I heard about the Chicago United Hoops Classic on WSCR, they were interviewing one of the organizers about it during halftime of the Bulls game last week.  I thought this might be a game Carla’s son might be playing in (you might remember Carla from this post), so I bought a ticket to go and film him (he needs to put together a reel to show coaches/recruiters, and since I annoy Carla so much, I want to help her out).  ”Cyrus,” she told me on the phone when I called. “Mookie graduating from 8th grade.  He ain’t in that game.”  Oops.

Well I went anyway.  I didn’t do any prep or get releases from anyone, so I knew I wasn’t going to put this footage in the documentary.  But it’s a great example of why I’m drawn to the South Side, and in this case, a competitive basketball community that put together a positive event celebrating athleticism and rivalry.  

10:04 pm  •  7 May 2012

Slowly but surely here in Chicago, it’s getting warm out.  This means I get to open the window right by my desk and feel a nice breeze.  It also means I hear much more clearly the seemingly constant gunfire in the surrounding neighborhood.  I live between Woodlawn and Hyde Park, and it’s crazy out there.

Usually when I hear gunshots there will only be a handful in quick succession.  Sometimes there are as many as 10, and sometimes more.  I’ll reach over and flip on the police scanner sitting on my desk and listen to CPD officers from the 3rd district get dispatched to whatever is going on.  This will happen about 60 seconds after any given string of shots, or sooner if a police officer in the field hears the shots himself/herself and radios in an estimated location directly to the dispatcher.  

Tonight there were so many shots, and they were so loud (only three blocks away), that by the time I went and got my sound recorder out of my bag and put a memory card in it and turned it on and hit record… they were STILL shooting.  You can hear a few shots about 20 seconds into the clip.  At the end of the clip, you’ll hear the dispatcher remind officers of the “pending” calls in the 3rd district… 911 calls placed on the backburner while police deal with more-immediate emergencies (i.e. people shooting at each other).

Like I said, it’s crazy out there.

Here is this incident in the Chicago Tribune:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-cops-man-critically-wounded-in-woodlawn-shooting-20120502,0,6944955.story

12:33 am  •  3 May 2012

Stylist Mz Carla is no-nonsense.  She has really pretty eyes, but telling her that hasn’t really gotten me anywhere.  Out of all the people I’m filming in the salon, I’m probably scared to say hi to her the most… I’m always worried I’m going to be bothering her.  Most of the time though when I ask she will reluctantly agree to let me film.  She knows the banter and joking that goes on in the hair salon makes for good footage… she’s just not really dying to be on camera.

Carla has a lot of clients (she’s good), and you’ll find them sitting in her corner of the shop waiting for her well into the P.M. most days of the week.  On top of work, she’s got a son in high school who is being recruited by colleges to play basketball… a difficult minefield to navigate on its own.  

I’m actually really impressed with Carla.  But yeah, I don’t think she cares.

9:48 am  •  25 April 2012

12:40 pm  •  27 March 2012

I went over to JJ’s house last night to hang with her and her family and friends for a little while.  A flock of children was also in the building, and we had a little fun taking pictures of each other.

1:21 pm  •  18 March 2012

Last week I met a girl at the salon, who told me I should film her man and his crew performing at a club that coming Friday.  She called him, he was down, and he suggested I ride to the club with them on the “party bus” they’d rented for the night.  Sounded like good footage to me.

So there I was at midnight last Friday, sitting in my car at the designated coordinates in West Englewood, and to put it mildly I was “paying close attention to my surroundings.”  Suddenly (finally), a bunch of people showed up, as did a party bus…

It was a pretty crazy experience, and actually a lot of fun.  I didn’t get to bed until about 630am.

5:41 pm  •  11 March 2012  •  1 note

For my digital cinema peoples.

12:13 am  •  28 February 2012

I’m filming in Three J’s Restaurant on 75th Street, which is the home base of several food trucks that service the Chicago area (this is where the Jerk Man works out of).  I’m trying to document what hustling is all about.  To drive a truck around selling food you definitely have to be a hustler, and these guys are good at what they do.  It doesn’t hurt sales figures, of course, when the food is really really really good.  

Here you see some ox tail, cabbage, fried plantain, and red beans and rice.  A huge improvement over my breakfast yesterday, though if I keep coming here I’m gonna need some bigger clothes.

4:03 pm  •  15 February 2012  •  1 note

Bread and salt, my two favorite things, the breakfast of broke-ass filmmakers everywhere. You know what would be great with this actually?  Caviar.

11:36 am  •  13 February 2012  •  1 note

Yesterday I was loitering outside a liquor store. Or at least I was trying to, had i cracked the bottle of Crown Royal i purchased and gotten into it I probably would have felt less uncomfortable. But most people are friendly, just like anywhere, even when you’re hanging out in neighborhoods you’re probably not supposed to be hanging out in.

8:30 pm  •  11 February 2012  •  1 note