Soda would be such a good last name for a short story character.
There he is… Don Soda
“I give this place a five star.” I’d like to change my vote to “Children.”
This was before their torrid love affair became public and the project’s funding ended.
I have so many good bathroom art pics in this series, but this is the most interesting thing in my office building bathroom. AKA Damp hands mean sick days mean 14-hour days trying to catch up. Wash your hands, you sick fuck!
What is the difference between a yard sale and a rummage sale? I want to attend the one most likely to sell Don Soda’s socks.
Wishful thinking. Though I love the #faceinplaces Easter egg in no_one.
More wishful thinking. Though I, too, want to live in that world.
More more.
Author and illustrator Emil Ferris at the Chicago Humanities Festival. Super pumped to read her graphic novel “My Favorite Thing is Monsters.” Some of my favorite Emil quotes from her appearance:
On Chicago “There are a lot of survivors here.”
On whether she’s a political artist “I don’t know that anybody isn’t a political artist.”
On writing fiction “You can propose ways to solve everything in fiction. So why not?”
On being an unorganized artist “Everything goes to hell regularly. … I’m an Italian driver as an artist.”
On getting older “That’s the great thing about being old. You’re ornery. And you feel gratitude for everything.”
Thank you for your work/ being your ornery self, Emil!
I love everything about this building… except those glaring “your” and “you’re” errors but I choose to ignore them.
Slut boy!
Foreign boy!
This poster looks so ominous because of its decay. Like some shifty Groupon lackey tried to remove it or scrape of its message in the cover of darkness.
It’s been three years since a Chicago policeman shot 17-year-old Laquan McDonald in the back 16 times. Black lives matter.
Get it?
These quotes about famous people’s perseverance are on the outside of a Family Dollar, which is a pretty perfect location to spread the message to never give up.
This is from a show at the Slate Arts and Performance space. Liu’s work is bright and immersive and reflects her narrative search for memory and emotional recovery following a terrible head wound. It’s interesting to see how visual artists find ways to express their story through color and form, not words.
And here’s the Slate bathroom. It’s glorious and this post series seems to be where I, ahem, dump all my good bathroom photos. You’re welcome.
Getting straight to the point inside an electrical company’s offices in Marion, Ohio.
Passive aggressive messages left on cars happen early and often in Chicago’s crammed streets. The washed-and-dried look of these notes allow us to deduce that this car has been here for a while.
I think the theme this week is really direct signage. “Rear.” “Office.” “463.” All the news you need.
There have to thousands of nail salons in Chicago. I love seeing how they name themselves. It’s always some variation of “Nail”. Hot Nails. Cool Nails. Diamond Nails. Nails.com (which does not have a website and definitely is not the owner of the domain of which its business title speaks). Nail Story is a pretty good one. My nails would tell a super gross story.
Heh. Heh. Body man wanted indeed… Another Chicago signage trend: Body shops with really innuendo-heavy language. There’s a place by my apartment that boasts “Best Hand Job in Town.” Maybe something was lost in translation?
“When your car is feeling blue. We paint it yellow.”
Zing.
More like words on the beach. Shoutout to our honeymoon!
A sticker on a car in Columbus. A strong, certain word for a strong, certain statement (those are supposed to be ovaries, ICYMI).
I like this Ruthie’s use of the present tense. Is you still here, Ruthie? Is you a ghost? Is is a bold choice. Is we ever really anywhere? Do we ever leave? I’m into it, Ruthie.
From the Blue Line. A train car interior covered in black plastic, bearing a single word: “Hide.” An alien looked down from the ceiling, as if he was climbing through, trying to get to his very important business meeting in The Loop. It’s an ad for the movie “Alien: Covenant.” Creepy. Cool. A word like “Hide” becomes immediately off-putting when placed inconspicuously in a daily setting. It feels more off-putting than someone actually yelling, “HIDE!”
At an Ohio hotel’s continental breakfast. It’s never too early for farm puns.
You’re right. It was won by Native American genocide, but, like, I get what you’re saying. Saving this for character dialogue someday.
Irving Park. An example of how we still mark our territory and claim it. Someone is homesick.
First place “Most Magical” pie at an Ohio county fair. When making this recipe at home, don’t forget you need two fluffy bunnies and the lady bugs must be of a friendly disposition. <3
A little free library. With an even littler step ladder. <3 <3
I’ve been reading Margaret Atwood’s 2000 book, “The Blind Assassin.” Have you ever read a book and/or writer and thought, “Why am I even trying? This is brilliant.”? That’s how Atwood makes me feel. She’s a triple threat–genius storyteller, wordsmith and rebel thinker. A tiny example, this description of a dress as “… something easy to overlook but sharp, like a common kitchen implement — an ice pick, say — just before the murder.” This book is riddled with mic-drop metaphor after mic-drop metaphor.
As you can see from above, I brought my book to a baseball game. We had to get cash out of a BMO Harris ATM to get nachos for, you know, game watching (book sneaking). I liked this ATM tagline alongside the info that, though be it 2017, seat vendors are cash only.
True. This bunting in a Lakeview window display made me double take. What does it mean?? What is true??? Better question: What is not true? WHY IS LIFE SO COMPLICATED?
Stickers in River North, like writing prompts shouting from the sidewalk. What would qualify as the Last Great Riot? Why?
We went to the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago during my bachelorette weekend to see the Takashi Murakami exhibit. The art and curation were awesome, as expected, but I was drawn to the exhibition’s title, “The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg.” It’s from a Japanese story about how an octopus will eat its own leg to save itself, knowing the tentacle will grow back. Murakami explores how artists do the same thing, but with no guarantee of regeneration. (See more of my pictures here.)
A clever name for a used clothes drop-off. USA GAIN, use again, etc. I get it… It makes me eyeroll every time I walk by it though, as if it’s saying, “Hey, it’s us again. You really need to purge your closet and donate it to us and also stop buying so much shit that doesn’t fit you.”
Server shirts at Girl and The Goat, the lightning hot Chicago restaurant. You can’t be in Chicago during baseball season without hearing “Go, Cubs, Go” chanted at least thrice. Here’s a fun take on that.
There are so many agencies in this city, it’s no surprise the science of user experience + graphic design is evident in the least expected places. I love this example from a building in the West Loop. It’s a map of all the restaurants and attractions nearby. A writer was probably the least important creative to making this happen, but there’s cute stuff in there.
A CTA and a directive in one smart sentence. Napkins are so helpful.
That’s a new one to me. So says Oxford: “A red, plum-sized tropical fruit with soft spines and a slightly acidic taste. Early 18th century, from Malay ramutan, from rambut ‘hair,’ with allusion to the fruit’s spines.” Heh. Ram butt.
This image alludes to most of the writing I’ve been doing the past week. That of thank you notes. I like imagining what a “well-managed forest” looks like. The rabbits have daily staff meetings and the oaks delegate responsibilities fairly.
Mmm-hmm. Outside a vet’s office outside Chicago’s River North.
“Home is where you dive into a novel.” It’s also where you dream of being while waiting at this bus stop, trying to distract yourself with said novel.
“Made with water, barley and hops. Anything more would be like putting ketchup on a hot dog.” For those of you who don’t know, putting ketchup on a hot dog is a mortal sin to legit, born-and-raised Chicagoans. Definite regional copywriting win.
A bus stop in Cleveland’s Birdtown. Poetry and quotes about birds.
The Crowd Theater bathroom reminder. Chicago.
“Owner/Mule”. Barroco in Cleveland. A MUST.
“Full of Character[s]”. Advertisement for a suburb hanging in downtown Chicago. I get the community theater aspect but its promise of characters rang flat considering the man in the furry outfit across the street while I took this photo. You want characters, stay in the city.
