Things to do in Chicago in the Summer

Summer is upon us here in Chicago 
(at least for a while, who knows how long the great weather will last), 

so with great weather comes all the great thing to do in Chicago for the next couple of months.

There is so much to do in Chicago, you can go eat at many of the food festivals, enjoy at concert, even enjoy at movie at the park.

So look over the list and hope to see you at a few of these places.

Please check out my other blog on all the Movies at the Park Here or the complete list Here.

Concerts in Chicago for the first half of 2011

I love going to Concerts, 

being there listening to the music, 

watching the band playing in sync with emotion, 

the amazing energy of the crowd, 
I love all of it.

This year looks to be one of the good one so far, 
with shows all around Chicago with all different styles, playing in all different places with amazing fans cheering on.

The one show I can't wait to see if Yellowcard, which is one of my favorite band of all time and it's great to see them back together and playing new musics for their fans.

I hope to see you guys there in the front row.

Concert In Chicago This Winter (or trying to get closer to the stage)

Many of you may already know that I LOVE going to concerts and I'm always checking to see who is coming to Chicago.

After over 1 hour of searching, i have found that a lot of artists that I like are coming to Chicago in the next couple of months, artists like Lady Antebellum, Hey Monday, Usher, Jimmy Eat World, etc.

So many in fact that i decided to write this blog to keep track of the shows and to also let all my friends and family know about them 
Now I won't be able to go to all the Shows but there are some that are CAN'T MISS.

The Shows are as follow:

My Huge Summer To Do List ( or why I will be tired come September)

This summer looks to be full of activities to do in my wonderful city of Chicago.

Several different activities are going around town from June till August from Movies in the Park to a Late night Bike Ride and HUGE Pillow Fight.

I will be trying to be at ALL these places this summer and I hope to see you there as well :-)

(I started this blog before I was Ribfest but didn't finish it till after but Ribfest was Amazing, I had so much fun there)

How To Create Free Ringtones for IPhones.

So for my brother's birthday, My family and I decided to give him an Iphone and since I was adding him to my current phone line, I needed to upgrade my phone line so I got an Iphone as well

Once I activated my Iphone, I decided to see about getting some ringtones and I found out that not only do you have to pay for the song ($0.99) you also have to pay to create a ringtone ($0.99).
Well after searching around the internet, i came across several websites on how to create your own ringtones for free.

I also have several colleagues who own Iphones that didn't know this was possible so I created this cheat sheet to help them and anyone else who is interested in creating their own ringtones.

How to create ringtones for the Iphone

• Add the song to itunes.
  
• Right-click the song and select “Get info”
  
• Click the “Options” tab.
  
• Select the start time and end time (song can only be between 30 & 40 seconds long) and click ok.
  
• Right-click on the song again and select “Convert Selection to AAC”.
  
• Create a folder on the desktop called “Ringtones”.
  
• Copy the song and place it on the “Ringtones” folder.
  
• Go to the “Ringtones” folder and click Tools > Folder Options and click the “View” tab.
  
• Uncheck the box titled "Hide extensions for known file types".
  
• Right-click the song and select “Rename”, replace the "m4a" extension of your ringtone with "m4r".
  
• Confirm when the dialog asks if you really want to make the change.
  
• Double-click the ringtone or add the file to itunes.
  
• Sync your Iphone and select ringtone tab to select which ringtones you want.
  
• Done.
  
  Hope this can work out as best for you that it did for me.
  - Highlighted part you only have to do this one time.

Summer Reading Week 6

With the release date of volume 2 quickly approaching and the volume 1 hardcover out in a few days (Oct 22,2008), I properly introduce you to The Umbrella Academy.

The Umbrella Academy vol 1 : The Apocalypse Suite written by Gerald Way with art by Gabriel Ba' and Covers by James Jean

For those who is not familiar with the writer, his main occupation is lead singer of My Chemical Romance, but don't let that push you away if you are not a fan of his music.
With his first publish work, Way knock it out of the park, The story centers around a group of superheroes who are reunites after the death of their adoptive father who collected them shortly after birth and trained them to save the world from any threats.

The beautiful art is done by Gabriel Ba' who with his brother Fabian Moon are become big names in the comic industry and are by far one of my favorite artists
he just brings out the characters and puts us right in the action.



This series was a big surprised to everyone but it is a really great read, and just this past summer the umbrella academy was awarded an Eisner(which is an equivalent to an Oscars) for "Best Finite Series/Limited Series".

From the Ashes...

In 2005, my favorite band of all time, blink-182 the band that got me into the whole punk rock scene announced a indefinite hiatus, the reason for it was that the were unhappy with each other, and I thought that nothing good would come out of this.



But from this break up came two bands (actually four bands, but Box Car Racer and Transplants were progressions of what was to come next) Angels and airwaves (Tom Delonge) and Plus 44 (Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker).







Both bands were announce in the winter of 2005 with Angels and airwaves releasing their first cd (We don’t need to whisper) on 05/2006 and the new cd (I-Empire) on 10/2007 and Plus 44 (When the heart stop beating) following soon after on 11/2006.

Angles and Airwaves have a more serious tone in their music with a jazzy low tone while Plus 44 have an upbeat chatchy theme to their music.
While AVA and + 44 sound different, they both have that ingredients that made blink 182 such an amazing band.

If you were a fan of blink 182 then I highly recommend that you give these bands a listen.

For AVA i recommend :
The Adventure , Distraction , the Gift, It Hurts (from We Don't Need To Whisper)
Everything is Magic, Breathe, Secret Crowds, True Love ( I-Empire)



For + 44 i recommend:
When My Heart Stop Beating, Baby come on, No it isn't, make you smile, cliff diving, Lycanthrope (when your heart stop beating)