Tunes Tuesday: "Radiator Sister," The Mynabirds

Photo courtesy of Girlie Action Media

I was lucky enough to interview singer Laura Burhenn of The Mynabirds for Refinery29 last week, and she really was so thoughtful and sweet. Throughout the last month, I listened to her album Generalsa million times not because I had to but because I wanted to — it is so good. If you like Jenny Lewis and female singer-songwriters with a point of view, definitely check out this album. I think it's one of my favorites of the year. There's plenty of range on Generals, but I'm going with "Radiator Sister" as today's pick because it's so darn catchy.

Chicago Eating Tour 2012

German chocolate doughnut, where have you been all my life? Glazed & Infused is making dreams come true.

Me, getting absolutely no air.

"Time to make the doughnuts..."

Another fancy doughnut, this time with bacon. Courtesy of hip brunch spot Longman & Eagle.

I liked the cocktail illustrations at Scofflaw.

Shortly after eating the massive chocolate doughnut, we had lunch/dinner at Frank 'n Dawgs, where they serve a very dressed up hot dog. I went for a brat with portabella mushrooms, then we split the roasted cauliflowers and truffle fries. It was a meal for champions.

Big Shoulders

"Stormy, husky, brawling, City of the Big Shoulders..."

That's right, Chicago!

I love having friends where when I visit them, I don't have to plan anything. They have my holiday all sorted. Sure enough, I didn't plan a blessed thing, Lani seemingly knows everyone and is plugged in everywhere. So as soon as I got off the plane, we were off to see Gemini Club do an in-store performance at Dr. Martens.

They were really fun, dancing on the counter near the cash register. The lead singer claimed someone threw up but I don't think anyone was partying that hard at the Dr Martens store.

We then ate tacos at Big Star, the kind of honky tonk hipster taqueria where they play Loretta Lynn's "Fist City." I love Loretta Lynn and I love tacos so sign me up. Lani then took us for spicy chocolate ice cream at the futuristic iCream, where your ice cream is individually churned and made to order.

 I know this is probably meant to entertain children, but I oohhed and ahhed with great respect.

On day two, I did some work at the aforementioned "Big Shoulders" coffee shop, where I ordered a marshmallow latte. Hey, I'm on vacation and it was delicious. I'm just thinking about it now, but a design-y coffee shop selling marshmallow lattes doesn't readily correlate with Carl Sandburg's poem about butchers, tool makers, freight handlers and Chicago brawn.

Later that afternoon, I walked around Wicker Park and tried to shop but nothing caught my eye. Except murals and street art.

Everyone has a single speed because it's so flat here.

Lani has a single speed, and a moped, pictured here! So cool. She is on the fringes of a moped gang, for real. It's a group of guys who hang out and fix up their mopeds. I made her pose with the moped while wearing her cavewoman Halloween costume, assembled from faux fur pieces in her closet.

I forgot to ride the moped on the trip! Doh! I'm secretly terrified. We rode the bus instead, and I was very impressed with how easy it was to get around on public transit.

That evening, I crashed a going away party at Cafe Ba Ba Reeba, with a pre fixe menu. They chose well, and the tapas just kept arriving at the table.

So good. So filling. The fullness level reminded me of a tapas Thanksgiving.

Lani's friends were so nice to let me join in the fun! After dinner, we went to see Flight Facilities' DJ set at Primary. I loved it because I am absolutely obsessed with their song "Crave You" and it was so fun to hear a roomful of people singing along. It's a song you gotta sing to, don't you think? And they played a bunch of other songs I knew, only because I heard them before on Lani's mixes. She's so ahead of the game.

Sorry, shoddy iPhone picture, but you can get an idea of the cool LED wall behind the dj booth. "Wasn't it cute that Flight Facilities dressed up for Halloween, with the little aviator hats?" I told Lani. "Oh that's not a Halloween thing. They always wear that," she said. Ah, I see.

Che Guevara T-shirt

I'm back! Let's do this thing!

So I just returned on Tuesday from a visit to Chicago to see my lovely and amazing friend Lani. More on her and Chicago in future posts. But first I know you are dying to hear my thoughts on topical matters. Namely, Sandy and Halloween. For Halloween this year, I dressed as Andrew WK again. And for the second year, not a single person knew who I was, or had any reaction whatsoever. I need to face facts. The Andrew WK costume is just not going to happen.

In fact, the bouncer at the club — a fancy Chicago speakeasy called Untitled — almost didn't let me in. "Is this some sort of costume?" he said, looking at my white jeans and Brooks running shoes.  Yes, yes, it is. Just because I'm not dressed as a slutty cat, no one can identify that I am in costume?

Thankfully, he eventually let me in, and I got in at Paris Club too, meaning that I visited two clubby, bottle-service establishments wearing running shoes. Holla. I may never go back to stilettos, now that the precedent has been set.

Anyway, when I wasn't wearing ridiculously unsexy Halloween costumes, I was on the phone, attempting to reschedule my flight on Monday back to D.C. because I figured it would be canceled due to the hurricane. On Saturday night, Lani went out to DJ and I stayed home for a bit to deal with Delta. Four hours later, Delta finally called me back and I was on the phone with a guy in India when there was a knock at Lani's door.

It's always a little unsettling when you are alone, not anticipating any visitors and you hear a knock, but I decided to open the door. And here is what I saw:

Photo courtesy of Lani!

Lani's neighbor Benny, dressed exactly like this. He wasn't expecting to see me, and I surely wasn't expecting to see him. I was still on the phone with Delta and I tried to close the door but Benny needed help pulling the t-shirt over the cardboard rigging to complete his Che Guevara t-shirt look, so I attempted to yank the t-shirt down in the back while negotiating flight times on the phone, all the while without even explaining who I was to Benny.

Lani said he won $400 in a costume contest for this. Well deserved, no?

BRB

Hello! Just wanted to say that I'm gonna take a short blog break, because I want to come back in November, full steam ahead. Better than ever (although the bar is set pretty low here).

By that I mean that the plan is to post an entry every day that month. So check back here, November 1, pretty please? It's gonna be fun.

Tunes Tuesday, "The Fox," Niki & the Dover

Image: Niki And The Dove's Facebook Page

Yesterday's Twin Shadow concert at the Black Cat just confirmed to me that George Lewis Jr. is a hearthrob in the classic sense.  You know, perfect voice crooning about broken hearts, between-songs banter with an arched brow, on-point pompadour.  Yeah, that's the stuff.  I love his music and if you do too, you absolutely need to see the band live.  Joe said that he looked like Lenny Kravitz, and the keyboard player was Lisa Bonet (editor's note: she really did look a lot like Lisa Bonet).

But for today's Tunes Tuesday, I'm picking a single from the Swedish opening band, Niki & The Dove. The girls standing next to us were the biggest super fans I've ever seen at a show. It was impressive, and I'm saying that despite the fact that one of them elbowed me in the skull. I almost wonder if they went to high school with the band or something. They immediately started screaming requests for this song, "The Fox," so that's the one I'm going to pick.  I really do like the fizzy chorus, then again I'm a sucker for choruses about staying up all night and watching the stars. And if there is a sing-along "oh, oh, oh" section, I'm done for. So fun.

As for Niki & The Dove's live performance: Malin Dahlstrom's stage presence brought to mind a Kristen Wiig SNL performance.  Lots of frantic smiling. The props reminded me of Lady Gaga on a budget. Check out that flower crown in the picture. Then imagine it + rave-style light-up ring accessories. A pom pom was also bandied about. Trippy, eh?