Mark's blog
Sporadic blog posts on a wide variety of topics, by Racine, Wisconsin web designer Mark Czerniec.(Also check out my weekly entries in Another Week.)
Rolling Stones movie: ‘Shine a Light’ (2008, Martin Scorsese)
I was bouncing around on the Web yesterday when I saw an ad for yet another Rolling Stones concert movie that's apparently coming out this Friday in IMAX theaters. Now, I have been a Rolling Stones fan since I received Goat's Head Soup as a Christmas present at age 13...
George W. Bush biography: ‘The Bush Tragedy’ by Jacob Weisberg
You can sense the relief welling up in George W. Bush these days like a long-awaited gusher. He may as well be a sixth-grader in class on a 70-degree afternoon in May with the windows open. You could see it as the president tap-danced, waiting for his hopeful...
‘Top Chef’ Chicago
I'm not a huge fan of reality TV, but I am feeling my pulse quicken at the thought of a new season of Top Chef premiering Wednesday night on Bravo at 9 p.m. Central. Throw in the fact that this season's competition is set in Chicago, and I almost want to start phoning...
Chef José Andrés: ‘Made in Spain’
Update, April 17, 2009: With the addition of the new YouTube Shows section, you can now watch all 13 episodes of Made in Spain at YouTube. I seem to be on a little bit of a Spanish kick with my posts here recently, so let's go for trillizos. If you like chefs with...
Penélope Cruz in ‘Volver’ (2006, director: Pedro Almodóvar)
Pedro Almodóvar, Spain's most prominent director, is especially known for his films about sisterhood and female solidarity, films like Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988) and All About My Mother (1999). Volver (meaning...
Olde Madrid: Racine, WI restaurant offers tapas, paella
Olde Madrid (OldeMadrid.com) 418 6th St. Racine, WI 53403-1218 (262) 619-0940 Having enjoyed tapas and paella over the years at Don Quijote in Milwaukee, Cafe Ba Ba Reeba and especially Emilio's Tapas in Chicagoland, we were excited when Manny Salinas and Natalie Pope...
Political campaign robocalls: Mosquitoes of election season
It happened last night, at seven minutes before seven o'clock. Amy and I were savoring our dinner of Cranberry-Pear Chicken (we added fresh thyme), steamed asparagus and a cheap Zinfandel, and we were engrossed in Casino Royale, watching James Bond playing high-stakes...
Back Door Slam: Young British band’s got the blues guitar
My brother-in-law Wayne, out there in Columbus, Ohio, is something of a music connoisseur. Wayne enjoys finding little-known talent. A couple of weeks ago, he gifted me with Mescalito, the major label debut from Ryan Bingham, a...
Tornado in Kenosha, Wisconsin: January 7, 2008
As people all over the world have heard, there was some frightening tornado activity in Kenosha, just a few short miles from here, on the afternoon of January 7. I received a lot of calls and emails from co-workers, friends, and family, but happily I had nothing to...
Young Che Guevara: ‘The Motorcycle Diaries’ (2004 movie)
The Motorcycle Diaries is a 2004 Spanish-language buddy film about two guys from Argentina on a leaky Norton motorcycle taking a road trip through much of South America in 1952. One of the guys is the young Ernesto Guevara (a.k.a Che...
National Civil Rights Museum at Lorraine Motel in Memphis
Today, on the national holiday celebrating the birth of the Martin Luther King, Jr., there's a news story about how King has been simplified into an icon and a catchphrase, and the details of his life and work have been softened, blurred, and appropriated. Being seven...
Fleece jacket by Patagonia is lightweight, warm in winter
Every once in a while, you buy a product that turns out to be worth every penny you paid and then some. I was out walking for an hour or so today ahead of tonight's ominous wind chill advisory when it occurred to me that I really love my Patagonia R3 fleece jacket....
‘The Story of Stuff’ with Annie Leonard
Update, 3/9/2010: Annie Leonard's project has just been published in book form. It is called: The Story of Stuff: How Our Obsession with Stuff Is Trashing the Planet, Our Communities, and Our Health-and a Vision for Change (Free Press, 352 pages). Here's an infectious...
Terry Armour, 1961-2007
I'm sure everyone in the Steve Dahl Show family is stunned and saddened tonight as Amy and I were upon learning that Terry Armour has died from an apparent heart attack at the Chicago Tribune offices. Terry was an endless source of fun and humor at the remote...
Empire Fish Company: Milwaukee fish and seafood market
Empire Fish Company 11200 W Watertown Plank Rd Milwaukee, WI 53226 (414) 259-1330 www.EmpireFish.com There are two kinds of people in the world, and we spent Christmas Eve morning with our own. The other kind wince and whine when...
Pierogi recipes from my mom: Pierogi dough & fillings
As a Chicago-born guy of Polish descent, these pierogi recipes have always been central to my Christmas holiday. The humble pierogi is Poland's take on the ubiquitous filled noodle dumpling, enjoyed elsewhere as ravioli or kreplach or pelmeni or jiaozi (pot stickers)....
Military casualties: Sacrificed lives
Last night on MSNBC'S Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was named Worst Person in the World. He was recognized by Olbermann for this quote about American military casualties: Nobody is happy about losing lives but remember these...
New York Times: Racine, Wisconsin is a travel destination with art
Racine was featured in a New York Times travel story yesterday as something of a Mecca for art and artists and architecture: New York Times: "On Lake Michigan, a Port of Call for Art," by Mary Billard It's a very nice piece, and as...
History of Christmas in America: ‘The Battle for Christmas’
Now that Thanksgiving is in the rearview mirror, we can look forward to a full month of Christmas ads in the newspapers, Christmas commercials and specials on TV, Christmas music on the radio and in every retail store, and Christmas decorations throughout our...
Kohl Children’s Museum in Glenview, Illinois
We took our niece Nadine to the Kohl Children's Museum in Glenview, Illinois last Saturday. She's 20 months old, so she's just entering the age when she can enjoy trips like this. Meanwhile, we're just entering the season when we start looking for indoor activities to...
‘Steve Dahl Show’ moves to mornings
On Sunday, all of my clocks were pushed back one hour. On Monday, my working day for The Steve Dahl Show was moved up eight and a half hours. It's going to take me some time to fully adjust to this new normal. One of my favorite rituals so far is morning coffee alone...
Oprah Winfrey’s MySpace: I’m not Oprah-worthy?
Now I understand how David Letterman must have suffered. It's like an unexpected punch in the stomach. It's difficult to even breathe, and I just sit here in absolute disbelief wondering what I ever did to deserve this. In the hopeful early morning hours of October...
Christopher Walken cooking Chicken with Pears
Well, this is right in my wheelhouse! I watch a lot of chef shows and cooking TV, and I love strange Internet finds. There is a YouTube playlist out there intended to hold my food and cooking favorites, but there are only two videos on it so far. I never imagined...
‘Bohemian Rhapsody’: Acoustic guitar, a capella, The Muppets
What spawned my Web wandering — and my tenacious earworm — was my friend Duwayne putting this "Bohemian Rhapsody acoustic" video on his MySpace page. It seemed harmless enough when I began to watch it yesterday morning. The guy sits down, reels off a darned skilled...
Matt Taibbi, a breath of fresh air
I'm sitting here 90 minutes north of Chicago in my shorts and flip flops after mowing the lawn on this 77 degree October 21. While waiting for the 60 Minutes story on mega-fires in the American west, I find myself nostalgic for certain individuals, now dead, who used...
‘The Departed’ (2006 movie, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon)
The Departed took the Academy Award for Best Motion Picture of the Year back in February, and it won Martin Scorsese his first Oscar, for Best Achievement in Directing. I love Scorsese's movies, and I love Jack Nicholson, who stars as mob boss Francis "Frank"...
Laundry tips: How to keep clothes looking new longer
Washing machines, dryers, laundry detergents, and fabric softeners can turn your magnificent new apparel into lint in no time. Want to still be wearing the garments you bought last weekend well into the 2020s? Sure you do. Here are my top seven laundry tips for...
‘Idiocracy’ (movie, 2006)
Watch enough TV, eat enough fast food, drive through enough construction, absorb enough cable news, shop in enough malls, wait on hold for enough hours — sit through enough movies — and you can't help but suspect that civilization is getting dumber and dumber....
‘The War’ (Ken Burns World War 2 documentary, PBS)
Thanks to the miracle of the video recorder, Amy and I have been wading into The War, the seven-part, 14-and-a-half hour documentary on World War II from Ken Burns and Lynn Novick that has been airing on PBS since Sunday night. It is excellent. [includeme...
‘V for Vendetta’ (Natalie Portman movie, 2006)
Never really into graphic novels (or comic books, as they used to be called), I had some initial resistance to this movie about a vigilante in a Guy Fawkes mask in post-American Britain who uses fantastic swordsmanship and martial...