April 21 God Works in Mysterious Ways

Many years ago I went to a concert with Chrissy's younger cousin Scottie and he brought along a friend named Martini. I never remember names but for an obvious reason this name stuck with me. Stay with me here, this story will get to a point eventually. Ever since we adopted a dog from the Great Pyrenees Rescue of Greater Chicago, we have volunteered to help the organization. One night I went to a Vietnam Vet's house for a home & yard inspection. He was looking to adopt a Pyr after putting down his long time buddy, King. His name is Wayne. Then there is a piece of human debris called Fred Phelps the leader of Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas. (Every Baptist organization says this church is not affiliated with them.) Recently I was talking to my mother about the condition of the world today. We have these conversations regularly. Religion came up and I reminded her about that fucking piece of crap from Kansas, I couldn't remember his name at the time. Today, I heard someone on the news saying 'God works in mysterious ways' while describing some kind of tragedy. Then I had a strange thought that I will get to soon. So back to the characters mentioned above. About three years ago, I heard a kid named Martini from my town was killed in Iraq. I asked Scottie and he said it was his friend Tony's brother, Phillip. Then I read that at his funeral that Fred Phelps and his mentally deficient followers were protesting that soldier's were killed in Iraq because of America's tolerance of gays. Just so you are clear on this twisted logic, they don't protest just at gay soldiers' funerals but at all soldier funerals. They stand there and yell anti gay slogans at families burying their military sons. That same week, I met Wayne. When I saw his modified Harley (he was shot in Vietnam and still has a severe limp) I asked where he had ridden lately. He told me to Philip Martini's funeral. It turns out he was a member of the Patriot Guard Riders. A fantastic motorcycle club of mostly veterans that will come as invited guests to any soldiers funeral and shield the family from douche bags like Fred Phelps. He told me when Phelps started using electronic megaphones (due to new laws keeping protesters 200 yards from a military funeral), the bikers slowly rev their engines to drown him out. I asked Wayne why they didn't just beat the shit out of the protesters, he smiled and replied "we are strictly non violent." Too bad. Now to my thought today, maybe God does work in mysterious ways. It seems to me that God's most fervent followers are complete fucking idiots. His fanatic followers refuse to believe in evolution even though if God did create the world, logic says that he also created evolution, right? My logic tells me God does this on purpose so we don't believe the crap these followers are constantly spewing in his name. You see my God hates these motherfuckers using his name to promote their vile hatred, misguided ideas and quotes taken out of context from the Bible. Hopefully my God is vengeful and my Heaven is an eternity of watching God torture these sorry bastards and here's why they deserve the wrath of my God. (Note: I took these pictures from other websites, I hope they don't mind. As for the young soldier Philip Martini, I thank you for your service and sacrifice for our country and I hope your heaven is what you hoped it would be.)

April 20 Better Days

Instead of bitching about our rainy 40 degree day, I'm posting pictures of our trip to Yellowstone last fall.. It's like therapy for me, SERENITY NOW! Here's a lovely waterfall shot taken during a hike along the Yellowstone River. Now that's relaxing. We did some backcountry hiking that day and came across a lot of skulls & bones along the way. None appeared to be human remains, but we're not experts. Then there is the obligatory Old Faithful shot. It was a very nice morning. We hiked around the upper geyser basin most of the day and witnessed some impressive eruptions. The last shot is an elk known as Number 7. Every year during rut, he brings his harem to the lawn outside the Mammoth Springs Hotel. This allows visitors to get dangerously close to a large, angry and horny elk. We heard he's caused damage to cars, trucks and stupid visitors. We also were told that between 1-3 times a day, he decides to hump of his 30 or so female elk that are just laying around waiting for him. This occurs right in front of suburban mom & dad with their precious offspring questioning what is going on. It's a shame I wasn't able to witness that particular event. But remembering the stories put a smile on my ugly mug on this miserable day.

April 19 Rainy Day Music

Years ago there was a website called Music Misfits. It was run by a friend of mine, Cary who used to be in a band with my brother George. I used to write record reviews for that site and also had several interesting music geek discussions amongst the readers of the site. One of the topics was 'Rainy Day Music' which I described as 'happy to be depressed' music. Music fans usually want to listen to songs that match the mood they are in, party music for partying, dance songs for the clubs and slow depressing songs for rainy days. It was absolutely miserable yesterday, cold & a dark misty rain all day long. Why not curl up with two of my all time favorite 'rainy day' CD's. I'm pretty sure I own just about every release by Todd Snider and Wilco and these are my favorites by them, Songs For The Daily Planet & Being There. Todd Snider is a fantastic songwriter with a bit of a smartass streak to him. Obviously I would be a big fan. Wilco is easily one of the greatest bands of the past 20 years. Some may call them Alt Country but they really can't be pigeon holed to a single genre. Let's just say they play rock & roll. Without turning this into a review, just check out these two releases and let me know what you think of them. Back to my point, trying to describe "rainy day music". It's not that the songs themselves are depressing, it's just that some days you feel a bit more introspective. I'll listen more closely to the lyrics and analyze them a bit differently due to the darkness of the day. I can listen to these same CD's on a sunny day and get a whole different outlook on each song. Like I wrote earlier, some days I'm happy to be depressed. I can't explain it any other way.

April 18 Earth Day & Hockey Night

On the way to Brownell Woods with the dogs, I stopped at the Sand Ridge Nature Center to watch Chrissy give her first of three presentations about Polar Bears and Global Warming at the Earth Day celebration. There was a good crowd and she did a good job. There were lots of questions and most people seemed to really enjoy the Powerpoint slide show and fact sheets she handed out. The center did a real good job of entertaining and educating people. There were booths set up handing out info on home gardening, cleaning up Wolf Lake, a nature photographer booth and the clown was sitting at a table making animal ballons so there was a safety zone of three feet for the kids so I guess approve of the clown's presence in that case. The Blackhawks won their first playoff game 12 seconds into OT. Reg invited everyone to his place for the game tonight. He had a huge crowd of Hawks fans except for Walter. He was too bitter over his beloved Maple Leafs not making the playoffs for the 5th straight year to cheer for the Hawks. Reg BBQ'd brats & chicken, everyone brought something to eat or drink and a good time was had by all. After falling behind the Blackhawks scored 3 unanswered goals to win 3-2. "Here come the Hawks, the mighty Blackhawks" we should have made Walter sing the fight song but he took off as soon as the game was over.

April 17 People That You Meet

I've been DJing for over 10 years and I have met a few people that I really enjoyed hanging out with them. Tonight I DJ'd the wedding of Ryan & Michelle. I know them from DJing at Joltin Joe's in Steger. Michelle would always spend some time at the DJ booth bullshitting with me. She always seemed to be the only girl in her group of friends with Ryan and his buddies. One of Ryan's friends was his cousin Andy. Andy always made me laugh at the bar. He is a good kid, always seemed to be in a good mood. He had terrible taste in music 10 years ago. He always wanted to hear Huey Lewis and the News and he never seemed to be able to close the deal with the many women that would seem interested in him. Michelle once told me, "Andy doesn't have any game." I never could understand women. Here's a good looking guy, able to hold a conversation and doesn't pretend to be something he's not by "having game". Well, I saw Andy at the wedding too. Let's just say he showed up feeling no pain and without a date. He's done good for himself and he's about to get transferred from St. Louis to Baltimore. His taste in music has improved immensely. He kept asking for My Morning Jacket songs and kept telling me he could send me some good music. I had to laugh at that. Apparently those drunken nights at Joltin Joes when he wanted to hear Huey Lewis and me refusing to play it but played some good music for him, had sunk in after all. Too bad I had nothing to offer all those years ago about women, what the fuck do I know about girls hanging all over me. Andy did dance with cute girls all night and even managed to catch the garter which he wore the rest of the night as a headband. Maybe Andy would have discovered good music on his own (God knows I have some crappy music in my past) but I'd like to think I helped the kid out just a little down the right path. Good luck in Baltimore, Andy.

April 16 Signs Of Spring

68 degrees, damn it felt good to be outside today. Spring was everywhere today. Blue Skies. Sunshine. Doves on the wires. Cardinals singing in the trees. A smile on everyone's face. A good day to be alive. It's also a good time to let you know that Chrissy will be at the Earth Day Celebration this Saturday April 18th at the Sand Ridge Nature Center in Dolton, IL. She will be there all day and will give talks throughout the day about polar bears and global warming. She has been promoting Polar Bears International all year at different events. So come on out Saturday, bring the kids and enjoy a nice day at Sand Ridge. The park has some nice hiking trails through the woods and their will be children’s puppet shows, a kid’s craft, wildflower walks, special interpretive displays, exhibitors, and more. I guess Chrissy is the "and more".

April 15 Celebration Day

Today is a great day in America. No, fuck the government and their over taxing of it's citizens. Tonight is the start of the NHL playoffs. Until early June, there will be 'playoff hockey'. I'll agree with the hockey haters out there that the regular season is meaningless. But the playoffs bring an intensity unmatched by other sports. The Blackhawks have made the playoffs for the first time in seven years, that helps bring the excitement level up a notch here in Chicago. My hockey team celebrated the start of the NHL playoffs by winning 7-2. It was a close game for the first period and a half, then we scored a few unanswered goals. Once again, Reg was bartending after the game and Todd was showing off the guns. Our game on Thurday was rescheduled due to the amount of players on both teams that had tickets to the Blackhawks playoff game. Fire up the HDTV and watch some intense hockey for the next 6 weeks.