Bill Hillman’s Windy City Story Slam Semi-Finals were at the Chicago Urban Arts Society last night.

15 storytellers, 5 make it to the Finals.  Here’s who won.

• Shannon Cason - Moth StorySLAM Grand Slam Champion
• Patrick Salem - probably from something but can’t it find right now
• Samantha Irby - bitches gotta eat
• Scott Whitehair - Story Lab and This Much Is True
• Cara Brigandi - Grown Folks Stories
• Yes, and me! Luis Antonio Perez

Big Nod to Jeff Kerr of Criminal Class Press and Deb Lewis of 2nd Story who also killed it last night.

I am blessed to share a stage with such talented people. Not only talented but  also cool to hang with. Chicago is murdering the game on storytelling right now. It has offered me the opportunity to rub elbows with these mega talents and will make for great “I knew them when” stories for the near future. You may not know these folks now, but you will. #RepChi

It’s sad but I feel like we’re gonna see a lot these kinds of cover images in the next few weeks.

One of the most interesting doors in Chicago. Wonder whats behind it.

Diane, Brian, Rati, and Lawrence Woods were my personal favorites at the Chicago Moth at Martyrs last night.

From the left. Myself, Chicago radio legend WBEZ’s Richard Steele, 2012 Vocalo DJ competition winner DJ Shazam Bangles, Mr. Chicago Music with over 40 years in the business a pioneer in the music industry George Daniels, co-host Shantell Jamison, and legendary Chicago DJ Jesse De La Pena.

teamvocalo:

George Daniels of “George’s Music Room” with #teamvocalo (Taken with instagram)

Parking the Shoreline

L is for LorthsideNou

120 E. Illinois, Chicago

Doris Salcedo (Colombian, b. 1958)

Untitled, 1989–93, Twenty-two cloth shirts with plaster and steel Collection of Penny Pritzker and Dr. Bryan Traubert, Chicago

Untitled, 1989–93, Twenty-one cloth shirts with plaster and steel Collection of Marilyn and Larry Fields

Untitled, 1989–93, Forty-one cloth shirts with plaster and steel Collection of Barbara Blhum-Kaul and Don Kaul.

MCA Chicago. Doris Salcedo’s stiff white columns of folded men’s shirts hint at something ominous. While these geometric units seem orderly, the poles that pierce the shirts’ right shoulders disrupt the appearance of symmetry, lending an undeniable air of violence. Based on the testimony of forty Colombian women who saw their husbands murdered for participating in organized labor struggles, these works offer a seemingly unassuming counter-monument to victims of state-sanctioned terror. With their workaday banality, the stacked shirts are a poignant reminder of their absent wearers, silent stand-ins for those who have disappeared.

This is some old letterhead I found at the station.

Waiting for Godot… At Grand Ave.

Hey adidas, send me more of these. And one of those hoodies too. Thanks a bunch.