Related Recs

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lucky enough to live in chicago

corncob buildings, Carl Sandberg’s poetry, Wilco and Horsegirl, corner taverns, concrete (and sand) beaches, best skyline, miles and miles of parkland, distinct neighborhoods, nostalgia for the chocolate smell of the Blommer Factory, labor history and labor rights running through our veins, green rivers (the drink and the actual river), Sufjan Stevens and Djo have us covered, tacos and Italian beef and Chicago-style with all the fixings, the tamale guy going dive bar to dive bar, the wax wrapper encasing your Tootsie Roll, Kashmir Pulaski Day, from Monadnock to Mies we’ve got the best architecture in the world.

@salad_valet

Feb 18, 2025

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i love you chicago

For a girl who wants to always be in Chicago…especially a good list for vinyl listeners, club enthusiasts, stationery and design nerds. Merz Apothecary Parachute Robey Hotel The Warbler Smartbar 606 Records The Green Mill Dusty Groove Giant Penny Whistle Greer Chicago Atlas Stationers Oak Park FLW Walk Garfield Park Conservatory

@radishriot

Jul 2, 2024

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Western Pole

Located at the intersection of Western and Cermak in Chicago, the Western Pole is a makeshift rotating exhibition space on a city-owned light pole. It’s run by the artist and curator Jesse Malmed and is one of the single most delightful things in my life. I get to walk by it on my commute to the train and see the exhibitions change at a seemingly random cadence. They’re usually poster-based in format but I’ve seen a very cool sculpture of a birdhouse affixed to the pole and sometimes the work is interactive, using phone numbers, QR codes, and even links to artist’s Venmo’s. I’m aching to know how artists are picked and what the general “infrastructure” of running the pole is. But also, I’m addicted to the mystery and in love with the reclamation of The Commons. Chicago has a gorgeous and historied community of alternative art spaces, including an ecosystem of apartment galleries and non-traditional exhibition spaces. We have Barely Fair, a miniature art fair with tiny booths. There’s a gallery run out of someone’s purse and a now-closed space that existed inside of someone’s medicine cabinet! One curator commissioned artists to make earrings and used her earlobes and neck as an exhibition space. I’m even in on it. My husband and I ran Curb Appeal Gallery out of our living room for a year and a half! I guess what I’m trying to say is, be scrappy, be nimble, and be creative. You want to do a show, build up your artist CV, get into curatorial work? Make the spaces you want to be within. They can be as simple as a city light pole.

@salad_valet

Feb 25, 2025

Top Recs from @ruffianbandwidth

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being a poser has been normalized

I don't know how well this actually answers your initial question, I think it's more of a counterpoint to some of the stuff people have already said, but here it goes. In the past (prior to social media or search engines) specific styles, specialized knowledge, and niche awareness actually took effort. You had to go out into the world and find a scene, be accepted, participate in it, contribute to it, and learn from others with specific knowledge within the specific sub- or counter-cultural scene. It took time, effort, and experience to craft an identity. Nowadays people cycle through various identities and trends like commodities because it takes no effort (they're sold to them by social media algorithms, influencers, brand accounts, etc.). It comes to you in your phone without you ever even having to leave the house or put in the time to discover it or participate in it (you just follow specific people or subscribe). You can be a passive observer or consumer, not an active contributor. As a result, you're not invested or tied down and committed to that core identity. You can cosplay depending on your mood or who you want to momentarily convey yourself as, because it's easy. Essentially, being a poser has become normalized. An identity is now something to be momentarily consumed and affected, rather than grown, built, and developed over time. Granted, it's always been different in regards to "mass" culture and popular trends (both in the past and now). Those are impossible to miss and were always monopolized by specific trend setting institutions, but always by the time it gets to that point, the actual initial counter- or sub-culture that inspired it has already been coopted and has started to disintegrate under the weight and attention of mass consumption.

@ruffianbandwidth

Feb 18, 2024

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When your cat crosses his paws like a perfect little gentleman

It's an action deserving of its own nickname. My cat's name is Gomez, but when he crosses his paws like this, he turns into Hodgkins Plumpersocks.

@ruffianbandwidth

Feb 2, 2024

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Downtown LA during the Summer of 2020

I feel like everything about this photo captures that unique period of time - the covid masks, the protest signs, the boarded windows, the national guard. I look at it now and I still feel glimmers of the hope I felt in that moment, when the rigid and all encompassing oppressive and systemic ruts of society felt like they were becoming more plastic and might even come undone. However, in retrospect, I am of course also hit with the ultimate disappointment, betrayal, and futility of it all. So in that sense, it really captures that hovering sense of disillusionment and hope that I'm perpetually caught between within my day to day life.

@ruffianbandwidth

Mar 30, 2024