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| Bamboozled
I went to Macy's today to buy some dress shirts and I ended up buying this really
nice Calvin Klein shirt that claims to be wrinkle-free. When I
pulled all of the pins off of the shirt, the son of a bitch came out
wrinkled.
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| "Chi-town, Chi-town, we gonna show em how we get down."
Thursday
I arrived in Chicago at around 11:00 P.M. and called Joseph immediately. He came a couple hours before me and, being the nice guy that he is, just waited. While waiting for Joseph at my terminal, I noticed this couple just embracing each other. They were like that for an extended period of time, not saying anything, not even looking at each other, just holding the other as if they haven't seen each other since their previous lifetime. It was kind of neat to see. That's why when I called Joseph, I told him to drop everything in his hands and just run up to me and hug me. It wasn't as romantic as the couple I saw earlier (well, maybe)... but it still felt satisfying.
After we did our manly little body bump and hug, we tried to get a shuttle to the hotel. There weren't any available, however, we were able to befriend this lady named Maria who was also looking for a shuttle to downtown. Maria said she would show us how to use the subway in Chicago and off we went, taking the blue line all the way down. Maria was just one of many kind Chicagoans who would help us during our stay in that beautiful city. When we arrived at the Hilton, there was a slight problem with our check-in. I slipped the clerk a two-dollar bill and everything was resolved. My mom wasn't getting to Chicago until the next morning, so Joseph and I had the room to ourselves. We fell asleep to Sportscenter news on repeat.
Damn right
Joseph, concentrating really hard on fixing his luggage. Look at that game face.
Friday
- Went to the Navy Pier, which is somewhat like Santa Monica. Me, Markie, and Joseph went on a River Tour and got to see the wonderful architecture of Chicago's buildings.
- At night, Joseph and I went to the House of Blues to see Marc Broussard. Joseph even made a friend, who shared a similar passion for music. This man, I think his name was Adam or Dave or quite possibly even Raul, would not shut up about music. Joseph could not stop smiling. I nicknamed this man "Joseph's soulmate friend."
- After House of Blues, Joseph and I headed to a Jazz lounge called The Back Room. We were blessed with more awesome music, this time without somebody talking to us every five minutes about how awesome Marc Broussard is.
- At around 1:00, we walked down Rush Street, which is where a lot of Jazz lounges/bars are, and treated ourselves to some junk food. We had two Chicago dogs (no ketchup!), fries, and a steak taco.
- "Friday... SUCCESS!"
Downtown Chicago > Downtown Los Angeles
These are condos that they are selling along the river.
These two circular towers are also condos along the river. It's like living in little pods.
Lean back!
What?!? A Vikings fan in Chicago?? This man knows how to represent!
This shot reminds me of that one movie where that crazy guy is staring out of his window and curses at the world for all the injustices done to him and plots revenge against all of society. Don't know what I'm talking about? You shouldn't, I made it up. Silly goose.
Sometimes I go to bed at night and wonder if I'll ever be this sexy.
Saturday
- We were able to check off "Getting lost in the trolley" from our to-do-list, as we took the wrong trolley towards Soldier Field. They kind of have a kick-ass stadium though.
- On our way to the Museum of Contemporary Art, another native helped us find our way. Folks out there are genuinely nice. Almost too nice. It's rather spooky. Juice. "Oh you fucking with the juice now." I have no idea where this bullet point is going.
- After we did the whole museum thing and the Taste of Lincoln thing (which I did not give its own bullet point... just know that we had hot dogs, tacos, I bought a painting, and we watched Jazz bands perform), we went to church. It's crazy because the church started off normal, but it had some routines that we were unfamiliar with towards the end. At one point, I didn't know whether to stand or remain seated so I just stood. It was me and four other people, just standing there because we had no idea what was going on. Finally, the priest told us to sit down. He then said something about mass during the football season and that made Joseph want a football team in Los Angeles.
- Before we went on our journey back into Downtown Chicago, we went to Jewel Osco, which is like an Albertsons of sorts. We bought Subway passes and then we bought lottery tickets. Joseph won $8. What a wonderful city.
- We had Pizzeria Uno for dinner. Now, I know this may come off as an exaggeration, but you have to believe me when I say that Chicago deep dish pizza is by far the best pizza I have ever eaten. Forget BJs, forget anything that Domino's, Pizza Hut, Papa John's, Roundtable, insert other pizzeria here has to offer, forget Mama Celeste... Chicago's deep dish pizza is the real deal. During our meal, I had chills it was so good. Joseph said, "It's so good, I'm gonna cry."
- What trip to any city would be complete if it didn't include getting lost in the hood? On our way to another Jazz lounge, we got lost in Chicago's south side. There, we encountered a homeless minister wanting to discuss the Bible with us. After a brief conversation, he asked if he could have some money to buy some fried chicken. After giving him a couple of dollars, we tried getting back on track and ended up walking for a bit. Even though it was the ghetto, it still wasn't as bad as anything in California. So... getting lost in the "wrong part of town"... check.
Solder Field... home of the mighty Rex Grossman.
A Taste of Lincoln. Joseph had sausage.
Cool shot that Joseph took while in the cab.
Just look at this shit. This is like the Adrian Peterson of pizza. Simply the best.
We got lost in the south side of Chicago so...
Joseph took his frustration out on an Irish cow.
Sunday
- For breakfast, the three sexiest Filipinos from out of town (Marc, Joseph, and myself) had a delightful breakfast. We went to a restaurant called "Yolk." By the name alone you know you are in for some delicious eats. We were not disappointed.
- In the afternoon, we went to the "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" musical. The musical was awesome. Sally was hot. And Schroeder was black.
- On the way back home, a homeless man gave us directions to the trolley. He also asked if we smoked weed.
- Later that night, Joseph and I went to the Funky Buddha Lounge, which is a spot where they have open mic for poetry. I've never performed a poetry piece in front of anyone and never planned on doing so, but that night I figured "fuck it." Joseph gave me some much needed support and reassurance so I signed up. I was to go first and I was nervous as hell. But when they announced my name, the host welcomed me up to the stage and called me "Brother Ro." It just felt so... welcoming. When I got on stage I performed a poem I wrote called "Splurging on Hallmark Cards... Why I Will Never Buy You One" that I wrote for Jenn awhile back. After a few lines, the nervousness went away and it actually felt good to be on stage. The poem was generally well received and I felt like a million bucks.
Game time.
The breakfast of champions... steak and egg skillet, pancakes with blueberries and bananas, and some coffee.
What doesn't Chicago have?
Bad Boys III
Word
Monday (aka one of the saddest days of my existence)
- Joseph found another awesome breakfast place. This one was called Orange. They had this fruit sushi thing that was pretty good.
- We then went on a journey that included a record store, a book store, Millenium Park, and the Art Institute. All in all, another great day in Chicago. However, the day kind of got depressing when we got back to the hotel. I turned on ESPN and found out that Garnett got traded to the Celtics. A piece of me died that day.
- That night, my mom got tickets for a dinner cruise. We were going over to the lake to enjoy a few hours of eating dinner and taking in a breathtaking view of Chicago during sunset and the evening. We also had caricatures done of us and witnessed some awesome magic by the one and only Jim Jenson. He made a card disappear from Joseph's hand! With real magic!
- After that it was back to The Back Room for some more jazz.
"Fru-shi." Fruit sushi. It was good though, I shit you not.
Joseph wanted to re-create the Titanic scene.
Sunset
Another one
You see where she gets her good looks from?
Tuesday
- We had one more pizzeria place, one more museum, and one last show at The Back Room. We also went to a Chicago steakhouse where we had some delicious steak and pork chops. I didn't bring my camera with me, so this day will have no pictures. =(
Wednesday
- Sadly, we had to leave Chicago. At the airport, they asked those who were flying out to Colorado Springs to give up their ticket. As incentive, they gave out a round trip ticket to anywhere in the United States. I volunteered to give mine up and while the attendant was issuing my ticket, we got into a conversation about teaching. Apparently he wanted to get out of the airline business and thought about teaching. I gave him my opinion and answered all of his questions and then he upgraded me to first class for my flight back home. So not only did I get a free round trip ticket to anywhere in the U.S., but I also got to fly first class!
- Chicago trip... SUCCESS!
First class!! You should have seen the insane amount of leg room! And everything was free...
... orange juice??...
... no thanks, give me some wine!
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| Transformers review (I know, I'm a little late)
I'll admit, it's hard not to write this review with a little bit of
bias. Most people grew up with G.I. Joe, Thundercats, Voltron,
Power Rangers, Pokemon, and the like. This... this was my
shit. I used to live and breathe Transformers when I was
younger. I contemplated a lot of life's questions through this
series ("Why does Megatron get to be reincarnated but not Optimus Prime
even though Prime lived a good life?" and "How do the Decepticons
recreate if there are no female ones?"). So yeah, I enjoyed the
movie immensely, but I did have some gripes with it.
The way Michael Bay captured the robots transforming was right
on. The CGI was impressive and they kept the transforming
"sound," which was good. Shia Lebeowulf was a damn good actor and
perfect for the human part (I don't think anyone else could have played
the role as perfectly as he did). The story was well-paced and
only dragged on one occasion, which was the scene when all the Autobots
hid outside Shia's house. But even then it was cool to see all of
the Autobots up close in their robot form. Perhaps the best thing
that Michael Bay did was cast Peter Cullen (the original voice of
Optimus Prime in the 80's cartoon), because the nostalgia factor was
plus 20 everytime he spoke. Man, I was grinning from ear to ear
when Optimus said, "One shall stand, one shall fall."
The two things I did not like with the movie was the fact that Jazz
died and how the whole thing with Megatron and Starscream played
out. Jazz was one of my favorite Autobots and he went out like a
little bitch. He got snapped in half by Megatron! He was
2nd in command and didn't even put up a fight. The writers also
screwed up the dynamics between Megatron and Starscream. In the
cartoons, Starscream was always trying to overthrow Megatron.
They didn't even show any of that in this movie (with the exception of
Megatron saying something like, "There you go, always messing up" to
Starscream).
All things considered, I can't complain. I went in not expecting
a whole lot and I walked away pleased. I still prefer the
animated movie, but the live action version was still a great
flick. They made a lot at the box office (over 150 million I
think), so sequels are inevitable. I just hope they include Hot
Rod, Soundwave, and Galvatron in the mix.
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| Once review (one of my favorite movies of the year thus far)
This is sort of more like a musical, but not in the traditional sense. It's not like a Chicago/Dreamgirls
type musical where characters break into song about the scene.
Because I don't want to say too much, the songs simply come about as a
result of their (the two main characters) collaboration.
The two leads, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, have excellent
chemistry together and their friendship seems natural and in no way
forced. And the songs were great.
If you want to see a movie for plot twists, go see Ocean's Thirteen. If you want to see a comedy, definitely go see Knocked Up. But if you want to see this year's feel good movie, then you have got to see Once.
Just see it and hate me if you don't like it.
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| McDoritos?
So I stop by the liquor store during a quick grading break and I come
across a mysterious bag of doritos, marked ominously, X-13D. I do
further research (because as stated in a previous post, these are the
things that matter most in my life) and find out that this is some sort
of promotion where you're supposed to name/guess what the mysterious flavor is.
Being the sucker that I am, I buy a bag and as soon as I start munching on them in my car, I recognize the taste instantly:
... these chips taste like a freaking BIG MAC! I shit you
not. After doing my detective thing (which made me go through a
series of puzzle-intensive video games), I am assuming that Doritos and
McDonald's are in cahoots.
One, the front of the bag reads "All American Classic."
Second, the 13th letter of the alphabet is M. X-13D... as in X-MD... as in Mickey D's!
I have no clever way of ending this post, except that I implore you to
buy a bag for yourself and share them with those that you love so that
everyone can be weirded out.
This is X-18H, signing off.
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