Sonny Landreth

Sonny Landreth opened the Crossroads festival in Chicago a couple of years ago. He forever earned a spot in my heart. The bayou blues man sparked my love for the slide guitar. Since then I've also grown to love Derek Trucks.

Tonight Sonny's playing at the intimate Duck Room of Blueberry hill. I'm pretty geeked to see him play a full set in such a small venue. It will also help that I haven't been up for 24 hours straight this time.

Sole without Soul

I doubt anyone reading this has been with the blog from the inception, but my first post was an article I was mentioned in, regarding the release of the Air Jordan XXII. I'll give you a quick recap.

The Jordan release was a limited edition of only 529 pairs. 23 stores were selling 23 pairs each. R Sole a sneaker shop near me was on of them. I rallied some friends down there for the raffle to be able to purchase the shoes the morning of the release. When we showed up they made it known that the shoes were being sole for $500 per pair, more than TWICE as much as the MSRP of $230. Nonetheless, I knew I could turn a profit. 3 of us won the right to purchase the kicks and we sold them on ebay for a profit of about $3000.

Needless to say many people were very upset with the gouging price that R Sole released. And Sporting news wrote an article about it. They asked me to supply my receipt as evidence and I gladly obliged.

That being said, I still liked R Sole. Those were some shady business practices, but I still enjoyed the sneaker displays.

I walked in R Sole today, almost a year later to a chirp of "traitor" from one to the female sale chicks, and when I tried to make small talk with the manager Joe Wilson, his only reply was, "Are you going to put this in your blog?"

What's with the attitude? Did you just discover the internet and see the SN article? Why am I being persecuted? I shelled out $270 above retail for their sneakers, and I've still brought many customers to them. Not to mention the fact that one of my friends that bought a pair of the Jordans STILL doesn't have the serial number tag that was supposed to accompany the sneakers He even after called the store several times, but received no help whatsoever.

I'm not sure I'll be back to R Sole Oh well, it seems they aren't doing that well anyway. Most of the shoes were marked with discount stickers and an entire men's wall is dedicated to Creative Recreation. I won't even mention the hideous denim lining the back wall.

It could have been so much greater, and so much different, but alas R Sole turned into the same mainstream boredom I can see anywhere else. I guess it was only a matter of time.

The Man

Joshua Budich is an artist I recently stumbled upon. He does prints in a very similar style to Shepard Fairy whom I love. Joshua has had several prints for sale on his website at very reasonable prices, and they inevitably sell out quickly. His latest release is “The Man” depicting Johnny Cash. It's an 18″ x 24″ screenprint, has an edition of 50, and will be $35.

Check out some of his other work at JoshuaBudich.com

Hausbootbau

This is the kind of stuff I daydreamed about in 4th grade. Zee Germans have developed this green houseboat, complete with a sodded roof. This will actually go into production in the future, and I won't be able to afford it then either.

Kanye is just Okay

The tracks that have leaked from Kanye West's new album 808s and Heartbreak are nothing short of disappointing. It seems like he's just trying to cram as many crappy effects into one song as he can.

Kanye, you're trying too hard

Listen for the ridiculous robot sounds in the background of "Robocop"...It's almost as if all these leaks are a practical joke.

Robocop

And this track had promise, but again turned out to suck

Anyway

His shoes suck too.

Halloweeny

The lego man was well received.