What I have...

...not to be confused with What I Got, by Sublime; another great song, to be sure, but not exactly on the same plane as the following.

Today, we have some song lyrics. I really dig this song, albeit the Antillas edit more so the the album version, which is a bit draggy and slow, or the Antillas Club mix, which has the good tempo, but too much filler at the beginning. The tune is catchy (as are almost all the Conjure One/Poe collaborations) and Poe's vocals have that haunting quality I love.

Extraordinary Ways - Conjure One featuring Jane aka Poe

What I have is nothing to my name
No property to speak of
And no trophy for my game
Intangible and worthless
My assets on the page
My coffers are empty
Any offer of safety has faded away
But what I have
What I have is

On an ordinary day
The extraordinary way
You take what I can give and you treasure it
On an ordinary day
The extraordinary way
You turn to me and say, I believe in this

That makes me lucky
God, I'm lucky, so much luckier than I ever thought I'd be
'Cause what I have (what I have)
Means so very little to this world
A promise that I kept and a bridge that I saved before it burned
The sacrifice that I made
Brought me to my knees
A choice that cost me everything and set somebody else free
But what I have
Is the value that you see in these things

On an ordinary day
The extraordinary way
You take what I can give and you treasure it
On an ordinary day
The extraordinary way
You turn to me and say, I believe in this

That makes me lucky
God I'm lucky, so much luckier than I ever thought I'd be
'Cause what I have
Is the value that you see in these things

And everytime I forget those things you bring them right back to me

With your patience
When I'm blinding mad
And your passion
When I'm really, really bad
And your eyes
Taking in everything I am
And your body and soul and the way that you know
How I treasure you

On an ordinary day
The extraordinary way
You take what I can give and you treasure it
On an ordinary day
The extraordinary way
You turn to me and say, I believe in this

That makes me lucky
God I'm so lucky
So much luckier than I ever thought I'd be

On an ordinary day
The extraordinary way
You take what I can give and you treasure it
On an ordinary day
The extraordinary way
You turn to me and say, I believe in this

As for the actual lyrics themselves, I'm not quite sure how the second verse fits in, but I really feel the first one, and the third one, wow...brilliant. Here's to hoping that that new Poe album is due out soon.

Tomorrow, a passage from House of Leaves by Annie's brother Mark Z., and the genius of THEIR joint work.

Geek love...

For all my favorite geeks out there (you know who you are), I present the following: (hope it's legible...)



I like to think that my life has taken the path of the first "no" response, as I HAVE known the touch of a woman (or two, possibly at the same time) ;) but I WAS exposed to D&D at a young age! Though I guess "young" is relative...I was what...13 maybe?

My only question is, what if the geek in question IS a girl? I mean surely they exist? I know I've encountered a few in my time, and at _least_ one (the only one that comes to mind ATM), in my mind, was mind-blowingly hot. So what gives?

Ah well, yet another imponderable mystery of life. Perhaps there will be a Discovery Channel special on it. Remind me to set the TiVo.

For the love of...

Well, it appears that The Almighty Googloggeraps comglomerate has hosed my page, and my last attempt to embed a Google Street View photo has not only not appeared, but all the subsequent (I know, they're actually chronologically earlier) embeddings have all shifted up one, thus rendering all the last several posts almost completely nonsensical. Crap.

Mayhaps I spoke too soon on the untold evils and miscellaneous shenanigans of Friday the Thirteenth.

Ah well, will work on it later.

Crap.

A day of untold misfortune...

Well, not really. I actually had a pretty good day, and I kept forgetting it was Friday the Thirteenth.

Homeowners' Association Board meeting, read water meters, shop for some random computer miscellany, mess with the new(ish) workhorse color printer, and I guess that's about it. Seemed like more while I was doing it.

By way of "old business", the name of the place from yesterday was "Scoozi!" It's on Huron (410 West, to be exact), just West of Orleans (where I used to work at Tripp-Lite before they moved to the old Spiegel campus, and the place on Orleans, (500 I think) got converted into condos. I always thought that building would make for good condos, guess I must have the real estate developer's eye. It's in turn right across from CDW. Anyway, I digress...) It's just West of Orleans, and just North of Ohio...which for some reason I was thinking was the Eisenhower, because of the very large on/off ramp thinger, which is more reminiscent of a highway ending than a mundane on/off ramp. Does that make sense?

Anyway, Scoozi! is in fact a Lettuce Entertain You enterprise, and both still seem to be around. My beloved Fettuccine Bolognese has evolved into a Tagliatelle Bologenese. I've never even heard of Tagliatelle, but then again, it seems that there are about fifteen billion types of pasta, all of which have proper Italian names, that I've never heard of. Take Gemelli, for example. This is my current favorite pasta, it's kind of like a closed cell...well not really closed, but tubular Rotini (I never know when/if you're supposed to capitalize pasta names.) Anyway, it's good stuff, check it out.

So back to Scoozi! one more time, and to wrap up, I suppose the prices seem to be pretty much what I remember them to be, so it's not by any means exorbitant. If you're in Chicago and in the mood for decent Italian, I highly recommend it, based on my handful of visits over 8-10 years ago. Cant' get more wholehearted or confident a recommendation as that, eh?

And finally, here's a look at the giant tomato I mentioned. See how it just sort of hovers, ready to take out the least-suspecting patron? Frightening.

Enjoy.


View Larger Map

What's the name of that place...

...in Chicago...

It's a restaurant, Italian, a Lettuce Entertain You venture. I used to love it, it has a giant tomato precipitously perched above the entryway. Kate always used to say that we (or SOMEONE) needed to catalogue all the giant/oversized sculptures of things in Chicago, there always seemed to be an abundance.

Anyway, la casa de Tomato (or salmonella delivery device, these days)...I think it was on Ontario, perhaps? No, it couldn't have been Ontario...Erie? Crap. Little help? The name of it completely escapes me. It had the giant open warehouse decor, bar in the front, open kitchen, I used to get the Fettuccine Bolognese, it was the best I'd ever had at the time, and has yet to be dethroned. Though Jim Hall's dad's cream sauce pasta in Minneapolis back in '96(?) was pretty damned close.

I need to look it up, Watching Top Chef the other night made me think of it, I doubt it's still around, heck Lettuce Entertain You probably isn't even around anymore. Remember Bones on...Lincoln Ave? Is that where it was? I can't even remember anymore.

Anyone? Anyone?

Speaking of simply-fucking-amazing places to eat in Chi (which is an 18-part-blog-series of its own), I heard Chop House mentioned in passing somewhere recently, and just about got my mouth watering. That place was for sure on Ontario...right across from Hard Rock, before you get to Portillo's on the right. Now that was the finest piece of cow I've ever had in my mouth, bar none. Seriously. I don't think Michele appreciated it at the time. Did she even have steak? Man, this CRS is really killing me these days.

Oh well, more on Chicago food soon. For now, I must go find the name of the place.

Fun with Google Street View...(Episode 1)

In case there's any doubt that Chicago still rocks the world, I present this view of daily life in suburban Chi-town:


View Larger Map

If you click one arrow NW, you can see the adventurous young lady approach the car, hands already at the leading (bottom) edge of her shirt, hinting at the luscious goodness that's sure to follow, and one click SE shows her walking away, mission accomplished. In a way it's a pity that we didn't get the full-effect flash, but then again, it most certainly would have been flagged and removed, ne'er to be seen by mine eyes (nor all of yours). So in effect, we all got to see more by having been exposed to less. Deep. Is it better to have been flashed and lost, or to never have seen boobal goodness at all? Also deep.

Although as far as an obligatory caveat, she could well be underage...either way, here's to quick-thinking American girls! The terrorists have NOT won!

To think that I briefly lived not five miles from that very spot...*sigh*.

In perhaps a more "urban" context, are these upstanding (at the moment) ladies just hanging out, or "working" and on the clock? (Oakland, CA)


View Larger Map

And on the very next corner:


View Larger Map

To be fair, this IS at a bus stop, but who's to say that's not the perfect place to set up shop? I mean it's one block up!

More craziness soon.

Welcome to civilization...

From Wikipedia's Google Street View page:

On June 10, 2008, twelve more cities were introduced: Atlanta, Buffalo, Charlotte, Columbus (Ohio), Fresno, Jackson, Jacksonville, Louisville, Oklahoma City, Sacramento, St. Louis and Virginia Beach.

This is easily the coolest thing I've seen online in...OK, maybe ever. I first discovered this feature a few months ago (late to the party, yes.) and used it extensively to revisit my childhood stomping grounds in Chicago. Ah, memories. At the time, I read that the feature was coming to Charlotte; the requisite photos had already been taken, and merely needed releasing. Well, today was the magic day, and needless to say, I haven't been terribly AT ALL productive thus far today, alas.

More comments on various aspects of what this new technology brings with it later, but for now, enjoy. Let me know with any requests for virtual tour guide suggestions, or where to find me. (Or at least my car/bike.)


View Larger Map


View Larger Map