It is never, ever a good thing when a member of your family calls you at 6:49 AM. On a Wednesday. At least if that call comes in at 6:49 AM on a Sunday, there is always the chance that whomever is dialing is still going strong from a tequila bender and is calling to get directions from Tijuana via burro.
No dice. On this particular Wednesday morning, it was a call from my brother telling me that Mom was on her last legs. A desperate phone call to Brad to borrow his car and a quick shower later, I had a bag packed and was waiting to hustle back to Lisle when I got the dreaded follow-up phone call: at 7:10 AM on Wednesday, July 20th, Sheila Jacklich passed away peacefully in her sleep with my Father by her side.
My Father called it a "great" death. He was terrified there would be pain, choking, knowing eye contact, horrific gasps for air...there was none of that. Her breaths in her last few hours were labored and eventually she just stopped breathing. Gone. Just like that.
I arrived in Lisle about an hour after she died. What seemed like half of the Benet faculty was in my folks living room and my Father greeted me at the door...smiling. Oh, sure, he was sobbing as he hugged me but he was happy that she died in her sleep and so, so relieved that there was no pain to speak of. He led me back to her room and showed me her body. My Mother was grinning. With her eyes open.
I thought it inappropriate to ask Dad if he had double checked to make sure that she was dead and just took his word for it. He sobbed next to me and I put my arm around him. Eventually, he left the room to give me a moment. She was skinny. Horribly so. She didn't look real; like a cadaver from a medical drama. Her arms were crossed at her waist, as if in an coffin and I took her hand. She was already cold.
Outside, he garden burst with color in the morning sun.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Presented with no further explanation required...
 Mrs. Sheila Jacklich, Assistant Dean of Students and teacher of French at Benet Academy for 31 years, peacefully passed into eternal life on Wednesday, July 20th at her home in Lisle. Mrs. Jacklich’s wake will be held on Saturday, July 23rd from 1:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Friedrich-Jones Funeral Home, 44 S. Mill, Naperville, Illinois 60540. A Memorial Mass in celebration of Mrs. Jacklich’s life will take place at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, July 25th in the St. Ronald Gymnasium at Benet Academy, 2200 Maple Avenue, Lisle, Illinois 60532. In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that donations be made to Benet Academy to fund the Sheila Jacklich Memorial Scholarship Fund. |  |
Monday, July 18, 2011
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Soooooo Sleepy...
As you might imagine, I have a lot on my mind these days. Normally, this doesn't affect my sleep patterns but last night was different. By all means, I should have slept soundly: I was awakened by my new upstairs neighbor vacuuming above my head at 9am on Sunday morning and Brad and I had dined at Garcia's yesterday afternoon which is a meal that would put any mere mortal to sleep.
But I got another dose of bad news last night and it all just kept me awake. It probably didn't help that my dinner yesterday consisted of 3 cookies and 2 glasses of vodka (a meal I like to call "The Drunken Girl Scout"). I would say I got 2 hours of sleep last night which is all well and good for a Saturday but terrible when I have to go to work on Monday and cheerily help grown men masturbate.
Because of my status as a member of the walking dead, this morning I am drinking caffene. This is not a problem for most of the world. Millions of Americans rely on a cup of coffee in the morning to kick-start their day. In my case, though, while I have many vices, caffiene is not one of them. I rarely drink the stuff and when I do, I get a little...weird.
People don't believe this but I've never in my life done drugs. I've never been "high" in the traditional sense. However, if I have just the right amount of Mountain Dew, I start giggling, dancing and generally get excited about the dumbest things*. And then I crash. Hard. So I have to continue adding caffeine to my body and riding a delicate wave that will keep me awake while not offending callers that desperately want to remove their pants**.
A few years back, I was on a road-trip with my buddy Brad. When we stopped to gas up at some station in rural, rural Ohio, we found--much to my delight--that the gas station sold Jolt! cola. I drank 2. For the next hour or so, I sounded an awful lot like Roberto from Futurama:
I don't enjoy behaving like this. Should I drink more of the stuff to even out my behavior? Or is it a good thing that I don't drink caffeine too often? Whatever. I just look forward to getting some proper sleep tonight. If only for Krishni's sake.
*For instance, I was trying to think of something silly that I would get excited about and the term "Handjobs from Kittens" popped into my mind. I laughed my ass off internally for a good 3-4 minutes.
**Yes, I am well aware that it took me 3 tries to spell "caffeine" right. I left that in as an example of me riding the caffeine wave and not giving a damn.
Pictured above is a Garcia's burrito. Only mine was smothered in melted cheese.
But I got another dose of bad news last night and it all just kept me awake. It probably didn't help that my dinner yesterday consisted of 3 cookies and 2 glasses of vodka (a meal I like to call "The Drunken Girl Scout"). I would say I got 2 hours of sleep last night which is all well and good for a Saturday but terrible when I have to go to work on Monday and cheerily help grown men masturbate.
Because of my status as a member of the walking dead, this morning I am drinking caffene. This is not a problem for most of the world. Millions of Americans rely on a cup of coffee in the morning to kick-start their day. In my case, though, while I have many vices, caffiene is not one of them. I rarely drink the stuff and when I do, I get a little...weird.
People don't believe this but I've never in my life done drugs. I've never been "high" in the traditional sense. However, if I have just the right amount of Mountain Dew, I start giggling, dancing and generally get excited about the dumbest things*. And then I crash. Hard. So I have to continue adding caffeine to my body and riding a delicate wave that will keep me awake while not offending callers that desperately want to remove their pants**.
A few years back, I was on a road-trip with my buddy Brad. When we stopped to gas up at some station in rural, rural Ohio, we found--much to my delight--that the gas station sold Jolt! cola. I drank 2. For the next hour or so, I sounded an awful lot like Roberto from Futurama:
I don't enjoy behaving like this. Should I drink more of the stuff to even out my behavior? Or is it a good thing that I don't drink caffeine too often? Whatever. I just look forward to getting some proper sleep tonight. If only for Krishni's sake.
*For instance, I was trying to think of something silly that I would get excited about and the term "Handjobs from Kittens" popped into my mind. I laughed my ass off internally for a good 3-4 minutes.
**Yes, I am well aware that it took me 3 tries to spell "caffeine" right. I left that in as an example of me riding the caffeine wave and not giving a damn.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Tunes
These last few months have been a bit tough on me...not gonna lie. Between the death of my epic Godfather and the resulting legal battle and the shockingly rapid decline in my Mother's health, it's been hard. Plus, my truck died.
In a strange sort of way though, it's been...well, not fun, but "fun in a reminiscing sort of way". You see, I've been going through old pictures, memory boxes, and scrap books and just plain ol' remembering stuff from my past. That's been the fun part. My family has spent hours drinking wine and laughing as we told ancient, repeated stories and played with the newest generation of the Jacklich clan. Old, dear friends have contacted me while new friends have bought me surprisingly few drinks (ahem). The reasons for trips down memory lane are sometimes terrible, but the road itself is often paved with smiles.
And yes, that was my attempt to write the worst/cheesiest line possible as a segue from the bummers of my life to today's fun topic: tunes.
See, after the U2 concert, I've revisited some older and sentimental favorites. I've listened to albums I haven't listed to in years. To this day, there are certain songs or albums that can transport me back in time to the very moment I became attached to them; I don't think I'm alone with this power. For instance: I can still smell my old bedroom and tell you exactly what level of Sonic The Hedgehog 2 I was playing the 1st time I cranked "It Smells like Teen Spirit". I can describe to you my sister Peggy's ceiling and exactly how the post-it notes were arranged on her mirror whenever I hear the chime of the clocks in "Time" by Pink Floyd. I can smell the fallen leaves in my back yard and feel the crisp snap of a late October wind whenever "Hey Jealousy" pops on WXRT.
Music is funny like that.
But this has also given me an opportunity to question some of my more, um, questionable tastes in music over the years. About a year ago, I bought a new computer which enabled me to digitize my entire music collection. And just a few days ago, I moved that entire library over to my iPhone. As of now, I carry every CD I own in the single coolest piece of technology I've ever encountered. In his wildest dreams, 12 year-old Mike Jacklich could never have pictured a device that would hold 200 CDs, 5 phone numbers and could conjure photos of girls boobs whenever he wished.
Because I made the command decision to put everything I own onto the iPhone, I can now play Def Leopard's Adrenalize whenever I never want. Def Leopard, as many of you know, isn't just the best punch line of any joke, ever ("What has 9 arms and sucks?"): they're also the worst band in the history of the world, non-Metallica division.
I can also play the other 14 songs off of "Steppenwolf's 16 Greatest Hits". I can crank all of REM's questionable albums since Monster. Whenever I feel the itch, I can play the B-52's "Hot Pants Explosion".
Look, I never claimed to be cool. In fact, I know I'm not. Hell, my 1st concert ever was New Kids on the Block at the Rosemont Horizon (my second concert, however, was the U2 Zoo TV Tour which was the lie I used to tell people whenever I was asked my what my 1st concert was. This was before I realized how hilarious it was that I heard "Please Don't Go Girl" before I heard any other live stadium music).
I did get one or two things right. I took most of my early rock n' roll influence from my older brother Don. Donny introduced me to the Beatles at a very early age and I can still remember the violent arguments I would have at the 7th grade lunch table over who was better, The Beatles or Poison?
Pictured here, apparently on its birthday.
In a strange sort of way though, it's been...well, not fun, but "fun in a reminiscing sort of way". You see, I've been going through old pictures, memory boxes, and scrap books and just plain ol' remembering stuff from my past. That's been the fun part. My family has spent hours drinking wine and laughing as we told ancient, repeated stories and played with the newest generation of the Jacklich clan. Old, dear friends have contacted me while new friends have bought me surprisingly few drinks (ahem). The reasons for trips down memory lane are sometimes terrible, but the road itself is often paved with smiles.
And yes, that was my attempt to write the worst/cheesiest line possible as a segue from the bummers of my life to today's fun topic: tunes.
See, after the U2 concert, I've revisited some older and sentimental favorites. I've listened to albums I haven't listed to in years. To this day, there are certain songs or albums that can transport me back in time to the very moment I became attached to them; I don't think I'm alone with this power. For instance: I can still smell my old bedroom and tell you exactly what level of Sonic The Hedgehog 2 I was playing the 1st time I cranked "It Smells like Teen Spirit". I can describe to you my sister Peggy's ceiling and exactly how the post-it notes were arranged on her mirror whenever I hear the chime of the clocks in "Time" by Pink Floyd. I can smell the fallen leaves in my back yard and feel the crisp snap of a late October wind whenever "Hey Jealousy" pops on WXRT.
Music is funny like that.
But this has also given me an opportunity to question some of my more, um, questionable tastes in music over the years. About a year ago, I bought a new computer which enabled me to digitize my entire music collection. And just a few days ago, I moved that entire library over to my iPhone. As of now, I carry every CD I own in the single coolest piece of technology I've ever encountered. In his wildest dreams, 12 year-old Mike Jacklich could never have pictured a device that would hold 200 CDs, 5 phone numbers and could conjure photos of girls boobs whenever he wished.
Because I made the command decision to put everything I own onto the iPhone, I can now play Def Leopard's Adrenalize whenever I never want. Def Leopard, as many of you know, isn't just the best punch line of any joke, ever ("What has 9 arms and sucks?"): they're also the worst band in the history of the world, non-Metallica division.
I can also play the other 14 songs off of "Steppenwolf's 16 Greatest Hits". I can crank all of REM's questionable albums since Monster. Whenever I feel the itch, I can play the B-52's "Hot Pants Explosion".
It was a real thing.
Look, I never claimed to be cool. In fact, I know I'm not. Hell, my 1st concert ever was New Kids on the Block at the Rosemont Horizon (my second concert, however, was the U2 Zoo TV Tour which was the lie I used to tell people whenever I was asked my what my 1st concert was. This was before I realized how hilarious it was that I heard "Please Don't Go Girl" before I heard any other live stadium music).
Indeed, Donnie; Drugs do suck. Was I on any?
I did get one or two things right. I took most of my early rock n' roll influence from my older brother Don. Donny introduced me to the Beatles at a very early age and I can still remember the violent arguments I would have at the 7th grade lunch table over who was better, The Beatles or Poison?
I win, John Schmadeke.
Friday, July 8, 2011
Bono, Krishni and Me
(Editors note: Today's post was written whilst pondering why a village full of bad guys with axes and pitchforks would prominently display in the center of town a pommel horse from which our protagonist could show off his mad Gymkata skills)
It hasn't all been cancer and depression, kids. I do have light in my life. For instance, take my wife. Not only is she crazy smart and dead sexy, she also knows how to elicit giggles of joy from her husband. The easiest way to make me violently giggle with anticipation and glee? Disney World. We all know that. The second easiest? That just might have been Tuesday evening at Soldier Field witnessing perhaps the best U2 show I've ever seen:
Bono, pictured here not saving the world, on the giant LCD screen hung just above us.
I've been a U2 fan since they released Achtung Baby way back in 1991. I was a little young for Rattle and Hum and The Joshua Tree but I still remember the 1st time I heard "Mysterious Ways"; quite simply it blew me away. My Godfather took me to the see Zoo TV tour shortly thereafter and I was hooked. Since that day, I think I've seen U2 6 times and they continue to be the best live band I've ever seen...as long as I can ignore the whole "Bono" thing.
The concert was amazing. The tickets were actually for last July in support of their new, shitty album, No Line on the Horizon. However, Bono hurt his back feeding Africa (I assume) and they had to put the remainder of the tour off until this year. Because of that, they were no longer supporting their shitty album and they were free to play whatever they damn well pleased. And did they ever.
If you asked me before the show to name a song or two that I would love for them to play but never in a million years could I picture them playing, I would say "Zooropa" and "One Tree Hill". Damned if they didn't play them both. Their set list:
1 Even Better Than the Real Thing
2 The Fly
3 Mysterious Ways/Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World (snippet)
4 Until the End of the World
Opening with 4 cuts off Achtung Baby? Hell yes!
5 Out of Control
Deep cut here. Their 1st single off their Mike Jacklich-ignored debut Boy. Meh.
6 Get on Your Boots
Really, really shitty song off their new shitty album. Within, Bono constantly implores people to put on their boots.
7 I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For/The Promised Land (Bruce Springsteen snippet)
8 Stay (Faraway, So Close!)
Really nice acoustic version featuring only The Edge and Bono. Lovely.
9 Beautiful Day/Space Oddity (David Bowie snippet)
Prefaced by video of Gabby Giffords' Husband up in the space station introducing the song. Even brought a tear to my eye. And the song kicks ass.
10 Elevation
11 Pride (In The Name of Love)
12 Miss Sarajevo
Meh. Critics love this song. I find it boring.
13 Zooropa
Now we're talkin'. "Zooropa" is a criminally underrated album and the eponymously named 1st cut slowly builds up to an awesome climax. Love, love, LOVE this song.
14 City of Blinding Lights
Best song off the album preceding their shitty album. Also, this one and the next one were the only songs played off of How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. Just noticed that.
15 Vertigo/Miss You (Rolling Stones snippet)
I like this song and I feel if it wasn't featured in that iPod commercial, you would like it too. So there.
16 I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight/Discothèque (snippet)/Psycho Killer (Talking Heads snippet)
Another shitty song off their new shitty album. However, they sampled their own song "Discothèque", within and that 20 second sampling was they only time they even acknowledged their album Pop which is another criminally underrated effort. Man, people hated that album. These people are wrong.
17 Sunday Bloody Sunday
18 Scarlet
19 Walk On
Love this tune. Excellent closer before they pretend to quit for the night but the crowd always knows...they're coming back. Why do bands do this? We're not fooled.
(Editors Note: at this point in the show, U2 attempts to save the world along with that released Burmese leader who recorded a video message about how it takes just one person to change the world; not a million, just one. One person. Can you guess what's coming next?)
Encore:
20 One/Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow (Shirelles snippet)
Gotta tell you...I'm just about done with this song. The crescendo is cool but man was this one overplayed. Not quite ready to embrace it again. Always fun though when anyone throws a Shirelles sample into a song.
21 Where the Streets Have No Name
In high school I dated a rather, uh, intense girl. I say intense because "psychotic" just isn't polite. And that's unfair looking back on the relationship; it was her first high school relationship and she was just a bit obsessive when it came to me and music. She was a big, big Led Zeppelin fan. So big, that later on, she had "Zoso" friggin' tattooed on her arm.
We also enjoyed the fact that she owned 3 copies of every Zep album: vinyl, cassette and CD. Point here is that she jumped in with both feet when she became a fan of just about anything; a point I later found terrifying when she attacked me in my own home after I broke up with her.
Anyhow, where was I? Ah, yes. Obsession. I was the person that brought U2 into her life. Her Achtung Baby was The Joshua Tree: when she listened to that album for the 1st time, it sucked her in. In fact, she played it so much that I quickly grew tired of the damn thing. Decades from now, people will likely look back on the Joshua Tree as U2's finest moment. But from the years 1995-2008, I couldn't listen to it because of this girl. Relatively recently, I revisited the album and I love it again.
This version of "Streets Have No Name" was perfect. Powerful, epic, supersonic. It started raining right at the end of the tune which was ever so perfectly timed. It would have been an excellent song on which to end the show. But there was more to come...
Encore 2
22 Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me/My Kind of Town (Frank Sinatra snippet)
WHAT? The song from Batman Forever!? Holy shit! I love this tune and I've never heard it live. I thought they were trying to forget it ever existed, like most people involved with the end of the 1st Batman franchise.
23 With or Without You
Wouldn't be a U2 show without this one, I suppose. But it couldn't hurt to skip it every once in a while. Just a thought.
24 Moment of Surrender
25 One Tree Hill
This is the one. Right here. "One Tree Hill": the best U2 song that for whatever reason, people have ignored. Maybe because it's buried deep within The Joshua Tree? Maybe because it was overshadowed by three #1 hits? Well, whatever...this song is incredible. I have never heard them play it live nor have I even heard of them playing it live. And they freakin' closed with it. This was better than that time that Green Day blindsided Marc and me by playing F.O.D. The perfect ending to a damn amazing show. Just incredible. Thanks wife!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
U2 gets a bad rap these days simply because Bono is obnoxious (although this led to one of the best Onion headlines ever: "Rest of U2 Perfectly Fine with Africans Starving"). However, they are still the best band I have ever seen live and one of those rare bands that are actually better on stage than in the studio. And every time I see them live, I get very much into their music again. It's going to be a good summer in that respect. It's just important to not take that Bono fellow too seriously.
It hasn't all been cancer and depression, kids. I do have light in my life. For instance, take my wife. Not only is she crazy smart and dead sexy, she also knows how to elicit giggles of joy from her husband. The easiest way to make me violently giggle with anticipation and glee? Disney World. We all know that. The second easiest? That just might have been Tuesday evening at Soldier Field witnessing perhaps the best U2 show I've ever seen:
Bono, pictured here not saving the world, on the giant LCD screen hung just above us.
I've been a U2 fan since they released Achtung Baby way back in 1991. I was a little young for Rattle and Hum and The Joshua Tree but I still remember the 1st time I heard "Mysterious Ways"; quite simply it blew me away. My Godfather took me to the see Zoo TV tour shortly thereafter and I was hooked. Since that day, I think I've seen U2 6 times and they continue to be the best live band I've ever seen...as long as I can ignore the whole "Bono" thing.
Bono, pictured here saving the world.
The concert was amazing. The tickets were actually for last July in support of their new, shitty album, No Line on the Horizon. However, Bono hurt his back feeding Africa (I assume) and they had to put the remainder of the tour off until this year. Because of that, they were no longer supporting their shitty album and they were free to play whatever they damn well pleased. And did they ever.
If you asked me before the show to name a song or two that I would love for them to play but never in a million years could I picture them playing, I would say "Zooropa" and "One Tree Hill". Damned if they didn't play them both. Their set list:
1 Even Better Than the Real Thing
2 The Fly
3 Mysterious Ways/Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World (snippet)
4 Until the End of the World
Opening with 4 cuts off Achtung Baby? Hell yes!
5 Out of Control
Deep cut here. Their 1st single off their Mike Jacklich-ignored debut Boy. Meh.
6 Get on Your Boots
Really, really shitty song off their new shitty album. Within, Bono constantly implores people to put on their boots.
7 I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For/The Promised Land (Bruce Springsteen snippet)
8 Stay (Faraway, So Close!)
Really nice acoustic version featuring only The Edge and Bono. Lovely.
9 Beautiful Day/Space Oddity (David Bowie snippet)
Prefaced by video of Gabby Giffords' Husband up in the space station introducing the song. Even brought a tear to my eye. And the song kicks ass.
10 Elevation
11 Pride (In The Name of Love)
12 Miss Sarajevo
Meh. Critics love this song. I find it boring.
13 Zooropa
Now we're talkin'. "Zooropa" is a criminally underrated album and the eponymously named 1st cut slowly builds up to an awesome climax. Love, love, LOVE this song.
14 City of Blinding Lights
Best song off the album preceding their shitty album. Also, this one and the next one were the only songs played off of How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. Just noticed that.
15 Vertigo/Miss You (Rolling Stones snippet)
I like this song and I feel if it wasn't featured in that iPod commercial, you would like it too. So there.
16 I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight/Discothèque (snippet)/Psycho Killer (Talking Heads snippet)
Another shitty song off their new shitty album. However, they sampled their own song "Discothèque", within and that 20 second sampling was they only time they even acknowledged their album Pop which is another criminally underrated effort. Man, people hated that album. These people are wrong.
17 Sunday Bloody Sunday
18 Scarlet
19 Walk On
Love this tune. Excellent closer before they pretend to quit for the night but the crowd always knows...they're coming back. Why do bands do this? We're not fooled.
(Editors Note: at this point in the show, U2 attempts to save the world along with that released Burmese leader who recorded a video message about how it takes just one person to change the world; not a million, just one. One person. Can you guess what's coming next?)
Encore:
20 One/Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow (Shirelles snippet)
Gotta tell you...I'm just about done with this song. The crescendo is cool but man was this one overplayed. Not quite ready to embrace it again. Always fun though when anyone throws a Shirelles sample into a song.
21 Where the Streets Have No Name
In high school I dated a rather, uh, intense girl. I say intense because "psychotic" just isn't polite. And that's unfair looking back on the relationship; it was her first high school relationship and she was just a bit obsessive when it came to me and music. She was a big, big Led Zeppelin fan. So big, that later on, she had "Zoso" friggin' tattooed on her arm.
Like this
Anyhow, where was I? Ah, yes. Obsession. I was the person that brought U2 into her life. Her Achtung Baby was The Joshua Tree: when she listened to that album for the 1st time, it sucked her in. In fact, she played it so much that I quickly grew tired of the damn thing. Decades from now, people will likely look back on the Joshua Tree as U2's finest moment. But from the years 1995-2008, I couldn't listen to it because of this girl. Relatively recently, I revisited the album and I love it again.
This version of "Streets Have No Name" was perfect. Powerful, epic, supersonic. It started raining right at the end of the tune which was ever so perfectly timed. It would have been an excellent song on which to end the show. But there was more to come...
Encore 2
22 Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me/My Kind of Town (Frank Sinatra snippet)
WHAT? The song from Batman Forever!? Holy shit! I love this tune and I've never heard it live. I thought they were trying to forget it ever existed, like most people involved with the end of the 1st Batman franchise.
23 With or Without You
Wouldn't be a U2 show without this one, I suppose. But it couldn't hurt to skip it every once in a while. Just a thought.
24 Moment of Surrender
25 One Tree Hill
This is the one. Right here. "One Tree Hill": the best U2 song that for whatever reason, people have ignored. Maybe because it's buried deep within The Joshua Tree? Maybe because it was overshadowed by three #1 hits? Well, whatever...this song is incredible. I have never heard them play it live nor have I even heard of them playing it live. And they freakin' closed with it. This was better than that time that Green Day blindsided Marc and me by playing F.O.D. The perfect ending to a damn amazing show. Just incredible. Thanks wife!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
U2 gets a bad rap these days simply because Bono is obnoxious (although this led to one of the best Onion headlines ever: "Rest of U2 Perfectly Fine with Africans Starving"). However, they are still the best band I have ever seen live and one of those rare bands that are actually better on stage than in the studio. And every time I see them live, I get very much into their music again. It's going to be a good summer in that respect. It's just important to not take that Bono fellow too seriously.
Bono, pictured here saving the worlds.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
"The skill of gymnastics, the kill of karate"
How have I never heard about this movie?
And to think of all that time I wasted with Waterworld.
And to think of all that time I wasted with Waterworld.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Today in Dating Yourself
I must apologize for my lack of blogging but things have been a bit on the depressing side lately. But no worries, I'm sure unicorns will be shitting Lucky Charms soon enough and I'll get back to typing and stuff. In the mean time, ponder this:
20 years ago today, Terminator 2 was released in theatres.
Holy hannah.
Bonus fun fact. Remember the T-1000 guy?
Robert Patrick is his name. He is really just a character actor these days. He pops up every now and then, mostly in TV shows as a generic military/FBI authority figure or as Johnny Cash's father but--thanks to James Cameron--he is obviously one of the most recognizable villains ever. Did you also know his younger brother is Richard Patrick, the lead singer from Filter and former guitarist for Nine Inch Nails? How cool is that?
Do you think they sit around after Thanksgiving dinner bragging about who has the cooler career? I know I would. And do you think there is a younger brother still, named, like, Randy Patrick who has a menial job like "Taco Bell Assistant Manager" or "Ed Furlong" who just hates his life? Probably.
I feel for that guy.
20 years ago today, Terminator 2 was released in theatres.
Bonus fun fact. Remember the T-1000 guy?
Robert Patrick is his name. He is really just a character actor these days. He pops up every now and then, mostly in TV shows as a generic military/FBI authority figure or as Johnny Cash's father but--thanks to James Cameron--he is obviously one of the most recognizable villains ever. Did you also know his younger brother is Richard Patrick, the lead singer from Filter and former guitarist for Nine Inch Nails? How cool is that?
Do you think they sit around after Thanksgiving dinner bragging about who has the cooler career? I know I would. And do you think there is a younger brother still, named, like, Randy Patrick who has a menial job like "Taco Bell Assistant Manager" or "Ed Furlong" who just hates his life? Probably.
I feel for that guy.
Friday, July 1, 2011
Sheila
My Mother is dying.
There's no way around it: she's been fighting cancer and the cancer is winning. She was, after all, diagnosed with 4th stage colon cancer back in October of 2005...she really should have died a long time ago. She's playing with house money at this point. Doesn't make this any easier.
We got the word last week from her doctors that they were going to stop her therapy. The good folks at Northwestern Medical have deemed that her treatment is doing more harm than good at this stage of her cancer. They insist they are not giving up on her; they are just stopping the treatment. With the typical "For now" caveat that gives hope to the family but at the same time, we know the score.
She will die. Sooner rather than later.
Sheila is in good spirits, mind you. Obviously, she doesn't want to die. Who does? But she knows how lucky she's been. She has 5 kids that have gone on to live pretty amazing lives, all marrying "up", as my sister put it, and all raised in the reflection of Don and Sheila. She has 9 grand kids that have filled her refrigerator with all sorts of cute pictures and photos. She has a set of brothers that has assisted her every step of the way with visits, occasional dollars and general Irish levity that you just can't find anywhere else. She has a wonderful community at Benet Academy, the High School at which she's worked for the last 31 years; they've been so good to her and us through all of this drama that it almost regains my faith in the Catholic church. Almost.
She has left her mark on so many students at the Academy that when I put out word that we were having a celebration for my Mom surviving cancer for 5 years, I was inundated with messages and emails from former classmates and kids that graduated years after me, most of whom I did not know. People felt the need to celebrate her life and with good reason.
But this weekend will be different. Most of her family will be in town for the 4th of July celebration in Lisle, Illinois. We will eat Bubba Burgers, drink copious amounts of wine, laugh and watch fireworks glisten in the sky. We will all hug and say our goodbyes on Monday but one goodbye will have an air of finality that the others lack.
But we have some time left. There will be time for more laughter, more hugs, more music, more champagne, more Ned Devine.
And damned if we're not going to enjoy that time.
There's no way around it: she's been fighting cancer and the cancer is winning. She was, after all, diagnosed with 4th stage colon cancer back in October of 2005...she really should have died a long time ago. She's playing with house money at this point. Doesn't make this any easier.
We got the word last week from her doctors that they were going to stop her therapy. The good folks at Northwestern Medical have deemed that her treatment is doing more harm than good at this stage of her cancer. They insist they are not giving up on her; they are just stopping the treatment. With the typical "For now" caveat that gives hope to the family but at the same time, we know the score.
She will die. Sooner rather than later.
Sheila is in good spirits, mind you. Obviously, she doesn't want to die. Who does? But she knows how lucky she's been. She has 5 kids that have gone on to live pretty amazing lives, all marrying "up", as my sister put it, and all raised in the reflection of Don and Sheila. She has 9 grand kids that have filled her refrigerator with all sorts of cute pictures and photos. She has a set of brothers that has assisted her every step of the way with visits, occasional dollars and general Irish levity that you just can't find anywhere else. She has a wonderful community at Benet Academy, the High School at which she's worked for the last 31 years; they've been so good to her and us through all of this drama that it almost regains my faith in the Catholic church. Almost.
She has left her mark on so many students at the Academy that when I put out word that we were having a celebration for my Mom surviving cancer for 5 years, I was inundated with messages and emails from former classmates and kids that graduated years after me, most of whom I did not know. People felt the need to celebrate her life and with good reason.
But this weekend will be different. Most of her family will be in town for the 4th of July celebration in Lisle, Illinois. We will eat Bubba Burgers, drink copious amounts of wine, laugh and watch fireworks glisten in the sky. We will all hug and say our goodbyes on Monday but one goodbye will have an air of finality that the others lack.
But we have some time left. There will be time for more laughter, more hugs, more music, more champagne, more Ned Devine.
And damned if we're not going to enjoy that time.
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