So I went on vacation last week. I haven’t taken a real vacation in quite a long time. I’ve taken more than my share of “staycations”- to quote that ugly word bandied around and mocked by the Daily Show- but this year it was time to do something different. I went to Chicago.

I haven’t been in Chicago in quite a long time- just a few months shy of six years, actually. My buddy Jonah has lived there since 2003 and the last time I’d been up to see him was a few months after he moved there on my very first paid vacation from a job. Over the years I’ve seen Jonah back in Omaha a few times, but never managed to get away from wherever I was living for a real vacation. Anyway, I could spend an entire blog talking about what a bummer feeling stuck in Omaha or Council Bluffs is and blowing vacation time there and stuff- but that’s neither really here nor now and I’m fairly satisfied being a person who periodically gets to take real vacations again. So there.

I can’t really tell you how much Chicago has changed since I was last there- some things I recognized- especially around the Andersonville & Wrigleyville neighborhoods- but mostly I think my perception of big cities has changed. I was more impressed with the public transit this go around than I was the first time (and I was impressed with it the first go round too) and I’d guess that probably has something to do with using it as my primary means of getting around in Austin. I was amazed at the buses that absolutely dwarf CapMetro’s buses. I enjoyed the long train rides & the roof top type scenery that one only takes in on an El.

We did some touristy things- a trip to the Field Museum and the Lincoln Park Zoo, visited some comic shops- Chicago Comics & Quimby’s, ate out at some great restaurants (I didn’t manage to bring my Moleskine with me, so I only remember Hop Haus offhand…but we’ll get to that in a moment), hung out with some other Omaha escapees (Krin & Andy), watched the Cubs beat the Astros during their opening game, drank more than a few Old Styles (one thing I cannot get in Texas), and hung out a lot. It was good to catch up with Jonah. It was nice to meet his fiance Nicole. It was fun to take a sort of tour of my pal’s life for a few days and have a cool city as the backdrop.

Now, I mentioned Hop Haus. We ate at Hop Haus twice during my stay, and I really gotta say I liked the place. It was a small sports bar, restaurant, and really the kind of bar that I’ve grown fonder of as I’ve gotten older. The menu featured several different kinds of mini-burgers from a variety of different animals. Here’s what I ate over the course of two visits there:

Kangaroo.
Buffalo (which I have eaten many times previously, but always enjoy).
Wild Boar.They also had Ostrich on the menu, which I would have also added were I not stuffed to the gills on the other three. So it goes.

I don’t think I can adequately express in words how much joy eating a motherfucking Kangaroo gave me. I really don’t know how to say it. I just don’t understand why humans spent so many years boxing Kangaroos when we could have been dicing them up and eating them all along. I spent 15 minutes over lunch trying to locate restaurants in Austin that serve Kangaroo or where I can buy Kangaroo meat at, but I’m coming up with nothing so far. Oh well. Perhaps this is a delicacy I cannot over indulge in.

Vacation was satisfying. It was nice to spend a week off work and recharge the ol’ batteries. Two thumbs up!

I really like bad movies.Oh sure, I like good movies too- but really- honestly- as long as I’m not bored to tears I can watch anything all the way through and I’ll probably have fun. I may not love what I’m watching, but if I can at least laugh at it (or with it), I’ll watch anything.This, however, is not meant to be a discussion of my love of crap, but rather a review of a real, honest-to-god, turd of a movie that Netflix mailed me yesterday: The Edge of Quarrel.Punk Rockers always bitch and moan when those big Hollywood types stick their cinema fingers into their favorite subculture, but this movie just goes to show you that if you give the punks a video camera, script writing duties, and the time to make a movie, they too will turn out something so bad and cringe worthy that you almost think Hollywood machine may not be so bad after all. At the very least, I dug the soundtrack.

Filmed on Super 8 and featuring members of Trial, Botch, the Murder City Devils, Modest Mouse, Minus the Bear, Wax Wing, and plenty of other Seattle area local music talent (you could probably spend the latter half of a day googling this shit- these were just the ones I knew offhand), the movie does manage to maintain at least all the appeal and charm of a 1990’s skate video. The plot follows a storyline that can only be described as a two hour exploration of themes laid out in the Operation Ivy song “Unity” (running time two minutes and thirteen seconds), chiefly “There’s a war goin’ down between my brothers tonight/ I don’t want no war/ goin’ down/ goin’ down tonight/ stop this war”.

The Edge of Quarrel tells the tale of a “gang” war between a crew of jockish Straight Edge Hardcore kids and a tribe of nihilistic, drunk addled, drunken punks. Beat downs are doled out at every opportunity and with the littlest provocation any and everywhere save for the one local record store (”it’s sacred ground”). The plot follows Brian (played by Rocky Votolato) who has returned home from a 4 year stint in college to his unnamed hometown where his childhood friends Jason (played by Aaron Edge) and Chance (played by Dann Gallucci) are now in charge of the rival Straight Edge and Punk factions.

The poorly written script was perfectly accented by the total inability of any of the “actors” to convincingly act. The story spends entirely too long explaining differences in hardcore and punk rock to an audience that more than likely already is going to know the differences, especially when it comes to talking about lifestyle choices like straight edge or whatever. In fact, the only reason that Netflix recommended it to me was because I’d queued some Murder City Devils movies. Anyway, as much criticism as I can offer for this movie- and it was a horrible, horrible piece of shit- the thing I enjoyed about it was it’s sincerity. The actors look serious when they’re delivering their poorly written lines. It’s a movie about punk rock made by punk rockers and every little bit of it’s production shows that. Don’t get me wrong- if you don’t enjoy bad movies you won’t like this one- but I haven’t laughed at a movie this hard in….I don’t know…weeks maybe?

Anyway, there you have it: The Edge Of Quarrel. A movie you’ll swear a 14 year old wrote, ponder why 20something Musicians would actually want to appear in it, and a soundtrack you’ll probably enjoy if you liked any of the bands I liked in the last ten years.

Something amazing happened yesterday for me. Chiefly, it involves a brand new product to the market that amounts to basically being a Snuggie for babies. It’s called the Peekaru and the first image that I and many other people saw of this product reminded us of several different science fiction movies. Anyway, this little godsend has been a big part of my MS Paint art for the past two days.