entertainment ave!

By:

The Dude on the Right
Sure the Chicago Tribune and other news outlets reported that your weight might
be directly related to the people you hang out with, and

in a podcast last week I blamed my buddy, Stu Gotz, for my chubbiness. 
Now I realize that I owe Stu an apology because he isn’t the reason for my
chubbiness, and in fact, I might be the reason for his.  I realized this
after a two day battle with the best cheese curls in the world.

You
see, a few weeks ago I took a trip to the old country, Lorain, OH, to visit the
parents, and prior to my departure I mentioned to Stu how the best cheese curls
in the world were sold there.  They are from
"Snyder of Berlin"
(not ever to be confused with "Snyder’s of Hanover"), and they make, in my mind,
the world’s best

cheese curls.  The cheesiness flavor is fantastic, above the flavor of
many other brands, but what makes these cheese curls almost the best, unless you
want total crispiness (in which case you could buy the "Cheese Crunch" version),
is if you chomp down on them right away you get a nice, fluffy, crunchy feeling
without seeming to tear up the inside of your mouth.  But what makes them
the world’s best cheese curls, and is the the ultimate joy in eating them, is
that if you let your mouthful of cheese curls rest on your tongue, for a couple
of seconds, they suddenly melt in your mouth, nearly disintegrating, with a
giant explosion of cheesy flavor.  You swallow, easily, with minimal
chewing, it’s on to your next handful of curls, and if you are sort of careful,
all of a sudden, you have eaten at least half the bag.  If you aren’t
paying attention, eight ounces with 1,360 calories of cheesy, airy, goodness has
made its way into your belly.

Then last Tuesday I opened up the eight ounce
bag of cheese curls I brought home with me, and by Wednesday night they were
gone, and as I was joyfully licking the orange, cheesy crumbs from my fingers I
realized Stu wasn’t the blame for my chubbiness.  That didn’t stop me from
finishing the finger licking, but I realized that maybe I’m the reason Stu is
chubby because as much as he puts me in some situations where proper dietary
functions could be done if I just picked the right things off of the menu, and
he might actually follow, I brought Stu a bag of the world’s best cheese curls
from Ohio, and he and Mama Gotz ate them, and liked them, and if I didn’t bring
home that bag of cheesy curl goodness, Stu wouldn’t have 680 calories of
goodness he has never known before.

So Stu, I am sorry for making you be
chubby, and your being chubby isn’t the reason for my being chubby because maybe
I should set a better example and not tell you that, if you ever get a hankering
for the world’s best cheese curls, you can

sort of order them online, but sadly they want cash upfront and it might
take a week for the delivery.  But, if you want instant gratification for
your cheesy-curl goodness, they’re only about a five hour drive away, somewhere
in Ohio.

That’s it for this one! 
I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

By:

The Dude on the Right
Today
was a nice day in Chicago-land, and as I like to do on weekends I went for a
walk in a local forest preserve.  It was an incident at the start of the
walk that for most of the rest of the time I wondered about something – Did I
ever do something like that when I was about five or six years old?

You see,
as I started upon the trail I saw up ahead a little boy, on a little bike,
trailing behind mom.  Then, for whatever reason, the boy, I would gauge
about five or six years old, got off his bike, threw it to the ground, and
proceeded to sit himself down in the grassy area next to the path, crossing his
arms and legs and with a look of defiance of "I am not going on a bike ride
today."  Mom quickly stopped, looked back at, I’m assuming it was her son,
seemingly perplexed by the actions of her son, and at times like these I sort of
wish I didn’t have my music playing during my walk, drowning out the ambient
noise around me, so I could fake needing to tie my shoes and see how mom planned
on diplomatically resolving the situation at hand, to get Skippy back on the
bike, or if she would just get all nuts saying something like "Get the hell back
on your bike and start riding.  You’re the one who wanted to go for a bike
ride in the first place, so dammit, get riding," and which I would just have
probably died with laughter if the kid retorted back, "But Mom, I’m Jesus
Christ."

But, with music playing, I just walked on, and began to wonder if I
had ever done anything like that when I was a child.  Did I ever just sit
down and pout, and then I took out the pouting part because I’m 100% sure I have
pouted as a youngin’ (hell, I’ve probably pouted as an oldin’, too).  It
was the entire package of the little boy that was classic, from the slamming
down of the bicycle, to the sitting down with crossed arms and legs, to that
perfect face, and I almost wished I could have captured that on my iPhone. 
Instead, I took these couple of pictures of the prairie that is my weekend
walking location.

Now
the entire walk wasn’t just about wondering how I acted as a boy, as I was
walking I was passed up by a member of "Team Pink."  She was tan, she was
thin, she had long, black hair, and I know she was a member of "Team Pink"
because she was wearing shorts with it spelled across her ass, and for an
instant I really wished I was in better shape so I could maybe run with "Team
Pink" girl, but for now walking is my speed and it was back to my recollections
of being a little kid.  I remembered a moment I had run outside naked, I
remembered the bunk beds my brother and I had in our bedroom, I remembered being
a member of "The Fonz Club," and kept seeing in my head little pouty boy, and
kept convincing myself I was never like that.

With the music playing in my
head, and me heading back to the dude-mobile, I was getting over my "how was I
when I was a little kid" thoughts, and then, passing me up again was "Team Pink"
girl and it occurred to me, "Why am I taking pictures of the prairie when I
could be taking pictures of "Team Pink" girl."  Sadly, though, she’s a
pretty fast jogger and before I could get my iPhone out of pocket, she was too
far away.  "Goodbye ‘Team Pink’ girl."

And so, on today’s walk, I
recollected that I was a perfect angel as a little boy, and would never had
slammed my bike down, mostly because I didn’t learn to ride a bike until I was
like eight or ten years old, and the next time I’m going for a walk, and "Team
Pink" girl passes me up, I better have the camera ready for when she comes back
around.

That’s it for this one! 
I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Stu Gotz & The Dude on the Right get together after Memorial Day for this podcast where the highlights are Stu seeing a baseball game and The Dude going for a six mile walk. Sure, there were other things they talked about, like “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, “ The Dude seeing “Waitress,” and getting double-time by working on a holiday. The Dude needs Stu’s advice about the possibility of his townhouse burning down, Stu wonders about “Ocean’s 13,” and The Dude seems to have missed out on the cornholing craze.

By:

The Dude on the Right
I must say that I am both excited and a little nervous to cover
Green Day at the
Allstate Arena on
August 10th. I’m excited because as much as I used to enjoy Green Day and their
style of music, I am even more of a fan after seeing their performance on
Live 8. I was watching
the AOL feed of something going on somewhere else when they nicely put a note up
that Green Day was getting ready to go on stage in Germany. I quickly switched
to the feed from Germany to catch their performance, and they just totally
kicked ass. When I started a couple of weeks ago to get back into covering
concerts, I was more than pleased to see they were coming to town, and hopeful I
would get clearance. The review should be posted Friday or Saturday. But why am
I nervous? It’s my first photo shoot with my new camera. I’m all digital, baby,
and I’ve done my preliminary testing and playing with the damn thing, but
nothing is like being in the heat of a concert photo shoot to see if things work
out. The batteries are charged, the memory cards are empty and ready, I just
hope I don’t screw it up.

On a more heavy note, my prayers to the family of
Peter Jennings
who passed away from lung cancer the other day, and also to
Dana Reeve and
her family, as she announced today, after I heard on
Howard Stern that it
was going to be in The Enquirer, that she has been diagnosed with lung cancer.
I’ll also send a general prayer to all of those out there going through the same
type of thing because in ways I won’t give up here, I understand. The human body
is a strange being. For some people they are able to smoke all of their lives
and never have a problem, others get riddled with lung problems, and others who
may never really have smoked, they still get afflicted with the challenge of
cancer.

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

By:

The Dude on the Right
I did something yesterday that I haven’t done in three or four years (that last time was on
Long Beach
Island in New Jersey, known for its summer resort areas and
Chowderfest,
but it was just a quick trip for some breakfast so I don’t really think
it counts).  Anyway, I went for a bike ride.  It’s not that I
haven’t wanted to go on a bike ride, it’s just there was one essential
thing missing – a bike.  But on my last trip to the homestead, my
brother, who has two bikes, let me take his old
Schwinn World
Sport.  I hauled it back to my pad, and finally, yesterday, had
some time to load it into the dude-mobile, head to my local forest
preserve, and take it for a spin.  They say you never forget how to
ride a back, and I guess they are right, but I have to admit I was a
little shaky at first.  My first issue, dealing with toe clips, but
I finally got adjusted to them, and even though it was one of those
multi-use trails, I made it around the trail no worse for wear.

Now this may not seem like anything significant, but when
was the last time you went on a nice bike ride?  Me, I used to bike
a lot, back in Ohio down lots of country roads, and when I was in
college at I.I.T., the
Lake Shore Drive bike path was a fabulous ride.  But then my
bicycle broke and I never did anything about it.  The other thing
is that I have a bet with my sister about some weight-loss issues, and
this adds a new weapon to my arsenal, along with my coat rack, umm, I
mean exercise bike, and this other crazy contraption that I don’t want
to admit I own unless I actually get off my ass and use it.  It
supposedly worked for a couple of famous personalities, but we’ll see on
that one, in any case, it really felt good to hear the crunching of the
limestone under my tires and have the wind go through my hair under my
bike helmet.  After I caught my breath, it was good to hear the
Cubs beat the
Giants on my drive
back to the dude-pad.

That’s it for this one!  I’m The Dude on the Right!!  L8R!!!

By:

The Dude on the Right
Yesterday was my mom’s birthday and she turned the excellent age of

79.  It’s weird though, these days, because her health isn’t
nearly the state it used to be just five or six years ago, and for me,
it has to do with three things, and she may or may not agree, but part
of her decline was a result of a

stress test she did a couple/five years ago, too much stress from
dealing with my father, and her years of smoking.  Yup, mom was a
smoker, and for the most part, other than my dad, you can attribute her
health issues to that.  But when you are a woman approaching 75,
with diagnosed emphysema, and sure, and you’re having some heart issues,
do you really give this woman a full-blown stress test and put her on a
treadmill?  And that being said, as she’s on that treadmill, and
she is saying she can’t keep going, do you force this woman to keep
going, even to the point where you are holding her up?  Go figure,
the stress test didn’t detect anything. A little later she had an

angiogram, and low and behold there was some blockage in one of her
coronary arteries.  They fixed that, but a lot of her lung issues
started to happen after that stress test, and my theory is simply this,
and I’m no Doctor and I don’t even play one on TV, but her years of
smoking and emphysema left a lot of crap stuck in her lungs.  Being
in her early seventies, mom wasn’t one to get her heart rate nor heavy
breathing up, although helping my dad, she really kept her strength, but
with this running and unable to catch her breath on the treadmill, all
of that crap blew out of its settled places and headed to the rest of
her lungs.  Diagnosed now with what the call

COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), she is tethered to an
oxygenator 24 hours a day, and as days goes, some days are better, some
not so much.  She will be the first to admit that smoking was a bad
thing, and for the couple of stories we all hear about of people who
have smoked all of their lives and live it long and healthy, for the
most part, you will probably end up in your later years like my mom. 
Make that choice today and
quit smoking, as
hard as it may be, because in seeing my mom, she would give up all of
those years of smoking if she didn’t have to live with this today. 
And if you are a friend of a smoker, try to get them to quit.  If
they give you crap, feel free to make them
contact me and I’ll give
them a few other things they might get to look forward to as they get
older.

With her health issues aside, I will
always love my mom.  She probably never fully understands some of
the decisions I have made in my life, but she has always been
supportive.  She was a great singer, played an organ like nobody’s
business, but spent her years as a mom and housewife, and all she ever
seems to really want for me and my brother and sister is to be happy. 
She has her favorite saying now when people ask her how she is doing,
and that is simply "Still breathing."  That’s all I can hope for
everyone dealing with the same things my mom is going through, is to be
"Still breathing."

That’s it for this one!  I’m The Dude on the Right!!  L8R!!!