Kirstiecat | Blog

Okay, what I am going to do for a while is ever so often interject a bunch of pictures into my daily ramblings for different Chicago neighborhoods. First up is the neighborhood most near and dear to me in Chicago. It’s called Andersonville or GirlsTown. It’s about a mile and a half from where we live so it’s an easy walk or bike ride, especially in the summer. It has a bit of a feminist flair to an extent and it’s an area that supports gay rights. It’s also an area that concentrates somewhat on the culture of Sweden, which means I can find lingonberries there and pretend I’m going to run into members of the Concretes, Shout Out Louds, or Jens Lekman as I round the corner (not that I…er…actually pretend that)

So I promised some in focus pictures the other day, did I not? But I thought I would do something just slightly different with them. These, my friends, are pictures of my little Sweden all taken from the side rearview mirror of my car. Now, don’t you all go thinking I’m some crazy chick that takes pictures while she’s driving with her arm hung crooked over the steering wheel (I don’t read at stoplights either and those Spanish phrases I’m trying to memorize in the dashboard are just for decoration) But uh…what exactly do you people think stoplights are for anyways? sigh

This first one is actually on the way to Andersonville. I just liked the way there’s this man in the one reality of images and then this vacant garage in the other reality that the mirror catches. I’m going to put captions underneath the pictures after that.

The Gethsemane Garden Center is perhaps what I would consider the most northern border of Andersonville on Clark Street. We go there for alot of our plants (I’m a plant killer btw, in case some of you didn’t already know. Some of you have seen the results of the poor demised cacti.) and Cinchel hates the place because he thinks they are pretentious plant people. Well, some are more pretentious than others. But my take on it is that they are just like everybody else in the universe…meaning, they just want to be considered an expert on something. Geez, I suppose if I faulted them for that, I’d have to fault the entire human race….hmm….

This is in one of the spotty parts on the northern end of Clark as well. Although, in the four years we’ve been visiting this area regularly and living near it, we’ve seen more places come in to Clark and the area continues to develop. Unfortunately, that also means that some of the poorer residents that were there first are inevitably pushed out. There are townhomes that have been developed as well on the northern end as well.

Now, this picture was taken right by a local independent hardware store (those still exist amongst the home depots and ace hardwares that seemed to have taken over in many areas of the country). What I like best is the juxtaposition of the younger man in the top right walking outside of the frame of the rearview and the older couple within the mirrored frame of the bottom left. If time is merely a human construct (as Phillip K. Dick suggests), I believe the younger man and the older man are exactly the same person.

This was taken as I was rounding the corner of Foster and Clark (Hold all judgements aside now, I swear I am an excellent driver. I’ve actually only gotten one speeding ticket in my entire life and have never been at the wheel personally during a major accident. So there!) On the corner in the top right is the liquor store that sells an even wider selection of what we have in the grocery store (Hmm….could this have anything to do with the fact that Chicagoans are incredibly obnoxious little hecklers at shows sometimes….I wonder now). The Swedish American Museum is on the top right hand side. I bought a record there around my birthday of some traditional songs for a dollar. I was thrilled. They were having a sale, you see, and I am very big on sales. In the mirror is an image of a funeral home parking lot. There is also in this vicinity a theater group called the Neofuturists, which perform 30 plays in 60 minutes every weekend eve around 11 I think it is….and the lines go around the block. Half of their plays are very witty and the other half sort of reflective. You pay five bucks, roll a die and add whatever you roll onto the five for what it costs.

To the left is the Women and Children First bookstore (I would go there more if they sold used books or overstock sale books like Unabridged Books in Boystown does.) Then as you look to the right are some little shops. I liked this older woman standing here, though. She has a nice little graceful elegance to her, does she not? Oh and on the big sign to the far right is Reza’s restaurant which has a variety of Persian and Mediterranean food. Andie’s, another favored place of ours, is out of view but is south of it (or to the right of it from this reference point).

A better picture of the Funeral Chapel along with an elementary school in the area, which I have actually never been inside of. This is the corner of Ashland and Foster.

What is really cool about Andersonville is that some of the cars on the street there have bicycle wheels instead of regular tires (Just kidding, but if you believed that, I’ll be starting the bidding to buy Lake Michigan shortly)

Just some more little shops on Clark. There are a few specialty places to get different Swedish foods as well.

There’s apparently a beauty school and a nail salon on Clark Street in Andersonville. I never noticed it before until I saw it through the rearview mirror, though. Funny how these things work. For the record, I have never been to a salon….never paid to have my hair done in any way or my nails or whatnot. I prefer to spend the money I would have spent on records instead.

This is more of the southern end of Clark. I’ve never been inside of any of the places in this picture either.

Mmmm…the Swedish bakery….so good and yummy. I love their stuff so much, especially their cakes. They do alot with marzapan too-making little gooey frogs and seasonal holiday stuff. I never eat their animals because I think it’s subversive carnavorianism. (But I have to admit they do look good! My mom ate one of their ganache porcupines once I think when she was visiting)

Back in the heart of it here…in the far right you can just barely make out the sign for the gym I go to on a regular basis (you have to work out if you keep downing Swedish bakery goods, ya know? ) Then, next door is SVEA, a very excellent brunch place that has some good omelettes and some swedish dishes…glog around the holidays as well.

Here’s a better picture of the gym I go to (Cheetah) and Svea. (In the rearview mirror)

A woman stands by Arkadash Restaurant, which feautures some Turkish foods-belly dancers too but I haven’t ever gone there myself. Arkadash has this huge sign that lights up! (yeah, clearly doesn’t take too much to amuse me) and is on the northern end of Andersonville on Clark St.

I’m such a sucker for juxtaposition. Look at the man in the top right corner. There’s another man in the bottom left corner as well. It’s no big deal, I just thought that they could be connected through a single image.

Slightly blurry because well, the car was moving (these people, remember, are behind me as the car moves forward because it’s a mirror shot. I care about safety and humans! Pedestrians have the right of way!) Anyhow, it’s hard to tell this is a rearview mirror shot but if you look closely, you’ll see the backwards writing on the signs. The green sign mid frame is Angel’s, an excellent Mexican place concerned about human rights and political activism. They sponsored the peace march in Andersonville awhile back and promote gay pride specifically as well. Great guys! (and don’t get me started on how absolutely mouth watering their enchiladas and epanadas are! mmmm) They had a problem about a month ago as their landlord suddenly decided to raise their rent to an unbelievably high amount, which there is no way they could afford. Thinking it would do absolutely no good, I still decided to try wrote a letter to the Chamber of Commerce expressing concern. What was really great, though, was that enough people in the community wrote letters and called down to the Chamber of Commerce that a compromise was actually reached in which Angel’s will stay in that same location for the next two years. Really, what is at stake here is what is at stake in any area that starts to take off and regentrification occurs. What tends to happen is that the smaller independent places, even if they have historically symbolized a good sense of community and culture in the area, get pushed out and the only places that can afford incredibly high rents are the chains. The last thing Andersonville needs is a Chipotle. That’s how neighborhoods get ruined.

Also what I liked is the posturing of the man and woman walking towards eachother. I liked it aesthetically and I am already making up a story for them…of them meeting and greeting eachother. Perhaps, they sat next to eachother in kindergarten and suffered the same miserable elementary school teacher. Perhaps, when recess came, she taught him how to make boats with construction paper, glue, and sand. Maybe she was the first girl he kissed a little later on. Yeah, I probably just didn’t see their tumultuous embrace because I had to keep driving. (Safety first…)

Here is a better picture of Angels and also the little coffee shop on the corner that has good sandwiches and these little toffee bar things mmm….

On the left hand side is the independent card store I always go to…they have great stuff (and excellent wrapping paper as well). This is right across the street from Cheetah gym where I work out and last time I was at this store they were playing Beck and it was great.

There’s a great little chocolate shop in the middle here called Bon Bon that has some pretty exotic stuff great for gifts and things. Nice family owned type of place. That’s all there is. There is no more. Until I meet that bear once more. Or so the song goes.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 30th, 2005 at 4:04 pm and is filed under art. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.