1,001 Chicago Afternoons

For all I know, I’m romanticizing a stage set from a guerrilla student film.

For all I know, this is a fantasy I concocted on a drowning wet day in a vacant bread factory in Bronzeville. » Read the rest of this entry «

The front door still appears to be boarded at the mansion-turned-apartment-building that once housed King Tut’s Tomb, “Said to be the hottest spot in town,” where “Al Bentley’s King Tut Syncopating Mummies, featuring Lee Collins, the jazz cornetist from New Orleans, provide music that would make a mummy come to life.”

The Golden Lily is still a long-shuttered Harold’s Chicken Shack. » Read the rest of this entry «

“I’ve been a circus performer for 11 years,” the 27 year old dressed as a superhero said. “Wow.”

Mister Terrific is not a well-known superhero. He has a red T on his face by way of mask and his logo isn’t a big S or stylized bat, but the words “FAIR PLAY” written on his jacket, a nod to the 1940s hero who inspired him.

Mister Terrific is corny and dutiful and nuanced, which is why circus acrobat Eric Robinson chose him as his superhero alter ego for Acrobatica Infiniti: The Nerd Circus. » Read the rest of this entry «

“His place is a dingy one-story nondescript shack, in a neighborhood of shacks, but it houses the first and only authentic barbecue pit in town. It is a large brick fireplace, taking up half the space, and here you see chickens, pork, beef, and other meats being broiled in the leaping flames.”

Now it’s an athletic field for the three schools that moved into the old DuSable High School grounds. On that spring day, gray-headed dandelions grew long among bleachers. Green blades had broken through the track at points, inspiring or angering depending whether you’re a bigger booster of nature or education. » Read the rest of this entry «

Louis Armstrong’s horn wailed where the glass case of pliers and wrenches now stands. Cab Calloway hi-de-hoed by the breakroom microwave. » Read the rest of this entry «