Saw The Simpsons Movie tonight with Andy P. and had a fantastic time. Check it out!
We went over to the United Artists Theatre at Eagle Highlands, which is a great place for movies since they’re never as busy as the other venues. I highly recommend it.
I was invited to a sneak preview of Superbad tonight. It’s freakin’ hilarious! Go see it when it comes out.
I was in Louisville this past weekend, primarily to bring my nephew down to visit for a week with my sister, and also to attend Michelle and Pascale’s Bastille Day Party.
We saw Alfred Hitchcock’s Dial M For Murder at the Louisville Palace. I like this film so much that it might very well be my favorite Hitchcock movie ever.
I had a good time at the Bastille Day Party. It was hosted by Michelle and Pascale, who are a lesbian couple that work in my brother-in-law’s department at the university. Lots of interesting people.
We also saw Sicko, on Sunday, before I came back home. It was pretty emotional at times, especially since it deals with life and death situations. Regardless of your political views, you wouldn’t be human if you didn’t come away from this documentary with some level of disgust for the American health care system.
Photo Set: Bastille Day Party - 2007-07-21
So, last weekend I was in Chicago!
My friend Jordan from Minneapolis came down to Indianapolis Thursday night. We spent some time out and about here in town before crashing, and then heading up to Chicago in the afternoon on Friday.
Had a bit of a scare before heading up to Chicago because I started feeling like I was going to pass another kidney stone. I had the same pain as before, but significantly less. Anyway, it ended up going away by Friday night. I must have passed the stone without noticing it.
A few hours after arriving in Chicago, Jordan and I met up with some of his friends for dinner. We ate at a Chinese restaurant called Ben Pao, which has very good food. After eating our meal and getting some ice cream, we went to see Transformers at the movie theatre.
Transformers was a lot of fun to see on the big screen, but also disappointing. It is a Michael Bey movie, after all, so I had pretty low expectations, which it met so very well.
Saturday was a lot of fun!
We ate some brunch at the Bongo Room, which had these really cool decorations and really good food. Jordan had these pancakes with a sauce that tasted exactly like cheesecake. Mmm!
We made our way up to the Art Institute in the afternoon.
We checked out the Jeff Wall exhibit, as well as other photographic and contemporary works.
That evening, we spent time at the main attraction of our visit to Chicago, which was the Pitchfork Music Festival held in Union Park west of downtown. We met up with Jordan’s friends Eric and Jeff. Of interest that day were Girl Talk and Yoko Ono.
OK. Yoko Ono is weird. Many of her songs included all these guttural sounds and what seemed like mumbling. Because she’s so strange, shagged one of the Beatles, and because her recent album is cleverly named Yes, I’m a Witch, I have decided that she’s cool.
After having a good laugh at Yoko’s music and saying good to friends, Jordan and I decided to go out on the town. Our first stop was the L & L which is this Irish pub near Boystown. We drank down some Magners and then head out to a gay joint. We ended up at the North End, which is one of my favorite spots. It’s got a casual atmosphere and good music.
At the end of our journey, we ended up at Berlin, which is one of my favorite dance clubs in Chicago. I love the mixed crowd! Lots of boys and girls, some queer, some straight. We danced until we were tired and then went back to the hotel.
Sunday was also a big day. We met Jordan’s friends for brunch at Meli Cafe & Juice Bar in Greek Town. I can’t remember what I had, but it included polish sausage, so you know it was good. After that, we spent a long day at Pitchfork, again with Eric and Jeff. Of interest were Of Montreal, The New Pornographers, and others I can’t remember.
The trip ended on Monday, with Jordan directly back to Minneapolis from Chicago and me driving back home.
I had a ton of fun, and it was great spending some time with Jordan. I really needed to get away for the weekend, without the worries of my job.
Check out the complete photo set.
Photo Set: Chicago - 2007-07
I had an HIV test today and I’m negative. No, I had no reason to be concerned, other than the fact that it has been a year since my last test and I wanted to update my status. That’s all for now.
This is hilarious!
Check out the article at Gizmodo.
I took my nephew, Jake, and our cousin Conner downtown to watch the fireworks shoot off One Indiana Square. We met up with Andy P. and Laura who came up to the roof of the Guaranty Building to watch the show with us.
I managed to catch the finale on my camera.
Something must not have gone quite as planned at the end since the fireworks petered off for no reason. None-the-less, it was a success, and was by far the best view I’ve had in a long time. Picture link below.
Photo Set: 4th of July Fireworks - 2007
Today I went with some of my family to my Uncle Tom’s property. This is the uncle who passed away yesterday morning, as documented last night.
Uncle Tom and some of his friends were already planning to meet for the holiday. So, we had a cookout. Mom and another uncle took the time to gather up photographs and other belongings for the funeral service this coming weekend.
That’s the house where Uncle Tom lived.
This is one of the views from his property.
On the way back home, I decided to stop and photograph this old church along State Road 1. It’s called Little Cedar Grove Baptist Church and dates back to before Indiana was admitted to the Union. In fact, it is the oldest church in all of Indiana.
Tonight I’m taking my nephew Jake and some others up to the roof of the building where I work, so that we can watch the fireworks shoot off the top of One Indiana Square. Should be a great show this year, as long as the rain stays away. I’m crossing my fingers.
There was yet another death in my family. My Uncle Tom (my mother’s oldest brother) passed away this morning at the age of 75.
He was driving his truck on SR 1 and noticed someone on the side of the road by his property. Lately, he had been having problems with people dumping crap on his land, so he went to make sure this guy wasn’t doing something he shouldn’t. Turns out, the guy was simply changing his tire, so Tom went on about his business. At some point thereafter, the guy looked back and saw Tom slumped over inside his truck.
Apparently, Uncle Tom passed away from a sudden heart attack. He was not known to have any prior heart problems, but I don’t know if he kept on top of his health.
Just last week I sat across Uncle Tom during a meal after my cousin Steve’s funeral. We chatted about the airplane he used to own, and how he took Mom up in it once when the door wouldn’t stay shut. Apparently, that didn’t phase either of them, and they still had a good time. He seemed like he was in good health, emotionally and physically, for a man of his age.
He never married, and lived by himself in an A-frame cabin on the banks of the Whitewater River down in Franklin County, Indiana. It was a fairly regular tradition to go down to his property every year for some family event, but often it was for my Grandmother’s birthday.
It’s a very sad time for my family. This is the fourth death in the last eight weeks, and it is really taking an emotional toll on several of us. Personally, I’m doing OK, but I’m worried about Mom. She was taking it hard today, but my sister came up today and I made it over to the house after work, so I think that helped a lot.
Ugh! I really hope this is it for a long time.
