Plant's Blood

As most of you know, I am one of the reasons the diet and supplement industry is a multi-billion dollar industry in the United States. I am always interested in the newest trends in nutrition and diet. Acai will cure cancer? I'm in! Fish oil supplements will prevent heart attacks? I will buy two bottles! Ginseng and Ginkgo Biloba will keep my mind sharp? I feel myself smarter already. I know I am sucker for this kind of stuff. With Lent beginning last week, I decided to take the opportunity to really re-shape my life. With the cold and long nights of winter, my exercise and diet program have waned down to practically nothing. Lent gave me a good reason to restart my health. I decided to give up all junk food, and gradually reduce my intake of processed food - food that comes from a box, or a can. Instead I am trying to eat lots of raw fruit, vegetables, nuts, and lean meat and fish. After one week, I feel so much better. However, I have made one significant addition. I am now drinking a glass of wheatgrass everyday. Don't let the bright green hue scare you. The wheatgrass actually tastes amazing! I like to also mix it with my juice in the morning. Some of the benefits to wheatgrass are amazing: High in antioxidants, a natural remover of toxins, purify the liver, purify the kidneys, good for the skin, good for the hair, good for your teeth, good for digestion, healing wounds, and more. One of the primary reasons is it is full of chlorophyll - or the blood of a plant. Just one OUNCE of wheatgrass has as many nutrients as two pounds of vegetables. Between exercising more, eating better, and drinking wheatgrass, in one week I feel so much healthier and happier.

Every saint has a past; every sinner has a future

What an amazing weekend. Friday night, four friends and I carpooled to the vacation hotspot that is Kenosha, Wisconsin. We visited with old friends, made new ones, and had a lovely evening. Saturday night, Allie and her roommate Brittany, and I decided to check out one of Chicago's more famous blues clubs - Blues Chicago. Although the music was the best live blues I have ever seen I will never go back. It is expensive, dirty, way too hot, way too crowded, way too loud, and just wasn't worth the hassle. I know I am sounding like a bit of diva, but if I am going to pay $15, I want to be at least a little comfortable. Sunday was about sleeping in, making dinner, and relaxing. I did watch the first two episodes of the show, Alias. I wish someone would have recommended I watch this show earlier. Jennifer Garner is terrific, the writing is cool, the story is interesting; and if you can get past the ubiquitous techno music, it is a great show. I am looking forward to seeing how the series goes.

1. Saturday afternoon I sucked it up, paid the big bucks, and saw a movie in the theaters. I saw Shutter Island. I really liked it. I give it an A-/B+. It is scary in the way Alfred Hitchcock movies are scary. I saw a poster for it that said it is psychologically tormenting. I think that is a good way to sum it up. Although the end is mildly predictable, it is still worth the price of admission.

2. If you are feeling spendy and you enjoy alcohol, I highly recommend you buy a bottle of Chambord. It is a pricey french liquor that has a sweet, raspberry flavor. You basically just add a little bit to a shot, or a martini, and it makes it much, much better.

Currently listening to "Hallelujah". Written by Leonard Cohen, but performed masterfully by Jeff Buckley.

wine and whines of the week

Another weekend that has flown by too quickly. Happy Valentine's Day (plus one) to everyone. I had a very nice, relaxing weekend that was sprinkled with bits of excitement. Coming off a stressful week, it was nice to just relax Friday evening and watch the opening ceremonies for the Olympics. I thought Vancouver did a great job. Saturday, Allie's family was in town. We all walked around the Art Institute of Chicago. Free for the month of February, the Institute was packed. I think when you consider the weather was mild, free admission, and it was the day before Valentine's, I cannot be that surprised. I would like to go back when it is a little less congested. My favorite exhibit was the modern art wing. Although modern art can be confusing, and questionable at times, I tend to relate more to the artist. I can respect the aesthetic beauty while looking at Monet's Water Lillies, or any of Van Gogh's pieces, but I do not get the wow factor like when I look at the bold colors of contemporary artists like Igor Medvedev. Saturday evening was capped off with a little sangria and tapas at Cafe Babareeba. A restaurant which is quickly creeping into my top five all-time. Sunday was Valentine's Day. Allie and I decided to do something low-key. We first watch the Northwestern win an exciting overtime basketball game at Welsh-Ryan Arena, and then picked out a recipe, went to the grocery store, and made dinner together. Yes, the stuffed baked chicken with the mint pesto sauce was amazing.

1. The Art Institutes's most famous piece by far is American Gothic by the artist, Grant Wood. For those who are unfamiliar, it is the iconic picture of the American farmers with the man holding the pitchfork, and his wife looking somberly into the distance. AG is probably the most famous American art piece of all-time. I was pretty excited but when I got to the small piece, I was disappointed by its platitude. I guess I just don't get it. Possibly why I do not understand the brilliance of the Mona Lisa. If all it takes to paint an iconic portrait, is to paint a quizzical look on the Muse's face, why wouldn't every artist do it? I am certainly not an expert on art, I guess I just don't understand what separates brilliance from banality.

2. As usual, I did see one movie this weekend. I watched The Last Legion. Starring Ben Kingsley, Colin Firth, and Aishwarya Rai, I was expecting greatness. The movie came out about two years ago. I give it a C-. It is not awful. The problem is that is an action movie kind of about King Arthur and there are times where it is so silly and goofy, I could not even take the movie seriously. However, Allie and her sister loved it. What do I know?

3. I have been drinking some terrific wine recently. If you are fan of red wine, I highly recommend the Clayhouse Adobe Red ($12). A terrific American red wine blend. It is good for those who have limited wine experience because it is so easy to drink. Although it is primarily Zinfandel, the Adobe Red is actually a mixture of six different kinds of red wine.

4. For those white wine lovers, I highly recommend the Zolo Torrontes. Torrontes is the most popular white wine of Argentina, and Zolo makes the best. It is about $14 but worth every penny.

5. Okay, I first had the wine of the week, now it time for my whine of the week. Democrat Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana announced he is going to retire. CRAP! Indiana looks the part of a typical moderate Midwest state. It's not. It has traditionally been very conservative. This will be a very difficult seat for the Democrats to maintain. According to MSNBC, if the election were today, the Republicans would pick up eight senate seats. It could be nine with Bayh retiring.

nothing Left to lose

I wish the Democrats were as politically smart as Republicans. Maybe then things like the Bush tax cuts would not have happened - one reason we are in such an economic quagmire. The Republicans have such a simple strategy for 2009/2010. Refuse to work with Democrats, and their President, on absolutely anything. It does not matter what the bill is... vote no. Use every loop hole possible to ensure that nothing is accomplished. The filibuster is one of the senate's ultimate loop hole. For those who are unaware of the term, basically, unless there is a super majority in the senate (more than sixty votes), a senator is allowed to speak for as long as they wish. That is called filibustering. The Republicans have become masters of the filibuster in 2010. In return because they have become such phenomenal obstructionists, they can then say during election season, "Look American people, you elected Democrats and they have accomplished absolutely nothing. You may have disagreed with our tactics with tax cuts, deregulation, war(s), Patriot Act, et cetera, but at least you knew we were trying!" And because the American public is so woefully ignorant, the strategy is working. The Democrats' approval rating among Independent likely voters is at 19%. Even I have become irritated with Obama and Congress' inability to accomplish anything. And because the Dems are such wusses, they demand bipartisanship and when they had 60 votes, they couldn't accomplish their goals. Can you imagine what the country would be like if under George W., the Republicans had 60 GOP senators? Yikes! Another problem for Dems is that they think for themselves. There are moderate Dems, liberal Dems, and Conservative Dems. Republicans vote yes together or no together. There is almost no split amongst their ranks. Obama and the Dems have one chance to salvage their political careers. They have to increase the economy, lower unemployment, and they have to do it now.

1. Apparently Hollywood feels the need to make another Mission Impossible movie. They plan on releasing if Memorial Day of 2010. Mark my words, that will be the biggest grossing weekend in movie history. Not only will MI: 6 come out, so will The Hangover 2, and Pirates of the Caribbean 4. Speaking of movies, I am pretty excited for the new Muppets movie. It is directed by James Bobin (director of FOTC) and written by HIMYM's Jason Segel. (What is it with that guy and puppets?)

2. When did John Mayer become such a d-bag? He is obviously talented on the guitar, and has some natural song-writing abilities. Although have you read some of his recent interviews? He is one arrogant prick. When he is not "tongue in cheek" using the n-word, or bragging about his sexual conquests over Jennifer Aniston, or Jessica Simpson, he is boasting about his sexual prowess. Possibly my favorite quote was when he was asked why he only dates white women. He responded that his genitals are "like a white supremacist". Maybe it's time to shut-up for a while, huh John?

19th Century Teleprompter

I had a very enjoyable weekend. If I wasn't enjoying a beer at Rock Bottom or Nevin's, eating delicious Thai food at Butterfly, or watching the Superbowl (and the unfunny commercials), I was laughing at Sarah Palin's latest snafu. For those of you who are unaware, this past weekend was the big Tea Bagger, um, I mean Tea Party convention - where rubes from all over America gathered to discuss their sub rosa racism, and wild ignorance together, under the same roof. Who better to give the key-note speech than our favorite hockey mom, Sarah Palin. Apparently worried about being accused a hypocrite after knocking Obama's constant use of a teleprompter, Palin decided to use the old 19th century teleprompter... her hand. If you look for video, you can see she clearly wrote key words on her arm/hand to help her for her speech.

I absolutely love it!

In what should come to a surprise to no one, Fox News jumped to her defense. While Fox News' night-time programs, consisting of Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, and Sean Hannity are so vitriolic and rude, I can't even watch it, Fox's morning show, Fox and Friends, is so embarrassingly sophomoric and simple, sometimes I like to start my morning with a good dose of the Fox buffoons. Take a look at what they said yesterday morning in Palin's defense:

Carlson: I think she did it on purpose. Because it is an exact opposite of reading off a teleprompter with a script written for you word for word in a sentence. Here, she's just taking crib notes on her hand. It makes her look like she can speak off the cuff. She just jotted down a few notes before she gave her long speech.

Kilmeade: But to sit there and look at, and do the interview and look down at her hand, I think that is, like you said Gretchen, folksy, absolutely down to earth, I can identify.

Come on Fox News!! How can you say that shit with a straight face?! They are saying it is endearing that Palin wrote down crib notes on her hand? AAAAGGGHHHHH!!!!

1. I was bored this weekend and decided to rent a movie. I don't know why, but I rented the movie Notorious - about the life of Notorious B.I.G. I hate to admit it, but I actually enjoyed it. It is kind of cool, and I forgot how much great music Biggie Smalls put out before he was killed. I give the movie a B.

2. Currently listening to "Party and Bullshit" by Notorious B.I.G.

Selling hope

Yesterday I was asked an interesting question, "John, what comes to mind when you think of Republicans?" I thought this was a good, but challenging question. Maybe I will start by answering what I think of Democrats. I think the Democrat party has their hearts in the right place but are so unorganized, and weak, that I would not feel comfortable calling myself a Democrat. For what brief time I was inspired by Obama's rhetoric, I have since become so irritated by Congress' inability to accomplish anything, I hesitate to line myself up with any one party. Now, onto Republicans. On some issues I might be conservative or moderate on (affirmative action, immigration, et cetera), I would never call myself a Republican. Basically, I am libertarian on almost every issue. I do not think of Republicans as evil, or stupid. At times I feel the GOP is heartless; and at worst, I feel they are ignorantly crazy. A prime example is when I was on the liberal learning website, dailykos.com. They polled self-identified Republicans and asked the simple question - Do you feel Obama is a Socialist. 79% of Republicans either believe he is a Socialist or are not sure if he is. This is just ignorantly crazy. There is a difference between a liberal economic policy and a Socialist economic policy.

1. I had been meaning to check out the movie 500 Days of Summer for a while now. Yesterday, when I saw my friend, Andrew, said it was his favorite movie of 2009, I decided it would be worth the $5.00 at Blockbuster to go rent the movie. I was right. I give the movie an A. It was sweet, witty, flowed beautifully, and was just a very fun movie. I still think the movie "Up" was my favorite movie of 2009, but 500 Days of Summer is certainly in my top five.

2. Today is National Signing Day. The period in college football where athletes sign on the dotted line for what school they will be spending the next four years at. Some fans think following recruiting is a joke. I respectfully disagree. Sports are all about selling hope. Following recruiting is following the hope that the next wave of recruits are going to be the class that takes your team to the promised land.

John of all trades

Today was a particularly enjoyable weekend. I welcomed a friend from high school, Olivia, for the weekend. Friday some friends and I ventured out to the trendy area of Chicago called Wicker Park. We had a great time at the bar, Northside, until I went out to O'Hare to pick-up Liv. After a little iHop, Olivia and I spent the afternoon doing some Chicago tourist things. It was a brutal cold, but she enjoyed all the shopping areas on Michigan Avenue. We also walked around Millennium Park, The Bean, and the rest of the loop. Saturday night we had a nice dinner at Angelina's, and then met friends at Lux downtown for Nimit's birthday. Liv had never been to Chicago before; and it was fun to show her around. I dropped her back off last night and wished her well.

1. One of the movies getting a lot of Oscar buzz is the Iraq War drama, The Hurt Locker. The stars are not any big names, but there are minor roles for Ralph Fiennes and Guy Pierce. Everyone I spoke with thought the movie was terrific. I actually give the movie only a C. Clearly the director tried very hard to make the film a piece of art. Over-acting and an abundance of superfluously sad moments will make the film an instant favorite with the Oscar voters. For example, super slow motion shots of bullet shells hitting the ground were examples of the director trying too hard for the film to be artsy. Not a terrible movie, just over-rated.

2. Taylor Swift won Album of the year? This is American music in 2010, huh? I will just keep rocking on to my classic rock thank you very much.