One more day of ARTropolis and it's over. Finally! What a long weekend.
For those of you that missed out on bowling fun, here are some pics from the night.
The birthday boy himself! While speaking with his grandma on his cell phone, Matt bowled a strike! He was the hero for the night.
I made Matt take the same picture with everyone who came out for the night. I won't bore you with every picture, but I like this one with Christie and Mike.
and this one with Chris and Kyle.
Towards the end of the night, we got bored with our real names and Annie and I changed them into new, more fun, names.
1) Openings tonight! in the River North District. Click here to see what's going on!
2) Next week is the beginning of a big art week/weekend in Chicago - ARTropolis. I'll be representing the gallery at Bridge Art Fair. 15 bucks get you into the fair and all five related events: Art Chicago, Bridge Art Fair, The Intuit Show of Folk and Outsider Art, The Antiques Fair and The Artist Project. I'll be back and forth between the gallery and the fair - so if you think you may go, drop me an e-mail or call me and I'll let you know of my location.
3) Matt's 25th birthday is tomorrow! My friend, Peter, has a birthday today. Tomorrow we celebrate by bowling at the Diversey Rock and Bowl. Any and all are invited. We are planning to start at 7:30. Please come!
Every month, we get a new CD from Musak for the Gap soundtrack. I've often thought about how great that job would be: I'd get to work, find tons of new music in my mailbox, and then I would get to listen to music all day and make "mix tapes" for all of my customers. How great does that sound?!?!?
I've had some discussions with my coworkers on how we get some songs on our soundtrack - for instance, for the 4th month in a row, we have had "New Shoes" by Paolo Nutini on rotation. At first, I wasn't so bothered by it. As a matter of fact, it was better than a lot of songs on the soundtrack. However, with a four hour rotation and four months later, I want to take his new shoes and wack my head hard enough so I lose my hearing. I know a lot of music we get is because the rights for the song are purchased, and to make the most out of the sale, they have to reuse the songs a bunch of times. But how do they know it should go on a Gap soundtrack? My friend, Jeff, set up the scenario that Musak has a denim wall, much like the Gap, and a room full of monkeys. What ever song made the monkeys move towards the denim wall and fight over jeans got on the soundtrack. Hey, you never know.
I've decided to pay more attention to song choices over the next couple of months - it gives me a little something to do during long, slow shifts, plus, maybe I'll see some patterns or something. Or it could just explain my personal taste in music more.
Here are my top five favorite songs from the new soundtrack. *- denotes that it is new to the soundtrack. I'll post the video too, if I can.
1. "Wonderful Life" Gwen Stefani - I'm not a huge fan of her solo stuff, but I actually really like this song. Two months ago, we had "Wind it Up" on the soundtrack and I nearly murdered a customer. That song is ridiculous. 2. "We Used to be Friends" The Dandy Warhols* - I love the Dandy Warhols and this song is so much fun to work to. 3. "Ruby" - Kaiser Chiefs* I love the guitar in this song.
4. "The Crane Wife 3" - The Decemberists - we have also had "The Perfect Crime #2" in past months. Overall a great album, it really surprises me that The Decemberists were picked for the soundtrack. It's much different that the other music normally featured.
5. "Close to Me" - The Cure*
I'm trying to keep it to a five song minimum, but we also have "Message in a Bottle" by the ever so popular Police, as well as some other great songs.
Guilty Pleasure: "Better Together" - Jack Johnson. I'm not a huge Jack Johnson fan at all. I have a cover that he did of "Badfish/Boss DJ" by Subilme that I really like, only because I love "Badfish." Actually, when I think of Jack Johnson, all I can think about is this Saturday Night Live Skit. It has some guy playing Jack Johnson in a commercial for his shoes, JJ Casuals -"shoes that look like feet." It's hilarious, and whenever I hear this song, I think of that fake commercial.
Speaking of the Gap, I close tonight. Here we go again. . .
So sad. . . Our video did not get picked for XRT commercial contest. : ( Matt and I love to make short films, and we had a great time making this one, so no complaints from me.
Quick Gap story: I was standing at the cash register when I spotted a woman nearby, holding a pair of packaged mens underwear. I asked her if she needed any help, and before I knew it, I got the whole history of her husband's underwear. Apparently, the Fruit of the Looms she bought for him were so holy after the first wash that it looked like a dog had chewed on them. Then she decided to spend the extra cash to see if the Gap brand undies would hold up, and they did! Then, she repeated this same information to me two more times as I rang up her purchase. Moral of the story: If you see a woman nearly caressing a package of mens underwear, do not show any interest what so ever in her or the product or be prepared to be it for the long haul. And Fruit of the Looms suck.
