#672: A Rowdy Punk Club and the Unstoppable March

August 12th, 2016 § permalink

There’s a ritzy stretch of a ritzy stretch.

There’s a high-end Irish restaurant there, something bordering cuisine and pub. It’s lovely, golden lettering on the side and tasteful sidewalk patio area. Even among River North, the swath of condos, hotels, hot bars and beggars, it glitzes.

In 1978, this was skid row. Lines of liquor stores passing the hooch through bulletproof glass. Drunks and junkies slept it off in the alleys.

And the site where this lovely Irish restaurant now sits was the home of one of the most raucous, rowdy and seminal punk clubs in town — O’Banion’s. » Read the rest of this entry «

#671: The Bolshoi Ballet

August 10th, 2016 § permalink

I was too young to be a father.

I couldn’t handle it. I couldn’t handle the pressure knowing she was out there, living in this world. How could I care for her? How could I care for a child when I was just a child myself?

I was 10. And she was a 74-ton finback whale I adopted through Bubblicious. » Read the rest of this entry «

#670: A Sadness of Cicadas

August 8th, 2016 § permalink

I wrote last year about nouns of assemblage, the packs of wolves, prides of lions, parliaments of owls or smacks of jellyfish that give our language the zest we enjoy.

I made some Chicago ones up. A haggle of bocce players arguing in Croatian. A bindle of cotton candy sellers hoisting their wares on shoulder. A whisper of old Polish women riding the bus to church on a gray and misty Sunday morning.

I have a new one today. A sadness of cicadas. » Read the rest of this entry «

#669: The Tour Guide

August 5th, 2016 § permalink

“The top floors are offices but the first two floors are just stores. Just office after office because there’s a lot of space. And some floors you go to and it’s just construction, like empty,” he said.

We’re walking down a hall. I’m 10 paces ahead. He’s telling his friend about a building he knows nothing about. » Read the rest of this entry «

#668: Four Methods to See the Problem

August 3rd, 2016 § permalink

Method 1: Stand on the southwest corner of Adams and Dearborn. » Read the rest of this entry «

#667: A Room Where Bozo Went Pantsless

August 1st, 2016 § permalink

Bozo’s studio is full of barbecue grills, like five of them. » Read the rest of this entry «

#666: The Wizards Altar

July 29th, 2016 § permalink

The Occult Bookstore has math on the door. » Read the rest of this entry «

#665: Cuties and the Englewood Cartoonist

July 27th, 2016 § permalink

And here on a sunny Chicago morning, is the story of how an Englewood High School grad became the first black syndicated cartoonist in America. » Read the rest of this entry «

#664: To Read This Story

July 25th, 2016 § permalink

To read this story, you’ll have to put on music. » Read the rest of this entry «

#663: Brown Girls and the Act of Existing

July 22nd, 2016 § permalink

There’s an air conditioner window unit chuffing luke-cold air into the tiny studio space at the Flat Iron Building.

It ruffles a few sheets of construction paper taped to the walls, souvenirs from the cast party for Sam Bailey’s web series You’re So Talented. “You’re so…” was printed, leaving party attendees to fill out the rest.

Bailey only kept the snarky ones, the ones where her friends jokingly called her trifling, bougie, thirsty, mediocre.

All the walls in the small studio are covered in taped images, whiteboards and Post-Its. Outlines for a someday future season of You’re So Talented, photos of actors and artists for inspiration, dry erase diagrams of odd film-ese.

Past the note-strewn desk and table, past the mismatched chairs, the coffee maker, array of snacks and not-well-hidden bottle of Scotch, one section of the wall is devoted to Bailey’s upcoming web series, set to start filming in August and debut in early 2017.

There are taped-up stills of Bollywood films to nail the South Asian movie color scheme, pics from indy arthouse fare like “Pariah” and “Obvious Child” to inspire on lighting, framing or other technical details. And there’s a line of headshots of the new series’ cast.

There’s not a white face among them. » Read the rest of this entry «

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