Goose Island

If you're not from around here, you might not know there is an island within the city limits. It has magnificent bridges running across it, I love the one at Division Street, with street names like Crooked and Hooker. One of the saddest and most vivid memories I have was when I was with old pal Joe from Hometown. We were kinda just driving around on our way someplace else, we made a turn, and there in the parking lot was a homeless guy washing his socks in a muddy puddle. It was maybe thirty degrees outside. The guy didn't even look up at us, I just remember the way he wrung out those socks so hard, like he was strangling someone.

Golden Heart

To Serve And Protect (And Sometimes Beat The Shit Out Of A Defenseless Bartender)

This prick is one of the reasons Jody Weiss is our new Police Chief. The cops think he's an outsider--he's from DC--but, fuck, they brought it on themselves. This isn't my father's CPD. Phil Kline, the last chief, was pretty good about looking the other way when a cop's buddies tried to strong arm witnesses. We're pretty much known for our gang murders, but the amount of assaults that go on by these assholes who think that they are so privileged. The fat fuck is still walking around, sentencing is June 23rd, and I like to think of myself as a decent person with redeeming qualities, but my biggest hope is that Anthony Abbate finds himself getting a nice donkey punch after someone has given him a strawberry shortcake, to use the proper Illinois prison vernacular.

Back to Brighton Park

Specifically Archer & Sacramento. One of the cooler intersections, but I am saving two photos of one building for tomorrow. Plus some shots of Balzekas, one of the Chrysler showrooms that is closing down. Back in 1992, there were crowds around that firehouse, I'd see them every day on my way to work at the comic shop, the goofy intersection which also included 46th Street. They filmed scenes from BACKDRAFT there, and you could see them driving the rig past the long building, now with the Zemskys sign, but in the 90s it was still Archer Avenue Big Store. I went in that place once, but ended up only buying shoelaces for my sneakers. Go figure. I put up a photo of how the southbound streets curve, because Archer is a diagonal artery. Lots of bungalows hidden by trees, a sharp bend just past the alley, this block was Archer and Montgomery. By far one of the oddest buildings at this intersection, on the southwest side, is Watra, a religious store. Look at that nutty balcony. I walked up close, the paint is faded,but it used to be a vibrant red and white, the colors of the Polish flag. Across the street is the place I'm saving for the next post. Rich Chwedyk might already know the greasy joint I'm talking about.

Truth In Advertising

Per my previous post, I do indeed have all of the original set of the Outer Limits cards. I should really post on my Universal Monsters trading card set, which came out about 1995. 105 cards in all, I think I have 97 of them. More when I actually post, but they are amazing.

Somebody's Watching You

First off, thanks for everyone who figured out where that image of the jump rope fiend came from, a Sony Playstation game. Well, jumping rope with monsters is better than shooting at cops or fellow students, I guess. (I mean in the game).

Bought a new webcam yesterday, because my nieces love to make fake news broadcasts, about the swine flu, why the think the Cubs suck, they've been doing this with my crappy old webcam for years. I fiddled with it this afternoon and discovered even more ways to make my face appear less distorted than it truly is...