With all this time on his hands, he could get rid of the old songs.
After deep listens, many of them sounded too boastful. Others were sad. Too sad for now.
Just the other day he carried them upstairs from his basement. They weighed him down as he walked up the stairs. How could he have listened to these songs for so long?
Then, under the light of an early spring sun, he found the new songs. He heard tambourines in the alley. The old songs had collected dust but they turned into seeds of a new song. A child on a nearby tricycle hit every note. The old couple on their daily walk snuck within 5 1/2 feet of each other.
These were songs [...]
ROLLING STONES 2020 CORONAVIRUS SETLIST
“Doom and Gloom”
“Gimme Shelter”
“Fever” (Little Willie John cover)
“Wild Sources”
“Jumpin’ Jack Hot Flash”
“Miss You” (for empty arenas only)
“Let’s Spend the Night Together in Quarantine”
“Poison Ivy” (Leiber-Stoller)
“Something Happened To Me Yesterday”
“2120 South Michigan Ave/Mercy Hospital 2525 South.Michigan Ave”
“Sister Morphine”
“Just My Hazmatiation” (sort of a Temptations cover)
“Rocks Off This Cruise Ship”
“You Gotta Move” (Fred McDowell cover)
“She Was [...]
Kind and little incongruities make for a big and strong community.
And so it has been with my beloved FitzGerald’s in Berwyn. Think about it.
When Bill FitzGerald, his brother Chris and their late father Chris, Sr. opened FitzGerald’s in 1980, the working-class strip of West Roosevelt Road was a no man’s land. And they had the idea to create something like a Gulf Coast roadhouse? Smart money might have bet on a disco with 1980 hits like Diana Ross’s “I’m Coming Out” and Blondie’s “Call Me,” perhaps a Berwyn version of the “Stay Out All Night Discotheque” in Stone Park.
But it worked out to something beautiful, a song everyone could dance to.
Bill [...]
Two views of the Matchbox, with David & Jackie (upper black and white). Photo by Anthony Mata.
A good bar is a rich collection of loose change.
The patrons are a deep pocket of old and young, nickels and dimers, half dollars and occasional slugs.
The Matchbox, 770 N. Milwaukee, is my lucky penny.
I’ve been going to the Matchbox since 2000. I was breaking up with a girlfriend in Palmer Square and the Matchbox was my shrink couch on the way home to my place in the West Loop. Things change. I fell in love again at the Matchbox. Life moves on.
And the Matchbox was sold last week.
Owners [...]
