Chicago: The Eponymous Thread

woop

Aw, yay! Welcome home, Kr!

Hooray for Uptown.

Broadway Closed Between Wilson & Leland. Red And Purple lines closed, too.

Per the cops, stay away from windows if you're in the area.  There's a barricade situation, we hear, and the SWAT team is moving in.  We would recommend staying off the streets as well.

Made for an annoying commute.

I'm going to not stay away just to piss them off.

i got a call from the troom telling people to enter campus from the west because of police barricades
(i don't work there anymore but of course they continue to send me all-employee phone messages)

I just got that call, too, and was coming here to see if anybody knew what was up!

There is a "heavily armed fugitive" in the building with Uptown Bikes.

Oh no! I hope the Uptown Bikes folks are okay!

Huh, I didn't know about "reverse 911"

Uptown Update We get a recorded "reverse 911 call" from emergency services about a half hour ago warning us to stay inside and away from windows. Several others neighbors did too.

lots of details:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-police-activity-in-uptown-shuts-down-parts-of-red-purple-lines-20111205,0,861663.story

Sara was in Uptown while a lot of this was going down, and saw closed streets, cop cars, etc. Which is really freaky. Though she was able to just grab a Lawrence bus home.

This feels kind of redneck-ish, but I've been listening to the CPD and CTA's radio feeds. Not really b/c of the emergency, but b/c I like radio chatter. Some US Airways flights I've taken had a station where you could listen to the cockpit's radio transmissions. That was really cool. Much more than these.

CTA: http://www.radioreference.com/apps/audio/?feedId=10128

CPD: http://tunein.com/tuner/?StationId=131307

I used the possible train repercussions (plus the fact that I didn't leave work until 7) as a nice excuse to take a cab home.

This struck me as really cute

[FB friend who lives at Wilson and Racine]:I am worried about Vincent [kitty] looking out the window. He loves SWAT team action!

I ended up taking a cab too, but man last night was annoying. I actually started out waiting for the purple line and at that point they were making no announcements, so I waited 30 minutes for a (canceled) train before my wife called to let me know what was going on.

although I wasn't personally affected by the standoff, I do think that it was one of those times where twitter would be essential -- I probably read about a half dozen separate accounts of what was going on in the space of about 5 minutes after it started, before anything was on WBEZ or other internet newsfeeds

I'm just annoyed by the lack of information transmitted to the actual CTA workers at the stations. After I got the call from my wife I asked two different employees how far north I could get on the redline and I got shrugs and "I don't know". If only I'd thought to check my phone sooner, because very clear information was available on the CTA's mobile site.

yeah our brown line train driver kept saying there was an "issue" with the purple line which to me implies a technical problem, not a police problem. anyways, my commute was unaffected, hooray for me!

My purple line driver specified that there was police activity at Wilson and that the train would only go as far as Belmont.

But yeah, I knew everything that was happening anyway via twitter.

The CTA's radio feed last night indicated a lack of centralized info. At one point, there were transmissions saying that the CPD had okayed normal service of this or that individual bus or train run (like "#36 Bus #1234, you can use the normal route"), but that led to a jam-up of other drivers and conductors going "What about me?"

Unrelated, they kept talking about "a runaway" and I couldn't tell what they meant. A runaway train?? Surely not b/c they were talking about it for an extended time.

They were talking about Soul Asylum.

You make me puke.

hi chicago. i'm coming to yr city tomorrow!
please to make there be no standoffs.

Don't worry you prob won't be heading that far north anyway! We need to hop to planning this btw.

Oh neat. FAP?

fap seems like such a strong word! haha. but i would be super thrilled to meet up with some chicago ilxors! saturday evening is probably best for me.

also i am so scared of the cold!

eh, don't be. just wear a hat and a scarf and you'll be ok. that's my solution to everything.

I am recommending a book! It is called Fingersmith by Sarah Waters and it has Victorian ladies and ladies' maids and intrigue and villains and diabolical plots and forbidden sex and hair styling tips for base-born London girls.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/ee/Fingersmithcover.jpg/200px-Fingersmithcover.jpg

Oh shit, there is a British TV series based on the book! Bless the BBC.

Hi tehresa. I don't know you but I'm down for a fap or whatever else you want to call it.

i was thinking maybe we should take her to fountainhead?
they have special whisky and fancy beer and foods and it is also reasonably centrally located.

should we put this somewhere else? i really want to go rollerskating. also there is a huge knot in my neck and i don't know what it is.

I vote for the Fountainhead. I was just saying I haven't been there in awhile and I miss it.

I really hated Fountainhead the first time I went there, but I would be willing to give it another try. It seems like forevers since I've seen some of you guys.

In other news I had a good meeting with the director of a grad program at IIT yesterday afternoon. Still not sure if it's something I truly want to pursue but it answered some nagging questions/thoughts I had about going back to school.

i just don't know how fountainhead will deal with a group, that's my only concern

we've had groups there before i think. i might be down for fountainhead.

i think i met tehresa before when the fake fics played at CMJ?

The Fountainhead is fine with groups but we can't waltz in with ten people at 8 on Saturday and expect to get a table is the only thing. So in planning, we'll need to arrive kind of early.

tza what time are you available and are you intimidated by tables full of drunk people?

Fountainhead is awesome for me, obv. However, we are seeing Eazy's show on Saturday and then having dinner afterward. Fortunately, that's still early-ish: the show'll be over before 5 PM. But just saying: I probably wouldn't be able to get to Fountainhead much earlier than 7:30 or 8.

i think i met tehresa before when the fake fics played at CMJ?

Yes, I think you did, too. I remember going out to a bar with Tehresa and Ken L. afterwards.

ha i forgot you were there! because c@n@st@ played too obviously!

14 years in federal prison for Blago.

Hmmmm.

Gah. I don't want to feel sympathy.

yay! no more corruption in state gov't, ever!

Hahahahahahahaaaaaaaabarf

Hi! N/A I didn't remember you were at that cmj show! I am probably free by 630 or 7 on sat.

I believe if a small group gets there around 6 PM ish on Saturday, getting a table shouldn't be too difficult.

Bear in mind, I am often wrong.

I would be willing to be part of the drunken vanguard.

jenny, i loved fingersmith--i should read more sarah waters. i keep thinking i shld read tipping the velvet and then i keep forgetting. (the bbc series for that one is great fun, saw it yrs ago so i won't remember the plot enough to spoil the book)

i'm in a rut, alteranting btw trashy YA fiction and literary short stories. victorian lesbian fun might help.