"Peace out to Pilsen"

As mentioned before, I spent last weekend in the Chi visiting my girl Kathleen and her lovely friends Krista and Ife. It goes without saying that I had a great time, Chicago is no stranger teh dope, but the highlight of my trip came from my experience in Pilsen, as time didn't really permit me to be downtown for too long. Shout out to my good friend Mica, who hyped up her hometown enough for me to want to do some investigating and spend a good third of my trip out there, and, trust, Pilsen did not disappoint. For those wanting a longer wiki description of Pilsen, there ya go. I'll just say briefly that Pilsen is a neighborhood in Chicago that houses the National Museum of Mexican Art and a community with a strong Mexican identity that's had a unique way of influencing the urban landscape.

To give the photos a little context, I went to Pilsen mostly to visit the Museum and take some photos for a series assignment, so when I was presented with the idea of Mexicanidad (Mexicaness) in the first exhibit, I thought it'd be interesting to see how that idea manifested itself outside and interacted with the surrounding area.

(Mural Mica worked on this summer.)

I wasn't going to do a Chi post, but I might as well big up my favorite rapper from Chicago with this great video of him performing "I Used to Love H.E.R." live, with a sweet surprise hip hop medley in the middle.

Obama: Hate the game, player.

This shouldn't really be my post, but the madman sent me a link to a story on Gawker about a local reporter named Nicklaus Lovelady in Georgia and I couldn't resist sharing this brief soundbite for those swing-staters doubting the senator's cool.

According to the post, at a 2006 Southern Illinois appearance, Lovelady stood up to ask Obama a question and was initially dismissed by the senator who thought he was from a college paper because of his "baby face." Upon hearing Obama's comment, the crowd of 800 people, including a female reporter that Lovelady had been eyeing, burst into laughter prompting Lovelady to write a harsh column shortly after the incident.

But who would have expected a state senator to call the reporter and issue a public apology. Friends [(c) J.McCain ], I think I'm going to be sending out some greeting cards in the near future with a little snippet of Obama saying, "I'm calling to publicly apology for messing up your game."

Boomp3.com

Oh man...

I guess his biggest flaw might really be that he's just "a little too awesome."

Speaking of which, I was in Chicago last weekend and got some pics of the police and barricades surrounding his house and the synagogue across the street, which members must now enter through the back door. Talk about racial irony...

Yes, I realize this comes across as having a twinge of stalker. But please, don't hate the player, hate the game. And you know you'd have snapped one too if you were across the street.