June 3rd, 2016 § permalink
On June 2, 2016, Tribune Publishing announced its new corporate identity.
The nation’s third-largest newspaper publisher and owner of the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times is now tronc Inc., “a content curation and monetization company focused on creating and distributing premium, verified content across all channels.”
This is the only way the brainstorming meeting could have happened. » Read the rest of this entry «
June 1st, 2016 § permalink
The door is open at the old Jazz Record Mart. You can see inside, see the bandsaws and construction equipment that will turn the shuttered store into whatever comes next.
The building’s having a lot of work done. The outside is covered in scaffolds and tarp. There’s a bookstore there, a Thai restaurant nearby. The Chicago Reader is a stone’s throw away.
This spot where Illinois Street cuts under Wabash is or is nearby the purported former resting spot of Chicago’s first murder victim. » Read the rest of this entry «
May 30th, 2016 § permalink
It was dark now.
The conga line of beach-and-parkgoers was now heading westward, hauling now-empty coolers and now-full livers back to parking spaces, buses and home.
Dogs worn from a full day of fetch trotted sleepily after their masters. Children too, also worn from 16-inch softball, soccer, volleyball, Frisbee and just running like mad midgets between grass, sand and a freshwater lake trotted after their adults too.
Stomachs were full, muscles were tired and a family of garbage pickers was tipping over the recycling bins to fish out aluminum cans. » Read the rest of this entry «
May 27th, 2016 § permalink
We would talk about it on the train to and from Evanston.
We would plan it at work in the rare moments between meetings about bleeding-edge digital disruption.
It was to be our masterwork, the business bible for the 21st century, the must-read of 2014, the seminal text of the ages, the hardest-working man in show business, Soul Brother #1, Mr. Please Please Please…
“When You Were Older, You Used to be a Giraffe.” » Read the rest of this entry «
May 25th, 2016 § permalink
The drums could be heard even before we got to Daley Plaza.
Next, we saw the high school marching bands, majorettes twirling batons, a float with a semi-Germanic array of dirndl-babes waiting for a historical re-enactor in a leopard vest/undershirt combo to lead the gathering crowd in a rousing rendition of “Danke Schoen” and “Twist and Shout.”
“Unfortunately,” I joked to the tour group I was leading. “They didn’t re-enact the part of Matthew Broderick’s career where he vanished.”
I do realize that Broderick has a strong career on Broadway, but for having just snaked a crowd of tourists through a live Ferris Bueller re-enactment, that’s a pretty keen ad lib. » Read the rest of this entry «
May 23rd, 2016 § permalink
The room should have looked different.
It should have had low lighting, dark mahogany, crannies. The hallway to get there should have had twists and turns and sudden dead ends. Instead, there were high ceilings, tons of light, carpeting.
The Newberry Library looks like a library, of course, but more the type where students cram for PSATs than where Hercule Poirot would stumble upon a body.
And in this high-lofted room with the appalling lack of my preconceptions and stereotypes, there lay on a set of tables books older than most nations. » Read the rest of this entry «
May 20th, 2016 § permalink
It’s 1980-something. I don’t like getting out of bed unless it’s a Saturday morning and I can watch cartoons until my eyes bleed.
As it’s not a Saturday, it’s the usual battle. Yelling, repeated threats, maybe the offer of breakfast drags me downstairs. My dad has been known to threaten an ice-cold wet washcloth as the nuclear option in waking me up. » Read the rest of this entry «
May 18th, 2016 § permalink
It would be hard not to burst, I suppose, through the doors between cars on a moving ‘L’ train.
Metal clamps, security latches, slamming and rumbling on tracks that bumble north through the city — a saunter or casual stroll through those doors would be a physical unreality. The doors between cars on a moving ‘L’ train slam open, a metal crash saying, “I’m here and I’m going to ask for your money.” » Read the rest of this entry «
May 16th, 2016 § permalink
The line of punk rockers snaked back and forth along the barricade of candy Walgreens uses to file the customers.
Past the gamut of Snickers and other impulse buys, the line of punks continued back through half the Walgreens, petering out by the premade turkey sandwiches.
“Did a show just let out?” I asked four sweaty white teens whose brand-new Streetlight Manifesto T-shirts hung limply over their scrawn. » Read the rest of this entry «
May 13th, 2016 § permalink
The white-throated sparrow is a migratory songbird that passes through Chicago in the spring and again in the fall. Its chirp sounds like “Oh sweet Canada, Canada, Canada,” according to the Chicago Botanic Garden website, so maybe that wasn’t the bird that greeted me in the morning.
But I like the bird all the same, the little tree-mice whose songs trickle from the skies, even in a city. » Read the rest of this entry «
