So there are a few places in Hyde Park that I frequent quite a bit. None of them are very interesting but I'll give you the deets anyway. First, because I was just there, is Jimmy's Woodlawn Tap. Basically an unofficial "student" watering hole, it's your standard 2 bar-3 room-tv screens playing sports-cigarette machine-in-the-corner type bar. I haven't been to the other 3 bars in Hyde Park (an area, let me remind you, roughly the size of Parkdale) but I haven't heard that there is anything of note going on at any of them. Thursday nights are pretty busy, but nothing to sneeze at. So it's dark and smoky, and occasionally, if a bartender named Tracy is working, they play some good tunes (she played the Slits the other night. Also, she asked one of my classmates if I was gay, and he said, "No, he's Canadian.") Anyway, for better or for worse (and I haven't decided on this yet) students generally show up in small packs. You've got your GSBs (Graduate Student in Business) and your Divinity School students (there are like four or five Divinity schools in the area and/or attached to the University, your MAPS (Master's in Policy and Social something or other), and random groups of shrill girls, and shaggy guys. Being a small program, Cinema Studies doesn't really have much of a presence, but we're there a lot. It's kind of nice to see familiar faces all the time. It's no Queenshead on a Thursday night though. Or whatever.

Tonight I met Matt and Inga there, two of my classmates and very excellent people in their own right. We talked about our futures in the academic world and the kinds of social worlds we would be entering into, and relationships, and the cycles of anxiety we would have to endure. I'm not sure if I've ever told you this, but while I love researching, watching, and writing about film, there are many aspects of academia that really don't blow my skirt up. Like, while I've met a lot of nice and great people, most graduate students are not people I'd choose to associate with in everyday life. For one thing, it's a pretty solitary existence -- researching and writing things by yourself all of the time. It can make people kind of bananas. Besides, some people are just plain fucking annoying. Someone actually said the other night, in casual conversation at a party: "I'm so post-Foucault." I almost barfed.

The thing I miss about Toronto is how, in my experience, there was school and there was the nieghbourhood. And in the nieghbourhood there might be other students or "artists" or whomever, and everyone just did their thing and lived (for the most part) harmoniously. I guess what I'm alluding to is "community." Community gets stifling to be sure, but it's a whole lot better than "College." But basically, that's what I signed up for: to live in a nieghbourhood of Chicago that is basically a college town. Also, there's no smells here. You know what I mean?

Whatever.

I want to tell you about a great record store here called Hyde Park Records where I've bought some great records and am trying to "pick up" friends, but I'll save that for next time when I have some pics. For now, here some pictures of the university.

yours,
N