If you listen to music long enough you might make certain connections like, Galaxie 500’s song “Ceremony,” is actually a New Order cover.

I know, I know, I’m behind the times. I had only heard of Galaxie 500 because I was a Luna fan. That’s where the rabbit hole opened.

Once I started to appreciate Dean Wareham, I became aware that he was in a groundbreaking band called Galaxie 500. I had read many articles saying that On Fire was one of the best albums ever written. After that tidbit of info I had to hear the album, and for the longest time, until yesterday actually, I thought “Ceremony” was their song.

It took me years of picking apart New Order’s catalog to find “Ceremony” and then it took me going back to Galaxy’s On Fire to figure out the mystery, putting 2 and 2 together. Don’t hate on me, it really does sound original. Give Galaxy 500 credit where credit is due. The band didn’t just do a straight-up cover, they put their own stamp on it.

This makes me appreciate both bands, and both versions even more.

There are 8 million stories in the naked city, darling, let’s be one of them.

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Ludwig van Beethoven’s getting all the noise ahead of the 250th anniversary of his birth, and that’s not even until Dec. 16 (as any long reader of “Peanuts” comics knows). Meanwhile, today is the 18oth anniversary of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s birth (in 1840 — I did the arithmetic so you don’t have to.)

He never wrote a cello concerto, but he’s still my favorite composer, or at least in the top three. Getting handed Tchaikovsky music in the school or university orchestra always made a happy morning — we cellists knew there would be something good for us.

Even if you don’t think you know Tchaikovsky’s music, you may know of it. Who gets through December without hearing at least part of “The Nutcracker”? That’s his, even though it’s been reported (in Disney’s “Fantasia,” no less) that it wasn’t a work he liked. Another piece I loved learning in high school and still enjoy hearing is “Serenade for Strings,” which has a waltz that, to me, is a close second to “Waltz of the Flowers” as his best. “Waltz of the Flowers” has a cello melody in it which is what I play to limber up, or when I don’t know what else to play.

When I was in the high school orchestra, Tchaikovsky won my admiration for making even playing scales beautiful. We’ve had a bit on our minds since Christmastime, so at the end of the post is a reminder of how he did that — the pas de deux from “The Nutcracker.”

My copy of the New Harvard Dictionary of Music reminds me that pas de deux is a dance for two dancers. (“Pas” is a dance step; “faux pas” isn’t just a false step, it’s a false dance step. Ow, my toes.)

I will be celebrating  by listening to plenty of Tchaikovsky on my CD player, my record player, and, yes, my cello. Tchaikovsky didn’t write a concerto among the lovely things he wrote for cello, but he did write “Variations on a Rococo Theme” — which might as well be his concerto; it’s difficult enough. I keep trying to add to the parts of it I can play, but the ones I already know are great comforts, especially the next-to-last variation. (The link is to a YouTube version of my favorite CD recording of the piece.)

So happy Tchaikovsky’s birthday, and happy exploring his music.

Margaret Serious has a page on Facebook. 

The coronavirus pandemic has caused many businesses around the globe to close their doors and send their employees home. Many have transitioned to remote work, leaving offices and workspaces empty. For business owners, this is the perfect time to make improvements to the office space that you might not have had time for previously. Here are a few ideas to help you enhance your office while your employees are busy working from home, so they have a new and comfortable space to come back to:

1. Go Green — Literally

We’re all looking for ways to make our businesses a little more eco-friendly, but in this case, we’re not talking about sustainability or recycling. We’re talking about adding literal greenery to your office. Researchers have found that having plants in the workplace can increase staff wellbeing by up to 47%, with some plants even removing contaminants from the air. 

If you don’t have a lot of windows or natural light, make sure you’re choosing plants that thrive indoors. Water them often, and they’ll do the rest.

2. Add More Natural Lighting

If you have the option, add more natural light to your office. Doing this can reduce your utility bills by lowering your need for artificial light, and it can also keep your team more focused. A study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory found natural light helps employees stay on task 15% longer than those who only work among artificial lighting.

This suggestion goes hand-in-hand with the previous advice of adding greenery to the office. If you have more natural light, you have more plants to choose from.

3. Improve the Flooring

If your office usually gets a lot of traffic, now is the perfect time to improve or even replace the flooring. First, take a look at the kind of flooring you currently have. Then figure out what the most cost-effective option will be. Hardwood floors, for example, could easily be refinished and sealed rather than replaced, where old laminate flooring might be better off torn out and completely redone. 

The exact steps you take here will depend on what your office looks like and what your budget is for repairs and replacements.

4. Use Color Theory

Color theory is more than just figuring out which primary colors you can mix to make the rest of the color wheel. It explores the effect that color has on our psyche when we’re exposed to it. Green, for example, is a calming color, which is why so many hospitals and medical facilities paint their walls a pastel green. The relaxing hue encourages patients and visitors to remain calm.

Bright or oversaturated colors tend to stimulate and inspire, while pastel hues calm and soothe. Consider giving your office a makeover by following color theory to see how you can help your team be more productive and inspired when they return to the office.

Enjoy Your New Space

There is no telling how long we’ll need to work from home as the coronavirus runs its course, but once you return to your job site, you’ll have a refreshed and comfortable space to indulge in. Enjoy it! You never know how much you miss working in an office until you have to work from home.

I hope to post my monthly update tomorrow but I think it’s still worth continuing to look at the weekly data for a while longer to see how fast the Chicago real estate market is changing in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. It certainly fell off a cliff fast when all hell broke loose in mid-March so it’s always possible that things could improve pretty quickly.

As I mentioned last week the comparison to last year is a little tricky because Easter fell in two different weeks for the two years. As we compare the week ending April 25, which was just a regular week in 2020, we need to keep in mind that the corresponding week in 2019 was the week after Easter, which could have had an abnormally high level of activity. Here is how this year compares to last year:

Detached Homes

• New listings were down 47% from last year to 267 homes
• Contract activity was down 35% to 191
• Inventory in absolute terms was down 15% to 2754 homes
• However, in relative terms inventory was actually up from 11.0 weeks of supply to 14.4 weeks

Attached Homes

• New listings were down 60% to 406 homes
• Contract activity was down 46% to 235
• Inventory in absolute terms was down 10% to 4959 homes
• Inventory in relative terms was up from 12.8 weeks of supply to 21.1 weeks – a lot lower than last week

New listings continue to look like a problem area that has gotten worse since last week while contract activity may have improved a bit. If home buyers prefer “fresh” inventory this could be perceived as an inventory shortage despite the fact that overall relative inventory is extremely high right now. There are anecdotes floating around of bidding wars and quick sales but I’m not seeing that in the market time data. I would expect that if there was an inventory shortage we would see dramatically lower market times as people scooped up the fresh inventory. However, given that it takes 1 – 2 months for a deal to close it’s possible that the new market reality has not yet flown through to the data.

The fact that condo activity is off by more than single family home activity continues to make me wonder if people are becoming leery of living in close proximity to other potentially infected people. It’s really too soon to tell.

Are The iBuyers Coming Back Already?

Early on in the Coronavirus saga I posted about how all the iBuyers were retrenching out of fear of being left holding the bag on a bunch of homes that wouldn’t sell. In particular, Opendoor laid off 1/3 of its staff in March and halted all operations. However, they are already resuming operations in Phoenix and planning to resume in 20 other markets in the next few months. Unlike some of the other players in this space – e.g. Zillow – iBuying is their entire business so they can’t really afford to sit on the sidelines forever. It will be interesting to see how they navigate the current tricky environment.

#RealEstate #ChicagoRealEstate #Coronavirus

Gary Lucido is the President of Lucid Realty, the Chicago area’s full service real estate brokerage that offers home buyer rebates and discount commissions. If you want to keep up to date on the Chicago real estate market or get an insider’s view of the seamy underbelly of the real estate industry you can Subscribe to Getting Real by Email using the form below. Please be sure to verify your email address when you receive the verification notice.

With most sports around the world on pause, revisit iconic sports moments from the past to help fill that void.

While accepting his NBA MVP award during the 2011 season, Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose got emotional while talking about his mom.

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Governor Pritzker of Illinois is quoted as saying it’s up to the police to enforce “THE RULES.” For cops it’s kind of new territory when you actually have someone thumbing their noses at RULES that say you have to wear a mask while out and about, but hey isn’t “OUT AND ABOUT” against the rules also? Imagine being a cop and now you have to start telling folks they are walking too close together, or to disburse, if folks are just doing what they have done all their lives, meeting and greeting friends and chewing the fat.

A few days ago on Chicago’s West side after a press conference announcing yet again, more rules to live by during the Coronavirus Pandemic, the Mayor decided to walk over to a nearby park where several youths were playing basketball and just kinda hanging around. From a distance, surrounded by her security detail she shouted at them to disburse and go home.  Almost immediately one of the young basketball players yelled back “Y’ALL GO FIND A CURE, AND SPEAKING OF GO HOME: YOU GO HOME.” Immediately the Mayor and her security team turned and left. Maybe she had a hair appointment. Within a few minutes life returned to normal in the park before her arrival.

Maybe a little eye opener for the Mayor — authority at times doesn’t mean crap to lots of folks. All cops, who up until these Pandemic rules started to appear, understand that even when enforcing LAWS, orders and those magic words YOU’RE UNDER ARREST at times mean nothing. I have had many, many arrestees say that they were not under arrest until we put them under. It’s why there is a law against resisting arrest.

While hundreds of thousands of Illinois residents and especially those who reside in large metropolitan areas like Chicago, folks are starting to learn what the meaning of “CABIN FEVER” means. In the last several weeks the press has highlighted multiple instances of large gatherings for parties and social get togethers. One particular individual, a 25-year-male who has access to his parents townhouse, has been featured in the media (SEE ABOVE PHOTO) for twice holding large gatherings a few weeks apart. When confronted by the press and the city authorities, his parents said they had no clue that he was doing this, but did admit he had a key. His statement to the press is worthy of a mention because of it’s breathtaking lack of any semblance of sanity, but it does fit into the NO MIRRORS HERE category of, “it’s always somebody else’s fault.”

The parents blamed him, (his mother is a Chicago Fire Department Commander) and in an astonishing statement to the press GET READY! Jr. Blamed, WHY THE POLICE OF COURSE. His statement was, and they actually printed it, was after the first party, the cops who were called to break it up were not STERN enough and did not fully explain what he did wrong. Try making shit like that up and still be walking outside of an asylum.

Here in Illinois the rumors are rampant that this stay at home order and mandatory masking up will continue until after July 4th. Now for cops who are sworn to enforce laws, and now facing rules made up on the fly by politicians, it’s going to be a challenge to say the least. Imagine trying to ENFORCE social distancing rules, imagine having to tell bored teenagers to stop playing basketball, imagine having to stop people out for walks, or telling people they are walking too close to each other. All we have heard in the last few years is how the cops and the community need to come together and learn to trust each other. We are looking at an impossible task. Of course one would have to be in a coma the last few months to not know that Chicago is also facing another epidemic that is killing off its people. In a 2 month period since all this has started Chicago has had an explosion of violence.

Over 400 people have been shot and over 80 have been murdered. The question is who the hell is staying at home while police resources are being used to enforce RULES. Murder is just as deadly as a Virus. For sure a disease is more powerful than armies, it is more arbitrary than terrorisim. It is crueler than human imagination, but it’s not murder. We are expending our only warriors left to fight murder, and using them to try and control human behavior. There simply has to be a better solution. The Governor says it’s up to the cops to enforce his rules.  Who is left to enforce the laws of MURDER and violence?  Ten people a day are being shot in Chicago.  The fight is being lost. The Governor has control over the National Guard.  Now is the time to put a face on those RULES and return the cops to enforcing laws.

Already around the country we are seeing one story after another of violent confrontations because people refuse to follow common sensical recommendations from professionals. As the weather gets hotter and hotter we are sure to see more escalation of ignoring basic rules and decency to defend ourselves against a killer virus. Using all our resources to control an unseen monster that kills indiscriminately, while virtually ignoring one that we can clearly see that prowls among us. Using local cops to control human behavior is a fools game and will ultimately have long term consequences. Cops are for enforcing laws, that’s what they are trained for.  Enforcing rules are for the heads of households, and if that fails, bring on the National Guard and stop using cops as scape goats. The gangs are having their way while we are losing ours.

It’s Good, But Is It Portable ?

Sunday is Mother’s Day, and Mother’s Day is typically the busiest day of the year for restaurants. Even now, even with the Coronavirus continuing to take a toll, letting a restaurant do the cooking for Mother’s Day is still a good idea.

For chef/partner David DiGregorio and the staff at Osteria Via Stato, preparing food for carryout is, to some extent, business as usual. Pizzas, pasta and a lot of other Italian dishes are relatively portable, and the restaurant has always offered carry-out as a supplement to its on-site dining. Now, with the shift to “carryout only,” the chef and staff have made some strategic adjustments.

“A restaurant has to stagger reservations,” Di Gregorio says. “You can’t book half your tables for 7 pm. We’re doing the same thing with our pick-up schedule. If a time slot is fully booked, we offer alternates. We all have to be flexible.”

Like a lot of restaurants, Osteria Via Stato is offering set menus in portions adequate for two people and multiples thereof. Creating the menu is an exercise in strategic planning. As Di Gregorio observes, “A frittata travels well, scrambled eggs don’t.”

For chef/owner Martial Noguier (Bistronomic), carryout is an entirely new format. Even so, when restaurants were ordered to close their onsite service, he immediately made the shift to carryout. The inaugural carryout menu debuted on March 18.

He explains, “When people place their orders, they’re asked if they want their food cold or hot. If they prefer cold, we can make their dinner early in the day and keep it chilled.” He adds, “Of course, all of the meals have instructions for reheating. That’s a must.”

What worries Noguier is the time between pick-up and consumption. Once the order leaves the restaurant, he has no way of knowing if it’s been refrigerated and/or reheated properly.

“If a customer wants their order hot and ready to eat, I cook it a few minutes before pick-up,” he continues. “For example, if pick-up is scheduled for 4, I start cooking at 3:45. Everything has already been prepped, so the timing works. ”

Overcooking is another concern. Food that’s going to be reheated at home is undercooked just a bit. When it’s reheated, the food cooks to the proper temperature.

Sauces are especially important, since they keep dishes moist and flavorful, even if  they’re reheated. Think beef bourgignon and coq au vin at Bistronomic, and short ribs and chicken parmesan at Osteria Via Stato. 

So what’s on tap for Mother’s Day?

Osteria Via Stato: 620 N. State 312.642.845

Two brunch menus, one for pick-up Saturday night and one for pick-up Sunday. Both include smoked salmon, ciabatta French toast, and vegetable frittata.

Two dinner menus, one featuring chicken Parmesan, the other beef tenderloin.

Bistronomic, 26 E. Pearson Street 312.944.8400

Brunch: Croque Monsieur on brioche served with artisanal ham and a mornay sauce. A second option adds chicken and mushroom crepes to the mix.

And FYI- Noguier plans to continue doing carry-out and delivery as a supplement to onsite dining.

In general, Mother’s Day orders should be placed no later than Friday, May 8.