TRAVELING LIGHT: CHICAGO, IL

Breakfast at Chicago's famous Lou Mitchell's.

They serve donut holes as you wait on line!

Marco and Martine demonstrating some of that DIY attitude that Golden Age is famous for.

Youth apathy.

Another famous food place owned by a man named Lou.

Lou Malnati's deep dish pizza.




You may ask yourself "What's happening in this photo?!". Allow me to answer that. A shirtless man plays a Jimbay drum, providing a rhythm for his friends to practice their Capoweda.

SFSGS: Special guest Luke Fishbeck

high places, silk flowers, dave stone, dunes, 08-23-09 la from john smith on Vimeo.

Sunday's show at the Eagle Rock Arts Center.

This weekend we will be embarking on a west coast tour with two shows in Chicago on Saturday. All the info is provided above except that the show on 8/21 is now at 21 Grand in Oakland, CA. Come say hello...

Abel Ferrara

We are going to be in Chicago on Saturday and really excited for it, but if we weren't going to be in Chicago then I would go to Anthology Film Archives at 10PM to see Bad Lieutenant. I like that movie okay but the real draw is director Abel Ferrara will be in attendance to answer questions and generally be an amazing spectacle. Aviram and I saw him speak after a screening of Ms. 45 last summer and afterward we both just wandered around in a daze. I remember trying really hard to fix everything he said in my memory, including things like "Nick Cage is a bad kid" (when discussing the upcoming remake of Bad Lieutenant starring Nicholas Cage) and his frustrations with Zoë Lund's biases: "she would do heroin all day but god forbid you sniff a little coke around her." I feel like I've seen tons and tons of artist talks and readings and speeches but I've never seen anyone like Ferrara. He was pacing, breathless, funny and pretty scary. He didn't seem at all rehearsed or even certain what film of his we just watched, but he was completely honest and open, told really intense stories, and seemed genuinely in love with Zoë Lund. I'm sure he will be in top form on Saturday and perhaps retell the story of how Harvey Keitel told Werner Herzog to stick it up his ass.

The other important thing about the screening this Saturday is that it's a benefit for Cinema Nolita. Cinema Nolita is my neighborhood video store and I go there a lot. It would be a tragedy to lose it.

Practice Space

Remember the part in Clueless where Alicia Silverstone gets dressed and uses a polaroid to check out her outfits since you can't trust mirrors? When my dad gave me a digital camera a few years ago I thought about it all the time, always treading this dangerous zone, worried that I would give in to my own self doubt/vanity and use it to check out my own outfits. I only did it once, before a basketball game. After watching this video I feel more confident about the striped shirt I'm wearing (a gift from my sister) and also I wish I still had the sneakers I'm wearing here. I'm not sure how Peter or Aviram feel but I think they both look great! Thank you Thomas.

Nothing like seeing a german guy eating a "hot dog" with sauerkraut and mustard. I find cliches to be rather satisfying lately. They provide a sense of fulfilling your expectations in a way that other things in life may not.

Summer side note: "hot dog" is a term invented during WWI as a way to separate from german culture. Additionally, sauerkraut was known as liberty cabbage but, the term didn't stick.