into-the-center-of-things

[into-the-center-of-things]

day nine: west side chicago part two!!!

We stopped into another cafe called Wormhole Coffee because @germfreeadulthood wanted a little pick me up, and it was 80s themed which I found cute. Plus the coffee they got was insanely delicious (it was like, white miso and black sesame seeds and caramel and it had good mouth feel when they let me taste a bit...wondering if I could recreate that at home...)

Then we went into Myopic Books, which is a GINORMOUS used bookstore—like, it had a basement level and an upper level besides just the main level. The poetry selection was really big but the book I wanted was like 12 or 15 dollars which is like basically market price so I didn't get it...I'll look for it at the library when I'm home...

Overall I was just impressed by the size of it. If I had more disposable income I'd definitely buy stuff from here.

Then we walked to Taco Pros to get food, the vegetarian burrito was, to my relief, delicious (it was like a more dressed up El Pollo Loco burrito but...i don't dislike that joint...its comfort food for me...)

Then we took transit back to the apartment and I...immediately fell asleep for 2 hours >.< I dunno why that keeps happening, my energy has been low and I keep waking up dizzy and headachey so I hope that doesn't mean I'm getting sick (@germfreeadulthood gave me some COVID tests to take when I'm back).

Once I woke up and showered (for the last time until I return to California) we watched the director's cut of Donnie Darko, which I didn't really understand very much but the music was very 80s and the cheap effects and CGI were great (I love practical effects or the creative ways teams use low budgets to make horror look a certain way).

Anyways, lots of walking, some pics below of some cool things sighted during the walks...day 10 is the first leg of my train back home and I'm hoping I don't get too bored or stir crazy...

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day nine: chicago west side!!

"black feather melting

off ivory, a tangle

of dead flightlessness."

We did so much walking and I ended up sleeping a lot so hoping that means I built up enough reserves for the train...

We took a bus then the L to get pie from Hoosier Mama. We split one savory (mushroom and goat cheess) and one sweet (banana) and the savory one didn't that much goat cheese but other than that it was fine. They gave it to us in takeout boxes because they didn't have any dishes which was kind of funny.

Right next to it was Patron Gallery, which had two exhibits by two different artists, which was pretty cool.

Unrelated but it kind of looked like a mid between a gallery, a warehouse/storage place, and an office, so I'm curious about the logistics of renting out a place like this to show off your art outside of a museum and what not.

Anyways, after that we walked to Volumes, which is a book cafe, which as a concept I thought was super neat. The poetry selection was super underwhelming though. At least the decoration was nice.

We popped into a nearby Reckless Records, which reminded me a lot of Rhino Records in Southern California, only with more used things. I didn't buy anything but I liked how expensive their metal CDs were, so if I was someone who collected CDs like my dad I'd definitely have fun in here. Also their used DVD collection was expansive in terms of horror but not so much anime which was kind of disappointing but no one really sells used anime dvds besides Book Off anyways.

Anyways...Next post with the rest of the day!!

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day eight: indiana expedition part two!!!

After the dunes, we ventured deeper into Indiana to explore the suburbs of Gary. Gary is a town in Indiana that empties out due to economic reasons among other things (racism, violence, etc.). There are many schools shut down and abandoned houses and churches and things like that. I know that the town is considered ugly and neglected but I found the natural reclining into the Earth kind of beautiful.

I don't have anything really poignant to say, because I don't want to sound like I am romanticizing or making a spectacle of a town stricken by a history of crime and poverty and carrying around a sullied image of blood and misery (doesn't seem to be more dangerous that like, some of the shadier parts of Los Angeles and even then I know how to stay safe in those...just don't be stupid...).

Anyways, after that we returned to Illinois and stopped at Calumet Fisheries Inc to eat. It was over the Calumet River so I guess a lot of stuff was freshly caught. They have eel in the winter. Also they are cash only. There was an indigenous woman in there talking to locals with a very detailed turtle tattoo on her shoulder.

We ate outside and watched the ominous thunder clouds creeping closer and closer...and luckily by the time we finished our food the storm was a few minutes away, so we threw our trash away and left. We wanted to get ice cream but weren't going to make it so we stopped by a Culver's to share a cup of vanilla which kind of just tasted like any fast food ice cream which means it was good.

There was a ton of rain and lightning when we were driving back—I didn't really get a great video of the storm which is unfortunate. But yeah, the streets were flooded and we had to kind of hop around on our way back to the apartment.

Overall really fun day, its nice to be in the sun, I'm not usually a summer beach person but the lake was super nice. Tomorrow we explore the westside of Chicago before I go home.

[into-the-center-of-things]

day eight: indiana expedition part two!!!

After the dunes, we ventured deeper into Indiana to explore the suburbs of Gary. Gary is a town in Indiana that empties out due to economic reasons among other things (racism, violence, etc.). There are many schools shut down and abandoned houses and churches and things like that. I know that the town is considered ugly and neglected but I found the natural reclining into the Earth kind of beautiful.

I don't have anything really poignant to say, because I don't want to sound like I am romanticizing or making a spectacle of a town stricken by a history of crime and poverty and carrying around a sullied image of blood and misery (doesn't seem to be more dangerous that like, some of the shadier parts of Los Angeles and even then I know how to stay safe in those...just don't be stupid...).

Anyways, after that we returned to Illinois and stopped at Calumet Fisheries Inc to eat. It was over the Calumet River so I guess a lot of stuff was freshly caught. They have eel in the winter. Also they are cash only. There was an indigenous woman in there talking to locals with a very detailed turtle tattoo on her shoulder.

We ate outside and watched the ominous thunder clouds creeping closer and closer...and luckily by the time we finished our food the storm was a few minutes away, so we threw our trash away and left. We wanted to get ice cream but weren't going to make it so we stopped by a Culver's to share a cup of vanilla which kind of just tasted like any fast food ice cream which means it was good.

There was a ton of rain and lightning when we were driving back—I didn't really get a great video of the storm which is unfortunate. But yeah, the streets were flooded and we had to kind of hop around on our way back to the apartment.

Overall really fun day, its nice to be in the sun, I'm not usually a summer beach person but the lake was super nice. Tomorrow we explore the westside of Chicago before I go home.

[into-the-center-of-things]

day eight: indiana expedition!!!

"a town choking on

weeds green with modernity—

time passes over."

Think this will be another short one because we kind of stayed in the same place for a lot of today.

We woke up and headed to the dunes around 10:30am, or the Indiana National Park Dunes or whatever the fuck its called. It took like an hour to get there, traffic was fine, passing through state lines was fine (immediately greeted with advertisements for dispensaries which was kind of funny).

The lake beach was kind of populated but not entirely, we found an empty spot to set up a towel and we spread out our snacks to eat. The sky was beautiful, there was an incoming storm so it was full of big bloated white clouds and I was really obsessed with it. That and the goat cheese. The goat cheese was really good with the cantaloupe peach black pepper jam that @germfreeadulthood brought. Huehuehue.

Anyways. The initial tide of the beach was covered in rocks, so entering the water hurt a little bit but once you got deeper in the water it wasn't as rocky. There wasn't any danger of sharks or sting rays since it was a lake, not the ocean, so I'm glad of that, and there were no crashing waves to sweep me away like the ocean. Again, just the lull of the lake water which felt nice.

We played frisbee and laid in the sand and splashed around for most of day. People watching was also an activity—there were these two teenage boys having a stupid sexist conversation about girls that we found hilarious (one referred to a girl he didn't find attractive on the beach as "she's dust, bruh" which was awful and hilarious at the same time). We didn't leave I think until like 6pm.

I have too many beach pictures so I'll talk about the rest of the trip in a second post.

[into-the-center-of-things]

day seven: lake michigan!!!

"glinting with sun-lit

summer casualities, the lake

opens its third eye"

Short single entry for today! Today was a lot of outdoor time! I got to splishsplash around a lot and meet more Chicago people which was really fun!

Once we got out of bed and got ready (@germfreeadulthood made us breakfast sammies and they were sooooo good, pictured below), we took the bus to The Point with the intention of swimming. @germfreeadulthood invited their friends to join us, so we floated while we waited for them to arrive.

The water was beautiful, and oh so cold! I haven't actually swum in a lake in recent memory, only the ocean (which I didn't like—just becayse I don't like being thrown around by the waves), so the water having a different feel to it and it having a more calm lull to its movement was a nice surprise.

The bottom was covered in rocks, which were actually very slippery from the algae. Not the greatest to balance on while you tried to get accustom to the water's rhythm.

@germfreeadulthood and I also briefly saw someone skinny dipping in broad daylight for like 5 minutes, then return to the rocks to put their clothes on and leave and we were kind of just staring in awe—like, who has the guts to skinny dip in the middle of the afternoon on a Monday???

Anyways. The other friends joined (F and J) and we actually stayed out at the lake until like 6 or 7pm and I actually had a lot of fun just talking to people—usually I feel really self conscious in new groups of people when I don't know the dynamics but I felt comfortable and everyone was really funny and not as difficult to converse with as anticipated. Also there was a bird we kept pointing at and making gestures at—forgot what it was, its not a cormorant, it is too small...

Other detail was us pulling balloons out of the water—I didn't really get this captured but we fished two seperate balloons out from the water and one of them flew off into the horizon, lifted by the wind, when we weren't paying attention. We were kind of surprised since it was like, bobbing in the water, so I didn't think it had the capacity to fly being half-inflated and all..oh well...

So long space cowboy...

We got hungry so we went to Trader Joe's and decided to meet at another person's apartment (J's) to eat and watch a movie. I used this as an opportunity to get some snacks for the train ride home—peanuts and bread and apples and tuna packets (since they have mayonaise downstairs at the cafe for the hot dogs...tbh it sounds gross but bread is good for you...issa dumb idea but I wanna try it so I don't starve or something).

Then we went back to @germfreeadulthood's apartment, I took a shower and then we went to J's apartment, which apparently has two very adorable cats named Pablo and (omg) Melon.

They were really nervous but wanted to he at least a foot away from us constantly, which was cute, like they wanted to know what was going on but wanted to maintain a safe distance. I was able to pet Pablo briefly but Melon only barely tolerated letting me be about 3 feet from her before she wandered off.

We ate some Mexican food that we picked up—I did not take a picture of my burrito because it was bad ): like texture-wise bad (mushrooms are so hit or miss for me because if it's slimy I can't eat it). So that was disappointing but the tea J made for us was good (: so it balanced out.

Then we watched We're All Going to the World's Fair, a movie directed and written by the same person behind I Saw the TV Glow.

I understood (or rather, connected with?) this significantly less than ISTTVG and I don't really know why. I'm reading reviews to try and understand what exactly I watched. Like it felt a bit unsettling in some places but there was a lot of distance put between this protagonist and the audience which I believe was intentional and I struggled with what I was seeing, especially with all the different tech aspects, I wasn't sure what year this took place and how the different tech ties into it (like why would you own a digital camera in 2019 if you have both a smartphone and a laptop??) and I just didn't grow up talking to strangers on Skype. I think I need to think about this movie more before I can really articulate my thoughts.

After that we went home, we have to leave by 10am to go to Indiana...specifically The Dunes, I requested we also explore the suburbs for the sake of my poetic research. We might also go to Gary because its a town that's kind of empty and depressing. I am absolutely relieved I didn't get sunburned, just very tanned. I feel exhausted. I can still feel the waves of Lake Michigan lulling me to sleep...

[into-the-center-of-things]

day seven: lake michigan!!!

"glinting with sun-lit

summer casualities, the lake

opens its third eye"

Today was a lot of outdoor time! I got to splishsplash around a lot and meet more Chicago people which was really fun!

Once we got out of bed and got ready (my friend made us egg sammies and it was delicious: pictured below) we took the bus to The Point with the intention of swimming. @germfreeadulthood invited their friends to join us, so we floated while we waited for them to arrive.

The water was beautiful, and oh so cold! I haven't actually swum in a lake in recent memory, only the ocean (which I didn't like—just becayse I don't like being thrown around by the waves), so the water having a different feel to it and it having a more calm lull to its movement was a nice surprise.

The bottom was covered in rocks, which were actually very slippery from the algae. Not the greatest to balance on while you tried to get accustom to the water's rhythm.

@germfreeadulthood and I also briefly saw someone skinny dipping in broad daylight for like 5 minutes, then return to the rocks to put their clothes on and leave and we were kind of just staring in awe—like, who has the guts to skinny dip in the middle of the afternoon on a Monday???

Anyways. The other friends joined (F and J) and we actually stayed out at the lake until like 6 or 7pm and I actually had a lot of fun just talking to people—usually I feel really self conscious in new groups of people when I don't know the dynamics but I felt comfortable and everyone was really funny and not as difficult to converse with as anticipated. Also there was a bird we kept pointing at and making gestures at—forgot what it was, its not a cormorant, it is too small...

Other detail was us pulling balloons out of the water—I didn't really get this captured but we fished two seperate balloons out from the water and one of them flew off into the horizon, lifted by the wind, when we weren't paying attention. We were kind of surprised since it was like, bobbing in the water, so I didn't think it had the capacity to fly being half-inflated and all..oh well...

So long space cowboy...

We got hungry so we went to Trader Joe's and decided to meet at another person's apartment (J's) to eat and watch a movie. I used this as an opportunity to get some snacks for the train ride home—peanuts and bread and apples and tuna packets (since they have mayonaise downstairs at the cafe for the hot dogs...tbh it sounds gross but bread is good for you...issa dumb idea but I wanna try it so I don't starve or something).

Then we went back to @germfreeadulthood's apartment, I took a shower and then we went to J's apartment, which apparently has two very adorable cats named Pablo and (omg) Melon.

They were really nervous but wanted to he at least a foot away from us constantly, which was cute, like they wanted to know what was going on but wanted to maintain a safe distance. I was able to pet Pablo briefly but Melon only barely tolerated letting me be about 3 feet from her before she wandered off.

We ate some Mexican food that we picked up—I did not take a picture of my burrito because it was bad ): like texture-wise bad (mushrooms are so hit or miss for me because if it's slimy I can't eat it). So that was disappointing but the tea J made for us was good (: so it balanced out.

Then we watched We're All Going to the World's Fair, a movie directed and written by the same person behind I Saw the TV Glow.

I understood (or rather, connected with?) this significantly less than ISTTVG and I don't really know why. I'm reading reviews to try and understand what exactly I watched. Like it felt a bit unsettling in some places but there was a lot of distance put between this protagonist and the audience which I believe was intentional and I struggled with what I was seeing, especially with all the different tech aspects, I wasn't sure what year this took place and how the different tech ties into it (like why would you own a digital camera in 2019 if you have both a smartphone and a laptop??) and I just didn't grow up talking to strangers on Skype. I think I need to think about this movie more before I can really articulate my thoughts.

After that we went home, we have to leave by 10am to go to Indiana...specifically The Dunes, I requested we also explore the suburbs for the sake of my poetic research. We might also go to Gary because its a town that's kind of empty and depressing. I am absolutely relieved I didn't get sunburned, just very tanned. I feel exhausted. I can still feel the waves of Lake Michigan lulling me to sleep...

[into-the-center-of-things]

day six: art institute of chicago part three!!!

After the Georgia O Keefe exhibit we had about an hour or so to kill. So we went into the Clown Torture exhibit, which I was kind of excited about. When we entered the hallway leading into the exhibit two girls burst through the doors exclaiming "don't go in there its horrible!" which @germfreeadulthood and I took as a sign that this was exactly what we were anticipating. So went in we did.

There were two projections and two TV screens depicting different looping scenes of clowns in various stages of discomfort—shouting, screaming, dropping things, sitting on the toilet. It was honestly super funny and cool to see and I respected the multisense level of chaos it was attempting to bring forth. I imagine it worked for a lot of people—there were two girls behind us who came in, saw the screens, and immediately left.

We ended our visit at the Christina Ramberg retrospective. It appears she does a lot of microportraits of body parts, especially torsos and women's hair. The doll wall was lowkey kind of creepy and the description said it captured the race and gender stereotypes of the time—which I do agree with, a lot of very dated depictions from dolls that were to be given to children, to teach them to become accustomed to said stereotypes.

Then we said goodbye to the Art Institute of Chicago—we definitely didn't get a chance to see everything but I liked what we did get a chance to look at...and since the exhibits rotate I bet the next time I visit it'll be all different stuff!

Then we checked out the Chicago Cultural Center before we went home. The shop had art pieces and zines and stuff being sold by local artists and activists, which was cool. Most significantly however was the exhibit deeper inside...it was focusing on queer experience and AIDS—a lot of material from the late 20th century, pamphlets, magazine articles, photographs, newspaper spreads, projects, poems, print outs, etc...

Again, we didn't get to see all of it because we came when they were like 50 minutes before closing, but this is definitely somewhere I'd want to visit again. We took the bus back afterwards and I, once again, fell asleep for almost an hour once we got home.

I don't know why I keep falling asleep. I'm not usually so dizzy and low energy. I have been napping more than usual, even when I taught mroning classes. It might be a caffeine thing, it might be a hormonal thing, maybe I'm just homesick (and I'm starting to feel like that, homesick I mean...) I don't really know but I slept and slept and when I woke up I felt better and @germfreeadulthood made us mushroom miso pasta and we watched a shitty horror movie called The Devil's Hand that was supposed to be a horror movie about Amish people (because, for fuck's sake, I can't stop thinking about those goddamn Amish people!!).

It was very bad but hilarious in terms of the bizarre writing choices, not scary at all, the end..

...which lead into us talking about the movie I Saw the TV Glow, which I feel like is a movie a lot of people in my circle hated, but I lowkey kind of liked? So it was nice to hear @germfreeadulthood's perspective on its tackling of the topic of transitioning and race (or lake thereof) because those tend to be things that I don't think a lot about. I don't really think critically about movies, I think I have an initial reaction but I have to rewatch them a few times to really garner some sort of critique since I don't have any kind of background or understanding of how film criticism works—books are a lot easier for me because I can't finish them in one sitting, for example, I have more time to marinate on that gut reaction which lends itself to a more cohesive critique of the media overall...

Anyways...I showered and I feel better...I'm hoping my nap doesn't fuck up when I fall asleep but I feel exhausted just writing all this out...but we are going to go swimming in Lake Michigan tomorrow, then Tuesday we go to Indiana, then Wednesday I'm on the train home to California...

[into-the-center-of-things]

day six: art institute of chicago part two!!!

We ate afterwards. I was feeling low energy and dizzy all day (foreshadowing for later) so the food helped. I feel like I'm spending too much money on food out but maybe I'm just not used to eating out because I never do it when I'm home (because where am I supposed to eat out where I am that's in walking distance, fucking Taco Bell?)

Anyways, the sandwich was fine. We wandered into the recreation of the Chicago Stock Exchange room and they had a whole ass grand piano in there. I wish I still remembered how to play cuz I would've totally tried to jam something out until security yelled at me or something.

On our way to the Georgia O Keefe exhibit we saw these blue stained glass windows—it was titled "American Windows" by Marc Chagall, and it was supposed to depict the history of the US. I had trouble seeing the specific details but I liked the colors overall.

Then we entered the Georgia O Keefe exhibit. I only knew her for drawing flowers—so it was cool to see her drawings of other things and her embracing of the urban landscapes popping up around her in NYC.

This is especially interesting when she started living in the desert, in New Mexico (which I couldn't imagine because I don't like the desert), and she starts incorporating abstractions into her imagination of the city.

She had this quote of hers plastered on one of the walls that went something like "I don't see why abstract and realist art can't live side by side when the principles are the same" and like...I don't know, I never really thought about that before!! I kind of see them as two separate artistic entities but yeah, the goal is to create a figure how you individually view it and want to depict it. That goal is the same for both abstract and realist artists...

Part 3 upcoming because I am cringe and taking way too many photos...

[into-the-center-of-things]

day six: art institute of chicago

"homesickness sinks its

vapor-white teeth into

all my waking dreams"

Today had more sleeping in it than anticipated. Slept in for longer than I usually do, then we headed to the Art Institute of Chicago. Luckily we just had to take one bus to get there, so not a lot of transfers or anything.

Definitely felt like we got off "at the center of things", so to speak—a lot of people and cars and activity that reminded me of New York or DTLA.

We got in after some brief trouble (I can't lie to save my life and I was supposed to try and get around the higher costs put upon non-Illinois residents, but I showed the lady at the front desk my student ID and she asked for my zipcode and I froze up. So she charged me as a non-resident. Whoops.)

We started at the Asian artwork section, looking first at the Kabuki portraits and then moving into the porcelain and pottery, which I really, really loved.

The designs were really intricate and some of the more detailed pieces had symbols we got to look for—museums should have more eye spy esque exhibits, don't you think?

The pieces were from Japan and China, from different historical eras. The WW2 era depiction of the girls at the beach was really interesting and struck a contrast with the other pre-colonial era pieces in the exhibit (especially because the description used an English loan word for "modern girl" when I believe Japan was not on good political terms with England or America).

There was also some bowls from I believe the Ming Dynasty with ducks on them and they were cute and I forgot to take a picture. Waaaah.

After that we looked at this exhibit titled "Four Chicago Artists: Theodore Halkin, Evelyn Statsinger, Barbara Rossi, and Christina Ramberg"—I don't know a lot about how to engage or understand a lot of modern or contemporary art, especially when its abstract, I struggle a lot with extracting something from the experience of viewing the art up close. I'm not really an artist myself, or at least I wouldn't call myself one, but I do like reading the descriptions and trying to get into the heads of the artists. They all seemed like they were graduates of SAIC, for example—I'm kind of curious about the school's influence on curating art movements in Chicago or if it plays into anything like that.

Something I did really like was the equisite corpse section where the artists in question got together to perform their own versions.

I like exquisite corpse in poetry form, line by line stuff, because it always devolves into abstract nonsense and that's always fun. It seems that this applies here.

I ran out of room, so I'm gonna post a Part 2 for the rest of the day.

[into-the-center-of-things]

day six: art institute of chicago part three!!!

After the Georgia O Keefe exhibit we had about an hour or so to kill. So we went into the Clown Torture exhibit, which I was kind of excited about. When we entered the hallway leading into the exhibit two girls burst through the doors exclaiming "don't go in there its horrible!" which @germfreeadulthood and I took as a sign that this was exactly what we were anticipating. So went in we did.

There were two projections and two TV screens depicting different looping scenes of clowns in various stages of discomfort—shouting, screaming, dropping things, sitting on the toilet. It was honestly super funny and cool to see and I respected the multisense level of chaos it was attempting to bring forth. I imagine it worked for a lot of people—there were two girls behind us who came in, saw the screens, and immediately left.

We ended our visit at the Christina Ramberg retrospective. It appears she does a lot of microportraits of body parts, especially torsos and women's hair. The doll wall was lowkey kind of creepy and the description said it captured the race and gender stereotypes of the time—which I do agree with, a lot of very dated depictions from dolls that were to be given to children, to teach them to become accustomed to said stereotypes.

Then we said goodbye to the Art Institute of Chicago—we definitely didn't get a chance to see everything but I liked what we did get a chance to look at...and since the exhibits rotate I bet the next time I visit it'll be all different stuff!

Then we checked out the Chicago Cultural Center before we went home. The shop had art pieces and zines and stuff being sold by local artists and activists, which was cool.

Most significantly however was the exhibit deeper inside...it was focusing on queer experience and AIDS—a lot of material from the late 20th century, pamphlets, magazine articles, photographs, newspaper spreads, projects, poems, print outs, etc...

Again, we didn't get to see all of it because we came when they were like 50 minutes before closing, but this is definitely somewhere I'd want to visit again. We took the bus back afterwards and I, once again, fell asleep for almost an hour once we got home.

I don't know why I keep falling asleep. I'm not usually so dizzy and low energy (I'm starting to feel kind of weirdly depressed now too). It might be a caffeine thing, it might be a hormonal thing, I don't really know but I slept and slept and when I woke up I felt better and @germfreeadulthood made us mushroom miso pasta and we watched a shitty horror movie called The Devil's Hand that was supposed to be a horror movie about Amish people (because, for fuck's sake, I can't stop thinking about those goddamn Amish people!!).

It was very bad but hilarious in terms of the bizarre writing choices, not scary at all, the end..

...which lead into us talking about the movie I Saw the TV Glow, which I feel like is a movie a lot of people in my circle hated, but I lowkey kind of liked? So it was nice to hear @germfreeadulthood's perspective on its tackling of the topic of transitioning and race (or lake thereof) because those tend to be things that I don't think a lot about. I don't really think critically about movies, I think I have an initial reaction but I have to rewatch them a few times to really garner some sort of critique since I don't have any kind of background or understanding of how film criticism works—books are a lot easier for me because I can't finish them in one sitting, for example, I have more time to marinate on that gut reaction which lends itself to a more cohesive critique of the media overall...

Anyways...I showered and I feel better...I'm hoping my nap doesn't fuck up when I fall asleep but I feel exhausted just writing all this out...but we are going to go swimming in Lake Michigan tomorrow, then Tuesday we go to Indiana, then Wednesday I'm on the train home to California...

[into-the-center-of-things]

day five: looking at local chicago southside sights part TWO!!!

After we left the co-op bookstore we went to Powell's, which is a used bookstore off of 54th Street. It has the same name as the one in Portland, Oregon, but apparently there is no relation between the two of them.

It was a lot bigger on the inside than I suspected. I ducked into the second room in the back and that was where I found the poems! Not as much variety as the co-op but I saw Harryette Mullen's newest book there, so that's cool. They also had The Cow by Ariana Reines which I did end up buying, because it was cheap and I really liked how bizarre it was. Not to mention the purple typeface on the inside.

We walked back to the apartment and @germfreeadulthood made me a little immunity drink (using the immune suport stuff and ginger powder), and then took a shower. I drank it while looking through the Chicago Reader—I don't really look at newspapers so it was cute to see some passionate write ups about new and well known underground heavy music (since I guess The Rumble is coming up, so the were writing about bands particpating or bands in similar genres)...suuuuuper cool, will be looking into the band Torture when I have time.

I accidentally fell asleep for a good 30-40 minutes—I guess I was a lot more tired than I thought, but maybe that means I needed the rest? Was I just feeling weak from that damn train ride still? Is the way back gonna knock me on my ass too? Argh.

We walked to "The Point" afterwards, which is I believe Promotory Point, where Chicago kisses the edge of Lake Michigan. We had to walk through this tunnel beneath the road to get there and people had done a mural of "things they want to do before they die", which was cool, ad well as different encouraging phrases or things they liked about Chicago. Someone wrote something about not liking the cicadas which was funny.

Honestly I actually I kind of love cicadas, I think they are cute and I like the droning noise they make. I am going to try to catch it on video tomorrow or something so I can listen to it when I am home. I would prefer that sound over the clanging of trash trucks or construction any day. We saw a dead cicada earlier today and I wish I had like, been able to keep it and take it home with me. I wonder if its possible to preserve it if I grab one and put it in a Ziploc baggy. I would worry about it getting squished in my luggage though.

Anyways. Lake Michigan is fucking huge.

You can see as far as Indiana from the coast—super fucking cool! There were some sandy beachy areas and some rocky areas, the latter was where @germfreeadulthood and I sat. We put our feet in the water and the water actually felt really good. I wish we bad gone swimming but we didn't have our swimsuits and the sun was setting so it probably wasn't going to be a good idea to get totally drenched when the sun wouldn't be out long enough to dry us. We'll probably come back again before I leave for a proper swim.

There were also some seagulls circling fhis kid throwing crackers at them—they like totally came to him as if summoned and then all perched at his feet. It was lowkey kind of magical and I wish I had taken a picture..

I walked closer to the sand to get a better scope of the area. The beach area was crowded with families and there even was what I think was a wedding happening? They were moving to a dance between the daughter/bride and the father and he got all weepy and I felt weird watching so I left.

After that we took the bus to Saucy Porka, which is like an Asian Latin fusion sort of food place, for dinner. We both got a banh mi and shared sweet potato fries.

The banh mi was kind of meh honestly but the sweet potato fries were absolutely delicious. I had a teeny little cup of Cherry Pepsi because I never drink soda and wanted to try it and it tasted good, but I know it has caffeine in it so I am hoping it doesn't keep me up too late.

We walked back and I showered and I think tomorrow we are going to go to the Art Institute of Chicago!!! Yippee!!

[into-the-center-of-things]

day five: looking at local chicago southside sights

"paper-thin thorax

humming with hidden lyric

sharpened by the sun"

Today was a bit slower, which was a relief. I haven't really "traveled" beyond camping the last few year, meaning stayed overnight at a destination with a detailed agenda and whatnot. Not saying that either of us have a like, official itinerary but a lot of exploring is being had which I love a lot.

We cut through the beautiful campus belonging to the University of Chicago. As we walked @germfreeadulthood kind of gave me a tour, pointed out various buildings and their purposes or focuses. The campus feels huge and architecturally cohesive—apparently it was modeled after one or the Ivy League schools, so that checks out. Also, they have an ice skating rink which I found funny (pictured below).

Anyways. The Farmer's Market was bustling, very busy with students and families. It was kind of hot but it was really cool to see the kind of stuff people were growing and selling in Illinois versus the Farmer's Market I have gone to in California. My favorite was probably the tofu booth (just different kinds of tofu and dipping sauces to try) or the guy selling navy bean pie that tasted almost exactly like a pumpkin pie (he had samples out and they were delicious).

I also liked the sheer amount of zucchini I saw, if I wasn't taking a train back I would definitely have bought some back to make zucchini bread or something.

I got a pastry that had tomato, feta cheese, and basil in it, and it was very, very chewy and bready. @germfreeadulthood got something similar, both were very good. We sat in the grass in the shade and ate amongst other people. I felt kind of tired and headachey, which was weird, and I was kind of worried I was getting sick or something. @germfreeadulthood gave me some immune support throat spray, though, which tasted weirdly good, so I am hoping I am just tired and not coming down with something...

Erm. Anyways. We decided to go check out some bookstores, the first being the Seminary Co-Op Bookstore near campus.

I was impressed that the poetry selection was actually pretty big, and I leafed through the entire shelf and the books they had felt kind of random, but interesting regardless. I wonder how a co-op bookstore accumulates its collection, how does it choose books to sell back to those here at UChicago, what does it do with the books no one wants? I saw a lot of poetry I wasn't familiar with, or things I thought would be not verybpopular among the general public. For example, they had an anthology of Fence as well as an edition of Chelsey Minnis' books Zirconia and Bad Bad together, which felt a bit rare or special. But that may just be me being pretentious.

They also had some copies of The Best American Poetry of 2023 (Elaine Equi was the editor—coincidentally she grew up in Chicago, and apparently teaches in New York now), which I haven't actually seen printed yet until now. I saw that Amy Gerstler was in it and also Dorothea Lasky! Which was cool, very happy to see that.

The prices were standard and if I had like, a real salary job and was local I absolutely would have bought a few things. I didn't even really look at the nonfiction which I maybe should have but the poetry shelf was just that good.

More on the next post...I am yapping way too much about books and taming way too many pictures of them...rip...

[into-the-center-of-things]

day five: looking at local chicago southside sights

"paper-thin thorax

humming with hidden lyric

sharpened by the sun"

Today was a bit slower, which was a relief. I haven't really "traveled" beyond camping the last few year, meaning stayed overnight at a destination with a detailed agenda and whatnot. Not saying that either of us have a like, official itinerary but a lot of exploring is being had which I love a lot.

We cut through the beautiful campus belonging to the University of Chicago. As we walked @germfreeadulthood kind of gave me a tour, pointed out various buildings and their purposes or focuses. The campus feels huge and architecturally cohesive—apparently it was modeled after one or the Ivy League schools, so that checks out. Also, they have an ice skating rink which I found funny (pictured below).

Anyways. The Farmer's Market was bustling, very busy with students and families. It was kind of hot but it was really cool to see the kind of stuff people were growing and selling in Illinois versus the Farmer's Market I have gone to in California. My favorite was probably the tofu booth (just different kinds of tofu and dipping sauces to try) or the guy selling navy bean pie that tasted almost exactly like a pumpkin pie (he had samples out and they were delicious).

I also liked the sheer amount of zucchini I saw, if I wasn't taking a train back I would definitely have bought some back to make zucchini bread or something.

I got a pastry that had tomato, feta cheese, and basil in it, and it was very, very chewy and bready. @germfreeadulthood got something similar, both were very good. We sat in the grass in the shade and ate amongst other people. I felt kind of tired and headachey, which was weird, and I was kind of worried I was getting sick or something. @germfreeadulthood gave me some immune support throat spray, though, which tasted weirdly good, so I am hoping I am just tired and not coming down with something...

Erm. Anyways. We decided to go check out some bookstores, the first being the Seminary Co-Op Bookstore near campus.

I was impressed that the poetry selection was actually pretty big, and I leafed through the entire shelf and the books they had felt kind of random, but interesting regardless. I wonder how a co-op bookstore accumulates its collection, how does it choose books to sell back to those here at UChicago, what does it do with the books no one wants? I saw a lot of poetry I wasn't familiar with, or things I thought would be not verybpopular among the general public. For example, they had an anthology of Fence as well as an edition of Chelsey Minnis' books Zirconia and Bad Bad together, which felt a bit rare or special. But that may just be me being pretentious.

They also had some copies of The Best American Poetry of 2023 (Elaine Equi was the editor—coincidentally she grew up in Chicago, and apparently teaches in New York now), which I haven't actually seen printed yet until now. I saw that Amy Gerstler was in it and also Dorothea Lasky! Which was cool, very happy to see that.

The prices were standard and if I had like, a real salary job and was local I absolutely would have bought a few things. I didn't even really look at the nonfiction which I maybe should have but the poetry shelf was just that good.

More on the next post...I am yapping way too much about books and taming way too many pictures of them...rip...

[into-the-center-of-things]

day four: first full day in chicago PART TWO!!!

After we left the Poetry Foundation building I got hungry again and we took transit to Pilson, which was the Hispanic neighborhood in Chicago (it reminded me a lot of Pomona in that way). We got food which was again, delicious (especially great considering I got a "vegetariano" burrito, which I am usually suspicious of but it actually tasted very good).

Quick aside, I really wish I knew more Spanish when I frequent Mexican restaurants—I just know how to say thank you but I need to know more pleasantries like "have a nice day" or something (I could probably just google it...)

Anyways, everything is kind of a foggy blur after that. We went into Inga, which is a like, artsy book store off of W 18th Street. They only had stuff that was independently published. They had a lot of art books and theory—two things I don't have a very stront grasp on. But they had some cyberfeminism stuff which I liked, and the photobooks were cool.

After that we met up with a friend and looked around at some different clothing stores that had shit that was super expensive—I honestly never know what to look at it because I'm not very stylish but the employees working were nice and I liked that a lot. One of them, called Knee Deep, had free pins so I took one that I liked.

After that we battled Chicago's transit to get back to the apartment. We stopped at a Paris Baguette at some plint which I will say three things about: 1) they had a crab meat croquette and a curry croquette which I would love to try; 2) they had an egg salad sandwhich with cucumber and BASIL the latter which I have never though to add in mine, so I will be trying that when I get home, and 3) on the table next to us there was a man who I think was unhoused with a bug stack of notebooks beside him, annotating the Holy Scriptures in deep concentration—he must be a very passionate and dedicated student of God if he takes so many notes, I hope things turn out OK for him.

Something I've really noticed about Chicago's transportation in comparison to Los Angeles's is the verticality of it—there's more bus lines running in opposite or perpendicular directions than towards one's desired direction.

@germfreeadulthood explained to me the prominent racial segregation with Chicago, re: the way the public transit is structured to keep the South side separate from the North Side, how the South side not as cleaned up or given the same access to resources (re: grocery stores with quality or passable produce) which further emphasizes the divide. Los Angeles, in comparison, is not as prominently segregated, so it isn't as difficult for someone to get across the entire city—you can really get far in LA with minimak transfers (which I would know, because I've done it several times before—people who shit on LA transit don't have any fucking idea what they are talking about...)

Something else I want to make note of is thr cicadas—they sound very mechanical here in Chicago, as in like a whining piece of machinery. I almost thought it was construction when I heard them, hence the haiku.

Anyways, tomorrow we're going to a used bookstore, maybe the Farmer's Market and maybe even the lake to swim? Who knows. I feel tired, I've walked so much and I know it's good for me but man I am tired. I really do like Chicago, though. I find it very beautiful.

More tomorrow.

[into-the-center-of-things]

day four: first full day in chicago!!!

July 19th 2024

"seven year shriek splits

the avenue into two—

of silence, then song"

I was not really taking notes but I hope my pictures are cool enough to make up for that lack. I felt kind or under the weather all day as well—a bit weak and headachey, so I am hoping it is just residuals from the train ride and not a sign I am coming down with something...

Anyways, I slept for like 10 hours straight, I woke up at like 9:45am or so, which was more than I thought I would, and once we got Ventra set up to use the bus (I also had to set up Google Wallet, a feature on my phone I have never used until now—weirdly feels a lot safer than me carrying all my cards with me at once...might switch everything to Google Wallet once I get home!) we took transit to Doma Cafe off New Orleans Street. I ordered a cup of butternut squash soup and a flat white (because I was groggy and buzzy with no caffeine in my system).

The soup was probably the best fucking butternut squash I've ever had in my life! The coffee was OK, but I liked the presentation of it in a little glass cup. Once we fueled up @germfreeadulthood took us to the Poetry Foundation building, which was the place I was the most excited to see. On our way there we encountered a lady with a cat in a stroller who had the prettiest green eyes! His name was Louie and he kept meowmeowing and it was very cute.

Once we walked in we masked up and signed in. The library was on the right, but first they had an exhibit at the front with poems signed and printed on nice paper—immediately recognized Louise Glück and took time to scan the wall for other names I knew (which there were, like Kevin Young and Arielle Greenberg, among others).

So that was really cool to see. We spent a few hours browsing, I was really stunned by how many poetry collections they had, both old and new—they also had lit mags, subscriptions, anthologies, criticisms, and translations and a bajillion Emily Dickinson books.

I was able to sit down and flip through Franny Choi's debut collection as well as some H.D. work (which ironically included a poem about how much she hated the city, which I included below).

I was also able to get some free material! They had a bunch of copies of previous editions of Poetry from different months and years and they said they were all free and I said "wait you're serious they're free??" and at the front desk they were like "yeah they're all free" and I was like "whoa!!" and they kind of laughed but whatever, I got two things that looked cool.

Overall it was a really cool experience. Clearly I had too many pictures to share so I'm gonna make another post for part 2.

[into-the-center-of-things]

day 3: last day on the train and arriving at chicago il

July 18, 2024

"to parse down a life

means to sow a dozen seeds

off the modern path"

I slept through most of Kansas, I don't remember how much sleep I got (maybe 2 hours, I couldn't get comfortable) but I do remember seeing the everpresent sprawl of moonlit cornstalks out the window.

I woke up to the sun rising and, seeing it was 5am, I started to go back to sleep, but Z came to my seat and woke me back up because the Kansas City stop was 10 minutes away (because apparently my clock wasn't synced up to the time zone—it was actually 6am, not 7am, we jumped ahead an hour, meaning I probably didn't get as much sleep as I should have...).

I exchanged contact information with A, then got off the train to stretch my legs. At Kansas City Union Station the stop was only 15 minutes, so my goodbyes to Z and A were brief but I wish them well and hope to hear from them again soon.

As we departed from Kansas City to dive deeper into the Midwest I got another seatmate—an older woman and her two granddaughters, also on their way to Chicago to be picked up by the daugher. The kids complimented my stuffed animal and were very fidgety, they couldn't have been older than like 8 or 9. The grandmother gave me some grapes which I appreciated since I was dehydrated.

The scenery of Missouri and Iowa was mostly farmland, which besides the occasional creature (I swear I saw a crow or hawk with a snake in its mouth). It wasn't very interesting to look at but we passed over a lot of rivers, including the Missouri River, the Des Moines River, and most importantly the Mississippi River which we shot over once we passed Fort Madison Iowa and entered Illinois. There was a lot of different bodies of water flecked with what I believe was playful summer fistfuls of green algae—ponds, rivers, streams, lakes, swamps...

I spent the last 3 or 4 hours of my trip either listening to music or eavesdropping on the grandma and grandkids beside me. At some point the grandma was asleep with her eyes closed and one of the kids leaned over and said "grandma can I have my jelly?" to which Grandma replied, without opening her eyes, "No, because its not 11 o clock yet" and the kid (in awe) exclaims "how did you know that" (it was, in fact, not 11am).

Another thing to make note of was me taking advantage of the remaining time, I changed into clean clothes, then repacked my blanket and the food that didn't go rancid into my suitcase (I had to throw out the yam I was saving for myself because it smelled like mold...). I was obstructing the hallway for the brief 5 minutes I was repacking and I apologized to the conductor because he had to squeeze by me at the lower storage hall where the luggage was, but he just shook is head calmly and said "Oh, its okay, I am a trained professional, mind you" and very daintily weaved by me (mind you, this is a very grizzled old man with a beard, he's probably at least 70 years old).

I never went to the observation car because every time I went in to refill my water it smelled bad. I was getting increasingly inpatient about arriving because my body hurt and I wanted to shower and lie down. @germfreeadulthood and I were texting about the Amish and keeping track of our respective ETAs.

We breezed through the scruffy suburbs leading into Chicago and I made a minor observation that the newer suburbs reminded me more of the Southern California suburbs in terms of less architectural details and overall more dull and boring. I also noticed the closer we got to Chicago the gas prices jumped.

I chatted a bit with the grandma next to me about travel (she was traveimg to Santa Cruz from San Jose with Amtrak buses)—her granddaughters pestered me about my destination, where I was from, asked if you could use the train to travel across "the whole world like...Miami?" (the grandmother replied yes, you can use Amtrak to get to Miami to which they squealed "as in, Miami Florida????") and if it was possible to stay on the train even when the conductors tell you to get off ("Then you get arrested"). I bid them farewell and exited—got kind of lost looking for @germfreeadulthood at Union Station but I found them and they offered me kimchi onigiri that they made, which I nibbled on later. We waited at the street corner for our uber back.

@germfreeadulthood set up an air mattress for me ahead of time which was very nice. I showered (finally), and @germfreeadulthood made us curry while we chatted about a lot of different things: menial gossip, academia, potential disciplines for their PhD interests (once again i am reminded of my limited grasp of theory, but at least a lot of the Big Names...), the possibility of revising the oppressive religious structuralism of the amish into a marxist-leninist commune (I promise this was way more interesting than it sounds—between my random Googling on the train and seeing the Amish in real time made me wonder if it was possible to create a sort of sanctuary that carries some of the values of hard work and anti-materialism without the religion fundamentalism nor the shoddy inconsistent rules and misogyny, the practice of shunning/isolating members...there has to be a way to rectify the current Amish education model to be more useful if its focus is to integrate the youth into the Amish simple life instead of cutting them off at age 9 or whatever...)

I don't know if I am making sense. I am just exhausted but also very happy to see my friend again. Tomorrow we will go to the Poetry Foundation building and later look at some cool perfumes with insane descriptions and even more insane scents (the one below quite literally smelled like a burnt motherboard...)

...very excited to be able to walk around...but for now I sleep...