Birthday in Chi-Town

It was good times on the north side last Thursday when my college buddy, Chris, and his wife Stephanie were in town from L.A. to celebrate his 35th birthday in style with the Chicago crew. It was also a convergence of the blogosphere with myself, Chris ("Our Man in L.A."), Reggie ("Reggienewton.com") and Greg ("Misadventures of Dr. Overboard & Prof. Evenkeel") all representing at the festivities at the Daily Bar and Grill in Lincoln Square.

It was another beautiful summer day in the Windy City and, surprisingly, a chilly albeit very pleasant night. We gathered on the spacious patio at the Daily, one of Chris' favorite spots from his time as a resident of the neighborhood, and traded old and new stories. I even retold a classic tale of my misadventures in downtown Raleigh with a young lady after Chris and Steph's wedding in North Carolina. And yes, it killed once again. The night was yet another reminder of all the great friends I have here in the city and beyond and, well, it was just a fun time all around. Happy birthday, Chris!

Batman Returns to Chicago

So, as many of you film geeks (myself included) out there may be aware they are currently filming "The Dark Knight," the sequel to 2005's fantastic film "Batman Begins" in the city of Chicago. A lot of the filming activity has been down in the Loop area, which for those of you not familiar with the city is in the heart of downtown west of Michigan Avenue, including the financial district, Board of Trade, the Chicago Theater and the Sears Tower among other landmarks. The architecture in the financial district is well suited to double as Gotham City with a lot of stark, stone exteriors and vertical bands of windows that make you feel like you're back in Depression era Chicago. You may recognize the shot looking south toward the Board of Trade (picture below, left) from two other movies, "The Untouchables" and "The Road to Perdition," that filmed in the city.

Anyway, I was coming home from a day at the Shedd Aquarium and I saw some activity around the Board of Trade on LaSalle Street. I figured it was for the Batman movie and later found out that an action sequence was going to be filmed tonight. Unfortunately, I was told that none of the stars like Heath Ledger, Christian Bale, Gary Oldman or Morgan Freeman would be there. But I was there with my camera phone and caught a few images before: A) The security cordoned off several blocks around the shoot; and B) It got too dark to take pics. They're not the best quality, but I wanted to post them for my faithful readers to check out.

While walking around the area and checking out all the equipment and trucks and looking for movie stars, I noticed the title "Rory's First Kiss" displayed in several places. I checked on IMDb.com and apparently this is one of the working titles for the film, in this case a fake. According to Wikipedia, a working title is "the temporary name of a product or project used during its development. Although a working title may be kept as the final title, the assumption is that a working title will be changed before the actual release of the project. Working titles also allow the developing team to discuss the project in public places without letting people know exactly what it is." So there, you learned something about filmmaking today.

The Beckhams Are Coming! The Beckhams Are Coming!

For months now, I have been beat over the head with the impending arrival of soccer, excuse me, football superstar David Beckham and his wife Victoria (aka "Posh Spice"). After attaining megastar status across the pond for his play on Manchester United of the English Premier League, the England national team, Real Madrid of the Spanish Primera Division and the hit film "Bend it Like Beckham" with Keira Knightley and that cute Indian girl from "ER," Beckham decided his next challenge would be to take on Hollywood when he signed a five-year, $32.5 million contract to play with the Los Angeles Galaxy of Major League Soccer.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=445425&cc=5901

From the perspective of the Galaxy the deal makes perfect financial sense, much like the signing of Japanese baseball players like Ichiro, Hideki Matsui and Daisuke Matsuzaka by the Mariners, Yankees and Red Sox, respectively. Beckham is by far the biggest name in soccer, if not necessarily its best player at this point, and what better way to market a sport that quite frankly is a niche in this country what with the huge popularity of NFL football, Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association. Much like baseball, soccer is an international game so you figure the Galaxy will make millions on the initial curiosity factor and sales of the new Beckham jersey alone if nothing else. Will it increase long term interest in the sport via ticket sales and TV ratings? I say no. I'll still watch soccer for a couple of weeks every 4 years during the World Cup, and then go right back to ignoring it when the Cup is over.

Aside from what he can do on the field, both David Beckham and his wife, Victoria have made no secret of their desire to cash in on Hollywood in terms of increased opportunities in the American television and film industry. So as to ingratiate herself with her new stateside audience, Victoria is not so subtly taking to the airwaves in a one-hour special on NBC on July 16 titled "Victoria Beckham: Coming to America.'' If this is half as funny as the 1988 Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall film of the same name I just might have to check it out. Odds are the humor in this special will be of the unintentional variety.

Just in case we were not yet buying the legitimacy of this new Hollywood power couple, we were also told that the Beckhams count Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes amongst their friends. Given Tom's bizarre behavior in recent years, what with the Oprah couch rant, the Brooke Shields feud and the fact that we still don't know if Katie was actually impregnated by aliens, I am not sure if this is the guy you want to hitch your wagons to at this point. As Lumbergh said in "Office Space," "Oooohhh. I am going to have to go ahead and disagree with you there." How about somebody who is a big name and well liked but not nearly as crazy, such as Will Smith, Brad Pitt or Matt Damon.

My point is that I feel like we are being manipulated here, and while the stakes aren't as high as say, the Iraq War, you can't tell people to get all fired up about soccer now that Beckham is here when quite frankly most of us didn't care about him or the sport when he was in Europe. So throw your tickertape parade and air your NBC specials and parade the Beckhams around with TomKat. It will elicit little more than a collective yawn from most of us Americans. Me, I'll be watching baseball and "The World Series of Pop Culture" - where, by the way, defending champion El Chupacabra was bounced in the first round by Fragilay, the most shocking TV development this summer since the screen went blank at the end of "The Sopranos." It's nothing personal Becks, and I hope you enjoy your stay, but I just don't care that you're here.

Grant About Town - July 5, 2007
The Police at Wrigley Field

Ever since The Police went their separate ways in the mid 80's after less than 10 years together, I truly wondered if this extremely volatile bunch - vocalist/bassist Sting, guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stewart Copeland - would ever grace a stage for a major concert tour again. Sting knocked out one solo album after another, though I really stopped paying attention to them after "Mercury Falling" in 1996, and released his autobiography "Broken Music" in 2003. Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland did film/TV scores, solo work, wrote books and made films. The trio played a few songs at Sting's wedding in 1992 and again at their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003, but that was about it. Until now.

The reunion tour that I thought might never happen came rolling into the city of Chicago last week for two sold out shows at Wrigley Field. My buddy Rob got a block of tickets and when he offered me one a couple of months ago at a party I said "yes" before the question even got out of his mouth. We cranked Police tunes for the rest of the afternoon, I played air drums and we basked in the glory of it all. When the big day finally (and I mean finally) arrived I met my buddy Greg and his friend Adam in front of the park, and we all walked over to Wrigley Field institution Murphy's Bleachers to meet up with the rest of the group -Rob, Brian and Chris - for a couple of beers. Around 7:30p or so it was time to go in.

Just a bit past 8:20p the band took the stage and opened with "Message in a Bottle," as I had predicted to the guy sitting in front of me. This was followed by "Synchronicity II" and "Walking On the Moon." In between songs, Sting got a big old "boo" from the crowd when he told them this was the band's first show in the city since a 1983 performance at Comiskey Park, home of the hated crosstown rival White Sox.

The first 3 songs lasted about 25 minutes and honestly I don't think the crowd as a whole was really into much of a groove early on. Our group, however, was on our feet from the start and never sat down. The 40,000 or so in attendance skewed a bit older and people were still getting settled in, so I guess that is to be expected to a point. The band seemed to be a bit sluggish at the start, too, and the longer song arrangements early on took some of the oomph out of them. The one exception: Stewart Copeland, who was wailing on his huge drum kit from the start and really provided much of the energy for the group throughout the show.

To the band's credit, there were no backing tracks, background vocalists or other musicians on the stage. Just Sting, Summers and Copeland on a rather spartan stage by arena show standards. And while Sting can't hit all the high notes anymore, he can still fill an arena with that distinctive voice. Summers is still one hell of a guitarist and Copeland plays his percussion with an energy and precision that belies his almost 55 years. Copeland really is a force of nature and, as I said above, did not lag one bit throughout the show

The band definitely tinkered with the arrangements on some of the songs, slowing it down for tunes such as "Walking On the Moon," "Wrapped Around Your Finger" and "Don't Stand So Close to Me" and speeding it up with a jazzy style for "When the World is Running Down." To be honest, sometimes the arragements worked for me and sometimes they didn't. Don't get me wrong, I was on my feet singing along, dancing and air drumming the whole time. But I always feel like a band needs to start a show like a house on fire to get both themselves and the audience fired up. In the case of The Police, basically just play the songs in the lean, no frills way that they were intended.

Later, things really got rolling with "Truth Hits Everybody" from Outlandos d'Amour when the band took my advice from the previous paragraph and tore through this song in true punk fashion. Sting added some nice vocal work on "Invisible Sun." During "So Lonely," when he got to the line "All made up and nowhere to go. Welcome to this one man show" he substituted "Welcome to this Andy Summers show" and then did the same for Copeland the next time around.

Copeland, whose brillance has already been mentioned earlier in the review, added nice percussion flourishes with chimes to give a middle eastern feel to a fine rendition of "Wrapped Around Your Finger." He even donned a Cubs jersey with "Copeland 07" on the back for the encores. As someone who played the drums through high school and still hits the skins now and again, it was really cool to see someone who I have always idolized perform live.

So, there it is. I have seen The Police perform in my lifetime. And you know what? I am going to do it again later this month in East Hartford, CT with my childhood buddy and fellow Police fanatic Mike. I waited a long time for this. Just a few more weeks, Mike, and then your wait will be over, too.

The Police Set List - July 5, 2007 at Wrigley Field

Message In A Bottle

Synchronicity II

Walking On The Moon

Voices Inside My Head / When The World Is Running Down

Don't Stand So Close To Me

Driven To Tears

The Bed's Too Big Without You

Truth Hits Everybody

Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic

Wrapped Around Your Finger

De Do Do Do De Da Da Da

Invisible Sun

Walking In Your Footsteps

Can't Stand Losing You/Regatta de Blanc

Roxanne

First Encore:

King of Pain

So Lonely

Every Breath You Take

Second Encore:

Next To You

Dog Day Afternoon

In what has become a strange 4th of July ritual for me, I tuned in to ESPN for the latest Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest held earlier today on Coney Island, NY. For those not familiar with the competition, it has been absolutely dominated by the Japanese eating sensation Takeru Kobayashi, who had won the last six contests in a row dating back to 2001. I guess you might say he is the Tiger Woods or Roger Federer of hot dog eating. Well, even Tiger and Roger lose once and a while and today the king was knocked off his throne by American and perennial Nathan's bridesmaid Joey Chestnut.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKqaX9HmQgw

During what the announcer called the "Greatest victory in the history of American sports" - apparently edging out the 1980 U.S Olympic hockey victory over Russia and swimmer Mark Spitz's 7 Olympic gold medals at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich - Chestnut downed a world record 66 hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes. This topped the previous world record of 59 1/2 that he had set last month in Tempe, AZ. Kobayashi was no slouch himself, employing his trademark "Kobayashi Shake" to knock out 63 dogs. And this despite battling arthritis of the jaw related to the recent removal of a wisdom tooth. It was an epic battle between the top two eaters in the International Federation of Competitive Eating rankings, sort of an Ali/Frazier except with a lot more regurgitation.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=2925803

In all, Chestnut consumed 12,540 calories and his 66 dogs is more than the average American eats in an entire year. All I can say, other than "that is one of the most disgusting things I have witnessed this year that didn't involve Paris Hilton," is that I was extra proud to be an American today. As Chestnut draped the stars and stripes around his shoulder I couldn't help but chant "U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A!"