Life & Culture
12 Years Down
12 years ago I was a senior at Portage Northern High School with a favorite past time of watching movies and goofing around with my buddies. PNHS hosted a talent show every year and invited [...]
Halloween
Halloween has its roots in underworld demons and all it takes is a little libation indulgence to let them bubble to the surface. I had my doubts about the holiday this year because I couldn’t [...]
Willamette Valley part deux
Being one of the lucky ones to attend this sampling of quite possibly one of the oddest states in the contiguous 48, I must try to relate a short seven day sample of this small [...]
Hood River, OR
I recently had the pleasure of taking the dog & pony video show out to my buddy, Luke’s, wedding in the quaint Willamette Valley of Oregon. A group of college friends rented out a house [...]
Anti-Wall Street Protests
For the past week, a loosely organized group called Occupy Chicago has decamped outside the Federal Reserve building in the heart of Chicago’s financial district. I heard about the protest from a friend and was [...]
Tailgate
Once a fall I like to get out of the City and enjoy some crisp fall weather at a Spartan tailgate. I love Big 10 tailgates; they’ve got the campuses, the green space, the rabid [...]
September 11th
God Bless the 9/11 victims & their families. And God Bless America. The above picture was the last time I was standing atop the towers in September of 1995.
this [korean] american life
[Ed. Note: The following are a few written stories of my adventures as a Korean-American—of the stereotypes I fall into, of those that I don’t, and of the silly everyday treasures that remind me: even [...]
The Most Ghetto AC in All the Land
It’s official, this July has become the wettest, hottest excuse for a month on record here in Chicago. Aside from giving us ample evidence that the world is ending, practically speaking, the dank spell here [...]
15 Minutes +/- 42 Years
15 Minutes (Give or Take 42 Years) I’ve had my share of celebrity encounters, some more memorable than others. I vividly recall a Mick Jagger sighting (in a Brooks Brothers store of all places) long [...]
Heat Wave
Guys, it’s hot. So hot in fact that all the local meteorologists are creating new indexes to try and explain how hot it is, numbers just don’t do this heat justice. Well, on the upside, [...]
Citizen Murdoch
“Mr. Kane was a man who got everything he wanted, and then lost it. Maybe Rosebud was something he couldn’t get, or something he lost.” -Citizen Kane 1941 The past few weeks have provided a [...]
4th of JULY!
The 4th of July is the smell of fresh cut grass in the backyard and heaps of kids saddled on red wagons. It’s the wind ripping through your hair as you cruise down the country [...]
An Evening at Wrigley
AN EVENING @WRIGLEY FIELD “It’s been said that God vacations inside Wrigley Field,” I explained to my kid brother on his first night to the famed stadium. My brother is here for the summer on [...]
Gay Pride Parade
“When Everything Else is Gone, All You Have Left is Family.” – NY State Senator John L. Sampson On Friday June 24, 2011, the State of New York became the sixth U.S. state to legalize [...]
Flying Day
UE takes great care to monitor the status of all urban wildlife found in the ‘hood because some of life’s greatest charms can be illusive- lost in the bustle of getting to and fro. That’s [...]
Summer
Today marks the beginning of the summer season in the City. I think it’s rained for about 4 months straight so if summer means an end to the rain, I’m all for it. The days [...]
Zombie March
Saturday, June 11 was an ordinary beautiful summerish day in Chicago. With the rise in popular street festivals, one was left to choose between Ribfest, Grant Park’s Bluesfest and Old Town Art Fair to enjoy [...]
Spring Nights
Spring City Nights The best way to live Chicago nights is easy: grab a bike, a camera, summon a few friends and make sure to fasten your helmet. Riding on bike from destination to destination [...]
Maifest
Twice a year Chicago’s Lincoln Square neighborhood is converted into a German beer garden to celebrate things both cultures love immensely: beer and sausage. It’s a sight for sore eyes, so much so in fact, [...]
Cabrini Green Demolition
In the 1940s the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) embarked on an ambitious housing project just northwest of Chicago’s bustling downtown area, and saddled in between two of the City’s most affluent neighborhoods. Supported by federal [...]
Blago
[Editor's Note: The above image was created by a photograph of one of the many Rod Blagovich ('Blago') graffiti stencils that have popped up all over Chicago the past few years. This particular Blago was [...]
Spring
["We should seek the greatest value of our action" - Steven Hawking] It’s spring here in Chicago and my block is buzzing in the neighborhood. Chicago experiences some of the worst winters and this past [...]
City Trains
This past February I hopped aboard the Specialist and rode over to my former enclave in Roscoe Village. A few years ago I moved in with some college buddies during my final year of law [...]