In a society where making art lands you in the unemployment line, artists face an uncomfortable choice. Work a nine to five job and come home too exhausted to create, or balance multiple jobs in hopes of carving out more time for art. Writer and visual artist Robin Hustle knows all about the latter, but she’s found an interesting, if controversial way to fund her art. Hustle first caught my attention after a piece she wrote for Jezebel on coming out as a prostitute to her parents received a slew of passionate comments. She spoke with Our Town about how her “day job” in sex work informs her art and vice versa.

Our Town Artists tend to choose between working nine to five jobs and fitting in art where they can or putting together a hodgepodge of gigs in order to make time for their art. You seem to have chosen the latter. Pros and cons?
Robin Hustle The 40-hour work week was established in 1886. It's shameful that we haven't made any progress since then, that we're expected to take our work home with us, that we have to work overtime to stretch minimum wage into something closer to a living wage. It's a system I'd want to work outside of even if I wasn't an artist. Making a living as I do allows me to wake up early and write or stay up late and draw. It spares me the monotony of a full-time job. After a decade out of school, being self-employed has allowed me to start working toward a degree in a healthcare field without giving up writing and making art.

OT You recently wrote a piece for Jezebel discussing prostitution. What made you decide to write publicly about it?
RH Prostitution has been my primary source of income for about eight years, and I've been writing about it for nearly as long. My zine Mirror Tricks, about working as a prostitute, was also a slide show that I presented dozens of times around the country, and I've written critical essays on sex work, given talks about prostitutes' health issues, etc. Until recently, I'd planned to take a break from writing about sex work because I felt like I was getting too comfortable, limiting the scope of my writing and neglecting other ideas and projects. Then a friend asked me to write some pieces for a mainstream website on the subject, I did it, and I quickly became addicted to the idea of reaching a wide audience really, really fast—something that doesn't happen through self-publishing and small press. When that series ended, I pitched the idea of an ongoing column on sex work to Jezebel, and I'm thrilled that they were into it. There was never a question of whether I should write publicly about prostitution. It fascinates me from a personal and a conceptual angle; it forces tricky questions about sex and feminism and labor and public space. Essentially, it holds all the elements that excite me as a writer, and also happens to be my job, a job that's highly stigmatized and considered shameful, so how could I not write about it?

OT Commentators seemed angry at you for writing from your personal experience, that of a white woman who has chosen prostitution, but isn’t that the point of a personal essay? To write from your experience? Thoughts?
RH Many of the people who responded to my first piece on Jezebel wrote that they connected with it, as a coming out story, as an experience of growing up in a radical family, as a difficult part of being a sex worker, but the loudest voices were the raging ones. Frankly, I don't think those commentators read the piece: they skimmed to see if it said "I'm happy being a sex worker" so they could tell me that my experience is so rare that I have no right to write about it, or that I'm ignoring the plight of trafficked women by writing about myself. A few comments really stuck with me, and they weren't from either end of that spectrum. They were from readers who have mixed feelings about sex work, how it fits into feminism, the degree to which it is or isn't exploitative. They didn't get any answers from my piece but they thought hard about the questions. That's the kind of reader I'm hoping to reach by publishing in such a public forum.

OT Were you surprised by the negativity of peoples’ reactions?
RH I live in an incredible community that shields me, to some degree, from the nastiness of so many mainstream ideas about sex work, but even within that community I've been subject to scapegoating, tokenization, and other less vehement forms of bigotry than what turned up on Jezebel. I'm not oblivious to the gut reactions people have to sex work, or the misinformation they're fed. But it did catch me by surprise, because I thought I was publishing an uncontroversial, sappy piece about coming out to my parents.

Actor Sean Parris

If any theater knows its way around Edward Albee’s work, it’s Remy Bumppo. From 2011’s The Goat, to their current production of Seascape, the company and Albee have proved a perfect match. Our Town spoke with Artistic Director Nick Sandys about Seascape.

Our Town Seascape seems to be one of Albee's lesser produced works. What made you decide to stage it?
Nick Sandys The play includes everything Remy Bumppo looks for in a script: great, demanding language, complex ideas and arguments, wit and humanity, emotional depth.  It was only after we had chosen it to begin my first season as Artistic Director that I learned from James Bohnen, the founding director, that he had wanted to produce it in his first season but could not attain the rights. I actually think that there are numerous smaller productions of the play,  partly because its quirkily absurd surface is appealing, but it is actually very demanding physically--aside from the actors' physical movements, the costumes and the set need to be very detailed and essentially spectacular.

OT You've complimented Albee's ability to mix drama with humor. Is this somehow rare?
NS I don't necessarily believe that this combination is rare--tragicomedy is after all the 20th and 21st centuries' most common dramatic mode or genre.  But I do think that Albee uses humor in a unique way.  He is not afraid to include linguistically adroit and self-conscious characters who can punctuate an emotional scene with verbal wit or quibbling, a daring tactic that somehow allows humor into the darkest emotional scenes and never releases the tension, instead simply allowing the audience to feel safe and continue the ride.  

OT In the program, you write that Seascape is about our cultural moment. Can you expand on that?
NS Seascape was written in an eight-year stretch from 1967 to 1975, a period of particular turmoil for the American psyche: Vietnam, Watergate, environmental initiatives, the moon-landing, suburban white flight, etc.  And I feel that none of those issues have disappeared--in fact, as the play suggests, we seem destined to repeat our human behavioral errors over and over again, whether it be in the habits of a marriage or in our lack of historical knowledge.  We can all find contemporary versions of those same issues.  As the play states, "Is [evolution] for the better? I don't know. Progress is a set of assumptions."

OT With Remy Bumppo, this is Annabel Armour's second take on an Albee matriarch in two years. Is she a particularly good fit for Albee or why use her repeatedly in similar roles?
NS I have to say that there is very little in common between Stevie in The Goat and Nancy in Seascape.  They are world's apart as characters.  Annabel does have a unique rhythm as an actress, which makes her very watchable on stage, and her naturalism does fit Albee's linguistically quirky characters perfectly, as does her ability to suddenly access dangerous emotional depths.  

October's Hot Writer: Michael McCauley

My genre: I write short stories, or long jokes. I try to be funny and occasionally succeed; I don’t try to be bleak but typically succeed.

My literary influences: Nikolai Gogol, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Evelyn Waugh, George Carlin, David Lynch, Diane Arbus

My favorite literary quote: "Literature should not disappear up its own asshole, so to speak.”—Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

My favorite book of all time: The Overcoat and Other Short Stories, by Nikolai Gogol. I’m referring to the Dover Thrift Editions publication that actually fits in your overcoat.

I’m currently reading: Revisiting Anton Chekhov’s Short Stories, Norton Critical Edition.

My guilty pleasure book: Whatever the person I’m standing over is reading on the train to work.

I can’t write without: Time, ear plugs, 40 mg of Vyvanse.

Worst line I ever wrote: My writing is usually terrible and sometimes good enough, so it’s not like I have to dig to find the worst line ever. Here is a line from the piece I’m revising now, highlighted for either revision or execution: “The chilly wind that breathed fire into the trees seemed to rekindle within Gary that terrible lust for the unknown he had successfully repressed over the summer.”
I feel awful now but I deserve it.

Brief Bio: Michael McCauley is a graduate of the University of Alabama's MFA Program in Creative Writing. His stories have appeared in Eleven Eleven, The Clackamas Literary Review, DIAGRAM, and Painted Bride Quarterly.

A writer with an MFA in Creative Writing from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Sarah Terez Rosenblum freelances for a number of web sites and print publications. Her debut novel, “Herself When She’s Missing," (Soft Skull press) is available for pre-order here. She is also a figure model, Spinning instructor and teacher at Chicago’s StoryStudio. Inevitably one day she will find herself lecturing naked on a spinning bike. She's kind of looking forward to it actually.
IMPORTANT: the official Our Town site doesn't support comments. Join in the conversation by following facebook.com/OurTownBlog.ChicagoSunTimes and Sarah on Twitter: @SarahTerez and Facebook.

My Significant Other is painting the apartment. AGAIN. To clarify, she’s finishing the job she started before the temperature hit 100 degrees and stuck there for roughly 1.2 million weeks. The dog is having the worst day of her life, by the way. Every time SO climbs a ladder, she starts trembling. We think her former owners were abusive stilt-walkers. This has nothing to do with Ever Mainard and Rasa Gierstikas’ stand-up comedy showcase but have you ever tried to write a blog while a dog has an anxiety attack? Not to mention the paint fumes. I’m pretty sure they haven't affected my writing ability though. PINK RHINOCEROS LAP-DANCE HORCHATA. But back to Mainar and Gierstikas. Sh*t Show, their monthly comedy variety show is going gangbusters and they spoke with Our Town about the Chicago scene and more.

Our Town Why change format from traditional open mic to showcase?
Ever Mainard Numbers were low and Rasa and I knew we had to do something.
Rasa Gierstikas We wanted a fun atmosphere where new/seasoned comics felt welcome to perform without the fear of being judged and criticized.
EM We needed the change. We know people miss the open mic, but this is also such a fun, hip, unique show that people - comics and audiences- can be involved in. We have a grown man in a hot dog suit handing out Malort!! 

OT How did you get into stand-up?
RG I was always interested in it but had the worst stage phobia and relied on others to do comedy related things.  When I realized that people weren't always reliable, I decided it was time to suck it up and do stand up.
EM As a child, I really wanted to do something in comedy. When I set out, I wanted to be on SNL. Then as I got older, I started becoming more and more interested in stand up.

OT Ever, your ‘here’s your rape’ bit got a lot of attention. Can you talk about that?
RG Ever stole that from me.
EM I stole it from Rasa..... Well, the joke stemmed from an experience of being followed and being threatened. Of that bit that went viral, only a minute [was rehearsed]. The rest is just a riff.   
 
OT Obviously you think rape jokes have a place in stand-up. Are they always okay? Does it depend on the comedian? Their intention? 
EM Well, that joke started as a joke of being pursued and being threatened and then just morphed. I actually dislike rape jokes. Especially from men. Part of the reason why SH*T SHOW became a show is so we wouldn’t have to listen to poorly structured rape jokes time after time and then have the word "RAPE!" inserted for shock value. We get it. You're edgy.
 
OT What do you like/dislike about the Chicago comedy scene?
RG Like: Some of the people I've met.  Dislike:  Some of the people I've met.
EM I have to agree with Rasa.

OT Every single Chicago performer I’ve fallen for has left for Los Angeles. Are you going to abandon me too?
EM Sooner or later, but for now, I'll keep building here. 
OT That was cold, man.Tips for wannabe comedians? 
RG If this is really your passion, pursue it, but don't let other comics’ insecurities affect your confidence level.
EM Agreed. The first time I did ChUC (chicago underground comedy) a comic came up to me right before my set and said "You? How did YOU get this show?" I had a great set and then later became a cast member. You really just have to stick to what you're doing. It gets hard not to get sidetracked, but stick to it!

PINK RHINO OSTEOPOROSIS. I mean...go see their show at Shambles Bar. Last Friday of every month. 8 p.m.

A writer with an MFA in Creative Writing from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Sarah Terez Rosenblum freelances for a number of web sites and print publications. Her debut novel, “Herself When She’s Missing," (Soft Skull press) is available for pre-order here. She is also a figure model, Spinning instructor and teacher at Chicago’s StoryStudio. Inevitably one day she will find herself lecturing naked on a spinning bike. She's kind of looking forward to it actually.
IMPORTANT: the official Our Town site doesn't support comments. Join in the conversation by following facebook.com/OurTownBlog.ChicagoSunTimes and Sarah on Twitter: @SarahTerez and Facebook.

Anne Elizabeth Moore wants to you to see Cambodia through her eyes, or at least through her camera’s lens. A Fulbright scholar, UN Press Fellow and award winning author, Moore has “spent much of the last five years in and thinking about Cambodia.” Now she’s ready to tell an image-driven story that celebrates a country rife with contradictions.

OT Your book is called Hip Hop Apsara: Ghosts Past and Present. Can you talk a little bout the title?
AEM Well, Hip Hop Apsara was what I'd always called these public dances down on the riverside, because they really do combine blasting hip hop music (and other kinds, too) with intricate Apsara dance moves. The dance scenes I photographed—it's sort of becoming standard now, for films shot in or about Cambodia in any way, to show these big dance parties. They're very tourist-friendly, and they do make for some amazing images. But it is an extremely odd mix of very traditional Khmer ballet with a deliberately janky, clunky, hip-hop sound and fashion aesthetic, especially when, earlier in the evening, you see it's mostly survivors of mass killing and genocide out busting a move. The subtitle, Ghosts Past and Present, is equally important. Between 1.7 and 2.2 million people were killed in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, and before that American bombings killed hundreds of thousands of people and livestock, which some estimate eventually killed about as many as under the brutal regime. Then after that, there were 20 years of civil war and poverty. A lot of people died. Its important to remember why and how, even if you're getting over the loss.

OT How does one unite words and images? Were the photos and essay done independently? Did you write essays to compliment chosen photos? Did you snap pictures that related to already written pieces?
AEM After five years of traveling in Southeast Asia, I had all these images, experimental things I would do with my camera when we were out at these big aerobics gatherings—the young women I was living with, and who are still my friends, who took me there—they were not terribly impressed by my dancing ability. So I photographed. Almost every night I could, actually: I loved being out in public that way with Cambodians enjoying themselves, taking up space, being loud. I did end up with several thousands images, though. Once the images were edited down, I sat down and was like, OK, my publisher says I have to write something. I'd wanted to create an interesting and complex enough narrative from the images alone, but she kept saying, I think a little bit of explication would be nice. So when I sat down to write, I didn't let myself get caught up in, is this factual? Will I be able to get permission to quote this? Am I saying it in a way that will damage the people I know there?—These are all the dangers of journalism in Cambodia: that the people you write about will be prosecuted for saying the things you have written down. It's pretty nerve-wracking. A journalist, covering the illegal logging trade, was just discovered dead last week; another one was shot a few weeks before that. So loosening the stories from this journalistic directive and letting them stand as solitary narratives that maybe aren't hinged in traceable location—it let me tell a different kind of story. A deeper story, and one that's maybe more true than anything else I've been able to write about Cambodia before. But it's not journalism.

OT Cambodia seems in flux at this point. What have your experiences been like relative to the rapidly changing culture?
AEM That's actually the subject of my next book, which is a follow-up to Cambodian Grrrl: Self-Publishing in Phnom Penh—which just won a SATW Foundation Lowell Thomas Award for Travel Journalism! It's called New Girl Law, and it looks at the impact of neoliberalism and globalization—like the kind Nick Kristof espouses in Half the Sky—on the women I've worked with over the last five years. Although it's great that fewer people are in poverty, women are still paid about half of living wage to work in the garment factories there—70% of which export clothing to the US. Even if we pay attention to someone like Kristof and focus on education, we see loss: young people's traditional values are being replaced with a very Western set of desires, which directly benefits global media and disadvantages folks there who might have something to say. And that's really just the good side, still: Press freedom doesn't exist, corruption is still out of control, domestic violence common. This White Savior Industrial Complex business is, in even the medium run, going to be very, very damaging—I mean, I've already seen it. If we can foster critical thinking and support communities of resistance there—local folks, like the Messenger Band that show up toward the end of Hip Hop Apsara—who have a good idea of how to make international support useful—at least we can mitigate some of the negative effects of globalization.

All Photos by Patty Michels

I first found out about cake artist Michele McAtee through a friend, appropriate, because that’s also how McAtee began her business: word of mouth from friend to enthusiastic friend. As the owner of Maddiebird Bakery, McAtee works out of Metropolis Coffee Company, designing cakes and cupcakes for all manner of occasion. Not only did she speak with Our Town about her company’s origin and possible future, but she also gave me four cupcakes. I will never be the same.

Our Town Actor to baker--logical trajectory?
Michele McAtee Well, no. But what both careers did and do for me was to provide me with an artistic outlet. I wanted to be a visual artist when I was a little girl, but right around high school, around that time when I really started to grapple with tough emotional growing-up stuff--identity stuff--I was drawn into the theatre world. I loved pretending to be someone else. It was a great escape. It was never a question that I would major in Theatre and after graduating from Northwestern, go into theatre as a profession. For fifteen years after graduation, I was fortunate [to] work professionally here in Chicago and regionally. However, my priorities and perspective changed steadily and significantly, and by the time I became pregnant with my daughter, I pretty much knew I was done. I finally decided after all the years of trying to pursue roles and portray characters and tell stories written, directed, and cast by other people for other people, I wanted to tell my own story and just be myself, whoever that was. It was during that first year of new motherhood that I went through this total identity crisis and eventually reconnected to the visual artist inside.

OT What makes baking a creative outlet?
MM I find baking very scientific, and mathematical. It's basically chemistry--tasty chemistry. The designing and decorating is where my creativity thrives. I remember when I first started seriously doing this I told my husband, “I just don’t really feel like a baker, though, you know?” And he said, “You’re not a baker. You’re a “cake artist.” You bake your canvases. And they just happen to taste real good.”

OT The first cake you baked was for your daughter. Can you talk about that experience?
MM As Maddie's first birthday approached in May of 2010, I decided I was going to make Maddie’s cake myself. I’d never decorated a cake in my life. I didn't even own a mixer; I borrowed my friend’s KitchenAid by dragging it in a big red wagon down the block to my house. I started looking online for recipes, and then decorating ideas, and that’s how I discovered what fondant was, where to get it, and how to work with it. It became a real project, and I loved it. The best part was that it really ended up being as lovely, adorable and spirited as Maddie herself. And it tasted pretty good, too. Our friends who were at the party were impressed, if not totally perplexed, that I’d made the cake myself, and started asking me to do their cakes. Word got around and soon enough, total strangers were contacting me, asking if I could do a cake for them. I was just as surprised as anyone else that I had any kind of talent or skill at baking or decorating cakes.  

OT So you learned on the fly. What was that like for you?
MM When I started making cakes for friends, they’d tell me what they wanted, and I just said “yes.” Then, I’d totally freak out because I had no idea how I was going to pull it off! Eventually, after some experimentation, I’d figure it out and make it happen for them. There’s a small sense of pride I feel in that learning process, but I wish I’d had a mentor or been someone’s apprentice because it would have saved me a lot of anxiety, grief and self-doubt. The only baker in my family was my grandmother Virginia, for whom Madeline is named. I never got to know Virginia, she died when I was six months old. I like to think that whatever talent I have for baking is a gift from her.

Ever wonder if Bill Pullman’s romantic comedy career has taken a toll on the actor? Does he resent Tom Hanks? Get tired of losing the girl? Playwright Brian Work did so he created Once Upon a Rom Com: A Bill Pullman Story. But one fictionalized famous guy wasn’t enough for work. Says director Neal Fischer, “with the backdrop of a fairy tale, [Work] needed a good Fairy Godmother, or in this case, Godfather. He decided to pick one of his favorite actors, and someone who he knew would be a terrific and neurotic narrator. That man is of course Jeff Goldblum.” Fischer immediately warmed to Work’s script and he thinks audiences will too.

Our Town The show seems to both gently mock rom coms yet fit within the genre. How does that work?
Neal Fischer When I approached the script, I had one thing on my mind: Story. Whether it's film, TV, stage, poetry, books-- the most important element is always the story. You can have all the effects, bells and whistles, big name actors, but with no story it won't work. At the center of this play is a love story [about] a guy down on his luck, who is misunderstood and always pushed aside. I think most guys have felt that at one point or another and I knew that's what I wanted to build from. So as far as mocking rom coms, but fitting in, it was a delicate balance I was always cautious of. There are some pretty slapstick moments, and funny one-liners, but there are also some very sweet moments. Some of that was in the script, but with my direction I wanted to capitalize on the chemistry between Bill Pullman (Philip Platakis) and Karen (Madalyn Mattsey). I needed to make sure that their arc was strong enough to stand on its own. If their relationship wasn't believable, even with all the crazy antics, then no one would buy the show or the story.

OT Any qualms about working with a fictionalization of an actual person?
NF When I read the title for the first time I was excited but cautious. I'm a big movie buff, and film is my passion. I knew before reading it that I couldn't sign on to direct it if just made fun of the actors. Luckily Brian had that figured out, and I directed it in a way where I hope Bill and Jeff would be proud and flattered. I think in any situation like this your first thought is, "Will Bill Pullman be mad at me?" "If Jeff Goldblum sees this, will he punch me, or Brian?" After that initial thought, I completely forgot about it. Brian's script doesn't make fun of Bill Pullman, or Jeff Goldblum, but really celebrates them and the characters they played.

OT As a director, did you encourage your actors to emulate the real people they represent? How did you guard against caricature? 
NF That's a great question. I was very conscious of that; in the audition posting for Bill and Jeff, I put "mannerisms and vocal impression welcomed but not mandatory." I didn't want this to be an hour long impression show, with some dialogue in between. I had a lengthy conversation with Phil when he asked if he should study Pullman and get him down exactly. I told him that above all else, people need to relate to him, to feel for him, and that must come first for the story. So Phil did his research, and we worked on a few minor character traits that Pullman possesses and Phil got them down to a point where if you know Pullman, you get it right away. If not, Phil is just a very real guy.
Jeremy Eden on the other hand. Wow. He has Jeff Goldblum down. With Phil as the straight man, I basically let Jeremy loose with his Goldblum.

What if men wore makeup and earned less than women? What if they clicked around in heels and were afraid to walk alone at night? Chicago writer/performer Vincent Truman asks these questions in his new play Venus Envy. He spoke with Our Town about directing, feminism and “Glen Steinem.”

Our Town Stereotypically, one might expect a play like Venus Envy to have been written by a woman. Thoughts?
Vincent Truman I think that's a marvelous idea.  I wish one would have.  

OT What was your original inspiration for the play?
VT The year 1920.  That was the year that women, after a 40+ year struggle, finally got the right to vote.  Although this was pretty common knowledge amongst my peers when I grew up, I have been appalled to discover that the majority of my younger female friends had no idea of this date or the importance of it.  Perhaps it is because there are not enough monuments for women's history - there are few Martin Luther King Drives or Stonewalls for women - but I do not see the ignorance (not stupidity) of their own history to be a primary cause for the erosion of women's rights, especially recently.  That bothered me intensely.  I knew I could not write a play about women's history, but I could do a "flip," make it a woman's world in which women deride men for not knowing their history.  That way, I could get the point across without being too aggressive or preachy.
 
OT The concept you're working with is one seen before--in 1986 Gloria Steinem wrote an essay imagining the sort of world you’ve set up--how do you move beyond a clever idea to create the depth needed to fuel a full show?
VT Indeed!  And before that, Norman Lear concepted a short-lived show called 'All That Glitters' which had the same conceit.  What I did with Venus Envy was gave lip service to the surface issues - men wear make-up in the play while the women do not - and did a great deal of research into how society and civilization evolved thousands of years ago.  Prior to the emergence of the three major monotheisms that are so prevalent, many theologies were based on and around woman.  The three monotheisms have, for millennia, made a concentrated effort to keep women in their place (making them, literally, chattel, along with cows, pigs, homes and other things owned by men).  For Venus, I stripped those out of history altogether (replacing them with a female version of Christianity), which affected the majority of the writing, attitudes and performance.  The hunter/gatherers in Venus are errand boys, not claimants of power.

On that score, there was much discussion about the word 'empowered.'  Most of the female actors responded favorably to the concept when we first started discussing the piece.  I then asked them, 'what would the world be like if you weren't empowered at all... but you simply had the power to begin with?'  There were so many eye-opening moments in the rehearsal process for everyone, but that was a big one.  Everyone's performance changed.

Incidentally, Gloria Steinem is namechecked in the play, but is remarked on as 'Glen Steinem.'  There are so many references that have been flipped - the three main characters meet at a restaurant on Coretta Scott Boulevard, there's discussion of how many children President Rodham has - that I don't think I can count them all.

September's Hot Writer: Brendan Detzner

My genre: Kind of all over the place- I tend to submit stories to horror magazines and get told they're not horror enough. The novel I'm working on is set in a maximum security prison for teenage girls and is only a little speculative, while the novel I'm shopping around is a dark fantasy "Young John Constantine adventures" type deal.
 
My literary influences: Also kind of all over the place, and very dependent on what I'm working on. For the novel I'm working on right now, Andrew Vachss, Richard Price, George Pelecanos, Edward Limonov. For short stories, I always end up circling back around to Kafka, and as far as contemporaries are concerned I look up to Neil Gaiman and Caitlin R. Kiernan quite a bit.

My favorite literary quote: "Writing is like sex. It's only fun for the amateurs." --Hunter S. Thompson

My favorite book of all time: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
I’m currently reading: The Magician King by Lev Grossman

My guilty pleasure book: Not that guilty, but any Order of the Stick collection.

I can’t write without: A variety of low-key distractions.

Worst line I ever wrote: "Someone had to be the bitch." Not that it's that bad, but it was meant to be a lot less dirty in context, only to be made about ten times more dirty sounding by the very British actress who did the audio production of the story. Totally worth it, even if it wasn't the plan.

Brief Bio: Brendan Detzner is a Chicago horror-and-other-stuff writer whose work has been featured in Chizine, Pseudopod, Edge of Propinquity, Ruthless Peoples, Gothic.net, and the Twilight Tales anthology "Book of Dead Things". He has been a featured reader at Reading Under the Influence and Twilight Tales, and was a part of the late lamented Cult Fiction quarterly performance series. You can read and listen to his work at brendandetzner.com, where you can also purchase his short story collection "Scarce Resources" (a fantastic way to fill a stocking if you're so inclined). He also runs Bad Grammar Theater, a reading series that takes place every second Friday of the month. New stories start every hour and half hour, come in any time you want!

A writer with an MFA in Creative Writing from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Sarah Terez Rosenblum freelances for a number of web sites and print publications. Her debut novel, “Herself When She’s Missing," (Soft Skull press) is available for pre-order here. She is also a figure model, Spinning instructor and teacher at Chicago’s StoryStudio. Inevitably one day she will find herself lecturing naked on a spinning bike. She's kind of looking forward to it actually.
IMPORTANT: the official Our Town site doesn't support comments. Join in the conversation by following facebook.com/OurTownBlog.ChicagoSunTimes and Sarah on Twitter: @SarahTerez and Facebook.

Last year writer/performer Kate Healy was a Chicago Fringe Fest newbie but this year she’s back with a rave from Time Out Chicago under her belt and Lie Light, a new show which uses literal bindings to illuminate the repercussions of small, daily lies. Healy spoke with Our Town about the purpose of lying and the ethics of using real people as inspiration.

Our Town Is lying necessary?
Kate Healy It is if you want to be liked by all, never get in trouble, and never change. We say we like the truth but we tell and accept lies because we don’t want to own our mistakes and deficiencies. In some cases our pride is more important than someone else’s feelings, in some cases hiding evil is more important than watching innocence suffer, in some cases pumping someone full of faith is necessary to get the opportunity you’re after. But that choice, because it is a choice, alters you permanently.

OT What inspired your new show?
KH At the end of a relationship, I was feeling particularly vulnerable and started protecting myself with little lies. They felt harmless, but I was anxiety-ridden and impossible to get to know. My play is not autobiographical, but it comes from the feeling I had of wanting to appear in control.

OT As a writer what are your responsibilities when you write about other people?
KH I think they have a right to know. If you write about others it's not fully your story. I think it’s important to know why you’re writing, why you’re compelled to record and share the selected events and people. Lately it seems I only learn from true stories.
 
OT What are the ethics of using another person's experience in your art?
KH There is no need for apology. I don’t know if a true artist ever apologizes [but] you have to be brave enough to state the source, approach the source, and honor the source. It is humbling to admit that you learned from others, that who you are is a constant work of progress with contributions from anyone you’ve ever met or read or listened to. I believe it says something beautiful about art, that one might live and work in the voices of others to eventually arrive at what they want to express and find their own form of communication.

OT Your show uses actual bindings to represent lies. Employing a visual metaphor, how do you avoid being heavy handed, yet also get your point across?
KH I wanted to show in a physical and material way, how we guard our feelings. The visual of a rope being attached to each character gives the audience a complicated agency. It allows them to discern a character’s strength, see the insecurities that the lies are coming from, and watch how that spirals out of control or gets reeled back. It will be clear who is lying, but very difficult to decide who is right, who is good, and if the truth should even come out. The world of this play is set up by a narrator who is experimenting. I play Gracie, and she builds this thought-machine that allows her to see when she is being lied to, but as soon as hears truths about herself the world starts to break down. To me it is a symbol that if you’ve been lied to, the bigger problem is that you can’t believe again.  

'Lie Light' shows at the Chicago Art Department Shows are August 31 at 8:30 p.m., September 1 at 7 p.m., September 7 at 10 p.m., September 8 at 5:30 p.m. and September 9 at
2:30 p.m.

A writer with an MFA in Creative Writing from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Sarah Terez Rosenblum freelances for a number of web sites and print publications. Her debut novel, “Herself When She’s Missing," (Soft Skull press) is available for pre-order here. She is also a figure model, Spinning instructor and teacher at Chicago’s StoryStudio. Inevitably one day she will find herself lecturing naked on a spinning bike. She's kind of looking forward to it actually.
IMPORTANT: the official Our Town site doesn't support comments. Join in the conversation by following facebook.com/OurTownBlog.ChicagoSunTimes and Sarah on Twitter: @SarahTerez and Facebook.

Want to know what your therapist is really thinking? Yeah, me neither. Writer/performer and yep, therapist Jude Treder-Wolff is here to tell you though. Her one woman show Crazytown: My First Psychopath hits the Chicago Fringe Fest this week. A comic take on an over-eager therapist's wake up call, Crazytown evolved over years of solo performance work. Treder-Wolff spoke with Our Town about the relationship between art and therapy and how to nurture a heckler.

Our Town How do performance, therapy and writing relate?
Jude Treder-Wolff From my perspective, an effective performance, therapeutic process or piece of writing deals with some kind of transformation. A person who begins in one circumstance or state of mind, faces obstacles, tries various ways to overcome the obstacles and is changed by the process. It may not be the change one envisioned or even wanted at the start of the process, but that is often because in facing down the obstacles we discover things – inner strengths, hidden connections between events or people, secrets or truths that redefine the problem - that could not be discovered without those obstacles. The role of performer and therapist are linked in the sense that an effective performance takes an audience through some kind of emotional experience, but entirely different in every other way. As a psychotherapist, my opinions, feelings, and concerns have to be put to the side so I can give my full attention and connect as deeply as possible to the person or group in front of me. The role is about good listening, good timing and creative guidance to help a person discover their own strength, creative capacities and path out of the problems they face. The performer role is me with my big opinions and big mouth out in front of people sharing what I really think about things. Being a performer made me a more effective therapist because I had this outlet to express ideas and work through my own perfectionism, fear of being judged, negativity, desire for control and disappointments which continue to flare up all the time in the process of creating or writing anything. Working through those issues has the side effect of expanding awareness about other people and their stories, which translates into being a more effective therapist.

OT Molding real life events into a story with a compelling narrative arc can be tough. How did you go about deciding what was interesting to you vs what might interest an audience?
JTW This is a great question. Just because something interesting or dramatic happened in real life does not make it viable as an entertaining story onstage. Because I started writing monologues exploring an idea or a theme and I often use vignettes or experiences from my own life when doing training or shows on these themes, I have lots of opportunity to see how a story lands on an audience. For example, I run a Smoking Cessation Program for a very large company on Long Island, and most of the participants are pretty cranky about having to be in the program. If I can get a laugh from a group in an 8 a.m. workplace smoking cessation group or staff meeting, I know I can get that laugh from an audience in a theater. So I have a great deal of real-time opportunities to try out and sharpen the stories of real experiences from my own life that make the point I want to make. The evolution of Crazytown has been almost an 18-month process of improvisation. Every performance was different, because I was trying out different ways to tell the overall story. The audience response is immediate and shows me clearly what works, what should be changed, and what needs to be cut.

OT I’m curious about what sort of moral quandaries might have resulted from using real-life clients to create entertainment.
JTW I’ll clarify right away that although until about two years ago I was seeing psychotherapy clients, I never used any of their stories in my shows. While the material and the characters created for my shows are rooted in real-life dilemmas common to many people who show up for psychotherapy, they are about my failures, flaws, and flops. It would be a terrible violation of the therapist/client relationship – not to mention of their ethically-enforced right to confidentiality - to use what I heard in sessions onstage. That said, in Crazytown I am telling a story about my struggle, my fear and my obstacles through a real event with a real person in a real place. Details of everyone involved are completely disguised.

Chicago-based cookbook author Anupy Singla has cultivated a devoted following by showing readers how to master Indian spices and make great-tasting Indian food at home. In her second offering, Vegan Indian Cooking, she tackles the perhaps more difficult endeavor of demystifying vegan cuisine.
Our Town spoke with Singla about the benefits of eating vegan.

Our Town What originally inspired you to write your first cookbook?
Anupy Singla I have always wanted to write an Indian cookbook for the slow cooker. I know. It sounds a little crazy, but my mother was one of the first in America to cook Indian food in a slow cooker. I always told her that I would write a cookbook filled with her and my recipes. She never thought people would buy it, but it's now been the No. 1 Indian cookbook on Amazon.com for essentially two years.

OT How did you go about compiling recipes this time?
AS The recipes in Vegan Indian result from years of being predominantly Vegan. I started eating like this in graduate school in 1994. Many recipes are also basic Indian recipes that I love to make and are inherently vegan to begin with. I also took many Indian recipes and made them with whole grain options like brown rice and quinoa - an ode to the way I love to eat and feed my family - also something I learned from my mother.

OT Why go Vegan?
AS I [compare] vegan eating to clean eating. It's just less taxing on your digestive system. But I advocate taking it day-by-day and meal-by-meal. Don't feel like you can never eat an egg again. Look for delicious recipes to fill the gaps for you and you may find that you don't even miss the meat. I grew up eating this way, and so home-style Indian just seems so intuitive to me. I was shocked to learn that it's not something many others know about. I'm so excited to share my way of eating now with the world.

OT What’s the most common misapprehension about Veganism?
AS That it's a 'kookie' way to eat - that somehow all of US want to convert YOU. That the folks telling you to do it are the ones that are looking to deprive you of the foods you know and love. That's why I approach it from a place of going vegan is not about what you can't eat. It's about what you can now eat. Add the flavor from spices and the beans and lentils and you'll just naturally need less and less meat to fulfill you. So many of my readers write that they are not vegan - but love my recipes because they are hearty vegan options that can serve as go-to recipes when they want to limit the meat in their meal or in their day.

OT What is a good replacement for ghee in vegan Indian cooking?
AS I never grew up cooking with or eating ghee so it's a myth that all Indian households must use ghee in their cooking. In South Indian households they rarely use ghee. I love any vegetable-based oil. My favorite these days is grape seed oil, because it's a clean tasting oil that pairs well when used with Indian ingredients, and it has a high smoke point. Other oils like canola and vegetable works fine as well.

Jazzy Chicagoan Jennifer Hall writes music that combines youthful exuberance and old fashioned sincerity. Hailing from the Chicago suburbs, Hall is a versatile vocalist influenced by the likes of Edith Piaf and Ray Charles. Her new album, “In This” provides a snappy blend of pop, jazz and soul. Our Town spoke with Hall about the Chicago music scene, her writing and um, Glee.

Our Town You count jazz as an influence. How does that express itself in your writing?
Jennifer Hall Throughout high school I listened to a lot of old jazz standards sung by Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. I loved the way Ella would linger on certain notes or hold her  phrases  almost as if she were stripping the emotion out of the words. I love how in jazz you are allowed to play around with the rhythm  and then catch up later.  Ben, our keys player and Mat, our drummer also happen to be excellent jazz players. Their parts definitely reveal their jazz influences.

OT How does the band write?
JH It feels great to say that the ways the songs are being written lately are changing.  Before, I would  bring lyrics and melody to our guitarist, Noam. He would write chords and do the arranging. Now our writing process has diversified and every band member contributes. 

OT Do you feel more at home as a songwriter or performer, or do both experiences inform each other?
JH Coming from musical theater and choir growing up, I think I will always feel more at home as a performer, although I am embracing writing more as time goes on.

OT Right, you grew up participating in choir and show choir.
JH I learned how to have strong work ethic in that the best songs didn't come easy but required immense focus and a great deal of work.  Those things have really stayed with me almost ten years later and have shaped how I approach making music.

OT Okay, but is show choir anything like Glee?
JH It was a blast. We did shows for the local elementary schools, nursing homes, community events.  Although I've only seen Glee a few times it seems like it was pretty similar! There was definitely some high school drama, plenty of young love  but mostly it was about people coming together to sing and have fun. 

OT What’s your favorite aspect of the Chicago music scene?
JH The Chicago music scene is really supportive. From the talent buyers, to the artists to the concert goers, everyone seems to really appreciate one another and sees how we all need each other to have a great night of music.

OT Favorite venue?
JH If I meet someone out of town who needs something to do for the evening I send them to The Metro or Lincoln Hall.  At Lincoln Hall the food is incredible and the staff is so friendly.  Metro has  a beautiful stage and the sound is awesome.  

OT I’ve heard the national anthem is pretty vocally tough. What was it like to sing it at Wrigley Field?
JH I guess it is tough because the range is pretty wide. This year,  I brought a pitch pipe to Wrigley Field to make sure I started off on the right note!  It was a such a great evening, singing there this year. The Cubs staff was so helpful and supportive.  I hope to be back next year.

Jennifer Hall plays The Metro August 31st at 8 p.m.

A writer with an MFA in Creative Writing from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Sarah Terez Rosenblum freelances for a number of web sites and print publications. Her debut novel, “Herself When She’s Missing," (Soft Skull press) is available for pre-order here. She is also a figure model, Spinning instructor and teacher at Chicago’s StoryStudio. Inevitably one day she will find herself lecturing naked on a spinning bike. She's kind of looking forward to it actually.
IMPORTANT: the official Our Town site doesn't support comments. Join in the conversation by following facebook.com/OurTownBlog.ChicagoSunTimes and Sarah on Twitter: @SarahTerez and Facebook.

“Doesn’t this remind you of life with your sister?” my friend asked. Onstage, three corseted actresses clung to each other, sobbing, philosophizing and exchanging barbs. My friend was joking of course, pointing out the melodrama inherent in Chekhov’s Three Sisters, but she’d unwittingly identified the source of the playwright’s strength and staying power. So what if his work is punctuated by suicide attempts and fatal duels? Blame my Russian ancestors, but I absolutely relate. Life’s like that sometimes and its Chekhov’s ability to harness life’s heartbreaking absurdity that has kept his work relevant for over one hundred years.

Our Town spoke with Three Sisters actress Caroline Neff about Steppenwolf’s solid production and Chekhov’s dexterity concerning the union of pathos and mundanity.

Our Town You’re from Texas. Why head to Chicago rather than one of the coasts?
Caroline Neff When I moved here at nineteen, I knew someone that lived here and Columbia had accepted me [but] as I get older, it makes more sense why Chicago was the place I landed. I stay because there is an integrity that I cherish and hope that I do justice to. The level of work here is unprecedented. There is a community of people who essentially work two full time jobs (day job plus theater job) because they love it and they think it's important. That kind of dedication is really breathtaking and it compels everyone in the community to work harder.

OT How do you go about breaking down a script?
CN Breaking down a script is tricky. Everyone has their own methods and mine is by no means the "right" way. If I'm not careful, I will read, and re-read a script that I'm working on until I've cemented a ton of decisions, making it difficult to change those opinions once I'm in a rehearsal room with the director and the cast. So I try to do the technical elements of it, like learning my lines without imbuing it with anything until I've sat down and read it with the group. I always try to make choices that I believe in, but that I can change. 

OT What sort of work do you do to create a character?
CN I think there is a part of a well written character that anyone can identify with, so that's the first thing I look for. What about this person can I identify with, from the type of clothing they wear to their reactions to certain situations. We've all made good and bad decisions, so finding where those come from can be really universal and incredibly cathartic. A lot of creating a character just comes from rehearsal time though, finding the modes of interaction that are successful with the other people in the room, but sometimes, even though you do all the work creating the character in your rehearsal room, the identity can be solidified with the things your designers put you in. The lighting, costumes, set and sound can inform your choices like crazy. In Three Sisters, it is hard not to be aware of the corset which changes the movement, so I can't make the same physical decision that I would were I in something different.

Jeff Kauck Photography

Photographer Jeff Kauck is a man of few words. Good thing his pictures are worth a thousand--or more. Perhaps most famous for his food photography, Kauck has garnered a multitude of accolades including a James Beard nomination for his work on The Spiaggia Cookbook, as well as a Clio Award, one of the advertising industry’s highest honors. Though Kauck began as a watercolor painter, he made a smooth transition to commercial photography, relocating to Chicago and opening a studio with his wife. Kauck spoke with Our Town. But only a little.

Our Town How has your training as a watercolor painter influenced your photography?
Jeff Kauck Painters have a tendency to know more about getting light to lift then photographers. They have to understand the color of the highlights versus the color of the shadows. In addition a watercolor painter typically does not use white paint. They need to leave the unpainted white paper to represent white. So they must be aware and protective of that area before they start painting.

OT What’s interesting to you about food photography? 
JK I love to eat great food. And the quality time that eating together represents. It's also the closest thing to painting for me.

OT You must have some favorite Chicago restaurants. 
JK My wife's kitchen. She is an amazing cook.


OT Any dishes that you love but don’t translate well to visual representation? 
JK It's more a personal thing. Some people don't like to look at a whole fish or dead game. But they love how they taste.

OT What have been some travel highlights from your work in food photography?
JK I've been very lucky to work with the light from many parts of the world. No two are alike. Southern France, Asia, Mexico, New England-- all have a unique color and feel
.

August's Hot Writer: Ben Tanzer

My genre: I think it's called, "Pop culture infused real time domestic dramas rife with confusion, coping and endless attempts to communicate, something, anything, and in any way the characters can think of doing so." Though some just call it fiction.

My literary influences: Endless and varying. And more about the look, taste and feel of the storytelling, than theme or language. Jim Carroll. The Ramones. Don DeGrazia. Dorothy Allison. Scott Haim. Junot Diaz. Andre Dubus. Raymond Carver. Ray Bradbury. The Beastie Boys. Chris Ware. Jay-Z. David Cronenberg. Joe Meno. Lynda Barry. Bruce Springsteen. And Patrick Ewing. 

My favorite literary quote: "Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted." --Martin Luther King, Jr.

My favorite book of all time: The Basketball Diaries. Isn't that everybody's favorite book?

I’m currently reading: The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem. And literally just finished a number of books including AYITI by Roxane Gay and Legs Get Led Astray by Chloe Caldwell. 

My guilty pleasure book: Flowers in the Attic. The greatest guilty pleasure book of all time. Hands down. Done. Outside of Hollywood Wives of course. 

I can’t write without: Time. And Cow Tales.

Worst line I ever wrote: "Dad explained that while our family would never accept help from anyone, especially the government, there were good people who needed it. I immediately felt sorry for Mrs. Olsen — sorry for anyone who needed to rely on others for that kind of help. And I was glad that we would never be in that position."  Oh wait, that's not me, that's from The Christmas Sweater by Glenn Beck. Sorry. Let me confirm with my publicist what I'm allowed to say here.

Brief Bio: Ben Tanzer is the author of the books 99 Problems, You Can Make Him Like You and My Father's House among others. Ben also oversees day to day operations of "This Zine Will Change Your Life" and can be found online at "This Blog Will Change Your Life" the center of his vast, albeit faux media empire.

A writer with an MFA in Creative Writing from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Sarah Terez Rosenblum freelances for a number of web sites and print publications. Her debut novel, “Herself When She’s Missing," (Soft Skull press) is available for pre-order here. She is also a figure model, Spinning instructor and teacher at Chicago’s StoryStudio. Inevitably one day she will find herself lecturing naked on a spinning bike. She's kind of looking forward to it actually.
IMPORTANT: the official Our Town site doesn't support comments. Join in the conversation by following facebook.com/OurTownBlog.ChicagoSunTimes and Sarah on Twitter: @SarahTerez and Facebook.

After ten years as a Cook County correctional officer, comedian Robert L Hines has begun to find the humor in his grueling former occupation. Now based in LA and performing stand-up across the country, Hines spoke with Our Town about his time as a jailer, his views on rape jokes and hecklers and why pain is comedy gold.

Our Town At first you were reluctant to talk about your work as a jail guard. Why?
Robert L Hines Well, it wasn’t a happy situation and it has nothing to do with the jailers, it has to do with the situation. These people have lost hope, and they feel like they have no other option than to go against the law. In your training, they tell you that you need a hobby because just doing that job itself will make you crazy, and you will hit a wall. So, I felt I needed to separate my stand-up [from] my jail life, because they had convinced me that if I gave the jail too much of myself, then there would be a time where I would burn out and wouldn’t be able to handle it. And I was not going to let anything like that get ahold of me. I don’t know if you know this, but generally black people will not get counseling. ‘I’m not gonna sit here and tell you my problems. It’s not your business.’ So to avoid all of those problems, I’m gonna keep this separate from this. Remember, I was at the jail for almost 10 years. I would end my shift at the jail, then change and go to the clubs. I left the jail in 2003, and I have only started doing the jail material in the last six months. So, it took some time—maybe, after you feel that you are no longer in danger— some time to look back and see the humor of the situation.

OT What convinced you to incorporate jail material into your act?
RLH A good friend of mine, Shay Shay—he’s a comedian, himself, he said I needed to share some of the pain I had, that pain was comedy gold, and that until I stopped being so stingy with it, I would never get the outcome I was looking for. But I was still pretty guarded. Then, last year I signed with new management, and my team said I was not really tapping into all the entertainment that I had to give. So, it was a combination of Shay and my management team both saying, ‘hey, listen, this is what’s funny, if you let it be funny.’ So, really in a very short amount of time, I have been dedicating a significant amount of my set to the jail material, and to my surprise, people are very interested. They are eating it up. It’s been outside of my own personal ability—outside of what I thought I could do. It has been amazing.

OT Why do you think audiences are interested in that material?
RLH I found that people are interested in what they have no experience with. There are a lot of misconceptions. For instance, people think you are relatively safe and separate from the prisoners. But, where I was, I was in direct contact with maximum security prisoners. So, I was in there alone with murderers and thieves and car jackers and I was unarmed. All I had was a black pen, a red pen, and a flashlight. Not the big-assed, ‘knock-a-bitch-out’ flashlight. No, no, no. I had the little ‘where’s my keys?’ maglite. From time to time the supervisors would say, “Officer Hines, why are you in there playing cards and dominos with those inmates?” And I would say, “Inmate? That’s my cousin. He’s got a name.”

OT Do you think getting to the audience to feel some of the things you felt—like getting them to feel scared or threatened— has anything to do with it?
RLH Definitely. That is a part of it, because that’s what you do when you are a storyteller. When I was a young stand-up, one of the things I learned from Bernie Mac is that the reason that this is an art is that you are painting a picture with words. The picture can go from being something beautiful to something horrific, and you need to understand that the words you use are very important. Like, he would say, “If you’re going to talk about a grape, I want to be able to taste the sweetness of the grape. I want you to be able to have rinsed the grape off and there still to be water on the grape. I want you to tell me every bit of your taste bud enjoying that grape. If you can’t do that, then you really can’t hang around me. You have to make that picture with your words.”

OT Who are your favorite comedians of all time?
RLH There are quite a few guys that make up the mosaic that is me. Some of the Chicago guys— Richard Belzer, Bernie Mac, Shay Shay, Daran Howard, Evan Lionel. Then there’s Eddie Murphy. And, of course, every black comic has a love affair with Richard Pryor, because he really changed the game. Before that, it wasn’t as theatrical. After him, everything was, you know— everybody was dramatic. And I also like Franklyn Ajaye quite a bit. When I was a young, like four or five, I would see guys on TV— like the Belzers and Franklyn Ajayes— and I would think, ‘That is the coolest job in the world. I want to do that.’ Because they would be so laid back, and so cool, and so happy on stage.

OT What are your thoughts on the recent controversy surrounding Daniel Tosh’s rape joke?
RLH I think that when you go to see Daniel Tosh, you are going to see Daniel Tosh, and you should expect that it is going to be sort of nasty, or mean, or whatever. I mean, you don’t go to a demolition derby and complain because there are cars smashing into each other— it’s just nonsensical. And I also believe that he has the right to say anything that he wants to say. But, I think that there is also a price to be paid for that freedom of speech. Okay, so it’s like the NBA player who was an ambassador for the league who said that he was, uncomfortable with, quote unquote, fags. So, you can say whatever you want to say, but the NBA can also do whatever they want to do behind it. So, when you make certain statements, you should be prepared for the backlash. My personal thought? There’s nothing funny about rape, so that’s not part of my act. For me, as a stand-up, I want you to leave my show happy. I want everybody to get laid after they get through seeing me. And I want all that sex to be consensual.

Photo by Leigh Loftus

Sous Chef Valeria Benner doesn’t cook at home, still it sounds like she eats better than I do. All I know how to do is steam. Hard to mess up, except when you forget it’s even happening and all the water evaporates and the broccoli turns black and sticks to the pot so you douse it with paprika and black pepper and pretend you were going for Cajun which is kind of pathetic because no one else is home so you’re only lying to yourself.

Not that I’ve ever done that. Nor has Chef Benner, I’m certain.

Throughout her time in Chicago, Benner has moved from the acclaimed Pump Room at the Ambassador East Hotel to Lockwood Restaurant at the Palmer House Hilton. There she works closely with Executive Chef Stephen Henry who she calls an “incredible mentor.”

I spoke with Benner about Wisconsin food and Chicago dining and generally tried to make her feel sorry for me so she’d swing by and make me something edible. No luck so far, but the day is young.

Our Town Where do you find inspiration?
Chef Val Benner I find inspiration in the food itself: watching it grow from a seed all the way to putting it to bed for the winter. Gardening and farming are a passion of mine and the whole process of growing food and raising livestock really drives my passion for the food itself. I think every chef should get their hands in the process and experience it to truly understand  and appreciate their art. Hell, I think every person should. Maybe they'd have a better appreciation of how their food gets to the table.

OT How did you develop your current menu?
VB Its basically a partnership between the local farmers and Lockwood. I keep up with what's looking good at the local farms and in my rooftop garden and then create the menu based off of that.  I like to make sure we have a little bit of everything for everyone and that each dish is approachable. Each item on the menu has an element that may be new or interesting to the guest, which keeps it interesting.

OT Who are some chefs that have influenced you?
VB People often ask me this and I have to admit that I really don't pay a lot of attention to what other chefs are doing. I don't watch the TV shows, read their books, or go to "hot" or high end restaurants. I don't even know that many chefs, really. I think the only chef I honestly I aspire to be like is Ferran Adria (but what self-respecting chef doesn't?) My reasons aren't on the culinary end though; he has inspired people around the world to be creative and think outside the box and that will have a lasting and positive impact on the world. That's the kind of stuff I want to do - I want to change the way people look at food. I could write a book about my feelings on that.

OT What’s your favorite Chicago spot for casual dining?
VB It depends on my mood. I either catch tacos & whiskey at Bullhead Cantina, gorge myself on the Korean wonders at San Soo Gab San, or grab Dim Sum in Chinatown. I'm a bit of a family diner fanatic as well. I appreciate little mom and pop spots: I'm supporting local families and farmers and often the food is better than the popular spots... definitely better for the price!

OT It looks like you grew up in Wisconsin. As a fellow Wisconsinite, I have to ask what did you find to eat there? I feel like it’s improved since I was a kid, but growing up we pretty much had...German food.
VB I lived in Wisconsin for over 10 years and I did most of my serious growing up there (I was in Michigan until I turned 16.) I have to admit that I have been incredibly lucky in my food experiences there. I worked in the famous Mifflin Street Co-op and learned all about sustainability, organics, farm-to-plate, etc before any of it hit the mainstream (this was 1997 through 2003)  I learned to wild-forage from all the amazing wild areas so I know how to find morels, fiddlehead ferns, asparagus, wild carrots, fraises... and the list goes on. I worked a block from the state capital in Madison and used to wheel my cart down to the Farmers Market (the best in the country!) twice a week and picked up whatever looked good and based specials and menus off of that. I also have friends and family who are hunters so I'd often have fresh venison, rabbit, duck and pheasant. On our farm we had beef, lamb, goat, chicken and pigeon. I didn't realize it while I was growing up, but now that I'm in the thick of my career, I now realize how incredibly blessed I am to have the life I do.

My Significant Other is quitting smoking today, but that isn’t what this post is about. I bring it up because when you write a blog the criteria for which no one has ever fully articulated, you can pretty much say what you want.

Everyone thinks I should be excited that SO is quitting. Granted, there is an element of excitement to living with someone who might at any moment make a passive-aggressive comment about where you put the mail. Still, if I craved that brand of excitement, I’d date me. Instead I chose someone who self-soothes with toxic chemicals and now she’s gone and changed.

I won’t dwell, though. It’s like my sainted grandmother always said, why complain about your SO quitting smoking when you could interview the owner of an ice cream truck made for dogs?

Grandma knows best. And so does Donna Santucci, at least when it comes to gluten-free dog treats. The founding owner of Fido to Go, Santucci provides Chicago’s canines with cookies and doggie ice cream. Santucci, a seasoned dog and cat groomer donates ten percent of sales from one of the dog-friendly treats to a designated charity. This July, funds go to the U.S. Soldiers to bring their pups home from overseas and in August sales will benefit the Chicago k-9 unit. Our Town spoke with Santucci about her business’ birth and future.

Our Town How did you develop your recipes?
Donna Santucci I wanted to feed my own dog, Maddie treats that were wholesome, gluten-free, and without any additives and sugars [so] I began developing a slew of recipes that fit the bill. Soon, I was supplying treats and baking doggie cakes for the pets of family and friends.

OT What inspired you to open Fido To Go?
 DS With demand growing for my great-tasting At first I thought of opening a store which could combine my grooming business and collection of gluten and allergen-free dog treats and cakes, but one day, as I watched an ice cream truck stop at the beach and the kids lining up to get a treat, the idea for a mobile doggie treat food truck was born. I wanted to bring something fun and unique to the dog community. Why not give back to the one’s we love and bring us so much joy?

OT What would you say to someone unwilling to pay a higher price for a more nutritional dog treat?
 DS The old saying is true, “you get what you pay for.” These furballs are part of our family and nobody wants to see someone we love suffer from allergies, fatigue, tummy upset and ear infections. In the long run, it may be better for everyone’s pocket book to feed our pups high quality, healthy and nutritious pet food and treats. The more expensive route? Back and forth to the veterinarian’s office.

OT What’s your best selling treat?
 DS Dogs are similar to humans, they all like different flavors so, it depends what your dog likes.

OT Any advice for someone looking to open a small business?
 DS Follow your passion and be educated in the business you plan to open. If you are solely in it for the money, you’re at high-risk to fail.

OT What are some future goals?
 DS Growing Fido To Go, whether it’s franchising or purchasing more trucks and opening a store. It’s too early to tell what our future holds. Maybe next season we will all find out.

My dog is a fan. Photo by Patty Michels.

Follow Fido to Go on Facebook.

A writer with an MFA in Creative Writing from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Sarah Terez Rosenblum freelances for a number of web sites and print publications. Her debut novel, “Herself When She’s Missing," (Soft Skull press) is available for pre-order here. She is also a figure model, Spinning instructor and teacher at Chicago’s StoryStudio. Inevitably one day she will find herself lecturing naked on a spinning bike. She's kind of looking forward to it actually.
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Susana Darwin

I didn’t live in Andersonville back when the lesbian classic Go Fish was filmed here which is for the best because I would have shown up with a bullhorn.

There I would be, in the center of every frame, pleading with the filmmakers to reconsider.
“Think of the children,” I’d say, “the young lesbians who’ll be told by their elders that Go Fish is part of the Lesbian Canon, essential viewing. Once they discover the sort of dismal story lines and subpar acting their foremothers are passing off as art, we’ll lose hundreds, maybe thousands. They’ll join sororities or convents, they’ll marry men. Anything rather than be associated with this caliber of work.”
Then I’d handcuff myself to Guinevere Turner, but only because she’s really hot.

But there’s a new lesbian film being shot in Andersonville, and I have high hopes for this one.

Hatboxes, a short written and directed by Susana Darwin tells the story of Miriam, an orthodox Jewish mother and Nadine, a lesbian lawyer disconnected from her Jewish heritage. The two meet by chance and find themselves powerfully drawn to one another. Then I’m guessing hijinks ensues. Or at least brisket. Okay, no hijinks; this is a serious film. One which drew producer Etta Worthington (Jamie and Jessie are Not Together) as well as stellar Chicago actors Robyn Okrant and Kat O’Conner.

Our Town spoke with Darwin about everything from the challenges of both writing and directing to tichels.

Our Town What inspired your film?
Susana Darwin Hatboxes originated at a Christmas party in the 90s:  a man was there with his children, clearly Orthodox, [though] he was no longer observant.  I learned the story of his departure from Orthodoxy and wondered, 'What if a woman like me met a woman like his ex-wife and there was chemistry?' and started writing.  The script has always been scaled small, for manageability of production—I didn't want to try to start out with a big cast or hordes of marauding CGI monsters. I wanted to tell a story at human scale, but one that hasn't already been told from every possible angle.  

OT What are the challenges of directing a movie that you've written?
SD Nora Ephron said, "One of the best things about directing movies, as opposed to merely writing them, is that there’s no confusion about who’s to blame: you are.”  The greater challenge would have been NOT directing Hatboxes.  I wanted to do both, to take the challenge of leading production in addition to doing the writing work on the front end.

OT What surprised you about shooting the film as opposed to writing it. Did filming change your perception of the characters or your concept?
SD The story gained emotional heft in the hands of the actors.  On the shoot's last day, when we were to be filming the two most emotionally intense scenes, just watching the two leads, Robyn Okrant and Kat O'Connor, rehearsing gave me chills. Actors are not sock puppets, and you risk impoverishing the story if you treat them like that.  You can hear a line in your head one way, but an actor might utter it in a way that exposes some totally new idea.  That collaboration is part of what's made this so rewarding.

OT Who is your audience for Hatboxes? How do you think the Orthodox community will react to a love story between two women?
SD If Hatboxes gets any attention from the Orthodox community, there obviously could be some controversy.  Orthodox lesbians may appreciate onscreen representation, but there are risks for them saying so.  Both the main characters struggle with loneliness and connection, a person's place in her community, the roles that get assumed or prescribed that may or may not fit. We hope Hatboxes will find its audience not only among Jews and lesbians, since its themes are hardly unique.

OT How did you research the Orthodox traditions seen on screen?
SD I converted to Judaism more than 20 years ago, though my connections to the Jewish community have been lifelong.  I've been exploring Jewish practice and thought for all that time, but there were times when I'd dive down some rabbit hole or other—like, YouTube has some useful videos on how to tie tichels (women's head wraps).  I also talked to friends and acquaintances from across the spectrum of Jewish life, and even outside of it:  one friend was the go-to make-up artist for Orthodox brides for many years, and she had a particular perspective as an outsider that was helpful.