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d-ring mothaload

They're No Slipknot

2001-10-16::11:23 p.m.

Heylo. Ah, so much has been going on lately, I almost don't know where to begin. Probably the greatest thing I did since my last update was my trip to Chicago. I had never been to Chicago before, and all I can say is "Wow!" It was so awesome. I went to go see Modest Mouse, who were playing at the House of Blues, but their show wasn't until 11:45 Sunday night, so I had all day Saturday and Sunday to explore the city. Unfortunately, it was hella cold, and thanks to my mother, I did not bring my winter coat with me. I could have used it. So, because it was cold, and I had no coat, and I was already kinda sickly, and I was by myself, I didn't do as much site seeing as I normally would have. I did make it out to the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, some huge mall on Michigan Avenue, and Sears Tower, (although it was closed because we picked the Sunday I was there to begin bombing Afghanistan- I did however get some pics of a nearby anti-war rally instead).

Ha, here's a funny Chicago story for you. If you didn't think I was fucking retarded before, you will after reading this. I fly into Chicago at like 9am that Saturday, right? What's the first thought to enter my brain as the plane touches down? Not "How in the hell do I find my hotel," not "Jesus, I have to pee," not "Did I leave the stove on," not "Thank you Lord for getting me to Chicago in one piece," (well, those of you who know me know that last one was a given). No, the first thought to run through my mind was, (in Wayne Yeo's voice), "Smart girl! You left your fucking concert ticket in your Monkichi jewelry box! You=Chicago. Your beloved Modest Mouse ticket= fucking Detroit!" That's right friends, I, being the stupidest girl alive, left my concert ticket at home. My whole reason for visiting Chicago was to see them, and I left the ticket to the sold out show at home. What's a girl to do? Well, if you're me, you call your mom collect from the airport the minute you step off the plane and whine to her. Eventually, after three hours on the phone with Ticketmaster, things were resolved, and thanks to a lost ticket voucher I was able to see my husband, Isaac Brock, perform afterall.

So, I got off to a late start on Saturday. After the forgotten ticket fiasco, I head out for the MCA, then I made a stop at the Borders downtown that Katie and I hope to transfer to when we move to Chitown next September, (can we say fucking huge?), and finally, I hit the largest mall I have seen thus far in my life, (it puts the ghetto mall I work at to shame for sure). That night Katie, her boy Jacob, his friend Chris, and I decided to visit the Gold Star for a little alcohol consumption. What can I say about the Gold Star? Um, there are lots of hipsters there. The jukebox has a lovely selection. Tamales are readily available for purchase. There was a woman there who regularly visits the bar to play pool and sell her pot muffins. Apparently we made the mistake of sitting at her table, and she let us know we were not welcome. Needless to say, she will loosely inspire one of the characters in my forthcoming novel, Nighthawks(November is National Novel Writing Month, don't cha know?). So, we finished our drinks and I was dropped at my hotel where I slept in the most wonderfully comfortable bed in the world.

So, that brings us to Sunday. Katie, Jacob, and I were supposed to go the the Van Gogh/Gaughin exhibit at the Art Institute, but tickets were all sold out. Although we didn't get to go to the exhibit, I still went to the Art Institute, which was packed, (did I forget to mention that it was the weekend of the Chicago Marathon?). I spent about three hours there, and still only saw about half of the museum. I could have easily spent the whole day there, but I wanted to try to hit Sears tower, and perhaps catch a show that night. Well, I dropped my shit off at the hotel, and made my way to the financial district of Chicago. It was bitterly cold, already dark out, and completely abandoned. I finally reached Sears Tower only to find it had been closed that day. So, I took my pics of the anti-war rally, and made my way back to the hotel to try to find something to occupy my time until the concert. I thought maybe I could get into a show, or catch a movie, or something, but of course I didn't plan ahead, so everything was sold out for the night. I ended up staying in, ordering up some way expensive room service, and watching Moulin Rouge.

Finally, 10:30 rolled around and I headed over to the House of Blues to collect my lost ticket voucher and wait in line for the concert to start. I was there hella early which landed me in the third row of bodies on the mainfloor. The bouncer was kind enough to let me in with my camera, and I was in the prime spot for picture taking. I had a ton of time to kill, and because I am A) an incredible dork, and B) horribly anti-social, I pulled out my book, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, and proceeded to read. Around 11:30, the opening band, Focus North, took the stage. They were okay, but let's face it, they weren't who I traveled 287 miles to see, so I couldn't wait for them to get off of the stage. They played a short set, and Modest Mouse took the stage at around 12:40. During the intermission, it became too crowded for me to read, so I was forced to listen to the conversations around me. Here's an excerpt from my favorite conversation:

Slimy, Wasted Guy from Tennessee: Do you think they'll

let us mosh here?

Nice, Clean, Polite boy from Iowa: I don't know, they're

no Slipknot, you know.

Slimy, Wasted Guy: Yeah, ha, ha.

Why is this my favorite conversation? Because the slimy guy from Tennessee was wearing a Slipknot t-shirt, and he was so wasted that he had no idea my concert boyfriend from Iowa was poking fun at him. He was so wasted in fact, that he ruined the show for those around him by shouting stupid things at the band, and when the girl next to him yelled at him to shut the fuck up, he focused his attention on her instead of Isaac, and began to yell things at her, such as "You want to take this outside?," and "He's my cousin. I'll introduce you to him after the show if you want," (he being Isaac Brock). One minute he wanted to kick her ass, and when she didn't respond to that, he thought maybe he should try to get into her pants instead by making up lies about knowing the band. Needless to say, he was unsuccessful.

Anyway, the show was excellent. They played an awesome set, and while there were a few songs I would have liked to hear that they didn't get to, they did a pretty fine job of hitting most of the songs on my must-hear list. I took about 30 pictues before a security guard threatened to take my camera away, (one I get my film back, I will post some here). Also, I used the last page of my book to write down the song list:

1) Talking Shit About a Pretty Sunset

2) Never Ending Math Equation

3) 3rd Planet

4) Tiny Cities Made of Ashes

5) Wild Packs of Family Dogs

6) Doin' the Cockroach

7) Lives

8) Paper Thin Walls

9) Grey Ice Water

10) Trailer Trash

11) I Came As a Rat

12) Alone Down There

13) Whenever You Breathe Out, I Breathe In (Positive

Negative)

Encores:

14) Styrofoam Boots

15) Interstate

16) What People Are Made Of

That pretty much wraps up my weekend in Chicago. After the concert let out- around 2am, I walked back to my hotel, finished packing, showered, and caught an hour of sleep before I had to get up and leave for the airport. I was back in Detroit at 9:30am on Monday, and I was exhausted!

Okay, so that was my Chicago adventure. Let's move on, shall we? First order of business, have any of you seen the preview for a new independent movie coming out, Session 9? I saw a preview for it on Sundance the other night, and it looks like it is going to be awesome. Basically, it is about this company that gets hired to clean asbestos out of an old abandoned mental hospital. You can guess what happens from there. Yeah, so it looks like it should be good, and I am looking for a date to go and see it with when it hits the Metro Detroit area. Okay, onto a completely unrelated, but equally disturbing topic, I had a sex dream about Dave Foley from the Kids in the Hall the other night. Well, I don't know if I should really call it a sex dream, because we never had sex in it, but I was trying to seduce him, just completely throwing myself at him, and before my alarm went off, it looked as though I was going to be successful. Why Dave Foley? Beats the hell out of me. I mean, I have always thought he was funny, but I don't remember ever being strongly attracted to him.

Has anyone seen the video for Weezer's Island in the Sun? It is the cutest thing I have ever seen in my life. Highlights- 1) Rivers rubbing noses with that puppy, and 2) Brian laying on the grass with the monkey who is pulling up his shirt. How much more adorable can you get? The answer- you can't. Try as you may, but you can't get any more adorble than that. So yeah, I am still disappointed with this last album, but this super cute video has done a lot to mend my relationship with Weezer.

Did you know Ellen is back?!?! I caught half an episode Friday night on my break from work, and I found it to be highly chuckalicious. I don't think I have laughed out loud at a sitcom like that since the glory days of Roseanne. I am so glad you are back, Ellen.

Speaking of my favorite female comedians, just guess who I am going to see- Margaret Cho AND Janeane Garofalo! I am so excited. Margaret will be in town in mid-November, and Janeane in the beginning of December. My goal is to become friends with both of them- I have no doubt that they would fall in love with Katie, Jenny, and I if they only knew us. Wish me luck!