The London flaneur Jonty (a man I have learned all my walking skills from) sent me an email yesterday entitled "Hog Butcher to the World". At first I thought he was making an exclamation- a kind of "I love you Berlin - you knuckleheads!" but no he was, of course, making reference to Carl Sandburg's poem 'Chicago' (1916). An extract of which me thinks I shall include in this my first blog as it rather compactly sums up this meat packing land.
Hog Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders:
They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys.
And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again.
And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the faces of women and children I have seen the marks of wanton hunger.
And having answered so I turn once more to those who sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer and say to them:
Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.
I know this city but a little, this is only day six of my midwestern adventures, but already Sandburg's images light up my view. I have seen and smelt a lot of meat (a stroll past the Weber Grill- www.webergrillrestaurant.com- on day one almost ended my vegetraianism in one sniff). Yesterday I walked across enormous 10 track railroads on a 12 lane highway- I felt like a dot of human dust amongst the gargantuan shunting engines, black metal machinary and juggernauts with the city looming over me. And yet there is also the tangable and finite here too- small gas lamps still flicker in certain parts of the city and being a Brit I am convienced everyone here has a gun and that my flame will be snuffed out at any moment.
However if I do survive ... Coming up on the blog (to be said in a US announcer tone similar to that of the voice on the CTA trains, Jeff and I hate him at 4 am as he wakes us up to tell us "doors closing" from the Loop station below our window)
-Explorations into architecture (I am currently asking myself "Was Daniel Burnham a fascist genius?")
-The wonder of food (The sensuality of a Whole Foods shopping experience)
-Interiors (the development of the apartment into a 50's pleasure pad)
and of course
-Exteriors (namely walking the streets and running by the lake and through various parks).
This sprawling city awaits - Chitown reveal yourself to me! *Oooh no, put it away*
