That was my hood. I moved a block north of Belmont/Clark in 1995 - 2007. The kids were usually pretty cool. I had an office where Medusa's was on Sheffield and School. Funny how so many people talked about coming there when they were younger. I knew some interesting people from the L&L right across the street. The original owners Lefty and Loretta were good people serving mainly a daytime crowd living on pension checks. Nights were for Theater types from Hell Cab, BlueMan and couple others now defunct.
They mentioned Lawrence Arms, Smoking Popes and Alkaline Trio. They were different than the Dunkin kids, or maybe grew out of it somewhat by 18. I drank with those guys often when they still had fake ID's. I didn't know who they were for some time after they made it. Decent guys. That parking lot was never dull, even after they started booting cars out of the parking lot. That booting curtailed a lot of young kid activity (or coincided maybe) but the fun people watching continued. Saw a girl agree to a blowjob in return for getting the boot removed. Transaction occurred, boot removed. Girl and friend came back to wash the taste out. Good times. Not mentioned was a Guitar Center that was on Clark just North of The Alley. It too brought in a lively bunch of people. Emilio's hair shop used to service a lot of the crazy hair group. At the L&L, there would still be dust ups between skin head groups as late as 2010 iirc.

Isn't the L&L where the Revolting Cocks claim to have gotten their name?

My wife binge-watched Cheer over the weekend. I was doing some work and not really paying attention at first but I couldn't help but hear it and I got caught up in it. I now know more about cheerleading than I ever wanted to.

It's both an activity and a sport. Most people only see them at football games but they have a sport and championship of their own. Yeah, you can laugh and sneer that it isn't a sport. I did. Then I saw these bastards and what they do.

The show follows a junior college cheer team from Texas. They are to JUCO cheer what UCLA was to hoops in the 60s-early 70s. Their coach is this MILFy broad named Monica. One of the storylines is this kid from Chicago named Jerry. He's a chunky black gay dude. Did I mention most of the guys are black and I think all of them are gay? The girls are all small and white.

Anyway, Jerry's mom moved him from the city to Naperville. Probably because he was taking heat for being sweet and because the hood was dangerous. Jerry started cheering at Waubonsie Valley. Then his mom died. He moved in with the family of a girl on the cheer team. He tried to get a scholarship to Louisville but was denied. Apparently, Louisville is the King Kong of college cheer. So Jerry went to Navarro JC in Corsicana, Texas, home of Collins Street Bakery, the largest fruitcake baker in the country.

The positions in cheer are base and stunter (bottom of the pyramid), flyer (little girls that get thrown), and tumblers. There is also a hybrid called a "stumbler" who is a dude that can tumble and work the pyramid base.

Jerry is a base. But only 20 people get to go "on the mat" to compete and Jerry isn't versatile because he doesn't tumble so he was a backup. Jerry's roommate was Ladarius who was the most talented guy on the team. But Ladarius sometimes acts like a patriot. Jerry is jovial. Monica had to discipline Ladarius for being an insubordinate jerk so she gave his spot to Jerry. Everyone knew that was only temporary except Jerry. Ladarius had to go back in for the championship. But then another base, Will Hernandez got hurt, so Jerry got his spot.

There was more drama when Sherbs, the top flyer was dropped by the stunters and sprained her forearm. She had to be replaced by Morgan who had been abandoned by her father in a trailer in Wyoming when he married his second wife. Morgan's grandparents took her in and she made her way to Corsicana.

Everything builds toward the National Championship in Daytona. I won't spoil it by telling you if they win. It's a good watch.

I am not a legal expert, how many times do I have to say it?

is or was Phyllis' a corner bar? I thought it was in the middle of the block. Maybe I'm thinking of an old man bar on Armitage.

The strangest band I ever played in was the Devil Bell Hippies. It wasn’t really a band, per se, but rather just a vehicle for the mad genius of Martin Billheimer. Martin is one of the smartest motherfuckers I’ve ever met. And delightfully odd to boot.

The Hippies started out as a goof when somehow Martin was able to reserve a block of time on a local public access cable station. I think he pitched it as a show featuring his band. I’m sure the powers that be just thought these were a group of nice young lads from Lincoln Park High. To see Martin you would never guess just how bizarre he really is.

In any case, the tape they submitted featured a mini-“concert” with the Hippies spitting out all manner of dissonance while Martin attempted to conjure up the devil and mumbled some shit about the Necronomicon. It ended with a full on black mass which included the recitation of The Infernal Names. The band members were all wearing black hoods. One of the guys had on a fabulous pair of brown corduroy bell bottoms and he made sure to point them out for the camera.

I played guitar for them a couple of times during live sets. There wasn’t much song structure. I simply tried to coax as many weird sounds as I could from the amplifier. I remember that during one of the shows Martin pulled a set list from the pocket of his jacket. It appeared to be a 3” x 5” card at first but when it unfolded onto the stage it was about twenty feet long. Red Stripe beer and Balaam. Fuckin’ punk rock, man! Delamer Duverus swallowed the soul of Edward Aloysius Roberts.

Anyway, these go out to everybody who loves Satan and flared pants as much as Mr. Billheimer and I do.

https://soundcloud.com/chipchilupa/disco-satan

https://soundcloud.com/thedelrios/weari ... es-for-the

https://soundcloud.com/thedelrios/delam ... dean-titan