Now I'm cookin with gas

I've been busy workin lately. The fun must come back soon. With a possibility of rain this weekend my climbing plans might get squashed. I have been making due with bicycle action though. I threw a rack on my touring bike and it has been a real mule for me lately.
After a the inaugural ride to the grocery store.

I am really enjoying the rack. I hope I freaked out some drivers.

The summer plans are coming up soon. I have found a route for a dinner/night ride. Super stoked to bring this ride to my Chicagoans from Denver.

View Night Ride in a larger map
I bought some panniers for my bike ride to Indiana Dunes and then off to Warren Dunes in Michigan. I'm still looking for takers on any of these rides. The one Im most psyked for is the Midwest Mountain Bike Fest in Grand Rapids Michigan on the 30th and 31st. And baseball lots of baseball. Let the action start.

More Concert Action

I caught The Boss on Tuesday. Yes Bruce Springsteen along with his E-street band. I've never been an arena concert goer. So seeing Springsteen was never super high on my list, although my parents' stories of his concerts really made the idea appealing. I can honestly say that there was not a ounce of disappointment for the entire show. Bruce came out on stage and I thought out loud "thats him" The man the Boss I had no idea I'd be so impressed. He started right in to "Badlands" and for the next three hours I could not stop moving. He played a lot of recent cuts and a pretty sweet cover of "Mony Mony" that seemed unrehearsed along with a completely rockin' "Ghost of Tom Joad". Half way through the show Max Weinberg, the best drummer in rock, (my opinion) leaves the stage so his son could take over. By the end of the tour his son will take over full time so Max can go to The Tonight Show with Conan O' Brian in LA. Let me say the apple did not fall far from the tree 'cause that kid killed it, he was awesome. The band played "Born to Run" as a final song, before the encores, and the United Center went ape shit. It was the Coolest show I have ever been to. Kudos to Janine for knowing how sweet the Boss is in person.

Rock N Roll weekend

Neko Case

The weekend passed with much fan fare. Friday my insatiable appetite for Neko Case was fed at the Chicago Theater. Truly an elegant setting for for a woman of such punk rock roots. Gone are the days of the intimate settings of Shubas (seating around 500?) and possibly the mid sized venue too as she sold out the cavernous auditorium. She played through her new album Middle Cyclone and mixed in some previous singles too. Kelly Hogan kept the banter coming while Neko kept uncharacteristically quiet for the majority of the show. However along with Jon Rauhous on steel pedal and the rest of the band Neko sounded the best I've ever heard. The only issue I had was my confinement to my seat but I know Ill be dancing when I see her in Grant Park this summer.

M Ward

On to show number two on Sunday. M Ward a singer Nick turned me on to last year when he made me a CD for my 18 hour drive across the heartland. Since then yet another Nick that I work with has been playing the man nonstop here at work so we all caught him at the Vic. The show had some high energy mixed with slow deep rhythms. In the middle he donned a harmonica sans band and did his best Bob Dylan. He ended his set with a rockabilly feel and had the story ended there it would have been fine. However the Rock N Roller that she is Janine took us all to the only decent dive bar in the area for PBR's and in walks the opening band, The Watson Twins. Upon realizing this we notice that we were sitting nixt to M Ward at the bar the entire time. Janine splits to talk to the Watson Twins and leaves me to buy M Ward a beer and have a good long conversation with the man. To top it off when I tell him I work at the Art Insitiute he introduces me to his friends as such "this is Tommy he works at the Art Museum" I had to reply "hey man you make great music, your job is way cooler". If that is not a Rock N Roll weekend I don't know what is.

March right into April

Denver Art Museum

March turned out to be a fantastic month. I took a few days off and got out to the city I cheat on Chicago with. Denver. Make no bones about it its a great city. I get the local treatment every time I'm there thanks to Nick and his crew. I got to drop in on former ski bum Amy and talk about the old times. Then who would have thought that snow would put a damper on a Colorado vacation. It dumped like 17" in the front range and kept us from climbing and some mountain biking. Oh well we'll hit it next time. I did get to socialize at St.Marks Coffee House and have a drink at the Thin Man. Two primo spots for good culture. We hit up some thrift stores for wacky 70's garb to sport at some clubs. The Denver Art Museum was also visited. Finally it was all toped off with a night ride out to Morrison. This was truly the tops of the trip. We took the Platte River bike trail out 20 miles at about 7pm and leisurely rolled into the Morrison Inn for chow at 10:30 pm. We were 6 deep with tunes commin from Josh's ghetto blaster and blinky lights all around. We got back into Denver about 1am and it couldnt have been more fun.

The Crew at Cheeseman Park.

Josh's ghetto blaster ipod rig.

Chowin' down at Morrison Inn.

The Crew half way home.

Parade Day, March 15th

The time is upon us to celebrate Ol' St Patrick. Chicago does this the best of any town I have ever lived in. This is truly my favorite thing to do in this city. I grew up in the south burbs and was extremely surprised when I went to High School in the heart of the South Side Irish and realized what an Irish last name got you. Truth be told I held reservation to a lot of it but I did take a healthy understanding of what it meant to be Irish in Chicago. I had classmates that were first generation and two that were off the boat. Heritage was held in high regard. All month long my friends would come to school and share the mother's soda bread, one cafeteria lady made enough to pass out for here entire shift. The culmination of all this pride was the South Side Irish Parade. Know affectionately as "Parade day", as if there are no other parades all year long not to mention the "official" St. Patrick's day parade donwtown.
As a young adult I ended up on the south side to finish up college and reintroduced my self to the culture that some of the Irish exchange students found amusing. I drank on Western Ave. and still do. I can't order a Guinness with out wanting "Irish Steve" to be siting across from me. I've had an honest to goodness "tru a lou a lou" night with an Irishman named Marty after the pub closed and the barkeep just didn't want to go home.

Into adulthood Irish Chicago has put its mark on me I attended the Young Irish Fellowship Ball this year, I'm a regular at Old St. Pat's Parish, and I now run into my kid sister at my old watering holes and tell her stories about the pubs that have closed down. I had know idea how deep in this culture I had become until the local PBS station did a story on Irish Chicago this month. I recognized or talked to just about everyone of the people they had interviewed. Every year the parade means something different to me. Last year was the first year I was able to go in a long time so there was nostalgic feel to it and this year I think it will be a nice celebration. So make your plans and come on out for all the good fun next year I haven't shown off the parade to an out of towner in a long time.

Dragons, Eggrolls, and The Ox

China Town

Chinese New year was at the beginning of the month so we celebrate the year of the Ox. It has been a while since I've celebrated the event however it has always been a blast. This year I also got to help my friend Dan with an inaugural web series about Chicago todos. This todo was the Chinese New year parade. I have never been to it before and we had a blast. We started the day with cameras and mics while getting an early jump on the local media crews. It seemed like after every spot we set up to shoot other camera crews followed I think we got the best footage. Check out how the episode turned out at my buddy's site In Your Face Chicago
Here are some pics from Chinatown.

Its not a Chicago parade without the Emerald Society

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

There are more that one lift but a detachable quad is hard to come by out here.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day was Monday so I took the advantage of my day off by hitting the slopes. This is probably the busiest ski weekend in the midwest. I do feel guilty that I participated in something so culturally white on a day that celebrates diversity and unity. I suppose a bit of deep reflection will relieve that. I took off at 9am for Cascade Mt. I consider this to be the best skiing within a two hundred mile radius of Chicago. At about 3hours of speed limit driving I arrived at noon which gives me plenty of time to enjoy what 500 ft of elevation has to offer. Plus lifts don't close till 9pm so I can enjoy some ill advised night skiing too. The lift lines were crowded but speedy for the high speed detachable quad (it's a Doppelmeier) but the slower chairs were no wait. I don't mind lift lines now it breaks up the day so I don't get the "go up, go down" feeling. This resort stands out above the rest in two ways the runs are wide broken up by pines but the number one sell are honest to goodness tree runs. I've been coming here for a few seasons now and there must never have been enough natural snow to fill the trees cause it was a first for me. Tree runs are going to be challenging any where you go and these were top notch. Even the pitch of the slope was good. Other snow conditions were pretty run out with ice patches here and there and then we got some fresh and conditions got better. Considering everything is relative it was a challenging afternoon. The drive home was slower than usual but not crawling.

Base of Cascade Mt. elevation is 820 feet.
Peak elevation is 1,280 feet.
Vertical drop is 460 feet.
There are 160 skiable acres.

The view looking down at the middle of the run.

The view looking up.

Ahh Wisconsin.