~Artist I Like 2...Erosie

A perfect combination of street sensibilities and straight forward drawing skills...






More of erosie's work here



Also a recent interview with Erosie


Be golden

I love Chicago/Mid-Western Slanguage...

swiped from a myspace fwend =)


CHICAGO SLANG



1. Grachki (grach'-key) : Chicagoese for "garage key" as in, "Yo, Theresa, waja do wit da grachki? Howmy supposta cut da grass if I don't git intada grach?"



2. Sammich: Chicagoese for sandwich. When made with sausage, it's a sassage sammich; when made with shredded beef, it's an Italian Beef sammich, a local delicacy consisting of piles of spicy meat in a perilously soggy bun.



3. Da: This article is a key part of Chicago speech, as in "Da Bears" or "Da Mare" -- the latter denoting Richard M. Daley, or Richie, as he's often called.



4. Jewels: Not family heirlooms or a tender body region, but a popular name for one of the region's dominant grocery store chains. "I'm goin' to the Jewels to pick up some sassage."



5. Field's: Marshall Field, a prominent Chicago department store. Also Carson Pirie Scott, another major department store chain, is simply called " Carson 's."



6. Tree: The number between two and four. "We were lucky dat we only got tree inches of snow da udder night."



7. Over by dere: Translates to "over by there," a way of emphasizing a site presumed familiar to the listener. As in, "I got the sassage at the Jewels down on Kedzie, over by dere."



8. Kaminski Park : The mispronounced name of the ballpark where the Chicago White Sox (da Sox) play baseball. Comiskey Park was renamed U.S. Cellular Field (da Cell)



9. Frunchroom: As in, "Get outta da frunchroom wit dose muddy shoes." It's not the "parlor." It's not the "living room." In the land of the bungalow, it's the "frunchroom, " a named derived, linguists believe, from "front room."



10. Use: Not the verb, but the plural pronoun 'you!' "Where use goin'?"



11. Downtown: Anywhere near The Lake, south of The Zoo (Lincoln Park Zoo)

and north of Soldier Field.



12. The Lake: Lake Michigan (What other lake is there?) It's often used by local weathermen, "cooler by The Lake."



14. Braht: Short for Bratwurst. "Gimme a braht wit kraut."



15. Goes: Past or present tense of the verb "say." For example, "Den he goes, 'I like this place'!"



16. Guys: Used when addressing two or more people, regardless of each individual's gender.



17. Pop: A soft drink Don't say "soda" in this town. "Do ya wanna canna pop?"



18. Sliders: Nickname for hamburgers from White Castle , a popular Midwestern burger chain. "Dose sliders I had last night gave me da runs."



19. The Taste: The Taste of Chicago Festival, a huge extravaganza in Grant Park featuring samples of Chicagoland cuisine which takes place each year around the Fourth of July holiday.



20. "Jeetyet?": Translates to, "Did you eat yet?"



21. Winter and Road Construction: Punch line to the joke, "What are the two seasons in Chicago ?"



22. Cuppa Too-Tree: is Chicagoese for "a couple, two, three" which really means "a few." For example, "Hey Mike, dere any beerz left in da cooler over by dere?"

"Yeh, a cuppa too-tree."



23. 588-2300: Everyone in Chicago knows this commercial jingle and the carpet company you'll get if you call that number -- Empire!



24. Junk Dror: You will usually find the 'junk drawer' in the kitchen filled to the brim with miscellaneous, but very important, junk.



25. Southern Illinois : Anything south of I-80. This is where Smothers' is from....



26. Expressways: The Interstates in the immediate Chicagoland area are usually known just by their 'name' and not their Interstate number: the Dan Ryan ("da Ryan"), the Stevenson, the Kennedy (da "Kennedy"), the Eisenhower (da "Ike"), and the Edens (just "Edens" but Da Edens" is acceptable).



27. Gym Shoes: The rest of the country may refer to them as sneakers or running shoes but Chicagoans will always call them gym shoes! ============ =







This is what Jeff Foxworthy has to say about Chicago .

If your local Dairy Queen is closed from September through
May, you live in Chicago


If someone in a Home Depot store offers you assistance and they don't work there, you live in Chicago


If you've worn shorts and a parka at the same time, you live in
Chicago .


If you've had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong number, you live in Chicago


If "Vacation" means going anywhere south of I-80 for the weekend, you live in Chicago .


If you measure distance in hours, you live in Chicago .


If you have switched from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day and back
again, you live in Chicago .


If you can drive 75 mph through 2 feet of snow during a raging
blizzard without flinching, you live in Chicago


If you carry jumpers in your car and your wife knows how to use them, you live in Chicago


If you design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit, you live in Chicago


If the speed limit on the highway is 55 mph -- you're going 80 and
everybody is passing you, you live in Chicago


If driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled
with snow, you live in Chicago .


If you know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter and
road construction, you live in Chicago .


If you have more miles on your snow blower than your car, you live in Chicago


If you find 10 degrees "a little chilly", you live in Chicago .


If you actually understand these jokes, and forward them to all your
Chicago friends & others, you live or have lived in Chicago.



Be Golden Dere'

Artist I Like: Anthony Lister

ive been following this guys work from the street to the gallery...I think it is great work!



Please check out more Anthony Lister_here_


Be Golden

Happy Frederick Douglas day...and oh yeah,Valentines day

'The soul that is within me no man can degrade".
-Frederick Douglass






Frederick Douglass (February 14, 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American abolitionist, editor, orator, author, statesman and reformer. Called "The Sage of Anacostia" and "The Lion of Anacostia", Douglass is one of the most prominent figures in African American history and a formidable public presence. He was a firm believer in the equality of all people, whether black, female, Native American, or recent immigrant. He was fond of saying, "I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong."




oh yeah happy valentines day




Be Golden

Happy Birthday..."Abraham Africanus the First"

Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the sixteenth President of the United States, serving from March 4, 1861 until his assassination.

Lincoln, the nation's 16th president, served between 1861 and 1865. Lincoln was said to have been the illegitimate son of an African man, according to Leroy's findings. Lincoln had very dark skin and coarse hair and his mother allegedly came from an Ethiopian tribe. His heritage fueled so much controversy that Lincoln was nicknamed "Abraham Africanus the First" by his opponents



Lincoln did issue the Emancipation Proclamation at the beginning of 1863, which on paper freed slaves in the states of the Confederacy that had seceded from the United States. But it took a fighting force of 2 million soldiers in the Union Army to bring the Confederacy to its knees--and make the defeat of the slave system a fact. African Americans themselves contributed in many crucial ways--from slaves who rebelled in the South, to free Blacks in the North who agitated for abolition, to Black soldiers who served in the Union Army...


" The CIVIL War was the result of an irreconcilable conflict between two social systems--slavery in the South and free wage labor in the North.
Lincoln campaigned for president in 1860 as an opponent of slavery’s expansion into the new territories in the Western U.S. Although morally opposed to slavery, he was not ready to immediately deprive slave owners of their property “rights” where slavery already existed.




Instead, Lincoln proposed colonization as the solution to the “Negro problem.” The government would gradually purchase the freedom of slaves and then send them to Liberia in Africa, removing them from American society. "



Shortly after 10 P.M. on April 14, 1865, actor John Wilkes Booth entered the presidential box at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. and fatally shot President Abraham Lincoln. As Lincoln slumped forward in his seat, Booth leapt onto the stage and escaped out the back door. The paralyzed president was immediately examined by a doctor in the audience and then carried across the street to Petersen's Boarding House where he died early the next morning.









Reflect on that for now...
Be Golden

Brush with Reality Celebrity Part 1 of Many...

So Christina from the show Amazing Race walks in......on Saturday with a two black fellas and what appeared to be another asian woman...Party of 4..
Well, to say the least I was taken back by her familiar face and started to scan my mind for where i thought i "knew" her from...

~Highschool (naw)

~Another Job (uh-uh)

~School thats gotta be it (Nope)

~5 WEEKS ON AMAZING RACE (Absolutely)

Welcome to chicago Christina...I sent the server over to confirm my hunch and i was totally correct....




Ronald & Christina
Father/Daughter
Ronald: Tacoma, WA
58, VP of Sales

Christina, Washington, DC
26, Policy Analyst

Ronald & Christina are a father/daughter Team who are competing in the Race to make up for lost time. Since Ronald was constantly traveling for work throughout much of his daughter's formative years, Christina hopes the Race will allow her father--a self-proclaimed workaholic--to stop and smell the roses and provide them with some meaningful time together.

Ronald, a first-generation immigrant and eldest of five, works as a Vice President of sales for a paper packaging company. His proudest achievements are his thirty-one years of marriage and raising two independent daughters. Christina is Ronald's youngest daughter and holds degrees from both Duke and Princeton. She once served in the State Department and often wishes her Teammate could be as diplomatic as she.

Neither are strangers to the unpredictability of international travel as they have both lived and worked abroad. Ronald describes himself as inquisitive and open-minded, while Christina describes herself as loyal and adventurous. This father/daughter duo is excited to grow closer, make friends across continents and create Race history by being the first father/daughter Team to claim the $1 million prize.


..second place aint so bad....


Golden

My Sis and Rosa Parks, Same birthday?

I realized this year That My Sis and Rosa Parks have the Same birthday!!

How could I possibly missed this all these years...


Rosa Parks b. feb 4th 1913-2005


On that fateful day of December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was peacefully riding the Montgomery city bus when a white man came on board. In such a situation, the segregation laws dictate that Rosa Parks should give up her seat for the white. But Rosa Parks refused to do such a thing.
As a result, Rosa Parks was arrested. Rosa Parks was given the verdict of guilty for a disorderly conduct and was fined. News of her defiance stirred sympathy and anger. In response to the unfair laws and to the experience that Rosa Parks had to endure, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. led African-Americans to boycott the Montgomery Bus.







..." Montgomery's segregation laws were complex: blacks were required to pay their fare to the driver, then get off and reboard through the back door. Sometimes the bus would drive off before the paid-up customers made it to the back entrance. If the white section was full and another white customer entered, blacks were required to give up their seats and move farther to the back; a black person was not even allowed to sit across the aisle from whites. These humiliations were compounded by the fact that two-thirds of the bus riders in Montgomery were black."

Be Golden