Day on

I had yesterday off but decided to participate in the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service. As the proponents of the Day of Service like to say, it's not a day off but a day on (I know, it's kind of cheesy). The program I participated in was sponsored by a state senator and carried out through the offices of two Chicago aldermen. It was a good way to connect volunteers with projects, which isn't always easy. I wish things had been a little more organized in advance in terms of transportation and knowing the time commitments involved in each project and if/when other volunteers would be arriving. Hopefully it all worked out for the organizations and volunteers.

I took two assignments: picking up garbage at a high school near my home, and doing some office work for the Ravenswood ArtWalk. Since I was closer to RAW, I went there first, thinking I'd put in a few hours there, then end the day in my own neighborhood. Unfortunately, I never made it to the school. There was plenty to do at RAW and no one else volunteered there, so I felt like my time was better spent by getting as much as possible done there. RAW is a really cool event held in the Ravenswood Corridor, an industrial area in my neighborhood. Nestled among the odd little businesses that run along the railroad tracks on Ravenswood Avenue are a lot of art studios and galleries. The RAW venues include not only these creative spaces, but also local businesses that offer their spaces to artists for the weekend.

The main project I worked on was organizing materials from last year's walk. A lot of random items -- posters, raffle tickets, T-shirts, etc. -- had been put aside immediately after the event and needed to be sorted, inventoried, and filed away. I made a fairly large dent in the organization project by sorting a lot of the materials and inventorying the signage. I also worked on tracking down missing venue signs and updating the email contact list. It was all fairly simple work, but tasks that are time-consuming -- perfect for a volunteer.


It was a fun day, and I felt like I was able to get a good amount of work done for the organization. But do you know what's even better than leaving with a sense of satisfaction? Leaving with some Rod Blagojevich art! RAW placed a call for Blago-themed art for last year's walk, and a few of the pieces were sitting around the office, uninstalled. I got to select a piece to keep, which I present to you in all its glory here.

I know you are jealous of me.

Drive-in Saturday

Last night I finally went to the Cascade Drive-in with a couple of girlfriends. I hadn't been to a drive-in movie since I was thirteen, in the final days of the one that was a staple of my childhood. I've been wanting to go pretty much as long as I've lived here, and now I regret not having gone sooner.

The Cascade is about an hour west of Chicago. We made great time so we stopped to grab a bite at a fairly empty Chinese place that was right next door to what seemed to be the most hopping place in town, the Schnitzel Platz, complete with German early-bird specials for seniors. They were making their way out as we were just sitting down to dinner, reminding me of the Seinfeld episode where Jerry tells his parents, "I'm not going to force feed myself a steak at 4 o'clock to save a few bucks!"

The Cascade was pretty great. Everything was just like the old days -- a person sitting in a little shack collecting money, the gravel lot with the speakers on poles, and an aluminum-faced concession building selling burgers, hot dogs, nachos, candy, and even Alka-Seltzer and mosquito repellent! It was $8.50 to get in, which seems to be about what a whole carload cost back in the day, but it's still a great deal for two movies, especially since the concessions were pretty cheap ($1 soft pretzels, anyone?).

We saw Shorts, the new Robert Rodriguez kiddie movie that terrifies me because it features Jon Cryer and James Spader playing parents, and The Final Destination, which is a lot like Final Destination, but with a "The".