Good day, Savages.

For some god-forsaken reason I've had this terrible song jackhammering in my head recently and I can't make it stop: "I WANNA KNOW WHAT LOVE IS! I WANT YOU TO SHOW MEEEEEEE!"

The truth is, though, I don't want to know. I already know what Love is: Love is the Law.

But, you know, it's also the law in Louisiana to hang a copy of the 10 Commandments in every classroom in Public Schools. So, take that with a big old rock of salt.

I wonder which Commandment they're really trying to promote with this new Hee-Haw legislation? #1 "Thou Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me?" Boy, that's kind of a weird and paranoid law, especially for a religion that self-identifies as monotheistic, no? If there's only one god shouldn't that take the need for old numero uno off the table?

Or maybe #4, "yada yada keep the Sabbath holy"? That must be why nobody works or handles money on Saturday in New Orleans, right?

Nah, it's #10, I'm sure. "Thou Shalt Not Covet." You know, like don't covet all the Love those wily Egyptians have for Horus or Set or Osiris. And certainly don't feel threatened by Hoti or that lovable little Buddha, right? Just be at home in your own Mountain Godness and fly it high and tight. "Like we do heah in our Public Schools down in Metairie, boya."

There's good and strong reasons why True Detective season 1 was set in Louisiana, my friends.

But, hey, the complete evaporation of intelligence, critical thinking and the core principles of democracy and the foundations of this grand experiment in Enlightenment values that is the American project isn't our beat here at Illuminated Brew Works and not why you signed up for this erudite and handsome newsletter.

No, no, we come here to paint the walls in the remains of our hearts! Hearts so inflated with Joy and Pleasure and Humor and, dare I say it, LOVE, that our hearts just straight swelled like a poison toad and popped grape flavored, candy-colored goo all over the insides of our Barbie cars, smothering us in great beer, big old belly laughs and, by criminy, GREAT FUCKING MUSIC.

Like TONIGHT! We have the ELEVENTH installment of our modular synth night here at IBW Lodge #1!!! The downright wonderful folks at DayGlow are bringing you another FREE night of the best beeps and bloops here in this fine city of ours. I mean sure, IBW Lodge #1 is like an 8 hour drive from downtown Chicago, but isn't it worth it to be able to spend the evening drinking THE GOOD LORD'S FAVORITE BEER and listening to adult's try and wrangle the grand demons of modular synthesizers into coherent, angelic sounds? And, in case you didn't notice, VIDEO WASTE is back with more of their truly inspired visual installations. I mean seriously, folks, these nights are phenomenal and the artists DayGlow brings out for these deserve your minds and ears. Get out here and enjoy your life before it's all over. Which, by my estimations, won't be too damn long from now, by the way.

And then, spend your Sunday Morning Coming Down at the Lodge in the afternoon. On Sunday. (I got there, kind of). With the WILDWOOD FLOWERS!

I love these ladies!! I really do! Last time they played the Lodge was one of my favorite Sundays we've hosted here. My memory is for the birds these days, but I think I actually might have cried coming home from their last show because it was just such a lovely and perfect display of exactly the kind of thing that we built IBW Lodge #1 for... super talented, super funny, super wonderful people sharing their gifts with drunken letches. I love it when a plan comes together!

THE WILDWOOD FLOWERS play a mix of gospel, roots and traditionals from the American song book and they do it better than you or I do almost anything. What do you get when you mix a banjo, a guitar, a fiddle and three soul-cracking voices? A weepy-faced me and THE WILDWOOD FLOWERS. Don't be an asshole, just come to the show. It's FREE but you can still pay for the beer.

And then - OH MOMMA! - next Sunday, June 30th we have got this month's installment of our THEMED TEAM TRIVIA at 3pm.

That's right, next Sunday June 30th, we're playing MEL BROOKS TRIVIA! Mike has cooked up a really good game for this one including clips from some of AMERICAN MASTER Mel Brooks finest films. If you have a half a brain cell in your head then you love Mel Brooks. And, with a half a brain cell, you've just found yourself in the elite class of above average intelligence for this tawdry and hot world we live in. So, come show off that brain cell of yours and have some fun while you do it. We start promptly at 3pm.

Oh, hey, did you see this?

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