So first of all, my apologies to the mobile and AvantGo readers who had problems downloading yesterday's entry (and will undoubtedly have problems with today's entry as well). This, unfortunately, is just a natural side-effect of entries that reference a lot of photos, with just not too much that can be done about it; and that, of course, is why I only post photo-intensive entries maybe half a dozen times a year, and instead try as much as possible to just shuttle my photos off to my Flickr account, where people can click over to them voluntarily if they want. But hey, neither yesterday's nor today's entries make a lot of sense without the photos, which is why I'm doing two of them in a row this week. Anyway, so my apologies to mobile-device owners who are having problems with these entries this week (including me - yep, couldn't get it to load on my Treo, either). For what it's worth, I compressed today's photos in ImageReady before uploading them, which I'm hoping will yield better results within the mobile and AvantGo versions.

Okay, so the second field trip of the weekend! This one was to Quimby's Bookstore in Wicker Park last Saturday, to both attend and perform at a show taking place that night called "City of Destiny." That's the name of a zine/book-in-progress, in fact, by my old friend Katherine Hodges, about her crazy first ten years as a Chicago citizen and all the crazy things she had to deal with (including weird boyfriends, a period of severe weight gain and then weight loss, going back to college, a suicide attempt, and more). To celebrate her tenth anniversary of being in Chicago, she decided to throw this show and to ask all the little artist friends she's made over the last decade to come perform at it. And Katherine's like me, of course, in that she has a gift of collecting interesting people around her, so the show lineup was a rather badass one - Thax Douglas, Jonathan Messinger, Wendy McClure, and the list just keeps going on and on. So I've been all excited about the show just as an audience member, and had been looking forward to the evening for a couple of weeks.

I started the evening by meeting up with my old friend Jenna, co-creator of the ultra-snarky You Knit WHAT?! blog. This shot was taken in one of those endless new high-end restaurants that just plague Wicker Park anymore like a fuckin' blight; this particular one is where the legendary "Busy Bee" Polish diner used to sit. After a drink there, Jenna and I walked a couple of blocks to Quimby's, recording an audio post as we went. Here, a shot of the pylons holding up the blue-line train tracks, underneath the Damen stop. This is one of the things about Chicago, I've found, that Europeans are really fascinated by; the opportunity on a block-by-block basis here, it seems, to spy things that haven't fundamentally changed since the 1800s, when they were first built, and especially the way the social and the industrial used to blend in this city so seamlessly. Here, yet another reminder of how popular bicycling is here in Chicago (yeah, like my journal needs another excuse to bring this up). This is a shot of the always-full racks outside the Damen blue-line stop. We ended up getting to Quimby's early, so decided to go to Iggy's next door for another drink instead. And who should we run into on the sidewalk along the way, of course, but my friend Kate Cullen, another one of that night's performers; so she stopped into Iggy's with us and had a drink as well. Loitering on the sidewalk outside of Quimby's before the show, just watching the comings and goings of Wicker Park. Man, how many times have I seen this view in the eleven years I've now lived in Chicago? Jenna and I on the sidewalk outside Quimby's, enjoying some of the endless amount of mint juleps provided by Katherine for that night's show. Sweet and deadly! Just like my prom date, man. Just a nice little shot of Wicker Park at sunset. Unfortunately this is the only shot of Katherine I got that evening, which ended up being blurry. Anyway, that's Katherine, organizer of the night's event. My friend Kate, performing during the show itself. Kate has this great book she's putting together called Contact High, just memoirs about all the crazy drug experiences she's had in her life, which I'm supposedly going to publish electronically through GAD when it's finished; I hope she finally does soon, in fact, because I've read six or seven of the stories now and they're fucking hilarious. And this is unfortunately the only photo of Jonathan Messinger I got of the night; if I hadn't had so many fucking mint juleps, maybe I would've realized this and gotten an actual decent photo of him at some point in the evening. Anyway, Jonathan's a fascinating fellow - not only the creator of the Dollar Show reading series at the Hideout, and not only the creator of This Is Grand (true stories from readers about weird experiences on Chicago trains and busses), but also the Books Editor of Time Out Chicago. Anyway, I did a five-minute audio interview with Jonathan that night, who unsurprisingly turned out to be this really charming and funny guy. So, I'm glad I finally got to meet him, because dozens of people over the last six months have been randomly telling me how I should. Moving along, here is Wendy McClure performing, of Poundy and I'm Not the New Me fame. Nerds in love! Nerds in love! Self-portrait on the sidewalk outside Quimby's, as I recorded an audio monologue about the podcasts I myself am listening to these days, and why I'm listening to them. The front door of Quimby's. Yes, your suspicions are correct - Quimby's logo was designed by the now-famous Chris Ware, back when he was just a local artist who needed the work. Quimby's has a long track record of getting extra cash to local artists who need the work (including myself, who has written dozens of paid reviews for Quimby's magalog over the years); they're one of the major inspirations for the arts center I myself am trying to open these days. Katherine's boyfriend, Shag, another local writer, and host of the "Shag's Little Thing" reading series at Phyllis'. That night Shag also doubled as our bartender. Fuck, Shag, those were some strong mint juleps! Yet another piece at Quimby's from the Dan Clowes Merchandising Empire. One of the hardworking staff members of Quimby's, here helping out the officially one-millionth hottie spied at the store that night. You know, sometimes I'll curse the fact that Chicago has so many hot citizens, since I in particular am not getting to have sex with any of them these days; but then I stop and ask myself, "What are you thinking, man?!" Various rubber ducks for sale, on a back shelf at Quimby's. Another shot of my friend Kate, along with our mutual friend Josh there on the left (a poet himself, stand-up comedian, and member of "The Gentlemen Callers" sketch-comedy troupe). This shot was taken as I was recording their goofy audio report. And then after the show, a bunch of us ended up at Katherine's place in Humboldt Park, where I recorded my last audio report of the night (an interview with Katherine herself, about how she thought the show went, and where they managed to get a grocery bag full of fresh mint for that night's cocktails). Katherine's apartment, as you might imagine, is just full of retro kitschy stuff, from floor to ceiling; here, for example, is an antique birdcage spied in the living room, which just happened to match up with the window to produce this rather nice shot.

So that's it - hope you enjoyed the multimedia, multientry report this event inspired. If I haven't mentioned this, by the way, I'm really loving having the ability to do these kinds of reports this year, not only the usual text but also audio and photo, and am still in kinda science-fiction awe that I even have the ability in the first place. I mean, really, when you think about it, even ten years ago a person would need a vanful of electronics and a giant retractable satellite dish, to even have a shot of broadcasting multiple forms of media on a near-real-time basis; it's simply astounding, I think, that just little ol' me as an average citizen with a cellphone can now do most of what these old satellite vans did, pretty much from any square inch of the United States I find myself at any given moment (and even most of Europe, too, if I were to add the international option that comes with my T-Mobile account). I know it annoys the fuck out of my friends when I whip out my phone at get-togethers and start interviewing people, but I think it adds this really interesting, dynamic element to my website, one I enjoy interacting with at other people's websites, so I'm hoping that some of you feel the same about mine.

Oh, and speaking of which, I'm enjoying the audio recording so much these days, in fact, that I think I'm going to start up a new Blogspot page just for it; that way I can do them a lot more often, and about all kinds of different random things going on in my life, and not have to worry about muddling the concept behind my first Blogspot page [metafeed], which ultimately is supposed to mostly be a straightforward referral blog concerning small business, technology and the arts. I've recently gotten all inspired, in fact, by the utterly addictive podcast show Catholic Insider, in which this youngish hipsterish priest in the Netherlands regularly creates what some people call "soundscapes," what other people call "audio portraits" and other terms - where he just basically walks around the streets with his Minidisc recorder and records all the sounds going on around him, and provides a voice commentary on all the things to be seen at the same time. I've found these "soundscape" recordings to be this really intimate, enjoyable thing simply as an audience member, so want to do more of them myself here in Chicago, for those readers who would naturally enjoy such a thing from me. So, hopefully the next time I can get to an internet cafe, I'll be able to get this all set up and running.

Okay, that's it! Tomorrow, notes on how my second meeting with SCORE went, as well as some thoughts on "organically grown businesses" and how the subject is applicable to this arts center I'm trying to open here in Chicago these days. See ya later, masturbator!