The Lobby!

Yes, still thinking about the Abbie Fest over the weekend.  Three stages featuring theater, music, comedy, miscellaneous acts.  An amazing out-pouring of creativity, commitment and anarchic joy. You really had to be there to understand.

And there was a "fourth stage" - the Lobby at the Den. Turns out the funky, cool lobby with the leather couches and comfy chairs was a major part of the Fest. It was a meeting place, a way-station, a gathering of the tribes place, a confessional, a pulpit, an altar, a place for ritual sacrifice.

Just absolutely amazing to have an opportunity to meet and interact with an impressive cross-section of the creative Chicago community. And a few of our conversations were so soul-stirring, so essential, so life-affirming, so inspiring.

I would say that it was everything. And more. It was a baptism, a resurrection... it was what it's all about. It was the center of everything - a raging, seething, over-flowing beast... yes, the lobby!