Date: 2/12/09Show: Simone's Grand Opening with Gatekeeper, Yello Fever & Mr BobbyLocation: Simone'sCost: FREEDrinks: $2.50 PBR tall boys, $4 draughtsThings I missed to be there: A million goth, rockabilly, punk, alt titties at the Elysian Ball; CLASS with OneFiftyOne, Marco Morales, and Kampfire Killaz at evilolive (soul night!); STARDUST with Bunny Rabbit, Nina Ramone, and Ssion DJs at Berlin; Evil Empire with DJ Major Taylor at Empire Liquors Chuck Inglish and Hollywood Holt at Angels & Kings; BABY LOVE with DJs Fabulette, Special E, and Lauren Luck at Holiday Club (soul night!); 20khz at Quennect Four; LETS GO DEEP with Thunderous Olympian at Cafe Lura, Atomic New Wave Night at Neo
Reason for Going: I didn't leave the house til after midnight, and I was more interested in a good bike ride than the actual shows
Ipod playlist: NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, Girl Talk, Sebastian Tellier

You saw that last Batman movie, right? Did you think it was the best thing ever? I kinda did at the time, but I think I'm over it. It was a good action flick, but it wouldn't even go in my top ten comic book adaptations. I mean the dead guy was beyond phenomenal, but the movie itself wouldn't rank as high as, say, The Maxx or X-Men 2 or V for Vendetta or Ghost World.

Remember the speech at the end about how so-and-so was the hero Gotham needed, but not the one they wanted, or he was just what they wanted but not what they deserved, or some shit like that?

Simone's fills a definite void in Pilsen, but I'm not sure if the neighborhood may end up worse off for it. For years in Pilsen, if you don't enjoy shady pool halls or sports bars (or, the part that I can't dance around, if you're white or black and feel awkward bars that cater to a primarily Mexican immigrant clientele) your only option for a bar was the Skylark. I can't say enough good things about the Skylark. They have good food and quality drinks at decent prices, eclectic music and a photobooth that makes everyone look good. They have gone a long way to cater to both the existing, and the developing communities of Pilsen and Bridgeport. I think it is a misnomer that they are often classified as a dive bar, not for any lack of quality, so much as a lack of shiny or newness. A more appropriate term for them might be homey. Still, I've got a feeling that on any given night, there are a couple tables of people who are only there because they feel comfortable being white, or black, or gay, or Asian, or indie or whatever, who would rather be at a glitzier, dancier bar, listening to Shiny Toy Guns or Belle Biv Devoe rather of Carl Perkins or A Certain Ratio.

Simone's is that place, and it looks like they've done everything right. Managed by the people behind Danny's, Streetside, The Logan and The Black Beetle, the decor was created using a lot of green architecture. From the bar's website:

Crafted in many cases from remaindered building materials, decorative ephemera and bits and pieces of original architectural elements, the decor inside Simone's ranges from a bar top built from a bowling alley lane to graffiti-scarred high school chemistry table tops to booths and a DJ station built from old pinball machines. Using vintage and remaindered materials is part of Simone's environmentally friendly operations, something that includes a rooftop herb garden and banks of solar panels.

And all those elements come together pretty well, if a little disjointed. The main bar looks like either the inside of a pinball machine or the inside of a spaceship. The booths are comfortable, and the nonfunctioning displays from a dozen old pinball machines that sit above them look pretty cool, even if they are a total cocktease. The DJ booth is a balcony that hangs over the main room, caged in a wire fence that was very reminiscent of the cowboy bar stage in Blues Brothers, updated for the DJ era (and not just to me; there were many, many comments from people about wanting breaking bottles against it).

Pretty much, the bar did everything right, right down to having the opening party booked by one of the city's best promoters and best party photographers, featuring the neighborhood's best DJ and one of the city's buzzingest DJ teams. The only thing, they might have done wrong... is existing. Throughout the night I had the same conversation (with old friends from high school, with people I'd just met who were new to the city, with lifelong Pilsen residents, and with people who are personally invested in the city's service, dj and event promotions industries).

What do you think about the place? How do you think it will do? Should it be here?

Everyone liked it, although only a few were excited about it, and nearly everyone thought the neighborhood residents would embrace it, but were less clear on the neighborhood itself. Simone's sits on a stretch of 18th street, that despite being one of the neighborhoods major thoroughfares, one of it's main commercial and gallery districts, has no shortage of empty storefronts or spaces, so it's not so much that the bar is pushing anyone off the block so much as changing the feeling of it. There was a lot of talk about the neighborhood turning into Wicker Park, whether it's founded or not. I know what Wicker Park is now, and why nobody likes it. It's a tourist trap, full of overpriced stores, overpriced restaurants, overpriced bars and nightclubs, that fill the neighborhood with loud, brutish drunks seven nights a week.

[note: this was in the unfinished drafts folder and "published" years later. I think the rest of what follows is notes and alternate takes]

But it's unlikely that that exact situation happens in Pilsen...

And what about Wicker Park are we worried about Pilsen? becoming. Is it the slow gentrification of the neighborhood that changes its racial and political demographics so gradual that it's imperceptible? Or is it just who's coming in? Is it the funny looking artists and college students who will do everything they can to support the local businesses they like, while at the same time acting annoying and entitled as hell? Or is it the bourgie yuppies starting bourgie families, who will get involved in neighborhood politics, but demand chain grocery stores and whitewashed murals.

In my fishbowl view of the city, Logan Square and Humboldt Park feel exactly like Wicker Park used to, but they're not. There are lots of small shops always opening and closing, and lots of comfy diners, bars, and restaurants. They've both seen an increase in galleries, underground spaces, and condos, but no big businesses. The condos in Logan Square don't seem to be flowing citywide trends, more than ones consistent with an expanding neighborhood.

Date: 2/7/09
Location: Ball Hall
Show: TUNDRA THUNDA with Magic is Kuntmaster, Blue Zone, Usama Alshaibi and more
Cost: $5 donation
Drinks: Thermos full of whiskey sours
Things I missed to be there: I'M AN INDIAN TOO at Papal Projects with Sirhan, Thunderous Olympian, Local Hero, Biobooater and more



It's a new year and I want to get the old blog rolling again. Maybe it will last more than three posts this year and maybe it won't. Blogging sucks. Everytime I ever say something negative (sometimes mean, occasionally over-the-top, often accurate), it comes to bite me in the ass, and I don't want to be Mister I Love Everything, so hopefully I just won't go to any shitty shows.

2008 was pretty awesone. The best two shows were at Quennect Four

[the rest of this blog was never finished and I pressed "publish" 500 years later]