New Address

Hello wonderful people, I just wanted to update you on my new address (more details and pictures coming soon):

2831 N Albany Ave Apt 1
Chicago IL
60618

Hooray!

Long Time No See!

Awww, I missed you too.
My apologies for the delay, things have been getting quite busy. Forgive me?
Let's start with INAUGURATION 2013!! What a great trip, Public Allies took us on a 16 hour bus ride so that we could watch a jumbo-tron of Obama getting sworn in. And it was worth it. Being in that enormous crowd on the mall, flags waving, people cheering, it was a once-in-a-lifetime treat.

I also had the opportunity to see some of my dearest friends, which was lovely. We also took part in MLK Day of Service, we were at a school doing activities with the kids, putting gift-bags together for senior citizens, and laminating books for the school library. Of course I was stuck at the registration tables while Chelsea Clinton was making her rounds, but I'm not complaining.

Back in Chicago, I've been lucky enough to see my lovely Aunt & Uncle, and I even purchased relatively inexpensive tickets to see the one and only BOOK OF MORMON!!! What a treat, I highly recommend it to everyone. The music was solid, it was funny, you won't regret it. It's Avenue Q plus Mormonism times South Park, what's not to love?

I know what you're thinking, Adam, when is Bricklayers Foundation's album coming out?? You've been working on it forever!!! I know, we are still trying to get it mastered, and then our plan is to raise a little money and get it pressed (only onto eight-track of course), send it out to labels and record stores, and if we're lucky, do some touring. How cool would that be?
As you may recall I've been doing monthly variety shows with my friend called Making Out with Wes Perry and Friends. It's a hoot, just music, comedy, improv, storytelling, performance art, etc, and it's getting some excellent reviews. So excellent, in fact, that we had a special show at this tiny bar called the Hideout. That show was nuts, you can watch a video here. And here we are at our normal cozy spot, the Upstairs Gallery.

I've been playing guitar for My So-Called Afterlife, it's a hilarious musical about famous people breaking the rules in heaven. It's super offensive and funny and the music is fun, what more could you ask for?

Ok, now for the main reason I've been MIA for so long. Work has been intense, we found out we're not doing a summer program after all, so instead we've been recruiting kids to join our school in the fall. We'll be doubling the size of our school, so that's going to need some serious work.

But, the good news is we've started teaching our course on History and Statistics through Baseball, called "162." We just started our second week, and it's going really well. I am assistant-teaching along with a very talented man from the Netherlands named Gertjan. He is a great teacher but knows very little about baseball, so I am essentially his helper and never-ending source of information. Check out our course trailer! To be fair, Gertjan hit some bombs toward the end of our shoot, but he foolishly edited those out of the final video due to time constraints.

To give you an idea of our course, it is divided into 4 units: Origins (42), Performance (.406), Value ($228,995,945), and Strategy (116-46). I'll let you figure out all those numbers.
Our first unit is about where baseball came from and segregation. Second unit is about statistics and how they've evolved. Third unit is about money and how much everything is worth, and the last unit is about putting it all together and making a successful team based on your resources. Last week we took all the kids to see a White Sox game to keep score and interview fans, it was gorgeous.

So there it is. Life is busy, but I am happy. Staci is doing well at her job, although her hours could be better. More importantly, the weather is finally getting better! It is so nice to be able to enjoy being outside, I almost forgot what it was like.
So now it's April, and the sweltering heat is right around the corner. Bring it on!
And GO SOX!!

Holidays of Thunder

Life continues to be excellent. Thanksgiving in Boston was a treat, literally. The Brothers Cohen-Leadholm (and honorary fourth brother Miller) decided to deep-fry some pastries, which absolutely blew my mind. We're talking imitation twinkies, ho hos, zebra cakes, honey buns, cream chocolate cupcakes, chocolate wafers, bananas, the works. Was it a bad idea to stuff myself with deep-fried desserts the night before Thanksgiving? Perhaps. And yet I regret nothing.
Thanksgiving itself was lovely, and my broccoli casserole killed, as usual.

My niece and nephew are a handful, in a good way. Addie shows me the proper way to savor one's breakfast.

And Jackson works on the perfect grip for his spitball.

Spending quality time with the rest of my family was much needed. Then I got to see many of my closest friends from college and high school, wandering around Boston and stopping by some old haunts.
Things at my school are going really well, I love being around really cool, passionate teachers and students. My coworker and I are developing GCE's summer program almost from scratch. And we still get weekly trainings from Public Allies on all sorts of business and nonprofit topics. But wait, there's more: for our midyear retreat they're taking us to DC for the Inauguration! We're all hopping on a bus and riding 11 hours to spend the weekend in Maryland and hang out on the mall as Obama gets super-sworn-in! It's gonna be insane.
Staci got a new job, which she's psyched about. She works as a nurse at Loyola University Medical Center, so of course we had to celebrate the only way we know how: karaoke in Chinatown.

Christmas was sweet, I decided to stay in Chicago and take care of animals like the good old days. I got to see some of my favorite cats and dogs, and the weather was nice, too. I went down to the burbs on Christmas Eve to hang with Ross and his girlfriend's family, followed by some excellent karaoke at the Rusty Nail. On Christmas day I was hanging with Staci and my friends Nick and Brett, we decided to be completely unoriginal and eat Chinese food, which was a great decision.
I got to see one of my favorite bands play recently, Duke of Uke and his Novelty Orchestra. They're a large funky/soul ensemble with unique instrumentation and beautiful voices, they rock. Hard.
New Years was another unforgettable time, my good friends Zane and Will from Butler were in town. We played some Mario Galaxy 2, watched Jesus Christ Superstar and Down By Law, ate some pizza, went to a couple sweet beercades and of course attended a crowded New Years party in a loft. What more could you ask for???
I continue to play gigs with my friend Wes, check out this video we put together a while back.
And Bricklayers Foundation is still working on our album, we uploaded some tracks to our soundcloud and are trying to put together some shows. Unfortunately our singer moved to California, so we're still figuring out what we're gonna do without her. C'est la vie!
I really enjoyed Michael Ian Black's book You're Not Doing It Right, he's a hilarious comedian but this book also gets pretty heavy. I like when writers can mix the insecure and serious with the funny.
But I am currently reading Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, holy moley. Now there's a book! I wish we had read parts of it in high school, it really gives you a new perspective on everything.
And on that note, smell ya later!

Happy Days

My apologies for the delay, but it's been a crazy couple months. Bricklayers has played a couple great shows, and we're still recording our album. Check out our soundcloud page for some updates and rough tracks. Also I'm still doing monthly shows with my friends Wes Perry, he's a comedian/singer who hosts this sweet variety show. Ross and I are basically the house band, also we do random gigs here and there, you can see some videos on Wes' youtube page.

Alan helped write a surgical textbook so he and mom came to town for the big release party, which was sick. I busted out my tux (which somehow seems to be getting bigger) and ate some amazing food with lots of very smart and nice people. They didn't even kick me out! We also got to check out a White Sox game, the weather and seats were pure heaven.

Then we made our yearly trek to Six Flags!!! They have this new ride called X-Flight, it does some twirls through very tight spaces and makes you think you will get decapitated. It was awesome. Also we decided to forego the expensive crappy food options and tailgate instead.

Gabe came to town for a weekend visit, and we did just about everything. He got to see Bricklayers play one our best shows at Cole's, he tried malort, we had some deep dish pizza, watched football, had a ball at the Arcade Emporium, and last but not least, he had the greatest burger of his life at Kuma's Corner. He'll be back.

Halloween was fun, our friend Arjun and his roommates hosted this big party/gameshow. Even though my team came in last place we gave 110% and left it all out on the field.

My calypso group played a sweet gig a couple weeks ago, it was at a glass-blowing facility. No joke. They had plenty of great food and drinks, and lots of young people were digging on our tunes. Now it's time for the steel drums to hibernate.

For my birthday I did some recording with Ross, grabbed dinner with Staci and headed to Headquarters, another excellent barcade (arcade with beer). And this past week we saw the Bulls play the Celtics at the United Center, it was intense. And we won! Great times.

Oh yeah, and some dude got re-elected or whatever. Just kidding, I was sipping champagne as the totals were coming in. Not only did Barack crush the Mitt, but Elizabeth Warren beat Scott Brown! Nate Silver is the shit.
The real news is that I have a new job. Not just a job, but a fantastic job. It was really hard to say goodbye to all the wonderful dogs I take care of, but now I am officially a Public Ally. My friend Matt did this program in Miami a couple years ago and recommended it, it's basically a 10-month leadership training program that pairs young people up with non-profits and guides them along the way. Four days a week I am working at an amazing little school called Global Citizenship Experience not too far from my house, technically I'm a Summer Program Coordinator but for now I just help out wherever I can and soak it all in. I can't believe how happy I am to be surrounded by these passionate teachers and incredible students.

Alas, I had to give up my dog-walking and guitar teaching, which is a bummer, but I know they're all in good hands. I can still see cats because they are more flexible, but it's time to say goodbye to some of my favorites: Charlie & Toby, Peanut & Butter, and Mika & Xena.

Now it's time to get ready for Thanksgiving and seeing all my family and friends in Boston. Hasta pronto, amigos!

It's that time of the year again...

Summer is just about over, and holy guacamole what a summer it's been. Let's start with the basics: my new apartment is great, my roommates are awesome and we have two wonderful little cats running around. Here's Charlie doing his best to intimidate me as Annabelle Lee relaxes in the background.

But hanging on my bed just isn't good enough for these cats. No, Charlie prefers napping under our sink, behind our pots and pans. To each his own.

The big event of the summer was my college buddy Daryl getting married, and that certainly did not disappoint. I flew to NYC, got to see a bunch of my closest friends, and I even played the church's grand piano as people were walking down the aisle. A little Beethoven, some Pachelbel's Canon, and Mendelssohn's Wedding March for the recessional. It was sick. And of course the reception was top-notch. The weather was beautiful, everyone had a blast, it was perfect.

Then there was our family vacation on Cape Cod. We had ten adults and six kids, five of whom never stopped running all over the place. It was so much fun getting to spend time with everyone, just a whole week of amazing food and drinks, swimming in our little bay and playing with the kids. And I finally got to meet my little nephew Jackson!! So pensive.

And of course Addie just keeps getting bigger and smarter and funnier and awesomer.

                                                     

Man, that place was gorgeous.

                                         

But the fun didn't stop there. My pal Dean visited Chicago for several days, and of course that means good food, bars, arcade games and cribbage. Then we had a little Butler reunion in Iowa, and who do you think I was most excited to see? Dmitri of course!! Even though I live with two cats, I will always miss this little guy.

And last weekend I helped my friends do a short film in Michigan City, Indiana. It's only 90 minutes from Chicago and we had a ton of fun once filming was done. Here's a shot of Julie getting a shot of Matt before the sun completely disappeared.

And that leads us to what you've all been waiting for...my yearly awards! I can't believe I've been in Chicago for three years now, what a treat it's been.

Best concert: Honorable mention goes to the Andrew WK show, I never knew it was possible to get drenched with sweat, dry off and then get completely sweaty again in the space of an hour. That show was intense. But come on, #1 spot has to go to the Hives show. Their new tracks are growing on me, probably because they played them so well live. And every time they brought out an oldie, the place went bonkers. And did I mention I caught one of their drumsticks???

Best movie: I really enjoyed the Dark Knight Rises, especially Bane's jacket (hint hint Christmas present hint hint), Prometheus was super cool, and Drive was really well done, but my favorite movie of the past year was definitely Moonrise Kingdom. The soundtrack was great, as was Edward Norton, and the visuals were lovely as always, but the highlight for me was the performance of the two young leads. They were fantastic. In fact all of the young actors exceeded my expectations. The story gets a little over-the-top towards the end, but even so it's a great movie.

Best sports clip: I like adding weird categories every year, and this is really just an opportunity for me to share some awesome videos of sports moments. Even though it hasn't been the best year in Boston sports (that of course belongs to 2004, or more specifically Feb. 2004-Feb. 2005), we've still had some great moments. Even though I didn't follow it much, this clip of the US Women's Soccer team defeating Canada is pretty righteous. Some amazing shots and headers for both sides, just a thrilling soccer match for the ages. But come on, nothing beats a come-from-behind walk-off home run over the Green Monster. Wait a second, where did that neon blue arc of gatorade come from??? That's pure magic right there. No matter how crappy this season has been, we will always have this moment of jubilation.

Best song: This one is tough, I really like Beach House's Myth for its deep, rich vocals and spacey sound. And the main hook always gets stuck in my head, but I'll say it, the form of the song is kind of predictable. The new Hives album has some really good tracks too, like Wait A Minute Now. But I'm gonna have to give this award to Beirut's Port of Call. I know, it came out almost exactly a year ago, but I never listened to it until recently. My favorite part is definitely the hemiola (when the rhythm goes 1-2-3-1-2-3-1-2-1-2-1-2), and admit it, this guy's voice is just too perfect. Ok, fine, here are some more great songs: Think About the Days by the Beach Boys (yes, they put out an album this year, and yes, some of the songs are good), All I Wanna Do (also by the Beach Boys, but this is from the 1970 album Sunflower), and how about a little Rosanna by Toto. Deal with it.

Best album: Honorable mention goes to Beach House's Bloom, and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's Hysterical, but start to finish Dan Deacon's America takes the cake for me. Mixing electronic, classical, and indie music into one glorious hodgepodge isn't as easy as it sounds. But Dan Deacon kills it.

Best book: Although I am thoroughly enjoying Kurt Vonnegut's the Sirens of Titan, and the Razor's Edge was extraordinary, I have to give this award to the recently deceased David Rakoff. I've read two of his collections, which are both hilarious and devastating at the same time. If you have a chance, read Half Empty and Fraud, they are marvelous, and I can only assume his other book Don't Get Too Comfortable is as well. David was a supremely witty and intelligent writer, and he will be greatly missed.

Ok, that's enough for now. It's time to get back into the swing of things and enjoy my day of labor. Until next time amigos!

New digs!

Summer is truly upon us! We had a crazy heat wave here in Chicago, but luckily things have cooled off a bit. I've finally had some time to settle into my new apartment, which is awesome. My buddy Justin moved to New York so I swooped in and took his room, now I live with two of the coolest cats in the world. They're hairy, a little messy, and they really enjoy bellyrubs and hiding under beds. Oh yeah, my human roommates are great too. Here's my new address:
1940 N Kedzie Ave Apt 3
Chicago, IL
60647

Last month was my 5-year college reunion, so I decided to head up to Maine and see the old gang. Needless to say, it was a phenomenal weekend. I hadn't been up there since 2007, and initially it was a little strange being back, but it was so great getting to hang out/dance with everybody.

The campus was as beautiful as I remembered, especially when it never stopped raining. But we had lots to do inside, so no complaints from my end. In addition to all the lobster I devoured, the real treat was seeing my former professor Shende playing with his 80's cover band, Racer X. They even dedicated a song to me!! I've never felt so honored.
I've seen some amazing concerts, from my friends playing in a dive bar to the one and only HIVES! This was the fourth time I'd seen them, and they did not disappoint. They played some tracks from their new album, but their old hits really got the crowd going nuts. Much like at the Andrew WK concert I saw earlier this year, I was drenched with sweat. Lots of jumping and screaming and pushing and craziness all around me. I go to so many shows where people will quietly drink their beer and sway to the music or bob their head, it's nice to see a show where people just go insane and scream along and have a blast. If you're ready, here's a taste.
Last time I saw them, in Indianapolis, I magically got to shake their hands and compliment them as I was exiting through the alley right by their tourbus. This time I jumped higher than I've ever jumped and successfully snatched a drumstick as it was flying through the air, maybe they recognized me and intentionally threw it in my general direction. I will treasure it forever!!!!

Bricklayers Foundation has returned to the studio, we've recorded six songs so far, and will soon go back to mix them and record some more. It's gonna be a great record whenever we finish it, hopefully we can put some tracks online before our gig on the 20th!
And of course there was the 4th, a nice day off to relax, see a movie with my human roommates, and watch fireworks from the roof of an abandoned building.
Yesterday I saw Mahler's 6th Symphony performed outdoors at Ravinia (Chicago's Tanglewood) and it was truly beautiful. I think all classical concerts are better when you can lie down on the grass, bring a picnic and gaze up at the clouds as the music washes over you. Plus all symphonies should include hammers.
The month ahead is going to be out-of-this-world. Next weekend I will be attending/playing the piano for my college buddy Daryl's wedding in New York. Two weeks after that we have a week-long family vacation on the Cape, and I will get to meet my brand new nephew Jackson Briggs, I mean Curtis Jackson, I mean Jackson Curtis! It's gonna be a great summer, my wonderful niece Addie cannot contain her happiness!

Get out of the kitchen

It's getting toasty! Although the nice weather is generally more fun to be in, I must admit that once I can no longer wear my hoodies I feel naked. I'll get used to it, someday. Some of my dogs absolutely love it:

Some animals are not as impressed.

That's the way it goes.
I went down to Indianapolis to experience Wagner's entire 4-opera Ring Cycle back-to-back-to-back-to-back. Yup, 16.5 hours of German opera in a row. My buddy Matt Williams works at the Wheeler Arts Center down there and decided to get the DVDs, project them on a wall and have speakers blasting some of the most powerful music ever written. Of course I had to go and support such foolishness! After way too much pizza, soda, doughnuts and cheeseballs, we somehow managed to stay awake for the whole thing. Some other people came in and out to sample it, but we were the true heroes that night/day. Pretty sure I can legally speak German now, too.
Since I was already in my old stomping grounds, once we caught up on sleep I got to hang with my old professors from Butler, as well as some old friends. Eating good food, drinking good drinks, it was perfect.
I've played guitar for a couple variety show things with our friend Wes, the guy who did the one-man-show with us as his band in February. Basically he's the MC, so he'll sing some songs interspersed with his friends doing comedy or lip-syncing or rapping, it's a blast. Also the show we did is coming back for a second run, Sundays in June at 8pm, check it out!
Bricklayers has played a couple more shows recently as well, we're definitely getting more comfortable on stage. We played with some of our friends at this awesome dive bar Moe's Tavern, you might remember we played there a year ago as well. Things got a little spooky at times:

But it seriously rocked. Then we played at our home turf, Township. Very fun stuff.
A big event in my life was seeing not one, but TWO Red Sox-White Sox games while they were in town. And wouldn't you know, we won both games 10-3. How cool is that? I must be a good luck charm. Here's Ross and I getting ready for the showdown.

My dear mama came to town for a work conference, so we got to hang and eat downtown. As always, all are welcome to my fair city! I will drop whatever it is I am or am not doing to lead you around, just say the word!
We christened the good weather with our apartment's first barbecue of the season, that was excellent. And then there was the weekend of all weekends, my college roommate Daryl's bachelor party in Miami. Wow. It was a group of about 10 of us, we rented a couple rooms in this swanky apartment building, and took Miami by storm. Lots of hanging out, some clubbing, some unmentionables, but all around an awesome time.
On Friday our calypso band played up at Northwestern, they were having a little Carib-fest and we opened the festivities. It was very cool, normally we play at youth soccer tournaments or people's barbecues, so just being on a college campus was a very different experience. We rocked the house, duh.
As for our sports teams, the Sox are gonna be ok. And the Celtics are doing great, it's been a real treat watching them battle these young guns. The Heat are a very good team, but I ain't giving up just yet. Hit em where it hurts, boys!