Hiya.

My name is Tony Ballinger, and I'm a web designer living in Oak Park, Illinois.
When I'm not designing for the web, I enjoy music, go to concerts and play with gadgets.

Archive for March, 2005

22-20s @ Empty Bottle

Monday, March 28th, 2005

Actually, the 22-20s were the second act of the evening. The Golden Republic opened, followed by the 22-20s, and then Grahm Coxon. But I was there to see the 22-20s, and they rocked out.
If you haven’t heard the 22-20s, you can approximate their sound by taking 3 parts “The Black Keys” and [...]

Nine Inch Nails

Thursday, March 24th, 2005

Between the newly released single "The Hand That Feeds" and the leaked track "The Line Begins to Blur" we’re starting to get an idea of what the new NIN album is going to sound like. And it’s a mixed bag.
Let’s start with "The Hand That Feeds". This is a pretty forgettable song [...]

Cocteau Twins Screw Me Again

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2005

Fuckers. Pardon my lack of decorum, but I just read at the Coachella site that the Cocteau Twins have cancelled. Apparently Elizabeth Fraser has decided that for personal reasons, she will be unable to participate in the reunion. Apparently Liz is of weak stock. Perhaps too fragile for the temperate climate of the Coachella Valley. [...]

Free Mondays @ Empty Bottle

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2005

Historically, free live music is of dubious value to me. For example, when I worked by DePaul in the loop – different musical performers would put on free shows during lunch. I was pretty excited about this until I heard a few. They damn near spoiled my appetite.
In a more [...]

Ring 2

Sunday, March 20th, 2005

The Ring 2 sucked, in no uncertain terms. The first The Ring was a great horror movie – my favorite since the first Scream. But this sequel doesn’t leverage any of the things that made the first one such an engaging film. The characters personalities are inconsistent with theirs from the first movie. There’s [...]

Star Wars LEGOs

Friday, March 11th, 2005

I was a huge Star Wars geek in my grade school days. I had nearly every figure and every ship (although strangely, not the Millennium Falcon…). But over the years I’ve lost touch with my youthful passion for Star Wars. And I thought that my profound disappointment (disgust really) in Episode I would have totally [...]