Talk Talk Talk Talk Talk Myself to Death: August 2009

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Who Doesn't Like a Day Off?

It's "Not Quite Labor Day, but Close Enough" in Chicago on Monday. Most civic employees get a nice late summer's day off. Unfortunately, they're also taking a "wage vacation," too. The city's calling it Reduced-Service Day, but it essentially means, except for emergency services, the city's closing down to save a few bucks. It's doing the same thing on the Friday after Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve (that's always a popular move--cut employees' paychecks just in time for Christmas), and its supposed to save us all $8.3 million.

When you look around the country at other states and municipalities and their problems, moves like this are only the tip of the iceberg. Although a repeat of the Great Depression doesn't look as likely as it might've a few months ago, we've still got a long way to go to pull out of our financial mess. Telling people to stay home three days a year isn't going to provide the edge we need to balance a budget. The city and the county have already been raising taxes. They can keep on doing that, but not without consequences. Cut services? That'll happen one way or another if they can't afford them.

But whatever we do, we'd better not set aside the Olympic bid.

Friday, August 14, 2009

Hey, Look! It's a New Blog Post!

I never intended to abandon this blog, although not posting anything new in almost a month certainly might cause one to wonder. Although I was hoping desperately that ending my commitment to post something new here every day would leave me with more time to do other things, it seems very much like my other responsibilities have simply absorbed most of the new spare time, instead. As some of you have already figured out, though, I have recently started being diverted by Twitter (follow me here) and Facebook (friend me here), though they provide a different, more interactive but less in-depth experience.

In years past, I've talked about bands and shows I've gone to, but that's recently taken a back seat to my busy schedule of too many tasks. I live-blogged the last show I saw, Art Brut, almost three years ago (read it here, here, and here), and I haven't made it out for live music ever since. Tonight I'm breaking that interregnum, though, with another show. Although my musical interests remain reasonably broad, it's again Art Brut that beckons. They're at the Subterranean tonight, and it will be my first time at that venue. Will I live blog it? It could happen, if I find myself with anything to say at length. But technology marches on, and I'd say it's much more likely that you'll find me on Twitter. As I've already tweeted, "I read my DC comics. I drank my chocolate milkshake. Now I'm ready to go see @EddieArgos and Art Brut with my little brother."