1,001 Chicago Afternoons

It came together.

It came together with the modern orchestral pieces by Seth Boustead and Amos Gillespie of Access Contemporary Music. It came together with the scripts by Anderson Lawfer, Mike Dailey, Aly Greaves Amidei, Anita Deely and Sean Mallary. It came together with the sound effects by Starr Hardgrove and Jack Rubin. And it came together with the narrations by the Strawdog Theatre troupe, too many to name here.

What came together was the 1001 Afternoons in Chicago stories of old Ben Hecht. » Read the rest of this entry «

A middle-aged man in the waiting room leafed through sheet music, reading it like a book.

Along the far wall, a mother diddled with her iPhone waiting for her son’s piano lessons to finish.

A song describable as only “da da da da da dum dum” repeated interminably overhead as an unseen instructor in another room bade his pupil practice and practice.

And a grand piano by the storefront window was topped with stacks of fliers and posters for upcoming shows, books of sheet music, a clock and a bottle of Purell, the last of which I availed myself of when I was sure no one was looking.

Here’s where Ben Hecht’s legacy lives. » Read the rest of this entry «

It had a jukebox so old it was filled with polkas, waltzes and “Happy Birthday,” a lit-up pentagram from an Order of the Eastern Star lodge, at least six wood-carved Argentinian foosball tables and a music festival I didn’t give two craps about. » Read the rest of this entry «

The rabbi’s machine is missing. So’s the 100-year-old Oliver where the keys swung down from the sides.

They’re gone, stolen from Chicago with Steve Kazmier’s shop. » Read the rest of this entry «