Me and my Buddy

A boring night around the hotel took a fun turn when a group of friends happened upon my corner of the hotel lobby where i was busy playing online scrabble. They were on their way downtown and invited me along, I didnt even have time to grab a jacket as we ran out the door to meet up with some of our other Covenant pastor and church planter friends.

Our destination was the world famous Chicago Blue's bar, Buddy Guy's Legends. On a discreet corner in the shadow of the Sears tower many of the world's greatest music names have performed for decades. As we walked into the place of Blue's history we encounter ol' Buddy himself, greeting those coming for refreshment and music on a cold Monday night.


Buddy was recently inducted into the hall of fame by his good friends BB King and Eric Clapton. You can read more about Buddy here.
He welcomed us in and we spoke for a few minutes and settled in by some pool tables with a few pitchers of beer for the show. I could now check off "meeting a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Blues guitarist" off of my list of things to do in life.

It is impossible to convey the music we experienced in that dark and smoky room. Band after band arrived, old wrinkly men looking as if they just arrived from the bayou made their guitars sing the blues in a manner that words can not express.

Eventually a band of four white guys took the stage who looked highly out of place. Even more out of place when they opened their mouths and we realized that were Aussies. Talk about starting out on the wrong foot, a few white guys from Austrailia gracing the stage of a famous rock legend... Well I am happy to say that I think everyone in the place was shocked with the music that came from these guys who looked like either someone in a punk band or a computer software engineer.

After the show and friend and I spent some time talking to the guys because we were truly amazed by their ability. Turns out they had recently won the Austrailia Blues championship of some sort and now were touring the USA courtesy of the Aussie government. They gave me a cd, i bought them a pitcher of beer and we talked music, travel and life for a bit. Check them out here.

Another band took the stage and the blues continued to warm the cold night as snow gently fell outside the window. It was nearly 2am when we left and the place was still going strong. I can't imagine what the place is like on a friday or saturday...

All in all it was a great night, not what i expected when Alex was sleeping in the hotel room and I was looking for something to do, which i thought only was going to consist of a rousing game of internet scrabble. I certainly feel like i experienced the true Chicago, a great night with some old and new friends, some fine ales, and of course some soul moving blues....

Oh yea and class was great..... er maybe not.. i can't really remember.

Chi-town shenanigans...

So I got off a plane yesterday and found myself standing in the midwest. I returned to Chicago again, this time for a week of classes and the Covenant Midwinter Conference. I have been here a few times and have never actually seen anything other than the Hyatt hotel and conference center at the O'hare airport.

Times are a changing. My good cousin Andrew (see pic) and his close friend Suree picked me up and took me for a tour of the city. Chicago seems like a pretty cool place. I understand now why Capone would set up shop and want to take over the place. We headed downtown and saw some of the sights and jumped in an elevator to the top of the Hancock building, the 2nd tallest building in Chicago and the 3rd tallest building in the United States.

It was a great view with some great beers catching up with Andrew and getting to know Suree. It is amazing that we grew up in a family that allowed a bunch of rascally cousins to become so close. I truly see Andrew, Jason and John far more as brothers than i do as cousins. We spent hours catching up, reminiscing and talking about the future and life in general. We laughed that we would be soon arrested by the NSA or CIA after an Iranian and two Turks sat at the top of a landmark discussing politics and life.. But alas the men in black never arrived and I finally made it to the hotel at well after midnight.



We need to make more time to get together. Andrew is close by in San Francisco most of the time, yet it took coming across the country to spend a night together.... There is my February resolution. To spend more time with Andrew when he is living up north, cause he is a pretty good bro.

Me, Tony and 17,000 of our pals..

Click on the pic for more of our Arco Arena adventures!

My bud Tony is a good man. For many reasons in fact, but last night he took me to the Kings vs. Lakers game in some serious style.

Not only did we watch the game from behind the Lakers bench, but we lived it up in the VIP room next to the Laker locker room and got to be on the court and run through the player tunnel. Good stuff. Not too mention that it was one of the best games i had seen in a long time. Kobe scores 50+ points, Miller with the 3 to tie the game with 4 seconds left and a rousing overtime victory for the Kings. What a crowd! My ears are still ringing...

The only thing that would have completed the night would have been to have the ultimate Laker fan, Jake alongside. But alas, he got sucked away to a job interview in Santa Barbara... Hope it went well for him...

B