Just past 8:30AM, Sunday morning, bright and sunny. N opened the blinds in the Wii room about a half hour ago, and the boys wanted to play Wii, so I rose. T is watching some Christmas movie starring Danny Devito and the hated Matthew Broderick while M goes through Christmas ads on the couch. I shouldn’t be awake, I guess, but here I am. Today I’ll take it easy. Maybe I’ll make some cookies.

Yesterday was a good day. M took the boys to a local Christmas parade in the late morning, so I had the house to myself for a couple hours. I delayed my Chicago departure for a couple hours to hang out. The last few times I’ve visited I went down too early and ended up exhausted by early afternoon. I left home near one, stopped at work to water all the plants, and drove south. The roads were smooth and clear until the Cumberland toll booth, where the traffic past the toll booth was bad enough to cause motorists to wait at the toll booth for the traffic past the toll booth to break before we could pay the toll. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen that before. I left the Kennedy at Cumberland instead of Higgins, cut through the depressing three-flat streets near the el, and hooked up with Dan a little further down on Higgins. We took Dan’s car. After a bit of confusion (I was four blocks off on the address) we found the new Taco and Burrito House on Central. The space is clean and open, with waitresses, like a real restaurant. They didn’t change the food much, though, so I was satisfied. They make the best tortas in the world. Too many onions in the burrito this time, though. Don’t mess with the perfect recipe, people. Some guy knocked on the window and tried to sell me fake gold, though. To what is the world coming when I can’t eat dinner at the TABH without some asshole banging on the window? Do I really look like the type of guy who would wear fake gold? What’s the north side become? Whatever. We decided to drive down to Reckless instead of Harlem-Irving place, since we had time to kill, so we weaved our way east. At Reckless I bought Vic Chesnutt’s “Silver Lake” (his material can be remarkably hard to find). At Borders I found a photo book of Chicago churches for four bucks. Four bucks! It’s a huge hardcover, too. Earlier J called and said he wouldn’t be able to make the meeting because of a tennis tournament, and while I was in Borders G called, out of nowhere, looking for a ride to the gig. No sweat. We took LSD up to Lawrence and cut across to pick him up. D tried to turn into a thrift store parking lot and I had to take evasive measures. We picked up G and hit the theatre about thirty minutes before the film was set to start. D was convinced next to no one would show, but a pretty good crowd had formed, all the punk rockers smoking out in front of the Portage theatre. Ok, I realize I haven’t mentioned the film lately. Here’s the website. It’s a history of Chicago punk from 1977-1984.

http://www.regressivefilms.com/

They had cool Chicago flag/punk rock t-shirts and posters in the lobby, but they didn’t have my size, so I passed. I snagged a diet coke and we hit our seats. I’m glad we got their early because D was way wrong. I would estimate about 1,000 people showed. The movie started about thirty minutes late. The crowd was a bit rowdy at first but settled down quickly. I thought the film was excellent, even though most of the bands were slightly before my time. In fact, at one point the filmmakers imply that my generation of punk/hardcore interlopers ruined the scene. Yay for us! The movie probably spent a bit too much time on performance footage, and a couple of bands could be dropped without ill effects (Verboten? Not necessary), but the film did speak to the stubborn Chicago pride evident in the music of the period (and just after). I would have focused less on some of the shitty early bands and more on late period gigs that emerged as leaders once people actually started showing up at shows. Next to nothing on Out or Order? Criminal. No real discussion of how everyone came out for the Naked Raygun shows? Just wrong. G said the filmmakers were “overtly reverential” of the scene grandpas, and he’s right. I would have added a couple years and included Lost Cause, Jesus Lizard, No Empathy, and Screeching Weasel. Maybe they’ll do a sequel.

After the gig J wanted to get a drink, but I had been up since 4:30AM, so I wanted to get the hell on the road. Dan dropped me off at the car and I drove north. I turned on Stars of the Lid and opened a diet coke. Man, I was tired. I struggled to keep my eyes open. I opened the window every now and then and kind of freaked as I half-nodded every couple of minutes. Still, I reached home, a little after midnight, and crashed by two.

More later. I’m glad the sun is out.