My mom will be happy when she finds out I wore my bicycle helmet. She probably won't be so happy when she finds out I didn't wear pants.

I went to the Chicago leg of the World Naked Bike Ride, folks. And I had a blast.

Welcome to Nearly Next Year! I hope this blog will help Cubs fans gain a deeper appreciation for their team, their fellow fans and the traditions and culture associated with bleeding Cubbie blue. After all, this is the year! And if not, there's always next year. (But so far, so good!)

To kick things off, I want to delve into an issue that has been bothering me since the beginning of the baseball season.

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Lollapalooza isn’t releasing its official schedule until sometime in June, but with a little Googling you can get a rough idea of which bands will play each day of the festival. When the initial lineup was announced, I assumed Radiohead would play the same role that Pearl Jam played last year and close out the festival Sunday night. They’re riding the wave of a great new album and haven’t been to town in more than two years.

Now that I’m back from South Africa and Zimbabwe, the NFL Draft (only two weeks away) looms large.
Here are my predictions for the biggest day of the NFL offseason:

Religion can be so inflexible.

And no, I'm not alluding to remembering the Sabbath or the whole chastity thing.

The way society forces us to choose a one-word definition to characterize our faith often leaves many to use the terms Catholic or Methodist to encompass a far more intricate truth. Each of our belief systems is complicated beyond the scope of a simple denomination.

Enter Facebook ... duh.

The Taste of Chicago and Milwaukee's Summerfest have lots of similarities. Both festivals attract thousands with food, fun and big name musical acts. They both span the same 10 or so days each summer. And this year they both got Stevie Wonder.

But for my money I'll take Summerfest over the Taste any day of the week.

On a night when freezing rains and wind kept much of Chicago inside, a handful of Chicago comedians hit the streets to rally for a bizarre cause: preserving a massive street hole in north Chicago.

One thing we did while Bea was pregnant was to read at least a book a day to Matthew. We’ll continue that now that Matthew is born, but one book we’ll be leaving out is the story of a somewhat psychotic mother.

Chicago duo Coltrane Motion will bring their intense electronic shoegaze to Ronny's on June 21 -- just one of many local shows worth checking out in the coming weeks.