“SHE WAS WORTH A STARE…SHE WAS TROUBLE.”
"The Big Sleep" - 1946
“When
you feel like tellin a feller to go to the Devil – tell him to go to Chicago!”
– Mark Twain.
For better or for worse, of the handful of US cities instantly recognised by nearly anyone living outside the US, "Chi-Town," "The Windy City" - Chicago has got to be top of the list.
For better or for worse, of the handful of US cities instantly recognised by nearly anyone living outside the US, "Chi-Town," "The Windy City" - Chicago has got to be top of the list.
Make
no mistake, I’m proud to be New Orleans-born-LA-raised, never at a loss for
regional inspiration and fiercely devoted to the west coast, but I must admit Chicago
has always held an inexplicable fascination.
The images that come to mind when most of us think Chicago are vast – from The Sears Tower that once held the
distinction as the world’s tallest building, to the “L” above-ground metro that
paints the city’s skyline, to the home of deep-dish pizza in Little Italy and baseball
at Wrigley Field, to Al Capone and 30’s gangsters, to gangster rap at
Lollapalooza.
"Night Train" Photograph by Ralph Braseth
Having
worked in and around the genre of ‘noir’ for many years, I am well familiar
with the impact this eclectic city has had on the arts, most particularly that
of film noir.
"North by Northwest" - Alfred Hitchcock - 1959
Director
Alfred Hitchcock shared my affinity for this midwest city, choosing Chicago’s
LaSalle Street Station and the Ambassador East Hotel for key scenes in his 1959
noir classic, “North by Northwest;” and lest you think that film was not a ‘noir,’
have another look, this time below the surface.
The film is as noir as the opening scenes in Lynch’s “Blue Velvet.”
"Blue Velvet" - David Lynch - 1986
Throughout
the years, Chicago has provided the backdrop to a myriad of noir detective novels and Silver Screen ‘who done its.’
Chicago-born Raymond Thornton Chandler, perhaps more than any other writer,
epitomised the best of classic noir when his pulp fiction novel, “The Big Sleep,”
first chronicled the adventures of wisecracking (but morally conscious) private
detective Philip Marlowe prowling the seamier side of 30’s and ‘40’s Los
Angeles. The book was later adapted to
screen by William Faulkner and starred Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. What I wouldn't give to have lived in
an era where Faulkner is your screenwriter or Salvador Dali your set decorator!
The
1946 noir, “The Blue Dahlia,” was also written by Chandler. This film inspired my painting of the same
name.
From amongst the list of other famous authors hailing from Chicago, perhaps the most recognised, if not most controversial has to be Ernest Hemmingway. Man’s man or misogynist - the first time I heard the name “Hemmingway” I was pouring syrup over my flannel cakes having breakfast with my parents at Hollywood’s Musso & Frank’s. The restaurant’s ‘back room’ played host to a succession of pre and post Great Depression era writers that also included Faulkner, Wolfe and Scott Fitzgerald.
Ernest Hemmingway with Hemmingway cat
Chandler
purportedly penned parts of “The Big Sleep” in this very same back room. Although I was unable to verify his menu choices,
like his fictional Philip Marlowe, Chandler had a healthy appetite for Scotch. “I start with a drink of white wine and end up
drinking two bottles of Scotch a day.”
"Musso & Frank Grill" - Hollywood, CA
In addition to literature and film greats, Chicago is home to many preeminent photographers. Having spent much of my childhood watching my commercial photographer father turn tubs of things like acetic acid and ammonium thiosulfate into alchemy, I am quite candid about my abysmal photographic skills, which have ironically helped perpetuate a lifelong attraction to this art form, and by that I mean “art” form … as opposed to the iPhone selfies on your Instagram, 'SpaceFace' or Ello…
Fahey/Klein
Gallery in West Hollywood routinely exhibits a comprehensive collection of world-renowned
photography, including the work of Chicago’s own Edward Weston. Born in 1886, Weston spent his
youth shuffling between Chicago and Los Angeles as primarily a portrait
photographer, who in his 30’s after a visit to an industrial steel plant in
Ohio, shed portraiture for a sharper more realistic style. However, it was his later forays to Mexico
City and liaison with beautiful Italian photographer and notorious Communist, Tina Modotti, that led
him to create the sensual iconic images he is most associated with today.
Tina Modotti by Edward Weston - 1921
Judy Chicago "The Dinner Party" - 1979
“I'm not into kvetching. I'm into changing the world.” - Judy Chicago
The art of dance is well-represented in Chicago, as the home
city of another controversial figure, the late choreographer Bob Fosse.
...It is also the home of fellow Noir aficionado and novelist,
Kyle Marffin’s “NoirArtica” http://kylemarffin.com/
The Art Institute of Chicago has the largest collection of
Impressionist paintings in any city in the world with the exception of Paris,
and also houses this noir favourite:
"Nighthawks" - Edward Hopper - 1942
In addition to the visual arts, Chicago has covered the map
in terms of its legendary musical history.
From jazz icons like Miles Davis...
To the Chicago Soul of Curtis Mayfield...
To Chicago's infamous “Warehouse” and the invention of “House Music”...
To one of my Alt favourites Urge Overkill...
Urge Overkill - Photo by Steve Gullick (of course)
To these Chicago adolescents spinning on my iPod earlier this year...
Hmm...Looks like Mario Cuomo’s got sort of a Pee Wee Herman meets the Hamburgler thing going on here, complete with the Jim Morrison/Ian Curtis expressions and that Pelle Almqvist trance stumble!
Chi-town, Windy City, fascinating, freezing, fantastic, formidable, inexplicable Chicago…Thank you for the inspiration!
But just one last thing Chicago…WHAT'S WITH THE STRIPES?
(With
apologies to Siskel & Ebert, Wilco, Barack Obama, Oprah, Kanye West,
Michael Jordan, Bill Murray, John Cusack, Joan Cusack, Jerry Springer, Jesse
Jackson, David Schwimmer, Hugh Hefner, Jeremy Piven, John Hughes, Scott Turrow,
Mike Ditka, Scottie Pippen, Rick Bayless and Felix Da Housecat.)
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