I have off Monday for our anniversary. We're going to head into the city on Sunday afternoon and hang out there until Monday evening. we're going to have some nice meals and go see this:
Ooooh. that looks very cool. We just had our "Light City" festival which is fun too. A friend of mine specializes in elaborate shadow puppet shows, so it's a big night for her.
We're going to do that, also check out the new ferris wheel at Navy Pier, the river walk, and take Simon back to Millennium Park. It's been long enough since he went that he doesn't remember, really. Also, we'll get some fun meals: Little Goat Diner, Au Cheval (for burger famously dubbed by Bon Apetit as the best in America), donuts at Firecakes, a snack at the Nutella Cafe... and staying at the Renaissance in River North and doing some swimming, because shit yeah, we want to go to a pool.
I promised my wife and kid this is what we'd do this year before times got lean and I've been Lyft-ing my ass off to make sure it still goes down. I can kinda see the light at the end of the tunnel on that and may even get Saturday off, too.
Driving Lyft last night, I was taking some kid home to an unfamiliar neighborhood on the west side. As we pulled through one intersection, five fairly shady people standing on a corner stepped into the street and started walking directly towards the car.
The kid looked at me and said, "After you drop me off, you should probably get out of here."
The stereotype is that the South side would be dicey, but it's been fine so far. People are poorer there, but they're nice, and most neighborhoods are just row upon row of small but clean houses or apartments after apartments. Riders ask for different things, like making an extra stop at their girlfriend's house to give her one of their tacos, or they disagree with the routes the GPS takes and insist on dictating each turn. But they've been nice.
There are some places on the west side though where I've turned off the app and gone straight for the highway.
Around 60% of all rides I pick up after 11 smell like weed or have so much booze coming out of their pores that they smell pickled.
I drove a stripper to work last night and she asked me to turn the radio down. She needed quiet so she could wire transfer money to her family.
I also drove an old man home from the ER after he spent all day waiting to see if they would admit him to detox. He's addicted to pain pills.
And on Sunday, this lady spent an entire one hour drive from the south side to the far out burbs breaking up with her bf over the phone. He'd cheated on her twice but refused to move out because his name was also on their lease. She told him he could stay but she would see other people too and I gather he started crying/yelling.
One other weird thing: the poorer the neighborhood, the more likely that the account I'm picking up for will have a woman's name/face, but the actual rider will be her boyfriend, who is using her account.
I had this weird thought listening to the indie station on Sirirus XM last night.
I have grown grudgingly fond of the current wave of indie pop with synths, female and or fey male vocals, drawing on 80s sounds and all of that. It's not my top shelf stuff, but for radio music, I like it well enough.
But I cannot imagine I would have believed you if you'd told me ten years ago that one of the recurring influences on indie music in 2018 would be De Barge. I really would have thought you were fucking with me. But there he is, those vocals, that synth sound, that sort of light r&b by way of disco by way of new wave vibe. All over the place.
I think a lot of people chalk all of it up to Prince, and maybe that's true. But I don't think it has quite the grit or depth of the Purple One, so to me, it always plays like De Barge.
I think you're in the right zone. It's starting to become a bit much for me. I like the flavor well enough, but it seems like NObody wants to rock anymore. Even the Jack White sounds more like Beck these days.
I've mentioned our day in the city for this weekend. But now I've planned next weekend, too. Simon and I will be going to see "Chicagoland's finest Beatles tribute band" play in a 'burb a bit north of us. He loves, loves, loves the Beatles lately, so I'm hoping it will be a good time.
Going to see Eli's band open up a Phillies game tonight. Then Avengers tomorrow. Not sure what else will happen but I do know that the weather is going to be delightful.
Comments
I promised my wife and kid this is what we'd do this year before times got lean and I've been Lyft-ing my ass off to make sure it still goes down. I can kinda see the light at the end of the tunnel on that and may even get Saturday off, too.
The kid looked at me and said, "After you drop me off, you should probably get out of here."
So I did.
There are some places on the west side though where I've turned off the app and gone straight for the highway.
Around 60% of all rides I pick up after 11 smell like weed or have so much booze coming out of their pores that they smell pickled.
I also drove an old man home from the ER after he spent all day waiting to see if they would admit him to detox. He's addicted to pain pills.
And on Sunday, this lady spent an entire one hour drive from the south side to the far out burbs breaking up with her bf over the phone. He'd cheated on her twice but refused to move out because his name was also on their lease. She told him he could stay but she would see other people too and I gather he started crying/yelling.
And now I'm kind of wondering why it's not already a genre. Uber Driver Anthologies.
I have grown grudgingly fond of the current wave of indie pop with synths, female and or fey male vocals, drawing on 80s sounds and all of that. It's not my top shelf stuff, but for radio music, I like it well enough.
But I cannot imagine I would have believed you if you'd told me ten years ago that one of the recurring influences on indie music in 2018 would be De Barge. I really would have thought you were fucking with me. But there he is, those vocals, that synth sound, that sort of light r&b by way of disco by way of new wave vibe. All over the place.
I think a lot of people chalk all of it up to Prince, and maybe that's true. But I don't think it has quite the grit or depth of the Purple One, so to me, it always plays like De Barge.
The rockingest "new" tracks on SiriusXMU are the new GbV songs, which is sort of weird.
What are you fine people up to?