good back to snuggle against, a table for your coffee/books, and enough room to share with any stranger who also happens to be doing homework. Perhaps I will be that stranger, since I myself enjoy doing homework there (clearly, or why would it be a sweet spot?)

I missed the bus yesterday and had to wait for almost 30 minutes outside of folletts. (insert angry rave here: why would anyone go through the trouble of ordering books online, doing all that annoying typing, only to be handed a giant cardboard box at the store and told to wait in line to check out, just in case the books set off the theft sensors at the door? not a time-saver, but at least the box was a total waste of paper).
Anyway, I watched the giant cranes demolishing the building right behind folletts with great interest, not least because of my own earlier post about construction around town. They looked like dinosaurs, one a little bigger than the other (mama and baby? male and female?) and moved quite gracefully between tearing giant chunks out of the walls and picking up tiny pipes no more than an inch think. All the action got me thinking about animals, people and extinction. Now, the dinosaurs were the kings of the world until they went extinct, and I guess I could consider people to be the kings of the world now (despite weather revolt from the earth herself). So, if we have finally reached a point where we build our own dinosaurs and depend on them to further suck up resources and power, can our extinction be far behind?

Alright, so this semester the wonderful world of “CU at my blog” is expanding from music out into other areas of life in the CU area. We have been moving in this direction for a few posts, and we will still do plenty of music information and show reviews, but there is so much going on in the area it seems a shame to limit ourselves.

sweet dude!

I present my new blog feature…drum roll please….”The Sweet Spot.” Each week or two, I will be discussing one of CU “sweetest” spots for finding something, or doing something, or relaxing somewhere. They may be businesses, campus-related areas, or other random things around town. Rest assured, I will not be accepting or soliciting any compensation for my online gushing, and please feel more than free, as readers, to contribute your own “sweet spot” or give me some feedback on mine. Hopefully you are as excited about this new development as I am, see you around town!

Even if you have been gone for weeks, you must have noticed all the construction in the Champaign area. Over break, the action really heated up, with Green St. closing in several spots, and those two buildings going up, one where that Burger King was and another by Qdoba. Also, that new “310″ building on Springfield is starting to actually look like a hideous apartment complex, instead of just a hideous raw field. Seriously, that building is so big and yucky, my eyes cringe when I go by. A word to the wise: don’t sign a lease based on what they promise to have ready by move-in time. We all know how delayable construction projects are.

hard hats required!

On a happier note, the new Champaign library is open again and so amazingly sweet that I am tempted to live there. Lots of natural light, lots of spots to chill and read and hide, lots and lots of lovely books and computers. Once they tear down the empty trash receptacle that is the old library and get a new parking system, it will be a superstar library. So, I know that construction is not all bad, but there is a world of difference between a well designed community necessity and an intrusive twelve (or something like that) story eyesore that rich parents rent for their kids. Perhaps I should pack up my bike and move over to Urbana, where the only thing being remodeled is Strawberry Fields…

Hey CU, hope everyone had a great Christmas/Hanukkah/Kawazaa/Winter Solstice/ Eidul-Adha/Bodhi Day/insert winter celebration here. If you are on Winter Break from school you must be relaxing unless you are applying to graduate school or trying to get a job in the real world or working fifteen hours a day to make money for spring semester books. Even if you are doing non-class related work, take a minute to relax and read a fascinating blog…

Went to the Canopy last nite to check out round 2 of “Fall Semester Showdown.” Rd. 1 (wednesday) featured Tall Tale and Hotel Ahead, rd. 3 (friday)is Elsinore and Living Blue, rd. 4 (saturday) is Shipwreck and Headlights, but round 2 was the Chemicals and the Beauty Shop. Those who have read this blog before might recall that I myself like the Beauty Shop quite a bit…
The most disappointing part of the show was the fact that no one actually battled with guitars or drumsticks or anything. Bummer! Despite the lack of band-on-band violence, the music was kick-ass.
The Chemicals have a weird but good sound–it’s like the notes are fuzzy but the sound is sharp. You can hear what everyone is doing, but the music itself is kinda blurred. Probably it is some technical thing I have no idea about, but they sounded great. Also, any band with an inscrutable girl bass player is cool (perhaps this personal preference peaked my original interest in the Beauty Shop, hmmm). If sound and looks aren’t enough, how about material? A tease of “Rock and Roll ain’t Noise Pollution?” You’re kidding! A five minute cover of Neil Young’s “Cortez the Killer?” Wha? An hour of great Chemicals tunes? I’m sold!
You know you’re at a Beauty Shop show when sound check is especially elaborate. Not that this is a bad thing at all–they want to sound and hear in a certain way, and that’s that. Hey, if we can’t trust the band to know their best sound, why are we at the show? Anyway, last time I posted about a Beauty show, it was in disappointment. Not with the music, but with some of the observers. So, I was happy to note lots of enthusiastic dancers and music appreciators at the Canopy last night. Oh happy day, surrounded by excited music lovers! The new stuff is sounding awesome, and they played some old favs and even a retooled “XXX.” And of course, for us lucky fans who show our love, a rockin “Babyshaker.”
For some reason, the Beauty Shop shows I have seen at the Canopy are unusually sweet. I don’t know if it’s the acoustics of the weird little foyer room they play in, or the size, or what, but Canopy shows are always lovely.
I am working pgu on friday nite and my real job on saturday, but if all the “showdowns” feature music as great as thursday nite, music fans are in for a great little mini- festival of local sweetness. Maybe Elsinore will wield their instruments in battle…