Chicago could never compare to New York. One could presume I mean that Chicago itself is not up to par with the Big Apple’s tirelessness, but really, I mean, there is no way to compare the two. There is no way to take the Windy City’s assertiveness in authenticity, roughness and rawness and come to some conclusion that it’s a smaller version of a city that now has something called Dime Square.
I watched the Chicago episode of Parts Unknown last night, where Anthony met Bruce Cameron Elliot, AKA the Geriatric Genius, AKA owner of The Old Town Ale and author of Last Night at the Old Town Ale. Tony mentioned Elliot’s blog, and my ears perked up, as if I wasn’t already completely captivated. The regulars at the bar were familiar with it, too–and it exists, still, on Blogger.com.
There’s something charming, romantic even, about bloggers still existing outside of the main publishing platforms like Substack and Medium. Both platforms designed for those hungry to share, but in vastly different ways. This is where I put on my nerd glasses, and recall my time as an SEO fellow for BuzzFeed. Blogger is open web, meaning it’s indexed to be primarily discovered by search engines like Google or Bing (remember Bing?) If not through SEO, then by word-of-mouth or external links on things like abandoned MySpace pages.
Substack can go directly into someone’s mailbox as a newsletter of sorts. Recently, there’s also the uptick in the desire to monetize on the platform, controversially, sometimes as the primary focus over the actual writing itself. Medium is a little more community-based, and better at pushing your writing out to existing audiences across the platform; it still offers paid memberships and the ability to earn through the partner program. Blogger is truly just for the love of the game.
Which brings me back to the Geriatric Giant, whose blog still requires you to log into your Google account, but not to prompt you to spend money on any kind of membership: no, there’s a content warning that comes with this particular domain. I click on Elliot’s most recent entry, from my birthday: “Old age is no longer creeping up on the Genius. No, lately it’s been sodomizing me without a hint of lubrication or foreplay.” I just adore Chicagoans.
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Tony interviewed Steve Albini at a Chicago classic, Ricobene’s. Albini passed in 2024, and was known for producing some of the most iconic albums of our time, my favorites being In Utero and Surfer Rosa. Albini was also famous for charging a flat daily rate, and waiving royalties, missing our on hundreds of thousands of dollars. Tony asked Albini why he chose to operate under such a method (“What are you, some kind of communist?”), and Albini described his disdain for capitalism in terms of its extraction. Capitalism seeks to create exponential growth without fully acknowledging that there is a ceiling when it comes to the intersection of its personal success and the quality of what the consumer is, well, consuming.
In Albini’s eyes, the collaborative and creative process is damned if/when the primary function of creating, in his case, producing, is extraction. Tony asks if this line of thinking is something inherently Chicagoan, and Albini confirms it’s a methodology that’s regularly practiced in his friend group: “You’re not trying to extract the maximum; you’re trying to make sure that everything carries on.”
When I think about my time in Chicago, I find myself fantasizing about Xoco, the Mexican restaurant in River North that’s worth the wait in line, as it takes no reservations. That’s the beauty of the Windy City; there is no Dime Square to sit in and cosplay as important; there is not the same kind of ache for the spotlight as there is even in Los Angeles; the people are there for the love of the game. Chicago is a working-class city, unimpressed with exponential growth, and because of it, quality and genuinity are at the forefront of everything.
In Old Town, The Second City is proof of this. The most famous comedians have all come from that little laugh factory right off of Sedgwick. That’s where you grind it out; those are the stomping grounds. Talent is produced here because the emphasis is actual, personal growth, not monetary gain. Sure, performers earn a buck from their improv shows and enjoy spending cash on upscale burgers and cocktails in Wicker Park, but there isn’t the same pressure to keep up with some invisible status quo.
Previously, I used to think I wrote about the city too much; fantasized and lingered more in nostalgia over some objective truth that going to college for free really was the experience of a lifetime. Then Tony brings me back to reality, affirming in a 2016 episode, Chicago is in fact as as bona fide and real as I remember.
-E