keepgoing.org :: Summer 2006

In This Issue

West Roscoe Village, or West of Roscoe Village?

A Fake Neighborhood Storms into Chicago

There are so many of these real estate speculator-driven “hoods” that I’m losing track of them, but sometimes one of these new McNeighborhoods is so floofy, so ridiculous, so blatantly bogus and patently preposterous that I simply cannot resist getting my crank up. By Carter O’Brien

Waging Food

“Yes,” I thought, “I can do it. I shall be the kind of girlfriend who can make scrambled eggs, but usually doesn’t, on account of it’s too early! Carpe diem!” And with that mighty roar, I sprang forward, confident and equal to the task. By Denise Pace
Long Drive Home

My heartbeat was picking up again, as though it had been on standby mode. I was driving feeling more at peace, my head an open road. Fiction by Vanessa Telaro
Law School Makes Gumbys of Us All

As a student, I am only responsible to and for myself. I set my own schedule. I don’t have to worry about accounting for my time. If I want to spend a half hour searching the Internet for information on the history of glass, I can. (And yes, I have actually done so.) By Sarah Petersen
A Review of Career Misconduct

Chapter 4, “Bribing Public Officials,” should hit game-going fans in the gut. It’s also classic Windy City politics, with big business and politicians conspiring and the common fan getting screwed. By Al Dereu

Two Poems

I slipped a thorn beneath your hoof./Rubbed my scent, a wild cinnamon,/thyme, into your nostril with my thumb/like ointment. Poetry by Brandi Homan
Except for the Lightning

If Bruce Wayne’s parents had been killed by lightning rather than by crooks, Batman would have dedicated his life to fighting lightning instead of crime. Fiction by Matt McCarthy
A Series of Storms

We could hear things hitting our house. We couldn’t look or see what they were. My neighbor lost almost every shingle he had. Still, we were fortunate. It was down to a Category One and it was moving through very fast. Again, I think of Cancun. By Christine Chase
Slow Train to Tamil Nadu

And though perhaps time and his accomplices, water and wind, having washed the pale stone of all our traces, will spare the structure for a few centuries more, perhaps even millennia, they have claimed the soul of the temple already and have merely to wait for the body to grow weak. By Alice Haisman
Family at Risk™

In the case of a tie, the defender always wins by crying and whining, “Why are you so mean to me?” Poetry by Donald Illich

Departments

From the Publisher

Still Alive

Pearl Jam and My Morning Jacket at Chicago’s United Center, May 17, 2006

The music asks, “Where is the soul in today‘s world?” and then provides it in big doses. Once they had built the energy up, you were on board for a real ride. By Geary Yonker
Activism

Trees for Life

Think of it this way: if something needs to be done, then do it. Meaning you. Yes, you. Or learn how to do it. Or ask someone to do it for you. That is what gets results. Trees for Life is interested in possibilities and in the reality of human connectedness. It’s that simple, really. By Heather Egland

Spotlight Site

The Nuts and Bolts

At HowThingsWork.com, you can both get the answers to perplexing questions (How exactly does an automatic transmission work?) as well as waste hours of time (If they were re-casting the original Star Trek series with today’s actors, who would win the role of Spock?). By Steve Spaulding
Sounds

Blows Against the Empire

Ghost Pilot

Download (MP3, 5.45 MB, 128 kbps)

Eric Ahlgren, keyboards
Ryan Norsworthy, drums
Carter O’Brien, guitar
Geary Yonker, bass

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