Friday, December 18, 2009

Friday night Fun - No Doubt

Super-cool Night. Super-cool songs, super-cool front-women. It's Super-Cool!

Friday night Fun - Elastica

Super-cool night continues with Elastica 'Connection.'

Friday night Fun - The Breeders

Cannonball!

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Santa, you better stock up on coal...

So a couple steps outside their apartment building in Elgin and finds a housecat in a cage with food and litter and a note saying the original owner can no longer take care of the cat. The apartment dwellers cannot keep the cat but being good citizens they tried to find a place for it, only to find out Kane County Animal Control, based in Geneva, had told them it didn't have a contract to pick up animals within the city, and Anderson Animal Shelter in South Elgin had said it already had too many cats.

So they do the next best thing and take it to the Elgin police department. Only they ran into Officer Scrooge, who first threatened to arrest them for abandoning an animal, then suggested they take it and abandon it in a rural area. When the couple refused the asshat officer decided to just open the cage and let the frightened kitteh run. The cat has since been found in good condition but what a lesson this couple has learned about trying to do the right thing. The dumbass Elgin police officer will face discipline and I hope Santa skips his house in a couple weeks.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Friday night Fun - BRITISH INVASION - English Beat

We were sitting at work this afternoon thinking, 'what are we gonna play tonight for Friday night Fun?' Then my iPod gave me the answer - BRITISH INVASION! We're kicking things off tonight with ska legends English Beat. This is a great live performance - Whine & Grine (with a very cool arrangement) and Stand Down Margaret. The sax player is no Saxa but he still sounds pretty damn good!

Friday night Fun - BRITISH INVASION - XTC

Fun continues with XTC and 'Dear God.'

Friday night Fun - BRITISH INVASION - The Housemartins

We're finishing it out tonight with The Housemartins doing 'Happy Hour.' We wanted 'Drop Down Dead' but couldn't find one. I remember the first time I heard Barenaked Ladies - I thought it was the Housemartins. Influence much?

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Congratulations, D Mac!

Darren McCarty, former Detroit Red Wing right wing, announced his retirement from the NHL on Monday. D Mac, you gave us fans many many reasons to cheer over 13 seasons and your heart and drive will surely be missed. Best known for decisively evening the score with Fraud LePew, he is also known for scoring the game-winning goal in the 1997 Stanley Cup Final that broke Detroit's 42-year drought and ushered in the beginning of Hockey Inc and Hockeytown supremacy. Mac had his demons, certainly, but his talents on the Grind Line with Kirk Maltby and Kris Draper and willingness to flash the badge will endear him to Red Wings fans forever.

It's so cool to watch this clip and realize you recognize the players from their faces, not just from seeing the number.

Here is Mac's 1997 Stanley Cup-winning goal. Mac was never known for his finesse skating but who knew he had a move like that in him?

Friday, December 4, 2009

Friday night Fun - The Boss & Mike Ness!

We were away last week and unable to post Friday night Fun so we're making up for it tonight. We thought we'd kick it off in a big way and went to look for something by Social Distortion leader Mike Ness and came across this gem. Apparently The Boss is a big fan of Mike's and had Mike join him on stage in LA last spring and they did the Social Distortion song 'Bad Luck.' Damn it sounds good and props to the boss for digging SD. (Bruce, your gaffe in Michigan and when you said "Hello OHIO" has now been forgiven.)

Trixie wants to take a moment to ask Johnny if he remembers when we were standing this close to Mike Ness that night in Pontiac... Good times.



And here's a bonus vid: Mommy's Little Monster!!

Fright night Fun - 3-fer with Ricky Bobby & his kids

Talladega Nights is just a damn funny movie. Here's three from the flick:

Spider Monkey:



Dirty Pee Pants:



Shake & Bake! (THAT JUST HAPPENED)

Friday night Fun - Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

We're finishing it up tonight with Tom Petty - everyone knows I love Tom Petty! This is getting played because it sounds good and because YouTube recommended it to me.
Here's 'Breakdown.'

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Let the poisoning begin...


In an attempt to prevent big, icky, voracious Asian carps from making it into Lake Michigan the Illinois Natural Resources Department is releasing a fish toxin into a stretch of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal.

God speed, poison!

The fish kill is expected to cost as much as $2 million and kill thousands of fish. It is designed to give the Army Corps of Engineers an Asian carp-free window of time to perform regular maintenance on the electric barrier the corps installed to stop the Asian carp from traveling toward the lake.

Asian carp -- which can weigh as much as 100 pounds, grow to 4 feet long and have been known to jump onto water-skiers and into boats --are expected to return to the barrier after the mass poisoning.

The voracious eaters feed on the low end of the food chain -- such as plankton. They wind up squeezing out fish that bigger fish feed on, potentially devastating sport and commercial fishing.

"You don't use rotenone unless you have no other options," said Marc Gaden, spokesman for the Great Lakes Fishery Commission. "Our backs are clearly against the wall here. ... This is pretty much the last chance, and this is a significant step we are taking."

Fish experts from around the Great Lakes region, including Canada, will coordinate pouring the liquid toxin into the water Wednesday afternoon. Hours later, the carcasses of thousands of fish including goldfish, gizzard shad and common carp will join the Asian carp in rising to the surface before being hauled to a landfill.

The shipping canal will be closed to boat traffic starting Wednesday and lasting through the weekend.

Rotenone naturally detoxifies, though the neutralizing agent potassium permanganate will be added to the water after the poison does its work. The fish toxin will be poured in the water roughly from the electric barrier down to the Lockport Lock and Dam.

"Is there a possibility there may be some small residual fish kill beyond the Lockport lock? Yes," said Chris McCloud, Illinois Natural Resources Department spokesman. "But we are prepared to deal with that and keep it in as tight an area as possible."

The routine electric barrier maintenance needs to be performed twice a year, and it's not known if another expansive fish kill will be needed six months from now, McCloud said.

"It's not something we hope to do," McCloud said, adding, "We need to focus on this particular operation."

Despite the efforts to keep the Asian carp out of Lake Michigan, Asian carp DNA has been found upstream of the electric barrier, suggesting that a few fish got past the electric barrier and are headed toward Lake Michigan.

Gaden said the fish kill is an absolute necessity to keep the Asian carp in check.

"Not doing it is throwing in the towel and inviting a species that is going to be very destructive into the Great Lakes," he said. "The economic costs of these fish to the ecosystem would be tremendous -- unquantifiable and irreversible."