I went into Sunday night’s John C. Reilly & Friends show at the Miller Caves with no expectations at all. I’d never heard Reilly’s music before – unless you count "Boogie Nights" and "Walk Hard," but I’m a big fan of his work as an actor. I’d never seen a show in the Miller Caves (and nor had anyone else) but I remember being impressed with the space on brewery tours in the past.

Still, no matter how high I could’ve set the bar for this unique folk/bluegrass/Americana/country show in an even more unique venue, this show would’ve surpassed it. This is the kind of concert I’ll never forget.

First, a few words about the tiny venue. Capacity is only 100 in the cool, dank cave. The stage was set at one end, in front of an old mural, presumably depicting Fredrick Miller’s childhood. Because it’s so small, everyone was impossibly close to the musicians; the musicians barely needed to be mic’ed, and they heard everything the audience said. It smelled a little funky. After two hours standing on hard stone, my feet hurt. Because the stage wasn’t really raised, if was a tall person in front (and there was), you might not have had a great view.

And it was amazing.

Buffeting this spectacular room, if you can call it that, was Reilly and his band. Lest you think this is a movie star playing musician, think again. Yes, Reilly surrounded himself with top-notch folk musicians, guitars, banjos, stand-up bass and beautiful vocalists, but he’s no slouch at all.

The band played dusty old gems that spanned numerous genres, from folk to bluegrass to country to Americana. They invoked tunes from The Carter Family, George Jones and Woody Guthrie; every song had a certain genuine sweetness to it, and while I can’t relate names of the songs since I’d never heard any of them before, each left the enthralled crowd smiling and clapping along.

Two of the singers, the goofy, adorable Becky Stark and the lanky, high-pitched Tom Brosseau, clearly had outstanding…

I’m not sure if summer is really concert season anymore, but each year, it certainly seems like my favorite shows fall when it’s hot, hot, hot.

This summer, I’m looking forward to a several. They include:

The Dandy Warhols – June 8 at the Vic Theater in Chicago

John C. Reilly – June 16 at Miller Caves

Violent Femmes – June 26 at Summerfest’s Marcus Amphitheater

Amadou and Miriam – June 27 at Summerfest’s Johnson Controls World Sound Stage

Paul McCartney – July 16 at Miller Park

What’s on your list? Let me know, using the Talkback feature below.

Sometime back in 1997 – it was in the summer, I think – I decided that I wanted to learn more about photography. I had been back in Milwaukee for about a year, and I talked my oldest friend, Eron Laber into letting me borrow his medium-format Hasselblad camera. He had just started his own business, Front Room Photography, and was happy to teach me how to use a real, expensive film camera.

This was before I’d ever touched a digital camera, when my Photoshop 3.0 skills weren’t so great. I didn’t understand aperture, shutter or film speed. I didn’t understand how to take photos at night without a flash, but I wanted to learn.

Eron and I waited until it was a dark, clear night with a beautiful moon and we composed three photos. The first was looking east on Wells toward City Hall. The second was standing on the Wells Street bridge, facing south.

The third was in Walker’s Point, looking up at the Allen-Bradley clock. We shot the first two photos in color, and the third was in black and white. That third shot was actually my favorite, and one of Eron’s departing acts at the camera store he worked at while starting Front Room, was burning in the clock’s hands (in a dark room) and blowing up the square photos to 15x15. I remember it cost a fortune – to my 23-year-old wallet, anyway – to frame the photos, but Eron gave me the prints for free.

Over the years, I’ve hung these photos at apartments, homes and offices. In fact, they sat packed in boxes for the last six months until we officially moved to our new OnMilwaukee.com office on the 11th floor of CityCenter, 735 N. Water St., on Monday.

Preparing to hang them yesterday, I noticed something amazing about the second photo that I had never noticed before: the building in the center of the frame is CityCenter. The viewfinder is looking right at our office suite. When I shot that photo, I had no idea what that building was. It just looked cool.

Cool enough that I’ll spend at least the next seven …

I watched the series finale of "The Office" last night, but before I did, I had to blow through the previous five episodes gathering dust on my DVR. In the end, it was worth the night of marathon television, but when I think about the entire final season of "30 Rock," also unwatched on my DVR, I wonder when I’ll get around to it.

Honestly, I’ve lost interest in "30 Rock," and "The Office" didn’t make me laugh out loud anymore. But these shows – like most shows I watch – I’ve seen every episode in order. I feel like the least I can do is see them through to the end.

These aren’t the only two series that I’ve watched in their entirety. "Big Love," "Breaking Bad," "Mad Men," "Hung," "True Blood" and "LOST" come to mind. "LOST" was, as I recall, the first show that every episode was unmissable. I certainly don’t remember feeling this way about "Three’s Company."

The problem is that almost every show "jumps the shark" near the end of its run. Some much sooner, like "The Simpsons." A few don’t, like "Breaking Bad," which continues to get better until its series finale this summer.

But if I’ve invested years in watching a show like "The Office," I feel the need for television closure. I’m not sure if it’s loyalty or stubbornness, really.

Fortunately, in the case of "The Office," its writers thanked my loyalty/stubbornness with an excellent final two episodes. The last one was really, really great, reminding me of why I started watching this show in first place.

I like the long-form storytelling that comes with a serial show, in which episodes can be strung together to form a long, long movie. But I wouldn’t mind throwing in a few more shows like "Always Sunny In Philadelphia" into my roster, in which I could watch when I feel like it, and skip when I don’t.

I just don’t have that much time to devote to my TV, and my DVR is still pretty full.