Overcharged and underappreciated

(To continue on the theme from last night, I realized that this means when I get old I will apparently turn into Bob Saget. You know, I used to look forward to the rest of my life. Now, not so much.)

I went to see Freakwater in concert last night. You’ve never heard of Freakwater and probably for good reason. Jim DeRogatis, one of my favorite music critics on the planet, once described their music as “sounding like a couple of cats being tortured.” But they play this really neat Appalachian hill country music despite the fact that everyone in the band is from Chicago. Anyway, there were three things that I had to mention about the night. One is that in a crowd of about thirty I knew a good third of them because they were all in local bands that I’ve seen. The second is that the bass player smoked with such a passion throughout the set that he has is own personal fog on stage. I mean, this guy played bass with a cigarette in his mouth and another one lit in the frets just so he wouldn’t have a nicotine free second. That was quite impressive. And I would like to thank the Grand Emporium for the following. On a Monday night, in an empty bar, they charged me six bucks for a beer. And it wasn’t even a good beer. And while I should thank them for limiting my drinking on a school night this officially places the management of the Grand Emporium alongside Ticketmaster as the people who will be first against the wall when the revolution comes.

Have a few other odds and ends to mention here. I know that I constantly rip on personalized license plates but on occasion I am pleased by them. Like the one I saw on a Mini Cooper that had a Union Jack painted on its roof. MIMINI on a car like that is appropriate, you can show off your pride in a unique vehicle. I’m just sick of people with MYTORUS and other statements of attachment to extremely pedestrian vehicles.

Also, I need to give a shout out to my Fighting Illini who went out and beat North Carolina tonight. Just a few months later than I had originally hoped. This means we are national champs now, correct? It’s like boxing, they had the title but we won the rematch so the belt is ours, right? Let me dream at least for a moment. This was the first chance that I’ve had to see Illinois play and they looked pretty good. The team doesn’t have near the talent or chemistry of last year’s squad but they look like a solid top 25 team, which is all that I am hoping for out of this season. If we can turn last year’s run into the formation of a perennial Big 10 powerhouse I will be overjoyed.

Last note, I would like to be the first to publicly welcome Martina Hingis back to the world of professional tennis. I now have a reason to watch Sports Center again. Awesome.