Stories

[Sat. March 1, 2014] Chiditarod: Checkpoint Shenanigans

Chiditarod is an annual human dogsled shopping cart race/food and donation drive/bar crawl. Over one hundred teams of 5 people each will be gussying up a shopping cart, dressing up in crazy costumes, collecting canned good and money donations (that’s where you come in), and racing around the city like maniacs. The Secret Gentlemen team and I are working with Chiditarod Chicago to raise money to fight hunger in Chicago and have a hell of…

Nerdy-cute plushies for V-Day!

Oh, yes! Lots of adorable plush over at Fractalspin! Go!

Funk documentary focused on London in the 1970s & 1980s that happens to have a hobbit keen on forty-fives

Here’s a documentary on the funk scene in Britain, a tale told through many talking heads, and one of them happens to be Martin Freeman, of Sherlock and The Hobbit fame. You might miss him, since it was apparently before he employed a stylist and committed to a workout routine, but he’s in there as a fanboy / collector / DJ of funk / rare groove. I was sent this next video, Martin Freeman Goes…

Chicago’s Chess Records & Record Row, tastemakers of early pop, rock , soul & R&B

While recovering from a seasonal cold, I found some interesting documentaries on Chess Records and the competing labels at the same time on the near South side of Chicago. Chess Records was responsible for launching hits by Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Etta James, along with bringing blues by Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf into commercial awareness. The movies Cadillac Records (2008) and Who Do You Love (2008) are Hollywood’s version of the history, with Beyonce…

Free Circuit Board Gift Tags!

So my store Fractalspin has been carrying these cool Circuit Board Ornaments for a while, and there’s now a quantity discount if you buy 10 or more. We learned from some of our customers that they were using them as gift tags for presents, and we were buying quite a few at a time, but unfortunately last year we ran out of stock to get them out by Christmas. This year we’re starting the promotion…

Charlotte the Pitbullerina

New art site! Also, you can support pit bull rescue by buying an art print

I’ve finally gotten together my visual art portfolio site (lizmcleanknight.com) and figured it would be great to launch it with a campaign that supports Pit Bull Awareness Month (October). Buy an art print and support pit bull rescue! This marker drawing is of Charlotte, an insanely sweet pit bull terrier whom I adopted from Chicagoland Bully Breed Rescue in 2011. From now until the end of 2013, I will donate 10% of the proceeds from…

Spelling out why the WWII “Enigma” machines were considered to be unbreakable… presented by an awkwarldy adorable mathematician

While working on technical things at the ‘puter or offline-within-speaker-range, I like to throw on some audio stories about random subjects that are interesting. It makes me feel like I have a chatty knowledgeable companion in the room who doesn’t mind that I don’t add to the conversation because I’m just so engrossed in work, and they’re totally OK with that. In a Youtube-lecture-suggested-clickfest, I found a neat one on cryptography that I found particularly…

Morrissey retiring from health issues; here is a cover of “There is a Light that Never Goes Out” Schneider TM & Kptmichigan

“The Light 3000” Smiths cover by Schneider TM & Kptmichigan is my favorite glitchy electronic one and does the original justice in its own, haunting way. From his interview with Mexico City radio station Reactor 105.7 (transcript and audio in English): I never cringe if anybody sings or covers a song, I find it very moving even though it might be quite bad, I still find it very moving that somebody would be bothered or…

Pitchfork (cough Chicago), I love you, but you’re bringing me down

“The very mundanity of Kelly’s performance leads to my second, sadder conclusion about his presence at Pitchfork: That the formerly Chicago-now Brooklyn-based brains and businessmen behind the festival and the Webzine, … just don’t think that the music we embrace means anything at all in the real world. It’s just a cool, digitally stored backing track for your oh-so-hip and groovy lifestyle at home, and every bit the ideal tool in concert for marketing and…

The architect who designed Chicago’s first LEED Platinum-rated buildings talks about his latest book Sustainable Urbanism

Just because you have a LEED certified building, if you have to drive 30+ minutes to get there, you’re kind of negating the advantages….

Space Syntax analysis in the city: movement is its lifeblood

Here is an interesting analysis of traffic patterns in the city by Tim Stonor of Space Syntax, a company that also does a lot of research on retail spaces.