kevin barnett

I hope our children will still get to grow older and wiser with you on the tele…so long Fred. There really was only one person like you in the whole world!

Chelsea Clinton
Elizabeth Taylor
Ralph Nader
Ariel Sharon
John Steinbeck
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
David Sarnoff
Ralph Stanley
Adam Baldwin
Donal Logue
Josh Groban
…and many, many others.

So if Henry Wadsworth Longfellow were alive today (and had grown up in the ghetto) I think he might have said something like this to represent the Feb 27 birthday boys and girls:

Go, go, go,
Go, go, go shawty,
It’s your birthday.
We’re gon’ party like,
It’s your birthday.
We’re gon’ sip bacardi like,
It’s your birthday.
And you know we don’t give a fuck,
It’s not your birthday.

I was just listening to 50 Cent - In Da Club

This evening, my parents took me to Spring - a nice restaurant a few blocks away from my place on North Ave. This was my first time at Spring and I didn’t know much about it. The only thing I did know is that it’s considered one of Chicago’s better restaurants and that it had a cool interior from the peeks I’ve had looking in from the street. Well I can now say with experience that the food is great and it does have a very cool interior.

First off, it has the largest zen garden I’ve ever seen - granted, the only zen gardens I have seen before are the boxes you can put on top of a table or desk. But in Spring, the zen garden is on the floor of the entrance and wraps around part of the opening room/bar.

The fact that Spring has a zen garden is a good clue to what kind of food they are serving. Our server explained that the food is Pan-Pacific with Mediterranean influences. Most of the items on the menu are seafood with some sort of asian and italian/mediterranean spin to it. It was a difficult decision because everything looked good but I think we did pretty well.

I had the Oysters on half shell with ginger and saki to start and the Maryland Fluke with risotto ravioli, shaved artichokes, sweet garlic sauce and truffle essence. Dad started with the Butternut Squash Soup with melted blue cheese and then had the Roasted Monkfish with parsley-garlic escargots, Japanese eggplant and smoked tomato bouillon. Mom started with the Butternut Squash Soup as well and then had the Hawaiian Monchong with braised hearts of palm, roasted shittakes and tandoori sauce. Finally, my brother had the Charred Beef Ribeye with braised short rib, pearl couscous and carmelized winter vegetables.

Only my brother and I were up for desert. He got the Chocolate Dome with caramel mousse and ginger foam and I had the Banana and Almond cake with caramelized pineapple, coconut ice cream and a blue wax birthday candle. Although the desert was great and the candle was a nice touch, I think Collin had it better…

The service was outstanding (our server was a well-studied actress who worked at the Goodman Theater recently) and the atmosphere/interior was very nice. All in all a great dining experience and I would recommend Spring to anybody (unless you don’t care much for seafood). Adding to the already nice evening, my parents showered me with some great gifts and had the chef sign and personalize a menu for me.

This was a nice and slightly early birthday dinner. Because my dad is traveling this week and then my parents and brother are going to Seattle for a week, it had to be this evening. However, if you’re going to eat seafood - and not on a Friday or Saturday - then Tuesdays are the best day to do it. Tuesdays are when the restaurants get all of their orders in straight off the boat!

I was just listening to The Flaming Lips - Fight Test

It is a very tiny shred, but a shred nonetheless. I’m really happy that Norah Jones racked up those grammy awards. Not necessarily because I didn’t think the other nominees didn’t deserve to win (they didn’t) but because Norah Jones did a record that’s 1. good 2. fresh and 3. not all hype. So kudos to Norah Jones. As for the rest of the winners, I didn’t really care too much. I didn’t even watch the awards…had to say goodbye to Oz.

I was just listening to Norah Jones - Lonestar

I met this girl at the Phish show and I am having a hard time getting her out of my head. We were talking during the setbreak and we discovered that:

1. She lives at California/North Ave and I live at Western/North Ave. So we’re neighbors.
2. She works for a post production shop downtown (I forgot the damn company name). I go to film school.
3. She grew up in Saginaw, MI and her dad owned the appliance store my parents shopped at when we lived in Midland, MI.
4. We both do not like Phish’s song, Simple.

She told me about this bar/club in our neighborhood she frequents called the Empty Bottle and asked me if I wanted to go see her roommate’s boyfriend’s band play - but I couldn’t commit. Bummer.

So since I didn’t get her numbah or anything, I’ve got to start going to the Empty Bottle…I just want to see/talk to her at least one more time.

I was just listening to DJ Shadow - Giving Up the Ghost

I just had a whirlwind week/weekend with two of my good friends in town from Texas. Travis came up here to visit and see Chicago for the first time. Cliff was here on business and checking things out since he might be moving here. All in all we had a great time. We went to cool restaraunts, lounges, bars and one lame club. We went to go see the Phish show at the Allstate Arena! We saw a preview of the new revue at Second City with an extra hour set of improv and experimenting with new material. Travis saw all of the good sights downtown while I was in class. Thankfully there was 2-3 days of “nice weather” before we got the classic Chicago weather: a little bit of snow, 20-30mph wind and single digit wind chills. So I had my first out-of-towners come to visit me; they were definitely the guinea pigs for any future visitors I might have. I’m pretty sure they had a good time taking in Chicago. And I feel pretty good about that.

I was just listening to Les Claypool’s Frog Brigade - Buzzards of Green Hill