Until his death last November, the author of The Sheltering Sky continued to receive a steady stream of visitors in his tiny Moroccan apartment.
Author Archives: Greg Beaubien
Posted inArts & Culture
Chi Lives: the travels of Bob Katzman, bookseller
Bob Katzman was 15 when he opened a newsstand in a three-by-four-foot wooden shack at the corner of 51st and Lake Park in 1965. He called it Bob’s Newsstand. The business was a success, and as it grew and expanded–eventually becoming a walk-in store–it began to acquire an international flavor. Katzman sold European magazines, and, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Hanging Out: a bar for people who are going places
Ask Zach Jacobs about the differences between Europe and America, and you might hear something like this: Travelers in Europe are in constant contact with each other, through an endless network of rail routes, cheap hotels, and cafes. Travelers in the United States have virtually no contact at all, especially in the midwest. With Chicago […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Shop Talk: discreet devices for the spying game
“My private concerns could destroy me,” the well-heeled Gold Coast woman says, visibly nervous. “Did you know that Ma Bell can listen to your phone? I’m afraid that my privacy has been invaded all along.” She’s describing her predicament to Michael Pinsker, proprietor of the Spy Shop on Dearborn near Division. He recommends a voice […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Club Dates: Freedy Johnston, looking up
When he first moved to New York City from his home state of Kansas, songwriter Freedy Johnston landed a job as a truck driver, delivering Italian ice. But his eyesight is poor, and he’s a lousy driver. He quickly perpetrated a series of traffic accidents and was soon fired. “I’m much better off in my […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Local Lit: Chicago Beau’s book of the blues
Bluesman Lincoln McGraw-Beauchamp, or Chicago Beau, as he is known in local and international blues circles, grew up in the 50s in a boardinghouse near 39th and Ellis, a place he recalls as “a house of blues.” The building was populated with hustlers, drug dealers, prostitutes, and gamblers. The landlady ran a numbers operation on […]
Posted inMusic
Sideman’s holiday
When Ronnie Wood appeared onstage at the Vic on November 27–elfin, his long black hair spiked straight up, wearing a gold shirt and red silk vest, grinning expansively–the perennial sideman was finally front and center. But even while leading his own band, the Rolling Stones guitarist again proved that the best results are often born […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Borrowed Car
It was just after 2 AM when Steve Archer was ripped from a deep sleep by the explosive roar of a car gunning through the alley beneath his Wicker Park bedroom window–his deepest sleep, the loudest, fastest car. He bolted out of bed, expecting to see a police chase. Struggling to open the old wooden […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Shoeshine
For the last two years I’ve indulged every other week in a shoeshine at the barbershop in the lobby of the skyscraper where I work downtown. Walking in I say hello to Rio, the shoeshine man. “Need a shine?” he asks softly, his form thin and bent, face drowsy-looking, smoking a cigarette. “Yes, please.” I […]
Posted inArts & Culture
On Exhibit: Rhea McLean’s work in ruins
Rhea McLean likes to sneak through abandoned buildings after dark, preferably industrial ruins in rough Chicago neighborhoods. She brings with her a camera, a tripod, a bag of supplies, and a sturdy human companion. Once inside, she moves by flashlight across dusty floors streaked with the thick shadows thrown by outside streetlights, carefully considering the […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Chi Lives: boy preacher loses soul, founds theater
As a 16-year-old touring Baptist minister, Steven Milford was in hot demand in the churches of the Bible Belt. Four years later he was bounced out of a Baptist college in Birmingham after rumors of his nascent homosexuality soaked the campus. Today, 26 and living in Chicago, his religion shed, Milford is co-owner and artistic […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Mr. Windex
Mr. Windex does windows. Inside and out, he washes the windshields of hundreds of taxicabs every day, joking and hollering, parading and performing as he squirts and wipes. In his brown trousers and dingy Chicago Bears T-shirt he walks confidently among the moving cabs–past them, between them, patting the hoods and yelling greetings to the […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Club Dates: Lefty Dizz, bluesman on a bun
Regal in his sharkskin suit, black hat, and bright red tie, Lefty Dizz struts lanky and elastic across the stage, knees high. With one hand he lifts his hot-red Stratocaster off his shoulder, clenching the guitar’s neck while hammering out grungy one-handed blues riffs, his free hand waving wildly as he dances like some zealot […]