I'm a Cherry Ghost

No column today because I took a nap this afternoon. And I have no job. And that's pretty much funnier than anything I could have written anyways.



Happy weekend people.




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Jones...eluding Jordan! Yes!

Today the entire front and back page of the Tribune's Live section was devoted to burgers. And we wonder why newspapers are dying.





Now it goes without saying, I loved this article. But I also have no job and spend most of my days planning out my next trip to Kuma's or Smoque (I'm assuming not everyone in Chicago spends their days like this).

However, I do take issue with a few of the Trib's points in the story. They're basically trying to stir up a little controversy by suggesting there is a burger in Oakbrook that is better than Kuma's Kuma Burger. Now aside from the fact that the Oakbrook restaurant in question has only 1 burger and Kuma's offers 21, who is driving to Oakbrook for a burger?*

*Apparently my friend Maura is. My mistake.

The trib reporter, Kevin Pang, ends up giving the edge to the Oakbrook Restaurant (Labriola Bakery Cafe), citing a juicier burger and better bacon. Congrats Labriola Bakery Cafe. When you start to offer 20 other delicious kinds of burgers, we can start this conversation again.

Moving on to the backpage, Pang tackles 10 other burgers in tri-state area he deems awesome. I say tri-state area because one burger he is an advocate of, Schoop's, is in Indianapolis. That's commitment to a burger Kevin. You are more of a man than I am.

In terms of the other 9 burgers, I'd only been to two of the restaurants. The Paradise Pup in Des Plaines was the first. This restaurant was also featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. My verdict- don't waste your time going to Des Plaines for a fast food burger. A lot of places serve Merkt's cheddar now. It's not 2001 when you had to drive to Buffalo Joe's in Evanston for cheese fries your buddy swore by.

The second restaurant was Carmine's. Under no circumstances would I recommend someone who was going to Carmine's for dinner to order the burger. They're an Italian restaurant, and their Italian food is delicious. If you're going for lunch and want to save money however, go nuts and let me know how the burger is. I suspect the burger next door at Lux Bar will suffice however.

The reality is, you can get a burger a lot of places. The lines at Kuma's do not make it easier to eat there (which usually just means people get there earlier). My advice to you is to stay at home and make your own burgers. It's more rewarding that way. And it will make the lines shorter at all of the restaurants I like going to.


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It makes much more sense

So I hinted at a good story yesterday on my Facebook page and didn't dive into it completely as I was still recovering from two nights of Pearl Jam. Well, fully recovered, so indulge me for a moment if you will.





So I'm sitting in my seat at the Pearl Jam show on Monday and I notice the guy to my left has already gotten drinks 4 times for his girlfriend/wife/whatever and it was only like 25 minutes into the set. It seemed like a lot to drink in such a short time span, but I didn't really care what they did as long as it involved the guy not walking in front of me every five minutes.

So Eddie plays the opening chords to "Nothingman" and I can tell the girl is now drunk because she's slow dancing with her husband, and in the middle of it, she throws not one but two drinks in my direction. I shoot the couple a glare, even do the hands raised irritated look. The husband assures me she meant no harm.

And in the end, everybody in section 3, row 16 was a winner when the boyfriend decided his girlfriend was too drunk to go on and they left not even halfway through the first set.

Now a little disclaimer- I had very good seats the second night as my friend has been in the fan club for roughly 14 years. This means the people sitting next to us probably had been in the fan club for an equally long period of time, or paid a lot of money for their seats. In any event, why would you get so drunk as too miss the show? I will not ever understand why people can't police themselves at shows.

Witnessing this situation made me think more about the predicament Michael Beasley is currently in (I know I said I'd write less about sports but for the purpose of this post let's just identify Beasley more as a subject, and less as a basketball player).

Now for those of you that don't read 13 sports sites a day, Michael Beasley was the blue chip recruit of the 2007 class. Most sports sites had him ranked number 1 (in a class that included Derrick Rose, OJ Mayo and Kevin love). Nobody could believe how a 6'9" player could make the game look so easy.

But there were already warning signs. He attended 6(!) high schools in four years. He got kicked out of elite high school basketball powerhouse Oak Hill for starting a game with Ty Lawson that basically involved signing his name on as many pieces of school property as possible.

But the bottom line was the kid could play ball. Whoever landed him knew they were only getting a year anyways. Didn't matter to Kansas State. Beasley tore it up for one season, took a rejuvenated program to the NCAA tournament, and left for the pros shortly thereafter, to be drafted by the Miami Heat.

Beasley couldn't keep it together long though. At the rookie class symposium, Beasley and fellow rookies Mario Chalmers and Darrell Arthur got busted for smoking pot. Beasley slipped out the door when police arrived, leaving Chalmers and Arthur to take the fall and get kicked out of camp, while Beasley eventually confessed later.

His rookie season ended with solid numbers (13ppg and 5 rpg) and multiple reported fines for violating team rules. Last Friday, he posted a link to his new tattoo on Twitter. He had wings and "SuperCoolBeas" tattooed across his upper back. While it's questionable behavior to tattoo a self appointed nickname on your back, most people were more concerned with the rumored bag of pot in the photo. It was too blurry to assume it was pot, but given Beasley's past, people did anyways.

Two days ago, Beasley was checked into rehab, citing depression. The initial reaction was something to the effect of, how could this basketball player who has had everything handed to him, not know how to get his shit together?

Now that a little time has passed from him checking into rehab, it seems like more and more people are beginning to think that this isn't just an example of Beasley being a knucklehead, but he might actually be dealing with some issues. And while most people assume if some one famous goes into rehab it's because they're absolutely crazy, that doesn't really seem to be the case here. It seems more like a 20 year old kid who cracked under a very public lifestyle and the enormous expectations placed on his "SuperCoolBeas" shoulder blades.

Now compare this to the case of Plaxico Burress. Coming off a Super Bowl season, he'd established himself as a red zone monster, and for one reason or another, decided to go to a bar with a gun in his sweatpants and shoot himself in his Chuck Taylor's. ESPN wants to shove him down America's throats now with tear jerking interviews and a truly remorseful Plax, but it's a little too late. Now, I don't live in New York, and I don't own any sweatpants or guns, so maybe this is how everyone rolls to the clubs. But Plax, you dug your own grave on this one.

It's easy to just write off all celebrities as spoiled, ungrateful blowhards (and Plaxico certainly appears to fit that mold), but it's unfair to assume that they can't deal with real issues too. Michael Beasley is still just a kid. He's still growing up. He can't even buy a drink, though I imagine that hasn't proven to be much of an issue for him. Most 20 year olds are just trying to figure out how to get to the quad and back. And that's not to say that is any easier or harder than learning how to guard the pick and roll, but with a long career ahead of him, there is hope yet for SuperCoolBeas.

So as for you drunken Pearl Jam fan, I decided to give you the benefit of the doubt. I do not think you're crazy. I do not know what led you to consumer 5 drinks in 30 minutes, but you missed an epic "Whipping>Not For You." I hope you learn your lesson for the next show...and throw your drinks at some one else.


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Hard to Imagine

I think I overdosed on rock the past two nights.



Two long nights have Pearl Jam have taken it out of me. I'll be back tomorrow with the same fury.




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We got the means the make amends

Busy weekend, a lot to get through and I didn't even see the Bears game so you don't have to worry about my thoughts on the Devins.





The award for worst song everybody loves and I hate goes to...

-"I gotta feeling," by the Black Eyed Peas. Congrats. You somehow made it popular to bastardize saying Mazel Tov. Vegas had the odds of "Entourage" ruining that phrase at 2:5 so I'd call this a minor upset. Now admittedly, I've never been much of a fan of their music, but whenever I think the Black Eyed Peas have become 2000 and late, they find a way to reinvent themselves. "Let's get retarded" should have been a career ending song. Instead it made them an international sensation, so what do I know. I don't want to think about how many times I heard this song this weekend.

Loudest music in a bar that shouldn't have had such loud music goes to..

-Lemming's...or maybe it was Cleo's. I'm not sure. In any event, your music was too loud. Just giving you the heads up.

Best decision to have "The Super Bowl Shuffle" on a jukebox and serve free pretzels goes to...

-Ed and Jean's on Armitage. If the free pool brings them in, the free pretzels seals the deal. The pacman machine was a nice touch also. Maybe the greatest discovery of this weekend.

Most curious conversation choice goes to...

-Two anonymous friends of mine who argued about their brands and colors of jeans for twenty minutes this past weekend. Rather than explain the argument, I'll just provide a few choice quotes and let you make up a story in your head.

"Umm...it's called light and dark."

"I used to wear Levi's too when I was 12 and my mom picked my clothes out for me at Kohl's."

"You think they're going to let us in tonight with your jeans on?"

"I'll look better in $30 jeans than you will ever look."

What's important to note is that this argument taught me that Levi's has some super expensive offerings and that my friends are paying far more attention to what jeans I wear than I initially thought.

Worst business decision goes to...

The 10 Club, Pearl Jam's fan club. I don't how you did it, but you managed to screw up giving out seats by fan club seniority. There were a lot of upset fan club members in the 300 level last night (fortunately, I was not one) and that doesn't seem like a good reason to join the fan club.

Best business decision goes to...

Pearl Jam, by making up for that error by playing a killer show. Some of the diehards online were upset with the lack of any rarities, but I'd say two Who covers and one Neil Young cover made up for this a bit. I can't imagine how they're going to try to top that tonight, but I know I'll probably need earplugs for it.

Best ice cream related decision goes to...

My friend David, who left the show during "Insignificance" to use the bathroom and came back with an enormous vanilla ice cream filled waffle cone. I don't think this is going to cease being funny for a while.

Most disappointing Chicagoan goes to...

-The guy in front of me at Billy Goat, who tried (and failed) to order cheese fries for like five minutes. It's a good thing we were not at the original location. He wouldn't have done well for himself there.

Most likely to have never seen "PCU" goes to...

The bar Hawkeye's and all of its guests. In case you don't know, "PCU" is an entirely forgettable early 90's college movie that is only memorable for two things- a George Clinton and the Parliament Funkadelic performance of "erotic city" and for informing the masses that it isn't cool to wear a t-shirt of the band you're going to see in concert. So needless to say, you can imagine my amusement in walking in to a bar filled with people in Pearl Jam shirts, and the bar actively deciding to only play Pearl Jam before the show, at one point going as far as to turn off a rap song so they could play "Daughter" again.

Greatest decision to enter the world of social media goes to...

Myself. Since starting my twitter feed, I have won a $10 gift certificate to Superdawg, and as of this morning, I have been informed I won a Kevin Garnett autographed shoe. Who needs regular employment when you have a sneaker and a free hot dog?

Pearl Jam night two in 7 1/2 hours. Drop the leash.



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