Ghosts of Chicago

Ramblings

2009-12-11T13:23:00.000-08:00

I think in some ways I'm relearning who I am. I was an expert at knowing exactly who I was when I was really sick. When my body and mind were at their absolute bottom. I knew what made me happy. I knew what I wanted. I actually had things about me that made me unique and interesting. I may have been horribly sick behind closed doors, but outside them I was worth a second glance. I never ever thought a few years could drastically affect everything following them. Here I thought, at the time, that getting sick was the worst. Little did I know that everything after would be hell.

In some ways I let myself backslide into the laziness of disease. Degenerate longer than what was necessary. I got comfortable in it. Who the hell am I when I'm not sick? Who the hell am I at 22 in relation to 16? Kinda sick, residual sick? I am a has been before I was ever a been. I’m so lucky they tell me. I smile and nod. I am lucky. So fucking lucky. They believe me. That’s all that matters.

It's leaving me anxious. Nervous. I find myself second guessing and I never ever would’ve done it before. I find myself sans confidence, and it was never like that. Arriving at this 180 I gave up all my self power. You know it's bad when I start to bore myself. Maybe it’s Munchhausen or Stockholm or maybe just plain fucking crazy.
That's the pro and con here. I'm always so observant about everything, including myself. Why didn't I stop myself? Slam the breaks? It's hard sometimes to filter what's coming through the lenses. To break up everyone from myself. From the external from the internal. I let the combo of falling into the routine of post-illness and my lack of focus steer me to this current point. Too bad I don’t know how to turn around or keep going forward.

Boystown

2009-12-11T13:11:00.000-08:00

Chicago offers so many different gay bars in a variety of different neighborhoods. Gay visitors to the city invariably head first to the area of Chicago’s Lakeview and Wrigleyville neighborhoods known as Boystown.

What makes a Boystown bar-crawl so easy is that 99% of the bars run down about a ½ mile stretch of North Halsted Street. Beginning at the southernmost bar and running north, this is Boystown U.S.A.

Spin, located at the corner of Halsted and Belmont, is a dance bar that attracts mainly a younger crowd. Being 42, I’ve only been inside Spin because it’s the place that participants in the annual Halloween Costume Parade register. This is definitely an under-30 crowd.

Sidetracks, at 3349 N. Halsted, is a multi-room, multi-level video bar. They have theme nights like Show Tunes on Mondays, as well as comedy nights and retro music theme nights. In the summer, there’s a relatively new roof deck. Sidetracks is not for claustrophobes – the bar is usually packed.

Roscoe’s, at 3356 N. Halsted, is what TV’s Cheers bar would be if Norm and Cliff were 28, hot, and gay. At times a stand-and-model video bar, there’s also dancing in the back room at night. Roscoe’s can get as crowded as Sidetracks but never feels as closed-in because the bar’s entire “east wall” is glass window looking onto Halsted.

Cocktail, at 3359 N. Halsted, is directly across the street from Roscoe’s – you can see Cocktail if you look out the front windows of Roscoe’s. Often Cocktail gets the run off of people from Roscoe’s. Cocktail has one unique thing to offer – go-go boys.

Buck’s, at 3349 N. Halsted, gets gays of all sexes, shapes, and sizes. The walls are adorned with the heads of real bucks but if that scares you, in the summer, there’s a surprisingly tranquil and festive back patio with its own bar.

Hydrate, at 3458 N. Halsted, is a late night dance club. They get some of the better known national DJs. During the week, the bar has teamed up with some interesting drag performers. Recently, they started a manicure special on Tuesday nights. Hydrate is open late typically till 4 AM.

Little Jim’s, at 3501 N. Halsted, is the neighborhood seedy bar. It’s where you go after everyplace else is closed and you just want to seal the deal and go home. They’re open nightly till 4 AM and 5 AM on weekends. The bar attracts all kinds – mainly men.
There’s always one TV screen dedicated to gay porn. They recently got a digital jukebox which is a major improvement over the old jukebox’s same-old never changing offerings.

Cellblock, at 3702 N. Halsted, is Boystown’s leather bar. It is not as hard core as the leather venues further north like the Eagle and Touché. But recently, they reopened “the Yard” – which is essentially their backroom, so that’s a good sign for the depraved. To get into the back room – open on weekends only – you need to wear a major item of leather. Don’t worry if you don’t own chaps – a leather vest will do (a leather jacket will not however).

Bobby Loves, at 3729 N. Halsted, is – I’m told – where people go who are serious about drinking and getting a bang for their buck. The bar looks like the type of place a lounge singer named Bobby Love might perform but it is a no-attitude environment. They have fun karaoke nights.

North End, at 3733 N. Halsted, is a gay sports bar. Sure there’s karaoke, but there’s a whole room of pool tables, dart boards, and video games and usually a sporting event of some kind on the tube.

All along the way, you’ll find more interesting gay destinations. Predominantly gay restaurants/bars X/O (owned by Hydrate’s owners), Kit Kat Club and Cornelia’s all combine upscale fare with the gay bar environment. And no trip to Boystown is complete without a sojourn to Steamworks, they Disney World of bathhouses. A block off Halsted and you’ll find country-bar and late-night dance club Charlie’s as well as neighborhood bar The Closet – both on Broadway.

Awesome Article!

2009-12-11T12:52:00.001-08:00

I found this online while looking up stuff about the 1893 World’s Fair.
“A group of undergraduates at the University has come into contact with the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, launching the first archaeological dig of the famed Chicago fair site in Jackson Park. “When I came to Chicago, I didn’t know much about the fair, but this has been a really interesting way to find out more about it,” said John Mullen, a fourth-year student and part of a 20-member class on urban archaeology. “The fair had a huge impact, not only on Chicago, but also on the world, with all the new things that were introduced. “Now, with Chicago vying for the Olympics, it’s like Chicago is trying again to get that kind of prominence,” he said as he sifted small clods of dirt through a wire-mesh screen while looking for artifacts. Some interesting items have quickly appeared through the careful eyes of the student archaeologists and their teachers. As Mullen sifted through the dirt reclaimed from a nearby pit, or excavation unit, he found pieces of white plaster that may have covered the walls of the Michigan or Ohio state buildings, one of the structures that probably sat where he and a student team were digging.
The plaster could be evidence of the White City, whose memory largely remains otherwise preserved in photographs and chronicles. Students in the College are conducting the dig, which began in early April as part of the new Chicago Studies program offered in the College. They are taking a class with Rebecca Graff, a graduate student specializing in American urban archaeology. Graff is writing her dissertation on 19th-century American habits of tourism and consumption based on the World’s Columbian Exposition. Although they probably won’t uncover any spectacular artifacts as they probe the grounds, the students are uncovering material that could provide new clues about life in late 19th-century Chicago. Besides plaster, students have found nails, bricks, pieces of ceramic and shards of glass that could have been from 19th century-mineral water and beer bottles. “The glass pieces are really thick,” said Mullen. “It was probably because carbonation had just been invented and bottlers weren’t sure how much pressure the process would create.” At the site of the Wisconsin building, another piece of evidence is emerging and may show how the state pavilions may have been built. In the sandy subsoil, about 3 feet deep, a team found an intriguing streak of black soil running directly east and west.
“This could have been the base of a foundation for the building. We know they would put down a plank and then build the foundation on top of it. Over time, the plank may have decayed and turned into black organic matter,” said teaching assistant Mary Leighton. The artifacts have been taken to a lab at the University, where they will be further examined along with field notes and measurements from the dig. Graff will try to determine what actually may have been from the fair and what debris was left behind at other times.
The work will add another layer of information to the record of the fair. “We have the plans for the fair, for instance, but we don’t have a map that shows exactly where the buildings were, Graff said. “This will give us some idea where they were actually built.“ Many of the more mundane, everyday aspects of the fair were not included in any of the other accounts of the fair. This is a way to fill in some information about the visitors,” she said. Graff has a personal connection with the fair, as her great-grandfather, Morris Graff, also stirred dirt for the fair. He was on a crew that dug ditches for the exposition. “He was an immigrant and an Orthodox Jew. Most of the other jobs he could find required that he work on Saturday. He took the job at the fair because there were different shifts and not all required he work on the Sabbath,” she said.
“It’s funny to have found out about this family connection. I was interested in the fair before I knew this, but it certainly adds to the experience for me,” she said. “Although my father’s family is from Chicago, I grew up in Los Angeles, so learning about my great-grandfather’s job at the World’s Columbian Exposition has made me feel more connected to the site.”
I find it so fascinating that there can be archeological digs in Chicago and that they can actually find things! Blows my mind thinking about the historical treasures we could be walking over everday!

Mary Stain

2009-12-11T12:51:00.002-08:00

Has anyone seen the salt stain Virgin Mary on the wall of the underpass by Fullerton? I have and I remember the fiasco when it was discovered. In 2005 a driver passing by noticed that a stain on the concrete wall looked like the Virgin Mary. The media picked up on it of course and people went crazy! People jammed the underpass spilling into the street. Police had to be called to control the crowds. The Mayor got involved saying that it was only liquefied gunk trickling down through the cracks of the overpass after a long frozen winter and staining the wall. Did people listen? No. They saw a miracle and hung on for dear life.

I went and saw it with my dad one day and even before he was close enough to closely examine it, he started ranting about the stupidity of sheeple. He pointed out the clearly visible gobs and crystals of yellowed road salt in the center. It isn't too hard to figure out the rest of the figure was made of road dirt, exhaust, and whatever flies off the highway.

What freaked me out more then being under a dirty, ghetto underpass were the people who were there. They had left flowers, balloons, candles, greeting cards, teddy bears. It was like the gate outside of Kensington Palace after the death of Diana. A sea of wilting color.

The people were almost worse then the gifts. Crying, wailing, sobbing, hugging, kissing. It gave me wicked second hand embarrassment. When they started to write prayers on the wall in marker, I hightailed it out of there. I am all for people being religious, but it makes me so uncomfortable when it is done so ostentatiously towards slime on the wall.

To this day even after it has been covered up, I will still see people down there taking pictures or see a candle flickering in the wind. Chicago has always been big on the supernatural and a supposed Virgin Mary on a highway wall is no different.

Beef!

2009-12-11T12:51:00.001-08:00

When christened at birth with the name Al, you are either destined to become a plumber or go into the Italian food business. For our sake, thank God that this one Al ended up in the later. I am referring of course to the delectable, delicious, positively divine Al’s Italian Beef on Taylor. My life was changed at first taste. Positively scrumcious!

“The perfect Italian beef sandwich begins with slow oven roasted, perfectly Italian seasoned beef, tender and extremely lean, sliced amazingly thin. Spices and seasonings used in its preparation include only the freshest natural products that ultimately produce our 100% natural beef gravy.”

Couldn’t have said it better myself. The gravy is wicked awesome too. You have the option of dipping your beef. All the times I have gone, I have never had my sandwich dipped, but lord was it soggy. I figure if I get it dipped it will have to be served in a pint glass.

Al’s beef sandwiches are the definition of Chicago. Simple, yet totally complex. The everyman’s sandwich. The fries are pretty awesome too. Oh and the cheese. The cheese can be a meal on its own. I may or may not have eaten it with a spoon.

CTA

2009-12-11T12:50:00.004-08:00

I can't understand the people who sit in an empty row of seats on the train and instead of sliding in towards the window, they maintain their position in the aisle seat. Now this doesn't pose much of a problem on empty trains, but there's been numerous times in the morning when the train is jam packed and there's people standing all around while the lone empty window seat remains unoccupied! All the while the aisle seat elitist appears to not have a clue as to what's going on! Rage!

Move Over. Don't make me crawl over you to sit down. Move Over. Or at least get up to let someone get into the window seat.

Additionally, what happens to people's basic etiquette on the train? When I happen to be seated in an aisle seat (and of course there's someone seated in the window seat) and the window seat occupant's stop arrives, more times than not, instead of a polite "excuse me", "out please" or even "move" all I get is the person pressing his/her body into mine alerting me that they want out. Perhaps I should become the reverse "aisle seat elitist" and instead make people climb over me to get out.

Bellow

2009-12-11T12:50:00.003-08:00

I have never read Saul Bellow before, but his novel “The Actual” won’t incline me to read any others. Obsession, denial, life, dreams, all of these great themes crammed into a story without momentum or even a plot really. Harry Trellman is Jewish, but looks Chinese. Not important to the plot but this information about his appearance is discussed again and again! And I have no idea why! Maybe to illustrate how much of an outsider Harry is to everyone around him, including himself. And Harry is not only in this obnoxious trait of describing every single little physical detail. Every one of the characters is discussed ad nauseum by similar, if not identical, physical specifics. In fact, physical appearance takes up much of the non-dialogue sections of the novella. It happens so much in such a short book, that Bellow must be after some deeper meaning, must have some compelling reason to continuously describe his tiny cast. Whatever the reason, I missed it. So instead of being profound, it was distracting and irritating.

The book starts out very strongly. Harry is an enigmatic character and the reader is caught into the folds when the rich Mr. Adletsky pops up and has a mysterious tête-à-tête with Harry. But 20 pages later, Harry's and Mr. Adletsky are kaput and the focus shifts to Amy Wustrin, who is the center of the plot for the rest of the book. An old flame of Harry's, Amy is the woman he has never forgotten and who he continues to swoon over. The obsession is nice and had lots of potential but it never really develops further than fantasy and back story. The confession which is supposed to be the climax is not really climatic and comes way too late in the game. It would be interesting if the confession came earlier and then to see how the relationship progresses because of it.

In all, there is nothing very exciting or titillating. It is hard to do romance and Bellow gave it a good try, but it just fell flat. Maybe if Bellow kept the story narrated by Harry and quit with the excessive, mind-numbing attention paid to detail such as Harry’s physical appearance and Amy's ex-husband's burial arrangements it would have allowed the story of obsession and love shine through, instead of becoming an endless, pointless yarn about a Chinese looking Jew and his long lost love.

Fire Sale

2009-12-11T12:50:00.001-08:00

I like the idea of Sara Paretsky. I like that she is a Chicago writer and that she features a kick ass woman as the life blood of the novels. There are no many detective novels that feature strong independent women and Sara made a character that is smart and strong, not stereotyping her character as either a vamp or victim.

I also enjoy that she enjoys Chicago. She uses Chicago almost as a character itself. It’s wonderful when she uses the chilling surroundings of the poor as one of her characters. Fire Sale is squarely placed in the depths of South Chicago. The bleak streets provide a color that makes all of her characters and plots that much more vivid and interesting. Yeah the Northside is awesome, but the Southside has grit that a gritty crime novel thrives off of. Take V.I. out of the slums and the story becomes wilted, almost stale.

However, there were two things which annoyed me. First, Paretsky falls into the trap that many novelists who have lead females; they turn the heroines into punching bags. The amount of physical violence that befalls V.I was slightly disturbing. V.I is no victim and she can totally hold her own, but it feels like Paretsky has to put her to the test constantly, almost making her work for her kick ass status. I found it unnecessary and annoying.

Second, Paretsky obviously does not like the rich. Humorous in the beginning, it just got obnoxious as the book continued reminiscent of the socialist ranting in “The Jungle.” I get it, you don’t like the rich and you need a foil for your selfless characters, but it became so annoying that I would skip the parts where the Bysens were mentioned. While not a paragon of brilliant writing or character development, Dan Brown and his Robert Langdon novels, succeed in writing villains in away that makes the reader feel for them until something totally unrealistic happens. That’s what Paretsky has to do to keep her novels from reading like bitter, boring rant; give her villains sympathetic qualities so the reader finds them interesting.

Algren

2009-12-11T12:49:00.001-08:00

I surprisingly enjoyed “Chicago: City on the Make.” Not enjoying the novels for this class so far (Sorry Luis!) I expected the same old, same old. Maybe it was the atmosphere that I read it in, (a speeding El train above the swarming city on a rainy day), maybe it was the city I so love, or maybe it was just super good, but as cheesy as it sounds, I was touched by Algren.

Chicago: City on the Make was like nothing I had ever read. Vastly different, it is more then just a book! It is a freaking experience! As weird as this may sound, reading this book was like having sex. Let me explain.The book starts off at break neck speed. Whipping around Chicago like a speed demon. The reader is left breathless and follows Algren every which way, wanting more, seeing where it will take you next. Not a long book, but thick with prose poetry It's one of those rare and sometimes great books that can be read aloud for the language alone.

But back on track. Algren is amazing at keeping his poetry flying high above what other authors could ever hope for, but then Algren's voice becomes tired, his prose more and more stretched until there's nothing left of the energy you find in the beginning. But you the reader are not upset. No! You knew it was coming and that that speed could not be kept indefinitely. You can not really put blame on the one who gave you such a wild ride.

Basking in the afterglow of a perfect read (which happen to take place on a train),

I couldn’t help put look at the city all around me. Algren knew he struck gold when it came to Chicago. He wrote about it like one writes about a lover. When he is at his best, he makes the place sound positively holy, like something that glows. The best part is you know exactly what he is talking about. As a native Chicagoan, every street mentioned, every restaurant alluded to, made me smile in recognition. It was like Algren was telling me a story I had heard many times before or a shared inside joke. Those who don’t know and love Chicago probably won’t enjoy Algren’s work. Oh well I say, more for me.

Fire Sale

2009-12-11T03:10:00.000-08:00

These kinds of serial novels are always easier to get into if you've been a fan all along, but I have to say, I got into the story, pace, and rhythm of Fire Sale fairly early on. Maybe part of it is the main character, who is obviously so flawed, and doesn't mind revealing this to the reader. The more she annoys the world around her, the more I seemed to like her. I found a lot of her jaded, sardonic asides to be pretty amusing, as well as her no-holds-barred approach to her job...a fresh, tough perspective on femininity that we need more of in this world.

I find it interesting that Sarah Paretsky herself comes from such an erudite and academic background. It's a bit confounding why she would spend her literary career concentrating on a character who is so unlike her, and in a genre that doesn't always get much literary respect. Maybe she just seized upon a purpose in life...she simply wanted to create some kind of fresh and dissident voice in a largely male-dominated genre. She seems to have succeeded at it, in a way that is entertaining, real, and completely unpretentious. If that was, indeed, her goal, then quite frankly, it's still a level of success that is beyond most writers. Maybe there's a lesson in humility there for all of us.

The Jungle

2009-12-11T02:54:00.000-08:00

My God, what an onslaught of depression, cynicism, and pain. I don't know what else to say. I think that Sinclair is a wonderful writer, but good lord, did this guy need an editor. Did he really need that many words and pages to make his point? We get it, Upton - life was tough for immigrants in the meatpacking industry! Damn you, Sinclair, and damn your monumental verbosity.

This is not to say The Jungle is without its merits. As a country, we obviously needed this book. Maybe it needs to be judged more as an agent for social change than as a work of literature. The Jungle led to a fair amount of reform in the meatpacking industry, and provided a sounding board for people whose voices were not previously heard. So, in that regard, we have to give the book some props.

The entire last section of the book was weird, awkward, and somewhat insulting to the reader. It was as if Sinclair was saying, "Look, if you didn't quite understand the point that I've been bashing you over the head with for the last 300 pages, then let me provide an essay-like summary through a one-dimensional character whose sole purpose is to explain my socialist agenda in expository fashion. That should drive things home nicely, don't you think?" Ummm, ok, Upton...it's your book, do what you want with it.

Carl Sandburg - Chicago Poems

2009-12-11T02:45:00.000-08:00

It's difficult for me to grapple with Carl Sandburg. Many of his poems come across as rather patronizing and ridiculous. I imagine him strolling down the street, smiling at blue-collar workers like some kind of faux-Buddha, thinking to himself, "Ah yes, the huddled masses, with their simple ways, and simple minds...I love them so. Hey, that's a great idea for a poem!" Another problem with Sandburg is that he was a bit of a plagiarist. The Fog, for example, was a pretty blatant rip-off The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (published just prior to The Chicago Poems), which contained a stanza clearly comparing fog to a cat. Observe the similarities:

Sandburg:

The fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on

Eliot:

The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the windowpanes
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle upon the windowpanes
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,
Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,
Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,
Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,
And seeing that it was a soft October night,
Curled once about the house and fell asleep.

Eliot's command of language was substantially better than Sandburg's, and this was just one stanza in the poem. It's kind of annoying for me to read The Fog for this reason.

On the other hand, as we discussed in class, Sandburg created quite a few of the seminal poetic visions of Chicago that are still used today. So yes, he was a plagiarist, but he has probably been plagiarized by millions of people himself, and deserves credit for laying out the basic precepts most people hold for Chicago. So Carl Sandburg - I salute you! Kind of.

The Compass Players

2009-12-11T02:07:00.000-08:00

Of all the places to launch one of the most innovative and dynamic movements in the history of American comedy, the University of Chicago would certainly not come to mind. But that is exactly where the Compass Players were born. Founded by David Shepard in the mid 1950's, the Compass Players were a group of University of Chicago alumni and dropouts who improvised plays out of vaguely outlined sketches - none of their dialogue was rehearsed prior to their shows.

One of their main performance spaces was Jimmy's Woodlawn Tap (located at 1172 East 55th Street). One night at Jimmy's, the bartender asked if the Compass Players could extend the show so that he could sell an extra round of drinks. Having run out of material for the evening, the actors asked the audience for suggestions, and their purely spontaneous and off-the-cuff performances proved to be immensely popular; they ultimately became the focal point for all of the Compass Players' shows and, moreover, created the foundation for the kind of improvisation that you see everywhere on the American comedy scene today.

The list of actors who were members of the Compass Players is astounding and impressive: Mike Nichols, Elaine May, Alan Alda, Ed Asner, Del Close, Jerry Stiller, and Valerie Harper are just a few of the names. Several of its members (including Del Close) went on to form Second City in 1959.

John Mahoney

2009-12-11T01:38:00.000-08:00

John Mahoney is a familiar face to many people. He played Frasier's father on the long-running sitcom, and has appeared in many films as a reliable character actor (I particularly liked him in Barton Fink as an eccentric, washed-up, and astoundingly alcoholic William Faulkner). He also happens to be one of Chicago's own, and his own personal story is a pretty amazing testament to anyone who decides to stick to their guns and follow the path they feel is their destiny.

Mahoney worked for years here in the city as an editor in the publishing industry. His last job was working for The Quality Review Bulletin, a journal of the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Hospitals. The job was comfortable and seemingly emblematic of the American Dream; Mahoney had a nice private office on the 37th floor of the John Hancock building, and all the other trappings of corporate success. But it wasn't enough, and he found himself unhappy and unfulfilled. At the age of 37, Mahoney quit his job and decided to make a go at becoming an actor. While taking an acting class at the St. Nicholas Theater on Halsted Street (now defunct), Mahoney was cast in David Mamet's play The Water Engine - his first professional acting gig. After that, he co-starred with John Malkovich in Ashes, and went on to star in many stage productions at the Steppenwolf. Mahoney's successful stage career led to small roles in films such as Moonstruck, Suspect, and Betrayed. Ultimately, his role as Frasier's father was what made his face so visible and famous, but Mahoney has remained a true Chicagoan to the end. He still lives here, joining his beloved Steppenwolf for various productions, and for the most part has rejected the call of Hollywood in his post-Frasier semi-retirement. "Chicago has been fabulous for me as an actor," he said. "My career got started here. All the theaters are here. I learned my craft here. Chicago has a got a personality like no other city...it's almost like a person instead of a city."

Devil and the White City

2009-12-11T01:35:00.000-08:00

All that remains obviously visible now of the White City is the former Palace of Fine Arts, which now resides comfortably in the middle of the University of Chicago - a tribute to science and technology. Now known as the Museum of Science and Industry, its web site states its vision as follows: “to inspire and motivate our children to reach their full potential in science, technology, medicine and engineering.” Is this true? Hell, yes! Every day, scores of yellow buses transport hundreds of hyper-kinetic children into this magnificent monument to scientific progress to be inspired, perhaps, to reach their full potential as engineers, architects, scientists, and physicians.

When I lived in San Francisco, we had a Palace of Fine Arts; interestingly, it is also the only surviving building from a World's Fair—the 1915 San Francisco World's Fair. San Francisco's 1915 fair was known as The Panama-Pacific International Exposition and celebrated the opening of the Panama Canal. Today it houses a splendid art collection and serves as the site for many glittering (and pompous) gatherings featuring fine wines, chamber music, and well dressed socialites. San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts had its own little literary brush with terror, though—in film rather than print—as one of the settings for Alfred Hitchcock's classic, Vertigo.

Let's see...a segue, a segue, I need a segue. Screw it. Erik Larson and The Devil in the White City is a blockbuster tribute to the genius and determination of architect and urban planner Daniel Burnham and a testament to the madness and depravity of physician, murderer, and purveyor of cadavers Henry Holmes. Larson has succeeded in captivating the public, I believe, because he skillfully whipsaws us back and forth between the noblest and finest of human aspirations and behaviors and the meanest and most sickening depths of the human psyche.

Robert Louis Stevenson got the same morbid stranglehold on his readers' emotions in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde when he catapulted his Victorian audience between depravity and goodness in a single conflicted and tortured double character. Stevenson's work continues to speak to us. It has been recast as a play and, in recent years, even as a Broadway musical which ran from 1997 to 2001. The romp between good and evil is always winning combination. Good choice of a time tested formula, Larson!

I wish the story of Daniel Burnham had been enough for Larson. Burnham was a pretty extraordinary fellow, and certainly worthy of his own biography in his own right. Anyone who says otherwise is jealous, retarded, or some combination thereof. However, in the end, that's just not what people want. I found three biographies of Daniel Burnham on Amazon's website, and I don't think I know anyone who has even read any of these biographies. Sorry, Burnham. It's just your lot in life to have your life oddly juxtaposed with a homicidal maniac.

Most of us do not live in shining white cities or in palaces filled with resplendent fine arts, just like the majority have no idea what it's like to reach for the kind of greatness that Daniel Burnham tried to grasp. On the other hand, most of us have never encountered the dark and loathsome places Henry Holmes designed and inhabited, but every now and then we are tempted to hang pruriently over their edges, just for a moment, before we finally skitter away.

This desire to taste all of life—not just the piece of the universe that we happen to inhabit — has been fed for centuries by playwrights, journalists, and story tellers...roiling stews that combine ambition, passion, goodness, wickedness, heroism, kindness and cruelty. Erik Larson may not be Shakespeare or even Robert Louis Stevenson, but I suppose he knows a winning formula when he sees one.

Optimo Hats

2009-12-10T12:19:00.000-08:00

Inspired by the founding partner of his firm, my husband Todd decided what he really needed for his winter wardrobe was a good hat. The founder of his firm has an impressive collection and offered to take my husband to “his hat guy” on the Southside. Apparently his puppy had gotten a hold of two of his hats and he needed to visit Optimo for a repair/replace consultation. Todd was so excited he talked about it for days. Optimo Hats is a bit of a Chicago institution and they did all the hats for the Johnny Depp movie Public Enemies. Located at Western and 102nd, they claim to be the “one of the last remaining traditional hat shops in the world.” Apparently Todd ordered a great hat. I wouldn’t know, I haven’t seen it yet (they are custom made so it takes awhile). But it cost $500 so it had better be awesome.

What I got out of the whole thing was an evening at Optimo’s Annual Holiday Party in the penthouse of the Blackstone Hotel. Todd borrowed a hat for the occasion, I was one of two hatless guests. The crowd was memorable: mostly men between the ages of 35 and 60, racially mixed and everyone dressed to the nines. We met a doctor, a millionaire and a retire Chicago firefighter, and everyone was really into their hats. Like they really wished they could pull off a porkpie, or they were planning the purchase of a panama for the summer. One man wearing a red hat and red suit explained that he bought the hat first and let it sit in his closet until he had the suit made to match. It was fun to see such a mixed crowd of people come together over such a specialized interest.

The owner of Optimo is a white guy in his mid thirties named Graham who purchased the store from the last owner, whose father had started the shop. Clearly identifiable as a hipster, Graham was ahead of the trend, learning the craft of hatmaking at sixteen when he apprenticed himself to the owner of Optimo. It is incredible that a sixteen year old had such clarify of vision, but indeed, he seems to have locked on to his trade early in life. I am looking forward to seeing Todd’s new hat. Turns out the founder of his firm’s hats were irredeemable. That’s an expensive puppy.

Write What You Know

2009-12-09T22:49:00.001-08:00

I appreciate Paretsky’s depiction of the Southside of Chicago. We spoke in class about Sinclair’s depiction of the working poor in the Jungle, based on his brief stint working among them. We discussed how it felt a bit melodramatic, like a story parents tell their children to make them stay in school. All they do is work and despair their slow and unavoidable demise.

I feel like Paretsky is more aware and more respectful than that. I appreciate that the girls’ dialogue seems plausible and their speech isn’t overly regionalized. By identifying her title character as both a local and an outsider – she grew up on the Southside but moved away long ago – she is stating her (the author’s) awareness of her partial knowledge and experience in a community that she is familiar with but not a member of. When the Southside characters admonish Warshawski for not knowing the neighborhood anymore and for being snooty, I assume that is a bit of self-consciousness on Paretsky’s part. Her self-awareness makes her a better writer. I think it is really challenging for a writer to depict people from a group they are not a part of convincingly and humanely. I suppose that is why the old edict is to write what you know.

As for detective novels in general I’m not a big consumer. I have a hard time keeping all the characters and plots straight, though I did have phases as a kid when I read a couple detective serials, one about a middle aged woman detective and another about a male detective and his two Siamese cats. I liked that you could grow familiar with the characters over the space of several books and that the disappointment of a good story ending was softened by the knowledge that another book in the series was waiting for you.

The Chicago List

2009-12-09T21:25:00.000-08:00

Okay, this is going to be a long post, but I think it's worth sharing. . . Being new to Chicago I asked a local friend what are some essential Chicago experiences I should have while I'm here. She posed the question to everyone she knew from Chicago and this is what they came up with. I am slowly working my way throug the list. Feel free to add anything you think they missed!

• Air and Water Show
• Ann Sathers cinnamon rolls
• Architectural Artifacts
• architecture boat tour!
• Argo Tea
• Around Coyote
• Aurora outlets
• Baha’i House of Worship and gardens
• Beach volleyball on North Avenue Beach
• Bears game with tailgating
• Bobtail Ice cream
• Bongo room in bucktown for brunch
• Boutique shopping down Armitage or Halsted
• Brew and View at the Vic
• Broadway Chicago shows
• Brookfield Zoo
• Bulls game
• catch a good concert at Northerly Island
• Century Theater for indie movies
• Chicago Symphony Orchestra
• Chicago Diner
• Chicago Fire game
• Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinder (across the street from where the St. Valentine's Day Massacre happened - they have the best salad w/2 dressings and Chicago "bowl" pizza & great house merlot)
• Chicago Public Library on Congress
• China Town for dim sum brunch (I like the Phoenix)
• Coast for sushi
• Coffee and a walk on the lake front
• Coffee from Bleeding Heart Organic Bakery on Belmont
• Costa’s Restaurant (best Greek food outside of Greece)
• CS Magazine
• cupcakes at southport grocery
• De Cero in the West Loop
• Delilah’s
• Double Door
• Drake for afternoon tea
• ed debevics
• Farmers markets/Green City Market
• Field Museum
• Flash Taco right above it has fantastic tacos and quesadillas
• fondue at geja's
• Toast on Webster for breakfast
• Frances on Clark has best chocolate peanut butter milk shake
• Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio
• Funky Buddha Lounge
• funky shops on Belmont
• Gallery hopping around River North or West Loop
• Garfield Park Conservatory
• Garrett’s popcorn
• Gene & Georgetti's
• german fest in lincoln square
• Get on a boat and drink the day away!
• Goddess & Grocer
• going to an Oprah show taping
• Goodman Theater
• Goose Island Beer
• Graceland Cemetery
• Great America
• Green Dolphin Street
• Green Mill
• Hancock sky deck
• High Tea at the Peninsula
• Hot Chocolate on Damen
• Hot Doug’s
• House of Blues
• Ice Skating at Millennium Park
• if they were still having it -- The Southside Irish Parade (RIP)
• Ikram for wonderful shopping
• Improv Olympic
• intelligentsia coffee!
• italian at Topo Gigio in Old Town
• Jane Adams Hull House museum
• Japonais
• Jean and Jude's hot dog hmmmmmm good
• just hang out by Wrigley..always a good time! :)
• kayaking tours on the river
• Kenosha Outlets
• Kitsch’n on Roscoe
• Lincoln Park Boat Club - rowing is simply one of the best group sport
• Lincoln Park Zoo
• live jazz in the garden -- late hours so you can stroll through the museum.
• lollapalooza
• Lookingglass theater
• Lou Malnati’s stuffed pizza and Malnati’s salad – YUMM!
• Mario's Italian Ice on Taylor
• Market Days
• Melting Pot for fondue
• Michigan Avenue shops
• Michigan for apple-picking
• Millennium Park for chicago symphony orchestra
• Montrose Dog Park
• Morton Arboretum
• movies in the park
• Museum of Science and Industry
• Navy Pier Wed/Sat fireworks
• Oak Park (Frank Lloyd Wright tour)
• Old Town for shopping
• Pasta Bowl on Clark
• Piece for pizza
• Pitchfork
• Pizano's pizza
• Portillos hot dogs, fries and Italian beefs
• R. J. Grunts
• Ravinia
• Remy Bumpo Theater Company
• Renegade Craft Fair
• Rib Fest in Naperville
• Ricobenes
• Robie House
• rock n roll mcd's
• Rock Shop in Evanston (they have a museum in the basement!)
• Rotofugi Designer Toy Store
• RR#1 Apothecary
• Salvage One
• Second City Improv
• Segway tours
• Shedd Aquarium
• Sheffield Garden Walk
• Shopping down Milwaukee from Division to Damen
• shops and bars around Bucktown/Wicker Park
• Signature Room on the 95th
• Skydeck at the Sears Tower
• Steppenwolf
• Sultan's Market
• summer dance series if you’re interested in learning different types of dance
• Summerfest in Milwaukee
• Super Dawg
• Sushi Luxe
• Svea’s
• Taking public transportation everywhere
• Taste of Chicago
• The huge Macy's on State
• the BEAN!
• The Best Deep Dish Pizza really is Peaquods on Clybourn
• The best Merk's cheddar burger is at Underdog
• The best thin crust is at Pat's on Lincoln
• the bike path
• The Bottom Lounge
• The Chicago Botanic Garden is heavenly
• The rooftop garden/deck at Lightology
• thursday nights at the art institute - free admission,
• Viceroy of India
• Violet Hour
• Warren Dunes in MI (about 3 hours) but soooo worth it!
• Water tower and pumping station
• Webster’s Wine Bar
• Wells Art Fest
• Wrigley Field and the Cubs

Jeffrey Brown

2009-12-09T21:18:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite comic book artists and writers is Jeffrey Brown, a Chicagoan, most of whose autobiographical work is set in Wicker Park. As part of my final project he agreed to an online interview. Here is some of what we discussed:

Heather: You have written about your early interest in superhero comics. How and when did you discover indie publications? Where there any Chicago writers/artists you were drawn to early on?

Jeffrey Brown: While I was in middle school/high school, the manager at my local comics shop started giving me some of the alternative comics like Hate, Eightball and Dirty Plotte. Eightball was one of my favorites, so Dan Clowes was the one Chicago cartoonist I liked a lot.

H: What was your sense of Chicago growing up? Did it feature in your imagination? Did you always imagine moving here, or was it just because of the School of the Art Institute?

JB: I have a lot of family in Illinois, and living in West Michigan I was only a three hour drive from Chicago, so out of any city outside of my hometown, I probably knew Chicago best. We went to the museums a lot, so the Field Museum and Museum of Science & Industry are probably my strongest associations. In college, my roommate was also from Chicago, so I spent time visiting him as well. When I started feeling like I needed to move away from West Michigan after college, I was actually leaning toward moving to Ann Arbor, Michigan. So really, going to The School Of The Art Institute was the biggest factor in coming here.

H: Your personal work has a strong sense of place: not just Chicago but Wicker Park as well. How would you characterize the importance of place in your work?

JB: Since my work deals with personal narrative and the nature of our memories, things like objects, songs, events, etc. all play important roles, so of course place does as well. For example, the idea of where you were when you first kissed someone, or the last time you saw someone, are closely tied to certain memories. So in my work I think that sense comes through, the importance of place in our lives.

H: If you were to describe Chicago as a character in your work, how would you describe it? What mood does Chicago imbue? What do you think are Chicago's most marked characteristics?

JB: In my work, I think the sense of Chicago is down to earth - maybe tied to that Midwestern sense of work ethic - and also, because of my interests I guess, a sense of DIY culture. Chicago to me has a mood of melancholy mixed with opportunity. Lately I think one of Chicago's marked characteristics is political corruption. Or at least that's one thing I think of when I think of Chicago.

H: We have been reading a number of Chicago authors for my class beginning with the turn of the century and working our way up through Saul Bellow and Sara Peretsky who is a part of "The Syndicate", a group of Chicago mystery writers. Do you feel like there is an intact community of graphic novelists/artists working in Chicago now? Howwould you describe the local community?

JB: I think there's a bit of community, but it's hard to gauge how closely knit it is. I think a lot of cartoonists know each other, and various groups see each other, but by its nature cartooning is a bit of a solitary pursuit. Judging from attendance at comics-related events and the work being created by Chicago cartoonists, I'd say the community is pretty vibrant.

H: How and why was The Holy Consumption (theholyconsumption.com) formed? How did you and the other artists meet? Do you see The Holy Consumption as having a role/effect in Chicago beyond yourselves?

JB: I met Paul Hornschemeier through Chris Ware, while Paul was working for Westcan, the company that printed my first self-published book Clumsy. Paul already knew Anders and John, and I met them later on. The Holy Consumption was Paul's idea; it was a way to give the four of us a more solid online presence as well as a venue to sell some of our work, since we were all self-publishing. I don't know how much effect the group has had as a group - for the most part, we worked alone and everything, just got together socially - but I think the idea of it, as well as how our careers have all evolved, has had an impact on inspiring the next generation of cartoonists.

H: What do you see as Quimby's (or other independent sellers) role in the development of Chicago talent? What are some of your favorite alternative/independent booksellers?

JB: Quimby's plays an important role, they're the leader in stores that are carrying self published work and a great place to discover the newest and most innovative work being made. For myself, going to Quimby's was a revelation, and definitely inspired me to not only make comics but the kind of work I make as well. Besides Quimby's, I like Chicago Comics and Comix Revolution. I like Myopic for used books, and I think the Book Cellar does a good job as a small independent book cellar.

The City of Lights

2009-12-09T21:01:00.000-08:00

The passage that stuck with me from Devil in the White City was:

“The lamps that laced every building and walkway produced the most elaborate demonstration of electric illumination ever attempted and the first large-scale test of alternating current. The fair alone consumed three times as much electricity as the entire city of Chicago.” (254)

Three times as much electricity as the entire city of Chicago!

This is one of the rare moments in the text when I felt transported to the fair. I could imagine how absolutely magical it must have seemed to the attendees, out of the darkness of their homes and streets, people coming from all over the country, especially those from farms and small towns where there was little to no electricity at all. And suddenly they see this incredible city of lights – lit even at night as if it were the middle of the day. It must have been incredible.

The lights and the Ferris Wheel are the two things I would love to have seen. Every time I drive down Lakeshore Drive at night, past Navy Pier, and I see the Ferris Wheel all lit up I think about the world’s fair. Even to my modern eye, the light display on the Ferris Wheel is mesmerizing, it looks like fireworks the way the lights radiate from the eye. I really wanted a better sense of the scale of the original Ferris Wheel and I found this online:

http://www.spudart.org/blogs/randomthoughts_comments/2951_0_3_0_C/

It blows my mind how enormous the original was! And it blows my mind that it was structurally sound. You could not have paid me to be in the first round of riders.

The sketchy Harry Trellman

2009-12-09T20:55:00.000-08:00

I think it’s funny that in all the time we talked about The Actual we didn’t discuss how totally sketchy Harry Trellman is. His whole fixation with appearing Chinese? And how secretive he is about his past and his career? Dude is totally suspect.

When discussing his profession he says, “Not that there is much to hide. But something about me hints that there is.” (2) Well, if there’s nothing to hide, why is he so circuitous? Or when he says, “Looking vaguely Chinese would not be enough to prevent discover. . . I mean exposure.” (3) Which does he mean? What is there to be exposed?

I wondered at the beginning if his life is so boring that he creates artificial mystery for the listener, or if he is actually involved in unsavory activities?

Later on he tells us, “It gave me an incomprehensible satisfaction to deny almost everyone access my thoughts and opinions.” (63) So I guess it’s just a power play. Which makes the character even less likeable, or rather, less knowable which makes me like him less.

“I was prepared by now to make my peace with my species. For most of them, I am aware in hindsight, I generally had a knife within reach.” (63) Well, at least the distrust is mutual.

Fire Sale

2009-12-09T17:56:00.001-08:00

As I mentioned before, this Paretsky book was the first detective novel I've read. It appealed to me for a number of reasons. I liked V.I. Warshawski - that she's intelligent, tough, charming, and a feminist with a good sense of humor. I like that she has a sharp tongue always on reserve, and that at the same time, her compassion often dictates her actions, in spite of her wish to shut certain things out and not take on added responsibilities. It seems like all of the characters around her are mere sketches, though, and I wonder if this is typical of the genre.

My favorite thing about the book was the Chicago setting. I actually was going to make a site visit to where Thismia americana was discovered, but reading this book freaked me out to much too explore there on my own. (I will go this summer with friends.) The swamps/marshes that Paretsky writes about are still in that area of Southeast Chicago. When I was researching Thismia, I looked at a Google map and zoomed in underneath the Skyway where Warshawski finds Billy the Kid's wrecked car.

If detective novels are judged based on how effectively they conceal the inner workings of the mystery at hand, then for me, Fire Sale is successful - there was only one part that I predicted ahead of time. The detective novel genre is an interesting one - I like the idea of sustaining a single central character throughout numerous books. In some sense, it's like writing an extensive fictional biography, adding more and more details of the character's life with each new investigation, and I like the idea that different circumstances will reveal different aspects about the protagonist's life.

Thismia americana

2009-12-09T12:18:00.000-08:00

Here is a timeline of Thismia americana, as well as a collaged list of descriptions of the flower. Thismia americana was only ever found in Southeast Chicago. Its closest relative is found in Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania. It is a tropical flower that blooms for three weeks a year in August. No one knows how it found its way to the prairies of the Midwest. The only known existing specimen is housed in a cabinet on the third floor of the Field Museum.

1912 – An unknown flower is first discovered in a wet prairie near 119th & Torrence Avenue, Chicago

1912 – Norma Pfeiffer, discoverer of Thismia americana, begins to collect specimens of the flower for five summers

1916 – Thismia is last seen in the place it was first discovered

1949 – Using a map from Pfeiffer, Field Museum botanist Julian Steiermark searches for Thismia with six eminent colleagues

1972 – Pfeiffer delivers her specimens to the Field Museum

1989 – Pfeiffer dies at age 100

1992-1996 – Intensive search fails to find the flower

1995 – Thismia americana declared extinct (although it continues to be listed in books on American botany, due to the possibility that it may still exist

2009 – Planning in progress for the most extensive hunt of Thismia

2012 – Centennial search

glabrous and white
delicate blue-green
colorless
transparent
translucent white
smooth
white-rooted
odd
strange
vanished
enigma
tiny pearl
tiny flowering
little
size of a pencil eraser
quarter of an inch
mystery that still haunts —
and helps — the Calumet region
elusive buried treasure of
the Calumet prairies
one of the most curious plants
of the world
of conservation concern
possibly extinct
feared to be extinct
believed to be extinct
easily overlooked
mystery

Snow by Carl Sandburg

2009-12-09T09:22:00.000-08:00

In honor of the weather I found this Sandburg poem from his a 1920 collection of poems titled Smoke and Steel.

Snow
Snow took us away from the smoke valleys into white mountains, we saw velvet blue cows eating a vermillion grass and they
gave us a pink milk.

Snow changes our bones into fog streamers caught by the wind and spelled into many dances.

Six bits for a sniff of snow in the old days bought us bubbles beautiful to forget floating long arm women across sunny
autumn hills.

Our bones cry and cry, no let-up, cry their telegrams:
More, more—a yen is on, a long yen and God only knows when it will end.

In the old days six bits got us snow and stopped the yen—now the government says: No, no, when our bones cry their
telegrams: More, more.

The blue cows are dying, no more pink milk, no more floating long arm women, the hills are empty—us for the smoke
valleys—sneeze and shiver and croak, you dopes—the government says: No, no.

Sandburg's use of color is fantastic, and it works for Chicago.

The 1903 Iroquis Theater Fire

2009-12-09T08:48:00.000-08:00

December 30, 1903 the single deadliest building fire in US history struck the Iroquois Theater at 24-28 West Randolph Street; the conflagration claimed 602 total lives including 571 in just 20 minutes.

The theater had just opened a month earlier and was showing the musical Mr. Bluebeard on the night of the disaster. A lighting arc started the blaze which spread quickly to the backstage and the 300 actors and stage crew fled through giant backstage double doors (only 5 staffers died) which sent a giant Chicago chill wind-fueled fireball into the audience. The orchestra continued to play as comedian Eddie Foy attempted to calm the panicked audience. "A sort of cyclone came from behind," Foy reported. "And there seemed to be an explosion."

Unfinished fire escapes, locked doors, an inoperable stage fire curtain, a lack of fire extinguishing equipment, overlooked fire codes (bribed were involved here (the Chicago way)), and an over packed house of nearly 2,000 patrons only made matters worse, and corpses were soon stacked 10 high around doors and windows.

"The screams of the children for their mothers and mothers for their children I shall carry in my memory to my dying day." -- Frank Slosson, Secretary-Treasurer of the Bain Wagon Works, survivor.

It ranks as the ninth most deadly structure fire of all-time in a list populated by Chinese conflagrations and the Church of the Company fire which killed between 2,000 and 3,000 people in Santiago, Chile in 1863. Not one of the injured survivors or victims' relatives ever collected a cent of damages.

The theater had been billed as "fire-proof" and the outside shell continued to stand after the blaze but was torn torn down in 1926. The Oriental Theater now stands in its place.

A fascinating 33mb PDF of the book Chicago's Awful Theater Horror from 1904 with pictures and first-hand accounts is available here from the U of I library.

The Jungle

2009-12-08T23:42:00.000-08:00

The most heart-breaking scenes in The Jungle for me are the scenes when the family first gets swindled into buying their home, believing that it is a high-quality, new edifice, and later when they discover that the house is part of a real estate scam that exploits immigrant meat packers.

Sinclair explains, “Cheap as the houses were, they were sold with the idea that the people who bought them would not be able to pay for them. When they failed...they would lose the house and all that they had paid on it” (55). The house company could then re-sell the house to another desperate, naive immigrant family that would also lose the house. The cycle would continue, enriching the exploitative landlords, and causing the financial ruin of the Packingtown families. Worse than the swindle—four families had lived in and left the house before Jurgis’ family, the house was “unlucky” (56). One member of each of the four families developed tuberculosis and died. This was apparently common in these ramshackle houses—if you slept in a “particular room...[you] were good as dead” (57).

Between the poor-quality construction, the use of toxic/hazardous materials (what else could cause severe respiratory problems in every single family that occupied the house?), and the deceptive advertising that lured Jurgis’ family into the scam, these scenes are incredibly difficult to read. The family’s experience with the house demonstrates all of the vulnerability and naiveté of the immigrant community in Packingtown. I have no doubts that these kinds of exploitative housing practices and other scams abounded at the turn of the century.

Leaning Tower of Niles

2009-12-08T12:20:00.000-08:00

Every night at work I sit in the parking lot of Costco acting as security keeping an eye out for intruders or thieves, but actually I’m doing homework or watching a movie in my car. Anyways, sitting in the parking lot I have a pretty good view of an odd little piece of architecture in Illinois, the Leaning Tower of Niles, which is a replica of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It was constructed in 1934, 600 years after the Leaning Tower of Pisa, as a recreational site for employees at a near by company. The Niles tower is half the size of Pisa’s tower. 94 ft compared to Pisa’s 177 ft. Its original purpose was to store water for outdoor recreational swimming pools. Today it sits next to a bankrupt used car dealership, a YMCA, and across the street is a Target and Costco. It doesn’t hold any water anymore and only acts as a sight to see. I see it almost every night, but I don’t think much of it. I find it funny that it is mentioned in weird Illinois books or roadside attractions you must see and visit when in Illinois. I have seen this tower my whole life and never thought much of it, except that I knew I wanted to see the real one when I grew up, and soon I will.

The tower has been kept in good shape over the years. It seems to be a special landmark that Niles holds on to dearly. For Christmas, they have wrapped lights and Christmas tree stuff (I don’t know what it is called) around the tower. One of these days I will go up for a closer look.

Kuma's Corner

2009-12-08T12:18:00.000-08:00

Kuma’s Corner is a Chicago burger joint that promotes not only great burgers and small company beers, but also metal. Not your Poison-Europe-Skid Row type a metal, but your Metallica-Slayer-Morbid Angel-Dying Fetus kind of metal.

I’m a big metal head so the music definitely grabs my attention, but even if you’ve never listened to any metal before, except for the go-to Metallica, that shouldn’t stop you from checking this place out. All the burgers, twenty-one in total, are named after some of their favorite bands. For example, The Judas Priest has bacon, bleu cheese dressing with apples, walnuts, and dried cranberries. Can you guess why they have fruit on this burger? Another example is the Led Zeppelin. It comes with their specially made pulled pork, bacon, cheddar, and pickles. This one is my favorite. All the burgers are served on a pretzel bun too. I suggest that before you go here make sure you have an empty stomach, because you will find yourself incredibly full and ready to unbuckle your pants after you chow down your burger and drink your three beers – three is the magic number.

They also have some rules they have set up, sometimes humorous, sometimes serious. I’m never really sure which one it is. They do not take reservations. This is because the place is so small. This is also my biggest problem with the place. You may end up waiting longer than you were expecting if you go with a group of five. Make sure you bring enough money to buy a few drinks while your waiting. Another rule they post is, “we will not ‘put on the game, bro.’ They try to keep this heavy metal vibe, which they definitely do. They refuse to put on any sports game, thank God, and instead play crazy movies that usually are in some sort of horror category. You could probably find a bar down the block with the sports game on. Instead of playing ESPN all day they play some interesting movies. If you know some of the stuff metal musicians sing about you could probably take a guess on what kind of movies are going to be played at this lovely metal bar. Their third rule is no music requests. Just relax and enjoy what they play. The fourth is no minors after 10pm, because of the sometimes graphic movies they play. And their last rule is to be patient, because their kitchen is only 16x16. The kitchen is small but once your seated the food is usually out within forty-five minutes. Sometimes even quicker depending on how crowded the place is.

So if your looking for a new place to check out with some buds or your significant other take a stroll to Kuma’s Corner where you will be served metal up the…

Critical Mass

2009-12-07T18:51:00.000-08:00

Although Critical Mass is not unique to Chicago, nor did it start in Chicago (it originated in San Fransisco) it is something I find special about Chicago, as not all big cities have it, and some big cities try to have it and have little success.

Critical Mass is a bike ride that take place the last Friday of every month. Bikers meet en mass at the Daily Center starting around 5:00 at night. The rout is never disclosed until just before the ride begins, when people will hand out maps. This is a new development, the rout used to be totally secret.

The ride begins when the bikers begin circling the Daily Center. The speed of the ride is very slow, so you will see anyone from little kids to seniors to experienced bike messengers. Everyone rides, and it is a friendly and cheerful experience. The cars don't always appreciate the sometimes thousands of bikers holding up traffic, but most people respond positively to the bikers smiles and often return the "Happy Friday" greeting being yelled out.

Originally started to spread a message from bikers to cars, that the road must be shared, it is now banned in New York City because of how badly traffic gets messed up. Here in Chicago, thanks to our bicycling enthusiastic mayor, the mass is actually accompanied by biker cops, who help block traffic. Despite this, the message doesn't always seem positive, as cars and bikes do often get upset with each other during the ride becasue the cars are forced to wait as all the bikes pass.

Overall though, the ride is a very happy and fun event, so check it out, the last Friday of the month (although probably not this one as if falls on Christmas and the Winter months tend to be pretty low in attendance, so I'd say wait until May or June and then you'll get the really great experience).

The Ghost of Summer Past

2009-12-07T18:15:00.000-08:00

Getting cold? Me too. Can't afford a vacation? Me neither. Need an escape? Me too.

Luckily we live in Chicago, home to two amazing, beautiful and most importantly, warm, Conservatories.

The Garfield Park Conservatory (http://www.garfield-conservatory.org/) is located at 300 N. Central Park Ave. It is absolutely huge. It is easy to spend a cold afternoon getting lost in the tropical warmth.

Chicago is also home to the Lincoln Park Conservatory located at 2391 N Stockton Dr. The Lincoln Park location is smaller than the Garfield Park one, but I actually like it more. It is cozier and somehow transports me more than the other one.

Believe it or not they're both free, so whichever one you like better, they both offer great opportunities to escape the cold and the concrete and feel like you're in another world. They also both offer great volunteer opportunities, including at the Garfield Park Conservatory, BEE KEEPING. Thank you Chicago Park District.

The Green Mill and The Chicago Poetry Slam

2009-12-07T18:05:00.000-08:00

The Green Mill, located at the intersection of Lawrence Ave and Broadway Ave, just off the Lawrence Red Line stop, is famous for music, namely Jazz. The Green Mill, as we learned in class is also an old Speak Easy. Now, on Sunday nights, the Green Mill is over run with poets. Slam Poets. Every Sunday night, from 7-10 PM, for just $6, you can see and even participate in a great show.

From 7 to 8 there is open mic, from 8-9 there is a special guest poet or poets or a musician, and from 9-10 is the SLAM!

The Poetry Slam was created by Marc Smith (http://www.slampapi.com/) who still hosts the show, every Sunday night, and he is quite entertaining. Cranky, funny and compassionate about the two things he seems to love most, Chicago and Poetry, Marc Smith never dissapoints an audience.

The Green Mill is definately worth checking out on a Sunday night, and if you're feeling brave sign up for the open mic, and if you're feeling really brave, get there early and secure yourself a spot in the Slam!

Gary Stocl: a ghost onn the streets of Chicago

2009-12-07T17:59:00.000-08:00

I heard about the photographer Gary Stocl from a friend who was doing a project on him. What I learned from my friend was that Gary Stocl lived in the suburbs of Chicago, in the basemen of his parent's house, never working, but instead going down town almost everyday, haunting the streets, taking pictures. One day, apparently after his parents passed away and perhaps he needed money, he took his pictures to Columbia College, down town and showed them to a photography teacher who was amazed by what he saw. Stocl's photos, up until that point, may not have ever been seen by any one but himself.

He now has a book: On City Streets: Chicago, 1964-2004

His photographers are really amazing, and it is interesting to think about someone on the streets of Chicago, capturing pictures, beautiful and amazing pictures, for so many years, with no one really noticing, and him not making himself known.

His work is definately worth checking out, weather on line or in his book.

Chicago: City on the Make #2

2009-12-07T12:10:00.000-08:00

Chicago: City on the Make #2

IN GENERAL
This is a slow read. I REALLY appreciate the notes section in back.
After reading a small section, I check out the notes immediately and it helps me understand who and what he is talking about—after all we are translating from a different language!

PORTRAIT OF A CITY
Chicago is a strange place—there are so many different areas and eras—it is difficult to put your finger on what Chicago is all about.

“It’s a ball game between the do-as-I-sayers and the live-and-let-livers—but it’s a rigged ball game.”

“The only way a mayor can procceed is to just keep things in repair”

The battle goes on between the people who follow the laws and those who realize there is no point in doing that—to survive (or sometimes just live) you may have to bend or even break them. There needs to be a place for these people and I was amazed that it was all confined to the Old Levee district, isolated from the rest of society. See note on bottom of pg 110

THERE IS MORE…
Algren tells an anecdote about one thing but he is really saying something else.
Re: the ball game and the blacklist. On pg 34-36 when he tells the story about being stopped on the northside by kids who demand he tell his favorite player and then berate him on his choices—it becomes commentary on the McCarty hearings. The phrases and terms used: Guilt of association, conspiracy, the committee, chairman all make a clever reference to a very twisted past.

WRITING
His writing is beautiful and has a wonderful sound when read aloud.

I have mixed feeling about the anachronistic “Chicago: City on the Make”. I think writing should be understood, without too much work for the reader. In another sense, I find the deciphering and decoding a thrill and a complete hassle at the same time. But, if he didn’t word things in his dated slang the way he did, his prose would lose all its beauty and cadence.

Montgomery-Ward sleepwalkers—Shoppers at a department store
Straw Kelly—Summer hat
Cribs—Brothels

Larson

2009-12-06T12:08:00.001-08:00

I have to admit, when I first began reading The Devil in the White City, I enjoyed it. The more I read, though, the more repetitive, predictable, and boring it became. A better author could have taken the information that Larson gathered and produced a marvelous book from it. Larson’s book fails because of the cheap storyline with Holmes and the overwhelming quantity of details that he offers his reader. If Larson had just written a biography of Burnham, or a less fictionalized account of the construction of The White City, the book could have been a success. The most unfortunate moments of the book are his attempts to fictionalize history, particularly in the Holmes subplot.

I could barely read the sections about Holmes’ young, naive victims. There was too much gore and too much heart-break. As I read each of the Holmes sections, I wondered how Larson’s publishing company let him get away with his Holmes scenes—they were poorly written and distracting. While I’m sure that the company thought that the horrifying murders of these girls would sell books, I find myself incredibly disgusted by these scenes and their presence in The Devil in the White City. I can understand why many people are fascinated by the depths of human evil, but Larson’s treatment of Holmes’ brutal, psychotic murders was completely insensitive, exploitative, and senseless. The tale of the White City didn’t need a distracter in the form of Holmes; and given Larson’s lack of information on Holmes, the Holmes chapters were quite awful and unreadable. How many times did we read a comparison between the blue of Holmes’ eyes and Lake Michigan? Or between placid waters and his eyes? Also, because Holmes (like most serial killers) followed a pattern and chose similiar victims every time, every Holmes section was a repetition of the previous one. The only interesting details about Holmes were related to his hotel and its strange architecture. I’m pretty sure that Larson only included Holmes in the book so that he could have the clever title The Devil in the White City and work with the contrasting plot lines of a heroic architect building a white city, and an evil madman murdering in dark corners of the city.

Bellow

2009-12-06T11:32:00.000-08:00

I found Harry Trellman’s fascination with his own Chinese/Japanese appearance to be quite intriguing. Trellman is a sort of mystical character, with his journeys to the East and his penchant for very astute observation. He is aware of the smallest details in the way that people interact with one another. Trellman’s shifting appearance, as a Jewish business man who appears either Chinese or Japanese, depending on who you ask, makes sense in relation to his shifting identity. Trellman is a “first-class noticer”, according to Adletsky (15). It is because of his insights into human behavior that he is selected for Adletsky’s “brain trust.” Trellman looks down on others because of their lack of “higher motives,” yet it is never clear what higher motives Trellman labors under (42). All of the characters of the novel, with the exception of Trellman and Amy, are histrionic egomaniacs or other embodiments of the absurd. Wealth and irascible behavior are linked, particularly in the character of Madge Heisinger, who pours a pot of tea into Amy’s lap in order to get her attention. The world of the über-rich in no way resembles the world of the middle class—anything is permissible with enough wealth.

By far the best scene of the book is the last scene, in which Harry proposes to Amy next to the grave of her dead ex-husband, Jay. Harry’s proposal to Amy is at once the fulfillment of a life-long fantasy, and a form of revenge against Jay, who tortured Harry through various forms of sexual cruelty, including a threesome with Amy, who Jay knew Harry was in love with. Though it took him well over twenty years to confess his love to Amy, he finally does. The theme of exhumation fits well with the project of the text: the actual exhumation of Jay leads to the exhumation of memories. Unlike Jay, who will be reburied, the exhumation of Harry’s feelings for Amy and their discovery that they had both loved one another for many years gives both Harry and Amy a second chance at life.

The Coyote Menace: America's Greatest Threat

2009-12-05T20:00:00.000-08:00

It is easy to ignore a problem; it is harder to acknowledge one; and it is much harder to overcome one. Without question, the planet we live on faces a growing number of problems with each passing day. Nevertheless, even the most daunting issues threatening life on our planet − global warming, dwindling fossil fuels, war between nations − have solutions. For example, global warming can be reduced by decreasing pollutants released into the atmosphere. Fossil fuels can be replaced by using alternate energy sources, such as hydrogen cells and solar power. War can be resolved through peaceful negotiations. However, the most imperative problem endangering our planet is one that has no solution: the coyote menace.

Tricksters. That is the name given to the coyote spirit in Native American lore. Many moon cycles ago, our ancestors realized the looming threat coyotes posed on humanity. Despite their wisdom and understanding of the spirit world, however, the countless tribes that inhabited North and South America for millennia were powerless against the indomitable coyote. Since then, civilization has experienced significant progress and mankind has learned to harness electricity and fly across the heavens. Unfortunately, humanity has yet to find a viable solution to the threat posed by the coyote menace. Although the human race remains incapable of preventing the spread of coyote dominance across the globe, modern science has accumulated crucial information on its elusive adversary.
Coyotes look like dirty dogs and eat cats and little kids and dim sung. Biologists have confirmed that they are fluent in hundreds of languages, including Portuguese, Mandarin, Latin, Hebrew, Ket. Due to their vast intelligence, they have learned to manipulate the magnetic field, rendering all weapons composed of metal alloys useless against them. Coyotes have infiltrated several bodies of government and it has recently been confirmed that there are currently seven of them seated in the British Parliament. But many of them you probably wouldn’t even notice as a result of the sophisticated holographic cloaking devices used to disguise their appearance. NASA satellites have shown signs that coyotes are not only capable of traveling through space, but also have colonies on other planets. Most recently, sports journalists have unearthed Muhammad Ali’s birth certificate which confirms that he is a coyote.

The coyote menace kills without mercy, makes love without inhibition, and dies without regret. Although global leaders refuse to accept the fact that humans are an inferior life form, the scientific community acknowledges that coyotes are superior to humans in nearly every conceivable way. Even though humanity is already facing several critical problems − global warming, dwindling fossil fuels, and war between nations − they may not have an impact on the planet for another fifty years. On the other hand, coyotes threaten to have a catastrophic impact on the planet tomorrow. Certainly the dinosaurs did not see the threat coyotes posed, but they certainly felt it when they were obliterated from the face of the earth. In order for human culture to endure for future generations, a solution to the coyote menace needs to be our top priority and survival our most important concern.

Fire Sale #2

2009-12-04T19:25:00.000-08:00

Fire Sale #2

After I finished:

Great Character––V.I. Warshawski

After tensions were resolved, I was not very surprised. There was a long string of clues that took a long time to arrive to an inevitable conclusion.

Paretsky has an agenda and it is very noticeable: workers' rights at a big box store, gangs & basketball as their only hope, class issues, the giant chasm that exists between the haves and have nots etc...I don't mind as it is timely and apropos.

Warshawski is the righteous problem solver super hero. She fixes the injustices all over the town. From the small things to the big things. Warshawski's character was consistent, deep and tough. I like her, I don't like the clients & suspects she deals with, and I want her to figure everything out and kick some ass. I want to see the good gal beat up the bad guy. It vicariously heals all the injustices I have dealt with in the past.

Of all people, Warshawski reminded me of the John McClane (Bruce Willis) DIE HARD character. She gets wounded in the first scene, she is then hospitalized, and ends up a walking corpse by the end of the book being hospitalized again. She is beaten up and still relentless.

I don't really have a lot to say about the writing. It is competent and it appropriately delivers the story without getting in the way or drawing attention to itself. In that regard, i was not a participant. more of an observer of the cinematic story.

I think this would make a great movie. It seems to be overflowing with attitude from each character. I have yet to see the film that was already made in 1991.

Fire Sale #1

2009-12-04T16:27:00.000-08:00

Fire Sale #1

Here are some of my thoughts as I was reading the book:

I am intrigued to find out what happens to the cheating couple (marcina & roach), the kid & josie, and to find out who started the fire even though i have a pretty good idea.

But, this is dragging on. Not much action happened from the fire in the beginning up until the 2nd half of the book. I like the historical chicago bits of info.

The by-smart, non-union, no benefits, cheap labor overseas, working class hero stuff is wearing on me at this point. Not from this book, but in our society. It is ridiculous that the denial of essential, civilized rights (like benefits and the ability to unionize) could be calmly accepted by the workers.

V.I. Warshawski is preachy, pushing, and a professional meddler, yet most other characters put her in her place and call her out on her behavior. She is also extremely self critical which makes her more believable——like she just can't help being the way she is.

I guess it makes me wonder why ALL private detectives aren't simply ignored by the potential suspects in mystery stories? It's not like you are ignoring the police! Unlike a police detective, a P.I. is just some busybody who everybody can shove aside.

Some scenes are great——like the "punta" scene was pretty funny.

Chicago: City on the make—#1

2009-12-04T15:11:00.001-08:00

Chicago: City on the make—#1

I was poking around on Chowhound website trying to find a substitute for one of my favorite restaurants that closed years ago, BUSY BEE. Somebody posted that we should all check out a place called:

Podhalanka (pronounced, poe-deh-lanka)
1549 W. Division St.

Unfortunately, this did not pacify my desire for Busy Bee pierogi. My wife had already taken me there about 8 years ago. She swore they had the best Borscht. She was right. I loved this place and I loved the feeling i had being there eating and just hanging out. It is not chic, hip, or expensive. It is a real place — not a stepping stone to a restaurant chain franchise, not a stop in a sequence of higher schemes. This was it. I REALLy enjoy finding places like this.

Podhalanka reminded me and many others of the Busy Bee restaurant—a peirogi joint at milwaukee, damen and north avenue.

Then something happened...Somebody else on Chowhound responded with this:

I saw the connection. When I think back, people actually used to talk about Nelson Algren at a places i used to frequent—-i confirmed this with my wife as she used to hang out at these places a great deal more than me.

One was Busy Bee the other is the Rainbow club (1150 N Damen Ave., between Haddon Ave & Division St). They serve $2 PBR on a friday night—that says a good deal about this dive bar.

I don't recall much more than the regulars saying that Algren was a regular at the Rainbow Club. I don't think busy bee was around when Algren was alive, but the folks there used to talk about him and they said he hung out at the Rainbow club.

Busy bee was an amazing place, too bad it closed down.

It was amazing in the sense that it was owned and operated by somebody who enjoyed serving people large portions of good, inexpensive food. Sophie, the owner, created a community dinning area - a giant rectangular bar/counter with the servers in the center. There were also tables in an other area.

Policemen would double park out front, jump out run in and pick up there order as the exchanged some happy talk with Sophie as hustlers, hoods, locals and travelers, killing time, ate at the bar. I went in there the first time to fill my belly. My very dear friend is Polish and his mother always had really great food available for me. I walked by Busy Bee, I saw people eating pierogi and rushed in.

It was a place rich with characters and it was a microcosm of the eclectic and strange city in which it resided. It was a place you could write about. It was a place where you could go to eat some great cheap food and write. I can picture Algren sitting there chowing away and getting into frank and curt discussions with the other diners.

The Actual—#2

2009-12-04T15:06:00.000-08:00

The Actual—#2

I think The Actual a great example of modern writing in that there is really no emphasis on plot and much of what we encounter are fragments that are decontextualized. Some of the players involved have implied roles, yet offer no true forward momentum to constructing a plot.

There is a collection of cinematic scenes, internal thoughts, and observations. The reader must put all of this together. We end up trying to figure out what the story IS while we are reading. And, it is a bit of a twist to see the fragments i THOUGHT might develop where actually red herrings (as you mentioned). In the end it was a simple old flame who really did make our main, mysterious character truly conscious.

The old flame theme idea rears its head in a completely realistic manner. Life goes on with its monotony on one side and its chaos on the other. Many times during a day one connects with their past—externally and internally. Even if you change locale and friends—its always inside you.

The immediacy of life hit me in the face by the end of the book. Marriage, love, and trying to cope with it all while Death hangs over head. Old relationships, ones that could have been but never where.

There are some people who have a profound ineffable affect on me. There is an attraction way beyond the physical. It is the missed opportunities with those unique people which are often viewed with regret. We all have them.

I am thankful that I attained closure with two unrealized loves from my past. I sought one of them out, and the other found me. I walked away much wiser with a strong acceptance of our attraction and incompatibility. Unfortunately, i am also reminded of all the loves that where realized yet ended unresolved and without closure. There is a residue from these things that lingers until you get so old you forget everything you ever did and everybody you ever knew.

The Actual—#1

2009-12-04T14:58:00.000-08:00

The Actual—#1

We all had a little confusion in class about the shower scene. I went back to check it over: Harry, Jay and Amy where all in the shower. Amy and Jay were not married at the time. FYI.

I love this book. This is the first Bellow book i've read. I plan to read many more. A story that starts anywhere and then kinda ends where ever it needs to always pulls me in.

As i stated in class, Bellow did a wonderful job revealing enough information to keep me interested, but leaving out just enough to keep me involved. He had me trying to piece things together in an enjoyable way.

Bellow offers little assistance to the reader when dialog is involved. It is challenging to know who is speaking at a given moment.
Shifts in time take place with little to no warning. Both of these techniques work because Bellow KNOWS he did this and he drops clues in the following text to help you keep your place. It is refreshing to have this tension and resolutions in some areas, and unresolved mystery and ambiguity in others. So, I don't know everything, but i know enough to want to know more. As i continued to try and piece together one thing, other fragments are introduced. Its like a fugue.

The repetition of facts and events did strengthen the back stories of each character so they STUCK in my memory. Often, you would re-experience the same scene retold from a different perspective and this would validate, reinforce and broaden your experience of the scene and the characters involved.

The Ghostly Smell of Chocolate

2009-12-04T09:33:00.000-08:00

Every wonder why it smells like chocolate when you're walking the streets of down town or making your way to class on the campus of UIC? It is because you are within smelling limits of the Blommer's Chocolate factory!

Located at 600 West Kinzie, it is the cause of the delightful and sometimes nauseating odor of chocolate.

They do tours, and they have a small store in the front of the factory where you can pick up bulk chocolate, so if the smell didn't overwhelm you and you're still in the mood for chocolate, it is a great place to pick up some high quality chocolate for cheap!

Kinzie, being a street I take often, I have been privy to seeing the tankers of Chocolate pull up and pump chocolate through their giant hoses, into the building. The workers run around all suited up like they are austronauts, and one time I got to see a chocolate spill, and they were sweeping and hosing the chocolate down the hill. Made me want to pull over my bike and help clean up the street with my tongue! A very cool Chicago factory.

Link to their home page where you can learn more about tours:

http://www.blommer.com/

Find a Grave: Illinois Edition

2009-12-03T22:37:00.000-08:00

http://www.findagrave.com/php/famous.php?page=state&FSstateid=16

This seems entirely relevant to a discussion on Chicago ghosts: A list of all the (somewhat) famous people buried in Illinois, with locations (down to lot, section, and row), and in most cases, pictures of the actual tombstones.

Some entries that I found interesting out of the 1,263 results:

Beveridge, John Lourie b. July 6, 1824 d. May 3, 1910
Civil War Union Brevet Brigadier General, 17th Illinois Governor, US Congressman. Served as Major and commander of the 8th Illinois Volunteer Cavalry, and as Colonel and commander of the 17th Illinois Volunteer Cavalry. He was one of the founders of the Hollywood, California, Public Library and in his honor a live oak tree was planted on the grounds and named the Beveridge Oak.
Rosehill Cemetery and Mausoleum, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, USA
Plot: Section F, Lot 64

Bliss, Leonard 'Baby' b. May 4, 1865 d. January 4, 1912
He was world famous in the late 1800s as the fattest man in the world. You can see some of his clothes and pictures at the Mclean County museum in Bloomington, Illinois.
Smith Grove Cemetery, Towanda, McLean County, Illinois, USA

Capone, Alphonse 'Al' [original burial site] b. January 17, 1899 d. January 25, 1947
Organized Crime Figure, Chicago Gangster. Probably the best known of the 1920s gangsters, he controlled Chicago until brought down by FBI Agent Elliott Ness. Ness later wrote a book "The Untouchables" which detailed his efforts to jail Capone. Capone was the largest of the racketeers, and captured the American public's imagination as few ever did. Born Alphonse Capone in Brooklyn, New York, of Italian immigrant parents, Gabriele and Teresina Capone, the fourth of nine children.
Cause of death: Syphillis
Mount Olivet Cemetery, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, USA
Plot: Section 52, Near 115th Street

Caray, Harry b. March 1, 1914 d. February 18, 1998
Hall of Fame Major League Baseball Sportscaster. He was born Harry Christopher Carabina in St. Louis, Missouri on March 1, 1914 and was orphaned by age of 10. Caray played semi-pro baseball before beginning his career in broadcasting. Caray learned his craft at stations in Joliet and Kalamazoo, Michigan, eventually doing the play-by-play for the St. Louis Hawks and the University of Missouri football team. Later, the Chicago Cubs.
All Saints Cemetery, Des Plaines, Cook County, Illinois, USA
Plot: Section 42W, Block 22
GPS coordinates: 42.0608711, -87.8983688 (hddd.dddd)

Deere, John b. February 7, 1804 d. May 17, 1886
19th Century American inventor and industrialist, best known for founding the yard, farm and earthmoving equipment company that bears his name. John Deere was born in Rutland, Vermont, on February 7, 1804, the third son of William Rinold Deere, a merchant tailor. In 1808, William sailed for England, in hopes of claiming an inheritance, but he was never heard from again, and is presumed lost at sea. Raised by his widowed mother on a meager income, John's education was limited to the primary...[Read More]
Riverside Cemetery, Moline, Rock Island County, Illinois, USA
Plot: On Prospect at Concourse, North East corner of Cemetery overlooking the Mississippi River
GPS coordinates: 41.5075493, -90.4919281 (hddd.dddd)

Karadjordjevic, Andrej b. June 28, 1929 d. May 7, 1990
Serbian prince. Younger brother of King Petar II. After 1945 lived in exile in Great Britain and later in USA. (Bio by: Jelena)
Most Holy Mother of God Serbian Orthodox Monastery, Third Lake, Lake County, Illinois, USA

Mayer, Oscar b. March 29, 1859 d. March 11, 1955
Business Magnate. Oscar F. Mayer was born in the Bavaria section of Germany. In 1873, at the age of 14, the family grocery business failed, and Oscar came to the United States with his cousin. Settling in Detroit, he answered an ad and took a job as an apprentice with George Weber's Retail Meat Market. He stayed there for three years until 1876, when the he moved to Chicago to work at the Kohlhammer meat market, and also at the Armour meat packing company (located in the stockyards). In 1883...[Read More]
Rosehill Cemetery and Mausoleum, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, USA

Owens, Jesse (James Cleveland) 'JC' b. September 12, 1913 d. March 31, 1980
American Athlete. Jesse Owens first came to national prominence in 1933 when, as a senior at Cleveland East Technical High School, he tied the world record for the 100-yard dash. Attending Ohio State on a track scholarship, Owens had perhaps the greatest day in sports history on May 25, 1935, setting world records in the 220-yard dash, the 220-yard low hurdles, and the broad jump while again tying the world record in the 100-yard dash at the Big 10 track and field championships. He is perhaps...[Read More]
Cause of death: Lung Cancer
Oak Woods Cemetery, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, USA
Plot: Section C-32, just off of paved road

Ruby, Jack b. April 25, 1911 d. January 3, 1967
Killer of accused Presidental assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, on 24 November 1963, in a downtown Dallas, Texas police station (Oswald was never convicted of the crime). Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald as he was being transferred in the basement garage of the police station, and the killing was broadcast on live television. Many people believe that Ruby intentionally killed Oswald to cover up others' involvement in the...[Read More]
Westlawn Cemetery, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, USA
Plot: Violet Section, Plot 2 lot 9
GPS coordinates: 41.9582405, -87.8222504 (hddd.dddd)

The Devil Baby at Hull House

2009-12-03T20:42:00.000-08:00

The Devil Baby at Hull House - I've heard so much about it and yet researching the topic proves to be almost impossible. Jane Addams denied the existence of a devil baby, but it's possible there was a baby of some type who started these rumors among the locals.

It only makes sense that something had to start the rumors that brought so many to Hull House back in the day. From what I have read, the devil baby was a phenomenon, bringing hundreds to Hull House everyday, hoping to catch a glimpse. There are a few stories about the devil baby, most having to do with some type of curse said by someone that "I would rather have the devil as a son/daughter/grandchild then a jew/irishman/atheist/insert anything else!" The most common story is a man whose wife hung a portrait of Mary above their bed, and the man, an atheist, said, "I'd rather invite the devil himself into my home than that portrait of Mary!" One of my favorites is a man with six daughters whose wife was pregnant again, who said, "I'd rather have a devil for a child than another daughter!" Lots of the rumors had to do with adultering wives or women who were with men of ethnic backgrounds other than their own as well.

So what was the devil baby really? Well, many have speculated that there was in fact a child, and that maybe this child was deformed somehow, possibly to resemble the devil. The rumors state that this baby also died at Hull House (in the attic), and so possibly this child had health problems (fetal alcohol syndrome?). It's quite plausible locals could have seen a deformed child and thought it as a devil baby, then rumors started. Again, Jane Addams did nothing but deny this. It does make for an interesting story.

Even though the devil baby story is said to be untrue, and does not have much grounding, this does not mean Hull House is not haunted! In fact, this Jane Addams did support. Many today do say they have weird encounters at Hull House, just none with a devil baby.

This is my 12th blog, so have a great break everyone! It's been a great class!

Brenda

Ghost Bikes

2009-12-03T07:21:00.000-08:00

I can't believe, considering the "Ghosts of Chicago" theme of this class, that I didn't think of mentioning Ghost Bikes in class, or doing my project on them or something. But better late than never.

Ghost Bikes are not unique to Chicago, but the Chicago ones are the only ones I am familiar with. Ghost Bikes are bikes painted white, and locked up at the location, usually an intersection, where a bicyclist was killed while riding. The first Ghost Bike of Chicago is at the intersection of Western Ave and Augusta. I happen to ride past this intersection everyday, and on my way home last night I suddenly realized I had to share them with you guys!

The Ghost Bike on Western and August is in memory of Isai Medina. All the Ghost Bikes have a white plaque with the name of the biker killed, their birth and death date and often a very short quote. In a way it's like a grave stone.

There is one Ghost Bike, on Division Street on the North Side of the street under the viaduct, just before one turns right onto 90/94 West. Although all the Ghost Bikes produce a feeling of sadness in me, this one in particular gets to me. For one, it is scary when you go past one, and you can really understand why a biker was killed in the area. At this particular place, there is barely room for two lanes of traffic, let alone adding a bicycle to the mix. The other reason, is that this young woman died on her birthday, and her plaque reads: "She heard everyday sounds as music." It never fails to give me chills and bring tears to my eyes.

Ghost Bikes serve as a memorial to the bikers who were killed on their bikes, but hopefully the also serve as a reminder to those that pass, to slow down, watch out for each other, cars, bicycles, motorcycles, walkers, everyone and everything, and to remember getting somewhere faster is never worth a life.

I am attaching a link to the Chicago Ghost Bike page. You can click on Isai Medina's name and then navigate between pictures and bios of a lot of the Ghost Bikes of Chicago.

http://www.ghostbikes.org/chicago

The Water Tower Ghost

2009-12-02T15:17:00.000-08:00

I think the story of the Water Tower ghost is one of the more fascinating ghost stories in Chicago. As you may know, back in the great Chicago fire, the Water Tower was one of the only buildings left standing among ruins. There is a story that back in the day, when the fire was raging towards the tower, most of the workers abandoned the building to flee for their lives. There was, however, one man who stayed behind "manning the pumps." As the fire came closer, however, it became apparent to the man that he could not escape. Rather than be burned alive, the man decided it would be better to hang himself. He did so, not knowing that the Water Tower would actually be spared from destruction.

Now even today, supposedly you can see the shadow of a man hanging in the upper windows of the Water Tower. According to some online sources, police officers have even seen this figure, but when they go upstairs no one is there. I've heard that ghosts and residual energy often come from emotional traumatic situations, and if this is true then I think the circumstances in the Water Tower would certainly be optimum for a ghost. A man thinking he is going to be burned alive, making the snap decision to hang himself instead? I can only wonder if this story is true, if it is, man that's some bad luck on that worker's part.

The Jungle

2009-12-02T08:58:00.000-08:00

I was thinking about The Jungle the other day, as I was riding my bike down Green Street on my way to school. Green street is a really neat streat that is one block west of Halsted. It doesn't run for that long, maybe a mile or less, between Milwaukee and it cuts off at I believe Van Buren. Anyway, it has a lot of the new meat packing buildings and factories so it made me come back to The Jungle. In class we talked about how the characters felt really flat, cardboard cutouts etc. Despite this, and excluding the last 50 or so pages, it is still an enjoyable read, because I think what Sinclair does with the setting is really outstanding. As in Algren's Chicago: City on the Make, Sinclair takes a place and creates a character, rather than focusing on the conventional characterization of people. And although everything possible that is bad seems to happen to Jurgis, and it becomes almost and I hesitate to say comical, because none of what happens to him is in anyway funny, but I guess ironic in that sort of here we go again way. So although all these terrible things happen to Jurgis, what is really overwhelming and more powerful and touching than Jurgis' plight, is the scene Sinclair has created. Even though he says he aimed for the heart and hit the stomach, I think in a way The Jungle is still heartbreaking, but it is not through Jurgis or any of the characters that we find our heart breaking. For me at least, it is in the fact that such work conditions existed, and that people found it ok to treat other people that way. So when I ride my bike down Green Street and I see clean and positive working environments, I think back to what things were like 100 years ago, and how The Jungle and Sinclair were involved in helping end the bad days!

A little piece of Cartagena in Chicago

2009-11-30T16:09:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I went to a surprise birthday party for a woman who will turn 80 on Christmas Day. Don’t be fooled, though—it was no ordinary party, and she is certainly no ordinary 80-year-old. Yaya, my boyfriend’s grandma, is a very spirited, very feisty lady who can outswear and outdrink any 20 year old boy you know. The surprise party we threw in her honor, with 30 Colombian guests (costeños, no less) was not exactly a nursing-home experience—it was a dance-filled festival of food, music, and laughter. (If you have any Colombian friends or family, you know what I’m talking about.) What struck me about Yaya’s 80^th birthday party was the sheer number of families from my boyfriend’s neighborhood in Cartagena who have migrated to the Chicagoland area--it's as if the whole neighborhood has been transplanted into Chicago.

Intrigued by the idea of Colombian immigration to Chicago, I found an article at the website of the Encyclopedia of Chicago about Colombian migration patterns. Colombians first began to immigrate to Chicago in the 1950s, during La Violencia, a period of extreme civil unrest. The first groups to come were the professional classes (doctors, lawyers, etc) in the 1950s, followed by costeños (people from the Caribbean coast—Cartagena, Barranquilla, etc) in the 1960s and 70s. In the 1980s and beyond, Colombians of all classes and from all regions moved into the Chicagoland area. My boyfriend’s family was among the many families from Cartagena that came to Chicago in the mid-1990s.

According to the Encyclopedia of Chicago, “Chicago's Colombians have been atypical of the city's immigrants and of Colombian Americans elsewhere [in the U.S.] in their pattern of settlement. Rather than form neighborhood enclaves, they have tended toward a dispersed residential pattern. While they initially settled in apartments on the North Side, where many of the city's Puerto Ricans also lived, as soon as their earnings allowed, most Colombians moved to private homes in such northern suburbs as Skokie, Evanston, and Arlington Heights.” Much like their residential patterns of settlement, Colombian businesses are dispersed throughout the city, with no centralized Colombian community.

There are numerous Colombian social clubs throughout the city to unite Colombians, despite their dispersal all over the area. They include Club Colombia, Club de El Dorado (which are social clubs that organize dinners and other events), CartaMed (Cartagena Medical Alumni Association), and Colombianos Unidos para una Labor Activa, whose mission is to help new immigrants transition to life in America.

http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/313.html

Beer!

2009-11-30T15:32:00.000-08:00

Having spent the better part of the Thanksgiving weekend with a bottle of beer in hand, it seems quite appropriate to write about one of Chicago’s beer companies, Goose Island. My boyfriend is obsessed with 312, one of their beers brewed in the city’s honor.

According to the company’s website, Goose Island Beer Co. was founded in 1988 by John Hall, a former businessman for the Container Corporation. For his job in the packaging industry, Hall often had to travel to Europe; on each trip, he sampled local and regional beers. The beer enthusiast, during a delayed flight, began reading an airplane magazine article on boutique beers. The article inspired him to open his own brewery where Chicagoans could enjoy a local beer.

Hall opened his first “brewpub” at 1800 N. Clybourn Avenue in Chicago on May 13, 1988. Since then, Goose Island Beer Co. has expanded significantly, with a second brewery/pub in Wrigleyville. Goose Island now produces 50 craft beers, including Honker’s Ale, Nut Brown Ale my boyfriend’s beloved 312, and a Christmas Ale that I am eager to try. Goose Island ships its beers to 15 states and to the UK.

If there’s anything to be learned from Goose Island’s story it’s that: 1. Those airplane magazines might actually be worth reading, 2. You can’t go wrong if you make a product that you are passionate about and that “nearly every American adult like[s]”, in the words of John Hall, and 3. Chicagoans love their beer!

For anyone who is interested, you can find out more info about their beers, their brewery and pubs, and the company history at:

http://www.gooseisland.com/pages/our_beers/3.php

Algren's Chicago

2009-11-30T10:55:00.000-08:00

One particular quote grabbed my attention while reading City On The Make -"Yet once you've come to be part of this particular patch, you'll never love another. Like loving a woman with a broken nose, you may well find lovelier lovelies. But never a lovely so real."

This definitely describes Chicagoans well in my opinion. Before I chose to come to UIC and make the move from the northern suburbs to this urban environment, I had no idea how it would be to live in Chicago. The city atmosphere wasn't what lured me to this college but it is definitely one of the reasons why I have stayed here for all four years of undergrad. The history of the city and the different characters I've encountered around every corner I make every moment a memorable one. The people in this city are "real" people, people I will probably never encounter anywhere else. Lately, I've been having an endless debate over whether or not I want to remain in the city after I graduate in May. There are many advantages and disadvantages to either decision I make but the idea of staying within Chicago seems to be winning lately. I may be a suburban kid at heart but the last 4 years in Chicago have definitely made an impression on me which I'm likely not going to shake off.

Sinclair's disappointing jungle

2009-11-30T09:49:00.000-08:00

After reading Mike's post on Sinclair's motive for writing The Jungle, I couldn't agree more. Prior to reading the text, I had always heard positive reviews from others who had read it, and I placed it on my long list of books to read when I found the time. I was excited to finally get the chance to read it during this class, but this excitement turned to disappointment after I dove into the reading.

Of course there is the sad story of Jurgis and his family and all of the hardships they have to face after moving to the city of Chicago. There are the horrors of the slaughterhouses and the horrendous working conditions that thousands of men and women had to work in to make a living. The novel made me question what was in all of those burgers I've eaten over my 21 years and how working conditions have changed since then. Despite this, all of my insights into the novel seemed to go away after Sinclair abandoned the novel and continued to rant against capitalism.

Overall, I didn't enjoy The Jungle as much as I thought I would have. The story was decent, but the characters weren't very fleshed out. The slaughterhouse descriptions didn't turn my stomach and I definitely didn't give up eating meat. Had Sinclair not gone on his anti-capitalism rant, I may have enjoyed the novel or at least left it with an appreciation of Sinclair's reporting, but this just wasn't the case.

Joe Six Pack is not Joe Six Pack: Carl Sandburg

2009-11-30T09:18:00.000-08:00

Is the poem Chicago by Carl Sandburg an excuse for Chicago? Is it an excuse for the behavior’s we here seem to take for granted? It seems so. Sandberg clearly knows that Chicago is a bad place where bad things happen:
“They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys.And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again.And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is….”
But Sandburg then answers with the idea that Chicago, as a place is also alive and vibrant even if it is shouting curses and letting gunmen go free. The only reason he gives for this is the working class roots that permeate Chicago:
“Hog Butcher for the World,Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;Stormy, husky, brawling,City of the Big Shoulders:”
Is the reason that Chicago is a brutal place because it is filled with working class, or is the reason Chicago attracts the working class that fills it because it is a brutal place? It seems to me that either way, this poem is disparaging of the working classes. It is the equivalent of the “Joe six pack,” line Sarah Palin remarked on during last year’s election.
And that to me is a bit offensive. That to me is saying the working man is incapable of doing anything but going home and having a beer, and perhaps fighting. I have worked many jobs, with many different people. I know box loaders who listen to Mozart, firemen who build toys for their children, and paramedics who write. I know computer techs that play music and pizza drivers that golf.
But the poem makes all blue collar people seem like drunken idiots who fight all the time, and allow their betters to abuse them.

Welcome to the spin zone: The Jungle and its message.

2009-11-30T08:17:00.001-08:00

The problem I have with the Jungle is not the gratuitous violence, not the pain and suffering. I am ok with this. I am even ok with the Rudkus family life going to hell and back. That is what makes for a good story. Literary characters are supposed to have crappy lives; no one wants to read about an average, normal day. No one at all wants to read about the happy life of Joe Blow.
My problem with this book is that it is obvious that Sinclair has a motive. He is not writing this book for fun, or even out of expression. It is written to destroy capitalism. Now, I am far from being a capitalist above all else. I voted for Obama. I think that we should have good healthcare available to all. I think that bankers should be fair, and that the government should help people out when they need it.
However, I don’t like literature, or any other media that beats us over the head with this idea, or any other idea. The Jungle does this. It is one big anti-capitalist rant disguised as a novel. I hate this. I don’t mind a theme or maybe illusions to the way the author actually feels but when someone has an obvious agenda that is beaten into the reader it bothers me. The problem with knowing too clearly how the author stands on a subject is that it makes the entire novel difficult to believe. If you know that the author loves or hates a concept with all their heart (and Sinclair obviously does hate capitalism) then it is difficult to believe everything the author says.
Let me explain. An author may out and out lie at times, to protect a cause he believes in. He also may stretch the truth, or perhaps tell only one side of the truth in order to make their cause seem completely just and the other side seem evil. This causes me to doubt everything an author says.
This is the case in Sinclair. I have no doubt that the conditions in the stockyards were bad, but, as Sinclair is so anti capitalist, I have no idea how bad. How much is true, and how much is spin? I don’t know. That is the problem with Sinclair, and The Jungle

Chicago's Tunnels/the Chicago Pedway

2009-11-29T22:19:00.000-08:00

I think I may be the last person on earth to hear about Chicago’s system of underground tunnels, but I find this really interesting! I’ve always known about the tunnel beneath Marshall Fields/Macy’s, but I didn’t realize that there was an extensive system of tunnels under Chicago.

In his 1992 New York Times article, “Chicago’s Well Kept Secret: Tunnels”, Don Terry describes a 250 million gallon flood of the tunnel system, caused by an underflow of the Chicago River. The construction of the tunnel system began in 1898, and finished in 1904. The tunnels run a total of 60 miles beneath the downtown area, and are about 40 feet bellow the city’s surface. The tunnels are 7.5 feet high and 6 feet wide; the walls are made of 10 inch thick concrete. The tunnels were initially built for telephone lines, but were more commonly used for small freight trains and coal transportations between buildings in the loop. Because they were so far underground, the tunnels were usually quite cool—about 55 degrees Fahrenheit, so the coal companies actually built shafts into movie theaters and sold the cool air to the theaters in the era before air-conditioning!

Two days before Terry’s report was released, a car-size hole developed in the concrete walls of one of the tunnels, approximately 15 feet beneath the bed of the Chicago River, causing massive flooding. The water rose up into the basements of some of the retail stores and office buildings that are connected by the tunnels.

The railroad tunnels described by Terry are separate from the Chicago Pedway, which is another series of underground tunnels designed to reduce traffic and protect pedestrians from bitter winter cold. According to Alice Maggio’s “Subterranean City: A Tour of Chicago’s Pedway”, there are two main parts of the Pedway: the first section connects twelve businesses and offices together in the Loop and also connects to the Metra and the CTA; the second section links part of east Michigan Avenue. The Marshall Field’s tunnel is in this section of the Pedway. The Pedway was constructed in 1951 when the city built tunnels to connect the Red Line and Blue Line stations at Jackson and Washington. Since then, the Pedway has been further developed, though it is inconsistent and not always interconnected. Maggio warns potential Pedway adventurers to expect confusion, as there are few maps within the Pedway itself.

I think I might have found myself a winter break adventure to embark upon!

Terry’s NYT article:
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/15/us/chicago-s-well-kept-secret-tunnels.html

Maggio’s Pedway Navigation Guide:
http://gapersblock.com/detour/subterranean_city_a_tour_of_chicagos_pedway_part_1/

Trade Shows

2009-11-29T14:41:00.000-08:00

As if the losses of Brian Urlacher and the 2016 games wasn't enough, Chicago is hemorrhaging trade shows faster than Jay Cutler throws interceptions. Earlier this month, the national plastics show decided to move its exhibition to Orlando after more than 4 decades at McCormick Place. The loss of the plastics show is part a disturbing trend of big businesses leaving Chicago. Plastics Industry President and Chief Executive Officer Bill Carteaux said the decision boiled down to cost. "At the end of the day, when I talked to the folks in Chicago, it really came down to one major issue… and that's the cost," he said. "What they haven't been able to do yet is address the cost of exhibiting in Chicago." Trade shows play a critical role in the city's budget and generate vital revunue. For example, in June the plastics show brought in 95.3 million dollars. To put that in perspective, with that kinda dough you could buy 317,667 Playstation 3's or 238,250 Platinum Tickets to see the Blackhawks. Union officials claim they are not the ones to blame for driving trade shows out of Chicago, citing the high cost of food and drinks. Let's say your booth wants a case of Pepsi, at McCormick Place that'll run you $138. Oh, what's that? You want to keep your Pepsi cold? No problem, it's only $804 to rent a refrigerator for a week. At a recent press conference, Mayor Daley responded to Carteaux's decision to leave Chicago by stating, "Betrayal may come easily to women, but men live by iron codes of honor." Asked if he really believed that, Daley said, "I'm trying to. Real hard."

Better than Larson

2009-11-28T10:04:00.001-08:00

If anybody is interested in more serial killer stories, then they should check out the graphic novel From Hell by Alan Moore. He tells the tale of Jack the Ripper. Moore heavily researched it, which creates this incredibly intense story. As you all probably know, Jack the Ripper was never solved, but there have been many theories on who he or she was. Moore takes the stance on the theory he feels most connected to, believing that the Ripper was a prestigious doctor hired by the Queen. The doctor, Sir William Gull, is misogynistic freemason with brilliance unlike anybody of his time.

The story begins with the prince having an illegitimate child with a woman in a lower class. The royalty try to hide it, and in an attempt to not be blackmailed the queen hires Gull to eliminate the prostitutes who knew of the women who had the child with the prince. Moore also writes the story of Gull’s past, and how he became a doctor while at the same time controlled his violent urges. Gull also never sees his acts as evil. His ties with freemasonry create a monster with no conscience.

Warren Ellis describes From Hell as a tale of the birth of the 20^th Century and a dark view of the Victorian world. It is entertaining, but at some points hard to get through because of how dense it is. If you are looking to read more stuff like Larsen’s interpretation of Holmes, but with better writing and a more comprehensive and imaginative tale, then take a chance with Alan Moore’s From Hell. You will not be disappointed.

UIC Architecture

2009-11-28T09:58:00.000-08:00

We have Walter Netsch to thank for UIC’s dreary architecture. Netsch, a Chicago-based architect, was part of the brutalist architectural movement that was en vogue from the 1950s to the 1970s. The term “brutalism” comes from the French “béton brut”, which means “raw concrete”. While Brutalist architecture frequently utilized concrete; brick, glass, and steel, among other materials, were also used. Brutalist buildings are often “unpolished” in appearance; they reveal their function through their form. Interior elements are sometimes exposed externally; the grid on the exterior of UH is a good example of this—its internal structure is visible from the outside, rather than covered over by a facade. As a result, we can see the support beams.

Perhaps surprisingly, Brutalist architecture is associated with utopian thinking, though many have criticized it for its dreariness and “unfriendliness”. It was originally supposed to appear “integrating and protective”, though in practice, Brutalist buildings are often intimidating and unwelcoming. Brutalist architecture is associated with a UK effort to design affordable public housing, though many of the buildings used for public housing were not conducive to strong community, and thus many of the communities were overtaken by crime. In addition to use in the construction of public housing, Brutalist architecture was also used on the campuses of many American and international universities, including all of UIC’s East Campus. Other Brutalist universities include: the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, parts of the University of California-Irvine, the Ryerson University Library in Toronto, University of California-San Diego’s Geisel Library, and numerous other campus libraries and centers.

Big names in Brutalism, aside from Walter Netsch, were Erno Goldfinger, Alison and Peter Smithson, and Sir Denys Lasdun, Paul Rudolph, Ralph Rapson, Clorindo Testa, and others.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brutalist

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Netsch

Sandburg

2009-11-28T09:52:00.000-08:00

Though I must agree with the rest of the class that Sandburg could have written all of his ideas into about 20 poems, and never written another thereafter, I thoroughly enjoyed “Chicago Poems”. I will never tire of working-class literature and socialist politics; Chicago’s story is a story of class struggle, just like America’s and the wider world’s. Certainly the poems would have benefited from a little innovation; still, they speak through a raw American voice. One of the things I find most beautiful in Sandburg’s poetry is the simplicity of the language; Sandburg is unpretentious, a poet for the people.

I found “Fish Crier” to be one of the most poignant poems of the whole collection. The raw, simple beauty of these lines expresses all the despair and the joy of the immigration experience. To read these lines is profoundly humbling.

“His face is that of a man terribly glad to be selling fish, terribly glad
that God made fish, and customers to whom he may call his
wares from a pushcart”

The fish crier is thankful for the opportunity to sell fish, for his existence in a world where selling fish is possible as a viable alternative to a worse situation. The simplicity and humility of his desires and his gratitude is so moving because it makes an implicit comparison to what must have been a far worse experience from before he became a fish crier. A man who is deeply thankful to push a cart of dead fish is a man who survived more extreme poverty, or a war, or the misery of third world poverty.

Sandburg's gift is for capturing these small, beautiful, redeeming scenes from the rough lives of the American underclass. While not always elegant, Sandburg's scenes and observations remind us of the hard work, struggle, and modesty of the American people. He shows us the faces of the men and the women who built modern America.

2009-11-28T09:16:00.000-08:00

“They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yous to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That’s the Chicago way! And that’s how you get Capone!”

I have just recently watched The Untouchables for the first time. The movie came out ten days before I was born in 1987, about twenty-two years ago. The movie presents Chicago during Al Capone’s reign when prohibition was instate and distributing alcohol was a good way to make some money. The quote mentioned is Sean Connery’s Jim Malone talking to Kevin Costner’s Eliot Ness. Malone is an old time Chicago cop while Ness works for the government as a prohibition agent. Robert De Niro plays Al Capone. The quote is about out doing the enemy. Going to further extremes to claim the victory. It is vengeance and redemption. It is what one must do to survive in their Chicago. For Capone, his friends and enemies must watch out for this kind of living.

The movie really pushes this idea of the “Chicago Way.” There is this two sidedness to the main characters; one side is the Chicago side - a side that Nelsen Algren describes in his Chicago City on the Make. This Chicago side is doing what you got to do to get your way. Eliot Ness and Malone form a small hit squad in order to disrupt Capone’s illegal liquor business. They know that what they are doing is dangerous, but persist in trying to take down Capone. Ness’s untouchables soon find out how far Capone’s reach is into their world. They begin their mission with four men, and in the end two are left standing. Ness must hide his family during the whole process, otherwise Capone will send out his own hit squad for them. Ness refuses to be intimidated by Capone’s tactics, and so Ness pushes harder and takes out another one of Capone’s liquor runners.

Capone, in front of the press, is calm and intelligent, but changes his behavior when the press isn’t around. After one of is liquor distributors is shut down, he becomes enraged at the man who was in charge. Capone waits untill he can deal with the man in front of everybody. He wants to teach everyone a lesson by being one scary bastard. So during a big dinner, with what I am guessing is all his top men, he starts talking about baseball, while walking around with a nice wooden bat. Capone says, “a man becomes preeminent, he's expected to have enthusiasms. Enthusiasms, enthusiasms... What are mine? What draws my admiration? What is that which gives me joy? Baseball! A man stands alone at the plate. This is the time for what? For individual achievement. There he stands alone. But in the field, what? Part of a team. Teamwork... Looks, throws, catches, hustles. Part of one big team. Bats himself the live-long day, Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, and so on. If his team don't field... what is he? You follow me? No one. Sunny day, the stands are full of fans. What does he have to say? I'm goin' out there for myself. But... I get nowhere unless the team wins.” Then his men shout, “Team!” Right when Capone knows he has every man in full cooperation and under his spell, he beats the man who was in charge of the distributor that was busted. He swings his bat into the man’s skull numerous times until the man’s blood has splattered on to everybody around that table. That’s Chicago business.

Supposedly the real Al Capone did something like this, except it was two men that were at his table, and the reason he killed them was because he heard they were plotting to kill him and take over the business. In that story, he bludgeons them to death and them shoots them both in the head. It has also been said that it wasn’t even Capone who did this, but his hitman, Tony “Joe Batters” Accardo.

Femininity in Fire Sale

2009-11-27T12:38:00.000-08:00

In class last week, Luis asked us what we thought V.I. Warshawski represents for Sara Paretsky. My response would be that for Paretsky, Warshawski is an idealized version of the Modern Woman. Warshawski is, as others have mentioned, perfectly rational, yet also compassionate. While driven by reason, she is not hardened or emotionless. Warshawski is tough, certainly, but she’s neither macho nor overly-sentimental. While her behaviors are largely “gender-neutral” in that they follow no particular stereotypes, there are moments in which she exhibits some stereotypically “feminine” traits, though presented with a modern twist.

Warshawski is very community-oriented in that she develops strong personal ties to her clients and her team; she cannot help but be helpful. This sense of obligation to others drives her to aid her ailing coach, help out with the basketball team, keep her word to Billy Bysen (despite his father’s threats), pursue Mrs. Dorado’s concerns about Fly the Flag, and monitor April’s health, among other things. Warshawski can’t overcome a sense of obligation to aid and protect others. In place of "maternal instinct", her behavior is motivated from a concern for justice. Her obligation to others comes from her advantageous position as a private investigator.

Interestingly, Warshawski’s body plays a considerable part of the narrative, not just because of the injuries it sustains, but also in terms of her fashion choices and her self-image. Warshawski crosses a muddy parking lot in sandals to avoid ruining her beautiful pumps. She cries over her destroyed designer clothing the day she is hit by shrapnel. She tells us how she looks when she is tired and describes her beautiful clothing. Paretsky gives us a tough, glamorous, crime-fighting woman: she is always elegant, but unafraid of the brutality and the dangers of her profession. Paretsky’s ideal woman is stylish, but unafraid to roll up her sleeves and get dirty. Women don’t have to give up femininity to work in the world of men; Warshawski is Paretsky’s proof of this. Warshawski is Paretsky's proof that women don't have to sacrifice traditionally "feminine" traits and interests to get ahead.

Tina de Rosa’s Paper Fish

2009-11-27T12:11:00.000-08:00

One of the Chicago/Little Italy authors that Joanne mentioned during her visit to our class was Tina de Rosa, author of Paper Fish. If you recall, de Rosa was the grad student whose home was bulldozed for the construction of UIC. For my final project, I’ve been working on a retelling of Tina de Rosa’s Paper Fish in poem form. While I don’t plan on presenting my final project to the class, I thought I’d let everyone know a little bit about the novel.

Paper Fish is a very lyrical novel, with very little dialogue. There is a dream-like quality in de Rosa’s description of life in Little Italy in the 40s and 50s. De Rosa employs short, syntactically simple and repetitive, although hauntingly beautiful, sentences. Despite the sensuality of her prose, the novel is emotionally devastating. It follows the BellaCasa family: Doria, the Italian-born grandmother; Marco, her policeman son; Sarah, his Lithuanian wife; Doriana, their mute, retarded daughter; and Carmolina, their very precocious, adventurous younger daughter. The horrors that Marco encounters everyday on the job, and the stress of caring for Doriana, as well as financial hardship, have strained Marco and Sarah’s marriage. Doria, Marco’s mother, is quite aware of their faltering relationship (in part because she spies on them from her kitchen window across the alley). She doesn’t quite approve of Marco having married a non-Italian girl, though she is sympathetic to all of Sarah’s suffering (although at times she blames her for Doriana’s illness).

Though the plot is presented in a fragmentary style—and the reader is often left to figure out the time frame of the narrative, the central story of the novel is Carmolina’s escape from her family home at the age of eight. Carmolina overhears her relatives’ plan to send her sister away to a nun-operated asylum for the mentally ill. Terrified to lose her sister, and equally afraid that they will send her away, too, Carmolina decides to run away from home. She spends three nights away from home; in those three days, she faces fierce anti-Italian racism and terrible hunger. She is kicked out by a restaurant owner for being a “dago kid” and robbed by a gang of older boys before she finally runs into a policeman who returns her to her family.

Paper Fish is not an action-packed or plot-driven novel. Though at times quite slow-moving, it is always beautiful and often heart-breaking. The passages narrated from Doriana’s perspective are difficult to read:

“This morning at breakfast, Doriana smashed a fried egg with her fist. When Mama yelled, Doriana picked up a fork and stabbed Mama’s hand with it. Then she held the fork in front of her own eyes...Mama sat down at the kitchen table and cried. She didn’t make any noise when she cried; her shoulders just shook a little, like Jello, and tears ran down her face, out of her eyes...” (72).

Welcome Back, Welcome Back

2009-11-26T16:35:00.000-08:00

One of the things we discussed in class about Fire Sale is V.I.'s implacable rationality. We agreed that Peretsky paints an exceedingly practical character who seems unruffled and capable in most situations, and we mused that this may be her feminist response to the stereotypically "hysterical" female character. Nevertheless what stood out to me in reading this novel were the rare instances when V.I.'s emotions take over; perhaps because of the purview of this course, but these instances seemed often to be associated with her relationship to the South Side of Chicago. For example, early in the book, she admits that she cried when she drove by her boarded up former family home. This sadness for the depressed condition of the old neighborhood, its schools, its homes, its abandoned industries seems to manifest itself in a certain form of guilt.

V.I.'s guilty associations with the old neighborhood are critical to the trajectory of the novel. It is her guilt that brings her to the South Side in the first place-- her former coach pushes all the right buttons when she mentions V.I.'s new neighborhood: Lakeview. It is this guilt that keeps V.I. working hard for the girls she coaches-- bring her to Buy Smart to ask for assistance etc. It was this return to "old the sod" aspect of the novel that most intrigued me and seemed to resonate strongly as an aspect of its Chicago-ness. V.I. hasn't moved away-- her whole career has been based in the city of her birth-- yet this novel has a strong sense of nostalgia and feeling of debts owed and repayments made. She is in her old high school-- named, which interestingly recalls another "old Chicago" as its named after the old baron Palmer Potter's wife--walking the beat so to speak on her old streets. It is this pull home--this collision between all that has changed since she left and all that still contains her memories and her heart-- that created a most palpable energy in the novel. And also lodged an old TV theme song in my head:

Welcome Back, Welcome Back, Welcome Back....

Fire Sale

2009-11-26T16:31:00.001-08:00

Sara Paretsky’s Fire Sale is an entertaining novel. From the beginning, I knew to read it the same way I would read any other type of popular fiction. I don’t think too much about it and just let the story happen as the author intended. It is relaxing to be able to read a novel quickly and not have to worry about every little thing like I do when I read literary masterpieces. I was worried that the story of V.I. Warshawski would be a little confusing because she has had so many earlier adventures, but it was easy to figure out who Warshawski was. As a new reader to her series, I felt that I could understand Warshawski enough to enjoy the story. Paretsky’s character represents the good that always works for the best interest. She is similar the other good characters that are in media and other popular fiction.

What I found most interesting about the story was the picture of Chicago that Paretsky was able to draw. She makes Chicago feel like this whole new world of mystery and corruption. Half the time I was reading it, I forgot that it was taking place in Chicago.

You could definitely see Partesky’s politics in her novel. I wonder why she does not try to make a novel that would be considered more literary. I believe she easily could, especially after we read some of her autobiography. I think a more literary novel would make her beliefs stick out more. By hiding them in a mystery thriller, she is not going to open too many people’s eyes. When people read her book, they are looking for suspense, murder, action, not society’s ruthless hold on the lower class. I never felt like Paretsky was overbearing with her beliefs. Honestly, I think she is a wonderful storyteller, and sly in the way she inserts social problems in a mystery novel. It is not your normal testosterone pumped action mystery thriller. Warshawski will work for anyone if they are in desperate need of her help. She, like Paretsky, works with the poor and needy, except Warshawski probably gets involved in more interesting situations.

I didn’t really like any of the side characters in the story. I was never able to get a grip on who they were. This might be, because they are more described in greater detail in previous Warshawski novels, or Paretsky doesn’t feel they are really important. They move the story along, and that’s about it. The reader never learns more about them, especially Warshawski’s boyfriend. I feel that I know more about the girls on the basketball team and their parents than Warshawski’s boyfriend.

The Actual

2009-11-26T15:53:00.001-08:00

When I first started reading Saul Bellow’s The Actual, I thought, at first, Bellow was talking to the reader. I was unsure if he was creating a character or if it was he himself talking to his audience. I checked if I missed an author’s note or prologue heading but there was and still is none. I felt pretty sure that Bellow was creating a character, but there was a small part of me that felt I was going to be surprised to find that it was the author actually talking. When Harry Trellman told the audience he looks Chinese, I looked at the picture of Saul Bellow on the back cover trying to see if he looks Chinese, while still unsure if he is creating a character or talking as himself. I have no experience with any of Bellow’s books, so while I was reading him for the first time, I tried to get some sort of feel for him.

That is where much of my confusion was floating as I began The Actual. I kept reading, and I felt pretty sure Bellow was creating a character who was talking to an audience, but this character felt so real. There is an incredible honesty that Harry Trellman possesses that allows him to view his life and the life of others in a very particular way. There is something about Bellow’s writing that has an intense directness and powerful use of language that allows this character to come into being within the novella’s first paragraph. Both Bellow and Harry know people better than they know themselves. I believe this is truer for Harry, because I don’t know much about Saul Bellow. There is a deep trust that Harry has in his readers. He clearly explains his orphan-like up bringing, his small successes, his feelings on Chicago and it’s “emptiness”, and the beginnings of his relationship with Adletsky. I find this stuff important, because Harry does not seem to like to talk about these personal things, especially when it comes to Adletsky who, Harry says, “had been so fully briefed that there would be no talk abut my origins, education, accomplishments – thank God.” Harry is no simple kind of man. The rest of novel revolves around him and some of his complicated relationships especially that with Amy Wustrin, a woman he briefly dated in high school, but is still madly in love with her in a very human way. Human because its not like the romantic comedies or dramas. It isn’t sentimental in any way. It is odd and, in the end, that is what love ends up being.

Hidden Chicago 2

2009-11-24T15:40:00.000-08:00

Found this WTTW video just put up as part of the Hidden Chicago 2 series that is coming Monday, November 30 at 7:30 pm. This particular video gives some very interesting history of Chicago's theater including the Oriental, the Congress, the south-side Regal Theater, the Uptown theater (built for $4 million in 1925 with 4,300 seats), and the Rialto. It also mentions many of the abandoned theaters throughout Chicago.

Apparently there were more then 350 theaters in Chicago by the mid 1920s.

Here's a link to the WTTW Hidden Chicago 2 website.

Sara and the socialists

2009-11-24T15:08:00.000-08:00

I couldn't read Fire Sale.

I realize that people have agendas, and authors being people also have agendas, but Sara Paretsky is pushy and distracting with hers and it took away any credit I had given to her work. Fiction is absolutely a great vehicle for the establishment of ideas and ideals but...genre mysteries? Perhaps not.

But if nothing else, Paretsky's (tame by former standards) socialist leanings are what authenticate her as a genuine Chicago author.

I happened on Paretsky's blog today and saw first hand the full force of her views.

In a post from November 6:

"I believe that Beck uses the same tactics that worked so well for the National Socialists in the 1930’s. He repeats slander and inuendo, loudly, and repeatedly, and takes advantage of a part of the population that is terrified already by change, by the economic meltdown, and the threat of terrorism, and plays on their fears. Like the National Socialists, he finds scapegoats that his listeners can blame for their own fears. When I see a ragtag group of poor people protesting health care reform, I know he’s been a success: these are the people who will become homeless if they have a catastrophic illness, but they are sure that Beck, and his cronies like O’Reilly and Hannity, are right to oppose government-sponsored health care, because all of these broadcasters have identified the real problem as belonging to feminists, or Muslims, or blacks, or President Obama, or all of the above. These broadcasters have persuaded a significant fraction of America that President Obama is a Muslim and a terrorist, that he wasn’t born in the U.S., and even that he has set up concentration camps in Arizona."

It's sad, I think, that a writer should sink to such levels, to join in with the media squabbling, the bickering. That's why she became an author in the first place, no? To eloquently show what's wrong in our country, to convey through story what the real problems are, and to illustrate with words what needs to change, that is why authors are great.

But Sara is only vindicated in her outspokenness. The great Chicago writers: Sandburg, Sinclair, Richard Wright, Algren, and Bellow all share a common bond of sympathy for the working class and of writing on their behalf.

Milwaukee had a socialist Mayor (thanks Wayne's World); Chicago never did. The culture of the working class is so evident in our literature, and I just can't figure out why.

The Other Half

2009-11-23T22:41:00.000-08:00

Certainly we had a glimpse of the other half in Devil in the White City, but it is easy to identify what makes Saul Bellow's The Actual a true representation of the upper classes-- it is his ease. Lacking in the grandiose descriptions of Larson, eschewing the preaching of Sinclair, dismissing the rhapsodic lyricism of Algren, Bellow chooses a minimalistic approach for his representation of Chicago in this slim novella.

Bellow does not wrench us into the world of mega-money Chicago in the five-dollar word style of Larson. Instead, his economy with words sharply carves us out a place, to stand and assume a blase attitude like the characters. We don't stand with our mouths-hanging open at the lake view or try unsuccessfully to imagine ourselves inside the limo cruising the city. We step right in; we casually accept this image of Chicago as our own. It is as sharp as the carefully crafted sentences allow, as blurry as the scene on Lake Street when Harry runs into Amy when it needs to be. We see the details of this Chicago-- but not so many it feels like bragging and not so many as few as others start to intrude, "There was no occassion to look outside-- to see the people whose mad doings the papers are always report..." (Bellow 60). This nonchalance, this masterful way of Bellow's, not just for representing the rich, but well exemplified in this instance marks a change from our other books of the semester.

Does this characteristic ease that even Algren in his heart-pumping high-energy can't slow down verse can't replicate mark a shift in aesthetics? Is this a Chicago that doesn't feel the need to respond directly to Sandburg? I see what our pal Leigh was saying about the content of the book working through a little intellectual inferiority or anxiety-- but not its form. Its form is smooth. It's form is rich. It has no complexes-- no chip on its "Big Shoulders. "

Otters, Sting-Rays, and Whales-- Oh My!

2009-11-23T21:25:00.000-08:00

I'm going to take a leap now out of my usual pounding-the-pavement-neighborhood exploration and venture into some fishier waters, specifically those of the world's first inland aquarium, Shedd. How's that for a factoid? Before 1930 when Shedd Aquarium opened, other such facilities pumped salty ocean water out of their backyard and into their tanks. The first salty tanks at Shedd were filled with seawater trucked in on a railroad car. One of the first star exhibits featured a single neon tetra-- a tiny fluorescent fish now common to many home aquariums; in this pre-television era, Chicagoans, and other visiting Midwesterners lined up by the thousands and waited for hours to catch their first glimpse of ocean life. It's a long way from beluga whales-- but it was quite a feat at the time.

Just like many Chicago buildings, if you pull open the doors of this place, a slew of Chicago stories pour out. The building's namesake himself is his own Chicago tale. John G. Shedd started as a stockboy at Marshall Field's, and eventually grew to become the company's second CEO, after Marshall Field himself. Shedd didn't live to see his fabulously ornate Neptunian Temple (look for Neptune's trident on the top of its dome) erected, but there is some speculation that the level of detail work on the building was meant to be in direct competition with Field's own legacy to Chicago-- The Field Museum, which sits next door. Built during the height of the depression, Shedd cost approximately 3 million dollars to build. Looking at its intricate details which all reference the building's contents--such as specially cast conch shell light fixtures andwave-like marble lining the halls, makes it clear that that kind of money wasn't chump change.

Today, Shedd's the most visited cultural institution in the city, and its easy to be lost in crowds of kids crowding up against the piranhas in the Amazon exhibit or the the eels in the Wild Reef, but for me, I still run into the ghosts of Chicago when I walk around this magical little ocean in the prairie.

Fire Sale

2009-11-23T19:42:00.001-08:00

Fire Sale was overall not bad. I’m not a mystery person at all, and I’m not really an action person either. It was hard for me to get into the characters with such a plot-driven novel. And plot-driven isn’t bad, but I don’t know that I really could find a character to latch on to, or care about, if that makes sense. V.I. was okay herself, but I didn’t really buy her, she seemed too kitschy, forcefully abrasive. I also had a slight problem with the “preachy-ness” of the book, the background liberal agenda or whatever you want to call it. I feel like the author tries to hide it, but it comes out, and that annoys me. The rich people were portrayed so thinly, and I think they would be more interesting if they had depth (they could still be evil, you know). Aside from that, though, this was really not bad. I did feel the plot was slow going at first, there’s lots of setting up to be done (maybe this is how it is with all mysteries), so I did have some of that “heavy page” syndrome of wondering when things were going to get going. What I did like about the book was of course it being set on the southside of Chicago. I wonder, if the book were not set here, would it work at all? I don’t think so, because Chicago is a character here was well. Overall, it was nice to read a genre novel with good writing. I don’t know that I’m a convert, but still, no regrets on the time spent.

Wicker Park: Algren's 'hood (and mine too!)

2009-11-23T19:35:00.000-08:00

Sometimes on my way home from the farmer's market, bags stuffed to the brims with the spoils of the harvest, I walk a block out of my way to pass by 1958 West Evergreen Street. As I stare up the third floor, I can't help but wish that some of the words that swelled, the images that sharpened, the ideas that formed up there in that apartment will drift down and assault me, the enchanted bearer of vegetables. Algren lived on the 3rd floor

I know the neighborhood has seen a lot of changes since then-- hell, the old timers won't let you forget it. It's a point of contention for sure--from 'it was better before the yuppies and their cookie-cutter condos, when, fill-in-blank-here with now-defunct local tavern, was open." to the cabbies that tell you, "Twenty-five years ago, I wouldn't have agreed to take a fare over here." It can be hard to be an outsider, especially if you don't know the history. It's clear the neighborhood's changed, but it was probably the same story when Algren walked Division. From the Pottawattomies to the days of the "Beer Barons" in their mansions on Hoyne Avenue to the rough Polish neighborhood Algren knew, Chicago had already seen a lot of changes.

Algren on Division Street

Maybe that's the point, I think, as I, hands-in-pockets, wander on a colder day down Division. I finally walk inside the dimly lit Rainbo Club that Algren used to frequent (some say with Simone de Beauvoir)-- in the 30's and 40's the club featured jazz and burlesque performances. The stage still stands behind the bar. I know I don't fit in with the skinnier, artsier, hipper crowd that claims this hang-out. But I order a beer anyway, and remember Algren wasn't always the biggest hit with his neighbors either; afterall, West Evergreen Avenue would still be West Algren Avenue if he were.

Richard Wright

2009-11-23T10:54:00.000-08:00

Perhaps the most widely appreciated African-American author to hail from Chicago (although not originally) Richard Wright deserves his own blog post on here.

He was born in Adams County, Mississippi in 1908 and came to Chicago as a postal clerk at the age of 19, at the height of the Harlem Renaissance and the so-called "flowering of Negro literature" (James Weldon Johnson). During the great depression era Wright's government position was eliminated and he began to gain an interest in the Communist Party; he officially joined in 1933. There's, of course, a curiously common theme at work here that includes most of Chicago's great authors (and will be fodder for a later blog post). Wright was soon writing proletariat poems and his first novel, Uncle Tom's Children came in 1938 to great critical praise and a Guggenheim fellowship followed in 1939.

His second novel, Native Son, came in 1940, which garnered him immediate popular attention. This work was noted for its violence and a murder trial that it is speculated was based upon the Leopold and Loeb murder case that Clarence Darrow is famous for. Literary critic Irving Howe wrote that "The day Native Son appeared, American culture was changed forever. No matter how much qualifying the book might later need, it made impossible a repetition of the old lies . . . [and] brought out into the open, as no one ever had before, the hatred, fear, and violence that have crippled and may yet destroy our culture."

Wright moved around between New York, Chicago, and Paris where he died in 1960.

His list of works thanks to Wikipedia:

Fiction

* Uncle Tom's Children (New York: Harper, 1938)
* Native Son (New York: Harper, 1940)
* The Outsider (New York: Harper, 1953)
* Savage Holiday (New York: Avon, 1954)
* The Long Dream (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1958)
* Eight Men (Cleveland and New York: World, 1961)
* Lawd Today (New York: Walker, 1963)
* Rite of Passage (New York: Harper Collins, 1994)
* A Father's Law (London: Harper Perennial, 2008)

Non-fiction

* How "Bigger" Was Born; Notes of a Native Son (New York: Harper, 1940)
* 12 Million Black Voices: A Folk History of the Negro in the United States (New York: Viking, 1941)
* Black Boy (New York: Harper, 1945)
* Black Power (New York: Harper, 1954)
* The Color Curtain (Cleveland and New York: World, 1956)
* Pagan Spain (New York: Harper, 1957)
* Letters to Joe C. Brown (Kent State University Libraries, 1968)
* American Hunger (New York: Harper & Row, 1975)
* Big Boy Leaves Home (2007)
* Black Boy" ( Harper and Brothers 1945)

Essays

* The Ethics Of Living Jim Crow: An Autobiographical Sketch (1937)
* Introduction to Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City (1945)
* I Choose Exile (1951)
* White Man, Listen! (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1957)
* The Man Who Lived Underground

Poetry

* Haiku: This Other World. (Eds. Yoshinobu Hakutani and Robert L. Tener. Arcade, 1998)

Music in Devil in the White City

2009-11-22T15:36:00.000-08:00

Even though Devil in the White City was not the most literary work, with its use of embarrassingly unconvincing metaphors and its omniscient narrative style, I loved it for its history, its details, and its lists of central, as well as tangential, facts. I knew very little about this specific time in Chicago, and Larsen cast a wide net in gathering information and stories for this book, and I'm grateful for this new awareness that I have of my city. I love it as a book about the architecture of Chicago and about the 1893 World's Fair, but I could have done without Holmes. Frederick Law Olmsted was my favorite "character" of the book. His views on landscape architecture and the anecdotes about his obsessive nature related to his work were a pleasure to read.

One of the things that caught my attention reading this book were the passages regarding the music of the Exposition. Larsen writes about the day George Ferris officially sent the Wheel for its first spin, and the forty-piece Iowa State Marching Band who played "My Country 'Tis of Thee" from aboard one of the ferris wheel cars. What an amazing site that would have been.
Following that, Ferris blew a gold whistle, which his wife had given him, and the Iowa State band began to play "America" setting the wheel in motion again. On the dedication day of the Exposition, a 5,000 person choir singing Handel's "Hallelujah" chorus and accompanied by 500 musicians. I read elsewhere that this was actually a 5,700 person choir. I did some additional research to see what else I might turn up.

One thing I found out was that the Mormon Tabernacle Choir performed there, which was the culmination of its first major concert tour. Also, the first Indonesian music performance in the United States took place at the Exposition. Finally, the Stoughton Musical Society was the only chorus invited to play American music. The Society gave two concerts in the Music Hall of the World's Columbian Exposition on August 14 & 15, 1893. Below is the complete concert program that they performed:

1a. "Turner" (pub. in 1802)-- Abraham Maxim
1b. "Invitation" (pub. in 1793)--Jacob Kimball
1c. "Contentment" (pub. in 1805)--John Cole

2. Duet: "Arrayed in Golden Light"--Oliver Shaw

3a. "Emmanuel"(pub. in 1790)--William Billings
3b. "New Bethlehem" (pub. about 1800) --Edward French
3c. "Majesty" (pub. about 1790 [1778]) --William Billings

4. Trio: "Omega" --Oliver Holden, pub.about 1793

5a. "Austria"(pub. in 1790)--Nahum Mitchell
5b. "Greenwich"(pub. in 1793)--Daniel Read
5c. "Heavenly Vision" (pub. in 1786)--Jacob French

6a. Solo and Chorus: "Ode to Columbia's Favorite Son" (1789) --Oliver Holden
6b. "Chester" (pub. in 1770)--William Billings
6c. "Ode on Science"(pub. in 1798)--Jezaniah Sumner

7. Song: "There's" Nothing True But Heaven" --Oliver Shaw

8. "Easter Anthem" --William Billings

9. "China"(pub. in 1788)--Timothy Swan

10a. "New Jerusalem" (pub. in 1802)--Jeremiah Ingalls
10b. "David's Invitation [Lamentation]" --William Billings
10c. "Mount Vernon" (pub. in 1803) --John Cole [Oliver Holden]

11. Quartette: "When as Returns This Solemn Day" --Lowell Mason

12. Anthem: "Jehovah's Praise" (pub. about 1837)--Edward L. White

God I am hungry! The Chicago Hot dog

2009-11-22T15:16:00.002-08:00

A Chicago style hot dog is like a piece of great art. It is tasty and delicious. It follows a great plan, starting with small little steps, and progressing in steps to build the final product: A hot dog that is second to none. Perhaps a Chicago style hot dog is more like a great architect drawing and constructing a building. Although it was never mentioned in Devil and the White City, I am sure that as a true Chicagoan, Burnham himself enjoyed a hot dog or two from time to time in between lavish French meals. After all, like so many other great things, the Chicago style hot dog originated at the World’s Fair.
Author’s note: I can’t back that Burnham thing up. He may have only liked to eat large difficult to pronounce French meals. But since he was a Chicagoan, and the fair was his baby, then the Chicago style hot dog could rightfully be called Burnham’s grandchild. Since Burnham was a family man, it stands to reason that he would have been interested in his grandchildren.
A Chicago style hot dog begins with a great bun. This is the foundation in our building analogy. The bun sets the tone for the rest of the hot dog, and only one type of bun will do in a Chicago style hot dog. The type of bun we are looking for in this case is a good all American white bread bun covered in delicious poppy seeds. Not too many poppy seeds, not enough to make you fail a drug test, but enough to flavor the bun while at the same time making it just messy enough with black seeds falling off in every bite.
The second addition to our hot dog building is the hot dog itself. This is the equivalent of the interior of our building. Just as the interior of a building sets the tone for its functionality, so too does the type of hot dog set the tone for the entire hotdog. It may be the most critical ingredient in the overall blueprint of the hotdog. Chicago style hot dogs are all beef; we don’t allow that inferior Oscar Myer pork product to carry the name of Chicago hot dog. That said, not any all beef hotdog will do. In order to be a true Chicago hot dog, the dog must either be either a genuine Vienna Beef hot dog (made where Elston, Damen, Fullerton and the Chicago river meet on the north side)or a Kosher’s Best hot dog, the latter being the hot dog that is blessed by a rabbi, and guaranteed to contain no pork. (For information on what the hot dog does contain read, The Jungle by Upton Sinclair) This part of the hot dog is critical. Without one of these brands of hot dog, you have at best an Alberta dog. And that is Canada. Do you want to be Chicago, or Canada?
The most important part of this hot dog is that it is to be steamed until it is fully cooked. A grilled hot dog is acceptable, but only in instances in which steaming is unavailable. . Under no circumstances is the hot dog to be broiled.
Now that we have a building that has a great foundation (the poppy seed bun) and an interior that will fit our purposes (the hot dog itself) Now we need to make the building pretty. After all, in a city whose skyline features the Sears (not Willis) tower and the Hancock building, we insist on great looking architecture. This architecture is another feature that distinguishes Chicago hot dogs from others: the toppings. We start off with tomato wedges and a kosher spear pickle, cut lengthwise to fit into a bun. On top of this we pile sport peppers and raw white onion. For flavor, neon green relish is added. It is very important that the relish is neon green; if any other color is present in your hot dog, the results could be disastrous. Put the hot dog down immediately and seek out a true Chicago hot dog before disaster strikes. Top all that off with yellow mustard and a dash of celery salt, and you have yourself a Chicago style hotdog that is not only functional, but easily as beautiful as any piece of architecture. After all, buildings crumble, but a hot dog is eaten. And, if I may go out on a limb, people will still be eating hot dogs long after the great buildings of the Earth are nothing but rubble, because, well, people have to eat.
AUTHORS NOTE: Under no circumstances should you put ketchup on a Chicago style hot dog. If you notice any person over the age of 12 and under the age of 70 doing this, it is your right, neigh, your duty as a Chicagoan to correct them, using physical violence if necessary.

GOD I AM HUNGRY! CHICAGO HOT DOG

2009-11-22T15:16:00.001-08:00

Haunted Japan

2009-11-22T14:10:00.000-08:00

Mount Fuji, an active volcano, is the highest mountain in Japan and one of the nation's three "Holy Mountains." The mountain is a well-known symbol of Japan and more than 200,000 people climb it every year. While Mt. Fuji is one of the most beautiful places on Earth, the forest that lies at the base of the mountain, Aokigahara (Sea of Trees) is by far one of the creepiest. The Death Forest - which is reportedly so thick that even in high noon it's not hard to find places completely surrounded by darkness - boasts the highest number of suicides, second only the the Golden Gate Bridge, with more than 500.

The trend supposedly began after the publication of Seicho Matsumoto's novel, Kuroi Kaiju (Black Sea of Trees). Matsumoto's 1977 novel tells the story of a woman who has a love affair with a young public prosecutor. He is blackmailed by the woman's husband, and the only escape for the lovers is a double suicide inside the dark and mysterious Aokigahara forest. It should also be noted that a Sixties novel, The Pagoda of Waves, featured a woman who killed herself in the Aokigahara forest; the story was later turned into a television drama series. Making matters worse, the best-selling Complete Manual of Suicide described the forest as "the perfect place to die". In 1999 the manual sold more than 1.2 million copies.

In the 70s, the problem got national attention and the Japanese government began doing annual sweeps of the forest in search of bodies. In 2002, they found 78. Uplifting signs are scattered throughout the forest in order to to dissuade others who venture inside. "Your life is a precious gift from your parents," reads one. "Think calmly once again about them, your siblings and your children. Don't agonize over problems yourself - please seek counseling." In 2004, director Takimoto Tomoyuk was shooting a movie about the forest and stumbled upon a wallet containing 370,000 yen (about $3,760). Thus began the proud Japanese tradition of Aokigahara Scavenging where people are running around the Death Forest, looking for dead guys to loot. I'm including a link with pictures of Aokigahara, but be warned: they're pretty brutal.

http://usagiyjay.wordpress.com/2008/09/19/bosque-de-aokigahara/

Who is your valentine this year? Mine is John Thompson

2009-11-22T13:58:00.000-08:00

February 14th, 1929. Currently, two rival factions of the mafia, one led by Al Capone, the other by Bugs Moran, are battling it out to control Chicago’s illegal liquor supply, gambling action, and “protection rings.” The battle has thus far been bloody, but nothing like the events of this day had been seen in America yet.
On that day, February 14th, seven members of Bugs Moran’s Irish gang went to a warehouse to supposedly look at some cases of bootleg whiskey that could be acquired cheaply. Like most things in life, this turned out to be too good to be true. As the men entered the warehouse, several of Capone’s men entered the warehouse dressed as Chicago police. After placing the men under arrest, the disguised gangsters lined them up facing the back wall of the warehouse, telling the men that they were to be frisked for weapons. Instead, two more men, dressed as civilians, entered the warehouse carrying classic gangster “Tommy Guns,” or M1A1 Thompson Submachine guns, capable of firing six hundred .45 caliber bullets a minute. And fire the guns did. Bullets tore into the men, killing six instantly and wounding one, Frank Gusenberg, so severely that he died a few hours later. Then, all the members of Capone’s gang, fake police and civilians alike, entered a car and drove away, leaving their human carnage to rot in the alley.
No one was ever convicted of the killings. Al Capone was purposefully in Florida on vacation, and although he was suspected of ordering the hit, was never officially charged. According to rumor, Bugs Moran was the target of the assault, but he was confused for one of his men, who looked like him, and survived the day unscathed.
The area of Lincoln Park where the event took place is today a nursing home parking lot. According to legend, sometimes at night, you can still hear the screams of the gangsters crying out in surprise and horror as they realize their fates.
Of course, that may just be the elderly patients, trapped in the nursing home, realizing their own grim fates, in lives nearing their end.

Although the massacre initally sparked public outcry, it soon, like everything else in Chicago, was used for profit.

Chicago's Most Wanted: Benny the Bull

2009-11-22T12:08:00.000-08:00

Chicago has come a long way since the blood-soaked years of the 1920's-30's. Remember the good ol' days when the city was known for heinous criminal acts and bullets fell from the sky more often than rain? When Valentine's Day was more than just a lame dinner with your significant other? Unfortunately, criminal masterminds like Al Capone and Bugs Moran are long gone. Nevertheless, the criminal element is still alive and well in Chicago, and the man holding the reigns dons a red furry suit and rides around on a miniature motorcycle: Benny the Bull. That's right, having worked with the Chicago Bulls mascot, I can tell you that this guy is one mad mother. But you don't have to take it from me, just look at Benny's (a.k.a Barry Anderson) rap sheet:

Charge: Misdemeanor Battery

During the Taste of Chicago in 2006, Benny the Bull took it upon himself to entertain the masses by riding through the crowd on his mini-motorcycle. An off-duty Chicago police officer tried to get the mascot off his motorcycle and Benny refused. After a short slow-speed chase, the officer caught up with costumed troublemaker and Benny rewarded him by punching him in the face, knocking off his glasses. Mr. Anderson argued that he was in character when he punched the officer, and, not surprisingly, the defense didn't hold up and he was charged.

Charge: $80,000 lawsuit

Anyone whose ever been to a Bull's game before knows that Benny like to get the crowd going by running down the aisles and giving the fans high-fives. However, during a game on February 12, 2008, Benny forgot how strong his was and tore a man's bicep. The only problem was the man, Don Kalant, happened to be a well-known oral surgeon in the Naperville area. Kalant needed to have surgery and missed more than 4 months of work, so he sued Benny for more than $80,000 in back wages.

Charge: Hilarious

Only in Chicago would a mascot shoot players on the opposing team. During a barn-burner against the Boston Celtics on April 1, 2008, the cowardly Celtics called a timeout and Benny the Bull saw his opportunity and took it. Armed with an air-pressured t-shirt gun, Benny shot Kevin Garnett and James Posey in the back as the sissies walked to their bench. Garnett and Posey gave Bennie the Bull a glare, and, said Garnett, “We exchanged words.” After the game, James "Turd Sandwich" Posey made these comments, "I felt threatened,” said Posey, who is considered a villain among Bulls fans for his tough fouls when he played for Miami, and was booed every time he touched the ball last night. “They already don’t like me here already. Two T-shirts were thrown at me and KG. I don’t feel safe. The T-shirts were fired out of that gun or whatever. I feel a little sore in one spot. I might have to get treatment. First, I thought it was a teammate just tapping me. But then I looked down and there were T-shirts and there were only two down there. Let’s see how the league handles this.” Thankfully, then head coach, Jim Boylan, did the right thing and supported Benny's attempted assasination, "It was against Posey so, it’s open season against him whenever he steps on the court in Chicago. I was proud of Benny, glad he took matters into his own hands. He orchestrated it behind the scenes.''

Mary Mary quite....dead. How did you die?

2009-11-22T09:15:00.000-08:00

Resurrection Mary. Her name has captivated many people in the Chicago land area for more than 60 years. There is even a song called, “The Ballad of Resurrection Mary.” But what happened to make this ghost so famous? Who was this woman that has supposedly done everything from jump on the running boards of cars passing by to dance with unsuspecting boys at the nearby Willowbrook ballroom?
The answer is….no one knows. Two major candidates emerge from the list of literally dozens of women. A woman named Mary Bregovy is the first candidate, having been killed in an auto wreck in 1934 on the way out to dance with some boys. According to a friend, the boys Mary was riding with the night she was killed were, “wild boys.” This story explains both why she is interested in dancing and why she seems to enjoy riding in cars. The fact that Mary was willing to ride with these “wild boys” shows that she is a free spirit, and the type of person that would rebel at being killed with so much life left to live. The problem with this theory is that Bregovy was killed on the north side of the city, far from the south west Willowbrook ballroom.
Another possible Mary wasn’t named Mary at all. She was named Anna Norkus. She was a 12 year old girl who was taken dancing by her father to celebrate her 13th birthday. The pair went to the Oh Henry, which later became the infamous Willowbrook ballroom. On the way home, Anna and her father’s car spilled into an unmarked and unseen 25 foot railroad cut (proving that road construction sucked long before now) Norkus was killed instantly, and supposedly became the ghost of resurrection Mary, constantly going out to dance and never returning home. The problem with this story is that Anna Norkus at 13 is far from the more mature late teen/20 something most of the men report seeing.
There are various other reports of “Mary’s” being Resurrection Mary, ranging from girls killed outside the cemetery itself after stealing her parents car to visit her boyfriend for some late night dancing to a girl killed on the south side by a passing car on or near Halloween. Personally, and for purposes of the stories I am writing for my final class project on Mary, I am using Mary Bregovy- but this is based purely on dramatic effect, not on any facts. The truth is, we may never know who the real Mary is, or why she keeps coming back to earth to dance and scare teenage boys instead of resting in peace.

Chicago Haunts by Urslula Bielski was used to get the names and facts of the women mentioned above.

So...what's your style?

2009-11-21T19:54:00.000-08:00

In August, two good friends from California flew out to visit me - my first real opportunity to play Chicago host since moving back here six years ago. I did the best I could, but as is often the case with Jason and Mike, my antics became a running joke among us. To briefly summarize:

(1) Because my natural sense of direction falls somewhere between "unacceptable" and "deeply retarded", we spent an inordinate amount of time wandering aimlessly through unknown neighborhoods. I tried valiantly to take a positive spin on our meanderings ("Hey guys, it's all about the journey, not the destination, right? Right? Guys?"). They were unimpressed...and occasionally hostile, I might add.

(2) Although I have been living in the city for several years, I normally spend the vast majority of my time either at work or in my apartment. This returns us to the main problem addressed in (1) - I had no fucking idea what I was doing.

Hence, I had to quickly abandon any hope of providing useful, informative, or otherwise appealing guidance, and instead settled comfortably into the role of Meta Host. Rather than clinging to sad delusions of even middling competency, I decided to use my position as a vehicle for delivering ironic commentary on the very idea of being a host. This led to the two main catchphrases of the week: (1) "We are doing it Chicago style!", and (2) "That's just the Chicago way."

These catchphrases could be used in an astounding array of circumstances, no matter what their shape or form. When riding the El, for example, I would often (and for no discernible reason) gesture at Mike and Jason with monumental grandiosity and bellow, "Boys, I'm telling you - we are doing it Chicago style right now!" However, on the frustrating occasions when we barely missed a train (and there were many), I would instead shake my head sympathetically, pat one of them on the back, and say (with a touch of sadness), "Don't take it personally, my friend. That's just the Chicago way." Regardless of the situation, I managed to find a reason why it was perfectly and unequivocally Chicago, even for actions as mundane as methodically trudging down Irving Park Road, or entering the public restroom in Grant Park. Although my insistence on repeating these catchphrases ad nauseam lead to periodic threats of violence, they were, for the most part, received with good cheer, and served as an effective smoke and mirrors job to cover up my deep inadequacies as host. Also, I bought them a lot of booze. That helped, too.

At some point, it occurred to us that some cities absorb the monikers "style" or "way" exceedingly well (Chicago appears to stand head and shoulders above the rest, one of many reasons why we live in such a kick-ass city); others, though, seem to fare rather poorly. We could often pin-point specific reasons for this, but not always. Consider the following examples:

"Boston style" works reasonably well, although it's hard for me not to think of a rotisserie chicken when I say it. "The Boston way", though? Pretty damn cool, I have to say...pretty damn cool. "Philadelphia style" (Or "Philly style", for those in the know) brings to mind a steak sandwich with cheese whiz (not necessarily a bad thing), but "The Philadelphia way?" Come on - that sounds like a bad cop buddy film from the 80's. "Seattle style" is pleasingly alliterative, while "Sacramento style" is not. ("The Sacramento way", though? Intriguing!) "Vegas style" is inherently and unassailably cool; the very phrase implies an exciting, illicit, and quite possibly insane journey to the wild side. "New York style" and "The New York way" summon an intense rage that I didn't even know existed, exceeded only by the infuriatingly vacuous pomposity of "L.A. style" or "The L.A. way." If anyone ever said the latter two phrases within earshot, I would have no choice but to punch them in the face.

For brevity's sake, let us momentarily abandon "way". "Cleveland style" is weirdly appealing, as are "Memphis style", "San Antonio style", and "Denver style". By adding one word, these cities instantly become more fascinating to me, whether deserved or not. If somebody said, "Buffalo style", I would immediately demand a plate of chicken wings drenched in hot sauce. "Milwaukee style" trumps any of the food-themed cities by recalling the holy trinity of bratwurst, cheese, and beer. "Montgomery style" and "Jackson style", on the other hand, somehow conjure the image of Ned Beatty being viciously sodomized as an inbred banjo player strums vacantly in the distance. Is this a blatantly unfair characterization of the Deep South, based entirely on a long-outdated Hollywood film? Yes, it is. Next!

Many other cities inevitably set themselves up for ridicule or self-parody in this fashion. "Bismark style?" Gloriously insipid. How about "Tulsa style" or "Dover style?" Now there's a good one. "Orlando style?" You have got to be fucking kidding me. I long for the day, though, when I hear the following words: "Boys, get ready for a very special evening, because we are doing it Montpelier style tonight!"

Ramble - My College Career

2009-11-21T18:02:00.000-08:00

I am a mother of three and I decided to raise my children and put my goals on hold. Once they reached a certain age I decided that it was time for me to go back. I was ready and excited. Boy or boy was it a challenge. I juggled my family, a part-time job, and full-time school schedule for the past six years. This is the last semester of my journey and I am thrilled.

During this time, I have lost the only father I've ever known, Grandpa. My oldest has had surgery and my mother a stroke. How did I make it, I can't tell you. But I am grateful to say I have made it to the end. As I reflect back on my life I wonder why must things be so difficult when you are trying to do better? I am curious to know why poor people suffer the way that they do. I tried to understand the difference in high-and low brow literature. I needed to know why Hip-Hop had such a bad reputation. I have thought about Michael Jackson's numerous surgeries and how a man that was loved by millions, died "lonely." I have questioned the use of a Bachelor's degree in English for a young Black girl? How can I be this close to graduation with so many unanswered questions?

In the end, I am proud of my accomplishments but ashamed to say so. Pride is not something I'm proud of having. I'd rather say I am grateful for this privilege, this opportunity to do what many Black people are not fortunate to do, graduate from a university. Wow! Look at me. I am the first one in my entire family to do so, I am the only one that knows this type of struggle. My mother knew different struggles. Her White/Black/Indian grandmother would not allow her in her front door on a Sunday morning because her "skin was too dark." Her biology teacher said lets use a strand of Helen's hair as a specimen under the microscope because it should be filled with dirt." My mother knows of different struggles. So am I proud? I don't think my emotions or questions can be equated with pride but I feel something.

If someone asked me to sum up the last six years of my life, I would say:

M - arginal

A- ltered

S- urreal

T - ough

E - xplicit

R - ough

E - xquisite

D - ONE

Graduate Application

2009-11-21T17:37:00.000-08:00

Why am I so frightened? Why Am I in fear? Why do I feel discouraged before the deadline is here? Why do I feel less adequate than others that are near? Why do I feel ashamed to be tested in this year?

I am so afraid to take the GRE and submit my graduate application. I know that I have had a rigorous undergraduate education and have learned quite a bit. I have studied hard, read a great deal, and absorbed an extreme amount of information. However, I have taken a GRE prep class and it frightened me more than words can explain.

What is fueling my anxiety is my current workstudy position. All day I open GMAT scores and transcripts of applicants applying to the MBA, MSA, or MIS programs their scores are through the the roof, especially from the international applicants. I have to tell applicants all day long that "although we do not have a minimum score our applicants are averaging a 610." Wow, many say that the score is high, other schools are in the 500's. I apologize and wish the applicant luck. Now, I am scared to death! I have been told that my GRE will not be the only determinant of the application but I am still scared. WHY?

"Maybe the Whole Town Went to Work too Young"

2009-11-21T17:35:00.000-08:00

I loved the tone of this book for many reasons-- not least of which is the way he manages to critique Chicago while still clearly (to me at least) professing his love for her. Nevertheless, one of the things I really appreciated about Chicago: City on the Make was the chapter Algren did from his own kids-eye-view. I took it to be autobiographical when he described the move from the South Side to the North Side in the context of the 1919 Black Sox season. Since I'm not a Chicago native, I really appreciated this sketch-- made visceral with the slang of the time and the sense of childish proportion-- of growing up in Chicago. Delivering papers, sneaking into Comiskey, negotiating with his new North Side neighbors, Algren drags us around the city of his youth like the little red wagon he uses to deliver the Saturday Evening Blade.

What is striking aside from the whimsical shift in perspective--for instance, imagining all of the North Side alleys leading straight to Wrigley--is the way that this chapter is definitively a description of a Chicago child's introduction to what it means to be a "hustler's town." From the goings-on at the shady South Side tavern that Uncle J. frequents, to the national story of World Series-level fraud of the 1919 Chicago White Sox-- the narrator of this chapter is learning the language and logic of Chicago's streets. After his team is found to have purposely thrown their chances of victory, the narrator learns how dangerous a game loyalty in Chicago can be. His new North Side acquaintences immediately throw him in with the tarnished South Side team. The grilling is reminicent of a Chicago Sun Times article on clout abuses or mafia meddlings in Chicago politicians, as Algren describes, "I was coming around Troy Street almost a year later pretending I believed Risberg to be an honest man. I'd gone out to the ball park, seen him play in person and was now insisting I'd seen nothing wrong, nothing wrong at all [...] And I still pretended I hadn't suspected a thing?" (Algren 37). And concludes with the ultimate question, "What kind of American are you, anyhow?" (Algren 37). This questions rings throughout the whole book-- and the answer is a resounding-- I'm a Chicagoan, that's what kind.

"I guess that was one way of learning what Hustlertown, sooner or later, teaches all its sandlot sprouts, 'Everybody's out for The Buck. Even the big-leaguers.'" (Algren, 39).

Wow a book by an author that I have heard of!

2009-11-21T17:17:00.000-08:00

I guess I should preface this blog by saying that this was not my first experience with Sarah Paretsky. I have been reading and listening to Sarah Paretsky for years. My mother used to take us on trips as little kids, and we would listen to books on tape. My mom loves mysteries, and as a single mother, loves ass kicking females. V.I. was one of her favorites.
So I guess you could say that I was pre disposed to like this book, from a young age. I must admit, I was surprised to be reading this book in a class at school, and pleasantly happy to be reading a book I was sure to enjoy.
And enjoy this book I did. It has everything to make a person happy- sex, violence, and more sex. It is great. There is even a cool English journalist put in just to spice things up. I enjoyed the fact that although Vic is in a male profession, she remains fundamentally feminine much of the time, thinking about things like clothes. The part where she talks about being jealous or not being jealous because she is a modern feminist woman is quite funny as well.
Of course, the action is nonstop, which is also a plus. There is not a lot of thinking or pondering going on in Vic’s world. Much of the time she simply charges head into situations without thinking about the consequences, which are often very bad. One such example of this is her wandering the south side swamp/garbage dump and almost dying. The book is cool for that reason- it is funny, hip, and moves quickly.
The imagery of Chicago is also great, although it leads me to one of the problems of the book. I know that Paretsky has socialist roots, but everyone living in South Chicago is not a working class hero being held down by the man. Although I am personally sympathetic to workers plights (being a worker myself) having worked in the South Chicago area, and having entered many of the homes in this area, I can assure you that while there are good people, there are also a lot of bad people as well. Lazy people who have never worked. Crackheads. Criminals. There may be working class heros, but most of the families are people who never got a chance to succeed in life in this book, while the reality is not the same as the book. I understand the need to further her political agenda, but this got really old really quick to me. The black and white of the culture (lots of people in the south shore area are nicie people downtrodden, and all the Buysmart folks except Billy are evil) turned me off. Nothing is black and white, and using black and white examples makes the book unrealistic.
I also did not like the way the Emergency services of the city are represented. Throughout the book, they are consistently late to places, and seem at best apathetic to the plight of the people in the story. However, there is a reason for this. The cops in these areas have calls stacked up, and receive 3 calls at a time. The area is infested with crime and criminals. It also contains people that call 911 because they have a cold, and want a trip to the ambulance to rule out the swine flu. Her beloved working class heroes stretch the system thin, and the workers to the breaking point. Sorry, I will get off my soapbox now, but that was really annoying to me.
All in all, I believe that the book is really good, and has some good political messages in it (such as the evil big corporations abusing the employees) However, I do feel that Paretsky could do better than one dimensional characters being good or bad. But, all that aside, it sure was fun to watch Vic kick some bad guys asses!

Afro-Centric post the life of Miriam Makeba

2009-11-21T17:05:00.000-08:00

I am honored that we were given six random post to elaborate on topics that may not have been discussed in class. Since I am an African American studies minor, I have been introduced to things and people that I did not know prior. I am currently taking a history course that is concerned with female African agency. I am glad I took the course. My current research project is on a South African woman named Miriam Makeba. I was just a baby when she took South Africa, as well as America by storm. To me, she was a Queen.

Miriam Makeba met Harry Belafonte and he helped her career soar above and beyond anything she ever expected. However, her career success is overshadowed by the oppressive state her people suffered under the apartheid regime. As a young singer, she was asked to play a small part in a Movie called, Come Back, Africa. Her role was considered radical and rebellious. Ms. Makeba was offered the chance of a life time, to go to America and walk the red carpet at the premiere of the movie. It was a great success. She thought her life would take off. To her surprise, it was not. When she attempted to go back home to South Africa, she was told her passport had been revoked and she was no longer recognized as a citizen of her birth country. She had no family in America, no friends, no system of support besides the Belafonte's, whom she had recently became acquainted. White South Africans were not pleased with her role of the movie.

I told this long narrative because it made me think about "exile." How deep is this word and what is the effect it can have on one's life? I was struck with a short poem...

Take me home, I want to go

Do you know how to get there

over the water, over the mountains.

I want to go.

Do you have a home, do you live there

over the water, over the mountains?

can you claim it as yours, is it yours to claim?

I want to go.

Do you hear me? Can you see me,

I want to go home.

Vanished Bookstores

2009-11-21T15:17:00.000-08:00

In 1995 & 1996, over 150 independent bookstores went out of business nationwide. I've seen plenty of Chicago bookstores disappear in the 18 years that I've lived here. Here is a list of eight, with a brief description for each:

Kroch's and Brentano's
Once located at: 29 S. Wabash & elsewhere
Years in business: 88 (1907-1995)

It was originally a German language bookstore founded in 1907 by Adolph Kroch. In 1933, after Kroch acquired its main competition, Brentano's, Kroch's and Brentano's became the largest bookstore in Chicago and the largest privately owned bookstore chain in the United States.

It was "a pioneer in book display concepts and store design," was thought to have carried the finest selection of art books in the city and "its sales clerks were legendarily knowledgeable."
The bookstore also was known for tracking down obscure or out of print editions for customers from around the world and its book-signings by major authors.

It dominated book sales in Chicago until it was devastated by the onslaught of discount chains, and was the city's oldest independent bookstore when it filed for bankruptcy in 1995.

Scenes Coffee House & Dramatists Bookstore
Once located at: 3168 N. Clark St.
Closed: in the 90's

This was a favorite hang-out of mine the first year that I lived in Chicago in 1991-92. It was a really lovely coffeehouse with huge windows and wood bookcases.

Act I Bookstore
Once located at: 2632 N. Lincoln
Closed: in the last 10 years

This was an excellent bookstore to find any play or theater-related book that you could possibly desire. Theater newspapers, magazines, tapes, etc. It was very much a theater person's bookstore. Probably the only reason I even knew about it was because in the mid-90's my sweetheart at the time was an actress and she used to make regular trips there to pick up scripts and such.

Aspidistra Bookstore
Once located at: 2630 N. Clark
Closed: in the 90's

This was the best used bookstore in Chicago. I spent a lot of time there in my late teens. I think that a sushi restaurant took its place. Probably in the last 10-15 years, the number of sushi restaurants in the city has increased by 100,000%, while the number of independent bookstores has decreased as much.

People Like Us
One located at: 3321 N. Clark St/1115 W. Belmont
Closed: in the 90's

This was the only exclusively gay and lesbian bookstore in Chicago. I remember going there for the first time when I was 18 or 19 years old and feeling really in awe of this place. It was supportive of local writers and the number one place to stop on book-tour in Chicago if you were a gay or lesbian writer.

The Children's Bookstore
Once located on: Lincoln Ave.
Closed: 1996
Years in business: 11

Considered a valuable community resource, The Children's Bookstore had over 25,000 children's titles in stock, offered free story hours, author readings and art workshops, and at its peak hosted 250 events in a single year. Five superstores opened within a one-mile radius of it within the year before it was forced to close.

In the small factory town where I lived as a child, the only bookstore was Little Professor Books. It was not, as the name may seem to indicate, a children's bookstore. It was an all-ages bookstore with a section for children. I remember that I used to get stomachaches from the excitement whenever my mom would take me there to pick out a new book. And that was in response to one aisle of children's books. So, I imagine The Children's Bookstore was a kind of overwhelming paradise for a lot of Chicago children from the mid-80's to the mid-90's.

Savvy Traveller
Once located at: 310 S. Michigan Ave.
Closed: 2007
Years in business: 22

This bookstore was amazing, and I was crushed when I heard that it closed. It was the coolest travel store around. You could buy everything there that you can possibly think of related to travel except your plane or train ticket. They had awesome globes, maps, hundreds of travel guides, and all kinds of sweet travel gear and gadgets.

They now operate an on-line store, but it was the atmosphere of the old, flesh and blood store which made it so unique and wonderful. It used to make me come alive even if I was just walking by it on my way somewhere else and didn't have time to stop. This one was definitely a great loss for the city.

Transitions Bookstore
Once located at: 1000 W. North Ave.
Closed: August 15, 2008
Years in business: 19

This was a self-help/New Age bookstore and cafe that was located right next to the old Whole Foods on North Ave. It was also a shop where one could buy incense, meditation cushions, statues of Buddha, relaxation cds -- all sorts of material goods to accompany you on the path. They had a regular reading series and often brought in well-known health and spirituality writers like Deepak Chopra and Andrew Weil.

Prairie Avenue Bookshop
Once located at: 418 S. Wabash Ave.
Closed: September 1, 2009
Years in business: 48

The most recent, and perhaps the most devastating loss, in my opinion, other than maybe Kroch's & Brentano's, is the Prairie Avenue architecture bookstore. It was referred to by architects as a national resource. This place was like an architecture museum/library/sanctuary. I can't think of another bookstore with as much class or style. It was totally gorgeous and had some of the most beautiful books on its tables and shelves. The bookstore originally was begun in Wilbert and Marilyn Hasbrouck's home. Then they opened it in 1974 on Prairie Avenue and then moved to the Wabash location in 1995.

It is sobering to think of the so many independent bookstores -- these that I've listed, and others -- that Chicago has lost in the past 15 years, but this one makes my heart ache.

Paretsky

2009-11-21T12:24:00.000-08:00

Upon getting “Fire Sale” at my local library I was a little concerned at the length of it all. I haven’t read a book that long in a class since “Paradise Lost” and that was not an all together great experience. So I have to say that I was a little biased in the beginning and went into it with a bit of a bad attitude. So I finally got down to it and started reading. And low and behold lets just say I was not immediately enthralled in the book. I found the first hundred and fifty pages or so to be complete filler. Of course I understand that with a mystery book like this there has to be a substantial amount of build up and background and such, but I was worried it was never going to end. Certainly it was all relevant in the end, but I felt like the beginning of the book had no action whatsoever. I found my self skimming the pages waiting for something to happen. I mean how many time can she get into her mustang (that she references ever 10 pages or so) with her dogs, or talk to her neighbor downstairs, or complain about her friend? It gets old.

I decided that I wasn’t going to quit and that eventually something interesting had to unfold or it wouldn’t have been published. To my surprise, once she followed her dog through the swamps of Chicago (which I still baffled by, who knew we had swamps?) and finds her friend on the brink of death I admit I was drawn in a bit. While I agree that this probably isn’t the greatest piece of writing available to the public, I think that Paretsky has something to say. The ways in which she talks about the city, it is as if she knows more than I do and maybe just maybe if I kept reading she would reveal her sources. Also, while a mystery, she made it seem subtly academic. She makes a point to use language that is both simple and complex and she isn’t afraid of it. Her detail is both riveting and alienating at the same time. Having no known or expected there to be swamp land just south of Chicago, I could put myself into the picture, but had a hard time seeing the skyline in the backdrop.

Paretsky does a good job at exploring the difficult struggles of south side working class people and juxtaposing it to the affluent of Barrington Hills. Living right next to Barrington Hills I could easily envision the By-Smart family in their lavish homes with their fancy cars and fur laden outfits. Driving through Barrington Hills is like driving through Beverly Hills with the winding roads and two mile long driveways through forests that open up to houses that can’t even be labeled McMansions, but mansions. Countering that with the flats on the south side was an interesting contrast. Again, having never been further south than 35th Street (home of the Chicago White Sox of course), I had a hard time being able to fully amerce myself in that part of the narrative. I could of course envision what she was describing, but coming from a middle class family myself I could only relate to the characters on a superficial level.

Overall I think Paretsky presented not just a typical who-done-it mystery, but a commentary on Chicago’s diverse economic position. I don’t think I would personally read another V.I. Warshawski novel, but for the scope of the class it gave me another perspective of Chicago that I hadn’t really noticed before, and certainly left me curious about those swamps on the south shore. I mean, I know Chicago used to be completely under water, and Blue Island really was an island, but swamps equal the south to me, so perhaps one of these days I’ll go on my own search and discovery mission.

Bellow and Trains

2009-11-21T12:00:00.000-08:00

While I found this to be in an odd sense a good book, I was particularly distracted at the beginning of the book. The distraction came in the form of Amy. When Harry meets her again in the street he says that he did not recognize her because of the El. It was the El that made everything look gray. This struck me in a weird sort of way because I have always felt that in a way the El distorted reality.

I’m sure at one point, everyone who has ever lived in Chicago has gone under the El tracks. When I go up north to Lincoln Park to hang out with friends I always have to go under the Brown/Purple/Red tracks for they are perpendicular to my path. Every time I go under the tracks it’s a new experience. Generally I am listening to my Ipod to drown out city noise, but when I go under the tracks if a train is approaching, everything gets loud. I cannot even hear my own thoughts. The train will literally put my mind at a standstill while it passes over head. The trains control my thoughts, that is a lot of power. Other times, if a train is not coming and it’s a sunny day, the street below the tracks is shaded, but not completely shaded, but the sun tries its hardest to seep through the cracks but only at the trains will. It’s walking in and out of darkness. One minute you’re in the light, then it’s dark with a tease of light every few steps. The trains control the light, that is a lot of power. If it’s a rainy day, when walking, you go from rain, to no rain. In the spots where the light shines through you’ll get a small bit of a shower. The trains control the weather, that is a lot of power. At night, street lights brighten up entire blocks, but not under the tracks. Walking under the tracks takes you from artificial, safe light, to absolute darkness. The trains control the darkness, that is a lot of power. Like in the book, on a gloomy day vivid colors are dampened and diffused to a murky gray. The trains control the color, that is a lot of power. For the people on the trains, they live their lives according to the train schedule. If the trains are late, they are late. If they miss a train, they have to wait for the train to come to them. The trains control peoples lives, that is a lot of power.

While Bellow doesn’t actually take that one line to any great lengths, it made me think of how powerful things are in life. For Harry, Amy has so much power. He has loved her for forty years. While she was in and out of marriages, she still held a part of his heart in her hands. She has all of the control. In the end, he puts her on the spot and seemingly takes control when he inappropriately timed asked her to marry him, but she still holds all of the control in the final decision. She is the actual to him, so I suppose that means that the actual holds all the control and that might be what constitutes it as the actual. Of course, I am taking the entire book out of the context of a line in the book that could easily be overlooked but it is a different way of looking at their complicated history. What ended up distracting me from much of the books meat and potatoes led me on a tangent that concluded that the El controls my life. I suppose that’s not really what I was getting at, but it is interesting to see that the things around us hold much more control than we think we allow them to.

Algren's Undying Love

2009-11-21T11:59:00.000-08:00

"Once you've become a part of this particular patch, you'll never love another. Like loving a woman with a broken nose, you may well find lovelier lovelies, but never a lovely so real."

Clearly, despite all of her flaws, be it gangsters, mobsters, political scandal, rich, poor, good and bad, Algren loves Chicago. Having grown up in the suburbs of this great city my whole life, I think I have come to take the city itself for granted. When I was a kid getting on the train to the city was the most exciting thing. Each year around Christmas my whole family would pack in the car, trek out to the blue line and make our way to see the tree in Daley Plaza and the windows and Marshal Fields (never Macy’s). Popping Frango mints on the way home was also a treat, but it just seemed like every other outing. The city was a bunch of tall buildings that looked cool, but never had a past. The only think I could ever think of as a past was which story did the windows tell last year or I wonder why we can’t climb on the Picasso anymore. While the buildings were awe-inspiring, they were a bunch of metal, steel and glass. The loop was the whole city, the museums were cool and sports rock.

Then came the time to pick a college. My friend and I had decided in 8th grade that we were going to go to school in the city. We chose the city because it looked like the most fun, not because it had a rich history that could teach us about why we were actually there, but because of all the bars for when we were 21! My dorm room freshman year was the top floor with a view of the Sears Tower (yet another building whose name will remain as it is in my memory). Everyday when I first got to school as I sat down to do homework I would look at the tower and it would take my breath away. Three years later as I walk through campus I see the building in the distance and don’t think twice. It’s there, it always has been and always will be so why ogle at it anymore? I have lived in the city for three years and have never gone further south than Comiskey Park and never further north than Wrigley Field; never more East than the lake (for obvious reasons) and never more West than Logan Square. I have stayed in the comfortable bubble that I have in my mind that is Chicago.

In a way, I feel like I take the city for granted. The buildings will always be there, the CTA will always make me crazy and the drivers will always be total morons. And yet, I have a new appreciation of the city because of Algren’s words. The façade that is the city isn’t everything. This class has given me an opportunity to look at the nooks and crannies that really make up the city, it’s past, present and future. I’ve been to other cities, and really none compare. New York is dirty and loud and HUGE. LA is the same way. Then other cities are too small, not as grandiose. Chicago really is the perfect city. It has the diversity that is unmatched and an unbeatable skyline, and perhaps one of the seediest histories ever, and that’s what makes it so great. Algren is completely right, it doesn’t matter what the city has done in the past or what it will do in the future, this is home and nothing will ever trump that. Everything that I know about cities has come from living and visiting this city and I’m better for it. When I meet people who have never ridden the CTA I get so confused. Then of course I realize that not everyone has been to such a fantastical city before and I have to cut them some slack. Everything that has ever happened in Chicago has shaped it into the city it is now and Algren has such an appreciation for it. Sure some of the things the city isn’t particularly proud of **Blago** but she redeems herself in so many other ways and that is what Algren is saying. One must overlook the bad, but accept it as well in order to see the city for her true beauty.

On Bellow

2009-11-20T08:22:00.000-08:00

It is a toss up for my favorite book from this class between "The Actual" and "City on the Make." It's pretty hard to compare them really, because they are such drastically different narratives. The Actual was a very interesting peak into high society, sort of in the way the Lee gave us that peek into high society as well. It exposes the ridiculousness of rich people's lives in a way that a lot of us would never know: Hugh's demands to have his peas on the North/East corner of his plate and if it's place is wrong re-assigning that poor person who did it wrong to the garage. In a similar light, the Adletsky's are engaged in a ridiculous purchase of furniture that is of no consequence to them. It seems merely a game to them, because they have to find something to do to pass their days, spend their money etc. It is also interesting in The Actual to see the middle class characters surviving and living amongst the upper class. The scene with Amy and Madge in the bathroom shows a very interesting power dynamic between the classes. Overall The Actual manages to pack in a lot in a very short amount of space and I look forward to reading more Bellow!

Mysteries

2009-11-20T08:05:00.000-08:00

I feel my life is going to be complete now, because I am going to get to refer to the Baby Sitters Club as well as the Box Car Children in this post. Here goes: After reading Paretsky's "Fire Sale" and having lots of "mystery book" talk in class I noticed that in "Fire Sale" there are many references to people from V.I.'s past etc. I think it is clear that one can pick up and read any book in the V.I. series, however if one starts at the start and follows the progression, one will follow along in the life of V.I. This reminds me very much of my guilty pleasures of childhood: The Baby Sitters Club and The Box Car Children. Both of these series, as I am sure many of you know, follow the same characters respectively. In the Baby Sitters Club, the books are told in the first person, by one of seven or eight characters that appear in all the books. They were a huge part of my pre-teen/tween life. I related to them, looked forward to their new books, and was hooked on them much like a soap opera. The funny thing is, the Baby Sitters Club girls always stayed in 8th grade, despite the fact that there are probably close to two hundred books in the series. This resulted in multiple Christmas and Thanksgiving themes and repeats of things like that. I also started to notice errors the more I read, but I let it slide. I guess keeping track of that many characters for that many books is near impossible. In the Box Car Children, I think, and I don't know for sure but this is my suspicion, I think there were ghost writers, because I believe the original author passed away even when there were "new" ones by her being put out. However, in the same way as mystery series, soap operas, and TV Drama's like Law and Order etc, the reader or viewer becomes attached to the characters, follow along in their life, and it is a great way to keep the audience interested. I think it is no mistake that from childhood to adulthood, through TV and books, audiences are drawn in and connected to such protagonists. It's an escape from our everyday life, into the life of someone who gets to solve mysteries and have an exciting life.

Quearborn and Perversion

2009-11-19T16:25:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine, Ron Pajak, recently celebrated the completion of his documentary film, Quearborn and Perversion (a slant on Dearborn & Division). The documentary, about gay and lesbian history in Chicago from 1924-1970, was screened a few weekends ago at the Music Box. He worked on the film for 10 years and the archival footage he assembled into a narrative is amazing.

And I couldn't believe how Ghosts of Chicago it was.

In the 20's and 30's the neighborhood around the Water Tower was all houses and storefronts.
This area was considered the Greenwich Village of Chicago. The neighborhood was called "Towertown" and it was where many artists, bohemians, and gays and lesbians lived.

At a certain point in time, IL was the only state in the nation where homosexuality was legal. Even so, abuse towards gays and lesbians in Chicago was extreme. Hidden bars were the only places where gays and lesbians could meet. Often these were bars with no windows in them or with windows that were painted black, so that the places looked abandoned. They were pretty dark and drab inside, too. Dancing was not allowed. When gays and lesbians were found dancing, they were arrested, and the bars closed down. Police would hang around places they suspected of being gay and lesbian bars. The police would wait outside a bar as people were leaving, and harrass them. If you were a woman, you had to be wearing at least three pieces of "feminine" clothing, or you were taken to jail. Pants with zippers were considered "male". The more butch women would often go into the bathroom and change out of a skirt or dress into pants and shirts and then change again before leaving the bar.

One of the women interviewed, a former bar owner, said that the bars had to pay the police and "the syndicate" like clockwork. She said that people today say the syndicate doesn't exist, but she is certain it still runs things in Chicago. There were regular raids on gay and lesbian bars -- in a particularly contemptible one, hundreds were arrested and their names and professions were printed in the newspaper the following day. Over a hundred were teachers. Careers were ruined. One of the men interviewed, who had been a school principal for decades, lost his job because of the incident.

In a lighter moment, there is an interview in the film with Studs Terkel that is hilarious. He retells the story of an evening that he and some friends went out to a bar, but they didn't realize it was a lesbian bar, and one of his friends tried to cut in and dance with one of the women. He also said that Pearl Hart, who spent 61 years as a lawyer and is known as a tireless defender of the oppressed, "was one of the greatest people I've ever known." Hart represented children, women, immigrants, and gays and lesbians, often without charging a fee, or for only a small fee. Terkel, a long-time friend of Hart's and fellow advocate for social justice, led the campaign to try to win a seat for Hart on the City Council, which was ultimately unsuccessful. Hart was the first woman in Chicago to ever be appointed as Public Defender in the Morals Court.

The Chicago History Museum co-produced the film and it is a remarkable contribution to the Museum, as well as a true gift to the gay and lesbian community.

City on The Make

2009-11-19T10:03:00.000-08:00

Just think and repeat the words “Da Bears, Da Bears, Da Bears.” Really open your mouth and use your lips. Do it real obnoxiously.

If you have ever seen the SNL skit of Bill Swerski’s Super Fans, then you can figure out a fun way to read Nelsen Algren’s Chicago City on the Make. If you have never seen the SNL skit, then google it and find the Hulu page; it’s definitely worth six minutes of your time. The clip should be able to give you an idea of an exaggerated Chicago accent that is really not too far from the truth. Chicago City on the Make seems to have this underlying accent that should accompany the beautiful prose that Algren wrote. Maybe not as intense an accent as the Super Fans, but an accent nonetheless. I would of loved to see how Algren read this. How did he pace it? Did an accent form while he read it? I know the deeper I got into the poem the more I felt an accent belonged to the words. Hemingway said, “you should not read it if you cannot take a punch.” How true that is, because the subject matter Algren sticks to is Chicago’s hustlers, thieves, mob men, cheating evangelists, barflies, con men, and so on. He doesn’t insult these men, but instead he praises them by writing this poem about them in their language, which was his language too. He writes about the Chicago he knows and experiences in his day to day life - a brutal beautiful place full of fast-talking, quick witted, con men looking to scoop up any money on the street or in your pocket, but also pour you a cup of coffee while discussing the Sox and Cubs. Algren displays the two sides of Chicago.

Chicago “forever keeps two faces, one for winners and one for losers; one for hustlers and one for squares…One for white collars as well as blue, for our museums like cathedrals and our cathedrals like museums for the windy white-and-blue miles of our beaches, the Saturday night moon excursions to Michigan City, the afternoon at the zoo washed into the mists of sunlit remembrance by a sudden warm, still rain; and for that night-shaded honkeytonk where Sherry Our Shivering Sheba shook the long-night’s last weary shake to twenty empty tables and one middle-aged pimp wheedling a deaf bartender for a final double shot.”

Chicago City on the Make was meant to be read out loud for everyone to hear. I feel you could open up to any page, start reading and allow a Chicago persona take over.

The Jungle

2009-11-19T10:00:00.000-08:00

The constant pummeling in The Jungle reminded me of the movie Requiem for a Dream. If you haven’t seen it, it is a hard knocks story of four individuals and their drug usage, particularly heroin and diet pills. I remember how depressing this movie was the first time I saw it. There is no happy ending for these four individuals. They only spiral deeper and deeper down into their own personal hell. The old woman becomes a vegetable after having to receive electroshock, one man ends up in jail, the other loses his arm due to a festering wound created by the heroin needle, and the woman engages in prostitution only to use the money on more heroin. The film refuses to allow audience to breathe.

Requiem for a Dream does the same thing that The Jungle did 100something years ago. Sinclair pounds his reader with constant despair. Jurgis and his family are bombarded with pain and misery due to a poor standard of living, low wages, and the visual terrors that occur in the stockyards. Jurgis starts out with a positive mentality believing that working harder will earn him more money or more success, but in the end working harder only breaks his bones and his positive outlook. He loses his will to work an honest job, if you can call any of the jobs he worked honest, he loses his father, his wife, and two children, one child was never able to breath air outside the womb. Jurgis is bombarded with pain and misery. He runs away for a while after little Antanas drowns in the muck that surrounds their dilapidated house. He freeloads off the world learning that life is not always about working harder, but rather working around the difficulties in search for the littlest pleasures. While Jurgis is freeloading Marija and the remaining family lose the house. Marija must resort to prostitution in order to make a decent amount of money and provide for the family. Prostitution is needed for survival in this case compared to the woman in the aforementioned movie.

I was more in shock with the poverty that Sinclair portrays than the disgusting things that happen at the meat factories. Even though the characters were not fully developed, the torment of poverty was. Poverty and extremely poor living conditions of these characters was what Sinclair was displaying in order to get the readers to feel some sentiment for the under privileged working class.

When I think of their poverty, I wonder how different things are for people today who have emigrated from another country and are living in poor conditions. Are there families living in Chicago today that have similar conditions like Jurgis and his family?

Fire Sale and a ghostly happening

2009-11-19T09:04:00.000-08:00

I enjoyed Fire Sale a lot more than I expected. I am not a literary snob by any means, but I am not a big fan of mystery novels. I stopped reading this type of stuff when I was about a freshman in high school, because I find that it is so formulaic that it's not all that enjoyable. When I started Fire Sale, I was less than enthusiastic, but I found that I enjoyed Paretsky more than other series mystery writers. She doesn't water down her language to the point that it seems insulting to the reader; she is pretty direct and honest with her prose style. I also was really surprised at just how liberal she is. While I expected a little leftist undertones, the blatent attack on stuck up conservatives and big box companies was very appealing to me. I enjoyed her hatred for the greed in the modern American economy, and her political points were very strong and pretty cool. Finally, I appreciated the Chicago setting. I'm from the west side of the city and that's where I am most familiar with, but I enjoyed the city markers either way, and I loved her portrayal of the neighborhoods, as well as the way that she was sure to show how hardworking the people are. I used to volunteer at a school similar to the one in the novel, and I have very similar sentiments to Paretsky's on the conditions of the children and adults in the neighborhoods people generally don't like. In my experience, while there are, of course, drug dealers and gang bangers and thugs in the hood, there are mainly people who are forced to work obnoxious amounts of time for meager wages. From the people I know, the reason they become drug dealers and gang bangers in the first place is because it's impossible to feed a family and make rent on $8/hr. I have a million reasons behind that, but Paretsky does a good job of covering the lack of privilege found in many of these neighborhoods. So...on an entirely different note, I was at my library job the other day and we had a ghostly happening. Apparently, I work at a haunted library, which is built where there used to be an apartment building. We don't know what the story behind the building before us is, but we're all researching, because last night was ultra spooky. We were closing, and when we went upstairs to the children's department, all the chairs were pulled out from the computers, and several of the computers were turning themselves on. We had just finished closing all of them, and were going back up to bring the last of the stuff to be reshelved, and to turn off the lights. Apparently this is not the first spooky happening here, and they all involve children. So I'll keep you posted on the ghostly library. Hopefully we'll find some great story to accompany the hauntings.

Jane Addams and Social Distinction

2009-11-19T07:44:00.000-08:00

Reading the excerpt from Jane Addams’ Twenty Years at Hull House, I could hear her voice coming through very clearly. She seems like a very non-nonsense kind of lady – practical and realistic more than idealistic, though ofcourse she had to be some kind of visionary to build Hull House in Chicago. I was surprised how clearly she spoke about class distinctions and how she differentiated class and finances. She writes about a British mother and daughter who were poor, but educated and had social ambition beyond their current circumstance and how Hull House was a refuge for them. Addams is aware of the ignorance that leads visitors to mistake this young woman for a volunteer instead of a client, while also being conscious of how easily even she could form assumptions about Hull House’s clients and their circumstances, which was why she would bring a client with her when she addressed an audience about the work she was doing.
I was impressed by how many of her observations are timeless, especially about the movement of new groups to urban areas and the social dynamics at play in such neighborhoods. How specific group distinctions are adopted by children and play out throughout our lives, whether they are based on how someone eats or dresses or speaks, we are always looking for those “like us” or “not like us”.

Addams makes clear distinctions between the members of the communities she served: the new arrivals, “densely ignorant of civic duties,” the families who have been there for awhile and are moving out as quickly as they can afford to, the formerly wealthy who have “fallen”, through no fault of their own. I suppose I found this worth noting in that she seems to struggle with her own judgments, realizing that she is an outsider who is unaware of many of the aspects of neighborhood life, but also that Hull House drew folks from so many disparate circumstances that she could not help but draw some distinctions, and relate these to the reader.

Chicago's Radical Writers

2009-11-18T15:08:00.000-08:00

Speaking of radical lefty Chicagoans, I found this on the Chicago Tribune website today.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-talk-fbi-studs-terkel-18nov18,0,6330783.story

I think it is so interesting that Chicago, home of the mass market meatpacking industry would also be the home of labor organizers, and that local writers were so involved in the movement. No political movement would ever succeed without propagandists and Sinclair, Addams, Sandburg and others helped spread the word that the new economy was inhumane. So many things we take for granted today, like the 40 hour work week and WEEKENDS were all brought to us courtesy of the labor movement that these writers helped raise awareness for.

Haunted Location: Blood's Point

2009-11-17T15:53:00.000-08:00

There’s a haunted location I considered for my project called Blood’s Point. I decided that it was probably too far from Chicago to work for the project, but I still figure it’s blog-worthy. Blood’s Point consists of Blood’s Point Road and Blood’s Point Cemetery, and it’s located out in the middle of nowhere between Rockford and DeKalb, IL. This is a place I’d been a few times growing up, and I recently revisited and research some more on the place.

How could a place called Blood’s Point not be haunted, especially when it has a cemetery, right? But the name actually comes from Arthur Blood, who established a farm on the road in 1835. So the next thought is that the place isn’t actually haunted, maybe it just gets its reputation from the name? Either way, there are lots of stories about Blood’s Point, including a haunted barn, a haunted bridge, a haunted cemetery, a witch, and a ghost truck.

You can’t really find Blood’s Point unless you know where it is, because the road signs are constantly vandalized. If you do find it, you’ll see a foundation from an old barn. One rumor is that the barn appears and disappears. Supposedly Arthur killed his family there; another rumor is that a local witch (who is buried in a nearby cemetery, but not the Blood’s Point cemetery) hung his children off a bridge on Blood’s Point, which is now supposedly haunted.

The cemetery is also supposedly haunted, and pictures of orbs are online, as well as pics of “hands” and “faces.” There is a shed there that is said to be haunted. In addition, there is supposed to be a truck that chases you if you drive on Blood’s Point Road, especially if you stop on the bridge. Local stories tell of a black truck all a

round the area; it could be a prankster, but supposedly the truck disappears in front of your eyes after chasing you out of the area.

So I went out there with some friends to get some pictures for you guys. I also stopped by car on the bridge – nothing happened of course. And no one chased us. I did get a lot of light spots in my pictures of the cemetery. I took a picture in a completely different location at the same time of day for comparison, and these lights spots do appear at dusk it seems. However, I got maybe two of them in a bunch of pics at the “control” location, but TONS at the Blood’s Point cemetery. You can decide for yourself:

Sex and Blood Sell, but only in the dark: Why Burnham really ended up in Devil in the White City

2009-11-17T11:07:00.000-08:00

Perhaps I am just morbid, but I found myself really liking the parts of Devil in the White City that revolved around Holmes, rather than Burnham. Perhaps this is just my love of fiction, or perhaps I am just some kind of sociopath, but I wanted more on Holmes.
Yes he seduced the women and killed them, and I found this whole thing fascinating. How dumb were these women? How charming and handsome was Holmes? Surely bad people existed in the 19th century- these women must have been instructed by family before leaving home not to talk to strange men. Yet they all went with him by the dozens and perhaps hundreds. Why? I wanted to know more about that, more about the history of the Serial killer, and what if any effect this had on Holmes and the women he targeted.
But instead, I got lots of Burnham. Yes, the feat of putting together the white city was a great one that required men and materials in great numbers. But do we really have to know how many flowers were put where? This, to me, was less interesting than the bloody corpses being shoved into Holmes’s mansion.
Perhaps this just makes me a bad person, or someone who borderlines on the psychotic, but did anyone else think that the book was really about a 100 pages on Holmes that needed to be spruced up with about 450 pages on Burnham in order to make people buy it? I am confident that more people bought this book because of the murders than the fair. Let’s face it, sex and murder sells, and fairs do not. There is only one character on TV that is an architect, and even he spends most of his time trying to get laid.
We in America, however, are afraid of our darker curiosities, and therefore in order to sell this book Larsen needed to add something legitimate. People could claim that they were interested in the architecture, and still get their fill of blood, guts, and sex that Holmes provided.

The Actual: A weird book somehow related to a romantic weekend in the woods (it makes sense, keep reading)

2009-11-17T08:29:00.000-08:00

Saul Bellow’s The Actual has good points and bad points. I found much of the novel to be boring, with a lot of useless information about rich people that I don’t care about. It seems like the novel has a lot of exposition and not a lot of action. Pages go by and nothing much happens to advance the story.
The novel is saved, however, by several things. The first is the in depth Chicago atmosphere. You really feel like you are in Chicago as El platforms and cold winters are described. Following these lines are the characters.
Although the characters are not John Goodman’s, “Da Bears,” guys, they are nonetheless very Chicago and very interesting. All of the characters seem larger than life, willing to do more than just the norm. They take back their wife, even after she hires a hit man. Furthermore, the wife’s accomplice (who also might be a former lover) is to be compensated with money, to “help him get back on his feet.” The characters in this story are quite unusual, and sometimes comical. They really feel like larger than life Chicagoans.
By far my favorite part of the novel was the ending. In fact it seems that the whole novel is a long winding drive through the woods, with lots of sightseeing, cumulating in a nice happy log cabin where you and your spouse can have a romantic weekend. I know that comparison is a bit crazy, but it makes sense; the end of the novel is happy. The narrator proposes to Amy, his long lost (or, if not lost, untouchable) love. This is really sweet. So often in literature, unless the ending of the novel is either so obscure as to frustrate or so depressing as to make one want to commit suicide. This is what is often held up to be great literature. Not so with The Actual. The end of the novel is both clear (they are standing in a graveyard and Amy has just been proposed too) and hopeful. (I choose to think she said yes and the two characters run away together and live happily ever after.) This is a great ending. It left me feeling happy- almost like I just arrived at a log cabin for a romantic weekend.
So my metaphor does make sense.
In conclusion, I greatly enjoyed the Actual. At times when I was reading it I found myself growing bored, but at the end, I was very glad that I read it. I guess if I was giving this book a review, my review would be, “Weird, but in a good way.” (This could also go along with the romantic weekend in the woods theme, but I will leave that to your imagination.) The weird thing about this book was that it was boring while it was going on, but the ending, particularly most of the cemetery scene, and for sure the last page, are fantastic, and really tie the whole book together.

The Actual

2009-11-16T11:55:00.000-08:00

...was actually quite boring in my opinion, especially when compared to Bellow's previous works. Unlike his previous works, Bellow does not really speak of the city itself, but instead, focuses on the people living in the city. It is a story of normal people, people like ourselves, and the ordinary lives they live. Perhaps this is the reason why I didn't really enjoy reading this text. The story itself is simple. There is nothing extravagant or grandiose about its presentation. There is no White City, horrendous meatpacking factory, or an exploration of the mysteries occurring on Chicago's south side. The Actual is an accurate portrayal of life. The detailed characters created by Bellow are the highlight of the novel. We are not given just basic characteristics or brief descriptions of their personalities. Rather, Bellow's descriptions allow us to grasp the soul of each character and dive within the human psyche in ways not possible in other writing.

If I learned anything from reading The Actual it is the common iteration of "seize the day". Bellow's character, Harry, frequently focuses upon those moments he let slip away, and it seems as if Bellow wants us to prevent this from happening in our actual lives.