As one of the regular hosts of The Moth here in Chicago (the incomparable Brian Babylon being the other), I like to open the show with a Ken Nordine-inspired piece of word jazz that sets up the theme for the night. All of the stories are required to utilize the theme in the telling so I like to try and cover a multitude of angles tellers can approach.
Out, damned teeth!
Jun. 17, 2013
I used to brag about my teeth for two reasons:
- I have never had a cavity.
- I only had two wisdom teeth.
Thank you, good genes. Dentists did recommend I get my shorthanded supply of wizzies (that's a cool nickname I've come up with for "wisdom teeth") pulled, but I suspected they were just trying to make a quick buck. They were fine. They were better than fine. They were mine and awesome.
We all know that pride goeth before the fall, though, and that fall occurred when my new dentist proclaimed that my wisdom teeth needed to come out, and she demonstrated this by showing me, in the mirror, how riddled with cavities they were. I felt ashamed. I ran a half marathon. I got my master’s degree. I gave birth to a baby. Yet I was somehow unable to stick my toothbrush a half inch further back in my mouth to prevent them from rotting.
West Garfield Park, past and present
Jun. 17, 2013In 1869 the West Side Park Board created three major parks. One of them, Central Park, was later renamed Garfield Park. The neighborhood immediately west of this park is Community Area 26–West Garfield Park (WGP).
Settlement here began in the 1840s, when a plank road was laid along the line of Lake Street. Chicago’s first railroad came through the area in 1848. The railroad became the Chicago & North Western, and later built train shops near today’s Keeler Avenue.
But it was the park that really got the community going. New construction sprang up in the area around it. There were single family homes and some large apartments, though two-flats were predominant. Graystone was popular.
A gentlemen’s trotting club operated along the east side of Crawford (Pulaski) south of Madison. Gambling kingpin Mike McDonald took over the track in 1888. The Garfield Park Race Track became the center of controversy, as neighbors feared for their property values.
Why actors deserve our respect
Jun. 17, 2013
Friends may outright tell you that acting is a terrible career choice, or barely conceal their judgment behind a condescending smirk.
However, what these people may not realize is that actors are skilled professionals (no matter how much or how little they get paid) and that acting is more than just strutting around a stage and looking pretty for a camera. If forced to deliver a monologue before an audience of thousands, they might have a better appreciation for what actors do every 18-hour day on a film set or eight shows a week on Broadway.
Acting is hard work.
Old Maxwell Street remembered on film
Jun. 17, 2013It's been 20 years since the first eviction notices were served on the vendors of old Maxwell Street; the opening salvo in a preservation battle that wiped away the Near West Side open-air market.
For decades, the area flanking Halsted just south of Roosevelt was a bustling, decaying place where you could find anything from clothes to car tires—all set against a sonic backdrop of electric blues musicians who jammed out in the open for shoppers.
What an incredible place. Of course, it's all gone now and replaced by a sedate neighborhood of residences, restaurants and facilities for the University of Illinois at Chicago. The university was the prime mover behind the redevelopment.
This brings us to the above video: a clip from the 1981 film Maxwell Street Blues. The 56-minute documentary by Raul Zaritsky and Linda Williams shows the neighborhood as it was and focuses and the folk who made the music there. Facets Multimedia has a DVD of the film.
The market still exists, but as a city-regulated, Sundays-only event on Des Plaines Street north of Roosevelt. Vendors set up shop, but the whole thing vanishes—like Brigadoon—until the next week.
Hawks and Bruins in Boston tonight
Jun. 16, 2013
It's back to work for the Blackhawks tonight with the series in Boston tied at one game apiece. There's a feeling that the Bruins may have not only stolen the home ice advantage but also taken the momentum. It was a bitter pill for the Hawks to swallow losing Game 2 in overtime at home. The Bruins clearly played better in the extra period.
So now the next two games will be Boston Monday and Wednesday night. The Blackhawks know the crowd will be as loud as the one the Bruins faced at the United Center.
Chicago's Duncan Keith says it won't faze the team.
“We go into these games knowing that everybody in the building’s going to be against us,” Keith said. “I think we just try and block everything out.”
One matter the Hawks have to cure: scoring when they have the opportunity.
Sen. Kirk, South Side groceries and an ode to lost open mics
Jun. 14, 2013
So the cat is out of the bag and you all now know this is the last month for certain blogs here at WBEZ. I’ll go into the specifics of my situation later, in my last blog, but in the meantime, I wanted to continue doing updates on some of the stories I’ve been covering for the last three years.
The Drew Magary interview
Jun. 14, 2013
I bookmarked the parenting columns on Deadspin written by today's interviewee long before I had a baby. His straight-shooting advice, paired with salty language I could get down with, made me feel somewhat prepared for parenthood, but moreso feel heartened that one could be a new parent but still be a human. He's got a new memoir about parenting out called Someone Could Get Hurt: A Memoir of Twenty-First-Century Parenthood, which follows the highs and crushing lows that have accompanied raising three kids. You can read more from him over at GQ, where he's also a contributor, or on his Twitter feed.
When, where and for how long do you write each day?