Recently I had the honor of being featured in Time Out Chicago magazine in a column titled "Store Explorer". As an avid Time Out reader, I was excited when the writer, Web Behrens, asked me way back in January if I'd be interested in picking out an under the radar local shop to explore with him and a photographer. Since my two vices are coffee and vintage, Kouks Vintage Shop and Cafe in the Norwood Park neighborhood was a natural choice. I first discovered Kouks 3 years ago when I was adventuring all over the city in search of antique and vintage shops. Unfortunately it's a bit of a hike from my apartment via public transportation so it had been a while since my last visit to the store but when we arrived it was just as I'd remembered it-- a rambling house-like space crammed with sparkly baubles and colorful, graphic artwork.Above is a screenshot from the Shopping & Style section of Time Out Chicago's website, my article was one of the top 3 stories of the week!

Even though I have a B.A. in print journalism and have previously been interviewed for various online and print publications, I didn't know what to expect upon arrival at Kouks for the shoot. Web was kind enough to give me a ride there and he actually started the interview while we were still in the car.

We arrived half an hour before the photographer in order to give him a chance to talk to the owner and for me to pick out 5-6 items in the shop that I wanted to have photographed for the article. It took a while to choose the items as there were literally piles of jewelry to sift through and there needed to be enough variety to be representative of Kouks' stock. You can see my picks in the online slideshow and little blurbs about what I thought about each item. Oddly enough they included the library lamp in the print version (below) but not in the online slideshow. They also omitted the funky 1970s sculptural necklace from the print version but included it in the online slideshow.

Click on the image above to see a scan of the print article, I was on page 47 of the August 4-10, 2011 issue. Last weekend was the music extravaganza known as Lollapalooza so the issue I'm featured in has 4 different commemorative covers highlighting 4 musicians at the fest. It's likely the most widely read/seen issue of Time Out due to the tens of thousands of festival goers who read it!

Thanks again to Web Behrens for the stellar article, Elizabeth Jochum for the photos and Time Out Chicago for always pointing me towards the best cultural events in the city each week.