ayanacontreras
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Don’t Care Bears. Hilarious.
You know you love it. Or else, you don’t care. This t-shirt, featuring a trio of apathetic bears modeled after the iconic Care Bears is available from Chicago’s own Threadless, by artist Alex Solis.
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ReMake Estate: Brand New Day.
ReMake Estate is a really cool project going on in Gary (Indiana) in which an abandoned house on 24th and Massachutsetts will be reborn as a meeting space and a community garden. The project is being organized in conjunction with interested local community groups and Australian-based artists Keg de Souza and Zanny Begg. The artists (from…
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Lyricist Loft: Kids Today Can Read… and Write.
Wednesday nights this Summer, an Open mic for Open minds: hosted by dimi d. & Fatimah DJ talent & DJ Such N Such Bring your poems, songs, videos, chants, interpretive dancing…etc. JUST COME and bring your Positive Energy FEATURED POETS= Kuumba Lynx Date: Wednesday, July 14, 2010 Time: 6:00pm – 8:00pm Location: 400 South State
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The Return of Captain EO: This was it.
Hot off the presses.. Captain EO will be reopen at the Epcot Center (at Walt Disney World) this July. The ride/film short directed by Francis Ford Coppola and featuring Michael Jackson was originally opened in 1986 and closed in 1994 amidst allegations of abuse. The film was definitely a highlight of my family’s trip to…
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photos from the get down.
A couple of photos of me at work, taken by Taras Tymchuk (a visitor in town from the Ukraine). You should visit, too.
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Messin With the Kid: The Update
It’s the time of the season for italian ices, blowing bubbles, and visits to amusement parks. But it’s a sad day in Melrose Park, for this is the first summer in eighty years without Kiddieland. No little train. No cotton candy. But all is not lost….. Originally published Labor Day Weekend 2009: After Eighty Years, Kiddieland of Melrose…
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Good Lovin… or else
This is a record that embodies Chicago Grit and Get Down. “Good Lovin” by the legendary Otis Clay is at once a love song and a warning. Take heed. Says he: “And if you walk out my life, I hope you fall and break your neck”. If that ain’t grit, I don’t know what is…. A favorite…
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Brighter Side of Darkness: a love note.
Below, “Love Jones” by Brighter Side of Darkness, performing on Soul Train. Don’t confuse this group with the Jackson Five, as they are aren’t a family act. They were just one in a rich history of Chicago-area based Kiddie Soul groups. The nucleus of the group came from Calumet High School here in Chicago, but 12…
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Hip Chicago Jazz with Soul!
Darkjive has been on Summer Vacation, but always digging deeper… I’ve been really into swinging sixties jazz from Chicago, like “Coming to Atlantis” a hip mover produced by Monk Higgins and credited to Freddie “The Creeper” Robinson (on Lead Guitar). The Flip of this 45, called “Before Six” is wonderful, as well. During the late 1960’s, there…
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Gone Away: a one-two-three chicago-bred punch of soul
Performing below (in Ghana, circa 1971) is Roberta Flack. She is singing “Gone Away”… a cool, loping soul record from her album “Chapter Two”. This record was written by the one-two-three Chicago-bred punch of Leroy Hutson, Curtis Mayfield, and Donny Hathaway (before his own breakout single “The Ghetto”). “Gone Away” was also recorded by The Impressions and Lovelace Watkins (in…
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