Issue #134: Special Chicago deep e-dish-ion
Good morning, shoppers!
Maggie and I realized this week that we’ve known each other for seven years now. Seven! I still think that tricking her into a full-blown friendship through persistence and workday coffee (tea for her) runs at the office is one of the greatest scams of my life. Adult friendship is a different beast — you have to do it on purpose. It’s rewarding and awesome, and I highly recommend it.
Also recommended: Chicago! Maggie and I took a trip there for a long weekend recently and saw many buildings and many friends, tried (and failed) to go on a haunted kayak tour (real thing, deepest regret of my year so far), walked a ton, ate cookies for breakfast one day (no regrets), and basically had the ding dang times. It ruled.
This week, it’s all Chicago, all the time, baby! Enjoy some recs based on our excellent adventure in the Windy City.
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Kase + Maggie
Vivian Maier is one of photography’s great mysteries. Maier was a super secretive nanny who spent her life taking photos around Chicago and died before her work was ever seen by the world. She left behind hundreds of photographs, 100,000 negatives and roughly a thousand rolls of undeveloped film, all of this only discovered when the contents of her storage lockers were purchased by a collector. It’s an unbelievable story, until you see the work itself. “Vivian Maier: In Color” is on display at the Chicago History Museum through January 2, 2023. The exhibition showcases both spectacular and ordinary moments in and around the city, captured by a seemingly silent observer compelled by a relentless need to document her surroundings. For those unable to make it to the Windy City in time, this book of Maier’s work will transport you there. —MC
Guess who is very excellent at photo booths? Us, duh. We hit every one we could find, like the booth at Little Goat (I had breakfast there two days in a row and dared the server I had both times to say something about it), the old-school amazingness at Quimby’s, and the arcade/bar where I absolutely school Maggie at Skee-Ball. And air hockey. Multiple times. But back to the booths, we didn’t plan our poses, we just went for it. And you know what, it worked. It reminds me of the Polaroids my four-year-old has been into taking lately. A lot of the times she just wants to take a picture of “your butt” (again, she’s four), but sometimes she catches a candid that has that impossible to recreate authenticity made all the more charming by the fact that there’s no negative and no digital record, no chance to touch it up. It’s truly one-of-a-kind. —KW
You heard it here first: gummy candy is making a comeback. We developed a slight obsession with Foxtrot, a local market that sells exclusively cute and delicious stuff, with the highlight being these curated gummy blends that are somehow…just amazing? The copy on the packaging is good, the flavors are delicious, the textures are varied — you can’t argue with perfection. This needs to live in your purse, then in your mouth. —KW
Back in 2015, I released a short-run zine called Hot Bath Cold Whiskey. It featured art and writing from myself, friends and contributors. It was a passion project that reintroduced me to the world of zines for the first time in nearly a decade, a respite from toiling away in a newsroom, which left me hollowed by the demands of 24-hour news cycle. So, I sent a few issues to Quimby’s, a bookstore that specializes in independently-published and small press zines, books and comics, to sell. Seven years later, I finally got to visit the very store that sold my little zine and wow, did it warm my heart to see zines on everything from photography to witchcraft. An institution that continues to encourage creativity through printed matter, this place should be a landmark. –MC
A long, hot shower in a hotel bathroom is one of my favorite things. Even better? Staying at a place with premium haircare products, like this Malin + Goetz peppermint shampoo I discovered at LondonHouse Chicago during our visit. Work a quarter-sized amount into your scalp, take a deep breath and prepare to tingle. This stuff makes early mornings a little more delightful and leaves my hair looking extra shiny. Plus, I recently found a discounted bottle at Nordstrom Rack, so now I’m walking around with a little pep(permint) in my step and hair. —MC
The last day of our getaway, we embraced what we have come to refer to in shorthand as “30s shit.” After a long walk through the city, we stopped at a tiki bar that I truly had not shut up about for days only to find it crowded and hot. We were ready to soldier on and shell out $15 each for cocktails that we would have to drink standing up on aching feet, and then we kind of realized that we just…didn’t have to. We could go back to our hotel room, put on pajamas, crack a beer and watch Netflix. So that’s exactly what we did. We swore that just because we were in our pjs at 7 p.m., that didn’t mean we were in for the night. We could always get dressed again. Obviously, we were in for the night. Thirties shit, remember? We marathoned The Resort (weird, satisfying, please talk to me about it), then watched When Harry Met Sally (perfect), followed by You’ve Got Mail (ditto). We’d had so much to eat for lunch — we shared an Italian beef sandwich as an appetizer, to give you an idea of the level of commitment there — that we totally bailed on having dinner, even. There’s nothing like a Nora Ephron movie to cap off an amazing weekend, let alone two of them. If you, like us, can’t get enough Nora, you need to add this book to your TBR immediately if not sooner. —KW
One of our lovely Chicago pals, Kristen, is on the board at Rebuilding Exchange, a very cool local non-profit that reduces waste and helps build skills and beautiful, livable homes by repurposing and reusing building materials and training people in construction skills. If you’re local, you can take workshops, and the group has a retail arm to help home supplies find homes instead of landing in a landfill. Check out their site and donate or get involved today.