June 27th, 2016 § permalink
We filed in early. A small line of elderly people waited for an usher to open the door at a prompt 11 a.m. A few younger meandered in after.
We went to two lines. One was for the people who bought tickets online. One was for the folks shuffling up with cash or a card to swipe.
Some bought popcorn.
Some went to the couches in the lounge to pick through movie factbooks or ogle the vintage posters on the wall.
Others went right to the theater to be taken someplace they had never been. » Read the rest of this entry «
January 13th, 2016 § permalink
January 11th, 2016 § permalink
They gathered in early December at a coffee shop in Lakeview, weeks before the rest of the world knew Gapers Block was shuttering, to discuss what would come next. » Read the rest of this entry «
November 11th, 2015 § permalink
“I spent, God, probably two, three months researching the history of smell in magic,” the woman said. “I could count on one hand the number of examples that I was able to find of people doing it in the last 200 years of written history.”
We’re sitting at a coffee shop in Lakeview. The hissing of espresso machines and light 1960s pop play overhead. The Lovin’ Spoonful’s “Do You Believe in Magic” plays at one point, which the woman, magician Jeanette Andrews, calls “a riot.”
We’re talking magic. Magic and art and performance and philosophy, perception, phenomenology, vaudeville and Siegfried & Roy.
It wasn’t a wide-ranging conversation. These are all the same topic for the 25 year old who wants to make magic art again. » Read the rest of this entry «
October 21st, 2015 § permalink
It took me a second.
We had already passed each other going down the little side street in Lakeview, so, flanked by his two friends, he had turned around to ask me his question.
He was tall and built, white with a blonde ponytail. I doubt he would have tried that if he weren’t white — privilege even among the homeless. » Read the rest of this entry «
January 5th, 2015 § permalink
When you walk in, you look for the parakeets.
You look around and around and around, not realizing until the door slowly shuts and the chirp chirp chirp chirp chirp falls silent that it was a recording, an avian version of little bells that jingle when someone walks in.
Then you stand in a room filled with keys and the ticking of a loud clock. » Read the rest of this entry «
October 31st, 2014 § permalink
I saw four rabbits the other day. » Read the rest of this entry «
September 12th, 2014 § permalink
Before a crowd of every aging punk in Chicago, the band lined up and tried not to tell the Houston story.
They hemmed and hawed, drummer Bill Stevenson of the Descendents and All alternately cackling at and begging off from my shouted request to tell “the best story that didn’t make it into the movie.”
“Let’s just say when Bug fucks ‘em, they stay fucked,” bass player Karl Alvarez finally concluded to the crowd. » Read the rest of this entry «
August 1st, 2014 § permalink
“What type of brats you want? We got a lot of type of brats,” he said, gesturing at a glass case of meat.
There were many type of brats. Andouille, curry, Gyulai, jalapeño pepper jack, lamb, Nurenberg, Sheboygan, tomato basil, cheddar, bacon cheddar, veal – I don’t eat veal.
“Pork, I guess?” I said. » Read the rest of this entry «
March 10th, 2014 § permalink
The children ran and shrieked among, around, over and under the folding tables filling the gym. » Read the rest of this entry «
