We had a thread here a while ago about the "last days" of The NO EXIT coffee house in Chi. THOSE DIDM'T HAPPEN. The place was saved when Brian and Sue Kozin were able to sell it to Michhael James, the owner of The Heartland Cafe only half a block away. "The Exit" is now cleaner and painted white. Some music is back. The brown burlap is gone from the walls. The smoke it less. The graffitti is pretty much gone from the bathroom walls. Blind Jim Brewer, who sang his Mississippi acoustic blues Wednesday nights for so long, has passed on. I played at the place for 37 years and then couldn't any longer. (For some perverse reason I was hoping to make 40 years.)

Recently I went by there and the place looks nice. But the ghost of Kerouac has left as far as I could see. I do suspect that is as it should be in this new millennium.

Art Thieme