9/21/25

It’s been an odd last few days. When I came back from Telluride for a brief eight-hour layover in Chicago, I did so to go home for a few hours of sleep and to re-pack. As I was packing I put my Sony noise cancelling bluetooth headphones down on the couch and felt as though I’d packed it. Well, I get on the plane, got ready to listen to some music, as I usually do, only to discover my headphones weren’t in my backpack.

Oh well, I guess I left them at home.

As a side note: I’m always surprised when people in this industry discover that I’m from Chicago. Most assume I’m from New York City. That mistake happened quite a few times at TIFF. I can maybe see why. I do contribute The New York Times and have in the past written for other New York based outlets and have been on a few podcasts and radio programs located there too. When I do correct people, they often seem incredulous, as though I’m lying about where I was born and raised.

Sometimes it feels like they’re surprised people in Chicago write about film, which considering the state of the Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times, who both recently cut their esteemed critics, I can’t say I totally blame them. I do wonder what the future of criticism will be in Chicago. Though the profession is under threat everywhere, in Chicago, since the passing of Ebert, it’s been in grave danger. Studios rarely screen on time here, we never get pre-fest screenings, and there are very few major outlets based here. I sometimes feel like the last critic through the door.

I don’t think that’s totally the case. There are young writers who fill with me hope and promise. But I worry what actual prospects await them other than the ones they create for themselves, which can be fulfilling but nevertheless precarious.

Maybe that’s why I’m so protective of being from Chicago. I don’t want people to think we’ve been erased.

In any case, that was a thought that fluttered through my head on the plane in between my music-less take off and landing (I’m incredibly scared of flying and music is what calms me).

I also kept my mind on the idea that when I returned home I’d find my headphones.

Well, when I returned home I didn’t find them and I haven’t been able to explain their disappearance yet either. My younger sister watches my apartment. I’m hoping that as my sister straightened up, that she might have put them in a place that I’m not use to, but I’ve turned over my apartment a few times and can’t find them and she doesn’t remember seeing them.

After being back from TIFF for over a week and a half, I’ve essentially given up hope. Maybe I forgot them on a plane and imagined that I brought them home with me or maybe they’re with some evil doppelgänger in New York. Whatever the case, with money being tight, I will probably have to pick up an assignment or two to buy a new pair. Until then, the world is silent.