So long, and keep the beat

This, friends, is my final blog post for True/Slant. I feel a bit bittersweet writing that. It’s a bit of a bummer to let Chicago Beat go, but at the same time I’m happy with what I was able to accomplish over the last 10 months, and thrilled to have been able to write about all the world premiere plays and Chicago-made movies and local Chicago comedians and rising Windy City bands and all the talent that this fantastic city has to offer.

So while True/Slant’s new owner Forbes intends to take the site in a new direction, I am deeply appreciative of the opportunity I was given to write for the site. All in all, it really was an exceptional experience.

And I really want to thank all the people who helped out with my stories, be it by giving their time to sit down for interviews, or granting me access to review their films, plays and shows. And I especially want to thank anyone who gave any of my blog posts a look over. It goes without saying that there is so much content out there, and a ton of content covering what to do in Chicago, and I encourage you to keep reading The A.V. Club, Time Out Chicago, the Chicago Reader, Chicago magazine, the Sun-Times and the Trib, among other great sites/pubs, to keep your finger on the pulse. But despite this, it means a lot that people actually did read my stuff, and hopefully they learned something new, and they were exposed to something or someone that they went on to love. Or maybe they glanced at it and went on. Whatever the case may be, thank you all very much for at least paying my blog a visit and giving it a bit of your very precious time.

I’ll be keeping plenty busy with my other gigs, including my day job for Marketing News magazine, the Marketing News Exclusives e-newsletter and Marketing News-sponsored podcasts. I’m doing tons of freelance work still for AOL’s TV Squad site and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and I’ve got my weekly Store Brand Scorecard blog for Walletpop. But I still plan on writing about Chicago talent. If there’s a band I should hear, a play I should know about, a comedian I should see or a local film I should watch, please let me know, and I’ll see if I can pitch a story somewhere. I’m at Levypeter@aol.com, Twitter.com/PietLevy and on Facebook.

So rock on everybody! Thanks again, and enjoy life!