New site

Thanks to Alan at fallofautumn.com, themachinemedia.com will look different very soon. The site looks better, it's easy to update and easy to navigate. Rejoice!

I want to see the new "Curious George" movie.

I forgot

4. "Ring of Fire a Tribute to Johnny Cash" by Brian Mansfield

The book came with the set of 16 CDs of Johnny Cash reading the New Testament. It's more of a coffee table book than a tribute, but I read it so I'm counting it.

Lakeview

Things aren't self-destructing, but they're not everything I'd hoped they'd be.

Around 250 people came to the Double Door show, a pretty good number on a Wednesday night against Pelican, Feist and Jeff Tweedy. But before we even played a note, about 50 were still there. The recording didn't work and I broke my guitar. But things could have gone a lot worse.

25 people came to Underground Lounge last night. With little promotion and our first time there that also isn't so bad. But the bar had no regulars of its own and our friends came at different times, always making the place look sparsely attended. Drinks were not free, drinks were overpriced and we didn't get paid at the end of the night. We also had to provide our own needles. We won't be there much longer.

Things could be worse. It just gets harder to keep saying things could be worse.

Busy kids are happy kids

Kelsey and I spun records at Danny's last night. We sucked. We did help the bartenders clear tables at the end of the night so we should be back.

I'm about to leave to attend a meet and great for the DePaul New Venture Challenge. It's a good bet that I'll be the only one in jeans with a failed beard.

Double Door tomorrow.

Underground Lounge Thursday.

Hungry Brain Friday.

Recording Saturday.

Mass suicide Sunday.

Off Monday.

Off Tuesday.

Off Wednesday.

Rise from dead, Liar's Club Thursday.

Living

Martha Stewart is better than you. She's rich as hell, has street cred and can do everything better than you. Don't get a big head because she'll kick your fucking ass.

I want to move away from everyone and buy a tractor

It seems to be a pretty shitty month for Chicago music. First the home of gospel music burned down, Lou Rawls died and the former home of Red Line Radio has been demolished.

Red Line Radio was (maybe is, I'm not sure) a pirate radio station run out of Rogers Park. It had a free form schedule and let anyone who was willing to show up every week DJ. The former home was in the projection room of the Adelphi Theater. It was dirty, scary and altogether exciting.

Oh well.

I am the DJ, I am what I play

I'll take any excuse to quote David Bowie.

It seems that The Machine is turning less into a magazine and more into a party promoter. Didn't see that coming.

The Machine is spinning at Liar's Club, Delilah's, Underground Lounge and Town Hall Pub in Feb. We've also got Double Door and Danny's in Jan. It's great because we're not real DJs, we just spin Chicago music.

The next week should be a productive one for us. Three shows and progress in our DePaul Venture Project (more on this later).

David Bowie got a sucker thrown at him. It got stuck in his eye.

I'd like to use a word I feel wrong using

3. "The Wu-Tang Manual" by the RZA

The RZA is awesome. I want to be friends with the RZA. The Wu-Tang book is much, much better than the Manson book. Manson, you left me down. RZA, you are the man.

The manual covers a lot of ground. You learn about the groups fascination in kung-fu, the equipment RZA uses producing, what certain lines in certain songs actually mean, how and why you should dress like Wu-Tang, and my personal favorite, how RZA figured out how to get four major labels all working for the same group. The man knows his shit.

But if I met him, I'd probably tell how I'm shocked that he speaks so well. I like to see if they get the joke.

I'm watching the SNL that System of a Down played on. The first broadcast didn't bleep out fuck. Let's see if E! catches the error.

Coma White

2. "The Long Hard Road Out of Hell" by Marilyn Manson with Neil Strauss

It was disappointing. The Antichrist Superstar helped me remember a girlfriend I had in Freshman year of high school. We didn't kiss once. The last day we hung out was odd. I decided to leave and on the way out I saw her mounted on some 18-year old. We were 14. I bought her a candle from Spencer gifts for Christmas. It was what she asked for. The cover of Marilyn Manson's "Antichrist Superstar" was on it. She got me a Nirvana shirt.

Mike should update his blog more often

Last year's goal was to keep track of every band I saw. I did this until June or July. Because I didn't tell anyone about it I think I figured that the experiment was a waste of time. This year's goal is to read at least 52 books. I've read one so far.

1. "Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair that Changed America" by Erik Larson

It was good.

It's hard to listen to the radio station that I work at.

Pump Up the Volume

My show is almost over. I've been playing CDs that have been in my office for at least six months. I've never really listened to them. I like about 75% of what I've played. I think that's a good average.

9-year olds should not be allowed to use AIM. It's fucking creepy.

Twin Wrecks the Memory is a great band. Their music is good, which is always important, but they're great people to boot. I hope I wake up in time to go to their video shoot.

High Fidelity clerks

The cat was playing with the Reckless Records bag. It's a little after two in the afternoon. I've gotten out of bed to pee and to get my computer. The cat has had a more productive day.

The worlds only rock and roll talk show

Sound Opinions is a talk show about rock and roll. It's hosted by Jim Derogotis (Chicago Sun-Times) and Greg Kot (Chicago Tribune). The show used to be on WXRT but now it's on Chicago Public Radio. I was allowed to go in and interview the band a few years back. It was a learning experience. I liked Greg Kot, I thought Jim Derogotis is a dick. I'm listening to the show from last week and I still think Jim Derogotis is a dick. He's interviewing the singer from the Strokes who also sounds like a dick. The whole thing makes me weary of both radio and rock and roll.

The more I listen to this the more I hate Jim Derogotis. He asks "artists" softball questions and once they're out of the room he makes fun of them. He'll kiss ass for thirty minutes and then make it sound like they were kissing his ass for thirty minutes.

I saw him eat ham out of a deli package. It was right out of "Tommy Boy."

Greg Kot is a really nice guy. He knows his shit and listens when you talk. If every critic was like Kot, the music world would be a better place.

Rise Against put it in their newest video

Why is there always a description of mountains during NPR's Story of the Day? Is it really that important?

When the story is about an elderly subject, why does music from the decade of their birth have to be played in the background? They probably didn't listen to that music for the majority of their life. All music beds should consist of Judas Priest, crows screaming and babies swearing.

It is nice to know that when one half of an elderly couple dies their partner soon follows. Not because it's romantic, because only the good die young and the older you are, the more evil you are.

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Alicia, Kelsey and I went to the Fireside last night to see Egon Strangler, Beard and Doug Travis. Egon Strangler was a good, straight forward punk three-piece. Beard is another three piece, but instead of guitar, they have a violin player. Excellent band. Doug Travis, Billy and CT's band, played last and delivered an entralling set. Billy, the band's singer, started as a pregnant clown with a bright red curly wig. By the end of the set, he had given birth, lost his breasts and hair, destroyed four monkeys and spit on his band. Doug Travis put on a good show.

It was great to see a punk band at the Fireside. It's been almost a year and a half since they stopped having regular shows and it has made the city a little more boring. Hopefully there will be more shows like last night.

Jesus, I can't write.

Me: "I LIKE STUFF!!! YAY!!! PEOPLE PEOPLE THING!!!"

Smiling, happy people

There's a new ad campaign in the Clark/Lake CTA stop. It features children smiling and playing. No business attached. I don't trust it. Not at all.

I did not use spell chek on this post

At age 54, Wonder Woman is looking pretty good. I'm watching a made for TV movie on WE called "Family Blessings." The 1996 'film' has Lynda Carter playing a widowed mother of two kids. One of her children died a few years ago and now she's romantically involved with her dead son's best friend. It's a horrible movie, but I'm watching because Lynda Carter also looked pretty good at 45. (To show how lazy my brain has become, let me show you the behind-the-scenes of this blog post. Rather than subtract 96 (the year of "Family Blessings") from 51 (the year of Carter's birthday), I used the calculator on the computer. When typing the word calculator, I looked at the start menu to see if it was spelled with an or or an er.)

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Check out fallofautumn.com if you have the time. It's a neat site and has some zinesters I know doing podcasts. They call up, read their piece and the guys that run the site turn it into a podcast. It's a great idea and a pretty cool reality. It's just a little odd hearing people I know talk on the phone to no one in particular. It's not as creepy as Pat O'Brien's lewd phone calls, but disturbing none the less (Should none the less be written as one word? I should know this, or at least get up and look in a dictionary. Hell, I'm so lazy I choose not to use spell check or dictionary.com).

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I've been watching this shitty movie for almost an hour. I'm entralled and on the verge of suicide.

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I got a chance to talk to Billy Roberts, the guy in the bunny suit, last night at the Mojoe's reading. He told me that he's interested in getting back into the swing of things. That news makes me happy. Billy is one of the few people I know that makes every experience more interesting. His band Doug Travis is playing the Fireside tonight. I'm going to go. What would I do if I didn't run into Billy? Sit home in Oak Park and feel sorry for myself.

Go to loopdistro.com, IKnowBilly.com or Uncle Fun toy store and say hello.

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I think Lynda Carter and the younger guy are going to get married. I would marry Wonder Woman.

I wonder how much coke was done on the set of "Family Blessings."

They just made a semi-racist joke. Some guy adopted a black kid. "You're just going to have to get used to country music instead of rap." How do you know the kid even likes rap? Just because he's got gold chains, 2 guns, 3 gold teeth and 4 kids at the age of 13 doesn't make him a rap fan.

Still Alive

More on this later.