Just wanted to take a moment and thank the ten or so Chicago readers who got a chance to stop by the Printer's Row Book Fair last weekend, and have a drink with me at Kasey's Tavern to celebrate CCLaP's first anniversary of being online. It was a small affair, as I was expecting (in fact, 90 percent of CCLaP's readers don't actually live in Chicago); but it was fun nonetheless, and certainly a much better alternative than getting blotto by myself in some old-man wino taproom in the Uptown neighborhood where I live. ("Here's to all my frieeeeends! HERE'S TO ALL MY FRIEEEEEENNNNNNDS!") Not to toot CCLaP's horn too much, but I have to confess that I'm very happy with what the center's been able to accomplish in its first year, from a grand total budget of $350 -- it now has roughly 14,000 unique monthly visitors, very passionate readers who are often the heads of other arts organizations and publications; with me being listed now as the 6th most popular book reviewer at Goodreads.com, out of a total user base of a million people; and with a surprisingly popular podcast that has now gotten a chance to feature such nationally-known artists as Elizabeth Crane, Joe Swanberg, Jesse Thorn and Cory Doctorow. It's not a bad start, I think anyway, especially for a self-financed micro-business, and needless to say I'm looking forward to seeing how year two will unfold.

Thanks again, everyone, for being a regular supporter of CCLaP; and I hope you too will be able to come back in the future on a regular basis as well.