chi-town

Just back from a long weekend in Chicago, where it was sticky and hot and brilliant.

Mostly it was just a haze of eating grilled food and drinking beer with old friends and new, and laughing more than I have in a very long time. On Sunday afternoon, my hosts Dixie and Ben took me to the beach on Lake Michigan, where the water was ice cold, and our moods were high.
They regaled me with stories about their jobs, the "storefront" theater company" they work for, the hilarious characters that volunteer for Barrel of Monkeys, a wonderful not-for-profit that brings to inner city public schools a creative writing curriculum and then performs the some of the children's stories both at the schools, and for the public.

A public service announcement on Barrel of Monkeys: if you live in Chicago, Wisconsin, Indiana, or wherever, go see the B.O.M. public show, "That's Weird, Grandma," which is a selection of their very best and favorite stories. They perform every Monday, 8pm, at the Neo-Futurist Theater at 5153 N. Ashland (off of Foster). Really the best $10 I've spent in a long time. Time Out Chicago calls it, "The best reason we can think of to live in Chicago on a Monday!"

Perhaps the best punchline of the weekend, though, was the statuary on Clark Street whose slogan reads:
"For the person who has everything, say it with concrete."