Clown

Jonathan is a clown.

When he posts on here, why does he not title any of his posts?

Stuck

I'm stuck. In Chicago. My flight has been canceled. Hopefully I can get on another one tonight, but I hear tons of flights into New York are getting canceled. I'm not happy with this.

I just applied for a different job because my job salary is pathetic and they instituted a salary freeze right before I was owed a raise.

I asked for $30,000 a year, for a Merchandising Specialist. I hope this is not unreasonable.
If I get this job, I am gonna be ballin'

Really?

Did Jon just actually post? I'm into it. Let's see more out of him.

I literally just finished reading The Watchmen. I'm not a cyberweb nerd like any of you kids, but I absolutely loved it. Loved it! Hopefully the movie doesn't disappoint.

I'll be in Chicago for the next week, so I'll probably be too drunk to even get on a computer. In the meantime, I love Alkaline Trio:

Choking on the thought of leaving
Drinking to keep from sobbing
Four PM, four dollar pints
At SFO, the time and price

With all my happiness aborted
The PA painfully starts boarding
I sink deep thirty thousand feet
Into my window seat... electric chair

And I was drinking you goodbye
My heart floats in the bay
From sour home Chicago
I hear it beating far away
There's no telling what I'll do
If I don't return to you

Hopeful thoughts of soon returning
Can't put out my stomach burning
Plastic wings and plastic smiles
And salted peanuts to stretch my mile

Choking on the thought of leaving
Drinking to keep from heaving
Five PM, five dollar pints
Hellbound Airlines, time and price

And I was drinking you goodbye
My heart floats in the bay
From sour home Chicago
I hear it beating far away
There's no telling what I'll do
If I don't return to you

I was drinking you goodbye
My heart floats in the bay
From sour home Chicago
I hear it beating far away
There's no telling what I'll do
If I don't return to you

Just like the Prodigal Son, I've returned

someone steppin' to me, ya get burned.

Since this blog has gotten more serious, I decided I needed to post some stuff.
I will start off with books.
Background: I am allowed to listen to my iPod at work all day. I work 8 hours a day and have been at the place for 7 months so I have had to start trying to find different things to listen to other than the misfits boxset all day (which I do rock on my iPod from start to finish at least once a week pretty much). So I started listening to podcasts. And after tuesday of each week I started running out of those (as they are usually updated once a week, some more... some less). Then I noticed that audible.com started advertising that they give you a free audiobook with a free one month trial of their website.

So I signed up and downloaded Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. Awesome. I am a huge fan of Gladwell after reading the Tipping Point, and subsequently Blink. Nonfiction can be a difficult read, but he makes it interesting to read by skipping around and not getting too verbose on each aspect of his topic. Outliers is about what makes successful people so, well, successful. Instead of being statistical outliers in IQ or ability, it instead chooses to argue that their prowess more had to do with good timing. For example, it says great hockey players are born in the beginning of the year because that is the cutoff for the age groups in Candian Youth Hockey Leagues is January 1st, so therefore the kids born in the beginning of the year are older and bigger when they start playing at young ages where 6 months means a lot physically. Or about how Bill Gates is so successful because his junior high was one of the lucky few schools to have access to a mainframe computer while most every other kid would never have seen one until college. This book is pretty positive, it makes you feel like you still have a chance to be awesome even if you are living at home in your mom's (or grandma's) basement.

Then I got Lush Life by Richard Price. Devin wrote about this so I am just going to say I liked it. Today I was listening to the Fresh Air podcast (from 2/27) by NPR and I learned that Richard Price wrote a book called Clockers that later became inspiration for the HBO show The Wire. He subsequently wrote for the The Wire and this makes a lot of sense because I remember listening to Lush Life and thinking about how the descriptions of young project kids and cops was very reminiscent of the show. Even one of the detectives in the story is almost the same character as Det. McNulty on The Wire.

Alright, I am bored. I will talk about some other books later.
- Haymaker
aka Jonathan

Man vs. Ape

Man vs. Ape

Go get some music.

Purchases

I bought some stuff online since I was bored and up at 4:30 this morning. I bought this tee from Fullbleed, a cool place for shirts by Rob Dobi.



I'm also finally jumping on the bandwagon and purchased the graphic novel before the movie comes out next week:

The Hood Internet

I got my passport and bag packed last night, and made the trip out to Brooklyn to see Chicago's mash-up kings, The Hood Internet. Like always, it was a great time. It was at The Bell House, which was a pretty decent place, and everyone was on the dance floor. The funny thing about though, was it was the worst dancing I have ever seen. One kid pretended to play the flute while dancing in a circle. It was awesome/funny/horrible. There was another dancer there who was 7 foot 3!!!! He was a fucking giant!!! And due to his height, he was a bad dancer!!! Tall people are just awkward. After awhile people started knocking inflated condoms around like they were beach balls at Lollapalooza circa 1993. That's when I had to get the fuck out of there.

Poster Time

I just received this in the mail today, and I am pretty stoked about it. I saw this tour just a few days before the date on the poster. It was at the original Bottom Lounge in Chicago. My friend Joey and I were supposed to be on the list, but for some reason Travis from Buddyhead forgot to add us (what an asshole!). Luckily though, we bumped into Don from Icarus Line (an ex-Ink & Dagger) and he was able to get us in. Good for us, since we only had beer money on us! Anyways, it was a great show. I think it was my first time seeing Battles, and I remember being completely amazed by them. They were a band that I had never heard of, but was mindfucked by them in the best way possible. That has never before happened to me at or show, and it hasn't happened since. Then Dead Meadow played, and I felt that just watching them allowed me to grow an awesome beard and just rock harder than any of you. Last, but certainly not least, was The Icarus Line. I have nothing but love for this band. It was a great show, so I finally spent the cash to pick up this poster. Kind of a creepy image, but when I was taking it out of it's tube, my grandma saw it and said it was "cute." My grandma for the win!

Oh, by the way it was designed by Aesthetic Apparatus, a great design company out of Minneapolis that also designed a lot of posters for the Metro. It's kind of awesome to see posters of shows that I actually attended.

How To Lose Friends & Alienate People

So I am currently in the process of watching this movie. It is on pause right before one of the last scenes, and I felt that I had to get some thoughts down before I finished the movie. It's been good so far, only because of Simon Pegg. The British dude from Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead is witty throughout, and sincerely likable up onto the part that I am paused at. While he is lusting over Megan Fox (who wouldn't be, she is the hottest woman alive!), he has simply become the biggest bitch in the world. Due to this, him basically selling out for a girl, the movie has become complete shit. Now, I assume there will be a happy ending where he goes back to the witty, cynical, genuine person he was at the beginning....and I also assume this means he will end up with Kirsten Dunst (who wasn't horrible in this, looks wise or acting wise)....

....my point is this:

romantic comedies are fucking dumb and I just wasted 2 hours of my life when I should have just watched this:



Also, I think Agent Scully is in this, but I might be too drunk to know for sure.

Sorry...

....for not posting in a week. I've been busy working/watching VH1's I Love Money. I'm addicted to this show, even though it makes me want to vomit due to the fact that I like it. Other than that, here is a rundown of what is going on:

I'm super-excited for my trip back to Chicago the weekend of March 6th. In preparation, I have listened to a ton of Alkaline Trio.

As I'm typing this, my tv has had 4 tests of the emergency broadcast system in 10 minutes. The beeping is super annoying, and I think I'm about to throw a rock through my tv.

If I know I'm going out to a bar, I shouldn't drink a bottle of wine early in the day. I guess not having a date on Valentine's Day will do that to a guy.

Sunday Thoughts

A-Rod is an idiot, but is this really a surprise? Let's just hope he can push it out of his mind of produce this year.

The Grammy's suck, but the very pregnant MIA/Kanye/Lil Wayne/Jay Z/TI performance was good. Also, domestic abuse is in no way humorous, but I laugh at how idiotic Chris Brown is for beating his girlfriend Rihanna the night before they are both scheduled to play at the Grammys.

Zach and Miri Make a Porno is a funny movie, except for the fact that all of Kevin Smith's movies get horrible lame at then end. Highlight of the movie though: Justin Long, starring in "Shut Your Mouth, or I'll Fuck It"

Q, a bbq place in Portchester, kicks ass. Pulled Pork kicks ass in general.

Fuck Manchester United.

I just downloaded the entire Lawrence Arms discography since my cds were scratched up. I miss Chicago.

Movies

I have watched 3 different movies this past week, and I thought all of them were both good and fucked up at the same time.

The Hamiltons (mostly fucked up)
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (mostly good)
Where the Fuck is Santa? (Bam Margera's new movie...totally fucked up)

Coming Home From Work Playlist

Russian Circles - New Macabre
Hey Mercedes - It's Been a Blast
The Streets - Dry Your Eyes
Queens of the Stone Age - Six Shooter
The Explosion - No Revolution
The Locusts - Normal Run of the Muck
These Arms Are Snakes - Briggs
Kylesa- The Warning
The Movielife - This Time Next Year