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Anyone who says teens are lazy hasn't met the young women of Girlspeak. Each staff member of the literary Web 'zine, produced every summer at Young Chicago Authors in Wicker Park, has something to say to girls all over the world and has spent her summer getting ideas down on paper.

“I’m trying to see some people I know … this is more awkward than I’d thought,” said Brilliant Pebbles lead singer Monika Bukowska as she threaded her way through the crowd of hipsters at the Wicker Park Fest on a bright Sunday in late July. Ostensibly, she and keyboardist Samuel Ng were out promoting the show they would play a few hours later at Double Door.

Like a good wine paired with the right food, the mix of music and visual art can enhance each other’s top notes, offering an enriched aesthetic experience. Chicago art galleries and contemporary chamber ensembles have discovered that performances in galleries can be a most winning recipe.

For the dozens of Chicago chamber groups, performing in a nontraditional venue – such as one of the city’s nearly 200 art galleries – is an attractive option. Booking shows in traditional venues such as university concert halls and churches can expensive, with costs that include rent and paying for sound engineers or security guards.

“It’s incredible how much security guards are making these days,” said Robert Katkov-Trevino, artistic director of Millennium Chamber Players, who had to pay for a security guard at a performance a few years ago at Hinsdale United Methodist Church. “It’s 80 bucks an hour, so if you do a three-hour concert, you’re paying 240 bucks just to have one person sit there for this non-rowdy, ‘Pierrot Lunaire’ program.”

Katkov-Trevino said that the Millennium Chamber Players, a group of 17 core musicians who performs works ranging from Bach to Berio, draw the same size audience no matter where they perform. Performing in a gallery, therefore, is an inexpensive and logical option.

“The alternative venues are often the ones that are willing to give us space for free,” he said. “Universities aren’t going to give you their big concert hall for free.”

Developing a relationship with a gallery or other fine arts space can lead to free rent. Some galleries offer a “sweetheart deal'' in the form of a discounted rental rate to ensembles they have relationships with. The gallery owners hope the performances will draw crowds to their spaces.

“We try to avoid (renting) as much as possible,” said Christopher Preissing, executive director of the Chicago Composers Forum. “That’s part of what we’re trying to do, to collaborate in every opportunity that we can.”

The Composers Forum presents performances of its members’ music, typically played by Chicago-area contemporary groups such as dal niente, International Contemporary Ensemble, Third Coast Percussion Quartet and Fifth House Ensemble.

Along with performances in spaces such as Bridgeport’s Zhou B Art Center and Ossia Fine Arts Space, located in the Fine Arts Building, the forum has a year-old series called New Music in the Gallery. The series includes chamber performances at galleries such as Rosenthaul Fine Art in Gold Coast and Packer Schopf Gallery in the West Loop.

Performances in a gallery can be cost-effective for both parties, said Preissing.

“We can often pool our resources with the gallery, especially if we can make it coincide with the opening or the closing of the show,” Preissing said. “Then they’re advertising and we’re advertising for the same basic evening.”

“Sometimes it’s easier to go after a smaller gallery or a gallery that’s not really well-established just because there’s probably more benefit that they see in it,” he said. “But we also like to get in a big gallery where there’s already a built-in audience.”

While Katkov-Trevino doesn’t believe performing in a gallery attracts new audiences, many musicians disagree.

“There’s a really big crowd out there that goes to see contemporary art,” said violinist Austin Wulliman, who performs with dal niente and with cellist Chris Wild as the duo Wild and Wulliman. “There are so many galleries and so many young artists in the city that would be really into what we’re doing – contemporary music-wise – if they just were exposed to it more.”

The benefits also work the other way. The performances draw new people and exposure to the galleries.

“I believe that people that would be interested in a certain kind of music might be open to a certain kind of visual art,” said Aron Packer, who runs Packer Schopf Gallery.

The galleries don’t necessarily performances to raise their sales figures.

Jennifer Norback, director of Rosenthaul Fine Art, said she would be surprised if someone attending a gallery concert wound up purchasing one of the art works on display – some of which sell for more than $400,000.

“I think that (a performance) adds to the art work and the art work adds to it,” she said, “but I would never do a show like this thinking that any kind of a sale would come out of it. It’s just a nice way to bring some life into the gallery and keep things kind of fresh and exciting.”

It’s logical to combine contemporary music with contemporary art, Katkov-Trevino said, because composers keep up with trends in the art world. His composer friends know a great deal about contemporary art, he said.

“Nowadays, a modern composer is going to be more informed about contemporary visual art. If someone had asked Beethoven about his favorite painter, he probably would have said, ‘What?’ And not because he was deaf.”

Performances often attempt to make a connection between the music being played and the art on display. Sometimes collaboration springs up between the musicians and the visual artists.

The relationship between Rosenthaul Fine Art and the Composers Forum began in 2007 when Preissing learned that Rosenthaul was showing a series of works by Ellsworth Snyder, an artist and composer who was close friends with composer John Cage. Norback then invited the Composers Forum to perform works by Cage and Snyder in conjunction with the show.

“Snyder wasn’t just a visual artist, he was also a performer and a composer,” Norback said. “It was a way to show these vital aspects of who he is as an artist.”

In spring 2007, the Composers Forum brought together Chicago composer Drew Baker and his brother, artist Brett Baker, for a collaborative piece performed by dal niente at Ossia Fine Arts Space.

“We rehearsed it, and it was good,” said clarinetist Alejandro Acierto, who performs with dal niente. “But when we got into the space, it made it a little bit easier to digest because we actually knew what he was talking about. [We knew] how he wanted the sound to be created in reflection of the pieces that were on the walls.”

Every gallery has distinctive acoustics that can affect how musicians use the space.

“We think a lot about venue, and we put the right music in the right venue,” said composer Kirsten Broberg, founder and director of dal niente. “We never plan a concert without knowing what the acoustics are like.”

When dal niente performed at the Renaissance Society, an arts space at the University of Chicago, Broberg said she was inspired to compose a piece specifically for the space, one of Chicago’s most resonant rooms.

“At the end of the piece, there are these big chords with a bunch of silence between each one,” she said, “because I knew that there would be this resonance that would last five or ten seconds after the chord ended.”

Every gallery offers a different visual ambiance as well.

When his duo performed in Heaven Gallery in Wicker Park, said Wulliman, the gallery’s raw, hip space lent itself to edgier, louder music than would be appropriate for the more refined space at Rosenthaul Fine Art.

John Gafeney was diagnosed with HIV when he was 17 years old and already living on his own.

He contracted the disease from his partner, who told Gafeney he was HIV-positive after they had been in a relationship for a while.

Now 18, Gafeney lives in Wicker Park and takes a proactive approach to gaining a better understanding of the disease so he can plan for the future and help educate others.

Move aside, Bonnie and Clyde. Modern-day desperados could put Chicago on pace for another record year of bank robberies.

Instead of career robbers, people from many walks of life are gravitating to robbery, ranging from drug addicts to employed middle-class individuals, according to Gregory Scott, professor of sociology at DePaul University.

"We're coming to the end of the really well-plotted, well-organized bank robbery that results from long-term strategic planning. Now we're talking about lower-level bank robberies," he said.

In addition, Scott said, the new breed of robbers is more diverse than the old guard.

According to the FBI, 9,010 people were involved in 7,272 bank robberies nationwide in 2006. Black males executed 46 percent of robberies nationwide, white males 36 percent, and women only 6 percent. Of these robbers, the FBI identified 3,584 people; 46 percent were narcotics users and 22 percent were previously convicted for bank robbery, bank burglary, or bank larceny.

Today's robbers are spontaneous and opportunistic, according to a 2007 study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Justice, which identified three factors contributing to rising robbery rates: more bank outlets and extended hours creating greater opportunities, robbers' perceptions of banks as a lucrative target and because robberies are usually fast, low risk crimes.

After decades of fewer than 100 robberies per year, robberies in the Chicago metropolitan area shot up in the mid-1990s. In 2006, the number of robberies peaked at 284, more than in the entire state of Florida.

The Chicago office of the FBI collects bank robbery data for the five-county area surrounding Chicago - Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake and Will counties. As of March 12, there were 52 bank robberies in the area, on par with numbers for the same 10-week period in 2007. The total robbery tally for 2007 came in at 226, down 26 percent from 2006.

By extrapolating the first several weeks of robbery activity for the remainder of 2008, "we could be on pace for another record year," said Ross Rice, a spokesman in the FBI's Chicago office.

Illinois is not the only state grappling with higher robbery rates. Nationwide, a new era of bank robbery is on the rise - and banks are paying the price.

In 2006, robbers hit 6,985 federally insured financial institutions, stealing a total of $72.7 million, of which law enforcement recovered $11.2 million. Although 90 percent of robberies are a "success," according to the Department of Justice study, nearly 60 percent of robbers are eventually caught.

And robbers face big risks for a typically small reward. For an average take of $2,000 to $3,000 per robbery in the Chicago area, robbers face federal punishment of up to 20 years in prison.

To the non-robber, these risks may be too much, but Scott said some robbers may not even be aware of the how little they'll nab or how long they'll sit in prison if convicted.

"When people reach a point of fiscal desperation, they're often not weighing the costs and benefits," Scott said.

In addition, security measures apparently do little to deter robbers. Of the 7,272 robberies or attempted robberies nationwide in 2006, 98 percent of victim institutions had an alarm system and/or surveillance cameras.

One man accused of robbing seven Indiana banks told a newspaper earlier this month that his only deterrent to robbing banks was security guards. However, fewer than 10 percent of banks robbed in 2006 had a guard on duty.

After two robberies at a North LaSalle Street branch of Builders Bank, president Chas Hall said the bank decided to hire a guard for that location. He said the bank took this additional security measure in part to deter would-be robbers, but mostly to provide peace of mind to the bank's employees.

"We don't want that to happen to our employees again," Hall said.

But if a recession is on the way, could employees like Hall's be subjected to the desperate measures of desperate robbers again? Not necessarily.

There is no direct correlation between crime and unemployment according to Scott, though economic crime rates may move with changes in the economy.

"When things change fast - unemployment suddenly spikes or it suddenly goes down - people are thrown into what sociologists call anomie," Scott said.

Anomie is marked by instability and a lack of societal norms and Scott said individuals are more likely to take greater risks during such periods.

In addition, robbery was on the rise even before the r-word was on everyone's lips. Rather, rising robbery rates may just be a by-product of changes in the banking industry.

Price said the FBI does not interpret robbery data, but said the most commonly touted hypothesis for rising robbery rates is the proliferation of branch banking.

"The theory is that this creates a greater opportunity for people who are so inclined," he said.

This theory sticks with Scott. As financial institutions have become more decentralized, he said, banks have become more accessible to consumers, but at the expense of becoming more accessible to robbers.

"This is a technological innovation that has legitimate pro-social goals, but . the underbelly of greater accessibility is greater vulnerability," Scott said. "Banks are far more susceptible to being robbed and they're easier to rob."

But even as banks continue to expand, they are fighting back, according to Debbie Jemison, spokeswoman for the Illinois Bankers Association.

"Banks are doing everything they can to protect their employees and customers," Jemison said.

She said several security measures thwart would-be robbers, including security guards, bank fraud task force programs, and participation in the association's thumbprint signature program and FRAUD-NET.

The thumbprint signature program requires non-account holders to provide an inkless impression of their thumbprints for certain transactions. Meanwhile, FRAUD-NET is an online collaboration for banks to share information about robberies with other financial institutions and law enforcement agencies.

Within minutes of a robbery, for example, a bank can electronically disperse a physical description and information about the robber's modus operandi to other banks in the network and law enforcement officials.

In addition, many Illinois banks are participating in a program to combat rising robbery rates, the "No Hats, No Hoods, No Sunglasses" program. The bankers association launched the program in 2006--security guards ask people entering the bank to remove hats, hoods or sunglasses-- as an inexpensive way for banks to deter so-called "note job" robberies, in which a person hands a note to a teller demanding money. In 2006, more than half of robbers demanded money using a note.

Beyond the take, there are other costs to robberies, according to Hall, the Builders Bank president.

"The biggest cost [of a robbery] is that is such a traumatic experience for our employees," Hall said.

Hall said the emotional cost far outweighs any financial cost and said banks should be very appreciative of their tellers.

Jemison of the Illinois Bankers Association agrees. "There is definitely a psychological cost," both for employees and customers, she said. If a bank is a robbed, it will often provide a program for affected employees and customers. And the effects of a robbery are felt even after the robber has fled.

Working with the FBI's Violent Crimes Task Force, victim banks provide valuable information to law enforcement to catch serial robbers - people who have committed at least three robberies.

And bankers are always looking for ways to keep robbers at bay, according to Jemison.

"Banks constantly review their procedures to better thwart robberies from occurring," she said.

But Scott, of DePaul, is not optimistic that these efforts are working yet. While he expects robberies to reach a saturation point, he said some security measures - such as surveillance cameras - do not effectively deter criminals.

As Chicago's annual hibernation continues with no thaw in sight, automobiles look positively sensible and bicycles seem more seasonal than ever.

So how could a small neighborhood bike shop survive the city's deep freeze 14  times, building a million-dollar business?

The answers, according to Chris Stodder and his wife Justyna Frank, co-founders and owners of Rapid Transit Cycle Shop, are simple: Don't plan on immediate success, and work for the loyalty of Chicago's small but growing number of year-round bikers.

"If you write a business plan then you probably won't start a business," Stodder said in the back of his 1900 W. North Ave. shop, which straddles Bucktown and Wicker Park. "Any business plan is going to show you how difficult it's going to be and how little financial sense it makes."

Stodder and Frank, without either a plan or management experience, nevertheless opened the shop in 1994, well aware of how risky the venture was. Winter tends to mock those with enough moxie to run a year-round bike shop. Days can pass without a single sale.

Rapid Transit's sales during winter months have usually dropped to one-fifth of those during peak summer months, Frank said. Since wages can't be adjusted, that translates into seasonal lay-offs or requests for voluntary leave. The current off-season has whittled last summer's full-time staff of 18 down to six, each guaranteed at least 30 hours of work per week through the winter, supplemented by part-timers.

"This time of year is pretty bleak," said Frank, 42. "Whatever resources we've accumulated by this time we've usually spent. The padding is gone."

So Rapid Transit survives by asking vendors to defer bills and by attracting cyclists to the shop with pre-season sales and service specials, said Stodder, a Hyde Park native. This winter the shop offers a "deluxe winter tuneup special" for $150.

An earlier effort to economize by shortening hours was reversed a few years ago, when Stodder realized consistent hours were crucial for maintaining the loyalty of year-round cyclists. That's the customer base the couple had in mind when they founded the business.

"I wanted to start a shop that would treat (commuter cyclists) like bread and butter," said Stodder, 42. "That's why the bike shop is in this neighborhood."

The couple's continuing focus on the shop's original mission seems to have finally paid off: Sales so far this winter are running two to three times above last winter's, he said.

Rob Sadowsky, who pedals through Rapid Transit's neighborhood everyday during his commute from Logan Square to the Loop, says he returns to the shop because of its unusual focus on recumbent and folding bikes.

"They treat bicycling as not just a sport. It's not about the gear to make you fast, it's about commuting," said Sadowsky, who's the executive director of the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation.

But the season's surge in sales may have less to do with Stodder's efforts to attract winter customers and more to do with the increasing number of year-round bikers in Chicago, according to Sadowsky. His organization does not have statistics detailing how many cyclists brave the city's cold, but he believes year-round bike commuting is growing rapidly as the trend becomes more visible.

Frank believes that although winter will always be tough for bike shops, Rapid Transit is well positioned to take advantage of the year-round riding trend.

"The fact that we've always been a commuter shop means that we get those customers in the winter," she said. "We get the loyalty of commuter bikers."

The shop's annual revenues have multiplied more than six times, from slightly above $200,000 in 1994 to about $1.25 million last year, the best ever. Annual revenue growth during the last two years has been 15 percent.

Changes in Wicker Park and Bucktown have helped.

The neighborhoods have gentrified heavily since Rapid Transit opened -- Stodder and his wife were priced out of the area and moved to Sauganash -- but, contrary to what Stodder expected, the area's increasing affluence has been good for business.

"There's plenty of middle- and upper-income people who choose for philosophical or practical or spiritual reasons to bike to work," he said. "It's not just lower-income people."

The mix of customer incomes has helped to stabilize the year-round business. In 2002 the shop doubled in size by knocking through its western wall to incorporate the ground floor of a neighboring building.

The expanded shop contains approximately 100 bicycles. Walls and ceiling are coated with touring, hybrid and mountain bikes, along with recumbent bikes priced from $950 to $3500 and compact folding models, $425 to $1200, which can be easily taken onto buses and trains. Attachable trailers and strollers are available for parents biking with small children, and the store also offers cyclists a full menu of spare parts and riding gear as well as repair services covering everything from flat tires to complete bike builds.

Despite this array of offerings, Stodder says the core mission of Rapid  Transit -- to serve the needs of commuting bikers -- has remained the same since it opened.

Chris Brunn, a year-round bike commuter who has patronized Rapid Transit since he moved to Wicker Park in 2004, said that although its prices are occasionally higher than other bike shops, Rapid Transit's customer orientation draws him back.

"It's important to support the local shop, because they're there for you," Brunn said, recalling how the store said he could return a new bike when it was unable to find special parts for it. "Their service really does it for me."

In fact, the business has become so stable that the owners now leave its day-to-day operations to the employees, while they mix management matters with home-schooling their two young children. Stodder manages cash flow and negotiates with vendors and bankers, while Frank deals with accounting and publicity, manages the shop's Web site and maintains an affiliated blog at www.chicagobikeblog.com.

Sam Van Dellen, a bike mechanic at Rapid Transit since 2004, said the Stodders cede an unusual degree of control over the shop to its staff.

"We have a lot of input into who gets hired," he said. "So it ends up that everyone's friends. It's like being in a family."

When Stodder does check on the business, he usually makes the eight-mile commute from Sauganash by bike. Even in winter.

MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

Who would have thought buying illegal drugs—legally—would be as easy as crossing state lines?

The plant salvia divinorum was banned in Illinois effective Jan. 1, but it is still legal and available in 43 other states; including neighboring Indiana and Wisconsin.

The herbal substance is part of the mint family and when smoked, it is said to have hallucinogenic effects. The psychedelic feeling reportedly lasts for only a brief period of time, ranging anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes.

Illinois Rep. Dennis M. Reboletti (R-Addison), who helped introduce the bill to outlaw salvia, said its abuse was becoming a problem throughout the state.

“We weren’t going to wait for the Congress to take any action,” Reboletti said.

Salvia has been classified as a Schedule I controlled substance in Illinois and in six other states. Heroin and LSD also fall under this same classification. And possession of salvia is considered a Class 4 felony, which is punishable with one to three years in prison.

Reboletti said he learned of the effects of salvia when a parent in DuPage County told him his son bought it at a gas station and behaved erratically.

Reboletti said he was told the drug led the teen-ager into a severe depression. The teen’s relationship with the drug prompted Reboletti and other lawmakers to make salvia illegal.

“When you begin to see it [salvia abuse] on a more repeat basis, you begin to take notice,” he said. “Salvia began to present itself as a legal way to get high.”

But this sentiment is not shared by everyone.

John Coakley, owner of Guess Hookah in Wicker Park, said he thinks outlawing salvia will only make it more desirable.

Coakley questions the addictive nature of salvia and said though it was popular when it was legal, those who bought it were usually first time users.

“It’s not like we sold it to people on a regular basis,” Coakley said. “I don’t think I ever sold it to the same person more than a third time, and that would be rare.”

Coakley said the law is unfair because it is not enforced in every state.

“Everybody thinks it [the ban] is ridiculous, especially since you can walk across the border in Indiana and Wisconsin and buy it,” he said.

The legal inconsistency, however, does not worry Reboletti. He said he thinks a federal law will eventually be created banning salvia in every state. Salvia divinorum is currently on the federal Drug Enforcement Agency's watch list.

“I think the federal government…as [salvia] becomes more prevalent…will have to take notice,” Reboletti said.

MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

Don't think of dark, sleazy smut peddlers in run-down areas of town. The owners and employees of a new generation of self-described sex toy "boutiques" are marketing their wares as tools of sexual health and empowerment.

"We're more than a sex shop. We're about making women feel good," says Cheryl Sloane, co-owner of The Letter G Inc., which runs G Boutique, a lingerie and sex toy store in Wicker Park.

Sloane claims that her business grew 30 percent a year between 2002 and 2005, though sales have hit a plateau in the past two years. Plans are in the works to expand G Boutique's online presence at boutiqueg.com, says Sloane.

Sex shops in the Chicago area have benefited from a municipal code that does not explicitly mention sex toys. The language is vague, prohibiting some practices such as prostitution but leaving much else to community standards of decency. This has provided a way for sex shops to open in more centralized locations.

Dr. Laura Berman, director of the Berman Center, a sexual health clinic, sees the opening of stores like the G Boutique as part of a national trend she calls the "final frontier of the women's movement - stepping up and believing they have a right to a good sex life."

Hilda Hutcherson, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Columbia University Medical Center in New York City, sees the growth of female-oriented sex shops as an extension of what she calls the "Viagra movement".

"It became easier for men to talk about their sexual problems and easier for women to talk about theirs," says Hutcherson. "We realized it's good to be talking about it."

Berman prescribes a visit to a sex shop as part of her client's therapy. While she practiced in Los Angeles, she wrote out sex toy "prescriptions" for female clients. Though she recommends that clients pay an actual visit to a store, she concedes that Web sites are a good start for the faint of heart.

Online sales have allowed area sex shops like The Pleasure Chest Ltd. in Lakeview to increase sales without having to increase space in their brick-and- mortar stores. The Pleasure Chest revamped its image when it moved from Broadway to its current location on Lincoln Avenue.

Pleasure Chest owner Brian Robinson says most of the company's growth stems from online orders.

Sex boutiques are also marketing their own brands. Berman has a line of sex toys euphemistically described as "intimate accessories."

Tulip, a sex shop in Lakeview and Andersonville owned by Smart Girl Squared Inc., carries a line of house brand skin products and candles. The Pleasure Chest is trying to break into the hotel market by stocking minibars with a kit containing sex toys, condoms and lubricant.

While these stores see themselves as purveyors of sexual health, the communities into which they settled were less than enthusiastic at the outset.

"Daily, I was talking to mobs of people," says David Ballows, national manager of operations for The Pleasure Chest.

Tulip's initial window display featuring a painting of a naked man next to a chalkboard saying "masturbation"produced a community uproar that was short-lived but had a lasting effect on the store. Alease dispute stemming from the window display has engendered legal expenses large enough to deny the store a profit.

"I was making more in corporate America than I ever will here," says owner Keely Dinero, also known as Keely Newman. Dinero quit a six-figure job at Citigroup Inc. to open Tulip, the fruition of a business strategy she drew up while getting her MBA at the University of Chicago. She plans on moving to a new location at the end of her five-year lease.

Though Dinero contends she was trying to be "open, not provocative", Bennett Lawson, deputy alderman of the 44th ward,doesn't buy it. "I think part of her whole business plan is to be provocative," he says.