Apologies...

So, it has been a while since my last post. Here are the cliff notes since the last post...

Went to see Carrie Underwood at Ravinia...she is a good performer but a total dork! She is so awkward when she talks on stage between songs, but I forgive her since her music is so great. Went to DC for Emily and Dave's wedding over Labor Day weekend. We were greeted by Michael Wilbon when we got off the plane in DC. He seemed like a pretty cool dude...he was with his kid and he was wearing his Bears hat. DC was pretty awesome. Got to go back to Georgetown for the first time since 2000 when I studied there for a summer. Hit up The Tombs, my favorite bar/restaurant in Georgetown. Fantasy football draft was GREAT. Got my boy Tom Brady again. School started back up again. I am taking 2 classes so that I have time for wedding duties and a honeymoon (caribbean) in early November. Other than that life is the same. Getting really excited for the wedding in 6 weeks! Still searching for full-time employment as well. So, if you are out there reading this let me know if I can work for you!

Hope everyone is well and enjoys a great fall!

P.S. Engagement pics and other pics will be posted soon!

SHT Camping Trip

Click here to view these pictures larger

Hiking...

Tomorrow (Sunday, August 16th) my buddy Robby and I will be heading up to Northern Minnesota to hike the Superior Hiking Trail. It has been a few years since I did a trip like this and I am quite excited to get back in touch with nature. I will be back on Friday the 21st with pictures and a full report! Have a great week everybody.

Wednesday Rant - Talking/Texting While Driving

I have been pretty frustrated with this for a while...people texting or talking on their cell phones while they are driving. Do you people not read all of the stories about crashes and accidents caused by being this irresponsible? New studies have shown that texting or talking while driving is just as dangerous, if not more, than drinking and driving. Not only are people putting themselves in danger, they are putting the general public in danger. I'm so sick of seeing it and feel that cops should be enforcing the law more than they do now. I wish people would realize that it could be them in the next big accident. Instead of being so irresponsible and feeling so invincible, why not go out and buy yourself a handsfree device? They really aren't that expensive and are much safer than holding your cell phone with one hand and driving with the other. If your call or text is that important then please pull over to talk instead of endangering the rest of us.

This is pretty outrageous and relates to my rant above...very sad how irresponsible people are in this age of technology...Click here

Unbelievable.

Lollapalooza!

Heading to Lollapalooza today...stay tuned for updates each night on my favorite shows!

Friday: Got to the festival around 1:00 and headed straight to see Black Joe Lewis and The Honeybears. Wow. This was the second time I saw them and let me tell you -- it is a must see show. Even the onslaught of pouring rain couldn't stop these guys. Black Joe Lewis is one of the better unknown front men in the business. He is a mix between Andre 3000 from Outkast and James Brown. Every single song had the entire crowd dancing and having a blast. I can't wait until they swing back through Chicago to see them again. Here is a clip of them performing at last year's festival...there weren't too many good youtube clips of the show from this year, but this one is a must see from 2008. The pic below was taken with my blackberry during the downpour...it was well worth it!

At 3:00 I went to see Bon Iver. This guy is also incredible. He sings with so much emotion in his songs and really puts on a surprisingly great set. By the time this show started I think Noah was getting his Ark ready because the rain was so ridiculous. Anyhow, it was great to see another one of my favorite bands live in person.

Immediately following Bon Iver was Ben Folds. This guy is the most ridiculously talented piano player/entertainer I have had the pleasure of seeing five times. This time was no exception. The rain continued to pour and some ornery fans wouldn't put their umbrellas down...so I pretty much just listened to the show. The best highlight was when Folds covered Snoop Dogg's "Bitches Ain't Shit" Here is his performance of "Rockin' the Suburbs" another great song! He never fails to impress and I had a great time listening to mostly new music with a few old favorites.

The rain had taken a lot out of me at this point so I decided to go relax for a bit. I heard some songs by The Fleet Foxes and The Decembrists in the background, but finding a dry place to eat and relax was worth missing a few bands. At 6:30 it was off to see the Swedish band Peter Bjorn and John. The great thing about this show is that it was at a smaller stage. I think this was the third straight year that the trio has played Lollapalooza. They put on a nice show...not my favorite but still decent.

The two headliners on Friday were Kings of Leon and Depeche Mode. I figured that since about 80% of the festivalgoers were heading north for KOL, I would head south to see DM. I heard great things about the KOL show, but I figured that I would be able to see them perform at a live show in the near future. Here is one clip I found on youtube of KOL performing "Use Somebody" Depeche Mode is a classic band, that if given the opportunity, I would have to go see. They did not disappoint. The more sparse crowd allowed me to enjoy the music instead of fighting for personal space. The played some new and some old with classics such as "Policy of Truth" and "Enjoy the Silence" The stage was pretty unbelievable and they capped off the night with "Personal Jesus"

All in all it was a great time despite the rain. I ran into some old friends that I hadn't seen in a while and enjoyed tons of great music with them! Stay tuned for a Saturday review...

Saturday: 95 degrees, 100% humidity, No rain whatsoever...A little better than the downpours on Friday...

Started off the day with Quinn Sullivan, a 10 year old electric blues guitar prodigy. The show was at the kidzapalooza stage and had a nice intimate crowd. Alissa and I got there when the show started...by the time all of the festivalgoers got the text "Buddy Guy will be joining Quinn on stage..." the crowd got huge! So we had third row seats for this awesome experience...Quinn did some of his original songs and he REALLY is that good. Buddy Guy came out to join him for the last song entitled "Buddy Guy Blues" which I think is an original for Quinn. This pic shows how close we really were to the action:

I had seen youtube clips of Quinn and heard about him through a few other news sources so I was excited to see him in person. Check out his stuff here.

After starting off the day on the right foot we headed over to Perry's, a stage devoted to the ravers in the crowd. Animal Collective was doing an hour DJ set. It was more to just get out of the heat and relax for a bit before heading to see Gomez. They are one of my favorite bands to see live. They have so much energy and all of the vocalists have such great distinct voices. The crowd there was pretty good, but it was nice to have a little bit of space for once at a show to really enjoy the music. This was my second time seeing them, the first time was at The Vic, a really cool smaller venue near Wrigley Field. Here is a pic that I took while they were playing "See the World":

After Gomez we bounced around between Arctic Monkeys and Santigold. Both bands seemed to be pretty good, but I don't really know that much about them. After taking a beating from the sun, Alissa decided to head home and I settled between two stages. TV on the Radio played at 6:30 right before Ben Harper at 7:30. TV on the Radio was highly recommended by Adam Rosenthal so I tried to pay attention as much as possible! They put on a high energy show but I was pretty far back so I didn't get the full experience...I'd definitely like to see them again after listening more to their stuff on iTunes. I was more excited to see Ben Harper. I have been a fan of his since college (10 years ago...wow)!!! He really avoided playing any old favorites and instead stuck to the new stuff. Damon had told me that he heard the new band wasn't as good as his old band...and I must say I kind of agree. They played a lot of songs with BH on slide guitar, which is always awesome since he is so talented. I think that the highlight of the show for me was when they covered Led Zeppelin's Good Times, Bad Times. The only thing left to ponder was which of the two headliners, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs or Tool, I should go see. After pondering this for about a second I decided on neither. Instead, Damon and Joanna and I headed over to Perry's for Bassnectar. This was an experience I wasn't expecting at Lolla...Bassnectar is a DJ who plays some really trippy stuff...I was expecting more of a GirlTalk mashup set, but instead he played his own stuff which was really "bass-ey" (sp?) -- it was super high energy and a lot of fun to end the night with some crazy young raver kids dancing their tails off.

My two days at Lollapalooza this year were good, not great. The fact that the Beastie Boys had to cancel was a huge disappointment and the quality of bands didn't compare to years past (Wilco, Flaming Lips, Weezer, Daft Punk, Pearl Jam) but I still had a great time...listening to new bands and old favorites. I would have to say that Black Joe Lewis and The Honeybears was my personal favorite, followed by Quinn Sullivan, Ben Folds, and of course Depeche Mode. We had to skip Sunday because we had a wedding to attend...and given the weather and my lack of energy we decided to not push our luck. There were a few bands that I really wanted to see -- Vampire Weekend, Kaiser Chiefs, and Jane's Addiction...I guess I'll have to hope they are on the bill for next year!

Twitter/Facebook hackers

What is the point of hackers and spammers messing with Twitter and Facebook? What could a person possibly get out of screwing up innocent social networking websites? I just don't get it. Are these dorks just sitting at home in their pajamas laughing and calling all of their dork friends to say...guess what I did today? I just don't get it...have a life people. Do something productive that can help instead of hurt.

Congratulations...

...Molly Silverman! My first official follower! I am honored and humbled that you are now following the happenings on my blog! If I were cool I'd have a prize for you, but I am not...therefore you have to just settle for the bragging rights!

Health Care in America

The biggest issue America is wrestling with today is the health care reform put forth by Barack Obama.  He claims over and over that he is not socialist and that his "plan" is necessary for the American people.  What people don't realize is that he stated in 2003 that his vision is to have a single payer health care system in America.  Single payer is a system in which all health costs are paid for out of one fund...the government's fund...AKA your tax dollars.  Now I think that a lot of private insurance companies are poorly run, but the fact is that if single payer comes to fruition the paperwork and other BS that you have to go through with a regular insurance company will be ten times worse with a government run health plan.  Obama has since denied his stance on single payer.  He is backpeddling in order to gain support for his plan.  Here is a clip of a compilation of Obama and other politicians talking about healthcare reform.  If you pay attention to it Obama repeatedly says that he wants a single payer system.  I am not proclaiming to know what is best for the country, what I do know is that Obama needs to take responsibility for his words and be accountable to the American people.  

Spider Man?

This is pretty hilarious!

Spider email chain

Sean Marshall

Gorilla Gorilla, my Wednesday night softball team, took a tough beating at the hands of "Balls Deep" last night.  We played well in the field and hit alright, but they just placed every hit where we couldn't get 'em.  Besides getting shelled, the more interesting thing was that Sean Marshall was there watching us.  I really have no clue why he was there but it was cool to see a player from one of my favorite teams just taking in some slow pitch softball on the SOUTH SIDE.  I wanted to go ask him for a picture or an autograph but felt it would have been annoying.  He left in about the fourth inning of our game.  I hope he didn't stay out too late as the Cubbies have a home day game today versus the Houston Astros.  Go Gorilla Gorilla and Go Cubs!

Fourth of July Weekend, 2009 - Northern Michigan

Alissa and I recently took a trip up to Northern Michigan for the 4th of July weekend with a bunch of our close friends.  We did a lot up there so I will just hit the highlights.  

We were lucky enough to be invited to stay with Ty and Alex, Molly's sister and brother-in-law. It's always nice to go on vacation and not have to stay in a hotel...so thanks to Ty and Alex for their warm hospitality!

The first day we went to the beach.  Bruce (the pup) was very excited to be at the beach. Jamie and I braved the chilly 68 degree temperatures and went for a swim.  Nothing like swimming in the Lake Michigan...some 300 miles north of Chicago!  

On the afternoon of the 4th we went for a wine tasting at Chateau Chantal.  We toured the entire winery and topped it off with a bunch of wine and cheese.  Our personal favorite was the Malbec, a very dark red wine paired nicely with a nice steak.

After a day of walking around the Cherry Fest and an evening of fireworks we were exhausted! The next day I golfed with the fellas in the Duckbutter Open -- an annual 4th of July Burden Family tradition.  Taylor, Jamie, and I came in a respectable third place.  After the golf Alissa and I headed up to Northport which is about 45 minutes north of Traverse City.  Our great friend Caroline was nice enough to invite us to stay at her cottage...which she affectionately refers to as a little slice of heaven.

We had a blast there and I got to waterski for the first time in at least 5 years!  It was nice to know that I still had it in me to get up on the skis behind the boat...but I paid for it for the next week. My body was sore in every way imaginable.  Even more fun was watertubing. Alissa was very nervous yet excited to try it.  She did great and had an awesome time.  That's Caroline on the left and Alissa on the right both holding on for dear life -- I was driving the boat so I had a little fun :)

After the watersports we had a great dinner and then sat around the campfire while Caroline played her guitar.  She is a great musician and is in the midst of launching her country music band, Ragtop Rodeo. Check out her website here.

Thanks to everybody for such a great time in Northern Michigan!

Pay It Forward.

A Charitable Chain Reaction

This is a great article about Ryan Nece and his "Power of Giving" program.  It is very inspirational.  Even in these tough economic times people still care about one another and find it satisfying to help to others.  I'm not suggesting that you all start giving out envelopes with $55, but instead do something nice for a stranger today.  Something as simple as holding the door for somebody or giving a warm smile can go a long way.  It not only brightens the day of the stranger, but you can be satisfied that you helped, even in the smallest of ways.  If a player on the lowly Detroit Lions (0-16 last year) can be this giving then I think we all can.

Hello.

Hello Blogosphere!