Ashlie Stevens

i found a 70 year old workout album at the secondhand store and lmao

‎THIS IS CHICAGO: S1 | E25 : FAMILY on Apple Podcasts ‎Show THIS IS CHICAGO, Ep S1 | E25 : FAMILY - Oct 8, 2023

🥂 THIS IS CHICAGO is celebrating 25 episodes today with a special double-length story 🥂

What happens when a self-described member of Black religious royalty has his "Disney moment," but standing amid the imagined birds and butterflies is, unexpectedly, another young man? I'd love if you listened:

Exactly!

Anyone have a pre-teen or teen in their life who is big into "The Nightmare Before Christmas" merch — clothing, posters, collectibles, etc. — and would be willing to chat with a friendly journalist (me) about it?

It's for a story tied to the film's 30th anniversary.

‎THIS IS CHICAGO: S1 | E20 : MIRACLE on Apple Podcasts ‎Show THIS IS CHICAGO, Ep S1 | E20 : MIRACLE - Aug 13, 2023

The 20th (!) episode of THIS IS CHICAGO asks an important question: "Is God a Cubs fan?" A rabbi weighs in.

As police pull yet another body out of John Wayne Gacy's crawlspace and add yet another charge against him, people are beginning to ask: when is enough enough? Isn't this piling on?

Ratatouille niçoise

Bohémienne

This was such a fun one because the origins of ratatouille were so not what I expected at all! Read the post and find out! Then make my ratatouille or a variation on the dish, the bohémienne!

https://jamieschler.substack.com/p/ratatouille

Please share & subscribe!

Stop underestimating the culinary potential of cottage cheese If you can learn to love the lumps, you open up a new world of tangy, creamy pastas, cakes and salad dressings

From Alison Roman's cottage cheese cake with summer apricots to Alton Brown's chunky blue cheese dressing, chefs are dispelling the notion that cottage cheese is nothing but an old-school, if virtuous, diet food. Here's my little love letter to it:

Girl Dinner: On the Immediacy of Desire - MOLD :: Designing the Future of Food If you have been anywhere near social media the last few weeks, you might have come across a new term: “Girl Dinner”. A Girl Dinner often contains a smorgasbord of […]

The whole concept of 'girl dinner' is mystifying to me but this was an interesting look at its undercurrents.

I wrote about how fans are now content producers and artists are fans of art because all of us are just workers in a world where billionaires have taken art and culture hostage. https://slate.com/culture/2023/08/writers-actors-strike-sag-aftra-wga-hollywood-fans-scabbing-solidarity.html

A watercolor of a rabbit holding a spear and riding atop a giant snail with a saddle and reins

when i say i'm omw, this is what i mean

"This series of short audio portraits from Chicago draws from the long lineage of oral history recording in the city, perhaps inspired by the likes of Studs Terkel and the assumption that everyone has a story if you just ask."

So delighted by our show's inclusion on XMTR this week.

Do you have disability accommodations at work? If you also live in the Chicago area, you may qualify to share your experiences for a research study! Participation would involve a 1-3 hour interview (remote or in-person), with the possibility of follow-up. You must be 18 or older to take part. Eligible participants will be compensated! For more information: call 331-725-2920, email DisabilityStudy2023@gmail.com Approved by the University of Chicago Institutional Review Board, IRB21-0416.

As part of my research, I'm looking to talk with disabled workers with accommodations in the Chicago area--as well as folks with informal or no accommodations. If that's you or someone you know, please hit me up. Interviews will be compensated.

FWIW, I come at this as a disabled sociologist.

thank you!

Day to Night Barbie doll in her pink business suit sitting at her office playset desk doing fake work on a weird tiny 1985 computer. She has a hat. A business hat?

I threw together a little ode to the Barbie the Barbie movie reunited me with (and I know I need to move off Substack, I just need time to decipher which of the many services my infrequent free newsletter should be on). https://erinkeane.substack.com/p/on-day-to-night-barbie?utm_medium=email

@ashliedstevens.bsky.social wrote a lovely thing about Pee-wee (in which she also asked me things about clowns).

Thank you so much for your insight! (And I'm so glad we found each other over on this app, too!)

"Larger than life, but still true": Where Pee-wee Herman fits in the history of American clowns "The best clowns have emotions like a kitten has intestines — it all goes straight through them"

"Pee-wee was so much more real. So consistent but still unpredictable. The best clowns have emotions like a kitten has intestines — it all goes straight through them."

Bang out that novel and try not to die. Live fucking más

Why do I feel like this every time I pitch a story?

Promote yourself relentlessly and disgustingly.

Brenden Gleeson's character from the Banshees of Inishirin inside of the Barbie sparkle logo. The text reads, "This Ken just don't like you no more."

had to get this out of my brain before i could write the last 1000 words to make my word count goal

How "The Bear" paid homage to John Hughes and the dark heart of the Chicago suburbs Both Hughes and "The Bear" creator Christopher Storer speak to the loneliness and dysfunction hidden in plain sight

Wrote about FX's "The Bear," John Hughes' films and the way both explore how loneliness and dysfunction can hide and thrive in the suburbs.

Tim Robinson saying “I’ll kill you.”

People in cars when a pedestrian has the right of way

For journalism: If you're doing a "Barbenheimer" double-header, what's your snack plan?

A top-down photograph of a bed. There is a gray quilt, topped with a fleecy white blanket. Tucked around those is a half-drunk Dunkin' iced coffee the size of my head, my "write down all the things before I forget them" journal and a copy of the NYT and Chicago Reader (obscured a bit by said blanket).

Alright, finally getting settled in over here.