Phone Messages

Scholars debate the origins of the term y'all. It's usage typically but not always marks one as from the South.

In 1980s Chicago, Hyde Park's Promontory Point had a semblance of racial integration, but most of the city was marked by a history of severe segregation imposed by violence and racist institutions.

The University of Chicago's first radio station began broadcasting to Burton Judson Courts in 1945. In 1951 they extended to the entire campus as WUCB, in 1968 moved to the FM dial as WHPK and in 1985 increased their power from 10 to 100 watts.

In the late 80s, the artist Garry Hayes brought a couple of lucky kids to the happiest place on earth: a legendary Minneapolis bar called the Gay 90s.

In the Spring of 1989, a fatwa by the Iranian Leader called for the killing of Salman Rushdie. During his first few months in hiding, Rushdie moved dozens of times. Could one of these hideouts have been my studio apartment in Hyde Park?

The Art Institute of Chicago has one of the most highly rated art schools in the country. But is going to art school worth it?

Arthur Mann, whose class on American Social Movements was always packed, researched and practiced the ideals of urban order.

Les Misérables has been on London's West End continuously since 1985. Its first Chicago performance came in the Spring of 1989 at the Auditorium Theater, and at least two tickets went unused.

An old barn on the south side of Chicago's Midway Plaisance became the center of artistic creativity throughout the twentieth century.

Living above Harold's Chicken Shack can have surprising effects on a vegetarian.

When playing four square at Hyde Park's Promontory Point, be prepared to address the physical needs of toddlers.

Watching nineteen seventies television could be compared to eating cheeseburgers, but its screen angels should be taken seriously.

Can a 1980s answering machine function like a Star Trek transporter, moving me through space depending on the caller?

Walking west on Chicago's Grand Avenue provides ample time to formulate rap rhymes.

Chicago in the 1920s could be an exciting place for a young, church going woman of small town Michigan.

Lawrence Welk was born in 1903 in Strasburg North Dakota. His TV show started on a local L.A. station in 1951 and ended on PBS in 1982. After that, reruns continued to be shown on PBS hosted by Welk and after his death in 1992, by former cast members.

A parent's love can sometimes be expressed by saving old issues of the Grey City Journal.

These days it is difficult to find shops that repair vacuum cleaners, but Repair Cafés have opened around the world to rebuild a culture of conservation.

The University of Chicago's Regenstein Library was constructed on the former location of Stagg Field in 1970.

The lyrics to Pete Seeger's Turn Turn Turn come from the Book of Ecclesiastes. In 1965, the Byrd's version of the song topped the charts.

Jimmy's Woodlawn Tap opened in 1948. It was one of many Hyde Park bars at the time, and one of the few to survive urban renewal.

Frank Lloyd Wright designed the campus of Florida Southern College in Lakeland Florida. He called it a Child of the Sun.

Sixteen Candles, performed by the Crests, became a doo-wop hit in 1958. The song's sentimentalism is ideal for a punk guitar to rip apart.

In the 1980s, the superb flute and saxophone player Hanah Jon Taylor performed regularly at the Cove and the Hotel Del Prado in Hyde Park. In the 1990s he moved to Madison, Wisconsin, where in 2019 he opened Cafe Coda.

In the late 80s, The Grey City Journal staff also produced The Chicago Literary Review, a quarterly supplement to the Chicago Maroon.