Oct. 15, 2013—
If you are in rough current, you look for signs.
I live on the near West Side of Chicago where there are more coffee shops than grocery stores. More often than not I’m served coffee to go by slow moving, glum characters listening to Morphine.
This is no way to start the day. On Monday morning I stopped at Swim Cafe for their fine coffee and oatmeal with brown sugar.
A new barista was behind the counter dancing to “I’m Coming Out.” She was in her inner disco zone as she was preparing a bagel.
I knew the dance-funk song but I had forgotten who had the hit. I looked it up when I got to my glum place of work——(Diana Ross, 1980; [...]
August 18, 2013—
Like the shadow of a strong tree, the tall Indian man crept up to me from behind.
I was struggling to get my ailing Mother into the front passenger seat of our car. She can no longer walk. She can no longer get out of her wheel chair without the aid of caregivers. I was alone.
I have been through every moment of the long parental winter. Taking away the car keys. Falls. Heart attacks. Emergency room visits. But this tall Indian man shed meaningful light on a struggling moment. “Let me help,” he said.
He moved with the help of a dark black cane. He gently set the cane down on the driveway of the medical center in West suburban [...]
August 9, 2013—-
It seemed so obvious in this coolest of recent summers, but maybe I am a late bloomer. I grew up on a cul-de-sac in West suburban Chicago. It was the scene of a few joy rides, one no-parking situation during a Thanksgiving break party while my parents were away, and a couple of intense wiffle ball games with my younger brother.
A few weeks ago I took my Mother for a spin around the cul-de-sac court in her wheel chair. She is not doing well. The year-old twin granddaughters of Bill the Neighbor were in dual baby carriages in his front yard. The circle of life.
As your parents grow older, and then very older, you try to embrace the moment. [...]
August 3, 2013—-
FORT WAYNE, IND.—-The highway flutters and spins out of downtown Chicago to rural central Indiana. You are looking for something, somewhere that tethers you to younger days. All the motels along Route 30 are sold out until you get to Warsaw, about 35 miles west of Fort Wayne. A ramshackle Super 8 has become an independent operation.
The night clerk is a heavy set woman sprawled out on a saggy sofa. She is watching a flickering television screen. With one hand she is playing a game on her laptop computer. It is her good hand. With the other hand she is swatting at flies with a green fly swatter. “You’re lucky,” she says. “Tomorrow we’ll be [...]
June 26. 2013 33 things for Bill Linden to do on Route 66 (For his 66th birthday journey with Mrs. Bill from Chicago to Albuquerque, N.M. For more on the Mother Road visit the home page of this blog.)
1. Breakfast at Lou Mitchell’s, open since 1923 in downtown Chicago. 2. Golden brown chicken to go at Dell Rhea’s Chicken Basket, 645 Joliet Rd. in Willowbrook (adjacent to I-55) —first excellent neon sign photo op. This iconic restaurant has been in the same spot since 1963. The late Dell Rhea was an executive director of the Chicago Convention Bureau and was instrumental in bringing the 1933 World’s Exposition to Chicago.
3. Twin Spin in Pontiac, Ill.—-Pontiac [...]
May 29, 2013—
MAMOU, La.—The good folks of rural Mamou know how to start Saturday on the right foot. Fred’s Lounge opens at 7:30 a.m. Saturday, 420 6th St. in what is left of uptown Mamou (pop. 3,300). It closes at 2 p.m. For the rest of the week.
Hardscrabble regulars and a sprinkling of European tourists dance to live Cajun-French music from Don Fontenot and Les Amis De La Louisiane (Friends of Louisiana) who play in the middle of the bar. The lounge only holds about 150 people. The event is broadcast live between 9:30 and 11:30 every Saturday morning on a tinny AM frequency that is also magical for American gospel and 1950s rhythm and blues because it sounds [...]
May 20, 2013-
Appleton, Wisconsin—
I grew up watching baseball relief pitchers of the 1960s like Don Mossi and Hoyt Wilhelm.
These guys looked so old I figured that was why the bullpen cart was invented.
Even should-be Hall of Famer Lee Smith trudged in the mound for the 1984 Cubs like he was heading for a tax audit. The Bullpen Cart— or Car —has its roots in Chicago.
The cart debuted in 1951 at Comiskey Park when White Sox relief pitcher Marv Rotblatt was chauffeured to the mound. The cart was only used for White Sox pitchers.
After consulting [...]
May 13, 2013—
The bamboo plant flourished in the dining room of her Rogers Park apartment. When she moved away three years ago I inherited the plant. It brought us good fortune like bamboo often does. The plant illuminated the present and sometimes pointed towards the future.
I gave the bamboo plant to my mother. At the time she was 88 years old.
I always kept an eye on the bamboo plant during my Sunday trips to see my parents. My Mom had placed the plant on a small table near a window in the northwest corner of her kitchen. As recent as two years ago my Mom would walk out onto the back porch adjacent to the kitchen and mind the bird bath she put up [...]
PADILLA, COLOMBIA—- Catalina Velez is a rising star of the emerging culinary scene in Colombia. The 35-year-chef is featured on the Gourmet Channel in Latin America and Miami. She owns three restaurants in Cali, the colorful salsa capital of South America. She obtains many of her products from rural farmers along the fertile Pacific coast of Colombia.
Velez visits the producers several times a year. She drives out of Cali through sugar cane fields and poor towns illuminated only by strips of lottery tickets on crumbling sidewalks. She will listen to progressive electronica-cumbia or classic James Brown.
She says it loud, she says it proud.
Velez stands at [...]
April 17. 2013-—
INDIANAPOLIS—A standing ovation is due for a group of young urban planners who rescued seats from historic Bush Stadium on the industrial west side of Indianapolis. Bush was one of the jewels of American baseball between 1931-1995 until it was torn down.
Bush was often compared to Wrigley Field. I visited Bush and it’s brick ivy covered outfield walls with manual scoreboard during it’s final season
. I was told that Bill Veeck imported the Bush ivy to Wrigley Field. That’s not certain. (F.D. Clavey Ravinia Nurseries was regarded as the main source for the Wrigley ivy.) But this much is for sure: Bush was first. Veeck planted the Wrigley [...]
March 23, 2013-–
A sweet shout out from my friends at the Chicago Newspaper Guild.
Thank you.
The Meaning of Studs Terkel
Jan. 27, 2013— Elaine Layabout transforms global music through images from vintage dramas, kitsch and travel videos. The Chicago-based indie filmmaker is creating the video wallpaper for a monthly tribute to Tiki exotica that sets sail at 9 p.m. Jan. 29 at Maria’s Packaged Goods & Community Bar, 960 W. 31st St. in Bridgeport-By-The-Sea.
Well, Bridgeport-By-Bubbly Creek.
“It’s exciting because this is the reverse of what happens in movies,” Layabout said last week. “I’ve done music direction in movies where you’re picking music to transform the images. Here I am doing the reverse.”
A couple of hours of her work will be shown to the mixes of global DJ [...]
Happy Birthday Lou Whitney
January 10, 2013—
SPRINGFIELD, Mo.—-Lou Whitney props his feet up on the soundboard of his recording studio in downtown Springfield. The bass player-vocalist-producer has just finished his first show of 2013 with yet another version of the Skeletons, the most giving rock n’ roll band in America.
The Skeletons play regular two-hour Thursday sets which start at 7 p.m. at the Outland, a small rock club adjacent to Whitney’s studio. They start early because they have things to do.
Long time Skeletons keyboardist Joe Terry has to get [...]
The Chicago River on a December day
December 26, 2012—
And so there were clouds.
In recent years my Christmas Eve ritual has been to see a movie by Navy Pier, followed by a long walk through the still of Chicago.
This year’s fare was “Silver Linings Playbook,” a film with the bright look and colorful optimism of the late-1950s. I’m seasoned enough to know life doesn’t always end this way, which may be why I dropped tears.
But “Silver Linings Playbook:” sure beat the Christmas Eve where I screened the documentary “Porn Star: The Legend of Ron Jeremy.” That night the Chicago north side theater consisted of me and three silver-hared female film [...]
Spoon me! Courtesy of Bill Linden
December 20, 2012—–
Global warming has put a chill in the air of community. It is five days before Christmas and we haven’t had a drop of seasonal snow in Chicago. Few strangers offer a welcoming nod. They cannot be in a dour mood from dibbing parking spots on a one-way street. But then where I work some guys don’t even look up to say hello in the halllway.
Most people have stopped sending Christmas cards—-I did get one from my parents where the shaky cursive broke my heart. It takes time to get it right. The rapid growth of technology (Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, etc.) has made our space more personal, defined and [...]
The Brown twins (San Francisco Chronicle photo)
Oct. 21, 2012—
Every big city has people like the Brown twins.
Marian and Vivian Brown, 85 and 85, are San Francisco icons. The twins wear matching outfits and share the same hair style. They often would greet pedestrians with hand shakes, which locals believed led to good luck. For the past 15 years the sisters have sat at the same window seat at Uncle Vito’s pizzeria in Nob Hill.
Their smiles brighten the foggiest day on “Baghdad by the Bay,” as late San Francisco columnist Herb Caen called his city.
Familiar characters like the twins give every city a small town touch.
So when humble, [...]
Oct. 10, 2012—-
HANNIBAL, Mo.—We all live on an island.
Sometimes you just have to sail away on a stream of consciousness.
Capt. Steve Terry has been at the helm of the Mark Twain Riverboat since the summer of 1977. That is a lot of ups and downs along the Mississippi River.
From April through November the boat sets off from the landing at the foot of Center Street in Twain’s quaint Hannibal, Mo.
Towards the end of summer I jumped in my car in Chicago, drove to Springfield, Ill., cut west on I-70 and a little more [...]
August 16, 2012—
Frank Sinatra plays a wide-eyed ballplayer not unlike the Cubs Tony Campana in the 1949 comedy “Take Me Out To The Ball Game.”
He wonders, “Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be married to a girl who played baseball?”
I wonder, ‘Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be married to a girl who would go with me to ‘Frank Sinatra Tribute Night’ at the home of the San Francisco Giants?
So, earlier this week I landed alone in my favorite American city to see the Giants host the Washington Nationals at the beautiful AT & T Park.
‘Sinatra Tribute Night’ was Aug. 13 where fans texted and tweeted their favorite Sinatra songs and pictures of Giants [...]
When a post card cost 3 cents.
July 29, 2012—
BROOKLYN, N.Y.—-I never thought I would see her again. In the early autumn of 2007 I said so long and see ya’ later to Ruby’s Bar & Grill. It was an amicable parting. She wanted to dress up and move into a higher plane. I wasn’t getting any younger and I still liked old stuff like hearing the Drifters sing “Up on the Roof” on her jukebox that skipped a beat in the thick summer air.
Ruby’s opened in 1934 and became the oldest bar on the Coney Island Boardwalk. She closed in November, 2010.
There was no fancy exit threshold. Ruby always opened up to the great possibilities of the Atlantic Ocean with the [...]
July 20, 2012—
I can hardly wait. Soon I will have my favorite lady over to my house for a candlelight dinner. I will make my spicy jambalaya, well, because, it is the only thing I know how to make well. I will put on some romantic Curtis Mayfield smooth grooves in the background. On vinyl that crackles like a warm fireplace. And pour a glass of Super Fly Cabernet.
Yes , it is true. The man of the hour has an air of great power. The dudes have envied him for so long…… A line of three wines named after Mayfield hit songs will be out this fall.
Besides “Super Fly,” named after his 1972 number one hit, look for “Gypsy Woman Chardonnay” (pegged after the 1961 [...]
