Video time! Sunday, March 21, 2010

1) I remember a day, back in the twilight months of the 1980's, when I was serving detention in the Portage Central High library. Out of boredom I was thumbing through two big picture books. One was a Rolling Stone survey of the run of the magazine, and the other was a history of Europe. I found two pictures that day. One was a grainy, 75-year-old image of a man in a stiff paper suit, his hands outfitted in lobster claws and held in front of his torso like salad tongs. The other was of a black man in a ballerina outfit and a cape, screaming into a microphone. These are the sort of things kids in detention discover early, and it sets them on the course their lives will take from then on.

Is Lady Gaga providing the same service for teenage girls? It depends on what you mean by detention. At the very least, she's introducing girls to the joys of subtle science fiction references.

2) My friend Jason Wade was featured doing what he does best on The Chicagoist last week. If you need really excellent furniture, look him up.