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It was probably me.
Former Chicagoist Senior Editor, Arts & Entertainment; currently Music & Culture writer-at-large, advertising creative elsewhere.

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Woolworthy and Muchacha at Liar’s Club on October 16, and the first time Muchacha had played (to my knowledge) in decades. It is sometimes disorienting to see people I’ve known for so long still being so absolutely magnificent onstage. I’m getting used to it though; it appears my cohort have all decided that the old version of aging in music requiring you to slow down (tempos and general live vibes) was outdated and they have simply refused to do so.

It’s also been a spell since I’d been to Liar’s—a club whose history and mine are intertwined—and I always love that the folks who helped me get stonkered in my more debauched era are just as, if not more, ecstatic to see me sober and happy. I am a man who has often lived between the scenes, but Liar’s has always been one of my nexus points in Chicago and it was nice to see that remains true. 😁 by @jkopeny

It was another jam-packed weekend for us. I’m beginning to realize I keep telling people “I’m getting out more” when in fact I think I’m back to a pretty brisk pace of shows and events again, at a pace that is more conducive to my current needs. That said, this weekend was truly jam-packed, however you look at it.

This weekend’s events included MEGG (an amazing set, do NOT miss her if she plays your town) & AyoDylan (an artist I knew zero about going in but left humming a few of his earworms, most particularly the one he debuted that night, “White Lighter”) at Tivoli Bowl; Nora’s first Superdawg visit; Booster Fest with Invisible Solids, The Dead On, and the incomparable Rory Lake; and a few stops on the Ravenswood Art Walk along with other various wanderings captured by my lens.

Please note these photos are presented in aesthetic rather than chronological order. 🙂 by @jkopeny

Action-packed close to the week, presented in scattered chronological order. by @jkopeny

I usually approach such places with a bit of trepidation, but we had a great time at the @balloon_museum in Chicago this week! It was quite a bit longer (in an excellent way) than I’d anticipated, and by the end I had thoroughly enjoyed every installation. (We also went during “adult hours” which made for a really relaxing and pleasant experience.) 😍🎈😍 by @jkopeny

We spent yesterday seeing the @catvideofest at @davistheater and then took in the @lincolnsquarecattour! The curated films were terrific, the cats on the tour were magnificent, the crowds were ebullient, and it was a wondrous day.

We’ve made the Cat Video Fest a yearly tradition, so I hope the inaugural Cat Tour is just the start of a tandem tradition for us! by @jkopeny

If you want the full story behind this video of @mountaingoatsmusic at @summerfest head on over to Tankboy.us, but I do love unexpected encores, missing soundpeople, group sing-alongs, and the electricity of the moment as the dynamic shifts from crowd giving it all to the band and having the band return the favor.

Hope this brightens your day like it does mine. 😁 by @jkopeny

‘The Lost Boys’ was released this day in 1987—and as you can see it appears I made a VHS dub to watch over and over about a year later because I loved it so much.

That movie was also the initial motivator leading me to be the first guy with a pierced ear at his high school.*

(I caught major flak for it, but that only spurred me to put more holes in my ears, and in later years in various other spots of my body. 😂)

*To my recollection. If I wasn’t the very first, I was definitely the first guy to draw a lot of attention for it. 🙃 by @jkopeny

Imagine my delight to get home from work tonight and be surprised by @___n_o_r_a__ with a delicious Popeye’s dinner, one of my favorite things in the (culinary) world! How lucky am I?? 😍😋 by @jkopeny

It’s been a wild weather day in Chicago. At one point I looked out my home office window and was shocked to see it was as dark as night in the middle of the day. The storms have mostly passed, but I passed this little piece of damage left in their wake down the street from me. Luckily, it seems no humans (or animals) were hurt and super luckily no cars got crunched. A good reminder why I no longer go out in a storm like I might’ve done when I was younger, and before the reality of Mother Nature’s random (and neutral) acts of destruction settled in my brain as a reality I needed to be cautious around! by @jkopeny

$RANDOM SMILES VOL. THREE: I think we could all use this right now. Hopefully as you scroll through you get a fraction of the delight I do whenever I come across an unexpected smile in the wild. I love all these smiles, but have a real soft spot for when I see a smile hiding within some random elements (like, say, a torn fence covering or a smudged up section of wood or even dried sidewalk gum that can’t help but smile your way 🙂). Also, it’s only been about 6 months since the last installment so I’m already coming through on my promise to post entries in this series more often! Right? Right?! by @jkopeny$

Weekend roundup! We’ve experienced quite the flurry of recent activity so it felt fitting to capture a few key visual moments here.

Includes an amazing Sunday night @perennialtheband show (and the portion of @weaklungband‘s set we saw was pretty fun too)! Various wanderings abounded. And even more photos of @mountaingoatsmusic. by @jkopeny

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