The Weekend, etc.

"So much on my mind, I just can't recline..."

Q: What happens when you have a weekend of no social obligations?

A:
Movies Seen
Nacho Libre
The Village
She Hate Me
Friends With Money
United 93

Field Trips
Diane Arbus exhibit at Walker
Twins vs. Cubs 6.25.06

Good Eatin'
Barbette
Hell's Kitchen

Etc.
Hours languidly reading the newspaper, drinking coffee;
Cooking dinner with The Woman;
Ice cold beer on a nice warm couch (THAT should be the alternative title of this blog);
a little more Saul Bellow;
Afro-Cuban jazz;
Nowhere to be!!!

Random Thoughts
1) Will have to soon provide capsule reviews on stuff I saw, etc...However, you really need to see the Arbus exhibit. It's amazing.

2) Yes, part of the reason I went to Barbette for a late lunch Saturday was to give them a little love after their recent food poisoning scare. I hope you all realize that all restaurants, no matter how excellent and amazing they are, inevitably have some kind of problem like this at some point in their history. It really is The Law of Averages for a restaurant, and you just have to give them the courtesy benefit of the doubt, especially if you love the place. And I love Barbette.

There's my Good PR Deed of the Day.

3) How much does it really, really suck to be a Cubs fan?

I mean, their popular national image as the "Lovable Losers" is calcified into some sort of baseball orthodoxy, and yes, they do play in a holy cathedral of a ballpark, but oh my Harry Carry, these guys are just awful. I watched them commit 3 official errors and a handful more that didn't count only because their incompetence prevented them from even touching the baseball.

I've been a more than a slightly casual Cubs fan ("above average observer" is a more operative term) since a) my Dad spent a bit of his childhood living in Chicagoland and informed us that the Cubs were "our National League team" and b) because of hundreds of childhood hours were wasted watching WGN broadcasts. But the Cubbies have never been My Team, and thank the everloving Christ for that.

Watching Sunday afternoon's game in the Dome finally brought home to me the grave reality that being a real, true-blue Cubs fan is not endearing. It's not cute. It's not fun. This is what it is:

Being a Cubs fan is consigning oneself to a life of ritual disembowelment every baseball season, for all of eternity.

Now, how fucking awful is that? To love, to really, truly give your heart and soul to a team like the Cubs takes such masochistic patience. I can't imagine having to live and die by a team like that.

I pity the fool.