The Best Summer of all time ever and forever

Many sources confirm this was the best summer. For me, Summer begins when Amy gets back home from school, and it ends when Summer leaves for school. Using those dates, I went to 43 shows in total this Summer. I think almost every single one except for the first three were with Summer. I decided to take a break from my Sony A7II and shoot with some older digicams. Pretty early in the Summer I found a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-f717 at the Salvation Army off of Clybourne.

It’s a fantastic camera. I have some other older cameras, and they have a fun look to their images, but the quality is too low to feel good about them. The DSC-f717 has a 5MP sensor, and the lens is sharper than I’d expect. It feels more like a professional camera to me as well, it has a full manual mode and a hot shoe for an external flash. The lens also swivels up and down which is always a fun gimmick.

I bought this camera right before Nitro-a-go-go, to shoot Nitro-a-go-go. Depending on the day I was there with Eli A., Will, Geri, and Amy, but Summer and I were there for every show. We had an amazing time every day, but I think very little can rival nights three and four. Night three I ended up discovering one of my new favorite bands: Touch Girl Apple Blossom. The night before, I brought my main telescope to the show. It was in Pilsen off of this river by a datacenter.

I had bought the telescope a month or so prior. Every Wednesday I hop on estatesales.net (never go on estatesales.org it’s bad) in order to check what sales are coming up for the weekend. Early in the Summer I found a sale that listed a 12 inch Meade LX200 Schmidt-Cassegrain. I was planning on getting an 10 inch by the end of the Summer, but this was bigger AND it was for a small fraction of the cost. I texted the guy selling it at 11:00PM. Luckily he got back to me in the morning and we negotiated for it. I picked it up that day and used it every clear night I could.

At a Lowdown show, Cole asked me to bring a telescope to the final night of Nitro-a-go-go. It was perfect timing because I had just bought the LX200. Friday ended up being the only night with a clear forecast. I brought it to that Pilsen show and had it pointed at the moon all night. I met a bunch of people, and one of them was Olivia of Touch Girl Apple Blossom. We were chatting and she brought up that she was playing the next night. I remember seeing their name on the list and being curious about their music. It ended up being probably my favorite performance of the weekend. I genuinely can’t stop listening to them.

For the final night of Nitro-a-go-go I went with Amy and Summer. It was at Montrose Point, so mid-show we all got into the water for a swim. I hoped for a quick relaxing dip; it was not a quick relaxing dip. Ask Amy about it… Parking stole the show that night. Their set ended with an encore of fireworks. I tried taking some photos and videos, but I was too busy dancing to get anything good. We also got a performance of the Nitro-a-go-go theme song from Jason Shapiro, and I brought my small Edmund Astroscan telescope for fun.

I ended up seeing Kitship play more than anyone else this Summer, with a total of seven shows. One that stood out to me was on a two show day. It was on 7/11, so of course Summer, Geri, and I had to stop for a free Slurpee before the show. The first show was at the Foghouse. Kitship and Lundsurk played, among others. It was a beautiful day out. The Slurpees made us happy. We went to a show at the Color Club after, where Eleanor Witt Wardlaw and TV Buddha were playing for what I think was Laurie Duo’s record release show.

Early on in the Summer I went to a Nitroglycerine show at the Schoolhouse. The lineup was Adelaide, Autofill, and Dead Nettle. Adelaide ended up tying with Current Union for the second most shows I went to (four shows). We saw them once at Whiskey Girl Tavern. Sofi came with us, it was her first show since early Spring. Summer’s friend Liv was visiting from out of town so she tagged along too! I’ve probably been listening to Adelaide’s music as much as I’ve been listening to Touch Girl Apple Blossom’s. They also introduced me to Folk in Andersonville. It’s a cute little antique store/cafe. They’ve got some really interesting drink options, but my go-to has been their Yemeni Coffee.

Charlotte and I also started doing movie nights for the last few weeks of Summer! I really don’t end up watching movies or shows on my own, so it’s always nice when I’m spending time with someone who wants to. In order, we watched The Birdcage, with Nathan Lane and Robin Williams; Kiki’s Delivery Service (I haven’t watched many Ghibli movies but I’ve been dying to see more so this was fun); Howl’s Moving Castle, which I watched last fall with Ella in Massachusetts; and I Saw the TV Glow… so good. I think other than those I didn’t watch much this Summer?

I saw The Odyssey; I woke up one day randomly and was like, “oh I’ll go watch The Odyssey today”, so I got the last seat in the entire theatre by my house. I went back again with my family two weeks later. I saw Spider-Man: Brand New Day with Lenny, which was super fun. We also went to see Supergirl. I had a fun time watching it but I was so confused why Jason Momoa kept showing up as Lobo. I didn’t hate the movie but Jason’s inclusion definitely made it a lot worse. I did enjoy my time in the theatre enough that it made me go out to buy the Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow comic. It completely blew me away. It honestly is probably my favorite comic of all time. I lent it out to Lauren

I did some reading this Summer too. I read some Boal and Brecht, of course. Dramatic Theory with Kristin Idaszak made me want to read more theory. I really enjoyed Brecht’s Galileo. At Nitro-a-go-go I bought a book on Surrealism from Owen. Old art books are always fun to read. The way they used to print the images separately and paste them on blank pages makes it more interactive, in a way. It’s a very tactile experience. I’m currently reading The Rings of Saturn by W. G. Sebald, which I think I’ve talked about before. I also bought a book about the Moscow Art Theatre. It was written in 1925 and it talks a lot about their management and the organization, which, as a theatre management major, I love hearing about.

I’ve listened to a lot of music this Summer… of course. This isn’t in any particular order, but these are a few albums I’ve really been on this Summer.

Graceful – Touch Girl Apple Blossom
Talulah’s Tape – Good Flying Birds
Historian – Lucy Dacus
am i a rock? – Kitship
Mass Teen Fainting – Plumtree
Getz/Gilberto – Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto (there’s no bandcamp but there’s a wikipedia…)
Holding – Adelaide
Sports – Modern Baseball
PORTRAiTS – Parking
Stranger in the Alps – Phoebe Bridgers

uhhhh… I’m trying to think what else to talk about.

I got to see Phoebe Bridgers with my sister and mom, and then with Amy, Ella, and Summer. That was amazing. It was a phone free show, so I don’t have pictures of course. But we were so close it was insane. I can’t believe it was a six year wait from the last album.

I was at Lollapalooza. That was super cool.

Oh and Amy and I saw Lucy Dacus at the Pritzger Pavilion with the Chicago Philharmonic.

I got really into bringing around a deck of cards and playing cards at bars with friends. We went to Rose’s Lounge a bunch after shows to hang out and play. In August we started spending a night a week at the Bourgeois Pig and playing board games. It was almost always Eli, Summer, and I. Madison came once and Rosie came once.

I’m writing this at Sofi’s right now. We’re having a movie night and I just saw Coraline for the first time. Amazing. Now we’re just sitting around reminiscing about things and such. It’s Sofi, Parker, Madison, Dylan, Cecil, Kyle, Erick, and I. I love being with my friends. We’re going to Apple Fest next weekend I think. I’m so excited. I think I’ve fully switched into DePaul mode now. It took a second, I think we’re coming up on week four of class, but Summer being here kept me in Deerfield friend mode. She just flew back to Seattle today.

Our final show was the Kitship, Horsegirl, Cate Le Bon show at Bohemian National Cemetery. It was such a perfect ending to the Summer. I just got a new camera: The Sony A7IV. Testing it out was a blast. So many people were there. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it was such a massive show. The stage was like a full on festival stage, I didn’t realize until I ended up walking over to the line how huge it was. I met up with Gavin and friends. Summer didn’t arrive till the end of the Kitship Set. I’ll talk more about the show when I post the photos, but it was very full circle for me. One of the very first shows I ever went to in Chicago was a Horsegirl show at Color Club. Ending off what I think was the best Summer ever, after meeting and making friends with so many people and finding more community in Chicago, with the same band that really started it all off for me, felt really beautiful. I went to that first Horsegirl show on a whim with a friend. I’d never heard of them before. I’m so happy I did.