In the past, poison ivy type rashes have been experienced by myself and others after visiting my cottage. Over time I began to fear certain plants and stayed away from them. I got less rashes. Here are some of the plants I would stay away from. If anyone knows what they are (poison ivy or otherwise), I'd be happy to know. Here is the first suspect. Three pointy leaves on a vine, close to water. Here is another view of the plant along with an additionally sinister looking fellow below him and to his right: If you or anyone you know has any information regarding either of these two plants please contact me by commenting. Perhaps you can help solve a mystery. (PS: Robert Stack was awesomer in Airplane)
Tonight the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Philidelphia Flyers 4-3 in overtime to win the stanley cup. The deciding goal was scored by Patrick Kane and was acknowledged about 30 seconds later, which made for one the most anticlimactic overtime Stanley Cup winning goals in NHL history. Honestly, this is about 3 degrees off the epitome of Timbit players ultimate dream scenario. In the ideal scenario the goal is scored on a penalty shot in OT of game 7 against your lifelong rival.
Seven months ago, who would have thought that The Chicago Blackhawks (pronounced Black-Hawks... you people have dirty minds) would have won the Stanley Cup, apart from Nostradamus that is? I have one work for you "Me". That's affirmative, last American Thanksgiving I happen to be visiting some family in the windy city and I made a bold statement: "This is the yaer for Chicago". A simple statement from a simple man, but you can't argue with razor sharp insight.
To celebrate the fulfillment of my epic prediction, I have decided to post some picture from that fateful trip.
Theatre lovers will recognize this shot. Actually anyone who watched Perfect Strangers probably recognizes it.
Note the last few seconds of the opening clip Perfect Strangers.
Here is a nice shot I took from beside the Wrigley Building.
My favorite quotes about Chicago. This first quote is from Vince Vaughn. Vince is a big Chicago fan and you can tell if you watch his movies. You could have spotted him during the payoffs at the home games. The quote is from the movie Swingers. In the movie, Trent (Vince Vaughn) uses Roenick and the Blackhawks against his buddy and Gretzky's Kings on "NHL 94" for the Sega Genesis. Trent is dominating his friend when he says:
"Y'know, it's not so much me as Roenick; he's good!".
Here is the clip:
The second quote that I love is a baseball quote, but involves but involves more sophisticated cultural references than Vince Vaughn. I think it was a tour guide who told me this. (For those who don't know, Chicago's north side is rich white collar crowd and the south is your mainstream blue collar crowd. Madison avenue is the separator of the two sides and The Art Institute of Chicago is roughly at that same latitude. The Cubs generally draw fans from the North and the Sox from the South) So the tour guide tells me: "If you live north of the Art Institute then you are a Cubs fan, if you have never been to the Art Institute, then you're a Sox fan".
To tribute that guide here is a pic from inside The Art Institute of Chicago. You may recognize it from a famous scene in the movie Ferris Buller's day off.
The scene in question:
Here is some abstract art at the Richard J. Daley Center, also known by its courtyard Daley Plaza. It is featured in at least one Blues Brothers movie but I could find any clips so make due with the pic.
Finally, here is a shot from my amazing accommodation at my first cousin once removed. He and his family live just outside of the downtown core in an amazing converted warehouse. The place is ridiculous but I will keep the shots of it to myself. This was my view from my bedroom: Standing 1,450 feet and 110 stories high, Willis Tower is the tallest building in the western hemisphere, but it will always be the Sears Tower to me.
Now before I start posting clips from Family Matters I'm going to end this blog post.
Also for those who haven't noticed, since my trip to Chicago the banner (wide picture at the top of my blog) is actually a shot from the trip. It is Millennium Park. I am in the reflection of the giant bean, if you use a little perspective and physics, you can figure out which one is me. A hint is that I took the shot.
Tracy Morgan is as hilarious as he is awesome. 30 Rock would be nothing without him, nothing; except maybe a pretty decent show. I don't know who rights his lines but here are some from one single episode:
I slept on an old dog bed stuffed with wigs!
I watched a prostitute stab a clown
Our basketball hoop was a rib cage. A rib cage!
Oh, Lord, some guy with dreads electrocuted my fish!
A crackhead breastfeeding a rat.
A homeless man licking a Hot Pocket off the third rail of the G train!
I've seen a blind guy bite a police horse!
A puppy committed suicide after he saw our bathroom!
I once bit into a burrito and there was a child's shoe in it!
I've seen a hooker eat a tire!
The sewer people stole my skateboard!
The projects I lived in were named after Zachary Taylor, generally considered to be one of the worst presidents of all time!
I once saw a baby give another baby a tattoo! They were very drunk!
A pack of wild dogs took over and successfully ran a Wendy's!
You remind me of the babe! What babe? The babe with the power! What power? The power of Voodoo! Who do? You do! Do What? Remind me of the babe!
I saw my baby crying hard as babes could cry... What could I do?...
Sunday night was a Jim Henson tribute night. Jim Henson had died 20 years earlier to the day and an underground theater in Toronto (186 Spadina Road) tributed the anniversary with a Jim Henson double header night. First they played The Muppets take Manhattan, then The Labyrinth with David Bowie.
Obviously it was amazing to see the Labyrinth on the big screen in an indy theater. It should also be obvious that all of the David Bowie crouch shots received an overly enthusiastic rise from crowd members of the female persuasion. Finally it goes without saying that Jennifer Connelly seems to have gotten a lot younger since the last time I saw this movie. But what was really cool (but less obvious), is that the show was introduced by one of Jim Henson's friends who helped him create Fraggle Rock. We got some inside stories about The Muppets, Fraggle Rock, The Labyrinth and other cool stuff that Jim did back in the day. Very cool! Here is a video of the Swedish Popcorn Chef... GOLD!
I also bootlegged the most memorable song of the movie for your viewing enjoyment.
Thanks to a certain friend of mine who I will refer to as Kat M, for years I was under the impression that she personally knew Jennifer Connelly. She failed to mention that it was not the Jennifer Connelly from the Labyrinth. I have been living a lie until embarrassingly recent times.
In another shout-out to another hard-core Labyrinth fan; Marc L. Do you know what this picture at the bottom is all about? If you don't recognize what I am talking about, maybe this picture of The Revelstoke Train Museum will jog the memory.
This tribute goes out to the band OK GO. I have never really been a huge OK GO fan of their music. Its just kind of filler music really, no disrespect but I never think to download their songs after I hear them on the radio. This is not because of copyright protection, I just don't feel that their will ever be a moment where I'll think to myself "Hey, wouldn't it be great to hear that OK GO song right now?". Not that I hate all/any of their songs, I just don't see that moment happening.
Does this look familiar to you? Maybe you are thinking: "Hey isn't that the same choreography my 10-12 year old sister, niece, daughter or grandmother use when her friends come over for that sleepovers?". You'd probably be right! But isn't it so much more entertaining when it is preformed by grown men who should normally be doing something more productive like working on a construction site, playing hockey or gambling?
The next video of the song "This Too Shall Pass" is the one that really caught my eye and made me think, (in my inside Rodney Dangerfield voice of course) "Hey, you guys are all-right! Now who wants to party?".
After Rodney's confetti disapears as mysteriously as it appeared, you probably start to wonder "Why is that video so much better than the last? The answer is simple: I love my elaborate Rube Goldberg machines. (BTW there used to be a video of one on display at the National Art Gallery in Ottawa which you could see for free if you go on Thrusdays between 5-8PM.) The song was better too but this was all about he Goldberg. So when I saw this video I wanted to see what else these OK GO fools may have in store. So I clicked on the related videos and came up with the second video for that song which includes a marching band. And who doesn't like marching band? In the words of Toronto mayor and cheap furniture pusher Mel Lastman "Nobody". Here is your marching band:
The next reason this band caught my attention is that they preformed "This Too Shall Pass" on one of my favorite fake news shows The Colbert Report. The reason this is kind of a big deal is that Colbert's format doesn't regularly include a musical piece. In fact the only other artist that preformed on the show and comes to mind is Willie Nelson (and Tobi Keith after a google search). I can't put those videos they are protected and get pulled.
Finally, the nail in the coffin for me was when I realized hat the Marching Band from the "this too shall pass" video was the Marching Band from the University of Notre Dame. Anyone who knows me would understand that from the ages of 14-16 about half of my wardrobe had some Fiighting Irish of Notre Dame logo on it. I can't think of any other sports team whose hat I ever wore either. Except for a red corduroy Chicago Blackhawks hat I bought in grade 5 at a Atom hockey tournament in Levis near Quebec City. But by grade 6 I had replaced it with my first Notre Dame hat. Fittingly the brand of the hat was called Starter, which was actually the top sports apparel brand at the time.
Even while writing this blog I found another cool video from this band, introducing Including my favorite k9s: Dogs! Here they are promoting this new YouTube feature called Musicians Wanted. This feature allow musicians to get paid when their YouTube videos get played. Isn't that amazing mon osti? It's another Festivus Miracle by OK GO (I now follow them on Twitter).
Finally here is a video of BadBoy owner turned mayor of the biggest city in Canada Mel Lastman. Yes, Canadian's have skeletons in their closets too.
Some might say that I am a highly intelligent, modest, generous, irresistably good looking, powerful, confident, wise, ruthless and yet a gentle, heroic and thriving young man. Now I would have quite the uphill battle arguing against them, but they would be outright mistaken to leave out my caring and forgiving nature, which is the keystone of the Mike that loved and cherished by us all... not to mention a pillar of modern society, a gentalman and a scholar. I think that I've talked enough about myself for now. What do you have to say about me?
Basically I do things, then I write about them. Other times, I don't do things, then I write about them. I also don't care to make the distinction at the time of writing. Read at own peril.
"If it ain't broke, your not putting enough bicep into it." - Mike McNulty
