Welp,

In a strange twist of fate, I don't really know what to say.

The world is on fire and it's finally come rat-tat-tatting on our front door. There's a certain kind of sinking feeling when the images from your doom scrolling suddenly populate the 4-dimensional world just outside your window. I'm sure the Germans have a word for that feeling and the Japanese have an even more beautiful one as well. We here in the land of the Pleabes English have a short onomonapeion for it, I suppose. Sing along if you know this one: "Gulp".

But, wile the air smells like your jeans after weekend camp out and the skies are tarred and feathered in some rich bumbleheads satellites, we here at Illuminated Brew Works are somewhat invigorated as, seemingly every day, our tongue-in-cheek tagline we created 8 years ago when we started this disfunctional egregore of ours, has now becomes a mission statement. The humor has shifted from the rhetoric of irony to the absurdity of unavoidable truth. But, still, we're here for you, still creating "Beer for Interesting Times". Now more than ever, my bubbies. Now more than ever.

And we take our cynicism very seriously. We take our realism surreally. We take our lumps by the dozen and we almost always take our beer with a sidecar of affordable whisky. These are coping mechanisms and there's no time like the present to get mechanistic with one's coping. Or one's copping for that matter. But, copulating? Please - please don't make me remind you again - whatever you do, just stay loose, always stay loose and curious and fruitful with that copulating, ok? The dark lord knows we need real Love and some real good loving in these our hard, hard times. So, let's not go soft. Not now. Not in these very Interesting Times.

I mean have you heard all the stories from very legitimate channels about these aircrafts of "non-human origin"? Wait, was that Marco Rubio? The Senate Intelligence Sub-Committee? Did you see that shit that went down in Russia? You know the thing with the Ex-Con Warlord putting a real challenge against the state military? Have you smelled the air in Chicago???

My brothers and sisters in dedication to decadence, we are through ye olde looking glass and even the Cheshire Cat looks a little nervous.

So we drink!

And, in service of drinking - and eating! - we've got a few events lined up for you.

Hot damn! That's right. THURSDAY NIGHT, that being Thursday June 29th (MR. KING'S BIRTHDAY!) on most solar calendars, we have our first of many PINT NIGHTS here at America's Home for Dundering, IBW Lodge #1.

For a measly $10 you get one of these fancy blue-glass branded IBW glasses pictured above and it will be full of delicious TRUST lager. Only 1 glass per customer per Thursday while supplies last and these are only available on Thursdays. So don't try calling in any favors or any other annoying practice, please. It will fail. Just come on Thursday, pay $10, get your glass, enjoy your Trust and then enjoy another $300-$400 worth of beer while you're here. Maybe eat some of the delicious PRETZEL CRACK that we have for sale to help with a $400 beer bender. Or, might I suggest some delicious SKOKIE PROVISIONS? Regardless, don't ask for more than one glass. It ain't gonna happen.

The plan is to do this Pint Night every Thursday with a new limited edition glass whenever we run out of the previous run. We've got about 60 of these blue ones and, after they're gone, they're gone for good.

This FRIDAY we're hosting the BUMBU ROUX FOOD TRUCK along with our friends at WineStyles. You know the routine by now, the truck will be in the parking from 5pm - 8pm serving their delicious wares. Bumbu Roux is a mix of Cajun and Indonesian food and it looks phenomenal. Don't miss this one! There's no pre-orders or anything like that, just show up, order your food and order a couple beers or wine to wash it all down with. What a lovely way to start this 4th of July weekend!

On Sunday, Bucky will be at the Lodge from 3pm - 7pm grilling hot dogs and giving them away to anyone who is either nice or interesting enough to not have to be nice. My recommendation is just be nice and don't roll the bones on whether you can be perceived as "interesting" or not. Our dear Bucky is a harsh critic and real jaded son-of-a-bitch and probably doesn't find you interesting. Especially if you're trying.

And then on MONDAY Handsome Rob is doing the same damn thing. From 3pm - 7pm (or until the dogs run out), Rob will be grilling and serving dogs. This is our public service to your pre-4th of July partying. We all need a decent base coat for the kind of celebrating that tends to go down on this here holiday, so, come on by IBW Lodge #1 and get covered with dogs and beer.

Speaking of Monday, we are opening at 2pm on Monday July 3rd to get the most of your good times that day.

And, yes Virginia, we are CLOSED ON JULY 4TH. We'll be back at it again on Wednesday July 5th.

Oh, and one last thing to put on your radar before I get back to pacing, Saturday July 8th we've got NIGHT BEAMS #6: Another FREE evening of mostly Modular Synth Jams.

Alright, that's all for now! Be good to one another. And try not to freak out too much when they make the 2big announcements tomorrow that are supposed to challenge our understanding of the Universeat a fundamental level. It'll be fine, just keep drinking.

You can see all of our events on our event calendar at https://www.ibw-chicago.com/events

You can see what's currently on tap at IBW LODGE #1 at https://www.ibw-chicago.com/whats-on-tap