Monday 3/16/2026 6:35 and I hope I’ve made
The right decision
Heart is beating I’m alive
But I don’t call this living
Rationalize till I’m blue in the face
You cannot lose if you throw the race
The view of the sunrise off the back outside of the kitchen was beautiful but deceitful as Chicago late winter/springs can be.
I woke very very excited to see this news. I am beyond elated and if you dear reader know anything about me you know how much this band has meant to me over my entire career as a journalist. Sabrina is a HUGE BONUS! I’m planning to make a weekend out of it. MOTOBLOT is the following weekend.
Melita and I decided to visit the MCA on Tuesday the 16th. I hadn’t been there in over 10 years since I was a member which I was for several years. On Aug 1, 2014 it was announced that the First Friday events that I cherished were on hiatus only to never return.
These events served as a high-energy, curated nightlife experience, distinct from typical gallery visits.
As things have in recent years the downtown scene especially in the art community has drastically changed and not in a positive manner. I tried to explain to Melita what it once was like.
The Chicago MCA First Fridays were monthly evening events featuring live music, DJ sets, gallery tours, and performances, designed as a popular social mixer for young professionals, often featuring cocktail bars and themed art activities. Key highlights included “Apocalypse” themed events with meteor showers and dance parties, as well as performances by local artists and musicians.
Key Features of MCA First Fridays:
Social & Cocktail Scene: Often described as a “singles scene” or fashionable after-work mixer, offering a chance to mingle while touring galleries.
Themed Nights (2014 Example): The April 2014 “Apocalypse” First Friday included DJs (Marc Hellner, Joe Proulx), a foam meteorite shower, interactive animation stations, and pop-up survival kit design studios.
Performances & Activities: Featured interactive art by artists like Adebukola Bodunrin and performances by Ono or Spectralina, alongside English folk dancing (Morris dancing).
Live Music: Featured varied musical guests, ranging from DJs to live experimental bands in the museum’s galleries.
City in a Garden: Queer Art and Activism in Chicago is an intergenerational group exhibition that highlights Chicago’s essential, yet often underacknowledged, role in the story of queer art and activism. The exhibition examines this history from the mid-1980s, when activists radically mobilized in response to the US government’s disastrous handling of the AIDS crisis. In this moment of change, activists reclaimed the historically pejorative epithet “queer” as a liberatory term, encompassing all who purposefully deviate from heteronormative society. Drawn from the MCA’s collection and other local collections, City in a Garden follows this paradigm shift in LGBTQ+ history by bringing together work from over 30 artists and collectives working in Chicago from the 1980s to the present.
EIGHT MINUTES
I think we actually spent more time waiting to get in and sitting than we did actually looking at exhibits. It seemed that most of the gallery space was not in use and Melita even commented that when she took her aunt here to visit that there was more use of the open and empty space than during our visit that evening. The book store of course created a virtual wish list in my memory banks.
WIsh list and gift list
When ya gotta pretend to pee on an elevator ya gotta pretend to pee on an elevator
Melita fucking wore pajamas to the MCA. I can’t believe she went out in public in her PJS the way PWT do at Walmart. I made fun at her the entire time and after.
Table for one for Wilson FIsk. Wilson Fisk table for one.
THANKS DAWN!
Stopped into GRACELAND on my way to do laundry in Edgewater
Spooky has a new hobby / activity to annoy me and that’s to take down magnets from the fridge so I spent some time reorganizing them. It doesn’t stop him but I put the latter magnets near the bottom and the fragile higher up on the freezer door.
FUCKING UNBELIEVABLE
BYRON’S HOT DOG, INC., a Chicago, IL-based limited-service restaurant, filed for chapter 11 protection on March 16, 2026 in the Northern District of Illinois. The company operates as a hot dog stand within the Chicago metropolitan area, providing food services to the local community.
The Chicago-based chain, a beloved local staple since 1975 and now marking over 50 years of slinging dogs, officially sought bankruptcy relief on March 16 in the Northern District of Illinois. Owner Mike Payne and the team behind Byron’s Kitchen Incorporated are using the filing to restructure crushing financial obligations while keeping the grills firing at their two remaining locations.
“As of 2025, the company maintains active operations at two primary locations situated at 1701 W. Lawrence Ave and 1017 W. Irving Park Rd,” RK Consulting reported on X.
The chain even recently poured money into upgrades like new indoor heated seating, a clear sign they’re betting on survival rather than surrender.
“Byron’s goes a step further than [the] classic Chicago style hot dog where you have mustard, relish, tomato, onion, pickle, hot peppers, and celery salt,” Payne said of Byron’s. “We take it a few steps further with lettuce, cucumber, and green peppers to the classic ingredients of the Chicago-style hot dog, and that’s how we came up with the Byron’s hot dog. We call it a meal on a bun.”
After doing laundry and magnets on Friday I biked up to OUTPUT early in the evening as the temps dropped significantly and picked up and order of their award winning chicken wings. It was the first time since Oct 2024 I’ve had wings from OUTPUT.
Saturday was a BIG TEASE as the temps went up to the mid 70’s and I worked on the back porch and had the windows and door open all day as the cats lounged around till dark Sunday in dropped down to the upper 30’s. and the winds had their ways.
Originally scheduled February 15th and rescheduled February 21st 2026 only to have resulted in a no call no show on part of the guest Stormy Daniel. These are the songs we intended to originally play on that podcast as well as a few new surprises and of course KISS Trivia!
Wrong Place, Wrong Time from CWB:
it looks like our local media has final come up with an idiotic phrase to replace “mostly peaceful” for certain “isolated incidents”. We’ll be going with “wrong place, wrong time” from now.
Final Demonized Tally: 6 killed, 15 wounded
(includes 4 stabbed in 10 days on the CTA)
CWB remains just about the only media outlet to provide accurate descriptions of actual offenders.
Second City Cop reports:
- Court records show he was arrested in mid-June 2023 for allegedly shoplifting merchandise worth $132 from the Macy’s at 111 North State Street in the Loop. Arrest records show he listed 1222 West Touhy Avenue in Rogers Park as his home address at the time — the address of Leone Beach Park, where the fieldhouse had been converted into a migrant shelter by City Hall. Leone Beach Park forms the north end of Loyola Beach.According to court records, he was released from custody “by rule of the court,” a cash bail-era procedure by which people charged with non-violent crimes were released on their own recognizance. He never showed up for court again, records show. After his first failure to appear in July 2023, Judge Peter Gonzalez granted a 30-day continuance. When a Macy’s representative appeared for that date and the man once again failed to appear, Gonzalez issued an arrest warrant requiring a $50 deposit to be released from jail. He was never caught.
There’s that judge again. Big surprise.
And remember, Fata$$ is going to stand between ILLEGALS and federal authorities who will have to “go through” Lord knows how many layers of shit to get to a murderer.
Now he’s in custody and the feds filed an immigration detainer – which may or may not be enforced according to Porkulous:
- The federal agency also claimed that “Medina-Medina should have never been in our country, but was RELEASED into our communities by the Biden administration. He was then released AGAIN following an arrest for shoplifting in Chicago, Illinois.”
Just pointing out to CWB, the federal agency doesn’t have to “claim” any of this. CWB’s reporting cites it in the first article – he’s ILLEGAL, he came in under Biden, he was released by judge Gonzalez – it’s all there. Give yourselves some credit guys – you ARE the media now.
It’s not surprising in the least to see the headline “Wrong Place Wrong Time” describing the murder of a young college student. It’s a complete disgrace, but this is how Chicago media works to maintain a political narrative even to the point of blaming the victim. This is the same media which has ignored 455 school-age children shot, 107 killed and 25 of whom were 12 years or younger in the last 2 years. – Paul Vallas
JSINS’s mother and sister are taking a cross country trip to Cali this week and I keep thinking of that opening scene of RISKY BUSINESS when Tom Cruise’s parents left for a trip and he did the dance to Old Time Rock n Roll so this is my version of the original Unholy Roller doing a rendition I have in my head.
Melita going to a job interview
My home office set up 2026
