Just under the surface,very near the top,under the foambut below the lipis a sizzling silenceset to announce itself.I heard it movingthrough the train carsand in all the talk atthe bars. It’s about tospill out in front, atyour feet.It’s current i…
- 3 days ago, 18 May 12, 2:18pm -

Howard was winded and could barely keep his feet moving forward. The road was dusty with desert sand and the sun was overwhelmingly cruel. It was cruelty he felt he deserved so he kept plodding along trying not to think about the water in his two can…
- 3 days ago, 17 May 12, 4:22pm -

Okay, the title of this piece is a terrible pun but I couldn’t help myself. There’s just so much electricity in the air in Chicago regarding the upcoming NATO summit to be held this weekend. A lot of folks are on edge about the clear impending do…
- 5 days ago, 16 May 12, 3:07pm -

I sweat the small stuff and almost never worry about the big stuff. It’s just who I am or at least it’s the person I’ve become. I get a little upset when there’s no sugar left at the coffee station at work. All that’s there is the god damn…
- 5 days ago, 15 May 12, 3:57pm -

Greg started to pull and poke at his face in the mirror. Puss and gunk came out from under his eyelids and hard crust fell from his lower lids. He squeezed around his nose and more puss oozed out from the pores in his skin. He didn’t scream or cry.…
- 6 days ago, 14 May 12, 3:52pm -

The train was rattlingalong with the hushedtones of secrets and half-truths.I heard the muffled andconstant sound of storiesbeing concealed from theprying ears of strangers.I could only catch hushedwords like, “belly”, and“lion face” over the…
- 9 days ago, 11 May 12, 3:54pm -

In my catholic grammar school days of the 1980’s, the worst possible insults another boy could hurl at another boy was to call them, “gay”, or, “faggot”, or “queer”; especially in front of the girls. The whole idea of homosexuality was…
- 10 days ago, 10 May 12, 4:34pm -

I’ve got a lot of things to saytoday but I’ve no timeto say them in.  It’s too busy in here,too much activity atmy desk, on my phone, in my head. So I give you this paltry piece ofnothing just placed tofill the blankness ofthe page. 
- 11 days ago, 9 May 12, 3:39pm -

“Fingers flew furiously over the faded keyboard while a foggy framed familiar focused like a filament for a few flaming flashes.”John sat back in his chair and marveled at his magnificent use of words and language. All his college professors that…
- 12 days ago, 8 May 12, 3:21pm -

I have always really liked The Beatles. Even though I didn’t grow up in the true Beatle era I’ve always really enjoyed them. Recently my local watering hole jukebox was updated with nearly the entire Beatles collection of music and I almost never…
- 13 days ago, 7 May 12, 4:08pm -

The Prairie Avenue District is going to get a brand new mansion to go with all the historic mansions down there.  It’s going to be 13,000 square feet on the same block as the Marshall Field, Junior mansion (1919 South Prairie Avenue).  Crains Ch…
- 2 days ago, 18 May 12, 8:38pm -

The Coast Guard Cutter Hollyhock is stationed at Navy Pier (600 East Grand Avenue) and patrolling the Chicago lakefront during the NATO summit.
- 3 days ago, 18 May 12, 2:04pm -

The Coast Guard has parked 21 zodiac boats in the Chicago River, equipped with machine guns on the bow, as part of the security efforts for this weekend’s NATO summit.  In the back you can see a mobile Coast Guard command center in a double-wide t…
- 3 days ago, 18 May 12, 1:58pm -

This isn’t exactly a Chicago story, but since so many people in Chicagoland have a keen interest in anything involving Frank Lloyd Wright, we thought we’d let everyone know about what’s happening out at Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona. The…
- 3 days ago, 18 May 12, 1:37pm -

If you’ve been down La Salle Street in the last few days, you may have noticed this on the walls at number 135 South. They’re shiny metal plates covering up signs that read “Bank of America Building.” The timing would suggest that they’re i…
- 4 days ago, 17 May 12, 1:12pm -

Just a few hours after we published our article about River Point (444 West Lake Street), the new office tower expected to break ground soon at the confluence of the Chicago River and its north branch, Hines sent along a press release about the proje…
- 4 days ago, 17 May 12, 11:25am -

For the first time in 14 years, an office tower is going up in Chicago without already having a raft of tenants lined up. Crain’s Chicago Business reports that Hines, Ivanhoe Cambridge, and Chicago’s own Larry Levy are moving forward with their n…
- 4 days ago, 16 May 12, 3:13pm -

A strip of urine-soaked concrete, and scraggly trees in the heart of Streeterville will remain closer to urban blight than urban paradise for the foreseeable future. Ogden Plaza was reconstructed as recently as 1990 in a design by Lohan Associates. I…
- 5 days ago, 16 May 12, 12:30pm -

In the decade I’ve been writing this blog, posting hundreds of “Slices of Life” from all corners of the city, I have never seen this before. It’s The Spirit — one of the big ships that takes tourists on dinner cruises from Navy Pier.  But…
- 5 days ago, 15 May 12, 9:14pm -

As the city of Chicago gets all ready for its appointment with the global spotlight, we’ve noticed a number of changes around town. In addition to the usual barricades being stockpiled in strategic locations, and the disappearance of our Big Mouth…
- 6 days ago, 14 May 12, 3:50pm -