"Do you feel lucky, punk? Well, do ya?"
I'm a nerd and compulsively obsessed with music (the rock & roll canon and independent power pop), film (noir and boxing and Clint Eastwood), literature (Victorian and early 20th century), baseball (Cubs and Dodgers), softball (Northwestern and my teams), tennis (Roger Federer and John McEnroe), adventure (two-lane blacktop road tripping and traipsing all over Asia), and patronising every mom-and-pop ethnic restaurant in Chicago.
Me by the numbers:
- 25 Bruce Springsteen shows
- 38 U.S. states explored
- 19 countries explored
- 3 softball teams I play on
- 5 times driven to New Orleans and back, via the Great Mississippi River Road
- 16 slices of pizza eaten in one sitting, personal record
- 1 original "Pet Sounds" LP signed by Brian Wilson in person
- 0 times I've met Bruce Springsteen
- 26 Cubs game in the 2003 season
- 1,000,000,000 times I'm a nerd over for keeping track of the above
New lists! I love lists.
My favourite 2007 Chicago Cubs:
1. Mark DeRosa
2. Ryan Theriot
3. Ted Lilly
4. Derrek Lee
5. Lou Piniella
6. Aramis Ramirez
7. Kerry Wood
My favourite beers:
1. Goose Island 312 Urban Wheat Ale (Drink local!)
2. Goose Island Summertime Ale (Honk if you love beer. Honk! Honk!)
3. Bass Ale
4. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
5. Corona
My favourite movie directors:
1. Orson Welles
2. David Fincher
3. Clint Eastwood
4. Alfred Hitchcock
5. Sam Raimi
New records I love this year:
1. Bruce Springsteen - "Magic"
2. Ryan Adams - "Easy Tiger"
3. The Thrills - "Teenager"
4. Josh Ritter - "The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter"
My favourite recent travel experiences:
1. Trekking up 1,237 stone steps up a mountain in Krabi, Thailand
2. Tapas bar-hopping and sangria imbibing with my family in Spain
3. Stepping foot on Thailand, Burma and Laos all within one day in the Golden Triangle
4. Road tripping to Nashville, Tennessee to see Ryan Adams at the legendary Ryman Auditorium
5. Climbing to the top of the world's third highest pyramid in Teotihuacan, Mexico with an undiagnosed torn MCL in my left knee
My favourite things to eat in Chicago:
1. Diavolo pizza at Spacca Napoli
2. Boeuf bourguignon and Bananas Sara crepes at La Creperie
3. Any hot dog and duck fat fries at Hot Doug's
4. Skirt steak special with cactus salad at Los Nopales
5. Ropa viejo at Cafe Laguardia
6. Beef and beefball pho at Pho Xe Tank
7. Pakora and fruit naan at Bhabi's Kitchen
8. Ribeye casado and oatmeal shake at Irazu
9. Som tum at Sticky Rice
10. Crawdaddy boil at Blue Bayou
My favourite games to play -- please challenge me!:
1. Scrabble
2. Scattergories
3. Super Mario Bros. (16-bit Nintendo Entertainment System)
4. Diner Dash
5. Pacman
My favourite American cities
1. Chicago, Illinois
2. Los Angeles, California
3. New Orleans, Louisiana
4. Savannah, Georgia
Where I'd really, really want to explore
1. Havana, Cuba
2. Cairo, Egypt
3. Athens, Greece
4. Kathmandu, Nepal
5. Ladakh, India
6. Palau, Micronesia
7. Thimphu, Bhutan
My current favourite tracks that I can't get enough of
1. "Two" by Ryan Adams
2. "Young Folks" by Peter, Bjorn and John
3. "Radio Nowhere" by Bruce Springsteen
4. "This Better Be Good" by Fountains of Wayne
5. "Right Moves" by Josh Ritter
6. "No More Empty Words" by The Thrills
My favourite film scenes
1. Gordie, Chris and Vern and Teddy walking along the railroad tracks as Buddy Holly sings "Everyday" in "Stand By Me."
2. Harry chewing on the last of his hamburger after shooting out the would-be bank robbers in "Dirty Harry."
3. Rocky running up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art as Bill Conti's orchestra plays "Gonna Fly Now."
4. The opening scene in "Zodiac," shot through the open window of a moving car as Three Dog Night sings "Easy To Be Hard."
5. Don singing "Singin' In The Rain" in "Singin' In The Rain."
6. The final game in "A League of Their Own."
7. The cafeteria scene in "Mean Girls."
8. The opening sequence of "L.A. Confidential" when Johnny Mercer sings "Accen-chu-ate The Positive" as 1950s art deco images of Los Angeles flash across the scene.
9. Maggie's knock-out scenes in "Million Dollar Baby."
10. Johnny and June performing "Jackson" in "Walk The Line."
Presenting... the 2007 Singapore Slings!
My fantasy baseball team is currently ranked seventh out of 12 teams in the fifth year of King Elote Baseball.
C Paul Lo Duca - New York Mets
C Russell Martin - Los Angeles Dodgers
1B Derrek Lee - Chicago Cubs
2B Mark DeRosa - Chicago Cubs
3B Aramis Ramirez - Chicago Cubs
SS Carlos Guillen - Detroit Tigers
LF Eric Byrnes - Arizona Diamondbacks
CF Curtis Granderson - Detroit Tigers
RF Reggie Willits - Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
IF Mike Fontenot - Chicago Cubs
IF Brandon Phillips - Cincinnati Reds
IF/OF Casey Blake - Cleveland Indians
SP Ted Lilly - Chicago Cubs
SP Micah Owings - Arizona Diamondbacks
SP Daisuke Matsuzaka - Boston Red Sox
SP Barry Zito - San Francisco Giants
SP Justin Germano - San Diego Padres
SP Brad Penny - Los Angeles Dodgers
SP Matt Morris - San Francisco Giants
SP Joe Blanton - Oakland Athletics
RP Todd Jones - Detroit Tigers
RP Huston Street [DL] - Oakland Athletics
RP Alan Embree - Oakland Athletics
