Et maintenant au Congo

Amy Ernst Often when I am photographing wealthy socialites partying or buying art on the north shore of Chicago, I think of a friend of mine, Amy Ernst, who is in the Congo right now taking amazing photos of interesting people.  But she’s not there to take photos, she’s doing her part to help out in that war-torn part of the world.  I asked her to write up a paragraph about what she is doing abroad: “I’m living in a monastery with about 50 Catholic priests... Read More

Cracking Open the Omniverse

Today I experienced a cranial disaster resulting from a singularity in all space and time.  It all started way back when my parents decided not to have any more children after the birth of my older sister Sarah.  Sixteen months later, I was a newborn being carried around the hospital by my father showing me off to the nurses.  Growing up, I was mothered by two sisters and my mom and through the course of events, I never really acquired that drive to be 100% responsible for... Read More

The Killers of Juarez

One of the greatest crimes of the favored is apathy to the plight of the unfortunate.  Many Americans feel this to be true and for a few moments each year, they gather behind the news of the day and text money to a cause.  They allow others to work out the details and go on drinking Starbucks and smoking pot.  Edmund Burke wrote, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”  Americans now are doing something worse than apathy,... Read More

Life Should Be Delicious

I woke up with vomit in my mouth. The kind of dirty stink that makes you run to a cup of anything to change the experience. All night I had been bent at the waist, feeling my body implode, stopped only by the frozen stomach muscles that I hadn’t felt for years. My skin was chilled and I could feel the fever coming on. At first I thought I had been sitting too long in the same position, stopping up the pipes. But after ten minutes of intense pain, I knew the McDonald’s... Read More

True Colors

Would that the man on the moon were a lonely fellow, perhaps reclining against the slope of some great crater, he might say that he had more insight under the print of his thumb than all of the Earthling  extrospection gleamed from upon the snowy vantage of Everest.  Perhaps he fingers the collapsing edges of the first human manprint in the silty soil or sweeps away the gunmetal baby powder from the brassy words, “For All Mankind.”  Laborious cleaning of the... Read More

Universal Tooth

Debating the details of someone’s  core beliefs is an entertaining yet usually pointless endeavour; but let slip the dogs of war, I say.  I once argued with a girl for what felt like two hours about the existence of Universal Truth, she on the, “it obviously exists,” side and me on the, “you can never prove it,” side.  Arguing about Universal Truth is like trying to prove that the world is round; sure, there’s a lot of reliable hearsay... Read More

Medium Sized

After college, I lived in Kankakee County in a small town called Momence for a while.  There were only a few hundred people living there with a main street no longer than 10 or 15 blocks long, and that’s being generous.  It was far from work, but in the neighborhood which is what I wanted.  I used to run everyday, and in the summers it would be so hot that would I run with my shirt off.  I worked a few miles away in a larger city called Bourbonnais.  After work one... Read More

Mother and Daughter

Bethany Pegues I’m sure there’s some sort of life lesson to learn from the massive striped spider which has been constantly making a web on the side of my car door.  But I really don’t care because the damn thing scares the crap out of me every time I jumps out at me.  Perhaps the lesson is that I shouldn’t go to McDonalds because that’s the only fast food place around here that has a drive thru.  When I open my window to place my order, I get... Read More