These are definitely “Dark Times” that we are living through. At first, listen I was wondering what the fuck this Hunna track is about? Now I’m wrapping my head around it. First listens have me skeptical, but I like it. These guys write big pop songs, and this isn’t much different, so I can appreciate this conscious rocker.

“Each time I think about it/All it does and take me low

It’s overwhelming/Doesn’t anybody out there have a soul?/I see so much damn evil.”

This week Mt. Joy ends up in my radar showing off another song from their latest EP, Death.

This new single from Ghostface, “Bill Clinton” is fire! Maybe his best in a while? Hold up, this is a Peter Jackson cut? Holy shit, I had no idea this person existed? He can hold his own on this track with ‘Face that’s for sure, and I love the idea for this song! Bill Clinton? Word!

HAIM is here as well with “I Know I’m Alone,”  an upbeat, dancey number that comes off a bit ’80’s and a bit 2020. I’m pretty much a fan of whatever they do.

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I can no longer ignore any single involving Maverick Sabre. His voice is so powerful and so are his ideas, vocally and lyrically. I really like this single from SHY FX, and Mav knows how to croon a soulful jam.

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De Lux is slowly putting together one hell of an album. Four or five singles in and I’m just loving their vibe. “Dancing Is Dangerous In Los Angeles” is no different, running game between Talking Heads and LCD. The guys are dedicating all the proceeds from this single to the Fingerprints Record store, in Longbeach, California. Where’s the vinyl? I’m in!

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The sexy, sultry Norah Jones releases “Trying To Keep It Together.” Is this an ode to sheltering in place? Achers Of Loaf cover the Stones “Street Fighting Man,” and this Foreign/National track could be the sleeper of the week! Experimental, almost on the level of Livemuthaforya.

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That jazzy vibe this week comes from Mr. Gregory Porter. Love them pipes, and I love them horns. “Rise, rise, rise!”

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Album Reviews, All About Music

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Car Seat Headrest, De Lux, Ghostface, Gregory Porter, Haim, Peter Jackson, Release Radar

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The Coronavirus without question has presented the world with an unprecedented number of problems and decisions which lacks any type precedent or blueprint to serve as a guide. There are so many it would be impossible to list them all. Stopping the spread of a silent killer is the number one priority of  Country’s leaders from the President on down to the Mayors of all our cities and townships across America. How to save people from themselves and each other has produced some eye opening decisions by politicians that quite frankly have been met with some degree of astonishment.

Of course being a Chicago cop for some years, I fully realize that there is indeed two sides to every story. Sometimes even scores of sides to every story. Police work is one of those professions that the second guessers are like a full house at a Cubs or Sox game vilifying the manager for his in-game decisions. I know for sure that my second guessing here is one that is felt by millions across America.

All across the country there has been a movement to release criminals from prison, the fear being that they will contract the Coronavirus because of the closed in restrictions of prison life. I must say I cannot for one second imagine what the hell these politicians are thinking about. Imagine the fractured logic of releasing murderers back into the society where they murdered, robbed, assaulted, and a virtual laundry list of other serious felonies.

I’m not sure if any of you ever heard of the Green River killer. His name was Gary Ridgeway and over a period of some years he murdered and sexually assaulted over 80 women. When he was finally apprehended he confessed to at least 80, though detectives are convinced there were many more. A few weeks back because of a political decision, as astonishing as this may sound, he was one of the inmates eligible for release.

The community was so outraged that they challenged his release. A no brainer for the COURT YOU SAY! IT WAS A 5-4 decision. If you can wrap you head around that. Imagine almost releasing a man who murdered over 80 people because authorities were worried he would contract the virus. An astonishing gang of brainless creatures that somehow got into a position to return this man to an unsuspecting neighborhood near you.

Here in Illinois we have almost the same scenario at play, sans a serial killer, although that is not to say it could not happen. So far, very quietly, Governor Pritzker who exhausts himself talking transparency in government,  has released  over a 1,000 inmates from prisons across Illinois. At least 64 had been serving sentences for murder. Hundreds of people convicted of felonies some multiple times, freed and sent back to the neighborhoods and the societies they preyed upon.

Thanks to retired Cook County Circuit Judge Daniel Locallo  it was discovered that the Governor also violated the Constitution of the State of Illinois, either intentionally or through gross ignorance. Judge Locallo charges that Pritzker ignored the “Crime Victims Rights Amendment” by not notifying the victims or their survivors. The Constitution clearly states that CRIME VICTIMS OR SURVIVING FAMILY MEMBERS SHALL HAVE THE RIGHT TO BE NOTIFIED OF THE CONVICTION,THE SENTENCE, THE IMPRISONMENT AND THE RELEASE OF THE ACCUSED. By not doing so he has victimized victims or their surviving members yet again.

No doubt in my mind the billionaire Governor Pritzker who was born on 3rd base and actually thinks he hit a triple, has no clue to the multiple dangers he has foisted on society. Not only do people have to fear the Virus and the draconian restrictions he has placed on the State, he added to their fears by releasing convicted killers and habitual criminals to once again prey on the very communities they once terrorized. I’m positive the Governor is secure in the fact that they will not be prowling around his mansion, or around his multi million dollar horse farm in Florida where his wife has been safely sheltered for several weeks. (I guess the stay at home order only applies to us common folks) This all came about because of a prison system that was completely overwhelmed and unprepared to keep those safe that was in their custody.

The question is why were they not prepared? Who is to blame? Not a mention of that by a Governor that has slammed the Federal response to the Coronavirus pandemic at every press conference he’s ever held for the last 2 months. A pattern for Illinois politicians – all mirrors have been removed to avoid any type of guilt. Aristotle is quoted as saying,  “THE GENERALITY OF MEN ARE NATURALLY APT TO BE SWAYED BY FEAR RATHER THAN BY REVERENCE AND TO REFRAIN FROM EVIL RATHER BECAUSE OF PUNISHMENT THAT IT BRINGS.” As there is use in medicine for poisons so the world cannot move without rogues. Illinois has not heard the last of those released murderers and the other thousand convicted of criminal acts, count on it.

The last times we visited a restaurant.

This weekend I opened my wallet to hand a $10 bill to Barb and discovered a few folded-up receipts–receipts I had jammed into the wallet as I left each of the last 3 restaurants we had dined in. Each brought back memories of the life that was just beginning to change.

The oldest receipt, dated March 6th, was from Once Upon a Grill, a local deli-grill, where we had a headed for some Friday night chicken soup to ease Barb’s post-strep sore throat. The parking lot was devoid of its usual kamikaze drivers; the older patrons who made every visit to the undersized parking lot a challenge had started staying home.

Next was a March 10th receipt from Cooper’s Hawk. The parking lot was only half-filled and the usual crowd of singles at the winebar was notably thinner than usual as people missed out on an almost-last-chance to connect.

The last reminder was a  March 14th receipt from Wildfire, our favorite go-to restaurant. That night we had no trouble getting last-minute reservations for a spur-of-the-moment night out with neighbors. The restaurant, rather than being packed Saturday night solid, was at least 2/3 empty. Barb shuddered when a passing waitress coughed into her hand and didn’t disagree when I predicted that this would be our last meal sitting in a restaurant for a long, long, time.

It is now seven weeks since I savored my last Wildfire Barrel-Aged Old Fashioned. We all know how Chicago, how America, how the world, has turned upside down since then. In comparison, Barb and I have been pretty much spared. None of our family or close friends have been afflicted with COVID-19. The losses I hear about are second or third hand or read about in the digital newspapers I subscribe to.

My medical group and my lab continue to function, and new challenges arrive to keep my mind occupied. Barb may be an Occupational Therapist without a current occupation, but the house has never been cleaner. And we are fortunate to have both kids and their families close enough for both drive-by and driveway visits. Birthday parties and Seders may have been reduced to Zooming, but we have all been healthy as we sing Happy Birthday or Let My People Go.

The restaurant dinners have been primarily replaced by home-prepared meals (we still grocery shop in person) though we have been treating ourselves to carry-out once a week. Lou Malnati’s Pizza is till the best, even in a pandemic. A drive downtown, picking dinner up from a Michelin-starred restaurant, makes a nice weekend outing. And we donate and offer assistance where we can.

Now states are beginning to loosen restrictions. Old medications and historic vaccines are being investigated as a potential bridge to a new generation of therapeutics and immunizations. Curves are being bent, if not fully flattened. In the midst of fear, there is hope. And I hope that the day will come soon when I sit in my favorite booth at Wildfire and raise my Old Fashioned in a toast to each of you who have made it with me through to the other side, and remembering those who have not.

And to the day when I am happy to see my wallet filled with more receipts and joyous memories.

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Studio Gang’s rendering of new Terminal 2, the “global terminal,” at O’Hare Airport.

Even though the airline industry is heading for a crash landing thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, the city of Chicago, with typical aplomb promises that the $8.7 billion Taj Mahal O’Hare Expansion project is taking off as scheduled.

Apparently not noticing that United and American airlines–the duopoly that runs O’Hare–and other airlines are losing tens of millions dollars a day, angling to save themselves with billions of dollars of emergency federal aid and flying near empty planes, Matt McGrath, deputy commissioner at the city’s Aviation Department, pledges that, ” We plan to move forward with these important investments to secure O’Hare’s future in a fiscally sustainable and responsible manner.”

Fiscally sustainable and responsible?

It’s hard to see how United and America is ready to jump in to be the chief funder of  the lavish terminal and other projects in the plan. Apparently Chicago has a perfectly focused future scope and sees rosy a path ahead for the aviation industry when so many people who are in it are scared to death. Consider: “United Airlines says coronavirus pandemic is worst crisis ‘in the history of aviation’” And Warren Buffett has dumped all of his stocks in the four major airlines, saying the industry and the world have change.

In the face of reality, from the city flows the same eyewash about O’Hare expansion that it first applied ever since the early 2000s when Mayor Richard M. Daley unveiled the O’Hare Modernization Project with promises of deep cuts in delays and towering increases in capacity. The OMP was complete overkill, having in all those years experienced billions of dollars in cost overruns, blown schedules and vast stretches of new runways that never come close to the improvements that Daley promised.

Now arriving is the new the $2.2 billion Global Terminal — the project’s centerpiece — and other “improvements,” that with added new gates is designed to fix the original fix–the OMP.

As the Sun-Times reported:

Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst for San Francisco-based Atmosphere Research Group, said the O’Hare work needs to be scaled back, delayed, and possibly completed “in stages.” He also said the city may have to renegotiate airline use and lease agreements —with higher terminal rents and landing fees baked in — that bankrolled the $4 billion in general airport revenue and passenger facility charge bonds authorized by the City Council to get the project started.

“This isn’t the time to build a Taj Mahal. If any airline reaches even half the level of passengers and half the level of revenue that it had before the pandemic by the end of this year, it would be a miracle,” Harteveldt said…

He advised the city and major airlines to “sit down with the architect and the contractors and re-think” the entire project. Consider holding off for “at least a year or two,” then building it in stages, so they’re not “over-building” at a time when airlines finances are weak.

And, above all, find a way to “re-think the rent or lease obligations” to recognize the “much weaker financial condition” the airlines will be in “for the next two-to-three years at least,” Harteveldt said.

“If the city proceeds with this without consulting with the airlines, it’s very possible the airlines will simply say, ‘We’re reneging on this new terminal. We can’t afford it. Forecasts say we no longer need it. And we don’t support it,’” Harteveldt said.

Here’s the rub. Chicagoans elected a new mayor, Lori Lightfoot, because they were sick and tired of City Haul’s way of doing things. Will she casually accept the guff that throwing money into the bottomless hole that is O’Hare Airport is a legitimate “longterm investment.”

Or will she place good public policy above the self-interest, self-perpetuating “improvements” that grease the wheels of politically connected insiders, contractors public employee unions and others who directly  benefit from the O’Hare perpetual motion machine?

Ahead awaits Lightfoot’s test of whether she’s a true reformer.

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My historical novel: Madness: The War of 1812

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Well, we all wonder what the future of the month, next year or two will hold. It could go on without much of a hiccup, or, we just might have restrictions for a long time. But hey, I like to plan for the best so I keep tinkering getting this boat ready for what good thing may happen.

Now for all of you naysayers and shamers who say I should stay at home, let me say this: Working on the boat is not social distancing. It is social isolation. I am by myself, inside a boat, and on top of that it is shrink wrapped.  I go in during the morning, and leave in the evening. I take food, drink and don’t use the shipyard’s head.  No contact with anyone.

My wife works every third weekend, I am backing off a little on this project as currently the season start is postponed and only working on the boat every third weekend when she is gone. That means, I get one weekend in April to work on her.

Many surfaces require sanding, some filling, then sanding again, painting or Cetol applied. The prep work can be done in any temperature weather. But the painting and Cetol has to go on when the temperatures are 50-degrees or warmer around the clock.  Sand-ho it goes. Waiting for warmer weather to break out the paint.

Here I scraped, sanded and vacuumed the storage space up in the bow. But I always go the distance, so sharp screw ends are Dremeled off, globs of glue or sharp edges of fiberglass are either chiseled or Dremeled off so when things are stored, or hands go in there, they don’t come out torn or bloody. I’ve already prepped four other cubby holes this way.  What’ll it look like all painted white? Five cubbies were painted in the past few winters. There’s way too many cubbies, so my plan is to do the remaining half this winter, and half next winter.

No projects were completed this month. However, many projects moved forward each closer to their finish line.

The next owner is really going to enjoy this boat.

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It seemed we were starting to see a few events pick up over the weekend. But instead things are slowing to a few carryout beer releases and virtual get-togethers. These are still coming up last-minute, so please do check back here.

Hey, back in February, I did an article on Shiner’s S’Mores beer, which they had sent to me in a wooden presentation box, with gourmet
Tejas chocolate, a bag of marshmallows and graham cracker, a matchbook, and of course, beer. In fact, they accidentally sent me two of those boxes. I tried to give them away in a drawing. One was brought out to a happy reader, but we couldn’t get together on the other one before the lockdown. So he said forget about it. So we finally made S’More’s with the kit. Well, the marshmallows had gotten hard by this time, and the chocolate was too tasty to just smoosh into a S’More (but was well appreciated in itself). But the beer went well with it. And that paper packing excelsior made good tinder.

Monday, May 4

Tuesday, May 5

Wednesday, May 6

Thursday, May 7