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There’s a great, neighborhood-y battle thing going on in Chicago right now. That is, two localities are in a bit of a skirmish - however indifferently - on which is the better spot for young hipsters.

I’ve been in the city for just over a year now, so I don’t quite know how long Wicker Park’s been the mecca for wearers of tight-fit jeans and vintage attire. Yet the district is hands down the established veteran. It’s got the bevy of music venues, hand-me-down bookstores and recycled fashion stores to prove it.

Logan Square, though, and within the past year, no less, is gaining an upper hand. I think much of it is due to the multitude of new restaurants and bars that have spruced up the space. It’s becoming hip and cool to live there - and that, I guess, is all you need.

Paired with that is a sense of camaraderie amongst Logan Square establishments. This summer, the Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival was my favorite summer street fair - in Chicago, there are many -- because the spirit of the fest was so unified. Local restaurants and breweries only - no institutions outside the Kedzie/Logan intersection allowed (and, certainly, no annoying national or even regional chains). I was impressed by the intentionality of a neighborhood fest that actually represented, well, the neighborhood.

I don’t know that December releases share that same sense of solidarity at the U.S. box office - in fact, it’d be totally weird if they did - but I like to think Christmastime movies are the Logan Square to the summer’s Wicker Park. You know, summer is the established vet; December is the industry’s young and shiny thing.

For one, summer has asserted itself as the go-to frame for box office largely due to its size (and reputation). The summer season is a gigantic period for blockbusters and tent poles to stick their grubby little fingers in as many theater houses as possible. What was once, say, a May to early August thing has transitioned into April to end of August. (And, thanks to Alice in Wonderland and maybe 300, we’ve now got some of the big guns debuting in March. The Hunger Games, which I think will outdo Twilight, opens March 23rd).

What that does, though, is dilute the summer season into a bloated child with weaker punch. The fat cats, delighted as pigs in poo to swell the calendar year with more blockbusters, would certainly wag a nasty finger at that. (I mean, Harry Potter 8 just outdid The Dark Knight by $10 or so million its opening weekend…) But, I think, like when Troy realized on Community that rooming with Abed wouldn’t work because they’d then see too much of each other, too much of a good thing sometimes becomes a bad thing.

Look at 3D. Who’s genuinely excited to see a 3D movie anymore? Perhaps I’m biased; I’ve never quite understood it. I see 3D as an occasion to spend $5 more dollars on an already overpriced movie ticket to wear funky glasses for two hours. Conceivably I’m not alone in this anymore; just ask the people who avoided the Glee movie, Conan the Barbarian and the new Spy Kids. The latter performed “best” with a slim $11.6 million from about 3,300 movie houses.

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