Featured

Nov 25, 2024

Don Hall

Nov 25, 2024

Don Hall

...that intense and deep aren’t the same thing even if you’ve convinced yourself they are. Intense is momentary and fleeting; deep is the result of time and energy.

Nov 25, 2024

Don Hall

Featured

Dec 16

Dec 16, 2024

BUGHOUSE!

Dec 16, 2024

It’s BACK! Chicago’s most entertaining debate show—Six debaters, three topics, the art of the dialectic!

Five bucks at the door (Cash or Venmo)

Haymarket Pub & Brewery, 737 W. Randolph (the corner of Randolph & Halsted)

Dec 16, 2024

ARCHIVE OF ARTICLES

Don Hall 5/31/21 Don Hall 5/31/21

I Believe... [Time>Money]

...that volunteering your time and energy is more helpful than your money or your social media approval.

Don Hall 5/30/21 Don Hall 5/30/21

Cancellation is Now an Equal Opportunity Equation

When Disney gets hit with people completely apoplectic about one of their Star Wars actors comparing her existence with Holocaust survivors? "Thanks for your concerns. While a completely stupid thing to tweet as Holocaust survivors rarely got million-dollar contracts to play a space ranger, we think we'll just yell at her some for being a public dipshit and leave it at that."

Don Hall 5/27/21 Don Hall 5/27/21

I Like to Watch | Promising Young Woman (2020)

Travis Bickle was a young man traumatized by war and the abandonment he felt as society realized he was fucked up by a system designed to fuck him up. Cassie Thomas is a young woman traumatized by a system in place designed to fuck her and discard her like a piece of trash.

Don Hall 5/25/21 Don Hall 5/25/21

Coping with Stress and Anxiety is a Life Skill Worth Learning

In 2021, the dangers are far less likely because dinosaurs only exist in movies and we are the über-predators on the planet. Our biggest danger is ourselves and our over-active imaginations.

Don Hall 5/24/21 Don Hall 5/24/21

I Believe... [The Venn Diagram is Just a Circle]

I believe... that, ironically, the Venn diagram between calling for the destruction of the world's only Jewish state and calling other citizens "Nazis" is simply a solid circle.

Don Hall 5/20/21 Don Hall 5/20/21

Refusing to See the Grey is the Achilles Heel of Modern Americans

So what prevents us from recognizing that the cat is gradually becoming a dog? Anti-intellectualism that goes back to pre-Enlightenment times. The battle between religiosity and scientific inquiry has been raging since the atheists and agnostics determined that living in a closed off, black and white binary is the road to authoritarianism. Allow the 'truth' to be dictated by a few and those few will gain and wield enormous power.

Don Hall 5/17/21 Don Hall 5/17/21

I Believe... [Children Listen]

I believe... that if you treat people like children, they learn to behave like children.

Don Hall 5/13/21 Don Hall 5/13/21

Mooning the Crowd and Waving Your Balls was Funny—Until It Wasn't

Have you seen a dick? They're hysterical! Like a flabby mushroom connected to a flesh bag. Or a skinny turtle out of his shell. A turkey neck without feathers. Who designed this, an idiot? The vagina is far more practical.

Don Hall 5/11/21 Don Hall 5/11/21

The Basecamp Dilemma Facing the Desire for Self-Expression

The 80's has been labeled the "Me" decade. Pursuit of selfish interest became the mantra of the day. Today is the "Look at Me" decade, when establishing a personal brand is tantamount. The concept of subsuming your brand identity (and your identifiers in sum) is off the menu. Corporations aren't loyal to the labor, why should the labor be loyal to them?

Don Hall 5/10/21 Don Hall 5/10/21

I Believe... [Defining Hate]

I believe... that speech you hate is not “hate speech.”

Don Hall 5/4/21 Don Hall 5/4/21

I Like to Watch | The Walking Dead

At the (long) tail-end of the pandemic, the rest of the 10th season of The Walking Dead resumed airing and I found myself undeniably un-inspired. I didn't really care much for The Whisperers and after they bumped Rick Grimes off and then carted him away on a helicopter, the show sort of fizzled. I couldn't figure out what was missing (besides Rick) so I decided to go back to the beginning and watch the whole thing again.

Don Hall 5/3/21 Don Hall 5/3/21

I Believe... [Parsing Out Sensitivity]

I believe... that we should all be more sensitive but not be more sensitive. The former is about simple politeness, the latter is about myopic self-centeredness.

Don Hall 5/2/21 Don Hall 5/2/21

A Cruel Summer in Need of Some Hugs...Or Something

We need some de-escalation techniques of our own.

Don Hall 4/29/21 Don Hall 4/29/21

When You Misuse a Tool, the Tool is You

Out of rage or fear or petulance, we misuse a lot of handy tools at our disposal.

Don Hall 4/27/21 Don Hall 4/27/21

Recognizing the Smell of Cat Piss When You Live in a Zoo

The biggest issue with cats is that they are feral creatures who shit and piss in a box inside your home. One cat and the smell is noticeable but still manageable. Three cats? Not so manageable. Five cats? You stop smelling the horror and get used to it.

Don Hall 4/26/21 Don Hall 4/26/21

I Believe… [Irrelevant Academy]

...that while my interest in the Oscars has dwindled over the years I can’t recall ever having so much indifference to them than I do the year of lecture-y depression and social justice movies.

Don Hall 4/22/21 Don Hall 4/22/21

Mascots for Systemic Sin

We aren't looking at individuals and their behavior todays as much as we are why the system's in place allow (or at least refuse to stem) the behavior of the worst among us. Each individual anecdote about someone's lived experience becomes a puzzle piece to reduce whole institutions and practices as evil. As it is the opposite of scapegoating, I'll call it mascoting.

Don Hall 4/19/21 Don Hall 4/19/21

I Believe... [COPS]

...that a policeman who can’t tell the difference between a taser and a pistol should not have a pistol ever.

Don Hall 4/15/21 Don Hall 4/15/21

A Quarter Flipped for Your Rational Thoughts

The old man was faced with a dilemma. He needed to decide between two options and he was torn. He understood that most decisions in his life often boiled down to two choices: do the thing or not. Sometimes it was a choice of doing one thing or another. A crossroads. This was not that.

Don Hall 4/12/21 Don Hall 4/12/21

I Believe... [Valid Feelings/Invalid Response]

...that your feelings are always valid but your reaction may not be an appropriate response. Your anger is valid; your follow-up tantrum combined with destroying property is not. Your desire for attention is valid; your follow-up shit-tweeting to get it is not.