RE: Hey! Get on gchat, you!

i've been doing a lot of thinking lately. all this thinking has been done on my bike, as i zig zag up and down neighborhood streets from point a to point b. today i had a particularly great zig zag from roger's park all the way down to my place. as i pass through the streets i start to get a sense of all the different places that compose this city. there certainly is what you might call a "chicago character" throughout, but the differences are astounding. community centers (schools, churches, shops, cafes, parks and other such places where people congregate) are all so different. some have been transformed from one thing into another. many of the gorgeous churches in pilsen were german at their foundation and now are used for the same purpose by mexicans but i imagine in different ways. what are all the ways churches make their presence in their communities? i would ask the same question about any of the other venues i mention above, and more.

speaking of which, i'm fascinated by the total transformation of buildings. in chicago (not especially in chicago, but still, here) there are hundreds of buildings whose concrete has been stamped with dates and names. i suppose my incorrect use of "whose" would indicate that yes, in fact buildings lead fascinating lives. so even a small church that lies on the side of the highway at around 14th street south Halsted can be grossly misappropriated (in a really fantastic way) as a really awesome and intimate concert venue called the south union arts center, complete with a green and pink neon jesus (if i recall correctly) hovering above the altar/stage.

the maintenance of old traditions can be seen in certain churches. weeks ago graham and i were poking around the orthodox cathedrals in the ukranian village, when one of the old ladies who attended the church approached us, assuming we knew russian. some of the congregation filed out and we could only hear russian (or ukranian?) spoken.

ok, so here's the email i just wrote that inspired this blog entry, which contains my latest project idea. i'm endlessly inspired to do this (and have been for a very long time) so anybody who wants to participate in any way is totally welcome. note, in amazement, that tiffany did not prompt me to respond in any way. i guess i just really needed to write it somewhere... :)

here it is, thoughtlessly written:

----------------- Original Message -----------------
From: tiffunk
Date: Sep 23, 2007 8:30 PM


I'm on gchat... where are you?!



From: jodiremix
Date Sep 23, 2007 9:45 PM

haha i was watching family guy. they had a 1 hour star wars version but it was pretty lame. oh well. fg is kind of hit or miss anyway, most of the time.

i just tried to make a new myspace account for a new project i'm starting... the chicago neighborhood project! :) i've been wanting so badly to go around the city and take photos of different neighborhoods, and to do some research on their histories and how they've changed. but i'll start with the photos. i biked to humboldt park yesterday and then biked all the way up to roger's park and stayed at margeaux's. today it only took me 1 hr 15 minutes to ride all the way back from ropa (roger's park hehe). anyway as i've been riding around the city more i'm seeing all kinds of amazing buildings and other things. eventually i want to go out and interview people in the neighborhoods (how cool would it be to interview a street vendor in pilsen. really!)... i have an idea of a website: based on the map of chicago... i mean, the map would be interactive. but i don't know anything about making that kind of thing right now so i just want to get started by making a myspace page for the project and asking people to submit things like pictures of their neighborhoods or cool things they see. also, maybe people could submit "testimonials", saying something about their neighborhoods or neighborhoods they've lived in. it would also be great to have a realtime map of people's routes through the city. if you didn't read my blog entry on maps of the city, it explains what a realtime maps is (i think that's what it's called. eh.)

ok i think that's what chuck would call "diarrhea of the mouth" but in this case it would be "diarrhea of the typing fingers". ok now i just grossed myself out. talk to you soon.

love
jodi