Let's start this post off by establishing that gladiator-inspired sandals, or gladiandals if you will, are EXTREMELY difficult to pull off. Few people wear them with confidence and even fewer get the look right.

You can’t write this s#*$. Let’s try anyway. Girl meets boy. Boy seems awesome. Girl Likes boy. Things going well… until. Boy tells girl he is seeing another girl, too. Girl is semi-crushed, but picks herself up and agrees to taking things easy. Dum diddly dee Girl is totally cool UNTIL. Girl runs into Boy with Other Girl and, while face is maintained in the moment, Girl gives in to darkest urges and Googles Other Girl to find…..

… Out that she’s a model. Nude. Lingerie. Did I say nude? Yes, nude. Crud.

So, I have a very simple job here at the Windy Citizen. Do crazy stuff, do it with crazy people and don't miss the damn zombie march.

I missed the damn zombie march. It was over the weekend.

But the way I even found out about it is my segue into this week's topic – astrophysics and cosmology.

Bucktown is once again a battlefield in the struggle between gentrification and prostitution. A stylish, family-oriented community by day and deserted, commercial-sex destination by night, its residential streets continue to lead double lives.

Despite an aggressive and controversial initiative against the sex trade in 2002, the prostitutes are back and community frustration is mounting.

“They [the prostitutes] should not be over here making this community their bedroom,” resident Sandy Johnson said.

When Nick Pupillo stands in the middle of the dance floor, he doesn’t just stand there, he grows.

His quiet strength radiates against the roughness of the room, with its exposed brick walls, industrial pipes overhead and a metal door that opens onto a loading dock.

His bare feet are rooted in the black vinyl floor. His sweat pants are rolled up, squeezing the flesh just above his knee. A man with short brown hair, athletic build, crooked smile, and big, friendly eyes, he looks up. He lifts one arm to the sky, letting the other dangle toward the earth.

Jeremy Gantz, web editor of In These Times and a freelance writer,  can’t quite seem to sit still. A 2008 graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, he has lived in Massachusetts, Minnesota, Sri Lanka, Cambodia and Washington D.C.

The snacks served were Chex Mix, gummy bears, PBR and cupcakes decorated with razor blades and brass knuckles of frosting.

"It's because I'm so tough," joked the organizer, whose neck was also decorated with a razor blade - tattoo, not frosting.