Monday, January 21, 2008

Martin Luther King, 2008

One of my favorite things to do for Chicagoist is post stuff that wouldn't normally fall into my beat. In the past that's included music reviews, running around Lollapalooza talking to people that aren't from Chicago, and attending a debate between Ron Jeremy and a Pastor committed to helping people leave the porn industry. It also includes writing the about religious holidays and traditions, and the occasional reflection on an historically significant figure.

Since today is Martin Luther King Day, I did a quick rundown of events in the city today, and posted a video of Dr. King's final speech. While I was looking for information about Dr. King earlier today, I came across a nice set of "rare and unpublished photographs of the civil rights movement from the Life Magazine archive". Life magazine is a little before my time, but I remember looking at it when I was younger and being stunned at the powerful photography it presented.




The great thing about these photos is that they aren't about Martin Luther King. The few times that you see Dr. King, he looks very human, a man and a preacher, nothing more. Yet so often, I think that people lift up the man forgetting his message. The real reason the Civil Rights Movement succeeded is because they didn't lift up a single man, but rather people took his message as their own and carried it forward as their own.

Every third Monday in January the government closes down, the preachers get dressed up, and, like clockwork, the "I Have a Dream" speech makes the rounds in the public consciousness. That speech was not his most important, most courageous, or his most politically advanced. But it's what he's remembered for. As I was reading the unsigned letters the Reader's Whet Moser culled from the Chicago Tribune back in 1966, when King paid our city a visit, I wasn't shocked. It didn't bother me, or cause me to stop, shake my head and think of how far we've come. Maybe I'm cynical. But after watching the immigration debate, and the fury of anger and hysteria that it whips up whenever we start talking about legitimizing the people who have come here to work, I wonder if we've forgotten the dream that so many want to remind up of each January.

Here's hoping the next election changes things.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Spring Cleaning

The recent cold snap has got me dreaming of Spring. There are always a few miserably cold weeks during any given Chicago winter, but they always seem to be so brutal that no matter how many times you've gone through it, you never really get used to it. I know that I'll hate March when it comes, because that month is an evil bitch. She teases you with promises of Summer, while holding cold, rainy days over your head, leaving you stranded for weeks at a time without sunlight.


Back when I was an undergrad, I was getting ready to actually finish my degree. (I say actually, because it took me like seven years to conclude what most people do in four.) One of the required courses was 201, Professional Writing. Luckily for me, I took it with an open minded professor, who taught classical literature and creative writing. So while the rest of the class was wrestling with clunky words like "stated", "provide", and "furthermore", I was writing poems and short stories. At the time I was unemployed, had just broken up with a girl I really liked, and was getting ready to move back in with my parents. Taking his class as a creative writing course was as much about earning credit to graduate as it was about writing as an expression.

Tell Me More...

Monday, January 7, 2008

Winter in Babylon

So, I'm back. I pretty much took the month of December off from this, and writing for Chicagoist as well. It's funny, because whenever the semester ends, I always vow that I'm going to do all the fun things the I don't get to do when I'm in school. Taking pictures, reading, writing, digging through thrift stores. Those kinds of things.

And in the summer, I'm pretty good about doing those things. But over the holidays, not so good. I get all done with finals, then it's time to catch up on Christmas shopping, and visiting the family, and then it's all over. Whew!

Anyway, for the past few years, I've taken some sort of trip over the holiday. Mexico twice (Chiapas one year, Mexico City the next). Los Angeles. Puerto Rico. This year: Toronto. I know, I know. It's cold. But so what? I live in Chicago for crying out loud, so I think I can get down with a little cold. And Toronto is pretty rad.




Anyway, it was a pretty fun trip. We were supposed to meet up with the staff of Torontoist, and we almost did it. By almost, I mean that we made it to the same bar. But for whatever reason, in spite of me stalking through the bar asking everyone if they knew David Topping, we couldn't find them, and they didn't spot us. But oh well. We had a nice, quick dinner at Pizza Pizza, (you'd think Little Caesar's would sue), and then wandered into a nifty dive bar called The Tap. And let me tell you: Canadian beer? Stronger than American beer. I still can't figure out how many kilometers are in a pint, but the next morning, it sure seemed like a lot.

Tell Me More...