Last night Julie and I headed down to the South Side for the ‘Beerman Bobblehead Night’ at US Cellular Field.  The White Sox ended up losing in the 9th inning to the Tigers.  We had heard about the bobblehead when the tickets went on sale for the season and this was a priority.  Every time we go to a White Sox game, I think more and more how much more enjoyable the whole experience can be compared to Wrigley Field.  It’s just so much easier to get around, the food is much better and typically the team is better.

On Friday I made my first visit to Kingston Mines to see Magic Slim and the Tear Drops.  The way Kingston Mines is setup is there are two stages each with their own band.  The first band starts at 9:30pm and plays for an hour and the next band plays on the other stage at 10:30pm for an hour.  This continues until the final set begins at 2:30am.  I didn’t make it past the second set on the main stage.

Magic Slim is about as Blues as one can get.  Here’s the first senetence to his wikipedia page:

Magic Slim was forced to give up playing the piano when he lost his little finger in a cotton gin mishap.

The food at Kingston Mines is something to be witnessed.  We ordered two BBQ chicken pizzas and we kept getting two catfish sandwiches.  The whole ordeal took more than an hour to get sorted out.  My advice is if you must eat at Kingston Mines don’t, but if you insist then just order the catfish sandwich and you’ll save a lot of people some grief.

This past weekend Julie and I traveled to Waterloo, Iowa for the Frederick – Mayberry Wedding.  The wedding was at the Waterloo Center for the Arts. The weather was perfect for the ceremony which was held outside.  A good time was had by all.

Side Notes:

*This is what I look like when I dance.
**All of my photographs from the wedding are on Flickr.
***I could have eaten at least six of those cupcakes.

This weekend Julie and I made our maiden journey into Iowa for the Mayberry – Fredrick Wedding in Waterloo.  It just so happens that this weekend was Iowa Irish Fest.  We spent the afternoon checking out the Highland Games’ caber toss.  The caber toss consists of men picking up a telephone pole and flipping it completely in the air while trying to make it land straight.  It’s something that is best seen in person as you can imagine.

Side Notes:
*The rest of my photographs are on Flickr.
** I’m seriously pondering buying a kilt.
*** The top photograph is of the man who was in charge of the caber toss competition.  Yes, he’s carrying a giant hammer just in case.

Yesterday afternoon I was able to get tickets Soundgarden’s show at The Vic Theater through their last minute online sale. I managed to figure out the URL for the actual ticket page instead of using the url shortener the band posted via twitter earlier in the day. I believe this is the only way I manged to actually get tickets.

I’ve never seen Soundgarden before (I’ve seen Chirs Cornell solo back in 2000 at the Newport Music Hall in Columbus and I’ve seen Audioslave a couple of times) so when the Lollapalooza lineup was announced I was in just for Soundgarden. Then The Vic Theater show was announced and that became the objective.

The line to get into the Vic was wrapped around the block due to the ‘paperless ticket’ system but the line moved smoothly once the doors opened. Dom and I managed to get seats in the front row of the balcony towards the left side of the stage. Seats because we are old men. Seats for Soundgarden.

The show was about as intense as you would imagine. The bass player, Ben Shepard, looked like he was going to kick some one’s ass. It was awesome.

The setlist:
01. Searching With My Good Eye Closed
02. Spoonman
03. Gun
04. Rusty Cage
05. Let Me Drown
06. Jesus Christ Pose
07. Flower
08. Outshined
09. Fell On Black Days
10. Ugly Truth
11. Get On The Snake
12. Burden In My Hand
13. Pretty Noose
14. Head Down
15. Face Pollution
16. Superunknown
17. Black Hole Sun
18. Mailmain
19. Slaves And Bulldozers
Encore:
20. 4th Of July
21. Blow Up The Outside
22. Like Suicide

Side Notes:
*Here are some links to reviews of the show with a couple of videos:  Blabbermouth.net and MTV.
** All of my photographs were taken with my iPhone due to the last minute nature of the whole event.

The other night I met with some friends to see Tapes N’ Tapes at Lincoln Hall. This was my second time at the venue and probably the third time I’ve see the band. I think all the other times were in some kind of festival atmosphere.

The show was good, they played a bunch of new songs that are from their new album that hasn’t been released yet. The sound at Lincoln Hall is great since it’s one of the only modern places I’ve ever been that was actually designed for rock and roll.

Side Notes:
*Whoever runs the smoke machine needs to calm down. It was unreal how many times the smoke machine would just randomly go off for no reason at all. You have a new clean venue, there’s no reason to add that ‘smoky grime feel’. It got really annoying by the end.
** Other posts with Tapes ‘N Tapes:  Tapes ‘N Tapes at the Metro, Lollapalooza 2007 – Day 2, and the 2006 Siren Music Festival.

Yesterday Julie and I hosted our third consecutive Fourth of July BBQ.  Once again I spent the better part of the day smoking ribs.  At this point I think I have the smoking aspect down.  The sun and heat was unbearable most of the day until evening set in.  We did have a small shower of rain but it only lasted about 10 minutes.

Thanks to everyone who showed up, we had a perfect amount of food, drinks and people.

Side Notes:

* Past Fourth of July BBQ’s: 2008 and 2009.

While Julie and I were in Galway we read about a Zombie Mob that would be in Dublin about the same time our train was arriving.  We didn’t think we’d be able to make it, unless we lugged all of our luggage to the park where they were starting their mob so we skipped it.  After getting to the hotel we went back into the city to find a place to watch the USA – Ghana World Cup Game.  On our walk we ran dead smack into the middle of the Zombie Mob.  The Zombies were raising money for the Irish Cancer Society.

Brazenhead:

After breaking some kind of social rule at a ‘Wild West Themed’ bar we hiked back to Brazenhead where the environment was much more to our liking.  We got seats on the patio before the crowd rushed in and there were a good number of Americans watching the game.  Of course when Ghana won everyone else in the bar cheered but that’s part of being American in 21st Century.

Side Notes:

* The rest of my Dublin photographs are here on Flickr.
** All of our photographs from our Ireland trip are here on Flickr.
*** I’m pretty sure the second to last thumbnail above is of Harry Caray.

The primary reason for heading back to Dublin for an extra night was to see the GAA football match between Dublin and Meath.  There were actually two matches that day, both semifinals with the winner of each playing for the GAA Championship.  The match was at Croke Park which is an 82,000 seat stadium in Dublin.  Getting to the stadium was kind of an adventure as it sits in the middle of a neighborhood where you have blockades setup only allowing people with tickets into the area.  Once inside the stadium you’re kind of limited to the side of the stadium your tickets pertain to.  You can’t get to the upper deck or walk around the whole concourse.  Also, alcohol is not allowed in the seating area.

The game itself was entertaining.  I’d say Gaelic Football is a combination of Soccer, Rugby, Basketball and Volleyball.  There’s no tackling but pretty much everything else is allowed.  You must dribble the ball (basketball or soccer style) every so many paces.  There’s a goal and uprights, each are worth different points, the object being kicking the ball into them.  Unlike soccer there is was no diving.  I think there was one guy who left the field on a stretcher and we later learned he blew out his knee.  There was ‘stoppage time’ but only about a minute for the whole match.  Meath pulled away from Dublin in the second half. Being that is was the a double header there were fans from all four teams and many didn’t show until the second half of the first game.  Basically it was the Final Four of Gaelic Football.

Side Notes:

* Croke Park was the site of the Croke Park Massacre on Bloody Sunday in 1920.
** The rest of my photographs from the match are here.

The best part of our trip in Ireland was the time we were in Galway.  If we could have spent more time there we would have.  The whole vibe was much more laid back that the rest of Ireland.  The old part of the city is much more intact that any of the other places we visited, the bartenders/waitstaff was much more engaging and the entire pace of the city was on a different level.

When we first arrived in Galway we made our way around the city looking for dinner and then we decided on doing our own pub crawl.  I’m not sure how far we made it but we did well.  Julie managed to keep track of the places we stopped and what we drank during our entire trip including this impromptu pub crawl.

Side Notes:

* At the The Knigshead we found one of the wider selections of beer in all of Ireland (nearly every bar we went to had all of five bears:  Guinness, Smithwicks, Coors Light, Budweiser, and  Balmers).  They actually had a Pale Ale from Belfast called the Headless Dog which we never came across while in Belfast.  Needless to say it was the best beer I had the entire trip.

** In addition the Headless Dog beer, the best meal we had the entire trip was also at The Kingshead.  We both ordered the grilled lobster and chips and it was by far the best thing we ate the entire trip.  It took every ounce of moral strength not to eat this twice in two days.  The logic being it would never be as good the second time around.

*** Potato Chip flavors in Ireland is a topic that must be discussed.  They are offensive and bizzare.  These were a small sample of what is availible:

German Bratwurs Sausage
Argentinean Flame Grilled Steak
English Roast Beef & Yorkshire Pudding

Seriously,  how do they make potato chips taste like pudding?  We’re not even getting into the Shrimp flavored chips.

**** This guy is the Mad Max of Galway.  When the end comes he will be more than ready for it.  He drank beer on the street and in public the entire time we were there.