Last week I saw the Paul Westerberg at the Rave. Wow! What an amazing show. I forgot how good he is. He skipped some of his better known popier solo songs like World Class Fad and Dyslexic Heart. Instead he gave a pretty solid rock show with a few Replacements tunes mixed in. The evening’s highlight came in the first of two encores when Paul and his band played Alex Chilton and Can’t Hardly Wait. The set also included Kiss Me on the Bus and Merry-Go-Round. One of the stranger moments came half way through the concert as Paul covered David Cassidy’s I Think I Love You. I’m not sure if it went over with the crowd quite like he had expected it to. Great show anyway though.

My niece had her first birthday a little more than a week ago. The main event of her b-day party featured Larissa doing battle with a mean looking ladybug cake. The early line had the girl as a 1000-1 favorite. The cake never stood a chance. It wasn’t pretty. She tore that thing apart like nobody’s business.

Click here for the obligatory gf picture.

From CBS Sportsline:

Alex Rodriguez saved an 8-year-old boy from serious injury when he prevented the youngster from getting hit by a truck Thursday. “The kid was going to get run over. I just kind of put my arm out and stopped him,” he said.

Last Saturday, Connie, my brother Jeff, his girlfriend Megan and I traveled to Chicago to see Handsome Boy Modeling School at the House of Blues. The show started at midnight. After three opening acts, Chest Rockwell (Prince Paul) and Nathaniel Merriwether (Dan the Automator) took the stage around 3:00am in their trademark mustaches and matching racing jackets. To start the show the duo offered a bit of advice on how to live a more Handsome lifestyle. Their tips included: do jumping jacks and wash your privates. In between songs they gave makeovers by bringing less handsome concertgoers on stage and drawing mustaches on them. It was pretty ridiculous. They had a screen behind them that showed cartoon versions of Del The Funky Homosapien, Jack Johnson, Cat Power and many others singing their parts. The early morning show also featured a few special guest appearances. Most notable was Opio from Hieroglyphics. Things wrapped up around 4:30. It was a long night and a fantastic time.

While there are a lot of movies that i’m looking forward to this summer (Star Wars, Batman, Hitchhiker’s Guide), the one i’m most curious about is Tim Burton’s Willy Wonka movie. I loved Roald Dahl growing up. A couple of the first books that I remember reading were James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. They were really cool and imaginative stories.

I’m sure we’ve all seen Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory hundreds of times. It’s one of the movies that I always stop on when channel surfing. The story plays to every kid’s fantasy of being allowed a lifetime supply of candy. From the ages of 5 through 10, this would have been my definition of ultimate happiness.

The movie still holds up very well. Gene Wilder is so good in it. He owns that character. I still get a little weirded out when watching the scene where they’re all on the boat sailing through the tunnel. “There’s no earthly way of knowing… which direction we are going…”. Everything about the movie is great. The kids in it are all really good too. If i’m ever hard pressed for a laugh, all I have to do is watch Augustus Gloop fall into the chocolate river and get stuck in that tube. Not to mention, the Oompa Loompas. They were awesome. I came across a small bit on the new Oompa Loompas. Here’s a link to it.

A few years ago I read that it was being remade with Nicolas Cage starring as Wonka. I’m glad that didn’t happen. It most likely would have been terrible and crushed a nostalgic part of me that loves the Wonka character so much to have him sullied by Cage.

I feel completely different about Johnny Deep. While I think Deep may be a little to young to play the role of a retiring candymaker, I like him as an actor. After seeing the trailer, I think it’s going to be really interesting. I have high hopes for it. As much as we’ll miss the orange skin, the new Oompa Loompas look pretty cool too.

I received an e-mail today from our good friend Andy G. that included this original photo shop creation. Enjoy.

I saw Sin City over the weekend. It’s fantastic. I’m not familiar with Frank Miller’s source material, so I didn’t have expectations. It’s hard to image anyone being disappointed by this though. Sin City is a nonstop rollercoaster ride of a movie. The pacing is relentless.

Of the movie’s three stories, the first is my favorite. Mickey Rourke is very good in this. Marv is one bad motherfucker. Rourke nails the character. It’s a blast to watch him tear through every scene. Marv’s confrontation with Kevin (Elijah Wood) is one of the film’s many highlights. Hopefully this movie does for him what Pulp Fiction did for Travolta and he doesn’t screw up by following it with 11 years worth of crappy movies.

Clive Owen (who i’m becoming a big fan of) and Rosario Dawson are great in the second story. The third story features Bruce Willis in the lead role. I like Willis, but i think casting an older actor in his role would have worked better.

The only thing that I really didn’t like about the movie was Brittany Murphy. She’s terrible. It seems like she does this nervous laughter and crazy yell speaking thing in every movie i’ve seen her in. Outside of Murphy’s five minutes of screen time, the movie is brilliant.

I love baseball and am so happy that it’s back. The best part of watching sports is following the rivalries. MLB got it right this year by starting the season with Yankees/Red Sox. It’ll be fun watching them duke it out this year.

For the first time in many years Brewers fans can be excited about the direction the team is going in. New ownership, a savvy GM, Carlos Lee, top prospects getting close to the majors, etc. It’s hard to contain my enthusiasm.

Although I haven’t subscribed for a long time, I was raised Catholic. My grandparents loved the Pope. They had pictures of him displayed around their house. The Pope has always reminded me of them. Also, it’s hard not to admire what he has meant to Poland.

I’ve been back over a week and haven’t had the chance to comment on the trip too much, so here goes.

The taxi drivers that we had in London were great. They were incredibly knowledgeable and loved to chat. Between pointing out landmarks, one of our drivers told us that most of the Brits aren’t very happy with Charles’ marriage to Camilla. He said that everyone thinks that she looks like a horse.

National Anthems, the play at the Old Vic Theatre, wasn’t impressive. Kevin Spacey was good in it though.

The Camden and Portabello markets were a lot of fun. They’re both prime areas to hang out and people watch. I picked up a lot of great souvenirs.

I enjoyed the museums. We visited the Tate Modern, the Louvre, the Pompidou, and the British Museum (where Connie got yelled at for touching one of the sculptures). One of our favorite pieces was at the Pompidou. It was a glass case containing 10 cotton swabs with a brownish, black substance on them. The piece was titled, “My 10 Days of Menstruation”.

Many of my favorite pictures were taken from The Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe and the London Eye. Amazing views.

We made friends with Nicolas, the guy who sold us our tickets to the Moby concert in Paris. He didn’t speak much English, but loves America. He currently owns a restaurant in Paris, but plans on moving to Daytona Beach, Florida with his girlfriend. He showed us the tattoo of Mount Rushmore that he has on his arm. Impressive. He gave us the lowdown on all of the best clubs in the city. One of my favorite moments from the trip was when Connie asked him if he liked rap music. Nicolas made the kind of face one makes when they smell something really bad. He said that in France only bad people like rap, illustrating his point by making shooting gun gestures with his hands. Nicolas was a cool guy. He also showed us the one U.S. dollar that he keeps in his wallet for good luck. We were invited to his restaurant to dine for “zero Euros”. Unfortunately, we never made it there. He gave me his address. I’m going to send him a gift package next week. If anyone has any ideas of what to send him, let me know.

I was enamored with the Latin Quarter, the area near Notre Dame. It was my favorite part of Paris. The Seine is beautiful at night.

We saw the Chemical Brothers and the Secret Machines in Brixton. It was an amazing show. Clubbing in Paris was fun too. One night we stayed out until 5am. It was insane.

The cafes in Paris and the pubs in London were all very good. We met a lot of interesting people. The dining was great, especially the wine and cheese in Paris.

It was a great trip. I can’t wait to go back.

I spent my Thursday evening at The Times Cinema checking out Mike Judge and Don Hertzfeldt’s 2005 edition of The Animation Show. This year’s collection of animated shorts was fantastic. Tonight was the last night of its run in Milwaukee. If you’re an animation fan, pick it up when it arrives on DVD. Most of the shorts are really funny and clever. The whole program is great, but I especially enjoyed Polish animator Tomek Baginski’s Fallen Art. Its humor is extremely dark. The woman sitting behind me kept repeating “Oh, this is terrible” while it was running. Peter Cornwell’s Ward 13 was really good as well. It’s a claymation short featuring a man trying to escape a hospital where everyone wants to viciously harm him.

I visited with the Codys after the show. Emerson is adorable. They seem to be doing very well. Sleep is overrated anyway.

It was a good Easter. Here’s my favorite picture from the afternoon. From left to right: The Godfather, my Goddaughter Larissa (holding a chocolate replica of the cross that Jesus died on that I bought for her) and my sister Sue.