Blather

Don De Grazia and I get together at the Music Box Lounge to talk about Orson Welles' "new" movie, toxic masculinity, film nerds, and the overall state of the world.

I meet Chicago musician and man-about-town, Skyler Rowe, at Firecat Projects and The Handlebar to talk about how he became the drummer in seventeen local bands. The Rainbo Club, gentrification, and the eternal conflict between metal and punk is also discussed.

Dmitry Samarov and Northwestern University professor Bill Savage discuss Samarov's show of marker drawings done on CTA buses and trains on view at Firecat Projects in Chicago.

I met Chicago collagist and sculptor Rebekka Federle—it's pronounced "fade-early", she insists—at Feed and, after eating some ribs, she talked to me about art, Chicago, and copywriting. You can see a bunch of her work at https://rebekkafederle.com/.

A story from cab-driving days. Written and read by Dmitry Samarov, with improvised music by Bill MacKay (guitar), Daniel Thatcher (bass), and Charles Rumback (drums). Recorded up on Frogg Mountain in Chicago, Illinois by John Vernon Forbes in 2013.

I visit Chicago painter Brian Wells to talk about his art, day-jobs, the art world, and his time in the city. You can see a bunch of his work at https://brianwellsart.com/.

John Vernon Forbes visits Jackalope Coffee in Bridgeport to talk about art, Tijuana Hercules, childhood, and the whole kit and caboodle.

Photographer/historian Paul Petraitis and filmmaker John McNaughton talk about shooting footage of Old Fashioned Days in the Roseland neighborhood of Chicago in 1970. White flight, rock-n-roll, and growing up in Chicago in the '60s are discussed.

Don De Grazia and Dmitry Samarov convene at the cocktail lounge of a movie theater, situated within a deadmall which just won't die, to discuss Paul Schrader's new film. Also, whether the axe-throwing concern recently opened in the basement of the mall will save it from the wrecking ball.

Don De Grazia convene at the Chicago Cultural Center to debate the thespian talents of Joaquin Phoenix and the merits of Lynne Ramsey's 2018 film, You Were Never Really Here.

Choreographer/artist/dancer Wendy Clinard talks to Dmitry Samarov about her collaboration with Japanese photographer Akito Tsuda on a new multimedia piece.

Don De Grazia and Dmitry Samarov repair to an undisclosed Ecuadorean eatery to debate the merits of Ryan Prows' 2017 feature film, "Lowlife".

About jitneys, the rideshare racket, and the end of the taxi industry as we know it.