The cats, brothers, never moved to Chicago. We brought them along with us—seven hours in the car in their individual carriers crying piteously—in spite of frequent spritzes with a spray that was supposed to mimic a calming feline scent pheromone. We were very calm—a little drowsy driving, even—but the cats were unrelenting in vocalizing their unhappiness. They were older, accustomed to having access to the yard in Minneapolis, to living in proximity to a compost bin that attracted a steady supply of small rodents, to open windows, and the cool cat hideout under the neighbor’s front porch they accessed through a missing slat in the porch skirting.
I don’t gamble. Don’t really like going to clubs. Definitely don’t enjoy paying $8 for a small beer at a bar. So what is there for me to do in Las Vegas?
Plenty. The opportunities for people-watching in Las Vegas are unparalleled. And the amount of flash and glitter and distraction and spectacle is enough to keep any photographer happy for days.
THE SCHEME OF SPACES BY LYNETTE D’AMICO: Two scenarios about waiting in an age of instant gratification
AN ESSAY BY CORY FOSCO: “We were never an affectionate family, so when I felt my father’s cold legs in my hands, I was uncomfortable.”
THE SCHEME OF SPACES BY LYNETTE D’AMICO: Chicago’s meatpacking legacy, from red meat to dead meat in one minute
MOONY HABITATIONS BY LEILANI CLARK: Probing Erik Davis’s Visionary State of California and the notion of the “Divine Winery”
BY LELAND CHEUK: A fiction writer walks onto a stand-up open mic stage…
MOONY HABITATIONS BY LEILANI CLARK: David Shields’ Reality Hunger: A Manifesto, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and deliberate unartiness
LAST EVENINGS ON EARTH BY MIKE ZAPATA: Any Chicagoan worth his or her weight in amor or ruckus will have a rooftop story for you
THE SCHEME OF SPACES BY LYNETTE D’AMICO: Re-imagining the subtext of the doll
A STORY BY MEGAN STIELSTRA: “This past semester was especially rough and on the last day, as I was packing my things for winter break, I thought: I could walk away. What if I walked away?”
A STORY BY THOMAS SULLIVAN: “It occurs to me that a forest, or achievement for that matter, is the last thing I’d associate with the DMV.”
LAST EVENINGS ON EARTH BY MICHAEL ZAPATA: “After some time wandering, you eventually come to Checagou, but it is not the city that other traveler’s have told you about”
A STORY BY JEFF SEVERNS GUNTZEL: An American in Baghdad, before and after the invasion
AN ESSAY BY LYNETTE D’AMICO: “The knife was in a leather sheath strapped to his leg. I said that’s quite a box cutter you have there and he said he’d never been to Chicago before and didn’t know what to expect. I’d never been to Chicago before either. Maybe I needed a knife too.”
A SHORT STORY BY LAVINIA LUDLOW: “One thing about being a musician—more specifically a drummer—struggling against the cost of living—more specifically the cost of living in the Bay Area—is that I will do just about anything to earn money.”
A STORY BY DEB R. LEWIS: “For the record, I never wanted to go on the freakin’ Disney Cruise…”
SHADOW OF THE PINE BY TOM LG: A bluegrass lament about soldiers returning from Vietnam in a box
LAST EVENINGS ON EARTH BY MICHAEL ZAPATA: “It is nearly impossible to ride the Western bus or walk down State Street without spotting dozens of people who look as if they are deeply and sincerely confused about their own greatness and also about the impending doom of the universe and their miniscule place in it.”
BY CARMEN MORRIS CLARK: “My grandmother is 4 foot 9 inches. She dresses like she’s from another country, another world.”
Paul M Davis