Tonight I found out that the greatest man who ever tended bar on the Northside of Chicago passed away. Johnnie from Johnnies Tavern on Lincoln in Lakeview passed away last Friday night.
If you have never been to Johnnie’s Tavern you truly missed out on an experience. First to get into the bar Johnnie had to buzz you in as the front door was always locked. Second the decor was second to none when it came to vintage. In addtion Johnnie only served two times of kind of beer: Budlight & some kind of Czech beer that put hair on your chest.
Last night Nick and I went to the opening night of Lincoln Hall to see Ted Leo + Pharmacists. It was the first time I think I’ve ever been in a new venue outside of Promo West Pavilion (or whatever retirement home name it has now). The show was good, the drummer was having a bad night breaking drumsticks and smashing drums during the set. By far the best bathroom I’ve seen in a ‘rock venue’. I was thinking they were going to pump in ‘urine smell’ or something to create that authentic rock & roll feel but this was not the case.
Side Notes:
* I think this is the third time I’ve seen Ted Leo + Pharmacists (opening for Pearl Jam in Hartford, at River to River Festival in New York and I think at Lollapalooza).
** Nick’s roommate Noah is the bass player for Ted Leo.
Comsmopolitan Warrior was back at Clowndown this year to defend their honor. There was a falling out after last year where our Camera Crew were under the belief that they could have beaten us if they were running the race. We’ve spent the last 12 months hearing how badly we were going to lose this year against the newly formed team Deutsche Schnitzelhunt. Clearly they underestimated the effects of my training regiment:
A single 1 Mile run over the course of 12 months.
We made one tactical mistake but it was early enough in the race for us to recover. If you check the photos above you will see the seriousness in which team Deutsche Schnitzelhunt took the compitition. Seriously, look into their eyes.
Now check the fourth picture. That’s about halfway through they race when the realized that we came to play. Literally at that moment they knew it was over. They were helpless against our geographical knowledge and our natural athletic ability.
Team Cosmopolitan Warrion finished in 8th place (3 spots better than last year).
Team Deutsche Schnitzelhunt finished 12th (4 spots worse than if they were our camera crew).
Side Note:
As mentioned before we made a rather large tactical mistake early on in the race. We tried to take the Brown Line at Diversy south but the all southbound service was closed. This led us to take a train north to Belmont where we came across the guy below. Not sure what was going on but he was complaining about his sweater.
When he finally got his clothes back on he stood up asked us about the blue line then declared to the entire train the following:
