A blogworthy break

Five things I found blog-worthy during Spring Break

While most of you spent your Spring Break in a warm weather location, I went north to drink heavily chill out in my parents’ basement after spending Friday night in St. Louis for the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.

I found these noteworthy things during Spring Break.

5. SIU men’s basketball team won’t be joining the madness this March. Northern Iowa’s upset victory against the Salukis in the MVC Tourney ended SIU’s chance to extend its NCAA Tournament appearance streak to seven years. Instead, the Dawgs will get a second chance to dance Tuesday night as they host Oklahoma State.

4. It seemed as if everyone was talking about the possibility of the Cubs playing 81 games at U.S. Cellular Field in the event of the reconstruction of Wrigley Field. ChiSox manager Ozzie Guillen said he would embrace the move, adding it would give Cubs fans the opportunity to see a real ballpark. If it were to happen, it begs the question: how devastating would it be to chairman Jerry Reinsdorf’s ego if the Cubs drew more fans to The Cell than his beloved White Sox?

3. Watching Saturday’s Big Ten Tournament semifinal game between Michigan State and Wisconsin was reminiscent of SIU basketball. Painfully slow with a hint of poor officiating. The Badgers’ slow and methodical pace threw MSU in a funk, and to add insult to injury, MSU big men collecting their fifth fouls on three consecutive possessions aided Wisconsin in the come-from-behind victory.

2. WTF happened to Chicago radio while I was gone? Seriously, it sucks! The three major stations (103.5 KISS FM, 96.3 B-96, 107.5 WGCI) play the same 15-20 songs over-and-over again to the point where you could turn on each station and they would all be playing the same song.


• ‘GCI is still my place for hip-hop and R&B because it rolls out some of the best tracks by some of Chi-town’s finest. However, the station has lacked a legit morning show since ‘Crazy’ Howard McGee left town. As funny as Steve Harvey is, he alone cannot carry a nationally syndicated morning show. The station sorely misses the Bad Boyz, a night shift staple that consisted of Mike Love and ‘The Diz,’ who are now gone.

• If B-96 attaches itself to the rising stars of ‘Styles and Roman’ who host the afternoon show, the Killer Bee could find itself back at the top of Chicago radio. The morning show of Eddie, JoBo and Erica is nothing to what Eddie & JoBo (with the help of Karen Hand) had back in the 90s. It is clearly a knockoff of KISS FM’s morning show (which I’ll get to next).

• One of the things I look forward to when I come home is listening to DreX in the morning. Despite losing “Petersworth”, the show’s producer and one of the station’s most popular personalities, the show has continued to stay fresh. The addition of ‘The Lotion Hour’, a segment where callers discuss off-the-wall topics (ex.: my mom/dad uses me to hit on my friends, my man is a wuss in bed, witchcraft ruined my marriage, etc.) keeps the free spirit of that show alive.


1. This vacation’s local food recommendation is ‘Ghetto Fries’, which you can only find at Max’s Italian Beef on Western, south of Peterson. In addition to fries (topped with cheddar cheese, chopped and grilled onions, Italian Beef gravy, jalapenos, etc.) Max’s offers the second best Italian Beef sandwich in the city (Al’s Beef is #1). Trust me, the combo is worth the $8.19 I paid for lunch.

Damn, it sucks that school resumes in the morning.