Weekend at Charlie's

aka It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Town.
Ok, done with the puns. My weekend in Wisconsin was phenomenal. Getting to hang with my aunt and uncle has been one of the best side-effects of moving to the Midwest. I took the bus up last Friday, we caught some great music, I had the best duck of my life, and we just walked around Madison. I'm pretty sure I hadn't been there since my cousin's wedding which was 5 or 10 years ago. On Saturday we had beers in the Union, a sweet patio by the water where all the UW kids congregate. Then we prepared our tailgating ingredients and drove the hour to Milwaukee to catch a Brewers game. What an experience.

I've never actually tailgated before, but having my first experience with Uncle Charlie at the helm might have raised my standards too high. Not only did we have sufficient meats and sides to stuff an elephant, but he brought an entire box of liquor just so he and Jeanne could have a couple Martinis. What a classy guy.
The game itself was equally awesome, the first Brewer to bat hit an inside-the-park home run, and it ended with the all-time saves leader notching his 597th save. I wonder if there's anything that impressive that I could do 597 times in my life. Here's a video I took of Trevor Hoffman coming out of the bullpen, bonus points if you can hear what his entrance song is.

All the fans, and I mean ALL the fans were on their feet, the stadium was literally shaking. Seems like a great fan base, and I can only assume it is because everyone tailgated before the game and thus were in great spirits.
Back in Madtown we caught some more jazz, indulged in a variety of delicious Wisconsinite beers, and devoured fantastic food. We climbed up the capitol building, perused the museum, and they even took me on a tour of their old apartments on campus. What a ride.
I returned to Chicago last Sunday, and it's good to be back. Monday night our rehearsal space hosted a performance of Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time, one of the most amazing pieces of music ever written. And that was in 1941. Tough to beat, check it out if you can.
Other than that, my buddy Dean is in town visiting for a view days. We already did so much when he came here several months ago, so now we're taking it easy, hanging out in my new pad, going to art shows, introducing him to everyone, and just kicking it. He Ruth and I got all-you-can-eat sushi, a Chicago staple, but they made us order it all at once. Here's the proof:

So yeah, that rocked. Ok, time for animal pictures!!
Here's my new roommate Dmitri. At least I know someone still values my extensive CD collection.

This is the face this dog makes when I rub her belly. Terrifying? Perhaps.

And here's a cat in a sink!

¡New Apartment!

In case you haven't gotten the memo, I am fully moved into my new apartment. It is about 10 minutes from my old place, still in Logan Square. The address is:
2700 N Monticello Ave Apt 1
Chicago, IL
60647

It's a beautiful house, with central air, front and back porches, a back yard, dishwasher, washer and dryer, the works! We've got Will, my Arkansasian fellow composer from Butler, his buddy Ryan from Arkansas, Ryan's old roommate Adam (I know, confusing, we're working on it) from Alaska, and Ryan's friend Dan from Michigan. So it's 5 guys, but we've got the first floor and the basement. We've already had a few barbecues, which have been beautiful. We have 5 couches, so plenty of space for guests to sleep over. We have way too many dishes and pots and pans, but I know they'll come in handy when we have 100 people over for dinner.
So other than having friends visit and helping unload all of Will's junk, it's been back to the grind. Rehearsing with our band, recording some tracks soon and then getting gigs around town. The calypso band is playing next weekend, hopefully we'll squeeze some rehearsals in before then. And I've got my gorgeous keyboard in my room so I've been playing and writing more. Recently I've been on a big lullaby kick, so maybe next post I'll have a link for a site where I can put my pieces.
I finished Flight by Sherman Alexie, which really took some surprising turns, and it just blew me away. I always love writers who can both break your heart and make you chuckle in the span of a couple pages.
After that I jumped into Sabbath's Theater by Philip Roth. As I've come to expect, it's super dense, and most of the book is introspective, like an internal dialogue in the narrator's head. This one is about an old sex-crazed puppeteer, his mistress, his wife, his family, his old friends, basically everyone involved in his life as everything just starts falling apart. Dark, extremely sexual and graphic, and surprisingly replete with humor.
I just started Orwell's Homage to Catalonia, something Dad has been suggesting ever since I studied in Barcelona. So far, it is somewhat reminiscent of Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms or For Whom the Bell Tolls, except written more from a journalist's viewpoint.
So that's what I've got going for me. Tomorrow I head to Wisconsin to hang with Uncle Charlie and Aunt Jeannie, seeing the sights in Madison and catching a baseball game in Milwaukee. It's gonna be a blast.
Unfortunately this post hasn't had any pictures, so I will leave you with a couple goodies from a little while back. First, the view from the roof of our rehearsal space:



Second, the sweetest little kid on the planet: