Hack: Stories from a Chicago Cab PDF
Preview Hack: Stories from a Chicago Cab
HACK CHICAGO VISIONS AND REVISIONS Edited by Carlo Rotella, Bill Savage, Carl Smith, and Robert B. Stepto ALSO IN THE SERIES The Third City: Chicago and American Urbanism by Larry Bennett The Wagon and Other Stories from the City by Martin Preib Soldier Field: A Stadium and Its City by Liam T. A. Ford Barrio: Photographs from Chicago’s Pilsen and Little Village by Paul D’Amato The Plan of Chicago: Daniel Burnham and the Remaking of the American City by Carl Smith DMITRY SAMAROV HACK STORIES FROM A CHICAGO CAB The University of Chicago Press Chicago and London DMITRY SAMAROV WAS BORN IN THE SOVIET UNION AND IMMIGRATED TO THE UNITED STATES IN 1978. HE EARNED HIS BFA IN PAINTING AND PRINTMAKING AT THE SCHOOL OF THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO IN 1993 AND BEGAN DRIVING A CAB THAT SAME YEAR. HIS WORK HAS BEEN SHOWN AT THE CHICAGO TOURISM CENTER, THE MERCHANDISE MART, THE BOWERY GALLERY, AND BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY. SAMAROV IS THE CREATOR OF THE BLOG HACK, STORIES FROM WHICH HAVE BEEN FEATURED IN THE CHICAGO READER AND ELSEWHERE. THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, CHICAGO 60637 THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, LTD., LONDON © 2011 BY DMITRY SAMAROV ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PUBLISHED 2011. PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 1 2 3 4 5 ISBN-13: 978-0-226-73473-6 (CLOTH) ISBN-10: 0-226-73473-0 (CLOTH) SAMAROV, DMITRY, 1970– HACK STORIES FROM A CHICAGO CAB I DMITRY SAMAROV. P. CM. — (CHICAGO VISIONS AND REVISIONS) ISBN-13: 978-0-226-73473-6 (CLOTH: ALK. PAPER) ISBN-10: 0-226-73473-0 (CLOTH: ALK. PAPER) 1. TAXICAB INDUSTRY— ILLINOIS—CHICAGO. 2. SAMAROV, DMITRY, 1970– 3. TAXICAB DRIVERS— ILLINOIS—CHICAGO. 4. CHICAGO (ILL.)—SOCIAL LIFE AND CUSTOMS—21ST CENTURY. I. TITLE. II. SERIES: CHICAGO VISIONS + REVISIONS. HD8039.T162U667 2011 388.4'13214092—DC22 2011011322 THIS PAPER MEETS THE REQUIREMENTS OF ANSIINISO Z39.48-1992 (PERMANENCE OF PAPER). CONTENTS Preface vii Greetings 1 Cab Life 3 Monday 23 Tuesday 39 Wednesday 49 Thursday 59 Friday 69 Saturday 80 Sunday 90 Holiday 104 Postscript 119 Acknowledgments 123 PREFACE In 1993 I graduated with a BFA in painting and printmaking from VII the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and moved back to Bos- ton, where my family had settled in 1978 after leaving the Soviet Union. I needed a job and, fl ipping through the want ads one day, saw a “Drivers Wanted” notice. It turned out to be from Checker Taxi of Boston. They told me where to take classes to obtain a Hackney Carriage License, and within two weeks I was behind the wheel of a hulking 1990 Chevrolet Caprice Classic, being told to go to Logan Airport by some jerk in a suit and having no idea how to get there. I got the hang of it soon enough and kept at it for some three years. It paid my bills, allowed me to paint, and gave intimate access to the city and its inhabitants. Making pictures for me has always been about looking out the window at the surrounding world; being cloistered in an art-related fi eld like teaching or illustration would have made the walls close in on me, whereas rolling around the streets provided ever-changing vistas. Sometimes it was ugly, some- times beautiful. There was no need to invent or embroider because everything was out there to be seen; it was only a matter of putting in the time. I moved back to Chicago in 1997 and ran through a succession of service industry jobs, continuing to paint all the while. Around 2000 I decided to attempt an illustrated book, or zine, about my Boston taxi-driving experiences. I called it Hack and, after spending innumerable hours at Kinko’s, a fi rst issue was printed in the spring of 2001. A second book followed about a year later, and that would VIII have been that, except the day-job situation was becoming unten- able. Anybody who has ever worked at a restaurant or bar knows that P refa those places are vortices of bullshit drama and confl ict. I’ve never ce been particularly good with authority fi gures; sooner or later there would always be a problem with some manager type. By 2003 I was frustrated enough to give cab driving another try. I revived Hack as a blog toward the end of 2006 in order to share some of what I’d seen. Once again the city was open to me in the way that only this job allows. Cabdrivers catch people at the most revealing moments— not when they have their game faces on, but with their guard down, unable to pretend. To bear witness is both a privilege and a burden, but I don’t regret getting back behind that wheel. A Note about the Illustrations Most of my pictures, for some twenty years, have been done while looking directly at the subject, so providing illustrations for these stories was a challenge. (I couldn’t stop the car mid-fare and ask my passengers to pose for a drawing, could I?) Many of the pictures here were done from memory, and while creating them, I also would work out the wording of stories before actually typing them. Some are caricatures, some mere sketches, while some might even be their own fi nished visual statements. I used them as a break—that is, as an opportunity to try out different ways of constructing images. In any case, it was a way into the prose for a painter. A Note about the Text The blog from which this book was developed is organized chrono- logically, of course, whereas what follows is not. In searching for an organic structure that wasn’t just a reprint of what had already been, I settled on a days-of-the-week scheme—cab driving is a 24/7 indus- try, but some types of rides tend to happen earlier in the week, while others will happen more toward the end. It’s my hope that these chapters will relate both the randomness and the order of my days driving in the city. IX P refa ce
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