Aries Birthday

It's almost my birthday. Shit. Check this Austin Kleon's "Steal Like an Artist". Age is just a number-- right? As long as you are creative??!?!! Please!?

GAIA+Mental312

As a huge fan of street art and art in general, this weekend I went hunting for GAIA pieces out on the West Side. I'll be honest-- I had a real hard time tracking these things down (ones at Cicero + North) . The smaller pieces on North and ones at Madison + Ashland were awesome though.

She has a show going on for awhile at Maxwell Colette Gallery although since the opening has passed I'm not sure how I'll get to seeing it.

Also been hearing a lot about Mental312 hitting up UK Village. His geometric prints are straight out of the future. But the old Saks building? How did he do it? I want to be friends with him!


GAIA
GAIA



Mental 312



Mental 312

Starfish

A man goes out on the beach and sees that it is covered with starfish that have washed up in the tide. A little boy is walking along, picking them up and throwing them back into the water. "What are you doing son?" the man asks. "You see how many starfish there are? You'll never make a difference."

The boy paused thoughtfully, and picked up another starfish and threw it into the ocean.

"It sure made a difference to that one," he said.

-- Hawaiian Parable

Warby Parker

I love good things and good things that help people. Needlesstosay when I found out about Warby Parker and their mission to donate a pair of glasses for every pair bought, I was pretty excited. Normally I don't wear glasses, but sadly this is because my pair has been sat on several times and no longer can be worn outside the house without embarassment. Never fear! These glasses start at around $95.

They opened a showroom here in Chicago at Apartment 9 on Damen. After the coupon code, my Felton style glasses came to a total of $90. So excited to be able to see again, and hopefully another cool person in South American is running around with my shades.

Indie Darling Saturday

You know when you hit that point that your level of cuteness is post-club, post-hardcore, and inevitably indie? This for me usually happens at brunch on the West Side, when I look around at all the chambray shirts and Frye boots and start feigning for something that reminds me I am indenial about not being a hipster. I care so much I don't care. My only defense is to start eating my feelings of awkwardness, since I can no longer feel edgy by corporate dayjob standards.

Saturday I went to Treat out in Humboldt Park, and carb-overloaded (I don't have insurance so eating allows me to medicate when I'm not getting bought drinks by a guy). Seriously, my two loves combined: India and brunch. Really? Yes, it's that good. I don't know how they put masala and all those freaky spices without destroying the privileged perk of being a white hipster on the weekend.

The only way to counterbalance my feelings of anxiety about my place in the underground culture is to do something totally random with a boy of my dreams and remember that I'm on the path to greatness in other ways. In my researching, I found some abandoned hospital that sounded like a great place to impress someone with my creepiness; and then some Epcot-like themed restaurant that is actually authentically ethnic. Klas Restaurant used to be Al Capone's personal brothel and it has ghosts. Yeah, sure I'll drink from some giant steins staring into the eyes of a dreamboat while large cadavers of bears and medieval looking fish stare back at me. This is like a scene out of Blue Valentine before Ryan Gosling turns all crazy and Michelle turns into a total bitch. But we all know they just end up in that space hotel passed out drunk and totally into that hot douche we run into from college.

Too good to be true.

Daft Coke

Now that my department has permanently moved into the city, I get some of the insta-joys that come with living in the city: access to awesome things, encouraging randomness, lots of weirdos on the train. The last time I worked in the city it meant lots of bar trips. The entire block of Jeweler's Row is full of Pop-Up galleries right now, but that amusement can only last so long.

Drinking in the Loop

It's a disaster trying to get anything decent cocktail wise in the loop. Palmer House made a good attempt, but the food at Lockwood was a rip. I'm disappointed there's not a better option that doesn't involve Elephant & Castle. The Gage is always good, but you're likely to get your purse stolen than finding a seat there.

It's Chicago Restaurant Week-- and although it's an awesome idea and I realize the department of tourism is putting this together-- where are the cocktails? I don't need daily prixe fixe meals. This is Chicago! We attach upscale to words like "hot dog" or "pizza". I need to know where I can get my dream drink on.

The past few experiences I have had epicuranean wise have been disappointing to say the least. Bangers and Lace? Do you want to pay $20+ for a sausage? Yeah, I'll take the red hot please. Sable has got some amazing cocktails, but then you start with the dates and creme brulee corn and leave feeling like you dropped a salt shaker down your mouth.

I can't wait for the day I open up my own place and just have all the bottles look as cool as the ones Daft Punk designed for Coke. I should have known Colette was getting involved with this as well. Bring these to sale in Chicago!

Hermanos Iglesos

This video is helping my Mondays quite well. I am still in shock over the weekend. I never know if I reveal the actual stories of my life on here, or keep it private? Boundaries of the internet world I still don't understand. It's still creepy that my kids could find details of my life from my teenage time.