Vic Mensa - Down On My Luck

Reviving my blog to effervesce about this song / video / Mensa in general. Dude's going Groundhog Day on a song that will probably define my entire summer.

2013 Summer Jam - Early Edition

Just cuz I missed Tink 'Fingers Up' in 2012 doesn't mean I need to repeat the same mistake in 2013. By the way, the visuals on this one are pure summertime Chi.

Chicago Now

(via)

This Is Grand

...doors open on the right at Grand.

Lee Crooks is the voice of the CTA. Here you see him hard at work, perfecting his tone and pronunciation to make sure tourists, idiots and the blind don't miss their stops. As the website where I found this pointed out, "the look of disappointment on Crooks face the first time he says “Roosevelt Road” at 0:13 is the stuff of legends. Just so mad at himself."

Never a Lovely So Real

“If you feel you belong to things as they are, you won’t hold up anyone in the alley no matter how hungry you may get. And you won’t write anything that anyone will read a second time either.”

-The Believer profile on Nelson Algren. The story of Algren living in New Orleans, surviving on chicory coffee and bananas while making a living printing counterfeit gift certificates is especially worthwhile.

Rich Blocks, Poor Blocks

Curious about the distribution of income across your community/neighborhood/city/state? This map uses information from the American Community Survey to put pretty colors on things you already know.

put that on my mama pt 2

Chance the Rapper - Hey Ma. Chicago landing so many hits right now.

put that on my mama

ShowYouSuck feat. Mr. MFN Exquire - Carne Asada

On one hand, their lip synching is beyond lackadaisical  On the other hand, these guys are so excited about grilled beef it's kind of endearing.

Tink - Clique

100s - Slow Drip (NSFW)

Meanwhile, in Chicago

Scenes from the Green Line

Coming through the Loop in one of those midday rush hours that sometimes hits the Green Line. Suddenly our car falls silent and we're listening to a father explain how birds can't burp, so they can't eat anything with air in it.

Sun falls in slants along the car and we wait, for a moment as rapt and open as his two girls.

"You mean like pop?" the older one asks. She's maybe seven? Children's ages are hard to pin down. She's wearing some kind of generic shirt with sparkly letters on front. Sagging striped leggings. The younger one balances, bloblike, on his lap.

"Yeah, just like that."

"They can't burp?" She's suspicious.

"Yeah, so no gas. Or else they'll die."

She gets quiet, folded into herself a little, hands clenched in her lap. We hold our breath. He goes on, careful, casually. "I had a bird once, a parrot. His name was George."

"George?” the eldest says.

“Mm-hmmm.”

“Well that's not a very birdlike name!”

"It's not?"

"I wouldn’t call it George. I would call it...Birdy!"

And there it was. In the decisiveness of her tone and the childishness of her answer and the way he pulled her in with one arm. Their entire future. We sort of relaxed our attention, turning back to books and ipods and city outside, knowing that he would never get tired of her. Never stop giving his tenderness and time, because she needed them. That between them there was this indelible love, because she was the same as him, an ambulatory part of him.

"Mbababaa," the littler one said.

swag swag swag

Chicago's own Hypnotic Brass Band covers 'SpottieOttieDopalicious'.

that tweaky video game beat. King Louie too cool.

one killed, two injured in freak manhole cover accident

Source: Chicago Tribune, May 30, 1937

petarded

What was the last word you learned? And I don't mean those flash-in-the-pan Internet portmanteaux that fizzle as soon as they're sparked. Mine is petard.

A list of foods named after people. 

As we speak, Cabrini Green is getting torn down.  Project Cabrini Green is an art installation that illuminates the empty building with staccato flashes of light, haunting the apartments and reminding passers-by of the lives lived between those concrete walls:


I've been holding out on you: April is National Poetry Month. Here's where I get my daily fix.

Pick one, but choose wisely: 10 Short 'How To' Guides for the Modern Internet Persona.

Lil Wayne is, apparently, only one stretch of skin away from achieving his dream of a full-body tattoo wetsuit. Guess which stretch.

Smokey Robinson, on Being Sampled: "Sample all of mine. (Laughter) Please. I beg of you, sample all of mine, man, because – really, because first of all, what better form of flattery is that, for a young artist who wasn’t even born when that song was written to hear that song and say, “Hey, man, I love this song so much I’m going to include it in one of my songs,” you know what I mean?" More.

slush fund

parts of chicago still look like this

snoblivion

abandoned cars on lakeshore drive (chicago tribune)

drifted bus

Bomb Threats and Weak Links

There’s a Planned Parenthood a few blocks from my work, one of a handful in Chicago offering pregnancy termination. This morning clinic workers showed up to find a box waiting on the sidewalk outside their office. Later, someone called threatening to detonate the bomb inside.

Police moved quickly. In a few minutes they’d cordoned off most of the neighborhood, rerouting buses and frustrating the last of the morning commuters. We watched the lockdown from our window. Displaced nurses stood on the corner hugging each other and glancing over their shoulders. My boss fretted over whether to send us home.

Wintry Mix

Walking the streets of Chicago today reminds me of riding a giant Slip-n-Slide the length of the entire city. Snow has melted to slush, then slicked with rain. I feel like I should be scooting around on my butt, not foolishly trying to keep my feet under me.

Since we don't have cable yet, I've seen exactly 0% of the winter Olympics. I hear we won the hockey game against Canada though, so....yay?

Even more yay: recycled Olympic medals.

Found a new cafe to park my laptop. They've been playing Magnetic Fields all afternoon but it's still nice.

Stories written from a child's point of view that aren't precocious, twee or thoroughly non-credible: glorious.

Looking for a way to avoid your real work? This adorable short film about procrastination should do quite nicely (cross-listed at the Apiary Corp.)

Image: A tree grows in Denmark