Chicago MMXII

To be fair, the climate control in this entire building is fuuuucked (people who sit on the plaza facing side of the office wear coats and scarves inside in the summer because it is incredibly cold over there, while 3/4 of my office can sit here in short sleeves and be comfortable; in the winter, it gets cold enough at my desk that my hands become too achy to type) but that being the case, I keep a sweater, a shawl, fingerless gloves, and slippers at my desk so that I can adapt to whatever the indoor weather happens to be today.

we had a hallway that was so hot that it felt like being inside someone's hot mouth

I was thinking about the social sharing aspect of things again this morning, and what was getting me wasn't the sharing itself, which seems to me like a perfectly reasonable instinct and one that I have, too, but the idea that you HAVE to share. Spotify and Pinterest and whatever else all try to make you log in with your Facebook or Twitter account, or sign up with it. This idea that wanting to share everything is the purpose of consuming entertainment as opposed to the purpose being for enjoyment or edification or enrichment, with sharing being something you on a more selective, deliberate basis.

Spotify sharing is easy enough to disable, but pinterest bugs me for that reason. I basically want privacy controls where no one can see what I'm pinning. I'll never be a big user unless that happens.

Sorry for bringing it up again. I didn't want people to think I am judgmental of folks who do like sharing all this stuff. I'm really not. It's fun to share things. I just find the sharing/social aspect of these things being the default or in some cases the only option to be frustrating. It's half musing about the shift in assumptions about everybody wanting to be open about everything and half observing how suddenly social networking became the big selling point of methods of media consumption, and maybe the relationship between the two.

Somebody somewhere else on the internet has said this much better than I, I am sure.

xp You can immediately disconnect Twitter or Facebook from Pinterest after you sign up. I think they use it as a verification method, maybe? It's dumb, but you can disconnect it.

I don't mean that, I mean people being able to view my actual pinterest page.

Oh right. Yes. You can't make the actual page private.

Pinterest seems intrinsically, essentially social. I get wanting an image-based idea repository, sort of like del.icio.us, but w/ pics, but that's not reasonable to expect of Pinterest.

Jenny, I get what you're saying. Sometimes I want to read an article someone links to on FB, but when I click the link, it asks me to share that I've read it, but I want to actually see if the article is worth a damn before I tell everyone I've read it!

I mean that the link demands that I share it before it lets me read it. That could be wrong and maybe there's a way to avoid sharing, but the pop-up turns me off and I don't read the story.

That's a good example. Sure, share a good article but to share every article you read? GTFO. Why should any app expect that of anyone?

I think it's absolutely reasonable. The site has zero privacy controls, which is absurd for a social media site today.

Speaking of sharing, I'll share with you (esp. Jaymc and Kenan):

Half-price tickets to...Boz Scaggs, Michael MacDonald, and Donald Fagen, at Ravinia.

SMH @ RED EYE

http://www.readoz.com/publication/read?i=1051067&letter=R#page2

"Turban Primer"

I would guess that your average American is woefully ignorant about different styles of turbans (see also using "burqa" to describe any non-Western women's clothing style) but that presentation strikes me as a bit othering.

Eric: That's an awesome heads-up, and thanks. But I blew pretty much my whole big-ticket concert budget in one shot on Blondie and Devo at the Chicago Theater. Floor-level, dancefloor. OMG that's going to be awesome.

But that's so tempting.

Sara just got us tickets to see Radiolab's live thing at the Chicago Theater in September. Should be great.

Oh cool! I saw the first TAL live thing there and it was great. Live NPR shows. Dork-o-rama.

Speaking of! If you are still listening to The Horror (or just selectively listening to it, since tehre are a lot of shows) they recently re-aired The Thing on the Fourble Board, which in addition to being fun to say (fourble board fourble board fourble board) is a really awesome... show? production? piece? whatever. It's good.

And if you're not still listening to it, you can still listen to that one episode (EPISODE! that's the word I wanted) here - http://www.quietplease.org/index.php?section=episode&id=60.

I saw the first TAL live thing there

Can I outdork you and say that I was at a TAL live show in 2000 at DePaul's Merle Reskin Theatre?

cross posting this from the pit bull thread for cuteness' sake

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/319324_339813346102692_364720530_n.jpg

Awwwwwww puppies!

<3 <3 <3 I saw that, died, then came back to share it with Ligby, who also died.

RIP Ligby

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/08/no-chicago-not-more-dangerous-afghanistan

Ligby Goes Down.

interesting - i agree that's a misleading stat but i'm not sure i agree with the points in the last couple of paragraphs

mainly the last paragraph i guess

What do you disagree with about it?

i don't think people are nationalizing the story to make people feel bad, they're nationalizing it because it's big news that is relevant to the nation

I think he's talking about "nationalizing" by appealing to emotion in comparing the city to a war zone. And it's common that the media sell their stories nationally by spicing it with appeals to emotion.

Point being that I agree with you that Chicago's murder rate is worthy of being national news, and I agree with the writer's point that inaccurately citing stats as a way of shocking people into listening is doing no one any good.

noooooo

http://gapersblock.com/transmission/2012/08/15/cals_could_close_later_this_year/

Somebody check on Kevin R. and make sure he's okay.

I've never been there.

It's miles better than the cactus bar and that hideous Irish "pub" across the street from it.

How's the beer selection? It's funny how monks has quietly gotten in best selection in the loopish area in the last couple of years.

Not so great. I don't think I've ever drank anything outside of Old Style/Schlitz/PBR/High Life there.

But you don't really go to Cal's for good beer ime. You go because it's Cal's.

It's the only bar like it in the Loop, that's for sure.

I miss Old Timers.

I do, too! I was thinking about it yesterday because a friend emailed to ask me where was a good place to drink in the Loop.

Although Cardozo's on Washington between Wells and LaSalle is probably a good substitute.

only time i was at cal's was when i set up a FF's show with my friends' band from West Virginia, got Eazy and jaymc to open, and no one came to the show

I'd been there once before, but that show was definitely the last time I was there.

a friend of mine had his wedding reception there

That's impressive.

Hey Amanda! Guess what I'm reading that you recommended a long long time ago???

Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan

It's really good! I'm worried for the children, though.

OH MAN i love that book so much

she has a new one out now, gotta get to that someday