“This might sound like I believe there is some vast conspiracy at work, which I don’t, but the situation we find ourselves in is effectively the same as if there were one.” – David Byrne, ‘How Music Works’
HEY THEY ANNOUNCED IT YESTERDAY SO I CAN TALK ABOUT IT HERE NOW. I HAVE A BOOK COMING OUT! MY DEBUT COLLECTION OF POEMS, LAKESHORE MONK, DROPS IN 2027 ON RIVER RIVER BOOKS!
I’ll have a blog post about this and another big news item in my life soon. For this week and next, please enjoy some pre-written (but very lovingly crafted) columns.
It is, after all, time for me to celebrate 20 years living in Chicago.
It is hard to describe what drew me to and keep me in Chicago without resorting to mystical terms. “I liked Michael Jordan and Frank Thomas and begged my parents to let me see Chicago,” is my standard line. When college came around, I wanted to go to a non-NY/LA city. Ideally Chicago or Boston, ironically two Jesuit schools. I uh, am not Catholic.
Well, Boston College rejected me, and I’ve never looked back.
Chicago grabs ahold of you. People say it all the time. It draws you in. Whenever we fly home and drive from Midway to the north side with Lake Michigan on one side and the greatest skyline in the world on the other side, it’s just—it’s home. Of course, many Chicagoans would say that Dusable LakeShore Drive is an abomination. Hey, at least we tacked Dusable’s name on it. Not that Chicagoans would know anything about name changes, which reminds me that I’m probably not making it to Comiskey Park this summer. Damn. Blame the shitty weather this summer, which only sometimes happens.
Anyway, August was my 20-year anniversary in Chicago. Vince Staples talks about summertime 06. Mine looked a little different than his. Here’s a list of things I’ve learned each year that I’ve been here. Many are highly personal, and I image this will be pretty opaque to a lot of people. It’s okay, the best parts of Chicago are opaque to a lot of people, too.
2006: the New 400 theater rocks.
2007: doesn’t really count as something I learned this year, but I wish I could tell 2007 Chris to avoid booking shows where he had to pre-sell tickets.
2008: no matter what’s happened since, I shoulda gone to Grant Park that night.
2009: Cunneen’s is the best bar in the universe.
2010: the four stars on the flag stand for Fort Dearborn, the Fire, the World’s Fair, A Century of Progress; Billy Goat Tavern burgers rip and they have good whiskey prices.
2011: the city is bigger and deeper than I thought when I was in college. Call this the year of exploring neighborhoods.
2012: Uptown is a fine neighborhood to fall in love in.
2013: there is more rec league basketball talent in this city than you might expect. Or maybe I thought my friends and I would be a little better than we are. Were? Are.
2014: who needs grad school when you live in the greatest city in the world?
2015: I got married this year, and we got married at a restaurant in Ravenswood that was otherwise an Argentinian restaurant. Sometimes they taught tango classes. It was a great venue, set up for ceremony then flipped into a dinner/dance floor in the span of an outdoor cocktail hour. We did rehearsal dinner at Harry Caray’s, and my aunt bought us a room at Hotel Intercontinental on the night of. Some people bought us drinks because we still had wedding gear on. The pool looked like the set of a Wes Anderson movie. What I learned what that the outside of a building doesn’t tell you much about the inside of a building. Chicago has a lot of buildings.
2016: doing the red line/purple line transfer four times a week sucks. Go Cubs (congrats on catching up to the cooler baseball team).
2017: wow the tech sector here is bigger than I thought.
2018: Prentice Hospital has absolutely incredible food. At least if you’re having a baby.
2019: flooding is getting worse. The city needs to update its flood prevention infrastructure, strategy, and public education efforts. In the meantime, you can do things like not run dishwashers, or laundry machines during severe storms. Look into if planting a moisture garden might be a good idea for your house/building. Be conscientious of your neighbors in basement or even first floor units.
2020: there was a lot going on. Rather than try to address all of it in one to three sentences (addressing 2020 is more or less an ongoing project of this blog anyway), let’s just say that in 2020, I learned that Chicago has great Colombian food.
2021: it actually is worth it to keep celery salt in your house.
2022: I love my child’s Chicago Public School.
2023: you’re supposed to put your kayak in the Lake at places where you see those green and red buoys. Yes, I should have learned this earlier. In my defense, maybe the life guards should get outta bed earlier. I’m usually kayaking at eight or nine a.m.
2024: when I first moved here, living in a 19-story dorm on Loyola’s campus right next to a train station and a billion high rises, I thought my nights of seeing stars/good moons were over. This year, though, I started going up on my friend/neighbor’s rooftop deck a lot more. Turns out Chicago has a moon just like anywhere else. Pretty good moons, too.
2025: no really, this is a city of neighborhoods. Yes, if the fascists come, the neighborhoods will organize and fight back.
2026: city parks district summer camps are one of the best programs we have. Sorry to end on an earnest one. Fund stuff for the kids.
We’ll see you for 20 more years, Chicago.
Sorry you got an email,
Chris