Faire portrait.

All of us.

Me, Cory, Anthony, Nicki, Shanda, Amy, Clint, Lucas, Steph, Todd.

Beer break. We got a nice patron to take the picture. (came out better than most of mine)

Rope ladder.

Clint's so not climbing.

He couldn't do this 10 years ago, why should he expect to now, especially after a couple of beers?

Don't slip.

Must have come close!

Amy, Shanda and part of Nicki.






Amy, Shanda and Steph.





Shanda, Steph and Todd.

Nail the tomato guy.

The object of the game.

Throw tomatoes at him while being insulted by him.

He's mean. The meaner the better. He was good this year.

Example: The three girls get up to the counter to buy tomatoes, he yells out, "auditions for ugly spice are already over." Ha.

Reached the peak.

At the top.

Late morning. That has nothing to do about the flowers, it's more about the time I took the pictures.

On my way out the door, running 20 minutes late already, I wanted to grab a few quick pictures of the blooming morning glories. The flowers coming from the little seeds I planted last spring have finally reached to top of the old bird house pole. They must be 100 feet tall!!!! How I love hyperbole.


Real tall.


I grew them for the first time last summer. They took over the sides of the garage. Their vines twisted back and forth so many times they looked like they could give Jack and that beanstalk a run for their money if I pointed them in one direction. That's where I got the idea this year to have them grow up the pole. I tied twine and fishing line to the base on top and connected them to a section of garden fence on the bottom.

They didn't have the best light during the day but finally made the peak last Friday. I was waiting for a little more foliage and flowers before I took the pictures.


Closeup.

No, not another one!

First picking:

I haven't gotten sick of BLT's yet. In fact, I need to eat more mayo so I have somewhere to pour the bacon grease. Best sandwich ever not in the hamburger category / or roast beef category.

No, I was referring to another summer being almost gone.

About 10 days and counting down. School starts tomorrow. There is only one weekend before labor day. Football has started. Damn. And I was just getting caught up with the gas bill. Too many things to do yet.

We really didn't take a vacation, but I did find time to garden and read. And relax.

We did a couple of Chicago road trips which were fun. By the way, Isn't Crazy by Gnarles Barkley the song of the summer? I haven't got sick of it yet. Raconteurs' Level would be my second choice. I remember different summers by it's music.

Hula girl at Lollapalooza.

Strangely captivating. She had me under a spell. (kidding) She was good though.

Won two three day passes to Lollapalooza 2006. August 4,5 and 6 at Grant Park Chicago.

Day one I went in with Amy and took pictures (including the fine one of Hula Girl). Actually I pictured more crazy stuff going on in the fringes. Really wasn't. There didn't even seem to be much pot being smoked. Or at least I couldn't find any.


Amy taking a break.


Groups we saw on Friday: Aqualung (heard coming in), Panic! At the Disco, eels (from another stage), Ryan Adams, Umphreys McGee (end of), The Secret Machines, The Raconteurs, Violent Femmes and Death Cab for Cutie.
Panic! At the Disco was a new group to me. They had strangely dressed dancers performing with them. It worked. Did I say strange?
Ryan Adams was mellow and we were hot so we walked about a 100 miles to the other end of the park and saw the end of Umphreys McGee. They were more rocking than I remember. They should have been our first choice.

The Raconteurs with Jack White sounded like a Jack White group. Loud, pounding, 3 chords. Picture below:


Jack White. The Raconteurs.

The Violent Femmes with Gordon Gano are a local favorite. From the intro on their CD:

The Violent Femmes — they bring all their equipment on the bus. And you can't fuck with the Violent Femmes. You cannot fuck with this band!
— From Add it Up, prev. unreleased demo, 1981


Violent Femmes.


Sounded sweet though they didn't look that rebellious or full of rage. They had a lot of fun though. Not pretentious.

Death Cab for Cutie did all their hits. Not as loud as I would have liked. (Later in the week, people living in those highrises in the background started a petition bitching about the noise. I say crank it up more. )


Death Cab for Cutie.

My legs were killing me at the end of the day but I did the same with Clint on Saturday.

Gnarls Barkley and Wolfmother were the highlights of Saturday. Sunday while I recouped, Amy and Clint enjoyed Pepper and the RHCP.

Long weekend.

It was a dark and stormy night...

Angry sky. Stupid to be standing outside taking pictures, but that's me.Stupid.



Yes, his sunroof was open.

This was approximately 10:00 pm. looking across our backyard towards the end the house and at Clint's Jeep. It's hard to get a good picture at night, but those clouds were really ominous looking. Kinda like the clouds and spirits that were brewing up in the sky in Ghostbusters.

After enduring another ninety plus degree day with high humidity, this was refreshing. Of course, the power going out later, the wind storm, and the broken tree limbs took away some of the glow of the moment. Ah, summer.



Backyard looking south.

Taste of Liz Phair.

Liz Phair at the Taste of Chicago.

She's so hot. Clint took this picture. Might explain his jovial mood in the following picture. In fact we made sure we watched the end of her show and because of that we missed our train.

We then had two hours to kill before the next train. There is a sports bar next to the train station. Stopped in there to kill some time. Clint ordered two shots and two beers. After enjoying the shots, we found out they were 7.00 apiece. City bastards. Oh well...


Clint


Chicago's Taste of Chicago has different free concerts usually sponsored by radio stations. This was WXRT's. World Party followed by Fountains of Wayne with the headliner being Liz Phair. Hot day, cold beer, good food, good music, nice sized crowd - not too big.


World Party


World Party is a British rock group that really is one person with a really good studio. Karl Wallinger. He's touring with John Turnbull and David Duffy. Their current hit is, "What does it mean now?"

Some other songs of their's that I like: "It is time", "Beautiful dream", "Ship of fools", "Put a message in the box", "Way down now". Songs that stick in your head. In a good way.



Fountains of Wayne

Front and center view from Petrillo Music Shell in Grant Park.

Funny little band with a funny little name and funny lyrics.

Stephen King featured the song "Red Dragon Tattoo" (off Utopia Parkway) in his 2004 ABC miniseries Kingdom Hospital. King is a big fan of the group. WIKIPEDIA

Working all day for a mean little man
With a clip-on tie and a rub-on tan
He's got me running 'round the office like a dog around a track
But when I get home,
You're always there to rub my back
(Hey Julie)

They named themselves after a lawn ornament store in Wayne, N.J.
They remind me a little of They Might be Giants.

Songs I'm familiar with are Mexican Wine, Hey Julie, Stacy's Mom.

Stacy's mom has got it goin' on
Stacy's mom has got it goin' on
Stacy's mom has got it goin' on
Stacy's mom has got it goin' on

Stacy, can i come over after school? (after school)
We can hang around by the pool (hng by the pool)
Did your mom get back from her business trip? (business trip)
Is she there, or is she trying to give me the slip? (give me the slip)
You know, I'm not the little boy that I used to be
I'm all grown up now, baby can't you see

Stacy's mom has got it goin' on
She's all I want and I;ve waited for so long
Stacy, can't you see you're just not the girl for me
I know it might be wrong but I'm in love with Stacy's mom

MILF (my comment)

Tess the exciteable puppy.

This is Tess, my niece's yellow labrador puppy. She likes playing in the waterdish just like my daughter's dog Cubbie; that's Cubbie, named after a small bear. Certainly not after the other baseball team that appears from time to time in Chicago. Not after that team that causes home crowds to angrily throw items out onto the playing field. No, not them.

I've had my camera for about 6 months now and just started experimenting with some of the other features besides click and on and off. Just kidding. Actually, I did find I can take the videos with a higher resolution than I did here. And longer. But they take forever to load if you have dialup so maybe in this case it's better.

I always liked directors like Hitchcock, Lynch, DePalma, M. Night Shyamalan . I'm looking for screenplays for an appproximate 5 minute movie in the suspense, horror genre. Psycho meets the 6th Sense meets Body Double. You got to start somewhere.

Video extra: As I was taking this, sitting on top of a picnic table with a drink, you can hear my brother in law asking if he could borrow some charcoal from me for his grill. And you can here me foolishly answering, yea. I never think to tell him I'm out. Stupid me.