Kate Zambreno

Thursday night on the LSD and there it is -- a giant purple gorilla, perched on the front stoop of one of those swanky drive residences.

Powerful strobes and pounding beats beckon toward this monstrous simian, and inside is a party for the New York Private Residencies, 3660 North Lake Shore. They've turned the floor of the complex into a nightclub for one night to celebrate that they live there and try to lure others. The leader wears a white cowboy hat and seems ripe for the question: What's with the purple monkey? "We were kind of going with the idea that he was King Kong, and he was clinging to the New York," he says. "But we couldn't figure out how to attach him to the building so we just put him in front to say hello to everyone."

How hard could it be to sell this place -- you need a party to celebrate the building shift from apartment to condo? "Nothing's typical when it comes to us," he grins.

A woman beckons toward images flickering on a nearby wall-it's a movie all about the people who live at the New York, like "George," 34, putting clothes into a suitcase. What does George like to do in his free time? Play golf! What else? More golf! Why does he love living at the New York? He has time to play golf! And so on, showing all the sorts of eclectic funny people that live there and interesting places they like to go, like Starbucks. Except, the woman says, in the movie they're not real residents, they're actors. One can only hope.

(2000-11-23)

Also by Kate Zambreno

EAT ME
Finley is back in Chicago, where she was born and got her start, to promote her new collection of writings "A Different Kind of Intimacy," and she is in love with the irony and just plain art of it all: where she has been, how she's arrived, especially reading at the Borders set by the backdrop of Michigan Avenue and the cheesy Victoria's Secret music from next door.
(2000-11-16)

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