Essays, Interviews, Observations, Pop Culture, Stories, and other Dodginess

Are You In Love?

Posted on June 24, 2013

Are you in love?

It’s not a question I expect to hear while kicking it around at a street festival. But it was asked of me by the girl applying a (temporary) Celtic cross tattoo on my forearm at Chicago’s Pride Fest. I was taken aback a bit and wanted to know why she asked. It turns out she was unfamiliar with the Celtic imagery and thought being in love was tied into it. And something else about “the vibe” I was giving.

“Not right now,” I said. “But check back with me later. There are a lot of beautiful women here.”

Are you in love? It reminded me of the time I attended a party on Chicago’s north side. There I was introduced to the lovely Katarina, a fantastic kisser who played violin for a goth band. Her first words to me were, “Are you brilliant?”

“I think so,” I said.

“Then come sit with me,” she said. “And maybe we’ll dance later.”

It also reminded me of a time in high school when I told a close friend of mine, Sophie, about a girl I said I was falling in love with. It was at a party, and Sophie, in a seductive, somewhat drunken fashion, replied: “When did I give you permission to fall in love?”

Here are a few pics from Pride Fest.

Girls Rock!

These girls call themselves The Black Fedoras. They were playing near the fest entrance with donations going to something involving animals. Who knows, the one with the guitar could be Chicago’s next Liz Phair or the duo could become another Veruca Salt.

Celts at Pride Fest

Don’t see a lot of these at non-Irish/Scottish fests. Got Kilt? Celts with Attitude is based in Detroit.

Chicago Pride Fest 2013

These Guys

Pride Fest

Pride Fest

Theatre is Gay

In Indiana, Boom Go the Fireworks!

Posted on June 20, 2013

The city of Gary has announced that all vacant buildings will be used to sell fireworks. Some will operate through July 4 while others will remain open year-round.

In other news, neighboring Hobart says its opening a new fireworks store on Route 30 inside one of its existing fireworks stores.

“Hoosiers were calling for this,” said Hobart spokesman Dan Trillo.

The Indiana General Assembly just convened an emergency session where it will allow all liquor stores, closed on Sundays by law, to be open on Sunday strictly to sell fireworks.

“No Miller Lite for you, but feel free to purchase Cherry Bombs, Roman Candles and shells,” state Sen. Randolph Gerry said.

Indiana is embracing itself as the Fireworks State. Back to Gary, the city has announced its latest gun buy-back program. Only this time, instead of receiving cash for firearms, gun owners will receive fireworks.

There’s always room to sell fireworks, whether it’s vacant buildings in Gary or vacant land in Calumet Township. It’s where you can find Brendan Tooges, 39, near the corner of Ridge Road and Burr Avenue. Tooges has a unique “two-fer” business going on. He offers Freon refills for your car air conditioner and a small tent where you can shop for fireworks.

“I’ve sold rugs, candles and tire wash here along with my Freon,” Tooges said “But nothing is as good as gold as these here firecrackers. And the state allows it. God bless them.”

Julie Sturgis, of Merrillville, doesn’t want to bless the state government.

“I think its ironic that many cities and towns want to ban smoking in public places and yet encourages the sales of fireworks year-round,” she said. “Sometimes there’s so much smoke from fireworks going off that I can’t even see the front door of my trailer when I get home from work.”

Although fireworks laws are lax statewide, the boom of sales and activity occurs in Northwest Indiana – most likely to lure customers from neighboring Illinois, where fireworks are illegal, save for a few novelty items.

“I always come to Indiana for my three g’s – gas, cigarettes, and fireworks,” said Larry Jason, of Lynwood, Ill.

Northwest Indiana was in line to take a financial hit following the cancellation of its popular air show this July at Gary’s Marquette Beach because of the federal sequester.

Not anymore.

The Northwest Indiana Tourism Authority, which helmed the air show, has announced a replacement ticketed event, simply entitled Boom Show!

Instead of the Blue Angels soaring over Lake Michigan, local pyrotechnic operators will be stationed on a barge on the lake, where they will produce “Indiana’s largest fireworks display,” said a tourism spokeswoman. But that’s only part of it. Officials announced that visitors who come to the beach can bring their own fireworks and shoot them off randomly.

“Hoosiers love to blow sh*t up,” the spokeswoman said.

 

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I, Spider

Posted on June 7, 2013

Spider can often be seen working on cars in the Bucktown neighborhood of Chicago. That’s when we don’t take our vehicles to his homestead in Indiana, near a cornfield, where three or four non-operational vehicles sit in the driveway. They’d probably be in his garage but he has a lot of junk in there. Engine blocks, three riding lawnmowers (one that works), a motorcycle with no gas tank or seat, and various scraps of metal and car parts. There are several posters on the wall featuring women wearing bikinis and high heels (I never understood that look). There’s also a Sex and The City poster (TV show version) and on one shelf what Spider calls “a Japanese motorcycle helmet.”

Spider has been mentioned once or twice in this blog, and I asked Spider if he wanted to contribute to it. At first he didn’t know what a blog was. He thought it was maybe a cheesy title of a monster movie. “The Blog!”

I decided to decipher words out of his mouth  – sound bits from a conversation – and come up with a Spider post. It might be a regular thing. The monkeywrench says some interesting stuff. Here’s No. 1. It occurred while he was taking a nap.

I, Spider

You laugh…but I lay here and laugh. It’s not time to get up. When it is, I’ll work on cars or what-not. My online Russian girlfriend sent me an email in French. She sent me a picture and I don’t know, it was crazy. Her friend was in it and she had tight pants. My vehicle almost started on fire at the car wash today. Holy cow the flame was this high! Fast and Furious 6  is out and I’ll probably go see it. I have the last one on DVD. I do need a big-screen TV though.

I Spider