Tag Archives: journalism

The Reader loses writers, the city just loses

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The Beachwood Reporter says it so I don’t have to.

No matter what your stripes, or what you look for from your local periodicals or city journalism, you should be mourning the loss of John Conroy from the Reader’s pages. If a newspaper can be said to have a soul, he was it. That’s no knock against the work that Henderson, Mogira and Marlan turned out, but Conroy was the living, breathing spirit of the paper’s advocacy wing.

As usual, Michael Miner is offering the best reporting on the Reader’s goings-on including the spot between a rock and a hard place that editor Alison True’s been living in since August: cut the budget but don’t lose what makes the Reader, the Reader. The rock just gave way.

I think the Reader is about a year away from going online-only, and I have yet to have someone tell me why that would be a bad thing, or how it would be any more damaging to the paper than a move like this.

Equally cursed and blessed

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At the risk of sounding redundant, work’s been a rather consuming force as of late. Today I put in a full workday, and left only because I knew I’d be doing another few hours of work at home. And yet still I won’t get done everything I want to do. While I’m able to have a sense of accomplishment, I tend to dwell on that which remains unfinished, or lacking. It’s one of those things I pull out in job interviews when they ask you to “three negative traits about yourself” because I’m able to turn it around and demonstrate what a hard worker I am, although thinking about it now, I could see how it might come off as obsessive-compulsive.

It is in moments like these that I try to remind myself why I love my job, and that other people (and those “people” include “me-a-year-ago”) would kill to have this gig.

So here are five things I did today, all of which were absolutely essential to me doing my job well.

1. Had two conversations with two different colleagues (it seems important to note here that they were both female), about the phrase “Standing, face-down, ass-up” and whether it was A) physically possible to arrange oneself in this manner; B) confusing for the reader to read this phrase and therefore C) necessary to change the copy to the less-confusing “standing” and, if so, D) too far away from the intended meaning. All of this was done while trying to pretend as if I was having a conversation about staples, lint, or something similarly innocuous so as to not do anything that we were told not to do during the sexual harassment seminar a few months ago.

2. Borrowed a third colleague’s action figures in order to resolve Part A of the above quandary. (Answer: Yes, thereby requiring the resolution of Parts B, C, and D, the answers to which were yes, yes, and no, respectively.)

3. Asked a superior whether “Tell us how you do it, you know you want to” was appropriate language for an e-mail that will eventually go out to over 20,000 people, only to have her reply “Sure, that’s cute.”

4. Resized a photo, which required me to spend an inordinate amount of time staring at a 25-year-old woman dressed in nothing more than a sequined bra, sequined hot pants and fishnets. Granted, that woman was Britney Spears, but still.

5. Purchased $17 worth of non-alcoholic beer, of which six dollars worth will be consumed by my colleagues for a work-related purpose. The remaining 12 dollars worth will probably end up getting thrown out, but I’m going to try to give it away on Craigslist first just to see if that’s possible. That last part isn’t job-related, I’m just curious.

I got paid to do all five of those things.

Seriously, my job is pretty cool sometimes.

Long week

Comics, Media, Music, ,

Work’s been squeezing my mindgrapes dry this week, hence the lack of blogging. But here are a few things I noticed this week. They’re mostly local issues, which will probably disappoint all those who’ve arrived here by Googling “nine west high waist jeans.”

Chicago Tonight, regardless of what happened that day
The flood waters were big news yesterday, and all concerned – from the local MSM to the folks who helped each other hold together in relatively trying times – coped with it in a cool-headed manner, but I was most struck with how the folks at Chicago Tonight managed to broadcast their show, live, from their control room after their studio flooded. An odd sort of intimacy resulted, and I kept expecting Elizabeth Brackett and Eddie Arruza to sip from cups of tea.

Chicago Lack of Transit Authority
I’ve been mostly impressed with Ron Huberman’s conduct as CTA President. I do wonder how they agency continues to “find” money to make slow zone repairs and scale back predicted fare and service cuts when we were told for so long that such a thing would be impossible. I’m sure some capital programs are getting cut – just a hunch, mind you – but I haven’t seen any reports that mention anything like this happening.

I’ll be very interested to see how Huberman weathers the lack of CTA funding in the almost-passed state budget. You can only cry wolf so many times, and since there’s now talk that they’ll suck it up until the end of the year when a capital funding plan can be put in place, people are going to have a hard time believing in a “Doomsday” scenario, going forward, though it appears CTA VP Dorval Carter disagrees. Much like the record industry, the CTA ought to stop threatening its customers and find a way to work with them instead.

And finally tonight…

Next up: TV not a cultural wasteland!
I really like the Tribune’s Julia Keller. I think “low” culture tells us as much about a society as its politics, history and sociological framework, and she doesn’t shy away from the lighter aspects of life. Honestly, I’ve had a thing for her since she tackled the old Superman vs. Batman debate.

But man, I wish she had told her editor that the “Comics: Not just for weirdos” angle was the wrong one to take on this story about Douglas Wolk’s Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean. The Beachwood Reporter (with an assist by So-Called Austin Mayor) says it all in the last item here. The Trib – by its very nature – is usually late to the game on cultural trends and tends to be approach these stories as the very reactionary paper it’s often accused of being (“Some even claim to be–gasp–making money. Some crazy folks are even opening new ones.”). To be fair, the Trib’s Mo Ryan, Eric Zorn and Mark Caro know how to put their finger to the zeitgeist.

So maybe they can sit in on more story meetings. For instance, can someone explain to me why the Trib is so geeked on vinyl lately? Monica Kendrick over at the Reader blogged about a recent Trib editorial that extolled the virtue of the black circle, but she didn’t mention that they wrote an article on this very same topic earlier this month that was pegged to the resurgence of independent record shops (which incidentally TOC covered back in March) not to mention last June when they wrote about it.

Anyone who follows music knows this story gets trotted every year or two. And I don’t think vinyl gets “big” – or bigger as the case may be – each time. There isn’t an ebb and flow with a love of vinyl, but there is a steady stream of folks who cultivate this love the way some people cultivate a garden. But just like you can’t grow all plants in the same dirt and light, you only get true richness from vinyl with the proper sound system, which most people don’t have the desire to learn about or cash to purchase. And it’s why vinyl will be as “big” now as it will the next time this chestnut gets trotted out.

On the radio, woah-oh on the radio

Music

I’ll be appearing on the WLUW radio show Outside The Loop RADIO with Andy Hermann and Mike Stephen next Friday at 6 pm. I’ll be discussing Lollapalooza. I imagine we’ll talk about which bands to see, which ones to skip and why you should be wary of Patti Smith being booked at Kidsapalooza. You can listen online here, or check out the archives at OTL Radio.

By the way, if you haven’t been following the story behind Loyola taking over WLUW, I’d recommend this report from Chicagoist and my report on the TOC Blog.

From the archives

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When I was doing some freelance work, I wrote a couple pieces for Centerstage Chicago as part of its “Out From Behind the Bar” series, which were interviews with local bartenders. Without getting to into Chicago’s history, this is a tavern town. Not so much now, but certainly before. There are some amazing stories out there, and it’s a shame there aren’t enough venues for them. Moreover, there wasn’t room for everything in the published pieces, and some great stories got dropped for space.

Tonight I was at the Village Tap, and ran into John Talley, who I interviewed for a BTB piece a while back. As I was sitting there tonight, I thought it was a crime that some of his stories would never see the light of day. The full interview is a lot of fun, though some of it was off the record. So here’s a combination of my original edit, combined with the piece as it originally ran.

Truth be told, the whole reason I’m posting this is for the “worst night working here” story.

Life in the Village with John Talley
Storytelling with the Village Tap’s longtime bartender

Over the past few years, strollers and dogs have replaced the gangs that used to hang out on the street corners of Roscoe Village. Yet the Village Tap – and bartender John Talley – remain.

Often cited for its award-winning, year-round beer garden, the bar resides in a space with a long, alcoholic history, dating back to the 1930s. The atmosphere changes depending on the night, or who’s behind the bar, but the warm wood and exposed brick give patrons a feeling of coming home.

Like the bar, Talley’s own history is closely tied to the neighborhood. With the exception of a yearlong motorcycle trek down to South America, he’s worked at the Village Tap for the last 13 years, not too far from where his father and grandfather grew up.

“It afforded me to go to school, to buy my own place, to take off for a year, all that kind of stuff,” he says. “In any job, that’s all you’re looking for.”

Best drink in the house: “Probably the Bloody Marys. I make my own mix. People come in and ask for that on Saturdays and Sundays, for sure. Nothing fancy. Some people like to put meats and cheeses into it, but I don’t do any of that. It’s more in the ratios. I think Bloody Marys should be spicy, but I don’t make it super spicy right away. It should have a sweet spice. Horseradish, Tabasco, steak sauce, pepper, that’s about it. I have it down to how many shakes of each I put in the mix.

The patron most likely to score a free drink is: “Somebody that doesn’t ask for one. Or says it’s their birthday right off the bat. Anybody that’s very nice and polite and tips well the first couple of times, that’ll get you a free drink.”

Little known fact about this joint: “It’s all in what it used to be, not what it is anymore. The whole neighborhood was rough, even when I came here. I used to see kids on their bikes doing ‘bike-bys,’ getting shot. It wasn’t that long ago. When I first started here, we used to have little Pac-Man/Asteroid tabletops. Every tabletop was a video game. There used to be a bowling machine against the wall, we used to have pinball. We used to have an old English phone booth that never worked.”

For good grub before or after a shift, you hit up: “I’m so cheap, I usually just get my shift meal here before I start. I’m a sucker for the burger or I’ll usually get the special. Most of the recipes come up from Jak’s Tap. Wednesdays, I always get the pork chop. Today [Sunday] I didn’t eat the brisket. I had a BLT because someone had one back there and it looked good. I’m friends with a lot of people in the neighborhood so I’ll go over to Volo sometimes.”

When you’re not boozing here, you prefer to patronize: “I’ll go to Four Moon. Lately, because I moved to Uptown, I’ll go up to Holiday Club because I know all the people there. I don’t go to the 4 o’clock bars anymore. People say ‘What are you doing after work?’ I’m sitting right here at the end of the bar, I’m having my two shift drinks, and then I’m calling a cab and going home. I’ve been doing the microbrew thing for so long, I got burnt out on it. I’ll taste everything, but I can’t drink all the hoppy ales or it’ll stick in my mouth the whole night. So I’ll drink Guinness or a stout or a porter or Sprecher Black.”

Another bartender/owner we should know is: “Aaron Watkins, who worked here. Everybody still misses him; he was the best bartender. He passed away a couple years ago last summer. He was just open, honest, and didn’t give a fuck. Died of a really rare form of cancer; it was at stage three or four when they found it. Within a month and a half, he was dead. But he was one of the people in this bar that people would come to see all the time.”

“[And] Sparky at Four Moons Tavern. He’s been in the neighborhood forever. He got grandfathered in at Four Moon. When they sold that place – it used to be Kokopelli – one of the stipulations was that the old owner told the new owner, “You gotta keep this bartender.” He can make anything, he’s a good listener and talker. He gives sage advice. He has the persona of a professional bartender, but he’s also surly and drinks a lot while he works. So he’s what you would expect from a bartender.”

The worst night working here was: “Two years ago, I was working when we had the TV put in. Somebody forgot to screw the top adjustment thing on. I’m bartending in here on a Saturday and we’re full. Two girls I know who are regulars are sitting at the end of the bar, watching TV when BOOM! It fell straight down on the bar in front of them and cracked. You can still see the indentation of a shot glass there. They fell off their barstools, the TV is now lying on the ground, I almost have a heart attack because it’s so loud, everybody is freaking out. I take the TV, put it in the back. About 10-15 minutes later some guy comes running from the back yelling ‘Call 911, call 911!’ And I’m like ‘No, it’s OK, everybody’s OK.’ He says ‘No, somebody just had a heart attack.’ There was a 50-year class reunion in the back and some old guy had a heart attack. So right after that happened, I had the ambulance come in and they’re wheeling a guy out in a mask. That was bad.”

The surest way to get banned from the bar is to: “Starting fights with everybody. Not literal fights, but talking shit every time you walk in the bar. Just being an ass. When you walk in and everybody moans? That can get you banned. You’re bad for business.”

If I wasn’t doing this, I’d be: “Teaching, that’s an easy one. Or travel around the world on my motorcycle. That’s what I’d be doing, dreamwise. Practicalwise, teaching. When I’m ready to retire into a career, that’s what I’ll be doing.”

God bless this poor bastard

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There’s is nothing in this story that isn’t purely factual. It’s all there, pure and simple. There’s no tone of condescension, no lingering hint of pomposity.

And yet…

And yet…

Something in the story doesn’t quite jibe. There’s something there that says “I can’t believe I had to cover this. I’d rather be a library board meeting.” I couldn’t figure it out for a while, and then I realized it:

He never tells us the winner’s last name. All the other contestants get last names. The winner? Not so much. Well played, Chris Hack. Well played.

Also, I’m resisting the urge to go for the easy joke on this cat’s name, because, frankly, that story is a silk purse from a sow’s ear if I ever read one. But if I was him, I’d see if I could convince the Web Editor (hint hint) to put a line break after my name so my byline didn’t read “hack staff writer.”