autumn

It seemed like a good idea at the time

I need to get that dead animal off the top of my page. So, now, even though I already posted a similar post to this one on MySpace, I'm going to talk a little about weddings and my socks.

NO MORE WEDDINGS!

Dom and Sue are the last ones. After that, no more. Read my, um, letters, no more.

I will have to say that I haven't had much of an opinion about the right for gays to marry up until recently. Let the straights keep that over 50% failure institution, though I. And I hate to sound like Carrie Bradshaw from that one episode of Sex in the City, but it does seem a little unfair that straight people get to invite a bunch of people to a party and get a bunch of presents and gay people don't really get to do that. I mean, I guess we can do a comittment ceremony, but it's not the same thing, is it?

I guess I still don't care. It's just that I'm really broke right now and the cost of renting a tux and thinking about getting a present is scary or at least in conflict with eating and shelter.

So, my new internet friend, Frank, introduced me to a new thing called the urban dictionary. It's pretty cool. Especially, cool are the example usage sentences. So, I give him mad props, yo.

Oh yeah, and lastly, here's a pic of my sock and Dominic.



It reminds me of my not-so-secret friendster friend [Frank: I'm back to being coy], Jack, because he has a picture of his socks on his profile, but they're big, wooly and stripey, while mine are merely tight and stripey.

Dreaming of (being) Buffy

There's a new dream where I am Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Well, not really her, but someone who looks like Sarah Michelle Gellar and in action-esque, fantastic situations.

Practical lesson of the day:
When you're on your bike -even if you've only bought a couple things from the grocery store, and even if you're only going a short distance - double-bag if you're using plastic.

On the way back from the grocery store, I saw this:

Happy Halloween!!!

I've added a new image to the art site. Hopefully more soon.

You may notice some newness to the navigation. What does everyone think? I will say that there's a lot to be done now, as far as where those new links to the left go. For example, "VOICE" doesn't go anywhere yet. "FLESH" does. "IMAGES" doesn't yet. Anyway,

COMMENT

on the newness. Thanks.

Das Rheingold!

There are two new dreams and a new found object.

On Thursday, I had the pleasure of going with the Kid Chimera to see the Wagner opera, Rheingold.

This is the kind of thing I've been sort of in suspended animation for. I've been in a funk for a long time and my cultural consumerism plummeted the longest time. Going to the opera was just what I needed. On the way, blessed with the spirit of beauty, I was taken in by the setting sun over the industrial park and railroad tracks near kinzie.

Breathtaking. I love industry, even if it's killing us. I think it will eventually, well, not save us, but liberate us. I think the next evolutionary leap for mankind will involve technology. I don't know if we'll all be cyborgs (if you think about it, many of us - those who rely on PDAs for their schedules, address books, etc - are already kind of cyborgs, in the truest sense of the word), but I think we'll all be inextricably tied to technology in a symbiotic relationship.

I should mention that I've drank a bloody mary since I started typing this.


I beat Jason to the Lyric Opera by about a half hour. There was a McDonald's across the street and though I resist the notion of the megapoly of McDonalds's, I was a little hungry. I've been conducting a continuing private campaign of vegetarianism, or at least conscious omnivorism, so I ordered a Filet-o-Fish. It should be noted that the actual beef content of a McDonald's hamburger is probably quite low, but I'm pretty sure they destroy a lot of our earth to herd their cows.

Anyway, I noticed that there seemed to be quite a few people who looked like they could have been from the orchestra pit or associated with the production in some way.







I had hoped, when I took those pictures, that I might be close enough to the stage and orchestra pit that I might be able to verify that those people actually were associated with the production, but Jason's free tickets (procured from his porn star/opera extra friend) were pretty crappy - as in: we were in the very last row on the main floor.

The guy in the middle picture above, the fuzzy one, was walking behind me as I entered the McDonald's. He was wearing a Pittsburgh Steelers down jacket, which looked very conspicuous juxtaposed against the huge diamond stud in his ear and well-coiffed hairstyle, which was a mature salt and pepper. I held the door for him and bid him in front of me. After we entered, he said, "cool hair!" He continued on in a semi-affected English-type accent, "And I suppose it's no coincidence that your hair matches your glasses?"
"No, it's not a coincidence."
"Well I think it's just great."
"Thank you."

After McDonald's, I waited outside the opera. We'd had some conversation about whether we were going to the Civic Opera House or the Lyric Opera House. I think I've concluded that the building is the Civic Opera Building, but that the opera hall itself is the Lyric Opera. I could be wrong.

As I waited for Jason, I noted the detailing on the entryway and, well, they just don't build 'em like this any more.

It's a shame, really. Mies Van Der Rohe had to go and ruin architectual ornamentation for the rest of us. And stupid Ayn Rand had to go and popularize it even further with her stupid fictional character Howard Roark.

Anyway, here's a pic of me and Jason at the opera.

I'm on the right.

The opera was pretty good in terms of set design, choreography and lighting. I did feel that the story dragged. I don't know if it was the translation or just the nature of the beast, but it seemed like the language was so straight-forward it left little to the imagination. I guess it was written for an audience with a limited education and attention span, and so keeping things short and to-the-point was necessary for Mr. Wagner.

The best part was in the beginning, with the Rheinmadens "swimming" behind a scrim using some bungee cords. It was quite beautiful.

Internet? Are you there? It's me, Margaret.

There is both a new dream and a new found object of which I'm particularly fond.

In my newly-single life, I am super busy, so I'm venturing off onto the interweb for sparks of romance, because it's like couch dating. I don't have to do much except type and send the link to my website and see what happens. Really, I don't know why I'm bothering, I'm not really in the mood to date in the physical world, why should the cyber world be any different?

Last night Rick and Nik and I went out to Rainbo Lounge. It was not bad. We got there early and left early. When Rick and I were hanging out with Rick's friend Mark the other night and Rainbo Lounge was mentioned, Mark was like, "Oh I don't want to go there. It's all hipsters and fags there." So naturally, I sort of wanted to check it out. Last night I spotted said "fags." One of them acknowledged me before I left, so that was cool. I guess I'll go back there. I'd be glad to avoid going up to the boys' town area every time I want to go out. Wicker Park is so much more convenient.

I realize my posts are getting more journal-esque. I don't think that will be an ongoing thing. Kind of a stop-gap because I don't have anything REALLY interesting to say.

Last night

I tried to go to some opening in the art district but my info turned out to be bogus. I was told there would be an opening at a place called SWK, near Wells and Superior. Turns out SWK stands for Superior Wells Kitchen. It's a high-brow Japanese restaurant. A peek inside the front windows confirmed that there was art on the walls, but it also confirmed that, though there were a few patrons, there was certainly no party going on.

We rendez-vous'ed with a gaggle of Rick's friends who had just crashed an architectual firm's party in the vicinity. They prompted us to do it to. We took the elevator up to the 6th floor, endured the questioning looks of the people there, and allowed the doors to close again. We felt a bit silly. Rick felt he might have been a bit more emboldened had he had more to drink than the single beer he ingested at my shop when he'd picked me up less than an hour earlier.

The friends were all pretty soused. It was fun and charming to watch. We found a half-bag of diapers in a newspaper box. Then had a fashion show rotating places to wear the diapers, leg, neck, head, etc. More fun. On the bus, we encountered a young mother who asked us where we'd gotten them and we gave them up to her. She was grateful and we felt good that they'd found a better purpose than silly fashion.

Two bars later it was time for me to get home and walk Racecar. There were some hijinks in this period, but I don't think I'll get into it right now.

This morning I dreamed.

Visitors and New Yorkiness

One of my very special friends, Joe Martine, from New York, breezed through Chicago on Monday night. We had an excellent time. Mainly it was just good to hang out and meet his two very sweet and creative friends, Melissa and John. The three of them, and our local friend, George Ann, visited my new apartment and met Racecar, my dog. Got to see my ultra cool art studio and we spent some time out on the town.

Back in the day, Joe and I, as well as many of our friends from that time (high school) used to go every week to a teeny bopper dance club called "Off The Alley." The entrance was through an alley. Anyway, one of the DJs there now DJs at Berlin on Monday nights. He DJs retro music. Readers of this sight may remember other visits to Retro night at Berlin. This past monday was similarly unpopulated. The five of us were the only ones on the dance floor for the hour or so that we were there. It was great for us, though.

We also went to Green Dolphin Street for Boom Boom Room, which was also a great time, but certainly way more packed.

At one point during the night, we stopped at Walgreens and I bought Joe a pen from the Apprentice TV show that says something. Listen to it now, why don't you?

Most of all, it was nice to have these people come into my new hope and be really postive about it. Even in its current state of budding development, they were able to see its intrinsic potential. They had only nice things to say, which was very gratifying.

I met up with Joe, Melissa and John the next day for lunch as well. Melissa wanted desperately to pick up a record of an indigenous Chicago band. Her top pick wasn't available at Reckless. I actually don't remember what she ended up getting. I do remember that she highly recommended a band called Neu! to me when I told her that I liked the band Stereolab.

That morning we talked a lot about music, particularly about life-changing albums. Bands like Dead Kennedys, Hot Water Music, Appleseed Cast, The Vaselines, Brian Eno, and many others were mentioned.

I gave each visitor a Farewell Society CD. I wonder what they'll think.

Also we talked about "music listening in the Digital Age." Particularly, we talked about how fractured listening habits have become for many of us. Melissa is a die-hard Vinyl person, and she relishes the act of sitting quietly and listening to records. She conceded that she's a pretty lazy person, so she understands that she's mainly afforded this luxury because her personality allows for it. I'll have to admit that MP3's fit my mobile, always-active lifestyle, but at the same time, I really nostalgize the listening-to of single albums. Getting those playlists burned into my head, so that when I hear songs now from my high school days on the radio or wherever, upon a given song's end, I'll immediately play in my head the next song on the record. Nowadays, I rarely listen to whole albums. It's something that needs to change for me, and I think it will eventually.

Last night, Rick and I went to see the band Princess, whom I've seen now for the third time. I really like them. Readers may recall the last time I posted about them, and the fact that I sent them an email inquiring about them picking up another person. They'd never responded, but I went up to talk to them at the show and they remembered the email so we talked a bit. A "jam" session may be in the works, but they're about to go to Brooklyn for a show or two. The whole reason I'd gone up to them was to ask them for locations for where they're playing so I can tell Joe and his friends to see them, because I think they'd like them.

After Princess, this guy, Michael Columbia performed. He was backed up by this incredible drummer who was obviously trained in Jazz drumming. Just these beautiful, quirky precise rhythms on top of which were layered poppy synths and what may have been improvised saxophone. One of the most incredible feats by this duo was that BOTH of them would often play two instruments simultaneously. Michael would play a synthesizer melody and a counter melody on his saxophone while the drummer would play a very up-tempo and precise drum beat while playing a melody on a keyboard. It was CRAZY!. I was disappointed that I couldn't find them after their set to ask if they had a CD. But I guess it's for the best since I'm broke.

The Ofays UK were next. I listened to one song and left. They reminded me of the white stripes except instead of a guitar, there were a couple of synths. The drummer was also a little off. After the precision of Michael Columbia's drummer, it was hard to listen to someone who obviously needed to practice with a metronome a little more.

It did seem like most the people were there to see them, though. I guess I'm just "alternative."

Search This

I realized the yesterday that when people google stuff and end up at my site, it's like they're led only to the front door, and my site's gotten pretty big, so it's basically a useless dead end. This disheartened my greatly, as I thought I had been presenting people with my take on things like artists, bands and so forth. I felt that surely I can do something to help people get to what they're actually looking for. To that end, I found Google's Customizable Site Search creator.

I hope this helps.

cute guys

First of all, thanks to a generous donation from Dr. Claude, I now have premium photo hosting from Photobucket, which will enable me to use higher-quality photos for my site. Cool huh?

Secondly, a friend of mine was talking to me the other day and I mentioned that there were a lot of cute guys around the neighborhood where I work. This friend told me to take pictures. I thought, "sure." But it's pretty hard to take pictures of unknowing participants innocuously. Here's my first surreptitious snapshot of a cute guy. He's reading up on his doctor stuff. Obviously gonna be a doctor, or maybe a nurse.

The first few shots looked a little more like this:Pretty funny, huh? I need some work on my spy techniques.

Lastly, but not leastly, I have sold my first painting online thanks to the wondrous and magnificent Marco in NY. I'm sure he will be very happy with his "Untitled #12," and I will be happy to have his 75 smackaroos.

Things are, as they say, coming up Milhouse.

Art Continues to be "Neato"

I've spent a great deal of the morning adding new and better functionality to the art portion of my site. Specifically, in the "paintings from france" section, I've added larger images plus some detail information, including media and dimensions as well as "buy now" buttons from Pay Pal. These paintings are extremely reasonably priced. They would make great gifts or wonderful additions for those hoping to build their collections of art for their very bare NY condo walls (hint hint). Special discounts can be worked out as well. Donate what you think is fair and contact me.

I am moving tomorrow, anybody want to help?

Art is Neato

There's a short new dream.

Thanks to anyone who came to the d/vision opening. We, the owners, felt is was hugely successful and look forward to the coming months where we will be presenting local artists and their work. Contact me if you're interested in having your work on display in a cool Wicker Park retail store.

* * *

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that not only did a new coffee shop open 1 block from my new home, but that Humboldt Pie is owned by my old acquaintances Nick and Bill. And even better, they offer free wireless internet to patrons. It's my new home away from home. Great. I'm sure you'll be able to find me there pretty often in the coming winter months.

Updates

New found object and a short dream.

flick'r in your eye

You'll notice in the upper left hand corner something that is called a Flick'r Zeitgeist. On the strong recommendation of my friend in New York, I am now utilizing flick'r as a service. It's pretty cool. Click on it and check it out.

That's about all I have to report right now.

Red Hots taste good.

Come to the d/vision optical grand opening tomorrow.