Now this blog entry will not be the typical post that you will see this time of year in which a bunch of fair-weather/depressing/defeatists fans bad-mouth this Cubs teams as the worst team ever assembled.  No, this blog post will take a more optimistic, albeit realistic, tone, i.e.: the Cubs are six games out of the wild card with four other teams in front of us.  In short, making the playoffs is unlikely; however with 30 games left in the season, it is too soon to rule out a September run as entirely impossible.  This does not mean that a September run is likely either, only that the Cubs still have a mathematical chance of making the playoffs (Vegas odds as of this post are 6%).  Yet this post is not about the team itself and its woeful season; it is about my recent experiences attending their games, the first of which being the unfortunate and ugly loss to our Southside rivals – the Chicago White Sox.

Before I dive into the topic at hand, let me add a quick side note.  Today was my 31st game this year, following two seasons in which I attend 46 and 45 games, respectively (insert snarky “I go to more game than you” comment).  The point here is that I’ve been to enough Cubs games these past few years to have a good feel for the Wrigley experience – the good and the bad.  What I witnessed yesterday, was part of the bad – and no, this is not a reference to Alfonso Soriano.

In short, as the game fell further and further out of reach in the 8^th inning, tension among the Cubbie faithful began to rise, while Sox fans started to behave a little more exuberantly than they had been for the duration of the game.  Now don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against a good back-and-forth “my team is better than your team” conversation/argument, in fact, I am usually one of the people who starts them; however I tend to draw the line when the good natured sports rivalry chit chat spirals downhill into overly insulting personal attacks, or even worse, idiotic displays of violence.  Today I had the unfortunate experience of witnessing both over the course on an inning.

The act of violence occurred a few rows ahead of me as one boisterous sox fan became a little too vocal in his anti-Cub taunts after Soriano dropped yet another left field fly-ball.  An equally unruly, and of course intoxicated, Cubs fan decided to meet the Sox fan head-on, and before you knew it, the two were pushing each-other and throwing a few punches from a distance of a row or two.  Security slowly poured into the section in an attempt to pacify and/or kick-out the trouble-makers, yet the pleading of a few 85 year old ushers wasn’t exactly quieting the inebriated attendees.

This brings me to a side topic – when I finally retire in God knows how many years, I want to be an usher at Wrigley.  It’s practically the easiest job ever because most people can find their seats on their own (although I’m baffled by how many visitors to Wrigley get confused by the Aisle, Row, Seat concept), and when fighting does breakout, no one would dear get into an altercation with an 80 year old bouncer, haha.

Anyway, security eventually came and escorted the trouble-makers out, giving them a story to share with their friends and family for years to come.

My second round of fan entertainment came in the form of a pseudo-“racial” slur from a nearby Cubs fan to a Sox fan a few rows back.  The clearly over-served Cubs fan returned from a trip to the bathrooms/concessions just in time to hear the rather loud and annoying Sox fan go on an anti-Cubs tear.  The Cubs fan’s response to the (Hispanic) Sox fan – “Go fucking lawn my mow”; and no – my words were not incorrectly arranged, that was the actual comment.  Admittedly, I had to laugh at this one, not for the cleverness, or lack thereof, of the pseudo racial slur, but for the drunken backwards manner in which it came out of the Cubs fan’s mouth.  Anyway, as you can imagine, a verbal debate ensued, with a few “white trash” allegations being made of the Cubs fan from the Sox audience before we all quieted down and returned to watching two middle of the pack teams compete for a rather meaningless game.  I actually got involved in the argument for a bit when I yelled at the Sox fan, who was now aggressively standing and yelling at the Cubs fan, to “sit down and enjoy the game”, to which I got one of those really tough guy responses like, “you turnaround and enjoy the game Zambrano (I was wearing a Z jersey), yah – that’s right, turnaround”.

So that was my day at Wrigley.  A miserable Cubs loss, a few annoying fan disputes and a half-day of work to make up that evening since I had to take the afternoon off to attend a game that had originally been scheduled for a Tuesday night in June (damn rain).

With that said, I am currently half-way to NYC for a weekend of watching the Cubs at the newly built Citi Field with a couple of friends and my sis.  Hopefully this next round of games will be more enjoyable than the last one I saw at Wrigley…..

P.S.  When I started typing this post, the plane was half-way across Lake Michigan and I was able to see land on both ends of the lake, which I had never seen before.  For those of you with boats, planes or hot-air balloons, this might be nothing new to you, but it was the first time I had ever seen both sides of the lake at one, and was pretty impressed by the sight of it all.  That’s it for tonight.  Until next time.

For those of you non-soccer fans, Toyota Park is the home of the MLS team the Chicago Fire.  I must confess that I personally am not a huge soccer fan, and in result I’ve only been down to Toyota Park once prior to last week’s trip.  With that said, please allow me to clarify one more thing – this post only pertains to why Toyota Park is a great concert venue, and nothing more.  For all I know, Toyota Park could be a terrible place to watch a soccer game; although I suspect that this is not the case as the stadium was purposely built so that the Fire would have a place to call home (The Fire used to place at Soldier Field – home of the Chicago Bears – but a 60,000 seat football stadium just wasn’t a good fit for a soccer team averaging less than 16,000 fans in attendance per game).

Anyway, back to why Toyota Park is a great place to see a concert.  Well, let’s start with the basics:

The Stage – Although its primary purpose was to be the home of the Chicago Fire, Toyota Park was also built as a multi-purpose stadium.  In other words, they wanted to hold concerts here and built the venue accordingly.  Unlike Wrigley Field which requires the Cubs to be out of town for a week in order for a concert to be held there, Toyota Park can convert from Soccer venue to concert venue in 18 hours (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Park_(Bridgeview)).

The Security – perhaps it was the particular security company in charge that night, or maybe it was the size of the crowd (double that of a typical Fire game), but for whatever reason, the security was hardly noticeable at the venue.  No one was looking over their shoulder before they sparked a joint; no one was being ticketed when they tried to visit their friends in another section; etc.  Although this may seem like a small concern, I have been at a number of clubs where the intensity of the Security has simply ruined the vibe of the concert.

Some examples:

• The Vic (Chicago-Lakeview) – Security guards camp out in the bathroom to prevent people from smoking cigarettes.
• The 9:30 Club (Washington DC – NE) – Security spies on people from a perch above the main floor.  When someone is doing something Security doesn’t appreciate, they shine a flashlight down onto that person, which signals their counterparts on the ground to go investigate.
• The Auditorium Theater (Chicago-downtown) – This venue is more for Opera/Broadway musicals, than it is for a concert.  In result, whenever you have to go to the bathroom or grab a beer, you have to exit the “music area” and enter into a lobby type area through thick double doors.  The result of this is that upon returning to the music area, one must show their ticket to the security guard outside the double doors which can be a hassle when in a small crowded area and carrying beers in both hands.  I do realize that part of this is simply due to the design of the venue.

The Concessions – Like most Sports arenas, the concession are located out in the hallways in back or under the seats.  Toyota Park is the same, with one important exception – they have beer vendors walking the aisle like they would be during a sporting event.  Although this may seem like a trivial item, think how much more time you could spend enjoying the music if the beer was brought to your aisle, as opposed to having to fight your way out of the aisle, wait in line at a concessions stand, and then try and not spill your beers as you fought your way back to your seat.  Additionally, the one time I did go to the concessions there was no line whatsoever.

The Pre-game facilities – Toyota Park benefits form being in the Suburbs where it can offer a huge parking lot for its fans to tailgate in before and after the show.  In addition to simple tailgating, the parking lot is also very friendly to the “shakedown street”.  Check out some of my pics from the lot, below:

Transportation – the venue is located in Bridgeview, IL, which is the suburb just past Midway Airport on the city’s southwest side.  Coming from the Loop during rush hour, it took me about an hour to go from my office -> Orange Line to Midway -> Pace Shuttle bus from Midway directly to the venue.  Now this might seem like a long way to travel, but put the location in perspective.  When compared to the other outdoor Chicago area venues (e.g.: The World Music Theater in Tinley Park, IL, or Alpine Valle, WI), a trip on the Orange line and a shuttle bus sounds incredible.  The only closer outdoor concert venues that I can think of are Charter One Pavilion on Northerly Island (very small) and Solider Field (way too large for all but the biggest acts).  In other words, the venue is easy to get to by comparison to its competitors.

The Acoustics (the sound quality) – Saving the best topic for last, I am happy to say that the sound quality was great!  Not being a musician myself, I can’t comment on this topic from a technical perspective, but I can tell you what it’s NOT from my experience.

• It’s not like the United Center or any other enclosed arena where the sound can echo off the ceiling.
• It’s not like Soldier Field where the size of the place and the wind tunnels that whip through it can drown out the music.
• It’s not like Alpine Valley where the very back of the lawn can barely hear the music over the people talking around you.
• And it’s not like the Metro where it is sometimes so loud that you can feel your chest vibrating with the music.

In short, the sound quality is good enough that the thought of critiquing it while I was there never crossed my mind.

So, in sum, Toyota Park rocks.  My only regret was not getting there earlier to soak up more of the lot scene before the show, but oh well; there will definitely be a next time!

Now I’m gong to open myself to a bit of criticism and name a few action movies that I think do in fact make the cut.  In other words, these movies combine killer action sequences with just enough plot, and acting ability for that matter, to make the action movie work as a whole.

Terminator 2 – Arnold in his prime, Guns N’ Roses soundtrack, a cool conceptual villain in the T-1000, and one of those chicken or the egg time loops in which we never really know what happened first.  How can you beat it.

The Empire Strikes Back – any of the 3 original Star Wars movies would have worked, but Empire is the best.  Lasers, Light-sabers, love and betrayal; not to mention the all important, “I am your father” scene in which we learn that Satan re-incarnate is really our protagonist’s father – what more do you need?!

The Matrix 1 – despite the plot holes (e.g.: why do the machines need to use humans, which require the complicated matrix world to keep them docile, when cows or apes, or any other animal could have sufficed as a battery?) this movies makes the cut.  Cool shoot em’ up scenes mixed in with ninja fist fights definitely works within the premise of the computer oriented world the authors have constructed.  There is also a certain degree of allegory included in the plot which makes those that pick it up feel smarter (always a good way to capture an audience)  while maintaining the simple action-packed narrative that most fans payed to see.

The Rock – for those not that into the whole Sci-fi genre, the Rock is a solid military based action movie.  Yes – there are stupid parts like any military action film, yet the acting from Nicholas Cage, Sean Connery, Ed Harris and John Spencer (Leo McGarry for you West Wing fans out there) is just what the movie needed to separate it from the more cheesy military action movies (e.g. Navy Seals).  Plus, the dialogue is great (e.g.:

Connery: Your best, losers always whine about doing their best.  Winners go home and fuck the prom queeen.

Cage: Carla was the prom queen).

Now that’s a motivational speech!

The Dark Night – although I personally am a big fan of the recent string of comic book based movies, the Dark Night is a step above the rest.  Enough said.

Now, to be frank, none of these movies are going to win an Oscar for movie of the year (although the original Star Wars did come close – damn Annie Hall); but they do a great job in captivating their fans outside of the cool action scenes.  We as viewers actually care about the details of the Force or Skynet – in other words – the plot in general when we walk out of the theater; where as lesser action movies may thrill us during the fight scenes, but leave us dreading the dialogue in in between them.

So why didn’t GI Joe make the cut?  Hmmm….where do we start

1. Terrible, and I mean terrible acting across the board
2. A very weakly connected plot
3. A budding romance that is so bad it is not even laughable (e.g.: Think McBane from the Simpsons where McBane breaks up a group of gangsters during their business meeting in a ridiculous shoot em’ up fashion.  When the fight ends, a hot leggy blond runs up to McBane and says, “well, you sure broke up that meeting McBane”.  Mc Bane responds, “now I’m thinking of holding another meeting….in bed”; and the blond kisses him and the credits begin).  That cartoon satire was a joke.  GI Joe is like that, but not funny.
4. Probably the worst dialogue ever written for  a movie – I won’t ruin it for you, but look out for a Gaelic reference during an arial action battle towards the end and you will see what I mean.
5. Weak looking villians – aside from the gorgeous Sienna Miller as the Baroness, the other villains simply lack in style.  Destro doesn’t have a metal face, Cobra Commander is notably absent and the cool white ninja guy has his mask down for most of the film.
6. Action scenes that are “action-packed”, but not exciting.  It’s not that the fighting wasn’t cool looking, it’s just that the plot is so weak that the fight scenes have no context behind them.   And action scenes NEED context, otherwise it’s just a bunch of stuff that happened.

So, my recommendation:  If you are going to see it, see it now on the big screen where the action scenes will be 40′ tall, or don’t see it at all.  This is not one of those lay on the couch and watch on HBO type films as the lack of context behind the action scenes simply makes them too boring to follow, even on a hung-over Sunday morning.  My real recommendation is to save your cash and don’t see it all, but I realize that like me, many of you grew up watching GI Joe, while eating breakfast before grade school, and playing with the actions figures and as bad as you know this movie will be, you simply still have to see it at least once.

]]> http://thewordofjbird.wordpress.com/2009/08/16/g-i-joe-american-garbage/feed/ 6 justinlovallo http://thewordofjbird.wordpress.com/2009/08/15/a-night-at-ravinia/ http://thewordofjbird.wordpress.com/2009/08/15/a-night-at-ravinia/#comments Sat, 15 Aug 2009 19:09:07 +0000 justinlovallo http://thewordofjbird.wordpress.com/?p=5 ]]> For those of you non-Chicagoans, Ravinia (http://www.ravinia.org/) is an up-scale concert venue in Highland Park , IL, a northern suburb of Chicago.  The place is unique relative to other outdoors venues in that  it caters to an older, more up-scale crowd than does your typical outdoor music venue.  For example, yesterday I went to see Yo-Yo Ma (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yo_yo_ma), a classical cellist whose fan-base ranges from classical music lovers to old folks to Asians.  For those of you PC people, please  note that Yo-Yo Ma attracts a large Asian fan base and I felt it necessary to point this out as Ravinia’s typical crowd is middle aged/old white people, and therefore last night’s large influx of people of Asian heritage was unique.

Anyways, besides the crowd, the place is unique in that the staff literally let’s you bring in whatever you want to.  Where as other Chicago area music venues such as Alpine Valley and the New World Music Theater pat you down upon entry and charge you $9 for a beer, Ravinia encourages its patrons to bring in blankets, coolers, chairs, etc; and doesn’t regulate how and where you use them as long as you are courteous to your fellow concert goers.

Additionally, the venue is not really setup so that its patrons can actually “see” the artist performing.  Instead the place is blanketed with speakers and a few projection screens, so that the general focus is on “listening” to the music.  I’m not saying that this type of setup is ideal for every show, but it’s definitely a nice change of pace from those shows in which the artist concentrates more on their light show and onstage antics than the music they are playing.

Finally, the place is incredibly easy to get to.  The Metra runs frequent semi-express trains from Northwestern station downtown right to the venue; and when I say “right to the venue”, I mean literally right there – to the gate.  If you’re a commuter, their are shuttle buses over to the Purple line in Evanston as well as Shuttle buses to the other nearby Metra stations.  There is a parking lot as well, although it was sold out by the time I arrived, an hour before the concert started.

In sum, Ravinia is a great place to go with your family, a date, etc.  Despite the byob setup, it is NOT a place to go with your guy friends and “get hammered”, although it would be a decent spot to check out acts like the Steve Miller Band, who played their earlier this summer, or Buddy Guy, a legendary Chicago blues musician.

My recommendation:  Check out the summer line-up far in advance and plan a night or two at Ravinia.  It may be a bit of an effort to plan, but the low cost, high value activity is definitely worth it once or twice a summer

Welcome to my new Blog – The Word of JBird.

Let’s cover a few of the basics:

1. I realize that blogging is a waste of time.
2. I realize that blogging is just another excuse to further share my annoying thoughts and opinions on everything  with the general public.
3. Yes – the name of this blog is stupid.

With that said:

1. I have quite a few friends who blog now and all of them really seem to enjoy it.
2. The winter is coming, and as I go out considerably less in the winter, I need some other way to annoy my friends with my ridiculous thoughts and opinions.
3. My girlfriend lives half-way across the world at present, so I need another forum to voice my thoughts.
4. I recently had to write a white paper for work, and it took me considerably longer to complete that did much more difficult college assignments a few years ago.  In other words, my writing sucks and I need a place to practice.
5. Just because.

So now that that’s all covered, let’s get to my first post – get excited!