Different Slants

Seeing the World from a New Angle

Fear and Drawing on the South Side of Chicago…by Robert M. Katzman

Filed under: Black/White relationships,Gritty Katzman Chicago Stories,Hyde Park (Chicago),My Own Personal Hell — Bob at 9:19 am on Sunday, April 28, 2013
Robert M. Katzman’s Amazing Story: www.differentslants.com/?p=355
© April 30, 2013 (my birthday)
Sunday morning reflection, age 63, while filled with cold medication:
My mother, then Anne Warman (1921-2001), went to Hyde Park High School, class of  ’39 when it was a decidedly Jewish place whatever the %. When I began in Lab School after fleeing the South Side in the middle of the night, where I lived with her from 1950 to 1964, I eventually joined the Midway school newspaper in 1966.
One of my responsibilities, after teacher Wayne Brasler discovered I could draw, was to make editorial cartoons. I had no particular title. I did whatever I was told to do and went where he sent me. (Read on …)

Speaking Well of Chicago Machine Politician Marshall Korshak……by Robert M. Katzman

Filed under: Friendship & Compassion,Gritty Katzman Chicago Stories,Hyde Park (Chicago),Jewish Themes,Life & Death,Philosophy,Politics,Retail Purgatory — Bob at 8:37 am on Saturday, April 20, 2013

Robert M. Katzman’s Amazing Story:  http://www.differentslants.com/?p=355

© April 18, 2013

I used to write on another blog about Hyde Park, a southern part of Chicago six or so miles from the Downtown area, a diverse intellectual community containing many things but most famously the University of Chicago, its experimental K through 12 school, the Laboratory School and the Museum of Science and Technology.

Sometimes I responded to what another person wrote and sometimes that response was reprinted here, because it expressed reflections that might mean something to a larger group of whomever my readers are. How can I know you? Facebook is, illogically, faceless. So, Strangers, see if what I wrote matters to you, possibly in some other context.

There was a significant political person named Marshall Korshak, forgotten today, who was a Chicago Democratic Party powerbroker there in the ’50’s,’60’s and ’70’s. Not everyone loved him. I responded to that expressed feeling in his defense. Marshall, born in 1911, died at 85, in 1996. This is what I wrote about him:

I was reading this thread until I read the part about Marshall Korshak and some not so complimentary remarks about him. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Me, too. But my relationship with him couldn’t have been more unbalanced.

(Read on …)

Silent Store, Surreal Reflections…by Robert M. Katzman

Filed under: Gritty Katzman Chicago Stories,My Own Personal Hell,Philosophy,Rage!,Retail Purgatory — Bob at 11:55 am on Friday, April 12, 2013
***
Robert M. Katzman’s Amazing Story: www.differentslants.com/?p=355
©  April 12, 2013
***
Chilly April
Friday morning
Surreal Chicago thoughts
***
I am sitting in my
Silent store
Overflowing with
Wrinkled history
Printed on
Gently yellowing newsprint
Dusty floor
to
Dusty ceiling
***
Very aware
that the
Current generation
is quite happy
With
“virtual”
and
Has no interest in
or
desire to own
“actual”
***
Twenty-something couples
Wander in here
Usually mystified
Sometimes I use the analogy:
***
“So, would either of you prefer a virtual kiss
instead of the real thing?”
***
And they smile
At each other
But they don’t comprehend.

Roger Ebert: Film Critic & Mensch, A Eulogy…by Robert M. Katzman 4/4/13

Filed under: Friendship & Compassion,Gritty Katzman Chicago Stories,Hyde Park (Chicago),Life & Death,Roger Ebert Eulogy — Bob at 8:42 pm on Thursday, April 4, 2013
 
© April 4, 2013
 
Roger Ebert died of cancer today. I knew him.
 
In the late 1960’s, when I owned Bob’s Newsstand in Hyde Park, I sold the Chicago Sun-Times every day, and always read his column. I was a teenager. I loved the movies and would eventually see about 200 a year, both foreign and domestic. When the University of Chicago Downtown Extension offered Film Criticism classes taught by Roger, I signed up for it twice, in 1970. I was 20, he was 27. 
 
I signed up for his class twice, because my newsstand burned down before the first class was over, and I had to rebuild it. Now there’s a note excusing me from class that a teacher would seldom receive. 

(Read on …)