Unfolding pieces of it faster, don’t you waste your time

1. Jamie’s boss invited us to a party at the Bijou in Old Town, which I mistakenly thought had been a bathhouse in its sordid past that had ties with John Waters and seventies gay porn. It’s still fully functional, and despite the private party we had been part of, there were some regulars still hanging around to utilize the upstairs areas. It was historic and full of gloryholes.

2. I discovered ME Magazine at Quimby’s recently. Every issue is dedicated to one person and has Q&As with those involved in their lives (artists, photographers, writers, actors, models, etc.) In this case, it was two people (fashion design duo Rodarte) and the interviews were with friends of theirs like Autumn DeWilde, Miranda July, and Kim Gordon. The questions were about inspiration and artistic vision in the form of those 20-question surveys friends would forward on as teens. You can actually learn a lot from someone based on their favorite books and films and what Dickens’ character they identify with.

3. Two friends came to visit this weekend, and one was Soojinn, who I went to high school with. She came to Chicago for a few years to study at SAIC, but moved to New York where she works at an art gallery in Manhattan. She was in town for Artropolis so we met up with her and explored the art fair and had dinner with her after. I’ve always appreciated conversations with Sooj because they can flow easily from topics of nostalgia to religion to relationships to feminism and art and back. I’m always inspired by her and look forward to our short visits.

4. I finally got around to watching I Want Someone To Eat Cheese With. I have always especially enjoyed watching movies filmed in Chicago, especially when I was homesick living in Los Angeles. This one was filmed in Ravenswood and Wrigleyville and was mildly entertaining (mostly because of Sarah Silverman playing her usual self.) I began to have a problem with it, though, when Silverman’s character asked the main character to take a walk and suddenly they had walked from Wriggleyville to Millennium Park. Not quite doable for a character whose main problem is that he is gluttonous.

5. My Q&A with Lauren Collins who plays Paige on “Degrassi” is up on AfterEllen today. I’m a huge fan of the teen drama, and had a great conversation with Collins as well as her publicist who told me I could come up to Toronto and visit the set and meet the actors this summer while they are in production. I instantly called Amanda and we are surely road tripping it to Canada shortly.

6. Most importantly, I was offered and accepted a full-time position with AfterEllen that I am very, very excited about. I’ll be continuing to write the music column and other pieces but will also be in charge of the daily blog. I won’t be able to do Girlfriend is a Homoanymore, but hope to transfer my tone over to AE. I’m such a huge fan of the site and all of the visibility they have created, and to be a part of that is just really amazing for me.