The sound of the roaring nineties of the Milwaukee-Damen-North intersection has incrementally dulled to the peppiest, poppiest shopping Muzak. (The Crotch has been lopped.) Any denizen, current or former, of the area since the 1990s has personal touchstones of how grime turned perfume and slack became slick. But the epic gesture in 2019 didn’t even come from the buildout of the former 473-person-capacity Double Door space to house a Texas premium cooler and camping and coozie brand that will showcase lifestyle-lifting live performances and other events to elevate their brand beyond an Urban Outfitters for those at middle age holding onto a pocket full of surplus value. No, it’s not all those shows there, like the Rolling Stones secret show, which in the twenty-two years since has grown in claims to an attendance of thousands and counting. No, it’s the fact that city zoning bureaucracy forced the dismantling of the stories-tall 1950s-era Double Door Liquors neon, finally dimmed as “non-conforming” signage and removed before the imperative of occupancy by the new lifestyle product could happen. The sign was successfully stored, but the nighthawk emblem no longer signs and singes the night. (Ray Pride)
Hoosier Savior?: A Pilgrimage to a Sort-of Christian Theme Park in Indiana The Shrine of Christ’s Passion is a multimedia, interactive, half-mile-long prayer trail and sculpture garden. It depicts the route Jesus Christ took to Mount Calvary, just outside the walls of Jerusalem, before He was crucified. The attraction is located in St. John, Indiana.
