Chicago could use some Metro Dogs

So in the late 50s some Russian scientists set up this experiment where they bread wild foxes for friendly, domesticated traits. Fondness for humans, lack of aggression, etc. They found that along with these behavioral traits also came physical traits that resembled puppies: shorter noses, raised tail, etc. You can read about it here .

Well not to long ago, in Moscow of all places, some scientists started studying metro dogs. These are dogs that have lived down in the subway system for years and ride the subway to find food. They actually know which stops they get on and off of the trains to look for food or go home at night to sleep. One of the new skills these dogs have is “the hunt for shawarma”. An interesting side affect of living in the metro is they have been unintentionally, selectively breeding for more wild traits: fear of humans, ability to scavenge. And have come to resemble wild dogs more then their domesticated ancestors.



They look so cute!

You can read more about them here. All he needs is a briefcase and a suite. Ja Ja Ja.

Record store day

Record store day is on black Friday this year, or maybe this is like a second record store day for the year, not really sure because I don't remember if i bought anything on record store day this year... either way I think is kind of lame its on black friday because I was hoping I would do no shopping on the craziest day of the year, but here are some records I'm excited for:

Bob Dylan, Can You Please Crawl Our Your Window? 7" box set
The inscrutable one contributes four of his classic singles to Record Store Day, all in mono mixes.

Wilco, Speak Into the Rose 10"
Liked The Whole Love? This release offers four alternate tracks, two of which are previously unreleased.

New apartment

Here is my new place!

October playlist

Auditorium - Mos Def
President Carter - Lil Wayne
the '59 sound - the Gaslight anthem
Old White Lincoln - the Gaslight anthem
The Rip Tide - Beirut
Your Gravest Words - The lawrence arms
Under Your Spell - Desire
A Real Hero (feat. Electric Youth) - College
Johny was - Stiff Little Fingers

Demo

I finished mixing some songs. Here they are!

Collinsville


Annabelle



3 strings


Pennies to Nebraska

Fold it!

So some researchers at at the University of Washington are attempting to use crowd sourcing to solve protein folding problems. Pretty sweet stuff

Move

All moved in! Once we get settled I'll throw up some pictures of the new place. Safe to say it is an upgrade.

Also I saw DRIVE the other day. It was really good.



go see it!

I'm hoping the bears win tomorrow and I can somehow beat Paul in Fantasy football. Here is my line up:


Matt Ryan

Steve Smith

Brandon Lloyd

Rashard Mendenhall

Ahmad Bradshaw

Rob Gronkowski

Deion Branch

Robbie Gould

Bears Defense


I really wish Romo wasn't injured and I'm hoping mendenhall will pick it up this week!

Montana Blur

Orange Tiger Face-Off

Big face girl

I should have been more productive today

New Apartment

We just signed for a new apartment for Oct 1st. Our current landlord is a jerk and our place floods so we are moving. Just a little bit northwest, still in Logan Square. It's 2 bedrooms which means I get to make a music room. There is so much gear I want to get!!!! Like...

Electric drum set



















Synthesizer













Shock Mount condenser mic



I might just go bankrupt on gear.

August playlist

Little late on the August playlist but here it is!

I am disappeared - Frank turner
N****s in Paris - Kanye/Jay-Z
Otis - Kanye/Jay-Z
Bruises - Chairlift
Eulogies feat. Nikki Monninger - Two Can Play
Fortunetellers - make it easy
Occult Enemies - Against Me!
Party Rock Anthem - LMFAO
Seven - Odd Future/Tyler the Creator
We Were Promised Jetpacks - It's thunder and it's lightning

Watch the Throne has been in rotation pretty much non-stop

Hey FAMMMMM

Spent the weekend in San Jose. Got to see the fam and hang out. It was fun. Got to surf saturday. Watched some football and drank some beers with Jason Norris. Hung out in the Mission district and ate a delicious Burrito. Its gonna be weird, Jason being on the west coast. But I will have a sweet place to crash out in San Fran :)

If you are ever in San Jose check out Armadillo Willy's. I couldn't tell if it was a chain but it was real gooooood.

Palm Springs or as it will be known after WW3 barter town

After dropping dan off at the airport I drove from LA to palm Springs. I had to drive through San Bernardino Mountains which has some pretty cool views.



And windfarms



I don't know how this town exists. Its a modern marvel. Nothing should be able to survive here except snakes and cacti but somehow they keep the grass green and even have a Panera Bread. I think this would be the first town to fall into Anarchy if WW3 started. Its basically a bright spot in an otherwise post-apocalyptic nightmare. That might have sounded harsh, it is very nice. Really. Green grass, hundreds of golf courses, Starbucks as far as the eye can see. But it all feels really strange to me. Its so unnatural. Rich movie stars willed this town into being in the 50s and its been going ever since.



The project is pretty straight forward and hopefully we will end early. We'll see. The Hilton I'm staying at has a 24 hour pool and there is a casino across the street I might check out. But the town is pretty dead. Apparently the population triples in the winter time when the temperature is bearable. So right now there is just townies and old people. They literally have waster misters on the sidewalk to cool you down while you walk outside. Should be an interesting week...

LA

SO LA confuses me. I don't think I'm good at that city. In 48 hours Daniel and I got lost in little Japan, couldn't find the beach at Venice Beach, spent 30 minutes looking for where we parked at Universal city walk (for some reason I thought it was the same thing as the walk of fame like 10 miles away), and got sun burnt worse then the roof of my mouth when I eat pizza pockets. At least they upgraded me from a Chevy cobalt to a Ford Mustang.



Boyahhhhh!

Also we found some FourLoco which was both terrible and awesome.



Then we walked north and passed all the crazyness that is Venice beach. Every other shop was a medical Marijuana evaluation station. There was some sweet graffiti.



And saw Davey Havok skateboarding!



just kidding. But c'mon that looks like him right?


Also got to meet up with my friend Randy who paid for Korean BBQ, super nice of him, and he facilitated a celebrity spotting. Apparently Quentin Tarantino shops for DVDs at Amoeba Records.



Who knew? I didn't see the Hollywood sign or the Nakatomi Building but I think the trip was a success. Now its on to Palm Springs. A tiny green spot in the middle of a desert. The coolest it is going to be this week is 105.

July mix

Since July is almost over I thought I'd throw up some tracks I've been listening to this month:

Knockout - Lil' Wayne & Nikki Minaj
Another Chessboxin' Arguement - Wugazi
Freaks and Geeks - Childish Gambino
Indian Summer, Indian Summer - White Wives
Here comes the neighborhood - The Lawrence Arms
Androgynous - The Replacements
I'm on Fire- Bruce Springsteen
Take off your sunglasses - Ezra Furman and the Harpoons
Shelter from the storm - Bob Dylan

Not so endless

I already see summer coming to an end as I look at my work schedule. I hit the road in August then travel almost through Christmas. Los Angeles, Yuma for a MONTH! (that is shock not excitement), then Brazil??? We will see if that one happens. I feel another travel-burnout coming on.



At least I should get some surfing in down there in southern California.

I'm with Stu

Hey, show went well. I remembered all the words and everything. I even threw in a 'lil harmonica.




Briana found a new friend while doing the Bernie. I got a free cassette from one of the bands and a free pin from the other, erbody was real cordial.

Who knows... maybe I'll play another show soon?

Show Saturday!

Show starts at 7 PM!!!!

Basement Show
1542 N. Oakley
Chicago, IL

$3.00 Suggested Donation. All proceeds go to JDRF {juvenile diabetes research foundation ::: www.jdrf.org }

7pm Brock Donovan vs. Tyler & The Chillweavers
7:45 Swimsuit Addition
8:30 Merlin Wall
9:15 Automatic Lovers
10:00 Rodeo

So apparently I am vs Tyler's band. I don't know if that is a fair fight, I'm just one man ya know, so I'm trying to recruit some people to be my posse. We will be called Brocky Poppins and the Chimney Sweeps. I am making some pretty sweet Iron On Shirts for anyone who signs up.

Also they are having a merch table, at which I plan to sell some of my old star wars toys cause, well I don't have merch duh. Maybe I'll make a myspace music page. That's what real musicians do right. ;)

Chicago Weather

Traveling really takes me out of the Chicago weather phenomenons of clouds, rain, snow, and intense heat. It was 97degrees at 6:30pm yesterday. C'mon Chicago. I found this info-graphic pie chart that describes Chicago weather pretty well.

sick day

So I took today off. I think my sis got me sick when she was up last weekend. I slept for 13 hours and drank a bunch of tea. I also watch a bunch of Nova docs on Netflix. I think I'm gettin over this cold thing.

now if only the bulls could get over the Heat I'd be in tip top shape.



Schedule for the rest of the year:

Los Angeles CA August 15-26
Yuma AZ October 24-November 18
Brazil December 5-16

Brazil is still up in the air but it would be sweet if it happens!

Schaumburg IL

So I've been on a project in Schaumburg for the last two months. I'll be here for the next 5ish months. Then its off to Yuma AZ. If there is a 3:10pm flight I'm totally going to be on it. Thank god I'm going in October, summer in Yuma would be deadly to my fragile, pale, white skin.

Also my trip to Israel got pushed back again. I'm still a little weary about traveling to anywhere near the Middle-East. I'm really hoping Clinton can work out that whole mid-east-peace thing in the next few months. That's realistic right?



Why are you looking at me like that Adama?

A little late but... Did you know...

So it completely slipped my mind to post this when I was in Collinsville. Apologies. I know you just couldn't live without these fun facts about the South Western IL.

Collinsville is the self-proclaimed "Horseradish Capital of the World", and sponsors an annual Horseradish Fest. The area is said to produce 85% of the world's horseradish, of such high quality that Germany and China (key users of the herb) import it for gourmet use. Known for having a large ethnic Italian population, Collinsville, ahhh thats why it smells like garlic, and hosts an annual Italian Fest in the Fall.

During World War I, a Collinsville mob lynched a German-American citizen, the only such murder in the country. (all men held for trial were acquitted. obviouslyyyyyyy)

Birth place of George Musso, pro Football Hall-of-Famer for the Chicago Bears.

Michael Stipe, lead singer of rock band R.E.M., spent his high school years in Collinsville, and graduated from Collinsville High School in 1978.

Collinsville: the Paris of south eastern Illinois

After a 5 hour drive I've settled in down here in Collinsville. Good new, my hotel is located directly between an arbys and a white castle. Gonna be some awesomely unhealthy eats this week.

In case you aren't familiar with this rural gem, heres some info. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 26,016. Collinsville is approximately 12 miles from ST. Louis. So everybody here is pretty much a missourin (is that a word?). They follow the cardinals, Missou tigers, st Louis blues.

Oh snap, I just found out the worlds largest ketchup bottle is located in Collinsville! And it has a website



Things are looking up around here.

Snow-mageddon

Its happening. The snow is hitting, the buses are stopping, the world is ending. So we went exploring.





and then there was this.



And our power went out for 12 hours. That was a chilly night. But we survived. If there is ever a zombie apocalypse I really hope it doesn't happen during a blizzard. I don't think I could survive both.

I saw a Toomey

I saw Kevin Toomey on 90 while I was driving in today. The last time I saw someone I knew on the commute was... never. Which made me think about the most interesting things I've seen during my commute.

Most exciting things I've seen driving to/from work:
3) 3 car fender bender
2) burned out car on the side of the road
1)Fist fight between driver and passenger while still driving. I was amazed. It was like the driver had to keep the car on the road above 5mph or it was going to explode. That's the only reason I can think not to pull over and kick the passengers @$$.

Least exciting things I've seen while driving to/from work:
3)Calvin pee'n on a chevy symbol.
2)guy picking nose
1)People listening to iPods while driving.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! This year I hope to be not traveling as much. Which unfortunately means less blog posts, because, well this is something to keep me ocupied when I travel. But good news for me, not as many airports! At least that is what I am hoping. My first trip for the new year is to Collinsville, IL. I am working on the Illinois State Police radio system. Where is Collinsville? That was my first question too. Its wayyyyyyy down by St. Louis.



Never mind one of the master sites is in Cook county and I LIVE IN COOK COUNTY. Blast, unluck with that one.

Next is a trip in March to Virginia, a state which I've been told is for lovers. Then a project in Schaumburg throughout the summer.

There is an Isreal trip in the works but the Gaza strip kinda scares me.... so we will see.



Since my travels will be limited I may start writing about my travels to/from Scahumburg. Boring you say! I guess we will see.



hugs!!!