kristy bowen | writer & book artist

  It has been a strange and smoke-filled week, including one night that found the sky and the downtown landscape quite apocalyptic, especially as we made our way Thursday to a back alley freight elevator accessed production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch in a West Loop art space, which was a whole lot of fun (and if I had more money, would go see again since they rotate the cast through the three main characters). Thankfully, we only were out in it for a few minutes, and by Friday, it had dissipated, with only a lingering haze left today. While we get occasional fog from the lake, this was yellower, dirtier, and smelled like a soiled old mattress thrown on a campfire. Thankfully, the AC seemed to be doing a good job keeping it out of interior spaces for the most part. Other highlights under calmer skies earlier in the week included seeing Octet for the second time where its been remounted at the Goodman, and a book club/ cabaret based on A Streetcar Named Desire , both of which wer...