September 2007 Archives

September 30, 2007

Today was more or less a catchup day, from last week. I spent a good portion of the weekend working on a collaborative project, and today was mostly spent replying to emails, doing laundry, cooking dinner, etc. Busy few days, albeit fun ones. This is the downfall of trying to... (read more)

Jen Stark's Amazing Paper Sculptures, Heaven Gallery

September 29, 2007

Today Justin and I met up with Chris to check out Jen Stark's work;/a>, on display at Heaven Gallery. I've mentioned her work before, and was reminded of her when Liz and I went to check out Brian Dettmer's books, a few weeks back. I was pretty excited to... (read more)

The Grocer, Pilsen Art Walk

September 28, 2007

Another evening of events! Tonight, Justin and I headed down to Pilsen for the Pilsen Art Walk. I'd never been to Pilsen before, so this was a first for me. We went to dinner at a place called Skylark. I had a pretty fantastic burger (splurging again), and really... (read more)

Hiding Out at the Hideout

September 27, 2007

Justin came to town yesterday, and tonight we met up for dinner before heading out to a book opening at the Hideout. Our friend Rob did the illustration work for Jonathan Messinger's book... appropriately titled, Hiding Out. We stepped in to Hachi's Kitchen, a sushi place right up the... (read more)

Send In the... Bunnies

The Bravia TV ads (their San Francisco bouncy balls ad made the rounds back in 2006 and helped launch the career of José González) are back again - this time with a ton of bunnies (and two tons of plasticine). It's only a teaser, but MAN does it look... (read more)

Wes Anderson's Hotel Chevalier, Free on iTunes

September 26, 2007

Hotel Chevalier is a mini-film prequel to Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited. And the best thing is that it's a free download on iTunes. [via]... (read more)

Manifold

September 25, 2007

Manifold is a fun (and fluid) Flash game, where you try to get to the exit. The controls are a bit tricky, but you get the hang of it after a little while. [via]... (read more)

Mysterious Stranger with Armed Entourage Identified?

September 24, 2007

After seeing my post about the mysterious "International Friend" I saw last week (along with his numerous, well-armed bodyguards), my friend Juliet got curious and started digging around. Having a Librarian background (and being just all-around good with research), she found this mention of Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan's visit... (read more)

Polite in Public: Chicago Pics Online

September 23, 2007

A few days ago, Liz and I went to the Vic to check out Polite in Public. Looks like they just got done batching many of the evening's photos, and have posted many of them on their site. My scans didn't do the original shots justice. Here are some more... (read more)

Warwick Davis

September 22, 2007

Chris came by last night, and all three of us watched Willow. Since I didn't take any photos from the evening, I thought I'd include a few links about the lead actor, Warwick Davis. He got his start playing Wicket the Ewok, from Return of the Jedi, and has... (read more)

A Lot of Black Cars, a Lot of Guys with Guns

September 21, 2007

A little after lunch, Mike called me on my work phone. He's downstairs, in front of the building, standing next to a row of black cars... and a bunch of CIA-looking guys. So I grab my camera, and head down. On stepping out the door, this is what I see:... (read more)

Dave Fischoff @ The Empty Bottle

September 20, 2007

After getting our photos taken by Polite in Public, Liz and I swung over to the Empty Bottle to catch DaveDave's show. Dave, opening things up with a solo. Group shot of the band. As the set progressed, I think things just got stronger and stronger. There were several... (read more)

Polite in Public, Vic Theater

My friend Jamie (aka rypunked) passed me a link to Polite in Public a while back... and I found out that they were in town tonight, for an event over at the Vic. Here's how the photobooth works: at various venues, they show up with a custom background/backdrop. It's a... (read more)

Kevin Visits Chicago: Pandora Video Shoot at Buddy Guy's Legends

September 19, 2007

My friend Kevin (who I last saw when visiting San Francisco) was in town today, doing a cool thing for his cool job: setting up shop at Buddy Guy's Legends to do a video shoot for Pandora's Podcast (he is, incidentally, the host). They're doing a few video shoots,... (read more)

Felix vs. Phil: Pingmaster Tourney

The quest for the Pingmaster Trophy continued today, as Phil and I battled it out. He and I are both playing in the bottom tier of the bracket, with one loss apiece. Basically, loser of this match is out of the tourney. To see how I got here, check out... (read more)

Dan Visits Chicago

September 18, 2007

My friend Dan was in town today, which was a nice surprise. I got a call from him last night, and we made plans to meet up over lunch downtown. Dan's been in Japan (teaching) for the past seven years, and just recently moved back to the States. His... (read more)

A ~~Romantic~~ Competitive Moment

September 17, 2007

Just so we're on the same page, you all remember this, right? Well, last night Liz and I were making some spaghetti for dinner. As I was getting some dishes ready, Liz takes a long string of cooked spaghetti and dangles it up in the air. I grab it with... (read more)

Grow Island

September 16, 2007

I'm a huge fan of the games done by Eyezmaze, particularly the "Grow" series. The basic premise is that every item can influence other items... and the gameplay is more about discovering what order to place things in. The fun for me is seeing how things change each time,... (read more)

Happy Birthday, Royal

September 15, 2007

Liz and stopped over at her friend Royal's, to help celebrate his birthday. We got there at the start of things, but more and more folks started showing up as Renegade closed down for the night. I got into some pretty interesting conversations throughout the course of the evening. I... (read more)

The Postcard Machine, Renegade Craft Fair

This was one of my all-time favorite booths from the Renegade Craft Fair. Thinking about it now, it's still making me smile. On walking by, people didn't notice this machine on first glance. It was situated in a spot where a booth should have been, with no tarp or... (read more)

Renegade Craft Fair

This year's Renegade Craft Fair was a bit different from last year's event. I'm used to going to Wicker Park, but this time around... all the booths were situated a few blocks south, on Division. Due in part to the new opening of the Renegade Craft Store on the street,... (read more)

Gretchen @ Quimby's

September 14, 2007

I stopped over at Quimby's after work, to catch a reading sponsored by The 2nd Hand. It was good to hear Gretchen read her work again. I know that she's put a lot of her energies these past months towards Literago and her new job at TimeOut Chicago. It... (read more)

Nothing Gold Can Stay... Inflated

These guys look so sad... and only after just one day!... (read more)

Goodbye, Gapers Block

September 13, 2007

Earlier this week, I sent off an email to Andrew Huff over at Gapers Block. Sadly, I've stepped down after only about two months or so as one of their staff/contributors. I'm pretty bummed about it, but I'm certain it was the right decision. Lately, I've felt stressed out about... (read more)

Just Exactly Who ARE All These People?

Today, we had a ton of folks in for our internal Quarterly meeting (and birthday lunch). In addition to getting caught up on the current state of affairs (via Deb, who is always fascinating to listen to)... our Affiliate Relations team (James, Phil and Katie) set up a fun quiz... (read more)

6 Billion Others

September 12, 2007

6 Billion Others is an absolutely stunning project by Yann Arthus-Bertrand (best known for his Earth from the Air project, which I saw way back in 2002). Take a look/listen, as the design is excellent, and the emotions it evokes... are surprising. I found myself very moved at several... (read more)

Look at All the Pretty Lights

I'm not a huge fan of watches, and it's been years since I've even worn one. Having a watch on makes me always feel like I'm not concentrating on the task in front of me, and tends to make me think of the next thing I need to do... (read more)

Hey, I Recognize That Skeleton

September 11, 2007

Liz and I spotted Bryan on the train this morning, on the way in to work. He had his headphones in, so we decided not to bug him. It was funny that I could see, almost immediately based on his skeleton hoodie, that it was him. Interesting sidenote 1:... (read more)

Justin @ Rodan

September 10, 2007

Justin was back in town today, stopping in after visiting Alex and Linda. We had exchanged messages over the weekend, but I didn't realize he was back from the west coast until earlier today (which made for a nice surprise). Of course, a bunch of us met up with... (read more)

Dinner with Jake

September 9, 2007

We had Jake over tonight for dinner, and to hang out a bit. Liz, multi-tasking extraordinaire that she is, had four things going at once on the stove. Dinnertime! A nice asparagas soup (with Parmesean), wild salmon (with a sweet balsamic reduction), green and yellow beans, and a big... (read more)

Happy 1st Birthday, Paige!

September 8, 2007

Liz and I travelled to Indiana today, to help her niece Paige celebrate her first birthday. I met a lot of new folks, but ended up not taking a ton of pictures. Mostly, the ones I have all centered around her eating smearing her first cake. Paige, cautiously exploring.... (read more)

Ida, the Saddest, Unluckiest Little Girl Who Ever Lived

September 7, 2007

Meet Ida: The saddest, unluckiest little girl who ever lived. Great illustration and animation, which totally sucked me in. There's also a Part 2. Fantastic work from Kay Towell, who thinks that Childrin R Skary. [via]... (read more)

Bush Press Conference: $50B to Fight Zombies

September 6, 2007

... (read more)

Lunch with Liz

September 5, 2007

Met up with Liz downtown today, and had lunch together. After a few weeks off, she's now officially back in the hustle and bustle of things. Today was her first day at her new part-time job, which just happens to be right down the street from my office. And... (read more)

The Bridge

September 4, 2007

I recently watched a documentary entitled The Bridge, and it absolutely took my breath away. The film is about San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, and the people who go there to jump, to end their lives. In 2004, the director and crew spent an entire year on site, filming... (read more)

Polar Bears and Meerkats

September 3, 2007

Liz and I spent part of the day today wandering around the Lincoln Park Zoo. I've been here before (and taken my share of photos), so this time around I didn't get too detailed with the documentation. We got to see the polar bears out and about, which seemed a... (read more)

Frankfort Fall Festival: Waterballoon War

September 2, 2007

One of my favorite parts of the entire festival happens at the conclusion of the parade: the Waterballoon War. Apparently, this is an old rivalry between two houses on opposite sides of the street. The parade ends right at these houses, and each year kids from all over team... (read more)

Frankfort Fall Festival: Jackass Interlude

Walking around with Liz through the booths, we spent a good hour plus checking out the local arts and crafts. For the most part, nothing really caught my eye... although Liz did purchase some soap, and we tried a few different veggie dips along the way. Here's the thing that... (read more)

Frankfort Fall Festival: Parade

This weekend, Liz and I went down to Frankfort to check out the annual Fall Festival. This year, I wasn't part of the volunteers (like I was last year), so there was no waking up at 7:00 AM this time around. Katie was singing the National Athem again this... (read more)

Gorilla Marketing

September 1, 2007

This is one of the stranger things I've seen, but for some reason I'm drawn to this video. It makes little sense at all, and that's part of the attraction, I think. Here are some reasons why this video tickes me so: 1) Justin dislikes loathes Phil Collins. Back... (read more)