Peter Zelchenko's Party Line Archive Index
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2010-03-05 Ghetto
"I awoke last night in a cold sweat, with only the word "ghetto" on my lips. ..."
2010-02-26 Blondie
"How have the CTA cuts been affecting normal Chicagoans? Well. I wouldn't know anything about that -- I only hang out with eccentrics. ..."
2010-02-19 Coupla Things
"Follow-up: We sat down Tuesday to interview Ira Rogers of the old Hyde Park duo Inman & Ira, one of the only black acts at the very first University of Chicago Folk Festival 50 years ago this month. ..."
2010-02-12 Fifty Years of Folk
"The University of Chicago Folk Festival begins today. ..."
2010-02-05 How Do You Roll?
"Who would spend the valuable time of the most important country in the world on a debate about toilet paper? ..."
2010-01-29 Religious Experience
"[Customer enters the Loop Barnes & Noble.] 'Excuse me, can you help me locate a book?' ..."
2010-01-22 Chicago's Dying Breed
"It's been a rather somber few weeks. ..."
2010-01-15 Don't Vote for Chip
"Unlike New York and L.A., Chicago has a truly small-town feel when it comes to politics. ..."
2009-12-18 Full Code
"Paulina's eyes, like spider legs, danced a path along the network of wires. Her ears were sensors, passively consuming the tones of the machines with emotionless and relentless obedience. She couldn't think straight. ..."
2009-12-11 Mayory Christmas
"(To the tune of 'My Favorite Things')...Off, Penny Pritzker! Off, Valerie Jarrett! ..."
2009-12-04 Dampster Diving
"I was riding my bike down the back streets by Belmont and Western this morning, past the rear of the monstrous Dominick's there. Consumer dread was filling my spirit. ..."
2009-11-20 [ENORMOUSLY CONFIDENTIAL]
"[WE REALLY MEAN THIS]..."
2009-11-13 Earn Your Dentistry Merit Badge
"Thursday's Worldview Global Activism series on WBEZ featured a local dentist named Brian Evans who has gone to Haiti, Peru, Sierra Leone, and many other developing countries to train health-care workers in basic dentistry, including extraction and filling. ..."
2009-11-06 Wisconsin Wonderland
"From the Party Line boiler room's old but ever-relevant lyric archive, in commemoration of the peculiarly sunny but cold days that still somehow aren't quite so cold as to annoy..."
2009-10-30 Food Charity
"Well, here come the fundraisers, dinners, and holiday events. In other words, it's time for the national bacchanalia, where we gorge ourselves at restaurants and bars, at home and with friends, and at catered events. More often than not, all of the leftovers are dumped. ..."
2009-10-23 Down the Block
"At 7 p.m. tonight, several local writers will be at Quimby's, 1854 W. North in Wicker Park, reading from Margaret Larkin's new anthology Down the Block. ..."
2009-10-16 No Games, Yes Chicago
"WARNING: This is a blatant, unbridled, and unapologetic puff piece on No Games Chicago and Tom Tresser. So sue me. ..."
2009-10-09 Wet Rail: A Collage
"Rain flushes down the El car's rear windows whenever we accelerate / We are not fast, but we are speed..."
2009-10-02 So Shoot Us
"Great. We were going to write about one of our favorite topics, something so relevant to the very heart of Chicago on this day, when suddenly all GB staffers were slapped with an order, from -- guess who? ..."
2009-09-25 Lost and Found: Jack Boschulte
"Getting ready to be a little nippy out there! Gapers Block honchos up on the 56th Floor sent a message this morning down the pneumatic tube, instructing us to check the radiator in their conference room. ..."
2009-09-18 Shenanigans and Shillelaghs
"Ah, the Irish language. The Gaelic tongue has such beautiful, flowing sounds. A lot of them seem to start with 'Shhhhhh. ...'"
2009-09-11 New Variant of the Tribune Mark
"NOTE: This accidentally entered our editors' inbox and they ran it, thinking it was a column. In reality it was a pedantic rant about inane design minutiae when we in the GB boiler room, like our betters high above us, should have been commemorating the eighth anniversary of America's epic tragedy. ..."
2009-09-04 The Labor Days of Dennis Dixon
"About 200 supporters of Dennis Dixon met at the Hideout Thursday night to hold the fourth fundraiser for the lifetime activist. ..."
2009-08-28 Fixing the Borders
"I note this excerpt from the minutes of the Chicago-Grand Neighbors Association president from its August 20 general meeting: ..."
2009-08-21 Free Unexpected Breathtaking Views of Chicago
"Fine, technically these won't be unexpected if you go there and do them because I suggested it, so shoot me. ..."
2009-08-14 Two Poems
"Here are two poems by Phyllis Meirovits Zelchenko (my mother), from her 1998 collection City Flowers."
2009-08-07 Refreshingly Unique
"This week I once again hand the keyboard over to Louise Bowles Illich, the anticorporate great-grandniece of the famous Heloise. ..."
2009-07-31 The Wal-Mart Debate
"Did you get the call this week from the poll asking if you wanted a Wal-Mart? Did you think you'd get a fair and balanced presentation of the question? ..."
2009-07-24 Lost and Found: Prodigy Pianist
"In this -- hmph! climate -- of fear, we have been forced to sunlight™. (We often tend to work nights, which explains why we coined this new expression.) One of our sunlighting™ sidelines is locating lost people. ..."
2009-07-17 Water Pump
"Not a stellar week when it comes to the economy. ...I mean my economy. I just dropped $553.85 for a new water pump (for a car that I paid $2,500 for). ..."
2009-07-10 How to Be Larry Doyle
"Now and then, I find myself looking nervously to Larry Doyle, who grew up in Buffalo Grove. Larry's written for everything from the Simpsons to the New Yorker. ..."
2009-07-03 Last Annual Party Line Reader Survey and Bitch Session
"One thing the boiler room staff don't get much of is feedback. ..."
2009-06-26 I Don't Want to Hear It!
"Hey, did you hear? What? Michael Jackson just died. ..."
2009-06-19 Sonya and the Pigeon
"Little Sonya clenched the Starburst pack hard in her right hand while Papa pulled her along busy Madison Street. ..."
2009-06-12 For Carl Marcum's Lungs
A poem about smoking written to DePaul professor, local Latino poet, smoker, and new dad Carl Marcum.
2009-05-29 This Darned Perky World
"Man, am I burned out. How much coffee did you drink this week? ..."
2009-05-22 The Story Behind the Story Behind the Story
"The Independent Film Channel's Media Project With Gideon Yago bopped into Chicago today with an event at the Newberry Library called 'Make Media Matter' ..."
2009-05-15 Improvised Chinese
"Have we talked Chinese cooking yet? Is there a philosophy of technique for Chinese? ..."
2009-05-08 They're Dropping Like Flies
"Sadly, Hyde Park's progressive backbone is far over the hill, and with that, I count five of its most important icons who have died since December. ..."
2009-05-01 A Tale of Two Sandwiches
"The neighborhood just knew it as "SUBS," because of the huge neon sign in the front window. ..."
2009-04-24 Boardwalk on the Olympics
"He was knee-deep in the lake. I had not seen him for some months. He had several large wicker baskets slung over his shoulder and was wetting one in the frigid water. ..."
2009-04-17 Heloise's Bitchy Cousin
"The anti-corporate Louise Bowles Illich, great-grandniece of the original household Heloise, gave us a pleasant surprise by sauntering into the Gapers Block boiler room this week. ..."
2009-04-10 Space -- the Finer Frontier
"Dear Sirs, We've been meaning to get this off our chests for some time. The fact is that we need more spaces. ..."
2009-04-03 No Games, Chicago
"Well, all of the homeless have been swept off the streets, and the International Olympic Committee is in Chicago and being wined and dined on $200-a-plate banquets, with our money, as we speak..."