Archive for August, 2002

Last nite after work I stopped by Mark W’s house (my old boss at Midway) to get a couple parts for the pinball machine I am selling JLS. I got to see his really cool collection of antique music boxes, fortune tellers, slots, bowlers, etc. Also got to play Indy 500 pinball (he worked on that game) which I have not seen since it was at the bottom of the stairs before they made it. It was a lot more fun than I remembered, and a hard game too. I wouldn’t mind owning one someday. After that I just went home and made some soup for dinner and watched two hours of Ultraman.

Today the plumbers came and FINALLY replaced that toilet in my basement with a working model. This was a 6 month ordeal to get them to do. They are perhaps the most unorganized and useless plumbing service I have ever encountered. The guys who came out today seemed nice enough, it is just the company they work for sucks and I will never use them again for anything, ever. I had to make my usual saturday trip to the PO and the line was super long. While I was waiting, a woman struck up a conversation with me. This took me by surprise as things like that seldom ever happen. She was very nice, and wasn’t bad looking. Like a dummy, I didn’t ask her name or even if she was single or anything. Sometimes my own stupidity baffles me when it comes to such things. I am just a shy idiot most of the time and then regret things like this later. Hell, even if I ended up not liking her or whatever, I could have made a new friend perhaps.

Waiting for Thor to come by and tonite we are going to see SW Ep 2 at Tivoli. The brothers Sharpe and thier OH crew are supposed to come over to pay me for the pinball game, fix it, and play a few games as well. We were all gonna go to Potbellys, but Thor’s dad tipped him off that all of downtown Naperville is closed off for some parade or something to that effect. Fucking Naperville! We’ll have to eat at El Famous instead.

Current Music: Los Olvidados LP (this is a MUST own, it is SO DAMN GOOD!)

Some more thoughts on that MTV awards show that I had nearly forgotten. The Hives and The Vines played back to back. OK, so now them, along with The Strokes and The White Stripes are all the rage?! Screw them all and their low-fi pseudo wannabe hip garage rock, if I want to listen to some shit like that, I’ll go buy a bunch of real garage records like Estrus puts out or Get Hip. All those bands suck. I guess the singer of The Vines schtick is to be all “wild and unpredictible” he did the same exact thing on the Letterman show a few weeks ago. You know, I thought destroying your instruments was a dumb idea when The Who were doing it even before I was born, and it is less impressive now. I also saw Shakira perform a song. Man, that chick can move, I didn’t care much for her music but I wondered what she could do in the sack after seeing the way she moves around, hubba hubba!

Last nite I watched a good portion of the MTV awards. I think that show gets less interesting every year. Of course I’m not really any kind of fan of 99% of the stuff they have going on in popular music, but I still check it out just to see what’s going on. GunsnRoses played. Well, really it isn’t GunsnRoses, but the Axl Rose band as he is the only original member left. They were pretty sloppy and rather pathetic to see. While some bands can feature only the original singer and get away with it, this is a case where it just seems wrong, especially when you take into account on how they got to the point there are at today. Michael Jackson looks fucking scary. Seeing him now, he looks like the lead female ape on the recent Planet of the Apes movie, you know, the one that had the hots for Markey Mark. What a freak. I missed the part where Pink got up on stage to accept an award and was plastered, I did see her performance though and she looked good. For some reason she reminded me of Cher when I was watching her sing, I am not sure why. I had an impure thought or three about her while she was on stage (Pink, not Cher). Christina Aguillera looked damn hot with her seemingly bigger boobs and that bed sheet she was wearing. However, she all of a sudden speaks like a black rapper?! That was pretty fucking stupid. That N’Sync boy sucked. The Eminem picking a fight with Moby was pretty stupid too and uncalled for. Both those clowns were just being childish. Em’s performance was OK, but seeing rappers perfrom live is a let down cuz all they do is sing directly over thier records, vocals going and all. I could care less about the sudden resurgence of Bruce Springsteen so I didn’t even pay attention to the show opener. The intro skit by that SNL guy was kinda funny though. That girl from “Don’t Say a Word” looks like she is weird. Why does Nelly wear that stupid bandaid on his face? Ja Rule is perhaps the worst rapper ever and his voice is annoying. How did this guy become a star? How Linkin Park won an award over Korn is a mystery to me. I think that pretty much covers what I saw. I’m sure I’ll catch what I missed over the weekend as they’ll rerun the show like 100 times.

I finished watching the Kern DVD and the first pass at the review, which was super long. I’ll edit that and the other one and get them up on Sunday while this cleaning lady is at my house, which is in dire need of it since I have been unable to do it myself having the hurt back and all. Also going to see Star Wars Ep 2 at the Tivoli with Thor tomorrow nite. The Tivoli is this beautiful old theatre that has been around since the 30’s I beleive. It is $2 to get in and they have the best popcorn on the planet. Not to mention, free refils on all sizes of drink and popcorn!

My damn record machine didnt’ show up yesterday, that UPS man better be here today or I am gonna hunt him down and start breaking bones! I want that thing for the weekend so I can get it up and running on my 3 day weekend!

I am still mad at AT&T for pimping me out of a record. FUCK YOU AT&T, you owe me a clean copy of the “From the Valley Within” comp! Was watching the Richard Kern DVD lat nite, I didn’t get thru the whole thing yet, it is long. I am going to finish that up tonite after smackdown is over. Sitting through all of those Kern films at once is like an endurance match.

Where is the UPS man? I am hoping my record cleaning machine gets delivered today but the way it is looking now, it might not be until tomorrow. It better get here by tomorrow or I’ll be super pissed. I’m not sure what I am gonna do about dinner, I am pretty much out of food except for soup I think and don’t plan on going to the store until this weekend. Soup or grilled cheese sandwich, maybe I’ll make both.

So my internet access decides to come to a screeching halt just as I’m trying to bid on a record that I really wanted, therefore pimping me out of winning, which I would have. FUCK YOU AT&T, YOU GO TO HELL AND YOU DIE!

So last nite I did what I set out to do, I dug up the crusty powerbook, sat down and watched the Flipside DVD I was sent to review and did some laundry. Tonite’s mission will be to review the Richard Kern one I have so that way I can get them up on the site this weekend. I also have a couple new records I want to write reviews for, even though they were things I bought and not sent to me.

I decided to use the money I am getting this weekend from selling a pinball machine to buy a new laptop. I just ordered it today. It is a faster machine that my current desktop PC. Now I’ll be able to write reviews, work on my website, and waste time on AIM all while in the comfort of my living room where the big TV and the stereo is. Oh, and let us not forget for the few times I ever travel, I can watch movies on the plane (provided they let me bring it on board)! It should be here in 2 weeks and I can’t wait. I know I should have done the sensible thing and used that pinball money for paying bills and stashing away, but fuck it, you only live once.