Chicago Report + Matador Playlists 6/15/17 & 6/22/17

01 Jul Chicago Report + Matador Playlists 6/15/17 & 6/22/17

Posted at 22:45h in Uncategorized by inkyinkinc

I am returned, Gentle Reader(s), from a self-imposed late spring/early summer hiatus from this page. Why, whence and wherefore you might well wonder. Well you might, although I’m quite sure that no one actually is wondering. I certainly wasn’t. Wondering, that is. The whys, whences and wherefores are simply that I found myself lacking sufficient motivation to slave over a hot MacBook day in and day out with little to report other than another Thursday evening’s inventory of Matador toonage. But do not be deceived into thinking that the lack of posts upon this page are indicative of a general lack of industry upon my part. In actuality I have been applying myself with a fair amount of diligence to other undertakings, variously of verbal, musical and visual natures, both hither and yon and betwixt and between. I don’t have anything much (other than some additions to the Digital and Analog photo pages) to show for it just yet. You’ll just have to take my word for it.

This particular evening finds me in a position to offer reportage of a brief but enjoyable excursion to das Stadt auf Windig to convene in a celebratory mode with Brother Geraldo and Le Buzz to observe Le Buzz’s passage into the realm beyond his half-century mark. Chicago is a town with which Your Humble Narrator enjoys an ancestral connection, Inky Mum being a native of the North Side (thus explaining YHN’s congenital allegiance to the Cubs). Despite this noble lineage I have not ventured any further into the city than the far northern burbs (from my base in Black River, WI, aka Ink North) in a good ten years or more, so this visitation was well and truly overdue. At the time of my visit the Cubs were off doing battle with the Mets in Queens, so I was not sorely tempted (and sorely tempted I would have been!) to attend any contests at the Friendly Confines. Probably all for the best—attending a Major League Beisbol game in any kind of style can cost a modest fortune and I would have done my best to drag Le Buzz and Geraldo along with me. We would have had to take out a home equity loan on the Inky Aerie to pull that excursion off.

Be that as it may well be, on the 11th of this month of June I flew into Midway Flughauf and made my way to the sumptuous apartment of Brother Geraldo in the historic neighborhood of Oak Park, birthplace to the great Don Ernesto Hemingway, Frank Lloyd Wright, Edgar Rice Burroughs, mobster extraordinaire Sam Giancana, Bob Newhart, Dan Castellenata (aka, the voice of Homer Simpson), Ludacris, fellow blogster Tavi Gevinson and innumerable other august individuals, notable and notorious alike. Situated above and behind a mom and pop cafe, Geraldo’s abode was newly stocked with air conditioners in each and every room, the temperatures in Chicago being expected to venture into the mid-90s on every day of our visitation.

FL Wright’s Unity Temple in Oak Park

After a sumptuous home-cooked Italian dinner on the evening of my arrival we hit the proverbial hay so that Le Buzz might depart early in the AM to attend to business in the city. Le Buzz is an architect of note and considerable talent and he has been a-work upon a major condo renovation in the storied Drake Hotel building, just north of the Hancock Tower on Chicago’s Gold Coast. Such renovation now being in a state of completeness, the time had come to document the fruits of Le Buzz’s labors and a dynamic duo of professional architortural photographers had been engaged to take on the task. When I had finally roused myself from my nicely refrigerated slumbers, Brother Geraldo and I lunched in Oak Park, checked out the newly unveiled restoration of Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1905-’08 Unity Temple, and then drove down to the Loop to visit the venerated Art Institute of Chicago. We were nigh upon the longest daylight days of the year so it did seem a bit odd when, at quarter to five, the museum guards started herding us in the direction of the exits—after all, our day was just getting going. But it was a enjoyable if brief visit and a ‘pop-up’ exhibition of the photos of Robert Frank was well worth the effort.

The lobby at the Chicago Athletic Association

We arranged to rendezvous with Le Buzz at the Chicago Athletic Association Hotel on Michigan Avenue across from Millennium Park. The CAA is now a sort of hipster hotel and the big room on the second floor that is designated as ‘the lobby’ is a wonderful space to park oneself for an hour or two on a hot afternoon, enjoy a snack and a cold beverage, and muse on matters both trivial and of import. The lobby room is a vast carved oak space in the Venetian gothic style with dozens of sofas, tables and window seats that look down onto Michigan Avenue. The waitresses don’t mind if you linger over your beer in leisurely manner and the spirit of Don Ernesto and other Chicagoans of note seem to hover over the stately 124-year-old edifice. There’s a rooftop bar called Cindy’s that is a hot-ticket hang—the line for the elevator was out the door at my last visit to the CAA.

Southwest of the Loop, north of McKinley Park, east of Lawndale—West Town? Pilsen? No one seems to know…

We observed Le Buzz’s half-centennial at Bruna’s Ristorante on South Oakley Avenue. Bruna’s is the third-oldest Italian eatery in the city (founded in 1933) and is now owned by the gregarious Luciano Slivestri, a native of Siena. We were joined by Brother Geraldo’s lovely lady friend Bernadette for the occasion and a wonderful time was had by one and all. Perhaps conveniently, across the street from Bruna’s (allegedly the site of at least one Mafioso hit) is the West Town Funeral Home, which begged the question ‘What neighborhood is this?’ Brother Geraldo was insistent that we were not in West Town, nor were we in Pilsen—the GPS tag that appeared on my iPhone photo. So what neighborhood, exactly, is Bruna’s located in? We forgot to ask Luciano, so it remains a conundrum, Gentle Reader(s). Ah, sweet mystery of life!

Hangin out on the steppes with the musk oxen

On day three in Chicago I took the El downtown with Le Buzz to see the Drake condo, and a lovely place it is indeed. The north side of the Drake is a condo tower whilst the other half of the building, facing the the Hancock Tower, is the hotel portion. The condo has the million-dollar view (depicted at the top of this post) over the Oak Street Beach, Lakeshore Drive, and the southern portion of the Gold Coast. The photographers were deep into their duties so after appreciating the beautiful finishes and subtle touches of Le Buzz’s design expertise, I headed south into the Loop to pursue the day’s adventures. Having already dipped, briefly, into the Art Institute I decided to try for something different and hoofed it to the Field Museum of Natural History.

No climate change problems at the Field Museum.

I had last visited this august institution sometime in the late 1960s and I had a hankering to wander through the old-school diorama offerings on the west side of the main hall. There was some sort of hi-tech ‘Jurassic World’ movie-inspired exhibition under a big tent in front of the museum but that was of zero interest to me. The old taxidermy displays and their elaborately decorated and faux 3-D painted landscapes are magical to me—they exist quite wonderfully on some fantastical plane betwixt and between the beautiful and the creepy. Quite a transporting experience.

An ungulate acquaintance.

I reconvened with Le Buzz for a cold beer at the Athletic Association before heading off to join up with Brother Geraldo for dinner. The next morning I headed home (departing, appropriately, from the Buzz cafe, just up the street from Geraldo’s digs), marking my first foray into 21st century transportation technology by way of Uber. My driver, Anita, was a lovely person and I thoroughly enjoyed our chat on the drive to Midway. I’ve never arranged accommodations via Air BnB, I’ve never gone on a date arranged online, I’ve never Tweeted, I’m not on the Book of Face, Instagram, Pinterest, or any of that millennial shite—all I have is this here, Gentle Reader(s)—my lil website, staking out its obscure corner of the intrawebs, waiting for you to come along and bestow the blessing of your precious attention. Be that as it may, I have nothing but good impressions of my first experience with Uberistics (regardless of whether its corporate overlords are despicable douchebags or whatever) and I expect I shall partake of their services again one of these days. I did also sign up for Lyft, just to be sure, in the old ‘belt and suspenders’ manner.

So here I am, a couple of weeks after the fact, back in my corner hidey hole at Ye Olde Matador Lounge. We’re heading into the pre-Fourth o’ July weekend and I’m hoping for a decent turn out this evening, but it is early yet. Thanks for tuning in once again and posted below you will find a couple of weeks worth of Matador playlists for your delectation. Be well, be kind, be righteous, and Goodnight Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are!

Matador Playlist 6/15/17

Grammar of Life – Charles Bukowski
Robot Stop – King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard
Tell It Like It Is – Aaron Neville
Murder City Nights – Radio Birdman
Kids – MGMT
How (I Learned My Lesson) – X
Stand By Your Man – Tammy Wynette
Mañana – Souleance
Sheena Is A Punk Rocker – the Ramones
Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker) – Parliament
The Boy With the Thorn In His Side – the Smiths
Beds Are Burning – Midnight Oil
Kiss Them for Me – Siouxsie & the Banshees
From the Floorboards Up – Paul Weller
A Mind of Her Own – Pedro the Lion
Soap Star Joe – Liz Phair
Billy the Kid – Marty Robbins
100% – Sonic Youth
Together – the Raconteurs
Oh Bondage! Up Yours – X-Ray Spex
Satisfaction – the Rolling Stones
What A Crying Shame – the Mavericks
Heavy Metal Detox – Wavves
Dawned On Me – Wilco
Heartbreaker – Led Zeppelin
Living Loving Maid (She’s Just A Woman) – Led Zeppelin
One More Drop – Meat Puppets
Bobs Wills Is Still the King – Waylon Jennings
Theme for a Sinner – the Koffin Kats
Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) – Kate Bush
Wine and Roses – Lars Fredericksen & the Bastards
Betray – Minor Threat
Dig, Lazarus, Dig! – Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
Have You Ever Seen the Rain? – the Minutemen
I Wanna Destroy You – the Soft Boys
Suture Up Your Future – Queens of the Stone Age
Black Hole Sun – Soundgarden
Crazy – Patsy Cline
Rockaway Beach – the Ramones
Pinball Wizard – the Who
Another State of Mind – Social Distortion
Lies – Skybombers
Born to Die – M.D.C.
Don’t Believe the Hype – Public Enemy
Wicked Garden – Stone Temple Pilots
Oye Como Va – Santana
The List – the Mighty Mighty Bosstones
If You Want Me to Stay – Sly & the Family Stone
Rock Lobster – B 52’s
L.A. Blues – the Stooges
Farfisa Beat – Squeeze
We the People… – A Tribe Called Quest
Teenage Lust – MC5
Just What I Needed – the Cars
Bitch – Plasticines
I Want to Hold Your Hand – the Beatles
Sophisticated Boom Boom – Kid Congo Powers & Knoxville Girls
Tutti-Frutti – Little Richard
Looking for a Kiss – the New York Dolls
Scarecrow – Beck
On A Plain – Nirvana
Don’t Look Back in Anger – Oasis
Atmosphere – Joy Division
Sun of a Gun – Oh Land
Lola – the Kinks
American Society – L7
Big River – Johnny Cash
Let Yourself Go – James Brown
There Was A Time – James Brown
I Feel All Right – James Brown
Cold Sweat – James Brown
Don’t Change – INXS
Barabjagal – Donovan & the Jeff Beck Group
Out At Sea – Heartless Bastards
A New England – Billy Bragg
Sound and Vision – David Bowie
Double It (feat. Big Freedia) – Galactic
Angry Chair – Alice in Chains
The Distance – Cake
In the Meantime – Spacehog
Use Me – Bill Withers
Red Red Wine – UB40
The Passenger – Iggy Pop
World Without Tears – Lucinda Williams
Buona Sera – Louis Prima
Happy Trails – Roy Rogers & Dale Evans (feat. Trigger on Goblinesque Glockenspiel)
Taxi – Bryan Ferry