April 2009 Archives

My friend (and first boss at the Tribune) Grover wrote a good review of a couple iPhone camera apps, and I've spent the evening playing with them while watching the Hawks get off on the wrong foot in Vancouver tonight.

Up until tonight I really hadn't been a fan of the iPhone camera.   I used it occasionally to send friends a photo or if I didn't have any other camera on me at the time.  But now that I've obtained CameraBag and TiltShift, I can see keeping an eye out for more iPhone photo ops in the future.  So thanks to Grover for the heads up.  Check out some samples of what I've been up to tonight...

Update: check out the flickr photostream of my iPhone uploads for current & past images.

Saturday morning Orrie & I decided to take a walk down on the lakefront.  The temperature was warm, although a storm front was on it's way bringing in a chill later in the afternoon, so figured it was best to get the walk in earlier rather than later.

We drove down to the softball fields between Belmont Harbor & Irving Park.  Left the car in the lot and walked on over to the lake shore.  As we were walking south toward Belmot Harbor, we noticed some people ahead near the edge of the of the breakwater (or whatever they call the miles of concrete pathways that the city has installed along the lake), and they were looking down as if something had fallen in.

Strange evening commute tonight where something happened that I can't quite wrap my head around and know what actually did happen.  I'll try and relate the events as they unfolded, and perhaps you can decide.

My TiVo grabbed a half hour show looking back at Pearl Jam's debut album Ten and I watched it tonight. It was basically a half hour infomercial for the remastered re-release of the album, but I ate it up anyway. (side note: no, I haven't bought it. Yet. )

I like to think I have a wide range of musical appreciation, but when it comes down to it I'm a sucker for bare bones rock and roll. I never considered Pearl Jam to be any ground breaking band or anything. They were associated with a particular time and place (call it what you will), and whether that's good or bad or just coincidence so be it. I loved that time and place in my own existence, and I made that band a small part of it.

And here it is, almost twenty years later and I still listen to the band. One of the few left that I still buy their records, still make a point to see them live when they come to town. And one song in particular off that first album, the last tune before the hidden track, it still hasn't lost it's power. I'm sitting here in the dark with headphones on and letting the sound surround me, grabbing me by the chest and lifting me up into the air and taking me to another place outside myself. If only for a few minutes.

I wish more songs and more artists still had the same effect after all these years.

"i'll ride the wave where it takes me..." Some of you may know the rest.

UPDATE 4/24:
I caved and ordered the Ten remaster and it arrived in the mail today. After a long week at work and running on 3 hours sleep in the last 40 due to nasty insomnia last night, I crashed at home tonight, turned out the lights, flopped on the couch and spun the disc (can't remember the last time I actually used the CD player in my stereo). Gotta say, it was pretty amazing. Not saying better than the original, but noticeably different. There are layers to the songs I haven't heard before, so in some respect it was like listening to the album for the first time again cause even though I knew the songs, I didn't know what was coming next. If you're a fan, definately check it out.

So my good buddy Reggie's wife got him some tickets to tonight's Hawks-Blues tilt at the UC, and he was nice enough to invite me along. Hawks were less than five seconds away from a shutout, eventually beating the Blues 3-1. One step closer to the playoffs. Six games left in the regular season. Let's go 'Hawks!

Cheers, Reggie. Owe ya one.