CHICAGO — It's sunny and it's almost Friday. WOO! Here's what we're reading today.
Death Metal Yoga Is A Thing: DNAinfo's Jen Sabella is loving this piece by The Washington Post's Virginia Pelley, who fell in love with death metal yoga. Tired of feeling like an outcast surrounded by smug yoga pros, Pelley went to check out Metal Yoga Bones, an affordable class held in the back room of a rock club in Brooklyn that features loud metal and a tattooed instructor:
"Lying on the floor, with my intertwined legs twisted to the left and my head to the right, I noticed beer splattered on the wall. Maybe metal yoga isn’t for everyone, I thought, but it was winning me over."
Trans Truth Time: In a refreshingly honest and open Q&A, four people who identify as transgender or genderqueer discuss stereotypes, dating and sex in Cosmopolitan. While reporter Ariel Cheung knows Cosmo isn't always exactly known for being progressive, it's great to see the magazine addressing trans issues in such a matter-of-fact way. While celebrities like Laverne Cox and Bruce Jenner have brought national attention to trans people, it's good to hear from everyday people, as well.
Chicago Can't Experiment: Chicago may now be too aware of its own architectural history to truly experiment ever again with its skyline. Alexander Eisenschmidt, an assistant professor of architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago, remembers in an essay in Mas Context how willing Chicago once was to try experiments so bold they seemed insane. "In 1911, Chicago’s commitment to use the city as a stage for experimentation went as far as pushing it to the brink of collapse," Eisenschmidt writes. "City officials locally suspended police presence and traffic regulation in an effort to test if the city could still self-regulate." His essay is an interesting delve for Sam Cholke into speculation over how that spirit could spring back to life in the city. Eisenchmidt illustrates it all beautifully with a panorama of Chicago's skyline reimagined with it's greatest architectural experiments that never materialized.
Teaching Kids To Be Kind Online: A parents-only seminar about online safety and the dangers of social media held last week in Beverly scared the bejesus out of reporter Howard Ludwig. In the wake of this startling forum, a story about a writer who was fat-shamed after posting an article about her marriage on the Huffington Post surfaced in the Chicago Tribune.
The Tribune article talks about Galit Breen's new book "Kindness Wins: A Simple No Nonsense Guide To Teaching Our Kids How To Be Kind Online" (Booktrope). It also touches on Breen's decision to allow her daughter to have an Instagram account despite her own experience with Internet trolls.
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