Sunday, October 2, 2011

City of the Winds

Dearest Tilly,

The moment you returned from the New Yorke, I was uprooted by a powerful gust and sent to the City of the Winds. This city is much different than my life in The District or even our hometown in the great Lone Star state. It is a place of grit and grime. It is a place of wires that go on for miles, lights that fill the night, and buildings that kiss the sky. Chicago – city of the damned it is, and it is in this damned city that I now take residence.

My daily life is nothing of the norm that it once was. The people I surround myself with are the seediest creatures of human life; from iron mill workers to bootleggers to social media experts, I find myself in the company of a surly bunch. The following video is an accurate portrayal of the life I now live.



After exhausting days of labor, the only thing one can do in this place is to go to the streets and let the music revive your withered soul. Music pulses through the veins of these Chi-town cats. It is the kind of music that drags you out of bed at night, the kind your mother always warned you about. Well, maybe not your mother Tilly, but my mother certainly did. "Stay away from those vagabonds, those riff raff who associate with violins and guitars and keyboards and drums," she would say to me. "Nothing good will come of it."

She also warned me about the dangers of not doing your laundry on a regular basis and for this I am rather thankful.

But the music Tilly, the music. Here I am away from home, away from my mother and look at the creature I have become. The music has consumed me and I ain't never coming back, especially after hearing Chicago native Andrew Bird's sinful jazz compilations from his aptly named 'Bowl of Fire.'

"Depression-Pasillo" - Andrew Bird


"Shake It and Break It" - Preservation Hall Jazz Band & Andrew Bird


Complete smut! Heed my mother's warning and stay away from the city, Tilly, lest you lose your purity. It is too late for me.

Although, if you do happen to come to the city let's visit the Art Institute of Chicago.

As always, give your mother my regards.

Sincerely,
-Thomas