What did you do last night?

I can tell you what I did.

I played Urban Capture the Flag,
mother fucker.

I saw signs and posters
and little handbills all over
Wicker Park for the past couple weeks.

"Reclaim the City"
"play Urban Capture the Flag"

with a map,
a city grid,
almost a square mile,
separated by a great dividing
line known as Milwaukee avenue.

And, an awesome little drawing
of a dude with a beard running with a flag.

It said to show up at the Damen
Blue Line train stop at 7 pm.

I did.

I had nothing else to do.

It's strange,
these days,
when I don't have a gig
on a weekend,
I never really have anything to do.

So I show up for summer camp
games in cold weather and light rain.

there, at the train stop,
I met 30 perfect strangers.

we divided into two perfect teams.

They were mostly strangers
to eachother, a few pockets
of friends here and there,
but mostly just the bored,
curious, and adventurous
type who would show up
for such an event.

Wide demographic,
punks and yuppies
and thirty-somethings
and a gay guy, and a tall
Jesus looking character,
and a girl who told me she finds
perfectly good bagels in the dumpster.

We got little bandanas to distinguish teams,
and we hid our flags and planned our strategy.

and we were off.

And I felt like I was in Die-Hard
and the Bourne-Identity for the next three hours.

It was awesome.

We snuck around the city,
in two and threes,
and solo advances.

Once we crossed into enemy
territory, we were vulnerable
to capture and imprisonment.

But we were not alone in the streets,
it was Wicker Park on a Saturday night,
we could try to blend in,
always looking out for a bastard
with a white bandana.

And if you saw one,
you ran.

I ran like I haven't run
since I was fourteen.

running for my life,
as if nothing else mattered
in the world accept to get
back over Milwaukee Avenue.

When was the last time you
did a full on sprint until you just
couldn't run anymore?

For me, its been a while.

I don't find myself sprinting
so often these days.

but last night,
I ran like the wind,
until the wind was completely
out of my body and spilled
all over the streets.

Today, I am sore,
but I am also grateful
for such an evening of unexpected fun.

I met people I would never ordinarily meet.

I learned that you can find perfectly good bagels
in the right dumpsters.

I smoked a bowl with the leaders of the event,
a pair of twin activists.

Man, are they interesting cats.

they do stuff,
anything, they just
seem to want to take action,
be heard, have fun,
get noticed, make a statement,
have other people wonder about them
instead of wondering about a TV
full of artificially sweetened famous people.

Last night,
they chose Capture the flag.
and it was quite a success.

3 hours long,
30+ strangers showing up
on a cold, wet night.

They have my email address,
and I'm going to show up
at whatever they do next.

Now if you'll excuse me,
I have to write a theme song
for the Rat Patrol.

those are the guys who
ride around Chicago on
those big, tall, crazy bikes.

I met a few last night,
and they need a theme song.

-p