last night a dj saved my life

well maybe that's being a little overdramatic. but last night me and the missus got a chance to hang out with 93xrt's lin brehmer -- my favorite dj on my favorite radio station.

but let me backtrack. i got an email from 93xrt saying that i had won entry to private party at abbey pub. the party sponsored by beefeater's gin featured lots of free gin and tonics and a performance by the band, tributosaurus.

now again just a little backtrack here. tributosaurus is the best cover band 90% of you have never heard. to just call them a "cover band" doesn't do justice to their musicanship. as they say on their website, tributosaurus actually "becomes" the artist their covering. a while back a friend of mine saw them become earth, wind, and fire and he was blown away. they play often at a bar near my house, martyrs. but i'd never seen them until last night.

so back to the story, last night tributosaurus became van morrison. now as the wife can attest i'm probably the biggest fan of the belfast cowboy out there. i currently own fifteen cds of van the man -- more than any other artist in my collection except for my other favorite band, u2. with that in mind my standards for a band trying to cover van songs was high. tributosaurus more than met the challenge. playing domino, crazy face, into the mystic, tupelo honey, and a bunch more to perfection. i may never get a chance to see van live since he tours so sporadically but this was the proverbial "next best thing."

free gin and tonics, van morrision songs playing and rubbing elbows with dj lin brehmer, what could be better? how about winning some trivia prizes. yours truly answered the two trivia questions winning for himself -- and then another round of prizes for his wife: 2 $25 gift cards to tower records, free burrito coupon for chipotle, free 7-11 slurpee, free 7-11 big gulp, 2 xrt t-shrits, 2 beefeater gin t-shirts, and 2 martini shakers.

and that my friends is how you get over the hump of hump-day. so what you folks do last night?

hot fun in the summer time. . .

sorry for the long delay in posting. been working on my brief for the herzog competition. turned in the first draft today and felt pretty good about it. summer school and summer itself is going by really fast.

the heat the last few days has been something fierce. i love living on the top floor but i hate the way heat rises. the picture is the themometer on our back porch. check out the mercury.

the week that was. . .

they turned on the switch and crazy came out!

work is going well thus far; i'm getting lots of experience in the paperwork of filing complaints for auto accident/personal injury cases. so i'm coming home from work on thursday afternoon riding the brown line el train.

i'm sitting in a seat next to the car door, reading the redeye, working on the crossword puzzle, and rocking out on my i-pod. this black woman about in her late 20's maybe early 30's walks past me and asks in a loud voice: "was that last stop armitage? i missed my stop!" she then pulls on the red emergency door open handle, and the doors of the train open up.

at this point the train is in motion, moving at about 10-15 mph. this guy across from me yells out "whoa lady what are you doing!? you can just get off at the next stop." she says, "okay." steps back, and then before you can say "boo" she turns and jumps off the moving train!!

the whole car (about 12-15 people of various ages and races) goes into an uproar. we all jump up and see/hear her hit the platform headfirst. it was, well for lack of a better word crazy! absolutely nuts. everybody shouting and carrying on.

the guy across from me was admirable in keeping a cool head. while everybody was going ga ga, he hit the emergency intercom to the train conductor and explained what happened. the train came to screeching halt before the next stop and the conductor came running back.

we explained what we saw, he made sure everybody else was okay and then called on his radio back to the armitage station. he was most concerned and relieved that the jumper made it on a platform and not on the tracks.

now stuff like this never happens to me. i'm often on cta trains that stop for "incidents" and sick passengers but it's never in the car i'm riding in. i usually just sit there, wondering what the hell is going on. but this time i was right in front of the hubbub.

i'm not sure what ever happened to the lady but i didn't hear about it on the news, so i assume she survived her jump. but here's the real kicker! the cta conductor gives everyone in the car that witnessed the jump some incident cards to fill out (gotta cover their liability i'm sure) and as i hand it back to him i said something like, "i've never seen anything like that before." he said, "it happens all the time. people miss there stop and jump out."

WHAT!?! i've been riding the el pretty much since 1990 and i've seen some crazy stuff, but i've NEVER seen anyone jump out of train. oh sure, someone commits suicide probably every year jumping in front of trains or on the tracks, but jumping out because you missed your stop? that's a new one on me.

"at long last sir have you no decency?"

i've stated that quote welch made to sen. mccarthy on this blog before but it still continues to be apropos in too many situations these days. to wit, the schiavo autopsy report came out with definitive conclusions that she was:

1. blind
   
2. had permanent brain damage
3. was not abused or physically harmed by her husband, michael
   
4. was in a permanent vegetative state from which no recovery was possible

now after this autopsy you'd expect some mea culpas from tom delay, bill frist, jeb bush and the rest of those grandstanding politicians to own up to the fact that they were wrong about terri's chances of recovery AND that their rhetorical allusions that the husband was a murderer/abuser generally evil incarnate was a little over the top.

but NOoooooo. in fact jeb bush wants to REOPEN! an investigation of the original 911 call. how much tragedy does a family have to put up with before someone says leave this man alone? it's hard enough that your wife dies without some SHAMELESS politician accusing you of murder to further their own ambitions. "have you no decency sir, at long last?"

'cause when you're wrong, you're just wrong

which brings me to my last item of this past week. in local chicago news this was a huge story last year. about 8 months ago a 3-year old girl was raped and murdered in will county. the state's attorney in charge of the case, jeff tomczak, was in a tight election.

guess what? there was lots of pressure to bring this high profile killer to justice. so he tried to close the case and ended up with the wrong guy -- the child's father!

dna evidence released on friday has just exonerated him. but the whole story and prosecutorial misconduct is a must read. i never can understand why its so hard for da to admit that they're human and make mistakes.

is it more important to get 'someone' or get the person that actually did the crime? it would seem that no one benefits if the wrong guy is jailed. sure you get a conviction but isn't there still a child rapist/killer on the loose in your jurisdiction? i just can't understand it.

and finally -- we win!

to end on a happy not cranky note. our kickball team won its first game this weekend. sub, gregory rolnick had a 2 run homer to help the cause. i'm going to take some pix next week of the whole kickball gang. we got cool shirts!

i am the godfather

had a great weekend as the missus and i headed up to wisconsin for my nephew henry's baptism. we were chosen to be his godparents. as far as i know the heads of the barzini and tattaglia families survived the ceremony. click on the picture below to see a view of the whole family -- photo taken by yours truly.

the busy summer as predicted. . .

as i noted in an earlier post, "the end and the start" this was going to be a crazy busy summer but that doesn't even begin to describe my life at this point. i'm not bitching though, busy is good in the summer because you're (usually) doing the stuff you want to do. no one put a gun to my head to take tennis lessons.

here's the rundown of the summer thus far:

1) two nights a week i'm taking some tennis lessons. i'm now a mediocre player at best. my technique is for crap, by i get by on having hand/eye coordination and quickness. i turn 33 this year and quickness isn't going to last so i need to learn how to play this game the right way. i'm liking the class and learning a lot.

2) i'm volunteering at the CARPLS legal aid hotline. giving advice to the less fortunate on landlord/tenant cases, domestic violence, and creditor issues. it's going to be a great experience and i just applied for my 711 license. (nothing too technical it just means i can work in the capacity of a lawyer under supervision).

3) i got a job as a law clerk. i'm going to be working for a small firm downtown that specializes in personal injury. i start next week, it should be another good experience since this guy does a LOT of litigation work.

4) sarah and i are in a kickball league! we play every weekend and even though we lost our first game (against the defending champs) its going to be a fun way to meet some friends and play outside.

quick update on the summer reading list. i finished all three books i listed before in the now twice aforementioned "the end and the start"post. my reviews in brief thus far:

urban tribes - B+
mercy, mercy me, the art loves and demons of marvin gaye - C+
chain of command - B.

right now i'm reading devil in the white city by erik larson. its a fascinating read with history and a murder plot. when i'm done more full reviews of it and the other summer books will be posted.

biking the drive

every year on memorial day weekend the city of chicago closes down lake shore drive to cars and opens it up to bike riders - (bike the drive). lake shore drive is one of my favorite stretches of road; you have the chicago skyline on one side and lake michigan on the other. at night the city lights are dazzling and in the morning the sun rising over the lake is glorious. if you lucky enough to have a friend with a convertible (thanks rob!) some summer afternoons driving on lake shore drive you think to yourself, "there's no place i'd rather be right now in the world."

with that as a back drop, i just purchased a trek 4000 about two weeks ago. as sarah has noted i haven't ridden it much, but with finals now over and the weather getting nicer biking the drive was a great way to break in the two wheeler.

my brother-in-law, jon came down from wisconsin. jon is a serious biker. he bikes in to work daily, has two really nice bikes and knows a ton about riding. we got up around 5:00ish and headed down to the start @ grant park. there were thousands of riders. we biked south to the museum of science and industry (15 miles) and then headed back north up to hollywood avenue (15 miles) it was awesome.

i definitely plan on biking the drive again and making this an annual way to kick off summer.