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The Hardscrabbler: 4Art Gallery Starts an Art Scene

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Sunday, July 26, 2015. 4Art Gallery Starts an Art Scene. Robin Monique Rios first became a gallery owner in 2003, when she and Jerod Schmidt opened the 4Art Gallery in Pilsen within 6 months of finishing art school. That part is important, that she felt successful in the corporate world, or at least valued and well paid, with an active social life on the side, because after about 10 years of it, she fell into a depression anyway, and she says it was because “I wasn’t living my life.”. Then one night she ...

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The Hardscrabbler: December 2014

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Thursday, December 25, 2014. They Call Me Mister MGB. Al Ribskis' MGB in the Victory Lane at Road America. Al enrolled at UIC for 2 years after high school, but says he was distracted by a youthful bout of cynicism. Cynicism is a word that’s hard to reconcile with Al Ribskis now - he describes it as a nagging a sense of pointlessness: good grades came easy, but he really had no idea what he planned to do with himself. And in retrospect, maybe his doubts weren’t all wrong. Over the next 13 years, the comp...

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The Hardscrabbler: August 2012

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Monday, August 27, 2012. Notes from Neighborhood Watch. Our regular CAPS beat meetings used to be held at Wentworth Gardens, the public housing complex on the other side of the viaduct. After the Parnell murder in October, there was a special CAPS meeting held at Nativity of Our Lord on Lowe. Over 400 people filled the church basement. The 9th District CAPS officer, the District Commander, the Alderman and the Chicago Police Department’s second in command, all came to address their fears. These were both...

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The Hardscrabbler: April 2015

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Sunday, April 26, 2015. A Field Vision of Art. A few weeks ago Daniel Davidson came into Bridgeport Coffee excited about a review he’d just read in. A British arts journal. He didn’t agree with it – he was stimulated the way you are when you stumble across a clear articulation of something you know to be deeply wrong. The essay described a new exhibition of Malevich’s. An avant-garde painting first shown in 1915. The title is accurate: Black Square. With content. It’s filled with carefully draw...On one ...

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The Hardscrabbler: March 2013

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Sunday, March 17, 2013. Bob Dain Brings Vintage Guitars and Local Equipment Back to Bridgeport. 312 Vintage Guitars has only been open for 4 months, and it is already on the map. It’s been featured on DNA Info. Mentioned in TimeOut Chicago. And this Tuesday, March 26, it will play host to a live segment for the Y ou and Me This Morning. In 1999 Eric Clapton auctioned 100 of his instruments to raise money for a drug and alcohol recovery center, and set record prices. One of his Fender Stratocasters ra...

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The Hardscrabbler: October 2012

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Thursday, October 18, 2012. Local Sawyers Mill Reclaimed Urban Wood. Table by Icon Modern. Furniture design firm Icon Modern still has metal work done down in Bridgeport, hiring Metal Magic Interiors since UV Awazu moved out of town (Awazu was profiled on The Hardscrabbler in March 2012. Their wood comes from further afield, but not too much further. Photo by Icon Modern. Icon Modern literally brands its table tops with a hot iron as “Reclaimed Urban Wood.” Reclaimed wood is often salvage...Gary Hamm fir...

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The Hardscrabbler: June 2014

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Sunday, June 1, 2014. A New Generation of Live Work Space on Halsted. On the outside, this building looks like a lot of the mystery buildings on Halsted Street, like someone has forgotten they own it, or like they’ve inherited it from their grandparents and they aren’t sure if it’s worth anything yet. When renovations are finished in July, there will be 2 second floor apartments, a maker of traditional Italian sausage in the basement, and a giant live work space on the first floor. The building they fina...

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The Hardscrabbler: January 2013

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Saturday, January 12, 2013. The Home Borrowers' Progress. By one measure after another, the housing market stuttered back to life in 2012. Home sales sped up, prices rose, new construction re-started, giving the drywall industry a boost. For New Year’s, Trulia’s chief economist observed the glut of unsold homes dropped through 2012, and predicted the question for 2013 will be at what point inventories will hit bottom, so the rebuilding can start in earnest. That hasn’t been true everywhere. Amo...A close...

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The Hardscrabbler: November 2012

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Thursday, November 29, 2012. Some Unnatural Limits on Corporate Interests. Photo: Light on Life Images. Two years ago at Thanksgiving, I was a new member of First Lutheran Church of the Trinity, and I was anticipating that we would launch some kind of visioning process in the new year, where we would plan out the future and how we would grow. That hasn’t really happened yet, in a formal way, but some visions have been coming in and out of focus as we work on other things. The next day, IIRON and its alli...