Mr. Brightside

Ok, Marty has officially taken over for Mig in my "favorite person on Rock Star" competition. Anyone who sings the Killers well is just wonderful. Maybe next year they'll have Rock Star: Journey and we can find someone to take over for that blonde permed Steve Perry impersonator.

Column news: my first column is supposed to run next week. It's about Yorkville. 'Nuff said.
In other H-N news, I loved this Open Line from someone who has a little too much time on their hands:

Late night driver
I just read Catie Cryder's Aug. 3 Common Sense Column. When I read that she dropped her boyfriend off at his house at 1 a.m., I had to read it again to see if I read it right. What kind of father would let his daughter go with a boy she had to pick up, and then drive home to his house and drop him off at 1 a.m. and then drive home alone? Crest Hill

Mr. or Ms. Crest Hill: Girls can drive too. Maybe it was her turn.

Man beaten after trading his car for drugs
JOLIET — A Morris man was beaten and clubbed with a chair at a crackhouse after trading his car to get high.
The 34-year-old man suffered a cut upper lip, a gash to his head and bumps on his chin in the 11:30 p.m. Saturday attack on South Ottawa Street.
Police officers reportedly met with the beaten man in a parking lot on McDonough Street where he was being treated by fire department paramedics. The paramedics transported him to Provena Saint Joseph Medical Center where he received further medical attention.
The man told police he traded his 1997 Jeep Wrangler to a man nicknamed "Marshall" for some crack.
The Morris man then headed over to a house on South Ottawa with two other men, police said. These two men would end up the instruments of his downfall, police said.
The Morris man remained at the house for several hours, "smoking and hanging out," police said. At some point, the two men decided to beat the Morris man, using their fists and a chair.

Ok, show of hands here: who thinks the police officers actually used the expression "instruments of his downfall"? Yeah, me neither. I currently have the "Because I Got High" song in my head. "I don't have a Jeep Wrangler anymore, because I got high. . .some dudes clubbed me with a chair, because I got hiiiiiiiiiiiiigh."

Let's see, social news. Last weekend was fairly unexciting. Friday night was a laidback night, though I did receive the gift of "Dang!" pants from my mom. I don't think I'll be wearing them to Samy's though, they'll be strictly loungewear. Saturday night Melanie and I headed out for what she referred to as "an evening of live music." We started off at Louie's Chophouse for some appetizers and a performance by NoJo. Louie's, props to your bruschetta and crab cakes. NoJo is pretty good, but they were doing more of their jazzy tunes than my personal favorite rock classics, so it wasn't my preferred performance. Post Louie's, Melanie suggested a change of pace before heading to Jameson's: a stop at Baba's. Wait, is Baba's the bar or is that Ali Baba's? I get confused. Anyway, we went to the bar. It was definitely amusing, as two different employees commented about not having seen us there before. The best was that one of the waitresses asked us where else we'd been and commented that Louie's is "slow." Yes, it's a restaurant. I'm not looking for fast pace when I eat my bruschetta. Apparently Baba's is very much a "regulars" place. I would describe the look of Baba's as "Gippers meets Grapevine." Perhaps Gippvine? It wasn't too crowded, I don't think all 40 of the thieves were there, and I felt a little too fancy (mind you, I was wearing a tank and jeans), so we made a fairly quick exit, happy to check another bar off the list. We ended the evening at Jameson's. It was relatively subdued there. The band for the evening was, I believe, called Mr. Pink. Mr. Pink had good song choices, but they were a little lacking in energy for my taste. Maybe they were just tired, I don't know. Other than that, nothing too entertaining occurred, it was a fairly low key night.

Sunday I headed out to the Romeofest with Shanny and Joe. It was somewhat of a sketchy scene. I saw a guy wearing a shirt that had pictures of butts on it while walking with his young daughter. I wish I could remember the slogan. We took a ride on the Tilt a Whirl (always awesome) and experienced body odor stench permeating from various regions of the "carnivale," and later on, had some subpar lemon shakeups, served by a woman who wiped off the cups with a wet rag of some sort (Shannon, I figured you were better off not knowing at the time, but I don't think she wiped your cup). They did have some fabulous fireworks, I must say. Good times all around, except if that was the Neverly Brothers playing, I can't say I'm a fan.

Other than that not too much to tell. I have really good stories from our karaoke outing last night, but I may be saving them for a H-N column. You'll see them soon one way or another. More news later!