It didn’t hit me until just now that it has been 10 years since Michael Jordan retired from the Chicago Bulls for the final time. I was going through my nightly rounds and went to Espn.com. Right on the main page was this wonderful article by J.A. Adande. After reading it, it got me to thinking about how things have changed for me since then.

First all, I went from being a kid to a man during the Michael Jordan era. I was 6 years old when he joined the Bulls, and I was 20 when he retired. Everything I knew about sportsmanship, being a true fan, and living and breathing a sports team I learned from watching MJ. The Bears won the Superbowl in 1985 but I was too young to grasp it. The six championship run is one of the highlights of my youth. In fact, it might be the highlight of my youth, even more important than getting my first Nintendo.

When MJ retired the first time, it was like my heart was ripped out. When he said ‘I’m Back’, I went out and bought the shirt. Well, my parents drove me to Kohls to buy the shirt. It was a neighborhood event when he came back against the evil Reggie Miller and the Indiana Pacers. I videotaped the game on VHS.

I still have the tape.

When he retired in 1999, it was no longer life or death in the eyes of a kid. I had fallen in love, I was working, I was going to school, and I had started my first band. But I still watched the whole press conference.

10 years later, life is much more difficult. There will never be another era like that in Chicago.
Image: Getty Images

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Stupidest Person of the Year Award:

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Drew Peterson’s new fiancee moved in to his Bolingbrook home, and according to the report, ‘they plan on getting married.’

I mean, sure, one of his former wives suspiciously died and another one has disappeared, but why not? 

She is probably the safest woman in America with all the scrutiny that is placed on Peterson. Stupid? Sure! But safe none the less.

Until he moves to somewhere a little more, uhm, private.

I’m just sayin’

Global Warming is a Myth:

This winter is on pace to come close to the amount of snow we had last winter, which was the 2nd snowiest winter on record in Chicago. I cannot leave the house without making sure there isn’t another winter weather advisory. My hands are permanently frozen from the amount of time I spend scraping ice of windshields and brushing snow off windows.

Meanwhile, the polar ice caps are melting at the fastest rate in thousands of years.

Is there something we can do to bring some of that melting power towards Chicago?

I’m just sayin’

Blago the Poet:

It might be just me, but isn’t this whole Blagojevich quoting poetry thing getting a little out of hand? Nothing like reaching the average Illinois resident but quoting some 19th century poetry. Really Blago? The only thing worse than an idiot who revels in their 15 minutes of ill-gotten fame is when that idiot runs your state.

Speaking of Blago, this week on Saturday Night Live the opening skit was another slam on Blago and Burris. I liked it better when they made fun of people who didn’t run my state.

Show Me The Money!

After spending an hour in a stinky cab this past week, I had the same thought I know many more people have had.

When will Cash Cab come to Chicago?

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Tell me this movie doesn’t sound bad ass.
From Deathblow Production’s blog:

Welcome to Deathblow Productions.

Announcing our flagship show: ‘She-Bang!’

“She-Bang!” is a short film that captures sensationalized gangs of females waging war in a gore-packed melee that will determine dominance in a city inhabited by apocalyptic femme fatales.   

66 women, 15 allegiances, 1 arena, 0 rules….& a million ways to die.

in fashion- 2009

In the photo sections of Deathblow’s page you’ll find a wealth of photos that introduce you to many of the amazing women we’ve been fortunate enough to work with.  More photos will trickle in soon and not before too long…a teaser/trailer.

You’ll also notice that Deathblow’s top friends are all cast/crew, so you’ll be able to stalk your favorite She-Banger!

(Careful–most of them are stone-cold killers and would gladly bring us an igloo cooler filled with your sloshing guts.)

Here’s a preview of some of the girl gangs:

Deliverance

The Punt Crunchers:

The Cherry Bombs

The Old Town Cougars

The Rock ‘em Sock ‘em Robots

The Hudge Sisters

Maggie Polish will be composited into five ‘clone’ characters.

The Dugout Queens

The Weiner Girls

The Killer Bees

Killer, huh? Who doesn’t enjoy seeing women kick ass?

This past weekend I was fortunate to be filming a role in a girl gang myself, and was it ever intense and so much fun! I’ve certainly garnered more respect for actors and a new perspective on the art just after the first day of shooting our scenes. I’m working with a slew of incredibly talented people, and Ryan and Darrell are masters of their craft. We’re even going to stunt school so that the finale (where we all bludgeon each other to death) will be super action-packed.

  I’ll post film stills and the name of my team soon, but in the meantime, think hot executive corporate bitch in her black suit and stilettos in an office with pencils holding up a bun–ready to strike. Don’t mess.

She-Bang is written and directed by Ryan Oliver, and Darrel Miller is the director of photography. There are many more gang groups to come, including Sister Ninja and the Bloody Marys, The Ittie Bittie Tittie Committee, and the Turbulants.

Stay tuned for updates and visit Deathblow Productions’ Myspace page!

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Chock full of hilarious one-liners, tons of over-the-top comedic violence, and lots of cloudy smoke — yeah, you’re sure to get a second-hand high off of this slap-happy stoner comedy. Pineapple Express is the Citizen Kane of its genre. It’s the funniest comedy I have seen in ages. There’s plenty for the stoner crowd to savor, enough to satisfy action junkies, and it even works for the casual movie-goer as a warming buddy flick.

Is it audacious? Sure it is. There is one scene in particular where Dale and Saul sell dope on a school playground that is sure to stir up some controversy.

The film has a great director (David Gordon Green who directed Snow Angels) and a character soon to be inducted as a vintage in stoner history; Saul Silver ranks among the greatest (Spicoli, Chong, Kumar, ect.) and is equally funny. Unlike Judd Apatow’s previous work (Superbad and Knocked Up), this film lowers the profanity level yet it is much funnier. How about that? A film that doesn’t use profanity as a subject of hilarity. This is a good thing, Judd Apatow. Your work is finally taking a turn for the better. Maybe next time you can take notes from Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg on writing a funny script that is light on profanity.

A high, high recommendation for Pineapple Express. It’s an instant classic, a film equipped with non-stop laughs and and violent surprises. The kind of person who says “no” will probably still like this movie, but being familiar with the source material would help.

But the weatherman of Chicago have been really blowing the snowfall predictions this year.

As I cleaned off the 11 inches of snow on my car, I thought of how when I went to bed, I heard that we might get 5 inches.

Hmmmmmm

Although he is playing it pretty cool, he has said in no uncertain terms he would like to be traded of the Bulls cannot get him enough playing time.

”The trade deadline is coming around, so everybody has to keep an eye on that,” Hughes said after practice. ”You just have to come out while you have the Bulls uniform on and play hard and try to get wins. We all have to be aware of [the deadline]. At the same time, if you get traded, another team wants you, so it’s always a positive.”

I like Hughes, but he isn’t worth the money. If the Bulls can find a home for him, and not eat all the salary, I am ALL for it.

Burris is African-American. I get that too. Seems like Blago picked him based only on the fact it would cause the most problems if he wasn’t allowed in. It feels like Blago is enjoying his time in the spotlight, kind of the way the heel wrestler might in the WWE.

We all know that Burris might have been the 23rd choice the people of Illinois would have wanted to replace Obama as senator. I might have stood a better chance at getting elected. Ok, that is being harsh to someone who IS qualified and has a good public service record.
However, Blago is still the Governor and he has the legal authority to appoint someone. Jesse White is the Secretary of State and doesn’t have the law behind him in his quest to take the moral high road.

So let Burris sit, and keep the seat warm, for when the next Senator destroys him in a general election.

Letting Burris sit for such a short time will do a couple things. One, it will keep the Blago thing from being dragged out forever. Two, it will get the next batch of qualified candidates chomping at the bit to win your vote in 2010.

But sometimes, you find a diamond in the rough. Burris might turn out to be the right choice after all. Some of the best leaders are discovered by mistake. It was only 5 short years ago when Mike Ditka was considering a Senate run. The Republicans appeared ready for that, and Ditka would have given the Democratic candidate a run for his money. Ditka opted not to run because of the scrutiny, but the footnote in the whole thing is the person he was running against turned out to be President-Elect Obama.

Aside from all that, the state really has nothing to lose. Being a junior senator with such scrutiny being place on every move, Burris is just going to vote the party line anyway. He will make no waves.

So I say let the man sit!

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 This past Saturday while haunting Chicagoland, I attended a show at The Metro. I walked into the main room to find a sprinkling of people awaiting the opening band. I sat back, had a beer, and chatted to friends with a nice, easy view of the stage. An hour and a half later, I find myself standing on tip toes trying to get a view over a small legion of heads which had quickly filled the room. These heads and I all had one thing in common, we had collected together to hear the musical musings of Janus.

A few months ago, I was stalking around on MySpace looking for bands to feature when I stumbled on Janus’s website. The first song I heard was “Your Arms”, a song which left me humming the chorus for the next few hours. When I found they were playing in Chicago, I decided I’d like to see them live.

When Janus came on stage and struck their first riffs, it was a welcome change from the opening bands.  Their heavier riffs mixed with the singers more melodic voice filled the room and the crowd with some much-needed energy.

After the show, I had the opportunity to talk with David, the band’s lead singer, and here are some tid-bits from our conversation:

That was a great show. You guys had a lot of energy. The fourth song you played, “Your Arms”, you guys seemed to really get into it there.Yeah, I think so. I’ve never jumped off stage at metro before, that was the first time and everyone seemed to be really into it. The closer I got, the more animated people got.

What’s your favorite song to perform live?

My favorite song to perform is Maybe It’s You, which is a slower one, and the guys, that’s the first one they want to cut when we have no time, but I like it. It breaks up the set a little bit and it also means a lot to me personally.

What’s the special meaning behind it, if you don’t mind me asking?

It pretty much sums up any argument, any disconnect I’ve ever had in any relationship where you start expecting the other person to think like you, be more like you, and those expectations get put out there and when people don’t live up to them, that’s when the arguments start, that’s when the fighting starts. It’s about realizing it and recognizing it.

You guys had a record come out pretty recently, and it’s got this whole war theme going on, is there

 something to that?

Well the album is called Red Right Return. Our first album, it came together really quickly… it just felt like what other people wanted us to be and we decided to write a new record and the whole idea behind it was lets get back to playing for ourselves.

So we wrote this new record and I said to the guy lets get back to doing our own thing. So Red Right Return is actually an old nautical term, it means, ships when they are returning home to port, they say Red Right Returning, keep the red buoy on the right side to stay safe to port, and it seemed to fit. The whole theme to the record is a 1920’s Russian constructivist kind of look, and the bombs were just a really quick sketch but they turned into our iconI didn’t want a picture of us on the record, I wanted a concept, I want a whole theme, and push the record out under this whole umbrella of another persona. How did you guys get started?

Mike and I started writing songs together when I was in a former version of this band, a three piece, and it wasn’t really working, I wasn’t able to play and sing very well, and he just has a much better ear for music and guitar than I do, I started singing and he came in the band and started writing and he and I became John and Yoko and just happily ever after since then. Then we picked up Al, and then lost a drummer, and then picked up Johnny, and he’s just phenomenal, he’s amazing.

How did you guys come up with your sound?It was an accumulation of the things Mike and I do. Mike is into heavier music, and I’m into all sorts of stuff. I listen to a lot of mellow stuff, and I try to sing as much as I can the stuff he writes. He pulls me in his direction and I pull him in my direction, kind of leaves us stuck in this gray area of not really sounding like anyone. What’s your writing process like? Mike usually comes to the table with a shell of two or three parts, and the guys will jam on it and I will just kind of start making up non-sensical words on top of that and then I’ll start to feel the bones of a song and start to play with it and put melodies to it and work on the lyrics, just start recording demos and refine it from there. Mike sometimes helps me out with melodies because he writes a lot of keyboard parts.

As my first face-to-face interview, talking to David was a lot of fun, so I would just like to thank him for making it so easy on me. The guys all seem very down to earth, and really enjoy what they do.  Personally, my favorite topic of the evening was when a fan made a comment about keeping Mike out of trouble, which forced me to ask the guys what trouble they get into. I couldn’t help but laugh at the following answer, which perfectly described my evening with the band of guys I was attending the show with:

So Mike is the trouble- maker? What kind of trouble do you guys get into?Whenever we are together collectively, it’s like a weird sociological experiment happens, like a bunch of younger males get together in a room the more they de evolve into a bunch of six year olds, and Mike just goes straight dick and fart jokes. It’s really perverted.  

You can find Janus’s new record, Red Right Return, on Itunes, and can also get a good taste of it on their MySpace website: www.myspace.com/janusband

They have an upcoming show on Saturday at Austin’s Fuel room before they head to New York to showcase their new album, so go check them out!

  
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As an added incentive, if you register for the winter session (Jan.-Mar.) by the 16th,  you’ll receive a free Nike bag!

According to the Chicago Park District’s website, the city’s 60 new and improved fitness centers offer a high-quality, low-cost alternative to private gyms.

Membership rates range from $40-$75 for a three-month session, a fraction of the cost of commercial gyms. These centers feature state-of-the-art equipment such as computerized treadmills, cross trainers, upright bikes, recumbent bikes, free weights and benches, cable cross-overs, multi-station weight machines and core-focused weight equipment.

In addition to equipment, many parks also offer a variety of classes including circuit training, conditioning, kickboxing, Pilates, yoga and aerobics.

Click here for a list of fitness center locations and phone numbers. What are you waiting for?

Chicago Schools’ Guide to Parental Involvement

- Encouragement: Chicago schools recommend encouraging your child to do the best they can in school. This might include praising them for completing their homework on time or for receiving a good grade. Encouragement motivates a child to do better.

- Availability: Be available to your children during homework time. Reinforce the idea that the work has to be done on their own, but you’re always available to help them if they answer any questions or have any concerns. Teachers in the Chicago schools believe that this helps your child from getting discouraged and giving up when they have a problem.

- Space: Chicago schools’ leaders recommend giving your child adequate space to do their homework. Make sure they have everything they need before they begin so they can put all of their effort into concentrating and doing their best. Also try to have your child avoid as many distractions as possible. This includes TV, radio, video games, and sibling interruptions. The more silence your child has, the more time he will have to finish his homework properly and accurately.

- Modeling: Chicago schools believe that being a good role-model is one of the best ways to help your child succeed. While they are dong homework, do something constructive of your own such as paying bills or reading a book. This reinforces to your child the idea of getting necessary and important things out of the way before playtime can begin.

What Else Can I Do to Help the Chicago Schools?

If you still want to do more, Chicago schools’ leaders recommend joining their Teacher for a Day program. Being Teacher for a Day allows you to gain a new perspective and a better understanding on what your child and his teachers experience on a daily basis. This program allows you to enter a Chicago school and co-teach a lesson prepared by a teacher. If this thought scares you (and who wouldn’t be scared?), you can always observe a class, or work with a small group of students on a specific subject of your interest.

Being Teacher for a Day in the Chicago schools can help your child get a better education because you’ll be able to see first hand what they are learning. It also gives you the opportunity for further involvement by bringing up your concerns to the school board or PTA.

Overall, the teachers of the Chicago schools want you to get involved in your child’s education as much as possible. As parents, it is our responsibility to help our children achieve maximum success in everything in their lives. We have the power to make sure that success becomes a reality for our children.