Recent posts

Let’s start here. I want our relationship with public objects to feel like this. It does not feel like this currently. But let’s back up to a street scene in Chicago in the late 1930′s for context. You’re walking at a clip downtown because it’s storming. You hunch over and tilt your umbrella into the sheeting rain as people scamper for cover and taxis. Luckily your destination is this building and you know, thanks to having walked this route before (and a...
Read more

Recently, as we sometimes do to fill time, my family and I were asking each other trivia questions. My six-year-old daughter piped up with one from left field that made me laugh out loud — then had us thinking for the rest of the evening. She asked: What’s the square root of Chicago? Didn’t have an answer for that one, but it was ready-made for my Twitter followers and they did not disappoint. The literalists looked at ranking and square mileage, but perhaps this town if...
Read more

Keeping the flame alive, here’s the year-end giftmix. You know the drill. It ain’t the best of 2012 and it’s barely generically coherent, but these are the tracks that either (a) made people on the dancefloor happy at Beat Research Chicago or (b) were in one way or another special to my family this year. (You’ll gather that I took my son to his first concert, Roger Waters doing the entirety of The Wall this year, for instance.) Hope you enjoy. Tolva Giftmix 2012 by...
Read more

In 2007, as my parents and I were exploring the area around my family’s home town in southern Italy, we drove through an ominous stretch of landscape. It was Illinois farmland meets Mauna Loa, cropland burning as neat lines of flame munched what remained of threshed wheat into soil-enriching ash. Read more
Read more

May 2012. Eight couples of college friends all turning 40 this year, a 16th wedding anniversary, rum, reefs, and a commemorative mix of reggae and its descendants, below. Jamakeup by Immerito on Mixcloud We kept the spirit alive with a dinner party this weekend after returning home. Jamaican theme, of course. Shellfish watermelon ceviche (with scallops and shrimp, photo below) Jerk vegetables (summer squash, zucchini and mushrooms) and chicken skewers Red...
Read more