Lifetecture

Rolling, rolling, rolling; the theme from Rawhide keeps going through my head…maybe because I just watched the Blues Brothers in Grant Park. What an experience to see John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd as Jake and Ellwood Blues running around the same city we were sitting in. About halfway through there was an almighty storm and many ran for shelter. I’d brought the yellow anorak my mother gave me, which I thought I’d never wear; and I was as happy as Larry throughout the downpour – dry at least on top – my jeans were so wet I had to take a cab home later.

I went with J. who was meeting someone who had been camping out since 4:30PM to save territory in the massive space of the park. We couldn’t find her when we arrived so we set ourselves up near the front, next to a giant blue tarp with a tribe of tattooed folks eating and talking.

J. realized she knew one of them, a colleague of her husband M. who works as a tattoo artist. Turned out, they were saving the tarp for the one we were meeting! So we migrated to their demarcated territory and were able to spread out and share in the picnic while all around us people jostled and squashed. This kind of thing confirms my faith in our ultimate connectedness; in Chicago anyway, convergence still abounds. The tarp doubled as shelter during the storm and harbored movie refugees caught in the storm.

I hadn’t watched the film since I moved to Chicago and I’d forgotten how magnificent Aretha Franklin is in her role as the owner of a Soul Food joint. Turns out it’s on the Old Maxwell Street; however John Belushi would probably turn in his grave if he could see the mallification that has occurred there since they shot that scene. Funny to think that now I’m just living around the corner…